Happy B-day Surprise Kate. Love, New Joisey

We decided to celebrate Kate's birthday a day early this year because tomorrow we're going to a friend's place. So first off, Happy birthday Kate, and what better way to celebrate your 30th birthday than Jersey style. Ok we didn't really have anything planned so we just let the plentiful bounty of New Jersey provide. First we went to Kate's favourite place for Indian food, the mall's food court. Surprisingly I have to agree that it really is good Indian food. You can't beat a good butter chicken and naan bread. Next we went to a the A-Team and had a few laughs. It was a full moon and a refreshing cool break from the 30 degree days we've been having so we decided to sit on our stoop, take some pictures of the moon and see if we could see some fireflies. New Jersey had other plans.



As we were sitting there a BMW pulled up and double parked right in front of us to wait for someone. A few minutes later another car came ripping around the corner and sped down the street, clipping the BMW's mirror. The two drivers got together to talk it over and they were both a little worked up. The BMW driver didn't like that the other driver (who we suspect was drunk) kept saying that he could just fix it himself and things escalated. When he heatedly demanded that they exchange insurance info the drunk started throwing punches and BMW fought back. Both of them got some good shots in. After recovering from the shock of this happening less than 5 meters away from us, I decided I couldn't sit there anymore so I gave Kate the camera and started yelling at these guys while walking towards them. Kate said I was using my loud angry voice that she's never heard before. By the time I got close to them BMW had the drunk on the hood of a car so I pulled him off and drunk sort of stayed on the hood.


I thought it was over and I backed off not wanting to get too involved. However, the drunk had other ideas and starting going for BMW again. Bad move. BMW, who obviously had more of his wits about him and possibly had some previous fighting experience, hit drunky in the head a couple of times and then started choking him so I pulled him off again and the drunk slumped to the ground in the middle of the street. This time I made sure BMW was walking away and not coming back before I checked on the drunk who' was then laying on his back with a dazed look in his eyes. I make sure that he was OK and then told someone in the now gathering crowd to call the cops.

Once again I backed off, thinking it was over as the aggressor was still lying on the ground and all we had to do was wait for the cops.. Wrong again. Drunky stumbled to his feet and lunged yet again at Mr. BMW, catching him half turned around, and landed a punch. That didn't stop BMW from hammering him back a few more times and slamming him to the ground. Once again, I pulled him off and walked him away and this time the drunk decided to stay down, helped by another guy from the crowd who came in to stay with him to keep him down. Finally, 3 police cars pulled up and calmed things down. Apparently a bunch of people called the police and the cops had the impression that it was a giant street fight that spanned a full block, which is why 3 cars showed up.



At this point quite a few people had left their apartments and were hanging out on the street talking about what had happened. A group of them standing next to our stoop where Kate was standing holding the camera still attached to the tripod started talking about how someone was filming it. They looked at Kate expectantly saying "You guys were filming that right?" to which Kate replied "Um, no. We were taking pictures of the moon."




So after all was said and done we were thinking that we should have taken some pictures or video of the whole thing but we were both kind of caught up in the moment. We only took this one after we went inside and Kate suggested we might need some picutres for our blog. It's a pic of the drunk guy still stunned sitting up against a fence with the police waiting for his ambulance.



So, to sum it up, we had planned to finish the evening with a pleasant night out on our stoop and instead we ended up with a little bit of Joisey right up in front of our house. Happy Birthday Kate.

Park Art

Everyday I walk through Madison Square Park on my way to school and every so often the park has a new art project in it. Past displays include tree houses in the trees, 8 foot tall concrete shapes on the grass, and a ring of lights around the park that light up to people's heart rates when they put their hands on sensors.

About a month ago on my way to school I came across one of these in the middle of the pedestrian area in front of the flat iron building. At first I couldn't tell if this was a statue or a guy in a body suit or body paint and just standing still (not entirely out of the question around here). Either way I gave him a wide birth as I walked past him. I didn't really know what to make of a naked metal statue in the middle of the sidewalk and was even more confused to find another one on the other side of the park too. But I guess that's art right?


I walked past these guys for about another week before I heard someone talking about something on top of buildings. On top of many of the buildings surrounding the park are more of these statues. Turns out there are 31 of these guys in all. As you can imagine, at first there were some problems with people thinking they were jumpers, especially from the one on the empire state building, but now they have settled in and are a part of the park. They are the sentinels of the park keeping watch at all times.


I actually kind of like watching people crane their necks around and do a double take when they see them for the first time. People love taking pictures with these guys, and putting hats, scarves and coats on them.

The whole thing has sort of grown on me.

Niagara Falls

We went up to Niagara Falls last weekend. We had a lot of fun but as I started to write about our trip I started boring myself with how wordy I was so here's a bunch of pictures with captions instead.


Pregnant Kate at the falls


Picture from behind the ponchos you get when you go on the Maid of the Mist boat in an attempt to protect the camera from all the mist.

Maid of the Mist boat

Both falls

Kate didn't think there were enough pictures of just me in this post.

Kate beating me at mini-golf. In my defence it was 2 against 1. Notice how the club hits her belly even though she's using a kid's putter.

U.S. falls at night.

Horseshoe falls.

Into the fiery pit.

With this slow shutter speed it looks like a coloured curtain.

Looking down into the Horseshoe falls

More of the pregers

Fun with our camera. Spooky scary.