Year 2, Day 355: At the Pallisades, Day Two

The IBM Palisades is a state-of-the-art conference facility built near what was once of the largest IBM offices in New York (New York had a lot of them). It truly is amazing. It borders somewhere between being a like a Catskills Resort and a modern college dormitory. But then you have to add a soupcant of Buddhist retreat. The place is very peaceful on its rolling hills campus; deer were seen frolicking on our way out. It has a walking path, a man-made river and a series of tennis courts. It has a lobby with a fake fire and a large cafeteria that overlooks all the above. It is serenely home-y, and naturally, being IBM, it is completely Wi-Fi'd to the max. Aside from all that, it features a state-of-the-art fitness center, game room, and a little conference nooks for meetings on each hotel floor, replete with pads of paper and white boards. Though Emily and I find it quite sad to have to stay at a hotel when visiting our relatives, you really couldn't do a lot better. The downside is probably the food—they could do more with their breakfast, but I make do with several cups of hotel coffee and lots of bacon. At night, we had all the cousins come over and eat what was left of Amy's Ice Cream Cake in a conference room. Everyone went around the room and started with the sentence "I called this meeting because..." Ruby said "because I want to have ice cream cake for dinner."

Breakfast
Omelet (Mushrooms, Red Peppers, Tomatoes, Ham, Cheese)
Bacon
Coffee

Lunch: The Great Neck Inn
Caesar Salad
Spinach Salad with Goat Cheese and Warm Bacon Dressing
Crab Cakes
Whole Wheat Rolls
Ahi Tuna (Black & Blue)
Grilled Salmon
Cheesecake

Snacks
1 Stick Beef Jerky
1 oz. 50% Jalapeno Cheddar
1 cup Boston Lite Popcorn
SO MANY ALMONDS

Dinner
Chicken Breast
Cauliflower
Broccoli

We are planning a party for my MOM and we are having the party at the Great Neck Inn. To make sure it would not be a food-disaster, we agreed to have lunch there. Because we were 'sampling' we ordered a lot of stuff from the menu. We didn't know they were picking up the tab, but everything we ordered was super-yummy even if the presentation needed work (see wilted greens, undressed greens, bad plates). However, the Turkey burger that I ordered was INEDIBLE. We had to send it back. For most of the meal, we were the only ones in the dining room. Later at Emily's sister's house, she had roasted almonds, that were in a bowl in the middle of the room. Do you have to guess? I dove off into the almond-pool and had marzipan dreams.

YEAR 2, DAY 354: Tuesdays at the Pallisades

As travel days go, it wasn't so bad. We made it to NY in record time. But as a food day, it was not so great. Lost the nut war, in a spectacular way. I was horking them down in the car, because I had become somewhat nauseous, and they were helping to settle my stomach. When we arrived, Emily's sister had freshly roasted a bunch of almonds (who does that?). There is a lot of 'hanging around' that gets done, and 'hanging around' often involves being in the kitchen, preparing food. We were all trying to make sure the kids don't go hungry, but we fed ourselves quite a lot in the meantime.

Breakfast
Kashi Go Lean!
Heritage Flakes
Blueberries
Banana
Unsweetened Soy Milk
Coffee

On-the-road-snack & lunch
1 cup Boston Lite Popcorn
4 sticks beef jerky
1 chicken breast
3 dried apricots
1/2 peanut butter cookie
A LOT of cashews & almonds
a few leaves of lettuce
more unsalted, roasted almonds
2 egg yolks

Dinner
Chicken breast
salad (cabbage, lettuce, apple, walnut)
broccoli

After Kids in Bed:
Went to Bar
2 glasses of red wine
savaged the nut-mix bowl (mostly nuts and sweet'n'crunchy nuts)


After the kids were in bed, and Emily wasn't feeling well (sinus infection of some kind) I put her to bed and vamoosed off to the local bar, which is located just a stone's throw away from our hotel room. Got a few glasses of wine and asked for the nut-mix bowl. Waiting for it arrive I was pondering how much worse the nuts would be than the very old chicken wings that were gaining crust as no one paid them any mind. The nut mix arrived and I ate all the regular peanuts out of it, and then started to eat the beer nuts, and then the sweet 'n' crunchy nuts. Pretty much a nut disaster, but sometimes you have just to roll with it. At least I didn't eat the bread sticks or spicy sesame crunchers or whatever they were, but on the third glass they would have been gone, too.