A Wandering WeyrCat...

Today we snuck down to Gateway National Park at Sandy Hook. We saw the Lighthouse , took a driving tour of Fort Hancock , and saw the sunset from the beach. It was lovely.  But 15 minutes into town when I stopped for gas and realized I forgot the stroller at the beach. PANIC. Luckily it was still there when we went back, heh. ‐---- Originally, I'd planned to only go 30 minutes to Cheesequake, but the boys were asleep when we arrived. I checked the map to look for coffee (ok, Dairy Queens) and saw we were close to  Gateway National Recreation Area  on Sandy Hook! But, it was a 30 minute drive... Not finding any DQs, I went for it.  The island is a 10-kilometer-long spit in the Atlantic. It's almost perfectly North-South-oriented so the sun would come up perfectly over the ocean (#bucketlist). As it was near sunset, it flashed off Raritan Bay and made the ocean clouds start to turn the color of orange sherbet. It was so windy, and very cold (30⁰F), but sti...

I reread the Dresden Files this past year, gearing up for the double release of 1. Peace Talks & 2. Battle Ground by Jim Butcher. The really are one book, cut down the center for length. There's about one minute of time passing between the two books. I thoroughly enjoyed them both, though I had to stop and reread the first half of Battle Ground, it moved that fast. 3. Driftwood by Marie Brennan. I love her for her Lady Trent books but I haven't read any of her high fantasy. Her world building was great, and I loved the method of story telling in this book. 4. The Widow by Fiona Barton. Murder mystery told in boomerang time over five characters. I couldn't put it down. 5. American Demon - Kim Harrison. This is the book I never thought there would be; I thought she was done writing this series and I am do glad she gave in. Even after everything the story and characters felt fresh. 6. Honor Girl - Maggie Thrash. Graphic memoir of a lesbian coming out at a con...

Feb 02 Our plans to go to a reptile petting zoo at my school was thwarted by this sinus draining illness that we all seem to have, Including Hobbit. He woke up coughing to the point where we were afraid he was going to throw up. Later in the day he did throw up, so good prediction there. Instead we stayed home and tried to keep the snot from painting the entire house. His school sent home these monthly art projects to do for their bulletin board and this month's is a heart for Valentine's Day. So we use glitter paint and decorated that. I think it came out really nice. We kept our game night date and playing both Dominion and Art of Science. The ladder didn't end until 2 a.m., which wrecked us both for the next day. Luckily or unluckily, the toddler was feeling better.

1/11 The weather has been inconsistent and a lovely 65*F meant a much needed trip to The park. Hobbit rode his bike and we took Rook. While Rook was a Star (for every child under five) Hobbit did TWO new things at the park: climbed UP the slide, and climbed up the scary arch. (He did need a final hand up at the top, but he's never attempted it before!) 1/25 Glucose Tolerance Test... After failing my one-hour test (155/135) I needed a three-hour test to determine if I have developed gestational diabetes. I fasted for the required 12 hours, and drank the 100g medicinally-orange sugar water they gave me. I'd sit in the office for three hours, giving a blood sample every hour. I was warned not to sleep, exercise, drink water, or throw up. I thought the warning about throwing up was a bit unnecessary, but 30 minutes later it turned out to be a bit of a struggle.

Exploring from Home: Art: Raku Inoue - Fauna Out of Flora at Atlas Obscura . Shelley Phillips - Virtual Art Gallery. NJ native and elementary art teacher for 35 years.  I have been READING: Dead Beat (Dresden Files #7)  by Jim Butcher.  The Turn: The Hollows Begins with Death (The Hollows #0.1) (Kim Harrison). I loved this book for the same reasons I love all the Hallows novels: the characters are believable, sarcastic, intelligent, and all have their own agency. Even female characters motivated solely by a desire to mate have deep personalities, believable backstories, and develop over time (seriously)! I loved seeing new characters interacting with old. I loved getting to learn about The Turn. I adore the new facet given to beloved characters. I do have one complaint: because Trent is a Jr (sharing his father's name), for the ENTIRE book I thought KAL was TRENT. That's really a Me problem, not a Kim Harrison problem. Reading throug...

Hobbit and I joined a couple friends to visit Northlandz Model Railway System, the Guinness Book of World’s Records for being the World’s Largest Model railroad. It was started in 1972, and all the models are handcrafted by the owner, Bruce Williams Zaccagnino. The whole layout spread over 52000 sq feet having 8 miles long railroad track with 100 + miniature trains, 1000+ buildings, 400 + bridges, and 250,000 trees that cover the whole landscape. It's  a Mile just to walk through the linear layout. Hobbit Loved it. He begged to be picked up to see, because often the step was still too low for him.  There's even a construction scene (one of many). Hobbit was encouraged to name all the vehicles, and of course, he did. There was a sign stating that some bridges required as many as 23,000 hand placed pieces. This was not even the most elaborate. They spanned chasms, scaled wall high mountains in zig-zags, and some had multiple track that ran at the same time...