Lucky number 13!

That's how many of us gathered in the Mayan Riviera section of Mexico for Thanksgiving week. Roll call included: Me, Alec, Dad, Chris, John, Tracy, Jack, Natalie, Jennifer, David, Erin, Sean and his girlfriend, Karen. (Karen was a total hit, btw. What a real find she is. Sean is a very lucky man.)

I came away with no photos of the whole gang. It's hard enough for us to all get together in the same region. I'm not about to try to tackle the enormous task of getting us all in the same photo frame. I'll leave you with this lovely shot of the beach at Tulum, the Mayan ruins we visited on Wednesday. This pretty much sums up the week.

Shape your butt!

So, I've been doing some healthy thinking lately. I say thinking because, until now, I've not really done much acting on these healthy thoughts. OK, maybe I'm being a bit harsh. After all, I finally arrange to see a GP for an annual check up (it's been 3 or 4 years since I've done that) - everything is splendid, btw. But I've been thinking for a while now that my daily walks just aren't cutting it. I need to do something more. Running's out, of course, since my knee pretty much turned against me about 5 years ago. Nevertheless, I'd been thinking of doing some sort of group class type of exercise. That means I need a gym membership. For me, the choice was easy (which is a very rare thing) - all my girlfriends are members at LA Fitness. And, oh, btw... I walk right past it during my morning walk every day. So, I finally got off my duff & signed up yesterday. Now, here's the kicker.... the group class schedule has a cycle class at 0545 (ouch!). Lucky for me, the time just changed this weekend. So I took advantage of the fake time - talking myself into believing that I was really getting up at 0620, not 0520. It worked - at least today it did! So, I'm proud to announce that I took my first spin class today. No surprise - it totally kicked my butt! But, that's what it's supposed to do, right? Anyway, hopefully I'll be able to keep my motivation going (I'm counting on my friend, Laura, to harass me into continuing) & before you know it, I'll have a new set of hot cross buns! :)

A sweet ride

I finally signed on the dotted line for my next car. We won't be getting it until Feb, when my current lease on my RAV4 runs out. I'm very excited, though. My new C30 will be one of only 8000 in the US for 2008. You can go to the Volvo website to learn more.
Oh, & did I mention that since they partner w/IBM, I got a nice little discount, too! Yippee!

Newport, July 4th

So, I'm a bit behind on posting - as usual! Hey, at least I'm consistent!

Actually, things have been pretty good lately. Although I'm as swamped as ever at work, I've been getting LOTS done - which leads to a great sense of accomplishment. That's much better than the usual feeling I have of slogging through the bureaucratic sludge of working lots and accomplishing little.

I've got 2 major projects going on right now that are close to completion - which means they are both about to go through the executive review phase. Why does everything always happen at once??? Anyway, I'm very pleased to finally be at this phase. So, hopefully I'll be able to announce that all's done & I'm off working on the next big thing (which is likely to be the beginning of the update to the projects that I've just completed! Ugh!) Anyway, I'm going to try to enjoy this moment before I get back to the dull drums too soon!

Speaking of dull drums (not that is was dull), but since I'm using my sailing terminology here... I thought I'd share this fantastic photo of the Pell bridge that Alec took during our recent trip to Newport, RI (July 4th weekend).
If you'd like to see the whole album, you can find it on my new facebook site (I can't believe I've actually joined that network - but so far it's been fun): http://tinyurl.com/2se6h3

USS Winston S Churchill (DDG-81)

So this post is a couple of weeks late. But, hey, at least I'm finally posting something. We had a fantastic Memorial Day weekend, which was kicked off on Saturday by a ship tour of the USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG-81). The gang included Alec, his parents, his aunt Ursula & Uncle Bart, and our friends Dianne, Leslie, Ruth & Richard & Richard's girls, Allison & Jessica. Those last four aren't in this picture, as they were off touring another ship at the time we snapped this little beauty. Touring the ship was awesome, as expected. It really gave everyone a good idea of what life for some of America's finest & bravest must be like. I think everyone walked away with a renewed appreciation for our soldiers and sailors. One of the best parts of the tour was our very special tour guide, LCDR (SW) Steve Murley. It was awesome to see Steve again. He's so enthusiastic! He was very kind to give the gang a private tour of the ship.

After the tour, the younger crowd all went to lunch at a great little restaurant in Manhattan called Vespa. The food was very fresh & the backyard garden made me feel like we were in a special secluded little hideaway.

After lunch, Steve & the girls went for a tour of Dianne's fantastic new office in the Time Warner Center building at Columbus Circle. (Alec had to go get his haircut - too bad!) What a view of Central Park that girl has! Amazing. She's a very lucky woman.

That evening, Alec & I had dinner with Alec's family (those mentioned above) and good friend Bob Surace. It was a fantastic day, all around.

Di had so much fun that she and Deb met up w/Steve the next day for the sunset ceremony on the USS Wasp (LHD-1), which is an altogether different kind of ship. I would have loved to have gone, however Alec & I were off celebrating our first anniversary.

We spent the afternoon at the La Prairie Spa at the Ritz for couples workouts & massages - which makes for very happy munchkins! Alec & had a wonderful dinner at Bar Americain (Bobby Flay's most recent of his NY restaurants - which I'd been wanting to go to for over a year now). We stayed the night at the Ritz & then came back north the next day to play tennis at the Mount Kisco Country Club.

So... life ain't bad! Hope your weekend was as much fun!

The natives are restless

Living in a newly minted condo complex comes with some special problems - namely the creation of a brand new condo board. It would appear, that everyone that was elected to our board last March had very little or no condo board experience. Thus, not only did they have no precedence for how to conduct a meeting or run the board & make decisions at our condo association, but they had no experience from anywhere else that they could capitalize upon. This has created several problems, which I shall not go into, so as not to end up in a law suit for slander or some other such thing. However, let it be known that there have been several things that the board has done that has resulted in a general uprising in our building.

The good news is that there is a possible light at the end of the tunnel. General elections will be held in March. Some of the concerned association members held a meeting last night to discuss the several improprieties in question & to put together a strategy for the elections in March. I don't know if it will work. I certainly hope it does. In any case, I'm glad to see that we're trying to do something about it and I'm happy to be a part of what hopefully turns out to be a good solution to the current situation. In addition, it was really nice to have met some of my neighbors!

Dogs & their people

Dogs are nice. I love dogs. But I despise dogs that are undisciplined & untrained. Really, it's their owners that I don't appreciate. These kind of people are doing a disservice to society - who have to deal with a menace and to the poor animal that they have taken into their home. In most cases there is only one excuse - LAZINESS. People train your dogs & discipline them! After all, I'd like to be able to sleep. Do you hear me, you inconsiderate upstairs neighbors???? Grrrrrrrrrr.