Turkey Day '16 Weekend in Pics

Norm

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Ok long weekend. Wednesday night we started a puzzle and watch Baron von Munchausen. Kids really liked it which made me happy.

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Thanksgiving day we have nowhere to go so this is our turkey spread for lunch:

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Friday D built this Temple of Heaven I bought in Taiwan 5 years ago:

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And we finished the puzzle:

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Saturday I spent almost 2 hours at the park with the boys playing basketball & soccer.

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Then we went to dinner last night at a dim sum place.

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Today I finished priming the start of the next basement wall:

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Which will eventually match wall #1:

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This afternoon we eradicated the patio in lieu of the basketball court. Soccer field in the background:

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Drank beer & wine and introduced the kids to the show Srubs this weekend. Quotes from that include "WHAT IS SEX? WHAT IS SEX? WHAT IS SEX?"

Your turn now.
 
Wednesday night @soundz dropped off my birthday presents under the cover of darkness- Beer Ninja!
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Can't wait to see what he does for Christmas!
(And no, not all mine)


Thursday: celebrated my birthday with my wife's family. They had turkey. I had pizza.
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After 12 years I'm still at the kiddie table. I am at the head of the kiddie table, so that's something I guess.


Friday: hit the Black Friday sale at a friend's house. They are moving and not taking much with them. Many furnitures were gotten.
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Saturday: my family came down for lunch. And moving ish.
My sister brought the boy a leftover turkey sammich.
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Sunday: moved some more, because I love hauling ish around.
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The boy got to play with his new team-issue toy: the flying squirrel.
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He's great at chasing stuff down. Not so good at giving it up though.

Sunday night: watched some of the Grey Cup- it's the CFL's super bowl.
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I honestly didn't know we were still doing this.
 
Wednesday explored some trails on my way home from work.
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Thursday group ride at Bill's
Nice to see Jake once a year.
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Ryan eating a pop tart when there were gormet desserts available 😉
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Dinner! With the new Nephew James
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Dessert!
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Tuna ate all the leftovers
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Friday I pretty much did housework all day. Then went to my buddy's house for a party, no pics

Saturday went for a bike ride, buddy crashed and had to go to the hospital but he's okay. Then I went to see Mutoid Man with the wife
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Sunday went for another dirt bike ride with @ktmrider , awesome time. thanks for the tour man!
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Spent the holiday with the In-Laws in Point Pleasant Beach which affords me some quality riding time at Allaire.

Turkey Day @ Allaire: parking lot was filling up quickly and ran into some friendly faces!!!
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Stopped on the way back to the house in preparation for the next few days with my wife's fun filled Irish Catholic family.
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Black Friday @ Allaire: Just like the day before, the lot was packed with people. Initially was going to hook up with the group who posted here, but couldn't figure out who was who as there were groups all over the parking lot. Ran into some friends and decided to roll out on our own. Just like last year's Black Friday ride....I broke another chain AND didn't have a master link on me....dumbass!!! I walked out for the 2nd year in a row.
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Saturday: No ride. Home from Point Pleasant Beach, domestic errands, then to a friend's 50th Birthday Party.
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Sunday: Change of riding plans to meet up with a friend, Don, who moved and was back visiting for the holiday. This was a combination of a Meetup ride and Don's "back in town" ride. This was a HUGE group starting with 26 riders. As expected, the group broke up into separate groups. It was a great day of just riding our bikes in the woods with friends!!!
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Wrapped up with some tasty beers and wings/burgers at Salt in Byram. If you haven't been here after an Allamuchy, Stephens, KSVP, or Deer Park ride; you're not doing yourself any justice. Haven't had a bad meal there yet and they are biking friendly.
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Did a lot of riding this weekend, but not too many photos from Thurs or Sat because (1) it's hard to work a camera when you are hypoxic from starting at 16 mph out of the parking lot at Allaire, and (2) you opt instead to spend a Saturday morning ride exploring the many ways to go over your bars in Wiss. Thanksgiving was pretty chill at my sister's place in Hazlet, and then Friday was my annual Sisyphean Lawn Cleanup ...

The backyard pre-cleanup ...
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Post leaf-blow & rake ... (the far pile is about 200 lbs of wet pine needles)

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Toward the end of Day 1 - I am ready to play "Compost Fairy" to a bunch of my friends with 32 bags between the backyard and the beds around the front of my house. The beds were a real workout - had to rake out the shrubs and bushes because the blowers ... well, the blowers kind of blew at the job ... Ultimately, after finishing the job on Saturday afternoon, I had filled 54 bags (which is actually about half my usual total for a given year because for some reason I didn't have the 300+ lbs of "cigar pods" that fall off one of my trees most years.)

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Saturday night we hit up the newly opened Prism Brewing Brewpub about two miles from my house. Aside from their running out of most of their beers over the long weekend, it's a pretty cool place.

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Sunday was one of my favorite rides of the year ... Gravel Fondo! This ride has been going on for four years and has grown from about 25 the first year to 300 this year. Matt McCluskey does an awesome job with this ride (and it's free - he only asks that you donate some non-perishable food items) and this year he moved the start from the Londonderry Township Building to the new Victory Brewing Facility in Parkesburg and added two additional distances to the usual 50 miles ride (a 37 and a 75 mile option.) It's an impossibly scenic ride through Chester County with a bunch of long gravel sections. This year's ride had some new sections, including a pretty wild descent down a singletrack powerline into a corn field just before the finish. The climbs are tough, it's totally self-supported (save for one water stop at 50 miles on the 75 mile route) and some of the gravel will challenge even the best bike handlers. Just a great day! I did the ride as part of a three man group with @wonderturtle and @joshhan. And having it end at Victory was pretty freaking awesome ...

Bikes are one of two preferred forms of travel in Chester County ...
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This hill is much steeper than I can capture here ... this is the most challenging climb of the day - a few hundred feet up a mix of loose gravel and new pavement with a few bump-over drainage pipe sections. It used to be all gravel, but I'm not sure which way was tougher. This is a gut-punch of a climb about 40 miles into the day.

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Chester County horses, of course, recognize the benefit of a solid aerobic training regimen ...

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Starting and finishing a ride at a brewery is, simply put, a great idea ...

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