Kate and I left for my inlaws after work on Tuesday to begin our nice long weekend.  We knew leaving Wed would suck as we would only arrive in CT in time to get back in the car to head out for the beginning of our amazing weekend.  So leaving Tuesday night was the way to go.  We had a quick dinner and hit the road.  To our delight there was no traffic and we made it up there quickly, relaxed for a bit and headed off to bed.

We had tickets to see James Taylor at Tanglewoods an outdoor venue in Lennox, MA (The Berkshires) on Thursday, July 3rd.  Kate’s parents had kindly booked two nights at The Chesapeake Inn (a bed and breakfast) for Wednesday and Thursday after the show.  This allowed us to experience The Berkshires, local culture, food and sights as well as to have a stress free concert experience as the Inn is only a 1/4 mile walk to the venue.

The Inn keeper, John, was an amazingly nice man.  We really enjoyed his hospitality and he even endulged our odd questions with stories and background on his life.  He allowed us to pick our breakfast the night before and shopped for everything fresh in the morning to prepare our own individual breakfast meals.  Anything from breakfast meats (including a six ounce steak) to fresh fruits and juices were provided.  This was Kate and my first stay at a bed and breakfast and if any of them can be on par with John and the Chesapeake Inn I think we’ll be doing this again.

On Thursday we relaxed around the Inn with a gloomy sky over us waiting for mother nature to let down with pooring rain.  She heald out all afternoon and let loose just as Tanglewoods opened the gates at 4pm and we made a beeline to the lawn to setup our gear and begin the tailgating lawn seat extravaganza.  The rain was brutal and did not let up until just before James Taylor came on stage.  While it was chilly and certainly more wet than we’d have liked the experience was amazing and the venue was pretty full for a rain storm packed evening.

James Taylor was, as usual, absolutely amazing.  He and his band played many of their classics as well as some stuff from a new album he’ll be releasing which is his first time ever doing cover songs from such artists as The Temptations.  We all had an amazing time with great food, drink and of course an amazing concert.  The local newspaper, The Berkshire Eagle, has a very good article on the concert goings.

After the concert it was a short walk back to the Inn where we played cards and laughed at the fools in their cars suffering through bumper to bumper traffic.  We played a few games and turned in for the night so we could wake up energized and explore more of The Berkshires on the Fourth.  I took a bunch of photos throughout the two days (none at the concert due to the rain).

Today we’re back in CT and after an awesome breakfast at our usual haunt we’re cooking up good food of our own.  Since my in-laws know I love to bbq, grill or otherwise cook outdoors we’re making 16LBS of pork butt into pulled pork.  We have two amazing recipes going.  One is a mustard based one we’ve done before and we’re also doing a Memphis style recipe I’ve been aching to try for a long time.  Below is a picture of the pork on the charcoal grill just before it started its two hour smoking session. I’ve already stolen a taste of each and they’re amazing so far.  Neither of them are even dressed with their respective sauces yet!  I can’t wait.

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So once again I fail at being a good blogger.  I am not feeling guilty but rather silly as it doesn’t take much to post.  Especially since I’ve got WordPress so configured I can email a post … oh well.

The License
Many people have been asking me how the driving is going.  The answer is very simply, “Amazing!”  I’ve been driving as much as possible which has amounted to some 120+ miles of driving alone.  This included 3 trips in and out of the field office I sometimes work from, multiple errands including a shopping trip that the entire return ride was a heavy rainfall.  I’ve had no issues and have to say I am very proud of myself.  Kate is also pretty pleased as I am able to run so many errands she always had to do on her own.

Big Apple BBQ
Kate and I had an awesome and welcome surprise and the Fink’s joined us for the Big Apple BBQ.  We had a great time and ate some amazing BBQ.  This year the bbq was a lot more crowded than last year and we had to wait on a lot more lines; there were even some restaurants we could not visit due to the lines being way too long and us being way too impatient.  We had a great time despite the 100F heat and large number of people.  However, by the time we returned home we were all sweaty as hell!

The Blackout
Yesterday at about 5:55pm the power went out.  The message on PSE&G’s website said the power would not be restored until 4am.  Kate swung by a food store on the way home and bought some bags of ice and we moved some of the more expensive products from the fridge into a cooler with the ice.  We grilled some potatoes and sausage we had defrosting on the counter for dinner and packed a bag to go to my parents.  Just before we were about to head out at about 9pm the power came back on.  Unfortunately very shortly after it came on, it went off again.  Kate and I sat in the parking lot and spoke with some of our neighbors until power was restored at roughly 10:15pm.  So far power has been stable and I’ve not noticed any dataloss on the multiple machines, Tivos etc that were running.

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Usually a good blogger will blog about all exciting, depressing, or even humerous events that occur in their life.  An annoying blogger blogs about every single thing in their lives even when it bores the piss out of everybody.  A bad blogger forgets to blog about major events.  Kate and I are officially bad bloggers.

Kate’s Career
A little bit over two weeks ago Kate received an amazing job offer.  She was not actively job seeking but a job was brought to her attention and it was suggested she apply for it.  She put in her resume and figured she’d see what happened.  Needless to say they wished to see her for an interview.  Just when we thought it was a dead issue they came back and asked her for a second during which they informed her an offer would be forthcoming.   Once she received the offer there was no way she could not accept it.

She’ll be moving significantly higher in her career and stepping into a managing role.  While a managing role is amazing enough, she’ll be the Associate Manager of Marketing Communications.  This is a major title for her and it comes with a very large pay increase.  While we’ll be losing the tuition reimbursment that has been very good for us the pay increase will counteract the loss and at the end of it she’ll be a lot better off.

Dave’s Career
My account has continued to grow in volume of work despite a very low sales number for the month of April.  We began our new contract on March 31st and my wrok weeks have gotten more and more busy each week.  My boss has recognized that I am putting in a significant amount of effort and I think she even realizes that I am grossly underpaid.  She is doing everything she can to get me additional money and despite that being told to me before by numerous other bosses she has actually done something about it.  I received a very generous bonus as a “Merrit Bonus” last week.  The bonus was slightly over 5% of my anual salary.

The Vacation
We have returned from an amazing vacation taken with three other couples.  We flew to San Jaun, Puerto Rico and spent a day there before boarding Royal Caribbean’s Adventure of the Seas for a cruise of the Southern Caribbean.  We had an amazing time and are very eager to book another vacation with this group of people for 2010.  It’s very rare for me to find people I can be with for that length of time without getting angry, annoyed or saying something that would jeapordize the friendship and that did not happen with this group.  I am quite delighted and was very happy with everything that happened on the vacation.  Great times, great people and amazingly great food!

Driving Test
My drivers test is scheduled for Wed, May 28th at 11am.  I am very nervous but confident that I can do everything required to be a good driver.  My concerns lie with things like doing the proper checklist before starting the engine, keeping my hands at 9 and 3 (10 and 2 is no longer acceptable in NJ), and other stupid things like making sure I follow the proper order for routine tasks.  I’ll either blog all excited that I passed or be silent because I did not.

Fun & Games
Today Kate sent her father and I to GameStop to see if they had any used XBox 360s in stock.  Kate knew how much I’ve wanted to get my hands on GTA4 as well as some other games and how I was being a cheapskate and not going out and getting one.  So with my bonus money I have purchased a previously used Xbox 360 Elite with 20 GB HD (yes the Elites come with a 120 but GS sells them without the drives) and a wireless remote.  I got GTA4 to go with it and have been playing it a bit today.  We’re in CT so I am playing in SD mode (Standard Definition) rather than on my 1080p capable 42″; but it’s great!  Loving the game.

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Over the past two weeks our best friends in Maryland have both received offers and accepted new jobs.  On Friday John accepted his offer and handed in his notification while Rachel is scheduled to finish her current job on Thursday.  While congratulating John and discussing how we must celebrate both their recent successes John mentioned how they had no plans and the weather was to be beautiful all weekend.  He suggested we drive down and spend the weekend with them to celebrate, enjoy the wonderful weather during the day and their fire-pit in the evening with some BBQ.

As soon as Kate got out of work we packed our bags and loaded the car.  We got onto the road pretty quickly with one major difference than all our prior trips to Maryland.  I was in the drivers seat!  I’ve had slight bits of highway experience already but nothing more than going an exit or two on a smaller highway until Friday.  I drove from our house all the way to the Delaware Memorial Bridge which is a pretty good trip of about an hour or more.  I negotiated entering and exiting the highway, passing vehicles, and even dealing with traffic.  Overall we were very satisfied with my driving abilities.  However on the trip down a “Check Engine” light came on.

We arrived at the Fink’s and after dumping the contents of our car in their living room we immediately poured drinks and sat around the fire already lit.  We had a wonderful evening just relaxing and talking about their new jobs and how Kate and I were so happy but jealous of them.  Saturday was spent relaxing around the house during the day and in the evening we had a BBQ with another couple and sat around the fire again; another amazingly relaxing evening.

Sunday after breakfast we packed up the car and headed home.  Once we got into NJ I took over and drove the rest of the way home.   Later that evening we had Passover dinner with my family and when Kate has time she’ll develop the pictures taken on her digital camera.  Hopefully we’ll have some nice pictures of our niece and nephew.

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My parents, Kate and I went to the Bronx Botanical Gardens to see the Orchid exhibit today. We had a blast and I really got a good chance to play with the camera.

UPDATE: Many of the photos I took are up on photos.waxman.org here.

Below the cut are some of my favorites:

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I got Super Mario Galaxy as an early Christmas / late Chanuka gift.  The game is amazing fun.  I have only had a short time to play with it as the Wii is also being heavily used by my father-in-law who we gave Brunswick Bowling to.  This morning I managed to beat all three stars of Good Egg Galaxy.  The game is an absolute blast.

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Kate and I went Pumpkin Picking today. Photos available.

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On Sunday Kate’s parents took us to another cooking class at The Mystic Cooking School. It was a class based on brunch and was amazingly good. The menu was:

Minty Grape and Honeydew Fruit Salad with Midori Reduction; Monte Cristo (ham and Swiss) French Toast with Port Maple Syrup; Zucchini, Spinach, and Parmesan Rolled Egg Souffle topped with Oven-dried Tomato Cream Sauce; Fresh Herbed Pulled Pork Shoulder over Cheesy Grits with Scallions; Mascarpone and Berry-filled Crepes with Raspberry Coulis

The food was fantastic, especially the pulled pork. I also quite enjoyed the Monte Cristo French Toast and the Crapes were fantastic!

I had my camera with me and took some decent shots. I was not using the flash indoors as to not disturb other patrons and I think that caused the shots to come out a bit yellowish. I need to learn how to counteract that, if at all possible. I did have some fun in macro mode though:

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Kate and I had plans to go visit our friends, the Finks, for the night on Saturday to hang out with them and two of their close friends.  Unfortunately Kate had a class obligation to attend up at FDU and I figured it would be easier if I tagged along and we left for Maryland from there.  While Kate was attending her class I set out on foot and roamed my old campus taking part in my new hobby of photography.  I got a few good shots, a lot of mediocre shots and some that I had to apologize to my memory card for the abuse they must have caused.  Those which weren’t awful awful are here.

After the class we drove down to Maryland where John and Rachel once again prepared an awesome dinner.  I took some photos of the ribs being cooked / served.  I also took pictures of their dog Maizy.  No, we did NOT eat ribs made from Maizy!

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Well, we’re home from vacation.  The photos are up here.
Myrtle Beach, SC – We didn’t have the best weather but we made the best of it.  We went to a lot of the tourist traps and did that shopping thing.  On Monday we had awesome weather and we both managed to get a bit burned.
Charleston, SC – On Sunday we made a trip to Charleston and did a horse and carriage tour.  The city is amazing and we had some amazing food.  Amazing day.

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