Blue Skies and Brews

Summer hasn't given up yet. I went down to the Central Jersey Beer Fest yesterday to sample some of the Jersey breweries finest. There was a huge turnout, probably because of the fantastic weather- 70 and not a cloud in sight.

Sun and beer. Can't get much better.

There were about a half dozen breweries showcasing 3-4 beers each. The lines got pretty long as the afternoon wore on, but I found a nice pumpkin ale from Harvest Moon Brewery and a raspberry wheat from JJ Bittings in Woodbridge, around the corner from where the festival was held. I stopped into the brewery for late lunch with my friend Justin, and then wandered around Woodridge.

I think this fire station may be out of use now. Just a hunch.

The End of Summer 09

It hit me over Labor Day- summer's ending. Where the heck did it go? I guess I did spending half of it traveling. So, to make the most of the waning summer, I:

-Went down the Delaware with my aunt and sister in sweet inflatable kayaks.

-Checked out the park across the street from work for the first time (uh, 2 years late) and found some deer behind a strip mall

I see youuuu

-Enjoyed Jersey Fresh fruits and veggies

Doesn't everyone take pictures of their beautiful local vegetables?

-Watched Penn State win the first 2 games of the season

-Saw some dear friends from Penn State, who were in town for another friend's wedding

-Went hiking in the Watchung Reservation in NJ

You almost couldn't hear the highway.

-Played golf for the first time

Let's pretend that I didn't miss the ball 6 times before this shot, and that the ball didn't kerplunk into the lake

High Point

I was home visiting family after running around Alaska, but I still had an itch to hike. Molly and I headed up to High Point State Park. High Point boasts the highest point in NJ: 1803 ft. If you go up to the top of the monument (which is almost always closed when I come to the park), you've breached the 2K mark: 2023 ft. Not quite Alaska elevations, but I'll take what I can get. I got freaked out when we stopped for a snack and heard a grunt and rustling up the trail. We turned right around after that. No signs of bears in Alaska, but I was reminded that north Jersey is BEAR COUNTRY.

Molly has conquered the red/green trail

Molly can jump over NY NJ and PA at the same time!

Clearing PA

Weekends in Jersey

I've gotta catch up here!

Memorial Day weekend was spent planting the garden and hosting a BBQ. We planted lettuce, carrots, zucchini, cucumbers, and peppers. I also planted a bunch of flowers around in the various dirt patches we have, so we'll see how everything grows! The BBQ was really nice because family and co-workers and Jonathan's sister and boyfriend came over. And I made excellent sangria :)

Last weekend was spent furniture shopping on Saturday and hiking on Sunday. We hiked Mt. Tammany in DEWA (that's the Delaware Water Gap for you non-NPSers, HAHA). It's located at the last exit in NJ on I-80 before going into PA. It was a good hike, steep and rocky (for the Northeast, anyway). The view at the top was pretty, and I think it will be absolutely beautiful in the fall.

Awwwwwww

Can you find the puppy who got in trouble by a park ranger for being off her leash?

From Girl Dog to an It

Tuesday, 5-month-old Cade was taken up to the vet my mom uses in NY to get spayed. Surgery went well, and she came home a little groggy. Wednesday morning she was back to her old self. Less than 24 hrs after surgery. I was completely amazed. She's not supposed to be overactive for the next week, and it's taking real effort to keep her calm. Can you imagine having some major internal organs ripped out, and then going back to whatever it is you do in a normal day...the very next day, with no pain pills? Dogs are amazing.

Jonathan was calling her a shim, but there's no him part. So now she's a sh-it.

Lazy Weekend

A lazy weekend for us in NJ. Friday evening we took Cade to the dog park, and she got a little braver since the last time we went. She actually chased around lab puppy named Hamlet that was her size.


Saturday we found a path to the grocery store. This is exciting because it takes about 10 minutes to drive about 2 miles to ShopRite because of the Jersey can't-make-a-left. I took some more flower pictures. We have 2 lilac bushes, which makes me extremely happy.





We looked at bikes (c'mon, rebate check!), and went to a mall, where we bought nothing. We tried, but I got depressed. High prices for clothing + less-fit body = sadness. Again, c'mon rebate check, I want a bike!!


Today we went to the southern most edge of Palisades Park. It's a path along a big rock outcropping on the Jersey side of the Hudson River, running from Fort Lee (George Washington Bridge) to the NY/NJ border. The views of Manhattan weren't so great today, because it was cloudy, but it was a decent walk. Don't think we'll be going back though, because I picked 7 8 ticks off of Cade. I hope this isn't foreboding of the trouncing in the woods to come this summer. We put Frontline on her, and she has her Lyme vaccine, so she should be ok if the do ticks latch on.

Happy Earth Day

Yes, Earth Day was on Tuesday. Cheesy and cliche as it is, Earth Day is every day. I'll be posting more often about earthy, green things. It's become a greater part of my life than ever before.

I might as well have an "I'm a nerd" banner in my front yard

Can you find the sign of nerdiness? It's a rain gauge! I've been logging my rainfall to CoCoRaHS since the beginning of the month. I'll add the data to here at some point. Another thing on the to-do list.

In other news, Jonathan and I like free things. A lot. Some things we've saved from the trash/curb include

• 3-pocket laundry basket
• Dresser
• Nightstand
• Set of 4 lawn chairs
• Shelving unit for the top of the desk
• 5 Wooden pallets for the compost pile

This doesn't include all of the furniture and stuff we've received from our families. I like free stuff because it doesn't cost money, and it's a way to reuse stuff before it heads to a landfill. Jonathan likes it for the former reason and could care less about the latter. He just shakes his head or plain laughs at me for some of my environmental initiatives. But that's another post.

Am I an old lady?

I don't really think I'm an old lady, but I'm starting to have hobbies that aren't school. Or work. And it's pretty nice. I started a compost bin in the backyard. I don't really care about the compost that comes out of it in terms of gardening. I'm using it as an environmentally friendly way to get rid of some of our garbage. Basically, any organic material can be thrown into it (not dairy or meat, so animals aren't attracted to it), and nice soil comes out, instead of being thrown into a landfill, where it may or may not decompose.

On the gardening note, I started my seeds today. I planted a bunch of flowers, and for the first time, some vegetables. Pretty excited for that.

Jonathan, Cade and I are exploring the county, state and national parks of Morris County. We've been to Pyramid Mountain, Tourne Park, and Jockey Hollow. Everything's still dead here, but the first 2 parks have views of NY at the top (30 miles away). It will be much prettier once it gets green.

While writing this, I found out I'm getting a pretty nice chunk of change back from my taxes, so a new bike + paying off most of one of my smaller loans will be in order when that comes in :)

I'll leave you with 2 pictures of Cade, and the hope that I'll update this more often.

Panting after playing with Lady Easter weekend in Hazleton

Stalking Jonathan at Jockey Hollow

Growing...

It's amazing watching anything grow. Even planting seeds and waiting for them to sprout is really cool to me. Watching someone that has an a-ha moment is also really neat. So, watching a little puppy grow up in front of me is pretty darn cool.

Visiting the grand(puppy)parents in Hazleton and making it down the stairs for Lady's bone

Cade visited the other set of grandparents this weekend in Hazleton. Jonathan's parents' dog was not happy to share the house with Cade. Once Cade is older, Lady might like her a little better. Right now, she's the annoying little sister.

Jonathan is teaching her how to sit (among other things). She sometimes comes when she's called. She likes eating the million acorns on the ground and chasing us around the yard. Cade has already lost the "slow stalk" of last week. She would fall over herself trying to sneak up on a toy. Now, she just charges it (when she moves for it). She actually follows the toy with her eyes now. She didn't do that before. I'll stop gushing about the puppy now, but it's really cool to watch her learn. I won't see her for 2 weeks while I'm in London, and she'll probably be twice the size and even smarter.

Meet Cade

On Saturday, Jonathan and I added a new member to the household. Meet Cade!

We adopted Cade from Purrs 'n Pups at the Rockaway PetSmart last weekend. She came from a shelter in Georgia with her brothers and sisters to Purrs 'n Pups, which operates as a rescue league as a network of foster families. She was the last female available of the bunch, and she had a given name of Cleopatra. We didn't like the name, so we chose Cade after 2 days of name deliberations. Her namesake, Cades Cove, is located in the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee. It's a place that Jonathan and I have visited together, but Cades Cove doesn't have any particular significance to us. We thought Cade was a cool name, especially after I found out that a (male) character in Gone with the Wind (set in Georgia) also had the name.

Cade met my mom and Molly, and my grandma, dad, and Scyler. She also met my grandma's neighbor-dog, Amber.

Cade's been scampering around the house, escaping from the barriers we've set up for her. The only damage done so far has been pieces of a plant, and my camera cord. Obviously, I won't be uploading new photos till I get a new one. Hopefully she won't escape from the crate that Jonathan's parents bought for her!

Come and knock on our door...

We ushered in 2008 with four days/nights of guests. On New Year's Eve, I worked until 1:30 and came back to the house to ring in the new year with Renee and Sara. They came down from PJ and we watched fireworks at midnight (in a random parking lot in Morristown...) after playing the Wii and board games earlier in the evening.

Molly and her roommate Rachel from Rockaway came on Thursday to visit. They also played some Wii and hung out for a while.

Friday Jonathan and I hosted a party for a bunch of my co-workers. A set of them will so be permanently based in California after going back and forth between NJ and CA for the past couple months, so I wanted to have them over so the could enjoy the hot tub. It was a fun, slightly raucous party. I can't wait till the summer so we can host a barbeque.

Yesterday, both Molly and my mom had the day off, so they came down to visit. We walked around the neighborhood and went to 2 open houses around the block. We saw this one, which, yes is as tiny and as overpriced as it looks. We also looked at a $600k house that was only 2 years old and already pretty beaten up, plus the basement and garage were unfinished. We're obviously not looking for a house right now for real...it's just fun to look and laugh. I can't believe the prices around here.

It was 60 degrees today, and it will be a few degrees warmer tomorrow. Where the heck is winter? I want more snow!!!

I probably won't write in here until I get back from RMS Boot Camp at the main office in California, so I want to wish Julie well on her trip up to Alaska. I will miss my best buddy, but I'm working on my spaceship to take a visit up there!

Me pretending I'm in Alaska with Julie

Ooooooh, it's wicked

Surprise! A weather related post. I was cruising around the internet this morning, and checked out the CoCoRaHS website. And LOOK, New Jersey is PENDING!!

CoCoRaHS is a non-profit org based out of Colorado State. It's a collection of weather observers across the country. I helped spread the program in Pennsylvania during my first summer at the Climate Office. I immediately emailed the national coordinator and asked him to pass my info along to the NJ Climate Office. I'm really excited! I hope I can get involved as a county coordinator.

Jonathan left me last week for Charlotte, NC and Knoxville to visit grad school friends. I was left to paint the trim in the house. Once we put up Christmas decorations (I KNOW it's much later than usual, but I want all the painting done first), I'll give a room by room tour of the house.

Other than that, the weather feels like winter here. We got 2 inches of pretty, fluffy snow yesterday. Mostly gone today after the freezing rain overnight. Today it was WINDY, my car was blowing all over the road on the ride home.

Time for Chuck! If you haven't watched it yet, catch up on old episodes on NBC. It's pretty good!