Archive for March, 2007
Mix Masters Italian Ices
Lefty March 24th, 2007
For everyone down in Austin, TX, check out my old pal Jerm Pollet’s new venture: Mix Masters Italian Ices. Their delicious chocolate and lemon italian ices are now available at Homeslice Pizza at 1415 South Congress . From Jerm:
“Our ices are 100% natural fruit and gourmet chocolate. Dairy-free and totally delicious. So, next time you’re in the 78704, treat yourself right, with a slice and an ice. Tell ‘em Jerm Pollet sent ya.”
I can’t wait to see how they compare to the spumoni at L&B Spumoni Gardens and the ices at Uncle Louie G’s.
Vacation Disaster
Lefty March 24th, 2007
This weekend Emily and I had quite an adventure in the Catskills. We drove up on Friday morning, during the worst snowstorm of the winter, in my 2002 Honda Civic with bald tires. Every 20 miles or so we’d see a huge accident on the NY Thruway: jack-knifed 18 wheelers, cars that had spun out of control and crossed the median into oncoming traffic, etc. By the time we got up to Highway 28, the roads were almost impassable. Our car kept fishtailing on the ice: I did a full 180 at one point, and a short while later slid onto the wrong side of the road. Knowing that we had about another 30 miles to go through steep, windy mountain roads, we decided we’d pull off in Phoenicia and try to find a place to stay.
We walked into the local gas station to ask if there was a motel near by. Three guys with huge beards, missing teeth, boils on their faces, and reeking of alcohol were eager to help. One of them informed us that he owned a motel, and he’d be happy to rent us a room. We were fully aware that this was a cliched horror movie beginning, but we really didn’t have much choice. We followed the guy’s truck down some country roads, and checked into the hotel.
After a vigilant night of watching the door for Ma Bates, we continued on our way to Halcottsville, where we had rented a house for the weekend. We took advantage of the nearly two feet of snow that had fallen and headed over to Plattekill Mountain for some snowboarding, which was the highlight of the trip. On the way back to the house, though, the alternator on my car died, and the car stalled a few hundred yards from the house. We called a tow truck, who informed us it would be at least until Monday before they could fix the car. We ended up checking into another motel (in Grand Gorge, NY) with WiFi so we could get some work done while waiting for the mechanic to finish.
Understand that we were in an extremely rural and remote area. There’s no place to rent a car, and no cab companies - we had no way of getting around at all. And Grand Gorge was the epitome of a no-horse town - there was nothing there except the motel, a post office, and a gas station/mini-mart. Luckily they had a great selection of gourmet microwaveable burritos, so we were all set for meals.
On Monday, the mechanic told me they couldn’t get the new alternator until Tuesday, so Emily got on the local Adirondack Trailways bus back to the city. Champ and I sat around in the motel another day, until they finally finished the car (on Tuesday afternoon), and I immediately hit the road to head home. I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to see a vacation end.
Here are a couple shots on Flickr.
Random Personal News
Lefty March 12th, 2007
It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve written on here, since I’ve been super swamped with school and work. Here’s a post that qualifies as “random personal news” if there ever was one:
- Materialite, my team’s entry into the Stern business plan contest, just got passed through to the next round. We’ve just got three other teams to beat out now in order to win the $100,000 first prize.
- I had a great poker night at Michael Malice’s on Friday. I was the third to get knocked out (out of six players), but the company, Chex mix, and Modelo Especial were a big hit. I also walked out the door with a brand new copy of the Batman: Year One graphic novel, courtesy of Scott.
- Guitar Hero 2 rules. My love for karaoke now has a serious rival.
- Emily, Champ, and I are heading up to the Catskills this weekend (specifically Roxbury, NY in Delaware County). I’ll post some Flickr shots of our planned snowtubing outing when I return. (link to Googlemap)
- We finally hooked up our Netflix subscription a few weeks back. I was skeptical about signing up for a long time, but now I’m totally sold on the service. They make it so much easier to watch and rent films. Movies rented so far: Dog Day Afternoon, Grey Gardens, The Departed, and Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. Up next I have about 30 Japanese samurai movies, starting with Shogun Assassin!
- My ice hockey team, the Tanya Hardings, upset the #2 team in the league in our first round playoff game by a score of 3-2. Semi-finals, here we come. (I was also fortunate enough to score a goal in the game, the credit for which I give entirely to my hard-nosed, never-say-die teammates.)
- Gotham Girls Roller Derby finally got a new practice space - it’s a big warehouse in Astoria. I haven’t been up there yet, but I hear it’s looking pretty good. The plan is for the season to start up again in the spring sometime.
- No SXSW this year for me. My entrepreneurial finance class was on Sunday, and I really didn’t want to skip it (since it’s the best class I’ve taken yet at Stern.) I’m hoping to hear some good stories of A-Town adventures upon people’s return to NYC.
That’s about it for now. I’ll write something more tech/entrepreneurship/nyc related next time, I promise.