Get this, the Saab tech writer called me to tell me that the tech that drove my car to see if it was out of alignment fessed up and said he ran over a rock. Didn’t think anything of it, but it bent my wheel. What an asshole. I told the tech writer guy that I was going to find a list of changes I wanted made in the Tech II menu that they should do for me because they messed up my car and now I don’t have it all weekend and I have to drive the “lesser” 93 Linear. Still, it’s miles on their car, not mine.

Michelle and I went with Jon and Dawn to the Fox Theater last night to see Chris Rock!
He was hilarious….for the first half of the show… he got too heavy into the Iraq war and Bush. It wasn’t really his thing, I don’t think. He should have just stuck with this whole black/white routine that he normally does and is splendid at pulling off.

I’m 100% happy that we went, but I would have rather seen his last tour, the one that was on HBO last year. I think it was Bigger and Blacker. This year it’s called Black Ambition Tour 2003.

The other day, I took my 2003 93 Vector Manual to get a few “quirks” fixed.

1. Moonroof would open halfway through closing.
2. Passenger seatbelt sensor needs to get moved.
3. Front end pulls to the left for no reason, only 6300 miles.
4. Stereo is “crappy” as I told them, and that’s how they wrote it up.
5. They said they reprogrammed the moonroof and greased up the wind deflector.
6. They said they moved the sensor per a service bulletin.
7. They said it has “sport tuned suspension” and that the car is very sensitive to the crown in the road. B.S. - I don’t buy this.
8. They did an update for EHU from: 12801089 to: 12802514. I can’t tell if this fixed anything yet.

They also updated my ICM from: 12804286 to: 12804672.

I noticed when I’m playing CDs, it added numbers 123456 to show that CDs are loaded up in the SID. Kind of cool.

I noticed this morning that it’s time for service, and I have 6300 miles.

I noticed this morning that after these updates, my climate control is out of whack. I normally have the car set to 70F in the morning. Outside temp was about 45. The air coming through the vents was cool until I turned it up to 80F. This can’t be right.

Oh yeah, saw Runaway Jury last night! Good movie. Maybe not as good as some of the other blockbuster John Grisham novel/movies, but it was entertaining to say the least. I’d recommend it.

So… the past week or so has been KILLING our webserver/mailserver/database server. I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s time we upgrade our RAM.

That is pretty crazy. The problem with these thieves is they not only charge you a setup fee for the ram, but they also charge you a monthly fee, which is totally stupd, and thievery. I emailed one of the techs asking if I could just mail him the ram on my own. He said that he’s never heard of that happening. I emailed him asking him if I could be the first.

School
Not much new. Just finished the Contemporary Management class. We had our final on Monday night. Wasn’t too bad. Hopefully I’ll get a B or better on it and get an A in the course. Our Production class starts this week. We may be able to watch our lecture by tonight, but we’ve got plans for the rest of the week, so we’ll have to watch the lecture on Saturday, it seems.

Chris Rock
We’re going to see Chris Rock tonight at the Fox Theater. Michelle and I are going there with Jon and Dawn. It should be AWESOME! I’ve never seen a real stand-up comic before! I cant’ wait!

Saab
Took the car into the dealer yesterday morning to get the flaky moonroof fixed (it sometimes opens halfway through closing it), the “crappy” stereo fixed (for having 13 speakers and 300 watts, I think it sucks)…it also goes back to preset number 1 if you’ve been listening for a while and hit NXT on the steering wheel. You’d think it would go to the next preset. This happens not only when you’re NOT on a preset, but also when you’re on a preset. Also getting the passenger seatbelt alarm fixed. It is on no matter if someone is sitting in the seat or not, at least 51% of the time. You can often times press down on the seat surface to make it go away, but why should I have to correct this bug on my own? Exactly, I shouldn’t.

Well, the day has come and gone! Kim and Matt got married on Saturday afternoon. What started out to be a shitty day, ended up being absolutely fantastic, and quite beautiful! This was one of those weddings that was flawless! The event lasted well into the night, and the hall was chock full o’ people at the very end…probably the most people I’ve ever seen at the END of a wedding! Matt has a pretty big family!

Photos (un-edited for now)

Michelle was the Maitron of Honor, and I was a groomsmen. We both had a fantastic time…ALL DAY! Michelle started her day very early, about 7AM. She had a hair and makeup appointment at Red the Salon in Birmingham…damn, those people make some serious money for what they charge! She met up with her sister, cousin, and others, and had mimosas! Michelle actually got pulled over on the way back, speeding on Big Beaver Road, as she was running a bit late to her mom and dad’s house. The officer let her off, even though she had an open bottle of Tosti in the car! Fun stuff! I made it to Matt’s parent’s house at about 10:30AM to start the groomsmen part of the day. We hung out there for a while, had a shot of Sambuca, and enjoyed the company of the groomsmen, including David and Nathan, Michelle’s cousins.

The limo ride was great. There were so many people in the bridal party that we needed to Navigator limos to make it all work out! Did I mention that I had a migraine headache brewing from about 11am onward? I thought to myself to bring some Excedrin, just in case, but I figured since I didn’t drink any alcohol the night before, there’d be no chance in hell that I’d be plagued by a headache THIS day. I was wrong. I ended up buying some at the party store after the wedding. No help. It wasn’t until Dino brought me some at the hall that it finally went away, and that was about 1 hour after dinner! Phew!

The wedding ceremony was fantastic! It was beautiful… took about an hour. We quickly took pictures afterward, and then proceeded to the Dutkiewicz’s house for a small reception. After that, we hit that liquor store I mentioned, where we bought 2 enormous bottles of Tosti for our limo, along w/ a battle of Ballatore…a local favorite! Again, my head killed, so consuming this stuff was a deathwish!

We made it to the Mollicone house afterwards, where a larger reception was taking place. Lots of food, drinks, and sweets for everyone! Photos were being taken in the backyard, which is very beautiful. The rain was gone, so the photos were wonderful. It was kind of neat (Michelle pointed this out) that there was no sun. People didn’t have to squint while getting their pictures taken, so everyone’s expressions were a bit “softer”, if you will. Won’t you?

When we got to the hall, the bride, groom, and parents, formed the receiving long. I was amazed that this receiving line took about 1.5 hours to complete. The bridal party, and guests, enjoyed a beautiful appetizer table…it was seafood, vegetables, cheese, and crackers. The only thing the table didn’t have was lobster tail! It was awesome. Squid, shrimp, mussles, crab legs (real), peppers, artichokes, cheese, bread, breadsticks, crackers, on and on. Awesome! The dessert table was obscene. It was gigantic and went wall to wall. I barely had a chance to enjoy that at the end of the night because I was soooo full. It had fruit, chocolate, cake, and everything in between!

The head table was amazing… there were so many people in the bridal party that it had to take up ALMOST the entire width of the joint. This wedding would NEVER have fit in ONE of the two ballrooms that it took up…and that’s mainly because of how large the bridal party was!

The speeches were awesome! Sammy made a very nice best-man speech, but the I think Michelle STOLE THE SHOW with her maitron-of-honor speech! She had gone over it at home the night before, but never in a million years did I expect her to present it with such confidence, poise, and articulation! I think the entire crowd was at her fingertips! It was perfect! Sensational, rather! Good job, Michelle! Michelle’s (and Kim’s) Uncle Rico said the prayer before dinner. What an amazing prayer. That man puts a lot of work into his speeches/prayers!

Dinner was amazing. I haven’t had a filet mignon that tasty in my life, I don’t think. It was so good that I didn’t have room for the chicken breast. I had one or two bites, out of respect! Blah blah blah. :D

The music for the evening was provided by a band. Let me just say that having a LIVE band makes all the difference in the world. It doesn’t even compare to having a DJ, even if they are all over the hall! The band even played a Beyonce Knowles song…you couldn’t even tell it wasn’t off of a CD.

One of the best things about a Dutkiewicz gathering like this is that I get to see Mr. Gordon. He was one of our “famous” high school (and Jr. High–he moved to our High School after we left Jr. High) teachers and track coach. He is always full of something funny and interesting. We always reminisce the old times, and talk about new times. Last wedding we were at, he got gipped on the cigar portion of it, and was only given one later in the night out of pity. He was pissed. THIS time, he got his cigar… a nice Cohiba, compliments of David Duck! I had the same cigar, and enjoyed smoking it with him. Man, I’m not a big cigar guy, but the cigar was awesome!

Anyway, the wedding was great! Kim and Matt are on their way to Hawaii as I write this. They will be there for two weeks! I’m sure they’ll have a blast! HAVE FUN!

FT.com Home US

Now lookie lookie! Our favorite search engine, Google, is looking at an IPO some time next year. And not only is this a shock, but they are also considering doing it with an auction.

An electronic auction would be designed to prevent a recurrence of the sort of financial scandals that have engulfed Wall Street since the collapse of the dotcom bubble, according to a person close to the company.

“It will be worth $15bn-$25bn,” said one person who has been involved in the process. “This has never happened before.”

An auction would allow all investors to bid for Google’s shares directly, rather than leave it to an investment bank to decide on the price of the shares and who should receive them.

One person close to Google complained that Wall Street’s existing method of selling shares allowed banks to set the prices of dotcom stock issues deliberately low, then hand them to favoured investment clients.

Many interesting points to consider here. On the one had, the auction would leave it to the people to set the stock price, but on the other hand, it could artificially value the stock. I’m not a big stock person, but I’d LOVE to own shares of Google, just because. Hell, I’d buy 10 if that’s all I could get. I know Dino hates that, and thinks you need to buy 10,000 shares of stock at a time. :) Gav gav!

LETTER FROM A FARM KID NOW AT THE MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT IN SAND
DIEGO.

Dear Ma and Pa:

I am well hope you are.

Tell Brother Walt and Brother Elmer the Marine Corps beats working for old
man Minch by a mile. Tell them to join up quick before maybe all of
the places are filled. I was restless at first because you got to stay in
bed till nearly 6 a.m., but am getting so I like to sleep late.

Tell Walt and Elmer all you do before breakfast is smooth your cot and
shine some things. No hogs to slop, feed to pitch, mash to mix, wood to
split, fire to lay. Practically nothing. Men got to shave but it is not so bad,
there’s warm water. Breakfast is strong on trimmings like fruit juice,
cereal, eggs, bacon, etc., but kind of weak on chops, potatoes, ham, steak,
fried eggplant, pie and other regular food. But tell Walt and Elmer
you can always sit by the two city boys that live on coffee. Their food
plus yours holds you till noon when you get fed again.

It’s no wonder these city boys can’t walk much. We go on “route” marches,
which the Platoon Sergeant says are long walk to harden us. If he thinks
so, it is not my place to tell him different. A “route march” is about as
far as to our mailbox at home. Then the city guys get sore feet and we all
ride back in trucks. The country is nice, but awful flat. The Sergeant is
like a schoolteacher. He nags some. The Capt. is like the school board.

Majors and Colonels just ride around and frown. They don’t bother you none.

This next will kill Walt and Elmer with laughing. I keep getting medals for
shooting. I don’t know why. The bulls-eye is near as big as a chipmunk
head and don’t move. And it ain’t shooting at you, like the Higgett boys at
home. All you got to do is lie there all comfortable and hit it.

You don’t even load your own cartridges. They come in boxes. Then we have
what they call hand-to-hand combat training. You get to wrestle with them city
boys. I have to be real careful though, they break real easy. It ain’t
like fighting with that ole bull at home. I’m about the best they got in
this except for that Tug Jordan from over in Silver Lake. He joined up the
same time as me. But I’m only 5'6" and 130 pounds and he’s 6'8" and weighs
near 300 pounds dry. Be sure to tell Walt and Elmer to hurry and join
before other fellers get onto this setup and come stampeding in.

Your loving daughter,
Gail

Happy 30th birthday to my friends, Un-ho Yi and Chris Rouvalis! Chris, I know it’s a little bit bittersweet today, but everything happens for a reason! God bless you both!

Happy Humpday!

Can you believe this dude? He is the first adult to survive going over the Niagara Horseshoe falls! He’s the 2nd person ever, the only other person was 7 years old back in 60s. Story at the Detroit Free Press

Our 3rd anniversary is tomorrow! I can’t believe it’s been three years! I’ve known and loved Michelle for so long, that it’s sometimes hard to distinguish the years we’ve been married compared to the years we’ve been together emotionally, spiritually, and physically! She’s the best!

Oh yeah, the Lions got their asses kicked, 38-7…and this was AT HOME! What a bunch of losers! They need to get rid of Millen and get someone in there that can mesh with the team, the owners, and the Mooch! Out with the old and fix up the new!

Amazon.com: Electronics: Koss TD-80 Studio Quality Home Stereophone

I brought my fun headphones back to work. I forgot that I had such fun headphones. I was laid off last year, and packed up all my stuff. I’m starting to get back into listening to music at work, so I’m trying everything to make sure I don’t lose my music focus. What better way than to listen to some jams with my ghetto blaster headphones!