I'm Too Tired to Party (Because of All the Party Prep)

After a LOT of prep (including painting the deck) we are ready to roll for Ian's graduation party-- Catherine just told me that my list is DONE-- and we were lucky enough to get one of the nicest day of summer for the party . . . the decorations are up, the food is ready (pulled pork bbq, pulled chicken bbq, beef brisket, stuffed peppers, mac and cheese, and some authentic Polish kielbasa from the weird little European provisions store on the Old Bridge Turnpike) and the house is clean; we had a to borrow quite a few tables and chairs from our friends-- I'm not looking forward to returning them tomorrow-- but everyone should have a place to plant their butt today (as long as they don't weight more than 225 pounds . . . as Alec's folding chairs have a weight limit tag on the back).

 

Groceries vs. Food

There's nothing worse than pulling up to your house at 1 PM after a long day of work-- four hours!-- and you're very hungry and you know exactly what you're going to eat (a leftover jalapeno cheddar burger and air-fried potato wedges) BUT you're wife has also just pulled up from a massive grocery shopping trip and you've got to help her carry in all the groceries and then you have to put away the groceries before you can cook your lunch-- the groceries are getting in the way of you eating food . . . the irony!

We Might Have Been in the Catskills

Catherine and I spent the last few days so far up in the Catskills that it might not be designated as the Catskills-- near a quaintly dilapidated town called Stamford . . . our friends Ann and Craig invited us up-- Ann's family owns several houses on property surrounding a very very old house that has been in her family since the 1700s . . . but we stayed in her parents' modern house, across from the spooky cemetery where hundreds of crows congregated this morning; and we did some lovely hikes with spectacular views of the bucolic Schoharie Valley, drank some local IPAs and some Teremana tequila (endorsed by The Rock himself), played Bananagrams and watched the rain, drove the golf cart to get iced coffee from Stewarts, traipsed around town, and generally enjoyed the change of scenery and lack of humidity . . . and as a bonus, the kids didn't destroy the house or the van and the dog seems to have been taken care of . . . but now we are back in Jersey and it's a fucking jungle swamp outside.

Quality Time with the Ol' Ball and Chain

Catherine and I went and played pickle-ball this morning and then we biked to the Rutgers pool, swam a bit, ate some sandwiches together, and then fell asleep poolside (we were at a fun birthday bbq last night) only to awaken to some very dark clouds rolling in, so we packed up, leapt on our bikes, raced home (sort of-- she was racing, I'm pretty slow on a bike) and beat the torrential downpour by a minute or two, then we went grocery shopping together, and after that we watched TWO finales-- Season 2 of From and Season 1 of Red Oaks . . .  and we didn't bicker, not even once!

Nothing Says "Happy Anniversary" Like a Blair Witch Incident

Instead of splurging on the recommended silver plate, my wife and I decided to celebrate our 23rd Anniversary by going on a hike with the dog and then getting a fancy pasture-to-table lunch at an upscale distillery/brewery/gastropub (which welcomes dogs) in the fancy upscale rolling hills north of Princeton . . . but it took us longer than expected to make our way to BrickFarm Tavern because we got very fucking lost in the Sourland Mountain Preserve-- we tried to avoid a large group of Indian ladies and took an alternate route which sent us into a counter-intuitive infinite loop of trails in some forgotten corner of the park (once you're on a red or a blue trail-- or, God forbid-- a red/black trail-- then you're pretty much screwed) but a lovely lesbian couple (who were walking the trails "in reverse" to avoid the crowds) got us sorted out and headed back towards civilization-- but this was after a 3 hour, 20,000+ step hike-- Lola was a champ but Catherine and I had sore feet (the Sourlands are very very rocky) but this made the pulled pork and smoked beef sandwiches and the beer and tequila drink (in a Capri sun bag!) taste even better-- BrickFarm Tavern is a bit pricey but highly recommended-- one of the best BBQ sandwiches I've ever eaten and the grounds are lovely (and Lola was very well-behaved because she was so fucking tired) and perhaps we'll make it out tonight for an anniversary dinner . . . we stopped at Hidden Grounds for some powerful coffee on the way home-- it might be enough caffeine to motivate us to go out for an actual anniversary dinner . . . or maybe not.

 

Conflict in the Spider-verse

 

Catherine and I went to see the new Spider-verse movie Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse with Alex and his girlfriend, and we all agreed that the film is awesome in all aspects: visuals, characters, and plot-- but the crowd at the theater was NOT awesome . . . a bunch of middle school kids talking and horsing around and making a huge mess-- it was distracting enough that I spoke to them in my teacher voice: "hey some of us are here to watch the movie, not listen to you guys . . . you need to respect that" and they were quiet after that-- I didn't need to go full Costanza on them-- but then, when the lights came up, we noticed that there were parents sitting with these kids-- and the dad was giving us the stink-eye and we were giving the dad the stink-eye . . . both my wife and I were annoyed that we spent all day telling kids what to do and how to behave and then we went out in public and had to do the same damned thing again.

Hail to the Chief!

A perfect President's Day-- it was 60 degrees and sunny in February, so Catherine and I played some pickle-ball-- the whole crew was out at the courts- and then we walked into New Brunswick and ate at Destination Dogs for the first time in a long while (the burger is better than the dogs) and we stayed up late last night and watched The Last of Us in real time!