Ok, I owe anyone that was following our blog a big apology. We did a fair job of keeping with it right up until July of 2008 when we moved out of the DC area. After that, well, the blog was forgotten along the way. It's almost like we packed it up with everything else around that time and never unpacked it.
Our very first post was about Kathy's family reunion in Oak Island, NC during the fall of 2007. Well the first reunion was such a hit that everyone wanted to do it again. So this October we packed the car and made our way to Oak Island once again. While there, Uncle Gary asked about the blog and if/when we were going to post to it. The idea has been bouncing around since then and tonight I decided it was time to start it back up. Let's see if I can bring everyone up to speed...
At the end of July 2008, we moved out of our Falls Church, VA basement apartment and into the 
2nd floor/attic of my grandparents' Levittown, PA home (Shown here on the left after a snowstorm). The plan was to stay there until Kathy found a job in the greater Philadelphia area. Most of our stuff went back into storage during that time as we didn't have lots of room. We had enough though, and had a good time living with my grandparents. I know they really enjoyed having us there as we provided them with daily excitement they wouldn't otherwise have had. Dory the cat also enjoyed her new surroundings and daily interaction with my grandparents' dog, Libby. While there, we kept busy with work (me with Sigma Nu, Kathy at Michael's Arts & Crafts and babysitting), visited friends and family, enjoyed our hobbies (me brewing, Kathy knitting), and adjusted to our surroundings.
Then in January of 2009, Kathy landed a job as an Academic Advisor at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia (hereafter referred to as USP). Once we knew where she'd be commuting to, we started house hunting. Thanks to a recommendation from Boot & Monica, we worked with Marge Vechy to find our first home. Marge is awesome and in just a few weeks, we found a great place, made an offer and were all set. After 9 months of living in another small space, we moved into our home in Glenolden, PA during the first weekend in April 2009. It's an easy 20 minute commute for Kathy to USP and a 10 minute drive to the airport in case I need to fly out for work. The previous owners kept the place in great shape which meant we only needed to paint the rooms we wanted. We don't have a good picture of the outside of the house but here are a few we took as the unpacking/painting process moved along:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2363864&id=6204743
It took us longer than we anticipated but we eventually got everything unpacked. The very last stuff to get unpacked were boxes of Kathy's knitting/grad school/sorority/misc stuff. Frankly, we just got lazy and didn't want to finish tearing down wallpaper in the last bedroom. But we finally did it, painted it, and got those last few boxes unpacked into that room. Now our dining room that was once full of boxes is, for the most part, empty. Literally, empty. We still need a dining room table and chairs as well as a hutch to unpack the last two boxes (containing our china). It's become a roundabout argument for us: we haven't had enough people over to necessitate a dining room set BUT we haven't planned a housewarming party because we don't have a dining room set. I think we're going to break down and get one sometime soon though. With all these holidays upon us, we really should invite some folks over for festivities. Goodness knows, we've got the beer ready for 'em.
Speaking of beer, one of the big benefits of buying our house is the detached 1.5 car 
garage. It's got a huge workbench and tons of room for my brewing setup. So I've been able to brew on a regular basis out there and keep my kegs full. Another benefit of the house is the finished basement and the bar that came with the sale. I've got 4 kegs on tap behind the bar (you can see them on the front of the fridge door) and they're always ready for thirsty visitors. That's actually my biggest brewing problem. I need more help drinking the beer so that I can finish what I've got and rotate new beers on tap. So if you're reading this, consider it an invite to come over and drink some beer! As my old friend Doc Sterrett used to say, "There's no register and the bar never closes." So come on over and I'll pull you a pint or three.
Kathy's been keeping busy too. She's an advisor for two sororities - Alpha Delta Pi
at the University of Delaware and now Delta Phi Epsilon at USP. As an Academic Advisor she gets a lot of one-on-one interaction with her students and as a sorority advisor, she's able to remain connected to the Student Life side of things (which she used to to at Marymount while we were in Falls Church). She's also gotten back into acting now that we're settled again. Last month she was in a local community theater production of Frankenstein and has already begun auditioning for her next play/show. Here's a shot of her as Viktor Frankenstein's fiancée. As always, she did a great job.
Once I knew we'd be here for awhile, I called around to see about getting involved with the Boy Scouts. I was a Scout from the time I was 6 until I earned my Eagle Scout Rank and turned 18. Then I went to college and just drifted away from scouts. Anyway, I spoke to folks at the local district and before I knew it, I was a Unit Commissioner for a local pack and troop. Then I got a hold of Troop 44 here in Glenolden and after just a month, became one of their Assistant Scoutmasters. It's been great getting involved again and giving back to an organization that gave me so much. I didn't realize how much I missed being a part of Scouts in the 10 years I was away from it. Hopefully I'll stay involved for a long, long time.
The last blog-worthy bit of news is the adoption of our dog, Sandy. My Mom had walked Sandy before and when she heard Sandy needed a new home, we got the call. Sandy came to live with us on August 21st, 2009. She's already 2 years old (born a day before my parents' yellow labs) and well trained by her previous owners. Dory wasn't initially thrilled with the new addition but after awhile, she came around and the two now get along really well. Here they are waiting for a part of my lunch and then napping on the chair with me:
To bring this full circle, as I mentioned, our most recent adventure was the Bunce Reunion in Oak Island. Once again, I brought 2 kegs of beer - Oktoberfest (which was popular last time) and a Scottish 70 Shilling. Both went over well with the crowd and I returned home with two very light kegs. As with our last trip to Oak Island, in addition to drinking beer we did some surf fishing with Uncle Warren and were treated to delicious cooking by Uncle Gary and Aunt Nancy. Between the smoked trout, paella, pork rinds, and breakfast burritos (with homemade refried beans), we ate like kings. Oh, and his margaritas with Mexican limes went down too easy. I also have to mention the great pulled pork that Uncle Dick and Aunt Tommye did.
Here's a picture of Uncle Gary & Aunt Nancy preparing the paella (below left) and another (below right) of cousin Greg, myself, and Uncle Warren fishing (aka drinking beer, smoking cigars, and getting sunburnt!).
So that should just about do it. I think those are the highlights of the 16 months that have passed since our last post. Once again, we apologize for the ridiculously long delay. Hopefully this post was worth the wait and will be the first of many more to come.
P.S. - While living on the 2nd floor of my grandparents' house, I thought of changing the name of the blog to "Notes from the Attic" but obviously never got around to posting, let alone changing the name. Now that we're in our own home, our family room is in the basement and not surprisingly, it's where we spend most of our time. So the name of the blog is still very appropriate and won't be changing anytime soon.
December was a pretty busy month for Kath & I. In addition to our regular monthly meetings (Scouts for me, sorority for Kath), we hosted a family Christmas party and took a week-long vacation to Florida. Of course, before we could do any of this, we had to decorate the house for the holidays. We bought a Christmas tree from a local Boy Scout troop and the necessary accoutrement (stand, lights, skirt) elsewhere. Once the ornaments were dug out, we got the thing up and decorated pretty quickly. Mama lent us a tree topper and we were good to go. Here's an iPhone shot of it with most of the ornaments on board. (We added more as we received them as gifts.)
For our first Christmas in our first house, I think we did a pretty good job of decorating. Turns out we've collected a fair share of Christmas decorations from our families over the years and it all came in handy this year. Being that we were the couple with the newest house in the Nay family, it was our turn to host a family Christmas party. We set the date for the evening of the 20th, just a day after my Mom's Annual O'Leary Family Christmas party at her house. Well, the weather intervened and by intervened, I mean it dumped a foot and a half of snow all over the East coast, including the greater Philadelphia area starting on the 18th and lasting until the morning of the 20th. (Up on the left is a photo of Sandy in the path I had to dig for her so she could get into the yard.) So Mama's party was moved from the 19th to the 20th and from her house to ours. Despite late starts and the weather, I think both parties went really well. We hosted the O'Leary's from around 3 to 6:30pm and then the Nay's from 7:15 to around 9pm. (Up on the right is a picture of Kathy and I with my Nana during the O'Leary portion of the party.) We had far too much food (better than too little) and all of it was really tasty. I don't think anyone left hungry. The only real problem was the snow. That and the fact that we bought a house with a nice, long driveway. Oh, and the fact that we DIDN'T buy a snowblower. Dumb move. Oh, and we only have one shovel. Even dumber move. After 4 hours of shoveling during the storm on the 19th and another 1.5 hours on the 20th, the shoveling was done and so were my back, shoulders, and arms. Consider the lesson officially learned.
About 48 hours after the holiday party ended, we left Pennsylvania for warmer weather. Departed at 11:30pm on the 22nd and arrived at Kathy's folks place in Venice, FL around 6:30pm on the 23rd. It was a long drive but an extended stay in warm weather quickly made up for it. We enjoyed a week of warmth, sun, fresh orange juice, good food, and general relaxation thanks to the generosity of Kathy's Mom & Dad. I should mention that during the week, I especially enjoyed taking lots of photos with my Pentax (using my new tripod and remote), mornings with Kathy's Dad (a.k.a. "Mon Capitan", a.k.a. "Fidel") at the Flying Field (On the left is a shot of one of his planes flying by), smoking a Padron Anniversary 1964 Pyramid on a warm evening, and our visit to Cigar City Brewing Company in Tampa (shot on the right of their brewhouse and a few fermenters). We left for home at 10pm on the 30th and parked the car in our driveway (now empty of snow) at 4:30pm on the 31st. With a quick visit to my parents later that evening to pickup Sandy, we were all home by 11pm and needless to say, thoroughly exhausted. So much so that we were asleep before the ball dropped and missed the beginning of 2010. Hopefully it won't hold a grudge.
