Off Topic: That Was the Week It Was - November 8, 2015

I'm SO late with this week's off television topic reflection of the past week in both words and photos I've taken along the way! But, I did way too much walking around (and standing around) yesterday. I overslept and I'm a bit on the lame side today. Okay, I know some people consider me usually lame ... but I mean physically! Sheesh!

I took so many photos yesterday when I went to see 'Misery on Broadway' with Bruce Willis and Laurie Metcalf that I'll have to post some Plainfield area photos and some of the NYC ones next week, too.

Here's the week in rough --

• Four day work week as I requested Saturday as a vacation day to go see the show. Yay!
• I also have a four day work week next week as I've requested Saturday as a personal day for the Plainfield Public Library Photo Competition. I have my doubts about winning first place again as the theme wasn't a great one for me.
• I left early yesterday to go into Manhattan. I had to pick up my tickets at the box office before the 2pm matinee show. I got to town around 10am, got my ticket, ate a late breakfast and roamed around Times Square until about 1:30.
• I will post a full review of the show and theatre later tonight.
• It's very weird, but three of the people I talked to during the day were from Los Angeles. One was a 20-something woman who put a cling on a pole I was leaning against in Times Square. I looked to see what it read and she said, "I'm taking it down. I just need to get a photo of it with Times Square in the background." I didn't care if she left it there. It turned out that her fiance had designed the cling, was killed in an automobile accident and they had dreamed of coming to Times Square together. Aww. She and I talked for about fifteen minutes. Sad story, very nice young woman.
• The other two were a lesbian couple outside the Port Authority Bus Terminal. Fun people! We mocked some of the people passing by and counter-intimidated a surly bum who approached us for money. We talked East Coast vs. West Coast and really had a pleasant conversation as we stayed out of the lane of pedestrians by standing up against the building.
• The show ended late (started late, too) and I ended up taking the 6pm bus home. Oh. The 6pm bus was late, too.
• While I had a seat alone heading into the city, I shared a seat with a young man from the Ukraine here to go to college. He was interesting. He's been in the USA for only two months and didn't know any English before he came here. While he has to hesitate at times, his English is much better than many!

Onto the gazillion photos for this week. Clicking on an image will bring it up in a larger window.

West 44th Street

Although it's technically NOT Broadway, this block is the home of many Broadway shows. The expensive Sardi's restaurant is across the street from the Broadhurst Theatre where I saw 'Misery on Broadway' but that was way out of my budget. I ate a late breakfast at the Evergreen Restaurant over on West 47th Street and a not really lunch at Ben and Jerry's which is past the bowling alley in this photo. I ate dinner at home.

SO cool ghost sign!

They're doing construction on West 47th Street and this is now exposed -- a ghost sign for the Hotel Longacre, Rooms $1.00 a day, Rooms with bath $1.50. Lunch is 40 cents, dinner is 65 cents and, I assume, the "Club Breakfast" comes with the room. I wonder how many years back it dates.

Who wants lunch?

A sign I saw in the window of Pete's Fish Market on East Second Street in Plainfield this week.

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The Amazing Race 27: November 6 Episode Blog Party

Hi, everybody! As the show airs here tonight, I'll be updating this entry with the major happenings. Refresh the page to get the latest news! As always, the real party is in the comments area. Come join in on the fun!

Keep in mind that last week was another "to be continued" leg, but here's the latest blog pool update as per The Marvelous Margo:

Cindy and Rick #ChacAttack - Donna in AL, Donna in FL, Jennasmom, Sharon N
Denise and James Earl #TeamAlabama - Becky, Ginniejulie, ORKMommy, Willie J
Justin and Diana #TheGreenTeam - Chauncey, Cherry Pie, Monty924, Nickelpeed
Kelsey and Joey #TheReporters - beachmom, ChicMc, David, Grandi in MD,
Logan and Chris #ThePaparazzi - Delee, PDX Granny, Rbennie, SueGee
Tanner and Josh #TeamTexas - Buzzmaam, chrob61, meb, ML
Tiffany and Krista #TheCheerleaders - Brenda, Brian, Cheryl in NC, Ed in OH, Nana in NW

Philiminated
TMZ girls (not in pool)
Adam and Alex #TheCousins -Anonymouse, DKNYNC, Jackie, Kelsey, Sharon C
Ernest and Jin #TheDancers - Glenn, Marlo, Nancerella, Russ
Jazmine and Danielle #TheTrackStars - Joanie, LafayetteLisanne, Margo, Merrilee

Ready? Let's GO! 

The teams are on the way to Rotterdam (Amsterdam?) and Phil told them to keep their Fitbit tallies handy. James Earl and Denise are still stuck at the rapping detour. Finally, they got through! 

All the teams were booked for the same train, but a few teams snagged earlier trips. Once at their destination, they have a bunching point. Justin and Diana did get there first, not that it mattered. The bunching has them entering in groups fifteen minutes apart. At least Josh and Tanner explored Paris. Uh-oh, ChacAttack found out that Rotterdam is NOT Amsterdam.

The clue they get hints they should walk -- "every step counts." Justin and Diana are arguing about taking a taxi or not. Other teams are taking taxis to the water taxi they're supposed to board.

Roadblock amongst windmills -- "Who wants to pick sunflowers?" They have to find a Van Gogh sunflowers painting and match it up with one in a windmill.

Joey and Kelsey have it first. The Fitbit comes to play. They have to take their highest heartrate from the last leg and pick the difference between what it reads doing this in tulips. 

From the Roadblock, it's on to a distillery via water taxi. Justin and Diana have fallen way back, as have Josh and Tanner. 

Detour -- Ship or Skip -- Ship has them on a simulated mission in a ship, skip has the Double Dutch jump roping. Tiffany and Krista nailed the jump roping and are headed to the Pit Stop. Justin and Diana (redeemed their time) are heading there from Ship.

Pit Stop:
1. Justin and Diana - They tell Phil their amount of steps 31,000+ will be turned into dollars. They also get a massage. 
2. Kelsey and Joey
3. Krista and Tiffany
4. Josh and Tanner
5. Logan and Chris 

ChacAttack took the wrong tram. 

6. Denise and James Earl 
7. Cindy and Rick -- Philiminated

Survivor: Cambodia, Second Chance - Blog Party November 4

I hope you all brought snacks and tasty beverages! As the show airs here on the East Coast, I'll update this entry with the major happenings. Refresh the page to get the latest! As always, the real party is in the comments area -- come join in on the fun!

The merge is on tonight! This should be very interesting indeed. Here's the latest blog pool standings from that lovable Lifeguard Laurie:

Bayon
Jeremy Collins - Brian, meb, Nickelpeed
Kelley Wentworth - monty 924, Grandi, RENOthunder
Joe Anglim - Delee, Mother Guru, PDX Granny
Stephen Fishbach - Brenda, Matt, Rochelle
Kimmi Kappenberg - Glenn, Nana in the NW, Rbennie
Keith Nale - Tammy, gaylos, Margo
Tasha Fox - Donna in AL, Jennamom, Stephanie in Baltimore

Takeo
Andrew Savage - Jennasmom, JoyzJenn, Silk
Spencer Bledsoe - Ellen vdW, Nancerella, Terry is a Texan
Kass McQuillen - Donna NY, Marlo, Petals
Abi-Maria Gomes - Nobody is stuck with her!
Ciera Eastin - chrob61, Jackie, Russ
Kelly Wiglesworth - ML, Sharon N, Indiana Jane

Out
Vytas Baskauskas
Shirin Oskooi - Cheryl in NC, Kelly D, Sharon C
Peih-Gee Law - Becky, David, Joanie,
Jeff Varner - Donna in FL, Linda in MA, SueGee
Monica Padilla - ChicMC, Kelsey, sanra
Terry Deitz - Anonymouse, Merrilee, ORKMommy
Woo Hwang - Ed in Ohio, LafayetteLisanne, Laurie

Survivor fans ready?

Savage is feeling betrayed by his tribe's blindside of his boot Spencer plan. He's trying to figure out how to get in with them until the merge. Spencer has come to the realization that he needs to rely on Kass. Oh my.

They get tree mail which tells them they'll meet with visitors. Meanwhile, Takeo's mail has them gathering up their belongings and heading to their new home. Both tribes are thinking merge.

It is indeed the merge even though there's a lot of people -- 13 -- left in the game at this point. They get to feast.

Savage warns Jeremy to watch out for the ones who turned on him. Kass is thinking she now can work with Spencer since saving him. They're all wheeling and dealing trying to build alliances. Savage works on getting Joe onboard. But Joe, though he likes Savage, might have his own plans. More scheming and alliance planning. Tasha tells us she will not allow Kass to ruin her game again. Meanwhile, Kass had been sincere about working with her and now is dead set against her.

Now chaos ensues. Seeds are planted. But, so far this episode is mostly talk. Finally, it's the the Immunity Challenge. Good. Standing on a narrow beam balancing a ball on a little platform. At intervals, to a narrower section of beam and they have to move their hand down farther on the pole with the ball.

Fishbach out in three seconds. Keith out. Ciera out. Kimmi out. Second round -- Abi out after one second. Kass out, Wiglesworth out, Wentworth out.

Third round. Savage out. Tasha out. Jeremy out. Only Joe and Spencer remain. Spencer lost this one to Tasha in his season. Spencer out. Joe wins first individual immunity!

Savage really wants Ciera to go while Kass seems to be the target for most. They decide to split the vote between Kass and Ciera in case Kass has an idol. Since this is so blatant, it's probably not how it's going to go down. Kass wants Tasha. Spencer is caught in the middle. He likes Tasha, but Kass and Ciera saved him last Tribal.

Tribal Council -- Ciera tries to get everyone to play for themselves while the targets are three women (Ciera, Kass and Tasha).

The tally --
Kass, Ciera, Tasha, Kass, Ciera, Tasha, Kass, Ciera, Savage, Kass, Ciera, Kass, Kass.

It's Kass out of there tonight!

Off Topic: That Was the Week It Was - November 1, 2015

Good morning! Since it's indeed Sunday morning, that can just mean one thing. Yep, it's time for my weekly off television topic reflection of the week gone by in both words and photographs I've taken along the way. Please, if you're a fan of either show, join us for the live update/blog party posts for both Survivor and The Amazing Race on Wednesday and Friday evenings respectively.

Here are my random thoughts, happenings and observations on this past week:

• My apologies for being so late with this today. I was exhausted after coming home last night and it continued through this morning. Also, I've been having to go downstairs every half-hour looking for my Sunday newspaper. This makes three weeks out of four with no Sunday paper -- the ONLY day I have delivery. Courier-News SUCKS.
• It was the big Halloween week. On Friday I went by the City Hall Trunk or Treat event. While it was great for the costumed car owners and the costumed kids, it wasn't good for photo taking as it was so dark there. I didn't want to run around with my flash going off. I ended up taking the bus home from there accompanied by a rather strange woman who snagged her own huge bag of candy at the event. A man sitting nearby and I had rolling eye contests going on as she talked about each piece of candy.
• This is also the weekend of the big Watchung Avenue bridge replacement with no rail service between Westfield and Dunellen train stations. I planned ahead. It did no good. Saturday morning was a debacle. Ack.
• While I plan and watch out for these things, many commuters don't or don't have internet access to see details. If you called NJ Transit on the phone over the weekend, they said there were no traffic alerts.
• Meanwhile, special buses were shuttling passengers from Westfield, Fanwood, Netherwood and Plainfield train stations to the Dunellen Train Station where rail service west of the shutdown resumed (and, the reverse trip as well). Going eastbound from before Dunellen, the trains were running a half-hour or so early to make up for the wasted half-hour bus commute and the trains from Westfield east were supposedly to run on time. Arrival at points Dunellen and west was a half-hour or so later than it should be.
• I had new hires to start at my workplace, so I figured I'd go in early and tried for the first bus/train combo west.
• My bus for that was late after one went whizzing right by and the bus going the other direction was right on time.
• Then two buses came (late for that second run) and no bus for the other direction came anywhere near on time.
• The bus driver was going crazy as people were all shouting at her. She had just been asked to work the day as overtime and thought she was running a regular bus route. She had a bus following her that had no idea where he was going and she didn't dare lose him in traffic.
• She told the screaming eastbound people to get on her bus and she was just doing the turn in Dunellen and then would be heading to Westfield. She had no idea where the bus(es) headed to Westfield were but would get them there.
• One woman was totally unreasonable. Now, I had talked with her while we're were waiting and I knew she was unreasonable. I just decided I wasn't going to argue with a stranger. She had arrived five minutes after the first Westfield-bound bus left and kept insisting it never came. It did. I saw it. It was on time to the minute. I even asked the driver where it was going. (That's when a bunch of people realized they boarded the wrong bus and got back off.)
• While I wasn't foolish enough to argue with an unreasonable crazy woman, another woman on the bus did. It almost got to fisticuffs. Meanwhile, the bus driver just kept pleading with them to stop fighting. 
• I suggested singing "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall." The guy next to me and the driver joined in as we tried to sing over the arguing women. 
• Then this Jamaican dude decided to ring the bell to get off.
• "No stops! Dunellen Train Station only!"
• "These ladies are giving me a headache!"
• The night trip home went better as NJ Transit actually had a guy at the Dunellen Train Station communicating with the bus drivers and passengers. Once again we led a second bus (inexplicably with the lighted sign for IVY HILL, NEWARK on its front while all the rest read RARITAN VALLEY LINE) who didn't know where he was going.
• As it was Halloween night and costumed people were heading to the Village (NYC) for the big costume parade, some of the people on the bus were in costume. It made for a rather surreal trip to Plainfield. Unfortunately, people were so grouchy over the bus/train situation that I didn't think it a good idea to try to get photos.
• While I knew what was going on, NJ Transit dropped the ball with the lack of communication with its bus drivers (who know nothing of rail services) and its customers on the whole.
• We'll see if everything is really back to normal Monday.

Onto the photos for the week -- clicking on an image will bring it up in a larger version.

Vincent conquered his Halloween costume

There are more photos of his Halloween costume adventure after the jump. I had to bribe him with catnip to slip it on. But it didn't last long. He thinks it's a cat toy and was walking around with it in his mouth last night, throwing it up in the air and then pouncing on it. Silly cat.

Not taken this week, but ...

... since I didn't get any good Halloween-themed photos this past week, I thought I'd add this one in. I took it a few years ago in Manhattan. It's the skeleton costume in a store display with the reflection of nearby buildings in the window.

The new bridge sections await placement

More photos of the big Watchung Avenue bridge replacement project are after the jump. In this one, taken last night after I got home from work, the old bridge is out and the new sections are lined up on Watchung Avenue and North Avenue awaiting their mission in life.

Monday night's full supermoon

**CLICK THE 'READ MORE' LINK TO SEE THE REST OF THE PHOTOS**

The Amazing Race 27: October 30 Episode Blog Party

Hi, everybody! As the show airs here tonight, I'll be updating this entry with the major happenings. Refresh the page to get the latest news! As always, the real party is in the comments area. Come join in on the fun!

The latest blog pool update as per The Marvelous Margo --

Cindy and Rick #ChacAttack - Donna in AL, Donna in FL, Jennasmom, Sharon N
Denise and James Earl #TeamAlabama - Becky, Ginniejulie, ORKMommy, Willie J
Justin and Diana #TheGreenTeam - Chauncey, Cherry Pie, Monty924, Nickelpeed
Kelsey and Joey #TheReporters - beachmom, ChicMc, David, Grandi in MD,
Logan and Chris #ThePaparazzi - Delee, PDX Granny, Rbennie, SueGee
Tanner and Josh #TeamTexas - Buzzmaam, chrob61, meb, ML
Tiffany and Krista #TheCheerleaders - Brenda, Brian, Cheryl in NC, Ed in OH, Nana in NW

Philiminated
TMZ girls (not in pool)
Adam and Alex #TheCousins -Anonymouse, DKNYNC, Jackie, Kelsey, Sharon C
Ernest and Jin #TheDancers - Glenn, Marlo, Nancerella, Russ
Jazmine and Danielle #TheTrackStars - Joanie, LafayetteLisanne, Margo, Merrilee

Ready? Let's GO! 

Whoa, starting off with a Roadblock! They have a jump (bungee, I assume) and then check their Fitbits. They have to write down their heart rate. The jump is from the Victoria Falls bridge. It's a gathering point with the teams going in order of arrival. Yes, it's bungee indeed. 

From there they're on their way to Paris, France. All the teams are on the same flight. Green Team gets the jump on the others.

They go to another Roadblock. This one has them on biplanes doing loops. Oh, they're not piloting the plane, mind you. They have to look for three clues -- the motto of the French Republic -- from the plane.

Justin and Diana remain in the lead. Now Logan and Chris are trailing once again -- Logan missed the third clue, so she has to do the Roadblock over. Logan and Chris miss the train.

Detour -- Drop a Mic or Bust a Crab. Singing French rap or working in a restaurant. Diana and Justin are over the honeymoon -- they're arguing a lot tonight.

Despite disagreements and quibbles, Justin and Diana are the first heading off to the Pit Stop. James Earl and Denise are lost in Paris.

Heh. Justin and Diana didn't read the final clue thoroughly. They're at the Arch de Triomphe (sp?) when they should be across from it! 

1. Justin and Diana -- the race continues and they need to keep their heart rate listings going.
2. Tiffany and Krista 
3. Kelsey and Joey
4. Cindy and Rick
5. Tanner and Josh
6. Chris and Logan

I might be off on the middle of the list because teams were coming in as I was typing.

James Earl and Denise are still having problems with the Detour and the "to be continued" episode ends.