Tag: holidays

Looking Back On 2009

What do you hope to accomplish in 2010?

On January 1st of every year since 2007, I’ve listed ten things I would like to accomplish in the coming year. There’s no punishment for not completing an item and there’s no reward for completing it either. However, I like to use it as a foundation for the year to come and for something to look back on in memory to see where my desires stood at the beginning of each year.

I actually did pretty well in 2009, accomplishing 8 out of my 10 items. Here they are:

1. Go Camping – Although Christine and I went to Wintergreen, Virginia for hiking etc. in the early fall, I’m not sure I can count this as we stayed in a resort cabin and not a tent at a campsite. The campfire, scenery, smell, feel, and enjoyment were all there though!

2. Write and Submit a Poem to a Publication – Submitted some selected poems from The Adsideologist to Strong Verse, and online poetry magazine.

3. Shoot Under a 95 in Golf – Shot a 94 at East Potomac (par 72) in the early summer. Must have been the hot dogs and beers!

4. Go Skydiving – I’m not really upset to have missed this one though. I’ll find plenty of other adventure gigs with less risk (see “Human Catapult” and “Flanas Flyer” circa 1998-1999)…

5. Memorize 50 Digits of Pi – 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510… I had it down perfectly in January but lost it soon thereafter. I’m close enough so I’m counting it.

6. Get a Pet – I became a lucky father of Lil Santino the Fish (he’s on Twitter too) in March. He is a good boy and is a lot less stressed after leaving his job at Long John Silvers back in July.

7. Go to the New Yankees Stadium – Say the Yanks lose to the Rays 9-7 on Saturday, June 6. Bummed to see a loss but such a great experience, especially considering they won the big one this year for the 27th time!

8. Consolidate Investments – Moved three old 403b accounts into a traditional IRA. It was a long process, a lot of paperwork, and time spent on the phone, but very much worth it.

9. Volunteer/Coach – Started volunteering at The Reading Connection and have been coaching an indoor soccer team (not to mention we won the championship).

10. Begin and Continue to Publish a Personal Blog – Check!

Not too bad! So what’s on my 2010 list? That’s for me to know and you to possibly find out at some point in the future. Until then, have a safe, healthy, and happy 2010!

official st. calzone’s day 2010 announcement

And here we are, only five months away from another spectacular spring celebration of friends, food, and fun! I would now like to officially announce the date for the Seventh Annual St. Calzone’s Day celebration:

Saturday, March 20th, 2010
The venue is TBD, although, due to the great success of last year, there is currently a high probability that it will take place in Arlington, Virginia once again. The menu is by no means set, but I can promise there will be food and it will be good. I don’t think we’ll make another 15 pans of food, but will probably get some catered dishes supplemented by some homemade St. Calzone’s Day favorites: Spider Potatoes, Sausage, Peppers, and Onions, Beef Cutlets, Stuffed Shells,…
Anyways, mark your calendars for 3/20/2010 and I hope to see everyone for another great celebration!
With Sauce and Cheese,

april fools’ day

Well it’s that time of year when your shoe laces trip you, it rains indoors, and The Onion is rightfully the most popular news outlet… April Fool’s Day! Now I must say I generally look forward to April 1st each year but do not try and actively prank those around me, aside from the usual corny jokes that comes out over conversation. That being said, it does seem as though this holiday has become much bigger over the past decade. It may be because of the realized marketing opportunity it can offer a business of any size or could be due to the social media/networking sites through which communities of users love to egg this sort of stuff on. 

I’m interested to see what kind of new products will come out this year. Perhaps another Canine Repellant Alloy Protection (CRAP) material by BMW or maybe BBC will come back with Smell-o-Vision again where they claimed odors could be transmitted with sound and picture. Too funny. I’m sure Google will have a good tech prank, as they have in the past. Hopefully Wikipedia doesn’t explode with content credibility arguments.
I’d like to see some good math jokes again this year. One year mathematicians apparently changed the value of pi. Another year they said time was going to be changed to a metric system based on powers of 10. I think these pranks that make people think awkwardly about concepts on which they’ve based their entire lives are the best. Let’s switch the meaning of “eye” and “nose” this year. That would surely make some people think hard.
Regardless, April Fools’ Day is a good day for some good laughs. That is until someone loses a nose.