For my Christmas present, the children all chipped in to treat me to a trip to New York to celebrate my 60th Birthday in June. After months of preparation, it's finally time to fly to the Big Apple.........

We were up at 2:30 am to be ready to leave at 3:30 am so as to reach Albuquerque by 4:30 am for a 6:00 am flight. I thought that we would let all the sleeping pets lie..............

But Dwight just couldn't resist one last hug for Baby Winston............

A hug for my son who will be driving back to Santa Fe in the pre-dawn darkness and who will be caring for our pets and garden while we are away....................

"Hello, Francesca? We're here! Will you pick us up?"......................

"I don't know why Frannie wouldn't want to pick us up--we ARE the most colorful people in New York!"....................

After settling into our favorite hotel--The DaVinci Hotel--and having a heavenly dinner of Italian food at Joe G's Restaurant in the lower level of our hotel, Frannie whisked us off to Hunter College and ROLLER DERBY!..................

Francesca is the manager of the Brooklyn Bombshells Roller Derby team, and although the Bombshells were not in tonight's bout, we still got to meet some of the Bombshells. Here Dwight meets Evilicious. She is dressed in the Bombshell's sailor motif in keeping with the Brooklyn Naval Yard..................

Dwight LIKES Evilicious............................

Since this is a self-supporting league, the girls who are not skating help with admission, refreshments etc. All the girls in the sailor tops are on Frannie's team..................

Here come the Queens of Pain--the team from the borough of Queens. They favor a Gothic look and sport tiaras in the pre-game. They are also the heavy favorites in tonight's bout.......

The Queens of Pain have Gothic cheerleaders and a mascot who sports a leather wrestling mask.........

And here is the opposition--the Manhattan Mayhem--sporting their orange jumpsuit uniforms with their jailer cheerleaders.........................

The Mayhem has managers who dress as Mafiosos to complete the suite. I want Frannie to wear at least a sailor suit when she is managing the bombshells. All of these nice girls have very frightening names when they skate like: Fisti Cuffs, Straight Razor, Lucille Ballistic, Julietta Vendetta, Miss American Thighs, Auntie Christ, Beatrix Slaughter, Hard Anya, Beyonslay, Polly Gone, Raggedy Animal, Suzy Hotrod and Mac N. Sleaze. These managers are Cruel Hand Luke and Leif Sentence. Though Frannie doesn't wear a uniform, she does have a scary moniker--Casey Strangle. I personally think The Raging Poopette would be more intimidating.............

The half-time show was a demonstration by a group of brave paraplegic guys who have formed their own wheelchair Rugby league.................

A documentary film has been made about these guys and their game is totally rough and tumble and totally physical and exhilarating.............

In the second half of the bout, the Mayhem really took control and beat the favored Queens of Pain.......................

A victory lap for the Manhattan Mayhem.....................

Afterwards, Frannie introduced us to many of the girls--this is Surly Temple who played a very aggressive game..............................she will be one of the girls who will be skating at the All Star Bout we will be seeing next week in Connecticut.............

After Frannie dropped uS off, we went for a walk in the vicinity of the hotel--this is David Letterman's studio. He sometimes mentions that he has gotten pizza from Joe G's...........

Strolling down Broadway............................

We're down to Times Square.....................

"When Broadway babies say 'Goodnight' , it's early in the morning"............See you tomorrow.