Julie's comments are in BLACK and Judie's are in BLUE and italicized

Last year, Julie and I thought about going to TECHXNY / PC Expo, but we waited until the last minute then said, "Nah.". While the week long convention was happening and for some time after it was over, Julie and I were moaning about how we had missed out.

So this year, we booked our plane tickets six months in advance! We weren't going to make the same mistake twice.

Speaking of which, you would think that by booking my ticket six months in advance, I would have got a price break...but no! My plane ticket from San Angelo to NYC was over $600! ACK! But I digress...

Of course, we had already been to CES in January and were going to COMDEX in November.  If we went to every show that we were interested in attending, we would be broke!

The plan for 2003 was that we would attend TECHXNY / PC Expo, and now - here we are! Julie and I are going to try something new. Instead of writing a big long wrap-up after we return, we are going to post pictures and comments at the end of each day. The plan is that we will attend the convention Tuesday and Wednesday, and spend Thursday sightseeing.

Neither of us has ever spent any time in New York. Judie drove through the city (in 1993!), but I've never set foot in it.

So needless to say, we are both excited about taking a nibble out of the big apple! ☺

Monday

My day started with an 8:30 flight. I got to spend much of the hour long commute to Dallas playing Jumble, which is the new PDA game by Outlook Entertainment, based on the daily word puzzle that comes in the newspaper.  This version is much better though, because it's portable without leaving newsprint stains on my hands, and I don't have to wait until the next day to check my answer. This game has eye-candy graphics and is  an excellent time waster!

Once I got to DFW, I was pleased to find that right next to my gate were these little internet kiosks where you could plug in your laptop and surf. Since I had two and a half hours to kill, I parked there and read an e-Book (The Vanished Man by Jeffery Deaver) while charging my CLÍE for the upcoming flight. This was pretty convenient, plus it allowed me to be anti-social - which is how I usually am in the morning. If you are ever on a layover at DFW, look for one of these...

My flight to JFK was pretty smooth, which was surprising considering Hurricane Isabella is supposed to be making her way up the coast.

I was luckier than Judie, as I didn't have to leave home for the airport till 12:30pm.  It was a quick uneventful 1hr drive and an equally quick check-in. You really have to love the self serve kiosks that most airlines now use.

After getting my gate info, I grabbed some nuggets and a coke from McDonald's and settled down to wait the hour till boarding time. Before I knew it, I was herded into the plane and settled down for a short 1hr and 45min flight. During the flight, I listened to a new CD that I had ripped of AudioSlave, and read my current e-book (A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson).

Once I arrived at LaGuardia, I grabbed my bag and headed for a taxi stand.

As I was on my way to the JFK taxi stand, this guy in a black suit grabbed my bag and tried to get me to go with him to an awaiting town car. "It's the same price as the yellow one," he said as I asked him what it would cost.

"Well how much is that?" I insisted.

"$60." He mumbled.

"Yellow Cab is $35!" I said as I grabbed my bag back and went to get at the end of the queue. Not even in New York for 30 minutes, and I had already been spotted as a newbie. puh-leeze!

Judie was supposed to arrive in NYC 1hr ahead of me, so when I called her mobile phone, I was surprised to hear that she was also in a cab heading toward the Marriott Marquis on Broadway.

I have to tell you all about this - because as it happened, I was in a state of disbelief! While riding to the hotel with my cab driver, whose name was prominently displayed on his posted license, I could hear him on his mobile phone calling his credit card company to activate his new Visa. He not only read his number out loud, he also said the last four digits of his social security number and gave his home address. Never mind that he was doing this over a mobile phone - I was sitting in the back seat writing things down on my CLÍE. For all he knew, I could have been taking down his personal information. I was stunned by his naiveté.

15 or 20 minutes later, we met up in the lobby of the hotel, checked in and were on our way up to our room; what seemed like a very small room for $200 a night. After phone calls to our loved ones, we were ready to go exploring and get something to eat!

We stopped by the security guards desk and asked where he liked to eat in the area, and he suggested Carmines, which was just down the alley from our hotel. Once we got there, however, the 45 minute wait really put us off. Neither of us had eaten since noon, and our blood sugar levels were tanked. Not even 20 feet up the sidewalk was a Chinese restaurant named Ollie's Noodle Shop and Grill. The people inside looked happy and the prices looked reasonable. We stepped in...

First we started off with pan fried dumplings and dipping sauce. They were wonderful!!!! Judie made me use the freaking chopsticks, which I then proceeded to impale my dumpling with, rather than tweeze. We made short work of that appetizer, and soon we were happy to see the main course.

I got the rice noodles with pork, and Julie got the rice noodles with chicken. There were mushrooms, water chestnuts, scallions, seaweed and various other vegetables stir fried into our dishes. (side note - when we got back to the room and were working on this article, Julie saw me write that there were mushrooms in the meals, and she freaked!! Since her eyes are still not quite 100% after the operations, she had been sitting there enjoying her meal, never realizing it was loaded with "slimy slug slices" - as she likes to call them!) I am sitting here rocking with laughter as she keeps hitting me and saying, "I did not eat mushrooms!" Yes Julie...you did! ☺

Of course, we couldn't eat it all (...and even less would have been eaten had Julie known about the mushrooms...) and it really pained us that we could not take our leftovers with us back to the room. We were pleasantly surprised by the price of the meal. It was $26, including tip! Needless to say, we'll probably be back before the trip is over.

After eating, we walked around the corner and were amazed by all the flashing lights, lighted news item scripts, and moving billboards that looked like gigantic plasma screens. It took us a moment to realize that we were in Times Square! Since the only views either of us has ever seen of this area were in movies or TV shows, it was almost surreal to realize that we were actually standing there.

One of the shops that we passed, caught our attention with all of the electronic gadgets and gizmos in the window display. We thought we might get lucky and see a Sony CLÍE UX50, since both of ours were delivered to our respective homes today while we were in transit. Unfortunately, the shop didn't have the UX50. It did however, have the Garmin iQue 3600 on the shelf. We asked one of the many clerks if we could see it, and he handed us the box. When Judie asked if we could open it to see the actual device, he said no. Gee thanks buddy... Hopefully, we will be able to see one tomorrow in the Palm booth.

We trekked around for a little while longer, looking at the various sites and people. Then we figured we ought to head back and put something together for you all about our day. Tomorrow, we hope to see many things that we won't be able to live without...

Tuesday