Am I a Traveling Man? - Part 2

Here's February's second trip.

Tammy's parents celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in February with a party.  As invitee's and also a part of the family, Tammy and I boarded a Thursday evening flight to Chicago on February 26th.  We met up with Stas and Lizzy upon landing at O'Hare and arrived at the Kelly's home around 10pm where some Jimmy John's sandwiches awaited us. 

Friday morning we went through old photos to make three collage boards for the party.  A quick visit to the party venue - Whitetail Ridge Golf Club - was made in the early afternoon to check on some final preparations for the party like house music set up and a projector for a slide show Stas put together.  Tammy's aunt from KS and her cousin from MD stopped by in the evening for a visit and some catered shrimp pad thai and beef stroganoff from Noodles and Company.

Saturday was party day.  Tammy and I went to the venue around 1030am to set up the music and slide show.  Family, friends from work and church, and old neighbors started arriving around noon.  All of Tammy's living aunt and uncles from both her mom and dad's sides were in attendance as were many cousins she hadn't seen in years.  Lots of visiting took place.  The food was a buffet style of appetizers like cheese and crackers, vegetable trays, hamburger and pulled pork sliders,  turkey sandwiches, meatballs, pretzel bites with beer cheese sauce, coconut chicken strips, mac'n'cheese as well as chicken wellington bites all washed down with drinks from an open bar.  The dessert table was an assortment of goodies and an anniversary cake from Sweet Temptations Dessert Company along with decorated sugar cookies from Dough Much Love.  The party ended there at 4pm and moved straight to the Kelly's house.  There family was treated to more visiting and more vegetables, chips, cheese and sausage with crackers, pulled pork, and leftover sweets from the party.  The festivities wrapped up around 9pm with the departure of the final guests.

We relaxed on Sunday talking and doing laundry.  I tackled a few odd projects.  I put Stas's 60th anniversary slide show on Grandpa's laptop, got a stubborn weight back on the grandfather clock, and troubleshooted their tv streaming issue.   4am Monday found us on our way to O'Hare for the trip back home.

Link to photos https://photos.app.goo.gl/WFo4GUnsJWY2wJC3A

Am I a Traveling Man? - Part One

Okay, no I haven't made a lot of stops around the world, nor do I have a girl in every port; but I did have an active February of travel.  Here's trip one.

Where I work paid for all full time employees to attend the 2026 National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Nashville, TN.  Five of us boarded a Southwest flight on Wednesday afternoon, February 18th and flew south.  Upon landing in Nashville, we made our way to the Grand Ole Opry Resort and Convention Center where we would be staying and attending the 3 day conference.   The place has to be seen to be believed.  After checking into our individual rooms, we had dinner at Ravello's.  The table ordered the focaccia and the meatballs for appetizers.  I and several others had the Osso Buco based on Tammy's recommendations from internet reviews.  From dinner, everyone headed to the opening session of the conference.  The highlights of the evening were a video message from the President, worship lead by Michael W Smith, a sermon from Pastor HB Charles, and a closing mini-concert by Nicole C Mullen - boy can she still sing.

Wednesday started with a plated breakfast put on by Salem Media.  The meal was really good for banquet food.  The feature of the breakfast was Dr David Jeremiah sharing his ministry's testimony.  The rest of the day was filled with sessions concerning listeners to radio, podcasting, journalism, and car radios.  Dinner was to be at the Old Hickory Steakhouse; but after I reported the menu prices,  the six of us Ubered to an Outback Steakhouse for a Bloomin Onion and much more affordable steaks. 

The following day started like the previous one with a sponsored breakfast.  It was buffet style and hosted by Moody Media.  Again, for banquet style food, it was rather good.  I especially liked the muffins.  The breakfast spotlighted Dr. Erwin Lutzer who after a time of funny stories/jokes delivered a devotional about when God doesn't answer your prayers.   The rest of the morning I attended sessions on censorship and radio listeners.  All six of us from work met at 130pm for a three hour private driving tour of the Nashville area.  The day closed with a three hour celebration of the 250th Anniversary of the United States.  The memorable moments where a speech from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, a game of Pragerdy, music from Liberty University's acapella group Shine, and several closing songs by Matthew West.  It was a long evening.

Friday, I checked out of my room before walking to a local Bob Evan's for breakfast.  I attended my final two sessions - music licensing and the other on the importance of local radio.  To kill some time, I walked to a nearby mall.  At 1pm, the work group met at the Grand Ole Opry for a 50 minute tour of the famous venue.  It was then time to head back to the Nashville Airport where four of us flew American home and the other two Delta.   

A link to NRB26 photoshttps://photos.app.goo.gl/TSrj97qZHpfjk4dh7

Mom's 80th Birthday Bash

This past weekend, February 6-7th, we gathered to celebrate mom's 80th birthday.  

Tammy and I arrived at my parent's in VT at 830am Friday where the OH Raffa's had been since Sunday and Robin from NC had arrived at midnight Friday due to delayed flights.  We all enjoyed a pop breakfast of pancakes, eggs, toast, sausage, cinnamon buns, and a apple/cinnamon kolachi.  The rest of the day was spent talking and welcoming all the VT Beauchemins, the NY Gangwers, Lizzy and Stas, and the Boston Raffas as they arrived throughout the day.  Dinner that evening was chili and salad made by the OH Raffas and Rachelle.  Around 8pm, the Beauchemins and Boston Raffa's headed to their respective homes where they were staying, while the NY Gangwers, Tammy, I, Lizzy, and Stas went to our hotels. 

Saturday, Tammy and I got up early.  I had been awake for some time because of a banging pipe in the wall that kept me from sleeping as apparently I was the only one it bothered.  After our hotel breakfast, we  arrived at my parent's house with Dunkin orders, and then went to the church at 930am to help Rachelle decorate for the shinding.  

The festivities began around 1130am.  There were individual Valentine-themed charcuterie boards at each place setting for our hors d'oeuvres.  Dominic said grace and gave the Grammy birthday blessing.  The main entree was Olive Garden lasagna, fettuccine, bread sticks, and salad.  Dessert was a birthday cake from Sam's.  Drinks where virgin Shirley Temples and Tom Collins.  For entertainment, there was a doll cut-out coloring contest, a 1946 Price is Right guess, and several rounds of Grammy Bingo.  The OH Raffas put together a great slide show of pictures and videos that everyone had sent them of mom.  Around 230pm, the Boston Raffas and NY Gangwers needed to head home.  The rest of us returned to the VT grandparent's house for more talking, eating leftovers, and the playing of Code Names.  The evening ended around 7pm for us older people.  A couple of hours later for the younger.  

Sunday found Tammy and I on the road early for the trip back to CT.

Link to photos.  https://photos.app.goo.gl/3iPrN4jtsZWwoFXaA

Fantasy Football Finals

Well I noticed I had not reported on my Fantasy Football finishes in a couple of years.  So here's the recap.

For the year 2024-2025, I had a great draft.  I secured a lot of good players that netted me a 10-4 record during the regular season getting me into the playoffs and to the championship game.  Here I faced my son-in-law Stas for our third time vying for the championship crown.  I had beaten him back in 2017, and he had beaten me in 2020.  It is a two game playoff.  He beat me the first game garnering more points, but in the second game, I was able to secure enough fantasy points to overcome game one's point deficit and beat him in game two.  The win gave me my second 1st place crown in 10 years and a record of 2-1 in our championship meetings.

For 2025-2026, I had an awful draft.  I was predicted to finish twelfth out of twelve teams.  Fast forward through fourteen games, I finished with a record of 8-6 getting me a fifth place seed in the playoffs.  I found myself the underdog point-wise in each playoff match-up, but various players of mine started scoring spectacular fantasy numbers while many of my opponents star players underperformed.  Ultimately, I found myself in the championship game again.  My players continued with their stellar performance getting me enough fantasy points to win both games one and two and a repeat 1st place win.

Will next year bring a three-peat?

Books Read in 2025

Great American Trivia

The Last Dispatch:  A Story of Antietam

Under God:  Triumph and Tragedy Stories of America's Spiritual Battles 

The World Rushed In - The CA Gold Rush Experience

The March

Polk - The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America

1812:  The War that Forged a Nation

With the Old Breed

Shocking Secrets of American History

South End Syndicate

The Things Our Fathers Saw Volume 9 & 10

The French and Indian War:  Deciding the Fate of North American

War Letters

The True Story of the USS Indianaoplis

A Quiet Christmas 2025

Tammy and I both worked Christmas Eve, so we were not able to attend the Christmas Eve service at our church or former church as they held them in the early and late afternoon.   We did watch the PCC Christmas special "The Greatest Gift," as well as, the PBS docudrama "All is Calm" after dinner. 

It was only Tammy, Charlotte, and I Christmas morning opening the presents we had gotten each other and the presents from the Laberee's.  The rest of the morning was spent getting things ready for dinner guests who were coming over at 3pm.  Tammy made the Maple Salmon with crockpot mini-potatoes and a broccoli/cauliflower Christmas salad.  I cleaned the house.  We had a great four and a half hour visit reconnecting with our old friends the Bakers.

Tammy had to return to work Friday.  My job gave me off both Christmas Day and Friday.  This was quite a nice surprise considering all the previous years when I had to work all holidays. 

Photo link https://photos.app.goo.gl/zH5s7MAXPB7ysn5W9

Anniversary 37 Get-Away

On Friday, December 12th, Tammy and I hit the road for a weekend in New Bedford, MA.  We left around 5:30am and arrived in Fall River around 8am for our first stop of our trip - breakfast at Harry's Diner.  I ordered the steak bomb omelette, and Tammy had the mozambique omelette.  After breakfast, we walked down to Battleship Cove where we explored a WWII submarine, PT boat, destroyer, and battleship inside and out for three hours.  The battleship had the most to see with lots of hatch ways and ladders to climb through and up.  I was able to make it to the lowest and the highest part of the battleship accessible to the public.  It was quite the maze of passageways.  Admission to Battleship Cove included admission to the Marine Museum a short walk away.  Here we learned about the Fall River Line to New York City.  There was also a Titanic exhibit.  Our day in Fall River was not done yet.  We made one last stop at the Borden's home for a 90 minute Lizzie Borden tour and tale.  It was now time to depart for our hotel in New Bedford.  

After we checked in to our room on the fifth floor overlooking the largest fishing port on the East Coast, we walked to the Black Whale Restaurant for dinner.  I had what likely has been the most expensive meal I have ever ordered - lobster thermidor.  Tammy had scallops which is the number one catch in the area.  Saturday morning we walked to the Whaling Museum where we learned what made New Bedford the city that lit the world.   A visit to the Fishing Heritage Center followed.  We rounded out the afternoon walking around the downtown, visiting various shops with sightings of Santa and a winter fairy.  Dinner was eaten at Izzy's Restaurant.  I chose Cape Verde steak with one egg and a bowl of cachupa from the menu.  Tammy chose fish and chips substituting a salad for the chips.  Dessert was two large cookies and milk teas from Besteas.

Sunday morning we headed home in a snow storm which thankfully did not stick to the roads.

Click the link for pictures of our adventure   https://photos.app.goo.gl/v1Lk9tmy7pZQUphS8