Greetings, Everyone! Hope everyone had a nice three day weekend, and a great Thanksgiving for all of my Canadian friends.

The other night, while watching TV, I kept hearing this funny scratching sound in our living room wall, where the fireplace is located. But everytime I got up to look what was making the noise, there didn't seem to be anything around that could be the cause of the noise. Well, a few minutes later, I heard the same noise, only this time it was right behind the couch I was sitting on! I didn't even have time to look behind the couch because about two seconds later, A SQUIRREL CAME RUNNING OUT FROM BEHIND THERE!!!! I nearly had a heart attack! At first I though maybe it was just a big mouse, but then I saw it's bushy tail. Plus, it jumped up on some shelves and was climbing up them. I managed to get two pics in, although they're not very well defined.

Apparently, it got in the house from the chimmeny and fireplace. Fortunately, while it was scampering on the shelves, it jumped on to one of my cousin's toys and the toy and squirrel both toppled on to the floor, where it ran back to the place where it got in. There apparently was a small opening on the side of the fireplace where it got in, so my parents fixed it. Not only that, but once we were all sure that the late night visitor had gone out of the chimmey, and back to where it belongs, we lit up the fireplace to ensure nothing else got any ideas about coming in.

Moving on to less scary topics, yesterday, because of the lovely weather outside, I decided to take my brother and sister to the Stone Church. For those of you who don't know, the Stone Church is a cave-like formation complete with a waterfall. To get there you hike through this huge field, on winding and sometimes rocky paths, across a little bridge and past streams and mini waterfalls. It's the highlight of my boring town, and definitely a beautiful and fun place to go.

BTW: Inside the Stone Church itself is a ladder, made of logs, that if you climb up you can see this huge waterfall. EVERYBODY climbs the ladder, although before yesterday I never had. However, I conquered my fear of heights, and climbed away! It was amazing!!! My brother even climbed it after me.

Before leaving we all stopped and had some snacks and water while resting on a big rock by a pond.

After our hike, I brought my brother and sister to the school playground nearby, where they also had a great time.

It's interesting to see the differences from last year's Stone Church blog and this one. However the fun of going there is always the same.

Hope everyone enjoyed the blog! Later!

Greetings, Everyone! Hope everyone's weekend was relaxing. I plan on keeping this a short and sweet blog entry, but a pretty neat one nonetheless. First, I thought I'd share some pics of when my church decided to put on a Tri-Parish Picnic a few weeks ago. Usually they only put on an annual picnic for themselvels, but this year one of the parishoners here decided to ask my church's preist to invite Archbishop Dolan to the festivites. When he promptly accepted, it was decided to share the good fortune with the surrounding areas. Below are some pics, plus a few links to the news articles about the day. I had an amazing and relaxing time.

For security reasons, the picnic was held at San Sliverio Shrine, which is a very lovely place.

A nice fountain out in front.

Throughout the whole event Italian music, rock and roll music, and Irish music was played! Which was awesome, since I love all those kinds of music.

A pic of the Archbishop of NY!

My favorite pic of the whole day!!!!!!! Not only getting to shake his hand, but to get a pic with him too was awesome.

ARTICLE

Wow.... I've been away so long that I've almost forgot how to format my links. Scary.... Anyways, there's a neat article with some pics and a vid to go with it. Just click on the link.

Before I go, I had a few requests for some pics of my new cousin. Well, here they are. Cell phone cam quality must suffice for the time being I'm afraid.

My pal Joey.

A Yankees AND and Eagles fan.

Hope everyone enjoyed reading!!! And thanks for all your lovely well wishes for my great aunt in my previous blog. Later!

Greetings, Everyone. Well, it seems I've returned from a LONG hiatus from this site. The reasons for my absence are plentiful, some good, others bad. Mainly I've been away due to the need to spend time with my family, especially my great-aunt, who suffered a stroke about 2 weeks ago. To me it seems like an eternity ago. She's alright, but it will be a while before she's back to normal. For me, it's been pretty rough, since she's lived with my family for my whole life, and she is probably my best friend in the whole world. Oh well, what can you do...

I must say though, there have been some good moments too in the past few weeks. As of yesterday, Sept. 15, 2009, my total number of cousins increased to 5. The newest member of my family, Joseph Michael, was born yesterday. Some other noteworthy things are: I met the Archbishop of NY at a tri-parish picnic, 4 people in my families celebrated birthdays, and I read an awesome book, called, "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

I'll share pics of the parties and picnic in a future blog. Until then, have a nice week.