World Hum has an article that brought back some memories of when I used to be a total bitch to Trader Joe’s. Ironically, I ceased being a TJ shopper when they did exactly what I was hoping they would do: open a store in NYC. Let’s turn the clock back to pre-NYC TJ, when we would make the drive to either Westfield, NJ or Hewlett, NY just to load up on some low price groceries and random snacks. “Oh look! These cookies do not contain hydrogenated oils!” An entire day would be gone when we returned home and all tired to cook up what we just bought. Even when we daytripped to various points around the area, I would check the Trader Joe’s site to see if there was some location close to wherever we were going. The next thing you know, we would return from a day at a beach in Long Island with several full TJ bags. When we found out there was a Paramus location, we just kept coming up with excuses to hit Campmor, and oh by the way, get some groceries at Trader Joe’s as well.

With the frigid temperatures, and what seems like a weekly snowstorm, here in the Northeast, it’s easy to forget all the ballyhoo about this being a relatively warm winter. That 70 degree day in January seems so long ago that it might as well have been in January 1999. Ok, well not that long ago. When the temps were hovering around the low 40s, Karen and I ditched behind the daily grind and spent hump day snowboarding. We drove about an hour and a half to Mountain Creek, and spent about 4 hours falling all over the slopes. Hey, sure beats sitting on our asses all day pretending to work.

Oh great, first poultry, then beef, then taco bell, and now squirrels. Can’t we just eat something without any warnings?

[photo by: Jim Bailey]

Good to see the NYC-NJ rivalry is still on.

“What we ought to do is sue New York for all the environmental damage they’ve done over the years - all the New York garbage that was dumped illegally in our state, all the environmental damage.”

We all know it’s all New Jersey’s fault anyways.

Newark has a new mayor for the first time in almost two decades. The Nets and Devils are both in the playoffs. The Giants, Jets, Metrostars… er RedBulls have new stadium plans. The New Jersey Turnpike added a new exit 15X. Jersey City is becoming the new Williamsburg. New Yorkers are actually commuting to work in Hoboken offices.

Despite all this good news, the Garden State is still dealing with a bear problem. The bears aren’t just a scare for some intrepid campers, but are now freaking out suburban residents. This afternoon, the police over in Irvington, NJ decided that it was best to kill a bear hanging out in someone’s backyard than to tranquilize him.