The Garden State

NJ is surprisingly beautiful, at least in the northwest area near Basking Ridge. There natural landscape is lush and green, and there is far more of it than I would expect. I like how they take deliberate measures to keep development from destroying the view of the trees and the grasses. Buildings are kept low to the ground and trees are maintained to camouflage the man made structures. Now, closer to Newark is a whole different Jersey!

I have taken at least a dozen flights in 2008, probably more if I really sat down and counted. Most have been on United. I can recall one of those flights that wasn't oversold. Every other flight is oversold, overbooked, and looking for volunteers to be bumped. I don't remember it ever being like this in the past. It's been a few years since I flew extensively, but 10 years ago, an oversold flight was a rarity. And it was something you kind of hoped for, especially when you had a lazy flight home, so that you might take advantage of a free first class ticket anywhere the airline flew, plus food vouchers, hotel rooms, etc. Now you're lucky if the offer is for a $200 travel voucher. Where are you going to fly for $200?? The airline industry is incredibly lame.

The River

Its pretty sad that the high point of my work day is the 15 seconds it takes me to drive across the river in the morning. I have got to find a job that doesn't suck.

Happy Birthday!

Today is my angel's birthday. She got to have cupcakes at school with her classmates who all sung happy birthday to her. For her special birthday dinner she wants to go to Chili's. I should count my blessings... Some day she is going to wants Ruth's Chris or sushi! Chili's we can afford! Happy birthday princess, daddy loves you very much.

Little League

Gavin had t-ball practice today. What a kick watching those little guys run around. Gavin looks so little in his Giants hat and cleats! It's hard to believe he is old enough for organized sports. All the parents sitting on the sidelines watching. It makes life seem so simple.

Snow Day

Today we all went up to Yuba Gap to play in the snow. My 5 year old's school has a Snow Day every year as a chance for all the families to get together and play. Usually, not that many families come, and they always seem to be the kids from other classes. This year was no exception, as I think there was only one other kid from Gavin's class. There was a ton of snow this year, and it was very deep so walking was a challenge. We all got our workout for the day. We went sledding for a while and attempted to build a snowman. All in all, a great time. We then stopped at Ikeda's on the way home for a blueberry pie. We'll be eating that some time this weekend. Can't wait. Now we are sitting out in the driveway, enjoying a beautiful late afternoon. My son is practicing riding his bike without training wheels, and learning the most important cycling skills - making skid marks. Awesome!

Billy Joel

We went to see Billy Joel in concert at Arco last night. What a great talent. I wouldn't consider myself a fan necessarily, but I do like his music. I found myself hoping he would play my favorites, most of which he did. But then I also found myself pleasantly surprised when he played one I forgot about. And there were a lot I had forgetten. He played for over two hours, and maintained a very strong voice and energetic style for the duration. I am glad that my wife "dragged" me to see him. This was her fifth time to see him live. I hope he does tour again. I'd like to see him do another show. Maybe he'll make it longer so he can squeeze in a few more of my favorites:
Say Goodbye to Hollywood
The Stranger
I Go to Extremes
Uptown Girl
Innocent Man

Jog-a-thon

So my 5 year old had a Jog-a-thon at school today, as they are learning about the heart. The teacher had them all run laps around the school parking lot, telling them to stop when they needed to, and to drink lots of water. The school had planned on alloting 25 minutes to the whole affair. Most kids stopped after a couple of laps. My son ran for the entire 25 minutes. Apparently, the teacher told them to not give up. So when she asked him why he ran for so long when all of the other kids stopped so much earlier, he said he wasn't going to give up. Such a great kid.

Mondays

I really hate traveling on Mondays, especially when I have to fly out early. I had a 610 flight today to Phoenix which meant getting up at 4. Of course, for some reason I have been stressing a lot more about making meetings and flights, which causes me to sleep lighter, more restless, and I invariably wake up early. Today I awoke at 230. I will be dragging butt all day now. So far I am only working on one small cup of coffee. I hope the headache doesn't come at least until I am at the airport this afternoon. Then it is off to another town and another meeeting.

The TV is on at the security desk and they are playing a free credit report commercial. My 5 year old loves those videos and can navigate YouTube to play them. So funny.

Hanging at home

I have to travel a little this week, two days, nothing major, but I dread having to get up early and fly. This is trivial, but I especially hate flying while wearing a suit. It is SO uncomfortable, and requires me to dry clean the suit that much more often. I should probably break down and buy a second suit soon... Today we went to Mass, had lunch at Bravo Pastaria, then went looking at homes. We walked through an open house in a 'hood that we love, but the house needs a lot of work. I fear it will be another "one that got away" and I have done that to Terelle a few times too many already. Hopefully the prices continue to drop over the next 6 months or so. It would be nice to get a little more room. So now we are just watching other people buy homes on HGTV. I also spent some time figuring out how to Twitter. I read an article on it in Inc. mag and wanted to see what it was all about. I don't fully get the appeal, but want to play with it a while and see what promise it may hold.