Our Cruise

Here are some of photos from our cruise. One of the ship we were on, one of Dee and me during the cruise, and one of our World Ventures Group who were on this awesome trip to Nova Scotia for 6 days.

Virtual Tour of our Cruise Ship

We're beginning to look forward to our upcoming cruise in just one week. We've never been on a cruise before. I thought I'd look up the ship we'll be on and I was blown away! It's one of the Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines newest ships - Jewel of the Seas. Here's a virtual tour if you'd care to check it out. Little did I realize what a great deal we got! You may have to select, copy and paste this link, but it's well worth it!http://www.royalcaribbean.com/multimedia/virtualTour/ship.do;jsessionid=0000OC7H0bJ3LEnzQNzSvlXlEU6:12hbioan0?shipClassCode=RD

Mission Vison "Cranberry Days of Caring" Project

This weekend was a busy one. On Friday I went with some of the Bogmeisters in support of ht eCranberry Days of Caring. Our community service project was the repair of used eyeglasses for use by an eye doctor who is going to Ghana to help people there with vision problems. He'll do surgeries, and also test people's eyes to see if they need glasses. If they do, he'll give them prescription glasses that are appropriate for their vision needs. We repaired (aligned and cleaned and recorded the lens powers of hundreds of glasses during our brief four hour "service time."

Here are some photos of our time there.

I've also been learning more about Facebook and trying to learn how to get the most out of it. I'm continuing to work my online travel business as a "Leisure Travel Consultant" and look forward to being a "product of the product" as we get ready for our Dream Trip Cruise to Nova Scotia later this month. Can't wait!

Penn's Colony Festival

Well the last two weeks of September find the Bogmeister chorus setting up shop at the Penn's Colony Festival in Saxonburg, PA. Evidently it's been happening for a very long time. It's like a village of shoppes where people have colonial items and all the vendors (including us) dress in colonial garb for two weekends.

We were fortunate to be asked to take over a "booth, which is really a small permanent hut" called the "Turkey Foot Inn". We sell turkey drumsticks for $5. They are smoked and cooked and then frozen. We heat them up to a hot temperature for serving. We serve them with a square of tin foil and people hot the turkey leg in one hand and gnaw at it. Also on our menu was beef sticks (cheesy, hot and regular beef), we sold three varieties of cheese (smoked swiss, smoked cheddar, and a Kojak. We had root beer, mulled and cold cider and bottled water.

This was all done to raise $ so we can purchase music, bow ties, other uniforms and accessories, and pay the music royalties to the music arrangers for arranging our music, as well as for advertising. We're all volunteer and we have expenses. This will go a long way to help us stay solvent as we share our gift of music with the community. Plus it is lots of fun.

My costume for colonial days was that of a padre. It seems I had a cassock (like a monks robe with hood etc.) that was given to me when I entered the Air Force. Even though I wasn't Catholic, they still gave them to all the chaplains. It's beige linen weave and looks great. I wore a cross with it. (I looked for a hat to match, but no luck yet this year.) Here are some photos (I'm not in these)of our time there the first weekend.

While in Phoenix AZ

I can't believe it's been a month since adding to this blog. Especially when I used to do it everyday. Hummm. Where does the time go?

Over the weekend I flew to Phoenix AZ for some training as a "leisure travel consultant". It was a dynamic event with lots of energy and wonderful stories of ways people's lives have been changed as they've been able to help others take the dream trips they've only thought about before.

I'd never been to AZ before and so it was an eye opening trip. The terrain is so different from anything here in PA. Here are some photos of where we stayed - the Carefree Resort and Spa, a view from our room and a 180 year old cactus outside the place. Lots of cacti all over. A rally rugged terrian.

The weekend went by very fast but we did get to see some of the area because we stayed 15 miles from the Marriott where the seminars and training were held. Here are some photos of that site...

Life back here in PA is going well. My mom has a new friend who stops by a couple of days a week to visit and she also gets to go to the senior center three days a week via Washington Rides. She seems to be getting more alert and more connected. A gal from the church calls her and has picked her up for worship the last two Sundays which is great.

This weekend our Bogmeisters will have a concession stand (turkey drumsticks) at the Penn's Colony Festival Sept 19-20 and 26-27. I work at the golf course on Sat. and am preaching in Penn Hills on Sunday, so my involvement this weekend will be limited. But it'll be fun.

Two Weeks Later

Whew! it's been awhile. Life has been busy this summer and gotten in the way of adding to this blog. Here's what's happenin'...

Since my mom had her license taken away, I've been going to her place once a week and taking care of the bills as well as other stuff to get her taking her meds in a timely way, doing some grocery shopping and meeting with her social workers and nurses who come to the house to do an assessment of her condition and needs. (Of course mom can't figure why these people come to her place because "she doesn't need anything.")

Anyway as we get our ducks lined up for her to be able to stay in her home, I've been preoccupied with that. Along with calling people and introducing them to our new "Leisure Travel Consultant" business and encouraging them to see the kinds of trips we'll be going on for wholesale prices. See - http://www.aiello.worldventuresdreamtrips.com/ (click third icon down on left labeled "what") Also, to learn about the business side of World Ventures, they watch http://www.aiello.worldventures.biz/ (click button #2) time has been fleeting.

Those two things, plus singing with the Bogmeisters at two events since my last entry along with weekly practices and preaching two of the last three Sundays has kept me going.

Then there is conversations with Kerri and ogling our new granddaughter, Kate. Sending photos back and forth and hearing about how she's growing all round out our lives very nicely.

I just finished reading The Dream Manager, by Matthew Kelly. It should be a must read for all "managers" and people who want to grow both personally as well as in your professional life. It's a fast read and a profound one as well. GET IT, you'll be glad you did.

Dee and I ordered a new laptop computer from QVC and it should finally arrive this week. It's an HP - 17" screen with 4 gig of ram, and 500 gig of memory. Also comes with a blue Ray DVD player and other perks. should be nice.

We're also considering changing our finished basement around some. We've been using it as it was originally set up using the TV cords and speaker cords where we found them. However, we think we'd like to turn things 90 degree angle and use a different wall for the TV. At the far end of the room. It would allow us to have a larger space for television viewing and allow more people to watch it comfortably at the same time. We had two guys come out from "Control Freaks" to give us an estimate and see if it could even be done without bashing through wall or ceiling. They were very helpful and reasonably priced. We'll likely do it as they've suggested. Then we'll have to get come new furniture to go with the new arrangement. (We've been using stuff that we brought with us from NJ and was more suited to the set up there.) We stopped at Room Concepts on route 19 and found some items we thought we could live with, but want to measure and see how the TV looks gains a different wall.

Lots happening but tomorrow Dee and I get to finally go to our own church together and sit in a pew after several weeks of missing our place due to various scheduling conflicts.

An update on life, family and stuff

Our Greater Cranberry Men's Chorus (bogmeisters) sang the National Anthem (barbershop style) on Saturday in Cranberry.( Click photo to enlarge.)

I picked up a couple of more books on Network Marketing - Question Based Selling is actually pretty good, and Your First Year in Network Marketing. They both given me a wider perspective of the ways our business has been run over the years.

What I like about being a Leisure Travel Consultant with World Ventures is that it offers a system of how to invite people to the various presentations. And that someone else actually makes the presentation. My job is just to invite them to either an evening event where a business overview is given in 30 minutes and testimonies are shared by people who've gone on the trips and are making good money in this part-time business, or to a luncheon where the overview is given (as well as testimonies), or to invite them to look at the online overview at http://www.aiello.worldventures.biz/ . The travel industry is exploding right now and 43% of all online ecommerce is travel related. It's a 8 Trillion dollar industry! And there are 10,000 baby boomers turning 60 every day. Many of whom want to travel more for less money. That's what we offer. It's the right industry at the right time (and I don't have to store anything in my garage (vitamins, candles, baskets, juice, cosmetics etc.)) Just point people to my web site and interest other people on this great opportunity to make some significant $ from home part-time. And of course go on these dream trips from time to time ourselves. at ridiculously low prices.

The company has a tremendous training and support system in place. Conference calls a couple of times a week if you choose to listen in and even offer questions when you have them; training sessions locally every other week, video training online, a great manual and workshops every month in a different city around the country. The acceleration workshops are where the action is and Dee and I look forward to going to one soon. The last one was in Las Vegas and there were 1500 people there learning how to grow the business. The one this month is in Denver. Good stuff.

Our Bogmeisters sang on Saturday at the Cranberry Cup Ceremonies. There were a couple of thousand people there. It's a fund raiser for a needy family in the area. They brought the family in on a fire truck with sirens blaring and lights flashing. Afterward we went to some of the businesses in the area to get ads for our concert program. While doing that we sang at some of the stores to customers. Fun.

On the home front my mom is back home. She'll see the visiting nurse today. And on Thursday the social worker will be there with us. We'll begin learning what services she qualifies for and how she's doing. She is no longer allowed to drive her car. I plan to be with her more often as we work through these changes. And the fact that Faye and Jan have experience in this area (navigating insurances and the social work maze) is very helpful as we proceed week by week.

Our granddaughter Kate is doing well and turns 16 weeks old tomorrow. Although we only saw her for a day last week before heading home, it was worth the trip down to spend time with her and to allow Kerri and pat to go out on a date knowing Kate was in good hands.