• Why does the weather turn crappy just as I’m getting ready to leave work?

• Congratulations to all the winners in yesterday’s school board elections – especially to incumbents Perry Owen, Luke Murphy and Joe Stagliano on the Norwich City Schools board. Long a hotbed of dysfunction and vitriol, the Norwich board seems to have gotten its act together in the last year and apparently the voters agree that the current makeup of volunteers is working. To everyone who was elected or re-elected yesterday: Don’t forget who put you in office – listen to your constituents!

• The newsroom team and I attended the 11th annual Commerce Chenango Membership Appreciation luncheon at the Northeast Classic Car Museum today. A nice event, highlighting both the Chamber’s accomplishments over the past year and three of its members – Employees of the Elsie Glassett of SFCU, Woman-Owned Business of the Year Dinnett Moore’s “A Touch of Moore,” and Non-Profit of the Year, the Chenango County Historical Society. The highlight for us, however, was completely unexpected. CEO Steve Craig’s speech detailed his first year in the Chamber’s top spot, having come from a long career in broadcast journalism. When Steve started talking about changing technology causing an upheaval in the industry, I started to get nervous. But things took an unexpected turn when he told the crowd how lucky this community was to still have a daily newspaper like The Evening Sun, and went further to say we’re better than our Binghamton counterpart. High praise, indeed, and followed by an ovation – seated, but I’ll take a round of applause however I can get it. Like an abused puppy at the shelter, we as reporters often cringe in fear that a raised hand will strike us rather than pet, so it’s always reaffirming to hear something nice. Thanks for the validation, folks. We’ll make another one tomorrow.

That takes care of another Tuesday. Should be a good Gazette this week: Prom, a Golden art exhibit, a new restaurant, a golf tournament and to top it all off … more ambulance controversy!

What a shocker …

So check out the Gaz this week if you live in the northeast part of the county or if you just travel through.

By the way, that restaurant I mentioned? The Country Kitchen? Delicious. Absolutely fantastic people, great, clean atmosphere, and above all else: amazing cuisine. I had a burger the last time I was in and it’s the best I’ve had in a while. I couldn’t even look at McDonald’s or Burger King afterwards … it’s shameful that they call those burgers when stacked against the awesome might of what I tried on Saturday.

So stop in next time you’re in the area, you won’t be dissapointed.

I saw Avengers again this weekend with a couple friends. Just as good the second time. Also, had a great time hanging out with a couple of friends I haven’t really seen in months. (Shout-out to John and Mark!)

The classic car museum is getting ready to unveil its Crystal Collection to celebrate its 15th anniversary. The collection is made up of cars from a dozen previous exhibits so it should be incredible. Congratulations on 15 awesome years guys, and here’s to 15 more! (Check out the full story in tomorrow’s Evening Sun).

Finally, it’s finally summer, so no one has to hear me complain about cold weather for a few months… huzzah! It also means we’re coming up on an exciting time here at the paper: fair season! Yep, all manner of celebrations, carnivals and food that will rot through your stomach. So stock up on Pepto-Bismol and Antacids, it’s going to be quite a ride.

Follow me on Twitter … @evesunjulian

• And I’m back. Hopefully you didn’t notice I was gone, unless you read Brian Golden’s column last week, and his frantic Tweets thereafter. Looks like it was a fairly smooth ride Thursday and Friday, a great practice run for my upcoming Fridays Off Summer.

• I know you’re dying to know what I did on my time off, so I’ll tell you. I spent a few days down in Washington, D.C. with a group of friends in what’s become an annual excursion of late. We divide our time between historic and umm, non-historic pursuits – this time we visited the Natural History and Air & Space branches of the Smithsonian (something I haven’t done since our sixth-grade Safety Patrol trip, which we lamented was 32 years ago as we saw this year’s crop chasing each other around much as we did, minus the cell phones) as well as the National Botanic Garden and a tour of Tudor Place in Georgetown, home of Martha Washington’s granddaughter. There may have been some drinking and general debauchery in D.C.’s Dupont Circle too; I’ll have to plead the 5th on details. Anyway, amazing city to visit if you haven’t – fantastic architecture, easy to navigate, friendly natives … and a culinary smorgasbord.

• The paper looked good Thursday and Friday, kids .. but seriously, don’t touch my computer screen when I’m gone! As I cried to former reporter Karen Bergamo Moore via email earlier today, I’ve been saying “Not a touchscreen!” to errant staff long before there even WERE touchscreen computers. It’s the little things that irritate me. Fingerprints on the monitor set me off every time.

• Now that we’re back in the swing of things, it’s School Budget Vote time! Brian had a roundup of Norwich school board candidates in today’s paper, and in tomorrow’s edition we’ll give you the rundown (most of which we’ve done in full-blown stories already) of every Chenango district’s budget and board votes. And we’ll probably tell you the results of the vote on Wednesday, if you’re good.

• Congrats to the latest class of Norwich’s Sports Hall of Fame, inducted over the weekend – and including surviving members of the ‘perfect’ 1937 football team. I put the photos of each group up on our Facebook page, if you’re interested in adding your congratulations.

Is “Just Sayin” the new, trendy slogan. I’ve seen it all over Facebook lately (never used by me) and today, for the first time, I saw it at the end of a ‘30 seconds’ post. I’ve nothing against anyone who throw in those last two senseless words, but good God, is it obnoxious – right up there with the overuse of the word “like” (as in ‘I’m, like, typing a blog’). Fortunately, I now know I don’t stand alone in my battle against all phrases that annoy me. Together we can beat this stupid trend Man from Sherburne.

Another $52,000 has been tacked on to the total cost of the Kurt Beyer Pool renovation project. Who would have ever thought that a pool would cost so much money? It’s a hole in the ground that holds water. Nonetheless, I commend the city for moving forward with the project. It’s better than the alternative; a kiddy pool and a slip ‘n’ slide in the back corner of Rotary Park…

Apparently, the national gas price average has fallen for the fifth consecutive week. Has anyone noticed? Yeah, me neither. I’ll be a little more impressed when $5 of gas is enough to get me out of the Hess parking lot. Just sayin’.

To offset the cost of gas, how about a hover car that produces no emissions? In comes Volkswagon to the rescue. The company has unveiled a concept design for a hover car that would undoubtedly change the way we get around and even more exciting, bring us what we’ve all been waiting for… reduced road kill and significant jump in mid-air collisions! Finally! I would happily explain how the hover car works if I understood it (something to do with magnets) but thank the stars I write for a living.

Sunday is Mother’s Day. My macaroni necklace and Popsicle stick picture frame gifts are coming along very nicely and so far, no unfortunate hot glue incidents. It’s going to be a good day. Just sayin’.

Another Tuesday done with and I am sleepy.
It was a productive day at least and I’m feeling prepared for the week but now I think its time to head home and get some rest.
Before I go though I’ll just add that I’ve been watching Supernatural (T.V. show) and I’m really digging it. I usually go for the supernatural shows anyway – which I suppose anyone who’s read my previous blogs knows all too well – but I’ve really been enjoying this show.
First of all, it’s about two brothers which I can always relate to having one brother of my own, but there was also a style to it that I recognized but couldn’t put my finger on.
That is until I realized the show’s executive producer is McG who also produced Chuck, a spy show that I have watched in its entirety.
He also came out with a romantic spy comedy movie recently that was quite enjoyable.
Yea, I know, my punctuation is slightly lacking today but I’ve been writing non-stop for four hours and it’s a blog so I don’t really mind do you?
That being said, I think I’ll go home and write a letter to my friend who’s spending some time up north. Hope you’re doing OK, Josh.
Miss ya, buddy.
Follow me on twitter…@evesunjulian

• Had a great time lending a helping hand Saturday morning at the 11th annual Allegro Run for the Arts over at the Arts Council in Norwich. It’s a neat little fundraiser (who says sports and the arts don’t go together?) for the organization, and since I couldn’t run 5k to save my life, the least I could do was hand out T-shirts and goodie bags at the crack of dawn.

• I have, over the years, perfected doing the least I can do. It’s a recurring theme here; try to follow along.

• In case I don’t get around to blogging tomorrow (and odds are I won’t), let me take this opportunity to state clearly, and for the record, that I will be on vacation Thursday and Friday, and therefore not responsible for anything you might see in the pages of The Evening Sun those two days. OK, that’s not entirely true, but I like to absolve myself beforehand (curse you, Catholic work ethic!) so I may vacation with a clear conscience. Your cruise directors for the tail end of the week will be Pat Newell and Brian Golden, the latter of whom is being groomed to sit in the captain’s chair all by himself by the time my traditional Summer Fridays Off begin in June. There’s a lot to learn, detail-wise, in putting this thing together. These two combined should have a pretty good handle on it.

• And if they don’t, I’ll be frolicking among the movers and shakers in our nation’s capital, mysteriously with no cell phone service.

I’m a busy bee these days, what with Jeff’s upcoming (and I’ll say again, well-deserved) vacation just a couple of days away. As previously stated, it’s been training, taking notes, reviewing said notes, training some more, write copy for the paper, write column, write ‘Thumbs,’ collect and put together Police Blotter, and write blogs (including this one) for the past two weeks or so. Lots of writing, lots of training and lots of self-induced stress.

Take a deep breath, Brian, and chill out. It’ll all be OK. Or at least that’s what I keep telling myself. Needless to say, any screw-ups in the Thursday or Friday editions of The Evening Sun can (and will, if there are any) be considered My Bad. Just a heads up for all our devoted readers out there. Wish me luck.

And then, of course, ‘30 Seconds’ … and my Most Ridiculous ‘30 Seconds’ Post of the Week (even though it’s only Tuesday). Oh, and unedited, just because.
“For the people who say they are religionious then they still break some of the 10 comandments, god knows what you have done and eventually you will have to answer to it. god doesn’t like liers either. karma it’s a small town”
Man from Norwich

Which, I believe, was supposed to state, “For the people who say they are religious, then still break some of the Ten Commandments, God knows what you have done and eventually you will have to answer to it. God doesn’t like liars, either. Karma, it’s a small town.”

Karma is a small town? And here I thought karma was an action, seen as bringing upon oneself inevitable results, good or bad, either in this life or in a reincarnation (according to dictionary.com). Just to make sure, I did a quick online search and could not – for the life of me – find any town named karma … anywhere on the planet.

It was definitely a beautiful weekend. I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did.

Mowed the lawn, vaccuumed the house and got ready for the week.

Also, saw the Avengers on Friday which was fantastic (go Joss) and Sherlock on Sunday.

They started running this Sherlock series a few years ago and my mom, brother and I go into it. Unfortunately, they only make three episodes for each season so when we got to episode three and it was a cliffhanger, it was a horrible thing I’ll just say that.

However, after two years of waiting to see what happens to John and Sherlock, we were finally satisfied.

We also made a trip down to Wegmans in Binghamton and that was one heck of an experience. An organic grocery store on a Sunday… it’s crazy busy.

Well, that’s about it for now, I have plenty to do this week so I hope evyerone enjoys the fun.

Finally, congrats to the Arts Council for another successful Allegro Run for the Arts!

Follow me on Twitter … @evesunjulian

After careful deliberation and weeks of weighing my options, I’ve decided it’s time for me to move on. The last few weeks have been difficult and there’s no question that I’ve reached an impasse. Clearly, I have overstayed my welcome and with a heavy heart I say, I’m leaving MySpace.

I know this is sudden and may come as an untimely surprise. I just want everyone to know, I’m taking all my pictures with me. I would like to thank the friends I still have, especially Tom, who’s been there since the beginning.

It’s always a relief to get bad news out in the open.

Now that I have that monkey off my back, May 4th, as many already know, is “Star Wars Day” (May the 4th be with you)… Not much I have to say about it; I just thought it was worth mentioning.

Also worth mentioning, the CEO of Yahoo! falsified his resume, saying that he earned a Baccalaureate in Accounting and Computer Science when his degree was really just in Accounting. Of course, Yahoo! is passing it off as an “inadvertent error,” which is a fancy way of saying, “Oops, I screwed up.” Anyhow, it got me thinking of how many people in the area have jobs because they lied on their resume. There’s a lot of pressure in getting a good job and really, imagine what you would be able to offer a new employer with the skills you’ve developed as a “championship diver,” “professional tamer of large mammals,” “astronaut,” and “inventer of the weel.” (Mr. Magrath, why don’t you tell me a little bit about how your experiences as Prime Minister of Norway might help us here at the Evening Sun).

And we all know that the things we choose to lie about will look a hundred times better than the ugly truth:
• Objective: I want to play a major part in watching the company advance.
• Education: Graduated eighth in a class of ten
• Strengths: I have integrity so I will not steal the office supplies and take them home
• Achievements: Nominated for prom queen
• Special skills: Can hold my breath for 53.7 seconds
• Hobbies: Having a good time
• Work related background: Employers say I shouldn’t work with other employees
• Reason for leaving current employer: Terminated after saying it would be a blessing to get fired
• Personal: My family is willing to relocate. However, not to New England (too cold) and not to Southern California (earthquakes). Indianapolis or Chicago would be fine. My youngest prefers Orlando’s proximity to Disney World.

The sports world is still trying to make sense of the tragic passing of former NFL linebacker – and future Hall-of-Famer – Junior Seau. My significant other’s sister, Aida Ryder, lives in the San Diego area, and passed the Seau house several times a week with her morning jog on the beach. While not a friend or even an acquaintance of Seau, Ryder often shared “hellos” and “good mornings” with Junior Seau.
“ Junior Seau didn’t know my name, but I knew his. I saw him as a guy from my neighborhood,” Ryder said. “I pass his beach house on my regular morning run. Sometimes it’s around 7 a.m. and Junior might be pedaling his beach cruiser coming back with a coffee. Or he is on his deck or front porch with coffee and a paper. Sometimes he is with family or friends. He has no entourage, unless you count his smokey-colored pit bull. He is just out enjoying the quiet morning. Probably a far cry from the hustle and bustle of his professional life. We would pass with a smile and a wave, maybe even a “good morning.” It’s nice to think that he recognized me as a fixture in the morning routine.
“When the waves are right, I would spot him out on his surfboard. He was usually the one not wearing a wetsuit if the weather was warm. If anything, Junior Seau was not hard to miss! Even amongst a crowd of surfers, he was a powerful presence. A few times, I watched as he taught his son how to stand up on the board. Other times, he would be out sharing the waves and some laughs with fellow surfers.
“Once I was trying to adjust my mp3 player- while still running -and didn’t immediately notice that someone came running out of the sea with a longboard tucked under his arm. As my face nearly collided with the surfboard, I noticed that it was a beautiful wood inlayed pattern. We noticed each other at the same moment and laughed as we both fell down to avoid a collision. Still laughing, we sputtered apologies. As he pulled me up, he said, “You’re the smallest person to ever knock me over!” Then someone called out to him from his house and he said, “see you tomorrow.”
“ One day, passing the Seau house, I heard a ukele playing and someone singing with great joy. It was Junior relaxing, being happy – at the beach. That’s how I want to remember him.”

—

Speaking of loss, one of my NHS classmates, Doug Grzibowski, had his 27-year-old Section IV record broken earlier this week. Grzibowski set the sectional discus mark in 1985 with a throw over 172 feet. He made two appearances in the New York State meet as Section IV’s discus representative during his high school career, and he was the decathlon champion in Section IV his senior year. The decathlon was and is still not an official event in the New York State Track and Field Championships, but Section IV used to hold the two-day event for top area athletes. Grzibowski’s mark was broken by Ithaca’s Sam Cherney, who tossed the disc 174 feet, 1 inch. Grzibowski’s record was one of the oldest standing records in Section IV.
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Former Evening Sun sports editor Tom Rowe wrote a marvelous blow-by-blow account of the 1937 football team’s perfect season. We published part one of the story yesterday, and today’s sports section wraps up perhaps the most detailed account of that season ever produced by this publication. Only eight of the 44 team members still survive, yet many will be in attendance May 12 when the team is inducted into the Norwich High School Sports Hall of Fame. On a sad note, the number of surviving players was at nine up until early this week when Tom Mirabito passed away. Mirabito was a fixture at every function I ever attended that recognized the 1937 team. His complete obituary appears in today’s edition.

Follow Patrick Newell on Twitter @evesunpat