The wedding reception was small, intimate, and very nice. That’s all I can really say. Oh, and congratulations Jay and Aimee!

Jay & Aimee's Wedding, July 31st 2010

1. May 2010 photos — these have been available, but no link. How did I miss that?
2. June 2010 photos — Joshua’s graduation to kindergarten (and the kids’ Spring Sing concert), and my sister Julie’s surprise 30th birthday party.
3. July 2010 photos — July 4th BBQ party at our house, and Ashley & Liza’s wedding reception.

Joshua's graduation

Sibi & Ruby's wedding

Halloooo, Memorial Day weekend! A three day weekend to relax and unwind, and attend a wedding. Sibi and I used to go to church together for many years, from when I was in junior high school through a portion of college. In the middle of my college years, the church itself closed up, and he and I went to separate churches. In the intervening years, he’s gone on to medical school and became an anesthesiologist. Dr. Sibi John? Who would have known? We had very intermittent contact these past 10 years, so I was suprised to learn he was getting married, and I was invited. I’m not one to turn down an invitation to a party, so we were in it to win it.

On Saturday, we bathed our two rugrats, dressed ‘em up, and made our way to Long Island for Sibi & Ruby’s wedding. One of the things I dislike in life is making my way to Long Island. The place is a driver’s nightmare if you can’t stand being stuck in traffic. We hit traffic approaching the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, specifically the left-hand side going to the upper level. Noting the right lane was slowly moving (towards the lower level) and fearful of being stuck, and seeing one paramedic SUV head up on the shoulder, I said screw it, and made a bold move. I drove sideways across bridge traffic, through cars and traffic cones, and made my way into the lower level. What a good crazy decision that was, as we saw people standing and waiting on the upper level. I don’t know what happened, nor did I care. I didn’t want to get stuck on a bridge with two kids in the car.

Watching the wedding on live TV

We made the wedding, but the church was packed. We watched via live video in the adjacent fellowship hall. I didn’t mind since you had a better view, and the hall was air-conditioned. That’s a no-brainer in my book. We saw a lot of old friends that we hadn’t seen in a while too, which was nice. The wedding reception was at the fancy Villa Lombardi’s in Holbrook, NY. What I found to be a funny coincidence was that two of my friends, Nehal and Meghal, who DJ’d our wedding in 2003, were providing entertainment for this wedding too. Imagine our surprise, and when I went up to them, they were surprised to see us as well.

So, to wrap up, good time for everyone. It was certainly a long day. By 10pm or so, we got the car, changed the kids in the restrooms to the pajamas, brushed their teeth, and bundled them up in the car for the long ride home. We got home after midnight, but at least there was no traffic back to NJ. Best of all, a nice new family portrait.

Ipe Family - May 2010

Party at our house	Catered dinner
Plexy & Sheba	Lesh & Lily play Pictionary

We don’t have a lot of people over very often, and always forget how much work goes into hosting a party. It’s not easy to get the house all clean and spiffy (our kids certainly don’t help), and there’s a lot to do! After some of the guests started to arrive, I drafted Vijay and Sunil to accompany me for a liquor and grocery store run. Later, I made a separate run to pick up dinner.

Apart from the leftover tasks that we had after guests started arriving, our friends helped out with some stuff, and everything else fell into place. The weather was great, the house was nicely decorated, most people could make it, and the food was delicious. Along with the great dinner party conversation and tasty food, we all played Pictionary for entertainment. I think the party broke up around 12:30am, so I think it went extremely well. Photos are posted for your amusement. We should have people over more often.

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

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.

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.

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.