Saturday night, we drove to Philadelphia for my sister’s surprise 30th birthday party. First we dropped off the kids to my sister-in-laws’ for the evening, then we went to pick up the delicious (and lactose-free) cake, and then drove to Philly. The plan was for everyone to meet up at The Mexican Post restaurant at 6:30pm, decorate and get ready. Robbie would bring Julie to meet with Nums and myself for a birthday/anniversary dinner. Julie kinda knew something was going on, but I think she was still surprised when 35 family and friends jumped out screaming at her.

It was a nice venue, and good dinner too. Robbie and his sister Kitty organized a trivia game around Julie’s favorite shows, movies, book series, candy bars, and there were prizes for each winning team. Each prize was related to one my sister’s favorites like Wawa coffee and stuff. My sister and I both like Star TrekGeneration, so I grabbed a tiny replica of the NCC-1701 Enterprise (refit of course!). The Enterprise is currently adorning my cubicle with my Capt. James Kirk figure.

The Enterprise now adorns my lowly cubicle.

Nerds! I’m behind on publishing photos, but I’ll post the pictures in the next few days.

Julie & I

Sometime in the afternoon, I had a change of heart. It was my birthday, and the diner wasn’t feeling very celebratory. On second thought, I changed my mind that a nice dinner at Outback Steakhouse would be a better place. I thought it was my idea, but then I found out my wife had somehow used the Jedi mind trick on me.

While we’re waiting to be seated at Outback, my sister and her husband showed up. Turns out, surprise! My wife had decided on a birthday dinner at Outback days earlier and invited my sister and BIL too. I was very surprised. How did my wife pull the ol’ Jedi mind trick on me?

In regards to dinner, it was nice. Factoid: Thursday marked five years to the day that my wife and I had been to an Outback Steakhouse. The last time she and I had gone was to celebrate my 29th birthday in 2005 a month after Joshua was born [see the April 24 2005 entry.] I remember because our friend Lesh was nice enough to volunteer to watch Joshua for the evening, so that we could go have a nice dinner. Five years later, we celebrate my 34th birthday. Funny, I say. Funny.

Josh as Spiderman

One busy Halloween.  I spent most of the previous night up  uploading photos and trying to get my Adobe Premiere Elements software to recognize my camcorder (“Y’all better recognize!”), which hasn’t worked in a long while.  Still not luck today, even with a fresh install of Windows 7.  What the heck is going on?

I took Josh to another birthday party — the 2nd party this week, and there’s one more coming up Sunday. Since it was Halloween, it was a Halloween-themed party. Josh had a 2nd costume that we broke out for him — Spiderman. Kids these days — two costumes for Halloween?!?

What I liked about today’s birthday was the simplicity.  All of the birthday parties these days feel like large events, like renting a gym.  When I was younger, we just hung out at the basement, and we ate White Castle. This party was at a VFW hall, and the kids played games like musical chairs, Pin the Parts on the Mummy”, Hot Potato (or “Hot Gourd”), etc.  Traditional, and I liked it. Kids don’t always need all that fancy stuff. It felt refreshing.

My BIL is a scarecrow

After a short break at home, we made the trip to see my sister down south.  My BIL and sister were taking the kids trick or treating, and we would…. uh, hang out. Not much to comment on, except folks down there are really into Halloween.  House after house was decorated to the 9′s, and lots of trick or treating kiddies and teenagers. Kinda reminded me of my old neighborhood.

Nothing too fancy.  We watched Young Frankenstein while they went trick or treating.  After they came back, my sister cooked an excellent dinner, as well as baked cookies.  When did she start cooking so well? I think we got out of there after 10:30pm, got home uneventfully, and dropped the kids into bed.

I think we should do something more for Halloween next year. I’ve forgotten how fun it can be.

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.

Last Sunday, we met up with my sister and BIL at the 2009 Quickchek Balloon Festival.  Officially, it was the 27th Annual Quick Chek New Jersey Festival of Ballooning, but I shall refer to it as “the balloon festival.” Maybe it was the 11-year-old in me, but I was imagining a big festival with 50 or more hot air balloons, festival attendees gawking, going up on rides, chocolate lamp posts, and rose-colored glasses and fried dough for everyone.  Not quite what I was expecting.

1. It was $25 per ticket for adults, and $10 for kids 4 and over.  That only included admission to the festival grounds at the Thor Solberg airport in Readington, NJ.  All the festival food and activities were at normal price-gouging levels.
2. There were so many people, we ended up parking on a grassy field that was extremely muddy.  Try pushing two strollers through the squishy mud.
3. It was hot.  It was so hot, the sun was beating down like it was the desert.  The sweat was dripping so much into our eyes, it burned.
4. There was no place to sit that wasn’t crowded.
5. Did I mention the price-gouging?
6. There were no balloons!  That’s right, no balloons.  They are only inflated at 6:30am and again at 6:30pm.

I had hoped to see some balloons, so we did what we could to pass the time. We waited on lines for freebies from PNC Bank and QuickChek. We took Josh on some kiddie rides.  Around 5pm, a heavy thunderstorm came into the area.  We’re talking rain, lots of lightning, and high winds.  I got separated from everyone, and then the wind and rain really hit.  Festival organizers recommended to folks to head to the safety of their cars around the same time a tent blew down.

A hot air balloon at the Quick Chek Balloon Festival

Somehow, we made it all back to our car, and the storm finally passed.  However, we were pretty beat, and weren’t waiting around any more hours for the balloons, so we hightailed it out of there.  We met up at a nearby diner for dinner and to decompress.

Would we do it again next year?  I have no clue.

Robbie & Joshua at the Please Touch Museum

In the morning, we got them ready, and off we went.  First I took the kids to Dunkin Donuts to get some donuts to go.  I didn’t want to unstrap the kids, so I opted for my first ever trip through the drive-thru.  Dunkin Donuts is currently running a promotion for 6 donuts for just $3.  Sounds nice, but you know what? I don’t want 6 donuts, I just want 3 donuts.  I’m sitting at the drive-thru, no menu of all the donuts to choose from, and the guy tries to convince me to get a half-dozen, as it’s the same price.  I figure what the hell, sure.  I start trying to rattle off a few types that I could remember, and they don’t have it.  What’s the point if they didn’t have any selection today?  I ended up getting the ONLY two glazed they had, one boston creme, and three chocoloate donuts.  We ate in the car, and Josh was covered in chocolate crumbs.

We met up with my sister and her husband at their place, and I drove the five of us to Philly.  The museum was very nice, and certainly a higher quality than the Garden State Discovery Museum in Cherry Hill we visited a while back. Lots of exhibits for the kids to see and interact with.  We had lunch around 2:30pm, and wrapped up around 5pm.  We’ll have to go back sometime.

We hired a clown for his party	Nums & Joshua
That's a big dosa for a big boy.

My son’s birthday is this weekend.  I’m not sure how it happened, we are celebrating it over the course of the entire weekend.  On Friday, we had a party with cake, clown, grab bags, balloons and everything else in his classroom Friday afternoon.  In the evening, we went out for shopping in Edison, and dinner at Bombay Talk (hmmm, dosa.)

He's comes for the popcorn, but stays for the circus.

On Saturday, my sister and her husband came over early in the morning to babysit our daughter.  Josh, my wife, and I drove to the Prudential Center to see Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus perform.  We bought tickets way back in December, and have been waiting all this time to surprise Joshua.  He was pretty excited.  I still remember back in 1985 (or 1986?) when my parents took my sister and I to see the Ringling Bros. circus perform at Madison Square Garden.  I think the souvenir pennant is still somewhere in a box  at my parents’ house.  We’ve come full circle, as I took my son to see the same circus.

Apart from the pricey concessions ($12 for cotton candy?), it was a great show.  We even got there in time to catch the end of the All Access Pre-Show down on the floor.  Joshua’s favorite part of the show were the tigers.  The Prudential Center is brand new and very nice.  I’d love to go back there.

Pictures will be up Monday.  We’ve got a fun-filled weekend, so I don’t think I’ll be uploading for another day or two.

My sister and brother-in-law hung out the rest of the day with us, and stayed for dinner too.  It was a really nice afternoon evening, chatting, playing at the playground, and enjoying the balmy 70-degree weather.

This morning, we did some driving around Central Jersey, buying clothes for the kids — they’re quicky growing out of their current wardrobe. We had a nice lunch together at a McDonald’s in Bridgewater, believe it or not.  Strange as it may sound, we all sat together, ate lunch, and felt no pressure to hurry off to the next task.  You could almost call it “quality family time.”

In the evening, we went to the aforementioned housewarming at my sister’s place.

I do have a soft spot in my heart for Blizzard games like the Starcraft/Warcraft/Diablo franchises.  Excellent gameplay, great music, fun stories.  I remember many a late night I was playing the original Diablo at home, with the spooky music, and the even spookier screaming-in-agony voices you would hear in the background.  It was only a game, but you had to think twice before turning the corner, or wondering what was waiting for you behind the door.

This morning, I took Joshua to his Saturday morning gym class.  Afterwards, we all met up with my sister and her husband to visit our pastor at the church in preparations for the baptism next month.  We later got lunch at a diner in Princeton, where I finally had a decent pastrami sandwich in NJ.  Now, if they could just stuff more pastrami in the actual sandwich, I’d be happy.

Speaking of food, a London restaurant was serving up Thursday what it hopes will be confirmed as the world’s hottest curry, with even the chef admitting it is “too extreme” to keep on the menu. Vivek Singh at The Cinnamon Club grabbed some of the hottest chilli peppers known to man to create the Bollywood Burner, a lamb-based dish with a fierce kick. The curry is so hot that diners are asked to sign a disclaimer confirming they are aware of the risks involved before daring to eat it.

It reminds me of the time in April 2006 when I was on a business trip to Toronto, CA, and I had spicy chicken vindaloo and naan for dinner one night.  The vindaloo was so spicy, I spent the entire dinner dipping my naan into the curry, eating it, then drinking water to cool my mouth down.  Gosh, that was a good dinner.