I was in New York City over the weekend, staying near Chinatown/Little Italy. On Saturday we wandered the Soho-Noho-Washington Sq-Lower East Side circuit and encountered a great number of Santas. Apparently there was a "Santa Convention" - they were on every corner and walking on every street. This night nothing attracted a crowd of Santas like a crowd of Santas. We passed a number of establishments where when we looked in all we could see was them. And also out and about were reindeer, snowflakes, elves, and other things I couldn't identify but were tied to the season somehow I'd guess.

I just got back from a few-day jaunt to Burlington. It's a drive, but it is certainly worth it. The scenery is beautiful, the people are nice, there's plenty to do, and they actually are passionate about their thai dye.

We swam at North Beach one afternoon and then rented kayaks and took them out on Lake Champlain. The Adironracks looming over the water is a great view. The Lake is much larger than I expected, and when the wind picked up it felt like being on the sea.

I'm off to London tomorrow for a week. May blog from there. Or maybe not. It's vacation - I'll be playing everything by ear...

If Stan Van Gundy wins a championship...

....I can't believe they're in the finals.

Jay is: so nervous about the Celtics game that I can't concentrate on the productive things I should be doing right now...

To distract myself, here's something I was wondering about the other night. Why don't they put stationary bikes in dugouts in major league baseball so that players are looser when they go to bat or go back out on the field? As is, players are sometimes sitting for many minutes doing nothing. Swinging the bat a bit when you're on deck doesn't seem like it would do as much as having more of your body active before you go up to bat.

Landed in Portsmouth yesterday afternoon following a fun night with the Steadmans in Raymond. Portsmouth has its usual charm. Finally have some decent weather - in fact its perfect right now. Watched the Celtics romp at the Rusty Hammer waiting for a friend that never showed up last night. Shocking to me that someone would choose another option. Stopped in at the Blue Mermaid. Talked briefly with the owner. Craig's poster looks very cool against their orange walls. The place seems smaller in the daylight for some reason.

Enjoying a pleasant jaunt across southern NH. Stopped to see my uncle and cousin in Hudson Monday. Landed in Bedford yesterday to see friend and former Sand Machine bassist John Andree and his youngsters. A former ENC basketball teammate, Donny Hook, also stopped in for dinner which was interesting. Things slowed late so I headed in to Manchester to close out the night. Now I'm in Raymond about to hang with Dave Stedman, the lead singer of Floodwatch (and formerly Turtlebone), who we are playing with on Saturday in Portsmouth, and his family.

I'm definitely bummed about the announcement today that Manu Ginobli of the Spurs will be out for the season, including the playoffs. I've really enjoyed watching him play over the last six or seven years and he has become my favorite player to watch. The shot he hit to beat the Suns in that epic game one last year comes to mind... as does Manu dunking on all the Pistons back in '05. The Spurs are going to miss him, obviously, but I think the NBA playoffs on the whole will too. I hope this year and last aren't the beginning of the end for him.

I've heard it said that you can tell a lot about someone by the movies they like. Hopefully you can't tell too much. Here are my top 5 comedies in no order:
Old School
Dumb and Dumber
Wedding Crashers
Napolean Dynamite
Big Lebowski

I'm back.

Could be that I've been paying too much attention the last few weeks, but it seems to me that an inordinate amount of NBA stars, not just players, are currently injured. Here's the list from the top of my head: Manu Ginobli (just happened to mention him first), Kevin Garnett, Amare Stoudamire, Andrew Bynum, Tracy McGrady, Carlos Boozer, Tyson Chandler, Jason Terry, Chris Bosh, Jameer Nelson... and Scalabrini just came off the list. Maybe they should start the playoffs early this year.