Kevin's Photos

I posted a link to Kevin's photos on the side bar. I stole them off facebook, so if you would like to continue to see his updated photos you should friend him on facebook. To search for him, search for Kevin Ryan in the Burlington, VT network. You'll be able to find him even with his ridiculously common name that way. So, enjoy the pictures.

Baby Snider's Webpage

If anyone is interested, I have created a web page for Baby Snider. There isn't a whole lot to see now, but I promise I will make it more interesting as time goes on. Mark it on your calendars and check the page on January 29th. That is when we have our next ultrasound scheduled to see if we are having a boy or a girl. Any thoughts??

Festivus is coming!!!

A Festivus for the Rest Of Us!

 

I hear that we have a family member who has recently been photographed by local paparazzi and is featured on the front page of their local newspaper… 

11 Days and counting....

So, how did everyone make out with the snow storm yesterday? Hoepfully you got a nice coating to add to the Christmas spirit, but not too much to cause many problems. Let's just hope the Nor'Easter coming this weekend isn't too much of a problem.

Enjoy these cartoons! I thought they were cute....

Feel Better Soon Nicole!

Everyone send their thoughts and prayers to Nicole for a safe and speedy recovery! She is in the operating room as I type to have her tonsils out. Her surgery started at 3:00.

FEEL BETTER SOON!!!

Apple Store Opening

If any of you guys are bored and want to look at what I was a part of building, here are a couple quick links

 

http://www.ifoapplestore.com/stores/14th_street/index.html

 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=baRzI2doKYc

 

Paul.

Peace Corps Nomination

All my recommendations are in and I'm going to be nominated! The peace corps recruiter sent me an email today with program options for my nomination. I have three options (two are very similar):

1. Health Extension
Sub-Saharan Africa
French speaking post
September 2008

2. Health Extension
Sub-Saharan Africa
French speaking post
October 2008

3. Secondary Education Science
Sub-Saharan Africa
Non-French speaking
September 2008

I'm deciding between the first two because I want to do the health extension program. Also, I'm going to become fluent in French! What does everyone think, should I leave in September or October? I have to decide by Wednesday, so check the comments on this post then to see what I chose.

Peace Corps Interview

Hi Everyone,
I had my Peace Corps interview today and it went really well. I was a little nervous at first (of course) but the woman who interviewed me is really nice and made it feel more like a conversation than an interview. The interview lasted about an hour and I think I had really good answers for her questions and I got some of my questions answered too. Overall, it was a good experience. In the end, she said that she would nominate me for a spot doing health education in a French speaking African country as long as my recommendations are all positive (which they definitely will be). Once she nominates me, which will hopefully be later this week or next week, they will send me health forms and I have to get a physical and go to the dentist to get medically cleared. After that, they will tell me that I am officially eligible for a spot and I will basically be waiting to find out exactly where I am going. That will all happen sometime next semester. I said I want to leave sometime in September or October, so I won't find out exactly where I am going probably until the summer, but it sounds very promising! I'm really excited!

Paul in NYC until until at least mid January. + misc thoughts.

Thought I’d give everyone the update so that you can all come visit.  I just got word I’ll be in NYC until at least mid January.  Jose and Astrid came and spent Saturday night at my apartment so they could vote against constitutional amendments in Venezuela – long trip for one night in the city but they seemed to have fun while they were here.  The boat we bought off of them has a V8!!!  Jose says it’s pretty fast!  I didn’t realize that – I’m pumped to try it out next year!! 

 

The Apple store that I’m working on is opening this Friday.  Apple just made the press release with posters around the city and emails to Apple customers.  Largest Apple store in NYC!! I’m pretty pumped for the opening – they make a big event out of it so it should be fun. 

 

Also, I don’t mean to concern anyone, but I thought you all should know – the Manmobile is having health problems and may not be around much longer.  She does not like starting up when it’s cold out and her body has taken a lot of abuse over the years.  I hope that you all will pray for her health and that she will survive for a little longer. 

 

If anyone talks to Kennedy please tell him to fix my bike.

 

Speaking of talking, has anyone spoke with Kevin since Thanksgiving?

 

Montreal for New Years?  Anyone?

 

OK – back to work… 

 

 

 

Baby Snider

On Monday, we had our first ultrasound which was really exciting! Even though we don't know the sex of the baby yet, Dan has decided to temporarily name him/her anyways. Considering the fact that Dan LOVES Curb Your Enthusiasm, he has named the baby Larry David Snider, or LDS for short. Believe me, this name will not stick permanently!!!

Here is what our little JuneBug looked like on Monday... How exciting!

Get Ready for Christmas!

Now that Thanksgiving is over, it is time for us all to start thinking about Christmas! The Robillard Christmas celebration will take place on Saturday, December 22nd. We will continue with the gift swap so start shopping now for the best gift. The limit for the kids swap is $20 and the adults is $25. Who will come up with the best gift this year??

Happy Birthdays!

Once again, belated birthdays to celebrate.....

Saturday was Elizabeth and little Joeys birthdays! We hopefully they both had a wonderful day celebrating with family.

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday Elizabeth & Joey
Happy Birthday to you

Tension at Smith College

I don't know if anyone saw this on the news in Springfield, but there was an incident on Friday night of someone showing up to a party on campus wearing blackface as part of her costume. The party was themed "celebrity rehab" and she and her boyfriend went as "Bobby and Whitney" with brown paint on their skin to make them look black. They did not know the historical context of blackface and did not mean anything malicious by it, but this caused a lot of tension at the party and has been a huge ordeal the past few days. There have been lots of discussions online on the daily jolt and on facebook (for those of you who know what both of those are) and some has been very inappropriate on both sides while some has been very educational and constructive. There was also a protest yesterday morning where the Black Students Alliance went into an emergency faculty meeting to make sure they were going to do something about this incident. Overall, campus has been a very intense environment the past few days and a little overwhelming. I also just did a presentation on Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech in class today, so I was researching the civil rights movement all weekend on top of all this. So basically I have been overwhelmed with racism issues and activism, which I feel passionately about anyway, but I am now looking forward to Thanksgiving break, where I can get away from it all for a few days.

Happy Birthday Sister P!!

According to my records, I am a day late. BUT, better late than never...

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday Sister Paula!
Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday Erin!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

HAPPY BIRTDHAY TO YOU!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR ERIN!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

We are all looking forward to celebrating with you this weekend. Have a great day!

Thanksgiving?

What’s the plan for Turkey Day? 

 

 

Goodbye California!

I'm finally back and much closer to being settled in my new apartment since Mom & Dad came this past weekend to help me get settled. After I get everything hung on the walls after they paint tomorrow I will feel MUCH better!

But before I left I had two great weekends. The first one Haley (my friend from WS) flew up from southern California for the weekend. We hung out, drank wine (shocking!) and did the one thing I wanted to do before I left - go to a certain viewpoint from the bridge. Here are a few pictures I took -

This is Megan, Christina, Haley & I at Pichetti. Christina was one of the really great friends I made out there - she's dating one of my friends from WS who is in grad school at Stanford so they lived about a mile from me - and we all got to experience the earthquake together!

View all the way at the top - it was such a clear day! Apparently October is the clearest month in the Bay Area:

Haley & I about mid-way down the road:

I could look at the bridge all day I think :) This one is my favorite because you can see the city so well in the backgroundAfter we had dinner in Saucilito we found out it was 'lights out San Francisco. They encourage everyone to turn of the lights for 1 hour to save energy - we drove back up the road to see them turn the lights off...it was pretty stupid but a good picture!

The next weekend/week Mom & Dad came and saved me by helping me pack and ship all of my stuff. Actually, they did the majority of the packing and shipping while I was working fun 12-15 hour days to finish my project! We did take a break during the weekend and watched the game with my favorite old men at the Clemson Alumni club and then headed up to Sonoma for some wine tasting. We had an amazing meal Saturday night and were up and out early on Sunday to drink wine. We made it to 5 wineries and were able to do 5 private tastings! We went to Ledson and Saint Francis in Sonoma, and V'Sattui, Peju, and Biale in Napa. Here are some pictures from our weekend:

Here we are at the member tasting balcony at Ledson - it is a gorgeous enormous house that was supposed to be a residence but they decided to open it as the winery instead!

Here we are at Saint Francis - this was the view during our tasting:

We were able to do a food and wine pairing which I had never done, it was a lot of fun!

Norman, Oklahoma

This past weekend, Dan and I took a trip to Norman, Oklahoma to visit Adam. We had a wonderful time catching up and seeing a football game while we were there.


Dan, Adam, and Jay had a great time together. Sunday night we went out to a German restaurant for dinner. This was the first of two liters of beer and two shots the boys drank. Thankfully, they had a designated driver (yours truly!)









Adam works for the athletic department on the video staff. This is where he gets to watch all of the games from. Dan and I were able to stand with him for the 3rd quarter, it was an awesome view of the game!










Since Adams office is pretty much inside the football stadium, we were able to go play on the field on Sunday. It was kind of crazy to think that the day before we were there with 85,000 people and the next day......just the four of us. I did make a field goal....but only from 10 yards out!















Friday, Adam took us around the stadium and we were able to go up where the radio announcers sit. Another great view of the stadium












Finally....game day! Of course we watched the Clemson game at a bar first, and then checked out the tailgating scene in Norman. The game was fun and the weather was really nice (Dan was only wearing the hat for fun!)
















And last but not least, Adam hard at work during the game! Overall we had a great weekend, but got back to reality today! I am ready for Thanksgiving and seeing everyone again.

Help Jericho!

Hi everyone! Now that I am working with Sr. Joan at Jericho, and I love my job, and the work we do, helping people with disabilities by providing spiritual opportunities to them. Right now we are running a fundraiser with the wholesaler BJ's but only until 11/14. If you renew your membership or join, you get $10 off the regular membership price of $45, the membership is good for 15 months instead of the standard 12 months. But the best part is BJ's will donate $5 for every membership signed up through our fundraiser. Anyone interested give me a call on my cell 413-636-1739 or at work 413-538-7450.

Second, we are a charitable organization affiliated with the United Way. Many companies offer to let their employees donate a percentage of their paychecks to the charity of their choice. You could select Jericho whose legal name is "The Bureau for Exceptional Children and Adults". Sign up for this option is generally the end of the year. So I thought I would put this in your heads. If you already donate, why not designate Jericho, and support me, and the organization I work for. Hope to see you all soon!

Keep Up With Kevin!

As we all know, Kevin left for his big trip on Monday. Hopefully, he can keep us all up to date on his blog. You can check it out here and leave him comments! There will also be a link added to the side bar so you can check his blog frequently during his trip.

I hope everyone is having a great week!

New Boat at the camp!

Here are pics of the new boat up at the camp. Thanks to Paul for sending them to me so I could post them as he is extremely busy at work. Hopefully, we'll be able to meet up soon for dinner with back to the east coast Andrea. Enjoy the pics.

Where should I go?

So, my friends and I had planned on going to London in January to visit a friend abroad, but that friend is not going to be there anymore and we are now looking for somewhere else to go. We are thinking somewhere tropical. Does anyone have suggestions for somewhere cheap and fun?

Andrea's Send Off

Can you believe it? Andrea is already moving back to New Jersey. She flies out tomorrow night, but California couldn't let her go without a little fun! My parents are still visiting her and last night they had an earthquake, 5.6 on the Richter Scale. Don't worry - they are all doing fine!

Random Thoughts and Postings

If you want to see something funny, check out Dan's parents blog. There is a Dan look-alike out there!

Very Random - This morning, I realized how much of a dork I truly am! Since I am a creature of habit, I take the same bus into the city every morning and tend to sit in the same area. On the ride in, I do my homework, which is usually just reading. When I walked up to the bus stop this morning, there was one guy at the bus stop, and he was like....I always see you working so hard every morning, what are you studying for? So, I had to explain that I was working on my Masters degree and try to multitask to get my homework done on the bus (what a dork!).

There is also another gentleman who is ALWAYS on the same bus in the morning. He is always very polite and says hello. Every day when we are getting off the bus he says have a nice day as he walks outside. Well, this morning when I sat down in my chair he handed me two highlighters!! I thought that was the nicest thing. Every morning I read and highlight as I go along and he thought I might need a few extra highlighters. I guess that was his good deed of the day, now I need to go pass one on! I realized how nice it is when a stranger does something nice for you.

Go Red Sox!

How are you feeling about the Red Sox chances in the World Series? Like everyone else - I am exhausted today from staying up late last night to watch the game, but at least the outcome was good (Sorry, Dan!)

Pauls Rooftop Cookout

Sunday night, Paul was nice enough to invite us over for a cookout on his rooftop deck. The view from the roof was awesome! Paul cooked up some chicken, steak tips, and pork neck (don't ask!) along with a couple of different salads. I think everyone had a great time, other than hearing that the Yankees won their game that night. From Pauls rooftop in Brooklyn, you can see right across the Williamsburg Bridge. Dan got some great shots as the sun was setting.

This is the view of lower Manhattan. If the twin towers were still there, they would sit right where the sun is shining the brightest. Beautiful!Paul was hard at work on the grill while David chills out with a drink....nice shirt Dave..Go Red Sox! I will need support this week because Dans entire family are HUGE Indians fans...help me! It will be a long series for us, and hopefully the Red Sox will come out on top. We will see!

After a few drinks, we can still smile for the camera.

Friday night, after Clemson got the butts whooped in football, Dan and I met up with Erin, David, and Paul in the city. We ended up a little beer bar where Dan knows the bartender - surprise, surprise. I shouldn't really complain though because our check for about 12 beers was only $33....Thanks Dan! And believe me, we weren't drinking cheap beers. That was probably only a quarter of what the bill should have been. I guess it pays to be nice to people.

How could we ever forget the dog!! He (just a stab at the spelling....Ishkah??) had a great time jogging around the deck. Thanks again Paul for everything, we had a great time!!

Another great (long) weekend

This past weekend 2 of my best friends from West Side came to visit - Kate and Caitlin. They got here Friday night and I just dropped Kate at the airport for the red eye tonight. Here are some pictures from our weekend:

We started with a trip to Ridge (Mom & Dad's favorite winery) and Pichetti (my favorite winery). Here we are tasting at Pichetti:



From there we went to (or at least attempted to go to) Muir Woods. What I did not know was that this past weekend was Fleet Week in San Francisco. What that meant was 2X more tourists than normal, impossible traffic, and all of the view points for the bridge were closed which was sad. And also the Blue Angels were in town...it was pretty hectic! After getting lost and paying to drive across the bridge 2 times we finally made it! It was my first trip here and it was awesome! Here are some pictures from our 2 mile hike:

Here is a picture of us driving over the bridge. It was the clearest day I have seen in the city since I lived here!!! They took this our my sunroof:



Kate and I normally look pretty short, but here is one of us in front of some of the trees.


And this was taken by some nice Clemson Alum that we randomly met when we were hiking!


That night we got a hotel room in the city and met up with a bunch of friends from work. I was talking to Mom & Dad when I was stuck and traffic and realized I was going to be VERY late for our reservation. And I am sure Mom was sad she wasn't with us (it's her favorite restaurant in the city!) they offered to call and let the restaurant know we were going to be late and when we got there, a mystery bottle of wine showed up from "Our friends Peter and Peggy". Thanks Mom & Dad! Here is us at dinner:


Sunday we spent the day touring an overcrowded San Francisco! But very interesting things happened.

#1 - The Blue Angels. Very cool, but very VERY loud! The show seemed to go on all day and there were people on top of buildings everywhere to watch. Here is one of the pictures I got:

#2 - We decided to take the cable car back to the hotel. We also decided to make a stop at Lombard Street. There was a line to get back on the cable car and after missing the 2nd cable car (the come about every 10-15 minutes) we were starting to get restless as you can tell below (She is taking a bite out of crime):

We first all of the cops came out of no where to clear the street. All of a sudden these cars came flying by and stopped at the top of the hill and it was all the pilots from the Blue Angels which was cool. But the next part was even more exciting. We saw the next cable car coming in our direction and starting inching out into the road (I was super annoyed these people cut in front of us and took the last 2 spots on the last car). A cable car was also stopped in the other direction letting people on/off. There was a mini-van trying to make left onto the street and the traffic cop told them no because they couldn't get around the cable car and you're not supposed to turn left onto the street anyways. So he started driving, and then decided to slow down and try to see if he could make the turn. Naturally when he started moving the car behind him started moving (as the cop told them to do) and the cable car coming in our direction released its brake right as the mini-van decided to stop. The car in the middle had no chance! It got crushed/pushed between the cable car and the van and started leaking gas. That was when we decided to walk/run back to the hotel. Good thing we didn't inch out too far! This is the after picture of the car:



That night we hung out with the other West Springfielder's out here and Monday we spent the day wine tasting in Napa. It was a fun day and we didn't get too many picture but I did feel special because the guys at one of the wineries that I go to a lot knows my name now (good or bad I'm not sure) and he was very nice and opened wine for us that we weren't supposed to be able to taste!

Today we took it easy, went to a winery around here, and Kate was crazy enough to swim in the Pacific ocean, I wouldn't even put my feet in. It was nice to have a day to relax and not be at work!

But unfortunately tomorrow is back to work for me. And then tomorrow night I am headed to NJ to find a new place to live! I'm spending the weekend with Mere and Dan and will hopefully not be homeless at the end of the weekend!

Hope everyone's having a great week! See you soon!

Mimeres 90th Birthday Party

Just a few pictures from Mimeres 90th Birthday Party (Yes, she was lucky enough to have 2!) Mimere pretty much stayed put in this chair for the afternoon as we all watched the procession of people come by to say Happy Birthday! Kristin got a chance in the hot seat for a while!
What's a party without the games.....Brian and Tommy playing Cornhole.
A few more visitors stopping by!
This is Kristin with her favorite Paige!

The Big E!!

Last Saturday Kristin, Dan, and I went to The Big E for some fun and excitement. It doesn't seem like as much fun when you are older, but we had a good time nonetheless. We didn't buy anything too exciting...kettle corn, beef jerky, maple cotton candy, Otter Creek beer, Kristin got knives, and we had to have a fresh cider donut and root beer. The states building are our favorite!!

The cutest little pig and piglets! I don't think the mother was happy the piglets were walking around where she was trying to find food - she keep knocking them away with her snout. I know - we are easily entertained

Like little kids, we went to the petting zoo where you could feed the animals for a quarter. Dan enjoyed it, even going back for a second round of food.
For those who have never been to The Big E - there is a big yellow slide that you can ride down on a potato sack. We all took a ride down, but I had to stop and take a picture of Dan making his first ever trip down the big yellow slide. It looks like he is having more fun that the little girl next to him!
We wanted to take a break, so we decided to watch a show in The Coliseum. This show ended up being awesome - The Royal Canadian Mounted Police Musical Ride. The horses rode around in some crazy choreographed formations. It was like a marching band on horseback.I was waiting for them to run into one another, but it never happened. We were impressed!