April 23, 2008: We’ve Decided To Do WDW Again This Year

This week is really turning out to be pretty drab – I have just about nothing to write about on SGL. That doesn’t usually happen.

Dominica and I decided that we need a little bit of a vacation so we are going to Walt Disney World for four days at the end of May. May 31st through June 3rd. We are going to stay at the Wilderness Lodge which is new for us. I did the Contemporary in 1987 and the Caribbean Beach Resort in 1992 and then, last year, Dominica and I did the Animal Kingdom Lodge for her first time staying in a Disney-owned on-property resort (she stayed at the independent Grosvenor on-property once, long ago.) After having enjoyed the AKL so much last year we aren’t about to stay off property again like we did in 2005 (or like I did in 1999) – that is totally not worth it.

The weather was great again today. I can’t believe how nice it has been here recently. Last night we actually had to sleep with the air conditioning on so that we could get some good sleep. Oreo loved it. He climbed under the covers and slept with his back against mine to stay warm with his head on my pillow.

Lunch was from Airlie Cafe. Tuna melt on rye and some Fritos (sing it with me “Fritos…. Fritos…”) I don’t think that we have an mp3 copy of that anywhere or I would play it now. Once upon a time DJ Loopy had the weirdest “Fritos” loop that he used to play. Seriously disturbing. And now it has been written about on the Internet. Or the Intertubes as weird people from LA would call it. Or the Internets by people who really don’t get the language at all.

Dominica came home and we both worked on homework. She has been a bit behind in her work at Empire but is getting caught back up. She discovered tonight that most of the class appears to be just as much behind as she is which made her feel a bit better.

Min decided to just cook for herself tonight so I grabbed a sub from Blimpie on the corner.  A quick and easy dinner.  I ate at my desk while working.  Not very exciting.

I will be working at home tomorrow.

April 22, 2008: Nothing to Write Home About

It’s another beautiful day here in Newark, New Jersey.  This morning on my walk into the office I finished listening to Audible’s presentation of “Reconciliation” by PM Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan.  After that I read “The Dilbert Future” by Scott Adams for what must be the fourth or fifth time.  It is a short book.

Word was good today. Nothing to write home about.  Of course, dad reads this every day so, technically, you could say that I am writing home.  A bit paradoxically perhaps.

I got home regular time.  We were talking about having a D&D game tonight but only Kevin emailed asking if there was a game.  No one else every replied so we assumed that there wasn’t going to be done.  It is best because Dominica had some emergency college project work that needed to be done some time ago and we had to get it done tonight.  So that was the evening for us.

We ordered in a late dinner from Papa Johns which we don’t do very often.  Dominica didn’t even remember that there was a Papa Johns that would deliver to us here.

April 21, 2008: Dad’s Last Day in Newark

Dad stayed in Newark today and hung out with me while I worked.  We were really lucky that today was a fairly slow day so we were actually able to visit a bit.  He did nap a bit throughout the day to prepare for his trip home tonight.

Oreo was rather confused to be home so much but the sun was out and he wasn’t about to complain about the sunlight and extra sleep time.  It was a nice day for him to be home.  We could have the windows open and there was a nice breeze while it was still warm and the sun was out.

Dad and I did a late breakfast over at Food for Life.  We were excited to see that our favourite cook has returned so we are guessing that the food preparation which has been a little bit unstable recently will be returning to normal.  Our food this morning was back to its old standard so things are already looking up.  Dad looks forward to getting to eat at Food for Life when he comes down to visit us in Newark.

Dominica came home and we had about an hour for her and dad to visit before we had to drive dad to the airport for his trip home.  We got him there in plenty of time.  It was just after seven when we dropped him off for his nine o’clock flight.

Dad’s flight left the terminal on time – three minutes early, in fact – but got delayed on the tarmac and was still sitting on the Newark runway when Dominica and I went to bed.  Dad emailed at almost midnight to say that he had gotten home safe.

Tomorrow I will be working on Wall Street.

April 20, 2008: Flat Stanley Goes to the Cherry Blossom Festival

We all managed to get a little sleep last night and were pretty well rested today.  I was really glad to have completed the bulk of my Object Technologies homework on Friday night giving me a mostly free weekend.  I really needed a weekend to just relax too.

Tom Miller and Flat Stanley at Branch Brook Park

Dad came over and we ordered the car and drove up to the IHOP by UMDNJ in Newark.  The crowd wasn’t too bad as we arrived before the bulk of people got out of church and filled the place up.  Sundays at IHOP can get pretty crazy.  Breakfast was very good.  We were quite glad that we had decided to drive up there.  Breakfast in Newark is definitely one of the most lacking services around.  There are almost no options and certainly no good brunch options like we are used to from Ithaca where brunch reigns supreme.

After lunch we drove over to Branch Brook Park with Oreo and walked through the Cherry Blossom Festival.  The weather was slightly colder than yesterday and I think that a lot of people decided to stay indoors as the crowd was pretty light compared to last year.  It was nice for walking though and Oreo had a wonderful time.

We thought ahead to take Flat Stanley with us to get pictures in Newark’s most famous location.  There were several good photo opportunities there.  We didn’t get a lot of time at the park, though, because I was paged out and we had to return to the apartment.  Never any real time that I can get away.

Alert Oreo in Branch Brook Park

As we were leaving the park Kevin and Pam saw Oreo as they were driving through the park and stopped to chat.  So dad got to meet them as well although we only had a minute as I had to get back home to work.

Dad took a nap in the afternoon and then we just ordered in dinner from Nino’s and relaxed at the apartment.  Dinner was really good.

We showed dad the AppleTV yesterday and today.  He thinks that it looks pretty cool.  We discovered some new cooking and travel video podcasts that we really like too.  We hadn’t played with AppleTV’s built in podcast channel guide before and now we know that there is a huge selection of shows that you can just browse through without being connected to iTunes that really work well.  It’s a lot like having “cable” television as you have tons of channels except it is all on demand so you never wait for anything.

April 19, 2008: Dad Comes to Newark to Visit

The sun was so bright this morning at six thirty that I thought that it must be the middle of the day.  But I don’t have to be up until almost eight so I went back to sleep for a little bit.

I got up at a quarter till eight and logged into the office and got to work.  I also started doing some cleaning around the apartment.  Dad is coming today and we need to get the place cleaned up.  Not much time to work on that until now and not all that much time now either.

Work went well this morning and didn’t take too long.  I had plenty of time to wrap up and then to drive with Min out to Newark-Liberty International Airport to pick up dad when his flight arrived.  He was right on time at 11:07 this morning.  It was a quick flight and the weather was perfect.  It is a little over eighty degrees here today and Buffalo his a record of eighty-six!

We went straight from the airport to the Seaport Diner in Elizabeth for lunch.  Dad hadn’t eaten before the flight and we had both skipped breakfast and were pretty hungry as well.

The afternoon was spent just hanging out at the apartment.  Dad was in too early to be able to check in to the hotel anyway.  So we just visited until late afternoon when he walked over to the Robert Treat to get settled in.

For dinner we took dad into the Ironbound, where he has never been, to eat at Mompou.  It has been so long since we have been there that they asked us where we had been.  Dinner was excellent and dad really enjoyed it.  It was his first time eating Portuguese too.