Does anyone know if the 119 bus (JSQ to Port Authority) is running? I don't see it on the list of running bus lines, but I also don't see it on the suspended list. Thanks.

Orange Guard. We buy it at Whole Foods but I occasionally see it at hardware stores. I spray wherever I see them, usually just twice, and then they never return. I will occasionally spray again just as a preventative measure but usually don't have to. And I had tried everything from raid to baby powder to cinnamon to hot pepper to essential oils and nothing worked.

Bonus-- it's safe around pets and kids.

i actually had a similar situation and the person escalated it by making comments to me on the street about things he had seen & cursing at me. spoke to a cop and while there was technically nothing criminal being done, they did come by to knock on his door and tell him to, well, stop being creepy.

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I received a parking ticket once that must have fallen off the car or something because I never received it. I also never received a failure to pay notice-- instead, one day I just came home to a letter from JC that said as of now, my license had been suspended for non payment of ticket.

I went to court, the judge immediately threw it out since I had never even received a second notice. He provided a letter in case I was pulled over before the records had been updated.

Three days later, I received my failure to pay notice.

I'm not sure what the standard practice is for non payment since my experience was non-standard-- three missed notices? failure to appears? etc., but I'm not sure standard practice applies to Jersey City.

Airbnb.com-- people rent out rooms, couches, whole homes, whole apartments, etc I've used it before (not in JC though) and had great experiences.

Orange Guard!

I bought it thinking it wouldn't work that well, but was trying to find a pet-safe alternative to Raid. It works so much better than Raid. It eliminates any ants i see coming in immediately, and when it starts to warm up, I use it as a preventative treatment around the windowsills and usual entry spots for ants. I don't want to jinx myself, but last year while using it preventatively, I didn't see an ant.

I bought it at Whole Foods in Tribeca but I think some hardware stores carry it too.

I have been on the other end of a typo ticket though-- the officer (in Lambertville, NJ) gave someone a ticket, and obviously entered it incorrectly because I received all of the notices and threats for non-payment. I had never been to Lambertville in my life; for that matter, that day I was in class in Philadelphia. It didn't turn in to too big of a deal, but I would feel bad inflicting the Jersey City parking chaos on someone else if it turns out to be an active license plate.

But, I also totally see the other side and how easy it would be to just not pay it.

I'm actually not sure if Village is still open, but if they are, I'll say I had a really bad experience with them about a year ago. I used to go to them all the time, no problems. I think the owner had handed off most of the work to his staff since then. I went in with a rattle in my car. They never drove it, put it on the lift, fixed one thing that was loose, never drove it again to see if it was fixed, charged me 100 dollars.

I pulled away, realized it was still rattling, turned back to them. They then informed me it was the shocks, which would cost me 600 dollars. i left.

I went someplace else, it was a minor problem that was fixed for 100 dollars (plus the 100 i had to waste at village).

I entered Grove around 11 am, and a few minutes later, two or three guys were arrested. they seemed to be part of a group bound for the parade in Hoboken. I'm not sure if this led to the dogs and the extra police, but as soon as they were cuffed, all trains began bypassing Grove.

We wound up walking to exchange place. i have no idea if there was a separate medical emergency or if that is just the catchall to any problem on the platforms.

I'm not sure about vinyl swaps, but this is coming up. http://www.recordriots.com/jersey_city_16.html

I went in Friday with one decent sized box (pair of boots for return) with a prepaid UPS mailing label. I said the UPS website had directed me there to leave a package for UPS pick up and would that be okay? he said no problem. Perfectly polite.

I don't have an accout there-- have never been there before in my life, though I do plan on using it more often for mailing packages.

Does anyone have any info/recommendations for postnet? I've never used them before and I'm beginning to wonder why I haven't since they are MUCH closer to my home than the post office (and I have to imagine they must be friendlier).

Are the prices to mail things reasonable, and in line with UPS, USPS, etc?

Do they do UPS drop off service (if I had a prepaid label, could I drop it off there rather than lugging my packages on NJ Transit to my office?)

Thanks!

UPS was supposed to pick up an item for return to a store (item had been replaced). A major retailer set up the pick up, I left the item in plain view of the door, but behind the door since I've had package theft in the last few months, and a note that said which bell to ring.

No one came, two days pass I call the retailer, and they were like, oh it says two attempts were made but you weren't home. Sigh. I was.

I checked myself and both "attempts" were made at 8:15 pm which I take to mean they were tired and just marked it as attempted.

Mail delivery of any kind here is just ridiculous. USPS is no prize either.

I had another package go missing yesterday-- harsimus cove. it was delivered by UPS, I got home 20 minutes after the time stamp online, and no package. There is also a chance this was just misdelivered, but heads up to all just in case.

This happened to me a few weeks ago (Harsimus Cove, 4th Street area) to a package from Barnes and Noble. B&N asked me to wait a few more days, and I checked with my neighbors, etc, but no trace of it. I also live in a three family brownstone. Eventually, b&n mailed me a replacement.

I submitted tons of complaints to the PO and at the higher, PO level, I got an email that said, the package was delivered on X date at X time. the end.

At the local JC level, I received an email that 99.9 % of all mail is delivered successfully and they are disappointed by this error. That same day, I had more mail go missing.

Sigh. Thanks JC post office.

we were thinking of cancelling cable, but decided to go ahead and get the digital box anyway and decide later. huge, costly mistake. they sent me a box, then told me it was broken. sent another, same thing. third one came with a service man who told me the previous two were fine, comcast just sends them out and doesn't set them up for use before then.

Service guy (very nice guy) takes one of the boxes back, forgets the other, and leaves.

I get an enormous bill for shipping costs of three boxes, service man coming to house, and a bill for two TVs set up with digital because the old, broken box is still in my possession.

I fought with someone for about five minutes before I asked to be transferred to cancellation. Cancelled service about a month ago and we're thrilled. hulu, streaming netflix, new shows on basic channels that we get with an antennae-- i should have cancelled a long time ago.

so glad to be done with them.

My husband used to have an older model altima-- hubcaps stolen, replaced, stolen again... and then he just didn't bother replacing him. After that though, I began to notice that most Altima's driving around the city are missing their hubcaps as well. I assume that is an easy model to steal from? Who knows.

I love the idea of recipe cards/ingredient lists, so when I finish someone's delicious soup, I can have some idea of how to recreate it without waiting a year until the next swap and crossing my fingers it will be there. I'll be sure to include the recipe with my soup!

It's Greek to Me had a help wanted sign out...

When I was in grad school and couldn't afford full health insurance, I had what was referred to as a catastrophic policy. If you had an ear infection and went to the doctor for a prescription, it wasn't covered, but if you landed in the hospital and needed surgery, it would help.

I don't remember many details (I was young and all that mattered to me was that it was cheap, like 30 bucks a month), and thankfully I didn't need to use it, but it may be something to look in to.

I was on one this morning to Newark... but it had been a while since I had caught one. I wonder how many are in rotation...

You can drop off books at Grace Van Vorst Church on Sundays while the book sale is open-- I think that is the only time. The official hours are, I believe, 12:30 through 4:30, but they are usually getting set up around noon so I'm sure you could drop them off a little before 12:30.

The path doesn't go directly to Newark airport. You'll need to go to Newark Penn, hop on a NJ Transit train for one stop, and then you can pick up the airtran.

I've done it a bunch of times, and while it isn't the most efficient way to get there (PATH to NJ Transit to airtran), it isn't horrible. It depends on the time of day too-- middle of the day, or rush hour, the trains move pretty quickly. after 8 pm though, the wait for the NJ Transit train could be longer.

All that said, if you're starting around 33rd street, I would just get on a NJ Transit train from Penn Station NY and go straight to the Newark Airport stop. That way you can cut out the path leg and the Airtran portion of the trip takes about 5 minutes.

Congrats on the wedding!

I'm not sure if they would cater in Jersey City, but when I got married earlier this year, we used Mumford's from Tinton Falls, NJ (www.mumfords.com). They were so accomodating on price and working within our budget and we had a appetizer heavy/light buffet set up for 50 a head.

We had wanted a similar cocktail party style wedding. I learned, strangely enough, that passed appetizers and such usually run more expensive than buffets/sitdowns-- I guess because of the meticulousness of making each little appetizer rather than just making a huge thing of chicken. That's why we went with a mostly cocktail party setting, but rounded it out with buffet items.

Something to ask of your caterer though-- if they will arrange rentals for you. I would have had no idea how many forks, small plates, etc. we would have needed, so it was nice to have the experts take care of that.

Not a bookstore, but Grace Van Vorst Church on Erie has a book sale on Sundays, 12:30 until 4:30, I believe. 50 cents for all paperbacks, $1 for hardcover. Selection is hit or miss but you can find some good stuff. And for 50 cents, you don't have to feel like you wasted 15 dollars if you hate it.

I have to wonder if you had my old landlady... who also took about a third of my security deposit because she said the apartment was dirty. It wasn't hundreds of dollars dirty, let me tell you. It was only old brownstone dingy but had been scrubbed to an inch of its life.

We sent her a certified letter with a request for the remainder, the laws around it, and mention of going to small claims. A couple of weeks later, I got the letter returned to me. She refused to answer the door to sign for it.

This landlord also told me when I could have visitors, that my sister could not come to stay over my apartment, my then boyfriend, now husband, could not come over anymore because once his shoes left mud on her doormat, and constantly re-sorted our garbage in to different bags for reasons I cannot comprehend.

Yoga shunya is having a summer special, 100 dollars for an unlimited month (4 weeks). You can start your month anytime before september, I believe, and it has to be completed by end of september.

Good deal if you wanted to go frequently (hell, you could go every day if you wanted). And great classes there.

Yoga is pricey, but I think you really do get more out of being in a class with other people. That said though, I only go once a week and supplement other days (I want a wii fit for the yoga!). Maybe when that lottery ticket comes through.

I wonder if you have my old landlady. I told her I was vacating on March 1 on Feb 1, and she informed me that was only 28 days noticed, because February is a short month and I need to give 30.

She also took half the security deposit because the apartment was "really dirty" which it absolutely wasn't, but at that point, I was so happy to be away from her that I didn't care.

Sounds like you have to pay half of February, but better than the entire extra month, I guess...

We use downtown veterinary for our cat, and I have nothing but positive things to say about them. I've had about three different doctors over the years, and they were all lovely, called to follow up, did their best to comfort my vet-phobic cat. The staff and techs are just as great.

There are a lot of visitors taking up parking, but I think some, if not most, of the "visitors" do live in the area. They just drive to work each day, which is sometimes easier than the whole re-registration, proof of residence process that JCPA requires. I know for the first few months I lived here, I drove to work each day, came home at 5:30, and parked my car (I don't work in NY, but nearby) because the re-registration of my car to Jersey City took forever.

If the streets were made into all resident parking, all the time, as Kabukiman suggests, it would light a fire under the new residents who haven't changed their registration yet, but I'm not sure how much it would change the parking situation. I have a feeling a lot of the same cars would be there.

Just my 2 cents. I too wish the situation was better. I'd love to be able to come home after 11 and not know I'll have to drive forever trying to park.