Beach day

Beach day!

We stocked the cooler with sandwiches & drinks, filled up the beach bag with snacks and blankets, and we took the local (and free) shuttle bus down to the beach. I had to take a status call from the boardwalk, but eventually joined up with the family down by the water. The beach was certainly in better shape than it was back in 2009. Everyone had a good time relaxing in the sun and playing in the water.

In other news, we forgot to pack boardgames with us, so my wife and I (mostly my wife) have been teaching Josh how to play chess on the chessboard that is here. I’m happy that he’s learning, but I’m a little frightened of a 6-year-old who can play chess. Nothing good can come of this.

I can’t believe tomorrow is September 1st.

An exhausting but fun day

Ok, the day didn’t start very relaxing, but it got there by the afternoon. My wife and I still had some leftover work to wrap up on. She and I both hung out in different rooms to fire off additional emails and make phone calls in the morning, while the kids sat in their room to watch tv. This would terrible for the kids, but they seemed to be enjoying the novelty of watching Sesame Street in their bedroom on separate beds. The novelty!

In the afternoon, I made us all lunch (sandwiches), then I took Lily on a small run to the nearest sports store. You see, I apparently snore. I’ve been using this mouth guard plastic thing to keep my air passages open when I sleep, which isn’t the most comfortable way to sleep, but it helps keep the peace in the bedroom. Of course, I forgot it Monday. The good news is that I found a sports store in Dagsboro that carries them, so I took Lily along on my outing. Mission accomplished, so we all hit the pool. The water was a little good, but let’s call it “refreshing.”

We just came back from briefly checking out the situation at Bethany Beach, and the good news is that the beach is in good shape. Tonight, the evening promises to bring old episodes of Tiny Toons and Ducktales after dinner.

Checking out Bethany Beach

Lily & Nums @ Waffle House

We’re finally here! We finished packing this morning, loaded up the car and the bicycles, bid farewell to the cats, and were finally on the road by 10:45am. It was a bright sunny day, and a nice drive down to Delaware with no traffic. As per tradition, we stopped at a Waffle House for lunch somewhere close to Dover. We made to the vacation condo around 3pm after picking up the keys and activity pass badges.

The condo looks great. Two bedrooms, and the kids get to enjoy separate beds and a television (and DVD player) in their room. We’ve got a nicely appointed master bedroom, and our own separate bathroom. The living room and kitchen are large and comfortable, with a decent-sized Samsung LCD HDTV in the living room. There’s also a screened-in porch in the back.

They like their room

Everyone is relaxing at the moment. In the evening, we are heading to the local Super Giant supermarket to purchase food supplies for the week. The plan is similar to our 2009 Delaware vacation — we cook the entire week, which reduces meal expenses. My wife is currently compiling a grocery list and meal schedule as only she can do. We’ll probably budget one day out towards the end of the week (Thursday / Friday) to eat lunch out on the boardwalk and have a family dinner at a nice local restaurant. I’ve been fancying myself a good steak for a while now. This might be the week.

Relaxing in the condo

My wife and I are looking forward to the inventive cooking. Many years ago, she and I rented a place out on the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico. This was before the kids came around. The island had no restaurants, so we purchased groceries and cooked up inventive dishes based on whatever ingredients we had. It was a fun trip, and we still talk fondly about that experience.

What does the rest of the week hold for us? We’re planning to:

• spend time at Bethany Beach
• spend time at the pool here at Bear Trap Dunes
• hit up the Ocean City boardwalk, and also a boat ride
• more beach and pool time
• I’m going riding so I can mark Delaware and Maryland off the places I’ve bicycled
• playing board games and watching movies

Sounds good already!

Ah, nothing like weathering a rainy day from inside your own house. We’re on day 2 of our “beach vacation”, watching the wind blow and the rain come down, safely and comfortably from inside our house. The storm was pretty bad last night, and knocked a free in the neighborhood. Most of the rain seems to have stopped for now, so I made a run to 7-Eleven this morning to get coffee for my wife. Thankfully, we had no leaks or flooding in our house, nor did we lose power. We are both thankful and relieved.

Today, no big plans to go outside. We’re staying inside, doing laundry, cleaning up the house, and packing for the trip. We expect to leave tomorrow morning, and the weather looks to be sunny and 80 degrees the rest of the week!

Day 1 of our “Delaware beach” vacation is being spent getting ready for the arrival of Hurricane Irene, plus back-to-school shopping. We made sure we had supplies for the trip, and the storm. We went out around lunchtime, had lunch at Chick-fil-A, then completed much of our shopping. We picked up new clothes for the kids, for us, a mini trashcan for the cat litter, additional cat supplies, etc. We got back around 3:15pm, which left me about 90 mins to change and hit the gym one last time before we left. Hey, it’s always good to take an opportunity to squeeze in one more workout.

Tonight, we’re cooking tandoori chicken for dinner, and watching Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory starring Gene Wilder. The kids have been clamoring to watch it, so we’re renting it on Vudu tonight. And yea, it’s the 1970′s version starring Gene Wilder. None of that Johnny Depp crap.

Stupid Hurricane Irene.

We’ve been planning this Delaware beach vacation for a few months now. We originally intended to go on vacation in mid-August, but the condo we were looking to rent in Bethany Beach was no longer available. That worked out, since I had some stuff come up at work. We moved the vacation to the last week of August instead. Initially, this seemed to work out, as our original vacation week turned out to be a rather wet week, and who wants to be stuck indoors on a beach vacation? Not I.

Fast-forward to today, and we have Hurricane Irene blowing its way towards the East Coast, and the Delaware governor has issued a mandatory evacuation of non-residents from those shore communities. Rats. I hope we’ll eventually be able to get down there, and that there won’t be too much damage to the area. For now, it seems we’ll be vacationing at home for the next 1-2 days.

Abby's baptism - Joseph family photo

Last Sunday morning, we up early for my niece Abigail’s baptism. I gave the kids baths/showers, we got them (and ourselves gussied up), and we were out the door a little before 9am. It was pouring rain, so we were hoping the weather would not cause too many delays on the southbound NJ Turnpike. You know how even a little bit of rain or snow or meteor shower will cause drivers to slow down to a crawl, even here in the Northeast. Luckily, I was able to maneuver around the slower-moving vehicles, and we arrived at my sisters’ church around 10am, and before the morning service was to start.

At the present, I don’t remember the name of the church or the town, but it was a very nice Methodist church. Lots of kids and good usage of multimedia, demonstrating this was a young and vibrant church. Josh was amazed during the sermon when, to illustrate a point in the message, the AV folks in the back queued up a clip from the 1971 Gene Wilder classic Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. Personally, I wouldn’t say it was the most relevant movie clip to accompany the sermon, but it certainly keeps the congregation (and the children) interested and paying attention.

Eventually, we reached the portion of the service for the baptisms — Abby’s and another child from this church. I may have failed to mention this earlier, but Namita and I are officially Abby’s godparents, so this baptism was extra special for us. We stood up there, did the whole hands-on-the-baby thing, and I guess we’re officially vested in Abby’s welfare and upbringing. New and exciting!

Afterwards, it was time for family pictures, then driving to the lunch at the Italian Affair restaurant in Glassboro. I tried to stay close to my daily calorie goal, but it is tough when a plate of Chicken Parmigiana is staring you in the face.

We skipped the after lunch hanging-out at my sister’s, as my wife had to get to work. Got home around 4pm.

Saturday night, I watched The Hurricane, a 1999 film starring Denzel Washington. This is the Hollywood version of events surrounding the incarceration of Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, a talented African-American boxer in the 1960′s who was wrongly imprisoned for a triple-homicide for about 20 years in Rahway State Prison. Directed by a fellow named Norman Jewison, the cast is decent, and I noted Liev Schreiber, Dan Hedaya, John Hannah (from The Mummy movies) and Harris Yulin among the actors in this film of note. Oh, and of course, Vincent Pastore of Sopranos fame.

I think much like many people, I first heard about the plight of “Hurricane” Carter from Bob Dylan’s protest song “Hurricane.” It’s natural to be curious, no? Turns out, there’s a bit of a controversy with the song, as no one truly knows the truth at this stage about really happened at the Lafayette Grill that night in Patterson, NJ. Patterson police have never solved this crime. Also, many facts cited in the song were not accurate.

This film is generally well-received by critics and people who have watched it (83% freshness on Rotten Tomatoes.) Jewison was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Directory. Denzel Washington was nominated for an Academy award, and won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor. Personally? I’ll give credit to Denzel for a fine acting job. However, I didn’t like this film very much. Why is that? Why do I fly in the face of overwhelming love for this film? I find fault for the misrepresented facts of Carter’s life and the case itself, as documented in both his criminal and military records, and police reports and court documentation. I’m a guy who likes his documentaries, and his character dramas. If you are going to make a film about historical events, I want to watch this visual representation of what happened. It’s like watching a documentary, but with better acting and a bigger budget. To watch a movie that has significantly revised events, it’s less about what happened, and more a fictional tale that pretends to be accurate.

I remember back in 2001 when my wife and I went to the theater to watch Ron Howard’s A Beautiful Mind, the story of mathematician John Nash who suffered from schizophrenia. A well done movie, but criticized for historical inaccuracies. Once I read the whole story about John Nash, I liked Ron Howard’s film a lot less.

Apart from the historical whitewashing of actual events, I didn’t quite connect to this film. It wasn’t the acting per se, but there was a certain 1990′s “this film is a character battling adversity” vibe that was all too blatant for me to enjoy. It felt dated, and not subtle. Sorry, folks. Not my favorite movie.

The Hurricane (1999)

Saturday afternoon, after we ran some necessary errands, we picked up some lunch for the road, and drove up to Augusta, NJ, to the 2011 New Jersey State Fair – Sussex County Farm and Horse Show. Namita and I went years ago when we were just a young couple, which was many years ago. Back then, it was mainly animals and exhibits, from what I can remember, and then we attended a Toby Keith concert on the fairgrounds. Like us, Toby Keith has also gone on to live a luxurious life of fame and fortune. This year, we went with kids in tow, and met up with our friends, the lovebirds, Doug & Kathy.

View from the ferris wheel - 2009 NJ Farm & Horse Show

Now, I haven’t been to a fair in a while, not since July ’09 and the ill-fated 2009 Quick Chek NJ Festival of Ballooning. That festival/fair scarred me for life, I tell you. The heat, the rain, the costs, the threat of a tornado and everyone told to evacuate to their vehicles. Running through the mud. I can feel the PTSD coming back already. The weather for this year’s NJ State Fair was originally forecasted for rain, but the weather cleared up into a beautiful day…. for a while. We got to the fair around 3pm, bought admission tickets and the first set of 20+ ride tickets. The fair was lot bigger than I remembered. This year, there was a ferris wheel, mini roller coasters, bumper cars, and much more. When did all this happen?

We walked around, ate, did our thing, saw the sights, and alternated with taking the kids on rides. The weather was pretty good, until dark rain clouds began to appear on the horizon. By 6 or 7pm, it began to lightly drizzle, and yes, my PTSD came back, but it wasn’t so bad. The food was pretty good at the fair, and the rides weren’t expensive — between 3-5 tickets for admission. I initially attempted track my calories, but I eventually gave up. One day of fair food wasn’t going to kill me, and sometimes you just need chicken-on-a-stick.

We called it a day around 8pm as we ate a late dinner under a tent while the rain fell. We parted ways with Doug & Kathy, who I believe actually had a good time bonding with the kids. We drove home in the rain, and got home around a bit after 10pm. The kids were exhausted, but they had a great time.

This week, my dad’s brother in India died. He was my father’s oldest and last living brother. Now it’s just him and his two sisters left, who also live in India. One of my nieces (well, daughter of my 1st cousin, but niece is close enough) posted pictures from the funeral on Facebook this week. It was something else to see recent pictures of my relatives, who I haven’t seen since 2004, sitting with grief etched on their faces. Everyone is older. The “kids” have grown up, and their parents have more grey hair and worn faces. I haven’t seen my relatives in seven years. I do miss them, and I don’t know when we’ll be going to India again to visit.