Merry Christmas!

A very Merry Christmas to everyone! I wish you all safe travels, lots of smiles, and good times with family and friends this Christmas. Thanks to all those who have touched my life in some way.

Updates

A few updates:

- Congrats to Lisa and Mike Garvey who added another bundle of joy to their family. We wish them lots of happiness and sleepFULL nights! A lot of awesome pictures can be found here: http://royaltoybox.blogspot.com/

- I got an interim promotion! The past two years I've been managing the RAs in one of RIT's residence halls. Well, about two weeks ago, I was asked to move over to the apartment area and start supervising graduate students. In addition, the number of students that I will be helping with has increased a lot and the living situations they are in are more apartment style communities. I also will start overseeing students living in the RIT Inn and Conference Center and get to learn more about college students living in private housing. We'll still be living in the dorms and won't have to switch apartments.

I will definitely miss the RAs that I've supervised so far but as I've said a few times, I'll still be around. I look forward to this great opportunity and to working with the talented new staff.

Upcoming posts should include pictures of the apartment with all the decorations, pictures of the holiday visits, and other updates from the craziness :-) Hope you all are doing well!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I sent this picture to my brother with a nice message that wouldn't be appropriate to share in a public space but the point is, WINTER IS HERE! The neon (with 104,000 miles on it) has been parked in the RIT parking lot overnight and thanks to mother nature finally figuring out which season it was, the lake effect snow piled up. So to Chris, Stacy, and soon, Amy, enjoy the *?&%!@! warm weather in California.

Stay tuned for more frequent updates to the blog and an update about the new position that I've been asked to step into:-)

UPDATE 12/5 @4pm- It's still snowing...

Other old pictures...

More old pictures and some running commentary...


Rocking the drums at St. Jude's. That white suit is sweet!

Every year, my family heads out to Seabrook, NH for a little R & R. I don't exactly know what's wrong with me in the picture but those were some awesome times.

Thatcher Park in Albany. Channeling my inner karate kid? What the heck am I doing?

Yep, that's me to the left! Also in the picture are my cousin Annie and my grandmother from my mom's side.

Old Golfing Pics

Thanks to my dad, my brother and I got bit by the golfing bug early. Here are some pictures from Oakland Hills in Michigan.

Two notes about the picture above: 1) That hat would still rock on the golf course. I know you're jealous. 2) I think the bottom part of my glasses go past my nose. Them lenses are huge! But they were stylish back then:-)

New Apartment

Congrats on the new apartment to Chris, Stacy, and Amy! Below are some pictures from it. Hopefully their balcony has a better view than the one shown in the second pic! Looks awesome otherwise:-)

Chris's Birthday

As a present to Chris, Stacy gave my brother a hotair balloon ride. Awesome job Stacy because Chris was psyched talking to me on the phone about it!

Sorry it took so long for these pics to get up:-( His birthday was on Oct. 1st

-Jeff

Congrats to my Dad

Congrats to Jeff Sr. who had a major victory tonight at the County Democratic Party Caucus. After being elected Democratic Committee Chair he became involved in a pretty heated political battle with some folks who aren't playing too nicely. But the people of the county showed their support for him and his group, and backed 6 out of the seven candidates he put forward. Nice job Dad! For more information, head over to http://www.ngdems.com.

(Now the man just needs to get caught up on his golf game before his sons, daughter, and even daughter in law catch up to his skills!)

Crazy Couple of Weeks!

As I mentioned in a previous post, the past couple of weeks I've been in RA Training. Part of the training was a Photo Scavenger Hunt. Here are some of the pics that my RAs took:

All 12 (Lindsey and Jamie are trying to peek over the wall)

Gleason Residence Hall and in the windows J-E-F-F

Ok, this one needs a story. One of the things to accomplish was to take a pic of was the staff with our Asst. VP, Dr. Heath and you got bonus points if he was wearing a Residence Life shirt. Well, Dr. Heath wasn't wearing one, but Jeff was. So, how else do you solve this problem than have Jeff in his undershirt in the middle of the cafeteria? :-) Don't know if you can see the brilliant shade of red I'm turning.

From right to left in the pic above, the names of the Gleason staff this year are Mike, Nicole (sitting), Kyle, Liz, Angie, Asst. VP Dr. Heath, Prajna, Jamie, Chris, and Joe. Missing are R.J. and Lindsey.

Jeff Sr.'s Birthday

Finally! Happy Birthday to my dad who celebrated the big day on August 18th. My mom got him a variety of good wine and we got him a Starbucks Gift Certificate. Also celebrated with some sparklers purchased in good ol' New Hampshire!

A little father/son help there.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Craziness

Still alive! Look forward to pictures from my Dad's Birthday (August 18th), RA Training, and other Spain craziness:-)



-Jeff

Passing Away of a Good Family Friend

Our family friend, Mary Curley, has passed away. She and my family became pretty close through my mom's work. On Tuesday she passed away. When reading this, please give a few seconds to remember her and all those we've lost in our lives. Thanks...

Tigers sweep the Red Sox!

Had a great time watching the Tigers on a beautiful but hot day.



If you read next to the line score when you click on the picture above, the temperature says 90 degrees! Some radio reports said it got as hot as 95 on the field. We had a great time though!

Tigers's Win!

My new desktop at work and home:-)

Driving to and from Michigan

These pictures from driving through the great country of Canada in order to get to Michigan!

Manion Family Pictures

Thanks again to Jeff's Aunt and Uncle for their great hospitality on short notice! Stayed with them out in Detroit.



Mikey (my cousin Annie's son) and Uncle Paul

The whole crew including my Aunt Mary (but missing Addison, my cousin Annie's daughter)

Amy's Graduation!

Below are some pictures from Amy's graduation. She graduated from Canisius College in Buffalo, NY. The pictures were taken at SUNY Buffalo where the graduation happened.

Picture from the past...

I post this knowing the embarassment it might cause at work but to honor my mom and dad's wishes I give you,

"No more water in the hose"





That's the best title I could come up with! :-)

Happy Father's Day

Spent Father's Day down the Thruway. Happy Father's Day to all the dads I know out there:-)

Congrats

Congrats to Amy, Jeff's sister, who just got her first full time job at Clinque in Macy's at Crossgates Mall. Don't worry about name dropping to get some discounts:-)

-Jeff

UPDATE!- And she's going to be working at the Apple Store too!!

The Spain Clan

Wow, how Jeff's family has grown.

Just one more for today!

Separated at birth?

You pick which one is my brother Chris...

First Post

This is my first post coming to you live from the 1st floor of Sol Residence Hall at the lovely RIT campus. The plan is to post pictures and updates from travels and other experiences. Hope all is well whereever you're reading this:-)

-Jeff