Memorial Day Parade 2

Being a former band geek myself, I appreciate marching bands. Even when they don’t start playing until they’ve marched 100 feet past where I’m standing. (I’m not bitter. AT ALL.)

It’s interesting to see what the norm is for different marching bands. This band only fastened the top button of their jackets, and let the back zipper hang open, unzipped. (It seemed a little sloppy, but they were all wearing matching maroon t-shirts underneath, so I guess it was planned. But why not forgo the jacket entirely, and just wear the matching maroon t-shirts?) Plus, a lot of them carried their own little knapsacks/ mini backpacks through the parade. I wish we’d been allowed to do that when I was in band. (sulk sulk sulk)

Memorial Day Parade

I know this is obvious for most of you, but today is Memorial Day in the United States. A lot of us have the day off from work so we can celebrate the memory of those who died in wars.

One of the ways we celebrate is… parades!

Every town has its own local parade, mostly. So I watched New Providence’s! It’s sponsored by our local American Legion chapter.

The guard, shown in the top photo, was much less busy before the parade started:

I’ve never photographed a parade before. It’s hard to get good photos of a parade! I’ll need to figure out some better techniques for next time.

Bein’ green!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! If you missed the parades, there’s still a chance tonight to don your greenest clothes, show off your shamrocks, and get drunk at local bars!

Martini’s Bistro and Bar in Millburn is one of the bars preparing to celebrate tonight. Apparently their “O’Tini” is a frighteningly fluorescent green cocktail.

If fluorescent green cocktails aren’t your thing, a lot of places offer green beer, which (as my coworkers and I found out after hours last night) is a drop or two of blue food coloring + normal yellowish beer. It’s loads of fun to make it yourself!

Pi day!

Happy Pi Day!

Pi Day is celebrated on March 14 (3/14), in honor of the first three digits of pi (3.14). It is celebrated by calculating the circumferences and/or surface areas of pi(e)s, and then eating them.

This photo was taken outside the New Providence Library. There are a bunch of memorial bricks flanking its main walkway, and one of the brick-donors was apparently a math nerd, which is kind of awesome.

Leap!

February 29 is Leap Day! I think I can manage an honorary leap every four years.

(Alternate title: Jumpin’ at the Woodside.)

What a big heart you have!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Spotted outside New Providence Florist.

Merry Christmas! (2)

Merry Christmas from New Providence, New Jersey!

If Christmas isn’t your thing, here’s hoping today’s a lovely day for you anyway.

Horse and carriage rides

The Summit Downtown Association sponsored free horse and wagon rides for the holiday season! It’s been going on every Sunday this December, from 12:30-2:00, but yesterday was the first time I actually got around to checking it out.

These big handsome fellows are Jeff and Mike. Their handler assured us that they were just gentle giants, and they were generally much more amenable than nasty old ponies.

Of course, I had to give it a go.

It was good clean fun! The whole ride takes about five minutes. They just take you around the block, wherever they feel like going. (The route changes every time, so I was in the wrong spot the first time I tried to get a photo of the horses going by.)

Holiday cheer

Another lovely festive holiday shot of the Turtle Back Zoo’s Holiday Lights Spectacular! I think it kind of looks like Christmas vomited all over the park, but you can draw your own less disgusting conclusions on the matter.

Choirin’

Again with the tree lighting ceremony! As a prelude, a high school choir sang some songs for us. This is what they looked like. I can’t really tell you what the sounded like, ‘cos the audience of small children was pretty much drowning them out.