Dec 31, 2011

I went to Kate's early and it was a beautiful day out. No way we could pass it up to be outside. We took a walk on the trails behind her house that led to a dirt road and eventually brought us back out to Carmel Rd. It was a nice, long walk.

We were both really hungry after that so we went to Peking Tokyo for lunch and got a few rolls to share. The Crunchy Roll was great. That was filling. And we had an exuberant waiter that kept us entertained.

My dad invited us down to hang out and play pool for a while so we went down there. I didn't beat him at all. I am not that good. I played a few games with Kate and I don't even think I won any of those.

Later, Kate, Chuck, Marsha, and I went up to Jeff and Sam's place to have a New Year's Eve party. There were plenty of veggies and snacks out and Sam was making vegan pizzas so all was good. We stood around in the kitchen talking for a while drinking the variety of beers we brought.

After a while we got down to business playing Telestrations. It got weird during a lot of the rounds. I don't even know what was being attempted here. As always, there was a lot of laughing and looks of astonishment when we found out what was being drawn.

We scrambled to get outside to the fire around midnight. I never really cared for the countdown so much. I don't think we even did one, but we did light sparklers and run around the yard for a while.

We stayed out in the cold for a while until the fire was dying down and we decided we'd like to be warm again and play more games.

We stayed around for a while longer, had another slice of pizza and another drink. This was the lineup of empty bottles when I left. We did pretty well. And quite an array of craft beers at that.

The drive home wasn't bad at all. The roads were clear somehow. Maybe we were too soon after midnight for people to have left their parties yet. Either way, happy 2012!

Dec 18, 2011

I went to the gym with Ryan in the morning to get our circuits in and then met Kate and went to my dad's house for the family Christmas party. I had a few snacks and some pepperoni bread and some less-than-desirable beer.

The gentlemen went downstairs and played pool on teams of two, switching out after each game. We lost a lot. Probably partly because of my poor billiards skills.

We had a proper meal upstairs and I got to hang out with Aiden for a while. We spent most of the time in the kitchen.

We came home and got stuff together for our "party" which consisted of us, Chuck, Sarah, Ryan, and Erika. We played Cranium and drank some Magic Hat. I miss that game.

This was our spread of food that we picked at while playing Telestrations. I think I only ate the carrots and cheese.

Though it was a small party, it was a lot of fun and everyone left happy. We hung out for a little while and cleaned up a bit then I headed home as well.

Nov 8, 2011

I worked at the Senior High for a special ed. class. The day went pretty quickly and I went up to Rowan and shot some photos of leaves for a while. They're going away too soon.

I helped Christy work out how to do her sculpture project and went to get cement then mixed it up and poured it around her boots. It was fun working on something sculptural again. I need to start doing that again. Really.

We went to get some food at the Bus Stop Cafe and watched the open mic entertainment. There were some jazzy musicians and some indie guitarists, but the best was this kid from Rowan who sang show tunes. He was amazing.

We came back to the student center and played a few games of pool while we waited for the cement to dry. I think we both won a game. I was surprised at how well I did in any case.

We went back to the stream at Westby and strung up the plaster casts of fish that Christy made using fishing line. They hung above the stream where I had to stack up rocks to make a platform for the boots to sit on. The cemented boots looked great sitting in the water. It would be easier to see in the daylight.

After hanging out for a while longer I headed home. It was a good day. I miss working on things.

Jul 20, 2011

Chuck and I went to Rowan to test out how our video/audio would work out for our planned podcast. We did a few tests and I like this setup. I think everything will work out. The audio is the only minor issue. We may need to go external. We got some good ideas of what we want to do though. I like the aesthetic.

We went to Saladworks for lunch and talked about changes for the script of the sitcom. It's completely different from the original, but there are some good things coming out of it.

I met Christy to play some ping pong at the rec center. We played a lot of games, most of which I lost. It was hot in there so we went to get McDonald's smoothies.

We wanted to find pool tables but Prof's was closed so we went to the bar in the bowling alley. There were some weird people in there including the bartender, who gave me strange looks when I asked for change for the pool table. We played a couple of games and I made up for losing at ping pong.

We went over to Quizzo and got some food and drinks. We seemed to do alright for most rounds, but I think we ended up tying for sixth or something like that. I'm not sure if Matt is disappointed in our score or just about everyone trying to figure out the bill.

I came home after the game and fell asleep to Scrubs. Chuck getting into it made me want to start watching again.

Jul 15, 2011

I hadn't plan on joining everyone at the water park, but they insisted I join them so I obliged. We hung out in the cabana things for a while sitting in the shade and watching people go by in the lazy river. After a while, without saying anything, I convinced Alex to go on a slide.

After two rides that Alex described as "terrifying" we got in the lazy river for a few laps. We made a game out of it by rushing through the big groups of people until we got to the open spots where we could just float. It made it a little more fun. That's hard in three feet of water.

We walked around and stopped by the kids' area, which Alex enjoyed more than anything else. This was my favorite picture. We went back to the cabana and got some food and lemonade and hung out a while longer before I went back to get my car and headed home.

I went to Philly later with Christy for her birthday since I missed it. We went to the Abbaye and played darts while we waited for the food. I got a vegan meatball sandwich with cheese. The cheese was a bad idea.. but the rest was great.

We went over to North Bowl after eating and went to the upstairs bar. Christy got a Lebowski White Russian (or something like that) which is just a White Russian with chocolate vodka. It was great. I want one now. I had a couple beers and tried a whiskey and ginger beer. I liked.

We sat waiting for a pool table for a while, staring down the people playing and rushing to the table before someone else could get it. We played a few good games (though I'm not very good at pool) before our buzzer went off to bowl.

My bowling is so inconsistent. I usually get a strike or two, but the next frame I don't even get a spare. I guess that makes me mediocre. It was still fun. We only played one game, but we made it last a little while. Next time I go there I'm not eating first so I can get tots.

After our game, we got our shoes back and left for home. Northern Liberties is always a good time.

Aug 21, 2010

I woke up later than I'd hoped and needed to catch a ride to Philly to the bus station. My grandmom graciously took me and we got to the bus literally as they were closing the doors to leave. Luckily the opened them for me. I had a nice ride up to New York, reading a lot of Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis on the way. I really like the way he writes.

When I got to the city I immediately went to Jamba Juice, where I met Jackie and had a berry topper thing with fruit, granola and honey. If there's one reason to move here..

Once I dropped my stuff at her place we went out walking toward the park and came upon this street fair on Fashion Ave. It was like a big flea market with delicious looking food everywhere and a big Coca-Cola igloo with snow inside.

We got through crowded street and took a walk through the (only slightly) less crowded park. We weren't heading anywhere in particular, just walking. It was a nice day for a walk in the park, with a cool breeze blowing most of the time. I got schooled on the working of the music industry as we walked.

I couldn't resist a corn covered in garlic butter, parmesan cheese and hot sauce when we got back to the street fair. It was pretty amazing. I would never think to put all that stuff on corn but I'm glad someone did.

We went for a midday drink at an Irish pub. I had a beer and then a strawberry daiquiri. Say what you will.. it was great. Jackie had a margarita and we were mixing them. Daiquirita is what I call it. It should be a thing.

We went back to the roof at her place to regroup and figure out what to do while we had some more beers. The roof is a good place to do thinking. I've always wanted a roof to sit on.

We decided to get sushi but before we ate I did my first sake bomb. It wasn't really what I expected. Much easier to drink than other "bombs" that I have done. The beer was good and the sake was pretty decent as well. It's my first time.

I got a tuna jalapeno roll, which was not as good as I'd hoped it would be and a sweet potato roll that was great. I like that place.

We walked around and ended up taking the subway to the Brooklyn Ale House once again. This time we played some pool. It was pretty serious. I was doing well somehow. Not amazing by any means but I was sinking what I was aiming for which is surprising in itself.

We played a few games before being challenged by incoming people. We actually won the first game we played against them and only lost the second by one ball. It was fun anyway. We got some sandwiches at a deli around the corner before catching the train back to Manhattan.

We went up to the roof again when we got back and I took some long exposure shots that I really like. Some I took with Jackie and others of just the surrounding buildings. I was leaning close to the edge of the roof for a few of them. I was more worried about my camera falling than myself.

We retired to the apartment after a while where Jackie fell asleep quickly and I stayed up chatting and watching Bear Grylls interviews for a while before I got myself tired enough to go to sleep.

Feb 11, 2010

We didn't go anywhere until later in the afternoon when we got hungry and went to the cafeteria for a meal. We got teriyaki stir fry with veggies and vegan chicken. It was great. There were also veggie spring rolls and rice pilaf. We had ice cream and cookies for dessert. We ate a lot.

We came back and had some time to kill so we played Phase 10 for a while before going to the High Street Gallery for an opening that ended up being canceled and rescheduled but no one informed us. I went home and walked through my driveway that's covered in snow to get my skis and shower before coming back.

I got back and went to Rowan After Hours' Valentine's night where we made stuffed creatures (a la Build a Bear) with Andrew and Mikey. It was really strange stuffing animals and somewhat difficult to get the stuffing to all of the extremities. The stuffing got everywhere, especially when Mike was putting the stuffing in our pockets and hoods.

This is Eric T. Frog. He looks pretty good for my first creation. I put a star in him, which I guess is the equivalent to a heart?

Yes, he got a birth certificate. It was made for Joanna's nephew and yes, that is his real name.

We got balloon animals as well. This is a turtle and a bracelet.

I like my penguin. I wanted bees to go with him for some reason but didn't get them.

Another random thing I made was this scent gel thing. I got to decorate the bottom and then they added the gel and the scent to it. Vanilla.

We played in the game room for a while. I lost a best of three at air hockey and then we went downstairs to play some billiards and get food. I won the first game, seeming like I knew what I was doing.

We went upstairs for the raffle and I figured we wouldn't win anything but on the last prize they called the number of the ticket we found on the ground (sucks for the person that dropped it because..) to win an iPod Nano! We never win anything and this is the one we win with a ticket that wasn't even ours! Awesome. We've had some good luck this week.

The newly acquired iPod which will soon be turned into trip money! We already have iPods, after all... who wants to buy one??

The night at RAH was actually a lot of fun since I got to spend it with someone instead of wandering by myself most of the time. We came back to watch The Office and 30 Rock then Joanna had to start packing for her trip to Boston tomorrow. Almost time for bed.