Koch's in Texas 2008

Mike's Mom and Dad drove down from PA and arrived September 19th. They stayed until September 29th. Unfortunately, I was out of town for 4 of the days they were here.

We went to a Rangers Baseball game on the 20th. That was our Father's Day gift to Rich. A little late, but that is okay. We were able to get Rich's birthday, Fran's birthday, and their anniversary in during this time too.

Mike and I still had to work while they were in town, so they would go out and about on their own or hung out at the house with Sugar and their dog, Baxter.

We did eat out, but Fran cooked some of the nights. She also made her famous broccoli salad. YUMMY!! One of the places we went to eat was Boi Na Braza. It is a Brazilian steak house. The guys walk around with skewers of meat and slice off pieces right at the table. It is definitely an experience.

We took the train ride from Grapevine to Fort Worth. We saw the cattle drive while we were down there. They had more cattle this time. I noticed one of them this time. The black and white Longhorn. He was kinda small, but his coloring was cool.

Montreal, Canada

Skyline from the 36th floor of the hotel. This is just one of MANY pictures of the skyline.






Ann, Michael, Elaine, and J. at the dinner on the last night of the conference.





September 21st to 24th, I was in Montreal at the Epicor conference with two folks from our IT department, Ann and J. We currently use one of the products by Epicor at GameStop and we were there to learn more about their other products and see if we could learn more about the current product. I have to admit, the sessions were not that useful, but the networking was great. I met a lot of nice people and I did learn a few things. So, I would say it was a successful trip.

Vegas Baby...

Well, actually, I was in Vegas for work. I went for our annual Store Conference. It was held at the Mandalay Bay. I was there September 6th to the 10th. Bobbi and I were sent to inform our store personnel of ways to decrease loss. We had fun when we had time to ourselves, but it was a lot of work and it was a LOT of walking. The Mandalay Bay is HUGE. They even have an extra wing that is called THEHotel. Yes, that is the correct spelling and it looks like that on the sign. It was very ritzy. After our meetings, we hung out with Josh and Chuck. I got to see a lot of folks from the EB side, which was a nice treat for me.



GameStop Nascar, Joey Logano




Josh and Chuck...acting like they are working. :-)





Elaine with a Lego Batman and Robin.





Bobbi and Elaine all dressed up to go to dinner at a French restaurant with the rest of the Accounting department.

Cleaver's in Texas '08

Elaine's folks were in town August 21st to 27th.

Since I was in the middle of a project, I was unable to take vacation, but I was able to work half days. I would get home around noon and then we would head out and tour around. Since it was still REALLY hot here, we did not get to do some of the stuff Mary wanted to do...like the zoo or the train ride. We had temperatures close to 100 and a few days over 100. Even with 'dry' heat, it is still really hot.

We ate out a lot. We ate at a couple of places that we went to last year, but we managed to try some new places this time. Of course we had to take them to our favorite places. Dad got to go to Shepler's and get some new shirts. We went to Ripley's Believe It or Not & Wax Museum. They did get in the pool one day, but they said it was too hot. LOL.

They were very glad to see Sugar and of course Sugar was REAL happy to see them.

WELCOME CHASE!!!

It has been awhile since I have updated everyone. And I am sorry about that. So, I am going to try to do it tonight.

First off, I wanted to mention that our niece, Jennifer, had a baby. On June 9th, at 1:20 p.m. His name is Chase Philip. 7 pounds, 6 ounces, and 21 inches long. He has a lot of dark hair, just like his Mom.

We are the very proud Great Uncle and Great Aunt!!