Joe and Jamie's Blog

Today I purchased a four game pack of tickets to the MLS team New York Red Bulls. Jamie and I both like soccer, but we have never been to a real MLS game before, go figure.

Pricing for the MLS is really cheap, well at least compared to other sports. I got seats near the midfield line, end row seats, mid section for all four games. This should give us a good view of the whole field without too much disturbance. I believe they currently play at the Giants stadium, but they are having their own stadium built as we speak, well read I guess. You can check out the new arena’s website here. They have a web cam to watch the progress.

Can’t wait for our first game, I’ll have a bunch of pictures to show everyone. For now, you can visit the team’s website here.

Kinda got lazy for a few weeks, not really busy, just pure laziness. I have a ton of posts I want to write. I just rambled off three of them, be on the look out for a few more tonight and some more tomorrow. Be sure to read them all, some cool stuff happened in February.

Now I know there is a ton of posts, articles, mentions, etc, etc about this, but it is worth yet another post. I promise I will make it short, sweat, and to the point.

JUST TURN OFF EVERYTHING AT 8:30PM ON MARCH 28TH 2009.

Very simple, just do it. Pretend this is a Nike commercial if it helps you.

Watch the video and do your part to help, please.

Sign up here to send the WWF’s and Earth Hour’s message to your government!

Visit the Earth Hour homepage here.

This past month I have been gradually repainting the kitchen. My mother, well all of us really, were tired of the old wall paper that was starting to come down. It had been up there for 10 years, my guesstimate. So after a few weekends and weekdays, skipping a bunch of days in between, the kitchen is now freshly painted. Just need to paint the outside door and I’m all set. I am waiting on the weather to warm up a bit before I start the door.

Now I have moved into the pantry. We stuck with the same colors since the rooms flow into each other. I am about half done with the pantry. I need to finish the trim, paint behind the fridge, and inside the cabinets. From the pantry I get to move into the dining room and start all over. Fun, Fun, can’t wait.

How the kitchen looked before the project

Above is what the kitchen looked like before we started this. Unfortunately I didn’t take a picture so I had to crop this from an older photo. At least you can see the color and wall paper.

Aww so pretty!

Snazzy looking corner there!

See the pantry, that's next!

I was finally able to redeem my Christmas present on President’s Day. Jamie had bought me tickets to go see my favorite hockey team play, the Pittsburgh Penguins. They were playing the New York Islanders at the Islanders arena, the Nassau Coliseum in Long Island.

I have been to a couple hockey games before with my father, but this was the first time Jamie had ever gone to one. She enjoyed watching the game, so I was very happy. I like the sport, actually my most favorite to watch. It is constant action, not like baseball that takes 40 minutes just to strike out or football that has 15 seconds of game time for every 20 minutes of TV timeouts.

This was my first trip to the Nassau Coliseum though, the other times I went my father got tickets to the New Jersey Devil’s arena, called the Continental Airlines Arena at the time, now the Prudential Center I believe. The stadium was very nice and well kept, crowds weren’t that bad at all considering it was a day off for most people. I just love the highway robbery at the concessions though, but that is everywhere now.

Maybe we can snag some more tickets later in the season. I want to see some other teams play, so we should be able to find some open games. It’s tough getting tickets because these local teams only play the Penguins so often at home. I’m still loyal to my Penguins, even though many years ago they traded my favorite player…now get this, to the team I hate the most (New York Rangers)! Just swell!

The Islanders wound up winning the game in a shootout. For those of you not up to what happens in a tie in hockey, they play a 5 minute period with only four guys on each time (normally five). If it is a tie after that, three players from each team go to a one-on-one shootout with the goalie, whoever scores more wins, if it still ties then it is a tie. Final score after shootout, Islanders 3, Penguins 2. Enjoy some pics from inside the arena.

Scoreboard

Rink before the game, nice and smooth

Shot of stands at Nassau Coliseum

Penguins trying to score

Go Penguings Go!

Waiting for ice girls to finish shoveling the ice

Full rink shot during game

Faceoff down near Pittsburgh's end

FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! Yes there is always one in hockey!

Happy 21st Birthday Jamie!!

PPPPAAAAARRRRRRTTTTYYYYY!!!!!!

Now we can finally order a drink together when we eat out! :)

This past weekend Jamie and I went to one of her co-worker’s annual Christmas tree burning party out in Pawling. Annette and her husband Joe threw the party at their house with a bunch of their friends and neighbors. The party has become an annual ritual around this time since they moved into their home. This was the first time Jamie and I attended such an event, but it turned out to be very fun. I mean how can you go wrong with beer and fire?

I will say that it is absolutely amazing how fast the trees go up. It takes only about 30 seconds for all the branches to burn to ash. The heat gets so intense that you feel like you are getting a sunburn when you are 20 feet away, through your jacket, and over the 30 degree temperature outside. The flames easily reached over 12 feet with each tree, making it quite the spectacle of falling ash and smoke in the sky.

Can’t wait till next year!

It's amazing how high the flames get

Who threw the match in there?

Hot, hot, hot, hot!

It only takes a few seconds to completely go up

Its on FFFFFFFIIIIIRRRREEEE