Category: Adventure

The Shepherd and I decided to take a random road trip today. After a few minutes of research courtesy of roadsideamerica.com we decided to visit a dinosaur statue, a huge champagne bottle as well as a freak show museum.

We drove up Route 9 in hopes of finding all 3 landmarks. Driving wasn’t too bad, we really needed something to eat, so that was the first mission of the day. After driving by numerous diners and what looked like other fine eateries we randomly pulled into Sweet Jenny’s Restaurant, Ice Cream Parlour and miniature golf.

It was like a log cabin inside, with lots of Elvis photos about the place. I ordered a Porky Pig and was glad I did. One of the finer sandwiches I’ve ever had. If you’re ever in the neighborhood I recommend you stop in and get one.

A few minutes later we then drove by the dinosaur statue. We didn’t stop and take any photos. It was a terrible let down. Nothing impressive about it at all, but at least we were able to locate it and got a good sandwich as a result. A few minutes down the road was the giant champagne bottle, which there’s a couple of across NJ.

We then departed towards Seaside Heights in hopes of finding some freak show museums. We were able to navigate to the boardwalk all right, but it was really, really cold outside and decided to abort the mission. It was a very creepy atmosphere on the boardwalk, and I got heckled by a carnie so it’s best we got out of there while we still could. Cops were everywhere, never seen so many in such a small empty area.

While the landmarks were somewhat of a letdown, the food was exceptional and this was another fine random adventure.

We just had our holiday gift exchange at work today. This year I thought it’d be cool if we had such an event, so we tried organizing a little event. Jen (the Admiral) and Sean (the Commandant) and I formed a holiday gift exchange committee with the sole purpose of organizing the world’s greatest office holiday gift exchange ever.

We got a little daring and went with a gift swap versus going with the traditional Polyanna style exchange. It went really well, with every participant having had a good time. I initially got a punching bag and Hamilton Mall gift certificate that was later taken from me. But in the end I wound up with a massive inflatable moose head. It’s awesome!

The gift swap was really cool, and I have I feeling we’ll do something similar to it again next xmas.

Found myself with yet another wedding to attend. This time the groom was the mysterious two dollar bill tipper, who also goes by the name Mr. Yuk-Yuk. The wedding was at 4:00 on a Friday, so I took a half day at work.

Finding something suitable to wear was quite the challenge. Luckily a suit I had bought when I was in Wes’s wedding still fit for the most part so that was taken care of. Though I was destined to not remove the jacket for the entire night as my shirt was a wrinkled mess, and no iron was in sight. I managed to tie on my second try.

The Shepherd joined my on the ride to a church in Hammonton. It was located with no problems, and we were one of the early arrivers. It was a Catholic wedding so the services were a bit long, but it wasn’t too bad. The priest looked and talked just like Principal Anderson from Billy Madison. This had me laughing for the majority of the services, that and the got in my row ripping a couple of farts. I somehow found the strength to keep the majority of my giggles at bay and didn’t make too much of a fool of myself.

The reception was at Lucien’s Manor. Again I managed to navigate my way there without a single wrong turn. It was really nice in there, and the food was very very good. Joe told me to eat up, and I was true to his request. I devoured much food. I managed to escape when the Shepherd wanted out. Took my caramel apple and got home in one piece.

My Samsung LNT4061F 40″ LCD HDTV just arrived Monday night. I ordered it through Amazon, they had a really good deal. Been looking for a TV for a bit and I really like the Samsung LCD’s so I figured now was the time to actually buy it.

Was tracking the delivery all day online on Monday and they finally arrived a little past 5:30 when I got off from work. So that worked out really well, had it set up in time to watch Heroes on it. I’m very much impressed with the picture. It’s a very, very bright screen. Might actually have to turn that down a little bit. Still need to upgrade the cable boxes so I can get a HD channels. Wii games look great on it using component cables, Super Mario Galaxy is very impressive. Thus far a very good purchase, can’t wait to get the HD channels.

Sprained my ankle really bad last night. For reasons I’m still not sure of I decided to sprint to CVS to buy AA batteries, despite Scott telling me to just walk there with him. The running was fine, until damn Cedar Hollow turned into a street of cobblestones. That’s when I turned it and immediatley knew that something bad had happened. Kinda ironic I sprained an ankle running to CVS.

Scott was in that state of laughing but knowing that something funny really didn’t just happen, like when and old lady slips on ice and breaks a hip. I immediatley had to lay down on someone’s lawn when my new swollen ankle would no longer support any weight. I then managed to hop to Jared’s drop on the floor remove my shoe and see a slightly larger than tennis ball size swelling develop on my ankle. We got ice on it as soon as possible (I still think you guys were too slow on that, damn you all to hell).

Then continued to ice it for the rest of the night that I would spend as the odd man out in Wii Sports. Those bastards enjoyed playing my Nintendo while all I could do was sit there and ice. Later that night Dustin and Jared were kind enough to assist me to my car (luckily it is my left ankle not my right, so I can still drive). Then when I got home, managed to get inside and wrap it up as best I could. Upon waking this morning the swelling has really gone up as expected (whee!), and I can’t put any weight on it still. Not too much fun right now, though it was kinda funny as I couldn’t stop cracking up most of the time just thinking about how stupid the whole situation was.

Had to report for Jury Duty Monday morning. It was in Mays Landing at the massive courthouse. This place was huge, a very nice building. I arrived there at 9:30 AM and made it through the metal detectors without a hitch. Metal detectors are always cool.

Then I sat in some room with the other people who were serving that day too. There’s some very strange people. The strangest of which was seated behind me. It was some older man who made some of the most disgusting sounds I’ve ever heard from a human being. Heavy breathing, and a constant cough that felt like it was whacking me in the back of my head. Not very fun. And his stomach shot out like he was really pregnant or something. Strange man indeed.

When we moved into the court room I wasn’t one of the 14 selected to be jurors. However after 4 people were excused from serving, I was the lucky 5th name called. I entered the box. It wasn’t too bad, just had to make it through the jururs to get to my seat. Since I knew one of the witnesses in the case I was excused and my time serving the in jury box lasted a whole 30 seconds or so.

It seemed like such a long day. Just sitting there, not allowed to talk or really do much of anything. Luckily I didin’t have to report on any other days that week. That was my jury adventure for at least the next 3 years.