Aug 20, 2013

I woke up in the morning and just decided that I was going to ride my bike to Ocean City and back. It was an absolutely perfectly gorgeous day and I was not about to stay inside. I put some air in my tires, got myself ready, and headed out. The clouds were so nice, and it was warm, but it felt good. The ride there felt great. I was moving pretty quickly, and I felt like I could keep going. Biking past the grassy inlets was a beautiful sight. These things make me smile.

After crossing the treacherous bridge into Ocean City I made it to the beach. I parked my bike, ate my banana, and had a walk down to the water. The beach was crazy crowded. I always forget how popular it is. Once I'd seen enough shoreline littered with people I headed back, filled up my water bag and was on my way back. I stopped to shoot a picture at the sunflower patch that I always want to shoot but never remember to.

The ride home felt slower, probably because a bike seat gets uncomfortable after a while. I stopped for a rest about halfway home and had my Clif bar under the shade of a big tree. I was listening to a podcast about extreme athletes so that helped a little. I was so happy to make it home and not have to sit on my bike seat anymore. I did a total of 55.66 miles in just over 4 hours. I was happy with that. I don't have any time to beat or anything, but the distance seems good. I still want to do a city to shore ride one day. Once I got home I fell exhausted into my chair where I remained, watching TV, for the rest of the night except for a quick trip to Shop Rite for food.

Nov 20, 2011

I didn't feel as awful as I should have from what I drank at the wedding, but I also slept in very late. Chuck and I met up and picked up Matt's tux and took them all back to the store before closing time in the afternoon. I went to Starbucks with Alex later and decided to drive down to Ocean City for a walk on the beach to talk. It was a nice night to be at the ocean.

When I got back I went to Kate's and watched Doubt. I've been meaning to see it for a long time and I thought it was really good.

Oct 23, 2011

Ryan and I met at the gym for our workout and then came to Wildflower to meet Chuck, Kate, Erika, and my sister for lunch. It was a great day to sit outside and eat and the tofu BLT was wonderful. We had a good time sitting and talking.

Ryan and Erika left while the rest of us wandered up and down High Street. We went to Bogart's to browse the books for quite a while. I ended up getting two for a great price. There were a lot more that I wanted to get.

We went to the Apple orchard to pick some apples but I only shot photos. I expected it to be a cooler thing than it was. I got a few decent shots out of it though.

Later Alex and I took a drive to Ocean City and walked a long way down the beach. We both needed to talk a bit and the beach is always nice. Running in the sand is difficult.

It was a good walk and talk and a nice ride. I felt better once we got back so it worked.

Oct 16, 2011

Ryan and I went to the gym to do chest and arm exercises as usual for Sunday mornings.

I went for a run at the park and then Ryan met me there with Bowser and we took a walk around the lake to have a talk. It was a nice day and the leaves are really nice there now.

Christy and I headed down to Whale Beach in Sea Isle because I read about it on a site about "abandoned sites" in NJ. It was hit by a hurricane in the '60s I believe and they have a shrine of debris there. It was all relegated to one area on the walk to the beach though. I was a little disappointed but I wanted to shoot beach photos anyway.

I shot a lot of photos of Christy on the beach posing and jumping. I shot some on the rocks of the jetty that looked really cool. I put them up on dmphotographics. It was really nice beachy weather.

We went up to Ocean City when we were done and immediately got some peanut butter chocolate fudge. It was really good but I can't eat too much fudge before feeling bad. We walked the boards and looked for sunglasses. I found one pair that I thought I'd get if I found nothing else, but after finding nothing else and coming back ten minutes later the shop had closed. Oh well.

We stopped at some crappy little place across the bridge before going home to get food. I got a crab cake sandwich that was pretty good and very messy. It was food.

When we got back I put on New Girl for a little bit and then I was getting really tired so I got to bed early.

Jun 22, 2011

I got up and felt particularly hairy so I shaved and went for a haircut. I think my stylist was the least talkative I've ever heard one. I did more talking and she seemed uninterested. I stopped myself from trying to help the women standing around a laptop to figure out how to log into their e-mail.

I went over to Parvin's to sit and read for a while. It was really humid out, just didn't want to be inside. I came home and had a smoothie and later took the rest of the raspberries to Corson Park where I sat and read for a little longer.

I decided to go down to Ocean City, where I could sit and enjoy the scenery while I read. I read a bunch and watched people wandering down the beach, including a lady with a metal detector. She was the most interesting.

The sun slowly set behind me as the wonderful breeze turned slightly chilly. After getting through a bit of the book I packed up and headed back to the car. Foot washing things are the best.

I came home and edited some photos and made some lists before bed.

Feb 19, 2011

Alex was the chef in the morning and cooked me some eggs over easy. Not over hard. They were delicious and very filling. We took our time getting ready to leave, but then finally headed out.

We went to the 4th Street Cafe in Ocean City to see Michelet's photos that were on display there. She was there having lunch with her family too so we got to see her as well. Unfortunately, the photos were set up on the walls directly behind where people were sitting and eating, making it extremely awkward to view any of them. It was a very uncomfortable, cramped setting. I didn't get to enjoy many of the photos because of that.

We went down to the boardwalk after leaving the gallery, where the wind was pretty insane.

The boardwalk was pretty empty on the far end. We walked into the wind, stopping in a little shop and a fudge store so Alex could talk to people for a photo project she's working on.

We walked out to the jetty and the sand was blowing all over the place. It looked really awesome, but it was a bit obnoxious.

Alex took a bunch of pictures out on the jetty while I sat with Cait and took photos of her and tried out my neutral density filters in an attempt to get the sand blowing across the beach. It didn't work that well. I need to learn.

After a half hour or so of sitting on the rocks shooting photos and getting sand in our eyes and cameras we decided to climb off the rocks and head back to safety.

Since Alex had never been to Ocean City, we had to play ten cent skee ball. I'm not very good. I think I got into the 100 hole once. We got a bunch of dimes and played a lot of games though. Alex surreptitiously took photos of us playing with her remote... sneaky.

We went to Mack and Manco's for pizza of course so Alex could try it. Again, this is a face of approval. She liked it. The place was really busy actually. They do well in the winter. We headed home after eating and stopped for Shamrock Shakes when we got close to Glassboro. Delicious.

Shannon picked me uplater and we headed into Philly for the Thursday show. They played Full Collapse entirely once again. That makes three times for me. That's enough times. Maybe War All the Time next time? I could go to that show way more times. They were good, but I was disappointed that they didn't play anything after the full album. Not even Jet Black. Really?

I joined Shannon in the balcony for Underoath's set. I didn't really know any of their new stuff but they played some older songs that I knew. Regardless, they played really well. I was kind of surprised.

Great day. Lots of fun on the beach in the winter and at the show in Philly!

Dec 31, 2010

I didn't do a lot during the day. I worked on some ideas for photos and sculptures I want to get done soon and then went out to take some shots around town. I think I've been shooting in the park a lot lately but I've been finding new things each time I go. I came home and exercised and ran on the treadmill for a while before getting ready to go out.

I picked up Chuck and we went to Ocean City and met Jeff, Sam, Jordan and family on the boards, which were still covered with snow on one side. There were a lot of people out there, including a giant line at Mack and Manco's.

We went to Three Brothers' for pizza instead and I got this monster slice of mushroom pizza.

We all met back at Jeff's family's beach house to hang out, have some drinks and watch the bad New Year's Eve programming on TV.

We had plenty of snacks and good conversation to make up for the random hosts and musical acts in Times Square.

We all gathered on the roof for the countdown to midnight as they were setting off fireworks in the distance. We only saw the last few though. Everyone donned their silly hats and counted down.

I can't get too excited about it but I was there alone anyway so I just capture the people who were celebrating. They seem happy.

We went back inside and got back into the game of poker we started shortly before midnight. It had been a long time since I played poker last but I was doing really well.

Everyone mingled, snacked and hung around for a while longer as we played on.

Everyone besides Jeff, Sam, Chuck and I went to bed as we finished our game. Jeff was out next so that left Chuck and I alone to battle heads up. We played until about 5am, when I finally went all in and lost. It was a lot of fun playing though. Chuck and I stayed up talking, went for a walk around the neighborhood and then came back.. never sleeping.. to be continued.

Jun 30, 2010

After doing a few things at home I went to Ocean City to meet Ryan at his family's beach house. We went down to the water first and ran headfirst into the frigid water!

Doing it all at once made it pretty easy to get in. I think if I walked in I wouldn't have made it past my knees. There was no doubt that it was cold though.

We stood in the water for a while, fighting the waves. It would have been a good day for surfing. We basically just stood in the water and talked while jumping waves until we decided that we had been in long enough.

We took a walk down the very crowded beach which was also littered with broken shells, making it difficult to walk with bare feet.

After changing into regular clothes, we played shuffleboard at the club. We had a few good games. It seemed odd since the last time I played the boat was rocking and the discs didn't slide like I expected.

After a walk down the boardwalk and a stop at the arcade to be ripped off and then settle for pinball and air hockey, we went back to the house to relax and watch the History Channel's Presidents series for a bit. We decided to play some tennis since the weather was perfect for it. We played on the turf courts, which were different in a few ways from the cement courts we usually play. The ball didn't bounce as high or far and the footing was a little precarious at times. The game was good though. It seemed like we hadn't played in quite a while.

When I got back home, Jimmy and Josh came over to unload Jimmy's things from a trailer. It wasn't too much trouble besides a few items that we had to twist around to get up the stairs.

Jimmy got his things set up and made his room seem like home to spend his first night here. Sketch seemed to take an immediate liking to the house and made himself comfortable as well.

Sometime after midnight I went for a run around the neighborhood. Nights like these are great and I hate to waste them sitting inside.