OMG! I am so doing this!

WHAT ABOUT YOU?

Christina would like to give back to all of her dedicated fans who have supported her over the years by giving them the chance to be a part of her new album. Christina's Ultimate Fan Appreciation Contest is your chance to leave a voice mail message for Christina and she will pick the best and most creative messages to include on a track on the album.

Official contest rules can be found at www.xtinaxposed.com . Simply call the voice mail line and leave a message for Christina, explaining what her music means to you, how it has inspired you, and what you love most about her and her music! You will have 60 seconds to express yourself, so be creative. Your message will need to include your full name, home address, phone number and date of birth.

Winners will be announced in the Spring of 2006, prior to the album release. Please review all contest rules before submitting your entry.

How We Met

Barbara and I met Wednesday night, September 2, 1970 at the OBI North, a disco, in Smithtown NY. The OBI was dead that night. I was talking to Danny Quail, a friend of my older brother, Rod, when Barbara's best friend and sorority roommate, Jane Barbato walked up to talk to Danny. While they were chatting, Barbara and I started talking. We hit it off pretty well and hung out together for the rest of the evening. When we were about to leave, Barbara asked me if I wanted to come back to her folks beach house in Wading River to hang out some more. Of course I did.

When we got to the house, I met her mom, her dad was in bed. Barbara and I sat on the couch talking until about 4:00 am.

At one point, I looked over at the stairs going up to the second floor, and I see her three younger sisters peeking, trying to see what we were doing. Of course Barbara got up and tried to chased them back to bed, but they wouldn't go. Barbara's mom came out to see what was going on, and did the chasing instead.

I got Barbara's phone number before I left and told her I'd call her. I finally called her after three days of procrastinating. I kept thinking, "Should I call her?" "Did she like me?" "What if she doesn't want to talk to me?", stuff like that. Her mom told me on the way to the cemetery, that Barbara was doing pretty much the same thing at their house. Until I called, she walked around almost the whole time saying things like, "Why doesn't he call?" "I thought he liked me." "Do you think he'll call?", all that sort of stuff. Her mom just kept telling her, "Barbara, if it's meant to be, he'll call. If he doesn't call, then it wasn't."

I finally got up the courage call three days later. It was after dinner and I got permission to make the call in my mom and dad's room where I could have some privacy. We weren't allowed in there without permission. One of Barbara's younger sisters, I think it was Debbie, answered the phone and it went, from what I can remember, like this.

"Is Barbara there?"

"Who's calling please?"

"This is Tony."

"Hold on please."

She puts down the phone and as she's walking, maybe running, to get Barbara, I could her her saying, "It's him! It's him! He called! He called! Where's Barbara?" Someone says, "I'll get her. "BARBARA! HE'S ON THE PHONE! HURRY!"

I just laughed.

I could hear Barbara say something in the distance, but couldn't make it out. She picked up the phone very calmly and we talked for I don't remember how long, but quite a while. I asked her out on a date that night to go horseback riding. Yeah, I know it's kind of strange for a first date, but I liked horse back riding. She said yes. I was very excited.

That is how it all began.

Want a good laugh?

A Power Rangers parody I think you'll find it funny, I did.

Credit goes to Y2A for finding it.

HERE'S A TOAST TO THE WEEKEND!!!!!!!!!

Guess what I'm doing.





These shots were taken about 6-7 years ago at the 21st birthday party of the son of a friend of ours. My nephew, holding the funnel hose, and his friends, showed me this really cool trick of how to down a can of beer in like two swallows. You can't see Barbara in this shot, but she was standing off to the side just shaking her head, with that "WTF is he doing now" look. I had a blast that night. There quite a few of the kids from their high school graduating class at the party. They all gathered at one end of the patio for a group shot and insisted I get in it. They even made me an honorary member of their class. I was honored they thought I was cool enough to be included.

Damn, was I drunk that night.........................but I didn't puke. I never even get hangovers. ;-D

Half-Nekkid Thursday

This week’s "Half-Nekkid Thursday" post centers around our favorite thing to do during the summer, spend weekends at the Watch Hill marina on Fire Island.
The Atlantic Ocean is on the bottom and the great South Bay is on the top with Watch Hill nestled snuggly in between.

Late in 1993, Barbara and I decided to get a boat. We looked for one all fall, winter and spring, and in June 1994 we bought the BT Express, a 1986 Sea Ray Express Cruiser. (See picture at top of blog, that’s her.) Two cabins for sleeping, AC, heat, TV, VCR, microwave, 6.5 kW generator, stand up shower and more, pretty much a small home on the water. It was perfect for the four of us, Barbara, Brian, our dog Dallas and me. We spent practically every weekend, when we weren't traveling with the boat, on that boat at the Watch Hill marina on Fire Island. We did that from June 1994 until fall of 2002, the fall before Barbara became ill.

Since Barbara was an elementary school teacher, she spent a lot more time on it than I did because she had off every summer. Wednesday’s I would rush home from work, we would pack up the boat with supplies for the weekend and take it over to Watch Hill. I’d tie it up, hook up water and electric and then usually rush to catch the last ferry back to the Patchogue on the mainland. Barbara would spend an hour or so putting everything away and then enjoy a couple of days with other wives whose husband’s had done pretty much the same thing I did.

You can see Barbara is holding one of her famous Long Island Ice Teas in this shot.


I’d go to work on Thursday and Friday, and after work on Friday I would catch the ferry out of Patchogue back to Watch Hill where we’d spend the weekend. Sunday we would pack up, take the boat back to where we kept it near home, unload dirty laundry, etc., and wait until Wednesdays rolled around again to repeat the process again.

What a life that was. We were so blessed to be able to live this great life except for one thing, it got too hot sometimes. Lots of times we all bitched and moaned about how we wished the marina had a swimming pool. Yeah, I know we were right between the ocean and the Great South Bay, but wish we did. I forget exactly what year it was, but one day after I’d gotten back to Patchogue, I got this idea to check out small pools at the stores. I found a pool in Toys-R-Us that the sides blew up. It was an oval about 5 x 10, maybe a little bigger, and cost me $50. That was the best $50 I ever spent.

You should have seen the look on everyones face when I showed up with the pool on Friday. We spent Friday night laughing about it never dreaming how great it would to have it. The next day a bunch of us pitched in to rake and level the sand behind the dock, behind boat, set up the pool and blow up it up with a small vacuum cleaner someone had. We ran a couple of hoses to fill it up with water and then waited for happy hour, which could be anywhere from noon till 4:00 with our crowd of friends. (Barbara always made me wait until 4:00 for happy hour)

Most of us gathered around the pool sitting in chairs with our feet in the water. A few hopped in and just enjoyed sitting in the cool water. All of us drank, ate, cooled off in the water, then drank and and ate some more. Sunday, the pool was emptied and packed away until the following weekend. This was the way it went every weekend until the weather cooled off in the fall.

BTW, kids were banned from the pool. They track sand, splash, make excess noise and can be such a bother sometimes, so I banned them. My pool, my rules, fuck ‘em! That doesn’t make me a bad person does it?

This is how Barbara spent a great deal of her time on the weekends. Feet in the water chilling out.


Notice the mostly eaten tray of shrimp cocktail in lower right corner. Someone always brought the shrimp.


This one gives you a good shot at where the pool is located and the crowd gathered around the pool.


This shows a good view of the Watch Hill marina. My boat is the second from the right.


I threw this one in because I liked the way the ladies looked. It also gives you a view of the other end of the dock.

I went back to work today

It went pretty well, better than I expected actually. A lot of people that didn't come to the wake stopped me to give their condolences, which was nice.

Nobody bothered me or asked me to get involved in anything at all. Since I am the lone Quality "guy", that's saying something. I wonder what they are keeping from me?

I pretty much just reviewed and signed a few documents and took care of catching up on some computer work which took me the whole day.

A nice surprise was that my boss figured a way to keep me out of meetings, which was greatly appreciated.

Oh yeah, I also got hugs from several women, which was especially nice.

Thank you

Thank you all so very much for your expressions of sympathy at our loss of Barbara. Your kind words and outpouring of love here, and on Oz’s blog, have overwhelmed me, to say the least. It was the same way at the wake on Thursday and the funeral yesterday. Everyone was wonderful and had such nice things to say about Barbara, Brian and me. One of Barbara’s ex-colleagues and her husband drove down from Connecticut and one of Brian’s friends drove up from Delaware just to pay their respects. That really was a surprise.

It’s nice to know that we’ve touched so many lives in a good way.