Feb 23, 2017

I worked at Memorial for a Social Studies class in the morning. At first I thought it would be a long day with fourth block off, but it ended up being great to get done work early and be able to go out to play disc gold with Ryan and Becca. It was a beautiful day to be outside.

Alycia and I took advantage of the weather as well, albeit a little later than we planned since she got stuck at work and in traffic. We had a nice bike ride through her area as the sun was going down. It started getting a little dark so we turned around.

We were still a way from her house when I felt my tire go flat. I didn't have a spare tube so she had to ride home and get her car to pick me up. I walked a long way before she got there to keep occupied and people really don't yield to pedestrians on a road with no shoulder. We went to get dinner at a Chinese place after deciding not to meet Chuck and Alex in Mount Holly. It was just too far and we were already late. After we ate we went to Target and killed some time before going to Telford Inn for trivia with her friends. The upside of this was that Becca could join us. It was a bit awkward with the seating and already established team, but we had fun on our end playing together.

Jan 4, 2017

There was PARCC testing at Memorial today so the schedules were different. First block ended up last 2.5 hours and cutting into my only block off so I ended up with a half hour break to run home and grab lunch quickly. I was in an art class and they had individual work so I was bored sitting at the desk all day. I finished reading 40 Days of Dating pretty early on and then proceeded to browse Reddit and other random websites all day. This is when it would be great to have a computer I could edit on.

I came home for a while after work and Becca left work early so she convinced me to go to Parvin with her and run. I wasn't feeling totally great, but I thought a run would help. I felt sluggish, but I ended up doing an average/slightly faster pace than usual over 3 miles. I did feel better after the run and the weather was pretty nice for it. The cold breeze was coming in over the water when we finished.

We did our day 4 of yoga a little later on and then went to Target for a failed jeans-shopping mission. Undeterred, we went on to The Dolphin for Emo Night, where we felt like were the only people there for the first half hour. Eventually people started coming out onto the dance floor.

Things picked up quickly after "My Friends Over You" came on. There were groups of people dancing for the rest of the night and the set got much better after that point too. It was a lot of fun dancing and singing and watching the walls change color together. After the awkward ending of that horrible Dashboard/Brand New mashup song and Weezer we jumped in the car and I stopped for piping hot fresh pretzels on the way home. It's been way too long since I've gone to the pretzel factory. Something comforting about knowing that place is still there.

Jan 1, 2017

As much as we didn't want to we got out of bed in the morning and went to Union Lake dock for sunrise. By the time we were there we were already happy we came. The sky looked beautiful and the clouds were moving fast. We took some shots on the dock and another photographer showed up so I started talking with him and we used each other in our shots.

This sunrise was much nicer weather-wise than the last one we saw. We stayed until the sun came over the horizon and then stayed a little more just watching the light play on some of the trees along the shore. It was a really great way to start a new year.

We went back to Becca's and did day one of (YouTube) Adriene's 31 Days of Revolution yoga. It was a very easy day indeed; hangover friendly, as she called it. After the light stretching we talked and decided we didn't at all feel like going to the Mummer's in Philly and the weather was too nice to stay in so we headed north to Tyler and stopped at Guru's Indian Buffet on the way. How did I not know this place was here? It was amazing. Such good and plentiful vegan food, really nice staff, and a great price for a weekend buffet. I will definitely be coming back.

We got into it at Tyler and were having a good round for the most part. I threw my disc into the water once, missed the putt at this basket about 5 times, and we had to wait to tee off a few times, but otherwise it was a perfect day for a round. We played the first 18 then took a short rest before heading back for the second 18 holes. Some were more fun than others and halfway through the back we were both feeling like we'd had about enough of trees and throwing into the rough. We pushed on and were happy to have played everything in the end.

We drove home with the beautiful sky behind Philly on 95. I fixed the lag issues on the Wii emulator so I played Aladdin for a short bit then we played Donkey Kong Country for a while until we couldn't keep our eyes open anymore.

Dec 27, 2016

We left our hotel in the morning and headed to Allston Diner for breakfast. They had a nice vegan selection so we got the tofu scramble with BBQ seitan which ended up being incredible! It was a cute little diner place with nice staff and great food. They even had the proper coffee cups. It was good that we split the meal because we were properly stuffed afterward.

We went to Cambridge next for a little walk after our big meal. I took Becca to the MIT campus where the Frank Gehry building I like is located. We walked a little bit, wandered through a public art gallery of medical information, and then headed down to the river.

We started our run heading toward the Longfellow Bridge so we had the view of the city the whole way out. Once we crossed the bridge and sidestepped a lot of construction we were on the other side of the river where we headed back toward the Harvard Bridge for the loop. It was a perfect day for a run and there were a bunch of people out there with us. We walked along the river a bit after we finished our 3 miles to continue soaking up the nice day.

After way too much driving around we finally snagged a parking spot near the Institute of Contemporary Art and headed inside. It was split into two sections of exhibitions. The first side we walked through featured female artists and was full of a lot of really great pieces. Kara Walker's pieces that I saw in Australia were featured at the start of this exhibit as well.

The other side of the gallery had some interesting things, but mostly we weren't grabbed by it. We were also getting hungry (or at least I was) so that didn't help matters. There was one great audio/visual piece with randomized sounds made by ordinary objects displayed on televisions placed in a circle around the room. I really liked that one, but after we saw it we headed down the awesome stairway and out the door.

We ate chili and pepperoni bread leftovers on our short drive to Harpoon Brewery. Unfortunately the tours were all sold out for the day so we just had to get flights in the taproom. Another thing I had forgotten was they started doing set flights that you can't alter or add to so we had to pick from those instead of making our own like I would have preferred. I wasn't particularly blown away by any of the beers, and the overall experience of the crowded room left me longing for the old days when it was a smaller operation. I might be over that place.

It was time for sunset so I found a spot across the water at Piers Park with a view of the city I'd never seen before. The sky didn't light up too much, but it was still a beautiful show of color on the buildings as the sun dropped. There was another photographer there as well who was talking to me about the shots I was taking. It was also very cold and windy. I got some decent shots and once it was dark I made the call to head out.

Before we left Boston I wanted to finally try ice cream from FoMu, so we made our way over there and sampled a bunch of the amazing flavors. We ended up settling on peanut butter (which tastes just like a spoon of peanut butter, but even better!), cookie dough (yes.), and a chocolate thai spicy flavor. They were all delicious and refreshing on a cold Boston day.

Our plan was to go to Trillium Brewing for a flight, but when we arrived we found out they don't do flights and their beer is really pricy. We made the call to skip it and head to The Grange in Providence for dinner instead. There was a bit of a wait for a table which was frustrating as we were hungry and already disappointed about the brewery. Once we were seated I got a delicious dahl soup followed by what I came for: the Po Boy. It was a good as I expected, and it was the last one they had. I decided it was a good thing we didn't stay for beer or someone else would have gotten my sandwich! Becca got the seitan tacos which were also amazing.

We booked a room at the Marriott in Norwich, Connecticut for the night and made the hour drive there after dinner. We had a nice, big king bed that had pillows like soft clouds. It was a great way to end the night.

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.

Mar 22, 2014

We woke up early in the still-cold car and slowly made our way out of sleeping bags. After a quick stop to the nearby Wawa for breakfast, we returned to the park to start the Mt. Misery hike at Pakim Pond.

The hike took us over the pond and through thick, quiet woods as the sun rose higher and began to warm us up. The layers came off gradually as we hiked and started to feel much warmer. The silence of early morning and soft ground was really nice. We didn't see anyone on the trail except for a dog and its owner at the parking lot.

We came across a section of the woods that had been fairly recently burned. Everything was still charred and the hard plastic trail signs had melted down completely. This area also proved to be lacking in blazes so we second guessed if we were headed the right way. Ultimately we decided to keep going and it turned out we were still on the trail we meant to be on.

While this trail was flat, it was incredibly varied in its scenery. We passed by a few bodies of water that were quite large and then we came through several sections of bogs where the path narrowed and this is what we saw reaching deep to one side.

There were grass-filled marshes with amazing colors and these open wooded areas where we could see for a great distance until the forest seemed to turn to fog. It was a great morning hike.

When we finished hiking we went to get food before heading over to Stafford Woods again for another game. I guess we liked it. We started on the back again as there were a lot of people playing. Nice days. We rescued a floating disc from the pond, but someone was already there to claim it and thank us.

Next we headed down to New Brooklyn DGC. This course is like the opposite of Stafford as most of the holes are played in open fields. I didn't mind the openness of the course since there are plenty of good uses of distance and obstacles. There were some long shots near the road, and as we finished the last few holes the area was flooded and my shoes ended up soaked. Nice way to end. Also, the last hole seemed like an afterthought and was just poorly laid out. I'd still play the course again.

After packing a lot of fun into about 24 hours I headed home as the sun was setting. I happily took it easy for the rest of the night when I got home. My legs were feeling how much walking I'd done. I need to get them back into shape.

Mar 3, 2014

Yet another snow day from school today. They called it early last night so I knew I didn't have to be up. I actually had quite a productive morning. I got some work done and some potential future work. I spent much of the day updating the blog and editing photos. I got a pizza and watched last night's shows.

I went to Union Lake at sunset for some photos with the snow. It wasn't as good as I hoped it would be, but it was nice and peaceful to stand by the water as it washed up. It gave me some time to think outside of my room. The rest of the night I continued catching up on the blog and watched some Louie.

Feb 21, 2014

I worked at Lakeside for an English class that started later in the morning. After my first class I had a two hour break so I went home for lunch and took a walk around the lake trail because it was amazingly nice out. No need for a jacket at all. I also took this photo.

I went to the gym with Ryan after work for a few random sets of exercises and then headed home below the beautiful sky during sunset. After the rain stopped everything lit up.

The plans for the evening changed a bit so I ended up joining Jamie to go see some of her friends' amateur wrestling match. The warehouse where they did it was freezing, but the wrestling was really entertaining. They know their stuff.

The characters were hilarious. Jamie and I agreed that we weren't sure if it was supposed to be funny, but the whole thing cracked us up. We also agreed that the villains were better. I was definitely glad I decided to go except for the not feeling my toes because of the cold.

Feb 7, 2014

I got to sleep in a bit today because I wasn't subbing. I had to be in Philly by 1 to get ready for Temple University's winter graduation. I got a nice free parking spot and met Derrick, NaTaza, and the new guy whose name I've forgotten now. We got set up, I went to do PR shots in the garage and then ran in to get ready to shoot the degree/handshake. The president and the other hand-shaker were annoyingly moving around the whole time making it so hard for me to get my shot right. They totally ignored their marks on the floor and kept getting in my way. Come on!

After finishing work I came home, packed up all my ski stuff in a short time, and went to Ryan's to head to Vermont. After getting snacks we headed north. We didn't hit much traffic through Jersey so that was nice. It was also nice not driving. We did take a weird back road route to get there, but we did eventually make it to our hotel. We were happy to lie down and get to sleep once we got there.

Jan 20, 2014

I took Brenda to the course so she could try disc golf for the first time. On the plus side, she already can actually throw a disc so that's one giant obstacle that won't be a problem. She did really well for her first time. We practiced putting for a while and we made it through the whole course with no real issues.

We went up to PB's for food and I got a Brawler and then we each had an Angry Orchard cider. Our waitress was pretty terrible, but we had a good time. Later I went to the gym with Ryan where we decided against doing our push up day after we both felt a little weak in the shoulders. We just did other arm exercises and then left without exchanging EZ Passes, which is why we suggested going in the first place.

Jan 18, 2014

A lot of photos today. I went to the gym with Ryan in the morning to continue/finish our pull up day exercises from last night. We did more pull ups than last week, and I improved my wall sit time by 40 seconds. I think I can do the full 5 minutes if I really want to. I met Kate and Matt at Flightline Restaurant after I showered and we had a good breakfast not fully comprised of breakfast foods.

We went next door to Glasstown Brewing for their grand opening. It was more crowded than I expected, but that's great for them. We had to wait for a while until they did the official ribbon cutting. Everyone was excited and taking photos because the mayor was there. And for the cutting, I suppose.

They did a fair amount of talking and thanking everyone. The mayor told everyone to start drinking, but then someone else talked for a minute. After that it was officially open to pouring. The next challenge was getting to the bar.

I was a little disappointed that there were only two beers on that I hadn't had. They mentioned last week that there would be several new ones and eight total. Either way, I started with the Bourbon Brown. It wasn't bad but not what I expected either. It's hard for me to explain, but the bourbon flavor was more muted, and it tasted more like a bitter brown. Good once it warmed up a bit though.

I tried the Glasstown Ale that Matt got. I liked that one; they use dark malts which gives it a full flavor. I got a pint of the El Dorado Pale Ale, which is tasty and maltier than pale ales usually are. They had the Glasstown Founder's Ale which wasn't on the menu, and I liked that a lot once it warmed up a little. I only had a sample, but I'd get that again. Chuck and Alex stopped by to fill up growlers for their evening, and they gave us their raffle tickets to increase our chances of winning. We didn't.

Paul gave us these cards when we came in since we had done the tour twice before. Technically (legally) everyone is supposed to do the tour to be able to drink there. I finished with the IPA, which I sipped on for a while and had some Doritos with the people at the table next to us that we became friendly with. They were all really friendly teachers, but were clearly getting drunk. It was amusing.

I left Kate and Matt to go get a run in before the sun went down. It was much colder than it was this morning when I thought it was a good idea. I went to Parvin anyway and froze my hands for the first mile until they warmed up. One thing I can say for the cold: when I think about stopping to walk I know I'll be frozen if I do so that's motivational. I had a good run around the lake listening to Anberlin, and the sunset was nice as I finished.

I got some food and came home for the rest of the night. I didn't feel great so I had a nap that turned into staying in bed basically. I got up for a few hours later in the night and went through wedding photos that I need to edit in the next week or two. I was in a Scrubs mood so I watched a few episodes and went back to bed.