Penz's Journal

December 31, 2002: And so the end of another year is upon us.... and it has been a good year. I think 2002 was exactly what it needed to be, after all the events and loss of 2001. It was a year filled with lots of contact with good friends and family. It was a year full of travel all over the US to go and visit loved ones. It was a year not to live in fear of what has happened, but in determination to make the best of what's to come.

"Oh, yesterdays are over my shoulder, so I can't look back for too long. There's just too much to see waiting in front of me, and I know that I just can't go wrong with these"

and with those immortal words from Mr. Jimmy Buffett

I'd like to wish all of you a joy filled, prosperous, healthy and adventurous 2003!

All the best,

Scott "Penz" Penziner

December 26, 2002: Had a really nice XMas day. Woke up late, made some coffee, got Justin up and then we went to the tree to see what Santa left us :-) Justin got me a really nice new backpack, of which I'll start using early in 2003 (part of my resolution to be move active next year), and he got me a bunch of cool camping supplies. Simon (our cat) got each of us new socks and plenty of stocking stuffers and he got me Lilo and Stitch on DVD (what a great cat!). After exchanging gifts, Justin went back to bed, and I took a ride over to Michael and Shannon's house for a bit where we hung out for about an hour enjoying the XMas morning with the kids. After that, I came home and started getting ready to do some cooking. I started prepping the 10 lbs. prime rib roast I picked up the day before and around 1:30, it went into the oven. Hahaha, yes, 10 lbs. for two people... well, if you know me, you know I don't do anything small in the kitchen and as fate would have it, I get a call from Shannon around 3:30. She and her family were going to go up to Marin for dinner, but her daughter wasn't feeling well, so she asked if she could bring the family to my place. Of course, I was psyched to have her, Michael, Giuliani and Gabriel over for dinner. Actually, it's just what our house needed as both Justin and I were suffering from a little "miss the family" blues. We had a wonderful meal together, and afterwards watched Lilo and Stitch. It made for a wonderful XMas day, and once again proved that it's the people in our lives who truly make a difference, not things.

Thanks to everyone who called or sent cards, as it was great to hear from you all :)

All the best,

~Penz

December 21, 2002: It's been a good but busy week here. Work was pretty stressful this week. Heheh, I thought it would be a quiet week with everyone soon to be going on vacation, but that was not the case. A few of our big accounts are trying to wrap up a few projects that are giving them some last minute hurdles to overcome. Ahhh, the joys of developing and deploying complex software solutions.

Other than that, the Def Leopard concert was a lot of fun. Michael, Shannon and I had a great time together. Hehehe, it was white trash fest '02 though. Damn, some of these people look like they had been in a time capsule for 20 years, but that only added to the ambiance of the show :) They played about 5 songs from their new album and the rest were the classics. I went nuts when the did Animal and continued on from there with the rest of their songs. They did a great rendition of Rocket that rocked and all in all, they still sound just as good as they did twenty years ago.

Tim and Suzanne just sent me this lovely picture of the two of them as their XMas card. Aren't they a good looking couple? Yeah, the are!!! :-)

And not to be outdone, Eric and Crissy Larson sent me this cute card of their baby Sam all dressed up for the holiday. Hehehe, isn't he cute? I think he truly captures the "Satan" in Satan Claus! :-) Hehehehe, I love it!

Well, lots more to write, but gotta head off to a XMas party at Shannon's place. Love and hugs to all.

~Penz

December 14, 2002: Wow, December's here! Hehehehe, let's see, what have I been up to?

Last weekend I flew back to the East Coast for a little post turkey day pre present day visit. On Saturday night, I hung out with my friend Mike got to enjoy some quality time just hanging out and decompressing from my trip. On Sunday morning, I went out to breakfast in Nashua (yes, by myself) with just the Boston Globe and enjoyed a tasty meal. After that, I hit the liquor store to pick up some wine and then met up with Paul. He and I headed over to Dirk's house for a great afternoon of eating and drinking! Wendy and Matt Pietrek were there and Lon and a couple of his friends stopped by for a bit to share some holiday cheer. The food was delicious. Paul made his chicken scaloppini, Wendy did a Hawaiian chicken, Dirk made a 30 pound cheese cake, plus there were lots of yummy side dishes. We all ate and drank too much while enjoying each other's company and enjoyed the day.

On Monday, I made a trip down to Avaya in Concord, MA where I got to see John Zahara and the rest of the lads. I spent about an hour or so there and then headed back up to NH. I stopped by Compuware/NuMega and got to see Kevin Gray, Mattie and the rest of the NuMega lads. It was great to see them all (especially Kevin! I hoping he'll head out to CA for a visit) and I was glad to see that they were all doing well. Monday night, Dustin and I met up for some dinner and hung out. I also got to see Junior that night and we spent a couple of hours hanging out.

Tuesday morning, it was off to Wakefield, MA to hang out with my brother Tim. We had a really nice visit together. I really miss having him around. We went out for Chinese food, and then met up with our sister Gini. That night, we all enjoyed a leg of lamb dinner that Tim made and were joined by Suzanne. She looked great and is doing well. After dinner, we watched K-19. All in all, we had a wonderful day hanging out together!

Hahaha, I gotta say, it was freaking COLD back East. The high on Monday was 22. I must say, I have gotten spoiled by the CA weather :)

And on Wednesday morning, I flew back to CA.

Last night, my friend John and about 16 others went to see Star Trek Nemesis. Get this, half way through the movie, the fire alarm goes off in the theatre! It was right at the best part!!! Eventually, they let us back in, but the sound didn't come back on, and eventually, we left (after getting passes for another show, of course). I'm thinking that today I'll go and catch the other half. Damn fire alarm.

Tonight, I'm off to see Def Leopard with Michael and Shannon. That should be a fun time. Unfortunately, Adam was not able to make up from LA to join me. That sucks, but there will be other times.

~Penz

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