"Congratulations Ron"

Merrill Lynch announced yesterday that Ron has been named Director of Global Network Operations, replacing his boss who has retired. In Ron's 15 years with Merrill he has risen up the ranks, through sweat, hard work and determination.Being a typical Cianciaruso, the words "cannot Do" are not a part of his vocabulary.With 20 employees and 275 consultants reporting to him, it will be his responsibly to oversee all of Merrill's locations including 774 Retail branches and make sure they are always connected and ready for business.

Ron's career began at age 12 delivering Penny savers and worked hard ever since, working his way up into the computer industry (at the suggestion of his brother Michael).

Congratulations Ron, we are all very proud of you...

and just think, you will be able to retire in only 15 years...

"Friday April 18th"

Today is Judy and Mikes 44th Anniversay.....

Have a great day guys and don't party too much..save it for when we see each other....

Luv ya's

"Just the Facts M'am"

I would like to share this email I received from Angela and Brians daughter, Monica...I know we are all very proud of my Mo...

In case you have not heard I start my new job on 4/28 at ECU as a Social Research Specialist for Institutional Research in the department of Institutional Planning, Research, and Effectiveness. My main project will be the "Fact Book" which is a university's version of the U.S. Census. In a nut shell, it's every little detail about every student, faculty/staff member, department, program, etc. broken down, disaggregated, and organized all sorts of ways. And if all of you click on this link and look at the fact book, you may be one of 100 people nation-wide who have actually looked at this thing :)
I'm excited, I'll be working with four other data geeks who also like to look at Census data for fun (all anthropology and sociology degrees), so it'll be like working with former classmates...as opposed to where I am now, working with reading teachers who can't read directions. I'll also be working with Chris's cousin Margot, who is the most normal person I know down here (she's from NY of course) and likes to bury dead animals in her yard and dig them up months later (archeology major), so we always like to get together and look at bones. I'll finally be working with people I have something in common with :)
I'll let you know more next week.
Take care, Monica
http://www.ecu.edu/ipre/

"Happy Birthday Andrew April 14th"

Today is Steve and Melissa's son Andrews Birthday...The big guy is 8 years old and really a great kid...Save me a piece of cake Andrew

I failed to post Melissa's Birthday last week on the 10th..I was in bed with a bad back and not able to sit at the computer...

Hope you had a wonderful day Melissa.

"Does that vehicle have brakes ?"

(above picture found by Ron)

(Above Picture and copy below found on Google)

2007 - NY has hundreds of bridges, not just the five that everybody knows. You can see five of them from Rainey Park in Astoria: Queensboro Bridge, Roosevelt Island Bridge, Triboro and Hellsgate, and a small pedestrian bridge going from Manhattan to Wards Island. I had to wait a couple of days for the rain to stop to take that panorama. Rainey Park closes after 9pm, and all the gates stay open. Three police cars drove into the park, and came up to me and asked me what I was doing, that the park is closed, that I’m not supposed to be here, that I could be a terrorist, that it’s dangerous in parks alone at night, that I could get a summons, yadayadayada… fortunately they were all kind enough to leave me alone after a brief chat.

"My sister just reminded me about our trips to Rainy Park..."

One summer, I loaded up my sisters carriage with, of course my sister, some lunch, and a container of water, joined by my cousin Michael (Conlon)(I was about 11, Angela was about 3 and Michael was about 9).... we would then walk to Rainey Park. It was about two miles or so from my house. The park was on Vernon Blvd in Astoria. Looking across the river New York spread out before us.We never appreciated the view but what kid does.. ...The entire Park was about two blocks long and a couple of hundred feet deep. It was right on the East River and the only thing separating you from the water was a wrought iron fence about four feet tall. There were no swings or see saws, no bathrooms, just green grass ( which we very seldom saw) and as you walked to the waters edge the grass slopped down at a steep angle ending at the fence, as shown in the above picture..that carriage did build up a lot of momentum...My sister was the 1st Evel Knievel..
Getting bored just sitting on the grass and looking at the water, Michael and I decided to play a game. We put Angela in the carriage, took out the food and the water of course, and standing at the top of the hill, rolled the carriage down. It was a crazy thing to do but hey, why not. The carriage stopped when it rammed into the fence. It was going very fast and how my sister did not propel out of it and into the river I will never know. The good news was the carriage did not break and oh yes, neither did Angela...they don't make carriages or sisters like that anymore....how our generation survived I will never know but compared to today's kids we were fortunate. We really had nothing, but we had each other, great imaginations and lots of fun.

"This is for those who lived in L.I.C. and Astoria"

You know you are from Queens if...
1) You know someone who went to Newtown, Adams , Bryant, Cleveland or Mary Lewis High Schools
2) You have shopped on Steinway St. , Greenpoint Ave. , or Jamaica Avenue.
3) You don't go to Manhattan, You go into the "City" or down to "The Village"
4) The Belt Parkway And Grand Central Suck But You Know Them Both Like The Back Of Your Hand Also the Interboro will always be the Interboro
5) You Know That Crossing Queens Blvd. At Rush Hour Is A Suicide Mission
6) You Live Within 20 Blocks Of A Cemetery , a Chinese or Italian Restaurant .
7) You Know The Difference Between Crossbay and Woodhaven Blvd.
8) At One Time In Your Life You Have Fished Off Of The Crossbay Bridge 9) You Know The Difference Between Going' With, Seeing, Fooling Around With and Going Out With Someone
10) You Curse, A Lot (Mostly the guys that thought they were "cool"!)
11) You Can Name At Least 6 (if not all) Members Of The "86 "METS
12) You Have Smoked or Drank at "Astoria Or Forest Park" .. hells gate , the pyramids and lets not forget Rabbits Island or Skillman Park , Crocheron Park, Kissena Park, World's Fair, and any others you can think of.& nbsp;
13) You Know That Juniper Valley Is Not Between 2 Mountains 14) You Used To Know Where To Get Alcohol At 4am
15) Your Friends Came Over To Hang Out On The Stoop
16) You Knew Someone With Mob Ties
17) At Least One Of Your Neighbors Was A Mental Case
18) You Have Cruised Crossbay Or Franny Lew Blvd.
19) Private Beach? Whats That? Meet Me At 116 St. or better yet, Tar Beach anyone?
20) You Know What A Two Fare Zone Is
21) You Know That "New Park "On Crossbay Has The Best Pizza.or Rizzo's on Steinway St .
22) You Know People That Could Renew a Driver's License And Visit Their Parole Officer On Jamaica Ave
23) Every Day Of Your Life A Pigeon Would Bless Your Car
24) You Know That Bayside Girls Are As Bitchy As Middle Village Girls And That Howard Beach Girls Are The Worst
25) You Have Been To Or Heard Of The Big Bow Wow Or the White House 26) Some Of Your Family Lived On The Island The Rest Lived A Few Blocks Away
27) You Have Been To At Least a Dozen Different Church Bazaars Whether You're Catholic Or Not
28) There Is A Bodega On Your Corner
29) There Is A Bar On Your Corner And You Have probably Been Hangin' Out There Since Before You Were 18... or younger
30) Even Though It Sucks You Still Go To The Queens Center Mall
31) You Have Learned To Ignore The Deafening Roar Of Low Flying Airplanes
32) You Know To Avoid The Grand Central Pkwy During The US OPEN (especially when the METS are playing at home)
33) You Have Searched Over An Hour For A Parking Space
34) You Hate Alternate Side Of The Street Parking
35) Deep In Your Heart You Fantasize About The Giants or Jets Coming Back To Queens
36) You know what "uzguys" means
37) After the bar, you didn't go home, you went to a diner or White Castle ! 38) You have been on the E, F, GG and/or the # 7 train
39) It's called the QUEENSBORO BRIDGE
40) You have been to Shea Stadium at least once .
41) You know all the great places (that used to be) in Rockaway!
42) You've been to Coney Island and ridden the Cyclone at least once .
43) You've played stick ball and running bases in the street.
Those of you from Queens hope you can relate to the places and those of you not from Queens hope you had a little insight to how we lived.