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.

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.

So, again it has been a while since the last update of this BLOG. Time to bring you up to speed.

October 31: Angela and I went out for Halloween. We started our trick or drinking at George and Kelly’s house. I was dressed up as a wizard and Angela was a Princess. Pics to follow soon. From there, we went to Rupunini’s, a local bar, for a costume party. Angela and I placed in the top 10 with our costumes.

November 1: I drove to Canada to get more furniture for the house.

November 5 – 8: I was in Lindon, Utah for the second course on the new Altiris software we are installing. I did some site seeing while I was there. I drove up to the Sundance Lodge where the Sundance Film Festival is held every year. I also drove into Salt Lake and toured around the city and the Temple Plaza. Pictures to be up on the site soon. While there I did my usual Hard Rock Café meal and drank a local micro-brewed beer called Polygamy Porter. The name fits well with the whole Mormon thing.

On November 17th, we drove to Bangor to check out the latest Matrix movie. Ang and I seemed to like it better than the 2nd one. The story seemed to flow better, but allowed for another possible movie.

November 22 – 26th: Angela and I drove to York, Me for a pre-thanksgiving party with our friends that we do the Saco River Canoe trip with. Lots of ETOH was had by all. I highly recommend trying deep fried turkey! It was by far the best turkey I have ever had. Crunchy skin and juicy meat. On the 23rd, Angela and I got up and headed to PA to see my family. We had dinner at my mother’s house on Sunday afternoon. Monday, Ang and I drove to Ikea in Philadelphia and spent the day there. Dad took us out to dinner on Monday night to the Windsor Inn of Shillington. Another fantastic meal as usual! We got up late on Tuesday and headed to Mechanicsburg to visit with our friend Jessi who we had met on several visits to Maine. We got home from there around 8:30 PM, just in time to watch 24. On Wednesday morning we left for Maine around 7 AM. We got home in 10 hours exactly. There was no holiday traffic, which surprised us. We unpacked after our trip and headed up to Mike and Lynne’s for dinner and to hang out with the gang from Baltimore.

November 27th: T-day! We ate well at Mike and Lynne’s. Ang and I spent the morning building our new shelves from Ikea, making sausage stuffing, and watching the Macy's Parade.

November 28th: Black Friday and I am at work. I think I would rather be here, than trying to walk around the malls. I am glad our Christmas shopping was done by the end of September.

Well, that pretty much brings things up to date for now. I am going to try and update this BLOG a few times a week now.

TTFN,
Joe

It’s hard to believe that another month is gone since my last update…

Angela and I did go back to Fredericton for Canadian Thanksgiving with the whole family. We had a blast! While there, Ang and I packed a lot of things up for our new house, a winter rental.

We moved in on October 14th and have been getting things arranged while there. The house has 2 small bedrooms, a newly renovated kitchen and bathroom, hardwood floors throughout, a working fireplace, and a garage. Ang and I will be in this place until May. Hopefully by then, we will have built a new place.

The week after the move, I was in San Antonio, TX for an Altiris course. I did much site seeing and picture taking while there. Got to love all you can eat steak for $14.99, and gasoline at $1.30 a gallon. Hopefully there will be some new pictures up soon.

Today is Halloween… We are going out tonight for a costume party. That should be a blast! I am sure there will be some pictures taken tonight.

Work… Is going well, I am implementing the Altiris software this week. Next week, I go to Lindon, Ut for part 2 of my Altiris training. More info and pictures to follow that trip.

I believe Angela and I will be heading to PA on the weekend before Thanksgiving. Dates are still in the air as of now.

TTFN,
Joe

It is pretty much confirmed that we will be in Canada in October for Thanksgiving with Angela’s parents.

So, let’s bring you folks up to date. Mike and I did our 35-mile hike on the Appalachian Trail (AT) on Labor Day weekend. It was a long and strenuous trip; but we both survived. Our trail name was “Team Office Job” with the other Thru-hikers on their way to Katahdin. It was a great trip and met some very interesting people. That weekend of hiking was about working out the heart, lungs, and legs. The following weekend was all about the liver!

Our 2nd annual Saco River Canoe Trip was awesome. Angela and I left Bar Harbor after work on Friday afternoon and made the 3-hour trek to Fryeburg, Maine. We canoed to the campsite in the dark, which was pretty interesting. When we got close to the site, we lit our tiki torch to announce our arrival. We hung out until 1A.M. and then crashed. Up at dawn, we broke camp, cooked breakfast, and prepared for a day of drinking and floating on the Saco River. The weather was nice and warm the whole weekend. We got back from this trip around 9 PM on Sunday evening. This brings us to the 3rd weekend in September.

I ended up driving back to Fredericton on that Friday afternoon. I had to stop at the Lubec branch to do some security updates for Microsoft. I ended up getting back to Freddy around 10 PM AST. I woke up early on Saturday morning and went to the bank and ran some other errands around town. On my way back to Bar Harbor, I had to stop and work at the Machias, Milbridge, and Winter Harbor Branches to do more security updates. On Sunday, Angela and I went to brunch at the Bar Harbor Inn to celebrate Jessica’s (one of Angela’s co-workers) Birthday. After that we walked around town for a bit and then headed over to Bob’s (one of my co-workers) house to watch some football and have a couple of drinks. We left there around 3PM because Angela had to get ready for work. Weekend number 4 was like this.

On Friday night, I had to work doing more security updates. On Saturday morning, I had to work. Saturday afternoon, I went to the Town Hill Garlic Festival at the Atlantic Brewing Company. It was a good afternoon. After that I went with Dave and George over to Dave’s house to fix the water pump line. Then we went to Jack Russell’s Pub for some beers. Angela met us there after work for some more drinks. We went to bed early on Saturday night. We woke up early on Sunday morning and left the house by 7:15 Am to head for the Common Ground Fair in Unity, ME. We hung out there for most of the day and got some good information on Solar setups for a new house. We left the fair around 3PM to get Angela home in time for work.

Well, that brings us pretty much up to date. Working a lot of hours and having a lot of fun. We met with the mortgage people at the bank to start some paperwork for a new construction loan for a house and land. What a pain in the butt… some much information needed to build a house. It was definitely not that bad in Canada. It looks like I am going to San Antonio, TX for some training towards the end of October and Lindon, UT in the beginning of November. It looks like a trip to PA will be in November now. Angela’s work schedule will slow down at the end of October. That is all for now.

Here's a quick update for all... I had the pin removed from my thumb on August 20th. The range of motion is slowly coming back now. I took my Windows 2000 Professional exam in Fredericton that day too and passed. Which means I will get a small raise. We have picked some land out that we like and have picked out a modular home that we like. Now it is time for us to talk to the mortgage people at the bank and see what they can do for us. I can get a great rate and not have to pay some fees because I am working here. Angela and I are planning on coming to PA sometime in mid-October I believe. It was supposed to be September but that is booked up between work and other weekend events.

Mike and I are leaving tonight to do a 4 day hike on the Appalachain Trail from Monson, ME - Gulf Hagas, ME (the Grand Canyon of Maine). It is around a 35 mile hike. The weekend after that is our 2nd annual Saco River Canoe Trip in Southern Maine. Work is the following weekend. The next weekend is the Common Ground Fair weekend. Things will finally start to slow down after Columbus Day weekend (Canadian Thanksgiving). I think we'll be in Fredericton that weekend to celebrate with Angela's Family.

Saturday, August 9... Have been quite busy with work since the last time I wrote. Updates of last week... I am working right now until 10:30 AM for the Bank. We each take a Saturday as on call. This is my first one. The job is going really well.

Angela had her physical for her Green Card application. All of the paperwork required is filled out. Just need to get Passport photos to send in with the application. Once that is done, it is just a matter of time.

Next weekend, I am heading back to Fredericton to DJ a wedding for some friends of ours. I also have got my thumb surgery rescheduled for the 20th of August. THE PIN IS FINALLY COMING OUT!

Have a great week.

Not much to write for the last week or so... pretty much has been work, work, and more work. Angela and I are both doing great!

Quick run down of highlights:

☻ Bam came in second place in 2 events at the Eastern Maine Agility Club's Fun Match last Sunday.
☻ I was home and did some yard work this past weekend.
☻ Angela and I went to look at some land.