Mar 18, 2017

We got up and got ready for skiing at Stratton as I took phone calls from photographers in Jacksonville doing the Insane Inflatable 5K. Once that was all taken care of we took the winding roads up to the resort and got to skiing. It was really crowded, but we didn't end up waiting in too many lines. We took the gondola a couple times, but mostly avoided it. The weather was amazingly perfect. Blue skies and not too cold. The snow wasn't perfect, but it was better than Mount Snow. We had a great day of skiing.

We went back to the hotel and relaxed for a while. It felt good to just lie in bed after skiing. We had gotten done early so it was another day with extra time. We went to Hermit Thrush Brewery a little later and did a flight of all of their beers. There were a few new ones, but the Party Guy was my favorite of them. Everything was quite good as always (except the super boozy quad) and the Truthy Cardinal barrel-aged tripel was amazing. I wish it wasn't so pricy to get cans.

We walked down to the outdoor store and I got a new belt. We went next door to Mocha Joe's where I got a green tea ginger maple drink that was amazing. This isn't that. This is Ryan's drink. I'm sure it was good but probably not as good as mine. We went back to our hotel for the night and watched The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror that we always quote with "The Shinning" and the time travel segment. It made me want to go back and watch more of the old episodes.

Feb 4, 2017

We began the day right-- with pancakes. Halfway into making them we realized we didn't have any almond milk, but I remembered that I had a free coffee coupon for Wawa so I ran down the street, filled up a 24oz cup with soy milk, presented my free coupon, and returned moments later to save the day.

We enjoyed our pancakes while being entertained both by an episode of Flaked and watching the cats act very much like cats. Loki chased his tail quite a bit and kept sitting in the sunlight.

Around noon we headed back to Glasstown for their bottle release. There was a line at the door as people were excited to get a lot of beer, but we waited until they opened up to get out of the car and into the cold. We saw Lance, who was quite far ahead of us in line as well. We waited in line for a little while and I bought a bottle of the 3rd Anniversary Murder, Inc. for Chuck before we grabbed a flight and found a corner of a table to sit at. The Double Bourbon Brown was great, the Murder was much better than I expected, and the Danky Jr. tasted better today than last night. All around good beer as usual. And some lady got really passive aggressive about me sitting in the stool she thought was hers but that she wasn't sitting in for ten minutes.

We came home and made some tofu scramble for lunch and watched some more Flaked. It's really good. We also took out the frozen bananas we put in the freezer this morning and blended them to make some banana ice cream with peanut butter. It was a nice healthyish dessert. Johanna asked me to go get coffee so I meet her at the Starbucks Cafe. We had a great chat about traveling, tinnitus, and social media. I also was happy to have a cold brew again.

When I got back it was late, but we got ourselves right out onto the trails at Silver Run for three miles of running up and down hills and watching our footing as it got progressively darker. I felt great the whole time and I wished we could have kept going. It was nice to get out and be active a little bit for day anyway.

When we got home I had to put my fingers in Becca's eye to help her remove her newly-acquired contact lenses. It was weird. But once that was done we went to Tomo Sushi in Glassboro for Dan's birthday dinner with him and several of his other friends. Becca got him a Cider from the liquor store next door, and we got a six-pack of Tarte Nouveau to have with dinner. It was a nice time replete with a heavy-handed waitress who slammed down our glasses and knocked over my beer, spilling it on the table, and almost taking out people with the food tray more than once. Other than that it was a lovely night of good food and conversation. We didn't go on to the house party portion of the night, opting to relax back at home and get a few things done in the quiet. Like write this blog. Productivity, people.

Dec 28, 2016

We reluctantly got out of the bed with the cloud pillows and headed toward the water to try to catch a nice sunrise. Not too much happened in the sky and I couldn't get near the water, so I attempted to catch some shots of this church. Can't win them all, but it was nice to be up early anyway.

One thing I was looking forward to was Edge of the Woods in New Haven. We got there as they opened and went back to the cafe to order a reuben, a Monte Cristo, and the falafel sandwich. The reuben was amazing as always, but the others left something to be desired. Not bad, but nowhere near as good in my opinion.

After breakfast we headed to Park City DGC where I pulled out some new discs to replace my lost one from the other day. I found a few that I liked and tried to break them in and learn how they worked as we played. It was another really nice day to be outside, if a little chilly at times. We stayed warm even when a few snowflakes started to fall. We mostly had the course to ourselves so it went by quickly.

We found a coffee shop called Source to kill some time while we waited for the brewery to open and we sat inside the packed cafe sipping on a cold brew and a hot tea, listening to people chat and planning our day out. The coffee was okay and the tea was okay.

Two Roads is always a great stop when I can make it, and this time was no exception. Most all of the beers were noteworthy, but the best were the session IPA, the Espressway coffee stout, and the cranberry gose. We did three flights of 5 beers and ended up spending a couple of hours at the bar.

We were having a really good time so we didn't rush out. There's always time for selfies. And we left with some bottles and cans of our favorites.

Our next stop was Cranbury Park DGC, where we awkwardly drove by the toll house because it looked like the guy inside was an electrician or something and didn't even give us a second look. So we came in for free. The course is nice, but very wooded and a little repetitive. Definitely one I'd play again, but I prefer the one we played earlier. I'm glad we were able to get through two courses anyway. After that course we hit the road and promptly started hitting rush hour traffic.

After a seemingly long drive home through New York and North Jersey during rush hour we got back home and I dropped Becca off. I had a little time to change, eat, and relax just briefly before jumping back in the car to go to Philly for Valencia at the Fillmore. I stood in the back/middle for the whole show because no one was moving around or into it too much. The band sounded a little off for a while, but they picked up steam with the second half of the set. They played "Linoleum" by NOFX, which was a great surprise addition. Not a bad set, but definitely not my favorite. Finally headed home to sleep after!

Jan 16, 2014

My third day in the science class was the best yet. I know all the students know and they have a relative level of respect for me, I think. They have been working and I didn't have to yell at anyone all day so that's an improvement. I went right to the gym after work to do jump rope circuits with half ball pushup planks and bicycle kick things on the half ball in between. We did a few more ab things and then called it a night.

Gaby came over later and we went to Kawa to pick up some sushi and took a walk around the shopping center while we waited. I went over to Starbucks to get a latte, going with the caramel flan flavor that was recommended. I liked it. I saw Erika and Meg at Kawa as well, so I stopped to talk to them for a few minutes before heading back home.

We watched Happy Gilmore, which was required viewing since Gaby had somehow never seen it. It still cracks me up even though I've seen it more times than I can remember. We hung out for a while after the movie talking about hikes or "hikes" we could do, and then she had to get going because she had an early flight. I then had a hard time getting tired so I watched Community and Parks & Rec.

Dec 16, 2013

I ended up getting up and ready very early to go work at Vineland High School. I don't have a good idea of exactly how long it takes to get there yet. I went in for Child Study Team meetings and got my schedule then proceeded to sit in the teacher's lounge watching Burn Notice on the school WiFi that my new sub friend gave me the password for. She was very chatty but nice. I ended up only covering two classes the whole day and I was out an hour or so early. Pretty sweet deal.

I came home to eat and relax for a short while before leaving for West Chester's graduate studies graduation. I got there a little late, but I still managed to be the second person of the four of us to show up. No big surprise I guess, but I like being on time. We did our setup, but we added a spot for shooting because Masters program graduates get hooded. I got to shoot the hooding since it was something I hadn't done yet.

It was not hard really, but the timing had to be precise, and some people were not cooperative. One of the dignitaries would always whisper something congratulatory into the grad's ear and they would end up looking to the left in all the photos. Another dignitary always took a huge step to the left when he put their hood on so he was always out of frame. Those things were just annoying.

Once we finished, cleaned up, and said goobye I was off to a coffee shop downtown near the Iron Hill we ate at yesterday. I met Jess, who was walking down the street with a slew of Santas behind her. I asked the barista for a suggestion and she mentioned some caramel thing that sounded fantastic so I went with that. She made a good choice. We sat in there enjoying our beverages while we talked about travel plans and working for Cirque again sometime.

After the somewhat long drive home I went to Johanna's to finally watch Live Free or Die Hard. I wanted to wait to watch it for her, but she was renovating her space and that took a long time. We watched and had a few beers. We did more talking than watching, but the movie itself seemed hard to follow anyway. I guess I'll need to watch it again while I'm paying attention, but I think it wasn't that good. It was fun hanging out with her again though and now we need to plan to watch the other ones in the series again.

Dec 9, 2013

I spent the day working as Ryan's sub at Wood School. Movies were watched. Wall-E, Beethoven, and Goonies. One class wrote apology notes because they can't shut up to watch a movie. After work I had a little time before I had to head up to Legacy for graduation photo training by Dave and Derrick. Katie, Caitlyn, Johanna, and a couple others were there. We ran through drills and repeated settings. It was actually fun. They ordered pizzas and we hung around talking for a while before we could go. 

On my way home I took a slight detour to north Philly and met Staci at Starbucks. We got warm beverages and hung out talking inside until they kicked us out. We sat in my car discussing photography jobs, ideas, and techniques as well as our favorite bands and upcoming shows. She introduced me to Frank Turner, who I listened to on the way home and I'm really digging. I had a great time tonight at work and play and it might snow tomorrow!

Nov 29, 2013

I met Mandie, Andy, and Atreyu at Wheaton Village for a family photo shoot in the morning. It was chilly, but not too cold. They kept saying how cold they were, and then I remembered they have lived in Hawaii for several years. It makes a difference. We got some good shots and had a good time walking around the shops.

I met them at Starbucks to get a pumpkin spice latte and then walked around the mall a bit. The Black Friday insanity had died down and it just seemed like a regular weekend at the mall. I had to partake in the half-off everything sale at Gap though. That's the only time I buy their jeans, but I do quite like them. I even got a sweater. And that latte was amazing.

I went to the gym and walked on the treadmill with a steep incline until Ryan got there. We did a bunch of circuits that were exhausting. We did push-ups, marine squats, and jumping jacks then a bunch of kettle bell exercises, and finally an ab circuit. We spent quite a while doing handstands in the Pit, where I definitely achieved my longest two handstands. I was quite happy with my progress.

After stopping at Target for some essentials and running into Casie and Nathan, who I was planning to see later anyway, I came home and had dinner and worked on some things until it was time to go out. I met them and their friend, Stephanie, at PB's. Our waited was new and not at all acquainted with waiting tables, let alone our craft beer selections. It ended up being pretty funny watching him guess which beers were which, but he kept trying. He was a really nice guy though so we didn't mind and he kept apologizing.

We had a great time talking and joking all night while we had some drinks. Stephanie was nice and she enjoyed the stupid humor about finishing a full movie theater soda just so you could pee into the cup and not miss any of your flick. She had to leave early, but our waitstaff was very entertaining and we had a few more memorable and funny moments with them before with left. Thanks for that last one, Nathan!

Nov 21, 2013

I worked for the other music teacher at Lakeside today, which meant I had one class for forty minutes and free time for the rest of the day. Nothing like earning what they pay me. The day went by surprisingly fast for having so much down time. I updated a bunch and went through photos. I cleaned out my car a bit to get ready to sleep in later, and after work I packed all my stuff up and was ready to go. I met Ryan at the gym for a medley of exercises and an unusually funny and awkward visit. There were just strange things happening, we had to move around a lot, and there was a girl being totally oblivious to us and everything else around her.

I went up to Grindcore House and had a chai latte while I awaited Joanna's arrival. When she got there we exchanged our photos from the past six months and looked through some of them. We did a lot in the past few months. You don't really notice until you look back at all the photos. We then looked up directions and disc golf courses near where we plan to hike tomorrow before we got kicked out because the coffee shop was closing.

We went over to Union Transfer and had our tickets scanned to get in by none other than Joe from The Early November. I didn't say anything so as not to be weird, but I wanted to geek out a little. Shortly after that we saw Kenny from The Starting Line in the crowd jamming out to Now, Now, who were really good, airy, fun music. We ran into Kat from Rowan in the lobby and had a nice, if awkward, reunion conversation. It was nice to see her, I just found myself looking around the room in a cliche uncomfortable manner because I wasn't sure what to say.

The room was surprisingly empty before Kevin Devine came on, but there were enough people to scream along with "Cotton Crush." That would be the only original song he played that I knew very well. A few songs I know I had heard, but he played a lot of songs from the new album that I haven't listened to. The "encore" was a ten minute medley of random cover songs from "Sweet Child of Mine" to "El Scorcho," and "Stan" by Eminem. I was really impressed with his rapping that last one. It was hilarious and wonderful watching them have fun on stage. He finished the night with a few songs by himself. I have to say I much prefer him solo than with the band, but he is awesome any way you can get him, very funny, humble, and just a seemingly cool dude. It was a great show.

We hit the road after the show and left Joanna's car at a Wawa in Chester, PA before continuing west and finding our sleeping spot for the night: a Wal*Mart parking lot. And it was actually dark there. Score.