Birthday Party was a Success!!

Well, it can now be told how successful my awesome wife, Vicki was in pulling off "the party of the year" up here in Rockaway Township!! Not only did she hold her liquor well, she looked GORGEOUS doing it as well. Look at this groovy picture of my wife. She's drinking a glass of wine, and probably multi tasking at the same time!!!

All of her Hors D'Ouvres were amazing. Her fried ravioli was to die for. It was the perfect mixture of zesty and sweet. Her samosas that the made were awesome as well. So often you will go to a party, and there will be no food there but tons o' alcohol. Well, it certainly can be said that there was both food and drink at my shindig. Thanks Vick for all of your help

The cake was awesome, and very appropriately labelled I think since we just were at week 2 of the NFL Season!! If only the Giants had beaten the Colts in the battle of the Brothers (Peyton vs. Eli Manning) Alas, I think that if Eli and Peyton played each other 10 games in a row, Peyton would win each game. He's just that much better an athlete!! Doesn't make for a fun game to watch, though :( we had it turned off by 9pm, so we could watch the premier of the very awesome "Boardwalk Empire" on HBO!!!! Steve Buscemi has outdone himself again

There's something about the world of the gangster that still resonates, still fascinates. Martin Scorcese described it as the dark side of the American Dream. What if you lived your life as if the rules did not apply to you? It's a fascinating concept that's for sure !!!

Look how delicious this cake was. In fact, I had some helpers who were ready to blow out the candles in case I could not perform my duties in a decent manner.

Thanks to all friends like Rachel M. , Rollie Fingers Rockstar, Kayly N. Belynda and Jarrid, Mike C. and Mary for showing up for an awesome partay. It's great to have friends like you guys around!!

Home, this must be the place

Well, I made it through the birthday. Although we will be celebrating this weekend w/ an awesome shindig at our house. Friends from far and near will be coming to help me give myself a shout out!! The awesomely cool Mary Foy and Kayly S. Newcomer will be coming all the way from Pennsylvania. It's always awesome to see those 2 kids, and I promise that I will not be sooo belligerent about the State of Israel. In fact, I promise to Kayly that I will not even voice my opinion on the Israeli settlement issue (although, you'd be surprised), or anything like that !! I'm that magnamimous a party host!! :)

It's weird saying it, as I usually look for the hole in the silver lining, but this place here on Cherokee Ave. is starting to feel very home-like. Vicki has done a great job (and I'm sure that Tobin helped "manage" the tidying and unpacking!) of getting stuff done while I'm at work. She''s amazing. Just a great wife and Mom. I don't say thank you enough to her. She's the best; I'm just so lucky. Thanks for doing your thang, Vick!!

We've met a few people in the neighborhood also. I'm not saying I'm gonna invite them over for the next UFC PPV yet, however. People seem to go out of their way to say hello and talk to you, and they seem to really mean it. There are alot of little kids in the neighborhood. I plan on trying to get Tobin outside as much as possible so he can meet folks, and form his toddler posse out here. I don't want to diss Marcellus, however!! Belynda's little boy is his main man, and those kids are gonna remain BFFs!! They get on so well together! I hear it's very cute to watch.

Work is going ok. Nothing either too bad, or too great going on. Just one foot in front of the other, really. You can develop a way of just keeping your head down, and getting through tyour work day. I'm not saying I didn't wish that work was a bit mor fulfilling or whatever. It's called work, after all as my Dad would say!! It's a bitter pill to swallow, to realize that, but what can you do?

Well, what you can do, is blog to get your creativity out!! That's just what I'm doing here!!!

It's amazing how quickly UFC has put out a better product than boxing. I caught the last HBO "Boxing After Dark", and it was such a snoozer. I remember the days of Kennedy McKinney versus Marco Antonio Barrera on HBO. Sadly those days are gone . UFC knows how to market their fighters, make them stars, so they are the reason you watch/buy the fights. Somehow, boxing has seemed to get lost along the way.

I'm not sure if it if the lack of true personalities in boxing, or what.. However, it is evident. I dont know about you, but I'd gladly watch Frank Mir fight Mirko Cro Cop rather than Sugar Shane Mosely fight Sergio Mora!! I mean puhleeeeeze. Somebody give Bob Arum a smack, and wake him up. Bob, and Don King need to start working hard to catch up to MMA! They're totally getting left behind in the dust!

40 and still (Fairly) Fabulous!

Jesus Christ, guess I had a birthday yesterday, huh? I hit the big 4-0 yesterday. It was a very mellow, fun time. I'd had alot of trepidation in me as the date approached. However, what can you do, you can't escape it, right? I just have had issues, that I work on in therapy about just where all the time went. I love being a Dad, and a husband; but where did all the years go??

Vicki surprised me 2 days ago by saying "Hey, the diaper bag is really heavy, why don't you help me unload it". Well, dopey me, I thought it truly was heavy (which, hey, it was). So I found my bday present inside!! She got me one of those "Nook" eReaders. I love it!! I think it's so amazing to have a device where you can store up to 1500 books in one place! How about that!

I promptly downloaded my first book, and I'm in the middle of reading "The girl w/ the Dragon Tattoo". Pretty good Scandinavian thriller so far. That Larsson dude had alot of talent! He left us too soon (He died at 50!). In all seriousness, stuff like the Nook opens up reading to a whole different generation. Though I still feel reading is a visceral pleasure at the same time. So, we will see. As long as people keep reading, it's all good, right?

Yesterday at work, my co-workers got me a cake, and sang Happy Birthday. It was a nice touch. Not every workplace does that. So it is nice that they do that. Then Vicki took me to a local place here in Rockaway for dinner called "Potbelly's" Good food was had by all, And the adults had champagne.

So, as I have hit my 40Th year, I can ease back, and work on being a loving , open husband, and a giving Father as well. I will keep on trying to work on being a better human being to Vicki, Tobin and those around me!!!

So Far, So OK

What, you expected me to say everything was great? :) I'm a cynic, c'mon guys, you know me better than that. In all seriousness however, the move is going really ok. The new place is starting to feel like home (A LITTLE BIT). The move started on Wednesday at around 9 a.m. when the movers got to the Madison place. I was immediately put off a little bit when the boss mover told me that some of our stuff was not going to get moved as we had not packed it yet.

I don't know if you've tried moving with a toddler in tow, dear reader, but it's very tiresome and consuming. You just have to set reasonable expectations and just deal. Neither Vicki or I have parents that are right next door (and in some cases, Thank god for that as I would not want my dad next door! LOLOLOLOLOLOL) So you do the best you can.

And in our case, we asked the landlord if we could carry on moving out stuff out on 9/2 The Thursday. They were nice enough to say yes, so we did do that.. Finally, we are all moved out. We're a little stir crazy as we will have no TV or internet access til Thursday!!!! However, the place is starting to feel ok. I'm actually writing this to you from work, as I went in on Labor Day to empty out my email so I could start the work week tomorrow on a clean slate!!!

That's another thing about the move, I needed to take an extra day off (had originally taken Tues and Wed Off), as the move was a nightmare. So, I called out work here at the drug place emporium on Thursday. Needless to say, that did not go over too well w/ the big boss men and boss women. Suddenly, I'm a rebel all over again. Oh well, what can you do. Gotta do it rock n'roll style just Like I always do, that's for sure!!! I'll hang in there as always!

Can you believe that on 9/9, I'm gonna turn 40 years old?? Crazy. Never thought I'd get here. I find myself feeling a little scared, but fairly centered about it. Not too depressed or anything. We shall see how far that feeling continues!!!!

Moving Day!

So, I am sitting here awaiting the moving guys to move us to our new abode. Boxes are packed, trash is bagged, and we are just awaiting the dudes who do it for a living. I can't say that this is a pleasant experience all of our animal s are uptight and know something is up!! I wish I could tell 'em that they are ok. There is something unique about moving, and universal about the experience. No one likes it, no one enjoys it, and it bums everybody out!!

I must give a shout out to my dear wife Vicki for hanging in there and being such a great leader in this endeavor! She's the best. Where ever we end up is home as long as I'm with you and Tobin, babe!!