Feb 8, 2017

I worked at Vineland Memorial for the day. It was a busy and long day of work, but I got done a little early and met with Becca to head to Brandywine DGC. We had plenty of time for a full round in the nice weather. Aside from what it might mean for global climate, I'm not hating this warm winter weather.

We continued on to Baltimore and right to The Land of Kush for dinner. We got two of the usuals: BBQ seitan/soy chicken with sides of curry slaw and mac & cheese. The mac was so good this time. Becca loved it also and we left with a good amount of food for later.

We had some time before the show so we went to Max's Taphouse where they had a long list of beers. We got some good ones, but the best was what we finished on: Gypsy Funk Dry-Hopped Barrel-Aged Sour by 8 Wired Brewing from New Zealand. It's aged in white wine barrels and it was fantastic. Pricy but worth it.

We got a great parking spot right outside Ram's Head Live, where we headed inside to see AFI for a second time. The set was similar, but they played enough different songs for it to feel like a totally new show. Davey seemed to have even more energy this time and he jumped into the crowd during the second encore as they played Totalimmortal. Definitely glad we went a second time. I was getting a little tired on the drive home, but it wasn't too bad. At least I had the good fortune of not having to set an early alarm.

Dec 11, 2016

I began the day waking up earlier than I planned thanks to loudness just on the other side of my wall (like too many days.) I felt pretty good anyway and got up to begin working on uploading the Frank Turner interview and writing the blog. I got into it and started posting links to the completed post which grew pretty quickly. I got retweeted by Frank himself and it started getting a good amount of views.

I was kind of beaming with excitement over finally posting the finished product and I grabbed my outdoor stuff and headed toward Delaware. On my way I stopped at Auburn Road Vineyard to pick up some Christmas presents. I continued on to Iron Hill disc golf course. My hands were freezing at first, but after about 5 holes I had warmed up. I forgot the feeling of a disc ripping into fingers in the cold. There were only a couple of other people playing so I felt like I was alone out there. I had a great time. I think it might be the best course around here.

I wanted to make the most of my time so I went to Brandywine for one more round. This one I really did have to myself. I played through the course pretty fast and it was getting colder as I went. Playing fast warmed me up again, but it was a little windy which made it more difficult sometimes. The dead trees that sparsely dotted the wide open fields were beautiful. It almost looked like they were placed there that way.

I headed up to Philly after the round to get some dinner at Whole Foods. I sat on the roof of the parking garage in the car and ate before I went to The Foodery to check out the beers and find more Christmas presents.

I decided to head to Union Transfer early to see the opening bands. Petal played first, and they were okay. Pinegrove played next. I've heard of them, but I have never listened to them. Their live set was incredible. They were energetic and their songs were unique and catchy. I definitely will be checking out their record.

Kevin Devine came up last and played a heavier, faster set than I've seen him play before. It was great and I loved the energy. He played a mash up of his song and a song from each of the openers so that was fun. He also did his signature freestyle rap, this time about a beautiful man named Sebastian who interns at a Boston venue they recently played at. Besides the music always being great, half the reason I love seeing him is because he's hilarious and just makes me smile every time. The set ended late after a lot of talking since it was the last night of the tour. I headed home to grab some stuff and then went to Becca's to stay since she just got back from the Grand Canyon.

Nov 28, 2013

I didn't want to get out of bed in the morning, but of course once I did I felt fine. I drove to Delaware listening to Nick Offerman read his book to me. It really passes the time. I stopped at a McDonald's to film the shuttle bus pickup taking homeless people to the elementary school a few miles away where Alvin and the Faith Victory Church had the Thanksgiving dinner event getting started. I filmed the volunteers unloading the trucks and setting up the food. I went to the auditorium where they had everyone sitting to wait, and there was a strange puppet show going on about why we give thanks. 

Anyway... The people came in for dinner and got a plate and a drink. The event went much more smoothly than I thought it would. After dinner they had a clothing area where anyone could pick up a coat, hat, or gloves as well as any other clothes that were available. I did a group shot of the volunteers and then I was ready to go. I was so ready that I forgot to get my deposit. Oh well.

I went over to Brandywine for a round by myself. It was really windy and a bit cold, but I was already there so I wanted to just play. They definitely call if Brandywind for a reason. I did pretty well on most holes, but there were a few where it seemed like I hardly threw the disc because the wind blew it back at me. I almost lost one disc in the stream, but I have lost quite a few discs on that hole in the past. After the first 9 holes I decided I'd had enough and called it a game.

On my way home I stopped at my mom's for some food and to hang out and talk. She made these apples with oatmeal, almonds, and brown sugar that was fantastic. It tasted like warm apple sauce but sweeter. It was a nice time hanging out.

I came home for a while and then went to Ryan's to play some more of the New Super Mario Bros U. We took a break and had a walk around the neighborhood with Anya and played a little more when we got back before quitting. I came home and had some food, and now I'm really tired. Bed.

Sep 4, 2013

I went to Delaware in the morning to meet with a guy that wanted me to edit together a video to advertise his church's backpack distribution project for charity. They have video from last year's event and photos from this years so I just need to film a narration and then put it all together. The meeting went well so I'll be coming back to shoot in a few days. Since I was there I decided to go play a round at Brandywine. It was a perfect day and there was barely anyone else at the park. That course is so long, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that they cut out a lot of the overgrown areas where discs would often be lost forever. This course always reminds me I have a lot of work to do on my game.

This is what the clouds looked like. On my way home Mandie invited me to Peking Tokyo for dinner with her, Tracy, and little Atreyu. We had a great dinner and it was really nice seeing both of them again. Atreyu was also entertaining as he played with his food and threw his cup all over. After dinner we stood outside talking for a long time and eventually parted ways. I met Chuck and Alex at the Oar House for a drink before going to Quizzo. It was another good night.

Apr 15, 2012

Ryan and I went to Brandywine Disc Golf course for a round in the morning. We played the front 9 and then went to another part of the park for a run.

The run was hilly and very rocky, making it slow at times as I stepped carefully. It was an enjoyable run though. We ran for about 45 minutes then met up and walked the rest of the trail before returning to finish the back 9 of the course. It was a nice day for both and we had a good round.

When I came home I showered and went over to Kate's for a while to hang out before coming home for bed.

Jun 27, 2010

Ryan, Nathan and I headed to Delaware early to play Brandywine. It was still morning but the heat was already oppressive, hence the turban on Nate. Although I had to spend some time searching for discs during the first few holes, I was doing pretty well.

We were joined by Mike, a guy who was playing solo, for the back nine. He was a nice guy and much better than us at the game. It was cloudy for most of the rest of the game so it wasn't so bad.

After getting some lunch we came back to the park and took one of the trails. The worst part was the extremely steep grade at the very beginning. Luckily after making it through that it was fairly easy going.

There were a few less steep climbs and little stream to cross on the fairly short trail. It was shady along the path so that made us happy. Happy enough to whistle in unison. I hope someone heard us.

We almost took another path farther into the park but decided that we should call it a day and do something more refreshing.

Once we got back to town Nathan and I went to Flipper's Custard for banana ice cream. This is a small. I'm pretty sure it would be hard to put much more on there and still have it stable. I presume that they charge you for whatever size you order but give you the same amount. Or the ice cream girl liked us. Whichever is more likely.

We met up at Ryan's aunt's to go swimming. It felt great to get in the pool even though the air conditioning in the car cooled us down on the way home. Nathan discovered the fun of a waterproof camera.

We took a lot of videos doing stupid things in the water and tested our skills at shooting water from our hands and laying down on the bottom of the pool. It was a lot of fun. We hung out in the gazebo for a while to dry off and chat while Nathan made a whistle out of a blade of grass.

I got a message from Brian inviting me to play ultimate frisbee again so Ryan and I jumped at the chance. We got there on time which, it turned out, was far too early. We admired the great playground in the park that had a climbing pole, which we would like to have. We did an arm hang slalom around the swings until people showed up.

Once Troy, Jess and Laura were there and we had a frisbee to throw around we practiced a bit and realized that we were not doing so well. Throwing disc golf discs really makes it feel odd to throw regular frisbees. After throwing it a few different ways I started to get the hang of it but I still wasn't really happy with it.

Once Brian and a few others showed up we broke into two teams and took to the field. I'm not sure why but this game was so much more fun than last time. I felt like I was playing much better. I got to make a good amount of plays and score a few times. I was totally drenched in sweat by the end. I wish we could play this much more often.

I met Shannon for a swim when I got back home. We snacked on some hummus and pita chips poolside before getting in.

The water felt great and I was enjoying my beer quite a bit. We decided against attempting a two person whirlpool and just drank and played basketball with an inner tube instead. By the time we got out we were pruny.

I was completely dead tired when I got home and I barely remember lying down before falling asleep. Great day.

Dec 18, 2009

We headed to Delaware in the morning to play a good amount of disc golf. After bagels with veggie cream cheese at DD we were ready to play Brandywine. There was no wind at all, which was great and unusual for that course.

We had some nice shots and never even lost a disc! Actually, I found one on the hole where I have lost at least three.

After Brandywine, we headed down to Lums Pond. We ran into a guy that we saw playing at the last course and he was by himself now so he joined us for our game. Hole three, which is sometimes surrounded by a puddle of water, looked like this. Half mud, half frozen lake. We made our shots anyway. The rest of the course was fine and I made some really good shots. I got one deuce and a three on hole sixteen which is par five.

We decided to stop at Iron Hill on the way back since it's right on the way to try out hole seventeen when it wasn't raining. Just getting really cold.

I wasn't really happy with my drive on it so I think I could have done much better. It seemed almost the same as when we played it in the rain.

We both scored 8, one less than last time, but Joanna was so close to a 7; her last shot hit the edge of the basket. We can call it a 7.5...

We headed back to Rowan and went to Shop Rite for food after hearing about the impending crazy snow storm. She did some last minute shopping while I waited in the car and then gave me this box of Christmas gifts. The Whoppers are really good... I went home to get some supplies, shower and cook the pierogies that we bought, then I came back.

I helped edit/thesaurusize her application for a Rowan position while we waited for it to start snowing. Eventually, the snow started falling and it didn't seem too bad.

The campus looked really nice in a light dusting of snow.

Once the application was finished it was time to get some sleep while the snow piled up.

Oct 1, 2009

Ryan and I started out early, after I got a breakfast burrito that I could barely eat half of and a smoothie at the Looking Glass. We headed to Brandywine Creek State Park in Delaware and found the Rocky Run Trail. Sort of.

The trail we were looking for didn't start at the trail head so we had to head in a little bit. We took this extremely steep path up to start out and walked the trail for a while before realizing we didn't need to do that.

We did end up on the trail we wanted though, eventually. It was a slow grade trade with a lot of roots and few blue markers letting us know we were on the right track. Most of our time was spent wondering if we were going the right way.

After a while we turned off onto a blue section that really seemed like the description that brought us there in the first place. It was a nice, rocky path with plenty of natural obstacles.

Some section got a little more rocky, I guess it's aptly named "Rocky Run." These parts were fun, I wish there had been more of them. We circled around on the trail and ended up back on a different trail. Once locating the other half of the blue trail that we hadn't done, the trail changed dramatically. One part took us through an open meadow. It was very diverse.

This part was nice but somewhat disappointing. No challenge here, there were an abundance of rock to use while crossing this small stream. Interestingly, around this area the trail was extremely well marked and we had no problem following it.

Once we were through with the hike, we returned to a spot we had noticed earlier with some steep rocks that we wanted to check out. We climbed up this set first, which was steep but provided plenty of footholds (on the way up at least.) Since we want to do more of this type of thing we moved on to a much steeper and more challenging rock face not far away. It was a lot of fun getting up there but also really scary at some points. I don't know if we're prepared for rock climbing but I guess the only way we'll find out is by trying it.

We were already there so of course we had to have a go at the "Brandywind" disc golf course. We played our favorite holes and a skipped the annoying ones for time's sake. I lost a disc on the hole that I figured I would, hole 4. I expected this so I used one that I don't care about. We played ten holes out of eighteen and we had to get two discs out of trees along the way and one out of water. Always a fun time at Brandywine.

When we got back I had to go right to Russian class for my test. I'm pretty sure I aced it. It seemed easy to me.

When I got home from class I met Carolyn for a bike ride around town. We took a decently long ride. It was nice to have someone to talk to while riding. Also, it was nice to have someone to get me on my bike since I haven't ridden in a while.

I met Johanna at the Oar House a little later for a drink. It's been a while since I've seen her. We stayed there for a while until I was ready to fall asleep.

A good ending to a good day. Hello, October.