My week in the barrel...

This past week was just like old times.
A day here, a day there, early flights and marginal hotels.

We got the word late last week that we (IDS) were awarded the contract for the NHL's new scoring system, and we would be hitting the ground running with analysis and planning sessions.
(I'm heading up the deployment side, installing the new equipment in all the arenas around the league.)
After that, the guys at the NBA called and said the new WNBA team in Chicago needed to have their arena fitted out to use the stats system and they also wanted support for opening night. (For those interested in that type of thing, they will be playing in the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) Pavilion on Racine Avenue.

We also scheduled some of our NHL planning meetings for the first week of May.
I really only needed to be involved with one of the meetings, an operations meeting in Toronto, but I also needed to meet with the guys from the Arena Ops department at the NBA in regards to Finals on-site support and some pre-season stuff...

So I arranged my week as follows:
Monday PM - To NYC
Tuesday - Meetings at NBA and NHL.
Wednesday - To Chicago. Site survey, equipment test at UIC Pavilion.
Thursday - Site survey United Center (NHL Position) and travel to Toronto.
Friday - NHL Meetings- Tour Air Canada Center (Arena) and meet w/ NHL personnel.
Saturday - Fly home.

The week actually started last friday (28th) when I got word that
some missing equipment had been recovered up at A Nice Golf Course.
Glory Be!
I had been losing sleep and a good portion of my sanity because of this equipment, and here it is- safe and sound... 250 miles away, but at least it wasn't on E-Bay or in a pawn shop in Birmingham.

So... Sunday- I drove to Augusta to pick up the equipment and drove it back to Jacksonville...
(Anyone want to guess where I had lunch...? Heh.)

Got back to Jax at 7:30 or so.
Spent Sunday evening planning and packing.

Monday I delivered the missing equipment back to it's rightful owners, who were elated to have it home again.
My flight to EWR was at 12:30- and I stopped in at the office to have a 30 second chat with my boss (whom I haven't seen in two weeks...)
I headed for the airport, taking the 9A extention on the east side of Jacksonville.
That road is open now, it only took 22 minutes from the time I got on JTB unitl I was pulling in at Super Saver Parking.
I used to allocate 45 minutes to an hour for travel to JIA... That new part of 9A from JTB to the Dames Point Bridge is nice!! A noon time departure was fast and easy.
We'll have to see what it's like during rush hour...

The flight was uneventful, and I did get and upgrade, so I had that going for me...
Dinner at the Outback in Secaucus NJ. Drinking with the Captain, an excercise in Time and Tides...
Tuesday came really, really early. Almost painfully so.

I had my meetings with John and David at the NBA, hooked up Dan from the NHL with the boys at the NBA to discuss in-arena issues, and had lunch with one of my victims from NBC over in Manhattan.

Restaurant Review # 1
Prime Burger
5 E. 51st St.
New York , NY 10022
Phone: (212) 759-4729


I had lunch at a place called Prime Burger down on 51th st.
The place has been around forever. Cool, polite waiters dressed in white jackets and bow ties.
They crank out a great basic burger in a no-frills environment. If you've had your fill of delicatessens and fast-food chains try this place. Get the onion rings instead of fries... A nice change from the ordinary.

---

One more meeting back in Secaucus at 4:00- we ironed out some details for Chicago and some items for off-season support and one or two more NBA/WNBA gigs.

I was trying to decide on what to do for dinner... The Hooters in Paramus or Greenfields in Hakensack, when it hit me... I'm a stone's throw from the best Chinese food outside Beijing... I saddled up and headed down to Canal Street.
The only slowdown heading to Chinatown was going through the Lincoln Tunnel, and even that delay was fairly brief...


I went to my favorite in NYC- New Green Bo on Bayard Street.


One order of Xiao Lung Bao-(soup dumplings),

and I tried something different on the menu- Tung Po Pork... A hunk of skin-on pork shoulder cooked in red sauce (Chinese red sauce, dummy. Not marinara...) and served with soft white buns and bok choy. Ambrosia!


Next time you're in NYC, go to New Green Bo. Listen to Uncle Jay- he wouldn't steer you wrong.

I stayed in the Holiday Inn in Secaucus on Monday night, due to it's proximity to the NBA office. I had a 6-something flight, so I moved out to a Days Inn out at Newark Airport... Less expensive and much closer to the airport so I would be able to get 15 extra minutes of sleep... 30 minutes if I fueled the rental car the night before.
No Interwub, though. Bummer.

You know you're spending too much time in hotels when:
Road Warriors who spend days and days on the road have their quirks about hotels and associated phobias. We also have bad habits that we use to entertain ourselves.
One guy I know, after taking a hot shower, writes on the bathroom mirror "Hello Bob." on the off chance that the next guy in the room will be Bob and will see this ghostly writing in the mirror after taking his shower.
I've adapted this to be a little more vague, and hence, a little more widely applicable.
I write "I'm watching you." on the mirror, and usually up near the top, in case the housekeeping staff actually cleans the mirror.

Heh.

The flight to Chicago was OK... It was an Embraer 145. A commuter jet.
Man, I hate these little boxes. Besides being really small, there is no chance for an upgrade. Bummer.

Got into Chicago without delay and I headed for the arena. Morning traffic was over for the most part. I got off the expressway and found a wifi hotspot and checked my mail and did some other on-line chores, then found a donut shop near the arena and killed another hour drinking coffee and doing a crossword until time for my meeting at UIC.

I met with Marc Grossman, one of the original "Gang-of-Four" statisticians with the NBA. He and I worked with Tomas, the local IT guy and we detailed the site in preparation for the game on May 9th. I made notes on additional hardware needs and cable runs for game time. This will be a piece of pie. Easy as cake.
The first game is on May 9th... Hoohoo! Another day in the City That Works.

I headed out about 3:30 and found my Hotel- the Howard Johnson's on LaSalle St.
Jeebus! What a shithole. It must have been nice back in 1950.
The place was scary...but not scary enough to bail on my reservation.
That hadn't fininshed changing the cobwebs in my room so I went across the street and had an adult libation- Captain's Orders... and after 2 good ones, I went back to the hotel and checked in.

Restaurant Review # 2

Sal and Carvao
739 N. Clark St.

A churrascaria...and a pretty good one. The salad bar was nice but unimpressive- the award for best salad bar still goes to Churrascaria Plataforma in NYC on 49th st.
The chorizo, sirloin and pork tenderloin were pretty good, the picana is very good but Rodizio Grill in Denver and Salt Lake City are better for that cut, and the flank steak was excellent. The bacon-wrapped filet tenderloins were excellent, but the bacon/chicken combo was so dry you had to eat it in the rain.
And alas, no grilled pineapple.
It was a bit overpriced, but overall it was very good.
My favorite is still Texas De Brazil in Orlando... They are a tough show to beat.
Next week, there is a Fogo de Chao a block away on LeSalle... I want to give them a shot... I'll let you know how it goes.

With a full stomach I slep like a baby... Up every two hours, and I even wet the bed. Oh well...

Thursday morning I had a quick breakfast at the Billy Goat Tavern... If you remember the old SNL skit with Belushi and Akroyd- "Cheezborger cheezborger- No fries-cheeps. Coke, no Pepsi". This place needs a complete 'blog post all it's own. If I get over there on my next trip, I'll post the tale.

I went to the United Center to have a chat with one of my favorite ex-STCs, Bob Gorman... Bob was our man in Chicago for several years. He and his minions have always been at the the top of technology when it comes to team and arena applications and equipment. I wanted to have a peek at their Stats position for the NHL Blackhawks. Bob gave me the nickel tour and we shot the breeze for a bit and chatted about sports technology... Just like old times...

I headed to the airport in time to catch an earlier flight for the first part of my flight Toronto... My original afternoon flight had me getting into Cleveland with a 20 minute turnaround for my flight to Toronto... Nowhere near enough time. This new flight got me in to Cleveland with nearly 3 hours layover. I'm really glad I took it...
It took fully 30 minutes to get from arrival gate to departure gate.

As I waited for my flight I got a call from Paul, trying to coordinate our schedule for the next day... We compared schedules- I would get in at 8:00, and he and Stass (The Code Monkey - Famed in song and story) were arriving there at 10:30. PM. At night. Heh.
I laughed at them, thinking that I would cruising in the hotel bar with the Captain as they were wrestling with Customs and Immigration... Fat chance, Big Guy.

They called back a little later, tempting me with promises of food and booze if I would pick them up at the airport and transport them to downtown Toronto...
(Did I mention my hotel was near the airport?)
So... Pick them up around 11:00 or so, chauffeur them the 25km or so downtown, booze up for a bit, eat some late night pubchow, then drive back out to my hotel?
I reluctantly agreed...
We wound up at 11:30 downtown Toronto, swilling Communist beer (Some obscure red ale) and eating from the late-night menu at a really nice place called The Irish Embassy... Very reminiscent of The Ginger Man in Manhattan...

Try it out.

I got home at 1:30.
Dan-O breezed into town around 10 the next morning.
(Guess who picked him up at the airport. You have 2 seconds. Go.)
We (Dan, Paul, Stass, and Yours Truly) spent the better part of the day in the Air Canada Centre and in the NHL offices working on our little project.

About 3:00 we got on the road- They had 5:00 flights going back to NY and Florida... I tried to get mine changed, but it would have cost me 1000+ dollars... Screw it.
I dropped the boys off and went back to the Hotel and did some e-mail...
I did a quick search for Shanghai cuisine in Toronto and found a place called Ding Tai Fung...

7:45 found me in Markham - about 30km east of the airport in a busy shopping center. The entire place was one Asian food restaurant after another. Little take-out places, big sit-down places full of families, a couple places that specialized in Peking Duck (next time!), noodle shops, dumpling houses, and little Asian groceries.
Ding Tai Fung was good. The Xiao Lung Bao were as good, if not better than New Green Bo, as were the regular pan-fried dumplings... I had a big bowl of hot and sour soup... nice chunks of pork, big slices of black cloud mushrooms, tofu, egg threads, not too hot... Very good...
So mark it down:

Ding Tai Fung (Shanghai Dim Sum)
First Markham Place
3235 Hwy 7 East, Unit #18B (at Woodbine)
Markham, Ontario
L3R 3P3
905-943-9880

I cleared customs the next morning without incident, and made it to Newark and thence to Florida in short order, arriving just in time to go see Hunter play in her rec league soccer team's All Star game...


Man... What a week...
And next week's is no better...

Famous- Out.