Cindy and Greg

Well, 2006 is just a few hours away. Have your made your resolutions yet? Honestly I haven’t really thought about “resolutions ” for the new year. There are things I want to get done and I am always resolute, but something about calling them resolutions makes them seem trendy or something you just must say because it is the dawn of the new year. So on my “To Do” list for the year (in no particular order)

• Volunteer more
• Generate 100k in revenue for Perceiva
• Work on becoming a father
• Learn to do more things around the house by myself
• Learn more about wines
• Try new foods/resturants
• Participate in Relay for Life
• Donate more money to worthly causes (American Cancer Society and American Heart Association
• Participate in the community (school board meetings, town meetings, Fernbrook HoA)

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What a wonderful day! It was a unseasonably warm day in Williamsburg, and the families were on the way. Cindy and I got up early to “de-clutter” the house. By noon we were exhausted, but we had a couple of hours to relax before everyone arrived. We put out the food, lots of food and waited for our guests to arrive. Linda, Kelsey, Mom Taylor, and Dorie arrived first, followed by Brian and Jim. About 45 minutes later Mom Smith and Stephen arrived. The gang was all there. I was so proud of my mom for making the trip. It has been a difficult year for her but she is starting to participate in life again. The beer flowed, the food was being eaten, the music playing and the gifts being exchanged, all with Tucker on his best behavior.

Only one small problem for the day, someone (read: me) turned the extra fridge to be a little too cold and the mozzarella and tomatoes froze a bit…and well the shrip took a little while to defrost, but Cindy’s ziti was wonderful.

All in all, I think we had a successful first Christmas at the new house, now lets get ready for next year!

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We had a nice day in Richmond today…the Nutcracker was at the Landmark Theatre in downtown Richmond. After the ballet, we went grocery shopping…apparently we weren’t the only ones who thought about doing that.

We are still making final preparations for Christmas day. We ordered the shrimp, veggies, fruit, and cold cuts from Ukrops today. They make it almost too easy by allowing you to order it online and pick it up the day before Christmas.

Also a nice little surprise today when I went to make a call on my Verizon Wireless phone, I noticed that it was showing the EVDO symbol meaning that the high speed wireless network is now available in Williamsburg! What a nice little early birthday present.

Happy Sunday all…

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It is hard to believe, it is once again, time for Christmas. Seems like yesterday I was watching Cindy walk down the aisle with dad by my side. But alas, Thanksgiving has come and gone and we are making preparations for Christmas. We have the honor of hosting the families for holiday in our new home in Williamsburg.

The last few weeks have been busy. Between work and the normal stuff, we have been doing some home improvements, making the house our home. We had the folks at University Painters do some painting in the family room, foyer, half-bath, my office, master bedroom, and the bonus room. We also had Pergo installed in the bonus room and my office everything is coming together. Last weekend we put up the tree. Last year mom gave us the tree that they had put up in the house in Brewster, while hard to accept, we realized that we could share the spirit of Christmas and continue our traditions, while creating some of our own.

In Perceiva news, I am preparing to make the trip across country to finish my training with Zultys. We just completed our first project with J.S. & C.H. Odell Organs in East Hampton Connecticut. Slowly but surely we are making progress.

Anyway, I must get to the airport, more soon.

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Just a small note, after a while of working and tweaking it, perceiva.com went live last night…

We are on our way.

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Its hard to believe that 4 years ago today that our country was faced the tradgedy that has now become known as 9/11. It sounds cliché, but I can remember sitting in a meeting when the new was announced but someone running into the room. I can remember trying to get a hold of Stephen to confirm he was okay and then trying to get a hold of mom and dad to let them know we were fine. I remember calling Cindy (we were still early in our relationship) to let her know what was going on in DC and calling her mother because she wasn’t able to. I can remember walking into my apartment that night, picking up Zanzibar and sitting on the bed, stunned by the images being replayed on TV.

Our country became stronger in its brotherhood that day, we can see that by what is happening down in New Orleans today. We can see that by the woman who has taken in 52 victems of Katrina and provided them with food, shelter, and a place to get back on their feet. We still have our political differences, we still have idiots around us, but I believe, perhaps naively, that the country is more united that it has ever been in my lifetime, but has lots some of its strength.

The events of September 11th, left three thousand families without brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, and left countless more without friends. While I didn’t know anyone personally who died in the tragic events of the day, it isn’t hard to see the countless number of people who have been impacted by the day. So as we approach the third anniversary of September 11th, lets try to remember that the people we pass on the roads, the people who were are complaining about in line, and the people who frustrate us to no end are the same people we were bonded to in the days following September 11th. They are the same people we talked with and cried with, why do we treat them differently today?

For as much progress as we have made, I am disappointed with how we treat our law enforcement and fire fighters in this country. These are the people that go running into danger, while others are running away, this are the people that say, nothing is going to happen to you on my watch, these are the people that do this everyday, no just on 9/11 or in the aftermath of Katrina. Some of you know, my uncle is a Captain in the FDNY so this issue may be a bit more personal to me then some. Do me a favor, thank a police officer or a fire fighter when you see them, not just for 9/11 or for specific events, but thank them for the job the choose to do for us every day and for the protection they afford us.

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After two weeks of “we are closing tomorrow” we finally closed in Dumfries on Friday, apparently the lender for the buyer was the issue, but I guess we will never know (and not that it matters now). At 4pm on Friday, we signed all of the paperwork that sold our first house together and then went to dinner at Tony Chengs with Stephen and his friend Elizabeth in downtown DC to celebrate. We have a 10:30a closing in Williamsburg tomorrow. Cindy will be handling that on her own as I will be heading to one of my last days at the poop plant.

We picked out the appliances, we wound up doing the fridge, the dishwasher, the stove, and the built-in microwave in stainless steel. We figured we wanted them to match and if we were doing the fridge and the dishwasher, we might as well go ahead and finish off the job now. And we needed to get the washer and dryer, so we got the Maytag Neptune front loading set to save money in the long run. We had a 10% off coupon for Lowes and then I found a $400 rebate online that we weren’t expecting to get (oh the power of the Internet). Cindy quickly claimed the rebate for decorating expenses.

More soon…

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