Back from New York City. No Computer, No Cell Phone, No Worries.

I’m back from my trip to New York City and Niagara Falls. It was a vacation with no computer, no cell phone, just pure relaxation. There was some excitement though. I met a couple of famous people.

Our second day in New York my wife and I had just eaten a wonderful dinner at a restaurant called Sophie’s in Little Italy. I had Osso Boco, a dish from Milan Italy made from veal shanks braised in white wine, and my wife had mushroom stuffed ravioli. It was delicious but I saved room for dessert so we walked across the street to the Cannolli King.

I spotted Cesar Millan, the Dog Whisperer of National Geographic TV fame, with his wife Illusion and introduced myself. He was very gracious and friendly. My wife was beside herself because Cesar is one of her all-time favorite people.

What Cesar can do with unruly dogs is absolutely amazing. And he does it so quickly. If you have never watched his show you should.

The day before we left New York we went to an afternoon Broadway show and I sat next to Edward James Olmos, star of Battlestar Galactica. If you don’t know him from that you might remember him as Lieutenant Martin Castillo on Miami Vice in the late 80’s.

Edward and I chatted briefly about the projects he is working on and he was very enthusiatic about his current work on Battlestar Galactica. He cautioned me not to start watching this season but to watch it from its beginning 4 years ago on DVD so that the story line would make sense.

Mr. Olmos has won many awards including an Emmy for his work on “Miami Vice.” He was nominated for an Academy Award for his 1987 appearance as Jaime Escalante in the critically acclaimed movie, Stand and Deliver.

Edward was accompanied by his wife of six years, Lymari Nadal, who played Eva in American Gangster.

After the play was over I told him what a pleasure it was to meet him and he very graciously said “It was my pleasure, Mr. Coleman.”

What a treat that was. I never expected to meet any celebrities in New York and ended up meeting three. Even better I scored many, many points with my wife for introducing her to one of her favorite people. She thinks “Cesar Millan is one of the coolest guys ever” to quote her.

I’ll tell you more about our trip in a later post.

Warmest regards,

Ellery