Monday Monday 6.11

Hi Everyone,

As time goes by, and I find myself distnaced from a number of my friends and family - I've discovered that it has become increasingly hard to keep in touch with everyone. I'm not a huge fan of that, so I'll do my part to at least let you all know what I'm up to.

Maggie and I just got back from a vacation in Italy. We visited Florence, Rome, Cinque Terre, Bologna, Torino, and a small town outside of Torino where Maggie's cousin married an Italian women. The entire time we were on vacation, I kept a pretty detailed journal that I'll be turning into a blog with pictures and what not. I'll be sure to let you all know when that is ready, so that I can share with you this wonderful experience. I think the blog will be nice because you'll actually be able to associate a name and story to the pictures you see (or if you get sick of my writing - you can just skim the pictures).

Since starting with IBM, I have been on proposals trying to win the company work with various different Government offices and agencies. Today, I started my first real assignment where IBM is doing a big piece of work with a small government department called the U.S. Navy (perhaps you've heard of them). In other words, I'm actually going to do what I was hired to do (the work). I'm in Annapolis, Maryland so if any of you are in the Baltimore, Washington DC area - I will be working here all summer (at least). For now, my schedule is flying in on Sunday night and flying out Thursday at 7:00.

I've been a homeowner with Maggie for going on two months now. Our home is almost fully unpacked, but not even close to where we want it to be. We still want to buy furniture, build a deck, outfit our garage to be a functional room and not some place to park a car, and a number of other crazy things. Maggie and I are also open to all decorating advice. We had a couple of friends visit this past weekend, and they gave us some really good ideas (things we never could have thought of on our own).

On a random note - one of my college friends is celebrating his first Father's Day this coming week. Upon my return from Italy, I also learned that two of my other college friends are expecting in late January. Spring really does seem to be in full swing . . .

Well that is all for now, I hope to hear back from some of you soon and if you have a better email address - please just let me know.
-- Ryan Joy