Mar 14, 2017

I worked at Memorial in an English class for the day. It was an easy day and it went pretty quickly. After work I went to Ryan's to play Aladdin for SNES and plan our ski trip. Aladdin was a lot of fun but much shorter than I remember. That happens a lot with older games. We got all our hotels booked and lift tickets purchased so we are ready to go.

I went to Becca's where we got the cooking underway. We made eggplant parm pizzas again. They never get old. They take quite a while to make, but they're so good. The olives, jalapenos, and artichokes really make them so much better. We ate and watched a couple episodes of the new season of Love before an early bedtime.

Jan 30, 2017

I worked at Vineland Memorial in the morning after clearing the little bit of snow off my car. It was an easy day in the advanced English class. I got some work done and read more articles that angered me than I should have. I met Ryan at Becca's to play Mario Kart Wii and unlock all the courses finally. It was more fun than I expected. I watched some Netflix until Becca got home and we watched Sleepwalk with Me now that she knows Mike Birbiglia. She liked it, and it was nice to watch again. We got to bed nice and early after the movie.

Jan 21, 2017

We started the day with yoga at Heart Beet Kitchen. April was our instructor and we did a great flow class with some poses I couldn't quite hold, but I enjoyed it all. I was feeling the squats immediately afterward, and after smelling the delicious food the whole time we finally got to the real reason we got up at 7:30am on a Saturday to drive an hour: the BLT. And it was worth it.

We came home and spent the rainy afternoon working on our respective things at home. Becca studied and worked on flash cards while I went through photos and did a lot of editing. The cats helped by sitting on us randomly.

I picked up Chuck and we headed to Cape May Brewery where Tracy and Mike and met us a short time later. We did a couple flights to try the handful of beers we hadn't had before. The Erosion sour was pretty good, but not as tart as the Corrosion. The Snag & Drop double IPA was really good, and there was a mixed berry pale ale that we all agreed tasted like Fruity Pebbles.

We went to drinking pints because we never do that and we know what we like now. We alternated getting the Three Plows IPA and the Corrosion. It's a really interesting story; just ask Chuck. We discussed our differing definitions of ski trail difficulty while we tried to come up with a plan to go skiing soon. After one last beer the place was closing down so we headed out.

We made a quick stop at the liquor store for Chuck to pick up a 6-pack of the Cape May King Stomp Porter that he was enjoying at the brewery and then headed back to Becca's to play Wii for a bit. We started playing Mario 1 on the emulator, but we quickly decided to move to Super Mario World.

It became clear that we were getting through the game tonight by playing all the levels. Chuck and I debated the point of the game, where I believe it's to spend time and enjoy it, he kept saying he could just use the warp to get to the end faster. It was a good semi-drunk discussion. There were some levels that seemed much harder than they should have. By the time we were done it was really late so I took him home and came back to get to bed.

Jan 9, 2017

We had a little slower start in the morning getting ready going to the grocery store so I could get some hummus and then to get a bagel to eat on the way with it. The drive seemed longer, but it was much clearer than the way home last night. We got there and got ready inside since there were so many less people that we could park right next to the lodge.

We got out on the mountain and skied some of the same trails before venturing off to the other side of again to see if we could get anywhere new. We went there for a short time and raced down one of the green routes once or twice before deciding to go back over toward the gondola with everyone else.

We did a few new trails and found a fun double diamond area that was very hilly and ungroomed to ski. We both fell on it once in different places, but I wish we had done that more. We did one glade, but it was mostly open and a little icy so it wasn't something we wanted to do more. We had one group of people in the gondola ask us if they could pop a window to smoke a joint. I politely declined. We finished on a good run and hit the road in clear conditions.

Superfresh Cafe closed really early so we couldn't go there, but we went to another place and I got a good quinoa bowl. I made another stop at the brewery for another small tasting of the delicious sours before we came back to the hotel for the night. We played some Nintendo games and finally finished the annoying Ninja Turtles 3 that we started a while ago. We played Blades of Steel and a couple other games to cleanse our palate after that. It was a good way to kill time before bed. Last night here!

Jan 6, 2017

My mystery day at Memorial would have been as expected; I was getting locations to go to block by block as they did testing. I took a longer lunch during a second block that I got out of and then I had off all of third, so I spent that time watching House and New Girl in a quiet room. It ended up being a pretty easy day.

After I went home and got all my ski stuff together from the shed I came over to Becca's to do yoga day 6 and then play some Donkey Kong Country 2. I forgot that it's harder than the original and we didn't have great success getting too far before we called it a day on games.

We finished Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close which ended up being really good. I like the book better, but the movie was nice. I gave her the little alarm clock with projected stars that I got her and we lay in bed looking at them change color on the ceiling before sleep.

Jan 2, 2017

We slept in nicely and then spent the "morning" cooking all of the things we had in the house to make a breakfast dish and watching Planet Earth while eating. We did day 2 of yoga and then mostly lounged around with the cats into the afternoon, wondering how it had gotten so late already.

Becca had to go to work and I had to go to the doctor for my painful thumb. I was told to be there at 3, I didn't see a doctor until after 4:30. I know it's a cliche about doctor waiting times, but that's seriously ridiculous. Anyway it took 3 minutes and she said it was probably nothing.

I went to Ryan's to play our next challenge: Donkey Kong Country. I felt like this one was anyone's game and after playing a little last night I had a feeling it wasn't going to be mine. I managed to get ahead somewhere in the middle and held my lead to the end. We planned a little of our upcoming ski trip after the game and I headed home for a relatively early bedtime.

Dec 29, 2016

I went to Ryan's in the morning for the second two games in our Koopa Bowl showdown. We played Super Mario 1 first and Ryan won as I struggled in the last world. In the event of a tie, we play Super Mario World and if that doesn't provide a clear winner there's a round-robin All-Stars match. But really we just played Mario World for the win. We were again very close but I got to the last castle faster and won. It was a lot of fun playing it that way.

I went home for a little while before going to Becca's where she surprised me with an amazing vegan chocolate cake with ice cream in the middle. It was so good. I had a little slice before we got ready to leave for the night.

We picked up Tracy and went to Starland where we sat in the car for a little bit to have a couple beers before the show. Diana sent me this wonderful little graphic to say happy birthday that made me smile.

We went inside and the show was running late, which is predictable for Starland, but we got settled on the side of the crowd and Nathan and Chanel came in and found us for a little bit before the lights went out. Thursday came out to For the Workforce, Drowning, which is one of my favorite songs and my favorite opener of theirs. The set was dark and incredible and it was so great to see them back on stage like they never left.

After the show I saw Omarey and he came to chat with us while those of us without jackets shivered outside. It was great to be with so many friends for my birthday and see one of my favorite bands. We had a nice long ride left home, but it didn't seem so bad.

Dec 19, 2016

I woke up at some point in the night and went back to bed thinking, "I won't be getting out of bed before 10!" Somehow I forgot that I had work, and I was enjoying my long and restful sleep. I actually did wake up at a perfect time for work to not have to rush or anything, and it was nice to have gotten 8 hours for once. I worked at Silver Run for Child Study Team and it was an easy day. Meetings were short, lunch was long, and the last meeting was canceled so I left early. The perfect CST day.

I was unproductive after work, but it wasn't long before I went to Ryan's to finish Super Metroid. I thought it would only be an hour or so, but I had a lot left. It took me maybe another 2-2.5 hours to do it. And I started using the online maps to get around easier so that probably knocked some time off. Ryan played some Zelda then switched to Super Mario World while I struggled along. It's amusing to me how the final boss isn't really difficult at all compared to the other ones getting there. It's a fun game, but I don't want to play it again anytime soon.

On my way home I went to Shop Rite and got ingredients to cook quinoa with spinach, kale, and chickpeas with asparagus. I ran home and cooked it all quickly to great success. I was really happy with the results and I took it over to Becca's for when she got home from her long day. I brought my computer over with the intention of doing some work on it, but I wanted to mod the Wii first to play SNES games. What ended up happening was I spent the next 3 hours looking at videos and reading things about how to get it working. I finally did it! Except there's a lag from the controller to the screen. I decided to save that for another day.

Dec 17, 2016

I woke up pretty early for a Saturday and scraped the ice off my car to go over to Ryan's. Since he has a second TV set up we played through Zelda and Super Metroid side by side. Metroid takes a lot longer than I remember and there is a lot of searching around with seemingly not much happening. We took a break for Moe's in the middle, and even after playing for about 6 hours when Ryan finished Zelda I still wasn't done. I'll finish later.

Becca and I headed to pick up Tracy and Christie and then met Chuck at Barnes and Noble before going into the city to get dinner at The Abbaye. We had some good beers and really good food as usual. There was an Evil Genius guava IPA that I really liked and the Brew Works Rude Elf that I forgot was candy delicious.

We headed to Prohibition Taproom for a couple more beers after that. Chuck and I got a cask beer from Yards called Hoppy Lil' Hudson that was really good. They were playing Jimmy Eat World on the stereo and we were teasing Christie about not knowing who it was even though we saw them last night.

It was a slightly icy and very foggy two-block walk to Union Transfer, but the church in the fog looked awesome. This reminds me I really need to go out in fog, rain, and other "bad" weather to get the interesting photos I desire.

We got inside in time to use the restroom before The Starting Line came on. The crowd was a little thin, but it was perfect for the room. No one was moving around at first, but I had had enough drinks to not care about pushing forward. Once things got started it was an amazing show and a great set. We all had a lot of fun. There were a couple of guys in the pit who were being assholes. Under Armour guy was just being annoying, but sweater guy was being a real dick so I went and got security (I wasn't even alone; some other guy was already telling them) and the guy got kicked out so that felt nice. We could enjoy the rest of the show in peace.

Nov 24, 2013

I got up and met Ryan at the gym in the morning for an "ab extravaganza," as we dubbed it. It wasn't really that at all. We actually did more hand stands than anything. We both improved quite a bit, but Ryan held one out for a good five seconds that crushed all the ones we've done before. After the gym I stopped by Shop Rite for some groceries and then came home and cooked up some lunch with my dad.

After a delicious lunch I went over to Ryan's and played some more Mario on Wii U. I have a hard time not having fun playing any Mario game. I went to Kate's after that to play more video games. We played Mario Kart for a couple of hours online with a bunch of people. For some reason it's just fun playing with other real people more than against the computer. We finally quite when this one guy kept choosing Rainbow Road because that course is terrible. We split the Elysian Valhalla Red IPA and watched an episode of Boundless before I came home to settle in for the night.