Saturday, July 12, 2008

Ol' MacDonald

What is up with all these animals? i seriously feel like i live on a farm. Rabbits, geese, retarded pigeon looking birds, heron, egret, wasp nests, mice, ducks, and deer. In Saudi all i had were lizards, fish, turtles, frogs, and Daisy...great, now i'm thinking about my dog daisy. :' (

The new animals in town are the robins. The eggs have finally hatched and i see the mother come back to the nest with food all the time. i believe there are 3 baby birds right now. There were four but one of them offed himself by jumping out of the nest, lemon.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Third Times the Charm

Seemed like trying to float the bird out was our best shot. To help stop the leak problem my dad caulked the bottom of the post and wrapped towels around it and screwed the base over the towels to hold them in place.

i then stuck the hose back down the post and turned on the water to full blast. Seemed like it was working. The post was leaking a little bit but not nearly as much as our first attempt with the water. i'm not sure how the bird was still alive at this point but it was and it was slowly floating up to the top.

Everything was looking good until the water level reached about 3/4 of the way. The post then split open letting most of the water rush out. i could see the wing of the bird though, it was sticking out of the opening. Luckily for the bird the hose came out as well keep the siding of the post coming back together and breaking the birds wing. All my dad had to say was,"did not expect that..".

i then pried open the post while my dad pulled the bird out and dropped it on the floor. Not sure what the next step was but at least we got the bird out! Since it was soaking wet i picked it up and put it in the sun to give it some warmth and my dad gave got some bird seed for it.

After about 5 minutes of laying in the sun, the bird got up and tried to fly. It could only get about a foot off the ground but it looked like it just need some more drying/rest before it could fly away. Should have video taped this and sent it in to "Animal Rescue" on Animal Planet.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Second Rescue Attempt

The next idea my dad had was to flood the bird out. Not sure why i did not think of that, i must be retarded. So we grabbed a hose and ran it down the post and cranked up the water.

Turns out that the post is not water sealed by the slightest so we got some towels and tried to keep the water from leaking out. In the end it failed because the rate of which the water was leaking out was faster than the water going in...

Not sure how long the bird has been deprived of food...but at least it got some water to it?

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Center City Sips

Apparently every summer, a number amount of bars participate in something called Center City Sips. Its this crazy happy hour on Wednesdays that goes down 5pm to 7pm consisting of 3 bone glasses of wine, 2 bone domestic beers, and half off appetizers. Some ads even say free appetizers, but i have yet to see a bar that actually does that. i rarely drink during the week because usually my friends are busy, but not manthan.

i believe this outing was Lily's idea and she was nice enough to invite manthan and myself. Since we only had two hours of drinking time i wanted to make sure that we arrived at the bar before or at least at 5pm. Of course that did not happen. i was on time as usual but manthan got caught up in traffic and parked near the art museum so he had a ways to walk to meet me at the train station on 30th and Market.

Once we met up we gave Lily a call, and she was running late as well. manthan and i waited outside the bar for them. We decided to go to Vango. i've never been there before but they say they have a crazy roof top party lounge which would be pretty cool if we could get up there. Lily didn't show up with her girlfriends until 5:45pm...ugh, so much drinking time lost.

Once in the bar we were told the roof top was closed for a private party. Awesome, we then did a 180 back outside and headed to Noche instead. It was a little packed at first but we managed to get a table and manthan and i pounded some beers. The first beer was Victory. With a name like that you think it would be good...but everytime i have it its just awful. We wanted Magic Hat but they were tapping another keg and we didn't want to wait and Victory was the only domestic beer that was not light. Manthan and i managed to get 7 beers in before we left the bar a little after 7pm. Our last beer was not included in the happy hour so that was the full 4 bones for a beer, lemon.

Most of the time at Noche it was just manthan, myself, lily, and like five other girls. Pretty good ratio if you ask me...the only problem was that manthan sat next to me so we looked gay. Thanks manthan.

Did not catch the name of the next bar, but the bouncer for it was huge with some crazy haircut...like a reverse mohawk or something like it. manthan and i didn't say at this bar long, one of lily's friends was pretty ridiculous and the bouncer said she had to leave. She wasn't being loud or anything, she actually wouldn't talk at all but she clearly did not need to have anymore drinks. i'm pretty sure she just need a half hour of walking and sipping water and she would be fine but i'm not dirnking expert...or am i?

Lily got a cab for the flagged girl along with some other girls so our party got pretty much cut in half. manthan and i then bounced and decided to go to dave's place to say hello. i haven't seen him since Erin Express. After catching up with dave, manthan and i both had the beer munchies and we then went to his favorite mexican (at least one of them) restaurant, El Vez.

manthan keeps talking about this place so i had some pretty high expectations. For some reason he took this photo of the bike hanging above the bar.
Okay, i'm never letting manthan have my camera again. He just takes random pictures. Such as this one of the girls at the bar all on their cell phones.
manthan was pretty thirsty and loves the margaritas here so we got a pitcher on the rocks. He failed to mention that the pitcher was 30 bones which was a nice surprise when the bill came. The margaritas were pretty good though. i tend to perfer them frozen mostly because it reminds me of snow cones or a slushy.
For starters we got the El Vez Guacamole. This was probably one of the best guacamoles i have ever had. It was extremely tasty. The menu said there were jalapenos but i didn't taste any...probably because i was obliterated by this point.
The chips were pretty good, kind of hard to mess those up and the salsa was just average.
manthan with his lame mohawk.
i never know what to order. i knew i wanted an enchilada but could not decided between the black bean, chicken with red peppers, and crab. Luckily they had an entree with all three! woot! For 18 bones...lemon. But i still got it.
Looks like manthan still has an asian fetish.
i forget what manthan ordered. i'm guessing the black bean enchilada.
The bathrooms were pretty crazy with the sinks outside of the bathroom for both men and women. Not sure what that is all about but at least i don't have to worry about touching a dirty door after washing my hands.
Pretty sure our waitress hated us. Since manthan was driving i downed his two last margaritas, no way am i going to let a 30 bone pitcher go to waste. Our waitress was trying to rush us out. Should have tipped her less..stupid 80 dollar bill...ridiculous.

manthan and i then started walking back to his car...trying to save money...but soone gave up and grabbed a taxi. i then crashed at rich and john's. Rich has an a/c in his room so i stole the couch cushions and set up a bed in his room. i then got cold at 5 am and couldn't find a blanket and moved back to the couch. Luckily it was pretty cool that night. Overall i'd say center city sips was a success.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Dumb Bird

Decided to get some sun and while walking under the deck i heard this ridiculous racket coming from one of the supports. It was like a flapping sound paired with clawing. Another animal has gotten itself stuck in one of the pillars. The last time this happened was about two years ago. i never found out what kind of animal that was and never managed to get it out. So there is probably a rotten animal body still in it...

i tried saving whatever it was by lowering down some straps thinking it was a bat or squirrel or something that had claws that could just climb out. Did not occur to me that it could have been a stupid bird and that straps would not have helped it at all.

This time around though, i was a little more determined about saving this trapped animal even it was a bird. Managed to take some horrible pictures but at least i could tell it was some pigeon looking thing. While looking down the post i got a lovely whiff of concentrated bird poop to my nostrils...so dis


i had no idea how i was going to get a bird out of the post. i thought about making some kind of contraption and lowering it down and hoping the bird would just magically have enough sense to hop on it and be pulled up. i tried thinking of something else but i couldn't. Asked my dad for ideas and he said just make a wooden cross piece and lower it down by string. Pretty much my idea i just really didn't think it would work.
Found some twine and lowered the cross piece i nailed together several times and all i managed to do was knock the bird in the head. The farthest i could pull the bird out when it did decided to sit on the cross piece i nailed together was about a foot but then it would just fall back down.
Pretty much gave up on the bird after 15 minutes. My dad went at it after i did. He messed around with a cage and other mods to the cross piece i made but soon gave up as well. Looks like the bird well have to starve a little longer.

Sunday, July 6, 2008

See I'm Not Crazy, There Is A Rabbit!

Silly wrabbit. My mom's garden has a bunch of stuff growing in it. This rabbit must be eating its weight worth in greens everyday.
He's so tiny i just want to squeeze him until his head pops off...is that weird? i hear rabbit is delicious and you can skin it pretty much like taking a sock off. That would be so awesome, having little rabbit socks. i'm sure all my friends would be jealous.
My dad has failed to catch him. It seems that he leaves the flowers alone and that's all my mom really cares about and there is too much veggies for him to make a dent in so looks like he'll be roaming free for now.

Saturday, July 5, 2008

My Second Mennonite Wedding

i was pretty tired from the 4th of July shabang, but i had to get back on the road by 9am to get home for Jenn's wedding in Lancaster. i made manthan drive because i don't like driving in Jersey, mainly because i have no idea where i'm going, also mainly because i was tired.

Took about an hour to get back to manthan's and another hour for me to get home. i arrived home a little bit before 11am and that game me about an hour to shower and get dressed. i was so tired...Was not looking forward to an hour and a half more of driving to amish country Lancaster.

Surprising my dad did not get lost on the way to the church and we even got there a little over an hour early.

Linford, groom, borrowed a John Deere tractor for his wedding vehicle...the biggest non-articulated tractor made today. It takes up like one and a half lanes on the road. Turned out to be pretty fast for something that size...


Here is rachel chillin with her baby josiah. He was much more entertaining than the last time i saw him.
i snapped this one of brent without him noticing. His hair is getting pretty long...i keep offering to cut it but he turns me down everytime. i'll just have to cut it while he is sleeping during our trip to Hilton Head.The Wedding was definitely different...probably the craziest wedding i'll ever go to.
The timing was not managed well, i spent most of my time waiting around to be told what to do next. At least that gave me more time with the cousins.
Not sure what was going on in this picture. After waiting outside forever brent and i finally decided to hit the cooler in van filled with Guinness, Twisted Tea, and Mike's Hard Lemonade. i've already been to a dry wedding and it was pretty painful...i need some kind of alcoholic beverage to consider it a wedding.
Mmmm beer....Felt kind of weird drinking a beer in a church parking lot...but i brent and i were really thirsty so it didn't bother us that much.
The reception took place in the gym at another church. After sitting there for a good time waiting for everyone to show up, my cousin eric recruited brent and i to do the cake pick up. So i missed the fun entering of the bride and groom. i'm sure i won't lose that much sleep over it.
Here is the center piece, corn of course....
julie was making a fishy face...but my camera took long to turn on so i missed it.
Caught josiah spitting up water and drool...he didn't cry at all. Such a good baby.
Aunt Shirley gave eric the keys to her car. Eric is probably the worst driver ever. He hit like three things in the parking lot. i was lucky enough to call shotgun and brent had to sit on the cooler for the ice cream cakes in the back.
Somehow we were suppose to fit 10 cakes in one cooler...that was pretty much impossible. Eric did manage to fit 6 of them and we rushed back to the reception to get the other four into a freezer.
The cake was alright, i'm not a big ice cream eater...and i don't really care for chocolate...and i was full from the crazy dinner. Definitely didn't bring my "A" game for eating.
i remembered my uncle floyd wanted to try some of my wine this past christmas but we ran out of time or something and he didn't get a chance too. So i brought four bottles for him, the shiraz, pinot blanc, french cabernet sauvignon, and the muller thurgau. i have no idea what the pinot blanc tastes like or the cabernet...interested to see what he thinks about them. We did a shady exchange between the two cars in the parking lot.

brent was pretty enthusiastic about me riding home with him...but then he got all crouchy in the car and didn't talk to me. i believe it had something to do with him being made to sit in the back :'(. Some things never change. Since brent wasn't talking to me, lucky me got to watch Mickey Blue Eyes with julie on the cars entertainment system. At the gas station aunt janice switched seats with her son so he might be less of a punk ass.

i've been down this road several times and i've never noticed this store. i wonder what they have in there...i bet they have some sweet video games.
i was pretty beat getting back. Passed out before midnight. Good times..

Friday, July 4, 2008

Happy 4th of July!

manthan and i were so beat after the golf game...and ridiculously sweaty. i went ahead and grabbed a shower first and when i came down to the basement he was playing Halo 3 on his Xbox 360...i made him quit his game because i wanted to get moving to go to rich's for his 4th of July bash.

Going down the Atlantic City Express way the traffic got pretty crazy because of an accident. Not on our road of course going East but going West.
It looked pretty serious with ambulances, fire trucks, and a million cops. The cars in the accident were not too badly mangled so i'm guessing the injuries were not life threatening...because i'm an expert and all.
Arrived at rich's at about 5pm. i brought Heineken, pong balls, and fireworks. My pong game was horrible that day, must have been from being tired after golfing...
i wanted some fireworks that would be fun to light during the day...all i could find were smoke bombs. Apparently they don't make smoke bombs like they use to. i could make more smoke from a hookah than these cheap things.
A couple of the smoke bombs worked pretty well but most of them were just disappointing.
Took forever for the sun to go down. Wasn't until 9pm we busted out the sparklers. Rich was definitely smiling before i took the picture...but right before i take it he has to look like he's having a horrible time.
i was told to at least pick up sparklers. PA is so worthless for real fireworks. i ended up buying this thing called the "King Bling". It has diamonds on the outside of it so it had to be good, especially for 11.99 bones.
It actually wasn't that bad. Kind of fun to watch. Just wish it would have lasted longer.
The other lame firework i decided to get was the Pyro Perfection. With a name like that it had to be good, right? This bad boy was 30 bones...turned out it wasn't as cool as the King Bling. The only thing it had going for it was that it lasted about twice as long but just didn't have the "bling" that the King Bling had.
Some of the effects were cool though, but the money would have been better spent on 3 more King Blings.
One of rich's cool friends broke a beer bottle outside and he just happened to step on it and made his toe bleed a tiny bit. i thought it was pretty funny he was making such a big deal out of it and his dad, mom, a heather were all concerned about it so i decided to capture the moment.
manthan passed out kind of early. i stayed up the latest as usual. Everyone went to bed at 1am...i made manthan take the small couch since he wasn't even using the whole big couch.
This is abby/abigale, chocolate lab.. Not really sure what her whole name is but she is very cute. About 10 weeks old and already knows how to sit. Really missed daisy when i was playing with her. Ugh i want a new puppy...
Here is John in the drivers seat. i never thought this day would come. He's 22 and finally got his driver's license...i'm so proud of him.