Bruce Springsteen Giant Stadium 9-30-2009

Conrad and I saw the "first of the last" shows of the farewell tour. Bruce opened with a brand new song, the first new one of the tour, written just for the occasion: I was raised out of steel here in the swamps of Jersey, some misty years ago / Through the blood and the beer, and the mud and the cheers, I've seen champions come and go... Bring on your wrecking ball.

Setlist

Wrecking Ball

Seeds

Johnny 99

Atlantic City

Outlaw Pete

Hungry Heart

Working On A Dream

Thunder Road

Tenth Avenue Freeze Out

Night

Backstreets

Born To Run

She’s The One

Meeting Across The River

Jungleland

Waitin’ On A Sunny Day

The Promised Land

Into The Fire

Lonesome Day

The Rising

Badlands

No Surrender

Encore

Raise Your Hand

E Street Shuffle

Growin’ Up

American Land

Dancing In The Dark

Hard Times

Rosalita

The Dog Show at Mallory Square

We headed to Mallory Square for the sunset festivities. Jack, Con and Chrissy all participated in the dog show act while I took pictures:


First, Chrissy helped tie a man in chains. We weren't too sure what this had to do with a dog act, but it was fun anyway.




Next, Jack and another girl held the hoop for the dogs to jump through.





For the grand finale, the dog
walked the tightrope,

and claimed a ten dollar bill from Con's mouth.

Tranquility Bay

We spend the first few days lounging poolside at Tranquility Bay, a relatively new resort in Marathon. One of the few resorts with a secluded private beach, the property has two pools, an 18 hole Jack Nicholas putting green, and a fantastic Tiki bar on the beach.

We made the mistake of first going to the adults only pool. We quickly realized our error and moved to the main pool, a lagoon style swimming pool with lots of shade for Con to lounge and read. For lunch, we visited the beach side Tiki bar, TJ's, where you can create your own tropical drink. We opted for Rum Punch, their signature drink which includes a floater of 151 rum on the top.

Chrissy met a very cute young man who ran the water-sports activities and was totally infatuated with her. He offered her a private jet ski lesson, which she declined.

Winter Break in Marathon

When Continental announced they would start flying to Marathon, Florida, we immediately booked a flight to Grace and Phil's. Connecting through Fort Meyers we hopped a Cape Air "shuttle" to Marathon. I was expecting a small plane but wasn't quite prepared for a nine passenger Cessna , a single pilot flying by instruments alone, and a pre-flight weigh in (including all carry on luggage) to determine the proper weight dispersion. Even the Gerber corporate jet had a copilot and open seating.

Jack and Chissy, being the lightest, took the back seats with Con and I over the wings. We took off at sunset, with spectacular views of the Gulf of Mexico. As the sky changed to complete darkness, I was, for the first time, completely petrified. For the next forty-five minutes, I clutched Con's hand tightly. When the lights of Marathon runway finally became visible, I was able to release my kung fu grip and breathe a sigh of relief.

Lifetime Athletics

This weekend we joined Lifetime Fitness, an absolutely amazing health club that just opened in Berkeley Heights. The club has both indoor and outdoor aquatics centers, complete with a two-story water slide, zero-depth recreation pools, lap pools and children's interactive play areas, all incredibly clean, and best of all heated in the winter. The workout center features row after row of every kind of machine you can think of and countess activities from dance classes to racquetball. Best of all, the locker rooms are pure luxury, with marble counters and sinks, heated towels and an assortment of complimentary lotions and conditioners ! And for Jack, the club has a fantastic children's center with a kids only gym and a computer center.

While Con worked out, Jack and I went swimming and later on I relaxed in the whirlpool and sauna while Jack made new friends at the child center. Afterwards, we all met up at the Lifecafe, a full service restaurant where we shared a healthy snack or organic fruit, nuts and juices. Next visit - a trip to the Lifespa for a massage and a pedicure. I'm afraid this is the end of the line for the Westfield Y.

Happy 18th Birthday Chrissy

My baby turned 18 today.

We celebrated with a hibachi dinner at Arirang followed by a cake. For her gift, she opted for a summer trip to Europe, which we are buisily planning.

Weekend In Phoenix

This weekend I headed out to Phoenix to join Con at his company's national sales meeting at the beautiful Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs Resort set high in the Phoenix North Mountains. The spouses and s.o.'s arrived on on Friday for cocktails and dinner at their signature restaurant, Different Pointe of View. Perched high on the mountaintop 1,800 feet above the city, we enjoyed a spectacular dinner and an outstanding selection of wines, complemented by breathtaking views of the city.

Con and I spent Saturday morning lounging at our private pool before joining the group for18 holes at the Lookout Mountain golf club. The par 72 course is aptly named, with a 100-foot drop at the 10th hole and cart paths resembling a rollercoaster ride. Twice we came eye to eye with coyotes, who turned out to be more tame that wild. That evening, we returned to the Point of View for cocktails at sunset followed by Japanese hibachi with the group.

On Sunday we had relaxing hot stone massages before settling in to watch the NFC playoff game at the Pointe In Tyme Tavern. The place was on fire with the Cardinals' first division championship in the team's history. We headed for the airport after the game for a smooth flight home to snowy New Jersey.

Cakebread Cellars

I have to mention the amazing wine Con's managing director introduced us to this weekend - Cakebread Cellars 2004 Sauvignon Blanc Napa Valley.

Cakebread Cellars was founded 30 years ago by Jack Cakebread, a photographer who came to the Napa Valley to shoot a book. While there, he casually mentioned his interest in one day owning a vineyard to some family friends who had a ranch in Rutherford. When he returned home that afternoon, the phone rang and it was the family friends offering to sell their property. He headed back up to the valley that same afternoon to make his best offer, and Cakebread Cellars was born.

This particular vintage is the result of an unusually warm late winter, consistently mild spring and summer weather, and several late-summer heat spells resulted in one of the earliest Napa Valley harvests on record. Although fast and furious, the early start to the season and lower-than-normal crop loads produced grape clusters with small berries and ripe flavors, yielding wines with impressive concentration, depth and structure.

Christmas Day

This Christmas, we woke up to a very grumpy elf that Santa had mistakenly left behind. We gave him some breakfast and a bath and he joined us for Christmas dinner at Michael and Dorothy's.

St Paul's Christmas Pageant

Jack was a shepherd in St. Paul's Christmas Pageant 2008. With two of the three rehearsals cancelled due to snowy conditions, the pageant still went off flawlessly.

"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men”. And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord has made known unto us. "(Luke 2:8-15)

Ginger Bread House

Once the Christmas decorations are up, it's time to build our annual gingerbread house. We bought a pre-fab house consisting of the four sides and roof, but all the decorating was done by Jack and me.

This year, we managed to stick to all edible items, unlike previous years where we needed to call upon carpenter's glue to hold our walls together. We discovered the secret to the icing is to microwave for ten seconds every now and then to keep it moist and sticky.

A Charlie Brown Christmas

As a child, the official start of the Christmas season was the night we all gathered around our black and white tv for the annual airing of A Charlie Brown Christmas. I have watched it faithfully every year since, and Jack and Chrissy enjoy it as much today as I did at their age.

Now the the longest-running holiday special on TV, CBS originally created the animation in response to a request by Coca-Cola for a Christmas special to air their commercials. When CBS saw the finished product they were less than pleased with the jazzy soundtrack as well as the highly religious theme. But in keeping with their commitment to their sponsor, they aired the special as scheduled on December 9, 1965. A Charlie Brown Christmas drew in 15.4 million viewers, and won Charles Schulz and animator Lee Mendelson an Emmy Award for Outstanding Children’s Program.

The soundtrack by Vince Guaraldi is amongst my favorite jazz albums.

Jets Monopolize Titans

Our Jets completely monopolized this week's game against the Titans, the NFL's only remaining undefeated team, giving us our fifth straight game and a tie for second place in the AFC.

Speaking of monopoly, the Jets Collectors Edition monopoly game is at the top of my Christmas wish list. The game pieces include Jets helmet, quarterback, linebacker, football, referee's whistle and hot dog.

Can't wait for Sunday's Thanksgiving home game. J-E-T-S Jets, Jets, Jets.

GLHS headed to the state championship!

Max Machado, in his third interception of the afternoon, and third takeaway in the fourth quarter, secured Governor Livingston's 32-28 decision over over Summit with 20 seconds remaining in the game.

The senior quarterback/cornerback also threw two touchdown passes as Gov. Livingston (7-3), earned its second championship-game appearance in school history and its first since a 24-0 loss to New Providence in the 1989 North Jersey, Section 2, Group 1 title game.

See you at Giants Stadium on 12/5 where Chrissy and the cheerleading squad will root for GL's first state football title.

Meet the Parents

This weekend, we flew to Charlotte to spend an early Thanksgiving with Conrad's family. We arrived Friday afternoon and checked into our suite at the Marriott. Unfortunately, Chrissy's bag had been tagged to Cleveland instead and her belongings did not arrive until the next morning.

We headed over to the Honeycutt's home on TPC Piper Glenn golf course for cocktails and dinner. TPC, a lush par 72, 6,853 yard course designed by Arnold Palmer, is also an Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary for its commitment to environmental quality by meeting required standards for protecting the environment, conserving natural resources, and providing wildlife habitat.

Con and I instantly plotted 18 holes on Saturday morning, however the weather, an unseasonably cold 38 degrees, did not cooperate. After a lovely dinner, we headed back to the hotel for an early night.

UNC Charlotte Tour

Saturday we toured UNC Charlotte, Conrad's alma mater and a potential school for Chrissy. One of the interesting sights was the monument at left, representing a giant quill. Much to our amusement, Chrissy and most of the other students on the tour were clueless as to what a quill actually was!

Conrad barely recognized the campus from his days as a Tarhill defensive tackle. In the 25 years since Conrad's graduation, UNC Charlotte has grown from a school with 9,000 students to one with a student body of 21,600 people who are pursuing a wide range of doctorates, master’s and undergraduate degrees.

In 2013, the Charlotte campus will be home to a new Division 1 football team. Not soon enough for Chrissy, though, who has her heart set on cheering in 2009.

Happy Birthday Conrad

After many months of research, my gift to Con was the Bose wireless surround system. Con was thrilled with the state of the art home entertainment system, free of ugly, cumbersome wires. We agreed to defer our installation until the weekend when we could set aside "30 minutes [to perform the] three easy installation steps".

On Saturday morning we eagerly unpacked the boxes only to find a multitude of connector cables and wires. Naively, we assumed that Bose included these wires for customers with signal interference that prevented wireless transmission. But, after consulting the manual, we were still confused and called the Bose help desk, to be informed that the "wireless" capability separated the front and rear components, only, while all others were still connected by the traditional hard-wired connections.

Needless to say, the system went back to the store and until technologies develop a truly wire-free solution, we'll stick with the decent audio on our wide screen high def TV. Poor Con never did received his present.

44th President of the United States

"An American with the name Barack Hussein Obama, the son of a white woman and a black man he barely knew, raised by his grandparents far outside the stream of American power and wealth, has been elected the 44th president of the United States.

Showing extraordinary focus and quiet certainty, Mr. Obama swept away one political presumption after another to defeat first Hillary Clinton, who wanted to be president so badly that she lost her bearings, and then John McCain, who forsook his principles for a campaign built on anger and fear.

His triumph was decisive and sweeping, because he saw what is wrong with this country: the utter failure of government to protect its citizens. " New York Times 11/5/08

Trick or Treat

The annual Beechwood School Halloween parade took place today. Jack was very excited to be Iron man this year. After the parade, the children headed out to the Deerfield section of town to trick or treat.

Mrs. Debby continued her tradition of transforming her garage into a vampire's den complete with smoking witches brew and coffin. This year Jack was able to gather enough courage to select a candy treat from the vampire, but passed on the haunted hayride through Watchung Reservation's deserted village.

One tradition that was not continued today was the annual Halloween display at the gates of Bruce Springsteen's Rumson estate. Instead, he posted a Halloween song on his website called "A Night With The Jersey Devil".

First Snowfall of 2008

With temperatures at Sunday's game in the 60's, I was most surprised to look out my office window in Florham Park today and see a mini-blizzard. By the end of the day, almost two inches were recorded, making it the 5th earliest snowstorm in New Jersey history, behind Oct. 19, 1972 six-tenths of an inch; Oct. 20, 1940, one-half inch; Oct 26, 1962 1 3/4 inches and Oct. 28, 1925, 1 inch.

World Series play in Philadelphia was suspended for the night, so Chrissy and I spent the evening organizing our winter gear and thinking ahead to this year's ski season.