2014 - Day 86279 - Thursday...

For those of you that recognize the carnage that occurs when I fall asleep at the keyboard (which is apparently what happened last night), I am taking the necessary precautions against that phenomenon this evening by posting to this journal BEFORE I venture out into the deviate underbelly of 50th and Park Avenue.  We are heading out to see Rock of Ages this evening, so I have plenty of time to get this posted.  This post will be an extra pictorial issue, since I failed to post a photo last night and I have extra photos that were taken today.  So, let's start with last night...As we were walking (walking?) home last night from The Book of Morman we went past 30 Rock and took photos outside the ice rink.  Thanks very much to Cathy, my official photographer of this trip!

This morning was another early morning, and the information sessions began at 8 o'clock.  First was a session by the NAR Chief Lobbyist followed by an interesting talk by the NAR Chief Economist.  Okay, hold on to your hats...following that was a great discussion (kind of point/counter-point) with Robert Gibbs (former Obama insider) and Karl Rove (who was probably all the grey matter for George W Bush, not that there's anything wrong with that).  For those of you who are Face Book friends of mine, you can see the photo that I posted of me shaking hands with Karl Rove.  Note to all of you; never dare me to do ANYTHING!  This is a photo of me with Robert Gibbs.  I can tell you, I believe everyone in the room, regardless of their political agenda (or lack thereof) enjoyed the session with these two guys, and we all would have liked it to go on longer.  Very enlightening.

THEN, as if that were not enough, we had an hour with Admiral James Stavridis, USN (Ret.) who spoke to us about the security of the United States, particularly what he believes will be something of near-term concern, Cyber-Terrorism.  It is a scary world in which we live, there are lots of folks who want to do us harm, and we have to be en-garde at all times.  More really interesting information and something that requires a lot of long-term planning and preparedness.

That was followed by a break for a couple hours, trying to stay caught up (but not accomplishing it), and then down stairs again to the closing reception.  Everything was very nice, and it was a Broadway theme at the closing reception.  There were performances by (knock-offs of) the casts of Jersey Boy, Mama Mia, Evita and Phantom of the Opera.  Very nice, lots of food, lots of beverages and lots of desserts.  This is a photo of the Evita performance in the Grand Ballroom.

I have also, incidentally, determined that somewhere within the confines of the Waldorf-Astoria is a secret place, very similar to the elephant burial grounds we have all heard (or herd) about in Africa, where old food servers come to die.  They can be seen in the halls and banquet facilities of this great place, doing their best to serve one more cup of coffee, one more dish of pickled herring, one more order of bagels.  They leave your table hunting for another packet of sweet-n-low and vanish, never to be seen or heard from again.

Deeds, Actions, Changes, BURIAL GROUNDS, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!