This is the first post of our Cousins' Blog. Welcome to everyone.

Since I'm first, I'll fill you in a bit on me. I'm the son of Hannah (eldest daughter of Sam and Pauline). I'm 54, have one son, Benjamin, who is 18 and a senior in high school. I'm married to Stacy Orsini (since August of 2000 - my third marriage). Our home is a small 1929 bungalow in Albany, NY. If you click on the address at the very bottom of this post (http://scottbrodie.com/holiday.pdf) you will get a pdf of my holiday newsletter with some pictures, too.

It's finally spring today in Albany. The snow is gone and we saw our first spring flowers, snow drops, in someone else's garden. Our today's project is making curtains. We've been living in this house for two and a half years without any, but we do have blinds in the bedroom and bathroom. We've decided that a little more privacy may be warranted.

Last night Stacy and I went to two local pubs for a drink (something we love to do on Friday nights). The second place is a former diner that dates from the twenties. It was the bar tender's first night and she poured the most amazing amount of vodka into our gimlets. We didn't finish them.

On our way home, we stopped into a new pizza parlor that just opened around the corner from our house. We discovered that the owners, a women and her two brothers, are originally from Montenegro and consider themselves Albanians (from Albania not Albany). They left before the war there and have been living in Rome and NY for a decade or more. One brother, the pizza maker, was a chef in a well known NYC restaurant and makes a darn good pizza. I asked if they would be making any Albanian dishes. Only a bean soup.

How did you spend your Friday night and Saturday? To "post" or write an entry, click on "New Post" under the photo of Granny and Granddad.