Month: March 2006

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New Cousins

Well, newly met cousins. Lisman’s cousin Ruth (Lis’ father’s brother’s daughter) and her husband Keith have adopted 2 kids, Alex and Andrea. Now 9 and 6 1/2, they were just months old when adopted. We’d never met the kids, they live in Idaho. But they spent a few days with us this week during a 2 week East Coast vacation.

The kids hit it off famously. The first day here they all got to play, along with a bunch of neighborhood kids, in the backyard. I think that cemented the friendships. By the time I got home that night they were best buddies and definitely family. Hangin’ in PJs helps too, I guess.

Pretty cool. From the mouths of babes and all that, y’know? Quite heartening.

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Mr Cinderella

A friend of mine just made the Final Four. James Johnson was an assistant coach at Penn State for the last two years but took a job with George Mason this year. There were a bunch of people who questioned why he would leave a B10 school to go to the Colonial Athletic Conference but his decision is looking like a stroke of genius now (for more on his decision, read this story from the Harrisburg Patriot.

Here’s a shot of him leaving the court on Friday after their win over Wichita State that got them to the Elite Eight.

This afternoon they knocked off UConn in overtime to advance to the Final Four. In addition to the Wichita win, GM also knocked off traditional major conference power houses Michigan State, North Carolina, and UConn. What’s even more amazing is that George Mason was a controversial at large pick for the NCAA tournament to begin with. They lost in their conference tournament to Hofstra and thus didn’t earn an automatic bid. Several people felt that because Hofstra defeated George Mason twice in the last two weeks of the season, Hofstra deserved a bid instead. Now just two weeks after learning they were in the tournament, the Patriots will be headed to the Final Four.

Since everyone’s bracket is probable all messed up with the upsets, this will give you someone to root for when the Final Four starts next weekend.

BTW – As you might be able to tell from the photo, JJ dresses well. So well, in fact, that while he was at PSU, he was named as one of the NCAA best dressed assistant coaches.

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My Friday- 10 days ago




So we’re supposed to post random things on here, right? With that notion, I thought I’d share how I spent my Friday before last. My friend Dennis and I headed to the beach with our dogs; well, with his dog and my “adopted” dog Floyd. Dennis recently started his own company called Paw IMprints, where he takes pictures of people with their dogs in their natural routines and surroundings (no poses here). When I take care of Floyd, I often bring him to the beach, thus this is where we headed. Here are a few of my favorite shots. I have 33 really great ones to choose from (out of 6 rolls). It was a great New England kind of day (foggy, light drizzle) at the beach!

Oh, there is a great old graveyard (circa 1600) that is located on the way to the beach. It’s a huge piece of property set directly on Little Harbor. People bring their dogs there all of the time to run around and also to jump the head stones… it’s wierd, I know.

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Happy St Patricks Day

While I know that State College can’t hold a candle to either NY or Chicago when it comes to celebrating St Patricks Day, we do quite well on our own.

I took these photos tonight as I left the Phyrst, probably the most Irish bar we have in town. I apologize for the quality but they were taken by my phone on a semi-lit street. The first photo is tomorrow’s band line-up. The bar opens at 7AM and they have bands continuously until they close at 2AM.

While I do know Scott Mangene (8AM-9AM) and Tommy Wareham (10:30-noon), I am probably going to hold off on starting my St Patty’s Day celebration until JR and Natalie play from 3PM-4PM.

But I just might be in the minority. This is a photo taken at 2AM of the line that has already started forming to get into the Phyrst when they open at 6AM. You can’t tell too much from the camera photo but there were about 25-30 people already in line.

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Time to Brag about Shannon

I’ve posted a lot of exciting news about Brian & Andrea and Dawn and Chris lately, so it’s time to brag about Shannon. Shannon has accepted a new position as a publicist with a firm in Dover, New Hampshire. Bisson Barcelona is a national publicity firm that specializes in high visibility campaigns and integrated marketing strategies for Authors, Business Professionals and Companies. Even her boss at the Women’s Business Center told Shannon that this was a fabulous career move for her (of course she tried to counter-offer first).

We’re really proud of you, Shay!

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Me and the World Series Trophy

The White Sox World Series Trophy Tour was at work today. So I waited in line for about 10 – 15 minutes and they snapped a polaroid.

Here I am! Pretty cool except they move you out of there in about 5 seconds to get the next person in.