Week 2 at the beach begins.  Haven't hit the beach yet, but so far much success.  Have read 5 novels and over 100 comics in a week.

Fell behind the curve yesterday though.  We went to Star Island, part of the Isle of Shoals.  Got a bit of a burn, but many, many nice shots.  Some below.

And away we go...beach for two weeks.

Here is what we really miss tho:

Two weeks

Only two weeks until our two week vacation at the shore.  Had a busy week with work.  I find myself missing the church activity during the summer.  Without class, and lower activity at parishes, I'm left with more free time than usual.  I've spent it this past week reading more comic books than usual, which is good for making a small dent in the stack of books.

Looking forward to reading some Lee Child over the next few weeks.  He's the next best thing to Robert B. Parker and his Spenser novels.  Tom Cruise is slated to play Reacher in an upcoming movie on one of Lee Child's books.  Great character, almost as good as Spenser.

Rite of Lector

Photos from the Rite of Lector at St Theresa Parish in Henniker, NH.  22 men, including me, are halfway through Formation for ordination to the Permanent Diaconate.

Neil Diamond June 23, 2012 TD Banknorth Garden, Row 4

Photos of Neil.  At 71, he's as good as ever.  It's hard to do a 2 hr show with mostly 2-3 minute songs in your portfolio, but it was fantastic.

Photos of Farren - Butcher at Tupelo Music Hall, Londonderry, NH Saturday, June 16, 2012

If you recall Farrenheit from the 1980's, the original members were there - Charlie, David Hull on bass and Muzz on drums.  Chris Martin from Jon Butcher Axis joined on bass for while also.

More photos of my other June events coming.

FL Travel

Hah!  Found a draft of my post from Florida, so here it is - a bit incomplete, but it's what I wrote while traveling through FL.


In Florida for a few days.  Flew to Wests Palm Beach and made a few customer calls in the area.  Then up to Melbourne and over to Tampa for visits in both areas.  Then flying home from Tampa.  First time in Florida in over 4 years - it's hot!  Picked a good week to travel - rainy and cold in NH this week.

Got Dish Network hooked back up after running the Roto-Tiller through the wires.  Upgraded the boxes to HD throughout the house.  It was a typical challenge to overcome poor customer service from another TV service provider, but overcame it.

This Saturday is the Rite of Lector, another step in our Diaconate Formation.  I turned in my final paper on Monday night from FL.

June

Whew...where do I start?

I knew June was going to be a challenging month.  Last post was right after my 21st anniversary and Memorial Day weekend.  Went to Florida the next week for work.  Flew to West Palm Beach - really liked that area.  Visited a few customers and then drove to Melbourne and then to Tampa.  Stayed in Tampa and visited a few customers including a day in St Petersburg.  I actually wrote a post while in Florida but PC problems deleted the post.  

That weekend, we had the Rite of Lector to complete our second year of Formation.  Halfway through Formation and next year looks to be an even better year for classes and instructors.  We ended with a fantastic class and instructor and begin next year with Gospel of John, then Liturgy, Letters of Paul and Sacraments.  Next year is an important year in Formation and we will probably receive Parish assignments for the summer.  Certainly, we'll begin to get some practical experience.

The following week, I went to a local Bible Study with a good friend to engage some other Christians in their faith.  

The following weekend I was the facilitor/speaker at our monthly Men of St Joseph meeting, so i spent the week preparing my talk.  I'm feeling much more confident in these settings and really look forward to the challenge of finding a topic and speaking for the Lord.

That night (the 16th) we went to see Charlie Farren and Jon Butcher.  They had the original Farrenheit crew.  I've seen Charlie at least 15 times over the years and he never disappoints.  

Sunday, we (Kathy, Mary and I) left for Montreal for the week.  Our major company trade show was in the middle of the city, so we got a hotel two blocks away on St Catherine Street for the week.  Trade show was good.  Friday we went to see Star Wars Identities at the Montreal Science Center.  We then toured the two Basilicas and the Cathedral in Montreal.  The Cathedral is modeled after St Peter's in Rome.  It was a good prep for our planned vacation to Rome in 2014.  

Got back yesterday.  We spent (uggh!) two hours and twenty minutes in traffic at the border.  As soon as we entered the states, got a text from Toots (my sister in law) and went to see Neil Diamond at the TD Banknorth Garden last night.  Sat 4 rows from the stage.

So that's my June.  Over the next few days, I'll post pictures of Neil, my Formation Weekend and the Rite of Lector with the Bishop and photos from Montreal of the Cathedral, Basilicas and Star Wars Identities.

Whew!

Vacation for me the week of July 4th and then head to the beach for two weeks at the end of July.