Happy Holidays

Don't read into this one, please. Jesus was missing, so I filled in for a second in the Nativity. Tis' the season.

More Work

Here's a couple of smilin pics from that same day. Robin, thanks for keepin it real

Rockefeller Christmas Tree

We checked out the tree at Rockefeller Center the other night. It's pretty stinkin huge.

Work Pics

Yipee

Sorry for being a slacker on the Blog. I geuss if I don't call enought that I should at least update y'all more. Anyways, I got promoted. I'll be working in the Jean-Georges kitchen starting in two weeks. For the past couple months I have been working in the casual half of the dining room, basically the bar area called the "Nougatine Room". But, tomorrow I start training in the Fine Dining kitchen. I'm pretty excited.

Brooklyn Graffiti

I've been taking more pictures on my days off recently. The past weekend I walked around Brooklyn taking a bunch of pictures of graffiti. Someone out there uses a rooster as their tag, it was my favorite. So it became a life-sized Where's Waldo game looking for roosters.

Downtown By Night

I took this picture from the Manhattan Bridge looking out on the Brooklyn Bridge and Downtown. It was a really beautiful night. You don't see stars in NYC though.

Some Older Pics From Florida

I came across these pictures in my photo browser and reminisced a little. This is in the parking lot of Calvary Chapel Boynton Beach, Florida. We were headed out to a David Crowder Concert and I figured I could bring some better clothes for us to wear. This was before we left. Good times.



Robin Shelley, nominated for best "air microphone"!

Coney Island Baptism

A couple weeks ago my roommate and another dude from our fellowship got baptized out at Coney Island. I couldn't go 'cause I was at work, but I hear it was a really blessed time. I look forward to not missing fellowship because of work one day.

Ray (left) and Elbert (right) baptized Sammy (center)

Robin and Tracy

These are my friends Robin, Tracy, and their two kids Kilaine and Liam. They went to be full-time missionaries in Peru. You should check out their blog. I have a link on the right side of my page. Read about what they are doing and pray with me for them- they're awesome.

Dave Mathews Band

The other day it rained really hard in New York. We have a basement apartment with a back patio. The patio is higher than the level of our floor. There is a small (three steps) staircase that goes from the door to the patio that is indented like a basin. Like I said it rained a lot the other day. Well, the two drains on the patio got blocked up with leaves, so all the water was filling up in the stairs. I woke up at about six in the morning hearing water inside. I knew the moment I woke up that we were flooding. So I turned the light on and sure enough, water was running in from all around the bottom of the door. I had to check out what was going on, so I opened the door. What I didn't know was that there was about 60 gallons of water on the other side waiting to come in. So when I opened the door I instantly dumped about 40 gallons of water in the apartment. It was crazy. I'm so glad we have a tile floor, otherwise it would have been a total mess. The water was brown and nasty. It took us a good three hours to clean up everything. Right as we finish, I'm moving our mini-fridge, and pull out a bottle of wine to set it on a table. I bump it on the table, drop the bottle, and sprayed red wine all over the floor we just cleaned. Anyway, the rest of the day we spent in Philladelphia. We took a bus from Chinatown in New York that drops you off in Chinatown in Philly. They're great, cheap, and only a little bit sketchy. We saw a Dave Mathews Concert, which was way better than I thought it would be. It was really sweet. Plus it was free, because we volunteered before the show. Got lost after and ended up taking the Greyhound bus back to NY. Long, but fun day. Sorry, I didn't take any pictures.

New York City Half Marathon

Sammy, my roommate, and I ran in the half marathon last week. We were too late to register, so we just showed up at the starting line and ran with everyone else. We didn't have numbers, so it wasn't official. We finished in 2 hours and nine minutes. We got the medals and everything, but we didn't have a camera or anyone to take a picture. So, when we got back to the apartment we took some fake finish line shots.

July 4th

On the Fourth of July a bunch of us guys from my church got together and played baseball at one of the diamonds in the area. It is a small field, used mostly for little league, so we used tennis balls. It was a lot of fun.

Here We Are

Elbert with a funny face

Ming, just...well, normal

Swing and a miss.

After Baseball some of us went out and got pizza at a great local place. After pizza we went out and saw the Transformers movie (which was pretty cool, better than I thought it would be). After the movies we went to another friends house in the church to watch the fireworks. They live on the 34th story of a building just across the street from the Empire State Building. The coolest part about fireworks from that high up in New York is that they light up all the buildings and shine the reflection of fireworks all around.

BACK TO WORK

Well, it's been a while since I updated the 'ole blog, but a lot has been happening. First off, I got the job at Jean-Georges! Well, sort of. To work at Jean-Georges everyone must first work in the more casual end of the restaurant. There is one dining room that is split in half. One side is Jean-Georges, the fine dining restaurant, and the other half is Nougatine, a more casual restaurant. There are two complete kitchens to serve the two dining rooms. Right now I am working in the Nougatine kitchen, until there is an opening in the Jean-Georges kitchen. But I am really happy to be there. I've heard it takes a good cook anywhere from three weeks to eight months to be able to move up. So, I hope I'm on the short end of time, but it's worth sticking it out.

Coney Island

On Friday, Sammy and I went out to Coney Island. I didn't know that Coney Island is in fact not an Island. It is the furthest south-east point in Brooklyn. The area was developed in the early 1900's and you can really tell that it is old stuff. The place looks a little worn down, but they are renovating and adding to the beach for the next five years.



While we were at Coney Island we ate at the original Nathan's. It is really cool to be there. It is such a historical landmark of the early 1900's.

We really pigged out. I felt gross after.

Here's Sammy testing his strength on an old arm wrestling thing-a-ma-jig. Weak.

Then I tested my strength on one of those hammer deals. You know where there is the tall pole with lights and the harder you hit it, the higher it lights up. Well, I didn't do as stellar as I thought I would. my excuse: I think it's more important where you hit than how hard, because I saw some pretty wimpy hits before I got up that were better than mine. Or maybe, I'm just a wimp.

Interview @ Jean-Georges

So, Yesterday I interviewed at Jean-Georges. Everything went well, but I won't know if I got the job until early next week. They are interviewing about ten more applicants for the postition, so it's pretty competitive. The restaurant is four star New York Times, three star Michelin, five star Mobil Guide, Five Diamond AAA Guide, Relais Gourmande, and in the Grandes Tables du Monde (all that stuff really means is that its a really stinkin' awesome restaurant). So keep prayin for me. I would love to work here.

Peace Out Bouley

So, I got fired/quit my job at Bouley. I really didn't like it there at all. I had been working 80-85 hours a week! On salary even. The chef gave me a two week notice because I don't ask enough questions. It's funny though because when you do ask questions, you get screamed at. The whole place was a big Catch-22. The other guys told me to not take it personal, because he threatened all their jobs too. He does it "to motivate you" and see if "you really want it". Well, I didn't really want to work there, so I told myself I would quit. When I went to talk to the Chef, he said I wasn't really fired and that I could keep my job. I said, "that's cool, but I quit." I haven't been working for almost a week now, and I'm loving it. I've gotten to know my roommates, check out the city, and just relax. I have an interview lined up Tuesday at Jean-Georges. It's one of the top three restaurants in the City and very highly rated. Wish me luck. Pray for me. I would really like to work there.

Di Fara's Pizza

Someone that Sammy works with has a relative that is going to be in New York visiting for about six weeks. We're the same age, so we figured it'd be fun to take her around the city. It was great practice for my French. We took her all the way out in Brooklyn to eat at the best Pizza place around. We got all turned around on the subway, so it took forever. When we finally got the pizza...she didn't want any. Women.


This place is awesome. It is so good because there has been one man making the pizza for the past thirty or so years. His name is Dominick. He immigrated to the US in the seventies and opened a pizza shop. He is literally the only guy that makes all the pizza every day. The crust was a little off when we were there (when I say off, it wasn't bad. It was great, but it's usually a little better), but the sauce is freakin delicious. He also grates all the cheese directly onto the pizza, and then clips fresh basil on top. It takes a while for him to make each pie, but boy is it worth it

Here's Dominick. The pizza legend of Brooklyn.

Silliness, as usual. That's Sammy, my roommate on the left. He's a great guy. We're actually really similar, so it makes for a pretty fun apartment.
Here's Aurelie, the French girl we were showing around town. She's pretty cute, but camera shy I geuss.

The Brooklyn Bridge

The Brooklyn Bridge is really amazing. Above traffic, there is a wooden plank walking path. When you walk out on the bridge you get an amazing view of the city. Sammy and I go jogging over the bridge at night time when there's no one out. It's really cool

This is a view of the Manhattan Bridge from the Brooklyn Bridge with the City in the background. See the Empire state building?

Yankees vs. Red Sox

My roommate Sammy is a huge baseball fan, and he bought tickets to the Yankees vs Red Sox game a while back. The guys he was gonna take couldn't make it, so myself, Ray (one of the guys who used to live in our apartment, but just got married), and Ming went with Sammy.

Inside Yankees Stadium there is a small area called Monument Park where there are plaques with busts of all the great Yankees of the past. Here's Ray with the Babe.



Ming fell asleep during one of the best parts of the game. It was really funny. We messed with him a little. I mean he was out cold. Everyone was jumping up and screaming, and he slept right through it.

Chess

That's my roommate, Sammy, on the right and one of the guys from our fellowship, Ming, on the left. They play a lot of chess. It gets really serious. It is hysterical, because Sammy beats Ming a lot, but there is alway something that was the problem. The lights weren't bright enough, he didn't see a piece, the timer messed up. Usually they are pretty even, but Sammy's been on a winning streak. We play too, but man do I suck. We usually catch a couple games in the night time.

Washington and Central Park

Here's the Washington Arch in the early evening. I'm still figuring out how to use my camera better, so I was playing with the shutter speed and all.
Here's a picture of Midtown from inside Central Park. I came out to these rock formations to see if anyone was bouldering, which is like rock climbing but side to side. It's really hard. There wasn't anyone out that day.

Adios Grandma

I've had my car for almost seven years and I'm finally letting her go. One of my buddies from the CIA drove it out to Columbus to give it to my brother. I named her grandma, just cause it sort of looked like a grandma car at the time. Look at the front bumper. Someone stole my California liscence plate off the car when I was in Jersey. Crazy. I look pretty nerdy in this picture, but I geuss I am.

Washington Square Park

We live really close to Washington Square Park. It is a cool place to hang out, especially on the weekends. I love to check out all the different types of people.
There are always musicians playing. Just like these guys here; but this particular day I had dual entertainment. Musicians on the left and two people practicing their light sabers on the right. Wierd.
Here's another musician. He likes to play inside the dog run. I don't really know why. It smells like poop in there.
There are about twenty built in chess tables where a lot of old guys come out and play. There are also people who play for money. You basically bet the person you're playing and the winner takes the cash. People play twenty dollar games all the time. I just watch though.

Here's a street performer. He was pretty cool. He would move around like a robot and make sounds whenever people put money in the basket.