Greetings from Gig Harbor,
Washington! This page is for family and friends from all over to
help keep in touch and to let you know what's happening in our
local branch of the Barelli family!
(For those of you looking for my REALTOR page,
click here.)
Items that may be of interest to family, friends and probably nobody else:
Greetings from the Barelli Sanctuary for Endangered Small Woodland Creatures.
Apparently the Western Gray Squirrel has actually been placed on the "Threatened" list. From the numbers I am seeing around here, apparently all of them live within a 1000 yard radius of our home. Fortunately, we like the little critters and have commenced an intensive "Species Assistance Plan" to ensure their continued survival even during periods when local food is not sufficient for their needs. Bottom line... throw out a handful of peanuts anywhere around our house and stand back quickly. Those critters mean business!
Our local raccoon population is also booming. There is some construction nearby which has forced a family of raccoons to relocate to our little patch of woods. They have recognized that we are a "soft touch" so we are now on their regular begging route. In the afternoon, we can often see them lounging in the trees, and occasionally they just hang out on our back deck. They seem to be doing very well, although they still give us the "poor starving woodland creature" look every morning. It's a hard look to pull off when you're as fat as they are.
Jason is finishing up the seventh grade at Harbor
Ridge
Middle School. We're very pleased that the school has an active
arts program
that includes a band and an outstanding glass arts program. Jason is
still playing the tenor saxophone, although he's finally had a bit of a
growth spurt, so his intrument is no longer almost as big as he is.
While I recognize a certain amount of parental bias, I think he sounds
pretty good!
Dorothy continues to be active in the choir at church and is enjoying being a full-time mom. Taking care of a son and husband keeps her pretty busy. Any time she isn't volunteering at Jason's school she uses chasing after Jason or John. Somehow she also finds the time to paint ceramic figurines and work as the Membership Secretary for the Church.
Between volunteer work at Jason's school and the local projects that the Gig Harbor Lions have going on, I'm keeping pretty busy myself. Fortunately, I'm in a line of work where my hours are pretty flexible. The real estate business is lots of fun. There's a link to the office site below, and among the agents you can find a picture of yours truly. While some of you that know me may wonder if they know what they've gotten themselves into, I'm having a great time. Gee, I get to drive around the beautiful countryside and I get to help folks find homes in a part of the country that I love! Darn the bad luck! I'm working as webmaster for our local Lions club and the choir director insists that he needs another off-key bass (and I'm it.) The boat still sits along side the house, covered with a large tarp to keep at least some of the pine needles out of it.
Barelli Links
Navy Log (From lonesailor.org.)
Family and Friend Links
Other Important Links
Republic of Cascadia (And you thought Washington was part of the USA)
Save the Tree Octopus! (Help our local endangered species)
Save the Manhattan Beach Mottled Roach (Our friends down south need our assistance!)
John, Dorothy and Jason Barelli wish you well and pray God's blessing to you and yours!
If you have comments or suggestions, email me at:
(Sorry we can't do a "mailto" link, but the spam was getting out of control.)