Here are a few pictures of our week in Orlando. Weather was hot but beautiful! The kids had a blast…Blake said his favorite part was his nightly trip to the ice cream shop at the resort with MarMar!
Orlando Vacation
Beer Drinking Pigs of St. Croix
Not us, we’re drinking rum. No, at the Dominiom Club in St. Croix’s rainforest, today we had the highlight of our trip so far. We bought a couple beers for a couple big pigs.
Merry Christmas To All…..
and to all a digital version of our Xmas card. You’ll be getting a hard copy someday, but don’t hold your breath, it won’t be real soon.
The kids made the gingerbread houses.
State College Santa Crawl
Tonight marks our sixth annual State College Santa Crawl.
Our annual romp in Santa costumes started out as a little thing that I created (with encouragement from my buddy Brian Allen) back in 2004. Our original group consisted of five of us.
This year we could have upwards of 75-100 people.
I’m also trying to ratchet up my coverage of the event by experimenting with live coverage of the goings on with my iPhone (I already know that lighting conditions are going to make it a challenge but I’m going to do the best that I can).
If things work out as I hope, the window just below will have a live feed of our activities (as much as I can without killing the battery in my phone) while the second window below will have a collection of the videos that I’ve made throughout the evening.
First – the live feed:
Live Video streaming by Ustream
There’s nothing there at the moment but the festivities will begin somewhere around 8-9 EST (I might put up one or two test videos earlier).
Come join us vicariously.
Blake’s 3rd Birthday
Blake’s birthday party was last Sunday. He had 12 friends, you’ll like this Larry…all girls! Of course Reid and Ethan were there, but they were no competition for the birthday boy!
Oh! There was a face painter, so it might be hard to recognize Blake. He was a blue lion!
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Labor Day Weekend…a Labor of Love!
At 8:03 AM Saturday morning, Sept 5th, our third grandson, Ethan Thaddeus arrived! Arriving two weeks early he still weighed 7lb. 5 oz. and measured 19 1/2 in. long.  Andrea went completely natural, enduring a painful “corkscrew” delivery (his shoulder was stuck). He is adorable…Brian particularly loves Ethan’s sideburns that match his.Â
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It’s Getting Close…
Andrea’s due date is a little more than 3 weeks away. Here are a few pictures from their home and her shower held last week (that’s Rook, Shannon’s fiance carrying out some of the gifts). And of course, Blake & Reid.
Cameras are everywhere these days
Seems you can’t go anywhere without getting your picture taken these days. This just showed up on Facebook last night.
Over the fourth, I ran into Gary and Katie Gray downtown with a bunch of their family and friends celebrating the 21st birthday of one of their sons. I had just come from a Fourth of July party which had a hat theme (and yes I did win the prize for best hat).
Coaches vs Cancer
This past weekend was the annual Penn State Coaches vs Cancer golf tournament run by the Nittany Lion basketball team. I used to play in it but the cost has gotten a little prohibitive (I was ok at $250, still played when they went to $325, but when it jumped to $500 three years ago, I elected to retire from competition). My contribution is now limited to volunteering to help out on the course.
You can catch me making a background appearance at the 6:30 mark in this video (I’m the guy in the bright red volunteer shirt – wearing three layers I might add so despite my earlier post about putting weight back on I’m not quite as big as the video would suggest).
The guy who shot the video also took this photo which he just sent to me (I’ve got FOUR layers on here – the weather wasn’t cooperating much). The girl in the photo was my partner on the hole that we worked for the tournament. She is the daughter of a girl that I used to live with (platonically) in Pittsburgh in the late 70s.
Good News – Bad News
First the good news. Last night Lex & I finished building his 1st skateboard. We actually laminated 7 layers of wood, sanded, painted 2 colors, cut out a graphic for the grip surface, attached trucks, bearings and wheels.
The maiden voyage came at about 8pm last night and I don’t think the board has left his side since.
The bad news: I’m having surgery to repair a classic groin hernia tomorrow.