Magic Umbrella

We've been getting a lot of thunderstorms over the past week or so. Some of them have lasted only a few minutes, letting a little bit of sun out before the next one poured it on. The forecast for today was all thunderstorms and I actually spent a good deal of time outside, yet I never had to open my umbrella once! I went for a walk during lunch to grab an updated Satay (Malaysian restaurant near my office) menu during lunch. At the end of the day, I picked up dinner from there. The trip to Andrew & Joanne's apartment required an outdoor transfer from the PATH to the A train at West 4th. Then there was the walk to Seaman Ave. Then there was the trip home where I got off at Columbus Circle for a 7-street walk home.

For details of our get together, please visit the album below. I continued that story on the photo comments in Picasa.

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It poured heavily (2-3 different storms) right after I got to Satay to get dinner. After my order was ready, the sun shining bright. It poured on again right after I made it into Andrew & Joanne's. I've been pretty lucky dodging the rain for the past month. Whenever I have my umbrella with me, I never get a chance to use it. This dates all the way back to the cruise in June!

DVDeals 7/26 - 8/1

DVD Tuesday
Finally... there are some good DVD releases this week. I'll start with what I call the corrected sequel, Fast & Furious. Amazon has the best prices if you can qualify for free shipping with additional items or an Amazon Prime account. The regular edition is $14.99, 2-disc special edition is $22.99 and Blu-ray is $21.49. If you can't get the free shipping, Best Buy wins the price war... same prices, except the Blu-ray is $24.99. Green Lantern: First Light also comes out on Tuesday, redefining the history of Hal Jordan in a modern animated movie. Again, if you can get the free shipping, Amazon is the store for you... $12.99 for standard, $16.99 for 2-disc and $19.99 for Blu-ray. If not, Target has the best brick-and-mortar prices... $12.99 for standard, $16.99 for 2-disc and $ 22.99 for Blu-ray.

Best Buy Deals
- Fast & Furious 1-3 for $4.99 each
- Fast & Furious 1-3 (Blu-ray)... buy 2 for $35
- Wanted for $12.99
- Jumper for $6.99
- Hitman for $6.99

Target Deals
- Spider Man 3 for $10
- Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End for $10
- Bucket List for $10
- Bank Job for $10

Lazzara's Pizza

Location: 221 W. 38th St., New York, NY
Cuisine: Italian
Hours: SUN-THU (12pm-12am); FRI-SAT (12pm-4am)
Phone: (212) 944-7792
Website: www.lazzaraspizza.com
Prices: $12/person
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 8
Service: 8
Value: 7
Environment: 7

Frequency: Unique

Lazzara's Pizza is a hole in the wall amidst a bunch of smoke stained factories in the Garmnet District. It was a good find by Cindy who used to work in the area. One would have to be very familiar with the area to know the restaurant. It's not very noticeable at the corner of 38th St. & 7th Avenue. It doesn't have a bright sign or exterior. Like The Holy Basil, it just looks like a walk-up apartment unit. We had a little cousins' get-together there to celebrate Evelyn's belated Birthday. It was a good central location for everyone to meet after work.

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Since they're known for their pizza, we ordered 3 to share + one bowl of pasta. For details on each food item, visit the Picasa album.

The service was pretty good. They got us seated and were OK with waiting for the whole party to arrive. The value was not bad. It's about normal to spend $12-15 for an Italian dinner. I just thought the pizzas were a little on the small side. It's about $12-16 per pie and each one is sliced Sicilian style into 6 pieces.

Ifore's Last Day

Auntie Remy & Ifore's last day, like Auntie Aida & Edwin's was on a Monday... same schedule bus for EVA Air left Flushing for Newark at 6:30pm for an 11:30pm flight. So we spent the day in Flushing on an early meal schedule. Auntie Anita took us out for dim sum at Gala Manor at 11am. Uncle Henry and family also joined us.

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After that, Auntie Remy & Ifore did some repacking as some of their check-ins were over the 50 lb limit. It's pretty strict these days as it used to be a generous 70 lbs. We still had some time left, so Ifore & I went out for a walk. We decided to check out Queens Crossing. I was already familiar with the ground level stores, but had never been upstairs myself. The 1st floor is more of the same with high-end clothing stores, but the food court was surprisingly nice & affordable. I'll certainly make it a new hangout place to take guests. I wish we found it earlier!

We then went out for a super early dinner at Nan Shian Dumpling House at 4:15pm because there aren't many dining options at Newark airport. Then we headed off to Fay Da Bakery, the EVA Air waiting area.

Sunday

There were no big lunch plans set for today, so I was able to get everyone to Agree on Lucia Pizza, which Ifore wanted to get one more taste of before he left. We watched I, Robot on Blu-ray in the afternoon. Cindy, Wil, Wesley and Emily came over later on and joined us for dinner.

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Tung Yi Fung (2nd Floor)

Location: 135-29 37th Ave., Flushing, NY, 11354
Cuisine: Chinese, seafood
Phone: (718) 886-8233
Prices: $15/person
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 8
Service: 3
Value: 8
Environment: 7

Frequency: All the Time

We were considering going across the street to Gala Manor, but they didn't have a dinner menu up front with the prices, which is usually a bad sign. Also, we never had dinner there before, so we didn't want to take chances with our out of town guests. We went with the safe bet at Tung Yi Fung because we knew for sure that the food would be good.

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We got there a little after 6pm, which was peak time, so the place was packed. We were seated upstairs which was more comfortable with regards to space, but the service was noticeably worse. That's why I reposted the ratings yet again! We didn't have lobster forks at the table and had to ask for them. I would have understood if they brought them out after we ordered the dish. How did they expect us to eat it? The also didn't change our plates as often... almost when we were already done. At the end of the meal, they didn't bring us red bean soup like they usually do. Again, we had to ask for it.

So if you're eating at Tung Yi Fung, be sure you're downstairs!

Patriot (Blu-ray)

Story: 9
Action: 9
Acting: 7
FX: 9
Durability: 7
Special Features: 7
Blu-ray: 9

I got this movie on sale last week at Best Buy. I actually missed the circular for the week and happened to see it on sale while shopping with Ifore. I figured it was worth it for $15. Patriot was a movie I liked a lot despite the genre. I normally don't like period pieces that take place after Medieval Times, but it had a great story and felt like Braveheart with guns! The Blu-ray version was also the extended cut which I had never seen before.

On July 4th, we got home for dinner and just ate in the house. We had no other plans, so I thought it would be appropriate to watch Patriot since it was a story about the American Revolution. It turned out to be a great translation to 1080p. All of the colors looked great and the detail really came out in the wide angle war scenes. Something that one wouldn't expect from a movie like this was the sound design. I didn't get much out of the extended scenes because I'm not as familiar with this movie... couldn't tell where they were inserted.

Ihawan

We thought Ihawan would be a good place to go for dinner. Uncle Andy & Auntie Kitty had never tasted Filipino food before and it would also be a good opportunity for Auntie Remy & Ifore to compare one of the best restaurants against the original.

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Click here for my full review as all ratings have remained the same.

July 5

Since we were at Woodbury all day yesterday, our family day for the holiday was on July 5th. Cindy, Wil and Wesley joined us for dinner at my parents' house.

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Woodbury Commons

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Happy 4th of July!

YouTube Stats

Besides at work, I only started uploading videos to YouTube after I shot some short clips with my regular camera on the Enchantment cruise. So I looked at the stats today and was surprised by the numbers. All videos are public so they're searchable in YouTube. I had to make it that way otherwise the connections would be limited and some people wouldn't be able to access them off my blog. I thought for sure the rock climbing clip would be the most popular, but it was the guillotine magic trick by far! It has a whopping 79 views whereas the others have 5-7 each... probably just the people I forwarded the URLs to.