Nov 30, 2009

I had to cover teachers for meetings at Memorial in the morning. I had a gym class where I just watched the class play basketball after I took attendance. I saw a face in the basketball court but I need a better picture of it.

I took my laptop to the repair place in Vineland on my break, who called me shortly after to tell me it wasn't looking good. They're going to try a few other things and get back to me.

After my break I had to go to elementary school to cover the rest of the day's meetings. The kids were actually very good. Maybe I just had a few bad experiences with the lower grades but it was all good there.

Joanna and I went to Deptford for a few things that she needed for class and then to Moe's for a burrito. We went to Plato's Closet to check out the clothes but didn't end up buying anything. Really we were just enjoying not being in Photo class. I did have to go back for Logic though. I had a quiz that I forgot about on which I might have done alright but I guessed a lot. The rest of the class was just annoying because of the people that can't shut up during the lesson.

I went to Ryan's after class to play the new Super Mario Bros. for Wii. It's awesome, just like the older games. It combines a lot of elements of the older games and some from the newer ones to make a really fun game.

After getting through a good amount of the game, we went for a walk. It was pretty cold out. This is the first time I really noticed the wintery cold. I'm not looking forward to winter besides skiing.

Nov 29, 2009

After we got up and had some bagels for breakfast we headed west toward Fields of Dreams Park. We found the disc golf course there and started out. The first hole was a long one and on my second shot, I put my disc right in the stream. It was somewhat deep so I had to get out the Golden Retriever.

After a few attempts and one carefully placed toss I had reeled in my mid-range disc with relative ease. I love this thing.

The course wound through the woods with some up and downhill shots. All of the holes were set up really nicely though.

The middle of the course opened up onto the large field. Some of the shots were really long, including the thousand foot hole eleven. I just kept using my driver on that one.

The later holes were woven back into the woods. Some shorter holes ended the course but they were fun short holes.

Overall, the course was really great. There was good variety and nicely designed fairways. I would like to come back very soon.

After we stopped for some Chinese food for lunch, we found a hiking/climbing trail at Allamuchy Mountain Park not too far away. The signs were enough to get me excited about the trail.

Just the regular path was rocky, steep and a lot of fun to walk but there were plenty of rocks to climb as well. Joanna took it a little farther than I did. She climbed straight up a steep and narrow section. I climbed up a few places but never made it all the way up.

She just kept going and made it to the top. It was a really difficult area to get up to.

This is a dramatization.. sort of. I did some more difficult climbing but I don't have any photos since my camera was on me the whole time. I was definitely frightened that I would be falling down a steep rock face a few times though.

From the top, we could see a great looking sunset over the lake in the distance.

It was a nice place to enjoy the view for a while until we had to find a trail and make our way back down. We left the path and followed our sense of direction to the road, where we came out of the woods not too far down the road from the car. We got out just in time before it got really dark.

We continued our drive back home, hitting some heavy traffic at times, until we made a stop in Philly to get falafel at Maoz. It tasted really good after all the climbing/running/hiking we did.

After I dropped off Joanna with all of her stuff and had some marshmallow salad something, I went to help Katie with a photo project. I took some photos of her with oranges. It will have something to do with breast implants. I'm not exactly sure.

It was another awesome, full weekend. It was very tiring but a lot of fun.

Nov 28, 2009

I met Katie at the Looking Glass to have breakfast before I had to finish working on a paper. It was a good burrito with tofu instead of eggs. I found out the candy store across the street has Zagnuts in the wrapper! Crazy.

After writing for an hour, I finished packing and got on the Turnpike north. After a few hours of so much traffic, I made it to Joanna's house in Avenel. Her mom fed us some pierogies that were really good and then we headed out. We went through Staten Island, slowly snaking our way down the Belt Parkway into Long Island.

We got to Nassau Coliseum and got a great parking spot but we missed the first part of Kevin Devine's set. We really only saw the last song. It was a good last song though.

We ducked out to the acoustic stage where Vinnie Caruana from The Movielife was playing. He played some Movielife tunes and some I Am the Avalanche. He was great and he attracted quite a big crowd.

We caught the tail end of the Manchester Orchestra set as well but we missed a good deal of them. Andy from Hot Rod Circuit played next on the small stage. He played some of my favorite tunes and made me want him to release a solo acoustic album. Really great by himself.

Thrice was the next band on the main stage and they played a great set. They played a mix of slower stuff with heavier songs mixed in. They didn't play "Deadbolt" again though.

We decided to stay put since we were so close to the front. There were an insane amount of people there; it's hard to believe they sold out a place that big.

Glassjaw came out next and, even though I don't know their stuff, they played a really good set. The crowd really got into them, probably because they never play shows. I need to get their cd.

Finally, Brand New played a long set once again. It was a little different from the last show but still really good. They played a lot off of their latest two albums and closed with "70x7." I realized somewhere during their set that I lost my keyless entry for the car and that I couldn't open the doors without it since the key only works the igniton...

The key opened the trunk so we tried getting in through the back seat with no luck. I went to find a cop to help jimmy the lock but when I came back to the car, I saw Joanna sitting like this in the car, triumphant. It was pretty hilarious. She managed to get in through the back seat and open the doors from inside.

This is what had to be done to get into the car... the only way in.

We made it back to her house by 12:30, much earlier than we expected with so many bands playing. After looking a few things up it was bedtime. I was graciously offered her brother's old bed to sleep in and I had no problem getting to sleep.

Nov 27, 2009

I was up and online for a while before I met Ryan at the gym to do some running and then some exercises with the medicine balls and half-balls. It was a pretty good workout but I need to go more often, especially if I keep enjoying dessert as much as I have been recently.

Speaking of that.. I went to Kawa for sushi with my grandmom, sister and Aiden. We got sweet potato rolls. Aiden tried using the chopsticks but mostly just poked food with them. He liked what he ate though. I got tempura green tea ice cream for dessert and he liked that quite a bit.

I went to the Oarhouse and met Chuck, Jeff and Sam there. It's been a long time since I've seen Jeff.

We had the back area of the bar with the nice leather couch and chair basically to ourselves. We were secluded from the loud people in the rest of the place as well as the parade happening right outside. I don't think we missed anything.

When we weren't talking about things, we were asking each other Trivial Pursuit questions. It's a great idea to have those cards sitting around back there.

Nathan showed up at the bar for a little while and then came back to Jeff's with use to play Scattergories. Katie came over to play for a little while once she got back from AC as well.

The game was fun. I did really bad though, twice I used the wrong letter. I don't even know how I mixed it up but I did it more than once. Oh well, it was fun hanging out with everyone again for a while.

Nov 26, 2009

Thanksgiving (or Thanksvegan or Tofurkey Day) was a pretty regular day for me. Well I guess it was less than regular because I didn't do much. I went to my mom's for dinner in the afternoon and had artichoke raviolis with spinach alfredo sauce and green bean casserole. It was all delicious. I brought the leftovers home so now I actually have some food in the house!

I felt like being outside for a little bit so I went to the course and played a game by myself. They have added these convenient steps for some reason where it wasn't really necessary. We have no maps on the course, but there are steps everywhere. It was getting dark when I got there so I'm surprised I was able to play a full game. I was rushing but I didn't do too bad considering.

There really wasn't anything to do for the rest of the night. I stayed in, updated things and watched How I Met Your Mother. It was a pretty boring day, everyone was busy so I didn't really have any options.

Nov 25, 2009

I subbed for my old chemistry teacher, Mr. Bump, in the morning. It was a half day since it's the day before Thanksgiving break. It was a pretty quick and easy day of work. I'm kind of surprised it went so quickly since I had no laptop to occupy me.

I met Ryan at the gym after work and we did some of our challenges; sit ups, push ups, shuttle run, etc. I had him show me the medicine ball exercises he learned so I could do them after he left. After that I did some running on the treadmill and called it a day. It felt like I hadn't been to the gym in a while so it was nice.

I went home for a nap since I didn't sleep much and then later I picked up Katie to possibly go to a bar. We stopped at one but it was so crowded and such bad music was coming from it that I decided I didn't even want to try. We ended up going to the bakery for treats. Why do all of my posts involving the gym have some kind of pastry immediately following? That might explain some things.

We ate our sweets and went back to her house where her family was getting stuff ready for Thanksgiving. I was just in the way so I came home and finished last night's game of Scrabble with Joanna online and watched some shows before bed.

Nov 24, 2009

I spent my time before going to class finishing my Philosophy homework and then studying in Westby for a little bit before I had to take my Russian test. The test was easier than I expected. I think it was, anyway.. I guess I'll find out next week.

After the test, I met Joanna at the student center to get food. I got a really big cheese hoagie with veggies on it. I could only eat half of it. We hung out for a little while in the office upstairs before I decided I was late enough to my next class. I was about a half hour late but my professor didn't seem to mind much. I contributed to the discussion to try to make up for it and he let us out early anyway.

I made it down to Quizzo in time for round one. It didn't help that I was there early because we came in fourth. Fourth! We didn't even place! There were more teams than usual playing but still.. Katie made it out for the last two or three rounds as well. One day we'll win again.

Ryan came over when I got home and we had a race around my block since it's about a mile. We both improved our times quite a bit. My time was a little under seven minutes and Ryan was under eight. Then we took a walk over to the school near my house where we used to create courses and race. We made up a new one involving push-ups on this rack followed by a shuttle run and hurdling it.

The rest of the race took place around the perimeter of the school, going up and down the stairs, over a wall, up a rock wall, flipping a bar, jumping a fence, running over picnic tables, squats, sit-ups, a tree slalom and finally running back up the stairs and sending the water bottle/finish marker to the bottom. We both ran it twice since Ryan beat my original time and I improved to beat his. At the end, I am ahead of him by about fifteen seconds with 4:14:70. Next time.

After all that running fun, I came home and played some Scrabble until we were too tired to stay up anymore.