In an attempt to slowly start trying to get caught up with life, I’ve started posting stuff on eBay again. Check out what I’m selling and feel free to bid on something at members.ebay.com/aboutme/michaelgatti.

You might remember that I went to a Christmas show at the American Music Theatre in Lancaster, PA at the end of last year. We went back last week to see Jack Hanna and his menagerie of wild animals. The show was fantastic. It was a lot of fun to see him in person after watching him on TV for so many years. Afterwards, we went shopping at the Tanger and Rockvale Outlets.

We had dinner at a fantastic restaurant called The Family Cupboard. I’ll mention some more about that in a future post. Maybe a little review.

The only bad part of the day is that my father couldn’t have been with us. He would have loved the show. He’s the one who taught me most everything I know about animals. Nature shows were his favorite.

The photos can be viewed right here.

I was in Newport Rhode Island on business recently. While I was there, the Newport Winter Festival was going on. It was the weather was beautiful for the two weeks that I was there. Of course, on the one day that I had free (the day I travelled home) there was an ice storm and the skies were gray at best. But I made the most of it and went out and did the tourist stuff and took a bunch of photos.

Check them out here.

After a very difficult few months, I’m finally trying to start getting caught up with things. That includes updating my site. I just posted some photos that I took when we took my grandfather to the annual Christmas show at the American Music Theatre in Lancaster, PA. It was a christmas gift to him from my Mom & Dad.

This particular place holds a special meaning to him and me because the threatre is on the property where there once existed The Willows Motel that he and my grandmother used to take me to when I was little. The covered bridge on their property is what started my love of covered bridges.

Check out he photos right here.

Words can’t even begin to tell you how difficult the past three weeks has been for my family and me. It has only been made easier by something equally indescribable. That is the overwhelming support that we’ve received from family, friends, coworkers and even folks who never even knew my father. Cards, flowers, gifts, phone calls, e-mails, dinner invitations, visits are the tangible items that we’ve received, but what we’ve really received is kindness, love and comfort.

We’ve mailed out over 100 thank you notes, but no greeting card can truly convey how thankful we are for the outpouring of support that has been bestowed upon us.

For the past thirty years, I’ve spent my New Year’s Eves with my grandfather watching the ball drop in Times Square. This year, however, I was able to send a message to those brave souls that will spend the evening watching the ball drop in person.

You can too. Read about it at CNN.com then go do it right here.

Here’s wishing you have a jous and healthy Christmas. Hopefully you are as lucky as I am to be able to take the week off and spend it with family and friends!

You probbaly know that I’ve worked with computer’s all my life. What you might not remember is that the first computer my parents bought for me many years ago was the venerable Commodore 64. With it’s 64 bytes of RAM we played games like Choplifter, Tooth Invaders, Clowns & Bruce Lee. I also wrote my first computer programs in BASIC. And should I even mention the Datasette? Gee, loading computer software onto audio cassettes seemed like such a good idea at the time!

It’s amazing how 25 years later, all of those hours sitting with my mom and trying to fix the syntax errors in the tapes my Uncle Ott would send her actually seem like fond memories when at the time we wanted to throw the machine out the window.

Yes, the Commodore 64 is 25 years old now. I still have mine packed away. I could never get rid of it. CNN has a great article about the historic anniversary of everyone’s favorite home computer. Read CNN’s article here.

You’ve seen my photos from Peddler’s Village taken during the summer. (If not, view them here.)  Their annual Christmas Festival was this past weekend, so Kelly and I went back to see what it’s like in winter. It’s a whole different experience. The sub-freezing temperature was made bearable by marshmallow roasting over an open fire, hot cider cooked over a fire, carolers and even a little parade to welcome Santa Claus. Add thousands of Christmas lights and you have a great start to the Christmas season!

Click here to view my pictures from the festival.

I just added a bunch of new photos to the photos sectoin of the site. The first group is from July and is just a few snaps of flowers in the yard and a baby bunny rabbit in the yard.

The next contains photos from a Camden County Board of Freeholders meeting during which the man who saved my father’s life when he was choking at a diner was honored for his heroism. View those here.

Another small new album contains a few photos of a squirrel that I thought came out kind of nice. I’ll fill you in on the other bigger additions in separate posts. In the mean time check out all of my photos.