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Quick post with more to follow…

Matt Unger and I were up at camp last night and today and it was freezing! There is a few inches of snow on the ground and the lake is in the beginning stages of freezing over. You know what that means- sledding down the amphitheatre and snowmobiling on the lake will hopefully happen soon! I will post pictures of our time at camp and more info soon, so stay tuned.

A final thing- Happy Birthday to my Mom! Of course I won’t divulge her age here on the blog, but a very happy birthday to her!

Well, I’m sure everyone can relate when I say yesterday was “one of those days”. It started out well enough, the holiday shopper traffic wasn’t as bad as usual and there was lots to do in the office. The line at Starbucks in the morning was outrageous, but when I ran out to get my salad from Saladworks, I stopped by and finally got my daily latte. I FINALLY made some progress in getting my desk organized (let’s see how long that lasts) and I was just on a roll in general. Good day? Absolutely!

So around lunch time I was telling Pam that there was a funny yellow light illuminated on the dashboard of my car.

*Disclaimer: I know nothing about cars… NOTHING… so little that my dad often wonders how he, someone who rebuilds vintage cars and bikes as a hobby, ever had a daughter who is so completely clueless! But, this supports my theory that we all have our own unique talents that make us special, and mine just happen to be more artistic than mechanical.

So I tell Pam that I think I must have low tire pressure. You know how a balloon shrinks when it’s cold outside, and then expands when you get indoors – same idea! It was a cold morning, so I didn’t think much of it. By the time I got in the car to go home, the little light was STILL on, so I called my dad and told him to be ready to do a full inspection!

Well, turns out I drove over some unidentified metal blades, and by the time my dad got outside to look at it, the tire was flat- I felt so silly for not realizing what had happened! My Dad put the car up on a jack stand and said he’d take my tire over to his mechanic in the morning.

Luckily, my mom was able to lend me her car for the morning so I could come in to the office and get some work done, and bring home my files so I can work from our home office. Turns out I have to buy a whole new tire, definitely not what I wanted to hear, but the good news is that we can get a tire tomorrow and I’ll be back in business!

So, I guess the moral of the story is that you should all learn more about cars than I do and always be thankful for the people in your life who can help you out in sticky situations.

My dad’s birthday is on Thursday… I guess I should make sure his gift is EXTRA special this year!

Camper visits are awesome! I love being able to see all of you during the “off-season” and so Thursday night, Pam and I headed up to L.I. to visit the Glassman, Ambos, and Yedid families. We had such a good time in the car on the way up talking about camp, filling Pam in on all of the inside jokes of camp, etc.

Our first stop was Amanda Glassman. Amanda is doing so well in school and is having a great winter. She told me she keeps in touch with several of the girls and may be having a sleepover before the reunion with some as well! Of course when I asked about what activities she misses most, cooking came up as number 1 (a common theme always!). Amanda also has a great glass fusion project in her basement, but its not mounted yet on a block of wood. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture (sorry Amanda), but at the reunion we will be sure to get good photos!

Next, we went to see Lauren Ambos and her sister was home as well. Lauren has been very busy between art class (with Amanda), hebrew school twice a week, and basketball to name a few! She says hello to everyone and even took me to her room to see the reunion poster hung up from last year! During the photo below, Lauren and her sister were very good sports as her parents tried to use my phone to take the picture! In their defense, taking a picture with the Blackberry Storm isn’t easy.

Finally, a quick stop at the Yedid’s! Jake was running out to tennis practice and was running late, so we had a chance to take this quick photo before he left.  A side note about Jake- he works at a very well known candy store near his house in Port Washington and apparently alot of camp kids see him at birthday parties, etc. I am told he is ALWAYS friendly and so excited to see campers- good job Jake and thanks for continuing the Canadensis Spirit all-year round! Can’t wait to see your spirit this summer as a CIT.

I also spent some time with David Yedid. Believe it or not, I was his counselor in Summer 2000 in Boys Bunk 2. I know people always say, “I feel old”, but I truly do! David is a Senior in High School and applying to colleges. I can’t believe that at all! Pam and I had so much fun with David reminiscing about Canadensis, talking about Key Club (which I was president of back in the day, and now David is!), and the whole college process. I know David would like to come back to camp as a counselor (after taking a year off) and is thinking about it, depending on his H.S. graduation and college start date. Good Luck David with college apps and keep in touch!

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Robin will be flying in tonight and we will be going to hear a band play down in Maryland! Very exciting stuff…

Well, I hope everyone enjoyed a relaxing Thanksgiving break!

My week went by so quickly and so much has happened since my last post. Our Concert Choir Party went so well and it was great to see some of my close friends from High School. We took so many pictures, and videotaped the choir sing-along, so once I’ve gotten all the photos off all our cameras, I’ll put together a little blog montage.

The holiday weekend wouldn’t have been complete without a family dinner with the Waxman-Corradetti-Cook clan. It was so exciting to have Rachel Waxman and Danielle Cook home from college and joining us for a King of Prussia evening. The funniest part of the evening was definitely when we decided to play FAST COOKIE during dinner. Who knows what’ll happen when we’re together.

As promised, here’s a video montage of our trip to NYC:

*Edit: There was a sound problem, but I fixed it!

Once again, a very Happy Thanksgiving to all of you and your families. I had such a busy weekend, with no time to update the blog, but I hope to make up for it with today’s post!

Robin, the girls Head Counselor or my fiancee (whichever you prefer), flew in Thursday morning to spend some time with my family for the holiday. We went to my cousins house in NJ for the day and had a blast! My cousin is a pilot for Jet Blue, so I love talking about airplanes with him, while his wife did an amazing job cooking and preparing a feast for 25. For a change this year, the meal started out with lasagna, and it was the best I have ever tasted- good job Kelly! Traditional Thanksgiving Dinner followed with turkey, stuffing, potatoes, etc. but the best part was the dessert (DUH!). My cousins and my mom both had cakes that said Congratulations to me and Robin, which was really nice. But the highlight were the CRUMBS cupcakes that my cousin Lindsay brought in from Hoboken! The favorites were the Dutch Apple Pie, Reese’s, Red Velvet, and Carrot Cake. We cut them all into quarters and I must have had 8 quarters (so that means 2 huge cupcakes- AAHHH!). The whole family had an awesome time and there were some little kids around which kept us all occupied and playing games- invisible ink, my little pony, spongebob stuff, etc.

Friday morning was “Meet the Parents” Forti style at the Forti household! My mom invited Robin’s immediate and extended family over to meet my family. Our parents had already met at camp (many of you will recall that), but now the extended family’s had the opportunity to meet. My mom cooked tons of things- my favorite spinach quiche, french toast, blintze souffle, etc. It was all delicious and yes again there was dessert with yummy things. The highlight today was “David’s Cookies”. If you recall, these are the cookies we have at camp sometimes (Chocolate Chunk) when the baker is on a day off (Open House comes to mind). Anyway, it was all delicious.

Friday afternoon/evening was devoted to SHOPPING with the moms. Robin, myself, and the moms spent over 4 hours at Bed, Bath, and Beyond scanning things, deleting things, adding them back on to the registry, etc. All I can say is GRRRR. Shopping with ladies is hard enough, but on Black Friday…not an easy task. In the end, I was told that I am a good fiance and did a good job keeping cool (for the most part) and allowing Robin to choose what she wanted. Yes, there were a few items I put my foot down on (like the 48 everyday drinking glasses she wanted to order), but in the end we agreed on everything!

Saturday morning was spent at temple in honor of Lauren Gadol’s Bat Mitzvah. Mazel Tov Lauren! You did a wonderful job reading from the Torah and your always present huge smile was great up on the Bimah! The luncheon Kiddush following the services was wonderful (and yes there were desserts there too- see the theme of the weekend?)

Saturday afternoon Robin and I went to Macy’s to continue on our Registry Shopping saga. We picked out a few “must-haves” including a waffle maker, George Foreman Grill, and “pretty” (or not so pretty to a guy) vases.

Saturday night was our second Bat Mitzvah of the weekend- Alix Steerman. Alix looked so beautiful and we had such a fun time. The food was amazing (the Kung Pao chicken bites during the cocktail hour, Pad Thai, etc.) and the band was so lively and entertaining. It was so awesome to see so many of the girls and a few boys from camp. Everyone looked like they were having a blast and I even used the excuse of “checking on the campers” to eat some of the food from the kids station! Here are a few pics from the Bat Mitzvah.

Sunday was a final registry stop at Crate & Barrel and then a quick drive to Atlantic City Airport to drop Robin off for her flight home to Ft. Lauderdale.

Sunday night, I spoke to Alex Dean on skype. The good news- Alex will be returning for his 3rd summer working in our Hondas department! He is up in Canada working on landscaping and he decided that how could he miss camp this summer (especially compared to landscaping!). Alex, we are really excited that you will be back.

As you can see, a very busy weekend for us but it was a blast and thanks again to all of the Canadensis campers we saw at the Bat Mitzvahs- we had such a fun time!