When we bought Jake a car, part of the deal was that he’d have to get a job in order to pay for his vehicle expenses. He applied at a bunch of places and received an offer from Westwood Garden Haven (so be sure to stop in and say “hi” and buy a bunch of stuff). I’m sure the fact that we’ve been customers of theirs for 20 years didn’t hurt his chances. His first day was yesterday and they put him through the grinder (a little hard work never killed anyone), but he came out unscathed and is scheduled for another three days this week. I expect he’ll be working at least 20 hours a week, which is ideal. The only issue is that this is a seasonal position, so he’ll have to look for something else at the end of the summer. But, we’ll worry about that when it happens.
dog tags
This book was ok. It was a suspense novel about a former police dog who witnessed a murder and whose owner is suspected of the crime. It was kind of a goofy premise, but it worked out ok. I wasn’t all that fond of the main character, the lawyer representing both the dog and the accused, though. Apparently this book is one of a series. I don’t know that I’d be interested in reading anything else from the series, but you never know.
My rating: 3/5
wildwood, nj
We took a break from the forest this year and hit the beach at Jake’s request. Much like the last time we were at Wildwood, Jake’s friend Dom joined us.
We had an uneventful trip down on Monday (though we hit a little traffic around Philly), got settled in and ordered some pizza from Sam’s. Serious Eats hails it as the best pizza place in Wildwood. I thought it was pretty good, though the crust was a bit dry. I’ll still take Pizza Man’s pizza over anyone’s. The boys were off on their own after supper. It’s kind of nice that they are old enough to do so, but sad at the same time. Brian and I went for a walk and then just hung out the rest of the evening, which was the recurring theme of the week for us.
I did a lot of reading, knitting, and coloring. And we went on a lot of walks–I logged well over 10,000 steps a day, including the day we got there (after being in the car for 6 hours). The weather was nice, though it was really windy one of the days (and I mean really). It only rained for a couple of minutes, too. The hotel we stayed at was great–it was the cleanest place I have ever seen. All in all, it was a pretty good trip, but it’s back to work on Monday. At least we still have the weekend.
birthday weekend
My birthday weekend started off at Polkafest, which it always does. We were there Friday night for supper, but didn’t have time to get there again so we missed Alex Meixner this year. Hopefully he’ll be back again next year. On Sunday, Brian made a delicious birthday brunch and the rest of the day was pretty low-key, just the way I like it.
a case of need
This was Michael Crichton’s first book, which was originally published under a pseudonym. I got through it quick enough, but I really wasn’t that into it. The writing style did not appeal to me and there were a couple of typos (you think they could have fixed these when they republished it).
My rating: 2.5/5