I have only blogged once per month over the past two months.  I’ve got to get back in action again.

This past week my mom and dad visited from Milford, Massachusetts.  For those of you that don’t know, I grew up in the cold region of New England (Go Celtics)!  I lived the same small apartment with my sister and parents until I turned 21 and moved to New York.

I always enjoy when my mom and dad visit.  (I know you read this mom!)

But the thing I enjoyed most this time was just talking.  Both my parents have always been a pleasure to talk with.  I’ve always been impressed with how many close friends they both have.  In these days we live in, it’s uncommon for people to stay close friends with so many people for such a long time.

My parents are different.  As we reminisce about old times, they still keep up with and talk with many of the friends they had when I growing up in that third floor apartment in the 1970s. 

My parent’s friends are now in all parts of the country.  But they keep in touch with so many of them.  They care about these friends and I know for sure that many of these friends still care very deeply for my parents.

It’s interesting that this got passed down to my sister and I.  We both are the same way.  In fact, many of our closest friends are the children of my parent’s friends.

Both family and friends mean a lot to my parents and I’ll always owe that aspect of my personality to them.

Thanks mom and dad!

I love you both.

Corey

For a week now my wife has been in New York without me.  After being there a few days, she called me late one night to tell me that she has been playing the new video game Rock Band.

If you haven’t seen this game, it comes with a guitar, drum set, and microphone.  To win, you need to hit the drums or strum (actually flick) the guitar at the right time while rock songs play on the screen.

Sandy told me that she plays the drums.  Her friend Jennifer Francis plays the guitar, and her friend Melissa Courteau sings.  At the beginning of the week, they were playing together every day.

In fact, while I’m writing this tonight, she just called.  

My wife is in New York this week enjoying some time with old friends.  She and her friend Melissa from Hickory went up to the Poughkeepsie area on a $10 each way Skybus flight.

So what’s different when she’s gone?  Here’s my “Top Five” list.

I guess it’s about time that I do a blog post about my two Italian Grehounds, Bennett and Brady.  Here they are playing.  You can start the video below and I’ll write some more about them below.

Bennett:  He’s the brown one and is about a year older.  We first got Bennett when I was starting my business in 2004.  When Sandy would go to work, I would work at home growing my business.  As you probably know by now, I don’t really like being alone.  So, I would play with Bennett several times every day.  Some think that I taught him to be a little crazy, like me.

Brady:  We got Brady about a year later.  He’s a my wife’s favorite.  He’s typically not as crazy and loves snuggling on the sofa with Sandy every chance he gets.

When playing, Bennett loves to chase and fetch.  Brady doesn’t fetch.  He loves tug-of-war.  If he wins, he keeps what he wins and never returns it.  You can see that in this video.

My wife and I absolutely love these dogs.  I hope you enjoy watching them play.  When they play, they both get pretty crazy.  But most of the time they are actually sleeping on the sofa (or in the bed if we let them).

Sandy and I flew in to Massachusetts via Skybus last Saturday and my mom and dad picked us up. 

On Monday we took my nieces, Becky and Kayla Bonnell to New Hampshire.  We wanted to do something fun with them.  So on Tuesday we went over to Mount Cranmore.  We got a full day pass which included equipment rental, lift ticket, and even a two-hour lesson.

My wife knew how to ski, but my nieces and I had never done it before.  In the beginning, there was a lot of falling, as this video shows…

But after our two-hour lesson, we all started doing better. 

Wow.  Let me tell you…  It’s been a crazy week or so.  For the last two days I’ve been teaching the SEO Class in Charlotte NC that I’ve been looking forward to for quite some time.  The class went wonderful and I have pictures of the class and the students on my business blog here.

This week I’m in Florida trying to help out with my new nephew Sam Lighttiser.  He was born on October 22, 2007 and we were down to visit back in November when he was only a few weeks old.

His father has already made a website for him at http://sam.lighttiser.com and you can see more pictures there.  But I thought I’d post a few here as well.  These are from our first visit in November.