Running…ouch!
I tried to run fast today, as I normally have been doing on the shorter, 3 mile runs… I was running a decent clip of 8.2 mph when I turned to my cousin, Ike, and felt my back tweak. OUCH and DAMNIT! I don’t need this shit happening to me while I’m trying to improve my speed! It set me back for a few, but I continued forward at 8.2 mph for the rest of the run. Besides the hold-up, it was my fastest run yet…. speed-wise. However, my watch didn’t reflect this due to my grief. :(

Eminem:
Concert last night was awesome!!!! After a long weekend of staining the deck, putting the spare bedroom together, cutting up a small, dead tree in our backyard for firewood for our copper fire pit, and a few other chores, the Eminem concert on Sunday night was an excellent treat. We started the night by going to Pinche’s (Ricardo’s) place near Wayne State. Met some of his friends, and also saw Alan, a friend from Michigan Tech. I had a few Coronas (three) before the show, and ended up getting a ride from his friends Tara and Molly. Thanks girls! We got there at a great time. I figured we’d be late, but we weren’t. We had a chance to walk around Ford Field, get some grip from the ATM, people-watch, and get to our general admission area. What a blessing general admission was! The sound was AWESOME down there. I’ve never heard or felt BASS like that in my life. As we realized at the end, the sound everywhere else sucked! It was hollow, and mainly mid-range only. So glad I couldn’t get 100 level seats the day I got tix on ticketmaster.com. PHEW on that! Missy Elliot was alright. Thought she’d be better… no biggie though. We mainly went there to see Fifty Cent and Eminem. Fifty Cent stole the show in our minds! He was the bomb!!! He performed his entire album, almost! He’s a big kid, too. Good to see he’s in such good shape! His tats are phat, too. Eminem was awesome! His entrance was amazing. His stage was amazing. It was set up like a carnival…it even had a working ferris wheel, all lit up! At the end of his show, he even had the 8 Mile Mobile Court sign drop down from the center of the arena for his performance of “8 Mile”. Impressive! His entrance was fun, too. It showed a video clip of him and Proof getting off a Shady Records plane, stepping into a black Shady Records H2, and telling the driver they were in a hurry and needed to get to Ford Field! The driver turned around, with a fifth of Jack Daniel’s in his hand, and told them not to worry about it! The driver was Kid Rock! It was funny as hell. It was one of those videos where everything was in fast motion, and Kid Rock was driving all crazy. Em and Proof were in the back seat, all buckled up and nervous. It was hilarious. At the end of the clip, the H2 actually drove Eminem up near the stage and let him out to an ovation that sent Lions back into their den! Eminem’s show was great. He performed a lot of his latest songs, then gave the floor to D12 and Obie Trice for a while. I didn’t like that so much, as I came to see Em…but what can ya do? He wants to promote his peeps. The concert, overall, was AMAZING!

Toe:
So, I’ve been dealing with my left big toe for a few weeks now. Just dealing… running with pain. The pain subsides after a while, and all is well, however, during the day, the toe just plain sucks. Bumping it kills, touching it kills, etc. I finally decided to go to the doctor about it. After a few small hoops, I had it taken care of this morning by Doctor Mark Weitzman, in Royal Oak. Nice guy. He even joked about the HAP HMO hoops we had to jump while I was there, waiting for my primary care physician to get an approval from HAP. All set. It was quite a procedure. First, he numbed the toe. Two shots, nice and prodding. It seems like he was trying to carve out the inside of my big toe with the syringe/needle. Strange. He had to give me a third injection because I could steel “feel” near the tip of my toe. No biggie at that point. So after I was all iodined and cleaned up, he started. He basically cut a vertical piece of my nail out including the part that was ingrown. He lifted up the cut nail and then pulled it out. Sure did look gross, as the instruments he used were all (3 different tools) deeply buried under my skin at any given moment. So I got this silly, black surgical shoe to wear, and off to work (lunch first) I was. Now I heal. I don’t run tomorrow. I rest instead. :)

Dino and Dani are off to Greece tomorrow:
I am so very excited for Dino and Danielle. They get to go to Greece for the first time as a couple. I’ve had the luxury of taking Michelle twice. Once before we were even engaged, and the second time as my wife. Both times were wonderful! Dino has never been to Greece “on his own”. He’s a little nervous, but I think he’ll do just fine. He’s such a hero when push comes to shove that I think he’s going to be like Dirk Pitt! Him and Danielle are going to love it, and I think Danielle is going to love having to rely on Dino guiding her around Greece when it’s just them, on their own. After they do some adventuring on their own (Santorini, Athens, and the Peleponnesian Peninsula in a rental car – jealous), they’ll head to the village of Agios Vasilios, my entire family’s hometown! There, they’ll stay at “home” with my mom, dad, Aunt, Uncle, and Gramma! I am so glad Danielle gets to meet Yiayia! Yiayia is so super tender! I love her dearly, and am very glad they both get to see her. Dino hasn’t seen her in 10 years. And this time, I know it’s going to be different. She’s getting older, more frail, and more tender. I also hope Dino and Danielle head to Zakynthos or Keffalonia while over on the West side of Greece. Both of those islands are so beautiful…so much different in geography than the Eastern islands (Cyclades).

Deck:
We are going to stain the damn deck tomorrow, if it’s the last thing I do. I tried a few weeks back, and it failed. I am even considering renting a belt sander so I can “reboot” on the part of the deck that has a little bit too much stain on it. I think if it is dry tomorrow, it’s going to be a success. Michelle and I make a great team. I can’t wait to tackle this project with her! I know, I’m gay for not being able to do it myself, the first time I tried. Live and learn. No biggie.

Training:
I have been working out and marathon training for 6 solid weeks now. I go to the gym every weekday, and I run 4 days a week. I haven’t been in this kind of shape since I was young. I feel awesome. I love to watch the results slowly trickle in. I’m partially obsessed…but it can’t be a bad thing to be obsessed about, can it?

Blogger:
Sweet!!! The new Blogger! Looks pretty damn nice, and it seems to work well in my Mozilla 1.4 RC3 that I have installed here at work.

Work:
Finally getting our group together in the same location at work, and I even got a PC upgrade. Went from a 1.13 P3 to a 1.8 P4. I’m happy.

July 4th:
Kind of scatterbrained, as I’m going up North tomorrow with my brother, Danielle, Dan, April, Chris, Bahia, and my lovely wife, Michelle. I can’t wait!!! Have had nothing else on my mind all week! It’s going to be a first time for this group to be hanging out like this for an extended period of time…and no babies! Should be a blast!

School:
I got an A- in my Micro Economics class last 1/2 semester. I have an A, and 2 A-’s so far in school for a 3.8 GPA. I’m glad.

Vegas:
I am starting to contemplate if I can really afford to go to Vegas in August for Scott’s bachelor party. It would entail taking off two non-paid days from work (I have no vacation days). I already have plans from long back to go camping the weekend before with Pepe and Sarah and Brian and Gretchen. I have to really think hard about whether or not I can make to Vegas.

Mariner’s Bachelor Party:
We had an AWESOME time in Chicago last weekend. There are pictures up at http://photos.filias.com. You’ll find them under the 2003 Albums. There are also some video clips of the fun we had and of the annual Gay Pride Parade. There were some VERY colorful anti-gay protesters! Pretty good stuff.

House:
Pretty much all weekend was spent working on the house in one way, shapre, or form. Saturday was spent power-washing (more watching than doing). My father-in-law, Tom, and his brother, Dick, did the honors. My dad also came by to watch and show me around the flowers and tomato plants as well. The powerwashing, which wasn’t smooth until Chris came over and showed us that the throttle was too high, that’s why we weren’t getting any pressure, was a success…so I thought. Funny, you’d think the rabbit setting would do the trick. An area that was washed with low pressure needs to get re-washed. Go figure. Anyway, after the washing, my dad and I went patio furniture shopping. We went to Sears where there was this cute set: 6 chairs, rectangular table, umbrella, and base for about 450 bux. They wouldn’t have it in stock until July 28. Hell, that’s too long. So we went to this patio joint on Garfield that only sells stuff 1500 bux and up. Too rich for my blood. We resorted to K-Mart (GREAT IDEA DAD!). I picked up a Martha Stewart Santa Monica set. Very cute! It’s a hexogonal table with six chairs. I also got the umbrella and base. Michelle loved it!

Yesterday, I figured it would be a great day to 1) Run 5 miles, 2) Trim and mow the lawn, and 3) Stain the deck.

I did 1 and 2, and started on 3. Everyone said staining the deck is a piece of cake. “It only takes 2 hours!” Bullshit. It took over 2 hours and I only did about 35% of the deck. And it’s not even a good job. I need to re-powerwash the part that was left dirty and probably powerwash some spots that have a bit too much stain. :)

I would like to thank Chris and Bahia (and Bahia’s parents) for the nice dinner last night. Michelle was out of town, and I was going hungry. No, just kidding.

I’d also like to thank Chris, deeply, for all the help he’s given me on the house. Thanks, buddy.

I’d also like to thank Dan and April who came by last night to watch me TRY to stain the deck. Thanks guys. And thanks for offering to help on Wednesday, Dan!

The house is awesome! Each and every day, I can’t believe I finally have my own house. Every day, I can’t wait to get home. I wish I had the energy to work on it every day after work or school, but I just don’t. Getting up before 5:30 every day takes a toll on a brutha!

Hopefully, I’ll be able to get the deck powerwashed this weekend with my father-in-law and my uncle-in-law. It’d be nice to be able to stain it on Sunday, as well… we shall see.

Work is getting better and better. More and more of my customers are NEEDING me. They all talk about how they are going to PULL me so I can dedicate 100% of my time to THEIR work. Not going to happen!

What a retard! I had my camera yesterday and took all sorts of pictures…in the RAIN!!!

Today, though, it started to clear up. On the way in, I saw 100s of awesome classic cars…should have brought the camera. What a maroon! I will bring it on Monday and go nuts with it. I haven’t seen this many cool cars in one place in my life. It’s actually quite amazing. I’m also going to make sure I get some pictures of all the Model T’s, which are on the other side of the building.

Tomorrow is going to be a fun day. Michelle and I are going to go house crazy again. Cleaning windows, mowing the lawn, trimming, edging, etc. It’s quite exciting if you ask me!

Have a good weekend everyone!

Can’t believe it’s been a while since I wrote in here. Oh well.

Training:

This is week two of marathon training, and I just finished my third weekday run. It was 3 miles, as it was yesterday and Tuesday. It is always VERY hard on Thursdays to get moving, let alone to get out of bed. I look forward to NOT having to run tomorrow. Instead, I’ll do 30 minutes of the stairmaster machine, which is actually kind of fun! It’s been a few weeks, and I’m SLOWLY starting to see some results with my weight training. I wish I could eat as much as a bird does so I could lose weight faster. Then again, losing a pound or two a week couldn’t be too bad! I’m very excited to see what weight training WITH the marathon training can do for me!

House:

I had Dino over the other night to give him a demonstration of the theatre (I like it better than theater). I think he was very impressed. I was very impressed as well. We finally got the speakers we wanted, got the rears installed (always check http://photos.filias.com if you’re interested), and moved the subwoofer into the corner! I can’t wait to rent or get a GOOD action movie to watch!

First Saturday to actually MOVE into and SET UP the house!!!

If you’re interested, you can always go to http://photos.filias.comand look under 2003 albums!

Front Yard

My parents came over today, pretty early, about 11am. They brought with them a few bags of organic hummus/manure a few impatiens, and two tomato plants for us to plant in the backyard. My mom and Michelle were in the house. Michelle was showing my mom the new washer and dryer we got, and she was also showing her how much laundry she was doing! Bless Michelle’s heart and soul. She basically set up the entire house, on her own. She set up the spare bedroom, what we call “The Reading Room”. This room is a casual and relaxing escape from the everyday world. It’s also a storage facility for our active lifestyles. We’re both training diligently for the Detroit Marathon this October 5. Moving into the master bathroom, she totally organized every single drawer. A complete masterpiece in “easy to use” bathrooms! The master bedroom is gorgeous. She spent most of the day doing laundry, as explained earlier. This wasn’t just washing, drying, and folding/ironing clothes. It was also the reorganization of the century. With our first walk-in closet and our ample drawer space, Michelle single handedly turned our bedroom into a dream come true for utility, relaxation, escape, and love! The kitchen couldn’t be more perfectly organized as well. Every single cupboard and drawer have that foamy mat you lay down so that everything has friction when set on top of it. Our drawers are awesome! Our cupboards are highly useful. The laundry room is fantastic. We got some pretty sweet appliances the other day. The washer and dryer are a marvel of technology. Our dryer senses moisture and dries accordingly. Our washer has a gigantic payload capacity since it doesn’t have one of those spiral and tall agitators! We also chose to get gray for our washer and dryer. We’re going to do something in that shade for the walls of the laundry room, too! Stay tuned!

Ohhh yeah!

I was telling the story of how my dad and I were going to surprise our two women (my mom and Michelle), but ADD got the best of me! But I’m BACK!!! We were going to plant flowers in the long, narrow path that is up against the right side of the walkway and the garage. However, we started that and never stopped until the entire front yard is full of impatiens, mums, and marigolds! All of the landscape lights work, as I had to plug in a light bulb in an empty socket! Simple fix. The previous owner was king enough to have 3 of 4 of those bulbs, ready to go! The only thing we need to do is lay down some darker mulch, make sure we water the flowers every 3 days, and plant the wedding mums that Michelle’s parents brought over for us today. They are mums from our wedding! I can’t wait to plant them!

Backyard

Michelle and my parents planted the two tomato plants and some marigolds in the backyard, around the dead tree we have facing our bedroom (too bad the tree is dead, as it would be a great privacy tool). We will probably cut down the tree and leave just a stump there so the flowers and tomatoes have a happy summer!

Computer Room

The computer room is basically done. We need to get a stand or stands for the two printers. I’d like to get something to sit above my subwoofer that holds my printer and some paper. We’ll see. The room is going to stay the way it is. The blue wall color is perfect. There is a nice feeling of cleanliness in the computer room!

Living Room

I can’t believe I live in the living room I own at this moment. I am so glad that Chris came over and helped (did) the wiring for the rear speakers! The entire theatre looks and sounds awesome! It’s the best stereo/theatre I’ve EVER had in my possession! The new Definitive BP-8 fronts sound amazing. They sound wonderful!

Garage

It’s ALMOST clean. Still a few more things to clean up and put away. Soon enough, we’ll be parking both cars in the garage!

Great day

Today was a great day! I love my wife! I love my parents! I love my friends!

House:
We did it! We moved out of our apartment and into our FIRST HOUSE!!! The weekend was so exciting! So many people came over to help us move, to help us with lawnwork (thanks, Chris, for your help and your lawn equipment!), to help us with decorating ideas, to help us go shopping for new speakers, etc.! The house couldn’t be a more perfect fit for Michelle and I. We are so blessed to have our health and to have each other. We are also very blessed to have our families so nearby and so loving. My dad came over unannounced on Saturday, while we were moving. He wanted to be around and watch what was going on. He’s the best. Michelle’s mom and dad came by last night with a housewarming gift of a pointed shovel, the kind we needed. In exchange, Taco Tommy got himself an 18V Drill and Flashlight set from Sears from me. I had recently bought an 18V powertool set from Milwaukee Tools, so I didn’t need two drills and two lights. Everyone loved the house. I’m so happy.

Dads:
I can’t believe how helpful our dads were on Friday. Michelle and I took the day off and our dads, who are retired, met us for breakfast at Honey Tree at 8am. Well, my dad came at 9am, as my mom gave him the wrong location. We eventually straightened it out. I think my dad needs a cell phone from AT&T (no contract, buy your own minutes). Anyway, we worked ourselves to the bone that day, moving boxes, nightstands, computers, etc. I am so glad our dads are healthy, especially mine, who almost died 8+ years ago. He was a champ, trying to move nightstands on his own, etc. Although he can do the labor, there is no reason for him. Eventually, he got a little worn out that day, as I saw him NEED to take a break and sit down in the garage. Anyway, we ended the day with a late lunch at the Olive Garden with my dad, and Michelle’s parents. It was a nice end.

Michelle:
I love her. She basically set up the entire house on her own. She set up the kitchen to a T. She set up the great room’s furniture. She set up how the bathrooms are and how the bedroom is. She’s got her day off from work today (she works four tens), so she’s going to organize the closet(s). God bless her. To make matters a bit tricky, she developed a cold on Saturday. She fought through it to go to her sister’s 30th surprise birthday party on Saturday and a wedding shower for Natascha (Kinski) yesterday. She’s my little trooper, and I love her SOOOOOOOO much! What did I do? I set up the computer room (not done yet) and the home entertainment center (not done yet). I cut the lawn, trimmed our first (smaller) tree in the front yard, and weedwacked the backyard. Chris edged and weedwacked the front yard. I am so excited about this house business!!!

Golf GTI:
Showed a guy my car last night. He bent my fucking rim… it was already bent, but this bend that happened caused my tire to have a slow leak. Almost went flat this morning. Am I ever going to sell my fucking car?

House:
We get the keys in 30 minutes! We can’t wait!!! It’s gonna be an ultra fun and ultra busy weekend! We have a baseball game to go to, we have other stuff going on!! Yippee!

Work:
I have only been in my location (cube) at work for about 4 weeks or so. Boom, we are moving tomorrow. So every month, I get a new location. This new cube is smaller, and the cube walls are only half-height…which kind of sucks. What can you do? 2 months as a contractor down, 4 to go!

GOODNIGHT!

Milan race day came and went!!!:
It was awesome!!!

All I can say is that I learned a few things about launching and reaction times, and I learned that low profile tires aren’t that great for drag racing. I learned that a Corvette Z06 is fucking awesome! There was a guy there with his, it only had 3,000 miles, and he ran 12.652 for his best run of the day…against me! It was thrilling to see him do so well!

Here’s a picture of my 13 runs (data).

Drag Race day at Milan:
I am so excited!!! The day is finally here. Dan’s friend from work is in some Porsche club and is part of an organized test and tune event at Milan Dragway today. Of course, the invitation was extended to all sorts of people. Dan and I will finally have a chance to run our 2.8l powerplants against each other. He has a 1998 Audi A4 and I have a 1998 VW Golf GTI VR6 (that I’m trying to sell!). We offered the invitation to Josh, as I wanted to race his Focus SVT, but he couldn’t commit to coming. No worries. Castellano is going to make it, though, as a spectator. Oh yeah, Norman couldn’t make it, either, as he has family commitments. Again, no worries!

Working out w/ Demo and Co.:
I decided that I would try and work out with Demo, Ike, and Jason at the Powerhouse Gym on 10 and Telegraph. Yesterday, we did back, after doing 30 minutes of cardio. Ike and I ran, Demo and Jason did the stairclimber. Tomorrow, we are meeting up to do arms! I am very excited. I can’t even beging to explain what a positive difference it is to work out with partners. HUGE DIFFERENCE. You get those last few reps each set, and you also get that mental and social “push” from your friends. I might even consider continuing to work out there either during marathon training, which starts June 3, or after it’s all done and my gym membership at World’s Gym in Rochest is up. Kind of silly to pay for two memberships. I’m sure I could find a way to get out of my contract at World’s, especially because I work 25 miles or more away from the gym.

Bent wheels:
I hate Michigan roads… it’s halfway to Spring, and the roads suck…the winter snow and ice took a toll on the roads. There are potholes EVERYWHERE. I feel and here that loud thud at least once per day. I am so sick of the roads that if I decided to keep my car, I’d probably put the stock 15" wheels back on the car and get new tires (as I don’t have 15" tires). I’d get my 17s straightened out and I’d sell them. Damn roads!

Outlook 2003 Beta 2:
As usual, I have the luxury of getting software a little bit ahead of its release-date. Thanks to the newsgroups, I’m trying out a Beta 2 version of Office 2003 Professional Beta 2. So far, I’ve been using Outlook 2003, which is fantastic… I have found one bug so far, too! First, the app. They have a built-in Junk Mail filter now, which can be turned on and off and tweaked, like all other spam-eating software apps out there. The view has been made a little different, having the default view of messages arranged in a tall column in the center, and having the message window in the large window pane on the right side. The far left, like usual is either your folder list or your Outlook Bar (which has been improved).

Spam Filter:
The spam filter in Outlook 2003 is awesome… I now have the luxury of having an “almost clean” inbox. The SpamAssassin blocked emails from our server are almost ALL making it into the Junk Mail folder on their own. I’ve since set up a filter to take the messages that SpamAssassin tags as spam to get thrown into the Junk Mail folder, as well. Stay tuned for some more comments on Office 2003 Professional.

Excel 2003:
Small note on Excel. It has a research feature, as does Word. It opens up a narrow column on the right side, like Office XP had for various things, and I search for a mortgage calculator. It took me to a site that had all sorts of little tools I could download. I chose one, and within 2 seconds, I had a full-blown mortagage calculator/amortization table within Excel! MS has their shit together!

Johnny and Jacqui’s wedding:
We had a great time last night at the wedding. We got to the Royalty House at about 3:05PM. The wedding was set to start at 4:00PM, up in the loft area that Dino and I used to terrorize at all the Greek weddings we used to go to when we were young. Seating was a little bit limited, so a few of us stood in the back. I’d say we had the best “seats” in the house. I took all sorts of pictures of the pre-wedding and post-wedding ceremony which can be found, as always, at http://photos.filias.com!

Mr. Gordon:
One of my favorite parts about going to weddings in the Dutkiewicz family is the chance to see Mr. Gordon, Mike. He’s one of the best/coolest teachers we had at Fuhrmann Junior High School and Warren Senior High School. He was one of those teachers that served as a “counselor” to students, even though he wasn’t one. He was always “in the know” of what was going on, who was cool, who was a creep, and everything else that mattered the most to us when we were in our young adult years! Thanks, Mr. Gordon! Mr. Gordon even says he enjoys seeing me at these events. Heck, I didn’t even think about the chance that I’d see him and his wife, Kayla, last night…so when I saw him, I was ecstatic! By the end of the night, we were BSing in the lobby and sharing a stogy! Good times, that’s for sure!

Lazy Sunday:
I think we are going to forfeit going to the gym, which has been forfeited since Wednesday for the both of us. I was supposed to go to the gym on Friday to do “boulders” as Demo calls them (shoulders), but didn’t, due to hanging out with Alex and Rae the night before. I had a few too many Heineken’s, which caused me to have an alcohol headache in the morning. Sadly, if I’d have waited about :45 minutes, I’d have been able to hit the gym, and make it to work a little bit later than normal, say, 9:00AM. Oh well. Saturday was supposed to be arms, and that didn’t happen either, due to helping dad till his garden, getting the BroilerMaster BBQ from Michelle’s friend Ray for $80 (great deal), and doing the whole wedding thing. So, why spoil (not really) Sunday with spending 2 hours at the gym when we can go gallivanting around town looking for and buying things for our house, which we move into 11 days, yes, count ’em, 11 days!! Yippee!!!

May 29-31:
The “moving party” has grown for May 31 from being just Michelle, me, David Duck, and Jon to also including Dino and Danielle, and probably Gina!!! It’s going to be a blast! Me, Michelle, and Taco Tommy are going to do a lot of the small moving on May 30. We’ve decided that I’ll take that day off…why not? So I lose a day of pay….beh! Who cares?