WARNING: Long Update

So, I just got home from my trip to PA. I left on December 21st at 12:00 PM and headed south to Rhode Island. I spent the night with my cousin Laura and her husband Jay. Jay is a cook at the Salvation Cafe in Newport, Rhode Island. Laura took me there for dinner since Jay had to work. All of the food was fantastic! I even ate Clam Chowder and for those of you that know me I do not like seafood. The resteraunt was even featured on the Food Network on the $40 a Day Show. After that, we hung out at the loft until Jay was done with work. When Jay got home, we headed over to Jamestown Island and partied at the Naragassett Bar until 1 AM. We got back to there place and crashed. I had to get up early and continue my trip on to PA.

I left Laura and Jay's at 8 AM. Taffic on I-95 sucked! Contruction in 2 places and 1 fatal car wreck which had both lanes closed. I pulled into my grandparents house just at 2:30PM that afternoon. I got cleaned up and went out to finish my Christmas shopping. I could not believe how empty the stores were. After that, I met Mom & Bill for dinner at Fairground's Square Mall. From there, I went to my Dad's for a bit and then drove up to the Pagoda. I tried to take some night time pictures but they did not come out so well.

Thursday found me travelling to Mechanicsburg, PA. I went out there to see Pat and Jessi. I stopped by Wildware Outfitters to visit with Jessi. She was unable to go out to dinner with us that evening. I am just glad I got to see her for a few minutes. From there, I went over to Pat and Paul's house. We caught up on things and then went out for a fantastic dinner. I headed back to Reading just after 6:30 PM. When I got back, I went to my old bowling alley. I got to catch up on things with Mom and Pop Krick and their team. My old Thursday night team was still together and needed a sub. So, I paid the $10 and got to bowl. Let's just say, I am not that great without my own equipment. It was still a blast to hang out with the old team. I'll be taking my bowling equipment on future trips to PA.

Friday, Christmas Eve, I finished all of my shopping and began the ardeous task of wrapping the gifts. It took 2 hours to wrap everything. I bought myself a camera tripod too. Mom and Bill picked me up around 2 PM and we went to the Pagoda Driving Range. We hit a bucket of golf balls and I can still hit them ok. Dinner at Mom's was excellent and we exchanged Christmas gifts. I stopped by Dad's on the way home and arranged our plans for Christmas Day. From there, I went out to take more pictures of the Pagoda and Fire Tower atop of Mt. Penn. They came out some much better with the tripod. After I left there, I drove out to Christmas Village in Bernville to take some cool pics there. It was a quick drive home and to bed because 6 AM was coming fast.

Saturday, Christmas Day, I got to Dad's at 6:45 AM and we left immediately for our day trip to NJ for Christmas. It was good to see Poppy and Lucille. Kyle and I drove around and I was taking more pictures. I love my new digital camera. When we got back, we ate a big feast and relaxed on the couch. We left NJ around 4 PM and got back to Reading just after 6 PM. I stopped by to visit with Adric and his family for about 15 minutes before I continued to Birdsboro to say good bye to Mom and Bill. I got back to granpop's and packed the car up, checked email, and went to bed.

Sunday, the alarm went off at 4:30 AM. UGGHHH! I rolled out of bed, started the car, and got ready to leave. I was out the door at 5AM. 10 minutes into the trip, my windshield wipers broke while cleaning the ice off of the windshield. I immediately began to fear the worst. The trip did not require their use the rest of the way home. I made it back to my house in 9 hours 15 minutes. I rearranged some gifts and then headed to Bar Harbor to drop them off with Mike and Lynne and Todd and Kirsten. I finally got home just after 7PM and did nothing for the rest of the evening.

Monday morning, I woke up to 4 inches of new snow. I am glad that it waited until I got home. I still had no wipers, but that was ok. They closed our office at 1 PM because of the weather and I drove to Bangor to have the wipers fixed. I got home just after 5 PM, ate dinner, cleaned the stickers off the windows, and watched The Terminal. I give it 2 thumbs up.

Well, that wraps up this update. Sorry it was so long.

Well alot has happend in the last 6 months. Angela and I are getting divorced. The divorce will be finalized on December 30, 2004. I have moved into the new house. I will be posting pictures soon. This will be the first year that I have been home for Christmas in the last 6 years. More updates will follow soon.

A new record. 2 months without an update. Let me sum it up in a nutshell "BUSY!"

For the last month and a half, I have been preparing documentation and implementing procedures for the new project I am in charge of at the bank. We are replacing over 130 PC's in all of our branches. So far 3 are done and 10 are left. This project consumes most of my days now. At night, I do not feel like updating anything.

I am quite relieved, Angela and I are on vacation in Pennsylvania until 4/28. We drove to PA on 4/21 and have been busy here as well. We went to NJ on Friday morning to visit with my Grandparents, then we drove to Balitmore for the weekend to visit with close friends, and then we drove to Harrisburg to visit with some more friends. We arrived back in Reading on Monday night. Today is a day of rest before we drive home. We'll do some shopping and hit some golf balls.

Hopefully I'll get some pictures posted soon on the website.

Joe

Well no updates have occurred in 2 weeks. This past weekend was a long weekend for us. It was our 6th annual Banff Mountain Film Festival Weekend. I had to work on Friday and Saturday at the new Rockland Branch. Angela attended the Friday night Toga party, which did not have to many people at this year. On Saturday afternoon, we played a $10/person round of Poker. Angela played and won a total of $17.00. She was the second highest winner. Saturday night was the Mountain Culture Films, which were all good. After the movies, we went back to Mike and Lynne’s to party some more. On Sunday, we got up late and met everyone for a hike around Jordan Pond. It was a Sunny, but cold day. After the walk we got showered up and ready for the Sunday night Mountain Sports films. Once again, another night without any boring films. After the movies once again it was party time. Monday was a slow and quiet day for us. We went up to Mike and Lynne’s to say good buy to the Baltimore crew. After that we went to Wal-Mart and the grocery store. Angela went to book club on Monday night. Tuesday we hosted poker night at our house. I was doing all right until we played a game of guts. I lost $5.00 in a matter of 3 hands. Oh well…

Work is going well right now. Angela’s immigration paperwork is completed and we are planning a trip to PA the first week of April.

TTFN.

The onion soup party was a success. Both pots of soup were gone by 10PM. We partied until midnight.

Since then, things have been extremely hectic between life and work. I have made another trip to NB to get the mail and some more things from the house, We have been looking at land to purchase, playing poker every Wednesday night, and so on… Work has been extremely busy with our upcoming Rockland Branch acquisition; almost as crazy as the Sovereign Bank Days.

Thank goodness the weekend is upon us. I will try to have an update on Monday.

I went home to NB 2 weekends ago. It was a fun drive in the snow both ways. Not to much has happened since then.

Movies that we recently watched include: Liar, Liar; Bruce Almighty, Lara Croft The Cradle of Life, and Seabiscuit. Angela and I highly recommend Seabiscuit!

Last night was poker night at Mike and Lynne’s. I ended up winning $2.20 on top of my original $5. Tonight we prepare for our visitors. Kevin and Patricia are coming to visit us for the weekend. Tomorrow night we are having, “Joe's Fabulous Five Onion Soup Gathering” as Angela put in the email. Should be a nice gathering of friends and family as always.

This coming weekend is a long weekend for me. I’ll have to post an update of all of our activities that we did.

GO EAGLES!!!!!

Another short week this week. I worked on Monday, Tuesday and Friday, had Wednesday and Thursday off. Wednesday afternoon, we got things around the house together in the event of a surprise New Year’s Eve Party. We went out to dinner to China Joy in Bar Harbor with Lynne and her family. After that, we went to the wharf to watch the fireworks, which started at 7 PM. It was a 20-minute show that actually wasn’t too bad. From there, we went to Noreen and Suzanne’s for a while. We left there around 9 PM and headed to MacKay’s Public House. Angela, Lynne, Grace, and I left around 11:30 PM and headed to our house to bring in the New Year. We got home with 10 Minutes to spare, opened the Champagne, and watched the ball drop. I was glad to see that no Terrorism happened! We slept in on Thursday until 12 PM, got up and became vegetables for the rest of the day. We watched the Santa Clause 2 and other regular TV shows.

I am supposed to head to NB this weekend, but as of now, it is snowing. I’ll let you know how I made out next week.