Picnic week wrap up

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After a great sunny day on Thursday, the yard at my aunts took shape and started looking like we were going to have a picnic, Dean and I got the flags up and the tents in place while Avery colored more shirts for the staff all-stars. Fran Bilancio and crew showed up and got to work on their projects…

Friday saw the last of the speakers go into place after a few rebuilds. Music was flowing by lunch. Tim showed up and got the lawn mowed and the property started to really shape up. The Volleyball court got lined and the quouite pits were uncovered and started to dry out. The picnic tables were put into position and the day started to wind down with a great dinner. The last meeting of the games committee followed dinner and then it was time for a good night of sleep.

PICNIC DAY
I woke up to clouds and a lot of humidity and thoughts of the worse. I headed over to the property to start the final preparations for the picnic. Water Balloons had to be filled, the balloons for the grape stomp need to be blown up, the paper for the Watermelon Spitting Contest had to be taped together and rolled up. And the most important was the Beer and Ice had to be picked upped. We got a 1/2 keg and 14 40lbs bags of ice.

Things started right at 1:30 as the first people showed up and things didn’t die down till well into Sunday morning. I will post more on the picnic later.

The Day After
Spent yesterday hanging out with my dad and uncles and just relaxing and taking it easy. My Uncle Fran left last night around 10-11and my parents are leaving this morning….so picnic week 2004 is over……but we did start discussing picnic 2005 throughout the day yesterday….stay tuned…..

Picnic Week – Thursday- We Have Sun

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Weather: 69, 90% Humidity and SUNNY
Well the sun is out this morning, I got to sleep late and take a quick shower. Now I am ready to go and face the day. Dean and I will be putting the sound system in and getting the last of the speakers in and get some music going.

I got the art work for the banners done and the “pin the grape on the vine” printed last night so I am done with that stuff. Hit Rita’s Water Ice at like 3 min to 10 right before they closed, my neighbor was working so she gave me here free quart of ice that she gets every night. She is a good kid and hope that she gets some good karma out of it.

Well off to picnic central…….more later…..

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Pour me somethin’ tall and strong
Make it a hurricane before I go insane
It’s only half past twelve but I don’t care
It’s 5 O’clock somewhere

This lunch break is gonna take all afternoon
half the night
Tomorrow morning I know they’ll be hell to pay
Hey, but that’s alright

I ain’t had a day off now in over a year
My Jamican vacation’s gonna start right here
Get the phones for me
You can tell ’em I just sailed away

Picnic Week – I am coloring T-Shirts…

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Weather: hot, Partly Sunny
I am coloring t-shirts so it must be Wed. For the super Staff awards instead of plaques we are taking 24 of the t-shirts and adding color to the back by coloring the leaves on the grape vine, Purple on the words La Vigna and Blue on the words Picnic 2004. Sitting listening to the Rolling Stones and watching my uncle make the rest of the placqes… It’s been a long day just working on the little things..of course I went to bed last night at 2am and up by 7:30. So I am dragging a little.

Tomorrow it looks like the sound system is going to go in and then it will really be picnic week. Avery has been helping Clora and doing a great job.

Ira and I hit Triangle Art and got a cool looking Tie Dye kit and am planing to tie dye a our shirts….It just seems right for me to do it since I am always wearing a tie dye shirt so wearing a white shirt would be wrong….As you can see I am dragging and rambling pretty much now………..

As Dean searches for his photo paper that is right in front of him so I am going to get some dinner and go home to sleep soon……..

Picnic Week – Loyal Supporter

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Weather: Still Hot and Humid
I am sitting here listening to a conversation between Dean, Angelica, Clora, Fran, Ira, and myself about the awards for the people who should get them from all 20 years. Who should get an award and what should it be called? Angelica thinks that everyone is a contributor, Clora thinks we shouldn’t have any award for the staff. I think the editors of the last 20 years should get something (and I am not saying that because I was one of them). I also think Dean should get an award for all his hard work. But the conversation is moving to hold off on the award or recognition of all the people who have written articles or helped produce the paper. I have left the meeting about 4 times to get out of the house and when I come back they are on the same topic. Dean feels that, because it’s the 20th Anniversary of the paper we should recognize all those who have contributed because this is a special year and that the people who come to the picnic should leave with the feeling that this is something special and not your daily backyard BBQ. He wants to put the award up there so the person who gets it can feel a great worth of family and special feeling about the picnic……

It seems that people are amazed that I bought 250 t-shirts…My dad’s uncle Bob thinks I should raffle them off because nobody likes to get free stuff. I laugh at that because everybody wants free t-shirts… and others think I went over the top. I am thinking that they should just have a good time and wear the shirt and enjoy the picnic and

It’s Picnic Week..Wed

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Weather: 80 Hot, Humid and Rainy

Stated the day bright and early by going to bed at 2am and getting woken up at 7:30am by a phone call to pick up my Uncle Fran for breakfast and talk. After a quick ride to Hamilton Twp to pick him up , my youngest cousin Lou joined us and we headed to the Crystal diner for a a good breakfast and a lot of coffee. Clora and Dean showed up and we worked on the game rules for Sat and the awards that we hand out. We headed back to Eggerts Crossing Rd. and started working on the CD-Rom covers and other things inside sine the weather is kind of crappy outside. Dean has done a great job on the cover art. Ira and he did a lot of printing and putting together last night before dinner at the Indian Restaurant. We are trying to just take it easy this morning and hit the ground running when the weather breaks.

We are listening to Deans nephews band Audiot. A very tight band and very professional sounding. The lead singer has a real good voice. Check out the sight and download there MP3’s from there current album “The Do It Yourself Lobotomy Kit”.

My Family paper made the Local Paper

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As most of you know I spend a lot of time working on the family paper, picnic, and web site. Well thanks to my dads Uncle Bob we got an article about all of it in the local paper The Times. It is a well written article with 2 good pictures. I have scanned it and posted it on the family web site here. I also bought 7 copies and will have at least on mounted.

Working on the picnic today and hanging out with my Uncle Fran and family….

Late night calls = Bad News 2

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When the phone rings late at night is it ever good news? It hasn’t happened to me in a long time but a few of my friends have had it happen lately. But the times that people have called the house late at night have been to tell me someone is dead or in the hospital. You never get birth announcements in the middle of the night I guess because the proud parents are to tired or they respect the one who are asleep already. Just a thought that popped in my head after I was talking to some friends at work today….

Well the month of July is flying by….

This entry was posted in Family Personal Work Stuff on by
873

So in houner of my birthday a few days ago here is a nice picture of me at the age of 1. I already had that “I am in a mellow mood” look at th age of 1. There are a bunch of new pictures in the gallery of me and my daughter Avery. I have been trying to get a box of pictures scanned so I can move to the boxes of pictures that my parents brought up from my grandmoms house when they were clearing it out.

Spent the last 2 weeks working on a Power Point presentation for work. The total slides came to 172 that comes out to 2.8 slides a min for a 1 hour presentation. But the guys who presented it did it with 2 min to spare so I am happy about that. If we get the job then we will all be happy. I real don’t like doing these Power Point things this one took up way to much time and me away from my family.

Talking about family most of mine are at the Jersey shore this week. Fran and family showed up from Michigan on Sat. They will all be heading to Lawrenceville on Sat to help get ready for the La Vigna picnic which is in 9 days. It should be a good time. Dean is almost done with the calender. We ran a copy off to see how it is and found some room for improvement. The CD rom of all the issues of the paper is all done and just needs to be burned multiple times. The T-shirts are done and look great. I will try to get a picture of them to put up on the sight…..

Wow hard to believe that my birthday has passed and I am now 37 years old. I don’t have a problem with getting old unlike my Cousin John who’s birthday is today. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHN!!!! I just see it as a passage to a better time. I am working on having more fun and not letting work bother me so much…hasn’t been working really well lately with an XP roll-out hanging over my head and the whole PowerPoint thing that took 2 weeks.

Well, that’s it for now…..

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A little Queen this morning got the day going… 🙂

Oh, you’re the best friend
That I ever had
I’ve been with you such a long time
You’re my sunshine
And I want you to know
That my feelings are true
I really love you
(ooh) oh, you’re my best friend

Ooh, you make me live

4th of July weekend

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Well the weekend was taken up with getting ready for the party we threw on Sunday. A lot of the time was getting a real cool back drop up on the patio and getting everything ready. The party was great. The food ranged from clams on the half shell, Margaritaville Shrimp, a clam and muscles dish cooked on the grill, racks of ribs and the usual picnic fare. The salads and deserts were excelent..thank you all who brought them. A big thanks go to smed for the keg.

We hope everyone had a good time….

Pictures can be seen here.

See you all on Labor day…. 🙂

It’s 5 O’Clock Somewhere….

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Wow….that is all I can really say. I haven’t been to a Jimmy Buffett concert before and it’s an event that is very close to a Grateful Dead show. I was finally able to get tickets this year and made a surprise gift for my wife and daughter at Easter. Well, last night was the night and we all had a blast. We hit the road around 4 pm after work and were in Camden by 4:45. We were late, the party had started already. The main parking lots were packed with Parrot-heads and they were partying.

We saw and smelled tons of good food and heard a lot of blenders running and making what I hope were some great margaritas. We had a great time just watching people. There is really no real difference between a deadhead and a parrot-head except that a deadhead is a little less groomed than your normal parrot-head. No smellies at a Jimmy show…

We got in line about a half-hour before the gates opened and made some quick friends in line and had some good conversation. It’s interesting how much more attention you get when you bring your 11-year-old daughter with you, all the woman in line keep an eye on here and make sure she doesn’t disappear. The gates opened around 7 pm and the mad rush of all the lawn seat people started. Compare it to the running of the bulls. We lost a lot of the people we were talking to in line and ended up about midway up the hill dead center of the stage. We were surrounded by true parrot-heads. We had a blast watching them..they know how to party…

The show kicked off about 8:20 with Jimmy coming out solo and doing a few songs then the Coral Refers hit the stage with him and the party kicked into high gear. He took a very short break at 9:30 and then came out and played to 11:30.

The highlights of the show music wise for me were, of course, Margaritaville, Fins, and Son of a Sailor, but the big surprise for all of the attending Deadheads was a cover of Scarlet Begonias it made my heart swell and put me on a definite different plane of fun. He finished off the show with a 3 song encore ending with an acoustic version of “Pirate Looks At Forty”.

Overall it was a great show. Avery was disappointed that he didn’t play “Fruitcakes” and I was hoping for “Tin Cup Chalice”, but other than that the show was great. The crowd was excellent and well behaved and in a party mood. The one thing that surprised me was the lack of pot being smoked. There was none at all I didn’t smell any at all. I guess I have been going to too many jam band shows…

As we were walking back to the car my wife and daughter informed me that we have to go next year. So all you parrot-heads see you there next year…..

Here is the setlist:

HOT HOT HOT

Banana Boat Song

01 Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes with the original Coral Reefer Band
02 Great Filling Station Holdup with Mac
03 Pencil Thin Mustache starts with Robert and Ralph joining in and finally the whole band
04 Only Time Will Tell
05 License To Chill
06 Carnival World
07 Son of a Son of a Sailor
08 If The Phone Doesn’t Ring It’s Me
09 Brown Eyed Girl
10 Volcano
11 Why Don’t We Get Drunk Purple Rain psychedelic style
12 Hey Good Looking
13 One Particular Harbour

Intermission

14 Smart Woman (In a Real Short Skirt)
15 The Pascagoula Run
16 Jamaica Mistaica
17 Come Monday
18 Grapefruit-Juicy Fruit
19 Jolly Mon
20 It’s Five O’clock Somewhere
21 Cheeseburger in Paradise
22 Coast of Carolina
23 Cuban Crime of Passion
24 Southern Cross
25 Scarlet Begonias
26 Margaritaville

First Encore:
27 Fins
28 We Are the People Our Parents Warned Us About

Band Intros

Second Encore:
29 A Pirate Looks at Forty