Well Ho Ho Ho Everybody!

Good tidings everyone. Hope all of my Gentile friends are having a healthy and a happy Christmas. To all of my fellow Dead Sea Pedestrians out there who may be reading this: Much respect to you my fellow Son/Daughter of Abraham!!! Go and listen to some Sammy Davis, Jr. Cd's, check your 401k portfolio, and just relax :-)

Well, my Dad left on Tuesday morning. He got home safe and sound. It was great to have him, and just as great to drop him off. My therapist was very apt in saying that "hey this isn't the early 1900's on NY's Lower East Side. This isn't some Schtetyl in Russia. You don't have to live on top of your parents. You have to do for you & your immediate family. Let your Dad make his own way". Some good food for thought, I think.

On a different note, my in-laws, Galen and Shirley arrived today. It's a totally different scene having in-laws over, as opposed to your Dad. They are great house guests (and I'm not just saying that because they may read this). It was very sweet to see how doting Tobin's Grandma and Grandpa were to him!! Galen makes a mean Christmas ham as well!!!

We checked out the lovable "Fred Claus" w/ Paul Giamatti and Vince Vaughn on On Demand tonight as a family. What a groovy Christmas film. I dig VV, and Paul G. I think that Vince has a natural effortless way of performing. I hope that he pushes himself in some of his roles in the future. He can do more!

I'm psyched to see UFC 92, "Ultimate" on PPV Saturday night. My old buddy Mike "The Man" C. (don't know if he wants his last name posted on here) will be visiting us that night here in Madison to watch the fights with me. Our (Vicki and I) friend Susannah may be coming in from Brooklyn as well. However, she's no mma fan. She is coming in more of a "let's see the baby" spirit. Oh, and let's also see Vicki and Ethan" mindset. This is totally groovy, BTW.

The PPV card has several KILLER fights. This is the UFC's "big" "special end of the year card from Las Vegas. It's ironic, because Vicki, Dad and I attended last year's big end of year card. The big fights on the card:

Forrest Griffin is gonna defend his light Heavyweight title against Rashad Evans. Wanderlei "The Axe Murderer" Silva is gonna go against Quinton "Rampage" Jackson (for the 3rd time!) and Frank Mir is going to go for the interim Heavyweight Title against Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" (KILLER NICKNAME!) Nogueira.

Seeing 2 of the best Ju Jitsu ground fighters at Heavyweight in Nogueira and Mir go at it will be awesome. They both were on "The Ultimate Fighter" this year on Spike TV. Mir came off as cocky, but cool. Nogueira came off as possibly one of the nicest guys ever. I did Mir's backstory in that he was Heavyweight champ, and suffered a catastrophic leg injury while on his motorcycle (he was hit by a car). He was lucky to even survive, let alone fight at an elite level. It's quite an achievement for him to come back, even. I do not know who I will be rooting for the night of the show...

Frank was half of one of my most vivid fight memories. In the Heavyweight title fight in June 2004 against Champion Tim Sylvia, something happened that is still etched in my memory. Sylvia was going to slam Mir, and Mir threw his legs up, and got Sylvia in a perfect arm bar. You literally see the arm pulse w/ the pressure, and then snap!! The ref started screaming and stopped the fight!!! Sylvia didn't even know, and he still wanted to fight. Even though his arm was hanging at a weird angle.

On that note, let me share that video with you, enjoy!