It’s been a wild 2009 for the McGonigal family, much of which has centered around the prospects of running a family business that would also include my father, sister and brother in law. The serious thought process began in January, and led to bigger and better possibilities, and we have since taken the daunting but exciting steps to make it happen. Well, almost, as the exciting dream of creating McGonigal’s Pub and Park Avenue Wine Bar & Merchant is happening, and the businesses are slated to open in Barrington by the end of February.

This has unfortunately become an all-consuming process which has caused many things in my life to suffer, including family life and my sanity at times!  However, I am extremely fortunate to have a wonderful wife and child who not only love and support me but somehow manage to tolerate my behavior. I talk about the pub being a “dream” but it will never come close to matching the dream I live every day with Laura and AJ.  Without them I’m a lost soul, and though at times I may lose a bit of focus on what’s genuinely important, I want them to know how much I truly love them and how much they will always mean to me.

Regarding the future of this site, effective immediately McGonigal.org will be going in a more streamlined direction.  As you can see I’ve started some changes now to the main page but shortly the entire site and lots of the crusty old stuff will be cleaned up quite a bit more.  The goal is for this to be more of a static destination site, with minor exceptions for general updates on things I do regularly (such as the Deep Thoughts Weekly mailer) and the occasional important family announcement.  Believe it or not I massively stress out about not consistently updating this site, not adding in new pictures or quotes or other things, and generally ignoring my unimportant self-imposed responsibilities.  However, there is simply too much going on in my life now, so it’s time to reduce and eliminate what I can so that the important things – such as family, work and sanity – don’t suffer due to my own self-inflicted mental torture!

If you are an occasional visitor of this site you know it really hasn’t been updated much at all over the past year, despite several promises to do so.  Please understand that I certainly do NOT have any plans on shutting down the site, but if you are looking for more consistent updates and interactivity I would suggest joining Facebook as I really have spent more time there (hmmmm…maybe one big reason why this site has suffered).  It's easy and free to join, and then you just need to "friend" me to start getting all the updates!
Click here for my Facebook Link and directions on joining.