At the Gap

Greetings everyone!

Moray and I just returned from our mini-vacation getway to the Delaware Water Gap! We had an great time, it's amazing how theraputic being around trees and air can be... We stayed at a wonderful little B&B called

Santosha on the Ridge,

owned by a lovely lady (and yoga teacher) named Leslie. She made us gourmet organic breakfasts, and gave us a super yoga class. I'm posting a few pictures below (and a mini home video), along with a link to Moray's website with some more pictures if anyone is interested...

The B&B was on top of a hill in Shawnee-on-Delaware, PA overlooking the Delaware River. The mountain we hiked is Mount Tammany in Worthington State Forest (part of the Delaware Water Gap recreational area), and it was an excellent hike if anyone is interested in some great nature (and only 1.5 hours away)! The view at the top overlooks the Delaware River and the gap between Mt. Tammany and Mt. Minsi, really beautiful as you will see below. Anyway, hope you all enjoy the photos!



















The rest of the pictures are on Moray's site

here!

Love, Maria

(Groan.) I suppose I'll publicly congratulate my friend. (Sigh.)

A reluctant congrats to Friend Sean, whose beloved Red Sox just won the World Series.

I, of course, am a little bummed. But it's good to know that you and Guiliani are happy.

As Promised...

Well, closing day at Canco lofts, and good friends Matt VB and David Shenton joined us to check out some fine art!
















...and lest a day go by when we aren't taking a picture of our cats... here's Basil hiding under the coffee table.





Hope you enjoyed!

:D

Love, Maria

Autumn Leaves

Well, folks, it's fall... and though the leaves haven't exactly started changing yet (it's October 16th, I forget when this is supposed to happen), I thought I'd drop a line and share all things "Our House In Jersey".

Personally, I'm feeling much better now that my week-and-a-half-long cold is passing. Not only that, but I managed to get my Titanium Powerbook (c. Dec. 2001) back in action after having a minor meltdown (hard drive permanent failure), so I'm now feeling much more in control of my life.

Sigh, the modern era.

Speaking of technology, however, Moray has dragged me into the world of Facebook, and for any other users out there interested, we now have an OHIJ group established for all who live, have visited, or are generally interested in OHIJ. If any of you actually exist out there, find the group here: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5720984132

I could make a link, but I'm not *that* modern.

In other news, Moray's exhibit was really cool- Beth Ann, Moray and myself went up to Canco Lofts to see the various shows happening there a couple weekends ago. They had a fun party in honor of the JC Artists Studio Tour - lots of food, beverages, and belly dancers. Nifty space, we'll have to go take pictures before the show ends this weekend... After that, we went to our new downtown establishment, Skinner's Loft, which completely blew us away. Beautiful restaurant, good beer, GORGEOUS food (please imagine Neil Diamond saying "gorgeous"). I felt like I'd left JC and ended up in Oz. The land of fairytales, not of HBO dramas. Just to clarify.

Hmmmm aside from that, listening to Radiohead's new "In Rainbows" non-stop. Waking up every day with a new song in my head... I'm a little obsessed. Been far too long since I've had anything I felt like listening to more than twice... Or anything that actually made me want to make music, for that matter. I'd love to rant on about all things Radiohead, but they've been blogged about enough this week...

One other side note, Carmen, mother of our landlady, stopped by a couple weeks ago to drop off a giant, delicious, amazing vat of seafood pasta. It was truly one of the most amazing things I've ever tasted. I'm not sure why she felt the need to bestow this beautiful thing upon us, but I (and Beth Ann, as we are the two fish eaters) am truly grateful. Yet one more reason I love our house in jersey.

-Maria

MSP expenses outstrip rate of inflation to top £10m

Alright back to the ranting, everyone seems to be in a bad mood today (except me as my exhibition starts today), so the headline in 'the Scotsman' newspaper kind of ruffled a few feathers:

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1590622007#new

it's in connection with over spending on MSP expenses. Now normally I wouldn't arse myself to comment on the 'shower o' shites' as they have come to be known, but you see I used to actually temp for the finance department who where supposed to 'double check' what the MSP's actually spent 'our' money on. Policing it as it where. YOU WOULD not believe what they get away with and whats worse is, WHAT THEY TRY to get away with, it would have every blogger on the planet giving birth to goats.

I was subsequently asked not to come back after a month as I asked too many questions. Go figure

Come on Scotland get the 'people power' going, it's what where good at, don't just ask for change make it happen!