it has been quite a while since i have had a brazilian meatfest, er, churrascaria! years, in fact, since i used to go with a large group of friends to churrascaria plataforma in midtown west — stuffing ourselves full of food and wine served in magnums and imperials.  (i love dining with josh!)

we decided to ring up tanya to go to churrascaria riodizio tribeca, which is just across town from us.

the most important thing i can tell you about the experience? none of us can eat like we used to.

this restaurant is a lot smaller than its bretheren — located in an oversized brownstone on west broadway. the bar is pushed to the right as you walk in with a small, controlled temp wine room on the left. the dining room expands as you walk forward with the misnamed “salad bar” tucked in all the way to the right and the dining area extending all the way to white street on the left.

alison and i got a bottle of wine — a flavourful pinoit noir from santa cruz, ca.

we all worked through the “salad bar” with asparagus risotto being at the top of my list of favourites and other dishes including: marinated mushrooms, cold asparagus salad, tortellini, cold seafood salad and a red bean and chorizo dish. yum!

then we hit the meat! we turned our coasters from “red” to “green” and were deluged by succulent meat variations. i really enjoyed the pork tenderloin and the flank steak.

too full for dessert… go figure.

as luck (?) would have it…

this past saturday we were getting ready to leave the house to meet alison’s brother for brunch. i picked up our camera — a panasonic dmc-fx01 that we had picked up just before our wedding last october — and tossed it in my pocket as i usually do when leaving the house. we hopped into a cab to make it to the restaurant and got about 10 blocks before i saw something i wanted to photograph… a man with a high pressure hose cleaning the statue of confucious in chinatown. i hit the “on” switch on the camera and… nothing happened! i tried a new battery… nothing. i then proceeded to pry at it, stare at it, vulcan mind meld with it and finally used a bit of brute force. nothing. gar!

after brunch activity? buying a new camera!

for a while, i had been coveting a new panasonic model that, as fate would have it, came out last week. it is effectively the same “type” of camera as our old one with a bunch of new optics, resolution, an iso mode and a slightly changed/enhanced operating system. the “big” thing for me was the 28mm wide-angle lens on it…

off to circuit city we went… what a zoo! thank goodness we quickly saw that they did not have what we wanted and we hit the subway to go to J & R .

we spent about 10 minutes at J & R .  3 minutes to find the camera and test our current batteries and then 7 minutes to check out.

so… we now have a panasonic dmc-fx100. and loving it!

there are new pics taken with that camera in the photo section — including:

• SI Yankees Game (20070721)
• Night Out in NYC (20070725)

check ‘em out!

i don’t want to scare anyone — least of all my self — but…

photos de erock is completely updated as of 730pm on 26 july. really.

i have added over 500 photos from 2007! woo! updated albums include:

• Alison’s Birthday (20070118)
• NHL All-Star Game @ Home (20070125)
• Buffalo & Rochester Trip (200702)
• Sabres v Devils (20070203)
• Rangers Game (20070227)
• Night Out (2070303-4)
• Day Out in NYC (20070324)
• NYC Elephant Walk (20070328)
• Hockey Weekend (200704)
• Lisa and Gene’s Wedding Weekend (200704)
• South Street Seaport Fireworks (20070616)
• Mets v Twins (20070619)
• Fourth of July in NYC (20070704)
• Day Out in NYC (20070715)
• Night Out in NYC (20070716)
• SI Yankees Game (20070721)
• Night Out in NYC (20070725)
  

in addition…

• MAJOR overhaul of the look and feel in the photo section
• performance improvement
• tag cloud in the sidebar
• url rewrites completely overhauled

dig it.

in the first game of the summer 4-0n-4 season, the blue heroes (yes, yes…  my d5 and d6 teams combine in the summer — blue bombers + homer’s heroes = blue heroes!) took out pond hockey by a score of 9-1.

that’s right.  9-1.

i was uncharacteristically late for the game.  i try to take a small nap before weeknight hockey games because my adrenaline — post-game — is always so high and i have trouble getting to sleep.  unfortunately, my alarm did not go off as planned.  i arrived with 15 minutes to go in the first period…  and we were already up 5-0.  well done!

it was certainly not a good match up.  for the most part, we were skating in/around/over/through them the entire game.  if they had 5 shots on goal, i would be shocked.  their goalie was so exhausted, he actually took himself out of the game with 10 minutes to go in the final period.  i had never seen that before!

i thought we did quite well in the final period with puck movement — we did a lot of passing instead of trying to shoot on every play and i really like seeing that kind of discipline when one team is up by so many goals…

personally, i had a bunch of chances and connected on one that was a self-rebound off the boards behind the net and then slammed upstairs.

a while back, icebrrrg turned me on to a site called “woot“.  basically, it is a once-a-day super special on a random product.  i have purchased a few things — not the least of which was a wireless meat thermometer that…  wait for it…  talks!  it is usually something “gadget like”…

when i logged in today at woot, i saw another woot site that i am sure to love.  woot wine!  it is the same concept as vanilla woot, except with super deals on wine!  kick ass.

i have tried, over the years, to keep track of many of the sabres players i grew up watching.  so many have become formative pieces of the buffalo organization, while others have had great success with other teams…  i suppose the best example would be lindy ruff, #22, who is now the coach of the sabres…

jim schoenfeld is certainly one of those guys!  i used to love to watch him play D.  he always had his “head on a swivel” and could always be counted on to give up the body in the defensive zone.  he was often known as a “goalie’s best friend”…

he has spent the last coupla years coaching the rangers AHL team in hartford and now…

he has been named the assistant gm for the new york rangers!

woo!  i hope i get to see him at a few games this season…

erock. simpsonized.

check it out for yourself! get simpsonized!

the best western seaport hotel was “recommended” by new york magazine this past week in an article on “ranking seven hotels under $200 in nyc“.

this is “cool” because alison and i have certainly recommended the hotel to others — it is very close to our home.  my parents have stayed there…  we like the place — especially its location.  the rooms are a bit on the small side, but the seaport area is really up and coming and there is access to almost every subway line within five blocks.  plus, it is q-u-i-e-t down here so it is certainly a respite from the “city”.

this is “not cool” because…

we pay for a subscription to new york magazine.  i really hate the business model where print subscribers subsidize free online content.

we always considered the hotel kind of “our secret” — although, i am sure we did not fully believe it.

c’est la vie!

someday…  i must have this hot tub.

infinity vista tv spa

even better?  costco!  i knew there was a reason that i renewed my card every year…

(thanks to crave for turning me on to it…)

ha!

the town i was born and lived in until i was 12 — depew, ny — is listed in a money magazine article on the “most affordable towns” in the states.

most of the towns listed are small suburbs in/near current/former industrial cities — like buffalo.  in fact, there are a bunch of buffalo suburbs listed including:  tonawanda, kenmore, lancaster, and cheektowaga.  nice!

i agree.  they are affordable.  but the median incomes in these areas are certainly a LOT lower, perhaps disproportionately so, than other areas of the country.  in manhattan, the last stats i saw were a median income of just under $100K with a median home price of over $500K.