One Good Turn Deserves Another

What's with Twilight

2009-11-21T13:04:00.000-08:00

So apparently this Twilight thing is a big deal.......

Halloween, Ugh....

2009-10-31T12:31:00.000-07:00

Oh boy.....it's Halloween. I really don't like this holiday very much, maybe it's just the way that I was brought up though. In any case, We're going as the Spartan Cheerleaders from SNL(I'll have to post some pictures) this year. Should be fun I guess.....and at least it's an excuse to go to a party. I hope everyone is doing well, make sure to drive safely tonight I'm sure there will be plenty of crazies on the road.

The NFCT Part 1 and 2

2009-10-24T11:23:00.000-07:00

Finally getting back to some posts that I promised over a year ago. NFCT stands for the Northern Forest Canoe Trail. This is a series of water passages, both flat water and rivers, that streches approximately 740 miles from Old Forge at the base of the Adirondack through northern VT and NH then up through ME on the Allegash to Fort Kent. This is a trail that I hope to accomplish in my life-time, and so far has become a yearly trip for myself, my dad, and my brothers.

Part 1 - Starting in Old Forge, we started out on the conservative side. There were a number of portages and we weren't sure how well our design for Kayak Carts would work. This the route that we took from Old Forge to Raquette Lake, somewhere around 25 mi in three days.

06-28-08 Boys Kayak Trip

Part 2 - Starting where we left off at Raquette Lake we continued another 25 mi up to Long Lake and finished section 1 of the trail. This is the route, for some reason I couldn't get Google Maps to cooperate so just imagine that we started on the south side of Raquette Lake and paddled up to placemark A then on to B. Part 2

08-28-09 Boys Kayak Trip

Turkey Day

2008-11-29T08:34:00.000-08:00

I learned an interesting fact this Thanksgiving. The first Thanksgiving took place on 1565 in St. Augustine, FL. and it was originally the Spanish I probably should have known it before but I think that our idea of Thanksgiving, as well as most holidays, have been thwarted in some way. Very interesting.

Regardless of the history, I think was is important is that we have these holidays as a time to gather with family and friends and enjoy eachothers company.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, and have a great holiday season.

Lowell Lake, VT

2008-06-30T18:03:00.000-07:00

One of the things that I've been missing while in school has been ventures into places that are less traveled. It's nice to get out and see the world that isn't filled with people rushing around like chickens without that vital organ.

Every once in a while I get the chance to head up to Londonderry, VT and help out a good friend with her computer. She's very patient with me, I think I probably cause more problems then I fix...but she says that I fix her problems and make her life better. See she has the right idea, nice office space with a beautiful view overlooking the woods surrounding Bromley, Mt. She works remotely most of the time, and heads to NYC when needed. Anyway, I digress. So I got the chance to head up and help her out. Just a couple days prior I invested in a wonderful guide, AMC's Quiet Water, so I looked up lakes that were local to Londonderry figuring that I would just take along the kayak and paddle around for a couple hours after working. Lowell Lake happened to be just down the road from where I was going to be. It took me about 1.5 hours to paddle around the entire lake, granted I was taking my time. Here's the count on what I saw in those two hours;
4 Beaver
11 or 12 Beaver Huts
1 Blue Heron
3 Guys (Rather large I might add), Fishing from what looked like a paddle boat with a trolling motor

Good times were had. If you're in the area, I would suggest checking it out.

"A standard 8-oz. serving of milk provides good to excellent sources of nine essential nutrients, making it one of the most nutrient-dense foods."

Monte

2008-06-22T14:07:00.000-07:00

Wow, so much to write about since my last post. I'm sorry to keep all of you waiting, I'm sure that you've missed me terribly.......Yeah Right!!!

Well it's official....I graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Systems Engineering on June 24th. Aren't you all so proud of me? This is a very exciting milestone for me, one that makes me both happy and sad. This stage is complete, which is great, but all the people that I've met and spent every day with, will be missed terribly. I'm very excited for the change though, and to finally be making some money. In addition I've put off some of my dreams until this stage of my life, and now I will be able to take some of them on. Flying is one of the major ones and I will keep all of you up to date on advances in that path.

As of right now I haven't started work yet, in fact we still haven't moved yet either. I will be starting my new job in mid-July and will give you all updates on that when the time comes.

This past month has been quite relaxing and has given me a chance to get some things done that I've been meaning to do for a while. I'm working on refinishing our dining room table, pictures to come later, I'm done some kayaking, pictures to come later, and soon I will start packing and getting ready for the move, probably won't take pictures of that though. So I guess the bottom line is that I'm doing pretty well. I can't believe how fast time goes by when you're having fun though, it really is rather depressing in that regard.

Well I will hopefully get a couple more posts up soon, I have some trips and events that I want to share with all of you and I guess this is the best medium for mass distribution.

You've all be drinking your milk right?

monte

Deja Brew

2008-03-14T05:26:00.000-07:00

March 8th brought the joy of beer. I headed out to a place called Deja Brew in Shrewsbury MA with some of my best friends. Deja Brew provides a facility to brew and bottle your own beer, with knowledgeable staff to assist with any questions along the way. They really are wonderful people and anyone that is interested in learning the brewing process, this is a great way to get started. In addition, you get to drink while you work.

In any case, we headed down to bottle our first two batches of beer; 6 of us, each ended up with two cases of twelve 22oz bottles.

Check out pictures

Good times were had by all,

Monte

It's been a while

2008-01-25T07:45:00.000-08:00

You'd think that after not write for such a long time, I'd actually have things to write about. The truth is that when you've been away for so long, you have so much to write and you don't know where to start. Well I guess I'll start by saying, "The Pat's are kickin' it again!!!!!!!!!!" Very excited about the Super Bowl, and I wish that everyone that reads this could be together to watch the game, I'd love to be able to see all of you together again. I think I've said it before, growing up really sucks.

So I finished out the semester strong. Everyone said that senior year was supposed to be easier than the rest, they were wrong. Well, at least for last semester.....I'm expecting this coming semester to be better since I only have 12 credits remaining and only one of the classes is related to engineering. I'm on the home stretch with mixed feelings. I took a job in Nashua, NH, and I'm very excited about it. What a change it's going to be. I've been in school for the past 5 years, yes I took the long route, and starting the routine of going to work every day is going to be very different. Anyway, I'm excited about the change, and my wife is talking about going back to school; I think it is a wonderful idea. Of course this could mean great things for all of my readers, I'll have much more to write about other than my seemingly insignificant life.

I performed one of my major tasks as president of the electrical and computer engineering honors society last night for the first time, I inducted new members. I find it interesting to see how times have changed so much, but how some things still stay the same. The induction ritual was probably written back in the 40's or so, the society has been in existence since 1904, and although it's gone through many revisions the main concepts are still there. Things such as being an honorable professional, standing up for what is right, always looking out for your fellow men and women, etc. These sort of morals still are as applicable today as they were back then although some may say harder to come by. But the writing style and some of the word usage just didn't apply at all, and brought on some laughs from those getting inducted, "Well Groomed" to give you an idea. The whole thing went well except for a couple screw ups on my part, but I guess I'm allowed that.

This is Monte signing out, and wishing you all a Super Sunday......Time to wipe the field with some Giants......

And So It Goes

2007-09-12T20:00:00.000-07:00

"What goes?" you might ask, well....life goes.

Things are definitely getting crazy. I never figured that this year would involve so many meetings though. I have a weekly meeting with my Senior Design Project(SDP) Team, meetings with various people about the project that we're undertaking(Once we have the website up I will post the link so you all can see what I'll be working on), meetings with the Professor I work for, meetings for the Honors Society that I'm the president of, and the list goes on. But I'm pretty happy with how things are going so far. I'm excited about my classes. So far Amanda and I have been doing pretty well even without getting to see each other much.

On a lighter note, a buddy of mine invited me to join a fantasy football league this fall and I figured it would help take my mind off of school every once in a while. So, week 1 was this past weekend, AND I WON!!!! who would have thought. It's actually pretty exciting. For those of you that like football, creating a fantasy team really makes you look at football as a whole instead of just watching YOUR team.

Amanda and I will be heading to the Cape this weekend for her cousins wedding. I have mixed feelings about the whole thing, but I'm sure it will prove to be a good time. Her father and I are talking about taking our golf clubs and playing a round on Sunday morning which would simply make the trip.

Anyway, that's if for now, and "don't forget to drink your milk".
Disclaimer-
"Drinking milk is only suggestion and I take no responsibility for it's health benefits
nor the dangers that it may cause to any one person."

And It Starts

2007-09-07T07:43:00.000-07:00

This blogging thing is funny......I kinda feel like I'm letting people down when I don't post. Interesting.

Anyway, school has begun. Already I'm in full swing, and it should be an interesting year. I'm happily married, so I need to continue to uphold my end of the bargain and be a good husband, while at the same time juggling my senior year of craziness, and attempting to maintain an honors society at school. What have I gotten myself into. I'm excited though....it is my senior year which, for engineering student, mean that you've pretty much made it. Now I just need to start seriously considering what I'm going to do after I get out of school. Any suggestions?

I will write more as life progresses.

Love to all, and remember to drink your milk.

Sean

More Pictures

2007-08-30T08:00:00.001-07:00

Alright here's the deal. For those of you that would like to see the remainder of the wedding pictures here's the website.

You'll have to register to view the pictures, but once you have you'll be able to order directly from the site. It's pretty cool actually.

That's all for this post,

Monte, Out....

Pictures to Wet the Appetite

2007-08-09T05:31:00.000-07:00

My Beautiful Bride

We chose to take pictures on the top of Mt. Sugarloaf. This is the site
that my Grandmothers ashes are spread, and since she couldn't be at
the ceremony I figured she should be at the picture session. She provided
a wonderful day for picture takeing. Thanks Gram.

At first I thought the bubbles idea was pretty lame, but I
have to admit, they make for really good pictures. Thanks Baby

How is it that we all look so stupid in this picture?

I definitely have the best groomsmen ever.

Don't worry everyone this is just the beginning of what's to come.

As a good friend of mine would say,
"Peace, Love and Beer"

Monte

Crazy Weekends......

2007-08-07T06:19:00.000-07:00

Another weekend come and gone. This summer has been flying by, I can't believe that it's August already.

This past weekend was another of what has become an annual trip for myself and a bunch of close friends. Dave Matthews!!!! Saturday, August 4 at the Dodge Music Center, Hartford, CT.

This year we weren't able to get a room at our normal spot ( very close to the venue), so we had to get a hotel about 3 miles away. This meant that taxi's were needed to avoid DUI's as well as the chaos that is Venue Traffic. Well this is all well and good when your talking about getting to the concert, getting back is another story. There are sooo many cars all over the place that no taxi driver is his right mind would even consider a pick up. So we start walking in hopes of get far enough away from the action to get picked up. It would have made for a very interesting time except that my wife was having alot of problems with her neck that night. I felt very badly about that, and even worse about not being able to do anything about it. We found a nice sitting spot(curb side) at a four way intersection and watched the traffic cops in action, very funny. Three cops in the middle of the road directing people here and there, while it seemed like every driver wanted to go in the opposite direction. They would try everything from roll down the window and ask, to turn on the blinker and just try to be defiant. So the cops would yell, "You can't go that way, there's an accident", or"Nope there's a roll over down there, you've gotta go this way." Then with the next line of traffic, they'd use the same excuse only for a different direction. Truth was, they just wanted to split traffic up, and get them to the highway as quickly as possible. They were actually very efficient, and you could tell that they had been doing this for years and years. We'd laugh and tell them they were doing a good job, or ask them questions, they were very nice.

All in all, the concert was very crazy(as it always is), but I have to say....it was the best Dave concert I've ever been to yet, and most of you know, I've been to ALOT of Dave concerts. Lots of old stuff, a couple new songs from his next album....but they played and played, and you could tell that they were all having so much fun which simply makes the music.

So, for all of you that were at the concert, thanks for such a great time. For all of you that weren't there, if you get a chance to see Dave live, take it.....I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Milk, It does a body good.
Monte

The Blog to Start It All

2007-07-31T07:42:00.000-07:00

Over the past couple years I've been keeping up with some of my closest friends from around the globe through their dedication to blogging. I think its time for me to give back. I have no idea why anyone would care to read about the happenings(or non-happenings) in my life, but that's just my opinion and I shouldn't let it stop me. Also, due to recent life changes, I feel like I need a place to write about the good times and the bad times. So here goes......

Hopefully most of you reading this know what change I speak of, but if not I recently traded in my bachelorhood for the love of my life. 07-07-07 was the date(yes we were one of those), and what a great day it was....or at least thats what everyone as told me. Funny thing about your own wedding, you work like crazy to pull together all the details, but on the wedding day everything becomes a blur. Unfortunate as it might be, I honestly only remember bits and pieces of the day. I guess that's why we have pictures and video....thanks to my beautiful wife who insisted on both. I will be posting some pictures of the wedding for everyone to see, and I'm sure you are all dying to see them.
So that's that, honeymoon was great, moving sucks(even when it's not your own stuff), life is great and please don't ask me "How's married life?" I REALLY HATE THAT QUESTION. If you want to ask me a question, come up with something a little more intelligent and less annoying. Everyone knows that there are only two responses to that question, Good and Bad. And honestly, even if married life wasn't working out all that well do you really think I'm going to tell you.......so I guess the answer is narrowed down to "Good." That will be my answer, I won't go into any other detail. Alright, enough with the rant....

I hope to hear from you all soon, and when I get some pictures back from the wife I will write some more detail on the wedding and the honeymoon.

Remember to drink your milk,
Monte