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While living in Jersey City, Adrienne and I went to some ‘movies in the park’ that were a regular summer series in one of the nearby parks. Not exactly the same, but the Montclair (2 towns/5 minute drive over) Film Festival shows a couple open-air films throughout the summer, shutting down a commerce street so we can bring out chairs and blankets. Adrienne had never seen ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ all the way through, so we picked up some Quizno’s and enjoyed a nice night out.

Our mac mini up and died a while back – bad logic board – but David was finally quick enough to snag a refurb from the Apple store. So we’re back up and running thanks to migration assistant. Anyway, the ‘our friend’ doesn’t refer to the mini but one (the runt) of four kittens we’ve discovered in our neighborhood. This very skinny kitten with A LOT of fur (including the ears) is especially friendly since Adrienne fed it a couple times. We were getting ready for bed and Adrienne announced ‘our friend’ was outside. I’m afraid where this is going, but at least you can enjoy some cute cat pics.

Whipped up a batch of lemon bars with lemons from the lemon tree in my boss’s yard (in California):

That’s a lemon leaf sugar pattern from one of the leaves that came with the lemons!

Adrienne also (unknown to David) fed a stray kitten – one of 4 that we just recently discovered – that was trying to stay cool in our yard.

Nothing but trouble there…  David then mowed the yard – not looking too great in the above pic, but the rest of it isn’t too bad!

We learned every little town has their own (little) Memorial Day Parade, so we walked the couple blocks (just the other side of the college) to check it out. David kinda wishes the towns would consolidate so we could get a better parade going, but we’ll take what we can get. Click on photos for bigger version and commentary.

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A couple photos from the weekend so far: enlarged hole allows for successful path to second floor office for CAT6 and coax wiring (the project started with brother Doug); Applegate Farms homemade ice cream, just shy of a 5-mile bike ride away, determined to not be as good as Jersey City favorite Torico’s; and wall jack in kitchen wired with CAT6.

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After tomorrow I should have Bloomfield Memorial Day parade pics and completed citrus blast-painted sunroom pics to share!

Icemaker fixed:

Craigslist chair picked up:

It was made in 1950. It’s in pretty good shape, having had a very-ugly cover on it for quite some time, but it likely needs a professional upholstery cleaning to help get rid of the musty smell.

Adrienne falls on her butt and gets huge bruise:

It’s about the size of your closed fist!

Other non-photographed tasks/events: grass mowed, hedge trimmed, mirror re-attached to Adrienne’s 100-year-old dresser, bean pods and leaves completely eaten off of garden plants 🙁 , The Shining watched (really not that scary, I don’t get it), tennis played. Gonna start prepping for a little grill out, looks like the rain may hold off. Happy Sunday!

The foreshadowing is on the wall, so to speak…

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Here’s another angle to match the angle of the after pic.

Roosevelt Island is a 2-mile long, 800-feet wide island off the eastern “coast” of Manhattan – that is, in the East River between Manhattan and Queens. It has a long history, from its purchase from the Indians, to Dutch hog farming, to prison and hospital locations to now – a community of about 12-thousand, complete with school system, church, hospitals and more. And — you can’t drive to it from Manhattan. The island is only accessible via subway and aerial tramway (cars can use a bridge from Queens, though the island’s master plan forbids use – you park you car at a garage and walk or ride the bus). I recently saw the tram was going to be shut down for several months for repair, so I thought it’d be a good idea to get over for a visit – to ride a skycar to an island off New York City. Pics of our visit below:

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And here’s a panorama from the southern tip of the island (click for biggie version):

Here are some photos from our Christmas morning. In his stocking, David found a remote controller for his camera, so he placed the camera on the fireplace mantle and tried it out. Here’s the first pic:

Adrienne was so ecstatic that she had to close her eyes to keep it all in!

David opening some music:

And of course Dudley participated in his own way.

So far a nice relaxing Christmas. Hope you’re having the same!

We made the decision to forge on ahead with our plans to redo the pantry. This meant tearing out the wooden shelves, patching the drywall (still far from great condition, but good enough for a pantry), painting, and installing new shelves. Adrienne picked the color – Lemon Sorbet – and painted. David handled pre- and post-painting finishing. Here’s the process.

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