Greetings from NJ

looking back at this blog, there have only been a few postings over the last year (last memorial day's post is still on the front page). i'll try to be more prolific going forward.

it's memorial day weekend already, which means parades, golf, bbq and a little r&r for the raynor family. charlie is getting ready to finish nursery school and start swim lessons again. joey is talking up a storm, and loves soccer and monster trucks. kim and i have joined the ranks of the "hip techster" people by getting iphones and an ipad. my most used iphone app is words with friends (scrabble). bri and i have been going back and forth - i've won a game, she's won a game, and the current rubber match game isn't looking real good for me (let's just say that she's the oil leak in the gulf and i'm BP - right now, i've got no answer to her game).

we had a weekend here in the beginning of may when it was just blistering hot for that time of year (90s). none of us were prepared for the heat, so we were all a bit uncomfortable as we had no time to adjust from springlike temps to late summer temps in the matter of days (maybe even hours). to make a long story short, we decided that joey didn't seem too comfortable in the heat - he was sweating and lethargic for most of the weekend - so that week, we went to the barber to get him his first buzz cut. he loves it, but there was also an important lesson learned - the #2 blade on the buzzer cuts a little too short for a child that isn't yet 2. i posted pics below.

nancy also hit a milestone since my last post (who hasn't) - her 60th birthday. dick made dinner reservations at a great place in spring lake (about 15 or so miles south of us), across the street from the beach. kim and i rented a stretch limo to take us there and bring us home. this was a surprise to everyone. the limo picked kim and i up first, then went to dick and nancy's to pick them up. the look and excitement on both of their faces was priceless. and since neither one had ever ridden in a limo before, it made it even more special. we had a terrific dinner, headed back to our neighborhood, picked up charlie and joey from my brother's house, and brought them on a ride for another 45 mintues or so. we then went back to our house, had cake, opened presents, and at the end of the night, the limo took dick and nancy back to their house. awesome night!

last weekend was opening day at monmouth park. our friends from new hampshire were visiting us for the weekend, so the 6 of us (4 raynors, 2 mcgondels) headed to the track for some fun in the sun. we stayed for 5 races and only had 1 person leave the track a winner - charlie. he picked a winner that paid $41.

i've been playing with my most recent camera lens as well - a fisheye lens. it's a real fun lens, not to be used all the time, but can give a pretty cool point of view.

have a great memorial day weekend and i'll be back with more soon.


Charlie's Winning Horse

fun with fisheye lens

Opening race at monmouth park, 2010 with fisheye

more fisheye


before



after

riding in style

palatable potent potable

new favorite drink in the raynor household - dark and stormy (must be said using a new england accent, dahk and stoimy)

goslings black seal bermuda black rum
ginger beer

pour about 2-3 oz of black rum over ice in pint glass
fill with ginger beer
enjoy

we haven't used anything other than the goslings rum, but i would guess using any dark rum would be sufficient.

quarterly blog post

i know it's been a while (actually, probably considered a long while) since the last post. lots of summer pics coming, but for now, this will be a short post about a monumental event. during week 6 of the NFL, the buffalo chicken dip finally made it's first appearance of the 2009 season. that stuff is soooo good, i want to eat the entire meal in one sitting (of course that's not advised as it would be completely spurning the deadly sin of gluttony, not to mention clogging an artery or 2).

welcome back, buffalo chicken dip, you were missed!

Happy 4th!

the unofficial start of...

the weekend nightmare traffic season (and you thought i was going to say summer). memorial day weekend always marks the unofficial start of the summer season at the jersey shore, which brings with it 2 of the most unfortunate biproducts of living at the shore - traffic and summertime vacationers (not the people that come for a weekend or even a week, but rather most everyone who comes to the shore for the entire season).

traffic is a nightmare around these parts during the summer. what is normally a 30-40 minute commute home on fridays inevitably turns into at least 90 minutes and could very easily break the 2 hour mark. by the time you get home, you need anger management classes, 6 margaritas, and 3 hours of non-stop bob ross on tv to bring you back down to earth. Ughh!

and then there are the full summer vacationers. it appears many are from ny, based on the ratio of nj to ny license plates in the summer. for every 1 nj license plate you see, there are at least 3 ny plates. for the most part, many of the types of cars these vacationers drive are worth more than the house that we live in, and it certainly doesn't help my ego to see that most of the drivers of said cars aren't even old enough to drink and possibly may not have even graduated high school yet. but believe it or not, none of that is really what bothers me about these vacationers. what bothers me is the fact that as soon as they arrive in nj, they seem to think that they are the actual leaders of the free world. they drive extremely fast and aggressive on local roads, jump to the front of any line they may be waiting in, and believe that any service professional waiting on them should be doing so before anyone else. not all summer vacationers are like this, though, but the many that i've had experiences with have left a bad taste in my mouth (and by "bad" i mean horrifically abominable.)

i love having guests come visit us, especially in the summer, because i think the area we live in is beautiful and i enjoy showing it off. i can say with a great degree of certainty that i wouldn't want to live anywhere else. because i am so enamored with the area, i put up with the summer vacationers every year, knowing that as soon as the day after labor day comes, all summer vacationers are gone and my family and i can enjoy another 9 months of peace and tranquility at the jersey shore.

until then, margarita anyone?

shirker...

yup, that's me, shirking my blogging duties for quite a while now. since my last post, i purchased a new blackberry (which i still haven't mastered), we vacationed for 2 weeks in florida, i took a new position at work (which is the reason for the lack of blogging - no time), 2 new babies were born into the family - cadiem and fletcher, nate morphed into a bearded rock star, joey got 4 teeth for a total of 6, dinosaurs became extinct, and jesus rose from the dead, prompting people to boil eggs, color them, and hide them for others to find, inevitably leaving 1 egg unfound which wouldn't be recovered until the smell became unbearable, giving the egg's location away.

our vacation to florida was fantastic. the weather cooperated perfectly. we had an incredible time at disney, and enjoyed the condo/beach/pool to their fullest. joey had his first pool experience while we were there, and seemed to love it. we were able to see the nokomis drum circle 4 times!

as soon as we got back to jersey, i had to start my new position at work. i'm basically doing the same thing i was before, but i'm supporting much larger customers (only 3 - EDS, DuPont, Koch Industries), and my days are filled completely with their needs. the unfortunate part of the position, though, is that i have to go into the office every day. guess i shouldn't complain since i still have a job.

joey isn't crawling yet, but he is real close. he's able to pull himself along on the floor, much like a military special ops person trying to sneak up on his prey in a field of long grass. i hope he starts to crawl/walk soon beause he's just getting too big to pick up. today, joey has his routine checkup with the dr. and i fully expect the dr. to tell us we can start putting him in pads and a helmet to get ready for football season.

finally, it's kim's birthday next week. anyone have any ideas?

PA weekend

since we weren't able to head out to PA for christmas because the kids were sick, we decided to go out there this past weekend. we arrived friday evening, a little before 5pm, and had a great time until we left on monday morning. we went to the park by the river and went on the "swirly thing" (as charlie called it - we would call it a merry go round) and fed the ducks. kim and nina went to gabe's and ollie's sunday afternoon. while they were gone, charlie and john had their own, mini version of a music weekend, spending about 2+ hours in the music room making beautiful music. and of course, we got to spend some quality time with granny and pappaw.

to see more from the weekend, check out my
pics page and click on the PA and assorted Feb 2009 folder.