Visitors and Visiting
We left a few Thursday's ago for Black Mountain - had a whirl-wind weekend that included seeing Jenn (who lives in LA but was in town to see her grandfather) and we got to meet her fiancé! We also attended a wedding of one of Niles' friends he has been great friends with since 2nd grade. They went to school together through college. And of course had a great time with Niles' family and friends. Also, got to see Aaron Salmon at the airport in Charlotte on our layover. (See a very few of the pics here). Then we got back and the first night home spent with our good friends, Frank and Joelle, who were moving to Charlotte the next day (Pics here - Goodbye party, Gage's Bday, others). We knew them from Raleigh (they were in Florida but worked for our company - Niles worked with them in Florida for a few months). Frank worked with me here and we spent several nights a week at their house with them and their kids. So it was very sad but of all the places at least they are moving to somewhere we might actually see them again! Then we had one day to unpack from the trip and clean in preparation of members of Amie's family (Daddy, Nancy and Daniel) coming to visit.
	They came on Wednesday and we were busy the whole time. We went to NYC 3 of the days. We saw Ellis Island, MOMA, RENT on Broadway, a Yankees game, had dinner with Niles' dad, and much more. In CT we did the aquarium in Norwalk, Barnum Museum, and had dinner at this great Italian place in Bridgeport recommended to us my the Mayor. The whole trip was a lot of fun. Here are the photos daddy posted of the trip.
Then they left on Memorial Day and we went to our one remaining CT friend's house for a cook-out. Then we had one day again to re-coup then our friend Dan came for a night. He lives in Raleigh but was in Jersey for the week visiting his dad. Friday, Niles had Kevin James at his work (the guy from "King of Queens" and the new movie "Hitch"). It was SOOOO FUNNY! Saturday we slept in (FINALLY!!) and then went downtown (b-port) to see some new artists' lofts they just opened and the artists had their work out...it was a nice day so we took Alex for a walk on the beach, too.

Sibling Update: Where in the WORLD are they??

Lauren is in South America and Daniel is in Europe. Burke is finishing up his semester in Australia and Caitlin is preparing for her fall semester in Hawaii! Wish we could go with them all!

Niles' Job
So I've finally got a job! I have been hired to work as a Promoter Rep/Production Manager for Jim Koplik Presents (formerly know as Clear Channel Entertainment). JKP owns and operates 2 facilities in Connecticut - a 5000 seat theatre and a 25,000 seat amphitheatre. The company also exclusively books events at the Mohegan Sun Casino Arena and books events in other venues in Connecticut, including the Arena at Harbor Yard, where Amie works. At least for this season I will work primarily in the Oakdale Theatre in Wallingford, CT. Our offices are at the Oakdale and the office is very dog friendly. Alex gets to come to work again too! She is very excited. We have been told that there is a standing 4pm play date for all the dogs in the building, but we've missed it so far. So I am excited to get to work, and will be diving into events very soon. Thanks to everyone for keeping an eye out for opportunities for me. You will hear more from me soon. --Niles It's been a busy week. Niles started his NEW JOB Monday and we celebrated with a nice dinner out Monday night.
	Wednesday and Friday were trips to the city…Wednesday we went to a launch party for a movie being produced by one of Niles' dad's friends, Larry. It was at this VERY trendy club in the Meatpacking district of NY. (The place was so posh there was no sign out front, but there was a bouncer and a velvet rope). There were all kinds of fashionably dressed folks inside and high-priced cocktails, of course. We felt like we were in a scene from "Sex in the City," at one of Samantha's parties. So our friend Chris had met us and we spent the party talking with him. We missed most of the sushi so we had a chicken gyro from the
street vendor outside Grand Central before catching the second to last train. It's amazing that 3 chicken gyros, a hot dog and a soda from him was all the same price as one glass of wine at the party. Friday, we headed back to the city for dinner with Niles' dad and Larry. We went to a place called Komegashi- it was Japanese food done in a French style. Yup, that's right. "New York has stuff LA doesn't even KNOW about!" Larry (who has houses in LA, NY and Lancaster, PA) said to a friend who called while we were eating. It was great, crazy, very innovative, from the Green Tea and Ginger Martinis down to the 4-spice sponge cake with pumpkin ice cream.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Another year, another event... If you've followed along closely, you will know our first Valentine's Day together (Feb 14, 2000) was spent with both of us at work busy with the Circus. We did manage to find a few minutes for (the late) Gunther Gebel Williams to let us ride the elephants! It's hard to top a day like that. Since then, we have been working one event or another each year. Last year, we went to a hockey game in Columbus on our road trip. This year...

9 degrees but feels like zero

Alexis and Amie Frank, Niles and Joelle

January in CT Our week started with a good-bye to Alexis, Amie's group sales coordinator at work. She got a great job at an arena in Trenton and moved to PA (We tried to get her to move into our house but it was a little too far north). Then on Saturday we went with Frank and Joelle to West Hartford to celebrate Joelle's birthday with some of their friends. It was a lot of fun - good people, good food, nice to see the ritzy West Hartford area. Sunday, it was back in the city for family-style Italian with Niles' dad and friend Peter. Now begins Amie's 40 events at work in about 40 days so see you on the other side! Don, Peter & Niles

Welcome to 2005
	New year, new news... Check it out - Christmas and New Years' pictures!

Together Again
	Niles and Alex arrive in Connecticut After 3 months of being in various different places, we are finally all in CT. We'll spend the next week getting the rest of the stuff from our house over here to our tiny, one bedroom apartment in Bridgeport. Then Niles will be back on the "find-a-job" trail. Did you miss how we got here?

New on other pages

A Cinderella Story - Niles' cousin stars with Hillary Duff and Chad Michael Murray in a movie - just out on DVD so get it! See story about the movie's premiere. Aunt Betty turns 90! See pics from the party that brought family from around the country.

Sibling News

STUDY ABROAD: Burke has gone down under for spring semester. He'll spend the term studying design in Australia. Caitlin may be spending the summer stydying in Hawaii. MED SCHOOL: Lauren has started her "second year" at Wake Forest University's offer to go to Bowman Grey Medschool in Winston-Salem, NC. COLLEGE: Daniel's following in his big sister's footsteps as he becomes a Tar Heel at the University of North Carolina SUMMER FUN: Lauren and Amie went with Daddy to Disney World in July. Then Amie's Mom and family came and she spent a few days with them. Later, Lauren, Amie and Daniel went to Universal Studios for the first time. Lots of fun in Orlando!

Leslie Visits
In October, Leslie came to town for a weekend to visit her friend AJ (and Amie)- we went to the City on Saturday and a Jets game on Sunday.	The train ride to the city was an adventure. We were delayed 3 hours because there was someone on the track. We had to wait for the cops to come and once it was declared a crime-scene (the person woke up and said she had been left on the tracks), the train had to back up and go to a different set of tracks. Once we finally made it to NYC, we did some shopping and then headed to NJ for dinner with AJ's parents. Sunday, we went with AJ's parents to the Jets-Bills game. AJ (working for the team) hooked us up with VIP parking, pre-game meal, seats on the 50 yard-line, post-game autographs, and Jets shirts to wear. The game was exciting and the Jets won at the end.

Niles' stint in NC
	Niles and Alex had great fun getting to spend time with friends and family. They celebrated Dan and Megan's birthday in Raleigh and Julia's in Black Mountain. Lots of friends gathered at David's new house to celebrate Dan's birthday. For Megan's birthday there was a full evening of fun including El Rodeo and time out at a bar.

At Julia's birthday party, Niles got to catch up with Julia's parents (the Beckers), Aaron and Meg (from Charlotte) and other Black Mountain friends. Julia had a cake shaped like a barn and got quite a few presents.

Back in PA
	Right after Niles and Alex left for NC, Amie's family (Dad, Nancy and Daniel) came to visit for Amie's birthday. There was hiking, shopping, eating, bowling and all kinds of fun. We even got to go to a local performance of Guys and Dolls. We took two trips into the cityand managed to in a show and the Circle-Line tour while there.

Arena Marketers in Canada, eh?

Amanda & Amie at the Blue Jays Game

Fun! Amie spent a week in Toronto hanging out with Amanda (with WWE) & Crystal (buddy from the RBC Center). The other two girls were attending a conference. Amie got to meet lots of fun people in the industry, and catch up with friends met at past conferences. After visiting the CN tower, a Blue Jays game and Niagara Falls with the group, it was off to cousin Patsy and John's house for a quick visit with them and the kids. At the conference, Crystal and Amie BOTH won DVD players. And who knows, maybe Amie will get a job out of it, too...

Nothin' could be finer than to be in Carolina

We returned from a trip to NC and SC...to a jungle of a lawn. We packed a lot in two weeks...in NC we attended Megan's Police academy graduation (see bragbook) and Daniel's cello recital (below); celebrated Niles' 30th birthday with friends in Raleigh and lots of cake; visited Amie's family in the Triangle. Then Alex stayed with her grandparents in Chapel Hill and Amie and Niles headed to the beach to visit with Niles' family. We kayaked in the ocean with Niles' sis Caitlin, read many books, and ate a few hundred shrimp. On the way back to pick up the pooch we stopped in Wilmington to visit with Andrew. Fun times were had by all.

The best damn cello music around
	DANIEL'S SENIOR RECITAL: An Evening of Cello May 28, 8:00 p.m. We were able to make it to Chapel Hill for Daniel's senior recital. He played a unique mixture of classic pieces (such as Bach's Cello Suite), Irish folk music and original works composed by Daniel and performed with friends. It was awesome, of course.

Back to Joisey

Over the river and through the woods (way through the woods) to Donna's house we went. We haven't seen much of Donna since she left her part time work at Niles' most recent employer, but she took great advantage of her unemployment by spending lots of time with her ailing mother. After a long illness, her mother recently passed. We finally caught up with Donna between a trip to the DMV and the bank. A long relaxing lunch in the sun gave us time to catch up with one of the coolest and funniest folks in all of New Jersey. Here she is at her house with Niles and her big ol' dog, Sam. Her boyfriend, Leo was at work so he wasn't able to join us. We were able to have a burger with her at a nice place on a lake the next week, too.

What's there to do in the Poconos?
	Well, they are mountains so we enjoy occasional hikes like the one shown in this picture with Dan and Amanda. The view overlooks Delaware Water gap at this part of the Appalachian Trail. It'll be a good hiking spot until the tourists (from the city) find out about the trail in a few months. Then we'll have to hit the more secluded ones for the rest of the summer.

Big Times in the Big City
	In the midst of hosting a variety of familial guests, we managed to head to the city (again) to see Daniel. His orchestra was playing in the UN Loby. After hanging with him and a few of his buddies we had "dinner" (a few beers) with our friend, Chris (picture, left). We had such a good time we had to actually RUN to catch the second-to-last train back out to the burbs. A week later we were back for a job interview (there will be more, I'm sure, don't get too excited). Last week we finally connected with Niles' dad. We had a long, leisurely dinner in the village with lots of food, wine and catching up.

Fun at the Pocono Flea Market
No we didn't try it 'cause, well, come on? We did have the privilege of perusing quite a variety of crap and had a grand ol' time, as you might imagine.

More Home Improvements

As you know, we have made quite a few changes to the house since purchased. So the latest isn't big, but that's ok. Amie planted a basil garden in the yard, and Niles has been busy fixing some bare patches in the grass. Our new lawnmower has made mowing a quick and easy task - how exciting! A little voice has been telling us to change the hardware on our cabinets (no, it wasn't in our heads, it was Nancy!). So we finally did it - sounds easy but the cool handles we bought at Ikea are a different size so holes were patched and drilled and it was chaos! But alas, they look great. Check out the whole house.

Return to the Poconos
	The first thing we tried was a little skiing... Sandy O'Brien, our young, patient teacher, took us for a day at Shawni Ski Mountain. Niles did a lot of skiing for his first day; a lot of falling, too, but it was great fun, nonetheless.

HOTEL PA - The friendliest B&B in the Poconos

	Jenn, AKA, Bond-Chick, visits from LA (march 18-21) Jenn came for a long weekend. We showed her the sights in the Poconos, including the Champagne-glass hot-tubs, then took her to NYC for the first time.	Future Dr. Lauren checks in (april 1-5) Lauren goes to Jefferson Medical School for a few days as they try to woo her, then spends the rest of the weekend with us. We had a great few days of shopping at outlet malls and IKEA!

Boys, Boys, Boys

Amie's mom and little brothers stopped in for Easter weekend after dropping Grams in Massachusetts. After a week being alone with the boys and HER mom, Amie's mom needed some R&R. So Amie and mom hit the outlets and had lunch and avoided going home while Niles kept a somewhat controlled level of havoc at the house. A trip to the park proved entertaining (for the other park patrons) as Niles tried to reason with Galen about leaving. A little boy advised Niles "Just act like you're going to leave him here - that always works." After logic failed, brute strength prevailed, and Niles pried the monkey off the bars to the applause of the other parents. After returning home, we decided that everyone deserved Pizza with Friendly's ice cream for desert.