Back to the home office at Berea-Rose. Was a long week schlepping around NYC -- lots of meetings at the office, lots of creative commuting (as with Foz dropping me curbside at Yankee stadium to catch the D train to the office, arriving just in time to throw on biz-clothes and join a critical meeting... the new stadium seems to be coming along nicely).

Wednesday night I stayed in the city, knowing I'd need to get an early start the next day. So I checked into a room off Times Square (cheapest I could find) and decided to stroll west into Hell's Kitchen to see the streets I roamed back in 1985 (that long summer selling ice cream from carts, carts warehoused on 45th and 10th Ave). Wow is that neighborhood different. But still some pockets of the old seediness. In fact, quite a few pockets... meshed with outdoor eateries and streaming tourists. Odd.

I completed my loop and started back around, now looking for something to eat. I stopped in the Aghan Kebab House. Alane and I recall going there once in the mid-90s but we can't remember exactly when or why. I sat and gazed out the window at the storefront of Empanada Mama across 9th Ave -- haven't been there in a while either. I got a chicken and lamb kebab on basmati rice with salad and flatbread. Yeah baby... that was nice.

Then I went back to the hotel to see if I could catch a Met game on the telly but fate a cruel joke in store for me: the only game available over the hotel's cable service was the Indians game. So I read my newspapers and went to sleep.

Yesterday was very rushed as I had booked an afternoon flight instead of the always-delayed evening flight. Could hardly eat the gyro-platter street-meat I'd gotten from the corner cart for lunch. Raced out the door and got to the airport and was surprised to actually get an on-time flight back to Berea-Rose. Wonders never cease. Even got home in time for the boys to eat their black-and-white cookies without having to wait until the next day. That's a first.