The kids, Gil and I took a quick trip to Ohio this week. Actually it wasn't THAT quick! Its a 9 hr. drive! But we made it fine and had a great time visiting with relatives. Here you see the girl with her "crush" Justin Bieber.( ok, so its only a cut-out) The girl with her cousin. (they both graduated this year)A fun pool party with one side of the family and a trip to my favorite place "Jerry's" with the other side. During a nice lunch at a diner, our boy decided to become a 1950's style bully. Here you see him practicing on his sister. Note my dad's shoes in the grilling picture. You may recall last summer's trip, I showed a pic of him wearing the old, stringless, grass-stained sneakers. Those have been thrown out (not his idea) and replaced by these nice, new sandals! Doesn't he look great! 
Well, its certainly been trying, but I think I've jumped through all the hoops! I am who I say I am and not some imposter! It has taken 3 weeks and lots of trouble but I've finally gotten a driver's license! During the application process it was discovered that the name I've been going by (have a passport for, gotten jobs with, paid taxes with for 25 yrs.) was not the name on my SS card. So after my dad got a copy of my marriage cert. and sent it over, I was able to change my name, thus allowing me to get a driver's license in the great state of New Jersey! Celebrated last night with a bottle of Elvis wine. Not bad, actually! Also here's a pic of the new car. Had to take some photos for the insurance, so thought I'd include one here.
Saturday dawned sunny and bright. We got the kids up early (oh how they loved that!) and headed towards Jersey City, where we parked the car and took the train into Manhattan. We went early in order to get rush tickets to a show. We had decided to try for "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" but when we got to the theatre, the line was already long. So we went over to the Music Box Theatre and were able to get tickets for the matinee of "Jerusalem". And lucky that!! It was soooo good! I'm glad we didn't waste our day on Daniel Radcliffe when this fantastic show was right down the street! Anyway, after we got the tickets, we had an hour and a half to explore before lunch. The boys went to the United Nations, while the girl and I headed to Rockefeller Center. We saw Radio City Music Hall, the window where they do the Today Show, the place where they have the ice skating rink in winter, and we went in the NBC shop. Then we went into St Patrick's Cathedral. It was beautiful. After this we went to an Ethiopian restaurant I had read about which happened to be in the vicinity of the theatre. The picture doesn't do it justice. We love Ethiopian food and hadn't had any for several years. At least as long as we'd been in Japan! After a fantastic and filling lunch, we went to the theatre where a line had formed, waiting for it to open. The boys had tickets in the front row. Ours were in a box, just over the stage. The show was great! Its no wonder Mark Rylance won the tony award for best actor! I'd see this show again. If you get a chance, you should see it!![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
The kids and I went to Wild West City today. They were thinking it was going to be kind of hokey and they may have been feeling a little embarassed but once we got in and saw what it was like, they realized how cool it was. We all really enjoyed the day. There was lots of shooting and cowboys and horses. The stage coach got robbed, the bank got robbed and a some bad guys got shot. There were rope and bullwhip demonstrations and country music and just lots of fun times. I'm glad we went!![]()
The new company had a family picnic on Monday. Apparently they do it every year. It was really cool. It was a boardwalk theme with loads of games and contests and prizes and rides and 2 bands and all the food and drink you wanted, all day long! We all had a great time. And I won the grandprize at bingo!!![]()
Sunday we went on a short trip to Lambertville, a cute little town on the Deleware River. Loads of old buildings and houses, tons of eateries, galleries and antique shops. Afterwards, we stopped at the Washington Crossing State Park and saw the place where he crossed the river on Christmas day, 1776, as well as the house where he made his plans before marching on to Trenton to surprise the Hessians.![]()
Naturally the 4th of July was horrible for Gil, as were the days preceding and a couple days following. He has always been afraid of loads of things, loud noises being one of them. I had used up all my Rescue Remedy in the days leading up to the 4th and was running around on Monday looking for a place to buy more with no success. Finally at a pet store, I ran into a woman who is an animal emergency technician as well as a police dog trainer (so she said). She recommended this bag of treats and I do believe they helped a bit. At least as much as a dropper full of Rescue Remedy. And he gobbled them up so they must have a somewhat pleasant taste, at least. She also recommended burning a eucalyptus candle but I didn't go quite that far!![]()
The kids had forgotten how much fun apartment living is! Here are a few examples of the great fun we've been experiencing:
1) Baby Left in Car: One morning we went to the garage and while walking to our space we heard the muffled sound of something like an animal. A few steps more and it became clearer. It was obviously a baby. With no other person in sight, we followed the sound to a red car in space #64, where a baby (maybe 1 yr or so old) was strapped into a car seat, screaming his head off. After standing around in disbelief, wondering where the parents were, I finally decided to go tell the concierge while the kids kept watch. I got upstairs and told him and he was shocked (as was the UPS lady making deliveries). He followed me down and then we saw the mother coming to the car saying "are you ready to come out now"? very loudly. Implying that it was somehow the baby's fault that it was left in there. None of us confronted her and she took the kid upstairs. My own kids spent the morning appreciating their mom but who knows what happened to the little guy after that?
2) Alarm Clock: For 3 nights in a row (long weekend) the neighbor next to our bedroom wall, had an alarm go off every night at midnight. The alarm beeped for 2 hrs before shutting off!
The first night, we pulled the mattress into the living room to try to get some sleep and just chalked it up to an accident and figured it would probably not happen again. The second night, promptly at midnight it happened again. Hubby stayed in bed with a pillow over his head while Gil and I headed for the couch. But not before I wrote a note and slipped it under the offending neighbor's door! We figured an accident on night 1, stupidity on night 2, but surely it wouldn't happen again. And if it did, it was on purpose! Well, night 3 rolled around and sure enough, the alarm went off again! I was fit to be tied. I marched down to the office to complain but as it was the holiday, the office was closed. However, the alarm has not gone off again since. We think the person had gone away for the long weekend and had no idea of the misery s/he had caused. Still a nice bouquet of flowers or box of chocolates would have been a good gesture.
3) Bloody Murder: Okay, maybe not bloody and probably not murder, but something happened last Friday night around 1:30am. We were all awakened by the terrified screams of a female screaming for a couple of minutes before everything went eerily quiet. We thought she was outside but could see no signs of her. The boy thought she was on the floor above us. Gil and I checked every hall on every floor inside, as well as the perimeter of the building a few hours later when we got up for the day, but could find no evidence (bloody or otherwise). The kids were quite disturbed by it, but what can you do? I tried to keep a sharp ear out to see if there was any talk about it down at the mail room, but didn't hear a whisper.
Just a bit of the excitement that we live with everyday. Hoping to get moved to the house before anything worse happens.
Have a signed a lease for a house. Hoping we made the right decision. Move-in in August. More later.
Later.......
Days later we're still waiting for the home owners to sign the lease. Then they have 3 days after that to cancel if they choose.
Something seems fishy, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
9 days after the lease was signed by us and the landlord, we received a certified letter from their lawyer saying that he did not agree with the contract as written and proceeded to write up some changes that were mostly acceptable to us EXCEPT for 1. I don't know what kind of crap they're trying pull but if they keep it up they can let their house sit empty while we move in to another one!!!!
There are so many good restaurants in New Jersey. There doesn't seem to be as many chains as in the midwest. I'm thinking of trying not to repeat, so that we can try as many places as possible. Here is a short list of what we've tried so far:
Sol Cantina: We had dinner here our first night in New Jersey. Its Mexican and it was delicious! Lots of vegetarian options. Unfortunately the portions sizes were huge!! We're not used to that and we don't want to get used to it! The chips seemed to have been made on site and were still warm when brought to our table.
Willie McBride's Irish Pub: Went here on the 2nd night. Excellent. The waitress was super nice. Everyone liked their food. We had crab cakes and brie encroute and hubby and I shared the fish & chips. Yum! They had an Irish duo playing live. They were too loud and not very good.
Justin's Pizza: At the apartment the first night, we walked to Justin's and ordered the large cheese pizza for $9.50. It was huge and very tasty!! Felix, who made the pizza was really nice. It was so good and he was so nice, that later in the week, when hubby was on a bus. trip, the kids and I went back a 2nd time!
Hurry Chutney: The kids and I went to this modern Indian Cafe for dinner on a recommendation from an internet site. It was very good. We thought we should eat there instead of trying to carry it back to the apartment, but in actual fact, it came out of the kitchen all boxed up in plastic containers. We had to open it up and use platic utensils to eat. The food was excellent and again, in incredibly large portions, but we really should have taken it home to eat.
Patzeria Perfect Pizza: Ate a slice from this hole in the wall pizza shop in Manhattan, waiting for the shows to start. It came highly recommended and was very, very good!
Martino's: This Cuban restaurant in Somerville, comes highly recommended. It was fantastic. And Martino, a war hero, is quite a character! Its a fun place to go and the food was superb! I had the vegetarian tamale plate with yellow rice/ veg and fried plantains. The portions are huge and the food is fantastic!! Everyone loved what they got.
TGI Fridays and California Pizza Kitchen: The last 2 are chains. As chains they are exactly what you expect. But I did really like the mushroom pizza from CPK and the kids liked what they had, the Works and the Mexican pizzas.
