Rich & Jess

The Fate of Xenson

noreply@blogger.com (Rich & Jessica) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 01:05:00 +0000

So things have been busy around here, I've started a new job and have been working 24 7. Aside from being busy with work, I also passed all sections of the CPA exam...I found out awhile ago but things were so busy I couldn't even post.

The main reason why I am posting tonight is to let you all know about the fate of xenson.com.

Earlier today I received this message from blogger, the service we use to post to this website:

...we are announcing today that we will no longer support FTP publishing in Blogger after March 26, 2010.

Yeah, this is pretty crappy news though I have thought that this would happen for some time. The problem is I haven't had time to adjust xenson.com. So, really while we don't post often, this is just a message to let you all know it may be less often for some time till I can find a proper alternate site.

That's about it for the post, sorry it wasn't more but hopefully things will calm down sometime in the next 3 months and I'll be able to fix the site and post more often.

Back from our trip abroad / Another exam closer to being a CPA

noreply@blogger.com (Rich & Jessica) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 03:13:00 +0000

Hey all, Jessica and I returned from our trip about 2 weeks ago. It's pretty sad being back in real life but all good things must come to an end.

While we were away hardwoods were put into our bedroom floor (downstairs). While the floors look beautiful, the cleanup process has been less than fun. We were lucky enough to solicit some help for this process :)

I can't post about our entire trip now as it's getting late but I wanted to be sure to let everyone know that pics can be found on the picture page (link found on the right border). Jessica took some time and paired them down, she also spent alot of time placing comments on each of them so that you the viewer will know what you are looking at. While viewing, please note the number of times Jessica tried to place a dome/bird/etc on my head in pictures...

Finally, after much waiting, I found out tonight that I passed another section of the CPA exam. I took the exam about 1 month ago and was pretty nervous about receiving the score...lucky for me it was a pass. For those keeping track, that's 3 down (REG, FAR and AUD) and 1 to go (BEC).

Wish me luck....Oh and please wish Jess a Happy Birthday, it'll be here before you know it.

Off to Eastern Europe!

noreply@blogger.com (Rich & Jessica) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:45:00 +0000

Thought I would write a quick post to say bye to everyone before Jessica and I catch a flight today to fly to Prague. We're traveling by car through several Eastern European countries. The answer to the question is yes. We like to challenge ourselves and our love for each other by driving in places where we don't speak the language or know where we are going :)

From the Czech Republic we'll be driving to Budapest (Hungary), then on to Ljubljana (Slovenia), onto Lake Bled (still in Slovenia) then back to Prague (well outside of Prague for one night) then staying a few last days in Prague before flying back home.

We're both really excited about the trip and can't wait to share the pictures. Hope everyone around here has a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.

been some time since I posted...but I have a good excuse

noreply@blogger.com (Rich & Jessica) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 05:14:00 +0000

So, it's been a long time since I posted on the web. In fact, Jessica was the last person to post on the site for the 2 of us. One of the reasons is that we really don't have much going on, there are no kids to speak about and my/our weekends have pretty much been filled with work.

For those who don't know, I've been studying for the CPA exam since pretty much after New Years. The process is long and difficult (just ask Jessica) but it seems to be paying off.

To date, I have taken 2 sections of the exam Regulation (tax, business law, partnerships, etc)and FAR (Financial Accounting and Reporting, basically anything and everything GAAP related). I just found out this week that I pass FAR, probably the most difficult section of the exam (at least for me), I also found out (about 2 months ago) that I passed REG.

What's the big deal? I'm now 1/2 of the way through the CPA exam with the 2 most difficult exams behind me. It's a pretty good feeling.

Anyway, I hope everyone else is having as great of a week as me (well work sucks but at least I learned my score).

BTW, Carrie, sorry I didn't tell you in person, I am in California this week and get out of work after you and the girls go to sleep :) tell them I said I.

Proud Aunt and Uncle Welcome Liam Albert Christenson!

noreply@blogger.com (Rich & Jessica) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 18:52:00 +0000

That's right folks, we have a 2nd nephew. First Anja, then Connor, then Emma, now Liam. The folks in FL just keep them coming! We don't have any details right now but as soon as we have details and pictures we will put up another post. I can't wait to get my hands on him sometime this summer! It's hard to be so far away. Sending our love to all...

Christmas on the Beach - New Years on the Mountain

noreply@blogger.com (Rich & Jessica) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:57:00 +0000

Life is good, yes it is. As the title suggests, Jessica and I spent Christmas this year with my family down in Florida and then spent New Year with Jessica's family. I guess technically their both considered our families but to better illustrate the point lets keep is as hers and mine.

That is not how our holiday season began though. No, infact, it wouldn't be Christmas if it weren't for our annual trip to see the Boston Pops with Ashley and Rob. The Pops put on another great show and played their 12 Days of Christmas compilation again as well (I'll post it when I get a chance, it's a huge file so I may never get around to it). And in typical fashion is snowed the night of the Pops, it seems to be part of the tradition at this point.

While the Pops were fun, the several Lemon Martini's I enjoyed after the show were not necessary, especially since Jessica and I had to wake up at 5 in the morning to catch our flight to Florida.

What was so nice about Florida this year was the length of time we actually spent there. On average we probably spent about 3 days down there for the Holiday, however, this year we stayed for 5. This allowed us time to see the family, spend some QT with the parents, go on the boat and sit on the beach. Steve and Zoe did Christmas at their house again this year and as mentioned several times that night, the food was wonderful and the kids are adorable. It was particularly fun as they are growing up and really enjoying the idea of presents, it almost brings you back to the days of waking up on Christmas morning yourself and playing with all the toys you got from Santa.

When we left Florida we were headed up to upstate NY to visit Jessica's family for Christmas but when we found out that her father had the flu, we turned the car around and went to breakfast instead. We decided to then post-pone Christmas in NY for a few days and decided to celebrate New Years instead.

By that time, Jessica and I had also finally found a Nintendo Wii (after searching some 15-20 stores) and the New Year was brought in whilst playing a 'Wii' little Bowling (pun definitely intended). After the New Year, we all decided to Ski at one of our favorite mountains (Gore) and on Saturday we skied. The conditions were decent, considering the wintry mix storm the northeast had the week before, but rather than downhill 2 days in a row, it was suggested we cross country.

I don't know if we'll be able to rope everyone into a cross country ski trip again the next time we ski, however, it is an experience. We were also fortunate enough to take the dog with us via a converted boot bag / doggy backpack (see the pictures on the picture page).

That brings us to this week where we both returned to work full time and reality set back in (it's a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there).

Hope everyone enjoyed their Holiday's and has a happy and healthy new year.

PS - my resolution was to update the page and add a family tree....we'll see if I get around to it this year.

Get out and vote already....

noreply@blogger.com (Rich & Jessica) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 21:48:00 +0000

Jessica and I went this morning to vote and were not very happy to see that a person that is currently in a scandal here in Boston, Sal DiMasi article here, can possibly run unopposed! I mean, what has the world come to? Can anyone really be in politics in this country as long as you have the money to campaign?

Luckily, a State Senator here in MA, Dianne Wilkerson article here, took her name off the ballot.

On pondering all this, I have decided to write my name in the place where Sal DiMasi currently runs unopposed. I ask that everyone else I know does the same in MA. To be honest, I am thinking of sitting outside a few polling centers to publicize myself a little.

Ugh, politics smolitics. Here's to a historic election and a new 4 years, whom ever it may be with.

Celebrating 60 years today

noreply@blogger.com (Rich & Jessica) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 13:33:00 +0000

Well all, I just heard a really cool blurb on our local NPR station here in Boston about the 60th anniversary of the War of the Worlds original broadcast (October 30th, 1938 for those that can't do the math).

In the broadcast they played some highlights of the show and I have to say I was very impressed with it. I decided to look online for a downloadable version of that broadcast and found a great website people my be interested in.

Mercury Theatre

The above website has countless of their shows, including The War of the Worlds.
I know I'll be enjoying this today, hopefully you will find some time too.

If the link above doesn't work....here is another

Weekends were made for this....

noreply@blogger.com (Rich & Jessica) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 02:34:00 +0000

While the weekend isn't over yet, it will soon be Sunday, which, for most of us out there, is the day before we begin a full week of work. So, to make everyone's Monday morning a little better, I decided to post this weekend (lucky you).

As you all may know now (or maybe not), the link to the new photo page is located on the right side of the page, just above the photo albums (it's only a link so keep a close eye).

That is how you will access the new photo page until I can get blogger to accept php scripts and, seeing as how I can't control bloggers strategic decisions, that is where it will remain. However, if anyone can point me to a nice blogging app or web interface that will allow php, it would be appreciated.

On to the weekend though. Jared came last minute and being short of things to do, he brought Guitar Hero and Rock Band. For some reason, he left the drums at home which are what I like to rock out on but he did bring 3 guitars and luckily no vocals (Bang a Gong anyone?).

To honor our fellow Guitar Hero and Rock Band fans, I created a new album in the photo page which will now house all our mobile uploads. To kick things off, I took pictures of Jessica and Jared rocking it hard core, can't you see the focus and drive in their faces? I have also added photos from a Corn Maze we completed today up on the North Shore. The maze itself was 7 acres and ended up being a bit more difficult than I think we all thought it would. Of course, making the first turn in the wrong direction didn't help things out at all either.

Hope you all enjoyed your weekend...here's to the week ahead.

PS - There have been a ton of sets added to the photo page, some of which are listed below (I hope you all enjoy them):
Professional Wedding Pictures
Jessica's 30th Birthday (Italy and Friends visit)
Jessica and Ashley's Trip to Amsterdam
Our first visit to Gettysburg since graduation
Many more...

New Image Page Goes Live!

noreply@blogger.com (Rich & Jessica) — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 19:18:00 +0000

Ever get tired of not seeing an updated picture post? Editing the template in Blogger may not seem like much trouble but these days even making a post is difficult. So, the following page was developed to update, automatically, when we post a set within our flickr account (neat uh?).

New Photo Page Goes Live!

I expect modifications to come shortly so input would be nice, I basically stole the templates from a forum I use.

Also, if anyone has any PHP or Java codes that they use on their page and wouldn't mind sharing, it'd be appreciated.

Enjoy the albums.

Connor bursts into song

noreply@blogger.com (Rich & Jessica) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 13:51:00 +0000

The Thomas the Train Roll Call

Connor Sings the Thomas the Train Roll Call

Engine Roll Call
They're two, they're four, they're six, they're eight
Shunting trucks and hauling freight
Red and green and brown and blue
They're the Really Useful Crew
All with different roles to play
Round Tidmouth Sheds or far away
Down the hills and round the bends
Thomas and his friends

Thomas, he's the cheeky one
James is vain but lots of fun
Percy pulls the mail on time
Gordon thunders down the line
Emily really knows her stuff
Henry toots and huffs and puffs
Edward wants to help and share
Toby, well let's say he's square

My civic duty, or so they tell me

noreply@blogger.com (Rich & Jessica) — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 15:08:00 +0000

Sitting in a courthouse is about as much fun as it sounds, yes I know, I can here you all trying to contain that sudden burst of excitement so as not to disturb your cubicle neighbors.

Juror number 279 is my name for the day, sadly, or maybe not so sadly since they were picked already, juror number 007 was already taken.

Random acts of computer algorithms gave me that number which may or may not be my ticket out of this court room without being called.

Pray for me.
279 signing out.

Enjoying the end of summer in the north

noreply@blogger.com (Rich & Jessica) — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 15:27:00 +0000

The plans for this weekend changed last minute for jessica and I yet as I sit here on a hammock on the cape, I struggle to find anything wrong with that. Well, ask me tomorrow when I find that I got a burn from the sun and we may get a different answer.

Jessica and I were lucky enough to get invited to lisa's families cape house for I believe is the last official weekend of the summer. To be honest, the chill last night made me wonder if we missed the last 'unofficial' summer weekend.

Hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful weather today and has a similar weekend to mine, filled with relaxation and reading.

I'll try and figure out how to load picture from my blackberry later this afternoon as I am hoping to take someones advise to take a long walk off a short pier (I think I'll jump at the end though).

Belated Welcome to Charlie Lansdale!

noreply@blogger.com (Rich & Jessica) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 13:08:00 +0000

Due to being on vacation we are late with posting a welcome message to Edward Charles "Charlie" Lansdale. He was born on August 1st to Ted and Kiki. We visited with him before we left for Italy and again last night. He has already grown a bunch and is a very handsome little guy. We also got to see Addie and Alexis last night. She has changed so much and is all smiles and very chatty. Anyhow, here is a picture of snug Charlie snoozing during dinner last night. Enjoy!

Xenson snd the 21st century

noreply@blogger.com (Rich & Jessica) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 21:55:00 +0000

Mobile blogging has arrived to xenson.com and while I can not promise that there will be more posted on the site, I can promise to try.

Additionally, please note that I am working on a conclusion post of our italy trip so stay tooned.

Hopefully, at that time, pictures of the trip will be added to the website too.

Hope everyone is enjoying the summer.

Italy, Post 2:

noreply@blogger.com (Rich & Jessica) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 20:38:00 +0000

Ok so first things first, this keyboard, as we said last year, is alittle different than our std US keyboards, that being said, I am sorrry for grammer mistakes, I blame my mother for any spelling mistakes (it runs in the family).

Day Three: Still in Positano
Jared and I had the option of sleeping in this morning or traveling south on the boat to Amalfi, being the lazy people, we opted to sleep in. Jessica and her mom on the other hand took the boat and apparently had a great time there. The oldest paper manufacturer is there and I think thats pretty much it's claim to fame, well that and maybe the views (if you want more about the girl excursion, you must chat with one of them).

The men, awoke around 10 am to find breakfast on the balcony overlooking the sea. We'll, I say the men but Jared slept in for another 45 min. Once we collected ourselves and made pretty for the ladies, we walked down the 388 steps to get to the beach and wondered why we decided to take a shower that morning.

Knowing that the women were due in sometime around 12, we headed over to where the boats are due in.....and we waited. Apparently their ferry was late in Amalfi which caused alittle hickup in our meeting up plans....well, when we thought the last ferry arrived form Amalfi, we decided the best thing to do would be to walk up the 388 steps to the hotel room, just incase we missed them. We did just that and to our disappointment, the room was empty.

Cut to chase, (jessica is complaining that I am typing too much, someone please say they actually read this so she sees that a fan base wants this day by day info). We all finally met each other and hit the beach for a relaxing afternoon....ah, we all needed it too.

Blah, blah blah dinner, blah blah blah......food is great, I ate more fish here than ever and they even bring you the whole fish before you eat it to say wether you like it or not! What am I supposed to say, um, it looks alittle scrawny, give me one with some meat on his bones....or, he looks too slippery.....

Day Four: to Rome or bust!
Public transportation becomes your friend outside of the states, enough said.....

Also, it's about 11pm here and I want to read alittle so, of to bed......to fill you in on days Four through six, we go here to Rome walked, ALOT!!!!!!!!, and are now leaving....but there is so much more I can go into detail about....that will have to wait.

Ah, Roma!

noreply@blogger.com (Rich & Jessica) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 17:12:00 +0000

Sorry family first for not calling you all to let you know that I am here safe and sound. I haven't even set foot in a store to purchase a phone card to the states, I expect that I'll be able to get one here soon.

Aside from that, our trip thus far has been filled with heat and good times. It's hard not to like sitting on the top of a 200 foot cliff drinking wine from the local vinyards and eating pesce (ok maybe there is an a in there maybe not). Though, I do say, it's hard not to like the view, except maybe if you climbed the 388 steps to get there to eat there to get that view. Ok, so maybe it wasn't 388 steps to eat but it was that many to get to and from the beach, and we made that trip several times.

That was all in Positano which was a treck just to get there.....I'll run you through a quick day-by-day account of things to date.

Day 1 - Boston to Newark to Rome (or was it?)
Ok so our flight out of Boston became a bit of hassle, every flight out of Boston to Newark that night was delayed by several hours, which, of course, made us miss our connection to Rome....an 8:30 arrival into Rome became a 12:30 arrival. I unerstand that to the non-traveller, that might seem inconcequential, however this proved to be a wrinkle in the perfect transportation puzzle we had set for ourselves.

Our nice beautiful boat ride to Positano from Napoli became a train ride to Sorrento and then a bus on the "death road" as Jessica and her Mom dubbed it. Jared and I were quite at easy, well, maybe not but we needed to put on a good show for the ladies.

We finally arrived in Positano at around 10 pm on day 1/2. All of us traveled for nearly 24 hours to get there and lucky for Positano it was a beautiful night.

Day 2 - Positano/Capri
Not put off from the previous day travels, the adventurers in us decided to take the boat from Positano to Capri. Wow, what a boat ride! While we may have struggled with the sea on the way over there, food, we figured, would cheer us up. We were right on that one, we sat alone on a roof deck that had an amazing view of main land Italy, we also enjoyed some wine and did I mention, fantastic food.

Once the lazy food session was over, we took a cab from the main town to....um, I never was good with names, where is Jessica when you need her? Anyway, it was the town on the top of the Island....and up it was! Another "death road" later we reached the peak and found that there was another incredible journey ahead of usA ski lift that would take you up to the former villa of Roman emperors which provided views of the entire island. The whole way up I wondered how the Romans built this Ski Lift but thank god they did, it would have been a hell of a hike up there! (yes, I am kidding, please, it was obviously not the Romans that did it, it was probably there when they got there, why else would they go up there?).

While waiting for the ferry, we rented a small boat and guide to take us to some of the sites around the island, no the Blue cave thingy was closed (Jessica to insert yet another name - got it, Grotto!). We did however, have a fantastic time on that boat. The ride, while bumpy at times, was very very enjoyable and very one on one. Our guide reminded everyone of their Grandfather, very flirty with the ladies and very macho with the men. The pictures from that boat trip are seriously some of my favorite on this trip.

Finally, Jared and I also had time while on the boat to jump in the water and swim around for a bit.

Cut to dinner comment above and end day two.

Day 3 - Saving space for later (must get ready for dinner)

Off to Italy...

noreply@blogger.com (Rich & Jessica) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:36:00 +0000

As many of you know already, Jessica and I are going to Italy today with her mother and her brother for her 30th birthday. I figured I would post that since we haven't updated this page for awhile and it looks like we won't do it again for some time. We may go to an internet place as we did on our honeymoon but with 2 other people there, we may not find the time for ourselves.

Anyway, We'll be posting pictures when we return.

It's been awhile...

noreply@blogger.com (Rich & Jessica) — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 20:00:00 +0000

Hey all. Sorry for not posting anything for such a long long time. Things around the Christenson household have been good and thus the lack of posts. It's about time I get that last one off the top of the page though and since I am studying for the CPA exam, I thought I would share something with you all.

Apparently the CPA exam is very forward thinking and allowed for same sex marriages in 1997. I think currently only MA allows them with CA in a close second (maybe CT? or is that just civil unions?).

Anyway, I took a screenshot for all you who don't get to enjoy studying for the CPA exam your selves.

PS - a few questions later, Dale became a woman.

WTF? I am not usually one to complain.....oh wait, yes I am.

noreply@blogger.com (Rich & Jessica) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 17:50:00 +0000

Some of you, those from Boston, might already be aware of the story that went across the airwaves this morning on NPR or your favorite news station. If you aren't yet aware, I ask that you take a seat before reading this article and, if for some reason you work for any government branch, it's probably best that you dismiss my comments as if you would any bum on the street.

That takes care of the disclaimer, onto the meat and potatoe (yeah thats right ladies, I do it Quayle style).

I was driving to work this morning, enjoying my morning java (cup of joe, coffee, oil, sludge, black stuff, brew, kahveh, bunna) on the road. Mind you, I was maybe only 2 sips into it and as a result was pretty irate to begin with (not to mention, I really think they brew it too hot at Starbucks). Anyway, this brief news snip-it comes on WBUR and mentions something about the Senate, House or some other governing body for the State of Massachusetts took a vote last night on the some measure that would effectively cut the taxes for corporations in MA that performed the majority of their services outside of the Country (put simply, I believe thats what this vote was on).

Knock yourself out and read about it here....
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/04/24/tax_measure_could_cost_state_millions/?page=1

Well, what ended up happening was the state revenue office got wind of this and, being in a shortfall to begin with, raised holy hell. The smart minded political types were in a bind, they needed some way to justify their idiocy. They came up with a good one too....

(this is from the article)
Several lawmakers later admitted they did not realize the full extent of what they were voting on.

"It's somewhat embarrassing," said Representative Jay R. Kaufman, a Lexington Democrat......."Since it was introduced at the last minute - and there was a desire to get this voted on that day - there was an understanding we would be working with incomplete information."

WTF!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Last I checked this was your job, saying 'they did not realize the full extent of what they were voting on' is like a kid saying to the te4acher that his dog ate his homework, except that this impacts everyone in the State of MA.

I don't know....I guess I am just frustrated by the ineptitude of our State/Federal/Local governments. Don't give me crap that you wanted to serve the public when you pull stunts like this, it just makes me think you did it because you're lazy and you wanted a Recess and a Pension.

Where did March go?!

noreply@blogger.com (Rich & Jessica) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 13:55:00 +0000

I just thought I would fill you all in (mainly Natalie) on what we have been up to the past month or so. Rich finished traveling about the 2nd week in March and has been home and working in Waltham since then, which has been a really nice treat (although Jax had a hard time giving up his side of the bed to his Dad).

As many of you know, Jax had bladder stone surgery in the middle of Feb and it has been a long road to recovery for the poor guy. He has been doing much better since Easter time and we are hoping now that he is just eating his prescription food and nothing more that we will not have to go through that surgery a third time. We have had some beautiful spring weather over the past few weeks and have tried to get out and explore with Jax. We went to Breakheart Reservation for a hike a few weeks ago and we all had a really great time! Rich packed a backpack full of stuff that made me think maybe we were going to spend the night there, not just take a 2 hr walk. Click the link below for pictures from our hike.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=19s4osfl.3m59rx0l&x=0&y=un1fsl&localeid=en_US

At the beginning of March my brother came to visit for his spring break. It was great to have him around. Then he came back with Mom for Easter weekend. We went to Trinity Church for Easter service and then came back home and had a really nice brunch of lamb chops, egg cups, asparagus tart and baby carrots. Kell and Jason joined us and brought an amazing carrot cake! Link below to some pictures.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=19s4osfl.24tlc3z9&x=0&y=-ovpi4y&localeid=en_US

At the beginning of March Kiki and Ted hosted us for brunch with our friends Rob and Laurie and their 2 boys. We had a great time with them and the boys are so adorable. Kiki was finally showing at that point which was exciting. We saw them again this past Friday at our place and she is looking great. The baby was doing all sorts of flips and kicks for me which was fun. Maybe he is just in there practicing his dance moves (his parents are pretty sweet dancers!).

In other baby news, our friends Addie and Ryan had their baby girl Alexis Mae on March 6th. We visited her the day she came home from the hospital and Addie and Alexis came to the city for a visit last week. She is an adorable baby with one crazy head of hair! Addie seems to be a natural at being a Mom and we are thrilled for she and Ryan!

We have also been working little by little at getting the condo settled. With the help of Lisa, we finally painted the master bedroom which looks great. We also had our new chairs delivered for the living room and purchase a few other things and it is 90% finished.

Rich has been studying for his CPA exam. The first part is coming up on Memorial Day weekend. The poor guy might never get a break from studying! It is a 4 part exam (I think) taken over a long period of time. So wish him luck.

We have Carrie, Sascha and Emma coming into town this weekend for the Boston Marathon. We are excited to see them (especially little Emma). Everyone please keep your fingers crossed that Sascha has a nice day for running as last year couldn't have been much worse! I will post next week with pictures from the weekend and from his race.

Thats all for now. Hope everyone is well! xox

Greetings from Arizona!

noreply@blogger.com (Rich & Jessica) — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 16:28:00 +0000

Morning everyone, as the title states, I am writing this from the great state of Arizona…..or is it? While I won’t go into details about the people here, I am sure one such person reads these posts, I will say that I’ve been here for almost 4 weeks now and I don’t understand how this place is a desert. It’s rained atleast once each week I have been here, furthermore, it has not been as warm as you would think a desert would be. The days are usually nice and warm, 60-70 but the nights have gotten to the low 30’s! I know at this moment, someone out there is saying something like Rich should have learned that from the Discovery Channel special….well, your right I did, but it’s easy to forget those things.

Anyway, since I have been here the last 4 weeks, I was able to fly Jessica out to visit for the weekend, rather than going home. Even though the weather was on the crappy side (yes is rained again, in the desert!), we had a great weekend. Who knew there was so much to do in Tucson Arizona, we actually had to skip some things I wanted to do.

So what did we do?

Friday
Well, Jessica flew into Phoenix on Friday night at around 11, which was late enough to allow me time to drive up and meet her. That night we were lucky enough to have the option to rent a minivan or pickup truck from Avis. We chose the minivan and were fortunate enough to get one that stunk of gasoline. Needless to say, we enjoyed the trip from Phoenix to Tucson with the windows down and heat blasting. We got to our hotel room and went straight to sleep (I’m not sure if it was from the inhalation of the fumes or the long car ride that did it).

Saturday
We awoke Saturday a wonderfully cloudy, cold Arizona day which Jessica was unprepared for, clothing wise. Luckily, that day we had decided to go to Biosphere 2 (aka Pauly Shores Bio-Dome), which has its own climate. I’ll list the key things I picked up along the tour to save everyone the trip:
1) Biosphere 1 – This is the Earth. Another Biosphere was not built. It must have been asked on our tour well over 10 times.
2) Pauly Shore was not one of the original 8 Biospherians.
3) The original plan for the Biosphere was to allow teams of 8 to live in the Biosphere for 1 year each for 99 years.
4) The first group of Biospherians appears to have consisted of a gaggle of Crunchy Hippies, rather than scientists.
5) The experiment failed, scientists proved that Crunchy Hippies can’t survive in isolation, without a hacky sac (it was a sad story, they forgot it outside).

I forgot to mention, before the biosphere 2 visit, we went to a small Mexican place for breakfast that had really good, different breakfasts. Once the Biosphere visit was over, we toured the downtown (about 2 blocks worth) and ate lunch at a really good southwestern place with amazing fresh margaritas. We actually ate so much for lunch that come dinner, we weren’t hungry. So, rather than eat we went to a movie. Definitely, Maybe……I would definately recommend it, maybe. Once the movie was out, we went back to one of the restaurants at the hotel and had soup and wine (remember it was a chilly day).

Sunday
We awoke Sunday to growling stomachs and a list of things to do so we checked out of one hotel and headed to brunch. I actually remember the name of the place we ate at, Hacienda del Sol. The brunch was amazing and had pretty much everything you could want to eat. During ‘dinner’ the previous night, we were told by the bartender that we had to check out the Desert Museum. Well, we did check it out and honestly, it was more of a Desert Zoo than a museum. We saw tons of different cacti and animals that live in the Desert around Arizona and were even lucky enough to see several Hawks with very very large talons eating (apparently this type of falcon is the only type that hunts as a family, rather than alone).

The drive to the Museum was amazing as it took you through a pass in the Mountains that surround Tucson and into a valley that was nearly devoid of buildings/life. I never saw such a huge expanse of land without anything on it before, not to mention the Cacti that were sticking out of the ground like fingers pointing to the sky.

Sunday started to come to a close and it was way past lunch time so we decided to go to a cereal bar for some lunch. Jessica opted for the Lucky Charms and I got some concoction called s’mores (yes, it was good).

It was at this time that we lost our camera. It must have fell out of the car with my cell phone. Hearing only one crash we grabbed the cell phone and didn’t see the camera. All the pictures from the weekend are gone, yes, even the ones of me posing by every cacti I found, sticking my arms out to imitate it (so cliché I know). Once we found that out, the rest of the night pretty much stunk, dinner was only ok and once done, we went back to the hotel room and just crashed.

Monday
Monday morning was strange; I woke up for work, traveling, in a hotel room, with Jessica there. It was nice actually. Jessica’s flight didn’t leave till 4 that day so she stuck around the hotel until the afternoon, grabbed lunch with me then took off.

The rest is pretty much work for me, Jessica returned to walking the dog every hour and checking with the vet to make sure he is ok after his Kidney Stones…life is back to normal, sort of.

Well, I gotta run and work….I don’t want to be here for another 4 weeks. Hope to see you all soon.

Painting, again!

noreply@blogger.com (Rich & Jessica) — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 14:38:00 +0000

When we talked about moving, all I could think about was the cool stuff the new place had;
tv in mirror - check
wall mounted coffee maker - check
balcony - check
fireplace - check
paint on the walls - um no

That's right, it's painting time again for Jessica and Rich. I suppose we can look on the bright side this time and say that at least we don't have to paint the ceiling but the ceiling is something like 13 feet up there and well, I'm afraid of heights, especially on wobbly ladders.

We've settled on a wall color for the main living space and already painted the majority of it. Jessica wants to do an accent wall in the kitchen but I'll have no part of that, well the color at least. I won't name it here because if we do end up doing that color, I won't be eating my words.

Aside from that, we've been busy trying to settle ourselves into the place and making it our own. We even put up a Christmas tree this past weekend! Trust me, the Tree is a difficult thing to paint around...

I'll get pictures of the new place, just as soon as everything is painted. Hope you all can visit us soon!

130 Appleton #4D

noreply@blogger.com (Rich & Jessica) — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 14:37:00 +0000

Hello from our new place. As I write this I am sitting on the couch of our new place trying to hide from Jessica. I know, the couch isn't a great place to hide but with 2 floors now, it is better than it used to be.

The move went well, sort of. Jessica was a great sport through it all, she was stressing because the moving company came late and basically asked us if we could wait till the next day. That didn't fly with Jessica, no only did they come and do the job but she got them to bring more people too, it ended up that we had 6 people moving our stuff in and our of our place (it's only in hindsight that I wonder how 6 people fit into our old place).

Once in we began the unpacking process, Jessica's mom was there to help out and we needed all the help we could get. Boxes and garbage would have piled high if it weren't for the help.

We are finally now getting situated into the new place. Jax seems to like it, he found his bed and Santa and I think that's all really cares about, well the fact that Jessica and I are there helps too.

As soon as we get the home computer working, I'll be sure to post some pictures for everyone. I know Jessica would want me to wait till we get some paint on the walls but I don't think that will happen till this weekend and it will take some time too. There are a lot of walls.

Hope everyone is doing well this holiday season.
Fellow Bostonians enjoy the Snow we've been getting! I know Jessica and I hope this season bring a lot of it!

Thanksgiving at Tom and Michaels

noreply@blogger.com (Rich & Jessica) — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 14:36:00 +0000

Well, while this post is a little late, there is good reason, for that see the post that precedes this one (if you are looking on the page, it follows this one chronologically speaking).

Anyway, the whole family traveled to Connecticut to meet and eat, and we did pretty much that. We all know Tom can cook and he lived up to himself with his Thanksgiving meal. The Turkey was just as good as it looked on the webcam and the fixings were also. Though, I have to say I have a soft spot for the family stuffing recipe.

What made the weekend was seeing everyone together with their little kiddies. It's amazing how much this family has grown over the last few years; we've nearly grown 50%!

Hope everyone is doing well back at the grins... Hope to see everyone again soon!