Archives 2006 - Jim McNelis' Website

Archives - 2006

12/31/2006 - Went to O'Faolain's for New Year's Eve. Nice pub, great food and the owners Justin Holohan and Patrick Whelan were gracious. I highly recommend this pub. Irish folk running the place and Irish folk working there.

12/30/2006 - It's Colin's birthday! Happy 10th birthday Colin. Since his birthday is so close to Christmas, we celebrated on January 6th.

12/19/2006 - Took Colin, his friend Jeremy, Jeremy's brother JT and JT's girlfriend to the Caps game. Caps lost 5-4 to the lightning. Caps were losing most of the game but rallied in the last few minutes which really made it an exciting game. Afterwards, I took them to see the National Christmas tree.

12/10/2006 - Took me a while to post these pictures of the National Christmas tree (sorry). I've gone down to see the tree a couple of years in a row now. I've lived here in Virginia all my life, but have not been the best tourist of DC. The tree itself is nice, but it's the 56 smaller trees around the tree that is really worth the trip. All of the states and territories are represented. I snapped a pic of the Virginia and another pic of the ornaments on the New Mexico tree (chili peppers in the globes). The Park Rangers are happy to take photos of you and your loved ones while you pose in from of the tree.

12/3/2006 - Another hockey game for Colin. This one ended in a tie, 5-5. Colin had some great saves. I shot some pics and vide or his game.

12/2/2006 - If you think of an old time Christmas parade that you would see on television, stop by Middleburg next year for their parade. In fact, the events started at 10:00 am with breakfast with Santa and then a parade of hounds and horses at 11:00 am. I stopped by around 2:30 to check out the event and starting shooting pics of the crowd and of the parade route. At 3:00 pm, the parade started. I highly recommend spending part of your day next year at this event.

11/30/2006 - New pic of Colin as a goalie. This pic is from the team photos. Colin's team is working on 1st place again after losing this past Sunday. They can pull it off. They're a really good team.

11/24/2006 - Stopped by Reston Town Center to check out the holiday festivities. Unfortunately, we arrived in between all of the scheduled events, so we shot a couple of pics at the Christmas tree, checked out the ice skating rink then headed home.

11/14/2006 - Colin's 4th grade class performed several songs and danced this evening. Colin was in the choir of singers and was one of the dancers in the "Virginia Reel". This was Colin's first performance as a dancer.

11/12/2006 - Colin had a double header today in hockey. Of course, the batteries in my camera died after I took one shot. Colin played two excellent games. Colin's save percentage is up around 85 to 90% at each game. An improvement from the beginning of the season.

11/6/2006 - Three big events today; Colin's hockey game, Olivia's (my niece) birthday party and the Redskins-Cowboys game.

The day started out at 8:15 at the ice rink to get Colin suited up for his game. Colin played the first half of the game, had 15 shots against him and three goals scored on him. Not too bad. An 80% save percentage for the day. I haven't been keeping track of his stats for the season. I can barely remember to take photos and video of him while I'm watching him play. Here's a small video of him playing in Sunday's game.

Olivia's party was a lot of fun. Every time the family gets together, it's like a group of stand-up comics (Timmy, my Dad, Virginia, Sean and Antwahn and me) are in town to do a performance in a small club. A bit more shy nowadays, but cute as ever, Olivia opened gifts, gave hugs and smiles out like they were candy.

And last but not least, the Redskins beat the Cowboys 22 -19! Christina and I left Olivia's party at the beginning of the fourth quarter to do some light shopping at IKEA. Fortunately, an IKEA employee saw Christina wearing her Cowboys sweatshirt and me wearing my Redskins sweatshirt and advised us that the Redskins had won. I returned the favor he had paid me by advising EVERYONE who made eye contact with me that the Redskins had beaten the Cowboys.

10/23/2006 - It's official! Colin was one of the top sellers at his school for the Sally Foster fundraiser. Colin received prizes and lunch with the Principal.

10/01/2006 - Took Colin and Jeremy (Colin's friend) to see Blue Oyster Cult (BOC) at the 29th Annual Chili Cook-off at the Rockville Town Center. We got there in time to catch a guitar solo and then they went into "Godzilla". The boys loved it! While we strolled around we heard a few other hits from BOC, like "Don't Fear the Reaper". Afterwards, we came home for dinner ("Jimbalaya", Steamed shrimp and Steak and cheese sandwiches) and then dessert.....candied apples. Quite a nice day.

08/19/2006 - Georgette gave us some tickets to see the premier of "How to Eat Fried Worms". Great movie. Colin and Jeremy really enjoyed it. Thanks again Georgette for the tickets.

08/06/2006 - It was time to introduce Colin and Jeremy to Uncle Ted (Ted Nugent) at Loudoun's Summer Music fest. Great show. In fact, the opening band, The Speaks were very good. What's even better, they hail from Northern Virginia and they've signed with Warner records. Now Uncle Ted's show. Ted Nugent was entertaining with and without his music. Ted poked fun at politics, animal rights activists and drug dealers. He played all of his hits (the ones I can recall) as well as some covers of Blues songs. My three favorite songs from tonight, "Wang Tang Sweet Poontang", "Great White Buffalo" and "Cat Scratch Fever".

08/04/2006 - I took Colin and Jeremy (one of Colin's friends) to see the Redskins at one of their practices which are open to the public. I thought there would more to do at practice camp for the boys, but I was wrong. All people do there is stand and watch the Redskins practice. Kind of boring. We didn't stay long.

07/29/2006 - Georgette sent me some pics she took while down at Surfside. Grandpa Jim is Georgette's father. He's the guy who caught the sharks when he Coda and I went out on the fishing trip. As you can see, Chandler and Colin got a long really well.

07/23/2006 - Colin just finished up a week of goalie camp at Ashburn Ice House. Colin really enjoyed it. He'll go again on August 14th for another round of goalie training. Julian, one of Colin's friends from AAA baseball attended ice hockey camp also.

07/15/2006- I went to see the Glengarry Bhoys tonight at Reston Town. Center. I only stayed for the first set. It was too damn hot out tonight. All I was doing was moving to the music and I was breaking a sweat. They've got quite a following here in Virginia. You could tell by how well the crowd cheered for each song. I picked up their latest CD; "Mill Sessions". They were kind enough to autograph it for me. You know, you can tell a good soul by how they interact with strangers. Here's an example; when I spoke with the band, I wished them a safe journey on their upcoming trip to Scotland. Each member of the band asked if I would come along. I know it helps them to have fans at the shows, but I could tell it wasn't really about that, it was about joining them in the journey. Nice way to end the evening.

07/14/2006 - Tonight, I went to Broadlands Live and saw the Kelly Bell Band perform. I've been trying to catch this band for several years at Friday Night Live. What a great performance. They kept the audience entertained right from the start with parodies of cover songs, fooling the audience into thinking that they were going to cover songs from a wedding reception (including Journey's "Don't Stop Believing"). After a few laughs, the band did what the promised....gathered as many kids in the audience in front of the stage and went into their rendition of Sponge Bob Square Pants theme song. The kids loved it. After that, it was Phat Blues time. Great covers and even better originals. I bought the latest CD; "Live from the Recher Theatre". The band was kind enough to autograph it for me.

07/13/2006 - Last night I went to DC StandUp's "Comedy Kumite"; which is a tournament in which 8 comics compete for the title of funniest person alive. Good show. Eric Myers won. I've seen him perform at the Sterling Cinema and Drafthouse before. He was really good. Please check out DC StandUp and support your local comedians.

07/11/2006 - Just finished editing the video clips of the fireworks display on the beach from the 4th of July. The video was shot from the fourth floor of a condo on Surfside Beach between the hours of 8:30 and 9:30 pm. The voices you hear on the video are; my son Colin, his friend Chandler, and my friends Georgette and Chris.

07/10/2006 - When I was shooting the sunrise on the 6th, a woman walking along the beach (her name is Joanne) asked me and a gentleman shooting near me to take a photo of her with the sunrise at her back. The gentleman took the photo, and seeing that Joanne was dressed in a long skirt, I had an idea for some silhouette shots. I edited some of the photos to create more of a silhouette effect. Thanks Joanne for being such a good model.

07/08/2006 - Last day on the beach. I took Colin and his friend Chandler out for some body/boogie board surfing. Chandler kept loosing his shorts each time a wave hit him. He quickly earned the name "Chicken Butt" because of it. Every time Colin wiped out on a wave, he would rise up out of the ocean, water still running off his face and say;" I'm not dead yet" (from Monty Python's Holy Grail and SpamAlot).

07/07/2006. - I took Colin and Chandler to a baseball game tonight. USA vs. China/Taipei. USA beat Taipei 5-2. They played at Costal Federal Field in Myrtle Beach. This where the Myrtle Beach Pelicans play. What a beautiful stadium. I snapped a shot of Colin and Chandler with my camera phone. Not the best shot, but it shows the how close we were sitting to the Taipei team.

07/06/2006 - Got up this morning and caught the sunrise on Surfside Beach. Walked around for a bit until I found the right spot to take a few photos.

07/05/2006 - All day fishing trip! We left Murrell's Inlet and headed 40 miles off shore. A few problems to start; the boat was a bit smaller than expected, the first mate was a no show (possibly hung over from the night before) and the Captain had trouble catching live bait. Could these have been signs that the trip would be trouble? Not at all. We had a great time. Unfortunately, most everything we caught was just under legal size. I caught king mackerel, a few striped bass, and some ugly little fish. Chris caught a barracuda, lots of little bass, and an octopus. Grandpa Jim (Chris' Father-in-law) caught a 3 foot brown shark and a 7 foot tiger shark (which we never let in the boat).

07/04/006 - We celebrated the Fourth of July for the first time at the beach! It was a blast (no pun intended). The beach, warm weather, cool breeze and large amounts of fireworks. I took some pics and shot some video from the balcony of the condo.

07/03/2006 - People started breaking out their stash of fireworks last night. I took the opportunity to practice taking photos of fireworks last night. I experimented with frame speed and overall timing. Some interesting shots, but I still need practice.

07/02/2006 - We're vacationing at Surfside Beach (just south of Myrtle Beach) this week. The drive was a few hours longer than expected due to construction along the route in South Carolina. The water is warm and the sand soft. Looking forward to a great week.

6/24/2006 - As usual our weekends are packed with lots to do. We stated off the day with a few yard sales and the ran a few errands. We went to see " Click", then off to DC for the 14th Annual BBQ Battle, and then to the Washington Capitals Draft Day Party at Dave and Buster's....quite a day. Enough time left in the day to relax for a while and go to bed.

6/18/2006 - Father's Day. Jimmy called to say that he's doing great at his job and that he's still looking for a Jeep. Colin took me to see Styx at the Loudoun Summer Music Fest. The opening band was JunkFood. They were pretty good. They're playing Friday Night Live in Herndon soon. Styx opened their set with "Blue Collar Man" and ended with "Come Sail Away" and "Renegade". Fantastic show! Loudoun Soccer had set up miniature soccer fields so Colin played soccer most of the night.

6/15/1006 - Colin's baseball season ended tonight. I was able to finally take pictures of one if his games. I managed Colin's AAA team and had a wonderful time. Colin made the AAA minors All Star team. They played their second game tonight, but lost. Colin started in Center field and moved to Second base for the remainder of the game.

6/11/2006 - Colin, his friend Jeremy and I went to a Thai food Festival this morning...... in Sterling of all places, right behind the Buffalo Wing Factory. We sampled a few delicacies before buying some chicken on a stick and ice coffee. Later that night, I went to see SpamAlot! What a show. Anyone who is remotely familiar with Monty Python and the Holy Grail will love this play and even if you're not familiar with it, you will still have a wonderful time. I highly recommend this musical!

06/10/2006 - My nephew Noah had his last baseball game today. He really played well. We also saw the Frederick Keys play the Potomac Nationals. Saturday night's game went into extra innings and was followed up with fireworks (we didn't get home until midnight).

6/9/2006 - After seeing the movie "Cars", we stopped by Herndon's Friday Night Live and saw one of our favorite bands; Fighting Gravity. The band was good, sound was so-so. Colin had one of his friends with him and we ran into one of his team mates from Little League. What a great way to start the weekend.

06/07-2006 - My friend Andrew McKnight won Song Writing Contest for Contemporary Acoustic/Folk. Yeah Andrew! There's a wonderful article in the Loudoun Times-Mirror written about Andrew's recent achievement.

6/3/2006 - Went to the Herndon Festival this evening to see the Glengarry Bhoys, a Celtic band I saw last year at Reston Town Center. Gave me an opportunity to wear my kilt and a new t-shirt I bought that has the the American and Irish flags with "American First, Irish Always".

6/2/2006 - Did some experimenting with shrimp this evening. I made standard steamed shrimp and I tried my hand at Bang Bang shrimp, a local restaurant's popular appetizer. I created two batches, one mild and (of course) one hot. Both were delicious.

4/30/2006 - My Dad celebrates his 70th birthday on May 2nd. His kids took him out for dinner. Of course there are pics in the photo gallery.

4/23/2006 - My Godson, Joel turned 4 years old today. Great party and after opening up the gifts, the kids got into a tissue paper fight.

4/22/2006 -Just found out from my oldest son, Jimmy, that he's being trained to be Sales Manager at S&K Menswear. I'm so proud of him. He's going to school, working full time and now about to buy his first car. YIKES! I'm getting old.

04/17/2006 - Last home game of the Caps! What a night. Caps beat the Thrashers 6-4 and I was one of 5 finalists to win a Hummer H3. I didn't win unfortunately, but I had a great time.

04/15/2006 - Colin and I went to see "The Wild" on Friday. Today we went to the community's Easter Egg Hunt. I was the Easter Bunny. Pictures coming soon.

04/13/2006 - It's spring break and I've taken off work to second time with Colin in what we affectionately call Dad Camp. So far this week, we've been to two Frederick Keys games, we saw "Benchwarmers" twice and Colin had two friends sleep over.

04/09/2006 - My nephew Noah turned 6 on the 5th of this month. I took some pictures of the party and placed them in the photo gallery.

04/08/2006 - I'm famous! Well, not really, but two of my kilt pictures made it to the Utilikilt Photo Gallery. You may have to browse around to find it. They change their site often.

04/07/2006 - I had some time to kill before the Caps game so I took a walk around the National Mall. I had a chance to watch a rugby game and take in some of the flowers in bloom.

04/02/2006 - Here's a shot of Colin getting ready to hit the field for a scrimmage game. Yes that's right, they're in full uniform for scrimmages.

3/30/2006 - Today is "Crazy Hair Day" at Colin's school and I took a few pictures of how his hair looks today.

3/19/2006 - Celebrated Jimmy's Birthday at my sister's house. Unfortunately, none of the pictures came out. That tells me that I need more practice at taking pictures with my new camera.

3/17/2006 - Wore my new kilt to work today. Lots of great comments! I thought no one would notice. I was dead wrong...everyone noticed. I bought my kilt from Utilikilts.com. Good product, nice price and good service.

03/14/2006 - I told you that Jimmy has been working part-time and going to school. Well, he's done so well in sales @ S&K Menswear, that they made him full-time. Congrats Jimmy!

03/10/2006 - Today Jimmy, my oldest son, turns 20. Happy Birthday Jimmy! Tomorrow night we are going to dinner and maybe a movie. On Sunday, we see the Caps take on the Senators!

02/16/2006 - Colin had a book report due today, written and oral. Here's a small clip of his presentation.

02/01/2006 - Tonight, Colin and I went to the Washington Capitals' "Meet the Team Party". My nephews, Noah and Joel came along with us and we had a such a great time. Lines were long for signatures for each and every player . We got signatures from Zubrus, Laich, Emminger, Sutherby and Slapshot. I got a chance to speak with Dick Patrick and and few Caps representatives. We also got to tour the Locker room.

1/31/2006 - Colin and I found a new place to hang out and watch the Caps when they're on the road, it's Beef O'Bradys. It just opened this week in Ashburn in the same strip mall as the Ashburn Ice House. Colin and I watched the Caps play the Islanders on a 13 foot screen! Mike, the owner, told me he has NHL Center Ice, so he'll have all the Cap's games.

1/21/2006 - The Family went to see the Caps beat the Hurricanes 5-2. What a game! Jimmy and Leanna came up and spent the day with me and Colin. We met Antwahn and Virginia and the kids at Capital Grille in Arlington and then went to the game.

01/19/2006 - Colin studied his butt off to get caught up in his advanced math class and passed his latest quiz that puts him right back with the rest of the class. To reward him, I'm taking him to see the Caps play the Blues. We have seats one row away from the glass (Section 113, Row B).

01/09/2006 - Celebrated Colin's Birthday today. His birthday is December 30th. I move his party to accommodate vacation schedules.

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