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Hi Everyone,
Last year, I wrote 33 Monday Monday emails meaning publication occurred three out of every five weeks. Since I have a 63% track record when it comes to successful delivery, I don’t mind making you all suffer from my tardiness when a Monday comes and goes as it did this week. I do not have detailed records to show my punctuality, but I’m guessing that at least one of my faithful readers has kept tabs and could offer statistics on how often this note reaches your inbox on-time.
With the almost weekly tardiness apology complete, I’ll move on to more interesting topics in order to provide a detailed account of the past week’s activities. I left work last Thursday and made the 5.5 hour drive from Annapolis to the Pennsylvania house. Passing through Wilkes Barre, I met up with Kevin Lobdell and picked Maggie up at the airport. Kevin spent Friday and Saturday visiting with Maggie and me before heading back to Connecticut where he will finish his Graduate Work in Student Affairs this spring. Rounding out the Pennsylvania crew this weekend was Stephanie, Maddie, and Tim who all came up to enjoy some skiing during the holiday weekend.
Although Kevin is an avid skier, he decided to forgo the calling of Big Bear (the mountain’s name) citing the frigid temperature as not being worth the activity. Never one to spend much time outside during the winter, I agreed with Kevin and decided that the lodge’s bar could fulfill my fun quota for the day. So while Maggie and family were skiing down the mountain, Kevin and I enjoyed a refreshing pint in the warmth and comfort of the lodge.
We had a good time hanging out with Kevin and catching up, but unfortunately all three of us had different plans for Saturday evening that eventually necessitated a mass evacuation on Saturday afternoon. Since Lara (Maggie’s cousin) is getting married in Mexico at the end of the month, Maggie drove over to Buck County, Pennsylvania for a bachelorette party. At the same time, I got back in my car and took the four hour drive up to my family’s stomping grounds for my cousin’s 40th birthday party. We both enjoy spending time with family, so we didn’t mind making these short field trips to spend some quality time with the people we don’t see enough of.
My night ended calmly with an 11:30 bedtime, while Maggie stayed out until 3:30. Either way we were both back on the road at 8:00 the next morning. Maggie and I met up at the Milford Wal-Mart just over the Pennsylvania border after driving through all kinds of snow, and then we did the unspeakable - We drove all the way to South Carolina!! Essentially we were both in the car from 8:00AM to 1:30AM. Of course, we had a short layover at the Pennsylvania house and another short layover at the Harrisburg Pizza Hut where we tried the new whole wheat crust.
Under normal circumstances, we never would have considered making this drive, but since I work in the Greater Washington DC Metro Area. . . it was not a normal circumstance week. Because of the 2009 Presidential Inauguration, travel costs for the greater DC area skyrocketed, and my project decided to operate entirely remote this week. For convenience sake, I wanted to be home and if we didn’t do the drive on Sunday. . .getting home would have been a logistical nightmare.
Regardless of the extensive travel that it took to get here, I’m having a great time working from home, making a mess of the house, and watching TV all day while I compute away for the U.S. NAVY.
Happy MLK Day and Happy Inauguration,
Ryan
Total Car Time for Ryan = 26.5 Hours between Thursday and 1:30AM on Monday
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Monday Monday 1.11.2009
Hi Everyone,
After spending about 6 weeks on the road (the time between Thanksgiving and now), I finally made it home to South Carolina for a couple of days. I picked Maggie up at the Charlotte Airport on the way home from Annapolis and the weekend officially started rolling. We were up until 1:30 AM unpacking the car, revisiting the Christmas gifts that had been sitting in the car for two weeks, and organizing our house and life – a project that would take all weekend to only partially complete.
Should have used some SPF-35
Maggie gave me an Aloe plant for Christmas and from everything that I’ve read online, the only way to kill this plant is to intentionally do so. Well my plant didn’t take too kindly to the constant movement around the country and the sudden, drastic, and continuous changes in temperature as I moved it from room to car to room to car to house etc. Hopefully the transplant performed on Saturday will help the plant recuperate and become healthy again.
20 Frames and We Still Look Bad
We have a bowling alley down the street from us, but they somehow found a justifiable reason for charging $4 for shoe rentals. This outrageous and unethical taxation of my bottom line prompted Maggie and I to request bowling shoes for Christmas, and my mother came through for us. I put on my best bowling shirt (or the one bowling shirt that I purchased four years ago and never found the proper occasion to wear), grabbed my shoes, and headed to the lanes on Friday night. Our new shoes did nothing for our game as both Maggie and I managed to bowl two absolutely miserable games. Now that I have these new shoes, perhaps I will find the time to practice my game a little. Scotty (our roommate) and Gerard joined us and bowled just as poorly, but at least they could blame the rented shoes or something. Actually Gerard appeared (next to us) to be quite good, but as he would say “that was just luck.”
I’ll take that Medium Rare
With some residual Home Depot and Lowe’s gift cards in hand, Maggie and I decided to leave the house on Saturday afternoon to do some shopping. I wanted to find a better way of organizing my expanding collection of tools as my shed sitting out back does nothing but leak water!! I managed to find a pretty slick big mobile tool box thingy that holds about half of everything I own, but the highlight of our little excursion to the domain of manliness included the purchasing of a new Gas Grill! Oh yes my friends, it was originally $130 marked down to $50 and purchased with gift cards . . . making it free! The new grill doesn’t have any amazing bells and whistles, but I imagine that it will perform any culinary duty that I request of it.
Aside from all of that, we had a relatively quiet weekend.
Best Wishes!!
Ryan
After spending about 6 weeks on the road (the time between Thanksgiving and now), I finally made it home to South Carolina for a couple of days. I picked Maggie up at the Charlotte Airport on the way home from Annapolis and the weekend officially started rolling. We were up until 1:30 AM unpacking the car, revisiting the Christmas gifts that had been sitting in the car for two weeks, and organizing our house and life – a project that would take all weekend to only partially complete.
Should have used some SPF-35
Maggie gave me an Aloe plant for Christmas and from everything that I’ve read online, the only way to kill this plant is to intentionally do so. Well my plant didn’t take too kindly to the constant movement around the country and the sudden, drastic, and continuous changes in temperature as I moved it from room to car to room to car to house etc. Hopefully the transplant performed on Saturday will help the plant recuperate and become healthy again.
20 Frames and We Still Look Bad
We have a bowling alley down the street from us, but they somehow found a justifiable reason for charging $4 for shoe rentals. This outrageous and unethical taxation of my bottom line prompted Maggie and I to request bowling shoes for Christmas, and my mother came through for us. I put on my best bowling shirt (or the one bowling shirt that I purchased four years ago and never found the proper occasion to wear), grabbed my shoes, and headed to the lanes on Friday night. Our new shoes did nothing for our game as both Maggie and I managed to bowl two absolutely miserable games. Now that I have these new shoes, perhaps I will find the time to practice my game a little. Scotty (our roommate) and Gerard joined us and bowled just as poorly, but at least they could blame the rented shoes or something. Actually Gerard appeared (next to us) to be quite good, but as he would say “that was just luck.”
I’ll take that Medium Rare
With some residual Home Depot and Lowe’s gift cards in hand, Maggie and I decided to leave the house on Saturday afternoon to do some shopping. I wanted to find a better way of organizing my expanding collection of tools as my shed sitting out back does nothing but leak water!! I managed to find a pretty slick big mobile tool box thingy that holds about half of everything I own, but the highlight of our little excursion to the domain of manliness included the purchasing of a new Gas Grill! Oh yes my friends, it was originally $130 marked down to $50 and purchased with gift cards . . . making it free! The new grill doesn’t have any amazing bells and whistles, but I imagine that it will perform any culinary duty that I request of it.
Aside from all of that, we had a relatively quiet weekend.
Best Wishes!!
Ryan
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Monday Monday 1.6.2009
Hi Everyone,
Since I can’t seem to ever get the message out on Monday, I’m beginning to think that I should rename this email something else. With the sending of this email, my M2 messages will be in their third year of circulation (not the third anniversary, but I will have written these things in three different calendar years). For those of you skimming this message, please note the bolded paragraph headers.
Il est Mort
With 2008 coming to a definitive end, I can say that as a whole that I’m pleased. As my Christmas Letter described, I spent the year traveling to all different parts of the country and although Maggie and I didn’t purchase any Real Estate in 2008, we did get engaged (meaning that we both got stuck with something much more pleasant than a mortgage – does anyone find it funny that “mort” (a word that means dead in French) is in the word “mortgage”).
South of the Border
Our 2009 includes all sorts of adventures, and we’ll kick into gear with our first big trip at the end of January! That’s right – don’t be expecting a M2 letter the first Monday in February because Maggie and I are flying south to Mexico for Lara and Cesar’s wedding (Maggie’s cousin and cousin to be). We’re both pumped for the trip and for Lara and Cesar!!
Coldest State – Hottest Governor
This August, our friends Scott and Jessica will join us for a cruise to our most northern and coldest state: Alaska. We booked the cruise a few weeks back and have since had a price reduction and a room upgrade . . . we’re hoping that we’ll keep getting upgrades until we have a room with a balcony!! I can’t wait for Polar Bears, Dog Sleds, Glaciers, and my first glimpse of Russia (ok no more jokes about the good governor from our most Arctic State)!!!
New Years Week
The hits just keep on coming. We estimate that we cooked about three farms worth of animals at 1313 Tanager Lane over the course of the Holiday Season. For the couple of Vegan/Vegetarian/Animal Activists on this email, I’m telling you these dinners collectively would have been your worse nightmare!
On New Year’s Eve, Maggie and I went up to Albany and spent the day and evening with a bunch of people from Maggie’s high school days (I’d say more if I could remember, but I do remember seeing all the big names). Thanks to Mark and Jess for a great breakfast and to Jacqui for the accommodations and company!!! Thanks to all else involved for observing the Ryan Joy show at the bar – but next time I’m selling tickets!
Our friends Ken and Kim came to visit us on the Friday after New Years, and it was so good to see them after such a long time. I can’t believe that their son Zach is 11 months old – we can all join in with Kim on the countdown to his first birthday (as of this document’s publication, we have 29 days).
So 2008 has come and gone! Let’s brace ourselves for the year ahead, keep on keepin’ on, laugh a little harder and longer in 2009!!
Ryan
Since I can’t seem to ever get the message out on Monday, I’m beginning to think that I should rename this email something else. With the sending of this email, my M2 messages will be in their third year of circulation (not the third anniversary, but I will have written these things in three different calendar years). For those of you skimming this message, please note the bolded paragraph headers.
Il est Mort
With 2008 coming to a definitive end, I can say that as a whole that I’m pleased. As my Christmas Letter described, I spent the year traveling to all different parts of the country and although Maggie and I didn’t purchase any Real Estate in 2008, we did get engaged (meaning that we both got stuck with something much more pleasant than a mortgage – does anyone find it funny that “mort” (a word that means dead in French) is in the word “mortgage”).
South of the Border
Our 2009 includes all sorts of adventures, and we’ll kick into gear with our first big trip at the end of January! That’s right – don’t be expecting a M2 letter the first Monday in February because Maggie and I are flying south to Mexico for Lara and Cesar’s wedding (Maggie’s cousin and cousin to be). We’re both pumped for the trip and for Lara and Cesar!!
Coldest State – Hottest Governor
This August, our friends Scott and Jessica will join us for a cruise to our most northern and coldest state: Alaska. We booked the cruise a few weeks back and have since had a price reduction and a room upgrade . . . we’re hoping that we’ll keep getting upgrades until we have a room with a balcony!! I can’t wait for Polar Bears, Dog Sleds, Glaciers, and my first glimpse of Russia (ok no more jokes about the good governor from our most Arctic State)!!!
New Years Week
The hits just keep on coming. We estimate that we cooked about three farms worth of animals at 1313 Tanager Lane over the course of the Holiday Season. For the couple of Vegan/Vegetarian/Animal Activists on this email, I’m telling you these dinners collectively would have been your worse nightmare!
On New Year’s Eve, Maggie and I went up to Albany and spent the day and evening with a bunch of people from Maggie’s high school days (I’d say more if I could remember, but I do remember seeing all the big names). Thanks to Mark and Jess for a great breakfast and to Jacqui for the accommodations and company!!! Thanks to all else involved for observing the Ryan Joy show at the bar – but next time I’m selling tickets!
Our friends Ken and Kim came to visit us on the Friday after New Years, and it was so good to see them after such a long time. I can’t believe that their son Zach is 11 months old – we can all join in with Kim on the countdown to his first birthday (as of this document’s publication, we have 29 days).
So 2008 has come and gone! Let’s brace ourselves for the year ahead, keep on keepin’ on, laugh a little harder and longer in 2009!!
Ryan
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