The Boxing Day Party was a smash! Our visitors included George and Kelly, Mike and Lynne, Ben, Gracie, Pete, and Noreen. We ate lots of food, drank lots of alcohol and danced around the living room with my new Disco Light. Next years Boxing Day party proves to be even better. Angela and I got to bed around 12:30AM after some initial cleanup. Saturday was a long day for both of us.

Angela had to work all day. I got up around 9 AM and took the garbage to the Transfer Station. After that, I drove to Seal Harbor to check on Pat and Bob’s house. I was house sitting while they where away. My next stop was the Hardware store to get supplies to wire up the telephone jacks. I got home a short time later. My first task at home was to wash the dishes, done. Next I worked on the computer desk that Bob gave me. Cut the top of it to meet our specifications, done. Next I set up the computers and laptop on the new desk, done. My next task was to rewire the phone jacks for the patch panel in the basement to the new jacks in the bedroom and spare room, done. Once all those activities were completed, I took Bam for a 1.5-hour walk up around the woods. We got home around 4 PM and showered up. Angela got home shortly after. We ate left over chili and watched, X2. That was an awesome movie.

On Sunday, the day of rest, we slept in late. Angela cooked up omellettes and potatoes for breakfast. During breakfast, we watched Terminator 3 – Judgment Day. Another great movie to explain the story. After that, we got ready and headed to Ellsworth to do our laundry. We got home just after 4:30 PM and proceeded to make dinner. After dinner, we decided to watch Bad Boys II. A good story with a lot of funny parts in it. All in all it was an awesome weekend.

Well… I have to agree with Shawn @ www.duf.net about Amazon. They certainly do SUCK! I ordered a book for Angela on December 10, 2003. I was given a shipping estimate of December 16 or 17th. My package was supposed to arrive between December 22 – 24th by 4:30 PM. So, here is where the fun begins. I waited at my office until 4:30PM on 12/24 and no driver. I wasted 3 hours and 30 minutes because we closed at 1PM on the 24th. AGGGGHHHHH!!!! Oh well, the package is supposed to arrive today and I’ll never buy anything from Amazon.com again. Bastards!

Let’s go back to Christmas Eve Eve. We went over to George and Kelly’s for a little get together of friends. It was a good night and great time. Angela and I got home around midnight. On Christmas Eve, we went to Mike and Lynne’s for their party. It was a good time; we played the 20th Anniversary Version of Trivial Pursuit. I think it is harder than the regular version.

Christmas Day – Angela and I woke up around 9:15AM. It felt good to sleep in late. We got dressed and opened our gifts from our stockings. After that, we headed up to Mike and Lynne’s for more festivities. We spent most of the day up there and got home just after 6:30 PM. Angela and I opened our gifts to each other around 7:30 PM. I got snowshoes and new luggage and Angela got a new shelving unit for the kitchen and a Pannini Grill. After the gift time, we cleaned up the house because we are having the Boxing Day party tonight at our house.

We’ll post some details of the party next week.

Time for another update... only a week has gone by. Last week was a short week, I had vacation on Thursday and Friday. My Mom and Bill came up to Bar Harbor for an early Christmas on Wednesday. It was a good, but short visit. I got to take them sightseeing around the Park and down to the Bass Harbor Lighthouse. Angela's parents arrived on Friday afternoon. On Friday night we all ended up going out for dinner at MacKay's Publick House in Bar Harbor. Excellent food!! After dinner, we all went back to our house to celebrate an early Christmas. We opened gifts, had some drinks, and talked for a few hours. Mom and Bill left around 10PM because they were heading back to PA at 7 AM on Saturday morning.

On Saturday, I took Angela's parents up to Bangor to do some shopping. We ended up meeting Angela at 5PM at the Mall. From there, we went to the Oriental Jade for dinner. After 1 plate at the buffet, I was full. We ended up getting home around 9PM. I think we all were in Bed by 10 PM.

Sunday came with me driving Angela to Bangor at 6:30 AM. UGGHHHHH!! 1 hour drive each way. When I got home, I cooked up breakfast for Angela's parents. They left shortly after breakfast for New Brunswick. I ended up going to Home Depot and Wal-Mart for some stocking stuffer gifts. After that, I went home and took Bam for a nice long walk out the Breakneck Road. We got home just before 2:30PM. I then proceeded to wrap Christmas gifts and the stocking stuffers. After that, I showered and cleaned up the house before Angela got home. When Angela got home, we went to deliver Christmas gifts to our friends. No one was home at the 4 stops we made. Later, we went to Mike and Lynne's and watched a movie called Fahrenheit 451. It was a 60's movie about the future. The plot has to deal with "firemen" who burn books because they make people anti-social. Not a bad story.

That brings us up to Monday. Last night after work we went to see The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King. It was a most excellent movie. I think it was the best of the trilogy. The whole movie was over 3 hours and 30 minutes long. Well worth it.

Well, only one more day till Christmas... May you all enjoy the holiday season!

Angela and Joe

Another update… It started snowing last night and is still snowing now. We are forecasted to get up to 15 inches of snow. The weekend was interesting to say the least. I had to work all day on Saturday doing a software install for the bank. On Saturday night was my work Christmas party. The party was ok; the DJ’s sucked, maybe next year I’ll offer up my services. I woke up on Sunday morning and drove to New Brunswick to fetch so more things from the house. It was a long day of driving. I made it home in time to see the Survivor Finale. I definitely would have taken John to the final 2 because he would have been easy to beat. Oh well, not my decision.

Oh by the way... I almost lost all of my money at Poker. I had to borrow money to stay in. With the $2.00 I borrowed, my winnings returned. I left that night with an extra $3.50 in my pocket.

Blog update… Well the weekend of snow was interesting. We got a total of 12” at our new place in Maine. It was nice only having to shovel a small driveway instead of the ¼ mile long driveway in New Brunswick. We had some friends over on Saturday night for dinner, which was nice. So far the workweek has been pretty steady. Tonight is our weekly Poker night. Hopefully I’ll walk out of there with extra $$$$. I’ll let you know!

Well, I just heard this morning that we are supposed to get 6-12 inches of snow this weekend... Sounds like fun to me!

So, are weekend was pretty awesome. Friday night we hung out with Jack and Trina and the crew at Mike and Lynne’s. We played Pass the Pigs, a pretty cool game. On Saturday, we didn’t do too much except go for a hike. Angela and I hiked up and over Day Mountain and then along some carriage roads. After that, we went to Mike and Lynne’s to hang out more. We played more Pass the Pigs and relaxed in the hottub afterwards. On Sunday, I got up at 5:30AM and drove to New Brunswick. I picked up more items at home and some groceries. I spent 6.5 hours of driving for only 2 hours in New Brunswick. The theory to make it a worthwhile trip did not work on this.

The Theory goes like this…. If the visit time is double the drive time, then it is worth it.

On Monday, we rented Hollywood Homicide. A pretty funny movie with Harrison Ford in it. The entertainment value was high. Our Tuesday was good too. We watched our favorite show, 24, that has many new and intersting plot twists. I still highy recommend this show.