Further North

My eulogy to my bro-in-law...

2010-05-19T19:41:00.002-05:00

This is as originally typed. Unfortunately, I didn't realize I would be giving the eulogy at the wake and not during the funeral at church, so I didn't print it out and had to wing it. But it was pretty close to this...God bless ya, Nick...

When I offered to deliver Nick’s eulogy, my thinking was, Nick would have wanted to do the same. He would have gotten up and made sure he said a few words at an event like this. It would typically involve a one-liner, followed by the infamous “I’m just kiddin” clarification.
But that was Nick. When I met Nick almost seven years ago, he was a very different man. The world, in fact, was very different. I was still a single guy, trying to convince this Gina girl that I was worth her time. The Cubs, at that point, were definitely going to the World Series, everyone said. And Nick was a single guy, living at home, without a real job, just kind of floating along on the breeze. He wasn’t a mope or a hermit or anything like that – he certainly made the social rounds and was looking for friends and a girlfriend and a direction in life.
You may or may not know that Nick died the same day as a Harry Kalas (sp?), the legendary Detroit Tigers baseball announcer. I’m sure that, while waiting in line to get into Heaven, Nick just walked right up to Harry and introduced himself and probably has already talked Harry’s ear off about baseball and sports in general. Nick was not afraid to talk to anyone in that way – and he related to everyone. Nick could walk into a room with this many people in it, and by the end of the night, he’d have spoken to and probably made a positive impression on at least 75 percent of them. Nick was a big personality in that way.
Of course, we also all knew Nick then was a big, big man. He tried many times, many different ways, to improve many of the things in his life – often, however, he’d simply not see the forest for the trees and would slide back into old habits and just keep floating along, again.
Nick was comfortable in this lifestyle, and who would blame him? But those of us who were close to him knew he wasn’t truly happy with himself and/or his situation. At first, I thought he was lazy. But I learned that was the farthest from the truth.
Nick busted his butt when he dedicated himself to something. I saw that in little things, like when we moved from apartment to condo to house, or when I needed help, Nick would be there doing whatever he could to help – despite his physical fitness limitations at the time. Laziness was not Nick’s problem. Sustained motivation and the celebration of minor victories were.
All this changed about two and a half years ago, and for Nick, it created an avalanche of success after success after success.
Gina and I were expecting a baby – Nick would be an uncle. It was the catalyst for change that would make us all proud today. Over the course of less than two years, Nick proceeded to lose roughly 125 pounds and get – I’m sad to say – within 15 pounds of his brother-in-law on the scales. Consider that for a minute – he did it without pills, medical procedures, fly-by-night ideas. Nick changed his diet, his lifestyle and his outlook on life – and, I might say, he helped his mom by allowing her to cook less and spend less on groceries and junk food, I bet.
From there, he reconstructed his self-confidence and self-esteem – he certainly never was shy, but the larger he got and the more perceived failures he saw over the decades, he lost a lot of that bravado and certainty that I’m sure was there when he was a younger lad.
Now, anything was possible. He stopped complaining about working nights at Walgreens and wishing that he could switch to days, and he held that job for years, because he worked hard at it and made the wise choice to stay on nights where he could get hours and have some job security at a good company.
He moved out of his mom and dad’s place, finally, and took the first step toward real independence by renting a small apartment from one of his cousins.
He even was going to play softball with many of us here on Monday nights – something I very badly wanted him to do in order to take that next step in terms of his psyche and his physical fitness. If not for his work schedule, it would have worked out.
And he finally met a girl in Allison who matched up very well with him and saw beyond his superficial imperfections to the tremendous heart of gold inside him. The future looked very bright for them, there’s no doubt about that.

So, why? Why, at the pinnacle of Nick’s transformation – at the point at which everything seemed to be going right, at the point at which he probably is the happiest he’s been since he was a boy, did God take him from us? We may never know. But the possibilities are endless.
Maybe Heaven SportsTalk Radio needed a Harry Caray impersonator, and God called on Nick?
Maybe one of us would have had a terrible day or been in danger in some way had we not attended this funeral or Nick’s wake or whatever else might surround this?
Heck, maybe Grandma Annie missed laughing at Nick’s antics and God decided it was time for Nick to bring those one-liners, and the “Hey, how ya doin’s” and the “Why certainlys” and all the other Nick-isms up to Heaven?
Maybe someone down here will see that this man died suddenly at age 39 and say, “Whoa, I’d better shape up and do better, because my time can end, just like that”?
Maybe Nick’s cousin Judy needed another loud vocal champion to help run her NCAA confidence pool in Heaven and figured Nick was perfect for the job?
Maybe someone who is overweight and out of shape will see that Nick was able to lose 125 pounds with the right motivation, and that encouragement will help the person lose the weight?
Maybe A.J. – my son and Nick’s nephew, whom he absolutely loved – in 15 years or so will wonder about his Uncle Nick, learn about what happened and dedicate himself to science and medicine in order to prevent these kinds of things from happening?
Is that wild speculation? Sure – I never claimed I didn’t have a good imagination. It could be any or all of those things.
It also could be that God just needed another guardian angel to put to work watching over us, and Nick sat at the top of that list. I strongly believe in guardian angels, and I know Nick practically could have been a guardian angel on Earth. I’m sure he will be watching over A.J. and his second niece/nephew, making sure that they are safe and well-guided in their lives.
We know you were taken from us far too soon for us to understand right now, but we love you and always will, and we’re all so ridiculously proud of you for everything you’ve done through your entire life, not just in the last two and a half years.
Thank you for everything you did for us Nick, and for everything that your tragic story might do for us in the future. We’d rather have you here to love, but we’re not the ones who get the final say.
Nick, we will think about you forever, and we look forward to seeing you again someday. We hope to hear your joyous screams carried softly on the wind if the Hawks win the Cup this year. And, if that starts a run of championships in Chicago sports, we’ll know for sure who’s now pulling the strings up in Heaven.
God, please give Nick a place in Heaven worthy of the most kind-hearted, considerate, respectable men to live on this planet. Nick deserves it. But God, if it’s anywhere near you, I hope you have your earplugs handy.

Rather than sleep...

2009-02-12T00:52:00.003-06:00

I really should go to bed. And will shortly. But there are so many things/ideas bouncing around in my head, both safe and unsafe, in a sense. Pure evil and pure innocence. Or something like that.

But before I forget -- as you can see on the right, I'm riding my bike 50 miles in the North Shore Walk & Roll for the American Cancer Society. I'm accepting donations, via the link over there. If you want to donate, just click there and it'll take you to my page. My cousin Will, whom many of you know, is riding as well, and my buddy Luis was talking about joining our team too. OK, that's all on that.

For one, I'm completely excited about the prospects of seeing my basement family room done and functional very soon. Tomorrow, both the electrical and the fireplace are supposed to be finished. That means I get to install the insulation soon after, and I'm getting a quote on drywall services on Saturday. It saddens me that I'll have to pay some people to put up, tape, mud and sand down drywall, as I know how to do it and can -- but we just don't have the time. I'll be lucky to get the insulation in the walls, the wiring in for the cable setup for the TV and something, anything, done with the floor, which is a complete and total mess right now.

But at least we will have walls, a ceiling, electric and a heat source (and primary room focal point) taken care of (minus trim and paint, of course) in time for the party. Given where we were two weeks ago, it's astounding we're at this point.

Other things are just floating around...I feel as though things are slipping away from me in many cases, mostly because I have a lot of things going on and so do a lot of other people around me. I wouldn't say I feel overly stressed, but I'd love to have a personal assistant right about now to keep my schedule straight and keep me going in the right direction at times.

A.J. is an unbelievably great and wonderful son, except that he's been waking us up most nights, and he simply won't go back to sleep for me. I rock him to bed when I absolutely have to pick him up -- we try to avoid that at this stage -- but the minute I go to put him down in the crib, he wakes up screaming, no matter how slowly and gently I try. It's a pain.

But, on the flip side, lately he's been wanting to be with me a lot -- reaching for me to pick him up and whatnot, climbing on me when I'm on the floor or he's on the couch with me and everything. It's amazing what it does to you, emotionally, when your son "likes" you and wants to be around you. Especially given that he's relied on Mommy so much for most of the time.

Anyway, he's rocking and rolling in his development too...talking his tongue off (saying nothing but gibberish, of course) all the time. And he's one hell of a little character. And watching him learn how to do things and all that is so much fun. I love it!

So anyway, I hope things are going well with you...if you're all still even reading this...I'll be here and there...

Sump or money pit?

2009-01-17T11:53:00.004-06:00

There is currently a six-inch-wide trench being dug around the perimeter of my basement family room, a few-foot-deep-and-wide pit being dug under my porch, and it smells like dirt in much of the house now.

So goes the installation of a drain tile system. Read about it on my house blog. http://buildbetterbungalow.blogspot.com.

I'm too lazy to type it all out again. :)

Looking back...

2008-12-15T00:28:00.000-06:00

Well, I sat down this week and joined Ancestry.com, and began to put the pieces of my family tree together, bit by bit. Ancestry.com is pretty cool...you can search for all kinds of information and see original documents and everything. Some cool things I found out, mostly family-related, a couple things related to my bungalow's "genealogy," which is something I'd like to look up (i.e., who owned it, what did they do, etc.) because I think it'd be neat to see.

1. I found out from the 1930 census a couple things. First, my house was owned by a Romanian family named Stoffer. The father was a bricklayer, and they had two kids at that time, a 17-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son. They came to America sometime between 1913 and 1921 (between the births of their kids). So it's interesting to note that. There's a lot more I hope to find about the house...that's just a start.

2. I was able to dig up a whole bunch of data on my family ancestors and where they were living during the 1920 and 1930 censuses (sp?). Big shock: Both my mom and dad's families were living on the Southwest Side, pretty much within a mile or two of where I grew up and my parents still live.

3. I found a digital copy of the ship manifest for my great-grandpa's (my mom's maternal grandpa) immigration to the U.S. Had all his information (where he was from, where he was going, age, etc.). Really cool to see that...EllisIsland.org, which is free, actually has a picture of the ship too -- also neat to see.

4. Found out that my great uncle (one of my dad's paternal uncles) worked for a meat company in the Union Stock Yards. He was a beef casing measurer. I'm not sure what that does, but you can bet your ass I'll be looking into it at work Monday. :) This wasn't a total shock to me...I kind of had a feeling that one of my ancestors somewhere along the line must have worked for a meat company back in the Stock Yards' heyday. This confirms that.

5. Also found out that same great uncle lived in a house on the block I grew up before my grandpa owned our house. Some other family was living there at the time of the census (I believe this was the 1930 census, again, but I could be wrong).

6. As "morbid" as it might seem, I've been able to confirm dates of birth and death of several relatives -- that's part of the point of doing a family tree as well, I guess.

So now I need to get in touch with my various relatives and find out who knows what, where, how and why, and get those things recorded and into this tree somehow. All in all, it's very interesting, and I'll probably head down to the Harold Washington Library sometime over our holiday break to do more research on my house and family.

We've survived...

2008-11-29T21:39:00.000-06:00

Well, another Thanksgiving, another hosting, another meal down in history.

Gina and I hosted Thanksgiving again this year, as has become tradition of sorts...went well -- turkey came out good, from what I hear (I'm not a fan of turkey, honestly...yes, I'm un-American, or something), and we had way more food that we really needed (now, THAT'S definitely American if ever there was something...disheartening if you think about it), and way, way, WAY more desserts too.

But it was fun, as usual, to have the families assembled here, for the most part complete. A.J., of course, was the show...he sat in his playpen through the entire dinner behaving, rolling and scooting around, playing with his toys and "talking" to us from the playpen. He's been such a great little boy.

Today, Eddie and Delana hosted Thanksgiving Part II at their place. I got to play with the fireplace and keep feeding the firewood in...I love wood-burning fireplaces, let me tell you...I wish I could have one here...again, we had a lot of food and desserts, and everyone got to see A.J. who didn't on Thanksgiving.

Now, I'm fighting to figure out my wish list for Christmas, particularly for our cousins grab-bag, for which I have a $30 limit. That makes it tougher...I'll have to do some research and thinking on this one.

Hope your Thanksgiving went well, and that you're all set and ready for the holiday season, because, once again, it's here!

What I'm thankful for...

2008-11-27T00:01:00.002-06:00

1. My son.
2. My wife.
3. My friends -- longtime, brand new and somewhere in between.
4. My family (why are they fourth? Because they're stuck with me... :) )
5. The health and happiness of all of the above, as well as my ability to help bring that about whenever possible.
6. My health and happiness.
7. My life, my history and where I appear headed. I have few, if any, regrets. So I'm thankful for God's watchful eye over me, or guidance, or whatever you want to call it, exactly.
8. My guardian angels.
9. My home.
10. My job and financial situation.

Regardless of your situation, I know that if you try, you can find 10 things you're thankful for as well. You just have to clear out the negativity and think positively, and I bet they'll come to you. Thank you for reading and for caring about me, even remotely or occasionally. I hope that you've got a reason to be thankful for me either being in, or having been in your life, however grand or minuscule that might be. And if not, what am *I* waiting for? :)

Have a safe, happy and enjoyable Thanksgiving!

Ah, the holidays...

2008-11-16T21:04:00.000-06:00

So, just now, it stopped snowing...the first sticking snow of the season...I mean, it's a trace amount, but still. Now, I'm ready for the holidays. :)

Actually, I am, really...because that means I get some time off to relax, unwind and decompress. One of the greater things about the company that I work for is that they give us a "winter break" in a sense...we're off from Christmas Eve through the New Year's holiday. It's nice that it's a formal company holiday, because often, it was really tough to actually get anything done in the office, no matter how hard you tried. Most of the people we try to source in the industries we cover take that time off too, and in terms of getting work done around the office, it's tough too, because a majority of people used to take that time themselves.

Now, you don't have to worry about saving days for it. We just all get it. Of course, it makes for stress-packed Novembers and Decembers, but that comes with the territory.

So, anyway, aside from WLIT switching over to all Christmas music on Friday being a little too early for me, I'm OK with the holidays coming up. I watched "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" tonight on TBS, and I'm OK with that. I have an 8-month-old and wanted to watch it with him. So we did (though he did a decent amount of squirming and attempting to just move all over, and paid attention only a few times).

I'll make my Christmas wish lists for my family, and start working on thinking of what should be on A.J.'s first-ever wish list, and I'll start thinking about what I might want to make for Thanksgiving dinner, for which we're hosting the families, as usual. I'm OK with that...maybe some of you aren't. But I am. I won't listen to the Christmas music yet, but I will admit that the snow falling outside stirred a little spirit in me ever so slightly.

Even if we got 3 billion inches of snow last winter, and it's a harsh reminder of that insanity. :)

Given...

2008-11-05T00:02:00.001-06:00

...my lack of in-depth political knowledge and trivia, and my lack of "trials and tribulations" that others have gone through, I guess I can't exactly put into words what Obama's election means. But, I can say these things:

1. I'm so proud to be a Chicagoan, and specifically from the South Side. Sure, it's a big place, and I'd never even have considered venturing toward Hyde Park from where I grew up, but still, as evidenced by today's post-election event, we Chicagoans take MUCH pride in our own and in celebrating when one of our own does well.

2. I feel like the Grinch, after his heart grows, right now...in terms of hope and happiness that maybe things will get better. Sure, things aren't really "bad" for me...but they are "bad" for people, friends, family members I know. I've worried too much about how my government runs my country over the last 8 years, and I don't believe (whether others like it or not) that I should have to do that. With Obama, I feel comfortable trusting the keys to the nation to him. I get the feeling a lot of people agree. He commands respect, dignity and trust, almost from the minute he opens his mouth.

But now I have to go to bed...because Obama did not give me the day off tomorrow. Man, does he suck, or what? :)

Please sell me something at a deep discount...

2008-10-24T22:50:00.001-05:00

For whatever reason, this never posted...odd.

Do I have a sign on my forehead that says, "I want to hear about what you can sell me," by chance?

I've refrained from posting about this, probably because I'm mostly just floored by the reality of it all. Anyway, in advance of my Halloween party, Gina and I decided to look into getting the TV for the basement family room BEFORE the family room is finished (since it's got a ways to go). I was simply researching TVs. Found one on Best Buy's Web site that I thought I liked and thought would be affordable.

So, two Tuesdays ago, my work friend Frank and I went over to BBuy at lunch, because I wanted to see what the set looked like in person. He does part-time stuff at BB and is pretty damned knowledgeable on the whole electronics thing. I was not even close to planning to buy ANYTHING. Really, I wasn't...just was checking out what the one looked like in person.

Long story short...they didn't have the model in the size I wanted on the floor, but they had a smaller version. Looks great. Manager then proceeds to say that if I wanted, he could sell me a brand new in-the-box of the model and size I wanted and get me a deal. I was skeptical and under no pressure, since I wasn't going to buy it.

He makes me the deal of a lifetime, and of course, I couldn't resist. No way I was getting that price again...

Turned out, I got the TV I wanted, a really nice stand, delivery of both and the four-year service plan for the regular price of the TV (and that includes tax). They gave me the two pieces for about 10 percent above cost (employees, I'm told, get 5 percent above cost).

So, last week, I got (to borrow a much-used phrase from our group) a BIG-ASS TV. We proceeded to play Nintendo Wii on said TV, and it was PHENOMENAL.

Now, if I can just get my basement done, I can hook up the cable and all that stuff, and then I'll be in heaven. :)

"Tis a fine barn, but sure 'tis no pool, English."

2008-10-13T20:47:00.000-05:00

I still love that quote. Do'eth!

What I'd really do if I were the Sox...

2008-10-06T20:02:00.000-05:00

Well, hey, I can't complain too much, honestly. And it's not as though I gave up on the Sox. But you know what, going into these playoffs, it was pretty much a tall order for them to get anywhere, and they really honestly resembled the team that they were during the regular season. Hot and cold, little situational hitting ability and spotty bullpen work at best. Even if they'd beaten the Rays, the odds, realistically, of them winning it all this year were slim. So, I suppose I can say I'm OK with this. Not happy, not pleased, but OK.

So, now it's time to fix the team. I mentioned a couple days ago that I don't care what the Sox end up doing this postseason, this roster needs to be blown up completely. I said Alexei, Quentin, Danks, Floyd and Jenks are the only untouchables, but here's my much more realistic opinion.

I'd like to see them part ways, somehow, with (in terms of "major" contributors): Contreras, Boone Logan, MacDougal, Cabrera, Griffey, Wise, Vazquez, Thome (retire, please). I like Thome and all, but we need guys that are not on the down side of their careers, even if they're Hall of Famers who are left-handed hitters. If Thome stays, then you righty-lefty platoon him and Konerko at DH. Dewayne Wise should go back to Birmingham and help the Barons win championships, because he certainly can't judge anything in left field. There's a reason he's a career minor-leaguer.

You let Swisher play first, Quentin in left field and give Owens the full-time job in center and at leadoff. Brian Anderson remains on as the #4 outfielder, mostly because he can't lead off. Alexei can play short, and Uribe can stay on (for CHEAP) as a utility infielder/defensive replacement. Second base, we'd either have to sign someone or see if Chris Getz is ready. The rotation should be Danks, Floyd, Buerhle, Broadway and either Richard or this Aaron Poreda supposed phenom they have.

The bullpen? Ha. I'm not touching that one.

Either way, we have to get some speed at the top...Owens has to be given another legitimate shot. Period. And they have to be patient. Very patient.

For now though, I'm going to focus on the Bears, I guess. Let's hope they continue their winning ways...

Game 3 thoughts, postgame...

2008-10-05T22:02:00.000-05:00

--Twice this week, I've been to Sox games, and twice this week, I've sat through rain delays. Of course, this time I was smart and my bro and I got there super early, went to the Bullpen Sports Bar and got a table. So when the rains came, we had seats and could watch the Bears beat up on the Lions. Plus, this time, I didn't have my poncho. So I wasn't gonna get soaked.

--I wish I'd brought my camera into the park though, because after the rain cleared out, it was great. And let me tell you, it was really cool to see all those el-cheapo rally towels being swung around by the fans. Why El Cheapo towels? I believe everyone in attendance who participated in the Rolling Blackout (by wearing all black) looked like they had dandruff. The towels were shedding like crazy. It was brutal.

--Was glad to see that we could win a game without the benefit of a home run. This is the kind of clutch hitting we need. Unfortunately, these three games are really no more than a microcosm of how much of the season has gone for the Sox. Hit some days, don't hit some other days.

--I have a ton of confidence in Gavin Floyd. What I'm more worried about, in reference to the previous point as well, is our matchup against Sonnenstine. We've not showed well, at least when I've watched earlier this year, against him, even though his numbers aren't ace-worthy. Let's hope that the tables have turned.

--Can somebody tell me if indeed it's true that if the White Sox should win this series and move on to play the Red Sox (assuming they win), that the White Sox would get home-field advantage in the next series, based on the seeding (Red Sox being the wild card), rather than the record? I thought that was how it worked, but I don't remember for sure. Can someone clarify as to whether I should be a Red Sox fan temporarily?

--Lastly, it's back to work for me tomorrow. This week was a nice week off, even though I didn't get as much done around the house as I wanted. I did get up on the roof and took a look around, also fixing the broken downspout, and finished tearing off the wood paneling in the basement family room. So at least something was done. That's good. But, I'm fast running out of time to do this damned fence. And it's looking as though it's not going to be as simple as 1-2-3. That's bad news. Oh well...I'll think happy thoughts and go to sleep, and that will make everything all better. Yeah, right...

Rays = Twins

2008-10-03T20:19:00.000-05:00

Or, alternately titled: "Thank God the Sox are coming home..."

I'll be at the game Sunday, and hopefully we'll be able to turn it around and win two at home, then ride the momentum back out to Tampa and steal this series. I'm excited, I really am, if only because they're not gonna be playing in that dome for another two games, which gives them an instant shot and storming back. So we'll see...

More "suck its," just for Laz:

--Suck it, lack of clutch hitting. Our problem all year. Really, I said this before, and I'll say it again here. I don't care what the Sox end up doing this postseason, whether they lose in three or win it all, this roster needs to be blown up completely. Alexei, Quentin, Danks, Floyd and Jenks are the only untouchables, in my opinion.

--Suck it, Kenny Williams, for now. Somehow, we totally got away from the way we won in 2005, and it only took a few short years. Kudos for everybody you tried to get in the offseason, but we need to revert the strategy. They need to get more speed, more youth and fewer guys on the downside of their careers, instead of hoping they catch twilight lightning in a bottle. B.A. should have been played from Day One this year in centerfield, or at least Jerry Owens (I know he was hurt for a bit at the start). Their big argument was that they couldn't deal with the lack of offensive production from either. But how many veterans in everyday roles produced just as poorly? Dewayne Wise isn't that great, I'm sorry. There's a reason he's been a career minor-leaguer. I'm beginning to realize that, as long as we have Ozzie as our manager, we will be completely unable to develop any type of young players. Or at least not nearly enough to keep up without wheeling and dealing. It's a shame. Owens, Anderson, Josh Fields? Trade bait.

--Suck it, still, Harold Reynolds. No better today. He missed a lot of crucial stuff and really was off the mark on a lot. The ONLY thing he said of any real value, in my opinion, (but then beat to death) was that the Sox were a station-to-station baseball team. He also relies on that Pitch Trax graphic they have, which, by the way, is way off where the ball actually is in the slow-motion replay. Just brutal. Then he made a comment about Swisher hitting a home run to make everyone forget about the poor regular season, but I don't think that many folks are down on Swisher, so I thought that was kind of a cheap throwaway line that, again, showed a lack of homework being done on the team.

--Suck it, analysts who think that the Rays' starting pitching is better than their bullpen. Going into this series and still in it now, I fear their bullpen much more than the starters, honestly. They're good and great and all, but the bullpen is much more threatening in my opinion.

--Suck it, Red Sox, especially if the Rays beat the White Sox. I will not watch if I have to deal with a Red Sox-Rays ALCS. I might watch an Angels-Rays ALCS. And of course, if the White Sox are in it, I'm watching. Duh.

Anyway, hope is not lost...the Sox are much different at home, on grass, with the crowd behind them. I can't wait, honestly...

Why blog about the Cubs?

2008-10-03T10:01:00.000-05:00

OK, so, I know that I'm going to get some responses here, but I want to qualify everything I'm about to say...

1. My wife is a die-hard Cubs fan. Thus, I live in a very tolerant household. I will watch the Cubs and occasionally root for them; but I'm not a Cubs "fan" in the sense of, I don't get too high or too low if they win or lose. I did not grow up hating the Cubs.
2. I'm looking at this from an unbiased standpoint. Those of you who know me know that I'm completely capable of that. Maybe you agree, maybe you disagree, I don't know. Either way, it's one man's opinion, and actually, I know a few Cubs fans I've shared this with who have agreed with me on its face. In other words, I'm not ripping Cubs fans "while they're down" (I'm not even ripping them, honestly...I'm just saying I'm disappointed).
3. I'm not saying EVERY Cubs fan is this way...in fact, most of my friends who are Cubs fans probably don't fit into this -- though I don't really know, in that I've been mostly "locked away" in my house this week with minimal social interaction (on vacation from work). Like I said, too, a couple of them have agreed about the topic.

So, now, on to the real meat of the post: Cubs fans in the NLDS thus far.

I don't believe in curses. I cringe every single time I hear someone refer to the Goat or the Bartman incident in the 2003 NLCS as just another extension of the curse on the Cubs -- for several reasons, not the least of which being that he did not drop a sure double-play ball that would have ended the game shortly after he supposedly "interfered" with a foul ball. Curses are for marketing folks and people trying to make a buck. And, unfortunately, this Cubs curse has nabbed Cubs fans hook, line and sinker.

And, after watching most of the first two games of the NLDS against the Dodgers, it HAS HURT the team. Home-field advantage? Gone, because of the supposed curse, which caused, in Game One, the entire crowd to sit mostly silently while Ryan Dempster pitched his way through the first inning. For comparison, in many of the other playoff games, the crowd was AMPED during the first inning, cheering before almost every two-strike pitch and cheering as though each out were the World Series-clinching out. I had not seen this little enthusiasm since watching the Braves in the playoffs in the '90s, when no one in Atlanta cared anymore, because it became a "been there, done that" atmosphere.

The problem is, Cubs fans are not silent because of a "been there, done that" mentality. They're silent because, unfortunately, they seem scared. All year long, all we ever heard, propogated mostly by the media, was "It's Gonna Happen" and "This is the Year" and all that other crap. Now, we get to the playoffs, and Cubs fans are nervous. And if it wasn't nerves in Game One, it was overconfidence -- that the Dodgers would roll over and leave town down 2-0 because the Cubs were that good.

Now, obviously, the fans aren't to blame for the Cubs losses -- the Cubs have played like crap. I'm not blaming them for anything. However, they certainly did not help the cause much. Back in 2003, Cubs fans were rocking and rolling, and the team fed off it. This year, the team doesn't have anything to feed off except the strange silence of a typically raucous Wrigley, all brought about by the belief that this so-called curse exists. This is the best Cubs team I've seen in my lifetime, and Cubs fans went into this series, some overly worried, some overly confident, but few actually enjoying the fact that the Cubs were in the playoffs again. That's a shame, especially given this town's sports history.

Take, for example, a very close parallel: the Red Sox. The Red Sox supposedly also had this bullshit curse. When they made the playoffs, however, the fans were crazy. They "never gave up" on the team and never let the nerves of breaking the curse cause them to worry to the point that they were silent. It was always a loud, raucous crowd, no matter how disappointing the team played.

If the Cubs manage to wake up on the road and bring the series back to Wrigley Field, I hope that Cubs fans also wake up a bit more and really get behind their team. Give them something to feed off and play for. Sitting and waiting for something to happen isn't the way to cheer your team on in the playoffs. Helping them make something happen by supporting them and cheering in anticipation is the way to do it.

This is the playoffs, and while Cubs players have a lot of stepping up to do to salvage what's left, Cubs fans certainly can step up their game as well. I hope Cubs fans get another chance to do it.

Equal opportunity bashing...

2008-10-02T16:54:00.000-05:00

--Suck it, Chicago baseball teams. It's only one game (Cubs game 2 later), but way to represent as poorly as possible in the first games.
--Suck it HARD, Javy Vazquez. If you start another game for the Chicago White Sox, I'm done. You were outpitched today by Clayton (formerly could suck it) Richard. Go back to the Expos. Yes, the Expos. Hell, go anywhere but here. Trade him for a prospect in the offseason.
--Suck it just as hard, Orlando Cabrera. You're a winner? Three popouts and a strikeout (with the bases loaded) after talking shit to Grant Balfour during the at-bat? I wish the bases hadn't been loaded so he could have drilled you in the skull. Dumbass. Bet you won't talk to reporters afterward either, chickenshit. Especially since they'd have asked you about the botched hit-and-run attempt earlier and whether it was your fault or A.J.'s.
--Juan Uribe has already sucked it, so telling him to suck it for striking out with one out and the bases loaded in that same inning would be just a waste of my time. He wasn't terrible other than that at-bat.
--Suck it, Harold Reynolds. From an unbiased standpoint, honestly, my God, he was terrible. I understand the national guys only know so much, but jeez, Reynolds could have done a little bit of homework. He even called Clayton Richard "Richards" at least twice if not more, then admitted he didn't know much about the guy. Thanks, Harold. Thanks, TBS. Thanks a lot.
--Finally, suck it, Tropicana Field catwalks. I saw the ground rules graphic twice in the game, and the announcers couldn't stop talking about the catwalks. They spent more time talking about the catwalks than a whole lot of other things. If I wanted meaningless droning on about the same unimportant topics, I'd request Hawk Harrelson to do the games. At least beat my brain in with Evan Longoria Worship for nine innings rather than "catwalks" talk. My lord. We get it already that this is a weird ballpark.

All that said, it's just one game. Plenty more baseball to be played, and believe it or not, there were some good takeaways:

1. Clayton Richard, who I ripped earlier this half-season, has improved significantly in his last 4-5 outings. That said, I don't know how much I "trust" him...but at least he's on a better track than he appeared on when he first came up.
2. We rocked the crap out of Dan Wheeler in the World Series. He didn't look too overpowering today, even though we didn't do too much against him in the ninth. There's at least a bright spot.
3. We weren't completely overpowered...again, if not for Javy's mistakes, we might have won the game. Let's hope that better pitching from Buerhle, Danks and Floyd will prevail and the rest of the team will keep up their game as they did today.

Best. Vacation week. Ever.

2008-09-30T22:17:00.000-05:00

Wow. Just, wow...some news and notes from late Tuesday of what is turning out to be the best vacation week ever.

-- Obviously, go Sox, first and foremost. It's just amazing how much of a "flip the switch on" kind of team this has been over the past three games. Just unbelievable.
-- I couldn't believe that this was the White Sox first 1-0 win this year (and, it turns out, they didn't win a 1-0 game last year either). Pretty interesting, considering the 2005 Championship team lived off winning those games and won several "mile marker" games 1-0.
-- I had never seen a home run ball hit to the bronze statue concourse in dead center field before, as Jim Thome's was tonight. I honestly didn't know it was reachable.
-- I hope, I hope, I hope that Javier Vazquez has learned something from these past three games. We're going to need him to come up big again and hopefully often, very soon, if not in Game 1.
-- So the week starts with a Bears game visit and a win (and some cool pictures too), and will now end with me and my little bro going to Game 3 because Tim will be heading back from vacation in Florida at that time. I sure as hell hope that I have further great, great news then. But what a week. Especially since I probably wouldn't have cared too much about the other games if the Sox didn't make it. Now, I'm tuned in.
-- I totally regret not having bought tickets for today's game while at yesterday's game and then going tonight. Damn, that would have been totally sweet. Ah well, I'm sick enough from all the sporting events the past three days. No sense in overdoing it.
-- Suck it, Twins. Next time, make sure when you celebrate like you've won the World Series that you close the door 100 percent. Mistake of youth.
-- To anyone who says that the game should have been played in Minnesota, because the Twins beat the Sox 10-8 in the overall season series, I say that you obviously haven't paid attention to the century-plus of baseball. A coin flip, though crappy, is the rules. If they change them, so be it. If not, those are the rules.
-- Suck it, New York. I've been waiting ages to say that. No offense to most of the New Yorkers reading this, of course, as you're intelligent, civilized sports fans who have earned my respect. To the rest, suck it.
-- I remember how awesome it was in 2005, that the fun of celebratory baseball led directly into the extended holiday season (starting with Halloween, etc.), that I'm totally energized by the fact that we could have a similar run here in Chicago (one way or another) this year. I love it!
-- Go Cubs! Because as long as you keep winning, fewer will pay attention to the Sox, meaning all the pressure and scrutiny will be off them. Plus, yes, I would like to see an all-Chicago series. Maybe.
-- Spur of the moment, with little basis for this prediction other than my own knowledge and feeling (as well as not knowing the Sox's starters and such), Sox win the ALDS in four, stealing Game 1 while the Rays are a bit star-struck and winning their two home games. I totally reserve the right to change this prediction by gametime Thursday. :)

One night only...

2008-09-30T16:12:00.000-05:00

Well, boys, this is it...time to go out and kick the Twins' asses and send them packing for HOME for the rest of the year, while we pack for Tampa Bay. Don't disappoint the fans, White Sox. I still believe. Make everyone else believe.

And, dear Laz...in response to your last comment:
I didn't quit hoping or believing. I just quit getting pissed off at their disappointments to that point. Read it again, buddy boy. :)

They've "ruined the whole damned thing" means that it should have been a lot easier than it has, given that the Twins did nothing to take the division from us either.

I'd rather lower my expectations (which I have done) and be pleasantly surprised than mortally disappointed. So far, that has worked.

Besides, had I "quit," I wouldn't have sat in the pouring rain yesterday with my poncho on for 3.5 hours waiting for baseball, by myself -- no bathroom break, no beer, no food. I sat there, in left field, in a poncho, with the rain beating down on me. No reason to move, just waiting for baseball and keeping my seat dry.

And I know you're just giving me shit, but I'm just clarifying for anyone else who might think I'm a "quitter" or I lost hope. :)

LET'S GO, GO-GO WHITE SOX!

I'm done...

2008-09-27T22:04:00.000-05:00

Yep, that's it. I've held back from writing here all week, but I'm officially done being pissed off about the Sox's inability to pitch and win the AL Central. So, fuck 'em. Yesterday, 8 runs; today, 6 runs. And they lose both games. Could have taken first place today; lose the game almost the instant the Twins' score is announced.

Fucking bastards.

With my bro out of town, I have tickets for Monday's potential makeup game against the Tigers, and for the first home game of the playoffs for the Sox. I'll go to the Tigers game, if it even happens, but I'm certainly not going to be one iota surprised if (a) it even gets to that point, or (b) they lose and fall out of the playoffs.

They've had a magnificent season -- one that no one believed they could have. And they've ruined the whole damned thing. Which means now I have to turn to the Bears for my solace, and we all know that's not going to console me much at all.

First butterflies, now, a hummingbird!

2008-09-22T23:51:00.000-05:00

I can't believe it, but I actually saw, yesterday, a hummingbird in my yard, hovering around my butterfly bush for a brief second before it realized I was in the yard and zipped away.

It startled me somewhat, as it flew up to the flower and hovered for a second, then flew away. But I said, "Whoa, what's that?" then realized it was a hummingbird right after it had zipped away.

Unbelievable. I had a hummingbird feeder hanging on my tree at my parents' house in the city when I was growing up and never saw one. So, although I'm a little "further out" than my parents, I'm still in the city, and thus was surprised. I wonder if it was migrating for the winter, or what? Maybe a bird expert reading this might know? :)

Anyway, that was great...and makes me feel awesome to know that, in some way, my garden is helping nature, even if it's a little bit.

Thankfully...

2008-09-21T23:09:00.000-05:00

...the Sox won today, especially since the Twins also won. So, here we go, Tuesday-Thursday, the Sox get to prove that they belong here, after showing, at times this year, that they don't. Or at least proving to few that they don't belong. Although he's absolutely right, I don't like hearing Ozzie Guillen say to the media, "It's nice to go into this with a cushion." Makes me worried a little bit that they'll be "satisfied" walking away with 1 out of 3 or 2 out of 3.

They can't sit and think for a second that this is it, unless they sweep (meaning they clinch the division, since the magic number is 5). Because, honestly, I'm not comfy going into the Indians series that follows not having clinched. The Indians are hot; and the Twins, I believe, play K.C.

So, boys, let's sweep and get it over and done. Yeah...

That's it for now...

Well, there goes that...

2008-09-21T00:26:00.000-05:00

(ANOTHER POST??? What's gotten into Andy?)

So much for my personal "best-kept secret"...too bad they didn't go beyond Washington Island to the "deserted" Rock Island. Or, too good...at least I'll still have that. :)

http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/chi-washington-island_0921_pm_r_sep21,0,3958902.story

That said, I haven't visited all of the places they'd mentioned in the article...so there's always more to see and do.

Most grammar-challenged neighborhood ever...

2008-09-20T23:57:00.000-05:00

Apparently, this weekend is "yard/garage sale" weekend within a two- to three-block radius of my house. I walked to Walgreens this afternoon and also drove out to Jewel-Osco and to my brother's b-day dinner, and saw quite a few signs for them, all over the place.

Anyway, several caught my eye for their terrible spelling and bad grammar. Two, in particular:
1. "HUMUGUS YARD SALE" -- This one was taped to the bus stop near Austin and Addison.
2. "YAR SALE" -- What's funny about this is, obviously someone got tired of writing these signs, because they were EVERYWHERE, and they were spelled correctly on all the other ones I saw.

Suffice to say, I did not buy anything. Though I did walk past a few front-yard sales and saw nothing but the expected crap, so I didn't even stop.

Anyway, carry on!

2008-09-20T13:42:00.001-05:00

OK, OK, so I'm obsessed with bobbleheads, so sue me.

I just went to Brookfield to pick up five White Sox World Series bobbleheads (of the set of 11, I now have six). I'm most excited because the one I really, really wanted (of Aaron Rowand) is No. 1 of 2005 made (Forever Collectibles, the maker, numbers them). That's cool...really cool, to me anyway.

I also bought a Birmingham Barons Jack McDowell SGA (stadium giveaway) bobblehead that is just so awesome. But, see, I'm not collecting these in order to make money or sell or trade them or anything like that. Yeah, I'm excited about the Rowand bobble being No. 1, but not because that might fetch more money on the market, but just because it makes it a little more special to me. I go after bobbleheads of players I like or think are cool or whatever I feel like at the time. I have a Barry Zito Giants bobblehead that was given away when me and Gina went to AT&T Park last year on vacation. Zito sucks now, and I'm not a big Zito fan. But it is a cool bobblehead doll and a good "souvenir" of our trip. Why did I buy Josh Beckett's Marlins bobblehead? I don't know...probably again, because it looked cool and I don't dislike the Marlins...never did dislike them. So I bought it. You'd be amazed at how cheap you can get some of these bobbleheads for on eBay. Shipping, sometimes, is all you have to pay.

And then you get the breaks where you can pick up all five bobbleheads nearby and save a good amount of money on shipping...and that's cool!

So yeah, am I a dork? Sure, but we're all dorks in some way. So what do YOU collect, or what have you begun collecting in recent years? I want to know. Who knows, maybe I have something I can trade you (for some bobblehead dolls you don't want!). ;)

2008-09-16T18:05:00.000-05:00

In a sense, it's a good thing I didn't install the fence this weekend. There's just too much pre-planning, using common sense and doing it right, that needs to be done first. With the yard having flooded because of the lack of drainage access to the alley, I'm now contemplating buying a truckload of dirt and backfilling the entire alley half of the yard, and hiring someone to come out and redo all of the sidewalks and patio areas back there so that the yard runs level to the alley.

I also have to get gutters up on the garage, period, with a downspout or two out in the alley, to shoot the water out there...and hopefully, gravity will carry it down to the street, because the slope of the alley, even, is NOT very good. So really, I'll be redirecting my water into everyone else's yards. But better than my yard, I guess. I'm a great neighbor, ain't it? :)

Whether I raise the yard or not, I'm going to have to find a way to raise the fence above the "waterline" or it's not going to last at all. It's gonna rot from the bottom up, anytime it rains and has to sit in a large puddle of water in the back. So, I'm probably looking at buying even more concrete and some cylindrical forms to raise the fence up to "level" with the alley. Don't ask me how I'm going to block off the area under the fence. I haven't gotten that far. But for now, this is what's going through my brain. We'll see how much that changes between now and when the work actually gets done.

2008-09-13T15:55:00.000-05:00

Video of my backyard, flooded:
http://buildbetterbungalow.blogspot.com/2008/09/new-fence-please.html

2008-09-12T21:14:00.000-05:00

Fence project for this weekend = cancelled on account of rain. Thanks to those who offered to help.

2008-09-12T18:46:00.001-05:00

Good luck, Houston.

Years ago, my personal "Internet connection" to Houston, my aunt and godmother, passed away. My relationship with her seems light years away. Mostly because of the amount that the world has completely changed since then.

My godmother, Auntie Cookie, is honestly the reason I nearly became a meteorologist. All this talk about Hurricane Ike and how it's the worst storm to hit Houston dead on since Hurricane Alicia in 1983 brings it all back. The reason? Well, I know that Hurricane Alicia was the first time Auntie Cookie sent me the newspaper clippings of the hurricane coverage and the aftermath, with photos, stories, etc., from Houston and her place of residence, Baytown. I was about six years old, but my mom kept them for me (or I did) and I'd seen them when I got older. I probably, actually, still have these clippings somewhere, and the clippings from every storm or hurricane between then and when she died while I was living in Missouri.

It was honestly a really cool "attachment" to her letters. I used to love getting those clippings -- there was no Internet and computers weren't something that were even in my vocabulary yet. It was back when the Bell companies had the monopoly going too, I believe, so long distance calling was ridiculously priced. Of course, I'm talking about when I was younger and living at home. By the time college came around and I moved out, our relationship was different and a little more distant.

But, growing up, I used to get all excited about letters from Auntie Cookie. Handwritten letters, often with some sort of newspaper clippings or something else. Weather, disasters, sports championships, etc. I'm secretly semi-proud of the fact that, at one time, I had an official t-shirt celebrating every NBA Championship from the Bulls' first one through their sixth ("virtual 8-peat"), because the Rockets won the two in between, and Auntie Cookie came through and sent my brothers and I t-shirts. I may still have these shirts, packed away somewhere for safe-keeping. I don't know.

Auntie Cookie (and my uncle and cousins) acted as a window to something I couldn't fathom at all growing up in Chicago: a hurricane. And I was hooked. I used to track the hurricanes on a photocopied Atlantic Ocean map every year. I'd watch the news and get the latitude and longitude of the hurricanes every day and plot them. Any of you who lived through a hurricane in the mid- to late-80s and early 90s, I probably was intently focused on whatever news reports I could find. It was just a very interesting thing to me.

So interesting, in fact, that I've always said I wanted to go and ride out a hurricane, because it's always intrigued me. Yes, I sound stupid about it, but I'm probably no stupider than tornado chasers (another thing I'd like to do, by the way). They're killers, I know. But the awesome power of nature and the aftereffects are just downright amazing to me. Part of me is jealous of Stephanie Abrams on the Weather Channel, because she's on Galveston Island right now. Something about that intrigues me.

Was it Auntie Cookie who sowed that seed, or did she somehow realize that I was, honestly, a newshound. I have clippings of weather anomalies and storm coverage from my entire lifetime. I have clippings from Chicago's Blizzard of '67, and the Oak Lawn tornado of that same year. I wasn't alive then, but those things affected areas I'm very familiar with, and because of that, they captivate me.

Yet, honestly, with Hurricane Ike bearing down on Houston, with my cousins and uncle scattered about the metro area, but I think mostly out of harm's way, I feel different. I feel almost disconnected. For Hurricane Rita, I felt connected and felt the reality, because my cousins were trying desperately to get as far north (like everyone else in Houston) as possible, driving through the night (well, not really driving...more like sitting on the Interstate) to attempt to get away from what was supposed to be Katrina II. For Ike, it has been different.

Even with the Internet and cable TV, I miss my main source of relevant, "this happened right down the block from us" hurricane aftermath information. It's funny. While most people in the nation might watch and think of 100 other things about this hurricane, I sit there and think that I could know better info. With Auntie Cookie's help, I could have learned so much more about it.

2008-09-11T22:33:00.000-05:00

OK, I've got a decent crew, potentially, assembled for this fence-raising project, but we could always use more help!

As of now, with Tom Skilling's go-ahead (he said don't cancel plans, just be prepared for an occasional downpour, but dry spells too), I'm still planning on doing this project. That said, once we start, we gotta finish by Sunday night.

I need to know who, of you, is available Saturday, and who is available Sunday? I know some of you have told me, but just remind me and let me know. Saturday, we likely won't get started until around noon (maybe a tad earlier), because I have an uncancellable/unmoveable dentist appt. Sunday, it all depends how much we get done Saturday.

The goal Saturday is to get the fence down, measure and measure and measure again, and get the new posts in the ground (with concrete) so it can set overnight. Sunday, we can cut and hang the panels. Let me know when you can help, and if there's anybody else you think would be willing to help (particularly Saturday, as it looks like we might have fewer people then), please, by all means, let me know and bring them along.

In terms of tools, I should have everything we need to put up the new fence--what I don't have, I'm buying on Friday or on Saturday morning, because I need those tools anyway for general use (3-foot level, circular saw, etc.). But, if you have any demolition-type tools (prybar/WonderBar, garden spade aka, thin shovel to dig out posts, you can throw them in your vehicle in case we need them). I don't have enough tools for multiple people to demolish things at the same time, so if you have anything you think might be useful, bring it. :) If you're coming on Sunday and have a drill/screwdriver, bring it, then several of us can sink screws and hang the panels while others measure/cut/haul panels.

If your plans have changed, then just let me know...if everyone drops out, then I'll change my plans too. :) But let me know ASAP, please!

Lastly, if the weather forecast gets worse and it appears that this will end up being a complete no-go, I will email all of you...so double-check your email Saturday when you get up, and before you make the trek over here, call us to make sure we're still on...

2008-09-10T22:27:00.000-05:00

Well, today my shoulder was sore, but not experiencing the "stabbing" type of pain with movement it was experiencing Tuesday. Today was a "I'm healing, but still reminding you that I'm here and was hurt" kind of pain.

That is, until I went out to the garage and decided to get the damned fence panels sealed/stained tonight. There were five left. I plowed through all five. I used a roller brush for part of it, so both arms were being used. It probably wasn't the wisest manuever, but it HAS TO be done in advance of Saturday and Sunday's fence fiesta.

Well, partway through it, I could tell that there would be minor consequences to my activity. I tried to take it easy, but now I can tell that I have some reflective pain down my arm (in my bicep and wrist) on and off...it's very, very minor, but it's there. The shoulder itself feels fine, though. I skipped softball today because they had enough guys and I didn't want to hurt my shoulder any more than it is hurt now.

So I got through the fence sealing/staining as quickly as I could. And that means we're ready to rock 'n' roll this weekend. Let's hope the weather cooperates and makes our lives easier. Tomorrow, after A.J.'s six-month checkup, I have to take real inventory of the tools I need and the ones I have, and then put the call out to my crew to bring certain tools if they have them. And, at some point here, I have to start clearing the area next to the house, between the house and the fence.

2008-09-10T01:14:00.000-05:00

So, given my symptoms and the fact that this came relatively out of nowhere, I believe I marginally strained/sprained the AC joint of my left shoulder, probably while picking up or moving A.J. around Monday evening. My shoulder didn't hurt until the evening, and it hurt all night and all day Tuesday. It still hurts now, right before I'm about to go to be here late Tuesday/early Wednesday. But there was no instant pain and it's not really intense...just painful enough to be a big nuisance. I do have full motion of the shoulder though, and there's no protrusion or bumps or anything like that, so I'm pretty sure that there probably was no separation or dislocation of the joint or my shoulder in general. I didn't fall or make any intense motions, either, and the pain is, again, nuisance pain when I reach or lift my arm up and around in certain spots, more than anything.

I say it's the AC joint because the pain is completely localized to the area where the AC joint is. See this diagram of the shoulder:

Right where the AC joint is located is EXACTLY where my pain is centralized. And where it hurts to press hard. But, again, it's really mild overall, so hopefully this will go away by the weekend so I can get this fence business taken care of. But it's going to force me to miss softball tomorrow, even though it's not my pitching arm. :) Oh well...I could use a break to prep for the fence work this weekend.

2008-09-08T19:35:00.002-05:00

Wait, where the hell did summer go?

Yesterday, I got sunburned (a bit) at the Sox game. Flickr should have some great photos, since I actually got to take my camera this time (no threat of rain). Today, I'm about to head out to the gym and I feel as though a sweatshirt is going to be necessary. I mean, I love Chicago, and Chicago weather always intrigues me, but this is nutso!

The weather had damned well better cooperate for my fence demolishing and raising fest this weekend, dammit. Or there shall be hell to pay. To someone.

2008-09-06T22:26:00.000-05:00

Unexpectedly got to see my friend Butch and his fiancee Dawn's new house that they just closed on this past week today. Proud to be "the first" people to visit. It's in Elmwood Park, and is actually just about four "short" blocks from a house we were pretty close to wanting to buy in the Galewood neighborhood of Chicago. As such, they're maybe 10-15 minutes from us now. That's nice.

Their house is a nice starter bungalow that has been very well-kept and updated really well too. They got a good deal, no doubt. They won't have to do a ton of work on the place, and they do have some expansion room in the attic if they decide the place is really, really long-term. I'm happy for them, for sure. So, if you see them or talk to them, say "congrats!"

Meanwhile, I have less than a week now to sort out my plan of attack, of sorts, for getting this fence replaced next weekend. I'd like to have all the tools and supplies I need ready to go so that we can just jump right into it when help arrives Saturday. Furthermore, I still have to seal the remaining fence panels, so they are ready to put up on Sunday. I have to figure out how much gravel I need for the posts and make sure I have all the right tools, ready to go, for Saturday.

It's a lot of pressure, that's for sure. :) But I think I can do it.

2008-09-05T21:30:00.000-05:00

I said I'd post more...so I'm trying to do so. Hopefully it will last...we shall see!

So, I'm 95 percent sure I'm going to run my first 5K race here at the end of the month. We got a flyer on our door for the Fall into Fitness 5K run/walk at Portage Park. Now, I haven't been to the gym since A.J. was born, six months ago. But, I probably could have run a 5K at that point, having spent months on the treadmill.

The kicker here is, I'm going from no running (other than windsprint-like running in softball once/twice a week) to having 23 days to prepare for this thing. It shouldn't be a problem though. Today was my first day back at the gym and I was able to run at a 5 mph clip for one full mile. So I should be all right (even though, yes, I understand that pavement running is much different than treadmill running).

Now, if this weren't basically my neighborhood, I probably wouldn't do it. But I think it will be cool to wander over there, run around the 'hood (though not my part of the 'hood) and enjoy a nice early autumn day (hopefully). And I'm just aiming to finish -- I don't think for a second that I'll "win" the race or even come close. In fact, I'm sure I'll even walk a portion of the race, pending how much "training" I get done between now and then. But it'll be simply about finishing the race, really, and I have plenty of confidence that I can do it.

So if you're not doing anything that morning, come on out and cheer me on as I pass by. It'll give me a little bonus boost of energy. :)

2008-09-04T21:39:00.000-05:00

So, who's free Sept. 13 and/or 14 to help me demolish my old fence and put up the new one? Email me and let me know. I'm gonna need the help, and if we get enough, you might even get to demolish the "enclosure" around the hot tub outside. Isn't that exciting?

So let me know...

Oh, and to follow up on yesterday's post, I'm actually not sore at all. Thought my pitching elbow would hurt, because it did postgame yesterday, but nothing today. So that's good. :)

2008-09-04T00:19:00.000-05:00

--Oh, man, am I sore...Fall Softball started up today (as in Wednesday) in Oak Lawn. I hadn't played in a few weeks, and I'm pretty surprised I'm as sore as I feel. Tomorrow could be brutal. We played our best game, hitting-wise, of the year (including summer league, of course, since this was our first fall game). But, we simply didn't do exactly enough and lost 18-17 to a very, very good team.

--I'm debating my ability to get in shape and get back on the treadmill at the gym in order to possibly do a 5K run in my own neighborhood on Sept. 28. I didn't know about this thing, otherwise I might have started training earlier and definitely did it. But the question is, is 24 days (well, less, as I wouldn't start outright tomorrow, probably) enough time to gear myself up for a 5K? I'm not starting from total ground zero because of softball, but given that I'm sore, I'm thinking I'd have a bit of work to do.

--Other than that, I'm looking at dates to destroy our old fence and install our new fence. If you're interested in helping me out, let me know if you're available Sept. 13 or 14. Email me privately.

--Finally...when I switched over the template for this blog, I lost all the links to everyone else's blogs. If you want yours linked, let me know...and if I can get this old blog updated, I'll "steal" KM's RSS feed idea...I like it! :)

2008-09-01T21:46:00.001-05:00

Thank God for old friends. They always bring you up when you're feeling somewhat crappy. Mine in particular. You know why? Because they don't really give a shit why you feel bad and they really don't want to hear about it. They just want you to have fun with them. We reminisced a bit, around our annual fantasy draft. Now, one of these days, if I'd just remember to bring my audio recorder and get the good stories "archived"...someday.

Even something as simple as a 10-team fantasy football draft is fun with those guys (and gals). And getting to see the West Loop condo one of the couples lives in for the first time was cool too. Furthermore, getting the first overall pick in the randomly selected draft order "raffle" will lift the spirits too. I took Adrian Peterson. They thought I'd take L.T., and were surprised and pissed, because it's whom the No. 2 and 3 wanted. Oh well for them. :)

So, a solid end to a somewhat ho-hum weekend. I'm glad I got to do the things I got to do, but I have plenty on my mind. Work tomorrow, I'm sure, won't help too much, but hey, you never, ever know.

I spent most of last night staying up late reading through my blog's archives. It's funny to look back on a lot of the stuff I wrote...and try to figure out what the hell was going on for some of them -- such as the one in early 2003 where I lament not gearing up to participate in the Chicago Triathlon...don't remember what the motivation was there, or context; or the other one from my unemployed time, in which I hint that I'd never work for a magazine that would, unknown to me then, ultimately become my No. 1 competitor today...bizarre! :)

Anyway, tomorrow A.J. is six months old tomorrow, and I'm amazed at how fast it's already gone by. He's crabbing like crazy right now and waking up multiple times during the night...not sure if he's teething or going through a growth spurt or what. But he's even grunting "angrily" lately too, so something's bothering him, one way or another.

So, I'm pretty tired and I actually feel somewhat ill...I hope I'm not coming down with anything...either way, it's about time for an early bedtime.

2008-08-31T17:29:00.001-05:00

Nothing like a Dairy Queen banana split to ease the mind on a general downer kind of a Sunday. Well, it was either that, or the fact that I was minutes away from just spur-of-the-moment buying a 52-inch LCD TV at Costco. That would have been nice for Gina to come home to. Surprise!

Well, now I know how people gain weight. Or get addicted to watching TV.

2008-08-29T21:22:00.000-05:00

Have you ever tried so hard at something, not sure if what you were doing was right and wise and would end up being a good thing? Not knowing what others thought of what you were doing? Whether you're talking about balancing life, being a good friend, making new friends, or your daily job or even school and things like that?

Well, right now, that's my life: Trying hard at things, internally debating if I'm doing the right thing by trying so hard, wondering what others think about what I'm doing if they even think about it, and really not knowing if what I'm doing is going to pay off at all or be just a big waste of my mental, psychological and physiological time and energy.

It really puts a pit or two in the stomach, let me tell you.

2008-08-14T20:51:00.000-05:00

It's been a while, but I have to post this...my conscience won't let me not post it.

I'll try and fail miserably to keep this short.

Yesterday, I was fielding a short story out in Minnesota for my mag's HR awards program. This company has a program in which they help employees who have been struck by an unexpected financial crisis with a donation/grant. It's a great program, but that's just the background. As part of my interview time, they wanted me to talk to someone who had taken advantage of the program recently, and I met a family (the wife works at this company). About a month ago, their house was hit by an F3 tornado, only six months after they bought it. And here they were, taking time out to relive it all and tell me about that day and everything since, and how this program helped out -- just one month after it happened.

Anyway, I felt pretty helpless and terrible for them. They gave me CDs with before and after pictures, and the house had serious damage (about half of it was blown away and the rest pretty badly damaged). They had huge, 85-year-old trees all over their property, pretty much all of which were obliterated. I felt like I had to do something to help...and this is it.

I'm just going to pass along this link. http://www.anxious1.etsy.com/ Apparently, they are using the funds to rebuild their barn and daughters' dream of owning/keeping their horses. If you are interested, buy something and help the cause. If not, just ignore this post. Either way is OK...I just wouldn't feel right if I didn't pass it along. These are not relatives or friends of mine, and I don't get any cut, nor do I want any recognition or anything like that -- nor are any of you obliged to buy anything or do anything. Again, I just wouldn't feel right if I didn't pass it along. Feel free also to pass it on to anyone whom you think cares.

If this offends you, I apologize...just ignore it and move on.

If I were a beat reporter for a major metro, this would be blasphemy. But I'm not a beat reporter. I'm a b2b editor. And I want to help.

If this is all I can do, then so be it.

That is all...back to your regularly scheduled day...

2008-07-26T22:32:00.001-05:00

It's times like these that I wish I did something more truly useful with my career than I do.

So, this has been a pretty bad year in terms of the health and wellness of some people around me. However, cancer continues to stalk me and those around me.

The latest: One of my two very best friends from my time in Missouri (they married each other) I just found out, is about 98 percent certain he has cancer. Supposedly, it's one of the "better" cancers to have, in that it can possibly be taken care of easier. But still...this guy is only a couple years older than me, for Christ's sake.

Furthermore, I've gotten disappointing news about a couple other cancer-fighting friends and family members over the past few weeks/months (my Dad is OK though, for those wondering)...

So there you go...these are times I wish I were a doctor or chemist or whoever would potentially discover the "cure" for cancer. Rather than some idiot journalist.

2008-07-15T20:30:00.000-05:00

No video of A.J. rolling over yet, but I posted three new videos on my YouTube channel today: http://www.youtube.com/southsideandy.

Including, yes, today A.J. tried rice cereal for the first time, and it was caught on video (since Daddy had to work)...

2008-07-12T00:40:00.000-05:00

Well, we've reached a neat milestone in A.J.'s development...the last day or so, he's enjoyed rolling over, pretty much constantly. I put him down this afternoon (well, Friday afternoon) on his playmat, and instead of playing with the toys, he'd roll to his right and onto his belly, and then roll back onto his back. Then he'd roll left onto his belly and vice versa. He wasn't laughing or smiling or anything, just looking around and getting the hang of it. I guess he started doing that Thursday...now it appears to be fun to him.

I'll try to get some video of it and post it in the next day or so...

2008-07-01T22:19:00.000-05:00

Just like his daddy, a total ham...warning, this is LOUD also:

2008-06-25T21:54:00.000-05:00

In about a month, I'll accept the first award I've received for my personal achievements in my career/schooling since high school. I was awarded by the A S B P E (you can go to their Web site and search for my last name, and you'll find it). Note, I did win an award a couple years ago, but that was part of a team effort. It means a TON, but this means something different, obviously.

I think Laz has posted deep thoughts along these lines before...which makes sense as he's much more of an award-winning journalist than I am, so of course he should have posted about it by now. (I'm serious, Laz.) But, hell, I guess I'll join the fray here. It is, of course, for the record, so when I'm dead and gone, anyone who cares can read all about it. Right?

I don't know how many entered, but it is a big deal to win this thing -- to me, anyway. This award is an even bigger deal for me, personally, as many of you might be able to figure out. Sure, the end result of my college studies certainly never really prevented me from doing fine for myself in the industry, even being outright honest and forthright about it during interviews. I've never lied. I've never said I wasn't lazy. I've never said I didn't make mistakes. But I did always say that, honestly, part of me knew what I was doing. I didn't know what it would have resulted in -- couldn't fathom that. But, if I got through with C's, then I still got the parchment.

But, of course, I've always had this deep down concern that, hey, maybe I was always what they said: a big fish in a small pond growing up. Never had the real dominant talent and outright ability that I displayed in smaller settings with lower standards. NU was the much bigger pond, and then, of course, the real world beyond that was a vast ocean.

After my best friend at work had won the very same award last year (she had taken my previous job when I was promoted), I told Gina that she was lucky I did not enter last year, because I could have easily won the award. I kind of felt that way this year. It was my last chance and that I shouldn't have any trouble winning it. Arrogance? Maybe. But, I've come a long, LONG way even since the days of PFW. I AM pretty arrogant about my abilities when provoked. I need to be, especially now. I think back to what I was doing and where I was going then, and it's a completely different career path and world.

I'm not an awards-driven kind of guy. I'm not going to walk around with this pinned to my shirt and make my minions bow down to me. That's not me. HOWEVER, it is SO NICE to earn some recognition from my peers and some real, honest-to-God, positive reinforcement that, yes, I know what I'm doing and I made the right decision to be where I am now. Sure, five months of unemployment will limit your options when they come knocking on the door. But I was literally one week away from pursuing a job in landscaping, and scrapping journalism altogether. I had a contact and a connection, and with unemployment running out, I was that close.

So, what's the point of this post? Eh, I guess to clear my head of this a bit. Since I was informed I'd won, my stance has softened a bit on what this award means to me truly. To the point where, I submitted about five different articles/designs for my magazine to the annual edit/design awards for that same organization, and if I win in any of those (or my colleagues on my magazine win), I'll be even happier than the award I'm personally getting.

There is simply nothing better than positive reinforcement from a qualified source, I suppose.

2008-06-23T22:54:00.000-05:00

You know, for not having gone to the hospital much in my life prior to, say, high school, I've really "stocked up" on trips this past year...

Today, Gina had minor outpatient surgery for a leftover issue from childbirth/aftereffects, for which we sat at the hospital for about 8-9 hours. It was a little longer than expected, but Gina had a slower recovery time than expected. All is well to this point though, and she's home and functioning fine, just hurting. Should be all better in a couple weeks to a month (the pain and whatnot). So, no worries...she'd been dealing with this since about two weeks after A.J. was born, so finally, finally, she got it taken care of after trying every other non-surgical method known to man. Hopefully this will be the end of it.

In other health news, my Dad appears on the fast track to recovery as well. He and my little bro went to the first car show since his operation, and he was able to walk around the entire fairgrounds and drive to and from Kendall County fairgrounds without any problems other than getting a bit more tired than usual. So that's good. I was teasing him (and this would be gross, except that most of you know him and would probably find this funnier than gross), asking if he peed on anyone while there...that's code for, the guy was boring the hell out of you or bullshitting you, so you just let it flow right there (he still has a bag attached...which he hopefully gets removed this week). He said no, but he did tease Eddie about going to the bathroom before the long drive back home, I guess. :) So, his sense of humor is going strong...not that it wasn't before, honestly.

Otherwise, everything's busy as always. You all know how it goes... :)

2008-06-14T14:24:00.003-05:00

It's all about the Benjamins, baby.

2008-06-11T21:52:00.000-05:00

1. Utah is beautiful.
2. Even the small area I saw.
3. I forgot my camera.
4. It was snowing this morning.
5. I'm going back to Utah.
6. I will bring my camera.

2008-06-06T23:13:00.000-05:00

OK, Dad's home today, and he's in great spirits. Went to visit this evening and he sounded and was feeling a whole lot better. He'll be pretty much confined to the house for a while though...so I'm sure that good mood won't last too long. :)

Partially, too, he's in such a good mood because the hospital was just terrible -- bunch of morons. More than usual.

So, just giving you the grand ol' update. I'm off to Utah (of all places) for a conference for a few days on Sunday...not that it's like this place has been a hotbed of activity, right? :)

2008-06-03T22:08:00.000-05:00

OK...have an update on my Dad, for anyone reading who might care... :)

Dad had the surgery yesterday to remove the ol' prostate (or prostrate, as he keeps calling it). It went well, no complications (yet), and they checked out the area around it while they had him opened up and found no signs of the cancer having spread to adjacent lymph nodes or anything around there. He was groggy and half-awake when I left the hospital in the afternoon.

Today, he sounds a lot better (over the phone) and they actually fed him some liquid diet stuff, so that's good. He could, realistically, be home Thursday or Friday, which is nice. But then it's a long recovery, as abdomenal surgery would appear to be.

So, just giving you all an update there...he's doing well, from what I know, and that's where we're at.

2008-06-01T20:55:00.004-05:00

A.J. has begun rolling from his back to his side on his own in the last half week or so...but only to his left. (Funny, Daddy could never go to his left, so that's good, I guess...)

He's done it on his playmat, and in his bassinette this morning, I found him like this after Gina went to take a shower.

This picture is from this evening in his pack 'n' play. I put the camera away to let the dog out and found out that for the second time in about three hours he rolled from this on to his stomach. Is this "supposed to happen" at three months? He did it earlier on his playmat (I didn't see it, Gina did), and I chalked it up to a lucky roll. Gina saw the second time in the pack 'n' play too and said he then rolled back onto his back from his stomach by himself too.

Of course, Gina's now freaked out about it because of the possibility of him suffocating himself. Even though (I don't have a dedicated picture of it) he now prefers to be held up on a shoulder because he can hold his head up and still and look around. So his strength is really on the up and up this past couple of weeks. It's so interesting! :)

2008-05-26T18:54:00.004-05:00

big eyes
Originally uploaded by southsideandy

The baptism photos are up on Flickr...for anybody who wants to see them. A.J. was baptized yesterday, and the service was pretty straightforward and great. :)

2008-05-24T21:09:00.002-05:00

Ladies and gents, I present to you your next generation American Idol. Apparently. Maybe.

And I don't mean Gina (based on age, not capability). Warning, it's a bit loud, but you have to keep the volume up a bit to hear A.J. He's been doing this a long time, actually.

By the way, if you want to see a lot of videos of A.J., I have them up on YouTube, but they're private, invitation-only...so if you have a YouTube account and want to see them, send me your email address there and I'll add you to "the list"...if not, no sweat...I plan to put the really cool ones up here from time to time.

2008-05-24T02:08:00.000-05:00

I have a son, right? Sometimes I wonder, mostly because, well, this past month has been a hellish whirlwind of travel and time away from home. It bothers me. It really does. Since the end of April, I've been in Germany, Atlanta, Minneapolis and just got back yesterday from a return trip to northern Alabama and Georgia (via, you guessed it, Atlanta).

I mean, I do enjoy seeing places and all that stuff, but now, with the boy at home, I don't want to do so much. And I'm off to Utah in the beginning of June, too. I find that I do miss him...and I feel terrible that I'm not as much a part of his development as I want to be. He totally looks at Gina whenever she calls him or even shows up in his peripheral vision. Sometimes, he doesn't do that for me. Now, I know why that is and all that, and I understand that it will change over time. But still, there's a little part of me inside that is just eaten away by it somewhat. And then I feel slightly guilty and all.

So hopefully, travel will ease off somewhat. Some time.

Laz, in commenting on my last, now ancient post, asked about I.J. Well, I am, of course, unbelievably psyched about it. But, I've been out of town, and I'm going to be crazy busy this weekend too. So I'm not sure when I'll first see it. But I do know that I will likely see it a few times. I mean, Indiana Jones is the pinnacle for me. If I didn't have A.J. here, I probably would have gone to the midnight showing on Wed./Thu. and taken Thursday off of work, seriously.

But I'm TOTALLY psyched. And I, too, have had the South Side Andy theme stuck in my head, interchangeably with the Indiana Jones theme. Did I ever mention that Gerard won some WBBM radio contest for re-recording and reworking their jingle? Well, he did...couple of weeks ago. Won a whole bunch of tickets and tours and crap. So, pretty cool. But South Side Andy is still his ultimate best work ever. ;)

2008-05-10T19:27:00.001-05:00

Our very first video. Special thanks to KM and Nick for inspiring us to do this (by doing it themselves) and recommending the RCA Small Wonder. It is really, really simple, and nice. So now we'll have the DV camcorder for long event-type things and this for everyday updates. Enjoy!

2008-05-09T11:13:00.001-05:00

Wow! This video is amazing...

Tornado tosses cars.

Sorry that you'll have to sit through an advertisement, but if you're a weather nut, this is really cool video.

2008-05-03T09:35:00.002-05:00

me at the castle
Originally uploaded by southsideandy

Well, here's what I'd been up to for the last week and a half or so...biz trip to Germany. Here are the pictures I took while over there. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I'm so glad I got this camera, and the extra lens is great! Enjoy!

2008-04-20T22:45:00.002-05:00

I figured I'd better post here sooner than later. Or my legions of fans would disappear. OK, well, that's a bit of an overstatement.

What's new with A.J.? Since my life is so boring as to not be worthy of writing about here? ;)

He's sleeping better at night...waking himself up nicely to eat and then pretty much falling asleep. He's seven weeks old today. Just sayin'...

He's really active in the morning and then again in the evening, and I guess (since I work) he does a good job of sleeping in between feedings most of the day. He's discovered how to start sucking on his hands, but he hasn't gotten coordinated enough to single out the thumb just yet.

He's trying sooooooooo hard to talk to us. It's really cute and funny and so adorable at the same time. He really loves to try to talk to me, and I love it, since I don't get to do much "bonding" with him otherwise, especially given my travels. I'll talk to him, and then when he starts moving his mouth and making noises while intently focusing on me, I stop and "listen" and then respond to him in some verbal way, or by smiling. He is smiling more "on cue" nowadays too, but more for Gina than for me. It's so ridiculously cute. Now that he's starting to do more, I need to go out and get one of them pocket video cameras that has made Elena famous. :)

You can also see that he's gaining more and more range of vision. Today he was looking at the TV from his swing, which is a good 8-10 feet away. I'm sure he couldn't outright see what was there, but he was looking at it and "focusing" on it.

Otherwise, we're just trying hard to keep him stimulated and interacted with whenever he's awake and wanting attention. It's not easy to do that and to keep up with whatever else we're trying to do, but generally speaking, he does a great job of being on his own, for what it's worth, and keeping himself entertained at the moment. He's still a pretty laid-back baby, and that's great.

Beyond A.J., things are getting done around this house. Got a new water line put in, in the hopes that it will help alleviate some of our water-pressure issues. The jury's still out on that, but the job isn't complete yet either. I've also been doing a lot of work in the yard, both front and back. If you want to see everything going on, head on over to my houseblog, and you can read up on it. Or check out my Flickr page for the pics.

Wednesday, I head out of town for a week to Germany. Should be cool, but I'm kinda bummed to go and not be around for Gina and A.J. Really, I don't want to leave, but it has to be done, for work. And at least I can feel a little better knowing that it will probably kick much ass in the end. Otherwise, work has been really rough lately in terms of pressure from the top down. It's been hectic, as always, but at the same time, there have been some nice rewards. We've put out some good stuff in recent months, so I'm happy about that. Makes it worthwhile.

Last year, around this time, I was in Germany too. And while there, I heard this song for the first time, seeing it on German MTV. Maybe I'll find another freakin' awesome song while there. :)

2008-04-05T23:55:00.000-05:00

So, has anyone seen the show "Gangland" on the History Channel? Specifically the "Maniacal" episode?

Of those of you who have, did one of the Humboldt Park intersections ring a bell to you? Did you then see my former apartment on the show? Pretty crazy that I lived on what, only a few years prior, was (according to the program) the highest earning drug-dealing corner in Humboldt Park. As I told my brother, at least I can say I lived somewhere moderately famous...

Now, let me tell you...I don't think of myself as someone who really grew up having it rough. Yeah, you know, my neighborhood wasn't the greatest in the world, and it has only gotten more dangerous since the day I was born. I can say I'm "street smart" and I like to think I'm not oblivious to what's going on around me. But it's funny, and a bit scary too, to think that me and Butch, who lived there with me in that apartment, couldn't read the signs about this place.

Yes, none of us got hurt, nor did any of our loved ones. Yes, generally, we were left alone. And, yes, we didn't live there during the absolute worst time -- the 1990s. However, it's not as though it was all peaches and cream around there. There were Sunday nights/Monday mornings when I'd be coming home from in-season PFW work and I'd have to park about 2-3 blocks away from the apt. and walk, at 2 or 3 a.m. through that neighborhood. I never saw anybody, and I guess my oblivion kept me only marginally fearful. But I was scared enough that I would be up for the next hour in bed trying to get my nerves and senses off high-alert/high-awareness. Plenty of times, Gina would come over, and then leave, and she'd be parked a block or so away, and somebody would make comments and crap. She was scared, and I was nervous, but not enough to worry heavily about it.

I just guess I wish I would have been less stupid about it. In retrospect, I'm caught by surprise. Yeah, you know, I got a hello from this or that person on the street, and most of the other people generally left me alone. But still. I pride myself on staying out AND away from troublesome/dangerous situations, and I guess, after seeing this TV show, even though it's mostly based on events that happened five years or more prior to my arrival, I'm disappointed in myself. I should have done more, better research at the time, and now I feel very lucky to have gotten away from there with few to no incidents.

2008-04-05T22:50:00.000-05:00

I don't care that the Tigers are injured to hell and aren't hitting the ball well at all.
I don't care that the Indians can outhit and outpitch just about anybody when they're on the mark.
I don't care that the Twins somehow always manage to be in the hunt, even if they lose their entire starting lineup in the offseason.
And, I don't care about the Royals.

I'm still going to enjoy the fact that the White Sox actually look pretty good and are in first place for the first time in a while. It's a good feeling that I'm sure will not last. But for now, I'm gonna be happy and enjoy it.

2008-04-01T19:21:00.000-05:00

Hmmm...well...what's new? How 'bout blogging Laz-style this time, with some updates...

--Baby's growing, as far as we can tell, and doing great, again, as far as we can tell. There have been pics, yes, but mostly of people holding him. He's not doing much that's "picture worthy" at the moment. Though many of the faces he makes are priceless. He's also begun to smile, but it's involuntary, I believe...he usually does it just before going to bed. But it's beautiful. I can't wait until he smiles voluntarily. He is definitely a strong little guy though, and he remains a relatively quiet guy, for what it's worth. He turns one month old tomorrow, and Thursday we go to the pediatrician for the one-month checkup. Our NEW pediatrician...we switched from the one we didn't like.

--Other than that, we got some bad news a couple weeks ago, that I want to share. I know many of you probably won't be thrilled to be learning about this this way, but it's easiest for me this way, so deal. :) My dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Thankfully, it's very, very early, according to the doctor, and he has a very low level right now. My mom and dad have another doc appt. on the 12th, because my dad wants my mom to know exactly what's going on from the doc in person (she was out of town when he was given the news last time). Most likely, he'll go under the knife and get it removed, at this stage. Anyway, I hope this isn't a complete shock to some of the people (relatives) reading this, but it's been long enough, and it's no secret by now. So, yeah, hey, don't shy away from talking to him about it...he's OK with talking about it and all. He's not really bummed out, but obviously, it's a concern that needs to be taken care of, and he knows that.

--So, anyway, overall, we've been just crazy busy, with the holiday and everything going on. If you haven't met A.J. and want to, the house is open, just give us a call and some heads up leeway, and it's no problem. That, however, is all I got for now!

2008-03-18T22:37:00.001-05:00

I neglected to mention...let the record show that A.J.'s first visit to a public place (other than the hospital and the doctor's office) was Noodles & Co. Would have been Babies R Us, but Gina and I were hungry for lunch Sunday, so we stopped.

Of course, he's been cooped up in the house since. That, and he'll never remember it: He slept soundly through the entire Noodles experience. He tried to sleep through Babies R Us too, but the semi-bumpiness of the cart jostled him awake a few times.

I should add: car seats are great...they fit so nicely in those wooden restaurant high chairs and on the top of shopping carts. It's nice, because I don't have to wipe anything down or worry about him touching everything (at this age, anyway).

So it was good to get him out of the house...too bad he slept the entire trip, more or less.

Also, my friend Bill and Gina's friend Lisa had their baby last Thursday...Lily--and she was a big girl too: 8 lbs. 1 oz. and 23 inches or something like that. On my biz trip, my boss was asking if A.J. was the first baby among my friends, and I was like, "No, there have been a couple in most of the friend circles."

And then I realized that, although A.J. isn't the first baby, he is the first boy in both the NU "inner circle" of sorts (right?), and also among the next generation of my friends from the South Side.

Lucky him. :)

In a completely unrelated topic, my brother emails me last night: "I'm watching this show, Gangland on History channel and it's talking about a big gang in Chicago that basically ran drugs on [the corner I lived on] and it was the best money making corners in Humboldt Park. They even showed the building I think you lived in too. Way to pick a great neighborhood."

At least I can now say I lived somewhere historic. Granted, by the time I lived there, it was starting to become gentrified--although not quite there yet. Still was not the safest place to live. Also, now I know why Kazak tore a hole in the wall the one time...it wasn't the fireworks, it was to get to the drugs still hidden in the walls, probably. :)

2008-03-17T21:43:00.000-05:00

OK, well, A.J. is better still...eating better, but still needing to be supplemented with formula. Also, he's definitely developing his sense of taste...he was originally fed the pre-mixed Similac Advanced in the hospital, and they sent some bottles of it home with us. That stuff smells intensely milky and sweet (cut it out, sickos). We went out and bought the powder form of Similac Advanced, and he was eating it fine for several days.

Then, he started to kind of just get disinterested in the formula. This puzzled me...it took me literally 30-45 minutes, with almost constant stimulation, to prevent him from falling asleep with the bottle in his mouth. Although, if I took it away and went to put him to bed, he'd get fidgety and wake up and start sucking the air and crying a bit. So he was hungry, but not interested. I deduced that maybe the powdered form of the Similac (which we WERE mixing properly) didn't taste good (or good enough) to him.

So we asked our lac specialist during our visit yesterday if we could take another couple bottles home of the premixed stuff. She said that was OK, and he's guzzled it down every time. Suffice to say, I went to buy some of it at Babies R Us on the way home from work. It's nice to be seemingly right. :) We'll see how long that lasts.

Hell, Gina's making a bit more progress (very slowly) in terms of milk production though, so maybe we won't even have to worry about formula soon. It'd save us some time and a lot of effort.

Hope you're all doing well!

2008-03-08T23:16:00.000-06:00

Rough week to start parenthood, that's for sure.

Started out great...no complications, no worries, nothing bad with the delivery and post-delivery at the hospital. Even nursing was apparently, by all counts of the experts at the hospital, going great...baby and mom were both doing their jobs well, with good "form" for lack of a better term.

But, here we are, about to "celebrate" (by sleeping) our son's one-week birthday, and I'm thinking about just how hairy a first week of life it turned out to be...

All was great and wonderful Tuesday after an expectedly challenging first night (Mon.-Tue.) at home for A.J. He slept, ate and digested, slept, ate and digested, all day long. Barely made a peep other than when he was ready to eat or have the diaper changed.

Then, Tuesday evening, some time after my parents left, the real test began. It was as though someone came and switched out our baby for a different one in our own home. Suddenly, A.J. was screaming and unconsoleable, for the most part. Although we'd only had him for about two days at this point and he'd been quiet most of those two days, we both could tell this was not crying. Something was not right in his world...not right more than normal too.

However, we tried to continue to find ways to console him. We even broke down and gave him a pacifier (a big no-no for nursing babies...depending whom you ask). He took that and quieted down for 10 minutes before spitting it out and screaming more.

A.J. wanted nothing to do with me. I couldn't do anything to calm him. Gina, however, was able to quiet him on occasion...OK, actually, only for an hour. And as such, she got one hour of sleep. I finally fell asleep close to when many of you were probably getting up for work. I slept in pretty much to lunch, while Gina's mom came over to help (or try to). Somehow, they got him to quiet down and take a nap in grandma's lap. After an hour, though, he woke up and got back to screaming.

Soon after that, I woke up, heard this was still going on and said, "That's it, I can't take it anymore. We're taking him to the ER." This was not only based on the screaming, but also based on the fact that he was fast approaching 11 hours without having pooped or wetted at all. Gina and grandma suspected jaundice, as he looked a bit yellow at home.

We got to the ER. Under the nice flourescents there, his yellow was obvious. So jaundice was definitive (and, it is common and cureable). But, they said something else wasn't right, because he had a low-grade fever and because of the bathroom issues and screaming. Jaundice causes babies to grow lazy, not unbelievably agitated.

We then had to suffer through nurses and doctors attempting to take blood from him. Three times they tried. It's not fun to watch your three-day-old getting stuck with needles. Furthermore, I had to leave for the urine sample...just know that, obviously, a newborn cannot pee in a cup, and I'll leave it at that.

We were admitted because of the jaundice, and we had to put him in a photo-therapy box. Basically, it's a clear "tanning booth" of sorts...jaundice and bilirubin in newborns is interesting, so all your scientists out there should read about it, and how the body evacuates it.

But he wouldn't lay still in the therapy box. The nurse said we would have to give him formula to calm him. This was against our wishes. We argued heavily with them, but not because we're stubborn asses...but because they weren't explaining anything properly. If they would have said, originally, that he would, guaranteed, calm down if we gave him formula and lay in the box quietly -- because he was undernourished -- I wouldn't have had to snap at the doctor and practically bite his head off to answer the one question we wanted answered, in that the formula would guarantee A.J. would calm down (because his stomach would no longer be empty).

After A.J. guzzled the formula down as though he'd just emerged from a trek across the Sahara Desert, Gina and I, of course, felt an immense feeling of guilt that we'd starved our child without even realizing it.

Once we got A.J. on a formula schedule, he stayed calm and his bilirubin levels went down VERY quickly. Gina's body is still playing catchup with supply, so we'll be supplementing with formula for a little while yet. Hopefully, the light will turn on inside her and she will soon be able to provide all the nutrition A.J. needs. Obviously, this whole incident has been really, really tough on her...and, by extension, tough on me.

There's nothing worse than feeling as though you're inadequate or you're not doing your best by your child...especially your helpless newborn. Even knowing that none of it was our fault in that we had no way of preventing this, honestly, this will likely always sit with us in the "hindsight is 20-20" category.

Thankfully, both A.J. and mom (and me) are home and healthy. We all came back yesterday, and since, A.J. has eaten well and resumed his "schedule" of sorts. It's been much better, and I hope it continues...obvioulsy, there will be more roadblocks and pitfalls, but we got through this one, and I'm hoping we'll build the strength to get through the rest in the same way.

2008-03-02T07:40:00.000-06:00

For those who I might have missed on the 3 a.m. email announcement:

A.J. (Andrew Joseph) was born at 1:01 a.m. March 2, 2008. He was 7lbs. 9.4oz. and 20? inches. Gina and A.J. are still at the hospital, obviously, doing very well. Dad had to come home to get a couple hours of comfortable sleep. Mom labored for 16 hours, but pushed for only one at the end.

I forgot my camera at the hospital though, so no picture at the moment. A.J. is alert, eyes wide open and looking around, and so quiet (for now).

More soon...I'm very tired. :)

2008-02-29T22:56:00.001-06:00

Dammit. No Crazy Lunar Eclipse Baby. No Leap Day Baby.

Now I'm just hoping for a This Weekend Baby. And Gina is too at this point.

This kid better listen to me better when it's out of the womb than it has while in the womb.

2008-02-27T19:22:00.001-06:00

Just an update: Still no baby. But we're getting close. Really.

2008-02-24T22:42:00.000-06:00

I've been unusually tired over the past week.
I feel like I'm hungry, although I'm not, a little more too, and I skipped the gym last week (for a variety of reasons...I didn't really "skip" the whole week, like I sat around instead).
For the third time in the past week and a half, I feel as though I'm getting sick.

Could these all be signs of the baby's impending arrival? Who knows...I'm certainly not feeling any more or less stressed about it.

So I guess we'll see...I don't even have the baby here and I feel tired. Can't wait to see what happens when baby arrives.

I am tired of waiting though...I just wish the baby would get here.

2008-02-23T00:35:00.000-06:00

The following is from a coworker's "Dictionary of Corporate Bullshit" calendar. Another coworker friend and I have deemed ourselves to fit this definition perfectly...and honestly, this has made my week and my weekend. I could honestly ride this out for a while too. It is so completely right on.

“Self-starter: Someone who is deemed to need no supervision, guidance, external motivation, or training in order to do the job and is brought into an irrevocably damaged situation and will vainly attempt to fix it; a gung-ho person whom it is great fun for crusty vets to watch as he or she slowly self-destructs.”

I immediately copied this page of the daily calendar and plan to post it in my office post-haste on Monday.

Have a great weekend! Still no baby here!

2008-02-21T09:17:00.001-06:00

Baby Watch 2008 continues...no lunar eclipse demon child happened in our family last night. Unfortunately, that means no Superman (or Supergirl) powers for the child either -- at least not lunar-eclipse related ones. :)

Gina did go to the doctor yesterday, however, and got a more definitive idea of what we're looking at. Basically, this baby will not be born any later than March 5, one week past the initial due date. If it gets to then, they will induce. That means, Anthony, your entry is still safe, mostly because Eulalia's entry is three days prior (basically, if we have to induce on the 5th, the prize is all yours, either way, but this will work). So you'll sit where you are...sorry. :)

We don't know any more, though, about "when" of course. The baby has seemed to move down more, but it's doing it slowly. So we'll see what happens. Personally, I just want this baby to come already, as I'm tired of waiting to see what happens. If things are going to change, I'm ready for them to change already. :)

2008-02-16T00:40:00.000-06:00

Hmmm...interesting. I know have two days/times to root for, for this baby to be born.
1. You already know this one: Feb. 29.
2. I just found out that the evening/night of Feb. 20 (four days from now) there's going to be a total lunar eclipse. I think it would be cool to have been born during a total eclipse of any kind. Just sayin'...

It's interesting, because, although I'm not a big astrology person, I looked up at the sky tonight while letting the dog out, and I noticed that the Moon is actually in Taurus right now...heading for Gemini (my sign). So, if the baby is born tomorrow, somehow, it will share Gina's sign and be born with the Moon in my sign. Don't know if that "means" anything, astrologically, but hey, it would be interesting. Maybe. I still vote for Feb. 29, but being born during a lunar eclipse would be neat too--even though it would prevent Dad from being outside trying to take pictures with his new camera, testing the lenses and such and seeing how capable they are. :)

Either way, the baby still ain't out yet, if you haven't figured that out by now. :)

2008-02-08T20:18:00.000-06:00

Well, I sucked it up and finally made a decision and bought a freakin' camera...I kept looking and looking for some sort of negative deal-sealer factoid against Nikon D40s or Canon XTs and could find NOTHING that would have prevented me from buying either. The only negatives I read about I could relatively live with.

So, God bless Costco for having a great deal online--I am able to get the Nikon D40, the basic 18-55mm lens and the 50-200mm Image Stabilization lens and a 2GB memory card for a pretty solid deal, compared to some of the other stores out there. I'm supposed to get it on Wednesday, so I'm patiently waiting. :)

Otherwise, I've just been working hard at work and trying to put the finishing touches on things around here before the baby comes. Really, there hasn't been a whole lot going on otherwise.

I am proud of myself, though, as I've been going to the gym regularly, and running on the treadmill regularly. Today, I jogged a full 2.5 miles (at 5 mph) without slowing down or anything. I typically run at 6mph, and the furthest I'd gone at that speed was about 1.25 miles.

Yet, it's funny, because I've still lost only 10 pounds since starting the ol' Weight Watchers back in the fall. I guess this is going to be my standard weight--I must be replacing fat with muscle. That's good, but unless I starve myself, I'm probably not going to get much lower than I am. And I'm not in the business of starving myself. I'm in the business of being healthier, which, by far, I am. So kudos to me. Even if no one else could care less. ;)

2008-01-28T19:00:00.000-06:00

Well, we're officially within one month of the baby's arrival, assuming it gets here on time.

Here's where Gina stands...

Now, where do you stand? Email me for Baby Birthday Pool information, if you're interested. :)

2008-01-26T19:47:00.000-06:00

Went home today to help my dad move things around in the garage because he had to get some work done on the family vehicle(s), and hung out there with him while he worked on Eddie's girlfriend's car.

Couldn't help but think how little has changed in that garage, even since I was little. I mean, there's just shit everywhere, but in some kind of system that my Dad knows. I realized where I got my organizational habits from. If he asked me to find something, I wouldn't have a CLUE where to start. But he could probably direct me immediately to whatever it was that was needed, no matter how small and in what size container. Of course, he'd also get frustrated that I couldn't find it myself, thus ending up not saving him any time or effort in the end. Hmmmm...sounds a bit like me too. :)

On the way home, I stopped at the former Tuxedo Junction, which is now a Mobil. While I was pumping gas, I was looking around at the stores and businesses and marveled, as I do often when I'm home, at just how different everything was. Only two stores within eyeshot were the same as they were when I was younger, and at least 5-10 of them had signs in Spanish.

Somewhere along the way home, as my mind meandering nostalgically around random memories and thoughts, I realized the depth of what "10 years ago" is at this stage, and how different even MY life was 10 years ago. I was a junior at NU, interning at PFW, with a whole lot of stuff ahead of me (not that I don't have a whole lot ahead) and nary a clue as to all the things that WOULD happen to me in the next decade.

I can't say that cliche, "If you told me 10 years ago that I'd be ... I'd tell you you were crazy," but, I can say that it's amazing how something can seem so long ago, yet not long ago at all. I know that, yes, this particular 10-year period in most people's lives is a period of great changes, but still. It's pretty amazing to think of it all.

Makes me want to get back on writing that book. I just don't know where to start. There's so much. Maybe someday. Someday.

2008-01-22T22:43:00.000-06:00

GREAT news!

Kazak, apparently, is fine. After he got the "bile acid" blood test on Saturday, they called Monday to tell me that his bile acid test came back OK. I said, "Well, what's next?" and the doctor suggested that we were at a crossroads of sorts. I still didn't really want to pay for an abdominal ultrasound if we could avoid it, and she understood and even said it would probably be overkill at this point.

I was about to ask if we could recheck the albumin and BUN levels -- the ones that were decreased in the original blood test -- and would that be cheaper, but she beat me to it, saying that the blood lab gives a discount if an animal needs to be checked again within two weeks.

So we took him in Monday, and I got a message today saying that his albumin and BUN levels, and the rest of the blood sample, were normal. So, it appears that whatever was bothering him is gone, and that it might have just been an infection.

That said, it just means the serious, immediate worry is solved -- no liver failure or liver cancer or anything like that, it appears.

Now, I want to talk to the doctor and see if we can remedy the only two things that "alarm" me at this stage:
1. His propensity to suddenly eat his own poop in the yard, along with anything else he can smell, pick up and eat out there.
2. The fact that he lost about 5-6 pounds since last year's checkup.

I still have a theory that maybe his metabolism or digestive system has aged to where the low-calorie dog food I feed him isn't giving him the proper nutrition anymore. It might be time to switch his diet off that lite diet and onto a senior diet or something. But we'll see, I guess.

Either way, this is a remarkable strain off my subconscious psyche right now, thankfully. I was really worried.

2008-01-15T23:46:00.000-06:00

Another thing I've apparently inherited is the desire to record my child's life.

My friends who have kids (most of whom read this blog) have done a stellar job...and they've been part of the inspiration to grow the seedling that was planted by my grandpa on my mom's side, who had a Super 8 mm camera and used to have it at all the family functions when I was younger and he was still alive. I've always enjoyed home movies, photos, etc. -- anything that was a record of how things were and how stupid/silly people could be. I'm a sucker for that stuff, and honestly wish there were more of it available to me from my younger days and even my parents/grandparents days.

So, this leads me to a couple current tugs-of-war.

1. I wanted some money for Christmas so I could buy a Digital SLR in anticipation of the baby's arrival. I got not much money. So I had to temporarily put that on hold...the tug of war comes in because now I have Kazak vet bills to worry about, in the sense of how much that's going to end up costing me in the end. Making matters worse, Best Buy decided to put the Canon EOS XT on sale for really cheap (Costco's even cheaper, though), which opened my eyes to the possibility of getting a camera now.

2. Now, also, I'm torn as to whether I want the Nikon D40 or the Canon EOS XT. This won't be an easy choice, because I know people who swear by both cameras.

3. KM introduced me to an awesome little digital recorder that she has used for her little baby girl to record quick videos for posting on their blog. It's really awesome, and I plan on getting one--it's the RCA Small Wonder.

Basically, to summarize, I have too much going on and not enough time or loose change to do all them. Not right now, anyway. Hopefully soon, however. :) Sorry for the complaining, if it sounded like complaining. If anyone wants to use the Comment box as a forum for bashing Nikons or Canons, be my guest. :)

2008-01-14T14:06:00.000-06:00

You know what sucks? Aside from the normal things that we all know suck on a daily basis?

I busted my ass, changed my eating habits and began an exercise regimen, and I couldn't even get to the ultimate goal I really was after.

You may remember this post, seven months or so ago. Well, that was the first point at which I decided to do something about my health. I didn't join Weight Watchers until around Labor Day or anything, and I didn't join the gym until November (because I played softball through the summer and fall). But I did those things, yes, to lose weight and get in better shape -- which, if I leveled off today (not stopped, levelled off), I'd still have accomplished both those things.

But my ultimate goal was to lower my LDL cholesterol. That's why I did the diet part of the equation -- to turn my borderline-high LDL level on its end and knock it back down. Not so, I guess. I've lost 9-11 pounds (depending on the day and time of day). My eating habits are under control, specifically, my portions. On Friday, I completed three full miles (that's basically a 5k) on the treadmill in 37 minutes (running and walking, mostly running), something I didn't think I'd ever do. I'm going to be in probably the best shape of my life for the start of the softball season when it rolls around. Honestly, I feel really good about the way I look, and I fit into my suits and several pairs of pants I couldn't wear anymore. Furthermore, I'll probably be better prepared (notice, I say 'better' not 'fully') physically to handle the sleepless nights that Baby will bring about, since I am in better shape.

Don't get me wrong, I'm THRILLED about these things. VERY THRILLED. But, part of me is disappointed that all those salads I've eaten and all the water I drink changed nothing about my LDL level. The doctor said today, after my blood test last Tuesday, that it was the same as last time, but to keep up the exercise and eating right. Of course I will.

It makes me think about that commercial about cholesterol from this frankfurter, and your Uncle Frank. I guess I inherited it from my Dad, who has had cholesterol problems. Oh well...maybe it takes more time and effort, I guess.

Like I said, I'll gladly take everything that has come with my lifestyle changes, and I know that a borderline high cholesterol level isn't the end of the world compared to some of the things people go through and all that. I understand that. But I do wish that the LDL levels could have at least budged to make me feel a little better. Just a teeny bit? Please? :)

2008-01-11T23:40:00.000-06:00

Well, no news is good news...in a sense.

I had to go to O.K. City for work Wed. and Thu., and was worried quite a bit that something would happen with Kazak while I was gone. Thankfully, nothing did. I even had my brother "on alert," ready to come and get him and Gina (since Gina obviously can't carry Kazak's 67-pound ass even when not pregnant) and get them to the vet, I was that worried. But Kazak's actually been "normal," as in normal of late, anyway. Really though, he's still his playful, loving self, just with those new oddities. So I take that as a good sign (not that he's getting "better," just that whatever's going on inside is not a big problem, yet, so I have a bit of time).

I did get an estimate from the doctor for the new blood test and ultrasound, and it's going to run me nearly $500 to get that work done. That is quite a lot of money. So I need to sit down and think this through...and talk to the doctor a bit more about it. What is the likely outcome of a negative result? What about a positive? I know she'll probably be non-committal, saying we won't really know until we find out what's going on, but I will tell her I just want an idea that spending $500 isn't going to turn into $3,000 and/or my dog's chances of survival or a normal life are slim to none. So I hope that she can give me at least a glimpse of what I might see. Who knows?

Pet ownership...gotta love it. More next week, unless something interesting happens sooner.

2008-01-08T19:26:00.000-06:00

Well, I'm nervous...but not about parenting, for those of you asking.

No, I'm nervous about my current "responsibility"...

Kazak has been acting strange lately -- as though he's ALWAYS hungry, and that more than usual. I didn't think too much of it, until he ate one of those flour/salt/water "fossils" that kids make in school, that Gina had laying around here yesterday. She came home and it was chewed apart, and he had then thrown up all over the place. He also drank all the water in his bowl. Gina filled the water bowl, and he immediately drank ALL of it. So much so, that his stomach was disdended (sp?) when I got home.

So, I took him to the vet immediately. They didn't find anything obviously wrong with him (and he's acted normal, aside from "eats own feces", which he had NEVER done before). But, he's lost 5 or 6 pounds since last he was at the vet (about a year ago), among those other things. So they wanted to do a comprehensive blood test.

Today, the doc calls and says two enzymes in his bloodstream are mildly decreased, a possible sign of a liver problem. Also, his urine (from the test) was unusually diluted, even more so than expected from all the water consumption. So, I'm waiting to get an estimate on how much a more specific blood test and an ultrasound on his liver might run.

He's an old dog (going on 10 next month), but I don't know if I'm quite prepared for the worst. Then again, I don't know if I'll ever be. He's not just a "family dog." He's MY dog. Let's hope for the best.

2007-12-23T21:53:00.003-06:00

2 months to go
Originally uploaded by southsideandy

For those who asked...here you go. I was waiting to get this pic from the actual photographer. :)

2007-12-22T11:42:00.000-06:00

Pregnant Gina Photo Update: I may have one tonight, as I'm getting a CD of images from my sister-in-law. Or, I'm sure someone will take a pic of her tonight at our family holiday party, so it will be soon. :)

Just letting you all know I haven't forgotten. :)

2007-12-20T22:17:00.000-06:00

I'm sure this conversation has been had a thousand times on a thousand blogs, but I just need to share this, so what the hell.

Do you have a song that, no matter what's going on, where you are, what you are doing, you hear it and you smile and can get lost in the song very easily? And I don't mean lost like, singing along or anything, I mean, like, feeling like you ARE IN the song...like, it is you. Hard to explain I think...but many of you get what I'm saying.

Well, twice in the last month or so, I've found myself getting completely lost and immersed in a song that has been among my favorites in a very short (compared to my life) time. That song is "Fast Cars and Freedom" by Rascal Flatts.

Now, the weirdest thing is this...I have no idea why my love of this song goes beyond the other songs truly in my top 5, 10, 20, etc. I mean, yes, it's a very beautiful, well-put-together, upbeat song that really says "I love you" in an "unorthodox" way...it's about everlasting love and nostalgia for what the person is inside and the times spent, rather than what the situation is now. The memories, the beauty, the friendship.

Do I have this today with Gina? Sure. Could I sing this song to Gina and have it apply today? Sure (except for the Red Nova and dust trail parts, of course). But, that said, it's not like it's "our song" or even one of our songs. So, that's not really it.

Nor does it apply to any other situations. Nor does it apply to, say, my parents (as Elvis' "Can't Help Falling in Love" holds a deep, deep bond for me because of my parents) or anything like that. In other words, my brain, soul, psyche or whatever really relates to this song, and it's weird because I don't really know why. But I'll tell you, I can easily, easily close my eyes and just absorb every second of the song and totally, totally enjoy it. And, it kind of puts me at peace, too, in a sense.

It's just weird. Any thoughts? :)

2007-12-18T22:40:00.000-06:00

It has been insane. Just all-out insane.

Between work getting busier, crazier and more demanding, the on-the-way baby, the holiday "requirements" such as parties, shopping and decorating, the work that needs to be done around the house, the snowstorms and the delays that they bring, the travel, and the desire to stay fit by going to the gym three times a week after work, it's a miracle I've been able to update my house blog, let alone this one.

So, I apologize, although you all know that I'm being insincere. :) Really, I'm not, but what else can I say? My life, right now, follows these three priorities (not in order): work, house, baby/Gina. That's about it. Seriously. And those three take up just about all my time.

In good news, I'm about to embark upon a major renovation of our basement family room -- tearing out the walls, drywalling, installing a bar, possibly a fireplace of some sort, the 125-gallon aquarium into the wall, and a nice big-screen TV (eventually) for entertaining. None of this, of course, will happen overnight, or anything close to overnight. But I want to tear the walls out before the baby comes, in the event that there is a bad case of mold -- I can more easily get Gina out of the house with the baby in her than get them both out once the baby is here. If the renovation lasts beyond the birth of the child (which it will, obviously), at least the unhealthy portion will be out of the way.

Also in good news, I'm headed to the championship game in two of my fantasy football leagues this year. So that will be nice, especially since, in both leagues, I started out crappily and bounced back nicely. We'll see how it goes though...I don't have high hopes, but I haven't had high hopes much this year as far as that goes.

And for those who remain interested, Ghetto Bowl XI will feature Extreme Flachulation (Conor) vs. Roving Rowdy River Rats (Mike Faber). Conor's team is the former Iowa Tornadoes, so Donna, you have someone to root for. :) And he still has Kurt Warner.

Ah well...that's about it for now...carry on...and if I go more than a month between now and my next post, have a Merry Christmas, to those who feel so inclined to do so. Those others of you, go see a good movie that day or something. ;) Also, if I don't see you...Happy New Year too!

2007-11-08T09:43:00.000-06:00

Just so you all don't think I love EVERYTHING that comes out of the South Side, here's my review of a book on Amazon that I just read, written by a guy who grew up about 1/8-mile from where I grew up...I'm such an ass, but the book deserves it. It's TERRIBLE:

This would get an English class "F"...get an editor!, November 8, 2007
By South Side Andy "South Side Andy" (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews I grew up in the same area as the gentleman who wrote this book. I know of the bond that friends in that neighborhood had...I experienced the same thing in my youth (and still today, although I'm not six decades along in those friendships, but getting there). So I was excited to see (a) a South Sider doing well and trying to spread the knowledge of what true friendship--long-lasting friendship--is, (b) a book written about my neighborhood, and (c) someone trying to qualify and quantify the significance of this type of long-lasting friendship.
I was completely disappointed. First, I felt bamboozled (by my own fault, as I should have checked) because it was self-published--not that self-publishing is bad, but I would have looked more into the quality than I did had I known. Mr. Cass says he rewrote and rewrote the book over and over...but obviously, he never had an editor, or anyone who might have gotten a C-plus in high school English, look over the text. Either that, or he got totally ripped off by someone who didn't even look at the book. Here are some mistakes: "ownly"; "we'll" when he means "will"; random returns and indents in
the middle of sentences; terrible ,terrible use and misuse of punctuation; and the list goes on. It was an extremely difficult read because of that.
So I thought I'd get past that and the content would shine beyond the grammar implosion. Not so. The summary heavily overpromises a much better story than what you get. There is little to no depth of characters, stories -- memories that fashioned the friendship, supposedly -- often last two paragraphs or less, and more time is devoted to roadtrips AWAY from Chicago than the times spent in the neighborhood that fostered the friendship.
One whole chapter, on their club (which is mentioned in the summary as a key part of the book) barely gets into any detail about any of the parties that the characters supposedly had every weekend one year. Or why those parties might have galvanized the friendship. If there were so many and they were so good, why do we hear little about them other than, we had some drinks, we got into some fights, we invited some girls over, and we had fun?
Overall, this book needs a LOT LOT LOT of help. I'm sorry to be so harsh, but I was so very disappointed after thinking a fellow South Sider might have hit it out of the park and got something published about our way of life...as such, this book is a stream-of-consciousness memoir that appears to be hastily thrown together to impress the friends that appear in the book and make a quick buck on the side. On top of it, it's a poor representation of growing up in the Gage Park/Marquette Park area (in the 50s and 60s and beyond, racial tension was EXTREME in this area--why no more than maybe a minor mention of that?). Good thing the online publishing house has a good marketing dept., because they bamboozled me pretty good. Please don't be the next one to be bamboozled.

2007-11-07T23:21:00.000-06:00

SNOW!

Not much...very light, but snow is indeed falling as I type this. I love snow, though I'm not fond of the cold that brings it. :)

Anyway, as you were...

2007-11-04T23:10:00.000-06:00

Is it possible, do you think, to be allergic to a particular day of the week?

I'm serious...I take Claritin every single day, and it does the trick. Except on Sunday evenings, it seems that I happen to break into a hay fever attack in the evening oddly enough every now and then.

I've ruled out a few things:
1. It's not the house or the room I'm in, because I used to have these hay fever attacks at PFW on Sunday evenings when I was at work, and even had them before that, though I can't say for sure that they were on Sundays, specifically...though I think I remember a couple Sundays where I was leveled by hay fever attacks.
2. It's not the dog, nor am I regularly around a different dog or cat on those days, because this was happening before I went by my parents' house on Sundays, and if it was Kazak, I'd break out in a hay fever attack on Saturdays too.
3. Although I do eat slightly differently on Sundays, it's not anything unusual. Just a bigger meal during the day and a smaller evening meal, if that.

The things I haven't ruled out are that it only happens on Sundays in the fall--but I've always known that the fall is a much more difficult time for my allergies anyway...I just want to narrow down why it happens on Sundays in the fall. Because, the weirdest thing is this: I didn't have a hay fever attack on Sundays regularly until I started this freelance editing work. Like, when I was hanging out at my parents' or Gina's parents' house(s) on Sundays, I didn't have this problem.

So, maybe I'm allergic to editing on Sunday nights. Does anyone think that's possible? And I'm only half-joking here. Maybe there's some dots that I'm not connecting...any wild ideas?

2007-11-02T11:45:00.001-05:00

Suck failure, freaks!

At Globo Gym, we're better than you. And we know it.

Speaking of which, I just joined a gym, in real life. I had plateaued in my fitness routine after having lost about 11 pounds. So it's time to kick in the cardio, then the resistance training. And time to get it "on the schedule" before the baby gets here. :)

Oh, and Merry Christmas, everyone. WLIT and 105.9 (or 7 or whatever) have converted to all Christmas music. Then again, they just said snow is possible next Tuesday...either they're making it up to reinforce the playing of Christmas music or it's closer than we really think. :)

2007-10-10T21:32:00.000-05:00

Awesome. I went a month and five days without posting. That should scare everyone away from reading about my life. Yeah.

Hmmm...what has happened?

All is, as expected, relatively fine at work. Actually, one of the perks of losing a handful of the people above you is the trickle-down effect on some things. That trickle-down caught up to me yesterday. I now have my own office, complete with window to the outside and door to the hallway. No more cube farm for me.

I should be excited, and I am, for what this MEANS and all. But I am disappointed, in that my cube was actually in a great spot that I enjoyed being in. In city living terms, I lived at the end of a side-street cul-de-sac in the heart of the vibrant, action-packed area. So, I was near the fun and excitement, but nobody ever really came "down my street" unless they belonged there. Furthermore, you couldn't see my cube from the main hallway, so I could keep it as entropy-based organized as I wanted. Now, with my door directly off the main hallway, I have two things: (1) Must look organized (even though I WAS very organized, just in my own messy-looking way), and (2) I'll have more "company" in that more people will stop to chit-chat or interrupt me a whole lot more, because I'll be on their way. I'm like the Grand Canyon to the Griswolds' Wally World now...they'll pass by, stop for a little while, and then carry on their merry way. But, again, I am very happy, overall, about getting an office, especially since I'm staying in the same area of the building as I was in my cube. I'm literally moving my stuff about 15 steps. That's it.

What else? Well, my men's 12-inch softball team won second place in the fall league we played in. It was a very fast league, no doubt, but we kicked some major ass early on. Then, we tailed off a bit. Still, it's one of the best, if not the best, sports teams I've ever played on before. So that was cool.

I actually read a book: "Devil in the White City"...so that was odd for me to do, but I did enjoy it, which was to be expected. If you're a big Chicago history buff, you need to read it.

I also made headway and positioned myself well to carry out a project LONG in the thinking and short in the making. I have a few more things I need to take care of on this project, which will remain "unknown" here, for now, but at least I appear to have the main caveat out of the way. For now, it will be an "unknown" project...but eventually, you will all know what it is. Of course, it's not a big deal to anyone except me, really, and it's not going to make me money or anything, but it's something I've long wanted to do, and now I'm making progress. So that's good.

I'm deciding between three characters for Halloween. Since I've been Capt. Jack Sparrow (very well, I might add) the last two years, it's obviously time for a change (even though he would still be appropriate). I reserve the right to keep those three characters a secret as well...only because I don't know who is reading this nowadays, and I'd hate for someone who was going to be at any party I'm at to have an idea ahead of time. I like to surprise folks. So, stay tuned for that as well.

I've made little to no progress on the house projects or the baby's room painting chore lately. But, this weekend will be different. I'm moving all our stuff, finally, out of storage (stop paying the Man, dammit!) and also getting the couch and refrigerator from Gina's grandma's apartment. Yeah, so if anyone's available around 9am Saturday, come on by! :)

Oh, and, lest I forget: Sometime between the last post and this one, Gina's grandma died...so obviously that kept us busy for a time as well.

Meanwhile, I've just been slaving away at work, doing my best to try to get ahead of the game. It appears to be working, and the new owners are, as of now, on the side of editorial, so that's good. We'll see how that goes, of course...but for now, all is well. Gina, also, is doing well, for those of you who may be wondering. We have a boy's name mostly settled upon, but if it's a girl, it will likely go down to "the wire" in a sense.

For now, that's all I can think of...a lot definitely has happened over the last month--let's hope I don't let another entire month go by without updates!

2007-09-05T00:46:00.000-05:00

So the upheaval has occured...new co. came in and IMMEDIATELY canned the fam that started the place a decade and a half ago. There were some folks in tears in the conference room, and Friday was a really sad day. We're a real tight group of about 100.

But, seriously, aside from that change, along with some other little "inconveniences" that are changing, it looks as though it will probably work out well. Of course, as with any change, if you ask the people around now, they'll pooh-pooh whatever they can. Personally, I'm trying to think about it as positively as possible. First, although the fam got canned, my direct boss survived. I had a feeling it would be tough to get rid of him...he's only the best guy in terms of money-makers around. Maybe he'll be there long-term, maybe not, I don't know. But at least he's there to shield my staff and I from most of the transitional silliness.

That said, I also look at this as an opportunity. Apparently, the folks they canned, they're not replacing. That means, actually, everyone in the co. just got close to "the top," as it were. And, it appears that our office will have a decent measure of autonomy, which is nice--shows that they see what success we've had and are willing to display some trust (until we screw something up, I'm sure) in us. That's nice.

At any rate, it's certainly been pretty stressful, and I've had to try to talk some of my friends "off the ledge" for Christ's sake, as many are (uselessly) concerned too much about some things they don't need to be concerned about.

I think this will be damned good for our group, truthfully, and I'm really excited. I'm worried only for some of the peripheral things that, really, don't matter overall, and for some of my friends there, who could very well be in "danger"...so we'll see.

2007-08-30T19:42:00.000-05:00

I'm a little more than 12 hours away from the announcement of major, major upheaval at work. Let me 'splain.

We were up for sale. Our division, only. Our division, by the way, kicks mucho ass. Best thing that our owners could sell (which says something right there, but I digress). So, this has been "in the works" for months now, but has been pretty much quiet for a long time.

So rumors float today about the impending purchase actually going down in the next day or so. Everyone's extremely worried, and rightfully so...for some people. Apparently, a competitor to some of our business is paying beaucoup bucks to buy us. That's OK, except that, on good word, this is very bad news for the higher-ups. VERY bad. Now, why should I care about the higher-ups? Well, three reasons...

1. I like them. They treat us right and treat us well. And they definitely treat me right and well.
2. I've built up a magnificent reputation with them. Meaning, fast track to further success.
3. I answer to the higher-ups. I'm just below them on the totem pole.

Now, I'm in little danger here, pretty much. I'll survive. But, if this goes down the way I've heard, selfishly, I'm gonna be a bit peeved. All that work, out the door--I'll have to re-prove myself (because, yes, there will be some carryover that our biz rocks the house, and that I'm a big part of it, but still, in business, it's "I'll believe it when I see it."), and also learn how to deal with a whole big slew of new people that I have to answer to. Not my idea of fun, given that I'm comfortable with those above me and know a lot of their inner-workings and intricacies.

That said, supposedly this is a great company, dedicated to growth and commitment, and that it actually might be good for our sub-divisions, simply because our previous owner was a fly-by-night out for a quick buck.

Which is evidenced by the fact that they owned us only a couple years.

So, I reserve judgement...and I know things always work out, but this is going to definitely be interesting.

2007-08-26T21:54:00.000-05:00

This weekend was most definitely tough on the diet...

After touching 189.5 pounds on Friday morning, I put down quite a lot of beer and food yesterday (though, actually a lot LESS than I used to) in a barbecue setting for the Ghetto Bowl draft and later get-together with a bunch of coworkers. Today, I had my big-money draft, and put down less food than yesterday, but still a little more than I've been eating in one day. Only slightly more though.

Yet, this morning I woke up and was at 190.5 pounds, meaning I gained a pound yesterday, when all was said and done. Again, filing that knowledge away is half the battle here. We'll see how I rate tomorrow morning. It's been really interesting. Also, it's basically gone "as planned" based on what they say. I've lost a pound or two per week after the initial big loss at the start.

That just means that I'm going to have to step it up and take it to "the next level" by finding "excuses" to exercise more...and I'm willing to do that.

2007-08-17T21:54:00.000-05:00

Weight update...In one week, I lost about 4 pounds. Pretty solid...I've read that happens though...you tend to lose a "lot" at first, and then things taper off to 1-2 pounds per week. I'm cool with that, if indeed that's the case.

Here's the funny part. Aside from now eating Healthy Choice meals for lunch rather than going to restaurants and stuffing my face, I really haven't gone nutso in terms of eating much differently. Really, lunch was typically my undoing anyway. I always ate too much, and too much crap at that.

Furthermore, I think the whole "drink X ounces of water per day" is making a huge difference too, which I'm not surprised.

Why do I say these things? Well, I've blown my points every single day so far and still lost 4 pounds in a week. Seriously. And some days, I blew it by quite a bit. And still lost weight that day even.

See, for me, it's all about the knowledge. As I go along, I'll keep tabs on what I'm eating and what my body does in reaction to it. If I continue to lose weight, then there's no reason to cut myself down further in terms of points. I AM eating better...like I said. So, probably THAT'S what's doing it. Not so much the amount I'm eating, but that I'm eating better. Yes, portions are smaller, but I snack more--but HEALTHY snacking...carrots, or pretzel crisps (which are pretty healthy), or if I feel some hunger coming on, I'll drink a glass of water with Crystal Light powder in it. That helps.

So, we'll see what happens the rest of the way...not bad so far. And the best thing is, NO MEETINGS! ALL ONLINE! :)

2007-08-09T21:02:00.000-05:00

Well, I decided, enough is enough...

I joined Weight Watchers minutes ago.

Why? Not because I'm FAT. Not because I'm more unhealthy than I ever been.

No, I joined WW because I'm tired of flirting with weighing a full 2 bills. I've not gone over 200 on the scale yet (nekkid--I'm a former wrestler, and that's the only way to weigh yourself), and I'm not going to see that.

I was surprised...it's not that expensive, really...like, $60 for the first three months, and then like $17 a month after that. If I lose two pounds per week like they say is normal, I won't even need to go past three months.

I'm at 195 pounds. I want to get down to around 170-175. I'm not in a "hurry" for any reason. I'm not under any pressure at all to do this. So I think that, given the proper discipline by me, this should be very much feasible. I have 28 points per day to use, which is good, because, based on what I ate for dinner tonight, I'd have about 10 points or so to split between the other two meals and any snacks I might have. So this should limit me nicely--by limit I mean make me make better portion control and menu choices.

I'm "excited"...about as excited as I can get.

If I can get my food intake under control, then I'll have more motivation and reason to really push into exercising on a routine basis once softball ends later this year. And that'll be nothing but good for me. That's for sure.

I'm not announcing this for any reason other than to put it here as a matter of record. Don't feel as though you have to say, "Wow, that Weight Watchers IS working for you, isn't it?" Because that's not what I'm doing this for. I'm doing it for my own health. And, probably, 20 pounds isn't going to be immensely noticeable on me...it's not like I walk around wearing tight clothes or something. :)

That said, don't buy me 14 beers at the bar. :) That's like, 28 points.

2007-08-04T23:06:00.000-05:00

Lazarian format today:

--Saw Transformers movie. Despite going in with low expectations, I left in awe of the animation, but disappointed in the (lack of) plot and the differences between the original series cartoon and the new movie. Still, Megan Fox did make it a worthwhile movie to see. :)

--Saw The Simpsons movie. Yes, it's basically a longer episode of the show on a much bigger screen, but I was pleased with the outcome. Aside from an occasional "this is why I stopped watching the show a couple years ago" moment or two, it was mostly a good hearty laugh and a "I wish the show were more like this again" kind of feeling. Loved, loved, loved the opening salvo. :)

--Been working my ass off around the house lately...actually, I've updated that blog much more than this one, mostly because, well, that's been my life and will be my life for a while now. Again, though, I'm not outright abandoning this blog, of course. :)

--Gina's doing OK...no major "complications" or full-on side effects from the pregnancy...occasional queasiness and whatnot, but now that she can take Flintstones vitamins rather than the one big horse-pill vitamin they gave her originally, she's been better. She'd even started pulverizing the thing and mixing it into applesauce, and then immediately getting sick afterward, even using that method. But I think the Flintstones vitamins have been doing OK.

--I have been looking for a place to source CO2 tanks for use in my aquarium, but can't seem to find a place that is convenient (read, open past 5 pm on the weekdays or open on weekends) or easy to get to. I just upped my lighting on my 38 gallon in advance of this, and now I'm having algae issues, so I need to get a CO2 setup sooner than later. Anyone know of any companies around here that supply that stuff?

--Finally, anyone know a good plumber on the northwest side? Preferredly one that has done work for you, specifically--that if I used them, you'd be comfortable--or I'll kick your ass if something goes wrong. In other words, do you got a guy (Chicagopedia reference) who does plumbing?

2007-07-26T21:35:00.000-05:00

Also headed to the 9-month DL, retroactive about two months, is Gina.

Figuring that the population of pregnant women had to remain stable in Chicago for all to be right in the world, we thought we'd do our part, given that Kim left town. :)

The best thing is...next year is a Leap Year, and guess when the baby is roughly due? Just shy of Feb. 29. Could we be so lucky? :)

2007-07-24T09:16:00.000-05:00

Well, we're finally shooting the last of the "D e s i g n e d T o S e l l" pieces...the ol' follow-up. Hopefully we'll be done in an hour or so and I can get back to work, since I have too much to do already. :)

For those keeping track, they tell us that our episode is being edited now, and that we probably will be on by the Fall. I will, obviously, keep everyone posted.

2007-07-09T00:32:00.000-05:00

Well, thank friggin' God...

If the White Sox are going to save any kind of face and remain competitive after this so-far miserable season, Buehrle needed to be re-signed. Now, they can build around Buehrle, Garland, Konerko and Fields.

I just wish they'd flat-out CUT Jose Contreras already. We couldn't get a bag of donuts for him at this point, and he's just been TERRIBLE. Meanwhile, all bets are off...trade whoever else you want, in my opinion. As long as they abandon the "fireballers are great pitchers" mentality. That worked really well this year, as everyone can see...particularly in the bullpen.

2007-06-25T23:08:00.001-05:00

Almost 90 degress tomorrow AND a back-to-back double-header in softball. Hell YEAH! :)

2007-06-24T20:12:00.000-05:00

It feels good to win. And to be THE key contributor to that win. My Friday night 12-inch men's league team just started up this year...it's a collection of guys who either (a) haven't played together before or (b) those who have haven't played 12-inch before. So, suffice to say, we'd been getting our asses handed to us. But we understand that growing pains tend to happen.

Well, we got our first win Friday...a 6-5, comeback win. I pitched seven strong innings (which typically happens) and my defense held up big-time behind me. The difference too was that I was able to keep hitters off balance--I had GREAT strike-zone command. You may think, "Dude, it's slow-pitch," but ask anyone who REALLY knows how to pitch in slow-pitch, and they'll agree with me. And, I'll say this, there are few out there who REALLY know. :)

Also, I went 3-for-3 and drove in the game-tying and game-winning runs with a single and one-base error by the right-center fielder. We were down 5-1 with our last raps on tap, and we put together four singles and my hit to win the game.

This after going 3-for-4 with two walks, five runs scored and a few RBIs in my Tuesday men's 12-inch league--we won that game 22-10.

My Thursday co-rec work league game, I'd rather not talk about...we're sliding a bit in that league, but I think it's because people are not playing as loosely as we should be playing...everyone's trying too hard, rather than just having fun. So, hopefully this week, we'll go out and forget about all the b.s. and just have fun.

Yesterday, we had party #2, for the folks who weren't able to make the surprise party...it was less attended, but fun nonetheless. Even more importantly, I got AWESOME bungalow-related shirt from my good friend at work! I love it! I absolutely, 100 percent love it. :) It's perfect. It's so perfect, I almost don't want to wear it and want to just hang it or frame it or something...seriously. :) But you'll all have to wait and see it some time. :)

So, anyway, that's about it for now...we're plugging away on house-related stuff...waiting--only one week until we head out for vacation in San Fran...a much-needed relaxation time, and our first anniversary celebration delayed by almost two months. :)

2007-06-17T22:07:00.000-05:00

OK...the cat can "be let out of the bag" now...hardy, har har.

For those of you who read this blog and would be interested, I'd begun a new blog about two months ago dedicated to our new house. If you're interested, email me privately. I'd post the link here, but I don't want the connection to be that simple, just for safety's sake. I've been updating it a little more frequently, but with a house blog, it's a little different, as something doesn't really happen everyday. But it does have a link to my Flickr page, which only has a couple gardening shots up at the moment.

So, yeah, just let me know...I'm not abandoning this blog. Just keeping all the house stuff over there.

In other news, I completely and totally was really bummed on Friday, because on Thursday, as difficult as it is for one person out of 10 on a team to do, I single-handedly cost my softball team a win. I made about 4 errors at shortstop, accounting for about 4 runs, and got picked off at first on a looping fly ball to the second baseman. We lost the game 5-2, against the first-place team. Furthermore, I knew I faced a really tough day at work. I ended up bringing work home to do today...more on that in a minute...

Yesterday was Eddie's graduation party...fun with family. Lots of fun...mockery, big talk, reminiscing about a time (apparently--I have no memory of this specific incident) when my father stepped in front of me because I was going to push her. Now, I don't really remember that. I remember when my brother and I were about to go at it, big time and my dad walked in and told us to shut up; I remember when my brother picked up a knife and threatened to stab me with it; I remember throwing a book across the kitchen in a fit of rage because my mom wouldn't let me go out and it nearly hitting my dad in the head as he entered the room; and I remember throwing my glasses and breaking the windowshade in my bedroom. But I don't remember ever physically advancing on either of my parents in that way. Maybe my dad remembers, maybe he mixed up the facts, maybe he was dead wrong. I don't know. But now, it bothers me a little...I have a very good memory, and I'd most definitely remember that. But I don't. I mean, if I did it, I'd feel shitty, and I think that's why I *want* to remember...so that I can apologize, because I'm sure as a bratty kid/teenager, I never apologized. But, alas, I can't remember. Oh well...

It was still a phenomenal time yesterday...I drank too much, and so did my brother, dad and relatives, and we all had our wives to take us home. Thankfully.

Today, I got some much-needed sleep...slept into the afternoon. I needed it. Then I got up and started working. I have sooooo much stuff to write and about 150 minutes of interviews to transcribe/listen to, and then cram into about a 1,500- to 2,000-word story. That's going to be tough...if only I had about 10,000 words. :) But, it'll certainly be a fact-packed bonanza of a story, that's for sure.

Well, I didn't get as much work done as I wanted, but I made some headway, which is good. I'll still have to bust my ass tomorrow and the rest of this week though. Not looking forward to that, that's for sure. But it is what it is...I can't do much about it, now, can I? :)

2007-06-13T16:31:00.000-05:00

Whoever came up with this gets my "Freakin' Perfect" award. If you haven't seen it or read these, they're perfect. So much more in-depth than the forwards that float around the Internet.

Oh yeah, hi, by the way...long time, no speak. :) But, into silence I go once again. Busy at work, as always...