Nick's Blog 2.0

The December Calendar is here...one last time.

2008-12-09T22:40:00.003-05:00

Well, this is the last calendar for the year...and for me. I am officially ending my term as the calendar designer. It has been a great 7 years working on the Calendar, but my new duties as a Dad beginning in the spring will take precedence. I hope everyone has enjoyed our work. P.S. If you want to take a stab at the questions to the Jeopardy answers. drop me an e-mail.

The November 2008 Calendar

2008-11-01T08:42:00.003-05:00

For the November Calendar we have chosen Where in the World is Carmen SanDiego. I know this barely qualifies as a game show, but suck it up! Face it; the only reason that any of us watched this show was for Rockapella! Anyway...enjoy.

October 2008

2008-10-12T14:16:00.005-05:00

We were a little bit late with the October Calendar, but here it is anyway. I was busy getting the new baby blog up and running. This month we have chosen Who Wants to be a Millionaire for our theme. Enjoy!

The Sptember 2008 Calendar is here!

2008-09-01T21:25:00.001-05:00

No Whammy! No Whammy! No Whammy! September is the month of Press Your Luck or as it is now known on Game Show Network, Whammy We hope you enjoy.

The August 2008 Calendar is here!

2008-07-31T21:01:00.003-05:00

For this month's calendar, we strayed a little from this year's game show theme and decided to make the Olympic Games in Beijing our subject matter. We would like to encourage our viewers to setup their own "Office Olympics" and go for the gold!

Ticonderoga Fireworks explosion

2008-07-05T18:44:00.007-05:00

This was pretty scary! The video actually makes it look like we were a lot closer to the explosion than we actually were. I wish I had held the camera a little steadier, but as soon as it happened, I grabbed Randi and my Mom and we headed towards the house.

Here is an updated story from the Press-Republican:
Press-Republican Article

The July 2008 Calendar

2008-06-30T19:28:00.012-05:00

Another month of the Calendar has arrived and this month we have chosen the Match Game as our theme. Can you match the correct answer to some of the WPTZ themed questions? Good Luck!

The June 2008 Calendar

2008-05-31T20:44:00.004-05:00

The June 2008 Calendar is complete. This month we have chosen Hollywood Squares. The 80's version with John Davison, not the strange 90's version with Whoopi Goldberg. We hope you enjoy.

Sue Simmons Drops the F-Bomb! LIVE!

2008-05-14T21:33:00.002-05:00

This is hilarious! I can watch this over and over!

May 2008

2008-04-30T23:18:00.003-05:00

Another May has arrived. This month we have decided to pay tribute to the $25,000 Pyramid. We hope you all enjoy.

The April 2008 Calendar

2008-03-31T21:03:00.004-05:00

April is finally finished. Congrats to Ken Drake from the Calendar Committee for his new day job as Weekend sports anchor at WPTZ NewsChannel 5. Everyone here at the Calendar wishes him the best!

A little snow and Bo Duke

2008-02-22T11:06:00.002-05:00

We had a "snow storm" today...if you can call it that. Right now we have about 4 inches. If we had gotten 4 inches of snow in Plattsburgh, it barely would have phased anyone. Down here, you would think that we had just been hit with 3 feet, the way people are overreacting! It does look nice on the trees as you can see from the photo taken from our front steps.

On another note, earlier in the week as I was walking into the entrance at work I saw a chauffeured car pulling up to the building, a tall blond man jumped out of the front seat and opened the rear door and let a teenage girl out. I walked in and held the door for the two of them entering the building. I looked back and realized that this was John Schneider! I was holding the door for Bo Duke! I later found out that he was a guest on Donny Deutsche.

AeroGarden Update

2008-02-06T22:02:00.000-05:00

The pepper plants are coming along nicely! It has been about a month since my last update and as you can see I have quite a few peppers popping up. The "Red Fire" variety seems to be taking off more than the other ones. They were the first to have any peppers at all. The "Purple Super Hot" variety has taken off in the last few weeks. All of a sudden the plants were covered with them! The "Mini Jalapeno" variety has quite a few flowers, but no peppers yet. Maybe they take longer...I don't know.

Once the peppers have given me all that they can give, I would like to start some flowers that I can transplant outside onto our deck. I have been reading online that there are people who have done this successfully. For the price of a seed packet I should be able to save myself a lot of money on plants this spring.

Dancing with the Stars

2008-02-04T23:50:00.000-05:00

On Friday night Randi and I saw the "Dancing with the Stars" traveling tour. We had bought Randi's Mom and Sister tickets for Hanukkah. The weather that night was terrible! It was raining sideways! We got soaked running from the parking lot into the arena. The show was really good. I think we got the raw end of the deal when it comes to the 'Stars' that were there, but the one who were there did give us a good performance. We saw Marie Osmond, Drew Lachey, Joey Lawrence and Wayne Newton. Wayne did not dance...thank God! He did sing though. Plus quite a few of the professional dancers from the show were on hand. We had a great time.

Sunday in the City

2008-02-03T20:51:00.000-05:00

Today Randi and I went to see the Little Mermaid on Broadway. I had bought the tickets for Randi's birthday. She was very excited to see the show!

The show was great! We were wondering how this show was going to accomplish the swimming of all the under water characters, but they really looked like they were swimming! The story was slightly different than the Disney movie, but I thought it was really good.

We had a celebrity sighting at the show. Randi was in line to get some snacks at intermission and the woman in front of her was Maura Tierney from ER. She plays Abby. She appeared to be there with her sister and her niece. She was sitting quite a few rows directly in front of us!

Last but not least, after the show we went to dinner at Sardi's. If you have never heard of Sardi's, it is the restaurant with all of the celebrity caricature's on the wall. You may have seen it in the movie "The Muppets take Manhattan" in which Kermit replaces Liza Minelli's picture with his own. I love that movie!

Let the recovery begin!

2008-01-06T11:24:00.001-05:00

It has been 3 days since my LASIK surgery and everything is healing nicely! I am able to see even further than I could yesterday. There are still blurry areas that come and go and my eyes dry out very fast, but I can see a million times better than I could without glasses before the surgery.
The day of the surgery I wasn't really nervous. I thought I would be. The doctor was very good and talked me through the entire process as he was doing it and 15 minutes later I was done! Randi watched the procedure on the TV monitor outside the room. She said it was kind of gross to watch. I'm just glad I couldn't see it form a distance!
When we got home, light really bothered me for the rest of the day. We had a candlelight dinner and sat in the dark for most of the day. The next morning, light didn't really bother me and I was able to see the clock on the DVR across the room! I was very pleased! I have to put 2 sets of medicated drops in my eyes 4 times a day and regular eye drops once every hour to keep my eyes moist. I also have to sleep with the dark glasses on so that I don't accidentally rub my eyes while I am sleeping.
I am going back to work tomorrow. I think my eyes are going to be very tired by the end of the day after staring at a computer screen for 8 hours. We'll see how it goes.

2008 is here!

2008-01-01T23:13:00.000-05:00

Check out the January 2008 Calendar!

See you in January!

2007-11-19T18:15:00.000-05:00

I have finally made the decision to have LASIK eye surgery to correct my vision. I had a consultation last week to see if I was a good candidate for the surgery and I was. I am scheduled for January 3rd. The procedure only takes 15 minutes for both eyes. They told me that I should be completely healed after 6 months, but I will see the results right away. By the next day I should be able to see with only minimal fogginess. I am excited to finally wake up and be able to see with out my contacts! I will let everyone know how it goes.

AeroGarden Update

2007-11-11T14:30:00.001-05:00

As you can see the pepper seeds that I planted in my AeroGarden in late September have come a long way since my last post. I am starting to see flowers appear on all of the plants. I didn't prune the plants when I was supposed to, so the plants seem to have gotten much taller than they should be at this point. I was supposed to clip the main stem early on to encourage lateral growth instead of vertical growth... we'll see what happens. Now that the flowers have started to blossom, I will have to pollinate the flowers myself because the plants are not outside. Normally insects would do that job for me. I'll make another update when I have some more progress.

Pumpkin Carving 2007

2007-10-28T20:55:00.001-05:00

Today we carved our pumpkins for Halloween. Randi's parents and her sister Jacki came to carve with us. Aside from a little messiness, we didn't have any mishaps or severed appendages. Randi roasted some of the pumpkin seeds in the oven, which I think is pretty nasty. After we had dinner, we lit the pumpkins on the deck to see how all of our hard work had come out. The temperature had dropped quite a bit since we were out side this afternoon. Happy Halloween!

The Aerogarden Part II

2007-10-21T13:05:00.000-05:00

I have started the second planting of my Aerogarden. This time I have planted hot pepper plants. There are 3 different varieties in this batch, ranging from mild to super hot. I planted them on September 23, so they are just about a month old in these photos. I should be harvesting peppers by Thanksgiving. So far I haven't had any problems with my Aerogarden. I still recommend it to anyone. I have seen a lot of advertisements on TV for the Aerogarden lately. I think they are becoming more popular. I've seen them for sale at Sears and JC Penny, but the cheapest place by far is Bed Bath & Beyond. Get one while you can.

It's Calendar time!

2007-10-01T16:15:00.000-05:00

Check out the October 2007 Calendar

Do you know who this is?

2007-09-19T22:05:00.000-05:00

Randi and I recently started watching Ugly Betty. A very funny show that deserves all of the attention that it has received. The title sequence shows a progression of mismatched faces with one piece always showing a portion of Betty's face. One night Randi asked me who the face to the right reminded me of and I couldn't stop laughing...in horror! If you know who she is referring to, drop me an e-mail or leave a comment. I am still laughing!

See us on Rachael Ray this Thursday!

2007-09-17T12:18:00.001-05:00

The day has finally come when our Rachael Ray show will air. It is scheduled to air this Thursday, September 20th. I think it airs on WCAX in the Plattsburgh area at 9:00am.
This is the description that is on the show's website:

"American Idol star Elliott Yamin surprises his biggest fan and performs "Wait For You." Plus, could your body language be sabotaging your love life? We've got one woman who's going on three dates … and our hidden cameras capture it all! "

We are sitting in the third row on the center aisle. Randi is on the end wearing a bright pink shirt. I think we will be in a few camera shots.

The Rachael Ray Show...again

2007-09-01T15:25:00.000-05:00

Randi and I finally made it to see a taping of the Rachael Ray show last week. Randi's Mom and sister went with us since the show gave us 4 VIP tickets because we didn't get in the last time we were there. The show was a lot of fun. While we were waiting outside they gave everyone in line ice cream cones. Sadly most of those people didn't make it into the show. We found out later that the studio only holds 115 audience members.

The earlier taping ran a little long so we had to wait in line even longer than normal. When we got upstairs they put us in a room that had coffee, drinks and some snacks. We waited in there for quite a long time. We were finally ushered into the studio and the set was VERY cool! The audience is on a giant turn table in the center of the studio with the set around the outside. The floor that the audience sits on actually turns to face the part of the set that they use for each segment.

The "surprise" guest that she had on that day was Elliot Yamin. He was a contestant on American Idol. Randi and I can't stand him! He was on as a surprise to a little girl who has diabetes. He also has diabetes. He sang his song and talked about his disease and off he went. Rachael did a segment about body language and she made a pasta dish that is good for diabetics.

Everyone in the audience got Elliot's CD and the current issue of Rachael's magazine. We also got the snack of the day which was a bag of pretzels made in Pennsylvania.

It was a fun day. We had dinner at a pub and said goodbye to Randi's Mom and sister and headed back to Penn station on the subway. We came out of the subway at 42nd Street right in front of "Mary Poppins." It was 15 minutes before showtime and we decided to see if they had any tickets. We bought them and headed up to the mezzanine! That is very unlike us, but we figured it was our anniversary and we both wanted to see it. It was a great show! I'm glad we did it.

Against the Tide: The Battle for New Orleans

2007-08-23T17:30:00.001-05:00

Watch CNBC this Sunday night to see "Against the Tide: The Battle for New Orleans" at 10p and 1a. I worked on some of the graphics for this documentary. If you can't catch it on Sunday, it will air numerous times after that. Enjoy.

Nick's Review...

2007-07-27T22:44:00.000-05:00

Many of you have been inquiring about my reaction to the Simpsons movie. I have been awaiting this movie for 18 years and I just saw it moments ago. No I didn't drag Randi to a midnight showing last night! I was able to hold out until the 9:30 show tonight. I bought the tickets through Fandango this morning so we wouldn't be locked out if the show was sold out. I got there at 8:30 for the 9:30 show and there was already 50-75 people ahead of me! Randi met me and we got a pretty good seat.

We were surrounded by the true fans of the Simpsons! The geeks, the nerds... call them what you will, I was with my people! When Ralph appeared in the 20th Century Fox logo, the audience erupted with applause and cheers! I love to be in a theatre when the audience is made up of true fans! The story was the Simpsons at its best. I was worried that it would end up being three and a half regular episodes strung together, but the writers did a great job.

The animation and backgrounds were awesome! You can tell that a lot more time was spent on this movie than your average 30 minute episode.

I won't give away any details, but you see a few things in this movie that you will NEVER see on Sunday nights! I will be seeing this movie again!

CNBC SummerFest 2007

2007-07-21T16:55:00.001-05:00

Today Randi and I went to CNBC's SummerFest. It was at a picnic grove very close to our house. I had heard from people at work that it is a big event every year and they give away some pretty big prizes. I was on board right away!

The day is geared toward kids, but there is a lot for adults to do too. When we walked in through the giant balloon arch we were met by a man dressed as Uncle Sam walking on stilts who welcomed us in. We were given a CNBC tote bag and a SummerFest beach towel when we registered.

The first thing we did was have an artist do a caricature of us. I think it came out pretty well. Randi doesn't agree! After the drawing we got in line to "grab some cash" It is a clear glass booth filled with money (play money I should say) You get in the booth with an apron and goggles on and when they turn it on the money flies all over the place. You have 45 seconds to grab as much money as you can. When you are done, they count all of your cash and they give you raffle tickets based on how much money you collected. The raffle tickets are used for the prize giveaway at the end of the day. I'll say it's harder than it looks! I grabbed $700 which got me 14 raffle tickets.

After we ate we went to a fortune teller. She told us to buy a condo or a townhouse before we go for a full house. She also said that I am going to make some extra money with my computer down the road. She said that she sees us starting a family within a year or two.

Everyone gathered around the for the big prize giveaway at the end of the day. They had tons of great prizes! There were Sony digital cameras, portable DVD players, LCD TVs, iPods, TicketMaster gift certificates, NBC show DVD sets and tons of other great prizes! We were lucky enough to win 4 tickets to a Mets game! Hurray for us! We had a great time. I can't wait to go next year.

Funny Commercial

2007-07-16T17:27:00.001-05:00

This is the funniest commercial that I have seen in a long time. This would never fly in the United States! Enjoy.

Nick and Randi are on TV

2007-07-11T23:29:00.000-05:00

I don't know if everyone has been watching the World Series of pop Culture this week, but Randi and I made a brief appearance as "Three Men and a Little Lazy" made their way to the stage in the first round. If you missed it you can watch the episode on line at VH1.com. You can see us in the second game in episode 2.

2007-07-10T15:28:00.000-05:00

Woo-hoo for Vermont! I never thought that Vermont could pull it off, but Springfield, VT will be hosting the premier of the Simpson's movie which opens on July 27th. I have even considered making the drive to Southern Vermont to get a glimpse of the spectacle! WNNE will have a nice story for that night!

The AeroGarden

2007-07-06T21:28:00.000-05:00

For my birthday Randi bought me an AeroGarden. I love it! Included with the kit is the base with 2 grow lights that cycle on and off at the appropriate times for maximum growth. You also get 2 seed kits. Each seed capsule is a sponge surrounded by a plastic cage that holds everything together. The seeds are inside. You insert the 7 seed capsules into the base and fill it with water along with the nutrient tablets and watch it grow!

My Aerogarden came with herbs to start out. We are growing Basil, Mint, Parsley, Red Basil, Chives, Thyme and Dill. The parsley was a little slow to start, but it is taking off now. Some of them are ready to harvest now. Randi is going to make some sauce.

After these herbs have run their course, we are going to try some strawberries. I reccomend this to anyone who likes to garden, but doesn't have the time or space to do it.

2007-07-05T22:25:00.000-05:00

I have been waiting since 1984 to see The Transformers movie. (The live action version anyway...) I knew going in that the plot was not completely faithful to the cartoon, but I was willing to give it a shot. There was quite a few things that I really enjoyed and a few that I didn't. Here are my thoughts:

Things I didn't like:

Bumble Bee is NOT a VW Bug and doesn't talk!
Megatron is NOT a gun
Devestator is NOT a robot formed by all the Constructicons
The only robot that was recognizable was Optimus Prime
Decepticons are NOT supposed to be cars

Things I did like:

Optimus Prime is voiced by Peter Cullen
The original transforming sound is heard in the movie
Starscream is still a jerk

Overall I was satisfied with the movie. Could it have been more faithful to the Transformers that I remember? Yes. For anyone who doesn't have a soft spot in there heart for these robots, you probably won't have a problem with it.

A year ago...

2007-06-04T17:49:00.000-05:00

It was just over one year ago that Randi and I received this book by Dr. Seuss signed with well wishes and goodbyes from our friends at WPTZ. That was such a strange time for us. Randi was moving on to a new job at MSNBC and I was moving on to the unknown because I didn't have a job yet. Everything worked out for us really well in the end. We both landed great staff jobs at NBC. 30 turned out to be a nice year for me. Let's hope that 31 is even better.

2007-05-10T22:12:00.000-05:00

Last weekend Randi and I ventured to the City to see the South Street Seaport with David, Shannon & Justin and Susan. We haven't been downtown at all since we moved here last year, so it was something new for us. We went to see "Bodies: The Exhibition" at the Seaport. The exhibit was a collection of real human bodies on display for you to see how the bones, muscles and organs work together. I thought it would be gross at first, but it was very interesting. The bodies all come from China that were "unclaimed" at the time of their death. The Chinese government donates them to science.

After the exhibit, we headed over to Ground Zero. Randi and I have wanted to see it for a long time, but have never made it. Overall the entire area is much smaller that I had anticipated. There was a constant stream of people going by the area. A time line of the days events was posted on the fence between the sidewalk and the construction area. It is hard to believe that those two enormous buildings compressed down into this one small area.

The construction of the new Freedom Tower has already begun on the site. One day this will be a great place for people to come visit.

Rejected!!!

2007-04-18T18:11:00.000-05:00

Back from a disappointing day in The City. Today was the day we went to see the Rachael Ray show taping. We took the train in from Tarrytown into Grand Central Station and got in line outside the studio on East 44th St. only to be told that the studio was full and we would not be seeing a show today. To add salt to the wound, Everyone in line in front of us made it into the studio! The cutoff was at US!!!!!!
To be fair the tickets that we were given were on a first come, first serve basis, so we knew ahead of time that there was a chance that we would not get in. On the bright side, we were given a voucher to get tickets for next season. These tickets guarantee us 4 seats. It was very disappointing walking away from the studio, but at least we had the rest of the day off.

Rachael Ray Show

2007-04-05T16:50:00.000-05:00

We are officially going to see a taping of The Rachael Ray Show on April 18th. I can't wait to see the studio...the audience is on a revolving platform that turns to face the particular set they are taping on. As soon as I know when the show that we see will air, I will let everyone know.

Hurray for 30 Rock!

2007-04-04T21:31:00.000-05:00

NBC has finally done something right! They renewed 30 Rock for next season! I have stuck with this show since the beginning of the season and it is hilarious. It doesn't get a ton of viewers, but it is building a good following on Thursday nights. I think that it's funny that everytime they show Alec Baldwin's office, CNBC is always on the TV. If you haven't taken the time to see an episode, give it a shot. Take a look at the AP story.

The World Series of Pop Culture

2007-03-22T21:13:00.000-05:00

Today Randi and I were able to go into the City to see a taping of The World Series of Pop Culture. We saw the first half of the first round of play. They entire tournament will air somtime in July on VH1. During breaks they gave away fabulous prizes like iPod Shuffles, a Nintendo Wii, a Playstation 3 and a 32" Sony Bravia flatscreen TV. Sadly we did not win anything. Everyone was given raffle tickets when they entered the studio and they drew tickets during the breaks. A woman sitting next to us won an iPod. It was a lot fun. Look for us in the audience when it airs in July!

Hurray for Spring!

2007-03-21T22:05:00.000-05:00

After a very strange Winter, Spring has finally arrived...on the calendar at least. I thought we had reached the home stretch last week when it was 70 degrees, but then we got 9" of snow on Friday! The snow is melting very fast and tomorrow it is supposed to be in the 60's. We will be BBQing in no time!

2007-03-06T00:46:00.000-05:00

Create your own Friend Test here

My office is in a movie

2007-02-27T22:11:00.000-05:00

I've been told from people that I work with at CNBC that our building in Englewood Cliffs makes a quick appearance in the movie Mr. & Mrs. Smith. I was finally able to see the movie the other day. The shot is in the very beginning of the movie. It is supposed to be the office building that Adam Brody's character works in. The highway in the foreground is the Palisades Parkway.

Valentine's Day Dinner

2007-02-20T16:14:00.000-05:00

We were finally able to go out for a Valentine's Day dinner on Sunday night. We both had to work on Valentine's Day. We went to the Melting Pot. It is a nationwide chain of fondue restaurants. We had never really had fondue as a meal before, so we thought it would be fun to try. Each table has a built-in flat surface stove so you can cook the food right at your table. There are 4 courses. The first is a cheese fondue. The second is your salad. The main course that we got was a sample of all of the different thing they have. It included chicken, steak, shrimp and ravioli. There were also vegetables. All of it comes raw on a plate and you actually cook it yourself. You also get numerous sauces for dipping. It was sooo delicious! The final course is chocolate fondue. We had the smores variety which is milk chocolate with marshmallow which is lit on fire to toast the marshmallow and then crumbled grahams are added. They give you strawberries, bananas, cheesecake, pound cake and brownies to dip in the chocolate.
It was a little pricey, but it was something different. I would recommend it to anyone. We had a great time.

BOO-YAH!!

2007-02-15T19:30:00.000-05:00

I have finally achieved my goal of getting a Jim Cramer bobble head! I have been at CNBC for 6 months now and I have worked on Mad Money for most of it. The bobble head is a prestigious item. They sell for $70 and up on Ebay.(This baffles me since you can buy them on the NBC website for far less.) It is not only a beautiful piece of art, but it also plays some of Jim's most popular catch phrases. I was able to go to the studio where they tape Mad Money the other day. The set is so tiny. It is actually much smaller than the studio at WPTZ. The way the show is shot it looks much bigger on TV.

It's COLD!!!

2007-02-05T12:42:00.000-05:00

It's COLD! I was beginning to think that it would never feel like winter down here in New City, but it has finally reached a level of true cold. I feels more like home. The high temp today is supposed to be 19°. As of 12:44pm it has only reached 14°. That probably doesn't seem all that cold to all of you in the North Country, but my body has become weak with the warm tropical air of New Jersey. I hope everyone is staying warm!

And Februrary is here...

2007-01-29T19:00:00.000-05:00

The year of professions rolls on with "The Mailman." The Calendar committee has added some past WPTZ employees' birthdays due to popular demand. So this month is for you Shaun & Mackenzie!

We will never forget you...

2007-01-24T19:30:00.000-05:00

The past few days have been kind of rough for us. For those of you who haven't heard, Desi passed away on Monday. Desi had a heart condition which we were treating with medication. On Saturday he developed a blood clot which paralyzed the lower part of his body. We brought him to the vet and they put him on medication to dissolve the clot, but he wasn't responding to the treatment. On Monday night the vet called us and said Desi had a heart attack and wasn't responding to any of the treatment. We rushed to the vet's office from work and after a heartbreaking decision, we decided the best thing would be to have the vet put him to sleep. He was in a lot of pain and we couldn't let him suffer anymore.
Last year Desi was diagnosed with Diabetes. We thought that was it. Desi had another plan. He was able to beat diabetes and come back stonger (with a little change in his diet.) The Diabetes ironically is what made us aware of his heart condition. We probably never would have known he had heart disease.
It will never be the same without him. This blog is named for Desi. I know he is looking down on us and purring.

Passions no more...

2007-01-18T22:47:00.000-05:00

I was afraid this day would come. It seems that NBC has cancelled Passions. I will always remember sitting in my office back in Plattsburgh watching the show with Mackenzie and Hootee. NBC says the show will go on through the summer. There is a rumor that the show may stay in production and be distributed on the internet or possibly the the CW or My Network TV could pick it up. We can always hope.

1 Year, 4 Months & 14 Days...

2007-01-15T22:54:00.000-05:00

Our Wedding Album is finally complete! I know you are all saying, "Didn't you guys get married like a year and a half ago? YES WE DID!!!!! We waited a ridiculous amount of time for our album to be completed. It is put together very well, but the amount of time they took to finish it baffles me. We were not all that impressed with the photos that they took to begin with, so waiting this long to see the results has just made us VERY ANGRY!!! Needless to say when we have another wedding we will not be using Cassarino Studios!

2007-01-14T11:58:00.000-05:00

Our very first (and hopefully not last!) CNBC holidy party has come and gone. We had a great time. It was held at the Westmount Country Club in West Paterson, NJ. It kind of felt like we were at a giant wedding. The food was excellent! So much to choose from! It was great to see everyone from work in a different setting. The party was at a much larger scale than the WPTZ holiday, but it will never compare to the great times we had at Anthony's!

70º in January!!!!!

2007-01-07T16:31:00.000-05:00

I don't know what is going on this year, but I don't like it! I woke up yesterday and it was 69.5º!!!! We opened the windows, turned off the heat and drove with the sunroof open. It's not that I don't like having a beautiful day and not wearing a coat, but IT"S JANUARY!!!!!!! WHERE IS THE SNOW!?!?!?! It was pretty hard to get in the Christmas spirit when it was in the 60's everyday in December, but come on Mother Nature, GIVE ME SOME SNOW!!!

The Football Season Is Over...(for me.)

2007-01-07T16:25:00.000-05:00

The end of week 17 in the NFL football season brings and end to the annual office pools. I took part in 2 of them this year. One at CNBC and the other with Chris Kelley. I am pleased to say that I took 2nd place in both contests! I must be a lucky guesser. Randi also did well this year having the most correct games on 3 individual weeks! It was a good football season for the O'Connors. Bring on the Super Bowl!

The Year of Professions

2006-12-29T14:28:00.000-05:00

The Calendar Committee has met once again to discuss the upcoming year. This year's theme is professions. We start off the year with everyone's favorite: The Lunch Lady! Slip on those rubber gloves and hairnet and jump right into January 2007. Happy New Year!

Chrismukkah at the O'Connors

2006-12-22T17:20:00.000-05:00

And so tonight is the very last night of Hanukkah for 2006. Randi and I have exchanged gifts each night after she gets home from work at 12:30am. On Sunday we will be heading north to Ticonderoga to spend Christmas with my family. We hope to spend New Years eve with Ken and Lisa doing something fun. I hope everyone has a great holiday and a happy new year.

Christmas in NYC

2006-12-10T23:29:00.000-05:00

We had a great time with Nate and Mary who came to visit us this past weekend. We spent the afternoon in the City looking at all of the decorations and the tree in Rockefeller Center. We spent some time at the Apple store on 5th Ave. It was awesome! The store is below street level underneith a giant glass cube which serves as the store's entrance. The Cube is directly in front of FAO Schwartz, so we jumped on the enormous line that formed around the block to get in. We also stoped by the new M&M's World store in Times square. It was a tiring day, but we we're all glad we made the trip. Check out our photos!

Goodbye "David Couch"

2006-12-08T18:51:00.000-05:00

With almost no sadness, Randi and I hauled David's couch out to the curb to make room for our brand new living room set. We decided instead of buying each other big gifts for Christmas/ Hanukkah, that we would buy ourselves some new furniture. I feel more mature now that we have "adult" living room furniture.

Save Studio 60!

2006-11-05T23:59:00.000-05:00

I just don't get it! This is a great show! It has wonderful writers, a telented cast, but nobody is watching it. Each week that I watch, it gets better and better and the ratings go lower and lower. It is up against "CSI: Miami" which doesn't help. It has a great lead-in with "Heros" It just can hold onto the viewers. I think that NBC needs to find a better time slot for "Studio 60."
I never got into Aaron Sorkin's other drama "The West Wing." I just wasn't interested in a polititical drama. "Studio 60" on the other hand has a subject matter that I relate to a little bit better. Maybe I'm biased because I work in television.
Please tell everyone that you know to tune in to "Studio 60" on Mondays at 10PM. They need every viewer they can get.