Picture says it all.....

After an up and down year, I can't say I am upset to see '08 go due to some family health issues, rain pretty much every time we tried to golf, a screwed up year in the financial markets affecting many people I know.  There are many positives tho, for which I am thankful.

Goodbye '08 and hello '09....

Talk sbout rapid progress - by the time we came home from vaca, the old room and concrete were gone and the foundation and footers were poured.  Now we are completely frames, sided and roofed.  Just waiting for the 12' sliders.  Sweet!

 Whatta week in sports.  September 21 and the Phils are in first place, the Eagles look great.  I am prolly the kiss of death tho...

Eagles v Stillers today, should be a good one!

PEACE!

and soon there will be a fourth bedroom and a deck.  Started to take care of some of the pre-demo yesterday and cut my finger while cutting the fence down.  This cut went right to the bone.  Man it hurts...  I know - I am a big P-word.

Gonna start taking some pics tonight.  I am anticipating rapid progress.

Today I woke up to an email informing me that I have been selected for induction into the Wiffleball Hall of Fame - Class of 2008. 

As a member of the 2007 Champion Team England assisting teammates John Goldstein, Andy Freimuth and Marie Heiler to championship victory contributing an 11 for 13 performance - along with this induction, I can now consider my wiffleball career complete.

I would like to thank everyone who voted for me, as well as my friends and wiffleball colleagues past and present.  A special thank you to the Carney's for putting this summer classic event together and dealing with Mr. Rogers, Danny's naked ass, Matt's leotards, random peeing in the yard, and Pie's flatulence (or we can blame MaryBeth).  

With this, I will be heading up the Vinnie Marasco campaign for 2009 as he deserves this honor much more than I.

Thank you to all again, and I am looking for another run at the keg for 2008.

--FB

***VOTE for VM***

Heading to the Phillies game today - they are currently still in first place by a game after a four game slide.  Hopefully Hamels can stop the bleeding today.

Site is back up after a power outage - I was too lazy to hit the power button on my linux box.  Chris Putro was nice enough to remind me from across the country.

As for Wiffleball XI, I will beginning my campaign for the hall of fame shortly.

VOTE for FB! 

PUI!  Happy Birthday Dip!  Nice to see Mom, Dad, Aunt Deb, Uncle Joe and grandpop.  Won USD1 from Op - Old Speckled Hen is what he was looking for.  PUI.

Going golfing with the SIG boys tomorrow.  Car loaded with beer, scotch and cigars.  Then hooking up with baby-mama for an after party.

Wahoo!!  

Peace yawl!

--FB 

Damn you mysql.  Damn you for being free and your cryptic errors.  Ah, it's prolly just me.  I will blame my 5 month hiatus on YOU.  B@stard.

Lots going on, just got back from NYC for a week after a weekend with the fam in Rehoboth.    The stay in NYC (Midtown) was nice for a change, and  for technical training too (no, really - not sure if my old place knows what that is).  Was supposed to go to Ireland next week, but it's been postponed for a bit.

I have like a million pics to post, but this blog is still a bit screwed up due to a missing PHP component (I think I posted about it earlier).

Quick one here now that I fixed the damn Mysql error.  F*cker.

--FB

really means F*ck Al Qaeda.  Being at the foot of the site of the attacks over 6 years ago.....

That 'hole' with all of the construction activity is where our World Trade Center stood, and is now the graveyard and memorial for our fellow American Heroes. 

It's easy to recognize everyones speechlessness as they pass by and look with their head down.  It's then that you realize how lucky you are to be here. 

Never forget.

So for the new gig which is heavily dependent on the world's stock exchanges, I had to break north to NYC.  Visits included our office on Wall St.  (ironically 1 block from Big Red's (or now Green) office.  A blustery day on the east coast found us freezing our a$$ off while romping around NYC.

Part I - Our trek to our office at 40 Wall Street (The Trump Building).  OK, so I played tourist.  On the way I passed Wall and Federal Streets where George Washington took the first Presidential Oath of Office.  Pretty F*cking cool if you ask me....

From there we passed the NYSE, the highest regarded market in the World....

...and finally to 40 Wall...........

 All in all - I acted like a bit of a tourist, but I never really had time to soak in the attractions before.  It was always 100% work and no pleasure.  I even got to see the action on the NYMEX and the NYBOT trading floor - it was alot crazier than this picture shows, it's where the final scene of 'Trading Places' takes place...

For the most part, easy train ride up, easy ride back, but Hades when we got back into Philadelphia.  A couple inches of snow made for a long ride home.  But I got there..

Get back in there and sell, sell!

Louis: Looking good, Billy Ray!
Billy Ray: Feeling good, Louis!

Golfing, I said. Kev invited me along to go golfing with a few of the boys the Sunday after Thanksgiving.  So, in a Bill Murray Groundhog Day like Sunday morning (closely mimicking Thanksgiving AM) I loaded up the car and headed up 476, only this time is was f*$king cold.  26 frigging degrees.  Instead of shorts and T-shirts, it was long johns, wool hats and gloves.  Forecast was for 51 degrees, but I am guessing that was to occur at 2PM - our tee time Centre Square Golf Club was at 8:30.

We arrived at the course and not surprising, we were one of only two other groups out there.  The ground was frozen to the point that you would actually walk on top of the green rather than sink into it.  I brought up some homemade Bloody Mary's, coffee, and a few beers for the round.  At first we could only focus on the coffee.  Did I mention is was cold?

Because we had six in our group, we broke it up four and two.  Me and Kev hooked up with a guy who frequents the course, and as Matt DeBar predicted, the guy wouldn't STFU.  I likened him to Morry in Goodfellas when Tommy whacked him when he wouldn't STFU.  He did help guide us on the course tho.  What's really messed up is that we played pretty well considering the weather.  The three in my group played really fast, didn't lose a single ball and were near the fairway for the most part.  Great time.

We did finish about twenty minutes or so before our other group, so me and Kev made sure the 19th hole was selling beer (they were), played a game of darts, and waited for the rest of the gang.  We hung out for a 'lil bit and rolled home after. 

Here are the boys, fully thawed out.  Excuse the fuzzyness - still trying to figure out this camera-phone.

Got some Chinese food for the fam and prepped for a very impressive effort by the Eagles.  

If anyone is interested, I think we are going to do a similar polar-bear like golf outing in January.  Any excuse to get out on the golf course!

started with the damn alarm going off at 6:05 AM.  Ouch.  Had a bit too much fun at Joe and Sharon's last night, but had to ready myself for the 45th Annual Turkey Bowl at Germantown Academy.   

A beautiful day on tap - 70 degrees and sunny.  I wrestled myself out of bed, showered, got into my football gear, hit Wawa for coffee (Joanna can't function on less than 24oz/day) and was on my way for my favorite drive of the year - the 17 mile trek up 476 to Kevin's house.  The nice thing is that I am the only one on the road at that time, so I average 72MPH easily.  15 minutes later, I am there!  Me and Kev actually started the morning with coffee (we must be getting old), then moved on to the adult beverages - Sam Adams Winter Lager and some homebrew.  Kevin's Dad soon arrived along with Sean and Brian and we were on our way.  Just as an FYI, Steph still didn't have the turkey in the oven at this point. She better get movin!!

Sean, 18 continued to trash talk, how the young guys were going to beat our old a$$ and blah, blah, blah.  We were going to let our play on the field do the talking.  In the end, the old guys won 6 to 5 - thanks to Jake and John behind center.  Jake pulled up with a nasty lower leg injury, and Will was hit by Ian and wound up having to ice his shoulder down on the second to the last play of the game - we can only hope they are OK.  Amy F. is responsible for getting me the picture, but informed me ahead of time that she is not the most reliable at getting stuff like this taken care of.  I may have to sub in the picture from last year!

Sean quieted down considerably, as I reminded him on a few occasions - 36 & 4, 36 & 4.  Thirty-six years old, 4 TD's - against guys half my age - not too bad for this old guy. 

Rather than heading to the house that usually host the after game celebration, we were up against the clock and had to go.  Headed back to Kev and Steph's for a bit, then headed home to get ready for dinner at Joe and Sharon's.  I fell asleep before and after dinner (damn tryptophan), and we headed home around 23:00.  Had to work the next day so I calmed down pretty early.

Work was quiet - only a few of us in.  Tried to tie up some loose ends and wrap up the week on a positive note.

It's going to be a quiet Friday night this week - maybe we'll enter the Christmas season with a viewing of Elf.  Love that movie. 

Onto the ladder for decorating tomorrow.  Gotta rake more friggin' leaves too.  Damn leaves. 

and again all is well.  I am sure the s*it is going to hit the fan soon, but I am trying to hang and tug on the guys at work to learn the environment.  It's been a great learning experience so far, and I am sure there is plenty to come.   

Can you believe Thanksgiving is nearly here?  Favorite morning of the year will start out with Turkey Bowl.  FB3 is probably old enough to attend - we'll see how that plays out tho..

The boys have been discussing our annual 'shopping' trip - prolly will happen in the second week of December.  We start in Fairmount or Center City and hit every bar we can.  We shop  for beer.  Northern Liberties this year?

with Joanna.  She scored a sitter and we took the trolley to Media.  Started at Quotations, hit Brodeur's and Scutti's place.  Hooked up with Maria Palermo, Lorraina and respective significant others at Quotations, and tagged along with them throughout the evening. 

Great time - had the raw bar stuff at "", followed up by crab fries later in the evening.  

My head hurts and I am real tired tho.  Conor's bday is today so we are heading over the Spencers later on.  Hopefully I'll be  recovered somewhat.  

Out.