This Christmas was fantastic. Thanks to a long weekend off from work I had a ton of time to relax with Kelly and both of our families. Kelly gave me a new flash for my camera along with some ultra-cool Beatles Sgt. Pepper's art that I plan on putting up in my cubicle and.... BACON FLAVORED CANDY.  I also picked up a tripod and really cool ukulele. Not bad! Between all the parties, cookies and ham Kelly and I took it easy, did some wedding-related planning and listened to music.  Such a great few days.

Our dog Gracie really seemed to get into a BBC documentary about Yellowstone that we were watching. Sorry Gracie, but you'd never fit in with those wolves.

Gracie got an early chance to try out her Pugz when we had a freak snowstorm in October. As you can see in the video she felt a bit weird with boots on her feet, but we're hoping she'll get used to them as the winter goes on.

After posting this video on YouTube we were contacted by the company that created the Pugz for permission to use Gracie in one of their advertisements. Of course we agreed.  Video coming soon!

Just went on the trip of a lifetime - a ten day long tour of Ireland with the love of my life...  and came back engaged! 

It was on the second to last full day of our trip when I proposed.  We had taken a boat out Inishmore, one of the Aran Islands off the coast of Galway, and biked our way out to the "Man of Aran Cottage" where we stayed for the night. Man of Aran is modeled after the old fashioned thatched roof cottages that were once common in Ireland, but was actually built in the 1930's for the documentary "Man of Aran".

Arriving at the cottage via bike

Our view while we enjoyed some wine in the backyard

Joe Watty's - best pub on the island

Walking up the trail to Dun Aengus, an ancient fort built around 900BC alongside an extremely high cliff... and where I proposed.

Kelly lovingly scaring the sh*t out of me

I could see the headlines - "Woman falls off cliff to her death seconds before boyfriend proposes"...

Fortunately she stepped far away enough from cliff where I could feel safe enough to get down on one knee and ask her to marry me.. and SHE SAID YES!!!

After we got back I did some reading about the place and learned that the name Dun Aengus translates to Fort of Aengus.  Aeungus was the pre-Christian god of love, youth and poetic inspiration.  The myth says he had four birds flying about his head, which supposedly is where the xxxx's symbolizing kisses at the end of love letters come from. Cool!

Couldn't be happier!

My twin brother is getting married this weekend.  And the Henri's are excited.

The first stop this year on the CT Wine Trail - Hopkins Vineyard. Love this place.

Did a little waterfall sightseeing as well...

The SyFy channel featured Derby's Sterling Opera House on last night's episode of Ghost Hunters. The historic building is currently vacant and severely in need of restoration, so the city is attempting to bring it into the spotlight by billing it as haunted.  Mission accomplished considering last night's show brought in an estimated 2 million visitors.