Tis the Season - Fa La La La La La La La La

So, after reading my fellow blogger's thoughts and opinions, I felt compelled to share my thoughts and feelings around this magical season. I love being able to know that we celebrate this holiday for one single reason - the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, generally, I don't get spiritual, so I won't but I just want all to know that I am so grateful for the blessings in my life and the opportunities His life and death afford me.

Now that I've gotten the deep, heavy stuff out of the way, let's talk about the other things that really get me excited (more so than the Magic Bullet even). I love: the smell of pine, sugar cookies, krumkakes, having an excuse to wear pajamas into the afternoon, reading Christmas books to my children (especially the ones I was read as a child), knowing that I have time off of work, seeing the look on people's faces as they open presents, seeing the look on grandma Nome's face when a picture is taken, playing with the kids and all their new toys (and my toys too), having Christmas Eve dinner at the McIllece's, Christmas music, Christmas movies, and a plethora of other things that have anything to do with St. Nick, elves, Rudolph, Yukon Cornelius, tasty treats, and bright lights.

Mostly, I'm glad that I get to spend time with my loved ones.

"Fragile... must be Italian."

Gobble Gobble Mutha Trucka

Hello all - I have to say that this last week was a great time and that this time of year really does make you reflect on how good life is. I am SO thankful for my wife and kids, they bring such joy to my life. I'm thankful for the blessings the Lord has placed in my life.

I'm also thankful for things like good friends, and good times... cannoles, video games, the internet, bleach, hardware stores, dry humor, the magic bullet, salad spinners, saran wrap, heaters, hot showers, and countless other things that would continue to make this list longer than it needs to be.

Lastly, I am thankful that I got four days off work and didn't get a single work related phone call the entire time. Now I just need to take about a week and a half off for Christmas and life will be golden for 2007.

...young little whipper snappers able to run up and down hills. In my day, we didn't get to wear red because people thought you were a communist and from the Soviet Union...

Tagged by Emily

Here are the rules:#1. Rules of the game must be posted at the beginning.#2. Each player lists 6 facts/habits about themselves.#3. At the end of the post, the player then tags other people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

"Wrote a song about it, like to hear it, here it goes..."
1 - When I was in middle school I won the geography bee - booyah!
2 - I still have one baby tooth that does not want to let go.
3 - I like chick-flicks, it's true... I think it's the happy endings. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy bloodshed though.
4 - I start listening to Christmas music as soon as the radio begins playing it (I share this with Donny I just found out - rock on brutha!)
5 - I have 7 siblings, 3 brothers and 4 sisters.
6 - I have an addictive personality - things I am trying to satiate it with right now: fitness, eating healthier, energy sodas (kind of contradicts the one right before it, I know), game nights, and sex (just can't seem to get enough, or maybe just don't get it often enough to know if it's sated).

Well, there you go. I choose to tag Russ (Emily, please inform him that he needs to write some interesting things) and my brother-in-law Rick (give us real facts, not things like your adopted Turkish son).

Peace out!

FOUL!

So, this past weekend I celebrated 29 wonderful years on this planet. In those years I've been through quite a few things and consider myself fairly accomplished for my age. However, after meeting with the high councilman tonight, I now know that I am about to embark on a new journey wrought with intrigue, mystery, and sweaty people. Yes, it's true, I am now a stake referee for all men's, women's, and young adult's sport activities. I know, I know... how can someone who cusses in sports be called to this position? Well, my guess is humility and patience. Humility for controlling my language when people dare question my calls and patience for young people questioning my calls.

Well, not much else happening in life. Em - I still owe you 6 things for being "tagged". Look for them shortly...

Halloween & Beantown

Here's a quick update on the last couple of days from us. We had a good Halloween with the kids. Both Conner and Easton got to dress up in their costumes for school and they loved it. We carved pumpkins the night before with my sister Emily and her husband Eric. It's always fun to get together with them. I'd also have to say that we all did a pretty good job on our pumpkins (bet you can't guess which one I did).


As for "Bahstun", good ol' Beantown, it was a blast. If you've never been I highly recommend it, even if you're not a Patriots or Red Sox fan (which was also a great time of year to be there... Go Sox!). We stayed on the harbor and were able to walk everywhere, which took away some of the guilt of having so many cannolis from the world's best pastry shop. We did the Freedom Trail, saw the Patriots game, and basically did some serious relaxing. It was good to get away, but good to be back too. Here's a couple of pics... first one is at Paul Revere's house, the next is the view from our hotel.

What's your Pirate Name?

My pirate name is:

Iron Tom Bonney

A pirate's life isn't easy; it takes a tough person. That's okay with you, though, since you a tough person. You can be a little bit unpredictable, but a pirate's life is far from full of certainties, so that fits in pretty well. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
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Just Something to Think About

It's Friday, it's been a long week, and I have hit a wall as far as trying to get motivated at work and kick some serious butt. So, what do I do to try and get over these humps? (Besides thinking about not doing them and what the consequences would be.) I walk away from my desk for a little bit, chit chat with some people, come back to my desk, sit down and.... watch TV shows online. What?!?! Were you expecting something more motivational?

Well, let me explain. By washing my brain completely of everything I was thinking of before, this allows me to "veg". Once I've had a good "vegging", I strap on my headphones, crank up some Jimi Hendrix, and pound out a good 30-45 minutes of work. Then the cycle repeats. WARNING - don't try this if you have specific goals to meet by the hour, or day. I can get away with this for two reasons: I'm much smarter than anyone else in my group and therefore good at what I do, and I can type and think really fast, so that 30-45 minutes of work actually equates to about 4 hours of someone else.

What's the point in this blog. Nothing... except maybe it gave you enough time to start clearing your head. Now, go here and finish the job, and then get back to work.