Fishing Trip

One of the benefits of living close to the water is being able to go for boat rides. We took a charter fishing boat out yesterday to try our hand at catching fish as part of Michael's Wildlife Conservation award for Cub Scouts. Here we are waiting to cast off the shore.There were lots of boats on our way out of the harbor, and at the end of the harbor was this lighthouse. The view from the water to the land is just stunning, isn't it? One of the rules for catching fish is that they have to be a certain length, or they have to be thrown back into the water. Tony caught 3 pierogies, two keepers, Nicholas caught 2 pierogies, one a keeper, and Michael caught 2 fish. I caught only one little fish, but lots of fish managed to eat the bait off of my line before I could bring them up!
Oh, and Michael caught a horseshoe crab, too! It was so heavy that one of the sailors had to help pull it up and get it off of the line to throw it back. Of course, we had to get a picture of it! You probably can't see them, but there are lots and lots of jellyfish swimming around in the water in this picture. We stopped at three different ideal fishing spots(determined by the sonar that the captain had), and tried our hand at catching fish. The largest fish was caught by a gentleman on the boat. It was a 3 pound bluefish! Here we are on our way back to the harbor. I just love watching the sunset! Remember the lighthouse? Here it is again with the sunset in the background. If you look carefully, there is a large hawk's nest on top of this structure in the middle of the water. We had a lot of fun fishing! I am definitely looking forward to going again!

Happy Birthday Michael!

We celebrated Michael's 9th birthday on Saturday. Can you believe he's 9 years old already? We had a friend of mine who is a gym teacher(FitKidz Birthday Parties) come and help entertain the kids. He kept them busy with an obstacle course,

a Star Wars game with hula hoops(one team(the Jedi) carry one color hoops around their waist, and the person who is "It"(Darth Vader) has another color hoop. Darth Vader tries to run and tap the Jedi and get them out. It's lots of fun!),

Dodge ball,



and they ended the party with the Limbo game.

After all of that running around, the boys had lemonade, mini hot dogs, carrot sticks, grapes, and of course, ice cream cake!
After the boys left, Tony's family and some friends came over for a barbecue and we had another ice cream cake for Michael.

He had a great day. We love you Michael!

This week

I don't think there has ever been a week where nothing exciting happens in the Pinelli household. This past Thursday, my school participated in an all-day Dance Festival. Somehow I have the great fortune of being in charge of the day(no, it's not fun to be in charge!). I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out, but by the end of the day, it was very positive and all of the teachers and students enjoyed the day.
On Friday night, Tony took me, along with some neighbors of ours, to see the Broadway revival of West Side Story . I loved it! To all of my family, please take advantage of our close proximity to Broadway, come visit us, and see a Broadway show. It is well worth it!
Back in January Nicholas was invited to participate in the Johns Hopkins study of Talented Youth and take the SAT's. He decided that he wanted to do it, so on an early Saturday morning, we took him to a local high school to take the test. He performed so well on the Math portion that he was invited to an award ceremony to honor him and other students who also performed well. So after Nicholas, Michael, and I went to church this morning, we went to Stony Brook with Tony and his family for the awards ceremony.

NAILS IN THE FENCE

NAILS IN THE FENCE

There once was a little boy who
had a bad temper. His Father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every
time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.

The first day the boy had
driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.
Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all.

He told his father about it and
the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he
was able to hold his temper.

The days passed and the young
boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.

The father took his son by the
hand and led him to the fence. He said, 'You have done well, my son, but
look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same.
When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one.
You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. But It won't matter
how many times you say I'm sorry, the wound will still be there. A verbal
wound is as bad as a physical one... Remember that friends are very rare jewels, indeed. They make you smile and encourage you to succeed. They lend an ear, they share words of praise and they always want to open their hearts to us.

Please forgive me if I have ever left a 'hole' in your fence.