here comes the bunny

The bunny is coming. Tomorrow is Easter Sunday. Wow,Easter is early this year. It just kind of happened. It still feels like winter. Especially today and yesterday. It got cold again. Today was really cold. It felt like February. It was in the low 40’s. Not much sun, mostly cloudy. I did not even realize that it was Easter until Thursday. I saw it on the calender.

Tonight I went to the mall area around dinner time. I first went to the dollar store on Olden ave. I got Sara some grass for her Easter basket, some bunny ears, a lighted bunny face, plastic eggs. At target I got Sara some playdough eggs, some empty eggs, some candy kit kats and orange hershey kisses. I had already gotten her some things like a Hello Kitty easter basket and some stuff animals. I got her a Hello Kitty bag at Claires and I got her a stuffed bunny at American Greetings. She told me about a big bunny there but it was not there when I checked so I got the smaller one. Anyway, after shopping I went to meet Sara at the birthday party that she went to. It was on Rt.33 in Hamilton. It was at a baseball place. ‘Diamond Baseball’ or something. It was ok, Sara had fun playing indoor baseball and she was really cute and happy. They played wiffle ball and Sara got up to the plate twice. She hit the ball on the first pitch. Genie and I were really having a great time watching her. After the party we were in the paking lot and Sara and I decided to go to the Mall. Sara wanted to go to the dollar store because she had three dollars. We rode to the mall down Quakerbridge road. We were listening to Kirsty ‘Soho Square’ and ‘Titanic Days’. Sara found some easter stickers at the dollar store. We then were walking around and Sara went to ‘Build a Bear’. She was looking at ‘Mumbles’ the penguin in the window and I told her that she could have her Easter present if she wanted it. She said ‘But they will be closed tomorrow so we have to do it now’ I said ‘Yes, let’s do it’.

We went into the Build A Bear and Sara picked out her Mumbles bear. Recently Sara did good at school and I told her that I owed her something. Plus, it was her Easter present.. so I told her to get whatever she wanted for the bear. She went for it and I let her do it. She got the bear, a stroller, three shirts, a pin set, a flag, pants, and probably something else. Grand total $83. She was really, really happy. On the way home we listened to Kirsty again, Soho Square twice and the opening song from the Titanic Days CD. Sara was singing ‘Soho Square’, she knows it pretty well.

One expensive bear, one bunny coming tonight, one really happy duck.

I just talked to Sara, she is home now. She says the bear is great and she is strolling him around the house.

good friday

It was good Friday. A lot of people left work early or took off. I left at 2pm. I came home and did stuff around here until around dinner time. At first Sara did not want to leave the house, but then she decided that she wanted to visit me. We got some Chinese food and we went to Hollywood video. Sara could not find anything to rent at Hollywood video, so (to her credit) she left without a video. So we watched  ‘The Birth Of Studio Ghibli’ documentary from the ‘Nausicaa’ DVD. I wanted to watch ‘Nausicaa’ but Sara wanted the documentary. Sara went home happy.

towtrucks and ihop

Thursday night I went to Dave’s brothers house out in Hopewell. I was leaving at around 10pm and my car would not start. I tried it a few times and it became obvious that it was not going to start. I figured it was the starter. Luckily Johnny was coming over to the house and I got a ride home with him. I got home late and I was tired. Friday I had to arrange to get my car to the repair shop.

Genie had off from work Friday and she has a AAA membership. We went to Hopewell and eventually the AAA tow came. It was not easy to get the car out of the driveway but eventually it got towed to Flemington Nissan on Rt. 202.
I brought it to Flemington because it was the closest to tow to by far. I brought my camera and took some pictures while waiting for my car (Genie and I took pictures of each other against the red shed with the Chickens in it. It took a big chunk of Friday to deal with all that. Sara came home from school Friday and Genie brought her over to my house. I actually can’t remember too well what we did. We played some pinball (it was really warm on Friday). I can’t remember if we got food or not.

Saturday I stayed in Ewing with no car. Genie worked late so I did not see her and Sara.

Sunday Genie had off and her and Sara came over in the early afternoon. I had been thinking about IHOP for a while. I had not gone to IHOP since I was a teenager (to the best of my memory). When I was sixteen years old I worked as a busboy/dishwasher at IHOP. It was my first job. I sometimes worked the midnight shift on weekends. I don’t think it stays open all night anymore. Back in the day it did and I met all kinds of interesting people (many people came in drunk after bar closing) at IHOP in the middle of the night. Not to mention the cooks and waitresses who worked there who were older than us (Kevin worked there also).

I used to go into IHOP with my parents also, when I was a kid. My memories of IHOP are from those two things. I grew up with an IHOP on my block. I have seen that IHOP everyday for many years. I don’t know why I stopped going in there, but probably because I had other options and I never really wanted to spend the money on pancakes. For some reason, I just never go in there. Maybe I was avoiding the memories of my childhood. Maybe I saw too much gross stuff when I worked there. Whatever the reason, I did not go in there for years and years. Something made me want to go to IHOP.
So Sunday I took Genie and Sara to IHOP. We went in the afternoon. It was wild to be in there again. The layout is basically the same. The register is on the other side. It brought back many memories for sure.
I had pigs in the blanket, Genie had a ‘cinnabon’ pancake meal and Sara had the ‘Silver Five’ (five silver dollar pancakes). We had fun and it was really special to me. It was special because now I am grown with my own family eating at IHOP like I did when I was a kid with my parents. I can remember when I used to be a kid and I used to get the smiley face pancake meal (happy face?). So we left IHOP and went to Hollywood Video (Sara got ‘Honey I blew up the kid’). We went to the supermarket and got some snacks, etc.. and then went home and watched the movie. Later on we got a pizza but we were still kind of full from IHOP so we did not eat half of it.

Monday not much happened. It was really nice outside and Genie and Sara stayed home. At about 5pm I was hanging out around the house and thinking that I wanted them to come over, it was so nice outside. But it was too late for them to come. I just hung out for the most part. Johnny came over at night for a while to hang out. We went to 7-11 and got some junk food.

Tuesday Genie took Sara to the eye doctor in the afternoon. Then around diner time we went to Flemington and got my car. I brought my Nikon camera in the car with me and Sara used it on the way to the car to take pictures out the window.
We stopped at ‘Chengs’ Chinese restaurant on the way home in Pennington on rt. 31. We had fun, it was nice. Sara gave me a nice hug in the restaurant because we were saying goodbye. We each went home from there.

Today was Wednesday and I went back to work. It was colder today and raining. The colors on the trees are beginning to happen. I can see some of the pink bushes blooming also. I did not do much today after work. But I am setting up ’slideshow pro’ which I just purchased on Friday.

dude, it’s like getting warm or something

yes, it’s warming up outside. It was warm today, but a bit breezy at times. The two days before that were warm in the middle of the day. Tuesday it was in the upper 60’s. By now it’s back to the 50’s.

I am going to try to do my best keeping up on this blog. But my other creative life is taking over.
I have been focusing on getting my creative and technological side back to where it needs to be.

I just talked to Sara on the phone. She wants to know when we can go back to NYC. I told her in a few weeks we can go. She said ‘But that will be after the terribleness of my braces’. I told her not to worry. She sounded happy.

I started a new habit of staying up late. I tried sleeping early for a few months and it was good but I was losing too much time away from my goals.

Hey, I am not sure if I will have the energy to write as much here in the coming months.  I am starting a music blog and a tech/photo/web blog. This blog has it’s place for me. To document my memories for me, so I can look back. So I want to try to keep it going.

weekend in late march

Late March is a great time. Things are starting to come alive and the temperature is starting to rise.

Friday. Stayed home after work. Sara went to the movies (Teenage Turtles). I watched Stranger Than Fiction. Recieved Kirsty Maccoll – Kite.

Saturday. The Last Mimzy Chinese food. Family Ties. Full House. Not cold, not warm.

Sunday. Panera, to park, to pizza .. I watched Little Miss Sunshine.

a warm night with some drizzle

Last night I went to Target and the bank after work. It was really warm. I had the windows down in the car. It felt like the first day of actual spring. It was actually hot in the car when I got in after work.
I went home and was doing some basic things. I watched an episode of family ties (season 1, disc 2) and I was doing some computer stuff when the phone rang. It was Sara and Genie and they had gone to get more medicine for Sara at the pharmacy in Lawrenceville. Sara said she wanted me to come out, so I did. I met them in back of the Dunkin Donuts on rt.206. Then we went across the street to the pharmacy. We walked over and it was warm. I was just getting a little bit dark so it was around 6:45 or so. The eye drops for Sara were around $85. Sara’s medicine and doctor visits are expensive.

After we left the pharmacy we went over to the little play area / park area in Lawrenceville (by the school, off of 206) and we played outside. It started to drizzle when we first arrived and it kept drizzling the whole time. It was our first outdoor playtime since last year and it really felt like the beginning of spring.
I chased her around and she chased me. It was great. The great duck made an appearance and Sara was happy to play with him. The great duck did not like going down the wet slides but he did anyway and his jeans got wet in the bottom.
I said goodbye at the playground and we drove home. I stopped and got gas and then when I got home I drifted away to sleep pretty early. I have not been staying up late. I have been getting a lot of sleep over the last few weeks. I need to sleep less and get more done. I called Sara from home and she was home safe and she sounded happy.

It was a nice time, even though it was short. It was the first time on the outdoor playsets this year and the first time spent outside playing. So that was really cool. It was really brief, but a glimpse of spring. There is always that first couple of times in the spring of getting outside.. it’s a great feeling.

Today is Friday and I am at work and the day is taking a long time to finish. I have two more hours to go and I just want it to pass by quickly. I want to go home. I watched more Family Ties today on youtube. It was the final episode in which Alex leaves home. It was from 1989. I wonder how many episodes they did. I will check google now.

uhm, it’s march

Yesterday I came home from work and just did stuff around the house. I called Genie and Sara and they were on their way back from the eye doctor. Sara started to get a red thing in her eye Monday night.
Yesterday (Tue) it had gotten bad and Genie took her to the eye doctor. When I called they were on their way back and Genie was stressed over the whole thing. I feel bad about all this also. Sara has been having a lot of issues between her eyes, congestion, teeth, ears . . etc.
I wonder if she is having more problems than normal or if all kids have a bunch of issues like this? I think she has more than usual. I don’t remember having to go through all this as a kid. So, after talking to them on the phone I decided to meet them at the pharmacy in Lawrenceville. I gave Genie money for the perscription ($75 eye drops) and I was hanging out with Sara in the pharmacy.
I hate the idea that Sara has to take any medicine, even eye drops. So we were looking at all the nick nacks in the pharmacy and Sara was showing me some books in ‘the aisle I always go to when I’m waiting for my medicine’. We had some fun in the parking lot and ‘the great duck’ made an appearance. Sara was really happy. The doctor said that if the red thing does not go away in six months then they would need to cut it out.
I really hope it goes away. I don’t want any operations on Sara. Sara did not seem to let it bother her at all about the red thing. She was just happy, happy, happy. She was jumping up and down. When we got outside of the pharmacy, Sara asked me ‘Is this the end?’ (meaning the end of my very short visit). I said yes.. then it became a joke ‘oh no, not the end’ when she was closing the car door to leave.
Anyway, It was of course the highlight of my day. The rest of the day was mostly at work or at home on the computer. I did watch two episodes of the Simpsons also, from season nine.. they were just ok. But one joke had me rolling were the village people are singing on the navy submarine (to kick off a mission) and sub submerges and you see the headgear of the village people floating. That made me laugh for five minutes.

I drifted off to sleep earlier than I had planned. I got a good night sleep however. For the last two weeks I have been trying to do very little. I just figured I would not do a lot for two weeks and catch up on sleep and then really try to get a lot done to prepare for the change of season.
Well, Monday was two weeks and now I am having a hard time getting going. I will try to pick up the momentum tonight.

Last night was Wednesday night and it was pretty uneventful. I watched a disc of south park episodes (5 episodes from season 8). I only watched four episodes, they were funny. Dave Wheeler came over and we hooked up his system to my fios so he could see how his game played with faster internet. I am getting the 5Mps bandwidth with fios.
He brought his hard drive filled with movies. I did not want much but I took Borat and Beer League from him. I organized around home and in general got some stuff done. Not enough got done however, I slept early as usual. This morning I got up at 5am but I did not leave the house until 6:30. I don’t know where the time went, it did not seem like I did much but I guess I cleaned up some things at home.

Today is Thursday 3/22. It got about ten degrees warmer today than any day yet this year. It is in the mid 60’s. I am at work right now and it’s about 3pm. I took a walk outside about a half hour ago and it was really nice. Warm and clear. It felt good to walk again. I have not been walking for over three months, so today I am officially walking again.

the last sign of snow for the season

Friday night it took a long time to get home. It was icy on 295 and most cars were doing less than 40 MPH. It ended up snowing pretty good on Friday. It was more like hail/ice/snow. It was coming down Friday pretty much all day in a slow drizzle. It started to really accumulate overnight so Saturday morning there was a good amount.
I stopped at the Chinese place near me on the way home Friday. I knew I just needed dinner and that would be fine to hold me until then next day. It had taken over an hour to get home after stopping for gas and then the slow drive in the ice.
I watched some ‘Family Ties’ and talked to Sara on the phone. I was just doing normal stuff around the house mostly this weekend. I did not venture too far because of the weather. It was a great weekend to stay inside.
I had a good time just hanging around the house. Friday I slept pretty early, I was tired from the week (the show Tuesday, and then never really catching up on sleep during the week).
Saturday morning I did stuff around the house in the morning and then started to shovel the snow at around 10am. I was shoveling for a couple of hours and by the time I was done and showered it was late afternoon.

Sara had girl scouts from 12 until 3pm. So we talked on the phone and decided that the roads were too bad to really do much together. I ended up getting a chicken parm dinner from pizza city. I watched some ‘Lucky Louie’ and ate my food.
I did not go anywhere else. I woke up much later, around midnight and went out to 7-11 for a fruit drink. I was up for a while in the middle of the night. Sunday was a morning of working around the house. I cleaned the bathroom and some other things. I was on the computer a lot. Sara came over in the afternoon around 2pm and we decided to get a pizza. We ate around 3 or 3:30pm and I ate too much pizza. Sara was watching ‘fosters’ and then we were watching some movie on ‘watch now’ from netflix. We went out again to Shop Rite. I got water, and some yogurt and milk and cereal. Sara got cereal (honey comb), and go-gurt (portable yogurt) and some other stuff. She also got a hello kitty balloon and (earlier at rite aid) she got a ‘peep’ plastic chick for Easter.

We went home and ate ice cream and yogurt in front of the tv/computer. Sara was very happy. Laughing, joking and being perfect. The day ended as it got close to 6pm. Genie wanted to get Sara home to take a shower and get ready for school the next day. Before Sara left she was playing her fosters online game (cartoonetwork.com) and we were playing Utada United in the background. After Sara left I watched more of United and then I was watching the Simpsons (season 9). I was loving it. I felt really happy. Just being at home and watching TV, eating cereal.. just hanging out and energized from being with Sara. I was really happy. I fell asleep on the couch and I woke up at some point and then went to sleep in the bed.

march is rocking

Last week just kind of cruised by. I was looking back on my old photos and stuff on the computer and trying to relate to past times of around late 2005. I could only relate to some of it. I have changed since then and this week I was kind of relecting on that.

Mostly a quiet week. Sara came over on Tuesday to get her Fosters Season 1 DVD. She was really really happy to get it. She watched some at my house but she could not stay long. Wednesday through Friday were largely uneventful. I was able to go onto the back porch area a few times. It was warm in little patches.

Saturday Sara and Genie were at the library when I called them in the early afternoon.
By the time I went there to meet them they were done and they met me outside at my car when I pulled up.
It was around 1pm or so. Sara needed to get a gift for Megena’s party so we went to Toys R Us and got her an arts and crafts kit (Sara’s idea). After Toys R Us we were all hungry so we went to the Chinese Buffet at the Lawrence Shopping Center. It was sort of the end of the buffet so it wasn’t the best as it could have been but it was OK.
Sara was happy with her lo mein and some other stuff including chocolate cake. We drove back to the library and said goodbye there. Sara still had to go home and get ready for the party at 6pm.
The next day (Sunday) I was supposed to go to NYC for a show at the Knitting Factory (Japan Nite). I did not go and I did stuff around the house instead. I went to get a chicken parm sandwhich and then later to get some coffee and that’s all I did.
My plans changed for Sunday but that happens sometimes. Sunday was mostly a relaxing day. I did not expect to get much done because I thought I’d be out of town so I did not get much done although I stayed home.
I did wake up in the middle of the night Sunday night. It messed up my sleep cycle and Monday I got into work very late. I did not feel like staying late so I left after 6 hours and I am only working 6 hours today also.
I am going to Japan Nite in Philadelphia tonight so that should be cool. I will go home first and get my camera and stuff together then I will go to Philadelphia around 5pm or so. Saturday and Sunday were kind of warm during the day. For a few hours in the middle of the day it was really nice.
Then it got cool at night. Kind of cold. This week is really shaping up. It’s mostly warm in the day and today and tomorrow are supposed to be in the 60’s I think.

Today is Wednesday 3/14/07. Wow, I am tired but I feel great. I did not sleep until after 4am after going to Philadelphia last night. I left work early yesterday (1:30pm) and I went home to do things around the house before the show.
I got a lot done around the house so I was feeling good. I arrived in Philadelphia at around 7:30. I was not sure where I was going to park, so I decided to circle the block around 2nd street a few times. There was not much in terms of street parking.
The lot on 2nd street wanted $15 (next to the khyber). I found a spot on 3rd street (south of Market). It was easy to walk to second street from there. That lot was only $10. I went to the Khyber and the first band was doing the soundcheck. they were called ‘Pistol Valve’. They are a ten piece girl brass band that plays with funky backing tracks. One girl is the ‘DJ’.
They were good, nothing too special but they were fun and tight sounding. Some of the hooks were good and they did a cover of (darn, it escapes me at the moment . . it was a popular song like a Beatles song or something). I had my camera with me and it was really low pressure about that type of thing. I was able to have my camera and flash without any hassle at all.

There were a few other people with cameras. Mostly the Japanese people had their own video cameras and DSLR’s. There was about 2 or 3 other Americans shooting also. I spotted my pal Rodney from the Philly Japanese meetup group and he introduced me to his brother. I grabbed Yuengling lagers at the bar for $3 each.
After about a half hour soundcheck/wait the first band (Pistol Valve) started playing. The sound was loud and punchy and they got a good crowd response. I took pictures of them from the front.
I ran into Audrey from Benten and introduced myself. She is nice. She is kind of quiet and she’s very small. The next band up was Asakusa Jinta. They were really good. The front man / bass player was deadly on his instrument. He pounded and plucked that upright electric bass with no mercy. He was serious. The rest of the band was smiling and playful and they rocked. It was good.

Next up was a band called the Emeralds. They are a basic 3 piece hard rock outfit that was pretty good. The bass player and drummer were both really tight. HY played next and they were good, but not great. They have listenable songs and they have a pleasent delivery but it is just too mainstream sounding for me (and they have that sort of un-original rap thing going in every song it seems). The 50 Kaizen finished up the night with their wild-brand of Ramones inspired nurd rock.
The crowd was getting thin by the end but it got very lively during their set After the show I hung out for a while outside with Audrey and some of the bands/crew. I took a few pictures but I was not in any of them. I should jump in pictures more often and hand off my camera to someone else.
I got home late and then I could not sleep. I finally slept after 3am.

Wednesday I hung out with Johnny and Dave for a while at Dave’s house. We played some asteroids. I went home and slept pretty early, I was tired from the night before.
Thursday night I got some food after work and went right home and did not do much. I watched some ‘Family Ties’ on DVD. I used to watch that show way back in the 80’s so I was curious to see if it was still watchable.
It’s not terrible, but the appeal is gone. It was ok for the time but there is not much reason to watch it now. The acting is good. I will watch a few more episodes but I don’t think I will get disc 2.
It was really nice weather during the middle of this week but today (Friday) it is really messy outside. There is a hail/snow thing going on and it is cold and wet and icy. It looks like I will be staying inside tonight.
I am looking back on the photos from Japan Nite. There are some good ones. Tonight maybe I will be playing in photoshop with them. I have a lot of goals and this weekend is going to be a good starting point for many of them. Right now I am at work and waiting to get out of here. I have Shiina Ringo ‘Shoso Strip’ in the headphones.

march 8th means snow melting

Snow is melting after a brief snow yesterday which turned to ice. Today the sun came out and melted most of the snow away. Judy and Mary, Utada DVD’s have been the music. A few movies, and I started work on the house and in the studio. Sara is happy with her Fosters DVD.. she is obsessed with it this week. She is zoomed in on that show big time. I am laughing while thinking about it.

It is still winter. Spring is around the corner but it’s not here yet.