Joe and Jamie’s Blog

Recently a robin made a nest above the back deck on the new gutter and deck light. We never had the gutter there before so that is probably why we never had a bird’s nest there before. We typically get them in the potted plants on the front porch. It’s nice having them on the front porch because you see them grow up from in the house without disturbing them. Unfortunately in the nest in the back is right above one of the chair spots, so “bombs away!” if you catch my drift.

We thought about moving it before it laid it’s eggs, but we waited too long and now can’t touch it because we don’t want the mother to abandon the nest. We are used to seeing all sorts of birds in the yard all summer. We get sparrows, pigeons, a lot of crows, robins, blue jays, and cardinals. Usually it’s the sparrows that make a nest somewhere, first time a robin did it. I can’t wait to see them grow up. Wish I could peek at the blue eggs, but once again don’t want to disturb it.

Before I start, this is the second post thats about a week late. I know, I know, I was busy what can I say.

My Uncle Jimmy turned 60 this past Sunday. My cousins threw him a surprise party at the Oyster Point Hotel in Red Bank, New Jersey. It was a very fancy hotel with great service and food. Uncle Jimmy received a very nice surprise gift, but you have to scroll through the pictures to see what it is!

Red Bank is a nice little city, nothing like the crappy parts of Jersey, which is almost the entire state. The catering room we were in overlooked the Navesink River. I wish I was the guy out on the jet ski, it was even hotter out than Saturday.

Again, forgot the camera. These were with the Treo again.

Here’s the Birthday Boy along with my Aunt Susan and sister, Katelyn, in the background. My aunt is going to kill me if she sees this!

Here’s almost everyone cramming for photos before we left. Now here comes the surprise gift.

My cousins got my uncle a 1968 Oldsmobile 442. He almost had a heart attack when it rolled up. He honestly didn’t know he was getting it nor it was his since we were in the valet area. Its a very nice classic. He used to have one, same year and tires, just he had the hard top.

It was a great party and good weekend full of awesome food, free beer, good views, great weather, and fun times with the whole family.

This past Saturday we went to my cousin’s baptism, well actually two of my cousin’s baptism at the same time and place. My cousin Suzanne and her husband Howie baptized their son (King) George and my cousin Keri and her husband Chris baptized their son Matthew. Matthew is 5 1/2 months old and George is 2 1/2 months old. It was good to see the whole family together for something happy after the long series of sad events. Both babies were baptized in St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church at 856 Pacific St, Brooklyn, NY.

From there we went a few blocks to a very nice catering place, Giando On The Water at 400 Kent Ave, Brooklyn, NY. This was the same place Keri had her wedding reception, if I am correct I believe they are relatives of Chris. It is a beautiful place right on the bank of the East River with a wonderful view of Manhattan. The Williamsburg Bridge is practically right over the building (its the cool one with the train that goes in between the cars across it). You can see all the major skyscrapers from the outdoor patio. The food was great. It was 97 degrees out that day, but it wasn’t too bad in the shade.

Like usual I didn’t grab the camera, I need to keep a second one in my car I think. Excuse these photos as they were taken by my Treo, which has no flash or focus.

This clown actually stole our seats!

Very good chocolate cake with real strawberry and banana filling.

Suzanne and George(left). Carmine and Matthew(right).

Keri and Matthew.

Look at George tasting the cake!

Keri and Matthew(left). Suzanne and George(right).

Here’s Jamie and I just hanging out. I’m pretty good at taking reverse pictures like this. That’s right, I took this!

We’re going to Newport, Rhode Island.

We decided on this because it’s a lot closer for us to get to since we didn’t want to blow most of the vacation money on gas. I booked our 8 day stay at the Newport Beach Hotel & Suites just 2 miles from downtown Newport. It looks lovely and has received great reviews. It’s a historic old hotel, which I will have to do some more research on; I typically just wing hotels and see how it turns out. The hotel just finished renovations in May for many upgrades to all the rooms, which should be nice. The hotel’s front yard is a park with a beach in front of that. I can’t wait to wake up with an ocean view.

Here’s some pictures I took off their website.

All photos show above are copyright Newport Beach Hotel & Suites, the Newport Hotel Group, and the photographer.

This next photo I took off Microsoft’s Virtual Earth, Google Earth’s competitor. I love Google Earth and all Google’s products, but Microsoft Virtual Earth has the Birdseye View feature which renders the photo so much clearer and lifelike, and also it gives it the feel of flying around the place in a helicopter, not the straight down look of a satellite. Google does have street view though, which is just amazing.

I didn’t zoom in all the way because I wanted you to see the surroundings. Go to MSN.com and on the top search bar click on Maps and then do your search and play around with the Birdseye View.

Back to the topic now.

I will take thousands of pictures like I do every vacation. I promise I won’t post them all, but a bunch of really good ones scattered throughout many posts.

Jamie and I are having a tough time deciding where to go for our summer vacation. We want to go someplace new this year. We narrowed it down to Rhode Island or Virginia. Last year we took a trip to Boston after making a stop in Cambridge, Mass. The Delaware shores and Baltimore where among the list this year, but we for some reason are settling more towards the shores of Rhode Island or Virginia Beach, the more touristy areas since they tend to have more to do.

My friend Jay just recently posted some pictures of his Memorial Day tip to Point Judith, RI. He has been to Block Island before and recommends it. You can see some pictures he took and if you take a gander at the comments he has more from older posts.

Basically we need your help. I want to book the hotel this weekend before prices go way up and nothing is available. Right now Hotels.com is running a special on a free $50 gas card if you book more than three nights between now and Labor Day. We’re planning to go July 17th though the 28th if that helps with the decision making.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there. Today we planted some new annuals outside to spruce up the backyard for spring. It’s what we do every year for mother’s day weekend, it’s what my mother considers her present. I have some pictures below of all the nice flowers.

On top of that, Jamie and I painted some more in the attic (finally did more with that project) and also my father and I ran the electric from the basement to the attic so we could splice in the line up there and add a second breaker. We first had to drill the hole between the walls and get it downstairs, following a CAT-5e wire we ran a few years ago as a guide. We miscalculated the first hole by half and inch and put a hole in the corner of my sister’s ceiling, but we patched that with some Plaster of Paris and re-painted it.

We used Romex SimPull 600VA wire to a 20 amp breaker, pretty standard for a bedroom load. Apparently the idiots that wired this house put 1/2 of two rooms on the second floor and the entire third floor all on the same circuit breaker. You’re talking 3 air conditioners over 5,00 BTU’s, 2 TV’s 3 computers/laptops, clocks, lamps, monitors, laser printers, etc, etc all on the same breaker. PRETTY darn silly, but not our fault. We discovered this last summer when my sister got her air conditioner. She never had one before so once she had hers on, plus the addition of my laser printer and it’s spooling, the breaker tripped whenever you tried to print a page. We had to remember to turn off the lights or the a/c before printing. But this is all rectified now. Oh and while we were at it we pulled a backup CAT-5e line just in case I ever need it if I remodel the house network or put some storage servers in the basement.