Well another weekend here and another weekend gone! Friday night was another evening sail. We had Mike and Lynne, Monica, and 2 COA people on board. We sailed around the bay for a bit and then met up with Dave and Allison. We rafted up with them and John Sweet. We floated around for an hour or so and watched the moon rise. When we got back to the COA pier, we ended up having a cookout right there. I left there around 9 PM and headed out to pick up Kaya on the way home. I dog sat Kaya for Keith and Kelly on Friday night into Saturday afternoon.

I dropped Kaya off on the way to my DJ job. It was an excellent party with tons of people who like to dance. I played music from 4:30PM to 2:15 AM. I got home around 3 AM. Sleep was good but not plentiful.

Sunday found me up around 10AM. I got ready to come in to work for a while. I did my work thing and then called Mike to see if he was going out to the boat. He was! We met there around 1:30PM and just did work on the boat in the rain. I got home around 6PM and it was nice. That was the first evening I have been there in a long time.

Oh well... Back to work. More will follow soon.

Joe

What an incredible sunset last night. This was out sailing on Frenchman's Bay!

Another Friday is here. I hope you all have a good weekend. Tomorrow finds me DJ'ing a party and Sunday I will be sailing more.

So how was your weekend?

Mine, busy. Friday night after work, I met Mike at the boat and we went sailing on the bay. Our guests were two girls who are working in town for the summer. It was a relaxing sail with overcast skies. After we got back to the dock and got the boat put away on the mooring, I was asked to go out to the Lompoc with Andrew and crew. So were at the Lompoc and everybody starts showing up. George and Kelly, Julie, Mike Gillis, and the crew I was with. I stayed there for 2 hours and headed home when it started to rain. It was a long (50 minute) motorcycle ride home since it was raining. I did it as fast and as safely as the roads would allow.

Saturday found me up at 8 AM and out the door by 9 AM. I was down in Bar Harbor for the day helping out with the Friends of Acadia Benefit Gala and Auction. This is a huge auction and dinner fund raiser that FOA puts on each year. I think the total raised for this year will be more than last years $400,000 raised. You get to see the richest of the rich at this party. Martha Stewart didn't make it this year due to her extra 3 weeks of house arrest. I ended up getting home around 12:30AM that evening.

Sunday... the day of rest, NOT! I ended up coming into work for close to 6 hours to rebuild 3 PC's that were affected by a storm last week. It was not fun. After I left work, I went down to an ex-coworker's house for dinner. Another excellent meal!

Other than that... work is crazy for a Monday. I am meeting clients tonight for an upcoming DJ job on Aug. 20. Hopefully we'll get to go sailing tomorrow and Thursday nights. Wednesday night is Poker.

I'll be back.
J

Another week is gone. I have been working alot of hours over the last couple of weeks, trying to get our network setup correctly. It is almost done and then back to a normal schedule. Tuesday evening involved another sunset sail. Wednesday night was poker night were I ended up being the big winner with $21.00, Thursday night - work, and tonight... another sunset sail after riding the motorcycle to town.

Have a great weekend!

This is how I've been spending my summer. Sailing as much as possible. This is looking towards the Precipe in Acadia National Park.

Life and work have both been busy... Hopefully, I'll be able to update this thing more.

Joe

I don't even know where to begin...

As of January 28th I have started a new job with USA Computer Systems. I am the Network Administrator for this up and coming software company. This job has taught me many new and interesting things.

February 8th - 15th, I was on vacation in Florida with Jenn. We travelled from Ft. Lauderdale to Cumberland Island National Seashore in Georgia and back. We stopped at many cool National Wildlife Refuges and checked many cool little towns.

As of March 3rd, 2005 I am officially divorced.

May came and went. The wettest in history for Maine.

It is now June and the Park is open, the bugs are out, and the tourist are coming back.

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.