Blog Master G

Happy 2nd wedding anniversary to my beautiful bride now and always! I’m the luckiest husband around and cherish every moment I spend with you, Jenner. I love you.

One year ago: Wedding Reflections.

While kayaking yesterday in Fish Creek with Seth, I got a nerve-wracking call from Jen: Penn Station had just been evacuated moments after she’d entered it; police and National Guardsmen were yelling at everyone to “Get out now!” and, amazingly, many people didn’t budge or just stared blankly at those issuing the orders. She didn’t know what was happening, but was outside Madison Square Garden and high-tailing it away from the building, toward Grand Central and an alternate route home to Saratoga Springs via Metro North. Though we didn’t know it at the time, it turns out that, luckily, the scare was caused by some dumb-ass who “threw a backpack at an Amtrak agent and said it was a bomb.”

Bomb Scare Empties NYC’s Penn Station

Though the rest of the weekend can’t really compare in intensity to something like yesterday, it was a very good weekend. Friday night I went out for happy hour at the Parting Glass with Justin, Seth, and new friend John. Saturday Nat and I worked on the WRX, doing the 62,277-mile oil change and rotating the tires. There’s still a bunch of work to do for the 60,000-mile service, including changing the platinum spark plugs, the air filter, the fuel filter, flushing the coolant, and checking out a squeaking noise, which is possibly the brakes. Props to Nat for his enthusiasm in helping me with all the work! He, Heather, and I enjoyed a perfect-day patio lunch at Forno Toscano after working on the car.

Yesterday I made a round-trip to Poughkeepsie and back to pick up Jen from Metro North, then we spent the evening at Justin’s house for a little get together and some Norrath.

The excitement is in the air. The plant date is in the ground at Union and Circular. The horses have arrived. Wednesday marks opening day of the 137th season of Saratoga Race Course, when our little city will be visited by more than 100,000 people per day, more than three times the year-round population.

Racing toward Opening Day:

It’s ticking toward the most important date on the city’s economic, social and cultural calendar, a day that overshadows all others.

It’s the opening of Saratoga Race Course, which will happen on Wednesday for the 137th time in its rich and colorful history.

On the track, world-class horses such as Preakness and Belmont stakes winner Afleet Alex have fans chomping at the bit for a taste of the No. 1 meet in the nation.

Away from the track, the race season drives the area’s economic engine, attracting hundreds of thousands of people, which gives downtown retail stores a sort of second Christmas shopping season.

Saratoga County’s residential and commercial construction trades have boomed in recent years, due in no small part to the track and the city’s ambiance when the horses are in town.

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There are literally dozens of ways to enjoy the track, which ‘Sports Illustrated’ has listed among the Top 10 sports venues in America. Visitors may get up before dawn and watch early-morning workouts as horses thunder down the stretch with an orange sun peeking through the mist.

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Saratoga Race Course is much like America itself, a melting pot of people from every social and income strata.

This mingling of experiences perhaps best explains why the track is a one-of-a-kind institution, and why at this time of year the eyes of the world are focused on the city it calls home.

In other good news, the New York City Ballet will return to SPAC for the 2006 season.

Yesterday ING announced that its savings rate on the ING Orange Savings Account was going up to 3.15%. I’d put money on the fact that this is more than what your bank is paying you in interest for your savings or money market account, so if you don’t already have an ING account, why wait? Drop me a line and I’ll give you a referral so you get $25 free. There’s no fee to open an account and there are no minimum balance requirements. The rate was at 2.25% back in December when I last wrote about it, so rates are on the rise, trailing shortly behind the Fed’s increases.

As I’ve also written in the past, you can do cool things like set up “sub-accounts” for each of your savings goals, and set up direct deposit or automatic scheduled transfers to coincide with your paychecks.

If you set it up and just don’t think about it, you’ll see your savings grow faster than you realize, especially if you’re paid biweekly and set up the automatic transfer to be biweekly, too.

My dad and I finished watching Sideways last night, which Jen and I had started the other night. Usually when a movie has so much hype surrounding it, it’s hard to forget the hype and just watch the movie. I feared that’s what was happening at first, but then I realized I was really enjoying the movie. I like wine. I like California. I like strange plots. It’s a pretty dark movie, actually, with all the lying, cheating, stealing, and deception. It made me long for Sonoma and Napa Valley, despite the movie’s southern and central California settings.

We also have the Aviator to watch and have to squeeze that in sometime before tomorrow night and amidst the NYC Ballet tonight.

Roberts Has Solid Conservative Credentials: “As a private lawyer, the Buffalo, N.Y., native represented Toyota at the Supreme Court, winning limits on disabled workers’ claims.” Who fights against disabled workers? Is anyone really that heartless? Maybe John Roberts has never known anyone who’s been disabled.

In the past weeks, Republicans and Democrats have called on President Bush to nominate a moderate for the Supreme Court –- someone who would honor the legacy of independent Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. But last night, President Bush nominated Judge John Roberts, a far-right lawyer and corporate lobbyist, to fill her post on the Supreme Court.

We’ve got to stop Roberts. He opposed clean air rules and worked to help coal companies strip-mine mountaintops. He worked with Ken Starr (yes, that Ken Starr), and tried to keep Congress from defending the Voting Rights Act. He wrote that Roe v. Wade should be “overruled,” and as a lawyer argued (and won) the case that stopped some doctors from even discussing abortion.

Join me in signing MoveOn’s petition to let our Senators know we expect them to oppose John Roberts right now at:

http://political.moveon.org/roberts

Thanks.

My Dad arrived in Saratoga yesterday evening after 7 days and 3,100 miles on the road across America — and promptly kicked mine and Jen’s asses at Scrabble, thanks, in part, to his 50-point “comedian” bonus. It’s great to have you here, Dad, and Saratoga is lucky to have you!

This is the last week the New York City Ballet is in town and our last chance this summer to see them perform. Swan Lake here we come!

Bush alters standard for firing in leak case / President says an aide would have had to commit a crime, not just be involved

Are we really that surprised?

My my own home aside, one of my other favorite homes in Saratoga Springs is on the market for more than a million dollars. I can’t fathom owning a place like this — imagine what the upkeep would be like. “The most historically photographed home in Saratoga Springs, this gracious Victorian has been completely remodeled and professionally decorated. The Union Avenue property includes a carriage house w/plans for guest quarters.”

Even if you could afford to make a half-million dollar down payment, you’d still have a million-dollar mortgage. Of course, this may look like a bargain for anyone who’s used to the San Francisco or New York City real estate markets.

Home prices topping $1M far more common:

From 1994 to 2000, eight homes sold for $1 million or more in Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady, Schoharie and Montgomery counties.

Currently, there are 50 homes on the market in the same six counties, according to the Greater Capital Association of Realtors Inc., which tracks real estate sales in the area.

Real estate agents around the Capital Region are selling more million-dollar homes to local and out-of-town buyers who can afford a luxurious primary residence and/or second home in a resort area.

The higher sale prices are evidence of a robust housing market and the declining availability of homes in the most popular locations in the Capital Region.

Today at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market…

(Seen on Count Zero Continuum via Jenny and Joe)