It was the day of Joel Straus' Bar Mitzvah and I was waiting int he car as the time approached waiting for Ben and Suzanne to emerge.

After the service, we headed to the main event where there was dancing but it took me a while to realize I needed a flash

and even then it was large group so I didn't always get the focus I wanted

and after a moment of darkness the photographer took a picture of Suzanne and me as did Ed Percarpio before Suzanne and Claire Percarpio posed and then Harry Cummins joined Suzanne and Claire as the hat moved. Next I recorded Alan's father and then a collection of pictures of the Bar Mitzvah boy, Joel before taking a few final pictures of Ed Percarpio and calling it a day.

On Valentine's Day, Charlie Gross from Psychology came to visit and the next day, Sally Poor from German came for a chat.

This was all a prelude to Saturday when we parked the car at Princeton Junction rode the train through the snow as Ben read his book and I read mine until we got to Penn Station and studied the exhibit about New Jersey transit

including the mechanism that makes it work and then began our march downtown taking note of the Cheesesteak Factory the fire engines as we got to the village and then the arch at Washington Square Park where we used the facilities and recorded the history of the park before marching on to the windows of the place that sold many artistic chess sets including the 3D chess set

We marched on until we reached devachan and when we went in we were behind Suzanne who had her bag and was paying the man for her new look.

We marched on and stopped at Pearl River Mart where Ben transformed with this mask and after we viewed the wall of water we went outside to fit on Ben's zipper pull and walked on to Chinatown where we saw Chinese McDonald's and Chinese Burger King and then a truck from which this pig was removed but these remained for the year of the pig. Next we reached the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory, our destination and looked inside before we studied the menu and made our purchases which we ate while studying the Feng Shui poster at this store with the things that made loud noises We marched on to the umbrella room where we got Ben this pretzel before we saw the Pop sign and the collection of animal fur coats for dolls that led to the Jane restaurant with her name prominently displayed and the guacamole and margaritta restaurant and then passed Jane Street and the Rembrandt to go to Horatio Street and the Van Gogh where Jeff greeted us at his apartment and we admired the view and his books as we admired the decor inside and out while food was being served and Sarah and Ed arrived and joined the festivities as Ben and Suzanne were amused by Jeff's book from the collection of Oliver Sacks and the discussion between Jeff and Sarah Sarah and Ed Jeff and Sarah Ed Ben me and back to Jeff and Sarah before we went for dinner passing up Benny's to go to Good where Ed and Sarah Suzanne Ben and me and Jeff admired the menu (which described the food) as Sarah and Suzanne began with the breads and then we all enjoyed our foods

when at meal's end to the amusement of Ed and Sarah and Suzanne I recorded the server as drinks desserts more drinks and desserts were served before we trekked back to Jeff's to gather on the couch as he sat in his chair and I noted the garbage truck outside before we caught a cab to Penn Station where Suzanne and Ben were anxious to settle onto the train as I took the last picture that would fit on the memory card.