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I didn't sleep very well last night.  Who knows why--maybe it was the different bed in the Comfort Inn in Queens where we were staying.  Maybe it was a bit chilly in our room last night.  Maybe it was in part that I stayed up until 1:30 surfing the web, then couldn't really get to sleep.  At 5:30, I finally gave up and fired up the computer again, dinked around with it until a bit after seven, then turned it off, pulled another pillow over my head, and finally fell asleep.

Cemetery

I awoke to a shaking bed.  Snookums was . . . doing something.  I don't know what.  Actually, at the time, I knew what she was doing--something related to putting on clothes, I think.  Damned if I can remember now.  Snookums and her sister left to go get breakfast.  I sat and stared at the cemetery across the street for a while, then decided to take a shower.  I dressed and stumbled downstairs to the breakfast room.  I may have said something to Snookums, her sister, one of the coffee pots, or the Christmas tree they'd set up in the lobby.  I really don't know.  I looked at a copy of the USA Today.  Don't ask me what any of the articles were about.

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Slowly, after a few cups, coffee helped.

Rockefeller Center

Snookums, her sister, and I took the Comfort Inn's courtesy van to the nearest subway stop and road the subway in to Manhattan, emerging at Times Square.  We walked from there to Rockefeller Center.  Janet's sister was rubbernecking enthusiastically.  Janet was showing interest.  I was growling at the hawkers of the city bus tours who had staked out twenty-foot-long territories all along Times Square.

No, seriously.  Growling.  Possibly a snarl or two.  I admit grumpiness.

The New York Expedition Team

From Rockefeller Center, we walked south along Fifth Avenue to Broadway, and down Broadway to Union Square.  There was a holiday market set up there.  I bought Snookums' mom some National Embarrassmints.  I'll explain the joke later, but the mints have a picture of our beloved President, George W. Bush, on the tin.

At the south side of Union Square along Broadway was our destination, Max Brenner's Chocolate Bar, which we read about in Midway Airlines' magazine on the flight to New York the previous evening.

Brenner's

When you look in the dictionary for chocolate, one of the definitions is:  decadently luxurious.  OK, maybe not, but pretty close.  Snookums was after a hot chocolate like the one she had on our first honeymoon, in Paris.  Both her sister and I just simply like chocolate.  Sister had a hot white chocolate with a hint of rose essence.  I went for the chocolate martini because, well, I like alcohol.  Additionally, we ordered a "Suckao," billed by the restaurant as "the espresso of the chocolate drinks," with the origin of the name being:

Suck - to draw the dense liquid through the metal tube,
Kakao - the Spanish word for cocoa beans from which this rich chocolate drink is made and which determines its quality

It was basically a chocolate fondue that you drink through a straw.  Yeah, decadent. 

Bottom left: Suckao; bottom right:  chocolate martini; upper left:  hot white chocolate with rose essence

But wait!  There's more!  We ate actual food with little or no chocolate content.  I had a roast beef sandwich:

Roast beef sandwich

Snookums had pasta:

Pasta

and her sister had turkey and mushroom crepes.

Turkey and mushroom crepes

We did not desire food any more by the time we departed Brenner's.  We hopped on the subway for the ride back to Queens, had only a brief Metro Card problem, saw a rat running around underneath the subway tracks.  Ah, New York.  We got on the train, rode for a while, switched to a different line, rode for a while more, then arrived at our station in Queens. 

After emerging from the depths, Snookums called for the hotel's courtesy van to come pick us up, and it miraculously arrived within seconds.  I suspect some kind of ripple in the time/space continuum.  Anyway, I ran across the street to grab a six-pack of beer (I like alcohol, remember?) as the van approached.  The time/space ripple continued, as the van waited for what seemed like a very long time at a red light--long enough for me to acquire a six-pack of 16-ounce Miller Lite cans (yeah, I said I got beer--I lied), run across the street, and board the bus for the short ride back to the Comfort Inn.

OK, here's the payoff for the mints teaser earlier.  My mother-in-law is a Bush hater.  No two ways about it.  She is also, coincidentally, a Democrat, or so I gather.  Anyway, I gave her the National Embarrassmints, telling her that when Hillary is six years into her Presidency, as reviled as W is now (or worse), my mother-in-law will need to return the favor to me.  She accepted the mints anyway.

We'll probably order out for some Chinese cuisine later tonight, but we're pretty much in for the night now.

Tomorrow:  The Noordam.  Stay tuned.