FLL MIA/Sunday Recap

On Friday night, saw Disney’s “Cars” at the world’s largest drive in movie theater. The experience was pretty unique, but I don’t think it is better than your modern movieplex experience. First of all, the sound quality over a radio is not as good as THX booming sound. Second, car seats do not provide the same comfort as theater seats. Third, the jockeying for position in the lot is fierce, and hard to do without headlights ( I ran over a few pylons in the dark). Then again, traditionally the movie is not the main entertainment of the night… Anyway, took some long exposures of the screen – check it out on the Flickr bar.

Saturday’s drive back involved a stop at Sawgrass, a really huge outlet mall. Bought father’s day stuff, a pair of sandals, and got a 20 minute massage. Then, the drive down to Miami was generally uneventful other than the last minute finding of a gas pump before the car return.

On the flight back, got an upgrade on American and sat next to a New York based captain. Food wasn’t too bad, but the direct to video movie Last Holiday kept us hungry. Queen Latifah and LL Cool J managed to con a movie studio to fund an extravagant vacation. As the FAs were wheeling chicken breast and bbq sauce, Latifah was being wheeled whole turkey. Anyway, the captain was very nice about pointing out different landmarks. We were also talking about noise cancelling headphones.

Waiting for the baggage to come out of the carosel, this guy that was sitting in front of us was complaining about how long the wait was. The taxi home was uneventful other than that he had no idea where downtown Brooklyn was, so I had to direct him. I made it by 11 pm.

Sunday, we took P’s dad out for dim sum, and I formally asked him for permission to marry P, which he gave his blessing. So now we’re loading up on watching the WE channel, which is having a 21 day wedding show marathon. We’re shooting for 2008, because we want and need to take our time, and the Wall Street Journal says that 2007 is a bad year for weddings (2006 is one of the best years), because it is lacking a lunar spring.

Monday

Fascinating NY Times article on a handy service from the NY Public LIbrary.

Ok, so I’ve been saying that Dr. Grey on “Grey’s Anatomy” needs a CIA agent boyfriend (particularly since Bomb Squad guy died so badly, and ok, so he really wasn’t a love interest, since she was still pining for Dr. McDreamy). But, the Powers Behind the show gave Grey a veterinarian love interest, played by Chris O’Donnell. But, turns out that O’Donnell is doing a cable mini-series on the CIA. So, rather indirectly, Grey gets a CIA guy. But, she’s still stuck on McDreamy. Sigh.

Happy 64th Birthday, Sir Paul McCartney. As Paul sang many years ago, “Will you still need me/ will you still feed me/ when I’m 64…?” Aww. Well. Life has been hard, Paul, but we fans still love you.

Junior’s Cheesecake heads to Times Square. Whoa.

And, last but not least: Happy Birthday, Slate! Slate celebrates its 10th Birthday. The on-line magazine that I consider to be two thumbs up.

Yankee Clipper

I’m staying at the Sheraton Yankee Clipper in Ft. Lauderdale. Before this month, I’ve only stayed at a Sheraton once, when I was like 7. This month, I’ve been to 2, the one in Hong Kong where we checked out the Sky Lounge overlooking the harbor, and this one. Reception gives me a very warm welcome as a SPG member, because it seems everyone else staying here is either a non-member vacationing with their family or a Delta Airlines crew member. I scored this killer room that overlooks the beach (the view above is from the window). My room in Hong Kong could fit in the bathroom, which has a shower and a bath. The bar downstairs was featured in the movie “Analyze This”. I also have decent high-speed Internet and a nice bed. What more can I ask for?

The only real down side is that it is on this sandbar, so the nearest real store, a Walgreens, is 20 minutes on foot. I wisely rented a car for this trip, so getting around is a lot easier. On the next block after the Walgreens is a Publix supermarket, where I picked up key lime juice for cheap, and they also had these Beagle mugs; I picked up one.

People don’t know how to drive in Florida. At least I know I’m not that experienced a driver, being from NYC; I passed 8 accidents on the way from the airport, and the driving conditions are absolutely perfect. I don’t understand it.