We just listed our house in Emmaus, PA (Lehigh Valley) on the market. Great deal for anybody that wants to be in the East Penn school district and is looking to buy while the market is low, interest rates are low, and there are some government incentives. Similar homes in this neighborhood were selling for 325,000 just two years ago and the market is starting to move upwards again, so now is the time to buy! Our list price is $299,900 for aprox. 2300 sqft, 4 bedroom, 2.5 bathrooms, living room, family room, dining room, large kitchen and more. Design leads people to feel the home is larger than listed sqfootage. We have made many upgrades to the home in the last ten years, such as refinished kitchen cabinets, new tile floor in the kitchen with new counter tops (corian), Replacement windows, Remodeled master bathroom, new roof, exterior completely painted a year ago, remodeled family room, less than ten year old heating and cooling systems (dual zone). During the upgrades we also had natural gas installed for the heating system and the stove. The neighborhood is great, in fact we will miss living here as the neighbors are great. For those with kids in elementary school, the bus stops right in front of our house. Middle school bus stop is just down the street a short distance. Corner lot makes for a larger yard feeling, with privacy in the backyard made up with live bushes.

Want to see and read more, our realtor Jane Schiff has it listed in the MLS as listing #349447. Visit the listing to see pictures and get all the details. Then schedule an appointment to see the home. Don’t wait until the prices go up and government incentives are gone. (new home incentives are not the only government tax credits available, they now have a “move up” incentive for current home owners.)

Yes, I know fall has barely begun and winter has yet to arrive, but I am looking for warmer weather already. I plan to find it next week as we sail on the new Carnival Dream from NYC to the Bahamas!! Yes warmer weather is literally on the horizon! I have a group of people sailing with me to help me celebrate my graduation from DeSales University last May. We plan to have some serious fun and relaxation! Make sure you watch my web site upon our return as I will post how the new ship was, brag about the warm weather some, and well….maybe some other surprises will be told!

Congratulations go out to Erica and Chris as they just purchased their first home! I helped them reconfigure their kitchen last week and will be helping them with changing out some electrical outlets. It will take them a while to get everything organized, but they are on their way. What is more, they are walking distance from the Leesport Farmers market. That will be nice to get fresh food each Wednesday as well as other activities that may be there on weekends. I am sure it will spoil Isabella and Raymond growing up and having a market that close. They won’t know how to act when they get older and have to buy everything from a grocery store.

Well, not much else to talk about at the moment. I am too excited about our vacation. I am one that normally packs the night before for a trip….However I am already packed and ready for this trip and I have two days to wait yet!! Remember to check back here in a couple weeks, I promise some updates then!! Oh, by the way, if you have Word 2007 and a blog….Word has a nice blog feature that allows you to create, edit and publish the blog. Nice!

Remember that feeling when you were in School and had that nice Summer Vacation? Well, that feeling has returned to me this year, except I am old enough to really enjoy it without taking it for granted. I did some job searches before July, but not as much as one should as I knew we had plans to travel a little while Jennifer was off. Result…. Wonderful summer vacation!

We started out the first week of July with our Grandson Alex and his mother Lori staying with us for a week. Of course that meant Isabella and Raymond came over a few times as well. It was a nice week and we closed that week out with a family picnic at our house. Bobby came up as well as several of Jennifer’s family came from Lancaster. I put up one of those screened tents for dining in the backyard, however nobody seemed to want to use it for dining. But once Isabella went out to play, she claimed ownership of it and declared it was a “girls only” tent and I nor her dad were allowed in. She pranced around and even gave us a fashion show…as long as we watched from the outside. Alex didn’t mind not being invited into the tent as he was too busy playing star wars with his dad. I think he conquered the Universe, or at least most of it with his light saber. Jennifer and I took Alex to see the fireworks at Dorney Park, but all the other adults were too tired to join us.

After spending a few days around the house, we headed to my Mom’s house in Jacksonville, NC. I have been looking forward to this trip for sometime. I wanted to see my sister as I haven’t seen her since she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. It is amazing how up beat and positive she is. I can’t imagine being as strong as she is about her ordeal. We stayed at my Mom’s house for a week and one day, giving us the opportunity to visit Topsail Island a couple days. We really enjoy the beaches at Topsail, however Jennifer did get some sun burn. We also visited Emerald Island and the shops in Historic Swansboro. We would love to someday live in Swansboro and enjoy it year round!! One of the days, Jennifer went with my mother, niece and my sister to Durham so my sister could get a treatment at Duke. While they were gone, I went with my Brother and one of his friends fishing in the Inter-Coastal waterway. I didn’t catch anything, but just being on the water was enough to satisfy me! On the weekend, my brother took my niece, my sister and me out on the water to go tubing. I have never been tubing before and found it to be exciting. However my first attempt to get onto the tube landed me in the water! His ladder was broken, so I had a tough time getting back on the boat to try again, but finally managed. Second attempt…. I was tubing!! Wow, what fun. However it took me forever to get back into the boat! Guess I need to start using my gym membership to actually work out?? We ended the day with a seafood fest at my brother house. Man is it good to have fresh seafood, and I mean fresh (as in caught within 24 hours of us eating it, and the vegetables picked with in a day or so.)

After that week on the coast of NC, we headed west to Knoxville, TN to visit my Aunt. She has cancer in her jaw, so I felt it was important that we visit her while we had the time. It was a nice visit as we went through some family pictures and picked out a few to have replicated at Walgreens for my future scrapbook (yes, if becomes a scrapbook….it will be Jennifer’s doings ) We also drove by the “old homestead” where my grandparents used to live. It looked really nice, but made me miss going to the pond to fish. We also visited the cemetery where my grandparents, great grandparents and great-great grandparents are buried. I took some pictures, with the oldest one being my great-great grandmother Willoughby who died in 1892. It was a nice visit and I glad we went there.

Then it was off to Boone, NC to visit Frankie and his wife Toni. Frankie and I go back to when we were at Coastal Carolina community College in the early 80’s. The GPS decided to take us on a scenic route around the mountain. You would think the Blue Ridge Parkway would have been scenic enough (yes that is what we should have taken) but instead we were on a winding, twisting tiny road. We stayed there a couple nights and went to Grandfather Mountain. They have a beautiful house with some nice views. To give you and idea, once you get off the Blue ridge Parkway toward their house, you only have about a two or three minute commute! Frankie also helped me polish my Truck. Wow, that Black really does shine! It was a really enjoyable visit.

Next we left Frankie’s house and went to Ashville, NC to see the Biltmore house. Jennifer has been asking to go there for about 10 years! We finally made it there. It was really a neat place to visit. I had been there before as a kid, but seeing it as an adult made me really appreciate it more. We took the behind the scenes tour and I am amazed at the technology they had in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Some of it rivals today’s technology. Things like telephones, electricity, elevators, etc. We visited the gardens and then went to the winery on the Estate. Wow, how fast can a day go by!!

Next stop…Stafford, VA where we met up with Michael and Bobbie Hoover to help with preparations for their Images of the King contest in Memphis. We spent three days there and had a good time visiting. While there, I was also able to meet up with an old friend from High School, Laura W. T. I have not seen her in 20 something years and found via Facebook that she lived in Stafford. What a small world. It was really good to see her and her kids and spend a few hours with them.

Well, after two and half weeks, we had to return home…but only for a few days! We cleared our bedroom out and had the floors stripped and re-polyurethaned. Since we had to keep furniture off of the floors for at least three days…Seemed like a good time to fly away to Las Vegas, right? Actually it was planned that way. Jennifer had won tickets to see Barry Manilow and two free nights at the Las Vegas Hilton. I was able to add a couple more nights for $40 a night and I used frequent flyer miles to purchase airline tickets. Neither of us had ever been that far west before, and I was amazed looking out the window of the plane as everything turned from the green I am accustomed to seeing out the window to plain and brown! We enjoyed the week, but it was HOT. Every day we were there, them temps ranged from 109 to 113 in the afternoons. We played a few tricks to save money, such as instead of eating three meals, we only had two. One around 11 am at a buffet and then in the evening at another buffet! We also let one of those time share places consume three hours of our time in exchange for free tickets to see Toni and Tina’s wedding (dinner theater) as well as buy one get one free buffet. While there we also saw some other shows besides Barry Manilow. We went to see “Sin City bad girls” at the Hilton (got one free ticket from the Hilton since we were staying there). That turned out to be a really good show. We also went to the American Legends show and saw an Elvis, a Michael Jackson, a Tim McGraw, a Britney Spears, and a Carrie Underwood. That was an enjoyable show.

Now we are back home to reality. So you see what I mean about being like schools out summer vacation but being old enough to really enjoy it! If I wrote all the fun details, then it would be like a book, so I will stop. Now it is time to start planning what I am going to do when I grow up. I am started to put resumes out, but I am also contemplating starting a business unrelated to computers. I won’t mention what that is right now, as I am still researching the idea. The hard part of starting a business would be getting capital for the start up, but God has provided before when I couldn’t figure things out, so I am sure he will provide again if that is what I should be doing. In the mean time, I will continue to look for careers in IT.

Well it is official. I have my BS degree in MIT now!! Graduation was yesterday and all went well. I graduated with Cum Laude. If it was not for two classes in Spanish, I could have had Magna Cum Laude. I missed that by 0.045, my final GPA was 3.455. We bought a nice frame so I can display my degree in my home office. Funny, I don’t feel smarter than the day before I had that degree.

After graduation we went down to Elizabethtown, where we used to live, to a fund raiser for Raymond. One of Erica’s friends mother put the dinner together to raise money for Raymond’s medical bills. It was nice with an excellent turn out. Good ham loaf and very good pot pie. (PA style pot pie, us southerners would call it chicken and dumplings with potatoes added!) Food was very good and we got to see a lot of people we have not seen in a long time.

Today, the weather has turned cool. I went out this morning and it is only 52 degrees. I was shocked at the temperature drop over night. It is suppose to stay cool until mid week, and the best part is low humidity! Little gray outside, but otherwise a nice day!

I was surprised yesterday when I returned to my desk from a career counseling class to find a bouquet of flowers on my desk. I was even more surprised to read the card and see it was from my Colleagues from around the globe (13 people in 8 countries). They sent them to me with best wishes in my future prospects. It felt good to know they cared enough to send flowers for my farewell!! They were a great team to work with over the years and many of them I have become good friends with and will cherish that friendship for years to come. I will miss them when I leave Volvo. My sincere thanks go out to the Service Runtime Managers for the Desktop environment and the Product Manager of FactoryPlace at Volvo.

Jennifer and I made it to the gym again tonight for a “meet with a trainer” session. This was a 3rd visit since Saturday, so we are on a roll! It is fun going to the gym, it just takes so much time. We are normally there for at least 90 minutes when we go.

I have reverted back to a paper time management system! I used to use a Day Timer for all my time management tracking. In 2001 when I started using Outlook at work, and using a PDA (especially when I got a blackberry tied into the corporate system), I stopped using a paper system. Now that I am about to be unemployed and don’t have a PDA, I decided to go back to a paper system. I actually think I might have lost some skills using all electronic over the years. Paper systems force you to look at task more as they don’t automatically carry over from day to day, you must re-write them. That forces a re-evaluation of open tasks, etc. Hmmm, Maybe paper isn’t so bad!