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It’s been a long time since I’ve wanted a top of the line Martin.

(Their new building is made to imitate the look of their original factory just a mile or two away)

I can’t imagine any other guitar player who loves a good acoustic doesn’t feel the same way. As far as I’m concerned they make the best acoustic guitars hands down and the runner up has some catching up to do. Their guitars have a warmth in them that I haven’t heard elsewhere, but of course as with anything else that’s good in life, they come with a price tag.

(The walkway in is a guitar headstock! and their lobby [wish I could capture it in picture] is the continuation of this walkway as it’s in the shape of a guitar)

They have a line called the x-series that starts around $500, but those are really just budget acoustics IMO.

Martin DCX1E

If you want to jump into the start of the quality lines you’ll have to pay around $2,500. Their pricelist has several guitars priced out at $10,000 and even some, made of Brazillian Rosewood, that can cost as much as $100,000. Apparently this is due to the rarity of the wood. All I know is a 100k guitar should play by itself lol

Martin HD-28 Standard

I’ve been thinking about buying one of their backpacker guitars for my office at work One of the things I like about working from home is that I can spin 180 degrees in my chair, pick up my acoustic and play for a bit. I find it really rids me of any stress or fatigue.

Backpacker

Anyhow, the last time I was in the studio, Mozart gave me a heads up that their factory was just over the border in Nazareth, Pennsylvannia - about 1 1/2 hours away from here. I hadn’t even realized. He told me about how they give free tours and he and his son really liked going. With Jonathan recently starting to play guitar, I’ve had it on my mind for a while now. So, Sandy and I took off work today and planned a surprise road trip. 

We hung around for about an hour, played their guitars and checked out their gift shop until the tour started. They have a smallish room filled with their high end guitars in it that someone needs to unlock with a key to let you in. Not only are the acoustic guitars awesome, but the room itself had such a great sound that anything you played sounded like a million bucks. Jonathan was whipping out some Enter Sandman and Sweet Home Alabama. He’s impressing me with how quickly he’s picking up the guitar. I don’t think I picked it up nearly as fast. Then again I guess I didn’t have a Father who played.

When the tour started, they gave us headphones and a receiver so we could hear the guide and he took us and 9 others around the entire place. They had walkways all through the factory marked by yellow lines that you were asked not to step out of. We were able to see the entire process from start to finish of how they make their guitars and the level of detail and craftsmanship they put into them is really inspiring.

Here are some of the pictures I snapped on the tour.

(It’s amazing how much of the guitars are made by hand. They have machines in many areas such as benders, sprayers and polishers, but most of everything else is very manual. They even have an area where they make acoustics using the same methods they used back when they started in 1833.)

(Ah, the finished product.)

(Some last minute guitar detailing.)

(This is a massive guitar mock up they said they built for a parade float. Unfortunately it never got used so it sits there.)

(They have a really amazing and inspiring museum. It’s truly awesome to see craftsmen take such pride in the history of their work. So many people have not only used their guitars, but have had signature series designed for or by them.)

Our visit was something we’ll never forget and I highly recommend it even if you aren’t a guitar player. Being an American company started in 1833 coupled with the quality of their work and the history…I was really in awe most of the time. And it doesn’t cost a dime so how could you go wrong!

There is one side affect however. Don’t be surprised if you get back home and learn of your new love/hate relationship with your non-Martin acoustic. I’ve tried rubbing the side of my Yamaha and chanting “Be Martin, be Martin”, but it’s still a Yamaha. I was truly spoiled in that playing room they had.

I haven’t been posting as much as I would like due to numerous things taking up my time lately, but I wanted to post this video I took just this past fall. I can’t believe I hadn’t posted it sooner. It’s really quite awesome. We have at least 1 family of bear that hang around our house’s general area. This video is just one of them and believe it or not, he or she is the middle-sized one.

Here’s a couple funny stories regarding the bears.

One night, Sandy forgot to close the garage door. Of course this is where we keep our garbage cans. In the morning, Jonathan heard something outside and he came into our room to tell us to look out the window. Sure enough there were 4 bear dragging our garbage through our backyard into the woods. There were 2 little ones, the one in the video above and a bigger one. I remember the quote of the morning. Sandy says “wow that’s so kewl” and I replied, “yeah well you can clean it up” lmao Obviously we all pitched in. What a mess!

Another day Sandy was in the backyard leaning over the pool looking at the water when she heard a crack. I wasn’t there so I can’t verify the distance (hehe), but she said there was a bear approaching her from about 10 feet away. I had been upstairs and didn’t know it until I heard her screaming like she was on fire. She bolted right for the house (we talked about walking away slowly next time lol). I ran downstairs and sure enough there was a bear (the same one from the video) walking up around the back of our yard towards the left side of our house. I walked out on the deck (he was about 50-100 feet away) and he seemed to completely ignore me. I’m not sure if he realized I was claiming my territory…or that I would have went back in the house had he come towards me haha

Then, another time, Sandy and Jonathan ordered me a box of cherries for Father’s Day. They arrived, but some of them were spoiled so after a phone call to the company they agreed to send out another box. After about a week I asked Sandy about where it was and she said she wasn’t sure. The next morning I found the box on the side of the house with a bear claw mark in the side of it. There wasn’t one cherry, pit or stem left. I was so pissed! lol

The final story is just before Thanksgiving this year. We typically always cook a turkey a week or so before Thanksgiving for practice and use the leftovers for lunch, etc. Well, Sandy tossed the carcass in the garbage in the garage and left the door open cause Jonathan was outside. She later comes into the garage to find a bear with both paws around the turkey carcass chomping away at it. The bear ran away into the woods when she saw him/her, but damn! lol

As of now, they’re hibernating, but I have a feeling we’ll see more of them in the spring.

P.S. – Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

So it’s a couple days late Happy Thanksgiving anyway.

We hosted our first Thanksgiving here this year and it was a lot of fun. While we weren’t able to get the entire family together, we did manage to get a good portion of it, we had a good time and damn did we have food. I didn’t even get to taste all of the food we had cause there was just so much! There was:

Turkey, Chipolte Turkey Breast, Ham, Home made Cranberry sauce, String beans, Califlower with cheese, Califlower, Mushrooms, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Spinach with garlic, Sweet Potatoes, Stuffing, Creamed Onions, Cornbread Casserole, Corn…and that’s just what I know we had on my half of the table!

For dessert we had:

Brownies, Brownies with Chocolate Chips, Apple Pie, Chocolate and Peanut Butter Pie, Cookies, Rhubarb Pie…there were more, but I was running around so I didn’t have the chance to see everything.

The food was phenomenal. I just love the year end holidays. Great food and great company.

But, this year wasn’t JUST our first Thanksgiving at our house. It was the first year Sandy or I had Thanksgiving anywhere, but our Grandparent’s houses. This was something that weighed heavy on our minds, but I can’t imagine it didn’t weigh a bit heavier on mine. While this year was the first year Sandy’s family didn’t have Thanksgiving at her Grandparent’s house, it was the first time I hadn’t spent any of Thanksgiving with my extended family – they were unable to come for one reason or another. This fact didn’t fully hit me until I spoke with my Grandfather on Thanksgiving morning. I thought about him throughout the day and wished he had been able to make it. Don’t get me wrong. I was still very happy to have my Brother, Sister-in-law, newly born neice, Mother and Aunt Betty there to represent.

I enjoyed having Thanksgiving at our home and I’d like to continue to host it for the family. Everything has to change doesn’t it?

I had Thanksgiving at Sandy’s Grandparent’s house one year earlier – Sandy’s Grandmother has long since past, but I always say Grandparent’s anyway. I remember the long room they had with a long table going all the way down through it fitting at least 20 or 25 people. I remember thinking, damn that’s quite a table and I appreciated the fact that everyone was at that one long table together. My family always had a good time, but we always had one smaller dining room table with everyone else at semi-crappy folding tables – it was somewhat disconnected at times. There was always a distant feeling I didn’t like, but of course I hadn’t realized that until I saw this gigantic table.

The following year, Sandy’s Grandfather unfortunately broke his hip and decided to sell his home. With that, he also decided to give us his dining room table. Being such a stickler for tradition, it was clear we’d have to take the torch and host it for the family, but it’s funny that I didn’t realize there was a very crafty trick played on me. The dining room table was 110 inches long with the leafs in! It couldn’t fit 20-25 people! It could maybe fit 10 or so maxed. So what exactly did Sandy’s Grandfather do? He built additional tables to butt up against the dining room table to give the illusion of a long table. It worked. Brilliant. Fooled me. The whole time I was wondering how on Earth we’d fit that table in our dining room!

I decided to take Sandy’s Grandfather’s idea and run with it.

The dining room table was 110 inches long and 42 inches wide. I took two 6 foot heavy duty folding tables that I had, bolted 3/4 inch plywood 6 foot by 42 inch on top to match the width and height of the dining room table and presto! We had a 21 foot and change dining room table.

Sure, it didn’t look so hot with sawdust and rulers on top, but that’s when I turned the show over to Sandy’s wizardry (and Jonathan’s vacuuming skills hehe). She did an amazing job getting table cloths and decorating the table from cranberries with candles to plate chargers and nicely folded napkins. Amazing. The final touch was the centerpeece sent by a good friend who unfortunately couldn’t make it. It was perfect.

I was a bit bummed that I didn’t get a picture of the entire table full with the entire family. I should have had everyone pose for one big picture (I will next year), but sometimes I guess the moments just can’t be captured. The best I got was a partial table taken from my seat at the head, but there were about 5 people cut out. The two empty seats are from my Brother and his wife putting baby Maddie to sleep.

But in the end, the entire family WAS there and everyone contributed. The centerpiece, my Mother’s chairs, Sandy’s Grandfather’s dining room table, my Grandmother’s piano and everyone who came or was on our minds. To history, future and new beginnings!

It was a great day and we had a lot of laughs, good food and great company. We hope you and your families all had the same I can’t wait until next year! – but Christmas cometh We’re hosting that too!

We have a lot to be thankful for. I think we all do, don’t we?

I’m not sure how you make a post on your website about getting married. I mean, it’s such a huge event. What could I do to make this post explain the gravity of it all?

I’ll give it a quick shot anyway.

First, I have to say, I didn’t work on most of the wedding related tasks, but I think that’s typical of the groom since, honestly, men don’t really get wedding hard-ons like the women do. I had to do a head check early on since I thought there might have been something wrong with me not really being super interested in planning the wedding, but after talking to a few married men, they confirmed it was typical. Lucky I had Sandy. I have to tip my hat to her and her family who did a lot of work and design to make things really great.

My part was planning the honeymoon, writing the cermony with Sandy, writing the reading, tux rentals, limo rentals and a few other things. To steal the approach from my Brother-in-law, Sandy went out and put things together and I had veto power. Truth is though, there were very few things, if any, that I didn’t like.

So without getting into every single detail, we got married at 2pm on Sunday September 20, 2009. We opted to not see each other before the wedding, not because of superstition, but because we wanted to be surprised when we finally saw each other.

I made Jonathan, our son, the best man which worked out perfectly. He was great as always and really made me proud. We included him in the ceremony by giving him a necklace to symbolize his part in our marriage. We were really happy to make sure he was fully included. Later after the wedding when we got home it was great to hear him say “I’m never taking this necklace off”.

So the ceremony went without a hitch and so did the reading, pictures, and the reception. The band was great, the place was great and everyone had fun, but I think I’ll have to wait on giving more details since I’m currently on my honeymoon in Banff, Canada. Give me a rain check and I’ll post complete details about the wedding when I get a chance.

For now, just know I’m hitched! hehe and it’s a great thing. I’ll post some pictures of Banff soon. It’s amazing here.

Just last week, on 7/20, I became Uncle Paully as my Brother and his wife Liz had a beautiful baby girl, Maddalyn Elivia. At 8 pounds 2 ounces and 22 inches long she was dwarfing all the boys in the hospital!

It’s great to have a new addition to the family. Much congrats to my Brother on starting his new family!

There are a few more pictures in the Gallery.

Launch the Gallery

I find it hard to believe that so much has happened over the last year and I’ve said so little about it. Two posts over the last year during what seems to have been the most active and monumental part of my life?

Back in September of 2006 I met a wonderful woman named Sandy and her 10 year old son Jonathan and we all really hit it off in a big way. So much in fact that we decided to put her smaller house on the market and look for something larger so we could live comfortably. As luck would have it the timing was just right as the market was taking a turn for the worst and we sold the house for a reasonable price even though we did have to drop the price a couple times. We closed on Sandy’s house in May 2008.

Despite looking for several months prior, the first Saturday we went out to look, we found the house we wanted and in July 2008 we closed on our new house and surprise! as she opened the front door for the first time, I got down on one knee and proposed to her

Backstory: It’s important to note that I was planning on proposing for a while. I’d already asked her parents for permission several months before and her family offered me Sandy’s Grandmother’s ring to use. This was especially important because Sandy’s Grandmother was extremely important to her. The surprise of me asking her to marry me plus the fact that it was her Grandmother’s ring made me worry about her fainting lol

Over the next few months, we had gone to several weddings and the topic would of course come up frequently. I would tell Sandy I was looking to take things slow and, get this,… that I felt we were on the 5-7 year plan. This eventually really got her steaming to the point that she would say things like ‘Let’s change the topic’ lol I have to give her a lot of credit for sticking by me with the patience of an angel. Surely she gets props for not killing me or telling me to go to hell at the very least. I think even she will agree now that the torture heightened the surprise of me proposing that much more.

One night when we were at her parent’s house for dinner she brought up the topic innocently. Her parents brilliantly pretended to be upset about me not asking her knowing full well what I had planned. Her Father even taunted me with the fact that he owns guns lol The next day I talked to Sandy and told her “Can you please not bring up the marriage thing in front of your parents? I don’t want them to get upset at me” and she apologized having no idea that they already knew I was waiting for our new home’s closing. Damn I’m evil haha

As we got closer to the closing on our new home I took Jonathan out to the Hot Grill, the place we go out to lunch when it’s just him and I. They have the best ‘all the way’ hotdogs will chili and onions — oh my I feel the craving for one now — and I asked his permission as well. With him all for it, I then let him in on the plan. Little did I know it would work out perfectly and he would be such a great help.

1. We close on the house and go there directly after
2. I gave Sandy the keys and she opens the door
3. She walks in ahead towards the kitchen
4. I’m on one knee with the ring out the second I get in
5. Jonathan goes in front of her stopping her to turn around
6. She turns around and sees me
7. Before I get a chance to ask, she runs completely out of the hallway into the kitchen with arms in the air like she was on fire
8. After getting her breathing under control she came back about 2 full minutes later
9. I proposed
10. She accepted

It was a truly great day.

We’re planning on getting married on September 20, 2009, but we don’t have all the plans set. Jonathan will be my best man which will be great since over the last two years he and I have really become close. He’s my son and my best buddy. I’m not sure what to expect of a 10 year old’s bachelor party plans though

So what about the house? Awesome. I couldn’t be more happy with it. It’s a split level with approximately 3000 sq. ft. and 5.5 acres of land. The land was what initially drew me towards the place, but we fell in love with the rest of it when we walked in. The next day we asked our family and friends to look at it with us to double check our heads. They agreed with us. The house is laid out beautifully, there’s a giant 30 x 15 pool for Jonathan, an oversized garage, a great attic, full basement, 4 bedrooms, formal living room and dining room, eat in kitchen and a spacious family room which will allow us to entertain in comfort.

One of the first projects we did was painting which turned out nice thanks to Sandy and some help from her family. Sandy, Jonathan and I painted Jonathan’s room New York Ranger’s colors which turned out fairly nice as well despite Sandy being a New Jersey Devils fan hehe PS – Jonathan used to be a New Jersey Devils fan also, but it appears I brought some taste to the family and Jonathan realized this

So far we’ve only had enough money and furniture to furnish the rooms we live in most (kitchen, bedrooms and family room) and we haven’t hung pictures or anything like that yet. I did mount the flatscreen over the fireplace though and I have to admit, I think it calls for a 65″. It’s just a bit too pricey for now methinks. We’ll probably wait a bit for that. Luckily we were able to make it homey enough to host Christmas this year. It was great fun having both our families there together. The den was a sea of presents (can’t believe I didn’t take a picture of that) and everyone seemed to have a great time.

Oh and that’s a picture of our dog Loona Here’s another.

Sandy, Jonathan and I feel truly blessed. I wish everyone who reads this a happy and healthy 2009 and for this next year to be great for all of you.

And while I typically don’t practice New Year’s resolutions since I think we can make resolutions every day, here are some of the things that I would like to achieve this year on a personal level.

• Take more pictures
• Spend more time with family
• Host more parties in our new home
• Make more time for creation (music, writing, design)
• Update paulille.com regularly
• Exercise more often
• Lose a few pounds
• Eat better regularly
• Get away as often as possible
• Go hiking whenever possible
• Enjoy life

Hope you all had a happy holidays and have a great 2009!