I know my family and some of my friends read this blog to stay updated on me, so here are some things I’m doing and what I will be doing.

FAMILY:  Both of my nieces visited my wife and I (from Massachusetts) over the last month or two.  The 20–year old stayed for one week, but the 18–year old stayed for an additional three weeks.  We loved having them both.  I’m so proud of my sister (who I constantly like to tease) and her husband for raising such wonderful girls.  We love having them.

Also, my parents are visiting next week.  I’m really excited about spending time with both of them.  My dad recently retired.  So we’re glad he can visit us and not have to rush back to work after.

TRIPS:  Last week we went to the US National Whitewater Center.  It’s only 30 minutes from home and we got to do whitewater rafting and a 1,000 foot zip line.

Sandy and I are especially looking forward to spending two weeks in Europe in July/August.  We will be visiting Austria and Greece.

WORK:  Work is going well.  The economy does not seem to be affecting our industry.  Since January I have only been working 4 to 4–1/2 days per week.  It’s been my goal for a long time.  I finally got there.

Looks like I’ll be heading up to Massachusetts later this month.  I’m looking forward to spending time with family, especially my dad who recently retired.

I’m flying out of Charlotte on Saturday, Feb 21 9:30 AM and will arrive in Boston at 11:37 AM.

I’m flying home on Wednesday, Feb 25 8:00 AM and will arrive in Charlotte at 10:24 PM.

I hope it’s not too freezing cold, but it probably will be.  They keep getting hammered with snow up there.

I have only blogged once per month over the past two months.  I’ve got to get back in action again.

This past week my mom and dad visited from Milford, Massachusetts.  For those of you that don’t know, I grew up in the cold region of New England (Go Celtics)!  I lived the same small apartment with my sister and parents until I turned 21 and moved to New York.

I always enjoy when my mom and dad visit.  (I know you read this mom!)

But the thing I enjoyed most this time was just talking.  Both my parents have always been a pleasure to talk with.  I’ve always been impressed with how many close friends they both have.  In these days we live in, it’s uncommon for people to stay close friends with so many people for such a long time.

My parents are different.  As we reminisce about old times, they still keep up with and talk with many of the friends they had when I growing up in that third floor apartment in the 1970s. 

My parent’s friends are now in all parts of the country.  But they keep in touch with so many of them.  They care about these friends and I know for sure that many of these friends still care very deeply for my parents.

It’s interesting that this got passed down to my sister and I.  We both are the same way.  In fact, many of our closest friends are the children of my parent’s friends.

Both family and friends mean a lot to my parents and I’ll always owe that aspect of my personality to them.

Thanks mom and dad!

I love you both.

Corey

For a week now my wife has been in New York without me.  After being there a few days, she called me late one night to tell me that she has been playing the new video game Rock Band.

If you haven’t seen this game, it comes with a guitar, drum set, and microphone.  To win, you need to hit the drums or strum (actually flick) the guitar at the right time while rock songs play on the screen.

Sandy told me that she plays the drums.  Her friend Jennifer Francis plays the guitar, and her friend Melissa Courteau sings.  At the beginning of the week, they were playing together every day.

In fact, while I’m writing this tonight, she just called.  

It seems she has been playing some more this evening.  The band is now named “The Boston Babes” and they are up to 758 fans so far.

Thankfully, even though she has such fame, she’s planning on coming home to her loving husband (me) tomorrow.  I’ll be picking her up in the morning.

How will it feel to be married to a rock star?  Not sure.  I am jealous, though.

My wife is in New York this week enjoying some time with old friends.  She and her friend Melissa from Hickory went up to the Poughkeepsie area on a $10 each way Skybus flight.

So what’s different when she’s gone?  Here’s my “Top Five” list.

5.  Most evenings are spent entirely at work.

4.  The television at home is never on.

3.  I can hit the snooze button 3 or 4 times.  (I can also listen to the radio in the morning while getting ready.)

2.  Brady is forced to eat at breakfast and dinner only.  (Not whenever he wants – spoiled dog!)

   …and the number one way you can tell Sandy is not home…

1.  I had toasted Eggos and microwaved quiche for dinner (and ice cream right after).

That’s it.  I hope you liked it.

Drop me a comment if you feel bad for me living by myself for a whole week while my wife is out having fun.

I guess it’s about time that I do a blog post about my two Italian Grehounds, Bennett and Brady.  Here they are playing.  You can start the video below and I’ll write some more about them below.

Bennett:  He’s the brown one and is about a year older.  We first got Bennett when I was starting my business in 2004.  When Sandy would go to work, I would work at home growing my business.  As you probably know by now, I don’t really like being alone.  So, I would play with Bennett several times every day.  Some think that I taught him to be a little crazy, like me.

Brady:  We got Brady about a year later.  He’s a my wife’s favorite.  He’s typically not as crazy and loves snuggling on the sofa with Sandy every chance he gets.

When playing, Bennett loves to chase and fetch.  Brady doesn’t fetch.  He loves tug-of-war.  If he wins, he keeps what he wins and never returns it.  You can see that in this video.

My wife and I absolutely love these dogs.  I hope you enjoy watching them play.  When they play, they both get pretty crazy.  But most of the time they are actually sleeping on the sofa (or in the bed if we let them).

Sandy and I flew in to Massachusetts via Skybus last Saturday and my mom and dad picked us up. 

On Monday we took my nieces, Becky and Kayla Bonnell to New Hampshire.  We wanted to do something fun with them.  So on Tuesday we went over to Mount Cranmore.  We got a full day pass which included equipment rental, lift ticket, and even a two-hour lesson.

My wife knew how to ski, but my nieces and I had never done it before.  In the beginning, there was a lot of falling, as this video shows…

But after our two-hour lesson, we all started doing better. 

The video below shows dramatic improvement by the girls in particular.

Overall, I was happy I got to learn how to ski.  My wife was a good trainer.  I’m quite sure the girls will continue to go without us and get better.  By the time Sandy and I get up there again next winter, they will probably be much better than me.

Here is a whole bunch of other pictures from the little trip…

Here’s me pulling out of the driveway.

Here’s my brother-in-law Brad Bonnell telling us “you kids be careful”.

Here’s Becky on the drive to New Hampshire (after she finished her Popsicle).

Here’s Kayla finishing up her Dunkin Donuts.  (Dunkin Donuts was a continuing theme throughout the trip as you’ll see.)

This was the little cabin we stayed in.

Here’s Sandy and I making our way over to the main house.  You can see the other cabins in this picture on the left.  I think there are about ten of them.

Becky acting goofy…

Here’s the dining room we had breakfast in each morning.

Our first night there we had dinner at Horse-feathers in North Conway.

This is the inside of our little cabin.

Here are the ladies outside our cabin.

Becky getting ready for breakfast.

And wow are those ski boots hard to get on or what?

Kayla got hers on!

When we got our gear on, Sandy was our first teacher.

Here’s me. 

I think I can, I think I can…

Becky thinks she’s cool.

The girls are looking good.

Becky had a hard time getting off the lift.  You can’t tell from the picture below, but she totally wiped out both times she had to get off.  In fact, she took out several of those cones you see and the guy had to come out and fix them.  It was very funny.

Here is all of us later in the day with our “official trainer” Bob.

Once we were done, Kayla’s legs were sore.  Sandy had to help her.

The 2^nd night we did dinner in North Conway.

Becky was “down with that”.

The peanut butter pie and chocolate cheesecake was great.

The girls call the picture below “girls in the hood”.  Personally, I think they look more like elves than anything else.

More Dunkin Donuts.  Yay!!

And lastly, this is what Kayla did for most of the trip home.

What a cutie!

Wow.  Let me tell you…  It’s been a crazy week or so.  For the last two days I’ve been teaching the SEO Class in Charlotte NC that I’ve been looking forward to for quite some time.  The class went wonderful and I have pictures of the class and the students on my business blog here.

But before I held the course, I had a ton of work to do to get ready for it.  In fact, on Saturday and Sunday of this past weekend, I spent from about 3 PM to about 10:30 PM working on the class materials and outline. 

That’s a fun way to spend your weekend, let me tell you.

At the same time, I’ve been trying to keep up with a fair amount of client work and I may even be taking a new client next month.

Here’s the good news…  Now that the class is over and I’ve gotten caught up with much of my client work, Sandy and I are heading out to Massachusetts tomorrow (Saturday).  We’ll be there for a little over a week and will be back to work next Tuesday.

As opposed to our previous trip to help our newest member of the family, this time we are really going to be on vacation.  Will I leave my laptop behind?  No.  I’ll still be in touch and will probably be blogging to my personal blog and twittering.  But I will definitely not be working much.

I have a little bit of client communication that I’ll be doing.  I also have the guys that work with me doing a little client work that still needs to be done this month.  But overall, it’s time to relax.

We have a few days in New Hampshire planned with my nieces that I’m especially looking forward to.  I’m also very much wanting to spend time with my mom, dad, sister, and rest of the family.  It’s been over two years since I’ve been back home.

But first, I gotta get some things done today before we fly out to Massachusetts later today.

By the way, coincidence will have it that I’ll actually be in New England for the SuperBowl next weekend!  How cool is that? 

Go Pats!!

This week I’m in Florida trying to help out with my new nephew Sam Lighttiser.  He was born on October 22, 2007 and we were down to visit back in November when he was only a few weeks old.

His father has already made a website for him at http://sam.lighttiser.com and you can see more pictures there.  But I thought I’d post a few here as well.  These are from our first visit in November.

As you can see from the above, we took him for his first trip to IKEA when he was less than a month old.  You never can start too young when it comes to IKEA!  By the way, Sandy (my wife) is on the right, Susan (Sam’s mom) is on the left.

This week he’s looking a little bigger of course.  In fact, his mom and dad tell us that when he went for his last doctor visit, the doctor said that 90% of babies his age are smaller than him.

Cute little guy, eh?

So far things have gone well.  At this age, he sleeps, wakes up, takes his bottle (as his grandma illustrates here), gets changed, plays with Uncle Corey, takes a walk with Uncle Corey and Aunt Sandy (see below), and goes back to sleep. 

Repeat every three hours.

That’s about it.  Pretty fun, actually.  He’s very good natured and a pleasure to be with.

I’m getting some work on my blogs while I’m away.  I’m also doing work for my clients in between playing and walking and in the evenings – when Sam’s dad comes home.

This is my favorite little item.  He goes in this quite often when it is time to go to sleep. 

It actually vibrates a little and plays great little songs like “Go to sleep…  go to sleep…” and “Twinkle, twinkle, little star”.

The top part makes little bubble noises and spins little toys.

I’m a little jealous of this thing.  I’m quite sure that if they made an adult version I could easily fall asleep in it.  As you can see, it works well for him. 

They also swaddle him when it’s time to sleep.  It keeps him from swinging his arms and legs and waking himself up.  Below is a better look at how the swaddle works.  It’s basically like a straight jacket for babies.

Overall, he seems pretty happy, doesn’t he?

And lastly, here’s a little video of him on his dresser just after getting changed.  You can see how well he is starting to hold himself up….

I learned something this morning.  For months now I have been driving through McDonalds several times per week buying an egg McMuffin for breakfast.  But my wife tells me it’s too expensive. 

So this morning I finally broke down and made my own eggs for breakfast.  Unfortunately, I turned the heat up too high (trying to rush) and ended up forcing down fried eggs that were runny on the inside.

Pretty gross.

They are still my throat now 30 minutes later and I’m trying to drink my coffee at work to try to get them to go down. 

Actually, Bennett (my Italian Greyhound – the only one that will wake up as early as me) ended up eating about a third of the runny eggs.

Next time I’ll keep the heat lower and cook them more thoroughly.  Some things you just can’t rush.

PS:  Sorry if this post grossed anyone out, but my sister in Massachusetts told me she wants me to post more often.  It’s the only thing I could think of to write about.  (It’s hard to think about anything else when you have half-cooked eggs in your throat still!)