This past Friday, Rhonda and I lit out for another visit to New Brunswick to visit Aaron. Our tradition around this time each year is to take the ferry over to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, and stay at the excellent Hotel Rehoboth. Instead, we decided to visit Aaron again, since the boys don’t have a fall break for the New Jersey Teachers Convention now that they’re both in college. Rhonda and I both remarked though that we’re missing our annual visit and might try to work something out for later in the year. That’s always a fun trip: ferry, hotel, dinners out, ramen at Miyagi, and outlet shopping.

We stayed at a Marriot closer to his dorm, and I made a nice dinner rez (see below), and had some phô for breakfast on Saturday. I got to try a Peloton bike in the fitness center in the wee hours, and got an hour in the pool, too.

Metuchen Inn

Dinner on Friday was at the Metuchen Inn, which was reasonably close to our hotel. Friday night was incredibly dark, with cloud cover that made navigating difficult. We were driving in the new WRX, and it was my first serious trip with CarPlay; I didn’t realize that I wasn’t zoomed in sufficiently, so I often missed the small turns that I needed to attend to in such unfamiliar territory. Thankfully Aaron was in the passenger side and helped out.

We made it on time, though, and the manse itself was tastefully lit from inside, with a welcoming, soft amber light. Coming up to it on Middlesex Avenue, in the dark after many hours of driving, was a welcome sight indeed.

I had clams with black beans and chorizo, and then sea bass. I was tempted by the wild boar tenderloin, which Aaron ended up ordering, so I was able to try a bite, and it was delicious. My sea bass was excellent, with crispy skin and perfectly moist flesh. Rhonda’s lamb chops were similarly good. Service fell off at then end after being most attentive; Rhonda flagged someone down so we could pay our tab after a long wait for desert.

The Crossroads Chardonnay from Stokelan Estates Winery

Rhonda and I stopped again at Stokelan on the way up to visit Aaron; we take 206 up and veer off on Route 70 to Medford for a light lunch and some wine. We’ve tried both version of their Myra rosé as well as the Catspaw Chardonnay. The Crossroads is bit richer than the Catspaw, with vanilla, melon, and pear notes to my taste. We stopped for another bottle on the way home yesterday, and took one to go. Aaron got a turkey and brie sammich on a croissant, which was delicious (he decided to come home with us and stay overnight, and will catch a ride back to school with a local classmate later today).

Tab Finder

I found Tab Finder on Bundlehunt, and for a couple of bucks, thought I’d give it a try. It’s another utility that lets you view and search your open browser tabs. I’ve taken to using TabTab, which doesn’t restrict itself to searching browser tabs; the search is quick and I use it a lot on all of my Macs. TabFinder is a more focused app, but I love the appearance and the search feature works great. It doesn’t support Firefox if that’s your jam, but it does work with Chrome, Brave, and Opera.

The only feature I haven’t found on any of these utilities is the ability to close tabs from the menu.

Hitman Absolution for iPadOS

This is an old game that I played on the Mac years ago, but didn’t get very far. I don’t game on my Mac that much, save sometimes on holidays (my birthday is coming up, and that usually means another go at Firewatch). It runs great on the iPad, and I am very much inclined to dip into a game when I’m on the sofa for a bit after cleaning up from dinner. I’ve played a number of stealth-style games, including all three Space Marshals titles. I think I developed an appreciate for this style of game starting with the original Metal Gear on the NES; I remember trying to barrel into screens in that game and getting my ass handed to me. Nintendo Power to the rescue!

So yeah, it’s fun to sneak around in this game, and the solutions to each level are many, allowing you to replay levels to meet goals and try new strategies.

Matiz Mussels in Olive Oil and Vinegar

I mentioned the Piri Piri sardines in a previous Sunday Serial, and since I enjoyed them so much last time, I figured these might be good too (their other tinned fish is pretty expensive in comparison to the sardines and the mussels). I could do without the vinegar but they’re still really good with some white wine and other bites at the winery.