Pretty much every toddler I know (including myself and my brother when we were little) enjoys spending quality time with rolls of toilet paper. Forget the pile of toys for Xander to play with when there’s a highly entertaining roll of TP in the bathroom.

I finally made the jump to HDTV this past weekend and brought home a Sharp Aquos LC-60C46U 46″ LCD. I pretty much got tired of playing the waiting game and the Costco sale was the final straw. The only knock against it is a subtle banding issue that I haven’t been able to spot yet. I’ve only noticed one dead pixel and one stuck pixel, neither of which are noticeable unless you’re right on top of the screen.

Here I am trying to set the thing up and getting pinned on the couch by the monster. Look how Xander is trying to help. Thanks kiddo.

Pardon the interruption as I bring you my Office Space moment of the day.

It would have been better if I actually did the cube wall dismantling or if I actually had some scenery on the other side instead of another cube farm.

Whoever wrote that Desktop Tower Defense should be outright banned is right. Damned addictive game. I have no clue how people are ringing in the scores in the 7000 range, but I can consistently beat the thing now on Normal mode using the following maze:

That particular version got me 5841 points.

Allow me to introduce everyone to Mischievous Baby’s alter ego…Mischievous Mohawk Baby!

Well, we survived the trip to New York with Xander. I was attending SES for the week and Tammy and Xander flew out mid-week to enjoy the sights and sounds of the Big Apple. Hotels in Manhattan are ridiculously expensive and small for the most part, but for whatever reason, rooms at the W The Court and W The Tuscany are much larger for about the same price. Whenever I am in New York, I try to stay at one of them.

For this trip, W The Court was our base of operations. I spotted an intriguing buy two nights get one free promo and used it score a suite for the second half of our stay. The mind boggling part was that the suite turned out to be cheaper per night than the normal room. Woot.

The weather was a bit bleak for April: rainy on Thursday, cold all around, and a pretty severe storm tore through the region on Sunday when we flew home. At least we came prepared with plenty of warm clothing.

I have to give a huge shout-out to Yelp for providing great restaurant recommendations. Having a guide that has a “kid friendly” designation for restaurants took the stress out of finding appropriate dining experiences. A couple of great finds:

• Katsuhama (three blocks northwest of Grand Central on E 47th) – It ain’t going to give Maisen Tonkatsu in Tokyo a run for its money, but very good tonkatsu nonetheless.
• Men Kui Tei (just south of Central Park on W 56th) – Mmmm…big, inexpensive bowls of ramen. Perfect for those cold days.
• Petite Abeille (two blocks northwest of Union Square on W 17th) – It’s incorrectly classified on Yelp as French when in reality, it’s Belgian. I have to admit I know not what the difference is, but the food was outstanding and the prices were good. It’s a small place with tables crammed in there, but definitely worth it.
• Ali Baba Restaurant (in Murray Hill near the hotel on E 34th) – Great Turkish food. Order lamb. And lots of it. And then order the baklava. Marvel at the pistachio perfection.
• Daniel’s Bagels (in Murray Hill near the hotel on 3rd Ave) – Outstanding bagels, especially for those who love a little bit of bagel with their cream cheese, look no further.

We hit the major requisite stops during our trip: the Met, the American Museum of Natural History, Rockefeller Plaza, Grand Central, Fifth Avenue window shopping. We had object lessons on the importance of paying attention to express vs. local subway trains. We took in the sights, sounds, and somewhat unfortunately some smells of the city. But enough about me. Most folks who read this blog are looking for Xander! So here’s a quick summary of his first trip to New York…

Ok, it’s old news by now, but I was having trouble uploading this video five days ago. Pretend you’ve gone back in time to last Saturday and this is what was going down…or up.

Now that we’ve entered a new era of mobility, we need to be much more careful since we can no longer leave him in a mischief-free zone and expect the best. Now it’s all about wondering how much trouble he can get into in the few milliseconds we need to run to the next room for something.

Xander got to partake in his first Easter Egg hunt today. Not surprisingly, he wasn’t too clear on the concept. I’ll upload the video when I figure out what’s going on with video service.

I’m off to the Big Apple tomorrow morning and will be joined by Tam and Xander later in the week. Stay tuned for an update from the east coast.

I don’t think I even knew what a spa tub was until I was a teenager. How spoiled is Xander, getting to bathe almost daily in one? Let me tell ya, he’s got a real tough life here, slummin’ it the way he does.