Holiday Gift Ideas

Here are some original gift ideas from my friends:

Bedtime Ballyhoo
This is a wonderfully illustrated, rhyming bedtime story by Nicki Granata Bosch. Your kids will enjoy the story and pictures and you'll have a blast reading it to them. Click here to shop.

Books by Chris Grabenstein
Chris recently released The Hanging Hill, a sequel to Crossroads. Both are great books for young adults. I got myself a copy at his release party and enjoyed it a lot a well. He also has a collection of mystery/thrillers for the older audience. Click here to shop

A Ma$tamind Christmas 4
This is Shawn Noel's 4th X-mas album. Not only does this make an original gift, but be sure to get one for yourself for background music if you're hosting a party. Click here to shop.

Tinkerbot Jewelry
New hobbies produce new products for Jene Wallace. The link I had for her last year was for crocheted food items. This year, it's handmade jewelry. Click here to shop.

DVDeals 11/29 - 12/5

Terminator Salvation
Finally, another Summer blockbuster will be released this Tuesday. Terminator Salvation is the last one I think. Amazon has the best price for the regular edition DVD at $9.99. They also have the Blu-ray for $15.99. Best Buy has the Blu-ray for $19.99, but it includes a digital copy. It's odd that there are 2 Blu-ray versions... with and without the digital copy. Best Buy also has a special edition Blu-ray for $34.99. They didn't mention anything other than the special endoskeleton box though, so it's probably not worth the price.

Best Buy Deals
- Ghost Rider (Blu-ray) for $14.99
- A Knight's Tale (Blu-ray) for $14.99
- Spiderman for $9.99
- Babylon AD for $9.99
- Wanted for $9.99
- Max Payne for $9.99
- Punisher for $9.99
- Forbidden Kingdom for $9.99
- Death Race for $9.99

Happy Black Friday

I didn't go crazy for Black Friday this year. There didn't seem to be much on the electronics/movie sections. I found some early deals beforehand online. I woke up at 7am... pretty much normal time and just checked out Radio Shack. They're really the only electronics store that stocks what they advertise. I was able to take care of a few Christmas gifts, so that was successful. My Mom just went to Macy's and got a bunch of clothes on sale. Black Friday for us wasn't that eventful, but efficient.

Thanksgiving

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Happy Thanksgiving

Corner 28 (2nd Floor)

Location: 40-28 Main St., Flushing, NY 11354
Cuisine: Chinese
Phone: (718) 886-6628
Prices: $9/person (w/ dessert)
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 8
Service: 8
Value: 10
Environment: 8

Frequency: Unique

I had the day off so I met up with my parents for lunch and was able to add more to my Flushing restaurant reviews. We've been to Corner 28 before, but only for takeout, which is a completely different experience. This restaurant really split itself into many "departments" as they offer fast food downstairs, a sit-in restaurant upstairs, a sushi bar and bubble tea/smoothies. If they had the space, I'm sure they would offer dim sum on weekends too!

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The thing that stood out about the Corner 28 restaurant menu was the prices. $9 per person is extremely cheap for non-fast food that included a smoothie. Without the desserts, it would've been around $6 per person... a takeout level price!

City Café

Location: 136-13 38th Ave., Flushing, NY, 11354
Cuisine: Chinese
Phone: (718) 661-3380
Prices: $8/person
Credit Cards: None

Food: 7
Service: 7
Value: 9
Environment: 7

Frequency: Unique

Auntie Clarita & Uncle Mariano took us out for dinner on their last full day in New York. Since it was a Thursday night, the dinner crowd was comfortable and I got to try a new place. My parents have been to City Café before for lunch. I've never tried it, but used to come to this location a lot back when Sweet 'n Tart was in business. City Café is a much different style of restaurant, most noticeable with the price range. Sweet 'n Tart had small portions and high prices. This place has OK portions (all of our dishes were a good size except the lobster) with very low prices. This is probably one of the best bang for buck Chinese restaurants in the area. The dinner prices are pretty close to what youd pay for a lunch takeout.

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The restaurant was clean and well-maintained, although one might not think that when looking at the outside. The service was above average, but I lowered the score a bit because they didn't change our plates and didn't have an English menu. For more details on the dishes, visit the Picasa album.

Auntie Clarita & Uncle Mariano enjoyed their stay in NY and got pretty good at the subway system as they went out to Manhattan for most of the days. They covered more ground than most of our previous visitors from the Philippines. Like true Ne Yorkers, they walked around a lot too. Hopefully they can join the next group event... another possible cruise in 2010?

After Halloween

We had unusually great weather for Halloween yesterday... 70 degrees in October! Since it fell on a weekend, I was expecting a big turnout. I went out and got 4 bags of Kit Kats with a manufacturer's coupon. We actually only got 4 groups of kids at my parents' house all day. So I gave away less than 1 bag total! I guess it must just be a NYC thing where parents take their kids more to businesses rather than residential areas for safety reasons. And also, at night it conflicted with Game 3 of the World Series. Everyone was probably tuning into the more important Yankees game.

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Today, we had a little get-together at my parents' house. Auntie Clarita and Uncle Mariano are on the 3rd week of their NY vacation. They're both pros with getting around the city now. Cindy, Wil and Wesley also joined us.

Halloween

Woodbury & Fall Foliage

As you know, I'm not much of a shopper, so I can't spend even half a day at Woodbury Commons just going to stores. So I spent most of yesterday's trip shooting pictures of the fall foliage around the outlets. I walked out to the edges of each parking area and was able to get full nature shots.

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