Merry Christmas

Santa visited Ellie and her cousins on Christmas Eve in NH.
Each of them took turns sitting on St, Nick's lap making sure he had their list of toys. And adding any last minutegifts. After that they all sat and listened as he read them "Twas the night before Christmas".

Before Santa left to begin his journey back to the North Pole he gave them each 2 gifts to open.
The kids loved seeing Santa. It was a special night for them and all the grown ups too!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

The Fighting 69th

I did a vanity google on myself this past snowy Sunday morning and came upon likely the most famous Michael Corcoran. I'm uncertain if their is any relation but I found it all pretty cool and thought I would share it. This was on Wikipedia.
Enjoy



Michael Corcoran Nickname: "Mick" (September 21, 1827 – December 22, 1863), was an Irish, American general in the Union Army during the American Civil War and a close confidant of President Abraham Lincoln [2] serving in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He led the 69th regiment into action at the First Battle of Bull Run. Corcoran also led the regiment to Washington, D.C. and served in the Washington defenses building Fort Corcoran. He was the only child of Thomas Corcoran, an officer in the British army, and Mary McDonagh. Through his mother, he claimed descent from Patrick Sarsfield of the Jacobite Wars.

Corcoran was largely idolized by his Irish-American troops. His name, and that of the New York 69th, figure prominently in many of the Irish Union ballads of the day.

The Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg unveiled Ireland's national monument to the Fighting 69th in Ballymote on August 22, 2006. The monument was sculpted by Philip Flanagan. The inscription around the top of the monument reads "Michael Corcoran 1827 - 1863" Around the base is inscribed "New York Ballymote Creeslough Bull Run. Underneath the monument is a piece of steel from the World Trade Center, donated by The family of Michael Lynch, who died in the tower on September 11, 2001. Mr Lynch's family are from County Sligo.

"America's Irish Brigade": 'When Jefferson Davis he sounded alarms, the sons of Columbia rushed into arms, and our noble militia to Washington sped, with the brave Michael Corcoran marching at head'

"Song of the Regiments": 'We have volunteers to fight who have pride and brave and darin, Thomas Francis Meagher and his gallant sons of Erin, the Massachusetts ninth, Michael Corcoran's Irish legion, and all the rank and file of every state and region'

"The Fighting 69th": "...They're a band of men brave stout and bold, from Ireland they came; and they had a leader to the full and Corcoran was his name."

This marching song has been covered by 2 bands. The Wolf Tones and the Dropkick Murphy's.

Patriot Party 2007

Hey ya'll

Friday was my company holiday party at Gillette Stadium. We were able to see the field and the interesting snow removal practices from our dining room. It was an incredible view!

We quickly got word that the Patriots would be practicing at 1:00. So we were able to watch them practice. Oh and see Tom Brady practice punting the ball from mid-field... future trick play????? He did pretty good too. All the players were there. It was crazy but not as crazy as when we ran in to ALL of them on our tour!

Yup, we weren't going to get onto the field due to them still practicing
so while we were in the tunnel sure enough they must have rapped up
practice and being the first person in our small and last tour group I
spotted Rodney Harrison, Ellis Hobbs and Randy Moss heading my way. I
should add Phil Simms (he'll be the commentator for Sunday's game on TV)
was present at practice and he walked by us a moment or two before the
team did.

Security tried to get us to turn around and they were yelling "Don't
talk to the players, Don't yell at the players, don't photograph the
players" Kinda crazy the tour guide was just as shocked and freaked as
we were. HAHAHA. I was less than 6 feet away from them. So I just got
out of the way and hung out. If I stuck out my hand I would have whacked
Wes Welker in the head... the dude in tiny. You name them I saw them..
and yup... Tom "the Golden Boy" Brady with Coach Belichick. Tom has a
lot of fun at practice. Kind of a goof ball when he's on the sideline.
And spends a decent amount of time with Randy Moss during practice.

It was a very, very cool experience. I was in the visitors locker room being
completely ridiculous. The visitors locker room has a hideous carpet. It's on purpose. It's designed to make you dizzy. Our tour guide pointed it out but asked that we don't stare too long. The visitor's locker room placement is specific to the field so that the visiting teams loses 4 minutes from their half-time break. It's the little things!

Til next time!

Ciesta with Cinco Ocho!

No Corona in First Class? C'mon!

Lobster boat update

I'm over due on an update for the painting I started. Here's where I'm at with it.

I haven't been able to touch it in a few weeks. My schedule has gotten much busier the last few weeks. I think I have a few more sessions left with this. I haven't added any black and you can still see the under painting.

I visited an art store in Avon. I needed to pick up some supplies for a top secret
product idea that I developed for work. It's gone over very, very well and hopefully I can tell more people about it. While I was there I snagged some stuff for myself.

We'll be getting our Christmas tree on Saturday.

Thanks for the turkey!

Thanks Pat!

Pat hosted Turkey Day for the Corcorans and Donahue's this year!
The turkey was great and Mom's famous mashed potato's were awesome!
They are becoming a favorite of Ellie's as well.

Auntie Elaine and Pat gave Elle some gifts from their trip to Las Vegas. She spent the afternoon playing with them. Thanks Guys! And Auntie Carolyn gave Elle a great gift. She read her a gigantic book of the 3 little pigs. Elle loves to "read" and she loves to be read too! And my Aunt's are the best story tellers ever. Year's of teaching will do that.

We love Pat's house but with the weather being so amazing we went in her yard for a bit of fun. Nana, Papa, J and Uncle Arthur showered Elle in a leaf storm. From there we took leaf covered family photos of everyone with Elle.

Take a look!
I hope you all had as much fun as we did on Thanksgiving!

Happy Birthay Dad!

Last weekend we headed up to Everett to celebrate my Dad's birthday.
We had a blast hanging out with my folks, my brother and my favorite niece! Anastacia and Elle ran around ragged. It's always tough for me to leave my folks house. I hate leaving. So after J and Elle headed up to NH I went back to hang out with them for a bit longer and snag left-overs.

Dad, I hope you had a great birthday! Your a great Papa and a role model for me to be Elle's Dad.
You've always been an amazing supporter of everything I've done from sports, art and work.
I can't thank you enough. Thanks Dad. Thanks!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Crash Test Pummy

OK. This one is late but worth sharing. We had a pumpkin carving contest at work back during Halloween (of course). And I somehow became the captain of our pumpkin project.

Our idea was based on the "Crash Test Dummy's". Basically you'd buy this pumpkin to practice how to be a parent of a newborn. Being the design dept. we designed a product and a package for it. Here are some pic's of our hard work. We tied for first and we won a free lunch!

Wine Making Continued

Sorry for the infrequency in my posts. October into November has been busy for us. A few weeks back I transitioned my grape juice into it's Carboy. It had been sitting in a sealed bucket for a few weeks while the yeast did it's magic.

So now it sits in my cellar in the "carboy". Which looks like Poland Spring Bottle but it's made of glass and has a water filled cap so that air can escape. If the air couldn't escape it would explode. Fun!

I'll need to check on this batch soon and see where the sugar levels are and maybe take a little taste.

October 17th

Today is my Birthday.
It's going to be a nice and quiet day. It's my night to get Ellie from school and J has a late class. It works out great since I'm not feeling 100%. I'm a little under the weather. It gives me an opportunity to have an extra day as my B-Day.

J's family celebrated mine and my Brother-in-laws Birthday last weekend. That's where I scored my gadget... The NEW ipod touch. It's so sweet! I'm loving it. I have tons of my music on it. Pix of Ellie and about a half a dozen feature films. It's my first ipod. I have stock in Apple and you'd think I'd have more product. Well, this was a great investment for all of us!

I also picked up the new Transformers Movie on DVD. I can't wait to sit down and enjoy that.

The Sox are down 3 games to 1. If they don't win tomorrow night I just earned a few more movies nights.

Caricature

I got a great surprise this morning!
Dean Macadam is someone I got to really know when I was working at Gamewright. I think I've worked with him more than anyone... Poor bastard. We really got to know each other very well and have a lot in common.

I had been so busy that I wasn't able to reply back to an e-mail from him until this morning. Just as I sent it I received one from him. In it was a caricature he had done of me. He really captured my pig nose. Thanks Bro!

I love it and I have it in my cube here and people are loving it. It's like having a hideous mirror in my cube.

His work is great. Not only is his style fun but he has a great sense of color and palette. I want to load his palette into my head.

Thanks Dino!

Grape Harvesting

J, Elle and I returned from a nice long weekend spent with my folks in Mashpee, MA (Cape Cod). We had excellent weather and really enjoyed spending their wedding anniversary with them.

We found ourselves at the annual Harvest Festival in Falmouth on Sunday. They had lots of entertainment, games, food and craft vendors. Elle wasn't feeling 100% so she was kind of clingy and grumpy. She would occasionally get into different things. The Toe Jam Puppet Band was her favorite! She went into the kids tent and danced and played while the band also played.
We've always wanted to see this band play so we were psyched.

Later that day Dad & I stayed up watching the Green Bay game and the Yankee's pull out a win. I enjoy relaxing and watching a game with him. Saturday night we watched the Bruins win. We used to watch hockey all the time together it brought back some great memories as a kid.

We got home around noon today. The rain had stopped and the sun tempted us with sunshine. I planned to harvest the grapes today. I DID! Took most of the day to do it all. Picking the fruit is easy. I filled a large wooden bucket and a cardboard box (case of wine) up with bunches of grapes. That took about an hour and a half.

From there I have to separate the grapes.... BY HAND!
I remove them from the stem (crush at the same time). Throw away the moldy, green, rotted and dead grapes from the bunch. I wore latex gloves this year. In past years this process has made my hands itch. I think it's from the grapes skins. I didn't weigh the grapes this year but there was a lot. I'm going to guess around 20 lbs.

I'm tossing the good grapes skins and all into a bucket that I've lined with a nylon bag. I don't want any thing in the bucket... everything goes in the bag. All this sorting is taking a long time. I had a few good speeds but then I'll come across a decent size spider that emerges from a bunch of grapes and I get all skived out and slow down. Spiders seem to like fruit for some reason. I like fruit not spiders.

I've completed filled the bucket up with grapes. Now I have to continue crushing and making the juice. To that I tie a knot in the bag to close it off so that none of the content falls out into the bucket. I want all my "pulp' to stay in the bag and the juice pure juice in my bucket. To crush I grab handfuls of grapes and squeeze and squeeze and squeeze.... you get the picture.

FYI. I DIDN'T NOT USE MY FEET. To that point I used latex gloves all day. If Elle was feeling better we would have let her stomp but she's still a little fussy.

To further make juice I squeeze and twist the bag of pulp. Ideally I'm trying to get about 8-10 gallons of juice. I'd be happy with that. This process takes awhile since I'm always finding uncrushed grapes as I squeeze. As I squeeze I can see that the neighborhood folk walking by the house are searching for grapes on the vine to pick and eat... BUZZ OFF! I've been tempted in past weeks to make a sign that they should be careful when eating the grapes not to eat any spiders. I doubt that would scare them off.

The juice is so red that the bag of pulp looks like it's soaked with blood and I've just lopped some one's head off and put it in the bucket. HA! Better of Red.

Now that I think I've finished squeezing I leave the bag of pulp in the bucket and seal the bucket with it's lid. I'll leave the bag in there for a few days and each night ring it out to try and squeeze more juice. The color is rich and red.

Before I seal it up I scoop out some juice for us to drink. It's amazing. Nothing has been added to it and it's the sweetest juice. It needs preservatives but a few sips won't hurt.

This is just the beginning of the process. I have preservatives to add to it and of course when it gets into it's secondary container I'll add the yeast! And that's where Mr. Wizard gets all worked up!

I'll be updating with more pictures and possible wine making labels. J created some artwork with Elle while I was harvesting that might be the wine label.

Night.

Shoe Gazing

I guess I'm a shoe gazer. I don't have a foot fetish or a shoe fetish but I dig cool shoes. I think it started back in college when Dr. Martens got big. It seemed like I was in college so I should wear shoes instead of sneakers. Since then I've had plenty of "Doc's" and felt like I had decent taste in footwear.

Shoe gazing isn't about how many shoes you own or wear it's something I define differently. It's not envy but I can appreciate cool shoes. The thing about shoes are... anybody can wear them. We don't all have the same bodies or faces but we all pretty much can handle a shoe. All you need is feet and you have 2 just in case you loose one.

I might see a jacket or a shirt or jeans and think those look cool but I couldn't pull it off. But a shoe.... I can handle that!

Maybe that's why women tend to have so many shoes. They feel they can get the essence of an outfit, look or style with the right shoe and maybe not the right body... I dunno. I ain't into ladies footwear.


I wore a pair of black & White Dr. Martens with my black suit to my Ceaco interview. I got the job and my friend Charlie (VP of Sales at the time) later told me he told the art department "Some guy with shoes is here for the job." They dug them and maybe they helped edge me the gig. I dunno. But Charlie noticed... maybe Charlie is a shoe gazer too.

The Eve of Elle

There aren't many times that I can recall what I was doing in past years on a particular day. But... tomorrow is Ellorie's third birthday and three years ago I was by J's side trying to help her get through a long and difficult labor. Doesn't seem that long ago. It's also an anniversary for J as a mother. Happy Mother's Day JJ!

To celebrate we had Ellie's party this past Sunday at the Roger Williams Carousel. J planned a great party. We invited lots of kids from the neighborhood and Elle's school.... 14 kidlets in total. They got to ride the carousel as many times as they wanted and eat pizza. Oh yea! and Nana's famous sugar cookies! The carousel was a lot of fun and a great venue. It was moving fast!

After pizza, cake, cookies and the carousel J had a surprise for all of them. Ellie loves Cinderella and it's October. Well, J had a wonderful idea to ask all the kids to help Cinderella's Fairy Godmother to find pumpkin's in the park so she can make a magical carriage. While the kids were eating cake, George, Brian and Steve hide small gourds in the park across the street. We had them line up and Johanna told them the story. At the count of three they bolted! Hunter our neighbor tried to get an early start... hehehe The kids shot off and searched to collected as many pumpkins as they could. There were 3 special white gourds hidden as well. If you were lucky enough to find such a pumpkin you got a special prize!

From there we headed back to the house for more sweets and some close friend/family time without the 14 kidlets. Our family's gave Ellie presents to open on the deck. She was so good about thanking everyone. It made J and I very proud! She got so many awesome presents J had to stay home the next day to help her sort them!!!

We're very lucky to have a great kid and for her to be surrounded by a wonderful family and great friends! Thanks for making Elle's third celebration a great one!

Bee Yourself

Even'in

J had some friends over on Sunday and they joined forces and had a 3 person yard sale.
We had stuff, and they each had stuff. We sold the stuff.

It was a beautiful day and a lot of fun. We had almost as many people as we did laughs.

Towards the end of the day one of J's friend's 1 year old daughter came bye and she and Elle got into costume. Someone had Halloween costumes they were selling so we put the kids in them. Elle loved buzzing around like a bee.... but asking her to stand still for a picture wasn't what bugs like to do. Look closely on the profile shot and you'll see her little stinger on her BUTT! And yes she was trying to sting the neighbors kids with her butt.

Ultimately we have less stuff in the house than we had this morning. We put most of it together last minute since we have been crazy busy at work and when we get home.

4 more days until we move at work. My commute will be 20-30 minutes quicker! Luckily I didn't settle into my cube since I knew we were moving but I still have files to co-ordinate.

On a side note: Who brings a $50 bill to a yard sale? We're selling stuff for 50 cents and a few bucks.... this guys hands J a $50 bill. Thanks Buddy! Luckily J was able to make change.

2 minutes before kick-off and the Sox and Yankees.

See ya in the morning!

Grape Ape

Well, despite a whopping 4 votes on my wine naming poll
I decided to post a new picture of my grapes this morning.

The other night I scared some kids away as they were picking them as if it trellis was Stop & Shop. I politely said "excuse me" and they bolted... next time it will be a drill sergeant "HEY!" Happens every year.

Well, here's one of many bunches hanging off our new fence... Man if we could have gotten an 8' fence we would have... keep those pesky kids outta my vineyard! Think a scarecrow would work?

Oh and the aroma in our yard is so sweet and fresh. The yard smells like Welch's grape juice.

Make way for Ballet

This morning is Ellie's 1st day of ballet.
She's very excited but not as excited as J. Johanna grew up dancing and it remains a passion. This is a day that J has looked forward too for a long time. To expose her passion of dance to her daughter.

Here are a few pictures of Ellie after she put on her ballet school uniform. She will be doing ballet for the first half and tap for the second half of each class. Here's our little bun head.

September 6th, 2003

Happy Anniversary to me.
Today marks our 4rth Wedding Anniversary. The best party we have ever thrown!
These past four years have gone in a blink. I wouldn't change a thing.

Happy Anniversary to me.
J has made my life wonderful and I can't imagine this adventure with out her.

Happy Anniversary to us.
I love you J.

You snooze you loose. I've Snost and Lost

As I work diligently here I have my iTunes on shuffle and I'm listening to all my favorite artists.
Singer's, composer's, lyricists Yes. But I see them as poets. The "lyrics" work so well in music or in a poem.

Usually Scott who sits next to me is the DJ for the 2 of us. A. He and I have the exact taste in music. B. he's got way more music than I do and C. He's got kick ass speakers he's snaked into my area.

Here are the 4 people I'm listening religiously to at the moment.
Ben Harper, Rob Dickinson, Damien Rice and Mike Doughty.
Despite the awful album cover for Rob Dickinson the album is excellent. I recommend all 4!

A Group Effortless

We recently took an impromptu group photo in our dept as we get ready to move. Oddly we were all present. You can see our moving crates in the background.
These are the people I see and work with everyday. It's a fun group and we all get along great. I have a fun boss and she really gets how to organize our team.

Later.

Spontanious Combustion

Elle & I are so lucky to have J.

Sunday was a beautiful day. I got a lot done outside (I've been sore all weekend) and the yard looks pretty great. After dinner the weather was still so nice out J said it's too early not to enjoy this weather let's go to the beach! Awesome idea!!!

It was late so we were going to miss the sunset but we were OK with that. We decided to go to East Beach about 45 mins away. A decent ride but very doable! It feels like we live close to the Cape. We were all stoked!

When we got to the beach it was dark and we ran into some local folks heading back to their cars from some night fishing. The minute we decided to wear to put the blankets we say fireworks in the distance! It was as if they waited for us to sit. It was so cool! We were the only one's on the beach. We determined the fireworks were from the Rhythm & Blues festival a few towns away.

After they ended the 3 of us laid down and stared at the stars. It was a really nice way to relax and spend an evening. We headed down to the water to get our feet wet. Surprisingly the water seemed warm. Warmer than usual.

When we decided to head back Elle was pretty wiped out. Playing all day, ocean air, fireworks... she fell asleep in the car. I think we all could have.

Thanks for a great idea JJ!

Here's a clip of Elle singing Twinkle Twinkle.

Newest Member of the family!

Welcome Cinderella.
Not only did Elle do very well with her transition to her new school but she is also potty trained!
J worked with Elle for 4 straight days and it seemed to take. She went to her new school on Wednesday in a diaper. When J picked her up they said don't bother with diaper's for her she did great going potty.

We promised Elle that when she wore "big girl underwear" we'd buy her a fish! Well, we took her down the street to the pet store and she picked one out! She also picked out the purple rocks and a little castle for Princess Cinderella!

She's in Elle's room keeping her company when she's sleeping. Here's a pick of the new duo!

Happy Labor Day!

More yard work and cleaning the house

VOTE

I'm reaching out to the masses and hoping to get feedback on what I should call my wine come October.

The poll will end in a few weeks and depending on the results I'll start the wine label design process. And maybe even post the designs and see which one you chose.

I may go outside the vector art world and use some photography in my design. My photography has been getting some good reviews. In fact. The office here needed a shot of a kid for a trade show poster. Sure enough my boss brought the PR team and the Head of marketing over to my office to go through some of the shots I took of Elle on vacation. Sure enough they picked one. The poster is all Elle! Her second thing she's done for Safety 1st. And I may bring her in to do a potty shot. Which will likely confuse her since she's moments away from being potty trained.

Hope to see some more votes on the Poll! Please feel free to submit write In's as well!

Have a good LONG WEEKEND! Woo-Hoo!

Corx

Afternoon,

I picked up this very cool and simple game called Corx.
It's very similar to "Pass the Pigs" but with specially designed cork's.
You bounce the game pieces on the table and depending on which side they land is how you score. It's very addictive.

J and I are planning on having a grape harvesting party at the house and I thought this would be a great game to have on hand as people help pick, press and crush!

Check it out. This tutorial makes it look easy... It ain't!



Enjoy!

P.S.

Just got an update from J and Elle did great this morning with her 1st day at her new school. Hopefully she's napping at the moment... We'll get the low down from Elle tonight. She could be a spy. She is well spoken and very observant! She'll rat you out.

Design is on the Move!

Kjeld forwarded me this shot. It's a follow- up to an earlier post for the Logo I designed.
The Electrician put the logo on his work truck and I think it looks pretty sweet! And kinda cool to think I may see it on the highway.
I'm such a designer. I wish the truck was black and the ladder on top was yellow...

The actual layout of the artwork on the truck was done by someone else.

Sorry for the infrequent posts lately. We've been busy at work and home.

Elle is starting a new school today and we're hoping for the best on her transition. And J is gearing up for the return of the Brown students for this year. And when they are there she's straight out.

And the grapes have started to turn purple! Elle tried one and said it was good but I think they'll be much sweeter come Sept. – October.


Mike

My new Favorite website

I've been busy sending co-worker's and friends some wonderful ecards!

www.someecards.com

Enjoy pissing yourselves!

Painting

Good Evening,

I made a promise to myself while I was up in Maine on vacation that this amazing inspiration would not go to waste. And tonight I started to make good on that promise. Thanks to J for cleaning our studio/office I was able to feel comfortable to get something started.

This is the under painting of a shot I had taken while coming back from Isleford. It's a typical 2 man lobster boat heading towards Little Cranberry Island as the sun hides behind the mountains. This won't be a sepia piece. It's just the tonal under painting that I will begin to layer and glaze over to build up color when it's dry (oil might take a few days since my liquin bottle from college wouldn't open). It's on a gallery style canvas.

The shot is pretty rough since I'm getting used to the lighting in my studio for painting. I'll likely have to make some changes to the bulbs or the source. An occasional glare was annoying but I look forward to working out the kinks as I get back to painting and hopefully filling the house up with work.

I already have 2-3 more painting lined up after this (in my head)... One at a time though. One image on my friend George's website I though might be a fun piece to paint.

I will admit. It's hard to shut off the Art Director mind that I've had for 8+ years. I need to relax and not look ahead but just enjoy the piece and explore where it might go and take me.

Until the next post!

Grapes

We're in the final stretch. 3 solid months left until we can harvest these babies!
I'm shooting for the end of Sept. Early Oct. to pick them and crush them.
I have all my supplies ready and special Merlot yeast this time around.

Here's a close up and here's shot of the grapes on our new fence and yes those are grapes covering the fence to the left.

Transforming Roster

FOXBORO (Reuters) - The New England Patriots announced Tuesday they have signed free agent Optimus Prime.

Prime, the one and half story tall Robot, has never played American Football but seems to be a perfect fit for the New England franchise. Other than his obvious color scheme he is a true Patriot. Fighting for freedom in an inter-galactic battle against the Decepticons.

It was announced today at a brief press conference in Foxboro today. The Kraft family, Coach Bill Belichick and Optimus Prime fielded questions about the robots new role on the team. The always elusive Belichick added "We're uncertain at this time what role Prime will play on the team. Though we are certain he'll be either a truck or a robot". When asked how this maneuver came about Patriot owner Robert Kraft answered "We saw a lot of film on Prime with both his cartoon and movie films and knew if there was a possibility to have him in our organization we'd make a spot for him."

The details surrounding his contract have not been made public but it is rumored to be a 100,000 mile or 4 year guarantee. With the current price of gasoline we can speculate on a multi-million dollar deal for the transforming robot. This unprecedented signing brought many media outlets in which Prime added just a few comments to the media frenzy. When asked about his role as a potential leader he replied "I am used to a leadership role as the leader of the Autobots but I don't expect to carry the team except to drive them to practice. I look forward to the challenge."

Shortly after the press conference the media spilled onto the training camp facilities to get player reactions. When questioned Tom Brady with a excited smile responded "It's really exciting to play with a guy like this. I played with him when I was a kid... Not football but with his action figure. We're excited to have him. This is so cool!"

We can expect to see Prime working out in camp later this week pending his Massachusetts State car inspection and emissions test.

The New England Franchise had a busy off season signing Randy Moss, Adalius Thomas and now Optimus Prime. Mirroring them are the Celtics and Red Sox with roster moves of their own. The Celtics signing Ray Allen & recently Kevin Garnett and the Red Sox trading for Eric Gagne.

Paper Beats Rock Everytime!

Check out the very cool site. I used to do this kind of stuff as a kid all the time. Drawing caricatures of sports figures and then making them into paper figures.

http://www.paperrobots1999.com/model04.html

Enjoy!

I'm seeing spots!

Saturday morning we headed to the Stone zoo in Stoneham. It's not a zoo of stone rocks.

I haven't been to that zoo in eon's.
It's a really nice zoo. I like how they fused the exhibits in with the walking paths.

We walked around and saw everything. They have a great collection of animals. Ellie loves the zoo and you can never go wrong with a toddler and dangerous animals... I think the animals would agree.

Harry Potter!

Friday Night we had planned to go see a movie since we were spending
the night at my parents. J got Ellie done and we headed out for a 9:00 show. Thanks again Mom letting us go.

Going to the movies always seems like a new experience. We seem to go maybe 3 times a year... without Ellie. Before Elle we used to go all the time. Things change. Well, Potter was a lot of fun.
Darker and emotional. It's kinda weird to see that kid grow up on screen but it's incredible.

I liked the last movie a lot more if might be my favorite but this one is right up there. We're already plotting to get Ellie hooked on the series when she's old enough to start reading them. We'll be getting them all on DVD.

Yesterday J bought the latest and last book in the series. I read the last page.

Hopefully we'll see Transformer's next time!