all the news that isn't

I know all of you felt listless these last few days, since this very blog has been not working.

Actually, I just noticed this morning. Don’t know exactly how long it’s been down (other than some time after my Dec. 9th post). Odd. I was a bit worried as it was showing a database error. And while I do a weekly backup of the blog content, I’m a bit lax on backing up the all important SQL database.

I share because I know you care.

Anyway, after looking into it, it appears somehow a space was entered into the database password in my config file, so the solution was as quick and easy as the delete key.

So if you made it through all that, here’s a small reward. Last night we went to the local county zoo to check out their Christmas lights. It’s not quite the same without snow (are you listening, Mother Nature???!!!), but it was a nice little venture out.

Peacocks sleeping in the trees!

My beautiful wife!

We made this past weekend a long one and spent a couple days down the shore on Long Beach Island. Here are some photos, including a couple of the intrepid photographer, like this one reading one of his favorite books!

We visited the beach.

And we ate seafood. This was at our favorite, Pinky Shrimp’s. Love the neon sign. Even brought some lobster bisque home with us.

When we visited a lighthouse, we tried out the ergo with the not-used-before kid-on-the-back style. Kid seemed ok with it.

The Barnagut lighthouse.

It’s 217 steps to the top. Whew! Atlantic Ocean to the left, bay to the right.

Cooled off with a stroll out the jetty.

Did a little shopping and caught this self-portrait.

Family (self-)photos are always a hoot.

With water on both sides, both sunrises and sunsets were great.

Almost didn’t think we’d fit Mal in…

We’re spending a long weekend renting a house “down the shore” (on Long Beach Island) as we would say in these parts. Our first time here, a bit embarrasing it’s taken us this long. Adrienne has already scouted out all the seafood and custard places to do quality checks on. And as I type this I’m listening to my music stored on my server back home. Aren’t Squeezeboxes cool?

When Adrienne and I first arrived on the East Coast in early August of 2005, we stayed in a suburb not too far from our current home. One of the first meals we had was at a little Italian restaurant there, and the experience remains with us both. It was a classic local place, where the waitress called you “hun” in her Jersey accent and knew all the customers. The food was great and the portions HUGE.

To mark the anniversary of our arrival, I’ve tried to get us back there at least once a year around that time. Turns out last August was a bit busy for us, but we finally got there yesterday after a hike in a nearby reservation. We got the same waitress as we had the very first time. (When we walked in and Adrienne saw her, she immediately got excited.) Mallory got a high chair (in which she looked hilarious, it so big and she so little). We order the Tony salad for one (it’s big enough for two) and one entree (we’ll still take half of it home). While we’re feeding Mallory her solid food dinner, the waitress comes by and remarks how she’ll be eating meatballs in no time.

Throughout the night I can’t help but think this is our Lino’s (Rockford restaurant used for Tallacksen special occasion celebrations) and wonder how that tradition began.

Anyway, here are a couple photos. Sorry for the crappy cell phone pics.

Owing to the beautiful weather today, we decided to go on a drive exploring a part of Northern New Jersey. I planned to take back roads for scenic purposes and to lengthen the initial drive to allow for Mal to get in the proper-length nap. Part of my planned route took us through a state park on a road called Burnt Meadows Road. Here’s the map:

Looks innocuous enough, right? So we’re cruising along – rather slowly, actually – when we pass the following sign:

And I think to myself – gravel road. Slow down, no biggie. But a second later, I’m slamming on my breaks. This photo is just around the bend of the photo above.

It’s hard to see, but there are a couple of significant ruts. Could have taken those in the CR-V. But then there are what I would qualify as small boulders. Man, no way I’m going to hack those. I was really disappointed! This was the one get-away-from-it-all looking road on our route. And I guess I was right!

Just as we had gotten turned around, a big Chevy pickup with steel cage back slowly passed us. I paused to watch them traverse it, and even their suspension looked like it was close to bottoming out.

So we made our way on to Ramapo Mountain and the New Jersey Botanical Garden. Mallory was still conked out in the car when we arrived.

(Gratuitous picture of cute little feet/socks:)

Not much flower-age just yet, but it was a nice area to get out for a walk. There was a significant manor there as well.

Sunny and temps in the low 60s made for a beautiful day.

The trip was a nice reminder that we need to get out of the house more, and that there are actually quite nice parts of New Jersey less than an hour away.

And with that, I present to you some crib photos. I’m glad Adrienne is commandeering the camera more and more. Have a great week!

Short story is the clouds made for not optimum conditions – they reflected so much light from the city that you could only see the Tribute in Light (barely!) through a lens.Look on the right side of the photo. This is the best one I got, argh. It might help to click on the photo to make it bigger.

The place we went to is Eagle Rock Reservation, which has a very nice lookout point on Jersey and NYC. It also has a 9/11 tribute, and had quite the crowd there tonight as expected.

And since we got crappy photos of the tribute, here are some Mallory pics to make up for it.

And one from I think yesterday. Two well-deserved naps!

Photos I’ve taken over the years we’ve lived here. From the Jersey City waterfront:

From downtown Jersey City:

From our apartment window in Jersey City:

The weather may not cooperate, but I may attempt one more capture of the tonight’s tribute from out here in the ‘burbs.

Here’s a cool article with great photos about the set up of the tribute.

First, from the Third Coast: I heard this story on ATC yesterday and I just had to smile at how Midwestern the Mayor of Naperthrill (as we referred to it back in my college days) sounded.

And then there’s this story, that takes a look at one of the rivers close to home. The Passaic passes by Newark just a few blocks from WBGO. Not only an interesting story (both the radio version and the produced video as well) for the history of it, but as an illustration of the characters out here.

And I’m not talking about Charlie…

Adrienne and I walked the couple blocks to the Oakside Cultural Center here in Bloomfield to check out a Mandolin Orchestra concert this afternoon. (The Bloomfield Mandolin Orchestra has been around for 70 years now, and is one of the many community music groups that operate in Bloomfield–pretty cool even if the quality isn’t quite top notch, or even middle at times…) The concert featured Italian and Neapolitan songs, and pretty much ended up being a sing-along for the crowd of mostly older Italian types. It was still enjoyable enough, and a nice little diversion from the many chores on our weekend list!

On the way home, we again saw more wild turkeys just hanging out in front yards. An odd site for what I consider to be quite urban suburbs, but still kinda cool! Gobble gobble.

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.

[nggallery id=76]