Feb 25, 2017

Since we got to bed early and realized that the weather wasn't going to be bad until later we decided to make a disc golf day of it. We went to Delaware and started at Brandywine. We had the course to ourselves so early in the day and had a fun round. It was cloudy but already nice temperature.

We went right to Iron Hill next and played the short tees for once. It was fun playing slightly different holes even if some of them didn't change much. We passed by a couple of groups toward the middle of course so it went pretty quickly. It was starting to get warm by this point. This is still one of my favorite holes aesthetically. The first part of it is just long.

We had worked up an appetite so we headed to Drop Squad Kitchen for some V Steaks and soup for lunch. We sat in the lawn chairs along the river and enjoyed this view while we scarfed down half of our sandwiches. They're so salty, but so good.

Next up we decided to try out Greenridge DGC in Newark. A guy at Camp Sankanac told me about it and said I would enjoy it. It's still a little rough around the edges, but overall it's a great, fun course. This area where the trees had recently fallen isn't part of the design obviously, but it did make for a uniquely challenging shot. Some of the holes seemed unnecessarily tight and not thought out. We each put our disc in the water at least once, and I had to take the long way across a flowing stream and climb down to retrieve one from the other side of a riverbank. All said, I would definitely play this one again.

I was kind of surprised it was still somewhat early in the afternoon after that long course, so after sitting on the park bench and having our leftovers at Greenridge we headed to White Clay Creek to play one last round before the rain. It had been a long time since I'd played so I forgot a lot about this one. It's a fun short course to contrast all the long ones we played earlier. It's a nice little gem and I definitely like it more than Lum's Pond. We'll need to get out here once more before we leave.

We were just about to go to Iron Hill Brewery when Chuck told me we were invited to Alex's Dad's birthday party at the sailing club. We drove home in the torrential downpour of rain, picked up a few growlers at Glasstown, and headed over to join the party. We met some of the family, played a couple of stupid party games that we were goaded into, and mainly just spent the time talking and having a good time. I'm glad we went. We left with a couple tubs of hummus to boot.

Dec 31, 2016

I slept in again and it was really nice. Once I got myself up I picked up Erynne and went to Silver Run for the closest thing Millville has to hiking. It was nice weather and we had a good walk while we caught up. She had never been there and I hadn't been there in some time.

We went to Wildflower for lunch and split a black bean burger wrap that was soooo good. It's been a couple months at least since I've been there but this is one of the best things I've had from them. We took a little trip to the mall trying to find out of the Viet place had a vegan version of their Vietnamese coffee with heavy cream. They did not, so we went to Target and got Starbucks to walk around with while I went to find the expansion pack to Settler of Catan.

Later it was time for the big New Year's Eve Party to begin. So when Ryan, Shannon and Alex got to Becca's we set up Catan and proceeded to explain the directions to everyone, confusing even those of us who had played many times I think. It was fun though once we got started and Ryan went on to destroy us all.

We spent the next couple of hours playing Catchphrase "Decades" which has categories from the '70s to the present. I prefer the other one, but this one ended up being fun. Becca's friend Lauren and her boyfriend Tony brought it so we could all play. The time passed quickly, lots of jokes were made, good and bad guesses had by all. Someone said as a clue: "He's in Genesis." My guess was Jesus. It was really Phil Collins.

At midnight most of us were uninterested in the dropping ball or turning of the calendar in general, but the festivities sort of came to an end there and people started leaving. After a brief cleanup and some stronger hints for people to leave, we got to bed in preparation to get up for the first sunrise of the new year tomorrow.

Dec 22, 2016

I got to work to find out I had to cover my full first block I was supposed to have off. It doesn't usually bother me too much at Memorial, but it's been happening a lot lately. About a half hour before the end of the coverage Adrian ended up coming in to relieve me because he was assigned to that teacher for the day from Lakeside. It was enough time to run home and grab some food to bring back for lunch. The rest of the day went pretty well. No real problems at all and I was just reading on my computer the whole time.

It was nice outside after work so Becca and I high-tailed it to Parvin for a run. I took the Black Oak Trail because there were a lot of cars there so I wanted to avoid the people and also add some distance. I was feeling pretty good if a little slow. When I checked my phone a little over 3 miles in my phone turned off again. It pissed me off to no end so I stopped at about 3.25 miles after a pace of 8:40. Still not bad, but really annoying. When I got back to the dock Becca was sitting at the end and the scene was beautiful!

We went home and got ready for the night then drove down to Becca's boss Karen's house for pre-dinner cocktail hour. It wasn't really awkward, just unnecessary. I had a Bulleit on ice and then a glass of wine and the women and I boarded the bus to Atlantic City. I was feeling a little tipsy already but having a good time.

When we got to the restaurant it was even worse than it looked on the menu I checked out. It seemed like some old run-down restaurant you'd find at a midwest highway rest stop. The beer list left much to be desired. I met her friend Dan, who was really funny and the main thing that made the night fun. Her boss was a little strange, but ended up being really nice and came down to talk to me about craft beer for a long time.

I got quite a few Goose Island IPAs because that was literally the only thing remotely craft on the list. We got eggplant parm because the only other thing we could have gotten was pasta with marinara sauce. The food was good, I'll say that. I was looking forward to craft beer, which according to her boss this was supposed to be at a craft beer/wine bar with a pairing menu, so I think I wasn't alone in disappointment. In any case, the night ended up being pretty fun and we went back home afterward to get to bed relatively early.

Nov 30, 2013

I woke up early and worked on some photos for a while and then I headed to Parvin for a run. Ryan was on his way so I had to start right away and I put on All Time Low so I was running quickly with the beat. I ended up running the three miles at 8:05 per mile. I was pretty happy with that. Ryan got there pretty soon after I finished and we got right to walking around. It was a good time outside.

After showering and getting ready I headed over to Tracy and Mike's place for Friendsgiving. I spent a lot of time playing with Atreyu while Tracy and Mandie cooked. 

We all milled around and sat in different places to eat and just hung around until we decided to play The Real Game of Life, which Mandie and Andy came across while traveling. It was really an awesome game that took Life and made it more fun. You could do drugs, get hit by cars, get mugged, become disabled, have kids, abortions, and adoptions. It was really a lot of fun. We had about 9 people playing so that was cool too. 

We moved on to playing Cranium next, and we actually had the clay! It didn't really become that fun or useful unfortunately, but the game was still great. We had some fun memorable moments like Mandie and Tina singing "Ride of the Valkyries" and thinking they were singing the Star Wars theme. It was something amazing.

We hung out talking for a long time after games and made plans for skiing in January. I don't know when the next time I'll see some of these peoples, but I'm glad we had a great time tonight.

Aug 24, 2013

In the earlier part of the day I met Scott at the park for a round of disc golf. I'm sure it was lovely. Later was Kate's graduation party so Chuck and I showed up and helped stock the fridge. We couldn't fit more than half of ours in there. I met Kate's boyfriend Jon finally and we got along quite well. That was a relief. The night was a lot of fun. There were a lot of people I didn't know, but there was fire, food, beer, and people I do know. We spent a lot of time outside drinking and laughing, telling stories, and drinking some more. Once the crowd died down we took the party inside for a bit until it was clearly time for everyone to be leaving. It was really nice having a night with a group of friends.

Feb 25, 2012

I had to go up to Globe Dye Works in Philly to film video interviews with the owners of the building and people who used to work there for the Kickstarter video for Philadelphia Sculptors' summer installation project.

The filming went well and we took a tour of the building. It's a pretty amazing space, with old spools of colored thread and dusty sewing machines in an upper room with holes in the floor. It should be a great installation.

Later we went down to Nathan's beach house for his party/gathering. There was a nice spread of food and we added some beer to the fridge. We hung out, ate, and drank for a while and decided what to do with the night.

Nathan was comfortable in his robe. It is his house after all. We decided that we should go jump in the ocean since it was freezing and windy outside. And February.

Not everyone was so keen on the idea, but Ryan, Nathan, and I donned our shorts and headed out with Jamie and Jeff in tow to document. It was very cold on the short walk down the beach and we hesitated for just a minute before going for it.

It was too dark to document the actual jumping in the ocean, but suffice it to say that it was very cold and we were not in there very long. Just long enough to dive in and submerge and then run back to Jamie and Jeff for towels to try and warm up. While it was cold, it was not so terribly bitter that I felt frozen. It actually didn't feel as shocking as it does sometimes in the summer.

The rest of the night we stayed inside playing games, drinking beer, and eating snacks in the warmth. It was a lot of fun and we laughed a lot.