Merry Christmas...I DID IT!! 1500 MILES!!!!

After a few days off with much needed rest, I finally set the wheels in motion and finished up my remaining 1.6 miles and surpassed my 1500 mile mark. There were a lot of things that I accomplished this year, and I will be reminiscing all of it in an upcoming year-en, tell-all, blog.

And speaking of blogs, if you are a runner like myself, and truly love to read good advice on running, there is a website by Blaine Moore called www.runtowin.com. Not only is he an accomplished runner (20,000 miles plus to prove it), but his website is truly great. I even signed up for his frequent newsletters. Just the other day for instance, he wrote a great article about how to avoid getting hit by a car, when running. What I love about his writing is that he writes from his own experiences, and his personalized method really helps people like me to learn about a sport that I love.

Christmas was memorable this year. I spent a lot of time with my kids, who were with me for the long weekend. I took them to New York, and with Ileana we walked around Manhattan.

We saw the window displays at Saks 5th Ave., entered the American Girl, and Build A Bear toy stores. We first started by going to Bryant Park to see the ice skating, and the same at Rockefeller Center too.


The tree was very nice, but what caught our eye was a display called "Common Cents". Throw in pennies, or any currency into this long football sized money pit, for charitable causes for children. I made my wish and threw in about a dollars worth. Nothing like wishing for that home that we saw in New Hyde Park. Only time will tell now.

Although I did not have the money to be able to take Ileana and the children to see all the glory of the Rockettes at Radio City, it made no difference. We had a great time at the "Top O' The Rock", which is a 360 degree view of New York from the 70th story observatory tower of the main Rockefeller Building, home to Saturday Night Live.

After we came back down we stopped by St. Patrick's Cathedral. We also went to lunch too. I was craving Chipotle's, while my kids wanted McDonalds. So we did both.

Later on I found out and much to my surprise that Bravo aired that 75th Anniversary celebration show yesterday. My kids and I saw it! So we missed nothing!!

Funny sidebar: My Uncle Antonio dated a Rockette back in the 60's. I think her name was Marilyn. I never found out what actually happened, but I surmised that by a Rockette's beauty, that she probably used her long legs to kick my Uncle straight in the booty hole.

Anyway, later on in the evening, I altered my original plans, and rather than walking around too too much, I opted to pick up my car from the Hippodrome on 44th, and drove us out to Port Washington, for dinner and TWO movies. The Golden Compass was decent, but somewhat devoid of what I guess I would call the "Christian" element. In this movie, getting rid of a kid's daemon was a bad thing. The second movie was a nice surprise however. "Alvin & The Chipmunks". Not only did my children like it, but Ileana was truly immersed in it and enjoyed it very much....Too much, almost.

Yesterday, and for Christmas Eve, Ileana had her son, girlfriend, and kids come over. My daughter, Stephanie, gets along well with their daughter, Marileidy. They played Monopoly and watched "Bratz", one of Santa's presents to Steffie.

For dinner, Ileana made a modified version of paella, and it was very good too. I think we will be using the Kew Gardens Fish Market a bit more often now. However, that Tradefair supermarked was a nightmare, and even Ily got into a fight with this idiot who basically parked so close to my car, that neither her nor my kids could even get out. She got back at him though....HA HA HA HA

Today, was interesting too. Not only did I bring my kids back to their mom, for yet another Santa sighting (boy oh boy, I hope we are not spoiling them), but I even picked up their grandma (MeMe) along the way.

After that, and after watching parts of "A Christmas Story" which was insanely being played by TBS for 24 straight hours, I finally did my record-breaking run. The weather was nice too. In fact, the weather has been mild of late, and I can STILL even see leaves on the trees. What ever happened to the fall foliage anyway?

Got home, cleaned house, and mopped floors, and hence, here I am. I am still planning on seeing my grandma before it gets much later, so for now, it's toodle-doo and cheeri-ohhh to everyone.

Happy Christmas everyone....

Here's The Picture of the Season. Look for the irony and post your comments if you can see what it is. Can you find it? Take a look! Hahahahaha!!!!