Monday
Spent about an hour trying to get the Internet connection at Mom and Dad Melvin's working. Problem was that the DSL modem wouldn't connect. Disconnected all the phones to see if the problem was with one of the filters. Didn't help. Spent about thirty minutes on the phone with the Windstream Communications telephone support. Couldn't resolve the issue, so they scheduled someone to go out to the house tomorrow.
Drove home. Stopped at Taco Bell in Baxley for lunch. Ordered a bean and rice burrito, then realized I would have rathered had a seven layer burrito. There were only three people working, and they were kind of slow, but they were really nice and gave me a seven layer burrito for free, and gave Jeanie a couple of extra tacos.
Got home, took a nap, then I updated Jeanie's Garmin Nuvi 760 with an operating system and map update.
Then watched a couple of episodes of "The Philanthropist" and "Sunday Morning."
Tuesday
Normal work from home day. Learned from Dad that the problem with their Internet connectivity was that their DSL modem was cooked. Not totally fried, as the lights still worked, but cooked to the point that it couldn't establish a connection to the DSL circuit.
Wednesday
Got up at 3:00 AM to travel to NYC. Stayed at the Helmsley on 42nd and 3rd. Not very impressed, but at least they did let me check in at 9:00 AM. They were doing major renovaton of the lobby, so for all practical purposes, there was no lobby. There wasn't anything wrong with the room, it just didn't impress me - especially at the ridiculous nightly rate they were charging. Had to stay at the Helmsley rather than my usual Hilton because it was fashion week and almost every hotel on the IBM list was sold out.
Thursday
Worked at the IBM office in NYC preparing for an executive presentation to the client next week.
Friday
More client meeting preparation, then grabbed a taxi to JFK around noon to catch the 3:20 PM flight to Norfolk to meet Jeanie for her high school reunion. Flight was hassle free. Liked the JFK terminal much better than the La Guardia terminal. Shared a Cary Limo with a woman from Manhattan to the Cavalier Hotel. Technically, there are two Cavalier Hotels in Virginia Beach, the grand Cavalier on the Hill, built in 1927,
and the contemporary Cavalier Oceanfront across the street.
We stayed in the Oceanfront, as that's where the block of rooms had been reserved. I arrived at the hotel around 6:30. Jeanie was at the bar with a large group of her classmates. I hung around for about an hour, then went up to the room and fell asleep. Jeanie came up around 10:00 with a Greek Salad. Yummy.
Saturday
Had the buffet breakfast at the hotel. Not bad, and only $10 a piece, which isn't bad at all for a hotel. Walked down to the fishing pier on 17th. Walked part of the way on the beach, part on the boardwalk, and part on Atlantic. Watched the Shriner's parade as part of the Mid-Atlantic Shrine Association (MASA) convention. Walked back to the hotel and took a three hour nap. Went to the dinner dance, which was held in the grand Cavalier on the Hill. Dinner was really good and very pescatarian friendly - salad, veggies, potatoes, rice and a really good mahi mahi with fruit chutney. Yummy chocolate cake. Stayed until about 10:30. Then, Jeanie and I went back to the room, changed, and went for a walk on the beach - very nice.
Sunday
Woke up, walked down Atlantic. Had breakfast at the restaurant at the Holiday Inn Express. Jeanie enjoyed her garden omelette, but I didn't enjoy my cinnamon french toast - it was obviously from some frozen prepared roll, and it was too heavy on the cinnamon.
Walked back to the hotel and went down to the luncheon at 11:30 AM. Lunch was fried chicken, potato salad, cole slaw and rolls - obviously we didn't have the chicken, the rest of it was mediocre at best.
The lunch was the last event of Jeanie's class reunion weekend. Jeanie really enjoyed the weekend's events and especially enjoyed reconnecting with so many of her classmates.
Bought a Greek salad at the bar mid-afternoon and brought it up to the room to share with Jeanie. Then spent an hour on the phone for a work call. Made a totally unusual decision for me and cancelled my flight back to JAX and decided to stay with Jeanie and drive back home over the next few days. Walked down the boardwalk to 17th street to listen to the Blues Festival, but it had ended at 5:00 so we didn't get to listen to any Blues.
Started back towards the hotel and stopped at Kohr Brothers for frozen yogurts. Jeanie got a vanilla chocolate dipped cake cone and I got at chocolate chocolate dipped cone. $9 bucks for the two! I didn't like mine and pitched it after a few bites. Stopped at Giovanni's Italian Restaurant and shared pasta tubes stuffed with ricotta and mozzarella with a wonderful fresh tomato sauce. It was really good. The bread was fantastic. After our meal, we continued our stroll back towards the hotel. There was live music at 31st Street, and we stopped and listened for a while.
I enjoyed the weekend as well. I was impressed with Virginia Beach. The concrete "boardwalk" is really nice, as is the beach - clean and wide. There is a separate bike path, and there are various interesting sculptures and exhibits along the way. Among my favorites was the Neptune Statue (link1 link2) and The Naval Aviation Monument. Of course the best part of the weekend was seeing how much Jeanie enjoyed being back in her old stomping grounds and spending time with her high school friends.
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Posted by David at September 13, 2009 11:59 PM | Categorized under: A day in the life