Fun and Games Dept

So Earl and I spent last weekend in the oceanside town of Asbury Park, New Jersey. We were there for “Santa Saturday”, a day of leathermen and bears raising money for people living with AIDS and the aging. It was a good time, about 1000 people attended the event and we saw several familiar faces from Hillside Campground.

I had never been to Asbury Park before. Even though it was the end of November the ocean was still beautiful. There was little life along the boardwalk but we enjoyed the experience anyway. We stopped at the Paramount Theatre where we saw an a cappella choral group perform, they were magnificent and reminded me of my days in high school and college when I was in various a cappella choruses.

We stayed at the Berkeley Hotel, which is a beautiful hotel with affordable rooms. However, when we went to get into the Jeep to go out Saturday night we found the entire contents of the Jeep stacked on the driver’s seat and the GPS missing from the glove compartment. We had noticed a large number of cop cars earlier; apparently they knew what had happened or was going to happen. So we are out a GPS unit. As Earl said, “it was time to upgrade anyway.” The ones with the sticky fingers climbed in through one of the back windows of the soft top, it’s pretty easy to get into a Jeep. At least they didn’t smash the real windows or anything.

All in all it was a good weekend and a good chance for us to get away from the craziness of our schedules.

When Earl and I were in Buffalo a couple of weeks ago, our friend “Angry Alan” did a photo shoot with us. Angry Alan is a brilliant photographer currently studying at RIT.

Here is one of the shots. (The others are not really safe for work/relatives viewing).

Blue Marvel., originally uploaded by iMachias.

Blue Marvel made his annual appearance at the Halloween festivities at the local bar. This little known member of the Marvel family has a different lineage than Captain Marvel, CM3 and Mary Marvel. The son and only child of mortal science teachers Rick Mason and Andrea Thomas*, Blue Marvel has inherited the intelligence of his father and the supernatural powers of his mother and leads his quest for truth and justice with the guidance of the great wizard Shazam.

* “And unknown to even her closest friends, Rick Mason and Cindy Lee, she became a dual person, Andrea Thomas, teacher and… Isis, defender of the weak, champion of truth and justice.”

This week’s on call schedule had kept me very busy. I haven’t had time to do much more than eat and work and get some naps here and there.

We can thank Mother Nature for her contribution to the experience.

Now if I could figure out how to post my picture of our first snowfall from the season using this iPhone app.

Door Number 2., originally uploaded by iMachias.

A couple of weeks ago Earl and I went to heat a pizza in the oven. We spun the dial and hit 350, popped the pizza in the oven (on our fancy pizza stone) and went about our business. Ten minutes later, the kitchen was filled with gas and we were lightheaded.

Our house was built in 1996 but the stove was built in 1985. We figured it was time for a new stove, so off to Sears we went and picked out a basic gas range with a few frills and good looks. Naturally everything in that area must match so we picked out the matching microwave. We stuck to our household mantra: “All shall hail Frigidaire”.

Tonight we installed the new stove and microwave. There was no shouting, screaming, cussing or anything like that. It was teamwork, teamwork, teamwork all the way. Everything passed inspection and no bubbles were formed on the gas connections so we are going to ready, set, cook!

Rochester’s Inner Loop., originally uploaded by iMachias.

Earl and I drove to Rochester late yesterday afternoon. Both of us have spent some time in the city famous for Kodak and Xerox, but there was much for us to explore.

One point of interest was The Village Gate on North Goodman Street. With it’s eclectic selection of shops we browsed around a bit and found some interesting toys to bring home. I’m always happy to see people embrace an old building and turn it into something useful instead of ripping it down and building another generic strip mall. There are quite a few restaurants in The Village Gate. Business seemed good.

We opted to go to a restaurant not too far away. Earl has been there before and knew that I would enjoy The Old Toad. He was absolutely right; being a fan of pubs, The Old Toad was perfect for a Saturday night supper and a few pints of Guinness.

Here is Earl looking over the selection on the menu.

Since I was driving home and still feeling some effects from the Guinness, we opted to walk around the area for a bit and peer into the windows of the shops and see who was going to what nightclub or restaurant. We walked over Rochester’s Inner Loop several times. I enjoy the design of that roadway. We are going to have something similar here in a couple of years.

So we walked around before taking the long way home. We drove 98 miles to and from Rochester and only took the Thruway for the last 30 miles or so. Sometimes the back roads are the best way to go.

After a fairly intense day at work, it’s good to kick off the weekend with a little French and Saunders. I fecking love British comedy – especially French and Saunders.

Monday Commute., originally uploaded by iMachias.

I’m getting a little furrier than usual. I wonder how furry I should get.