Our Mother’s Day weekend in photos. We ate at a great French Thai place in Somerville.

Click on the photos for larger versions: Read the rest of this entry »

Fellow Jersey girl, rock DJ and all-around cool chick Jill has started her own blog that should be of interest to many of my readers — Has Boobs, Reads Comics. I’ve added her to my blogroll; don’t forget to check her out! (Disclaimer: This isn’t the Jill that posts here sometimes; this is another Jill. Although we still love and adore Jill v1.0)

I want to give some props to our friend Sara, who has started a film series in her (and the geekboy’s) hometown of Lambertville, NJ. You can see a free movie every Saturday night, and in the summer it moves to an outdoor venue. May’s schedule looks particularly fun — check it out here. If you’re local, sign up for the mailing list.

And donations are always welcome.

I saw this scrawled on the sidewalk in chalk over the weekend in Princeton, New Jersey. I can’t stop wondering who wrote it, if the author really meant it, if he/she ever got an answer, was it yes, was it no? And I also keep hearing Andie Walsh screaming in my head, “What about PROM, Blaine? WHAT ABOUT PROM!”

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This weekend, the ladies and I visited the indoor displays at Duke Gardens in Hillsborough, NJ. You all know I’m kind of a Doris Duke freak. I’d heard about the display gardens for years, but had never seen them. Then I read in the paper that, as part of a “new vision” for Duke Estates, they will be dismantled forever in less than a month. So we made plans to visit. It took Ms. Duke more than six years to build these gardens — Italian, Colonial, Edwardian, French, English, Chinese, Japanese and Indo-Persian designs juxtaposed near desert, tropical and semi-tropical environments.

The foundation says that the gardens no longer fit into Duke Estates’ goals for being a green organization, but I don’t think this is what Doris would have wanted. Go here to find out more and if you can, please send a letter.

Photos after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

Just found out that we made it onto the invite list to become a shareholder in an organic student-run farm at Cook College. This means that every week we pick up a crate of vegetables and herbs, from June to September (or November, if we spend more money). I put us on the list because the produce in our local grocery store sucks, because pesticide-free food grown only a few miles away instead of being trucked here from god-knows-where really appeals to me, because it supports Rutgers University, and because it will completely force us to become more creative and healthy in our cooking, at least for the summer.

The cool thing is that every week’s harvest will be a surprise. Here is what last year’s harvest looked like. Apparently I am going to have to learn about chard. We just need to look at our budget and make sure we have the cash and, if so, we’ll start getting produce in about six weeks. My only worry is that there will be too much for us to deal with.

I rented a car during my trip to Florida. This meant that, at some point, I was going to have to pump gas. Being a Jersey girl, this is an unfamiliar experience for me. As I drove to the gas station yesterday I became convinced that I would make some sort of catastrophic mistake and end up like the guys from Zoolander. Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday in Jersey it was more than 60 degrees. I met Shannon, Mary and the kids for lunch and didn’t even need a coat! Tonight, it’s going to go down to 19 and there will be snow flurries later this week. I woke up with a blinding headache. I am too old for this crap. Now I understand why retirees move to places that have no weather.

My Floridian sister just text-messaged me the following: “OMG Publix has pork roll. Life as we know it will never be the same.”

It’s finally snowing here in Jersey. I know most of my peeps out in the Midwest and in Canada are buried in snow, but we’ve had just about none this year and I’m enjoying watching it fall. Of course, later it is set to turn to rain and ice and slush, so a big whatever to that. I’ll try and enjoy it while it lasts.

Maybe the geekboy will get to come home early. That’s the real reason I like snow, you see.

There’s not much to post about right now and, to be honest, I’m having somewhat of a bad day and don’t really feel like writing. I’m going to try and fix my mood with an hour of yoga (look for me to complain about that over the next few days) and then maybe sit down and watch Flavor of Love 3. I suppose I should be working but I just don’t have it in me right now.

And congrats to the NY NJ Giants! w00t!

Proud to live in New Jersey.

I’m currently at Toyota getting my car serviced. Thank goodness for free wireless. Otherwise I’d have to watch television and, from what I can hear, there is a woman on some news show crying about how the cops took away her monkey. I don’t know. Here’s what I look like without a comfortable chair or hot coffee. Read the rest of this entry »

Hey Jersey voters - Election Day is Tuesday. NJ Voter Info will give you the information you need to make the best choice. [thx lisa!]

I should be downstairs, prepping the kitchen for the baking of the geekboy’s birthday cake, but instead I’ve got the television on up here, waiting anxiously for the Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band performance on the Today show. JERSEY!!!