Category Archives: Family

Network Support Specialist

Computers, Family

As of July 2, I will be in a new position at Endicott College: Network Support Specialist. Basically, this is a lateral move from the web development area of IT to the network area of IT. I will still dabble in programming, be responsible for scripting, and will be learning lots and lots about networking. I’m terribly excited, as this is an area of IT I have wanted to be more involved in for quite some time. I’ve already done a bit of server management and database administration so far, and enjoy the work.

White Wave Designs will, of course, continue as before 🙂 It pays for the music lessons and my ever-expanding collection of instruments!

Serenity Prayer, Senility Prayer

Family, Humour

You’ve heard of the “Serenity Prayer”

Grant me serenity to change the things I can,
The courage to accept the things I cannot,
And the wisdom to know the difference.

Well, my grandmother has the “Senility Prayer”

Grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked,
The good fortune to run into the people I do like,
And the eyesight to tell the difference.

the DeBernardo boys

Family

I am trying to gather as many family stories about my grandmother’s childhood as possible. It’s much easier now that I see her on weekends (hopefully EOW now that things have stabilized quite a bit). One of my misconceptions I had was that she had about a dozen brothers. Not quite that many:

  1. Frank
  2. Ernie
  3. Anthony (the first one; he died very young)
  4. Charlie
  5. Frederick (aka Fritzie)
  6. Harry
  7. Paulie
  8. Anthony (the second one; he died even younger than the first one)

My grandmother was born in between Paulie and the youngest Anthony. I guess 8 brothers is quite a lot!

Fritzie was a musician, a violinist, but he died when he was 20. I hope my grandmother remembers the band leader he played with. The youngest Anthony had blond curly hair! My grandmother said we have blonds in our Italian family, although I’ve never seen a natural one.

Some of the stories my grandmother tells me of her childhood are so funny! I guess with that many boys, things got pretty rowdy. Many are sad too; several of the brothers died young. For my entire life, I remember my grandmother saying that out of all her brothers, only Frank was still alive, but Uncle Frank died last year at the age of 100. Now, it’s just my grandmother.