The conversation with Fran made me think later about the summers my mom made me write a “journal”.  She use to make me sit down everyday for 30 min to write down what happened the day before or just a short story.  I use to kick and scream that I didn’t want to do this…it took away from my fun time, but in the long run it did make me a better writer and I did come up with some real good short stories and it helped created my “voice” and writing style.

What has kept me from writing as much as I had planed back at the beginning of this website?  Has it been lack of time, lack of topics, or just being to lazy to do it?  I am not sure what the issue is but I need to get back to it and write more, because it makes me relax and feel better.  So I hope this is the beginning of a change and I can take my 10 minutes a day to sit down and write something whether it’s about my day, an article about some topic or just the opening paragraph of a story I might write some day.  So wish me luck and I hope you enjoy it.

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My cousin John and I were talking the other day how people at work don’t like change. We have some 40 something’s that don’t like us making any changes to there computers or other devices at all. After a lengthy discussion we both came to the conclusion that if our grandfather Louis G Bilancio was still alive he wouldn’t be bothered by the new technology of the day, in fact he would have embraced this technology.

So let’s take a look at some of the new technology that has matured and developed since his death that Lou would have picked up and used to their fullest advantage to make his life better and more productive and enjoyable.

The Cordless Telephone: He would have embraced the cordless telephone with both hands and run with it. It would have given him the ability to take or make calls anywhere in the house by breaking his tie from the phone with its 50 foot cord tying him to the kitchen as well as saving anyone in his way from having the cord wrapped around them as he walked and talked.

The Personal Digital Assistant (PDA): The PDA would have revolutionized the way he took notes, scheduled his appointments and kept his contact information. He was the first person his grandkids knew that had a “little black” book with all his contacts in it. I am sure he would have gone digital with one of the first PDA devices or the Apple Newton. By retiring the book and the calendar hanging in the kitchen by putting all his contacts and appointments on the device

The Cell Phone: The Cordless phone and the PDA would have had him adopting the Cell Phone as his main calling device. But he would have waited till they got smaller than the first cell phones which were huge devices. Being able to combine the power of the cordless phone and adding the ability to make or take a call anywhere at any time would have been like gold to him and adding the contacts of the PDA to the phone would have made the world Lou’s office.

But those three technologies pale next to the next three technological advances.

The Personal Computer (PC): A lot of our childhood memories of Lou were of him sitting at the kitchen table with all his papers spread out while he worked and wrote his letters and papers. The PC would have been a game changer for all of his writing and note taking. Of course Lou would probably always be the type that would want more power and be upgrading all the time. John and I both think that at the beginning of his jump into the personal computer world he would have been working in a PC/windows world but would have moved and now be working in the Apple Mac world. No matter what kind he took to he would have many, a desktop to do the heavy work in his office and a laptop for working in the kitchen in the back yard or on the patio or at some undisclosed location.

E-Mail: Many of you probably didn’t realize that e-mail came out before the Internet took off with the start of computer Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) and companies like CompuServe and AOL and we are sure that he would have had e-mail. Because like the telephone and the written letter in the past, e-mail would have become his main means of communication to all family members and the rest of his crew (Yes Lou would have had a crew of many of his friends). E-mail would have opened up a new frontier for him in the world of Italian/American relations. We are sure he would have had many e-mail addresses depending on the project and the amount of SPAM he got.

THE INTERNET: We feel this would have been the biggest With a grandson who was on the “grid” before most people in the Bilancio family he would have been right there with him exploring the new frontier of this new world. He would have had many web sites and pages for all his projects and ideas that he was working on. We feel that he would have been the first to get personal domain (louisgbilancio.org) and then moved all his projects and e-mail addresses to it. First in the family to have and online blog you bet. Would it have taken him long to get caught up in the social media craze…no it wouldn’t. J How would you feel to get a Tweet or a Facebook poke from him. We think it would have been great. The Internet would have been a place to work with his brother in-law Lou on getting the family history together and getting the family tree fleshed out with as much information as he could find. It would have probably changed the way he did his research and we are sure that many new ideas and projects would have come from him surfing the net. I bet he would have finally found a way to make those Cannolis for New Year’s Eve with all the directions on how to make them on the internet.

Smart Phone: With the advent of the smart phone he would have up graded to one to be able to combine all four of the big technologies (Cell Phone, E-mail, Computer, and the Internet) into a small mobile device that could fit in his pocket. He would have everything he needed at any of his many meetings and classes at his fingertips. Outings and dinner with him would never have been the same.

To make sure he got the most out of all this technology he would need a few things to make it all work together. So he would have the following put together for his use and for the rest of the family.

A Home Network: With all these computers and devices that he would own he would want to have a way to reach the internet and store his stuff from anywhere on his property. So he would turn to his IT team to come up with a Wi-Fi and cabled network as well as a server farm to hold all his papers and notes and media files.

An IT Team: The team would consist of his son in law Dean Acquaviva as the team lead and Apple Product support, his grandsons William Bilancio and John Johnson for his network and infrastructure (home network, cell phone and servers and programing) support. The team would of course be on call 24/7 because he was an early riser and late to bed kind of guy and the team would have done it without a complaint or grimace.

After this look at some of the technology that probably would have changed the way Lou did things and how he would have blazed a trail for those family members following in his path to this new world of technology and change. Would he have gotten more of his generation working these new things we think so. Would he have embraced more than we have brought up, we hope he would have and we know that he would never complain about the changes, he would enjoy and embrace them like he did life.

My uncle and I are meeting on Monday for a quick breakfast and picnic planning.  We have some new ideas for this year for the kids that should make things fun and exciting.  I am looking forward to this years picnic more than usual since we have a few more people helping with the planning and work this year.  I am still going to run the 50/50 and the seed spitting contest. I love seeing my family and hanging out and just taking it easy.

In the last few weeks I have been made the committee chair of the LOPSA Education Committee.  We are in the middle of getting the training schedule and trainers together for OLF and OLFu.  I also stepped up and volunteered for one of the empty board seats on the LOPSA board.  Last night I had my first board meeting.  I have gotten the feel of how things work on the call and got some ideas that I need to flesh out to help fix some of the issues that are plaguing LOPSA.  It also looks like I will be going to a face to face board meeting in August.

As well as the picnic and LOPSA, work, LUG/IP, LOPSA-NJ and PICC I have been working on a new web site with my friend John LeMasney.  It’s going to be a food based web site that will explore the making, buying, cooking and eating of the food of Central New Jersey. We want to be the premier destination for those interested in Central New Jersey food.  I hope to go live in the next few weeks.  We are looking for writers who have a passion for food in Central New Jersey. So if you want to write for us send me an example of your writing and a little bit about yourself to wbilancio@centraljerseygoodfood.com. 

So some family news Avery is now a senior in high school and has her drivers license. This is great I don’t have to drive her all over the place to her friends and dance or back to school, the down side is I don’t get to spend as much time with my daughter.  Otherwise every thing is going great and I am looking forward to a hot humid summer.

Thanksgiving started for me at around 8:30 in the morning while I got the smoker ready for the big bird cook.  I actually used The Minion Method for the Charcoal burn.  Using this method kept the temp at a constant of 250 degrees for the whole 5 hour cook.  The turkey had been marinating in a red wine marinade sine Monday.  It came out of the marinade a nice dark purple color.  After the smoker had leveled out to a steady temp the Turkey was put on the grate at 9:00am.  I then moved back inside to start work on the Rye Bread Stuffing.  This turned out to be a great stuffing.  After getting that in the oven, it was time to start on another new recipe for Smoked Sausage Jambalaya another recipe that was a hit for dinner.  While working on all of these new recipes I had a pot of Cranberry BBQ Sauce cooking up, which was talked about a lot last year and was requested to be made again.  Other then making gravy and un canning the canned jelled cranberry sauce onto a plate I was really done cooking by 1:30.  My cousin Tim and family showed up around 1:45 and then it was a constant flow of family arriving till about 2:15.  I took the turkey off the smoker at about 2:15 and let it rest till about 2:45 and handed it over to my dad to carve while I got the rest of the food on to the table.   We finally sat down by 3:00 and the food was passed till about 4:30 as well as the great conversation.  The turkey was perfect and moist and had a great smoke ring around it.  The last person left around 8:00 and I was finally able to sit down and relax and to start thinking about Christmas dinner.

Friday was a day of working at some side jobs and going into work for a bit……but dinner was a treat, we did another pizza off at my Aunt Bea’s house, but with a twist…we did white pies only.  We got pies from Top Road Tavern & Pizza, Fedelos Family Pizzeria, Abruzzi Pizza & Cafe, Kings Pizzarama, Palermo’s III(Ewing), Limoncello’s Pizza.  The winner for the second year in a row for the Bilancio Pizza Off was Palermo’s, it now holds the title in both the Tomato Pie division and now the White Pie Division.  It was a fun night just hanging out talking to everyone. Dean brought some beer he had just bottled that day.  It had a great taste but it will be better after it sits for a few weeks in the bottles.  It was an early night because I ate so much pizza that it just made me tired.

Saturday morning started with me heading to my Aunt Bea’s to hang out with my Uncle Fran for a bit, so since I go there early enough I got a home cooked breakfast which was nice.  We all headed our separate ways for a bit to meet back at the house for dinner.  Which consisted of leftovers brought over from my house from Thanksgiving as well ham from Bath Packing.  Dinner was great and of course the conversation was good to.

It was great seeing my uncle Fran and family since it’s rare that we see them much since they are up in Michigan..tried to talk them into coming back for Christmas but since the snow will be flying by then I doubt we will see them till the La Vigna Picnic in July.

Well time to go and see about Christmas dinner now….

To see all the photos from the weekend head over to here.

The end of July always has the La Vigna Family picnic and that always means a lot of work for most of my family, getting the games together for the kids and getting the property cleaned up and ready. This year was no different…well yea it was…it rained most of the week before the picnic so most of the work was compressed into Friday. Thursday was the worst of the rain and of course that was the night most of my cousins and I went to see a concert at the Blueclaws Stadium in Lakewood, NJ.

The bill consisted of Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, and Bob Dylan. It was an interesting show. My cousins Tim & his wife Meghan, Henry and Ira all enjoyed the show in the rain. Henry, Ira and I spent all of the night down on the field just talking through Willie Nelsons set and then rocked through John Mellencamp. Bob Dylan came out and totally confused me. The band he has is great and sounded tight, but then Bob starts singing and I couldn’t understand a word he said, but that is the mystery that is Bob Dylan. We enjoyed the whole night rain and all. It was good to be at a concert with my cousin Ira who we don’t see enough of and when we do it’s not long enough.

The day of the picnic turned out great even though it was a little bit hot, but the people that made it had a good time. I shared the announcing and running the games with my 2 uncles, Dean and Fran. It was fun running the water balloon toss and of course the watermelon seed spitting contest. We raised some good money selling this years calendar and Dean and I caused some controversy in the family with the 50/50 this year. So I say that the 2009 La Vigna Picnic was a success and we are already planing the 2010.

Carolyn has had the surgery on her foot so they could get some samples of the bone to see if there is any infection in the bone. We haven’t heard yet back about the lab reports. We have been back to the doctors many times so they can change the dressing. So we hope to get a negative report back about the infections so they can close up the wound and we can move on to the fall without any more foot issues.

Avery is driving now…..with a licensed driver in the car of course. She is getting better each time we go out, so I think if we keep her schlepping Carolyn all over the place while she is not allowed to drive.

Well that’s it for now…not much going on with me other then work and more work and Karma.

So after 2 weeks Carolyn has to go to another Podiatrist to have a biopsy on the bone and then the culture will be sent to the infectious disease doctor and then she will determine the course of intravenous antibiotics to prescribe. The good news is that they will be doing this on an out patient bases so she will be doing the intravenous stuff at home and not in the hospital.

So that’s what’s going on here in at the Bilancio house hold. Avery does her driving thing next week so by picnic week she will be driving us nuts wanting to drive. Thank goodness I have a manual transmision and she won’t be learning that for a while.

The making of my Dad’s Montauk burger

One summer my parents and I went with 6 other couples to spend a week in Montauk. Well on the night that watching the kids fell to my parents my dad had decided to make burgers for all of us. So he went out and bought an hibachi grill and the makings for the burgers. He also stopped and got a bottle of jug wine some Carlo Rossi paisano to be exact . After getting back to the house he got the fire started and a glass of wine in his hand. Then he started getting the burgers made and had another glass or 2 of wine. When the fire was ready he headed out with the burgers and put them on the grill and proceeded to have a few more glasses of wine. So when he finally came with the burgers and served them up one side was as hard as a Charcoal Briquet and the other side was raw…thus we now make sure when dad is going to make burgers for us he isn’t going to make Montauk burgers.

Last year he was working the grill at his nephews wedding and wandered away to talk to family….while he was away the vegetables he was grilling ignited in to a nice blaze of glory. Luckily I was near by and put out the fire….I ended up doing the rest of the grill cooking that night.

Now don’t get me wrong when my dad is focused on the grilling at hand he does a great job it’s when he has had a few to many glasses of wine or there is a distraction such as his brother or other family members that he doesn’t see all the time that things go wrong.

So now my daughter is turning 16 and I can see the change in her already, she is becoming more independent and is living her own life without her parents always being there. She is off to the mall more and hanging out with her friends. She passed her drivers ed class with an A+ and aced her written test and is looking at Carolyn’s car with a whole different look….I know in her mind the word “MINE” flashes up when she looks at it. So now we have to get here signed up to take the 6 hour mandatory behind the wheel class then it will be a year of “Can I drive? Can I drive?” all the time. This will be more of a problem for my wife since she has the car with the automatic transmission and my truck is manual. See I was thinking when I made that purchase.

I know it sounds like I am complaining but I think it’s great that she is now 16 and is growing up and is starting to make a bigger mark on the world. So Happy Birthday Avery and may you have many more. Hey she can start working now…hmm rent is starting to sound good.

So the day started at 5am with a quick download of a Gov’t Mule show to listen to while I got the smoker fire up and the turkey on. I got the bird in the smoker by 6:44 and it’s a cooking.

I have gotten the turkey giblets in the pot with some onions and celery and carrots and bay leafs so the stock simmering an making the house smell great. I have started the Cranberry BBQ Sauce I am using as a dipping sauces. I will be doing starting the stuffing in a few hours as well as the gravy when the turkey is done.

I want to say that I am thankful for my family and friends, even if I don’t get to see my friends all that much.

So have a great Thanksgiving with your family and friends….

UPDATE: Turkey came off at 9:44am it took 3 hours to cook on the UDS

I don’t mean holiday meals those we still do, just at different locations in Mercer County. I’m talking about the Sunday morning breakfasts and the meals in the yard during the summer with Rose and Louis, Fran and Angelica, Clora and Dean, Henry and Tim, Bea and Ray, John and Bea and Terry and Willie and me and sometimes other family members and friends. Those are the meals I am talking about, and the birthday celebrations with a huge carrot cake and funny hats.

It seems when Rose and Lou died, things began to change. Family gatherings were fewer and something seemed to be missing when we did get together. It’s understandable that things change. A few of us moved away and we all have families and lives of our own. Sure, today we visit once in a while or meet at wakes or weddings and on holidays. It just seems we are always in a hurry to get through dinner and get back to our lives.

In the old days the adults used to sit around the table and talk back and forth while the kids would go outside or into the other room to play. Now when we get together we are in a hurry to eat and get going. We meet at diners and restaurants too much these days where we are always having to go, so we can’t sit and talk and the food is not as good as if we cooked it ourselves. With the amount of money we spend for our meals we could have better and more food if we were to cook it ourselves.
I get a glimmer of these family dinners I am discussing at La Vigna meetings, when Fran and Corine’s families and Aunt Bea and Aunt Lorriane descend on the beaches of the Jersey Coast or on the days leading up to and after the picnic in the yard at 90 Eggerts Crossing. These glimmers always just make the loss of these dinners felt much more in my mind.

It was these family dinners that gave me the sense of what the family is and taught me to respect and cherish the family as a whole as a child. I feel that my child and my cousins’ children have been cheated out of a wonderful piece of heritage and learning of family.