Junebug B

Fun at Conte's

2009-07-03T21:02:00.005-04:00

If you ask pretty much anyone in Princeton where to get the best pizza, chances are they will tell you Conte's is the place to go. Pretty much the only things on the menu are pizza and pitchers of either beer or soda. And there is not frilly pizza here. Tonight I asked for a pie with spinach and black olives and they said "No spinach, we can do black olives". Got it. The toppings are basic, and the pizza is good New York style thin crust.

The boys had a lot of fun before the pizza showed up. Nathaniel is now missing both front teeth with makes for an especially scary vampire look:

And Sebastian always wants to try out what Nathaniel is up to:

Here's video of Sebastian doing his own thing:

Here's John taking some fun video with my parents' camera, and Sebastian making a silly face.

The antics continued after the pizza arrived, I just decided to put my camera away. After pizza we walked over to the park and went on the roller slide again and climbed all over the place and then paid a visit to my garden where I got some watering help from John, Sebastian and Nathaniel. It was a lovely evening.

How does my garden grow?

2009-07-03T19:46:00.007-04:00

Holy crap - my garden grows HUGE and mysterious and with the help of my nephews and a very rainy June! Above is a carrot I harvested today. I'm particularly proud of it because it's straight as an arrow. I worked really hard to dig all the rocks out of this particular area of soil, knowing that I was planning on planting carrots, and low and behold it worked! I'm going to let the other carrots go a little longer and see if they get a little bigger, but not too much more because this one was sweet and nice when I ate after getting home and washing it off. This is the first time I've grown carrots and I think I'll do it again. Once I harvest them, there will be an empty space in my garden, so I'm thinking of putting in more arugula or possibly transplanting the peppers that are getting shaded by the HUGE squash plants.

Below is an overall shot of the garden with some labels. Behind the broccoli are some tomatillo plants, and behind those and the tomatoes is an entire row of bush beans. The little pepper plants aren't even visible. They are on either side of the sunflowers. Click to enlarge for easier label reading:

Here is a close up of the Mystery Squash. My educated guess is that it's a pumpkin. I planted some of the squash plants from seeds and some from plants that I got from my parents. Not sure which one was labeled wrong, but this is obviously not yellow summer squash:

This is yellow summer squash:

This is the arugula that I harvested last week. It was really peppery and delicious with roasted beets and goat cheese. I had some sandwiches and some salads with all of those ingredients. I still have some arugula in the garden that I'm hoping to pick next week. I was so happy with the results here.

And today Sebastian got to help me water the garden. These are the two rows of bush beans that were hidden behind the broccoli and tomatoes. I'm really looking forward to getting some late-summer harvest from them. I planted them on the later side, but I think it's going to work out well.

This garden has been quite an adventure. I'm really happy with the results and I'm looking forward to a delicious rest of the summer. I really can't wait for the tomatoes to come in! I have 4 varieties going, and they all seem to be doing well: Mr. Stripey, which has a medium sized yellow striped fruit, red early girls (which don't seem to be too much earlier than the other tomatoes), a yellow cherry and a red grape. Can't wait to match it up with some of the basil that's growing on my front porch!

Staying in Princeton for the weekend

2009-06-27T20:27:00.009-04:00

It's rare that I find myself in Princeton on the weekend, but today I spent the whole day in town. Well, I guess officially I got all the way to West Windsor for the farmer's market, but that's the farthest I've gone. It's been nice to have a day to clean up the house a little and even think about some changes I'd like to make as far as moving furniture or maybe changing the color scheme in my bedroom.

This afternoon John brought the kids down and we had a great day around town. First we went to get ice cream at Thomas Sweet. There is a funhouse mirror there and Emmy had a great time making faces at himself in the mirror:

Here are Sebastian, Nathaniel and Emerson sitting outside on the steps at Thomas Sweet:

Emmy, with his fair skin and reddish hair, has always been sensitive to the sun. When I saw him shading his eyes I asked if he wanted to wear my sunglasses. The answer is obvious:

After Thomas Sweet, we headed to the Cotsen Children's Library, which is on campus at the Firestone Library. They don't allow photography, so we don't have any photos there, but the kiddos had a great time. They had a puppet theatre with tons of fun puppets, a treehouse with cushions on two levels for reading and playing, and plenty of room for fun games of hide and go seek. We didn't do too much reading there, but we still had a great time.

After leaving the library, we walked down to Nassau Street and went to Labyrinth Books were the woman working in the children's section couldn't stop laughing at the boys. Emmy in particular was being quite funny. After the loud announcement of "Daddy, I poop!" and then having a diaper change, he gets back to the little children's section and 2 minutes later announces "Daddy, I poop again!". The evidence was clear that he did not indeed poop again, so he didn't get another diaper change, but kept saying "Daddy, I poop again" and John responding with "No, you didn't" and after a few rounds of this John said "Emmy, you haven't even had time to poop again!" The other thing Emmy said was "Obama Books!". And sure enough I walked over and he had found 2 books about our current president. John said that when Emmy sees him on the news he shouts "Obama!". The woman got a kick out of that and said "I like this kid." It was cute.

We went to dinner at Triumph Brewery and thankfully they gave us a booth in the back. We might have been a little noisy, but with the baseball game on and folks already at the bar enjoying happy hour, no one seemed to notice too much:

Then after dinner we went to an awesome playground around the corner from my house. There is a really cool slide there that's made of rollers and the boys went down it about a hundred times each. Sometimes sitting up, sometimes on their bellies or laying on their backs. There was lots of giggling involved, that's for sure.

The playground is right around the corner from my garden, so when John took Sebastian back to my house to use the bathroom, Emmy and Nathaniel and I went to see and water my garden. Emmy was very happy to help out, and Nathaniel liked being in charge of the hose used to fill the watering cans. Here is Emmy watering my bell peppers (which you can hardly see behind the monster summer squash!):

And here is Nathaniel watering the tomatoes, with the summer squash on the left and some broccoli on the right.

It was a great day with the boys! I'm so happy that they got to spend the day in Princeton and that we had so much fun.

After they headed home, I went out for drinks with Bror and Amy (who I had over for dinner a couple weeks ago). The weather was lovely and it was nice to enjoy the evening with friends.

So it ended up being a lovely day in town. And now my next free weekend isn't until August.

Chicago - Day 4, Blue Line from one end to the other

2009-06-25T00:59:00.004-04:00

One of the things I was most excited about this trip was getting to meet my friend Nate's new baby, Caroline! On Tuesday morning I said good-bye to Matthew and took the El downtown and switched to the Blue Line out to Oak Park. It took about an hour to get there, but it was totally worth it. Nate picked me up at the station and then we did a driving tour of downtown Oak Park and saw a bunch of Frank Lloyd Wright homes and the Unity Temple. I had wanted to do this since I just saw the show at the Guggenheim and I'm reading "Loving Frank" which mostly takes place in Oak Park is about one of his affairs. It was a quick little tour, and then we ended up back at his house for a little bit. Then we headed to Buzz Cafe for a quick bite - I had a salad with wonderful grilled tofu and a huge decaf chai. After dropping off lunch for his wife, Lola, who was at work, we headed over to the babysitter's to see Caroline. Oh my goodness she is adorable! She was trying out "swimming" for the first time in a teeny little baby pool in the back yard of the babysitter's house. She is such a happy, sweet baby, and it was great to see Nate as a dad.

After our quick visit, it was off to the airport for me. I took the Blue Line from Oak Park all the way to O'Hare, which took about an hour and a half, but it was all one train and I didn't have to move, so it was pretty stress-free. My flight was delayed about an hour, but when we took off I had a great view flying over the city. The photo doesn't quite do it justice, but it's really a beautiful city to see from the air.

And then, after a sunny, nearly cloudless flight, we crossed into NJ to be greeted by clouds. But with those clouds came a little bit of sun and rainbows! It was so cool to see rainbows from the air, just hanging out in the clouds. It was really a beautiful sight.

So after landing I took NJ Transit back to where my car was parked at Princeton Junction and made it home just in time for some downpours! It wasn't quite the "welcome home" I was hoping for, but it somehow seemed appropriate. I, obviously, was not in Chicago anymore...

But it was an amazing weekend! Can't wait to go back!

Chicago - Day 3, Downtown Fun and Cozy Noodles

2009-06-25T00:55:00.008-04:00

On Monday I had most of the day to myself. Matthew and Suz both had to work, but I knew what I wanted to do. The new Modern Wing at the Art Institute of Chicago opened in May and I was looking forward to seeing what it had to offer. It was designed by renowned architect Renzo Piano (who is also doing an addition on Harvard's Fogg Museum).

I actually got there early (I thought it opened at 10, but actually it opens at 10:30) and had a chance to explore the outside a little bit and then get in line with the other folks who were there before it opened. Once I got in I headed to the top floor to work my way down. For about half and hour I was the only person up there besides the guards and it was a great way to see the art. The spaces are really beautiful and well suited to modern art: crisp white walls, tons of natural light, high ceilings. I felt that the flow worked well, too. You kind of knew where you were supposed to go and once people started filling the galleries everyone seemed to be following the same path, which was nice. The one thing I will say is that I was frustrated that not every piece had it's label right next to it. I had to search sometimes to figure out what piece was what. An interesting curatorial choice.

After finishing the Modern Wing I headed into the older part of the Museum and was shocked by how dark it felt after being in the new part. It was also interesting to see how things have shifted in the older parts of the museum. I'm happy with how it's turned out, and there is so much more art to see! The only disappointment is that the Chagall Windows are not on display, but the woman I spoke to at the info desk said they would be up by 2010.

One of the features of the Modern Wing is that there is now a bridge between the Museum and Millennium Park. Here is a little panoramic view of the city from the Museum end of the bridge, which is on the highest floor of the museum. The right side of this photo is looking South, the left is looking North toward the bridge and Millennium Park:

Here is a view of the Modern Wing from the bridge:

And the bridge practically dumps you out at the Pritzker Pavillion where there was live music playing and folks enjoying their lunch on a beautiful, sunny day:

Another popular spot was the Crown Fountain which encourages folks to jump right in and enjoy it. It was hot enough that I took my shoes off and walked through the inches deep water. There were tons of kids cooling off and having fun. Here are my footprints back to the bench to put my shoes on:

After wandering around downtown for a little longer and grabbing a quick bite for lunch, I took the green line out to the Garfield Park Conservatory. This is one of my favorite places in Chicago and it always acted as an oasis for me, if I just needed to get away from the bustle of the city for a little bit. And in the winter it is such a treat to be in a hot, humid greenhouse with blooming flowers!

It was far from feeling wintery when I was there. It was a hot day, but I was looking forward to walking this labyrinth, which is one of my favorites. I like its natural flow and the grass in between and just the peacefulness of the surroundings. I was one of only a few people in the whole park that day, so I walked it twice. It was perfect.

And this is the sign they have posted about walking labyrinths, which I think is a good description. You can click on it to see it larger:

After a day of wandering through the city on my own, I was happy to meet up with Matthew, Suz, my friend Nisara (we went to high school and college together!) and her husband Ryan for a lovely al fresco dinner at Cozy Noodles in Wrigleyville. I got one of my favorite dishes - Rama Tofu!

One of the things I like about Cozy Noodles is the crazy decor. You can kind of see through the window the huge amount of tchochkes they have on the walls. And the walls in the bathroom are covered in Pez dispensers, and robots are an ongoing theme. Here are Nisara and I in front of the restaurant:

After dinner we went to Scooter's for frozen custard and it was amazing! I got Banana's Foster and Vanilla with rainbow sprinkles. I had never been to this place before, but it is on my list to visit again the next time I'm in town.

After gorging ourselves at Scooter's, we decided it would be nice to take a walk, so we headed up to Andersonville to walk around the old neighborhood. Many of the shops were closed, but it was good to see many of my favorite haunts still standing and some new additions to the scene.

After saying goodbye to Nisara and Suz (who are neighbors and never see each other!), Matthew and I walked back to his place and called it a night.

Chicago - Day 2, M. Henry, MCA and Ravinia again

2009-06-25T00:50:00.007-04:00

Matthew, Suz and I started Sunday morning out right - with a wonderful brunch at M. Henry, which has doubled in size and added an outdoor patio since the last time I was there. We had the pleasure of eating outside and it was a lovely, partly cloudy morning.

I always have a tough time choosing between sweet and savory as far as brunch goes, but I'm SO happy I went with the Blackberry Bliss Cakes! It's pancakes layered with warm blackberries, vanilla mascarpone sauce and a brown sugar and oat crust on top. It was truly blissful!

After brunch we took the El down to the Museum of Contemporary Art. There was a really interesting Buckminster Fuller exhibit up, which, to me, played well off of the Frank Lloyd Wright show I saw at the Guggenheim a few weeks ago. Both men were geniuses and had huge ideas for how the world should work. It was especially interesting to compare their ideas on housing and architecture.

I wasn't allowed to take photos in the exhibits, but here is a shot of the stairway in the museum:

We also saw Take your time: Olafur Eliasson, which was a fun exhibit that used light and reflective material to create huge, interactive pieces. There are photos and video on the museum's website.

The front steps to the museum were covered with the huge message "Museums are NOW". We had a lot of fun taking photos on the steps. Here's one of me:

After the museum we headed back to the Chicago stop on the Red Line to get back up to Matthew's place so that we could drive out to Ravinia.

At Matthew's we packed up a bunch of rain gear, preparing for the worst case scenario, but thankfully we didn't really need it! It was chillier than expected and Suz had to buy a hoodie. Here she is sporting her new look:

We stopped at Pita Inn in Skokie on the way up to Ravinia and got delicious falafel sandwiches and fresh made pita and dips and grape leaves and baklava and cookies for dessert! It was quite a feast.

That night's show was Pink Martini with Michael Feinstein opening. The Michael Feinstein part was enjoyable in a cheesy sort of way, but Pink Martini was awesome. And between the sets Michael Feinstein and Thomas Lauderdale of Pink Martini did an amazing piano duet of Rhapsody in Blue which was just a special treat. It's such a great tune and they pointed out that Gershwin himself had played the Rhapsody on that very stage.

The big news at Ravinia this year (besides parking being hiked up to $20!) is that they now have screens in the Pavillion. Before, when you sat on the lawn, you couldn't really see anything, but now there are some spots close to the stage where you can watch on the big screens. I think it's a great addition to the Ravinia experience. This is the view from the back of the Pavillion, which used to be only way to see what was happening on stage without paying for a Pavillion seat.

Here are Matthew and Suz and I enjoying yet another beautiful, rainless evening full of friends, food and music. I don't know what could be better!

The end of another jam-packed day in Chicago!

Chicago - Day 1, Ravinia - Take 1

2009-06-24T22:01:00.003-04:00

This weekend I took a little vacation to Chicago. I found a cheap ticket online and there happen to be some good things going on in the city, so I decided to go for it. I hadn't been to the Windy City in over a year, so it felt like I was due for a visit. Matthew and Suz picked me up at the airport and we went straight to the train so Suz and I could get up to Ravinia for a live taping of A Prairie Home Companion. We had to take a little detour to actually catch the Metra, but it was all worth it. It was a beautiful evening!

Suz brought some great snacks including cherries, hummus and pita chips and local beer. The fun of Ravinia is that you get to hear a great performance and have a picnic. To me it's the perfect way to spend a summer evening.

Garrison Keillor is the host of A Prairie Home Companion and didn't disappoint. My favorite part of a the show was a small tribute he did to Studs Terkel. This was the first time the show had been recorded at Ravinia without Studs being on the stage.

The musical guest was Sara Watkins, of Nickel Creek fame. She does some really great solo work. Overall it was a really fun show.

One of the unique things about Ravinia is that there is a train that runs right to the entrance of the park. Even though we were told that a train would be there in 15 minutes, it ended up being more like 45 minutes, so we sat on the side of the tracks and opened up the cooler for a little snack while we waited.

After the show we took the train to Evanston and met up with Mariko and Larry who I've known for almost 10 years now! It was great to see such great friends. After grabbing a snack at Panera we walked around downtown Evanston and noticed all of the ways that it's changed since Jerri, Mark, Jocelyn and I lived there in 2000-2001.

Mariko's mom was nice enough to give us a ride back to Matthew's place and we stayed up into the wee hours of the morning catching up and drinking whiskey sours. It was a perfect start to a fun-filled, whirlwind weekend.

Trenton Thunder revisited

2009-06-17T07:20:00.000-04:00

On Sunday John, Jill, the kiddos, my parents and I all went to a Trenton Thunder game to celebrate Jill's birthday and enjoy a nice summer day. I love minor league baseball for all of its quirkiness. The Thunder is known for having a Bat Dog named "Chase, that Golden Thunder". In the first couple innings he runs out to retrieve the bats. Here he is in action:

They also have one of the goofiest mascots I've ever seen. I guess it's hard to create a personification of Thunder, but here he is:

And the boys LOVED him! He goes by Boomer and Emmy kept asking "Where's Boomer?" At one point he and I took a walk to try and find him and when he finally came into our section everyone got very excited to see him so close.

We sat in Section E, in the front row and when I asked Emmy "What is E for?" he said "E is for Emerson!" and pointed to himself. It was pretty cute.

We ended up with 4 seats in the front row and 4 seats in the second row and it worked out really well. Here is Jill and Dad and Mom enjoying the game. Dad busted out the Yankees hat since the Thunder is the AA affiliate of the Yankees.

Nathaniel busted out the Yankees hat because he's actually a Yankees fan. Here's me with the boys:

Sebastian, and all the boys, really loved it when the cotton candy vendor came around. This was already after having hot dogs, chips, lemonade, dippin' dots and funnel cake, so we just got one to share with our whole crew.

And the boys had to get some sort of Thunder gear, so they all got these foam hands (and Emmy got a hat because it turned out to be pretty sunny after a cloudy start to the day). You can kind of see John, Jill, and Mom & Dad in the background here.

After the game we went back to my house and enjoyed some pizza and birthday cake at the picnic table in the backyard. It was really a great day! Happy Birthday, Jill!

Birthday in NYC!

2009-06-14T22:22:00.006-04:00

Friday was my 31st Birthday and I was lucky enough to be able to see Josh Ritter, one of my favorite musicians, perform with the NY Pops for free in Central Park. Kim, Alex, Mike, Kelly and I all met at Penn Station, got some salads and sandwiches for dinner and then headed up to the park. We waited in a very long line, but actually ended up with good seats. The concert was the first one in the SummerStage concert series.

Here is me, Kim, Mike, Alex and Kelly at the concert. We had to sit on garbage bags that Kim brought because the ground was soaking wet. It was a turf playfield and it apparently didn't drain very well from the week of rain that we had. I was so happy that the weather held out and we had a beautiful night for an outdoor concert!

Josh Ritter is one of the smiliest, sweetest, most gracious performers I have ever seen perform live, and I think this photo just kind of sums that up:

The music was great and he played many of my favorite songs. I had seen him perform a similar set with the Boston Pops, but was so happy to be able to celebrate my birthday with friends and great music. During the encore Josh called out his friend Glen Hansard who is also a great singer/songwriter and starred in the movie Once. And as a side note - Sylvie and I saw Once in the theatre on my 29th birthday! Here's a photo of Glen and Josh, the sun had gone down and everyone was standing up for the encore, so the conditions were much tougher.

After the concert we ended up stopping for dessert at a little cafe called Follow Me Caffe. It was wonderful! We ordered a brownie a la mode with vanilla gelato and crepes with raspberries and Nutella. It was the perfect way to top off an awesome night.

Kelly headed home from there, but everyone else went back to Mike's apartment to spend the night. It was practically a slumber party! This was the first time we had seen Mike's new apartment and it's awesome! I'm sure this isn't the last time I'll be crashing there. Thanks, Mike, for letting us stay!

In the morning we headed out for a nice little bagel breakfast at Connecticut Muffin and then we split up and Kim and Alex headed to the Museum of Natural History and Mike and I headed to the Guggenheim Museum.

We saw a wonderful show of Frank Lloyd Wright models and drawings. It was so cool to see these images displayed in a building that he designed. His attention to detail, creative thinking and commitment to his vision was so obvious throughout the show. I was fascinated by his unbuilt designs, especially those for Point Park in Pittsburgh and a complex in Baghdad. It was both fascinating and almost frustrating to think how things would have changed if some of his unbuilt buildings had see construction.

Overall, it was a wondeful way to spend my birthday! Music, friends, food and art! Some of my favorite things all rolled in one 24-hour time period!

Dinner out back

2009-06-08T22:50:00.005-04:00

Tonight turned out to be a lovely evening, even though they were initially calling for thunderstorms. I had plans to have Amy and Bror over for dinner and was hoping we'd be able to sit at the picnic table out back instead of at my tiny table in the apartment, and it all worked out perfectly. I made delicious African Ground Nut Stew (from a Moosewood cookbook) with local kale from the farmer's market. It turned out well, and for dessert I made Strawberries with Almond Crème Anglaise made with local strawberries. We also enjoyed gin & tonics in the gnome glasses, a true sign of summer!

It was so nice to have people over to my house for dinner and hopefully this will be a common occurrence through the summer months.

Emmy's birthday wish

2009-06-07T21:43:00.004-04:00

Just in time for my birthday, Emerson has decided that "Happy Birthday" is his favorite song. Here is one of the cutest renditions if Happy Birthday that has ever been sung to me (a little early, but wonderful nonetheless):

Nephew fun!

2009-06-07T18:14:00.004-04:00

I had the pleasure of hanging out with my parents, John, Jill and the kiddos on Saturday. The big news is that Nathaniel lost his big front tooth, and the other one is very wiggly. We all had pizza for dinner and afterward the kids were particularly riled up. I love this photo of Nathaniel - still sweaty from his baseball game - showing off his great new smile!

And here are Emmy and Sebastian having fun at the chalkboard easel. Do you think Emmy might be a lefty? We'll have to wait and see...

It was such a fun afternoon. Those boys are so silly and so cute and each have there own wonderful little personalities. I love those guys so much.

On the Move - Part 2

2009-06-02T18:00:00.004-04:00

Yesterday Ann and Lee stopped by on their way from Savannah, GA back home to Boston, MA. They had spent the previous night at a friend's house in Gettysburg, PA so after a few hours of driving they were able to stop in Princeton around 1pm for a nice lunch and tour of the campus and town. We ate at Small World Coffee and then walked all over campus. It was Class Day, so there were tons of people out and about and lots of folks wearing orange and black and showing their Princeton pride.

These cut-outs were on Nassau Street promoting Princeton Bike Tours. Here's me as Einstein and Ann as Michelle Obama (a Princeton alum):

It was a beautiful day and after an hour or so on our feet we treated ourselves to ice cream at Bent Spoon! Ann got a cookie instead of ice cream, but their cookies are really good, too. It was great to see them and I'm glad they were able to stop by on their big trip!

Good Luck at your new job, Ann!

Pete Seeger kissed me on the cheek!

2009-05-28T23:59:00.002-04:00

Tonight I went into NYC after work to see Pete Seeger with Sharon Katz and the Peace Train at Joe's Pub in NYC. Sharon Katz was the headliner, but I was mostly interested in seeing Pete Seeger. I went with my friends from Princeton, Amy and Bror, and met Meg there. The venue is really small and we had great seats facing the stage.

Pete was sitting in the audience before he took the stage for only 2 songs. He told us that his voice wasn't too strong anymore and he hoped we could all sing along with him. He lined out the words to "Turn, Turn, Turn" and the audience rose to the occasion with strong voices and harmonies. He then sang a song that he wrote after 9/11 called "Take it From Dr. King". He spoke about the song "Wimoweh" and how he botched the lyrics while he was transcribing them from an old recording of African tunes that Alan Lomax had saved from being destroyed. When he was offered royalties for the song, he decided that the royalties should not go to him, but to the original artist from the recording. So he tracked down that artist and to this day that artist's family still earns royalties on that song. Just another tale of Pete Seeger doing what's right. He left the stage and Sharon Katz and the Peace Train did an great redition of the traditional version of Wimoweh.

After the show, he was sitting near the merch table and I went up to him and told him it was an honor and a pleasure to see him perform and thanked him for all that he's done through the years. I had tears in my eyes and was truly overwhelmed to be in the presence of such an amazing man. I leaned in to give him a hug and he kissed me on the cheek and said "Thank you" to me. Then Bror took a photo of Amy and I with Pete Seeger:

It's not the best photo in the world, but it was such a moment to remember. What an amazing evening.

BONUS: On the way home we took the 6 train to 14th street and then the express up to Penn Station and while we were in the 14th street station I got to hear the "Somewhere" train. I was so excited! This article from the NY Times explains it all. Be sure to listen to the audio.

Milestone

2009-05-28T11:51:00.003-04:00

Well folks, it has finally happened: My car reached 100,000 miles this morning.

I usually walk to work, but this morning I drove in because I'm heading to NYC after work and I know I'll be home late and will appreciate my car being parked close to the train station for a quick ride home instead of a 35 minute walk.

When I moved to Princeton I was adamant that I wanted to live within walking distance to work. I have a love/hate relationship with my car and being able to walk to work makes that balance a little more even.

So here's the LOVE side of that relationship: I love a good road trip - as is evidenced by the 700+ miles I logged this past weekend. I love driving on the open road, I love listening to the radio and singing along at the top of my lungs or getting lost in my thoughts as I watch the scenery fly by. I also appreciate being able to drive to the grocery store or the garden center when I know I'm going to pick up something heavy. And being in NJ - the land of the Turnpike and the Parkway - there is no better way to get to see my family than hopping in the car. There is no doubt that there is a sense of freedom that a car offers, and I appreciate that fact.

On the flip side: I HATE driving in traffic. There are few things that make me more annoyed than sitting bumper to bumper in traffic. I hate that a car (even my little 35 Highway MPG Corolla) is not environmentally friendly. I hate finding parking. It's such a victory when you do score good parking, but the search can be infuriating and time consuming. I hate the extra cost - gas, insurance, upkeep, etc... that goes along with owning a car even if the car itself has been paid off.

I also LOVE being a pedestrian. I love having the right of way at the crosswalk (as is the law in both MA and NJ) and staring down cars that try to cross my path. This has almost gotten me killed a few times, but drivers need to be educated in the ways of the pedestrian (especially in Princeton). I love that walking doesn't leave you worrying about what time the meter will run out because obviously you don't need to find parking.

Since I knew living in NJ was going to have me sitting behind the wheel for lots of other reasons, I decided that I wanted to be able to walk to work. It gives me time to think, time to breathe the air, notice the flowers and say hello to my fellow pedestrians and the crossing guards that are there for the school kids. It brings me to work not stressed out, but rejuvinated (unless I'm running late and I had to sprint in). I hope in the future that I'm able to continue walking to work.

Growing up we had a well-loved and often-watched VHS tape with various Disney movies and shorts. One of the shorts was called Motor Mania. I think it sums up a lot of the reasons why I like walking to work, and also some of my frustrations with driving. This version includes a little intro, but the entire short follows:

On the Move - Part 1

2009-05-27T00:04:00.005-04:00

It's official: Sylvie and Miriam have moved to DC! Their movers came this morning and packed them all up and they got on the road this afternoon, heading from Boston to DC. Conveniently, Princeton isn't too far from I-95 so I had a chance to meet up with them at a pizza place near the highway. We had a great dinner and got to catch up in person, which was quite a treat. It's an exciting time for them and I wish them all the best in their new home with many new adventures ahead!

My friends Ann and Lee will have their own moving adventure next week. They are planning on stopping by Princeton on their way TO Boston, so keep an eye out for "On the Move - Part 2".

Memorial Day with the Family

2009-05-26T12:56:00.008-04:00

After a long drive, I got to my parents' house around 4 o'clock. Liam, Mo, and Mo's mom, John, Jill and their boys and my parents were all in the backyard enjoying the lovely day, each other's company and yummy snacks. Dan and his son John showed up a couple hours later after driving from Grammy's house. They stopped there on the way home from the Indianapolis 500, which they go to every year.

We spent the afternoon chatting, snacking, and the boys went in the pool (it was freezing!). We also busted out some baseball gear since both Nathaniel and John are on little league teams right now. Nathaniel really liked putting on all the catcher's gear.

Emmy liked getting in on the action, too. Soon he'll be big enough to be on a team:

After a lovely grilled dinner with side-salads galore we had two treats - key lime pie and watermelon! Here is Emmy, me and John, who is showing off his huge watermelon smile.

It was great to get to see everyone again so soon after Mo's graduation. It was a beautiful day and everyone had a good time.

Steel City

2009-05-26T12:47:00.012-04:00

After having such a lovely visit with my Grammy, I headed into Pittsburgh to meet up with Jay. I got to his house and we headed out to the Duquesne Incline for a beautiful nighttime view of the city. I had read about the incline in a NY Times article and was excited to see the view for myself. It was a beautiful night and it was actually pretty crowded, so we decided not to ride the trolley, but just to enjoy the view.

We drove down the hill and through the city and ended up at Point State Park where the rivers meet and had a great view looking back up the hill at the Incline. And since it was such a warm night we decided to go get ice cream at Oh Yeah! where you can add things into your ice cream. I got pretzels, peanut butter and banana blended into vanilla ice cream. It was really good. Jay got some crazy mixture that involved grape jelly and some sort of breakfast cereal. It sounded kind of gross, but he liked it.

We had big plans for Sunday and got an early start by heading down to the Warhol Museum. This is something I've been wanting to see for quite a while and it was totally worth it. You weren't allowed to take photos in the museum, except in the activity area, but my favorite part was a piece called Silver Clouds. It was truly magical.

They had a screen printing demonstration going on, so Jay and I painted our little templates and then got to screen print over them - just like Warhol! Here they are before the ink:

And after:

It's hard for me to see a cardboard cut out and not get a photo with it, so here I am with Mr. Warhol:

After the Warhol Museum, we headed to another museum called The Mattress Factory. It's housed in an old mattress factory and it has huge gallery spaces. The most impressive and memorable part for me was on the 2nd floor where they have permanent installations of James Turel l pieces that are created by light, so the whole floor is pretty much dark. The art creates optical illusions and it was fun to figure out how it worked.

This is an installation piece where you have to take off your shoes to walk inside of it:

So after taking in so much art, we decided to head to the National Aviary. This was a lot of fun. I especially enjoyed feeding the Lories. At one point I had 3 of them on my arm. It was really quite exciting:

They also have a newly opened penguin exhibit called Penguin Point and one of the coolest features is that they have these little tunnels where you can poke your head up in the middle of the exhibit. Here's Jay saying getting an up-close view of the penguins:

And on our way back to the car we stopped to see some of the outside exhibits including a California Condor. When we got to the cage he was just sitting there and I started asking him to open his wings (since they're kind of famous for their enormous wing span) and lo and behold, about a minute later he was sitting there with his wings open. This isn't even as wide as they get, but you get the idea that this is a HUGE bird:

After the Aviary we drove to the Pitt Campus to see The Cathedral of Learning. It's a really tall, beautiful building.

And this is a shot of the inside, which offers space for students to study and hang out. There are also classrooms and offices in the building.

We decided to head to Monroeville for an amazing Indian dinner at Udipi Cafe. We ordered so much food and all of it was wonderful.

Sri Venkateswara Temple is just down the road and many people come from very far to see the temple, and then conveniently stop by the restaurant for dinner. There were cars in the restaurant parking lot from Delaware, Connecticut and Massachusetts. Here is a view of the Temple:

After seeing the Temple we played a round of Mini Golf (Jay won) and then went home and played Scrabble (I won). It was an amazingly full day and I had so much fun! There are still things on my To Do List for Pittsburgh, but I feel like I did everything I could do in the short time I had to spend in town.

On Monday morning we had a nice breakfast and then I headed out to drive to my parents' house for a Memorial Day BBQ. On the way I noticed a billboard on I-76 for a vegetarian/vegan deli called Maggie's, so I had to take a small detour. It's off of Exit 91 in Donegal, about 2 or 3 miles from the highway in the middle of farm country, but it's totally worth it! I got a lovely fresh brewed iced tea and some rice salad to have for lunch on my drive. I'll have to remember it's there the next time I'm in the area.

I logged over 700 miles in the car this weekend, which is a little bit much, but it was totally worth it!

Time with Grammy

2009-05-26T12:26:00.010-04:00

I decided to take the long weekend and drive out to the Pittsburgh area to see my 91-year-old Grammy and then to hang out in the city with my friend, Jay. I left Princeton on Saturday morning and got to Grammy's in Jeannette around 3 o'clock. I was excited to see her new kitchen (which was just completely redone, for the first time in the house's 65 year existence). It really is beautiful, and such a change from the old kitchen! Although I have to admit that I sorta miss the old red and white checkered linoleum flooring.

Our big outing was to go and get our nails done! Grammy got a manicure (bright red, as usual) and I treated myself to a pedicure since it's already sandal-season in NJ. It was a lovely little trip and both of us were happy with the results.

Once we got home, we enjoyed the afternoon sitting on the front porch and chatting. Grammy has a nest of baby birds in her birdhouse and it was fun to see them so excited about being fed.

After sitting on the porch we went inside and looked at some old photo albums. Grammy told me about the people in the photos and I wrote down everything she said and slid the paper into the front of each album. It was fun to go through these old photos and see her groups of friends and talk to her about when she was growing up and how she met my Gramps. After seeing his high school graduation photo she said "Oh Boy, was he handsome! It's amazing no one at high school snatched him up!" Which then prompted me to ask her how they met (they both worked at McKee Glass in Jeannette). It's always interesting to me to hear her talk about her life.

I stayed for dinner and lemon mirangue pie and then headed out to meet up with Jay, about half an hour away in Pittsburgh.

Grammy lives on the biggest hill! This is my car parked outside her house:

MOMA, and Mike's Birthday Dinner

2009-05-22T19:26:00.005-04:00

Last weekend I drove into Brooklyn and parked my car near the restaurant where we had plans for Mike's 30th birthday dinner. I took the F train all the way up to MOMA and spent the day wandering around the museum. It was my first time to the new building and it was very enjoyable.

The courtyard/sculpture garden was especially nice. Don't you like how this woman's hair blends into the white wall?

I really enjoyed this piece. It's called "You Can't See the Forest For the Trees" by Marcel Odenbach. It was lovely to look at from far away...

...and made even more interesting by a closer look:

Here is a huge self-portrait by Chuck Close in the lobby of the Education Center. At the bottom of the photo you can see books in a display case showing part of the collection from the library at the museum.

A wall of Warhol Cows, also in the Education Center:

They were installing a few new shows. It was interesting to see how much is involved in moving art from one place to another.

It's really a lovely building and worth checking out if you're ever in NYC.

Right around the corner from the museum was Radio City Music Hall and a street festival going on. It was cool to walk down the middle of the street and get the feel of the cavernous buildings.

After the enjoying the museum and the street fair I headed back to Brooklyn on the F train and met up with Mike, David, Kim, her Mike and Nina for a lovely dinner celebrating Mike's 30th Birthday.

Another great day in NYC!

Back on Track

2009-05-17T08:56:00.001-04:00

OK folks - there's a lot to read in the following posts. But I'm finally back on track and seem to have the internet working again at home! woo-hoo!

Enjoy!

Montclair Jaguars

2009-05-17T00:15:00.004-04:00

Nathaniel's little league team is known as the Montclair Jaguars! I had the pleasure of being able to stop by the last few innings of the game yesterday. It was a foggy morning, but nothing was going to stop these kids from having a good time. Nathaniel and his teammates did a good job hitting and fielding, and most of all seemed to have a good time doing it.

Here is Nathaniel with one of his teammates on the bench:

Here is Nathaniel and the team getting their assignments for the field:

My brother is one of the coaches and did a great job letting everyone have a turn in all of the positions.

Nathaniel looking ready to play:

And what a great hit! This is coach-pitch, so they usually have balls they can hit and this was no exception. Nathaniel really whacked this one and made it to first base with no problem. He eventually made it around the bases to score a run.

And at the end of the game, both teams lined up to tell each other "Good Game". It was a good game and I'm sure this is the first of many games that I'll see Nathaniel play. He really enjoys the sport and he's good at it, too.

Trenton Thunder vs. Portland Sea Dogs

2009-05-17T00:13:00.004-04:00

Kind of like Yankees vs. Red Sox, but double-A.

On Wednesday evening my friend Karen and I headed out to a Trenton Thunder game! It was my first time at this park, and it was a lot of fun. It was a little chillier than we hoped, but it was still a nice evening. It was as much fun to watch the game as to watch the shenanigans between the innings. Between every inning they had some sort of game that involved bringing fans out onto the field. The best was the dizzy bat race where they had two adults put their nose on the top of a baseball bat and then spin around it for a minute and then attempt to race to the finish line. As soon as they were finished spinning, and started to head toward the finish line, both promptly fell over from extreme dizziness. I surprised they didn't throw-up. Other games included a ball toss, mini-golf challenge, and a mascot race around the bases. But the fan favorite was clearly the bat-dog. In the first inning the Thunder have a golden retriever trained to run out and get the bats once the batters are finished at the plate. I assumed this would continue after the first inning, so I missed my chance at a photo.

There were also some interesting folks in the stands. Like this guy who was tracking the speed of every pitch:

Here is a view of the little stadium. The two folks in front of us were die hard Thunder fans. They kept track of every pitch, they had hats that were signed by the players, people came up to them and chatted about not just baseball, but family things, too. It was obvious that they were season ticket holders and institutions in their own right.

We left after the 7th inning stretch since it was getting colder than we expected, but it was a fun evening. The Sea Dogs (the Red Sox AA team) was losing when we left. And even though I wore my Red Sox hat to the game, it was fun to see the home team winning for their fans.

Start of the Growing Season

2009-05-17T00:11:00.003-04:00

So here is my community garden plot. It's about 10' x 11' and I have big plans! In the front corner I have orange and red bell pepper plants, next to that is a mound with yellow summer squash, the rows next to that are full of carrot seeds. The rows behind that have little arugula seedlings in them and then 4 different types of tomatoes where the cages are. I also have some sunflower seeds planted and I'm hoping to squeeze in cucumbers and bush beans, too! I also have herbs and one tomato plant growing on my front porch.

I'm hoping for a good growing season. But the plot was a little rougher around the edges than I expected. There are TONS of rocks in the soil, and not just rocks, but glass shards, plastic bags, old row coverings and all kinds of random stuff. You can tell that they pretty much just plowed over a big empty lot and didn't think too hard about actually growing plants there. But I'm up for the challenge! Where I planted the carrots, I spent about an hour just loosening up the dirt and pulling out every little (and big) rock that I could find. I hope they turn out OK, and if nothing else, it'll be an interesting experiment.

I'm looking forward to keeping track of how things progress in the garden. Stay tuned for updates!

Celebratory Syracuse!

2009-05-17T00:05:00.008-04:00

The weekend of May 8-10 was quite a busy one! The entire family headed to Syracuse to celebrate my sister-in-law Maureen's graduation from SU's School of Education. Mom and Dad picked me up in Princeton on Friday afternoon and we got to enjoy each other's company for the 4+ hour drive to the hotel outside of Syracuse. Once we checked in, I convinced them to head over to Erie Blvd. to have dinner at one of my favorite Syracuse restaurants (and the first place I had Thai food), Erewan Thai! It was delicious! The spring rolls were every bit as fresh as I remembered them from my undergrad, and the sauce that goes with them is like no other.

On Saturday morning we headed over to Manley Fieldhouse for Mo's convocation. We got their early enough to get good seats and I had so much fun sitting with my nephews John and Liam:

They were both so proud to see their mom graduate. At one point Liam said "They're all wearing funny hats!". It was a lovely ceremony, Don McPhereson was the speaker and the graduate student speaker did a great job, too. The boys were very patient, but we all clapped and shouted when Mo's name was called and she walked across the stage:

Here she is, processing out after the convocation - obviously proud of getting to this moment! Congrats, Mo!

Here's a photo of everyone from our family who attended the ceremony. It was a little bit windy, so the hair isn't looking too great, but you can tell we were all pretty happy. L-R Dad, Liam, Dan, Mo, Mom, John and me.

After the ceremony we all headed back to my Aunt Marianne's house to celebrate not only Mo's graduation, but John's 8th birthday, which happened to fall on the same day! John and Jill and their kids met us out at the house for the party. The ceremony would have been too long for Emerson and Sebastian to sit through, so they decided just to come out for the celebration. Here is a great photo of Nathaniel and John the Birthday Boy! They are such good friends even though they don't get to see each other more than once or twice a year. It's great to see them together.

We also celebrated Mother's Day at Aunt Marianne's! We had an awesome lunch catered by Dinosaur BBQ (Mo's favorite) and two seperate cakes - one that said Happy Birthday, John! and one that said Congratulation Maureen! It was a lovely way to spend the afternoon and evening.

On Sunday morning we headed over to the Carrier Dome for the University-wide commencement ceremony. It was full of pomp and circumstance! I've been to quite a few of these ceremonies at Syracuse (for friends while I was an undergrad, my own in 2000, for Mom when she got her Masters in 2003 and now for Mo). We had good seats and got to see Mo march in right in front of where we were sitting. She was beaming! I cheered loudly when Newhouse was announced and Mom was excited to see the School of Information Sciences proudly represented.

The speaker was Joe Biden, who is an alum of SU Law School, and he did a nice job. It was everything you'd expect from Joe - very down to earth, he talked about his family and his time at SU and of course encouraged the graduates to go out into the world and take advantage of this unique moment in history to change the world for the better. It was a good speech and I'm glad I got to see it.

After the ceremony we all went down onto the turf at the Dome to congratulate Mo and get some photos. Well, my brother Dan was so proud of Mo that he grabbed her and dipped her, and wouldn't you know that a local newpaper photographer, Dennis Nett, was there to get the whole moment. It was very sweet and made it onto the newspaper's website:

After leaving the Dome, we walked through campus and took some photos here and there. Mom got a shot in front of the new iSchool:

Dan and Mo got a shot in front of the Hall of Languages:

And here are the three SU grads in front of the Hall of Languages:

We ended up having lunch at Aladdin's (another of my favorite Syracuse restaurants) and then headed out of town from there. It was quite a whirlwind weekend, but tons of fun and totally worth the drive to be able to celebrate together and see so much of my family in one place.

Congrats, Mo! Happy Birthday, John! Happy Mother's Day!