Christmas Eve

More pictures from Christmas Eve on Flickr!

Boxing with the Wii

The Wii has kept our morning active, some more than others.... Check out Renee's unique boxing style. It worked by the way. She knocked out Wes.

Garage Building

This past Saturday we framed the church garage. The cold weather didn't slow us down too much (it was in the low 20's), ....well maybe a little. We had a nice mix of experienced and inexperienced framers on hand. It's a big 32 foot wide garage.

There are a bunch of pictures on Flickr.

Stuffed

Our turkey was delicious, and so were all the fixings. We were so stuffed, we waited until this evening to eat some pie. Now we're stuffed again. We had a Happy Thanksgiving!

All gone!

Talking to Renee and Food Update

We just finished talking to Renee who will be enjoying Thanksgiving with her friends family out in California. Here are a few of the pictures I snapped while we were talking to her: Wes cutting up some pepperoni (not a traditional Thanksgiving treat, yet something he wanted?), Ricky on the computer (playing Guild Wars), and Linda on the phone (talking to Renee).




We'll have Renee home for Christmas!!

Snow This Past Weekend

No Surprise that we got some snow before Thanksgiving. Not much, yet enough to break out the shovel (about 5 inches). I meant to post this earlier in the week.

Thanksgiving Preparations!

The Turkey is in the oven! We are cooking a fresh 11 and a half pound bird this year. In years past, that would be more than enough turkey, but with Wesley measuring in at almost 6 feet tall, we don't plan on seeing too much in the way of leftovers.

Linda baked a pie last night and the rest of the dinner is being prepared as I type this. Jennifer is making her world famous (alright, maybe not world famous) Deviled Eggs. After she finishes her eggs, she'll be putting together a cheese and olive tray. I'll be back for an update later.

California Fires

Renee is living in Oceanside, just north of San Diego CA and the fires are in the area. She is ready just in case they have to evacuate. There are several fires around Oceanside and you can track them with this Google map.

Free Hugs

This little clip has been viewed more than 19 million times on YouTube. Once you watch it, you'll know why.

Customer Satisfaction Skills Training

This past week, I headed to Erie, PA to attend and support Customer Satisfaction Skills training. We had partners from NY, PA, and OH in attendance. The training was outstanding and we all had a great time.
Here are a few more pictures from the event over at flickr.

Saturday Sheetrocking

This Saturday I'll be going to a friends house to do some sheetrocking. I do have a basement project at home to do, yet that job can wait. My friend is the proud father of triplets and the sheetrock is for a new addition that will make the transition easier for he and his wife.

Kirchgoens Germany Revisited

This is an update from my last post. After more than 20 years, I was finally able to talk to one of my old Army buddies. Tim is as cordial and friendly as I remember him to be. As I imagined, we reminisced about our time in Germany and I was amazed at how easy it was to walk someone through twenty plus years of my life in just a few minutes. We plan on staying in touch and if things work out well, we won't let another 20 years of friendship pass us by.

Is there an old friend in your life that you need to get in touch with?

Kirchgoens Germany

My first duty station with the army was Kirchgoens Germany. Over the past 20 years I have lost contact with everyone I was stationed with. This past week I was able to contact someone from my unit, Tim via classmates.com. We have communicated through e-mail these past few days and I am hoping to talk to him on the phone soon. I can't wait to reminisce about our experience in Europe. Although we were stationed in Germany at a tense period in our history (while the Berlin Wall was still up, a.k.a. the Cold War), I anticipate that we will focus most of our time on great times with great friends.

California Roll

I'm a big fan of International food. This Sunday I tried my hand at making California Rolls. My first attempt at sushi, actually turned out well. My son Ricky is a big Sushi fan and he ate several pieces, so I'm assuming it was pretty good. I was surprised by the amount of time it took to make. It took about two hours to prepare. Of course, we have enough sushi to feed us for several meals. Ricky was happy to take a container of the stuff to school for his lunch. It was a great culinary experience.

New Web Address

To make it easier to share the blog, I have a new web address. The new address is www.rickdumont.net. The old address will still work.

2007 Irishfest

Last weekend we went to the 11th Annual Irish Festival at the Altamont Fairgrounds near Albany. Linda and I went last year (I got to see my favorite artist Dougie MacLean) and decided to take the boys with us this year. Wesley had a large school project to get done and decided to pass, yet Ricky was able to join us. We had a great time!



Our favorite group this year was a band called GiveWay. Four talented sisters from Scotland that have been singing and playing as a band since 1998. Now they have taken their show on the road and we were fortunate enough to see them. They picked up a couple of new fans from Syracuse! There website is worth a visit, www.giveway.com, and they actively post at MySpace.

There are more pictures of the festival at flickr and a couple of videos on YouTube.

From my Colorado Visit

I thought I'd take a couple of minutes to share a couple of pictures from my Colorado visit. I had a couple of days in Colorado before I headed home. I spent the first day with Rob at the Air Force Academy. It was both interesting and fun. The highpoint was seeing the cadets sky dive, or maybe it was the medium pizza at Godfather's Pizza? You can check out more Colorado pictures at flickr.

During my visit, I ate very well. We ate out at the Golden Corral a couple of times and went to Noodles one night, which was really good. The trip wouldn't be complete if me and Dad didn't do a little book shopping. We found a few treasures. He and I took the Cog Railroad up Pikes Peak. The scenery was as spectacular as you would expect it to be. I even had some fun with electricity.

The weather at the Peak was cold and cloudy. As we went to the high point of the peak, I heard a buzzing in my hat. At first I wasn't sure what it was. I took off my hat to see if it was a bug or something (it wasn't), and the buzzing started again as soon as my hat was back on. Once I figured out what it was, I yelled to dad and headed back inside the building. The buzzing was static electricity going from the top of my head to the metal button on the top of my baseball cap. Just as we were heading into the building, we heard a thunderclap on the other side of the peak. I guess lightning just likes me. I was glad to be back indoors.

All in all, the trip was fantastic and it was great to see my parents and Rob, Mary and Rachael.

Back Home

My flight from Atlanta was delayed and I didn't get home until well after midnight. I got a few hours sleep and then headed to work. After work I headed over to the High School to see our Cheerleader Jennifer cheer on the football team. This is her second game, but the first time I was able to see her cheer. She was tossed in the air at least half a dozen times. The toss happens whenever our team scores a touchdown. We won 41 to 0, so the Cheerleaders were doing a lot of cheering. . . and tossing.

More cheerleading pictures on flickr.

Day 4 - We Made It!

We arrived safely here in Colorado Springs at about 1PM. We spent several hours unloading and then went to dinner at the Golden Corral with Rob, Mary and Rachael. I'm beat. The clock on the wall says 9:30 PM, but the clock in my head is still set for east coast time and that would be 11:30 PM. Good Night!

Day 3 - Missouri and Kansas

We made it through St Loius early this morning and passed through Kansas City before lunch. We dropped off Wally Wood's desk to Roger Hill in Salina, Kansas. Once we dropped off the desk, we decided to keep driving a bit further. We'll be spending the night in Hays, Kansas. We made good time and should be in Colorado Springs by tomorrow afternoon.

Day 2 - Almost in St. Louis

We made good time today. We started out at about 7:30 AM, passed into West Virginia, then Ohio, then Indiana. We finished up in Illinois, just before St Louis. We ate dinner at Cracker Barrel and now it's time to rest. Hopefully I'll get a chance to do another update tommorow.

Day 1 - We made it to Somerset Pennsylvania

We loaded the car and headed out this morning at about 9:30 AM. We drove until about 6 PM. We knocked off 440 miles of our 2100 mile journey. We had hoped to get a little further, but the truck is loaded down and the hills gave us some trouble. Connecticut, New York and Pennsylvania have lots of hills (mountains) and we got down as low as 35 to 45 mph (Our record is 33 mph held by dad). We're close to Ohio and we hope that we can move at a better pace tommorow. We enjoyed dinner at Ruby Tuesday's. We both had the Turkey minis and salad bar. Trying to eat healthy. Hopefully we'll be able to update tomorrow!

Moving Day!

Today I drove out to Connecticut to meet up with my father and help him move his stuff out to Colorado. Duc, Dave, and Kurt helped us load. It took us a few hours to load. There was enough stuff to fill 23 feet of the 26 foot truck five to six feet high. We'll be hitting the road in the morning. We're spending the night at Duc's.

Samples of Ricky's Artwork

Rarely do you see Ricky without his sketch pad. Here are a few samples of his work.

Old Forge Kayak Trip

We're back from our Kayak trip on the Moose River in Old Forge, NY. We stayed at the Old Forge Camping Resort. When we checked in, we were told that Black Bear activity on the grounds was high. Although we didn't see the bears, we definitely heard them. We had one run by our tent at around midnight and the ground shook as it passed.
Along with our time on the river, we enjoyed some Miniature Golf, Go Cart Rides, and paddle boats on Lake Serene. Both Jennifer and I agreed that we need to come back again next year.

Saratoga Racetrack and the State Fair

Our Albany office held a customer appreciation day this past Thursday at the Saratoga Racetrack. Thoroughbred Horses have been running this track since 1863. It's a fun event that is held for six weeks every summer. I'm not a gambler, yet it's still fun to watch the races and see the horses. Though the Albany branch has attended the event for several years, this is just my third consecutive Saratoga visit. I think the video below shows horses heading in for the fourth race.



You know summer is coming to an end when the New York State Fair arrives. The Fair got under way a few days ago. I went to the Fair with Jennifer on Saturday. The weather wasn't looking to good. It was hot, muggy, and it looked ready to storm any minute. Since my lightening experience on the Appalachian Trail in Georgia, I'm not a big fan of lightening. Fortunately, we only heard a couple of thunderclaps and saw a few raindrops.
We made sure we followed our State Fair ritual of getting a loaded baked potato from the Potato Booth and a half pint of ice cream from the dairy building. We stayed out of the commercial buildings and stuck to the Livestock Buildings. The animals were not enjoying the heat, so they were not as active as we would have liked. We had a great time anyway.
Wesley went to the fair with his friends and Jennifer will be going to the fair with her friends later in the week. It's a great way to end the summer. Fall is just around the corner.

An Active Week

Last Friday, the NY Distribution Center team spent some time at the Miniature Golf course. The weather was perfect and everybody had a great time.

This Tuesday, I went to dinner and a Cleveland Indians game with the DC Leadership team. Although the Indians lost, we had a great time. This is our 3rd DC (Distribution Center) Indians Game outing.

This Thursday, ComDoc held a customer appreciation day at the Syracuse Zoo. It's an informal event and the sales team invites both current customers and prospects to enjoy lunch and a day at the Zoo. It's a fun time for the whole family. Jennifer and her friend Amanda enjoyed some time at the Zoo.

Adirondack Park

Yesterday Jennifer and I headed north to Adirondack Park. We camped at Cranberry Lake Campground on Friday and then headed to Cascade Mountain on Saturday morning.

Cascade Mountain is one of the 46 high peaks (each peak must be 4,000 feet or higher) in Adirondack Park. Cascade is the 36th tallest peak at 4,098 ft.

Jennifer set the pace and had us up the mountain in less than two hours and back to the base in about an hour. We found a ledge at the top of the mountain (out of the wind) to enjoy our lunch.

Boat Races

The Albany Service Team engagaed in some competitive boat racing this afternoon. Though the racing didn't go as planned, it was alot of fun!

A Perfect Swing

This was Jen's first time out on the Driving Range and it is her first time on YouTube.

Driving Range and Bass Pro Shops

Jen and I went to the driving range to hit some golf balls today and then we went to Bass Pro Shops out in Auburn.

Molly

Molly, Renee's crazy little Bichon Frise, was willing to pose for this latest picture.

Snow in April?

Yep, Snow in mid-April in lovely Central, NY. Not just your everyday snow…a wet and heavy snow, the kind that drops trees and power lines with ease.
Jennifer gave me a brief scare while I was at work. She called to let me know that the tree in the front yard was down and was lying across a line. I say a brief scare because the tree in our front yard is small and the power lines are at the side of the house. She e-mailed a picture of the disaster to me. The snow was so heavy, it bent it over an old phone line.
The kids got away with one more snow day for the year, so they celebrated…until they remembered that they had to shovel the driveway.

Photos From Italy!