Tragic News

I just found out that longtime blog community friend Jeannemarie Ahrens passed away last month. She has been an active commenter on the blog for several years. In one of my last contacts with her, she was offering to give me a ride to my surgeon's office as she's from the area.

I'm not too sure what happened, but I do recall that she was being admitted to the hospital yet again. For those who might not remember, she had been having horrible infections from a cat bite (her own cat) since last summer. On her Facebook page, I noticed that someone has taken in her cat.


What a shame. She was really a nice person, the kind of people I've met through my online experiences over the years and had gotten to know. I was missing her presence, which is why I looked into her absence. Rest in peace, Jeannemarie. 

Her obituary ran in the Star Ledger.

The Amazing Race 19 Blog Party - 11/20/2011

Due to football, 60 Minutes didn't start until 7:23 PM ET here in the NYC viewing area. So I'm assuming that The Amazing Race should start about 23 minutes late. Once it starts, I'll update this post with the major happenings. But the real fun is in the comments; please pipe in with your thoughts! See you there!

It's almost immediately into a Roadblock -- memorizing a Hans Christian Andersen poem, going on a trip, then repeating the poem from memory. After Roadblock success, they're off to Legoland! Yikes! They have to put together a Lego puzzle while spinning on a ride.

The teams are then off to Hamburg, Germany.

Eek, my emotional favorite team, Bill and Cathi, are lost trying to find LegoLand.

From Hamburg, teams are off to Brussels, Belgium -- the third country in the day. Uh-oh, Cindy and Ernie lost their train tickets and can't afford to buy more. They lucked out, no conductors checked for tickets.

Body-building routine is next. Heehee.

Pit Stop --

1. Amani and Marcus - won a trip to Panama
And it's immediately to the next leg without the rest of the finish order. I'm assuming it might be non-elim.

Off Topic - That Was the Week It Was - November 20, 2011

It's Sunday morning, time for my weekly off television topic reflection on the week gone by in both words and photographs I've taken.

Let's see ... what happened this week? I worked, came home, slept and ate.

There. That's all.

Well, I guess not quite all. But it's just been one of those weeks. My knee is running a bit tired, but I'm not in the constant pain I was in pre-surgery. I'm definitely walking faster as the days go on. That's a good thing. Pre-surgery it was taking me a half-hour to walk to the train station in the mornings. Now it's taking me fifteen minutes.

Once again the weather here has had its warm days and its more chilly ones. Tuesday night and all day Wednesday it rained. That brought down tons of the autumn leaves and made my power go wonky Wednesday evening. It went off a few minutes before 8 PM, then came back on after a less than a minute. I listened to my scanner to find that the police were dispatched for an arcing wire in my neighborhood, but couldn't find it.

Then, about midnight, as I was heading to bed, the outdoors lighted up. Huh? I looked out the window knowing it wasn't a thunderstorm. The power dimmed, came back, dimmed, came back. I turned the scanner on again. This time the police were dispatched for a blown transformer, but the power ended up staying on. Well, at least until I went to sleep, that is. Apparently there was an outage overnight, but I awakened on time to go off to work before the dawn. Thankfully my alarm clock is one of the atomic ones which automatically reset when the power returns.

That was my excitement for the week.

Of course, this upcoming week is Thanksgiving. I hope everyone has a fine holiday! 

Onto this week's photos -- clicking on an image will open it larger in a gallery doohickey. To see this entire entry and all of the photographs, you must hit the "read more" link!

Screaming squirrel

What he was screaming about, I don't know. But I could hear him a half-block away. Cleveland Street, Plainfield.

Where's the sidewalk?

My 'hood on Thursday morning after Wednesday's rain.

Traffic light is not

The power was back on in the neighborhood, but the traffic light was still out at Richmond and East Front. And, as per Murphy's Law, there was more traffic than I've EVER seen at that hour at that intersection. I scurried across when I had the chance. And I'm really not a scurrier with this new knee yet!

Survivor South Pacific 11/16 Episode Blog Party

Survivors ready? It's almost time for the show to start here on the East Coast. As it airs, I'll be updating this post with major events. But the real fun and active discussion can be found in the blog party comments. Stop on in and share your thoughts on the show!

Just in case I disappear -- some fool hit a power pole at the end of my block. The power went out briefly, then returned. But who knows?

Redemption Island duel time! Ozzy, Keith and Jim balancing two vertical poles with a horizontal pole across the top. No one is rooting for Ozzy (except Petals). Jim is out, first member of the jury. Keith is out and in the jury. Ozzy wins and is stays in the game! Well, stays on Redemption Island, that is.

Immunity Challenge! They're balancing bowls of rice on their heads, crossing over teeter-totters and dumping the rice in bigger bowls. Um. Okay.

Sophie, my blog pool person, wins Immunity! Jeff promises them there will be a twist at Tribal Council tonight.

Whitney, Dawn, Albert, Cochran and maybe Sophie are thinking an Edna ouster.

The tally --

Dawn
Edna
Dawn
Edna
Dawn
Dawn
Dawn

The plan didn't fly, Dawn heads to Redemption. The twist is another immediate Immunity Challenge and vote. The challenge is one with questions. My gal Sophie wins AGAIN! The vote is on.

The tally --

Cochran
Whitney
Whitney
Whitney
Whitney
Whitney

That's it, Savaii sans Cochran is gone -- Whitney heads to Redemption.

The Amazing Race 19 Blog Party - 11/13/2011

The show is starting on time here on the East Coast in a few minutes. Once it starts, I'll update this post with the major happenings. But the real fun is in the comments; please pipe in with your thoughts! See you there!

The teams are heading to Copenhagen! Double U-Turn ahead. Uh-oh ... Marcus and Amani are still at the airport while the other teams are already in Copenhagen!

The Roadblock has a team member dancing an historical dance in traditional costume.

Marcus and Amani have caught up to Jeremy and Sandy.


Detour - All hopped up has them racing rabbits in a course. All churned out has them making butter.


Ack! Ernie and Cindi team U-Turned Bill and Cathi! Bill and Cathi U-Turned Laurence and Zac.


Pit Stop --
1. Ernie and Cindy, won a trip to Fiji.
2. Bill and Cathi
3. Andy and Tommy
4. Amani and Marcus
5. Jeremy and Sandy
6. Laurence and Zac - Philiminated