Off Topic: That Was the Week It Was - March 24, 2013

Good Sunday morning to you! Since it is Sunday, it's time for my off television topic reflection of the week gone by in both words and photographs I've taken along the way. Later tonight, I'll be posting the blog party post for The Amazing Race. I expect the show to be delayed due to March Madness basketball, but I'll put the post up at 8pm ET anyway.

There hasn't been a heck of a lot going on here this week. Our weather is still in a holding pattern with winter wanting to hang on. We're expecting more snow tomorrow -- one to three inches. It won't stay around long. Even with the cold temps, once the sun comes out, the snow melts. 

I hear that there's one winner of the big Powerball lottery jackpot. That winner is in New Jersey. I don't often play the lottery, maybe just a handful of times a year. Well, I bought a ticket for this one! Put your minds at ease. You don't have to worry about how the wealth will throw my life into heck in a handbasket. I didn't even have one number. I spent two bucks! I want a refund!

The new neighbor upstairs has been less quiet this week. He still walks in sock feet, but I'm hearing his stereo more. It's still not unreasonable and it's not gangsta rap or hip hop with a thumping beat. It's actually rather mellow and pleasant. However, it has to be loud IN his apartment if I can hear it down here. He still has the rating of best upstairs neighbor yet here, so I can't complain. I still have no clue what he looks like or who he is.

Meanwhile, new tenants in the front of the building are keeping with the stereotype of front of the building riff-raff. Last week they had a big party with the police responding to break it up. This week, when I went to get my Sunday newspaper before someone stole it, a woman was on a cell phone screaming at somebody that "If you don't let me in to get my clothes, I'm calling the cops!"

She rushed right into the building when I opened the door. I wasn't going to fight with her! She obviously wasn't a burglar. She went to the door right next to the landing and started pounding on it, still screaming on her cell phone. Now, that apartment had been empty for a good eight months and they just moved in this month (same as my upstairs neighbor). I predict they will break their year lease, the only kind offered, within two months. They don't really affect me as I'm on a different floor in a different wing of the building. But they can go. Buh-bye!

I'm only grateful that they're not who moved in upstairs from me!

Onto this week's photos ... 

A Bridgewater sunrise

Determined dandelion

Bridgewater, NJ

Squirrel king of the tree

This squirrel posed on a branch over Watchung Avenue in Plainfield. What a cooperative little fella!

As the sun sets

Pretty, but cold. Bridgewater Train Station on Saturday evening.

**CLICK THE 'READ MORE' LINK TO SEE THE REST OF THE PHOTOS**

We WANT to blossom

Reluctant crocuses at the Plainfield YWCA on East Front Street.

We really do!

Daffodils in waiting

Berckman Street, Plainfield.

We want spring, too!

Whatever this tree/bush is, it always tries to bloom before many others. Bridgewater, NJ

Sigh

Ice pellets started coming down as I came home from work on Monday. This wasn't snow ... yet. Looking out my window in Plainfield, NJ

Spring in New Jersey

East Front Street in Plainfield. Yay, spring!

Dismantling the Big Top

The Big Apple Circus is off to its next destination. The TD Ball Park itself has had all of the Hurricane Sandy damage fixed and the first event on the calendar is coming up soon. It must be spring. Please tell the thermometer. Bridgewater, NJ

Oh my

It wasn't me! I didn't do this graffiti on the sign at the Bridgewater Train Station! That said, some sections of Newark do indeed qualify. The person with the blue magic marker wasn't as creative as the one with the gold. This all went down St. Patrick's Day weekend.

Do you need a huge kid?

I can't think why I'd need a huge kid with the exception of heavy lifting. Hmmm ... I wonder if I can sell some smaller kids on consignment there. You know, those kids who play in the hallway of my apartment building!

Hawk circling a seagull

This lone seagull remained on the parking lot light as a hawk circled closer and closer. The hawk must not have been hungry as he just checked out the gull, didn't go for him. Usually the gulls take off immediately when a hawk shows up. They're tough birds, but they most certainly aren't dumb birds! Bridgewater, NJ

The Daredevil of East Third Street

This young boy (with way cool hair) kept circling around, then trying to hop the ledge along the side of Friends Meeting House in Plainfield. Don't let the lack of a jacket fool you. It must be part of his daredevil ways -- it was only around 30 degrees out. Alas, he must have known the paparazzi were out and about ...

Whoops!

You see what I mean. Each time he'd go for the jump, it was like he lined it up with the traffic light blocking the shot. I kept hoping he'd go for another three feet either way for the hop. Oh well. Each time he fell. Sometimes it looked like it hurt either him or the bike. But he's as determined as a dandelion in early spring!

The sun also rises

This is the same day as the other sunrise photo, but from a different location. It was the only pretty sunrise I saw this past week.

Time for your close-up, Vincent

Yes, Vincent. You're a star. (And you know it.)

Rolling in the catnip again

Sure, Vincent. Let that fame go to your head. You keep rolling around in catnip and you're going to end up like Lindsay Lohan!