The Bridgewater Bugle

Hello

2022-04-08T16:14:00.002-04:00

I don't think #4 got his due either...

Here is #4 feeding #5 after we returned from the hospital 10 days ago.

Our lives are now officially a Jim Gaffigan comedy routine.

Catherine asked me to make a post, as she found this place, so here it is. We'll see about future posts...

Happy 9 mths Madeline!

2015-09-19T11:14:00.001-04:00

Bib Mojo Series - Update!

2015-04-26T22:56:00.002-04:00

I have burned all the Yankee bibs!

Bib Mojo Series

2015-04-26T20:12:00.000-04:00

We seem to have a bit of a bib rivalry going on around here. When I came home from work on Friday, Madeline was wearing a Mets bib. Once Jacob deGrom started getting knocked around, I looked at Madeline and realized she had been changed into a Yankees bib.

Of course, we know the end result, Yankees win 6-1... a pitiful end to the incredibly fun 11 winning streak the Mets were on. Well Alison I guess was feeling sorry, so she promised a Mets bib for Saturday.

And... the Mets win 8-2.

Tonight we're back to this apparently...

So I served Alison a beer in this...

Snow Day

2015-03-05T19:52:00.001-05:00

The best thing about having kids is the cheap labor.

Add caption

Jackie is measuring snow

No loafing Jackie

Catherine hard at work

Too much snow

Perfecting her technique

Selfless service

Hey ?

What do you mean I'm not getting paid?

My Guardians of the Galaxy Rant

2014-08-01T17:31:00.000-04:00

I reserved a healthy dose of skepticism coming into this movie. I've enjoyed pretty much all the Marvel Universe movies that have come out. I have heard some bad things about the Hulk movies, and have only seen bits and pieces of them on cable, but they are on my Netflix queue and I will get to them someday. If you had told my 14 year old self, that this is what comic book movies would be I would never have believed you. I remember sitting with friends in the 7th grade and casting our dream X-men movie. I'm pretty sure we nailed Patrick Stewart as Prof. X, meanwhile Fox had Roger Corman making the worlds worst fantastic four movie so they didn't lose the film license. Around this time Marvel was going bankrupt, and the rights of some of their biggest properties were going to the highest bidder. It's why Spider-man and Wolverine, sometimes Avengers will never be able to join the Avengers on the silver screen. It's why we are going to get a horrible Fantastic Four reboot next year. It's why we are now suffering through a horrible Spider-Man reboot.

Anyway, to me the Guardians of the Galaxy is an unknown. The resurgence of these characters is pretty much past my prime as a comic book reader in my youth, while I am always tempted to start buying them, I know I probably shouldn't walk into a comic book store, as I will walkout without next month's rent payment. Having them as an unknown, got me really enthusiastic for this next chapter in the Marvel cinematic universe, as I had no frame of reference it is all knew. I had read the few bad reviews, and they mirrored some of my concerns... would it be too campy, would I care about these characters, too much flash and not enough character development blah blah blah...

Well these reviewers are idiots. I don't think they saw the same movie. I stand with the 90% certified fresh people on Rotten Tomatoes. This is non stop entertainment from start to finish that you can see will fit in seamlessly with the rest of the expanding universe they are developing. It has action, comedy, character development, and the acting is great. This is the summer blockbuster everyone has been waiting for, and maybe it's better than The Avengers.

But this is not my rant topic, I could gush over the movie for pages, I'd like to get back in the car and go see it again. No... I am using this opportunity to vent on another topic.

About halfway through this movie, I got angry... like seething mad. The reason is, I wish the Star Wars prequels did not exist. To be fair the CGI stuff has come a long way, but man... do the CGI characters in those movies absolutely suck. It's really a travesty. George Lucas who is responsible for such an expansive and colorful universe, gave us Jar-Jar Binks. The word "give" is too high praise... he inflicted it on us. This is not a new complaint, people have been ranting on this since the initial shock of what we had witnessed wore off, but I'm looking at it in a whole new way. It's absolutely dreadful.

James Gunn, maybe best known for writing the live action Scooby-Doo (and some other stuff admittedly, but that seemed funny). Gave us more heart, character development, conveyed more emotion, and told a better story with Bradley Cooper as a Raccoon, and Vin Diesel as a walking tree that can only say three words. The integration of these characters into the film is seamless, you will forget that they are not real at times. If anything and this is probably sacrilege, they one-upped Gollum from Lord of the Rings here, and that's purely just a technical leap.

I couldn't believe I got so mad in the theater but there it was, I was distracted from what was going on in front of me, because I was wishing Lucas left well enough alone. I sat in the theater and watched the Phantom Menace four times trying to convince myself it was good. It is not. I know it's popular to hate on George Lucas, and it's popular in some circles to send hate-waves towards Disney for acquiring Lucasfilm, but boy am I glad he no longer has no creative control over his greatest creations. After watching Guardians of the Galaxy, I have no doubt that the right people are at the helm, and whatever these guys want to do with Andy Serkis is going to be leaps and bounds greater than whatever the hell than the pure drivel that was put out in episodes I, II and III.

I'm done with this for now, but go see this movie, you will enjoy the hell out of it.

Do You Want to Build a Snowman?

2014-07-09T10:02:00.001-04:00

Jackie building a snowman army at pretend camp

Replacement Level

2014-06-29T20:37:00.000-04:00

December 2014....

Duke Farms

2014-06-29T17:49:00.004-04:00

It's been a beautiful summer weekend. Alison had a plan for us to check out Duke Farms, a local attraction, that I had known about for some time, but did not really know much about.

It turns out it's a pretty fascinating place. Tobacco magnate James Duke, consolidated thousands of acres of farmland in nearby Hillsborough. There are all sorts of man made lakes, and man made hills, it's a beautiful place. When he passed away, his daughter, "world's richest girl" Doris Duke, sued her mother and one of the awards from the suit was this property. She decorated it with the spoils of her globe-trotting and incredibly fascinating life. Eventually she opened it to the public, it was closed for a few years, but re-opened in 2012.

Our first trip basically ended when Jackie's peanut butter and jelly sandwich dropped in the dirt, maybe 30 minutes in. We spent another hour and change alternating between crying Catherine, and crying Jackie, and sometimes both, but it was still a pretty nice trip. I'm glad such a great place is nearby for us to explore, it's free, and we'll definitely be going back.

Jackie did a lot of running on the paths... which was a good thing, she slept pretty well that night.

Run...

More running

Enjoying the fountain

This was her silly picture, and pre pb&j drop

Catherine enjoying a cool beverage

It was tough to convince her to pose after the sandwich mishap

Looking for Bears.. I told her that her loud complaining scared them all away

Pretend Camp

2014-06-25T14:49:00.001-04:00

Jackie's pre-school offered some summer day camp sessions with a different theme each week. We had decided to send her for a few weeks to give her some additional activities over the summer and play with the other kids. This was the first week, and the theme was Animal Planet.

I am sorry to say though, that when I came home from work on Monday things were pretty grim. Jackie didn't want to talk about camp, she was quite argumentative in fact. Finally, after a little bit of dinner, I got some information out of her. It wasn't real camp you see... there were no tents, or s'mores, or any real camp things to do, and she was so disappointed. It was pretend camp.

Happily, she seems to have gotten over it. Yesterday, there was a petting zoo activity they kids got to see a dove, a wallaby, a fox, and a hedgehog. I saw the pictures on facebook that they school had posted, so when I got home I was asking her about the animals. I forgot one though, and she was happy to inform me that she got to pet a chinchilla, whatever that is.

So things have been going better at pretend camp, apparently they have ice pops. They were kind enough to send this photo along of Jackie enjoying a grape one after a rough morning of running through sprinklers. When I asked how camp went while I was home for lunch, she reminded me it was not camp, it was pretend camp.

Back From the Dead?

2014-06-19T21:56:00.002-04:00

Well.. well.. well... here we are.

A happy Father's Day was had.

Dad and the Girls

Pool time

Stand up...

...and Celebrate!

Shucking Corn with Great Grandma

Chuck E. Cheese Please

2014-02-08T18:25:00.003-05:00

Thanks to their incessant advertising on the various children's television networks, the eldest child, our dear Jacqueline has been requesting a trip to Chuck E. Cheese for about six months. Since we drive past it routinely, we get asked about it just as routinely. Today with the dreary cold weather, and the bleak frozen wasteland of a yard preventing any real time outside, I decided to bite the bullet and take the family for a trip out there to A) wear her down for her nap, and B) either curb the requests, or double them, not sure yet how that is going to work out yet.

I dutifully clipped coupons for a pizza deal, and 20% off some tokens, helped Alison get the kids ready, and off we were to the Bridgewater version of what I thought for certain would be adult hell on earth.

It was not quite hell on earth, not by a long shot. By some measures it might have even been pleasant. In my haste to make a decision for the day trip however, I did make one miscalculation. I never contemplated the sheer volume of birthday party kids that might be present at say 1 PM on a Saturday afternoon. It was pretty chaotic when we first arrived, any design on maybe skipping pizza for the second day in a row and settling on a healthy option from the menu went out the window when we saw the sheer volume of toddlers present in the play area. We just made the quickest decision possible, the pizza pack, bought some tokens and went on a search for a seat.

We found a table, unpacked and I took Jackie around for a pass of the game area. We played a few games including this age appropriate gem.

Around that time the parties got called in, so mercifully the floor cleared, and we played a few of the ticket dispensing games. I was a bit disappointed that there seemed to be a four or 5 ticket cap on each game. This prevents me from parking at the ski ball on future trips and clearing them out of tickets and prizes, a major dissapointment for sure. Jackie didn't quite get the grasp of ski-ball or some of the other ball tossing activities, but she had a great time. The pizza arrived and was better than expected, we played a few more games, let Jackie crawl through the rat habitat they had hung from the ceiling, and we escaped with our sanity and a pile of tokens, we bought way too many with the coupon we had, so we have just prepaid for three or four more trips to the place. Good thing it's close.

I will add that from the reviews on sites like yelp, this appears to be one of the better franchises. I would confirm this, but it's really my first experience in one of these places. It was clean, the staff was friendly and attentive, the games are cheap, the food was edible and better than expected. We shall return. Birthday parties, are probably not in the cards though. The Chucky Cheese character walking around had body language that reminded me of Will Ferrell's ill fated turn at ice capades in the movie Blades of Glory. Then when I expected a bad animatronic rat to be revealed behind the stage curtain they had set up in the party area, which was visible from the entire restaurant, and got precisely what I expected, it seemed a little worse than lame. Kids might not notice, but I don't think I could subject other adults to such things involuntarily.Whatever happened to the good old days of parties at roller rinks. Now that was entertainment.

Playing some kind of game or another, a limit of four tickets is the universal prize. This seems like some sort of everyone gets a trophy and is a precious snowflake type deal.

Can't really describe how thrilled she was to be there, it's a kid thing I guess.

Enjoying some pepperoni pizza

Helping Jackie steer the snowmobile, we won first place

Scurrying through the rat tunnels

This retrofit was a bit strange

She was moving to quick for the camera

Jackie had a great time and Catherine cooperated, what more could parents ask for?

Dark Lord of Cuddles

2014-02-01T21:22:00.002-05:00

The force is strong with this birthday gift from Uncle Joe and Aunt Lara.

Jackie soundly sleeping with a variety of Lucasfilm and Pixar properties

2014-01-27T11:26:00.000-05:00

40,000 Page Views on a Content Free Blog

2013-11-27T10:16:00.001-05:00

Things have been a little slow around here, for oh say the past year. We have lots of updates that need to be published, maybe we'll get around to writing some of them over the holidays. I'm kind of amazed that there have been 40,000 hits to this blog, which translates to about $60 of revenue from google, (our benevolent internet overlords won't pay until we hit $100). I'm sure a large chunk of it is eastern European spam robots, at least that's my guess based on where the traffic is coming from, but still pretty amazing.

Jackie at Preschool: Markers Edition

2013-11-08T08:52:00.001-05:00

The preschool sends us pictures of Jackie in class from time to time. This one came in the other day.

She really amazed me with the markers last week. I was supervising coloring time, and with markers I guess you really need too, other wise things can get out of hand in fairly short order, and I was drawing her pictures of cartoon characters she likes, and she was doing a great job coloring between the lines. With the crayons, not so much, but she was using those markers like a champ.

Repost: Grandma’s Ice Cream

2013-11-06T16:11:00.001-05:00

My own blogging has hit the skids again, for this I apologize. I'm going to try to link some different tidbits as I come across them to keep things interesting. I came across this today, and I thought it a beautiful sentiment about suffering with grace and dignity, when we encounter hardship. Most of our problems in life are rather small, and how we handle them speaks to our faith and character.

Grandma’s Ice Cream

Looking Back Twelve Years II

2013-09-21T13:13:00.002-04:00

I posted some memories of 9/11 from the Academy last week for 12th Anniversary, today I get to post the flip side of my experience with something a little more uplifting.

The Color Guard at the Academy will typically present the flag at events throughout the NY Metropolitan Area, sometimes at sporting events. In the wake of 9/11 no one was sure when professional sports would be ready to play in the city. Sure the stadiums were unaffected, the Mets and Yankees both being fresh off their appearance in the Subway World Series the year before were in the hunt in their respective leagues for a return the playoffs. The Yankees being at the tail end of their most productive years with their core group of legendary players, would end up playing in the World Series and losing to the Diamondbacks, but that's a story for another day I suppose.

Schedule wise the Mets and Yankees were both on the road at the time, with the Mets due to return to NYC first, their first games after the attacks were in Pittsburgh, the next home stand would pit them against division rivals the hated Atlanta Braves.

The Academy Color Guard was invited to participate in the opening ceremonies with first responders from ground zero. Volunteers were requested, and as a Mets fan and someone struggling to be of use in some capacity, I signed up and was chosen to participate. We practiced a few times, but once the crowd started chanting U-S-A as we walked out onto the field, the bag pipes that were playing and any commands from the Color Guard were completely drowned out, it was amazing.

We stayed for the game, and got to witness Mike Piazza's amazing game winning home run, I will never forget the outpouring of emotion from the crowd. The atmosphere was electric, and who knows if I'll ever experience anything like again (hopefully not, if it means another catastrophic event).

We Mets fans rooted our rag tag team on to the end of the season, but they fell short, and so began a dark time for the Mets that continues, with brief flickers of light in 2005 and 2006. But that one moment, I'll never forget. I remember reading about Mike Piazza when he first came up with the Dodgers in Boy's Life Magazine, I was thrilled when he came to the Mets, and this at least for me is his quintessential moment with the franchise. Forever linked with a moment when some of us were finally able to take a breath and start looking forward again after such a traumatic experience. It's so silly, but I get a little misty eyed, and goosebumps, whenever I watch this moment, as if I am taken back to that night and relive the wonder all over again.

2013-09-21T11:06:00.000-04:00

All tuckered out after a summer of fun and parties

September Hits The Ground Running

2013-09-19T21:39:00.000-04:00

Last week was very busy for us here in Bridgewater, well mostly Jackie and the rest of us because she can't drive yet. Tuesday was the start of preschool. Jackie attends North Branch Reformed Church Preschool. This school comes very highly recommended by some of the moms from the Little Flowers Moms Group. The first day was just an hour for the kids while the parents had an orientation session. The class was split based on where you live, so we were in the first session with five other children from Bridgewater or Somerville. There was one familiar face, Oliver, that we knew from the Little Lambs session that Jackie attended last April/May. But of course Jackie didn't need the comfort of a familiar face she jumped right in and didn't want to leave. So when Thursday was a full morning session she was very excited to go for a full two and half hours. Here are some pictures from that first day.

Are we going to preschool today?

What are we waiting for?

Let's get moving!

Tuesday was also a big day for Catherine. She turned five months.

Always so happy

It is very hard these days to take a picture of Catherine with no hands in the mouth

The next big thing was Wednesday swim classes for Jackie. This is a half hour class that runs once a week from September to November at our local YMCA. The class is for 3-6 year old children. Based on the size of the other kids most everyone seems to be closer to 3 than 6, and the class is evenly split three boys and three girls. The first day was a rousing success. Unfortunately yesterday's class, not so much. The first fifteen minutes were fine then came all the complaints. "I have to go the bathroom", "I'm cold", "I'm wet I want my towel", "Can we go home yet?" Hopefully next time will not be like yesterday. Here are pictures from that triumphant first class.

Practicing "safety slide" into the pool

We ended our week with a visit to Shohola, PA. The Gillespies had a house warming party. This was our second visit there. We first saw the new digs when we went with our friends the Williamsons on Sunday of Labor Day weekend. It was Jackie's reluctance to get out of the Gillespie's pool, even though she was blue and shaking she was so cold, that pushed me into signing her up for swim class. At any rate here are some pictures from last Saturday's party.

Mom and Dad didn't check the weather in PA, so Jackie is wearing Charlotte Pants to keep warm

Katie the dog, checking things out.

Feeding baby

Is that Catherine or a baby doll?

Looking Back Twelve Years

2013-09-11T10:04:00.001-04:00

Some thoughts after a dozen years…

I think one thing that has stuck with me these past 12 years is the feeling of extreme helplessness I had. Something changed that morning and it was disconcerting. I vividly remember sitting in a Project Management class in Fulton Hall with the great section 1M1 at Kings Point, probably bored to tears and trying to keep myself from falling asleep as our esteemed professor droned on with a generic blue and gray colored power point presentation. Another student ran past the door, alerting us to the fact that a plane or something had hit one of the towers. Not knowing at all what to expect when we got to the roof, I remember thinking about the event comically as we raced up the stairs, some amateur pilot in a small craft had probably gotten too close and made an error, what a dumb ass! Nothing could have prepared me for what we saw from the top of the engineering building. Nestled between the towers of the Throgs Neck Bridge, the top of One World Trade Center engulfed in smoke, billowing out on the horizon as far as the eye could see, I was completely stunned into silence.

I don’t remember if our class was dismissed at that moment, but I remember being huddled around the television in the ward room of Cleveland Hall as much as I could all morning, seeing the reports that the second tower had been hit. At some point before 10 AM I wandered over to an area near the waterfront to take some pictures not realizing that the south tower had just collapsed. The rest of the day is sort of a fog of watching television coverage on the various cable news channels in the Band Company Ward Room, and attending classes. In Naval Architecture class, our professor explained the construction of the towers and why they collapsed. When you set aside the conspiracy theories that have festered over the past 12 years, his explanation on the morning of 9/11/01 to a stunned class of engineering students, turned out to be exactly the same as the 9/11 commission report. A quantitative methods class was cancelled and a test along with it, I remember feeling terrible that I would have a reprieve from a test I was certain to fail as I had not adequately prepared, (probably I was drinking beer in the baseball dugouts the night before). I would end up failing that test anyway on 9/12.

Looking back at the television footage, it's amazing the naivete of everyone prior to the second plane hitting, even living through the bombing in 1993, and seeing everything unfold before our eyes, how we just assumed it was probably an accident, not some years long plot by evil men, throwing a desperate haymaker at the great satan. If you can bear to watch, as the second plane comes into view around the 10 minute mark, and the camera pans away as no one is expecting it, when the woman being interviewed screams out that a second plane hit, I think that is the moment when that feeling of innocence left for good. The woman on the phone thinks maybe there is a problem with the Air Traffic Control, while Matt Lauer tries to get the camera footage, and then mutters that we have to assume that it's not an accident. I remember around that time my good friend Mike saying it must be Bin Laden.

The Power Squadron was dispatched to lower Manhattan soon after the towers collapsed, over 100 Midshipman and the waterfront staff, assisted in evacuation and relief efforts that would continue for weeks. Being on academic probation, as I was frequently, I was not permitted to volunteer. The afternoon was full of preparation by the Academy to accept triage patients since we were one of the closer federal facilities. I was to direct ambulance traffic along Steamboat Road, ambulances that never came. Drifting through the fog of that day, I tried to get away from the news coverage, I tried taking a nap, but sleep wouldn't come, when I rejoined the rest of my company mates in the ward room, we watched 7 World Trade Center collapse.

I don’t remember if it was the day of, or the day after when it was more clear what had happened, and who had perpetrated these attacks, (Mike ended up being correct in assuming Bin Laden of course), but I remember the Regimental Commander telling the Regiment at noon mess, that if we wanted to get those responsible we should join the Marines. Our generation was going to war, classmates, company mates, high school and childhood friends at the Naval Academy, my twin brother and his ROTC detachment, my older brother finishing up in the Army. Things had changed forever, the feeling of helplessness faded in the days following the attacks, but our world has never been the same.

A photo taken by one of my old room mates from the grounds of the US Merchant Marine Academy

Go Giants!

2013-09-08T20:46:00.000-04:00

Catherine is not impressed

multi-pictures

2013-09-07T22:41:00.001-04:00

I was trying to put Jackie to sleep, and I have no idea what setting on the camera produced these, but they were interesting.

Here are some more standard pictures

Jackie Vader and multiple Darth Vaders

Catherine with a mohawk

Funny Girls

Birthday Part II

2013-09-07T09:56:00.000-04:00

Yes that's right Birthday Part II...why not Birthday Part I? Well, the camera was lost in a couch cushion for about two weeks, so while there are photo's from Birthday Part I, we will only be able to post them once we get those pictures. This year because of some scheduling confusion, and my desire to simplify and not have one giant party at my house with a hole in the kitchen ceiling and prepping for roof repairs and new windows, we opted to have two slightly smaller parties, one with each family.

Jackie's actual Birthday Party was held up in Waldwick and hosted by Grandpa and Nana Walsh and Family, which was a great time. A week later we celebrated with Grandma and Grandpa Trynosky and some family and friends, which was also a great time. Since I was able to deflect most of the hosting and prep duties to my unsuspecting relatives this year, I had a much more relaxing time at both parties, and I'm sure Alison did as well. Jackie on the other hand, is now probably more spoiled then ever, thinking she will have multiple parties and presents all the time. We'll have to disabuse her of that notion next year, when hopefully the basement and upstairs are complete, and we'll have a bit more space to have a house full of hungry family and friends.

King Stephen in the party spirit

No visit to Grandma's house would be complete without a trip to Tot Lot

Charlotte got in on the fun too

Burning off all the sugar

Christopher had a good time too

Catherine ready to party

Cake!

Birthday girl ready to go

Three Candles

Still not sure what to do here

Uncle Joe in Air Force Bear form is rooting on from the sidelines

Dad had to help blow out the candles

Making healthy food choices, Michelle Obama would be so proud

Uncle Joe Bear seems to have gone to sleep

Post Party with Patrick and Darth Vader

About ready to pass out I think, Jackie was out cold before we left the driveway

So looking back at these pictures, I think maybe the camera might has well have stayed in the couch since I really didn't capture too much, hopefully Grandma's camera has some good pictures and I'll add to this post. In the mean time standby for Birthday Part I post coming soon to a blog near you.

Jackie at 3

2013-08-24T12:01:00.000-04:00

Happy third birthday to our big girl Jacqueline, she's so special she gets two parties, one today and one next Saturday.