Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Father's Day

My Father’s Day was very enjoyable. It started with a phone call from Ray Jr. After wishing me a Happy Father’s Day we talked about how we where going to go to the Met game on Thursday, drive or take the train (I think we will drive).
In the afternoon Barbara, Louise and I went to Hedgerow Theatre (
www.hedgerowtheatre.org ) in Media, PA to see “Nunsense”. It was just very funny we all laughed through the whole play. For anyone who is interested here is a little bit about the play. It is set in the auditorium of Mount St. Helen’s School of Hoboken….

While a small group of the Sisters where at an Episcopal Bingo the other Sisters ate a soup which turned out to be poisonous and they all died. When they got back and discovered this they had enough money to bury all but 4 of the dead Sisters, Mother Superior had bought a TiVo with some of the insurance money. So while the remaining 4 sisters were cooling it in the freezer the remaining sisters put on a variety show to try to raise the enough to bury them…

You knew it was going to be funny when Mother Superior came down the aisle and put a paper napkin across the chest of a woman in the audience who had too much cleavage showing.
After the play we went to Applebee’s for dinner and then home. A great Father’s Day.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Art

Well I went back to the Art Class (I am a glutton for punishment) put on by the Ocean County Parks and finished one painting and had started on another. I have also joined the Ceder Glenn Lakes Art Club and I finished the painting I had started in art class. Now if I want to continue going to art club I have to come up with another project (not really but I will). Enjoy the pictures of my last three attempts at art (let me know if you see any improvement).

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Birthday and Christening

This weekend started off with Saturday evening and a pizza party to celebrate Louise’s 91st Birthday. Barbara made a chocolate truffle cake, this cake has over 1 pound of Chocolate in it and just about as much butter (see picture), total sugar overload. Louise’s great niece and grand nephew came from Ohio for the occasion; a good time was had by all.
Sunday morning Barbara and I packed up some clothes and some provisions and headed to Makayla’s Christening. It was a 3 hour drive to the Church at Hemlock Farms in Tafton, PA. As we where driving north on route 206 through Sussex county close to the school where Barbara taught, a black bear crossed the road two cars in front of us. At the church the minister made all the young children in attendance feel comfortable about what baptism is all about and what it represents. Back at young Larry and Laura’s house all the kids had lots to do, they have a pool and trampoline. There was plenty of good food and good talk; I think everyone had a good time. Barbara and I left and drove to Scranton, PA to our hotel. We where all set to go for a swim in the indoor pool, but someone had thrown some chairs and plants into the pool so it was closed. The room was clean and comfortable and we had a good nights sleep.
In the morning Barbara and I went to the Electric City Trolley Museum (
www.ectma.org ) in Scranton. It is a very nice museum that tells the story of the trolley systems that ran in and around the Scranton area. They even had commuter rails that ran from town to town.
After leaving the trolley museum we drove to Norristown, PA to the Elmwood Park Zoo (
www.elmwoodparkzoo.org ). The animals they have on display are all from the Americas. The animal program we saw was very good, I liked the tarantula best.
After seeing all the animals in the zoo we headed home.

Friday, June 5, 2009

The Barnes Foundation

I will not try to cover what went on last month suffice it to say we kept ourselves busy and all the gardens are planted and growing (including 4 tomatoe plants and four small rows of green beans).
On Thursday of this week Barbara and I went to The Barnes Foundation (http://www.barnesfoundation.org/). It is a small art museum started by Dr. Albert C. Barnes in 1912. For more information on Dr. Barnes you can go to the web site above, very interesting (read the time line). Inside the museum every inch of wall space is covered with paintings or has a case with small sculptors in them. Also many old hinges, door latches, weathervanes and such are hung on the walls in and around the paintings. The building was built exclusively for Dr. Barnes’s art collection. He collected 181 Pierre-Auguste Renoir paintings along with Henri Matisse and many others. He collected everything from 17th and 18th century religious art works all the way through the impressionists into early Modern Art by Pablo Picasso. If you are ever in the Philadelphia area it is worth a call to this place to get a reservation to see it. Because of the area it is in and the limited parking available you need to get a reservation, which is the only drawback. After walking through all the galleries we went for a short walk in the Arboretum through the rose and perennial gardens. We made it down to the pond just outside of the Tea House (they do not server tea there). Then it started to rain lightly so we thought it best to head for home. Please take a look at the pictures I took in the arboretum/gardens.