Wildlife and Satay

I have to say, I am surprised at how much wildlife I have seen here in New Jersey. I mean, I have seen the occasional news story about a bear showing up in a neighborhood here, but that's about the extent of my knowledge on NJ animals.

Driving on a side road heading back to the hotel tonight, a fox crossed the road. He or she was obviously used to cars as it was taking it's time crossing the road, not appearing to be frightened at all by the approaching vehicles. Thankfully it is not a main road! The head honcho at the local office said he actually saw a deer look both ways before crossing the road. He swears this is true! I guess they have very savvy deer here!

The other day, I was in a subdivision, sitting at the curb in my car doing some paperwork, and saw an animal out of the corner of my eye. I looked up expecting to see a cat, but it was a raccoon, running along. It tried to enter a hole in the bottom of a tree in front of a house, but it was too fat to get in and just kept going. It was pretty funny.

Then, Sunday, I was in the same subdivision, again parked at a curb talking on the phone to my daughter and I saw some animal dart across the lawn to the edge of the curb right by my car, but I couldn't see what it was. It finally moved and it looked like a lot like a beaver except for the tail. I'm wondering if it was a muskrat or a mink. There is a large park behind this development, so I'm guessing the animals might be coming from there.

I was out driving around on my day off last week and was just driving around doing a quick look-see and in a strip mall I saw a TJ Maxx, so I had to stop. It's my favorite store actually. Anyway, when I was leaving, I noticed a Malaysian restaurant in the same area and stopped in as I knew I could get satay. It was listed as an appetizer and I wondered if I would like the peanut sauce as I wasn't sure if it would taste more like Indonesian or Thai peanut sauce. I don't care much for the Thai peanut sauce. Our family lived in West Java for two years in the mid-80's and the sate stand on the corner loved to see me coming as I would often get 40 sticks for our family of five along with an order of sticky rice wrapped in a banana leaf. Everyone in the family loved it. Anyway..... I got one order of the appetizer to go and wished I had gotten more. It was really good. I might see if I can get anyone from work to go for dinner one of these nights.