Day Five....No run, lotta fun, I love New York!

Day five Ran: 0 miles :( Total miles: 10 Miles to go: 990

I let the legs rest. Actually that is only partly true. I went to New York and walked all over Manhattan last night. It began with Beaujolais wine at the apartment, followed by a subway trip to the Meat Packing District, the current "hot" neighborhood in Manhattan where old rendering plants and butcheries have been supplanted by trendy bars, restaurants and boutique hotels all connected by an urban park, the High Line occupying an old elevated train line. Our apartment is in another gentrified corner of Manhattan called Hells Kitchen, at 49th and 8th. In a few years I doubt there will be any part of Manhattan that hasn't been up scaled....good news, bad news, who is to say?

Pricey but tasty Italian food awaited us at Nero, old building new occupant and menu. Wonderful brochette, fried spicy calamari and shrimp appetizer, chicken pollo pasta for dinner, all washed down with more wine, a pinot noir. Daughter Leigh, Taka and our good friend, Leo made up the foursome.

One of the many things I love about New York is the walking. People think nothing of walking several blocks, where in Texas we get into our cars to drive from one side of the parking lot to another. And last night was a beautiful night, clear and not cold. After dinner we walked to the Village, to a piano bar, Marie's Crisis, where incredibly talented pianists play Broadway show tunes while the raucous and heavily liquored crowd of actor/singer wannabees sing at the top of their lungs. After wine at the apartment and again at dinner, we were ready to take our place in that crowd and croon tunes like part of a Greek chorus. A rousing rendition of that song form the Little Mermaid about "I want to be where the people are...." can't remember the name now, was a highlight. When else can you sing at the top of your lungs, "You want thingamabobs? I've got 20! But who cares? No big deal. I want more!" I know I must have watched that video a thousand times when Leigh and her brothers were young. I would come home exausted from the office, pop it into the VCR (remember those?), lie on the floor in the game room while Leigh and Haydon, still in diapers, would crawl all over me. Many a time the diaper bottom on the face was also a reminded that diapers have to be changed...but the memories.....priceless!

Needless to say, my caloric intake yesterday (which also included the banana muffins I made in the morning before leaving for the airport to New York and the Shio Rahman noodles we had at the local Japanese Noodle Shop, Sapporo, washed down with a Sapporo beer) far exceeded, I am sure, the calories burned from walking (and probably the 10 miles I ran last week). I realize that if I am going to fit into that closet full of clothes from my thinner days, I will need to increase the miles I run....which is the goal. Life is Good!