Halloween - Greenwich Village - New York, New York

Paul Bunyan and Babe were walking through the Village.

No, really...

It may sound like the punchline from some American folklore joke, but you can clearly see it happened.  CP, pictured above as Babe the Sexy Blue Ox, and I, dressed up as Paul Bunyan, spent Halloween in Greenwich Village.  Our original plan was to watch the Greenwich Village Halloween parade, but apparently that was also the plan of about 2,000,000 other people.  Since we were a little late, we headed to a bar to enjoy some beverages and watch Game 3 of the World Series.
Yes, I know I had a Phillies hat on.
Yes, I know I was in New York City.
Yes, I know the Yankees won that game and the World Series.
Baseball and the soulless Yankees and their soulless fans aside, I had been growing my lumberjack beard for approximately 1 month.  CP, being the resourceful young lady she is, decided that she would put the beard to good use since it really did nothing but scratch her.  It obviously did not complete it's original purpose of helping the Fightin's win a second World Series in a row.  Unfortunately, the Phillies were not World Phucking Champions for a second time.  I did have a killer beard to look like Paul Bunyan though.

My beard and the Phillies aside, the Village was full of characters that night.
Joining me in the cavalcade of facial hair was Gabe as Magnum PI.

I have trouble telling these two apart...

He's the captain of our Movember team, helping to kick the crap out of prostate cancer!

And he's still single ladies!

Speaking of eligible bachelors, Dr. Pepper was on the loose as well.

Trust him, he's a doctor.  No, really, he is a doctor, just not the kind that deals with patients.

 

Better hurry ladies, the doctor is in high demand.

Finally, for the dudes, what is always really on our minds was running around too.

 

Supposedly, men think about it every 7 seconds. 

Not many people consider how attractive they are up close and personal.

Happy Halloween!
P.S. Thanks to my facebook friends who took these photos and posted them online allowing me to steal them for my blog.

Lincoln Tunnel Challenge 5K - Weehawken, NJ + New York City

When great thoroughfares are listed, which they might be occasionally, I have a hunch that the Lincoln Tunnel never makes the list. Maybe it is the traffic or the poisonous air in the tunnel, but few people get a chance to regularly walk through the tunnel. It may be illegal, though I would have to look that up and having just finished my organic chemistry final I just do not have the energy.

The activation enery barrier is just too high.

That one was for all those nerds out there - you know who you are.

Regardless of my most recent nerd joke, I got to go through the Lincoln Tunnel on foot from Weehawken, NJ to the City That Never Sleeps. Fortunately, the island had not yet been quarantined due to the swine flu and approximately 3300 runners and I ran in the Lincoln Tunnel Challenge 5K. Of course, there are much worse things than swine flu to come from New York City. The best example I can think of are Mets fans. They are much worse than swine flu and they have not necessitated a quarantine yet. Having been at the last Mets at Phillies games, maybe the quaratine is not such a bad idea.

Sorry, son, sodomy is illegal in these here parts.

I guess that is why the Mets play in Queens...

But enough Met bashing, if there is such a thing. Picsofmeinfrontofstuff.blogspot.com found itself running through the Lincoln Tunnel on a sunny Sunday morning. In search of a fast time for my first race of the year, I decided to run like Hell. I certainly had the right race number for it.

In case you do not get the reference - think 666.

If you think maybe I sold my soul for a good time, you would be wrong. My time, 28:35, is nowhere near good enough to send my soul to eternal damnation. With the Phillies having won the World Series, I am much less likely to consider trading any soul related items for anything. The drought/Curse of Billy Penn ended way to early in my life for me to consider that. I wondered such a deal would be required for a parade down Broad Street. I would not put it past many of the people in attendance at the parade.

It is nice not blowing a division lead on the last day of the year 2 years in a row...
The Mets are good at blowing - that's why they call it Queens.

It is hard to not regress into Met bashing, but the race was quit an interesting event. All the partipants got the chance to wander through the toll booths

and run through the tunnel!

After running through the tunnel to New York City, we had to turn around and come back. I have never noticed just how much of a hill there is on the Jersey side of the tunnel. It was pleasant on the`way in, but much more difficult on the way out.

Fortunately, I made it there and back again!

Empire State Building - Valentine's Day-New York City

Who is this happy couple? Neither of them are me and they are appearing at the top of my blog entitled Piics of Me in Front of Stuff. They are clearly standing and kissing in front of stuff and here's their picture.

So what's the deal?

I spent Valentine's Day at a wedding...at the top of Empire State Building...which the bride and groom had won for free from brides.com. Here's a little backstory. Kevin and Heidi, the lucky contest winners and the newly married couple pictured above, are friends of a friend who were willing to welcome a total stranger, me, to one of the most special moments in their life. Maybe it was because they wished to be featured in a blog of such high integrity like Pics of Me in Front of Stuff or maybe they needed some butts in the seats and my butt just happened to be located in a convenient geographic proximity to the Empire State Building. Regardless of the reason I was invited and I was on top of the Empire State Building with them.

In case you did not know, the Empire State Building is a prime piece of New York City tourism. Completed in 1931 at the corner of Fifth Ave and West 34th Street, the skyskraper was the tallest building in the world until 1972 when it was outpaced by the North Tower of the World Trade Center. A disturbing connection between those two buildings was the fact that both had planes crash into them. The Empire State Building was crashed into by a B-25 Bomber but, clearly, did not suffer the same terrible fate as the North Tower. Amazingly, the elevator operator survived a 75 story plunge breaking world record for longest fall survived in an elevator. Maybe that was why it was not a free trip to the top.

In a previous attempt to reach the pinnacle, I was at the end of a line with a 2-hour wait. I did not reach the top that day though I did get the lovely picture to the left. But I feel the siren call of tourist attractions quite strongly and I would have to take the elevator to top when given another opportunity. King Kong could not resist the majesty of the Empire State Building. He climbed up it a few times. Am I any better than the giant ape? That may be a question better left unanswered. It may be hard to believe sometimes, I do have feelings. I am very sensitive regarding my back hair.

In the wee hours of the morning Pics of Me in Front of Stuff's chief photographer and I ventured into the City that Never Sleeps and worked our way to the Lower West Side. We witnessed the joining of two people in holy matrimony. The happy couple exchanged their vows on one of the upper floors and posed for the necessary pictures featured in advertisements for brides.com, the Empire State Builidng, and the US Coast Guard. Both are officers and graduates of the US Coast Guard Academy as were most of the invitees. Then the entire wedding moved up to the Observation Deck to take in views of Manhattan in the early morning as well as for the bride and groom to be photographed some more.

It will come as no surprise that it was cold and deserted at the top of that building. The wedding started around 7AM. How often do you see a tourist destination completely devoid of tourists? Considering there had been a two-hour wait for the elevator ride previously, this was probably an image rarely seen by non-employees. Thanks to Kevin and Heidi's invitation I was lucky enough to witness it. My wanderings often take me to unique pieces of scenery, but most of those are places people besides me have little desire to see. This trip to the top of the Empire State Building surpasses all of my other unusual wanderings in exclusivity by a mile. It was their special day, but I can not pretend that I did not feel a burning desire to do what I always do at landmarks - my narcistic need to get my picture with it in the background. And naturally, I did.

Congratulations Heidi and Kevin! Thanks for letting us be a part of your special day!

New York Public Library - NYC

Though it may not always appear that way, I can read. Picsofmeinfrontofstuff.blogspot.com may sometimes seem like we gave 10 monkeys 10 typewriters to pound on for 10 years to pop this blog out. Ten is a fair estimate since supposedly it would take one million monkeys one million typewriters to crank out some Shakespeare and I am not Billy Shakespeare.


“We’ve heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the complete works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know that is not true."

–Robert Wilensky


But if I could write and not read this blog would be a statistical anomaly that may or may not squish the universe into a singularity. Fortunately, nothing is squished yet. I am literate, I enjoy books, even those without pictures, and I found myself wandering around New York City near the New York Public Library. Most well known, at least to me, for the opening sequence in Ghostbusters the library also has lots of books. Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures of the books or me pretending to read the books or perusing the books to look a little smarter. Poor choice on my part.


The New York Public Library is huge. Most of it appears to be a huge tourist attraction though there are some areas focused on research and reference. Also, George Washington's protrait is on the wall. I could not find the children's section, young adults section, or books on tape. No ghosts jumped out at me. Overall, it was just a big old building.


I do not have much more to say about it except look at me in front of it!

Playboy - NYC

If there is a compound noun that could be used to describe me, it might be playboy...
Well, maybe not.
However, like most heterosexual, American men I have ogled the fine young women who pose in just their birthday suits for Hugh Hefner. You can find some of Hugh et. al.'s editorial offices in New York City at 730 Fifth Ave.

I was surprised there not more dudes loitering just case something interesting went down.

Rockefeller Center - NYC

The most wonderful time of the year is over.
Let the crapfest of the other 11 months of the year begin!
To hold on to Christmas just a little bit longer, picsofmeinfrontstuff.blogspot.com visiited a Christmas icon in New York City, the giant tree at Rockefeller Center.

Here I am blocking an otherwise lovely view of the Christmas tree and ice skaters.

Here's the same view minus me and my neck fat.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

What's the deal with...

...picsofmefrontinstuff.blogspot.com being on the Upper West Side?

As my stepdad likes to say 'What's up wit dat?'

I never once remember hearing Jerry Seinfeld say that line, but as its my stepdad's impression of him, I'll allow it. Fortunately, Seinfeld fits neatly into this random rant as he lived and set his television show on the Upper West Side and the restaurant Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer frequented is there. I was there too recently, to visit Grant's Tomb which may or may not be more well knwon than Seinfeld. Regardless of the TV shows relative popularity to a memorial to our 18th President, I found myself near the exterior of the restaurant seen in almost every episode of Seinfeld. Called Monk's on the show but Tom's in real life, the eatery can be found near the corner of 112th and Broadway.

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Not long ago, you could find me in the same place.

What's up with that?!

Who's buried in Grant's Tomb?

The answer is no one. No one is buried in Grant's Tomb. US Grant and his wife, Julia Dent Grant, are interred in matching sarcophagi in the center of the memorial, but those sarcophagi are on display for anyone near the intersection of 122nd St and Riverside Dr to pop in and see. Here's the view you get of the happy couple not too far from the entrance of their memorial.

Seeing the grand spectcle that is Grant's tomb struck me as odd considering how poor Grant's performance as president was considered by many historians. Despite his poor ranking as a president, due mostly to his willingness to overlook corruption in his administration, Grant was an America hero for his performance during the Civil War. According to Wikipedia, picsofmeinfrontofstuff.blogspot.com's only source for blog-related historical 'facts', an apocryphal story about Grant's drinking has the general's critics going to President Lincoln, charging the military man with being a drunk. Lincoln is supposed to have replied, "I wish some of you would tell me the brand of whiskey that Grant drinks. I would like to send a barrel of it to my other generals." As a Civil War General, Grant was a badass and he likely deserved Grant also appears on the $50 bill, so maybe those historians were just full of crap.



Regardless of the crap levels filling historians, here is the true star of picsofmeinfrontofstuff.blogspot.com...

...the stuff in front of which my adoring readers get to see me stand.

I may never get my own impressive memorial or face on a denomination of US Currency, but when will US Grant get his own blog?

Hot time in the City

This picture is a few months old, but it reminds that though I have lived and worked in North/Central Jersey for the past year I do not often consider how close I am to the Big City aka The City aka New York, New York.

Here we are riding the ferry to visit the Statue of Liberty.

If you can not tell from the haze lying over the city, it was a hot, humid day in June and we walked ALL OVER the city. I probably lost 10 lbs wandering through the oppresive heat.