Stardate 61171.95 - Escape to Jersey

Today we went out to NJ to visit with Cheryl's parents, to take Loren to "the farm", and to go to Costco. We got 2 out of 3 accomplished, so that was not too bad. Loren fell asleep in the car during our early drive out there (at 0945) so we overshot our exit and started to come back up by way of the beach to keep her plenty of napping time in the car. The problem was that Cheryl was hungry (eating for 2 and all that) so we stopped at a MacDonald's to grab a late breakfast. Of course, Loren woke up as we were ordering from the drive-in.

And I'm sorry, John, but MacDonald's was awful. They didn't have any biscuits left (but didn't know this to tell us until after we had ordered and had gotten to the pickup window), so our Sausage Biscuits became Sausage McMuffins. And then mine turned out to be ham - not quite what I had ordered...in fact, not what I had ordered at all. And they didn't give us any cream for the coffee - they didn't even ask! Crappy experience.

So with Loren now awake, we aborted the beach drive and went up the Parkway to Cheryl's parent's place where we visited for a while. And since we were going to be out there with easy access to "free" laundry service we went ahead and took Loren's laundry with us (we're still doing her laundry ourselves rather than sending it out with ours - that way we know it is being washed in dye-free and all that other good stuff detergent).

Cheryl and her Mom drove out to Longstreet Farm in Holmdel Park while her Dad and I worked on individual job stuff (he installing software, me doing expense reports). I started the laundry and was supposed to be keeping an eye on it but I forgot so it sill had to go into the dryer when Cheryl and her Mom got back, cementing the fact that we would not be making it to Costco today.

Loren had a good time and enjoyed the chickens most of all. She also wanted to climb into this wagon but Cheryl wasn't sure if it was just a "display" and so Loren had to be content just standing beside it.



It was cold and flurries were coming down during the trip. We all had hot coco once they got back, and after a snack for Loren ahd folding of the laundry we were ready to drive back into the city. By this time it was pretty late so we decided not to stop at Costco on the way home - we'll save that adventure for next weekend.


And I guess one thing I should mention is that we had one other purpose for the trip - making sure the car didn't smell like vomit. As you may recall from an earlier post, Loren had a stomach bug a couple of weekends ago and threw up in the car 3 blocks from home. Apparently my cleaning up of the vomit and Febreze did the trick as the car smelled fine - no trace of vomit!

Ah, parenthood.

P.S. And Happy Birthday to James!

NYC