New Years in Pensacola

I helped my father drive down to Florida this year right after the holiday. I promised i would do my best to break-in his new Passat. The car is pretty sweet -though I think the VW ergonomic engineers made a few poor choices. The engine and 6 speed tranny are awesome. We made good time the whole trip and took just 2 days to get down to Perdido Key. I was scheduled to fly back to Rochester on the 31st [today] in the early morning - but the weather was uncooperative and my flight was cancelled. I was rescheduled for a late night flight back to Rochester instead. That put the ki-bosh on spending New Years with Eric in Syracuse :O( - but i figured I could at least go over the next morning. Well - on my return to the airport at 4:30pm this afternoon- I noted to the AirTran person that the time allotted to catch my Rochester connection in Atlanta was hmmm.... 15 minutes.. the AirTran person promptly noted that i would most likely miss the connection. Which I interpreted outloud "so I spend New Years in the Altanta Airport???" He mentioned getting a hotel at my own expense.. but i figured New Years was probably not the best night to "find" a hotel in Atlanta. So Dad and I headed back to Perdido Key and I cooked dinner for Aunt Betty, Uncle Ted, Dad and myself. I am on the morning flight to Atlanta for a 7 hour layover in Atlanta tommorrow. Should be interesting.

Holidays Around the state


Eric and i spent the night of the 23rd with my roommate gabby in Rochester. I cooked pork loin and a big dinner and we exchanged gifts. Much fun. Eric gave me the digital camera i asked for. Its a Kodak Digital camera with some unique time lapse features. I plan to have to some fun with that. Christmas Eve, We headed over to Eric's Folks house in Syracuse to have dinner with his extended family. A very nice time and lots of food! We headed to Owego to my sister's on Christmas day. After dinner, my nieces and nephews unwrapped the wristwatch walkie talkies we bought for them and proceeded to start running around the house. It was great. A very nice holiday. Eric headed back to Syracuse the next day for work and Kristin and I headed down with her kids to see Aunt Catherine.

Christmas Party

I hosted the Come Out And Play Christmas party at my house again this year. Hosting always forces me to get some work done around the house every year. I even had enough time to add Christmas bling to the hallway!






The tree all finished











Brad and Bill came early to help











Gerry [ the event photographer] brought homeade peroigies










We had a great pot luck spread








Vic and Eric's brother Brian and his sister Michelle








Chris, Mark and Josh







Steve and Joey










Russ and Steve











Brian











Eric,Vic and Karl








7:00 started the gift swap/steal.







Jennie,Anne,Jaqeim and Steve passing the IKEA chopping board got passed around a bit.






Jennie modeling the Aja noodle gift set










Dave unwrapping











A handy kitchen item











Stan modeling the apron










Chuck, Joe and Greg discussing details of the Colt calendar







Eric pointing himself out in the Colt calendar :O)









Gerry and Tim

We closed the party at 11:00 and headed to Barnight at the Forum.

The tree!

Eric , Gabe and I headed out on Sunday and nabbed ourselves a sweet Christmas tree. The tree farm had no binding machine - so it was slow driving home with a giant evergreen parachute hanging off the back of the truck.













naked tree.


3 extension cords, 10 strings of C7's, 4 ornament spinnners and well over a dozen Disco balls of various sizes and Christmas has arrived at my house!

Bittersweet week


The week started out on a positive note. I met with my thesis advisor Kim Sherman at RIT on Monday and handed in my last[?] revision to my MFA thesis. Completing the thesis has really felt like a weight off my back. [the "big loser" kind...] It has been like a background guilt I have had in my head for the past several years. I can hopefully get the thesis signed off on early next month and then I am hoping to prepare it for putting in my web portfolio. [ ie. - lots more illustrations - ugh..] But still a good feeling overall. I have been contemplating my next career steps for... hmmm.. 3-4 years now and figured I could not make another move until i finished thesis.















Well.. apparently Fate gave my employer a call that day and ..Tuesday I was downsized.
As in "Thanks for 10 years - C-ya.." I knew it was possibly coming and had my office half cleaned out already [ except the Lava Lamps in the picture ]

-but it still stings a bit.

I am actually fortunate - I wanted an exit and the company gave me one. I am not sure that is true for 13 of my other coworkers who were also walked out.

I look at it as an Opportunity. [ the good kind ]