over the river and thru the woods...

friends, romans, before i start, a belated congratulations are in order...




to the sexiest mo-fo ever to walk the face of this earth. ever. seriously. for ever. and ever.

matt damon.

the bluebirds sing of your sexiness

the whales gulp krill for your glory

oh, to be so sexy

if you could bottle even one ounce of your sweat
and anoint the heads of the unsexy with it

the smiles that would spread from cheek to cheek






eh, you get the picture





so...Thanksgiving. i never did get around to blogging about my trip back east. buckle your seat belts.

no place does Thanksgiving better than the Jersey Shore.

not even Cape Cod.

Turkey Day Fun "Fact" #1: the pilgrims were actually headed for the Jersey Shore, but a tempest blew them into Massachusetts instead.












despite all the houses built on sand,
my roots run deep at the Jersey Shore.
















The Offshore Inn. My favorite restaurant on earth. Owned and operated by 3 generations of my family.

TDFF #2: the original Off Shore was destroyed by a fire in 2002 -- a fire caused when it was struck by a meteorite.











nice printing runs in my genes.

Granny could've had a long career as a cue card guy if she so desired.


the restaurant shut down for the day and the call was sent to family members far and wide -- "it is time to return from whence you came."










speak 'o the devil, there she is...

Granny. keeping an eye on Felix.

making sure he doesn't mash out all the lumps in Granny's mashed-po's.

they're SUPPOSED to have lumps.










my pop's been raising turkeys all year, just for the occasion. that wednesday he had two butchered. so we dined on two, fresh 35 lb birds. nothing in the world like free-range turkey...

TDFF #3: at the first Thanksgiving they actually did not eat turkey. they ate maize, maize bread, stewed maize, twice-baked maized potatoes, and deep dish maize pie.

i bet they had plenty of laughs when they visited the out house the next day.










here's cousin Peter carving up the birds, as Granny, Mum, and Uncle Frank observe.














my only job the whole entire day. "carry the turkey from the kitchen to the dining room."

mission accomplished.















the Seniors table...

















the soon-to-be-Seniors table...


















food, glorious, food

TDFF#4: there is enough tryptophan in a single slice of turkey to put an entire colony of African Army Ants to sleep for 3 months.















sticking to tradition, after the meal we
retired to the bar to partake in the grueling game of Bingo.

cold hard cash was at stake. i'm talkin' about some crisp new Jacksons.

and one of those bills wound up in my pocket!

i hadn't won at Reunion-Bingo since '87. i felt alive once again!












the last round. the dreaded "full card" bingo. and i came oh so close to victory once again. but no cigar.

TDFF #5: A harbinger of things to come? Bingo was banned from the holiday by the Puritans after it was introduced to the Indians during the third Thanksgiving. the Indians took to it right away and refused to quit playing - going 92 days straight and setting a Guinness World Record.
sadly, their lack of harvest that season nearly wiped out the entire tribe during the lean winter months ahead.









the Koch-DiTullio-White's

November 22nd, 2007


looking forward to 2017 already.






and then...the day AFTER Thanksgiving... my dreaded 10-year High School Reunion




which wound up being a ton of fun. not nearly as disastrous as made out to be on TV/movies.

we had about 35 people come from our class of 110. par for the course as far as reunions go these days.

great to see some faces i hadn't seen since graduation day, ten and a half years ago...






reunited and it feels so good.

the Three Amigos, me, Pete, and Goose

we made some pretty great videos together during our hey-day (hay-day?) and managed to crank out a couple more for the reunion as well. i'll post them online in a few weeks...










and of course, there was that extra special day that comes once a year in Pennsylvania. the Monday after Thanksgiving. a.k.a. the first day of buck (deer) season.


but this year... i guess you could say i didn't have much luck...


















til next time...