Tree Is Up!

We unofficially opened the Christmas season last weekend by obtaining and decorating our tree (yes, we actually did this all in one day!).  The specimen is one of the best, if not the best, we've ever had -- just the right height and thickness.  In fact, it is so stereotypical in its appearance that one might even think it is artificial.  But all of my sneezing while carrying it into the house, putting it into the stand and stringing the lights was proof of the tree's genuineness.  Here are a few pictures of the finished product, and of the kids decorating.

Merry Christmas, and here's hoping all your preparations are going well!

Come Again?

Here is a funny excerpt from Gregg Easterbrook's column this week on ESPN.com:

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I Am Not Making This Up: On Wednesday, the Maryland counties around Washington, D.C., area received 2 inches of snow. As a result of the snow, the city of Gaithersburg, Md., canceled part of its winter festival for the day.

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By the way, many of you may recall that Easterbrook, formerly of the New Republic, is one of my favorite writers on science and current affairs.  His weekly column on ESPN.com is ostensibly a football column, but if you take a quick look, you'll see it ranges far afield at times, often to very interesting places.

Turkey Frying

I am preparing for what will be, this Thursday, my first attempt at deep frying a turkey.  With the big day rapidly approaching, I am now in the research phase of my preparations.  I spoke with Peter for about 30 minutes tonight, and he provided valuable tips which hopefully will help me make a turkey that can measure up to the one he made for us three years ago in Raleigh -- to this day the best turkey by far I've ever had (see picture to the left). 

And as with most anything these days, I then turned to the internet for further information.  In doing so, I ran across this article, which describes a quite prudent response by Arizona State University to what was a really bad idea to begin with.

Trip To West Point

On Saturday, David and I joined a group of people from his Cub Scout Pack for an Army football game at West Point.  It was a really terrific atmosphere, with the cannons, cadets doing pushups after each Army score, and the roving spirit band (which actually stopped for a few minutes and played in the section we were sitting in).  West Point is a really beautiful place, and is only a little over an hour from Mountain Lakes.  The game was really wild, with tons of scoring and over 1,000 yards of combined total offense by the two teams.  Unfortunately, for the home fans, Army lost the game 49-39 to the Tulsa Golden Hurricanes (ponder for a moment that odd choice of mascot). 

We will definitely be going back when Tulane visits West Point again in two years.

Clash of the Titans!

Okay, maybe it's not Ohio State-Michigan, but it'll have to do for us eggheads. 

Tulane-45 Rice-31

Halloween 2007

No need for any boring text here -- just check out the pictures!!

Late October Project Status

Here are some photos showing the status of our renovation project (remember that?) in late October.  At that point, the Master Bath was virtually complete, lacking only the glass enclosure for the shower, and the basement was drywalled and tiled.  I'll post more soon, as we are now getting really close to completion.  We are hopeful that it will be done by Thanksgiving . . .

Seagull Century

Back in early October, we trekked out to Ocean City, Maryland, for the Seagull Century (for me) and a little beach R&R.  The Seagull Century is a 100-mile organized bike ride that starts in Salisbury, Maryland (about 25 miles inland from Ocean City), winds its way out to the shore, a then heads back to Salisbury.  This was my third time doing the ride, but this year was extra special.  In addition to Uncle Rob and Aunt Katherine (Uncle Rob does the ride every year), Marcie, Peter and Christopher met us there for the weekend.  I tried to talk Peter into doing the ride with us, but he demurred and stayed back in Ocean City with the rest of the gang, while Uncle Rob and I rode. 

We had a perfect weekend -- mid-80s and sunny both days!  In fact, after we got back from riding, I actually got in the ocean for a little swim.  Poor Stephen was begging everyone all day to take him in, but no one would, for fear it was too cold.  So I took him in, and surprisingly, although it was cold, it was bearable.  Certainly the water would be considered warm for October -- I never thought we'd be able to get in the water, but it had been a relatively warm Fall to that point.  The next day, after a breakfast which included legendary Fractured Prune doughnuts, we spend another hour or so on the beach before heading home.  Stephen and I took another refreshing dip in the Atlantic.

It was a really great weekend, and a terrific way to cap off the "Summer".  We (Lisa) only got a few pictures, but if you want to see more, check out Marcie and Peter's picture site - look under October 2007.

September in Paris

I spent most of the second half of September in Europe!  An arbitration hearing brought me to Zurich for three hearing days and several preparation days spread over a two-week period.  But what to do with the four-day weekend that magically appeared in the middle of all the work?  Why, how about getting a baby-sitter for the kids back in NJ and having Lisa meet me in Paris?  Sound like a nice idea??  Well, that's exactly what we did, and it was spectacular.

Following a somewhat comical false start trying to find each other Friday morning at Charles deGaulle Airport, Lisa and I spent a fabulous weekend in Paris.  The weather was absolutely perfect.  Making our home base at the Waldorf Trocadero Hotel, we walked until our shoes (and legs) were worn out, ate entirely too much, and saw many well-known, and some less well-known, sights.  Here are some pictures to help recount our visit.

Responding to complaints that my photography is too heavy on children and buildings, I made a special effort to get pictures of Lisa and me on this trip.  Enjoy!

Delaware Diamondman Triathlon

Time to get caught up on the blog entries. 

September was a very busy month -- starting the weekend after Labor Day with my last triathlon of the season, the Delaware Diamondman Triathlon.  This one was the half ironman distance:  1.2 mile swim/56 mile bike/13.1 mile run. 

As luck would have it, we were handed a day with blazing sun, 90 degree temps and no wind.  That was fine during the swim, obviously, and even during the bike.  But the run was a different story.  Although I set out on the run at what I thought was a conservative pace, deep suffering began began to set in about halfway through.  I had led the race after the swim, and finished the bike in approximately 9th position.  At one point during the run, I had climbed into 5th place overall.  But then the wheels fell off.  The sun was unrelenting, and there was no shade on the course.  I slowed considerably, and even began taking short walking breaks -- the first time I have ever had to walk during a race of any kind.  Getting to the finish of this race was probably the most difficult thing I've ever done athletically . . . and that includes brutal 10,000 meter workouts back in my swimming days.  I finally did get to the finish, and surprisingly only three people caught me after I had moved into 5th place.  So I finished 8th overall.

What a way to finish the season.  Here are the results if you're interested in taking a look.

First Day of School!!

Thursday was the first day of school for all four kids.  We made four stops during our grand tour of the Mountain Lakes schools.  First, Lisa walked Nina across the street at 8:00 to Briarcliff School for her first day of middle school.  Then, by 8:15 we were in Stephen's classroom at Wildwood for his introduction to first grade (David walked separately to Wildwood  -- too cool for us -- guess that's what happens when you hit 5th grade).  Next it was off to Scribbles preschool where the action got undeway for Matthew at 8:50.  That was quite a morning, and it's sure to be quite a year.  Check out the pictures. 

Project -- Post-Vacation

So here is what things looked like when we returned from the beach.  Lots of progress!

Ocean City 2007

We have just returned from a beautiful and fun-filled week in Ocean City.  The weather was absolutely perfect, and the kids never seemed to get tired of the water, sun and sand.  There was lots of great company, too.  Olivia and Christina were there for the entire week, Cathy and Dick for half the week, and Emily, Mia and Mia's friend, Taylor, for the other half of the week.  Enjoy the pictures, which you'll notice are conspicuously lacking in adults . . . 

Project -- Three Months In

Here are some pictures showing the state of our home renovation project just before we left on vacation.  A lot was accomplished while we were gone, and I will post pictures of the current state soon.  Progress is steady, but somewhat slow, although the pace picked up considerably while we were on the beach.  While writing this post, I have realized there are now pictures of the master bath.  I'll include those in my next project update.

Summer of Baseball 2007

As many of you know, the first part of our summer was quite fully occupied with baseball.  David played for the Tri-Town 9-year-old all star team, which involved 15 games over 6 weeks, and many practices.  He had a ball, and along with playing the game, has become quite a fan.  He never misses a chance to catch a Mets or Yankees game on television.

In keeping with that theme, my birthday present this year was three tickets to the Mets vs. the Cincinnati Reds on July 15.  Stephen and David accompanied me to Shea Stadium that Sunday afternoon while Lisa stayed home with Nina and Matthew, who had had quite enough baseball, thank you, with all of David's games.  Here are some pictures from the day.

Mixed Results

My up and down 2007 triathlon season continues.  As faithful readers of State of Nature will recall, I suffered a minor bike crash during my first race of the season, the Columbia Triathlon.  Two races in July gave me opportunities for redemption.  The first, the Randolph Lake triathlon, is a sprint race that takes place only 20 minutes from our front door.  This one went really well for me, as I finished fourth overall and first in the 40-44 age group.  Full results are here, if you're interested, but even better is the headline I got in the local paper! 

I looked to build on that result in the very competitive New Jersey State Triathlon on July 22, but it was not to be.  After a good swim, I was in the middle of one of my best bike rides ever when my race was derailed.  A policeman at an intersection had a mental lapse and pointed a group of four of us in the wrong direction (left when we were supposed to go straight).  By the time we realized we were off course, and doubled back to rejoin the race, we had added almost five miles to the ride.  Needless to say, after all that, I did not place well (look for me down at number 66).  But taking the positive, my bike speed overall was excellent -- although for 28 miles instead of 23.5 -- and I managed a solid sub-40 minute 10K run despite my disappointment. 

Project Update

We continue to make steady progress on our home renovation project.  Here are the latest pictures.  Purportedly, we are roughly on schedule.

One Decade In The Books

David is 10!

On To Middle School!

Christina completed her time in elementary school with a very nice ceremony (NOT a "graduation") with her 5th Grade class at Wildwood Elementary School.  I took a few pictures.  You will note that Christina even wore a dress, which I am sure will surprise many of you.  She looked fantastic.  You are free to comment that she looked "beautiful" or "pretty" . . . but just don't say that to her!  She does not consider that a good thing.

Next year, it's off to Briarcliff Middle which, believe it or not, is even closer to our house than Wildwood.  In fact, it is directly across the street. 

News Flash--The Earth Is Round, Too!

I don't think they really needed to do a scientific study to confirm this, most obvious, fact.  Routine, real world observation should leave no doubt in anyone's mind.

Not My Kind Of Marathon

I know I used to be a swimmer and everything, and I even like an occasional foray into the open water, but something like this does not appeal to me in the slightest.  It just goes to show that no matter how extreme the endurance event someone's warped mind can concoct, people will want to do it.  Indeed, they will have to turn people away.

Progress Is Being Made

The project continues.  Now they are starting to build things, not just tear them down.

Squirrel's Revenge

This one is for Uncle Rob, although I'm sure something like this would never happen in Arlington, as the squirrels there are far too well fed and pampered to go on such a rampage.

Baseball

Last weekend was the end of the regular baseball season for David and Stephen.  They both had great years, improved their games a lot, and had plenty of fun.  David was selected for the league's 9-year old all-star team, which will be playing teams from other towns around the area.  He is thrilled to have made the team and is looking forward to playing with a bunch of kids who love baseball as much as he does.  It's a huge commitment, though.  For the next 6 weeks, he will be playing three games per week and practicing three times per week.  That's a lot of baseball.  It's starting to seem a little like swimming . . . although a baseball game is still nowhere near as long as a swim meet!

Anyway, I finally remembered to bring my camera to the games and got some pretty good shots.

Cathy's 60th!

We had a lovely -- but, as always, too short -- trip to the D.C. area the weekend of June 2-3 for Cathy's 60th birthday.  Despite some initial skepticism from some quarters, the family picnic for Cathy's birthday celebration was a huge hit.  We packed up some good food, drinks and games and headed for Cabin John Park in Maryland for a fun-filled day.  We set up at a site equipped with a grill, some picnic tables and nice shelter from the sun.  There was even room to set up our badminton set and croquet course (is that what you call it, a "course"?)  Finally the day ended with a ride on the train for the little ones.  Here are some of the pictures I got.

Project Update

These are now a couple of weeks old.  I'll post something more up to date soon.

Big lesson from the initial stages of the project:  Jackhammers are even louder than you think they are.

That's A Whole Lot of Kids When We Get Together

As many of you already know, John, Jennifer and the kids are vacating San Diego for the Summer (why not? it's no different really from the Winter) and heading to Hungerford, England for three months where John will be on a work assignment.   During their voyage over, they stopped here for four fun-filled days in northern New Jersey and New York City.  I was absolutely amazed at the schedule they kept (TWO Broadway shows, and more) while still remaining coherent.  We showed them a good time in Mountain Lakes which, while no New York, has its charms.  The kids had a great time together and their ability to entertain one another gave the adults some relief and some time to catch up.  It was a thoroughly enjoyable visit -- if you look at the pictures here and those on John's blog (linked above and in the margin), you can almost feel like you were there, only without the noise. 

Columbia Triathlon

The weekend of May 19 and 20, I traveled to the Washington, DC area to participate in the 26th annual Columbia Triathlon -- along with 1800 of my closest tri friends!  This is one of the most well-known and popular Olympic Distance triathlons in the U.S.  The course is extremely challenging, and the race draws a deep and competitive field of triathletes from up and down the East Coast and across the country. 

Longtime followers of my triathlon exploits will also know that this race has been the scene of some very tough times for me.  Indeed, of all the triathlons I have done, there have only been two times I have failed to complete the race, both at Columbia.  A few years back, a flat tire took me out before I could even really get started on the bike.  Then there was the year I had to pull out due to hypothermia brought on by wind, rain and temps in the 40s!

This year added another chapter to my book of horrors from this race.  The weather was cool and rainy at the start.  After a very solid swim (out of the water in second place in my age group), disaster struck on the bike.  About 4 miles in, I entered a roundabout and, although I slowed down, it was not enough to stop the wheels of my bike from skidding out from under me.  Next thing I knew, I was on the pavement sliding across the road.  Fortunately, neither bike nor rider were seriously hurt, and after regrouping and checking all equipment, I got back on the bike and forged on.

Although the crash took some of the wind out of my sails, and my bike time certainly was not what I wanted, I managed to put together a solid run, and wound up 4th in my age group (out of about 175) and somewhere around 70th overall.  I also have a nice souveneir in the form of an impressive strawberry and bruise on my left hip.  Race results are here if your interested in the details, and race pictures of me along the course can be found here.

The Project

Well, our renovation project is officially underway.  So far, there has demo (or as Matthew says, "those guys are breaking the house!") and the pouring of the footings.  For those of you who don't know what we're doing, we are expanding the basement by excavating a crawl space and underneath a terrace adjacent to the existing basement.  There will be a play/family room, a bathroom, and exercise room(!) and a mudroom in the finished basement.  The play/family room will open out at ground level to the backyard.  We are also bumping out to make one of our two garages wider, and then taking out the wall between the garages to make the whole thing into a real two-car garage.  Finally, we are doing a complete renovation of our master bath. 

I thought I'd post pictures and progress reports as we move along, although I fully recognize that this sort of thing can be incredibly boring and tedious for some people.  If that's you, I certainly will not be offended if you ignore all posts relating to the project!

Direct Flight--Paris to Panama City??

Well, maybe Newark to Panama City.  I can't decide whether to be happy about this.  On the one hand, a huge international airport would make it much easier for us to get down to the Florida Panhandle.  On the other hand, it would also make it much easier for the rest of the world to get there as well.  I don't get a great feeling thinking about Destin, Fort Walton, Panama City, etc., becoming a vacation destination "like Orlando."  Yikes.

Easter Bunny

I think this is self-explanatory.

Winter's Last Gasp

Well, we were almost out of the woods.  Just a few days before the official start of Spring, we were hit with a major snow and ice storm.  Although some warmer weather and rain over the last week has gotten rid of most of it, last weekend we mobilized the entire family in a snow removal operation to liberate our cars from the driveway.  It was one of the most difficult snow shoveling exercises I've undertaken -- it was about a 6-8 inch, heavy, frozen mass which covered everything in sight.  Check out the pictures.

NYC Foray

Better late than never . . . I'm finally posting about our trip into New York two weeks ago, while Nonni was in town.  We experienced one of the most spectacular museums I have ever seen:  The American Museum of Natural History.  A little natural history for the State of Nature gang.  Yes, we had to fight traffic.  Sure, we had to fight crowds.  But it was worth it.  It's one of those museums where it's impossible to see everything in one day.  That particularly true if you're Matthew, and have an absolute obsession (previously unknown to me) with "keletons" (skeletons, that is).  It was worth the price of admission just to watch how much fun he had.  Anyway, here are few pictures I snapped along the way.

Less Than Ideal Swimming Conditions

I think I'm okay with sticking to the pool . . . even if that means dealing with someone in the next lane with an exaggerated, splashing kick, with flippers.  This guy is nuts.

It's Safe, I Promise

This winter's weather has been strange.  During December and January, we had unusually warm weather -- in fact, one day in January it was 65 degrees and an actual baseball game broke out among some of the 9-year old boys in town.  And so far, we have had virtually no snow (at least until tonight and tomorrow).  But over the last couple of weeks, we have been paying for the warm early winter weather.  We went almost two weeks without the temperature getting above freezing, and had several nights of single-digit lows, and wind chills below zero.  If there is a silver lining, it is that there are several spots on the lakes in town that are frozen absolutely solid.  When this happens, there is a phenomenon that is absolutely foreign to a transplanted Southerner like me -- people actually ice skate on the lakes!  We dipped our toes into the water, so to speak, over the weekend, and took the kids out for a little skating.  Mostly, they had fun, although Matthew refused  for a while to even leave the van, true to his Southern roots.  I got some nice pictures, which I hope you enjoy.

We Kid Because We Love

Courtesy of Uncle Rob comes this little video clip from the short-lived Dilbert television show.  I think it's hilarious, although my engineer family members might think of it the way I do bad lawyer jokes.

All He Really Wanted Was Some Fruit

Fortunately, here in Mountain Lakes we only have to deal with squirrels and deer, and maybe the occasional bear.  But nothing like this.  Perhaps it would have been better to have protected the fruit trees with some chicken wire -- certainly the poor dogs would have thought so.

Olivia's Birthday

Turns out nieces and nephews grow up just as fast as our own kids do.  A case in point is that Olivia is already three years old!  So last weekend, we traveled down to Maryland to help her celebrate.  It  was a whrilwind two-day extravaganza, capped off by a party at Chuck-E-Cheese's.  As is fairly obvious from the pictures, I drew Matthew duty at the party.

Who Dat?!?

Here's a great Saints-related article from today's NY Times.  It really captures, in the context of this one family, the relationship of the Saints to Louisianians.  I, as many of you know, am much more like the two aunts than like the father.  An eternal optimist, I suppose.

Actually, in thinking about the Saints' upcoming playoff game against the Eagles over the last week or so, I've been unable to avoid playing through in my mind the many potential ways they might find to lose the game in crushing fashion.  What will it be this time?  The usually-reliable Saints kicker shanks an extra-point attempt?  A last minute special teams breakdown leads to a winning score for the Eagles?  Drew Brees, who has been so great all year, throws a completely out-of-character bonehead interception at a key moment?  Reggie Bush fumbles at the Eagles 2-yard line as the Saints drive for the winning score? 

As you can tell from the above, I bear the scars of having been a Saints fan for a long time.  This means, of course, that I must prepare for the worst.  But I will be hoping for the best.  GEAUX SAINTS!!!

Stephen's 6th Birthday Party

We had Stephen's 6th birthday celebration with friends on Saturday.  We find attendance is better if we hold off on the party until January, instead of trying to have it near his actual birthday.  For whatever reason, it seems people have less to do the first week of January than the latter part of December.

Anyway, we held the party at the "Funplex", a name which aptly describes this sprawling conglomeration of video and arcade games, go-cart tracks, laser tag, party facilities and, of course, the "Foam Frenzy".  Here are some pictures from the event.

Matthew's First Day of Preschool

Matthew was not to be denied any longer.  While we were a little reluctant to send Matthew to preschool last fall, when he was still only two, his pleas to be permitted to go to school have intensified over the last several months.  He just does not understand why all the other kids in the family get to go to school and he does not.  And then there was the unpleasantness with the class he was taking at the Y.  So, we enrolled Matthew this semester at Scribbles Preschool, just down the street from home, and Tuesday was his first day.  You can see from the pictures how excited he was.  From all accounts it lived up to his expectations.

Happy 2007

Happy New Year, everyone.  It's hard to believe we're rolling into 2007 already!  I'm sure everyone will be happy to hear that one of my New Year's resolutions is to post more frequently to this website.  Here's my first 2007 post.  I've put a few pictures of our family New Years celebration, State of Nature style.  The kids stayed up (almost) till midnight.  Around 11pm we had a "toast" and then went down to the basement to bust open a special pinata, which Lisa had stuffed with party toys and candy (free, of course, of wheat, gluten, nuts and artificial colors and flavors).  A got a few pictures along the way -- hope you enjoy!