MEMORIAL WEEKEND was spent getting back in touch with our kitchen.  This was the first weekend in a long time where we did not eat out once.  Ok, except for McDonald's breakfast on Saturday...I was craving a McGriddles and hotcakes....so I got me a sausage-egg McGriddles, and hubby gave me the 3 hotcakes from his Deluxe Breakfast platter.  Our home was our getaway this weekend, and we really enjoyed the comfort and dual-zone central air conditioning of the hot high-80's  holiday weekend.


Saturday I cooked brunch to kick off our driveway-brunch series.  We, along with neighbors Anney & Jim, opened up our garages, set up table and chairs and turned our driveways into an outdoor cafe.   Hubby's brother Phil joined us, as our weekend houseguest.  Along with scrambled eggs, bacon, and english muffins, I also made this new egg dish inspired by Vento's wood-oven roasted eggs:  in little ramekins, I layered homefries, sauteed arugula, and cracked an egg in each, and roasted in the oven for 10 mins.  The egg cups turned out well...not great, but now I know how to improve it.  More butter, some olive oil, and gruyere cheese.

Saturday, Michael and Phil were the iron chefs, making broiled steaks topped with sauteed mushrooms & onions.

Sunday, Bennifer invaded my kitchen to make a glazed ham, while hubby made roasted red potatoes and I did a green bean casserole.


And finally, Monday evening as the weekend was winding down, I made a simple dinner for two out on our balcony at sunset.  Behold:  Fresh mozzarella, tomato, roasted red pepper, and olives with drizzled olive oil and balsamic.  Devouring this plate outdoors was just heavenly. 

BOATWORKS POOL PARTY
This month I was busy planning and executing our community pool party to kick off the pool season, which I took on when no one else wanted to.  I had to, or there wouldn't have been a party.  And I'm all about throwing parties and humbly accepting the praise and recognition.  It was the biggest party I ever threw (with moderate help from a few others), and it felt like an Apprentice challenge except I didn't have Ivanka spying on me and attacking my inability to delegate tasks in the board room. 

   
For the second year, we christened the pre-opening of the pool season with a big BBQ and BYOB affair.  Our party was rained out on Saturday, so we moved it to Sunday.  The weather was beautiful on Sunday and the party was a big hit.  It's not really a pool party, rather a party at the pool. 

Our main catering was full-service BBQ -- burgers, hot dogs, sausage & peppers, fried shrimp, fantastic fried chicken, corn on the cob,....

Our special guest DJ was none other than one of our Boatworks neighbors, Paul "CUBBY" Bryant from KTU (formerly of Z100).  He does the morning show with Whoopi Goldberg on KTU 103.5 "the beat of New York".  Cubby is the just coolest guy around and I can't believe of all places, he lives with us in Bayonne.   

 
Classic American BBQ was our main catering.  Pride of India restaurant in Bayonne was our indulgent catering.  One of our party planners had this great idea to also do Indian tandoori bbq and other buffet items, since there is such a large Indian contingent at Boatworks.  It was fine by me!  Love this shit!  The presentation was artful and the tandoori chicken medley on the left was very well-received, even by the Italians who have never had India cuisine before.

 
Samosas (filled with curried potatoes, peas, spices), and a wonderful chickpeas dish that was mixed with yogurt sauce and other wonderul things. 

 
Our BYOB station.  Everyone brought beer, wine, and hard liquor.  The town Sheriff's office donated $200 in alcohol including a full beer keg, (boxed) wine, and a bottle of Absolut.  With the vodka, I played bartendress and made pitchers of Cosmos and Lychee Martinis.  I fluttered around the party pouring everyone little shots of each.  The Indian caterers made this wonderful watermelon scultpure.  The American BBQ caterers were giving the Indian caterers the evil eye the whole time.

 
Me with our dear neighbor, Annery.
bubbyMichael with another friend of ours, Noris, who owns the marvelous Pueblito Viejo latin american restaurant in Bayonne. We eat there just about every week.

 
(left) Some people.
(right).  Me(ow) with some Indians.  The guy in the middle was the genius mastermind behind the indian catering.   

 
(left)  Another pair of our favorite neighbors, Rob & Diana (the landscapers).
(right)  Some people.  (kaka...just kidding).  That's Paul and Alfia.  The lovely young lady with the stripes like the chair has been a long time reader of my xanga, and Alfia said I made her pee her pants last year with an entry where I compared Bayonne's (extremely large and blobbulous) Mayor Doria to Karen's Walker's (extremely large & blobbulous) husband, Stan, on Will&Grace.  I'm pee'ing just thinking about that. (HI DEAR!  It was great hanging out with you!  See you at the pool, scowling at all the children.)

  
(left) Some more people.
(right) Ok, this second picture of this chinese family.  No one knows who they are but they live in our community.  They were fine and all...except for the grandma in the middle.  She shamelessly attacked our food like a family of eight attacking a Mohegan Sun buffet.  She ate more corn on the cob, fried shrimp, and hot dogs than anyone (including all the large italian men).  When I was laying out the desserts, before I could even get the Entenmanns boxes open, her strong skeletal hands were reaching in for cookies and donut pop'ems, and she impatiently waited for me cut the marshmallow iced devil's food cake.  Whatta vulture!!!  I shot her an annoyed look that said, "chill the fuck out, grandma." Yet, I couldn't help but respect that behavior.  I hope my appetite is still that good when I'm 90.  I'd like to pit this chinese grandma against our other resident shameless freeloader, Mel Scharf, in a special Boatworks Deathmatch.  I could sell tickets to that!


Someone (not me) thought it'd be cute to round up all the kids and take their picture.  It's not something I would ever have done, but I took a picture of it anyway.  Cue the awwwwws (I suppose).  The taller kid in the middle was my little helper monkey all day.  I made him man the sign-in station so I didn't have to, and I made him lug bags of ice from our garage for me.  He also helped me make the cosmos and lychee martinis and insisted on helping me distribute the drinks.  He was more than happy to be my little busybody because I was giving him attention.  It was clear his parents wanted nothing to do with him at the party, as they sat with the adults to drink and smoke all day.  Michael tells me that the next day, this kid came by our house looking for me to come out and play.  As if.  He probably thinks I'm his age....(7!).  Buzz off, kid...until I need you again next year. 

I can't dance for shit, but what they hell...we paid for this dance floor and Cubby was playing awesome tunes.  I swing my gangly arms and move my itty-bitty-feet and call it a dance.  Meanwhile, bubbyMichael's favorite thing to do is sit and watch me dance while telling people "doesn't he look like a prancing cat when he dances?"  and it's not because I'm always wearing this t-shirt.

Again, the party was a huge hit, and this cat was extremely tired afterwards.  Michael and I stayed late to clean up, put everything away, take out the trash, fold up the rental chairs, take down the signs, empty the ice buckets, rinse out the trash cans,....  And we hoarded the leftover fried chicken, sausages, Entenmann's cakes, and all liquor.   

LAST NITE WAS TV GREATNESS! 
2 hours of nail-biting suspense and die-hard fan viewing pleasure.  2 hours of relevantly progressing events on a show that many have stopped watching this season.   2 hours glued to the tv with restrained glee and anticipation.... waiting and waiting for the final moment when we get the answer that we've waited all season for.  THE BEST AND MOST SATISFYING FINALE OF THE TV SEASON.  'LOST' WAS JUST AMAZING!!  The season finale gave us more definitive action & answers and deaths & revelations than we've come to expect from the show. (Clearly, stop reading if you haven't watched yet).  I know I never write about Lost, because it's too hard to explain and I'm usually not sure of things myself.  But last nite, everything was clear to me.  Okay, here's what happened:  Jack tells Kate he loves her during their exodus from the soon-to-be-attacked beach.  Ben tracked down the group of survivors led by Jack, to stop them from reaching the island's radio tower to contact Naomi's freighter ship for rescue.  Jack beats the living crap out of Ben after Ben supposedly has his men kill Sayid, Jin and Bernard back on the beach after a failed attempt to bushwhack the Others.  Beaten and bloody on the ground, Ben sees his daughter Alex with Rousseau, lifts his head and casually mutters "Alex, this is your mother."  I died laughing, the way he said it.  One long-awaited relevation down.  Now, underwater at this aquatic base that's jamming all incoming radio signals to the island, Charlie the Hobbit gets the crap beaten out of him by the girl from "90210" who tried to kill herself after Brenda Walsh stole the starring role in their college stage play of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof".  Then Desmond shows up, and so does Mikhail, the evil eye patch guy.  Eye patch guy kills almost everyone and then, with a harpoon thru his chest, maniacally detonates a grenade that floods Charlie in the sealed room, but not before Charlie made contact with Desmond's rich girlfriend, Penny, who's been looking for Des and trying to contact this island.  Charlie finds out that the supposed rescue ship was not sent by Penny and probably not to rescue them, and he communicates this to Desmond....right before he dies!  Charlie finally dies!!  Sorry Claire, but YAY.  Back on the beach, Hurley saves his captive comrades by driving the blue bus into the hostiles, and Sawyer and Juliet finish the job of saving Sayid, Jin and Bernard.  Jack is relieved to hear that Ben's orders to kill them were not heeded, and now all the Others who stormed the beach are dead, including the really big mean guy who wasn't really mean at all, just big.  Back at the radio tower, Naomi is finally able to radio for "help" to her ship, and just then, Locke appears out of nowhere and throws a knife right into Naomi's back and kills her!  Locke, who had been shot and left for dead by Ben, miraculously saw Walt or a vision of him, and was given the strength to revive and go stop what was about to happen at the radio tower  (how he got there so quickly is the biggest mystery to me).  Anyway, he threatens Jack not to radio for help, but won't say why, just that it's a big mistake.  Jack is tired of Locke sabotaging their rescue attempts, and calls Locke's bluff that he won't shoot him.  Jack ends up making radio contact with the ship, and help is supposedly on the way.  Everyone cheers and thinks they're all finally going to be rescued.  MEANWHILE, interspersed with all this action is the Lost-style flashback for Jack....except this time, it's a flash-FORWARD!  The episode has us following a scraggly-bearded older-looking Jack at home, a depressed and manic drunk and drug addict who can't function in society and tries to kill himself.  All this time we are to think this happened to him before landing on the island, but in the last 5 minutes, we find out it's the future!  It's what happens to Jack after they leave the island, and it's not looking good.  A distraught Jack calls a healthy-looking Kate to meet him to talk, and he breaks down and cries that they were never supposed to leave that island....that it was huge mistake and he needs to go back.  It is a most eye-opening and heartbreaking finale scene, and it was the best moment of Wednesday night television.  This finale has restored the excitement and faith in LOST than many viewers have until now, lost.  It was the best tv finale of this season.

Oh, and Jordin won Idol.

KAUAI (part 2)
Ok, so where were we?  Ah, yes....ocean, beach, sun, aloha.  I can't believe this trip was 6 months ago and I can't believe it's taken me so long to produce this part two (part one is here: http://www.xanga.com/jasonbasin/547995743/item.html).  But the pictures are timeless vacay eye candy, and you'll eat it up all the same.  The second half of our Kauain paradise adventure went like this:

 
HANALEI BAY. Hanalei is perhaps the most quaintly picturesque town in Kauai. It's sandwiched by cascading mountains and splendourous beaches, verdant valleys and majestic cliffs. Hanalei Bay Beach Park was another postcard-perfect site, where we found this famed pier. 

 
I strike a pier pose.

 
More posing and pier.  It was spectacular on the pier.  The 360-degree vistas of pure paradise.   

 
Magnificent mountains overlooking the beach...the green cascading kind with waterfalls and smoky peaks kissing the clouds.

 
We strolled the crescent-shaped beach, sloshing in the water and finally tanning.  Getting hubby to set foot in any water was a victory for me.  We watched surfers washing ashore and little children drowning.

CAFE HANALEI at the Princeville Hotel
 
We returned to the Princeville Hotel for lunch at the posh Cafe Hanalei. We sat out on the expansive terrace.  We practically had the whole restaurant to ourselves. No gossippy hens from the mainland.  No screaming children from Satan's womb.  No uglies to ruin the scenery.

 
More LAVA FLOWS. (Refresher: Pina Colada + swirl of Strawberry puree + aloha)

  
  
We both enjoyed our Bento Boxes, a medley of teriyaki steak, mango-marinated chicken, fried fish katsu. It was simply yummazing. 

   

 
Another view from the restaurant terrace's reflecting pool. There are just no words to describe this.

 


WAIMEA CANYON
On our last full day, I made a last minute decision to do something extraordinary, rather than spend a relaxing day at our favorite beach.  It was a tough choice to make, but we chose right.  We headed south to the other side of the island for a day-long excursion up a mountain to see the Waimea Canyon 

  
On the drive up, the oceanside town of Hanapepe below.  The long vertical climb began with this straight road, then began the twists and turns.

 
 
Along the way up, there are several roadside stops for gazing over the mountain.  Here's one scenic overlook down the orange-dirt mountain into the green green valley. 

WAIMEA CANYON, nicknamed the Grand Canyon of the Pacific.

 
We reached the main Canyon Lookout, where tour buses dumped hordes of elderly sightseers. Many of them were just children when Waimea Canyon was still a full-fledged running body of water.  They came here to scope out locations to have their ashes scattered.  ewww.

 
Bubby threatens to back-flip down into the steep abyss.  I one-up him by actually throwing a body part of mine over the rail.
 


Hubby was set to take this scenic shot when my hand accidentally got in the way. It turned out to be picture perfect anyway.

 
The canyon again, from another vantage point and another diva pose.

KALALAU VALLEY
 
We drove further up the mountain and reached the very end where our car could no longer go. This spot looked out onto the spectacular Kalalau Valley, where the mountain meets the ocean, and Kauai's famed Na Pali coast (think "Jurassic Park" cascading cliffs scenes) begins.

 
At that point, cars were not allowed to continue, so we hoofed it!  We blindly followed other people on this paved road, knowing not where it leads to and how far we'd have to walk. Turns out it was 1.5 miles on foot. D'oh!  Everyone we passed along the way wore sneakers, had backpacks of food, water, sunblock, and survival kits.  We had nothing except my camera.  And we wore flipflops.

At the end of the long hike was this breathtaking view of the valley.

 
Don't be fooled by our steady footing and confident posing.  A few inches behind us was vertical freefall drop down the mountain.  No guard rails.  No barricades.  Just one wrong step and bye bye.

  
Everyone descended this dirt path to get closer to the valley overlook, so we followed.  Again, flipflops + very steep + loose dirt terrain = bad idea. 

 
After some more rock climbing, we headed back on the long march to our car.

 
But first, I needed to use nature's urinals.  Can you see my pee stream?

SCARFING DOWN ICE CREAM
 
Our first stop after driving back down the mountain was this ice cream shop, where I had "Kauai Pie"....Kona coffee ice cream with chocolate swirls and other goodies.  I scarfed the shit down.

 
My guidebook pointed out this glass-sand beach nearby, so we took a visit.  Sadly, this pretty secluded beach was right next to an industrial park.  We dared not touch the water.

 
 
Michael collected glass sand for me in a ziplock baggie.   And no beach is complete without a bitch pose.

KAUAI COFFEE PLANTATION
 
Also along the way was coffee heaven. The Kauai Coffee Company plantation and store.  The scent of Kauai coffee pulled us in.  We happened to park right next to another metallic purple Mustang convertible, the official rental car of choice on the island. 

 
We stood around and sampled all sorts of Kauai coffee flavors. 

 
Dinner that night at Paradise Cafe at the Princeville Shopping Center near our hotel.  Another lava flow conquest.

 
Strangely the whole trip, we were not as hungry as we thought we'd be.  On our last night, we were starving so we went for steak and Alaskan king crab legs.  It was a hearty death row meal before packing up and heading home the next day.

KAUAI FLORA
 
A whimsical pink flower that grows hanging downward like an umbrella.  Gorgeous plumerias, the perfect 5-petal Hawaiian floral gem.

 
Back at the Kauai Coffee plantation was this wonderful tree, on which visitors inscribed their names on the luscious leaves.

We left our mark in Kauai.  (ps - there will be a part 3 soon) 

FONDUE FUN
Sunday nite we fondue'd, just for the hell of it.  Actually, Bennifer and I concocted the idea to do something out of the ordinary for our buddy Keith's birthday, and nothing says happy birthday like a big pot of melted stretchy Swiss cheese.  You haven't lived till you've had my fondue. 

  
Someone I'm no longer friends with gifted me this fondue pot years ago, and unlike many appliances we have in our gadgetry pantry, this fondue pot gets used quite often (quite often = consistently twice a year).  I've perfected my fondue recipe, and fondue pose, over the years. 

 
My fondue is fabulous with just cubes of crusty french bread to dip, but this time I added voracious variety:  roasted asparagus spears, roasted rosemary potatoes, garlic sauteed broccoli florets, and for the carnivorous hubbies, some grilled chicken.  Bennifer added his two cents with shrimp and imitation crabmeat sticks, which didn't go so well with cheese.  But I'll take care of those leftovers with a little cocktail sauce. 

 
bubbyMichael, P.diddy, and Bennifer spearing Keith's tummy.  Nothing says 'happy birthday Keith' like a fondue spear sticking out of your stomach.  Hubby demonstrates the ultra-stretchy-oozy-yumminess of the cheese. 

 
This is while I was cooking the fondue on the stove.  Here's the recipe:
- Rub fresh garlic on bottom and sides of saucepan
- 1/2 cup white wine, heated first in saucepan
- 2 medium sized blocks of Swiss Emmenthaler, cubed and added to the wine
- Juice of 1/2 lemon, squeezed into the mixture
- Stir, melt, stir until smooth, velvety, stretchy
- Dissolve 1 Tsp corn starch into 1/4 cup sherry (or Kirsch), and stir into cheese  
- Keep stirring and making the mixture smooth.  It may seem liquidy, but that's good.
- Light the sterno under the fondue pot and pour the saucepan cheese into the fondue dish.
- Spear, swirl, stretch, eat, moan, and repeat.

Every gourmet food magazine and pompous Food Network chef has a frou-frou fondue recipe.  This is my tried and true recipe (which came with the pot instructions), and it never fails me.  It's easy, to the point, and into my mouth.

 
If anyone leaves a retarded comment, "oh I don't like cheese", I will stab you and watch you slowly die while I enjoy my cheese with this maniacal look on my face.

With all the dysfunction and destruction in our world the past few days (Nor'Easter floods, college shooting, Don Imus, Sanjaya), I won't add to the chaos with my own pointless discussion on some of those topics.  Instead, I'll relieve your news-weary mind with this here....the BEST LIST EVER:

THE 100 UNSEXIEST MEN 2007:  http://www.thephoenix.com/article_ektid37369.aspx

Z100's Morning Zoo crew apparently talked about it this morning and I found it on their website.  Normally I don't regurgitate the brilliance of others, but this list is just the best thing I've seen in a while.  I'll give you a minute to scroll thru the list and let you KAKA accordingly.  (5 minutes go by....)   See!  Wasn't that the best list ever?!  It ranges from the painfully obvious (Don Imus, Screech, Flava Flav, K.Fed, Marc Anthony) to the disgustingly brilliant (Sanjaya, Osama, Perez Hilton, the lead singer of Nickelback, that "Fitness Made Simple" guy) to the screechingly sacrilegious (Pope Benedict, shamed priests and televangelists) to the "oh-no-you-di'in't!" (#80 ANN COULTER!! "Hellbitch" kakakaka).  Thank god they did!  The #1 Unsexiest Man (Trump) is a bit of a letdown, but entirely appropriate.  Though Ann Coulter as #1 would've been the ultimate side-splitter for me.  Next year I could see Brad Pitt on there, if he continues on this downward Angelina Orphanage spiral. 

Hope this list made your day & this dreary sleepy-sneezy-stuffy-coughy-achy week a little brighter than it's been.  And remember, laughter and jasonbasin is the best medicine (next to Nyquil).

THE EASTER BUBBY.  bubbyMichael came home from visiting his folks in TN late Sunday nite around 1:30am (technically early Monday morning, but that sounds stupid to say).  I was asleep and he woke me.  We kissed and hugged hello, and then he insisted that I open up an easter basket that he made for me in Tennessee.  For the life of me, I couldn't understand why it was so urgent that I open  a basket of chocolates and jelly beans at 1:30am.  But I was polite and sat up in bed anyway, sleepily fumbling with the ribbon knots.  I undid the red cellophane wrapping and saw a purple bucket of goodies -- milk & dark chocolate bunnies, chocolate barn animals, Easter-flavored Sweet Tarts & Nerds, a chocolate crucifix (eek!), candy necklaces & bracelets, a 4-pack of Cadbury creme eggs, etc.  It was definitely a decadent candy basket and I couldn't wait to eat it all the next day.  But I got the point after examining a few of these candies, and pushed the basket away.  Hubby said, "no, keep opening, keep opening, you're not done".  In compliance, I reached in the middle of the bucket and yanked out yet another box of cavity-inducing....CASIO ELIXIM digitial camera!   YAYAYAYAYAY!!!!!!!

The Casio Exilim, in blue, to replace my lost Nikon last month.  The pics I found above make it look purple, but this is deceiving.  It's a sleek steely blue rather than easter egg purple above.  I love it, I love it, and I love my hubbybubbyMichael for his classic wonderful thoughtful surprises!

EASTER SUNDAY BRUNCH.  On spinster Sunday (hubby still away), I trekked into the city solo to meet my brother, Rosa, and cousin Jenn for our first ever city brunch together.  We went on a Easter egg hunt, and found a bunch of eggs -- omelettes, poached, benedict.  I picked Vento in the Meatpacking district, for its coolness factor and its awesome menu.

VENTO at West 14th & 9th Ave, the triangular block where 9th Ave & Hudson Street splits.  This stock photo below from some website shows Vento in full summer swing, with bustling outdoor eating action.  Our eating action occurred in the sleek second floor dining room, where we had:
  
I didn't have my camera, so Yud took the requisite food pics on his Blackberry Pearl.  The pics came out soft and hazy like a Barbra Streisand photo shoot, but it'll have to do. 
Smoked Salmon Benedict english muffin, poached eggs, smoked salmon, hollandaise sauce.  Came with a heaping side of crispy roasted potatoes.

  
Wood Oven Roasted Eggs prosciutto, arugula, potatoes
Contadino Omelette italian sausage, pomodoro, mozzarella

  
Egg White Omelette grilled zucchini, basil pesto
French Toast raisin brioche, mixed berries, honey mascarpone.  We ordered this for everyone to share because we all wanted it, but we also all wanted our own eggs dish.

We were all so glad we dragged our lazy asses out of bed on a cold Sunday and made it in from Queens and NJ for this little family (pig-)outing.  Brunch was yuMMMazing, especially the Wood Oven roasted eggs and the French Toast.  This is totally my new favorite spot to take people, and good for big groups.  I love the Meatpacking district.  Across the street is crowded celeb-magnet Pastis, where I once saw Anna Wintour (big sunglasses, bitchy bob and all) lunching in a dark corner.  There's also the Gansevoort Hotel, Jean-George's Spice Market, 5 Ninth, creperie Paradou, Highline for trendy Thai, designer clothing boutiques (if you're into that stuff...yawn), and so much more.  Afterwards we hit up the wonderful BODUM store on 14th St, the kitchenwares haven for everything coffee, tea, and cooking.  After Bodum, we drove down to the NYU vicinity for Beard Papa cream puffs.  Cream puffs were totally unnecessary but definitely desired and devoured.  So let's see...a decadent Sunday brunch, happy housewares shopping, and extraneous cream puffs....looks like a new eating tradition with my family has just bgun. 

THE BEAUTY IN BAYONNE.  No, not me, but another object of breathtaking beauty and magnificence resides in quiet historic Bayonne, NJ.  My current hometown of Bayonne is the understated Hudson County town on the verge of a major explosion.  When all the folks have had their fill of the population saturation of Hoboken, Williamsburg, Long Island City, and downtown Jersey City, they will ultimately flock to Bayonne.  And Bayonne will be waiting, with new mega housing developments and condos, new shopping and dining destinations, a world class new golf course, and more.  But right now, Bayonne has a few facets of fabulocity -- me, Boatworks, and this.... 

 
THE 9-11 TEARDROP MEMORIAL.  Built last year to commemorate the victims of 9-11, this Teardrop memorial is an architectural marvel and sentimental touchstone.  This monument stands at the coastal tip of Bayonne's former Military Ocean Terminal, a huge strip of unused land that is slated to be the largest housing development project on the east coast called The Peninsula at Bayonne Harbour.  Driving thru the Peninsula, I was taken away by the sheer size of this plot of land and imagining what this place will be like when it's all built up and occupied.  Right now the peninsula is home to a Royal Caribbean cruise port, and the Intrepid is temporarily docked there.  A series of new housing developments will begin soon and continue for 10-15 years until over 1,500 new homes are built.  A new mini-city within Bayonne will take shape here and help put our town on the map.

  
In person, this monument still looked like a computer rendering.  It is sheer magnificence and I couldn't believe we have this in our town.

   
 
At the base is a Vietnam Memorial-esque inscription wall of 9-11 names.

 
From the monument there's an unobstructed view of nearby downtown Manhattan to the left (to the left).  You can see Lady Liberty all the way to the left of the left pic.  Somewhere close to the right of the left pic is where the Twin Towers stood.   To the right of the monument is the Verrazano Bridge and the Stated Island ferry terminal.   Bayonne is ridiculously close to the city. 

And across the water in a parallel peninsula, the Bayonne Golf Club is taking shape on the waterfront.  This is the club house being built for this world class golf course, voted one of the world's best in 2006.  The grass is putrid right now, but take a look at this course in full bloom:  http://www.bayonnegolfclub.com/?page=339.  I'm definitely not a golfer, but I love having this exclusive club in our town.

So clearly, Bayonne is shaping up to be the bext big thing in the NY/NJ region.  Just remember where you first heard of this town....on JasonBa(yonne)sin.

PARAMUS PARK MALL.  Who goes to a mall just for the food court?  We do.  My brother and I both craved Paramus Park's Chick-Fil-A, from our fond early 80's childhood days of living in Paramus.  Chick-Fil-A was food court food at its best, and it's still pretty damn good.  The weekend before this past weekend, we filled up on Chick-Fil-A. 

 
We got several boxes of nuggets, chicken sandwiches and waffle cut fries.  This is what our Paramus childhood tasted like.  Mom & dad would take us there (5 mins from our house) in our Toyota Tercel.  We'd enter thru the Sears that always smelled like popcorn.  Mom would get her Clinique yellow facial moisturizer with the free gift bags, and she'd make me go pay for another thing so I could get another free Clinique gift for her.  Yud would look for Ocean Pacific clothes and British Knights high tops.  We would raid the Kaybee Toys store for G.I. Joes & He-Man action figures, Care Bears dolls, and Atari games.  We'd watch all the white kids riding on the carousel and wish our parents let us do it too.  We'd throw pennies into the fountains and not know you're supposed to make wishes.  We'd ride up the escalator to the food court and feel like we were in a busy rainforest with all those cascading waterfalls around.  And Dad would make us go order at the Chick-Fil-A counter because our english was much better than his.  Now it's just not the same after a generic every-mall renovation in the late 90's.    

 
A turkey club spinach salad that Rosa and I craved.  bubbyMichael playing with his new Blackberry Pearl.

 
So it's just us now.  Me and Yud, carrying on the fond memories of a Paramus Park of days gone by.  Cousin Steve was too young to remember our many romps there, cousins Jenn & Larry weren't even born yet, and Mom dropped Paramus Park like a stranger's baby and has moved on to bigger better malls....with casinos built around them.  So it's just us, Yuddie.

Never in our wildest dreams as children living in early 1980's Paramus, did Yud and I ever imagine we'd be back at Paramus Park as full-fledged adults, enjoying Chick-Fil-A with our wonderful significant others.  And our significant others would each be thinking: Would you idiot brothers stop waxing sentimental about this crap-ass mall?!  It's got 3 stores, Chick-Fil-A isn't all that, and 'Tiffany filmed her "I Think We're Alone Now" video in this mall'  is not something to brag about.