It’s ‘girl’s weekend’ at my house, (3 women + their 7 daughters under 5!) , so I got greenlit to get a hotel for the weekend and chill! I booked the Stamford Plaza Hotel on Summer St., a former Sheraton now under new management.

I didn’t want to go far or pay alot of money, I just wanted a decent place to stay close to home where I could work and relax. After scanning Expedia and almost booking the Stamford Marriott ($109/night), I decided for once I was going to roll the dice and try one of those ‘unpublished rates’ – you know, where they offer you a super-low rate IF you book without knowing what hotel it is first (like Priceline).

Frankly, I would normally *never* do this, unless, say, it was for an overnight stay on a road trip and they promised me a 3-star and the next option was twice as much. But I was intrigued, and convinced I could figure out which hotel it was before booking.

It was described as a 3.5 star hotel, and I used the other amenity clues they gave me to narrow down the list of their ‘published rate’ hotels to about 4. The giveaway was an amenity ‘tennis nearby’ – that had to be unique – it was – unique to The Stamford Plaza, which had good reviews. I was sure of it, so I booked it, and was rewarded with a $59/night rate – $50 less a night than the Stamford Marriott. Nice!

The first thing you notice walking into the Stamford Plaza is that it is big. The atrium reminded me of the Las Vegas Luxor – while it obviously was not that big, the size is impressive. It is also meticulously clean, and rather quiet. I suspect the hotel is largely supported by traveling staff and events for their next-door neighbors, GE Asset Management, which is how they could afford keeping their superdomish atrium air conditioned.

The Plaza is also very clean, without exception, and check-in was quick and staff helpful and polite.

The one issue I had was with parking – you have to check-in before you park, as you need your room key to get into the parking garage. No big deal, but the street to the parking garage has several gratuitously huge speed bumps which scratched the bottom of my car – and from the looks of the tops of them, many other cars as well. They are just too high and too many. I am glad I would not be going to and from the hotel frequently.

I did, however, get a spot right next to the elevator, as the massive parking garage was barely populated. Parking is $10/day for guests (The Stamford Marriott is $12).

Although it seemed the hotel was lightly booked, they assigned me a room as far from the elevator as possible, which was really annoying and puzzling – because, again, the hotel is pretty big.

While I knew from the atrium that I was going to be fine staying at the Stamford Plaza, I was still taken aback with how nice the room was. It was very standard-sized – the bathroom a little smaller than most, but very tastefully decorated. The couch and coffee table were a plus.

My only complaint was the 20-inch CRT TV – although most hotels have been very slow on the upgrade to flat screens, so this was no surprise.

Although I had a very strong wireless signal, the speed was disappointing, about .3 Mbps. I couldn’t get the wired ethernet connection to work, but didn’t care enough to call the desk for help either.

Regardless, overall, this place was a lot better than I expected and I can heartily recommend the Stamford Plaza as a super value hotel (even the published rate was only $89/night). I don’t know how to describe it, but it has that atmosphere of ‘chain buyout’ – there are giveaways, like the canvas sign on the front with the logo that looks kinda-like-but-not-really Sheraton’s – but that’s not a negative, the owner is towing the line well and in exchange you get a great room at a great price.

Originally appeared on: StationStops - Metro-North Train Schedules and NYC Commuting Blog See the original post here: Stamford Plaza Hotel Review

He was on his hands and knees for hours helping me pull carpet staples out of my soaking wet basement floor yesterday, and once tore my car door apart and repaired my power window perfectly without new parts IN MY DRIVEWAY.

Thanks to him I am all set with my post-storm repairs, but I know alot of people could use his help right now, so PLEASE don’t hesitate to send me an email at the contact form and I will hook you up.

Originally appeared on: StationStops - Metro-North Train Schedules and NYC Commuting Blog See the original post here: My Greenwich/Stamford Handyman/Mechanic Kicks Ass, Has Availability Now

On Saturday night a bunch of Greenwich folks called the cops to report a UFO when they saw 30-40 strange lights travelling across the sky.

Turns out that the lights were actually created by a resident who released Chinese Lanterns in celebration of a birthday party at their home.

Chinese Lanterns (aka Thai Lanterns or Sky Lanterns) are tiny disposable paper hot-air balloons which are used in celebrations in China and Thailand. When they get high enough, they simply appear as bright lights and as they are all subject to the same wind conditions, may appear to be lights all belonging to a single aircraft as they move in unison.

Worldwide, it is extremely common for Chinese Lanterns to be reported as UFOs.

According to the police and eyewitness reports, a very strong wind was carrying the lanterns at a high speed, which made their identification more difficult. Skylanterns.com suggests that their lanterns not be launched in winds of over 5 MPH.

The Greenwich Police says the lanterns are legal and biodegradable, but don’t mention anything about the fire risk.

From a little research around the internet, it seems that the risk is there but negligible as the paper is non-flammable and they normally only come down to earth when the wick has burned out.

Originally appeared on: StationStops - Metro-North Train Schedules and NYC Commuting Blog See the original post here: Greenwich UFO Sightings Explained

The student had written Jobs asking if there were a way a High School Student could take advantage of the half-off discount the company offers on it’s Final Cut Studio 2 software to college students.

Two weeks later, he got the full version of the software in a box from Cupertino.

In related news, the US government has donated $20B in cash to Citigroup.

Fun facts: Greenwich High School is the alma mater of Today’s Matt Lauer, Olympic Gold Medalist Dorothy Hamill, NFL Hall Of Famer Steve Young, and Pulitzer Prize winning author Truman Capote.

Originally appeared on: StationStops - Metro-North Train Schedules and NYC Commuting Blog See the original post here: Greenwich High School Student Writes Steve Jobs, Gets $1300 in Free Software

I have never seen the Fox show “Kitchen Nightmares”, but I had to watch most of this episode to see them rehabilitate a local Italian steakhouse Sabatiello’s..

I personally have never eaten there, but from watching the show, it seems like the food was pretty lousy, with 3-day-old soup, microwaved frozen lasagna, and cheap cuts of meat.

This is where host Chef Ramsey stepped in, and wrestled with the hot-headed owner who was not all that amiable to criticism.

Long story short, Ramsey schools the restaurant on how to make better food and hopefully its all better now blah blah.

If anyone has any before and after opinions, leave a comment!

Originally appeared on: StationStops - Metro-North Train Schedules and NYC Commuting Blog See the original post here: “Kitchen Nightmares” Puts Stamford’s Sabatiello’s Back On Track

Fellow Fairfield blogger Stamford Talk was dining on the set of “Kitchen Nightmares” when it shot at Stamford’s Sabatiello’s Restaurant last February.

Show teaser: Sabatiello’s is over $1 million in debt and the hot-tempered owner isn’t helping.

Check it out tonight at 8 PM on Fox.

Just a reminder also that Top Chef: New York premiered last night. The chefs seemed impressed with the first round of dishes from all the contestants, and Chef Tom Colicchio seems to think its going to be a great season.

BTW, there is now a Top Chef videogame. I just tried the demo, my verdict: “laughable”.

However, I do like the sound bites in the game when Padma Lakshmi orders me around the kitchen….I’m sorry Gail Simmons, but your low-cut tops can’t compete with Padma’s hot superpowers…

Originally appeared on: StationStops - Metro-North Train Schedules and NYC Commuting Blog See the original post here: “Kitchen Nightmares” Stamford Episode Airs Tonight

My fellow Stamford area bloggers couldnt care less about all my techie talk, so I figured I would help round out today’s AppleFest with a traditional rant about something local – Stamford Town Center.

I hate it.

Once you get to Stamford Town Center, you are met with a horrifically complex and poorly signed parking garage which can only be described as ‘maze-like’ labyrinthine. I have no idea which way to go, or where to park – there are plenty of options, but not all of them are a good idea.

Once you do pick a space, you are met with – a parking meter???! Most of us like going to Malls to avoid parking meters – but this one’s got em! Why they decided to install a few hundred parking meters, rather than a handful of exit booths like Westchester, is beyond me.

On the plus side, $.50 for 3 hours is a pretty good deal – but I don’t dislike parking meters because of the price, I dislike them because I never have any change.

Ed. – I hate coins. I just as soon voluntarily walk around with a pocketful of bolts and screws and barter with them. Probably the worst country in terms of coins I have visited is Spain (probably not anymore now that they have the Euro). Buy a cup of coffee in Spain, and you will likely get a heaping handful of different sized coins with the combined weight of a cueball in return.

Next, we enter the mall. If you didn’t get vertigo in the parking garage, it will hit you in the mall. Again, its a maze which is difficult to spatially comprehend – standing in the carpeted center court of stairs, you might feel it had been designed by MC Escher. It reminds me of the endless serpentine underground malls in Montreal, or the winding intercasino corridors of Vegas.

The first thing you will want to do is find a map, which, curiously, are NOT posted at each entrance. Indeed, you must get lost before you can find yourself.

Yesterday me and another guy were standing next to each other staring at the map – for a long time. Finally he said ‘I have no f***ing idea where we are!’. I laughed and confirmed that, if there was indeed a ‘you are here’ icon on the map, I sure as hell couldn’t find it. We attempted to triangulate our position by determining the stores we were standing next to. This helped with location but not direction. We both wished each other luck and went our separate ways.

Luckily, I was headed for Macy’s – an anchor store – and I could just see the distant Macy’s sign from where I was standing. On my way there, I passed my map buddy, who was still lost. He scribbled a note and handed it to me, asking if I could pass it on to his loved ones in case he never returned.

This was actually a good day, compared to the first time my wife and I attempted to find the mall’s movie theatre which, at best, is ‘theoretically possible to get to without going outside’ of Stamford Town Center. In order to find it, you take a left at Macy’s and wander around the business offices for the mall realtor – hopefully following others who have traveled the path before.

Originally appeared on: StationStops - Metro-North Train Schedules and NYC Commuting Blog See the original post here: Lost In Stamford Town Center