Friday Gram June 23

Only when all contribute their firewood can they build up a strong fire. ~ old Chinese proverb

My heart has been touched and I felt I would share the story.

Back in March I called an old co worker and asked if he still wanted some help coaching his little league team. The first day of practice and I’m thrown into the routines and struggling to just keep up with JB while learning who these twelve kids are. Afterwards JB said thanks and that I would catch on just fine. A week or so later I learn that our team is the Mets. The Mets I thought, great so now I have to wear a team hat with that logo on it?? First thought of mine was my father is going to dis-own me!!! As our season progressed I got to know all the kids, their strengths their weaknesses, even their little baseball quirks. I tried my best to help point out how they might do things a little differently yielding in better results. I also made sure that no matter what happened they should never be upset at the outcome, after all this is only a game of baseball.

Something happened through all this. Suddenly I wasn’t ashamed to don the ol’ Mets hat, no in fact I was so proud of it, and what it meant. This hat symbolizes so much more than just cotton and string. This hat to me means; pride, wiliness to learn, spirit, and most important team. By the time we entered into the playoffs all the kids were starting to gel. I couldn’t be prouder of the way we are playing and conducting ourselves on and off the field.

As a token of our appreciation the coaches decided instead of giving out trophies we wanted something a bit more meaningful. This year we had t-shirts made up that had our team logo along with the child’s name. Head coach JB had a little blurb he said about each player as they came up and received their shirt. What surprised me was that he had one made up for the other two coaches, Coach Jim, and yours truly. I was touched by the kind words JB said, and again made me feel honored to be a part of this team. ~Go METS~


Coach Jason's Hat 

Friday Gram April 28

So Carnival was nice enough to reserve a room for my wife and I this coming week. That’s right we are heading out on a boat this week. Not just any boat a big honking boat!! I’ve driven through towns smaller than this thing! Anyway we’re very excited. Our destinations are as follows: we leave Miami on Sunday, with our first stop to the Grand Cayman. Next stop Honduras, followed by Belize, than Costa Maya, and finally back to Miami. We booked a few shore excursions all of which I’m sure I’ll be blogging about upon our return.

As far as the house goes, we have been pretty busy building a new deck as well as doing a lot of landscaping. The deck building has been a great experience. I drew up the plans myself as well as creating a material list. Well after many trips to the hardware store (I guessed I missed a few things) I think I finally had everything. Our goal was to attach to the existing deck, however if I were to do it again, I would have torn that whole thing down, seeing as though not much of the original deck remains. You can see by the following photos the portion that’s blue was the existing deck… As for the landscaping we have been busy pulling out stumps and replanting shrubs and flowers, as well as the big project, taking down the stone wall!! I donated all the rocks to my friend who owns Greenery. I figured their company could use them for many things including pond building. The only thing I asked in return was to help remove them. So one night MP brought his skid steer out and we went to work on the wall. I attempted (key word – attempted) to operate the machinery and scoop some rocks, but the coordination effort for this rookie was too much. Instead of wasting anymore time I decided to let MP have at it. To him it was effortless. It was fun to watch. While he dropped off one load of rocks I jumped back in and tried to redeem myself. I was having so much fun making piles of rocks… Many thanks to MP for all your help. Also many thanks to dad, and BC for the help on the deck. Oh and of course thanks to JJ for throwing my tape measure down the four foot holes a few times. : )


early deck construction 


proof that I work 


starting to get the hang of it 

My baseball team The Mets are 2-1 right now. We started out slow, but their bats are finally starting to come alive. We need to work a little more on infield practice, but for twelve 8 to 9 year olds, I’m so proud of the way they play. I’m happy to be a part of this, and look forward to the rest of the season. Its funny how much I take for granted when I play ball. All the things that I yell out to the kids as their standing there waiting for something to come to them is stuff that is just second nature to me. I guess if nothing else it keeps me sharp whenever I play.

I finally broke down and bought my first set of golf clubs. I had been playing with a set that was donated to me by my cousin. After many years of trying to play with them I was getting frustrated with the game. I was only using about half the amount of clubs that are allowed in the bag, so my game was seriously handicapped. Now I’m hoping with this set I will rekindle my feelings for the game and actually look forward to standing out on the tee box waiting for that perfect shot to find me!!!! (a little Bagger Vance reference there, in case you didn’t get it)…

Well folks, I hope all is well, and look forward to sharing our vacation experience with everyone… Until then , Cheers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Friday Gram March 24

Pressures on, have to Blog!!! I feel like I haven’t paid this site enough attention lately, and well, there are probably some good reasons for that. The number one reason is just because. : ) Anyway I’ve been pretty busy lately, which is a good thing. This weekend weather permitting I will be starting on some outside projects at the house. Along with designing our new deck, should be a fun time.

So as some of you know as a part of my internship I need to fulfill this community service requirement. The board isn’t super strict on what you can and can’t do, just as long as you’re doing something out in the community. One thing I’m doing is helping an old co-worker coach his little league team. That’s right JB and I have 12 kids ranging from 8~9 years old. We had our first practice this past Wed night in this indoor facility. I have to say, for being the first practice; these kids were already in prime form!! We have a scrimmage this Sunday, so I guess that’ll be the true test of what these little whipper snappers can do. Weirdest feeling for me was as I was running a drill one of the kids yells out “hey coach”, than says it again, “Hey coach”. I turned to look and realized oh geez, he’s talking to me, that’s right, I am coach aren’t I. It’s a good feeling, knowing that I’m helping, not only with the fundamentals of the game, but to think that I might actually make an impact on their lives. Scary huh…. I have to say the only drawback is that our team is the Mets. I mean come on!!! I almost demanded a trade. It’s bad enough that with 12 +/- teams in the league none of them are called the Yankees, but the Mets??!! Oh well, I suppose it could be worse. Little side note, I saw Ed Riley there. For those who don’t know who Ed is, he pitched for the Worcester Tornadoes, and runs his own clinic in West Boylston. I didn’t say anything, but maybe next time I see him I can ask if there’s any CF positions available for the team : )

I received some documentation from my school the other day. Well besides all the registration papers and financial aid stuff I usually get, which you would think after I graduated I wouldn’t get anymore?? No this packet was all the particulars I need to know for my ceremony on May 20th. I’m a little anxious about the whole thing, but that’s still some time away.

I went snowboarding last night for the second time this year. Much better results than last time, and for those who have read my previous blog, I wasn’t interrogated by any security guards this time, even though I was SO totally prepared to answer any of his stupid questions this time. Actually there was nobody there!! No lines, no waiting. I spent the whole night up on the summit, and by the end of the night was totally addicted to the rush….

So since I had gone boarding last night I didn’t make it to Trivia night at South Side (little pub in town). I went last week, and had a blast!! Basically the gist of the game is to have a team, and Trivia Bob gives you categories. He than asks the question and it’s up to you and your team to answer it. Pretty simple right? Well the coolest part is Trivia Bob plays a song and somewhere in that songs, via Band name, some lyric, song title, whatever, is a clue to the answer. How cool is that. This guy really puts some time into thinking about this, and for that I think that’s why people keep coming back to play. Although we were 4 point away from 3rd place our team still finished strong. Hopefully next Thursday I will don the ol’ thinking cap and get out there. Any of you who are in the neighborhood, stop on by, than I won’t have to think as much : )

Well folks guess what?? That’s right, it’s Friday….. Cheers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Friday Gram March 10

A new Home!!!!

So as most of you know, my wife and I purchased our second home. We now live in Gardner Ma., about 30 miles north of Worcester. It was an exciting and frustrating process of buying it, but in the end it all worked out. Thanks in large part to all friends, and family who helped make this happen, we really do appreciate it.

After we accepted an offer on our old house we decided to start house hunting. We saw a few houses, some at the top of our price range, and than those that were really affordable. We quickly fell in love with this newly renovated, split level on a road where we already knew a few residents. To be honest any road would be an improvement to the one we used to live on. Getting everything squared away wasn’t the easiest process. Perhaps a recap of our adventure will clear things up a tad. Since we couldn’t get our closing date moves up to match when the new owners were closing on ours we had to find a place for all our stuff to be stored for a week until we closed on the new house. What better place than our parent’s garage?? : )

Saturday Feb 18th

KK drops me off at the UHAUL distribution center to pick up the 17 foot truck I reserved. After three separate conversations with them during the week trying to make everyone’s life easier I came to the conclusion that it was cheaper for me to drive the truck further away than it was to bring it back to the place of origin, or some other location that was nearby. So that morning they pulled the ol’ oh can you drop the truck off in Leominster instead of Gardner. I was like are you kidding?? After all my conversations now you want me to do you a favor??? Anyway they gave me an extra 20 mile for free, which ended up being key, because one load with the 17 foot truck wasn’t enough. After all was said and done, about 95% of our stuff was stored neatly (well kinda) in my parents garage.

Wednesday Feb 22nd

The rest of our stuff needed to be out by that night for the new owners closed on the house the next day. It took a few trips with a couple of trucks, but finally we were out, the place was clean and Jamie and I said goodbye to our first home. It was a little sad, but we both knew what we were moving into was far better.

Thursday Feb 23rd thru March1st

Living with the ‘rents wasn’t bad at all, and I’m not saying that just because they read this blog : ) It was fun to help out splitting wood and shoveling yeah free labor, good times. We didn’t expect to have meals cooked for us each night or our lunches packed for work, it really was refreshing. Thanks again guys for taking us and all the furry creatures in!!

March 1st 11:30 am

I put in a call to the lawyer to see how much closing costs were going to be so I could get a bank check. It was than that he informed me that their might be a problem with the closing date (March 2nd) and we might be looking at another week before we close. I don’t think you can imagine the anguish we both felt. To top it all off we went on our “final walk through” at the new house just to make sure everything we asked to be removed was indeed done. Not only was everything still there the girl that was living there was just starting to move out. We were so livid at this point.

Thursday March 2nd

Thankfully the lawyer was able to clear up the small glitch and informed us we could close on Friday. Relieved now all we had to do was make sure the house was clean of any people and junk. We rescheduled our walkthrough for Friday at 1 an hour before we close.

Friday March 3rd

Alls well ends well I think is the saying right? A couple of more hiccups at the closing table (nothing on our end though) but it didn’t stop us from getting the keys so we can start moving stuff in.

Saturday March 4th

Not messing around this time I rented a 26 foot UHAUL. “She don’t go fast, but she sure got the job done” One load with that and about four or so other pick up trucks and miraculously my parents garage was empty! The move went well, thanks again to all that helped.

First week living in god’s country

It’s been so much fun, we met one neighbor so far, and while there might be a few boxes that were left unpacked, and the place looks like a home. Jamie and I rode to work together a couple of times and plan on doing so as long as our schedules allow it. We’re looking forward to our new living room set to be delivered as well as Direct tv this weekend. I’m sure we’ll have plenty of stories and adventures in the new home, so stay tuned.

Well folks it’s Friday……..Cheers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


New house 

Friday Gram Feb 17th

Must have been a slow night

As many of you know I love to ski. What you might not know is that I used to snowboard as well. I’m sure my friend MP could tell you all about my first snowboarding experience. It didn’t end well. After asking me if I wanted to start on the bunny slope my pride got in the way and before I knew it I was on an intermediate trail falling more times than I care to mention. I made it half way down the slope before I fell hard enough to break my arm in two places. Well done Jason!! This didn’t stop me, the following year I tried snowboarding again. It didn’t take long to finally start getting the hang of it and before I knew it I was actually having fun carving down the hill. Fast forward nine or ten years and that brings us to 2006. I was talking to a fellow coworker about skiing and he was telling me how he picked up snowboarding. It got me thinking, hmmmm wouldn’t I just love to try again. So I asked if I could borrow his “ride” sometime, to which he agreed.

I arrive at the mountain a little after 6. I had to park in the very last row which didn’t bother me because walking in snowboard boots is a heck of lot easier than ski boots. I was so excited! I practically ran to get to the chair lift. I strap in and hobble over to the chair. Oh by the way my pride took a back seat as I had no problem starting on the bunny hill. So the whole ride up I couldn’t help but to think how the heck am I going to get off this stupid chair??!!! Well surprisingly it wasn’t all that difficult. So I strap in my second binding and off I go. I get about ten or fifteen feet and WHAM!! I fall. Great I’m thinking this is going to be a looooooong night.

After three runs on the beginner slope I feel it’s time to step it up a bit and move over to my old nemesis trail!! I notice as I get over to the chairlift that the snow cats are grooming this particular trail that I want to go down. I figure it’ll probably be done by the time I get up there. Yeah that wasn’t the case. In fact the only trails that were open were the terrain park (filled with jumps, rails and a ton of people) or this skinny little trail. I opted for the terrain park; at least I could try to avoid all the jumps. I made it down in one piece and now my confidence is riding high… A few more runs and no more wipeouts and I’m ready to call it a night. I get to the bottom of the trail un-strap my bindings and start walking back to my Jeep. I must have been wearing the biggest smile to. As I’m walking I just so happen to catch the eye of Wachusetts’ security guard, Ronnie. I didn’t think anything of it; in fact I just kept on my way.

Back at the Jeep I place the board down start her up and when I turned around there was Ronnie. It was kind of spooky actually. I had no idea he was following me. So he starts in on me, asking if that was my board. I had nothing to hide so I said “no I borrowed it from a co worker”. He says “what kind of board is it ?” I said GNU” What kind of bindings are they?” I said, I don’t know” “You don’t know?” “ No I don’t have a clue.” “How about your boots, what kind are they.” Again I replied, “I don’t have a clue”. Now he clearly testing my patience and asks me again what type of bindings I had, to which I kept saying, I DON’T KNOW!!! Things weren’t looking to good for me I thought when he finally backed off and said he saw me walking all the way back here in what appeared to be rental boots and he had to check it out. My patience ran out with him so I said “your name is Ronnie right”? Clearly startled, he hesitated when he replied, saying “yeah how did you know that”. I told him how I worked up here for seven years and knew his boss. Go tell her Jason said hello. Apparently this was all it took. Anyway I now know that I was riding on a GNU 162 board with a pair of Nitro bindings. And oh yeah rental boots look NOTHING like the ones I had on. I blame this whole episode on the fact that it was probably a slow night for security. Regardless it was enough to bring me down a bit, but hasn’t deterred me from borrowing anyone’s board again and hitting the slopes!!!!

Well folks it’s Friday….. Cheers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Friday Gram Feb 3 2006

So I guess it’s been a while….

First things first, I just wanted to thank everyone who came to my surprise party and to those who called or sent a card wishing me congratulations. I guess the one thing that really made me realize that I was done, was the fact that I now am the proud new owner of this little piece of paper that says something like this. You have x amount of dollars in student loans, start paying NOW!!!!!


Thanx for the party!!! 

So even though I missed about a month of blogging, February is my year anniversary of starting this site. Thanks again to JR for helping me set it up and to all you for actually reading it.

Friday November 25th I featured an article on Ty (Tails of Ty). Despite all his battle wounds and operations he seems to be in great spirits. At the beginning of this week, we were able to reintroduce him to his toys and crunchy food. We have to monitor this because his jaw didn’t quite heal as well as we hoped. Anyway we’re just glad he’s alive. We’re still waiting to see the money from the neighbor, which should be coming to us monthly now thanks to the help of our attorney. This whole incident accelerated us in regards to selling our house.


Ty_Playing 

To anyone that has tried selling your home, god love yah!!! It’s pretty stressful but at the same time it was a great experience, and dare I say fun… To anyone who has tried selling your home and not called upon the help of St Joseph, I don’t know how you do it... Granted our house hadn’t been on the market more than two weeks and already we had gotten a couple of offers, however they we’re ridiculous offers. We decided to try burying a statue of St Joseph in our front yard to see if it would work. Did you know they have a whole home kit??!! I was very skeptical about this whole thing but figured what the hey… Yeah well two days after burying the statue we sell our house!! How crazy is that? The trick is going to be finding exactly where we buried him underneath all this snow we have…

Buying a house is just as stressful as selling. My wife and I thought we would just take it easy and casually look. We had a place to stay so we were in no rush. We looked at a few houses sporadically than one weekend our realtor took us to see 4 more. One of which was “the one” !!! Now we’re scrambling trying to get everything in order to close the same day as our current home, hence the stress. Still I’m pretty stoked about the whole thing !!!

Is it just me or has this winter been an absolute nightmare for skiers?? I have a pass for Wachusett mountain but I can’t go as often as I like because it’s either raining or it’s 100 degrees out!!! I know some of you probably don’t mind the warmer weather, and that’s fine, but for me this back and forth nonsense is killing me. I don’t know whether to take out my skis or baseball glove half the time!!

So that’s pretty much my life this past month. I hope everyone is doing well. Now that I’m not a hermit, squirreled away in my office working on homework, feel free to drop a line or an email even if it’s just to say hello.

Well folks it’s Friday!!!!!!!!!!!!! Cheers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Friday Gram December 16

Acknowledgement

Eleven years ago I graduated high school with the intention of going to college for Architecture. I spent two years in Concord New Hampshire where I met a few wonderful people that made my college experience awesome. Afterwards, I took some time off and starting working in the “Real World”.

With a little nudge from my parents I started looking into going back to school to receive my Bachelors Degree. It was in the Fall of 1998 when I started a new journey at a little place called The Boston Architectural Center.

It seemed that the road I chose was long and winding, but in the end it was well worth it. For in that time I met my (who is now) wife as well as many other friends through work and school. Along with my family, they continually gave me the support I needed to finish what I set out to accomplish.

A special thanks to my wife who is able to see the big picture and stuck with me through all my stressed out moments and constant foul moods. Whenever I was feeling down she would always put things in perspective for me and help me to see that things really aren’t that bad.

Another special thanks to my parents, who supported me in my decision to go back to school and get my degree. This has been something I’ve always wanted and with your guidance and morals instilled in me I did the best I could do and hopefully made you proud.

One final very special thanks to Grandpa S. “my buddy”. It wasn’t all to long ago that we went out to Staples where he bought me my first architectural scale, triangle, pencils, templates, you name it, we bought it : ) He must have seen the passion I had in this dream of mine, and for that I thank him. I know you are up there looking down on me so I just wanted to say thank you and I miss you.

Well folks a very special Cheers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!