On Saturday night, we packed up the kids into the car, and drove to the Marakesh Restaurant in Parsippany to meet up with the gang to celebrate recent birthdays for Heidi and Pradeesh.  Others had been here before, but it was the first time for us. Marakesh serves Moroccan cuisine, which I was a little worried about.  The last time I had moroccan cuisine was at a moroccan restaurant in Rutherford NJ 7-8 years ago.  It was so bad, I had sworn off the entire cuisine.

The food here at Marakesh was much better. We were situated in these large booths around teeny-tiny tables, which was a little awkward, but maybe more authentic?  Well, when in Morocco…… (or at a Moroccan restaurant in Parsippany.) The highlight was the belly dancer, which they feature as the live entertainment every Friday and Saturday night.  She was swell. 

Pictures are already posted online, so enjoy!

Heidi dancing with Gabby the belly dancer

That was a fun-filled and busy Labor Day weekend. To summarize:

1. My wife took the kids for lunch with her parents Saturday afternoon at some new Indian restaurant, where there was a special Onam (South India / Kerala state Thanksgiving, if you must.)
2. BBQ at my friend Doug’s house Saturday afternoon up in Orange county. I brought the kids.
3. Two of my Michigan friends, Paul and Sean, were in town for the weekend for separate events.  We partied it up with my friend Doug Saturday night….. in Lodi, NJ!
4. Paul stayed over our house Saturday night.
5. Lily wouldn’t sleep Saturday night, and she was up with us (my wife had the 10pm-3:30am shift, and I ended up taking the 3:30am - 5am shift (or whenever she fell asleep on me on the couch, and I fell asleep too.) All I know is that I woke up with Lily sleeping on me at 7:41am. She was up soon after.
6. I took the kids to the pool late Sunday afternoon.  It got too cold after a while, so we went home 30 mins later.
7. I had dinner with the kids and my in-laws at the fancy-shmancy Red Lobster. 
8. Josh requested an imprompto sleepover at their house, and we obliged. I just had to get his pajamas and other stuff from home, and take them all over.  Lily stayed with me.
9. Monday was wholesale club and other shopping in the afternoon.
10. Monday night was a BBQ at my sister’s place.  We got home around 11pm.

Sometimes it was more “filled” than “fun”, but it was still an overall decent weekend.

The Captains Table restaurant in Monroe, NY

After work on Thursday, I drove up to visit my friend Doug for dinner and maybe a movie. His mother passed away about a week ago, and he needed some cheering up. I met up at his house, and we drove over to Monroe NY for dinner at The Captain’s Table.  It’s a decent hangout spot with both indoor and outdoor seating, a bar, and live music.

We BS’ed over dinner and drinks. After dinner, Doug was interested in seeing a movie, and I figured it would help cheer him up.  Also, I didn’t drive 90 mins to NY (with the expectation of driving another 90 mins home) just so that I can chat with him for an hour.

We drove down the street into downtown Monroe, and hit the Monroe 6 Cinemas.  The place was absolutely deserted.  That’s what you get for going to see a movie on a Thursday night in Monroe.  There were two people working the theater — one woman was working both the concession stand and selling tickets, while another fellow was there to run the movies and act as an usher.  Since there was no one there, the woman simply asked us what movie did we want to see. We elected to watch G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.  This was a movie that I was avoiding, but Doug wanted to see a 2nd time. We went upstairs, checked out the film projection booth (so cool!), and then spread out in the utterly empty theater. It was different to just chat and laugh loudly at the movie.  There was no one there, yet you are so conditioned to whisper. Definitely a new experience.

Oh, what did I think of the G.I. Joe movie?  This movie was a big, smelly turd. End of story. Horrible.  HORRIBLE.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009)

Vijay's birthday dinner

A group of us had plans tonight to meet up at the Macaroni Grill close to the Menlo Park mall in Menlo Park, NJ (or is it Edison NJ?)  My wife also wanted to stop by the shops in Edison beforehand.  To make these great plans happen, I had to get there. Instead of catching the bus home from NYC as usual, I used a one-way bus ticket in the AM, and I took a train from NY Penn Station in the evening to the Metropark station in Edison NJ.

It has certainly been a while since I rode NJ Transit, but it was a pleasant trip down memory lane — all those times years ago of running to Penn station, missing my train by 5 seconds, waiting another hour for the next train.   Today was one of the pleasant trips.  No running, plenty of time, and I rode in one of the new Northeast Corridor double-decker cars.

My wife picked me up at Metropark with kids in town, we hit a shop, then drove to Macaroni Grill, where everyone eventually showed up.  Kids were behaved, only one diaper that required changing, and the food was actually quite good.  I’m not a fan of Macaroni Grill, but they changed the menu, and the quality has improved. I was pleasantly surprised. The appetizers were good, my chicken parmigiana was excellent, and good wine.

It was a win for everyone.

Saturday night, we hosted our friends the Kurians on their 2nd-to-last-night of the great 2009 road trip.  We rarely ever have sleepover guests, we like them, and the kids get along together nicely, so what’s not to look forward too?

We spent the day tidying up, picking up supplies, etc.  I offered to grill up dinner and such that night, but key parts of my plan were not yet in place.

1. We didn’t have a liquid propane tank, so Josh and I picked one up during our errands Friday night.  BTW, $48 for a brand new tank?  Yeeesh.
2. We didn’t have any BBQ tools like tongs, spatulas, or a cleaning brush.  I sent my wife out to get them on Saturday, and she didn’t find any….. at ShopRite.
3. I completely ran out of time by the time they walked in our door, and never assembled the grill.  As a matter of fact, it was still sitting comfortably in cold storage in the basement.

No matter.  My wife made due that night with baking some BBQ chicken, veggies, potato salad, and we had all sorts of desserts.  Sanjay’s brother Steve even helped himself by coming over.  He might have smelled the chicken….. or the booze.

The slumber party commenced, and Sunday morning, we sent them off on full stomachs to church, and the open road back to home.  Of course, with all that prep, we didn’t actually make it to church, so we relaxed at home as a family.

Cue the “Awwwwww.”

By the time you read this, select pictures (those meeting the bare minimum of quality) should be posted online.

This past Saturday, we left ab round 9:30am for Maryland.  Our friend Barb was to be a guest at her own supposed-to-be-a-surprise baby shower, but she found out somehow.  No matter.  The plan was for the girls to go the baby shower, and I would take Josh to the National Aquarium in  Baltimore. After driving through the rain on our way down south (again!), we made it down to the Maryland area.  Since we hadn’t had any time to pick up the baby shower gift, we ended up hitting a Babies “R” Us in the immediate area, buying and wrapping the gift in record time.

After I dropped off the girls, Josh and I got some quick lunch, and then we were off to Baltimore.  I haven’t been to Baltimore in many years, but I didn’t remember the harbor area being all that built up the last time.  There were so many restaurants and big box retailers in the area.  It appeared to be a pretty happening place now.

National Aquarium in Baltimore

First off, my goodness, the aquarium is very popular and very expensive.  It was 2:30 by the time we had parked the car, and made it to the ticket window area.  There was a long line to buy tickets, and it took some time to make it to the window.  Due to the crowds, they were staggering entrance, so even if we bought tickets, we couldn’t enter until 4:30pm.  Two hours! I was worried that after spending $40 on tickets, we’d make it 5 mins into the aquarium, the baby shower would be over, and we’d have to leave.  For some reason, the ticket window agent gave us a 2:30pm entrance time, and I didn’t ask questions as I bolted with Josh to the entrance before they figured it out.

We spent about 3 hours in the aquarium, taking in and absorbing all the different exhibits, and seeing all the marine wildlife.  It’s a pretty cool aquarium, I must say. You can learn a lot, as there is much to see.  There was no way we could hit everything, so we missed events like the puffin feeding time, and definitely no time for the dolphin show.  In the middle, I decided Josh and I could use an ice cream break, and we sat and watched the boats in the harbor.

Nums & Barb after the baby shower

We left around 5:30pm, and picked up the girls.  They had a good time at the baby shower, and Lily was her usual life of the party.  We hit a Waffle House on the way back for dinner, and got home around 11pm.

Truly, a spur-of-the-moment Maryland Adventure Day.  Photos are already posted, so enjoy.

What’s up with the crazy weather this year?  It’s hot. It’s cold.  It’s beautifu.  It’s rainy and cold.  This year has been odd. It doesn’t help that the weekends go by so fast these days. We’re trying to enjoy our weekends more, and be less stressed out.  Stressed out? Yes, by trying to keep commitments to attend 101 events over 48 hours between Fridays and Mondays.

On Saturday afternoon, my sister and her husband held their annual “Spring Swing” BBQ party at their place.   We didn’t actually make it to the softball game, as most of the family took afternoon naps. By the time we made it there, it was close to 6pm.  Of course, we made it in time for the food, which is all that mattered to me.  By the time we finished cleaning up afterwards and got home, it was after midnight.  Always the sign of a good party.

On Sunday afternoon, we were supposed to picnic with friends over at Liberty State Park, but the weather didn’t cooperate.  Who wants to sit in the park on a windy day in 50 degree weather?  We moved the “picnic” to our friend Reeba’s nearby apartment. 

Last note on the weather – Memorial Day weekend is coming up, and the weather is slowly trending to good weather.  I hope the weather cooperates.  Saturday is the start of my week-long vacation, and I’m really looking forward to it!

Well, doesn’t the post title say it all? We’ve got some random photos from February, the Joshua birthday weekend celebration, and Teena’s wedding, all for your amusement.  Are you not entertained?

Weekends are no fun if you don’t have a life.  I mean, what are you going to do with your free time?  Study? Practice configuring a network router?  No no no, that’s a waste of a weekend, unless configuring a router is fun for you, then knock yourself out.

I’m rambling.  Ok, I have a life, and I had a decent weekend.  Saturday, we attended a birthday party for one of Josh’s schoolmates, who turned 4 years old.  The party was at their actual school.  In the afternoon, the kids (and my wife) took a quick nap, then we were on our way to North Jersey to hang out with friends.

Half the dinner table @ Saturday night

We had a few birthdays to celebrate, namely our friends Pradeep, Reeba, and Sona.  We were supposed to go bowling, but that did not work out.  We hung out at Pradeep & Heidi’s house, then we all met up at the Garden State Plaza mall, and ate dinner at the Grand Lux Cafe, which is no cafe — it’s a huge restaurant.  It was very reminiscent of The Cheesecake Factory, and the About Us page states that David Overton, Founder of The Cheesecake Factory brand restaurants, developed the restaurant, theme, and cuisine. I thought the food selection was large, but the food was okay.  I’d still rather go to a steakhouse for a good steak, an italian restaurant for good italian, a mexican restaurant for good mexican cuisine, etc.

On Sunday, we went to church, then went shopping for housewares.

I like the relaxing weekends.  Not stressful, no work to try to catch up on (yet), no events to attend.  Just relax, and do what you want. I published pictures from the weekend.  Enjoy.

Born January 18, 2009 at 12:55 AM weighing in at 6 pounds and 6 ounces. Congrats to Jimboy, the proud father. I’m very happy for you kids.  Now you’ve joined the zombie parent club.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimboy/3205224369/

Send me a nice pic for posting!