So this weekend was the annual 4th of July blowout BBQ my sweetie's mom throws. Her family has assured me that really, the vast quantities of food and 25 or so people are really (really!) a scaled back version of her usual extravaganza. Uh huh. If this is what she's like when she's 80, I imagine that she was absolutely overhwelming in her youth. Heh.
The photo below gives you some idea of the scope, bearing in mind that a bunch of people are off camera. And oh yeah, that white glare in the upper right corner is part of the tent they set up every year. I told you -- this is a serious shindig.
Last year I had only been seeing my sweetie for 2 months and so was understandably not present. This year I helped with the prep and cleanup. Isn't the fruit salad pretty?
The watermelon "basket" was really cute and carved by my engineer's niece. The stars are not just a fun decorative touch, but they're also practical: like a bowling ball, they provide finger holes for gripping the lid. (As I said, many years of practice.)
And in the evening, we had comfy seats for the fireworks display thrown by the nearby town of Beachwood, NJ (a/k/a "The Pearl in the bed of Toms River"). No jostling crowds, just us and the neighbors.
Ironically, I found out today that my boss and I probably "saw" each other that night and didn't even know it: she and her family were also visiting their beach house which is nearby, and had watched the same fireworks from the river in their boat. (See pic below.)
The photo at the top of this post is of some of my sweetie's mom's flowers. I have no idea what they are but a co-worker who gardens says they're tiger lilies. I just thought they were pretty (yes?) and unusual. My engineer's dad says she orders these colors from a nursery in Maine (or somewhere in the great white north, I forget exactly). She also has a vegetable garden in the backyard and wages daily battle against the bunnies (did you know you can buy fox urine to discourage them?) who find her veggies just as tasty as her family does. Heh.
And speaking of animals, I have been fascinated with a some virtual ones the past few days. For example, this electronic panda bank (they also have piggy banks) makes me bow to to the Japanese in their infinite ability to make ridiculously cute gadgets, since it is not just a piggy bank, but also an (ta da!) alarm clock! It recognizes coins from any currency apparently, but since I haven't figured out how to buy iPanda from it's Japanese manufacturer, I guess I'll never know firsthand.
I have no idea exactly how I wandered across the iPanda (sigh of longing) -- as with many moments of internet digging, the path eludes me now -- but it probably has something to do with SmartyPig, which I read about in a recent New York Times article.
Since my mortgage will be adjusting downward (woohoo!) and the current capital assessment fee for our condo complex is ending, I will have (in theory) extra cashflow each month. Rather than applying it to my mortgage (really, when you have a jumbo mortgage -- and every mortgage in Manhattam is basically a jumbo mortgage according to the rest of the United States) do the words "drop in the bucket" ring a bell?
And if I simply left it in my checking or savings account, that extra bit of dosh would magically evaporate somehow, you betcha (sidebar: that woman is NUTS! can't wait to read It Came From Wasilla in this month's Vanity Fair & hey, am I the only one unmoved by the endless Jacko hoopla??) so instead I'm going to have it automatically deposited in a 2.75% interest savings account at SmartyPig.
And in a final digression (and the probable reason I wound up wandering across iPanda), did you know the history behind the term "piggy bank?" I leave you with this explanation which has some neat photos.
The photo below gives you some idea of the scope, bearing in mind that a bunch of people are off camera. And oh yeah, that white glare in the upper right corner is part of the tent they set up every year. I told you -- this is a serious shindig.
Last year I had only been seeing my sweetie for 2 months and so was understandably not present. This year I helped with the prep and cleanup. Isn't the fruit salad pretty?
The watermelon "basket" was really cute and carved by my engineer's niece. The stars are not just a fun decorative touch, but they're also practical: like a bowling ball, they provide finger holes for gripping the lid. (As I said, many years of practice.)And in the evening, we had comfy seats for the fireworks display thrown by the nearby town of Beachwood, NJ (a/k/a "The Pearl in the bed of Toms River"). No jostling crowds, just us and the neighbors.
Ironically, I found out today that my boss and I probably "saw" each other that night and didn't even know it: she and her family were also visiting their beach house which is nearby, and had watched the same fireworks from the river in their boat. (See pic below.)
The photo at the top of this post is of some of my sweetie's mom's flowers. I have no idea what they are but a co-worker who gardens says they're tiger lilies. I just thought they were pretty (yes?) and unusual. My engineer's dad says she orders these colors from a nursery in Maine (or somewhere in the great white north, I forget exactly). She also has a vegetable garden in the backyard and wages daily battle against the bunnies (did you know you can buy fox urine to discourage them?) who find her veggies just as tasty as her family does. Heh.
And speaking of animals, I have been fascinated with a some virtual ones the past few days. For example, this electronic panda bank (they also have piggy banks) makes me bow to to the Japanese in their infinite ability to make ridiculously cute gadgets, since it is not just a piggy bank, but also an (ta da!) alarm clock! It recognizes coins from any currency apparently, but since I haven't figured out how to buy iPanda from it's Japanese manufacturer, I guess I'll never know firsthand.
I have no idea exactly how I wandered across the iPanda (sigh of longing) -- as with many moments of internet digging, the path eludes me now -- but it probably has something to do with SmartyPig, which I read about in a recent New York Times article.
Since my mortgage will be adjusting downward (woohoo!) and the current capital assessment fee for our condo complex is ending, I will have (in theory) extra cashflow each month. Rather than applying it to my mortgage (really, when you have a jumbo mortgage -- and every mortgage in Manhattam is basically a jumbo mortgage according to the rest of the United States) do the words "drop in the bucket" ring a bell?
And if I simply left it in my checking or savings account, that extra bit of dosh would magically evaporate somehow, you betcha (sidebar: that woman is NUTS! can't wait to read It Came From Wasilla in this month's Vanity Fair & hey, am I the only one unmoved by the endless Jacko hoopla??) so instead I'm going to have it automatically deposited in a 2.75% interest savings account at SmartyPig.
And in a final digression (and the probable reason I wound up wandering across iPanda), did you know the history behind the term "piggy bank?" I leave you with this explanation which has some neat photos.
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