Most of you could care less, but my brother and I had a "weigh-off" over the New Year's holiday. Tim insisted that I weighed more than he did, so we put it to the test yesterday, using my Dad's new electronic scale. Now, the last time I even weighed myself was last winter--I weighed a chubby 185 pounds. I had a gut and was out of shape. I'm still kind of out of shape, so I was a little concerned before I stepped on the scale. I stripped down to my jeans and socks and stepped on. I weighed 173.5 pounds! I'm so happy, as I've lost 12 pounds in less than a year. Not that I care about my weight all that much, so long as I feel healthy. But I did want to shed a few pounds and stay in better shape, and it seems I've done it! Meanwhile, my bro weighed about 178/179 (he left his clothes on). So I was right.

Yesterday Kim and Nick had a little New Year's party for "the Ghetto." It was much fun...but for whatever reason, I got tired pretty early in the evening, for the second night in a row. I had gotten tired at my friend Steve and Kelly's house on New Year's Eve. So I don't know, maybe I'm getting old. :)

Today feels like Sunday, and I feel quite tired, even though I got a nice amount of sleep last night. oh well...it figures. I'll fight through it, I guess.

Yesterday was nice and productive, which is good.

First of all, I got up at 10:30am to get things rolling. I took Kazak to Petsmart to get a bath. He needed one, badly. So now he's clean and fresh-smelling. :)

I wrote out some bills and figured out my finances, more or less, for the week.

I did some laundry, which also was badly needed.

I went to the grocery store and replenished some of my bathroom items, such as shaving gel, pomade, Advil, etc.

All this before picking up Gina and heading to Grayslake to PolishBasia and Husband of Barb's house for dinner and a movie: "Dr. Zhivago."

The girls made lasagna while Pete and I watched the "Blues Brothers" which was on Comedy Central. Then we ate the lasagna. It was GREAT. I have some leftovers here at work with me for lunch, it was that good.

We then sat through all 3 hours and 20 minutes of "Dr. Zhivago." I like the movie, and I think the trio liked it too, although it is a bit of a tragic love story. But its setting against the Russian revolution is cool...and it's a beautifully made movie, no doubt.

Today I am at work...no big surprise there. I need to coordinate plans for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day with my friends, my parents and Gina and Gina's family. That will be done sooner than later...but for now, I actually have some work to do, so I'll do it.

See, the last week of the season kinda sucks. Because I do a good deal of just sitting here and waiting around for something to do. That's never fun on a Sunday night. But that's the way it goes, I guess. Hopefully we get out of here a little earlier than normal, as we don't have too many pages left. But we'll see. I'm not gonna hold my breath.

More Donna news...
Well, I got a message on my cell last night from Dave, and Donna's back in the hospital. She had to have the surgery done again, and I guess went in Friday. I guess the first surgery didn't work. So they had to operate again. She's in the same place she was last time--UIC Medical Center. I don't have her phone number right now...but Dave says she can't really talk anyway, because she has tubes in her or something like that. She'll be there until Tuesday or Wednesday maybe, so visit her if you can. I have the room number if you want it...

So if you've called her or emailed her and she hasn't responded, that is why.

Feel free to visit her...more as I learn more.

It's been awhile, hasn't it? :)

Well, here I am, at work on Sunday. Might as well update you folks on me.

Christmas was great, after I got healthy. I went to Gina's parents' house and had a great time even though I felt completely run down. By 2am or so, when I finally headed home after attending Midnight Mass with them, I was feeling better, albeit tired and very, very full. Gina's mom made up a whole spread of food, and it was very good. I basically chased the remainder of the flu out of me with the food I think.

Gina LOVED her gifts from me, and she got me a nice sweater and the "Indiana Jones" DVD trilogy, which just completely kicks ass. The sweater is my new favorite. Gina's parents even got me a nice sweater. Gina's family was real cool too. Midnight Mass was probably the best Midnight Mass I've ever been too, and their choir was beautiful...it was great.

Christmas was spent at the parents' house and then at the aunt & uncle's house, where Gina met us. I got some really nice stuff...stuff I need, like a drill and artwork for my walls (actually, two things...) and money to buy clothes and things. I got possibly the MOST RANDOM gift of my 26 years of Christmas. My little brother got me a chair. One chair. One dining-room style folding chair. He read the part of my list that said I wanted furniture-type things for my new apartment and assumed I meant actual furniture...but it's a very nice chair and will be put to use, no doubt.

All in all, a very, very good Christmas, and considering I didn't think I'd get to spend any of it with Gina and got to spend much of it with her, I was happy.

I worked Friday, and it wasn't as terrible a workday as I thought it would be. In the evening, Gina and I went to Street Side cafe to hang out and see Julie's boyfriend Mike DJ. Then yesterday, we went to Smokey Bones in Schaumburg with her family for her Grandma's birthday. Then we trekked all the way down to our friends' house in Oak Lawn for our neighborhood friends' holiday party. That was cool...everyone was complimenting Gina on how much she'd cleaned me up. :) Whatever. I did look gooooood yesterday though. :) You'd all have been impressed. We hung out there for a while and had a good time, as usual.

This week is New Year's Week. Another short week at work...that's fine, since I hopefully won't be sick. I'm still coughing and sniffling and whatnot...but it's all aftermath stuff...I'm not still sick. Tomorrow I have plenty o' errands to take care of before Gina and I trek up to Grayslake for dinner and a movie (on their new DVD player!) with PolishBasia and Husband. That should be fun...assuming the women really can cook. :) (just kidding!)