2011

Oh my,  It is the last day of 2011 and I realize I haven't posted a thing all year.  I can't believe a whole year has gone by.  The biggest thing we did this year was build a tree house.  We are not as young as we used to be so the climbing up and down the ladder was pretty exhausting but worth it.   Amber and the boys came to visit in July for 2 weeks which was really nice.  It was a pretty nice summer weather wise.  Hal took almost the whole month of July off to spend with the kids.  We replaced the liner in the pool and were very glad to have it to swim in.  2011 was a year of storms.  Lots of snow and lots of rain.  Hurricane Irene flooded our basement but atleast our house didn't wash away unlike southern VT.  We really didn't go anywhere except our usual trip to Maine in November and most likely our last.  We did get a quick trip to the Jersey shore as Amber was unable to hop back to Italy on a military flight and had to book commercial tickets which kept her in NJ an extra week so we drove down and had an excellent day at the beach.  My job ended at Vermont Council for Quality in August since they ran out of money.  This recession just seems to last forever.  It is especially hard on non-profits.  I am still putting in 10 - 20 hours a week at Vermont Energy Investment Corp.  Hal is still at USCIS.  We still have a roof over our head so I guess we should count our blessings.  So as I say good-bye to 2011 here's hoping for a happy 2012.  And even if the world ends in 2012 it's not supposed to end until December.