June 18th, 2003

Ok, so sometimes I’m just a big kid. Ok most all the time I’m a big kid. Last night we had some really serious thunderstorms and rain showers. It ended up dropping over six inches of rain in some of our area. So to say the least when I got up this morning the news was all across the area telling motorists about roads washed out or flooded over. So coming out of my complex and heading off to work what do I find, the main road along the river has been flooded. So after sitting and staring at the water on the road for about a minute or so then I said to my self “Hey I have an SUV, we can go through anything” so I just floored it and drove across the rising water. The car handled the water no problem, and actually kind of giggled while going through it. As I was pulling away though the realist inside of me “ummm you know that was kind of stupid to do. What would have happened if there was broken roadway or a sinkhole under the water, or god forbid some kind of wood or branches or construction material. OY.” Typical Mike just rushing into it something for fun without thinking, so after deep thought, and some personal scolding I went back during the day and drove through the water at least four or five more times. Some people just can't grow up.

Ok yesterday I test-drove the first of the possible candidates for my new car. After work yesterday I went over to the local Nissan dealership and took out the 03 Altima 3.5 SE out for a ride. The car was a joy to ride, very smooth and extremely powerful. Was able to get the car to 60 without much effort. The shifting was smooth, and felt very comfortable. My only complaint with it was the interior was a little drab for a nicely featured car. This weekend I’ll be doing the final two cars, (the Honda Accord and the Volkswagen Jetta). Who knows maybe by next week I’ll have a new car.

Anyway that’s it for tonight

Take It Easy

Peace and Friendship always

Mike

June 15, 2003

Hi All, first off let me all fathers out there a very festive Fathers Day, another holiday brought to you by the fine folks at Hallmark. I hope everyone had a great weekend; it was a pretty interesting weekend for me. This weekend was a William weekend (per the divorce agreement I get William every other weekend, well supposedly according to our agreement, but that’s another story for another day). Part of what is slowly becoming a tradition in young William’s life is every June getting his portrait taken. (I have a quick survey to choose pictures of the little guy see below, that I need your help with). The closest JCPenny photo studio was out in the middle of the suburbia in a town called Alpharetta at one of these so-called mega malls. After the picture session, I walk William around the mall, and notice something about the people, and the mall in general. First all the stores had such a bland look to it, I couldn’t tell you any store that stood out above the others. It just felt like every third store was a shoe or woman’s clothing store. The only thing that made the mall memorable other then it’s vast size, was a great play area for kids. (William had a blast climbing, sliding and running around for about two hours). The part that really frightened me was the people that was at the mall. These people were like the Stepford Wife’s, all with their Old Navy clothing, Starbucks frappachino’s, driving their SUV’s and 2.5 children. I grew up in the suburbs and had a typical life (per say), but it’s something that I have been noticing over the past few years and it came to a head yesterday. How demoralized did these people seem. Almost like their individuality was stripped from them and like there free will was sucked away and a Crate and Barrel registry added. I think the robots at the hall of presidents at Disney World have more personality then these people (ok, maybe not the George W. one, but you knew what I meant). How sad is it? It’s just one of the many reasons why I stay away from shopping malls and most of the pad shopping areas. Yes they are convenient and are sometimes a necessity (especially when a bargain is to be found). I tried the suburb thing when I was married, it just wasn’t me and probably will never be, but with my luck maybe I was just visiting the 7th circle of hell and this is what I had to look forward to in the afterlife.

Here's the two proof's from William's portraits. (Sorry for the poor quality, these were taking from a laser print out). Hearing the Ocean The New Beach Boy Vote for Choice 1 Vote for Choice 2 Drop Me A E-mail To Help Me Decided Which Portrait Of The Little Guy I Should Pick.

Ok kids, that’s about it for tonight, I hope you all are doing well and took time to contact your positive male role model today and just say “Thanks”

I’ll talk to you soon

Peace and Friendship always,

Namaste,

Mike

June 12, 2003

First off I wanted to thank everyone for getting us to another milestone here at Fabersplace.com. Today we cracked the 12,000 vierwer mark for the site. Who would of thought that a website about the daily life of slightly offbeat guy would get 100 visitors let alone 12,000. And to make it even better we did the last 1,000 visitors in under a month. I'm glad people are enjoying the site and coming back for a little peek into what's left of my mind. Thanks and tell all your friends to come on by and say hi. Here's to the next 12,000 and beyond.

Tonight is one of those nights where I have all these different things to talk about, but then when I get to the point of actually writing it, I can’t even think of a thing to say. During the day I listen to NPR or maybe an epiphany hit’s me at my desk and I go "Gosh I have to talk about that on the website". My problem is I just need to start jotting my ideas down so I don’t get a bad case of writers block at 10 pm. Any suggestions to help me jot down my ideas would be great. The only trick with this is I don’t have the money to buy a PDA, unless someone out there is willing to donate a free PDA to your friends here at Fabersplace.com that would be greatly appreciated. (Gee that wasn’t too obvious). LOL.

A couple of months ago I was out with a friend and we happened to be in this clothing store that had different styles of pajamas for kids. One of the styles that I saw for William was a pair of Superman PJ’s. They even came with a cape. It was so cute. Of course I thought I’ll get it next time, but darn it to luck ever since that time I haven’t been able to find them. I’m sure I’ll eventually find it, but it just goes to show you that sometimes if you let something good pass you by you will regret it.

Tonight on the Amazing Race the show went from Venice to Austria, it was fun to see the racers go through such obstacles as Bungee Jumping from a tower the size of the Space Needle or carrying a cello through the streets of Vienna. It was quite fun seeing Steve and Josh (Josh is such a turd) trying to carry trays full of Champagne through a room of waltzing couples without spilling a single glass. The final elimination came down to Steve and Dave (the air traffic controllers) and Russell and Cindy dating / friends with the later being the losers. Overall a fun episode, and great to actually see some of the pressure of the race get to the teams.

Ok gang that’s about it from steamy Georgia, I hope you have a great weekend and I’ll talk to you all Sunday night. Hmmm not bad for a collum in which I had nothing to talk about.

Peace and Friendship always

Mike

June 11, 2003

Well just when you thought that the Palestinians and the Israelis were actually headed in the right direction towards Peaceful coexistence, there is always a fly in the ointment to muck the whole process up. This fly just happens to be called Hammas, a Palestinian terrorist group bent on wiping every Jew in the Middle East off the face of the map. After the peace talks between the two sides went so well; out of nowhere there are attacks over the weekend on Israeli Solders. So in retaliation the Israeli Army attempts to blow away one of the Hammas leaders, but failed to finish the job. So now to make matters worse, terrorists blew up a bus today in Jerusalem and wound over 70 people and kill at least 6. This is just getting more and more ugly with no end in site (a very ugly tit for tat situation). Factions of both sides want to see the other wiped from the face of the earth, but a growing number of people on either side are pushing for peace and co-existence. Like it always comes down to it, if you want it to happen it will, no matter who tries to play the spoiler (Hammas, and others). Now we come to the fun part of this little rant, about how the US government is once again talking out of both sides of their ass. Once again instead of the mighty US government taking a strong stance to either side, our faithful leader George W. is sitting on the fence. First off for him to condemn Israel for the bombing of the Hammas leader. If a terrorist group or foreign nation bombed an American interest, and we (the US) had the opportunity to take out one of the leaders of this group, wouldn’t you think George Bush would of jumped at this? Hell Yes! Then of course today with the bus bombing it's almost the same speech from Bush but with the blanks spaces on his speech filled in for the other team. It’s basically now time for the US to get off its ass and say to the Palestinians. “Disarm Hamma, and the Islamic Jihad or else be considered an ally of terror like Iraq, Iran, Syria and others. And be prepaired to face the full might of the US military if you don't.” If that doesn’t cause a cease fire I don’t know what will. Now don’t get me wrong I’m not a supporter for either side really (some people would be surprised with that last statement because of my religious background, but trust me when I say it dosn't). I think both sides have valid claims and I know also that both sides have done some terrible evil in this conflict, but like all conflicts it has to eventually end. A peaceful end is all one can hope for but it takes two to tango or at least two to dance with a third party pushing the other two across the finish line. (God that's starting to sound a little like my divorce; wait no, the middle east conflict is a easier situation to solve).

Ok, as many of you know I love my SUV (a 2001 Nissan Pathfinder), I bought my SUV brand new a little over 2 years ago, and have enjoyed every minute of owning it. (Ok the battery dying on me the first day was a bit of a bummer but things looked up from there). But now with living in the Atlanta area, and a change in my financial situation, and rising gas prices I’m really thinking about trading it in, for a smaller car. When I say smaller I don’t mean a Geo or a Yugo. I’m thinking more like maybe a Honda Accord, Nissan Altima, and the Volkswagen Jetta. If anyone else has any suggestions please drop me a line. Would like to hear what recommendations you might have on cars. The only thing is no American cars please, I have looked at a few and none have done anything for me. Of course my dream car is still the SAAB convertible but that’s going to have to remain a dream for right now. I’ll keep you up to date on the search.

On that note I’m off to bed for another couple hours of shuteye.

Hope you’re all doing well and I’ll talk to you soon

Peace and Friendship Always

Mike

P.S. Guess what finally came in the mail today. MY DEBIT CARD. I’m officially human again. I can now spend money freely and feverishly. Woo hoo. Lucky me, now I finally feel complete. Ok enough ranting for one night. – Peace

June 9, 2003

Ok I’m actually starting to write these updates a little more early in the evening. I’m getting tired of staying up till 1am working on the website and then getting up at 6am to get to work. Not that I’m bitching about talking to you guys (and girls), you know I really like showing everyone a little piece of my life. One of my friends have asked me do I really enjoy doing the website and of course I responded “Hell Yeah”, it’s basically a really cheap way to speak my mind without a therapist involved. Another reason I’m doing this is it’s a way to bring up my confidence on my writing skills. I always loved writing but never had much faith in my writing skills before (especially growing up with a learning disability), but that never stopped me. Of course being creative I also mostly focused on my artwork, yeah I dabbled in college with writing and drawing a comic strip for the college paper (someday I’ll dig them out of a box and scan them into the computer). Where I’m going with all this rambling is that I just wanted to let you know this site is a total labor of love, not some project that I feel like I need to do. I am constantly getting more confident with my writing, enough so I’m actually even thinking about writing a book or a screenplay. Who knows where the site is going to go or if it will lead to other things for me, but hey I’m having a blast doing it. I just wanted to thank everyone for stopping by and all your support (God that sounded like Bartals and James).

A few people have been asking me about my statement about the TV show Amazing Race IV on CBS. Well what I said last night was “Tomorrow night we will talk about how The Amazing Race is the best reality show on the air” well I started thinking about it, and I guess I should of said it’s the most addicting reality show that I have watched. Once you watch one episode your hooked. The premise is that 12 teams of two travel to unknown locations around the world and perform tasks assigned to them along the way. The last team to get to a certain point eliminated till there is only one team left and they win a $1,000,000. It’s great fun watching the teams go at it, and you quickly decide whom you like and dislike. CBS has set up a great site for the show, take a peek and see the stories behind each team. I’m actually rooting for Jon and Al the two circus clowns. Let me know which team your rooting for, maybe I'll even start an amazing race pool, and if enough people sign up, the winner will get something cool from us. It’s definitely a Faber’s Place recommend, and this coming from a guy who doesn’t watch reality TV.

Hmmmmm maybe I should think about selling Faber's Place merchandise. Always wanted to see my face on a tee shirt or a coffee mug. LOL (yeah right).

Ok that’s it for tonight; I’ll talk to you all soon

Peace and Friendship always

Mike

June 8, 2003

Well OJ Simpson and George Bush have something in common now. What you might ask? Well both are looking for something that doesn’t exist. OJ of course has been searching high and low for the real killers of Nicole and Ron; I bet you didn’t know that he has suspected them at hiding out on a lot of the major golf courses around this country of ours. So being a good detective, OJ has been playing each hole to ensure that the culprits aren’t there. But then again, all he has to do is look at a family picture to see the real killer. (I’ll let you figure that one out). With our buddy George W. is kind of in the same boat now as OJ, no not trying to find killers, well…. No, no, no don’t even go there. I’m talking about the mystery of the non-existent Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. You remember when before we went to “War” (I use that term, lightly) against the evil power known as Iraq that the president told us that Sadam Hussein had a large arsenal of weapons of mass destruction that he was ready to use against America and our Allies. Well the “War” has been over for over a month now and guess what? No biological or chemical weapons at all. Not even a trace or whiff any kind of smoking gun to prove the President right. So George W. Bush told a press conference on Friday that he would not rest until he finds them. Hmmm hey George maybe Nicole’s and Ron’s killers could help you dig up the weapons stash from the 18th green.

Over the weekend I was able to finally see “Bruce Almighty” the offering from Jim Carrey. The film centers on Carrey playing a TV newsman in Buffalo, NY who gets to play God. After a series of frustrating situations in his life drives him to spite the almighty, and basically reject him and what he represents. So God (played wonderfully by Morgan Freeman) in his wisdom grants Bruce all his power, to see if Bruce could do a better job. What follows is a pretty typical Jim Carrey comedy using his heavenly powers to help his career, and personal needs. The movie was cute and had some really funny scenes. It was good to see Jim Carrey go back to the type of film that he specializes in, I was getting tired of seeing him trying to be James Stewart in his last few films. My two sore points with the film were (1)Jennifer Aniston who played Bruce’s girlfriend in this film, I felt she was comply underused, and any actress could have played her role. (2) what could have been one of the best scenes in the movie featuring the dog sitting on the toilet. This scene was completely ruined for me by the previews and the commercial, it was original and quite funny but so overplayed by the time I had seen the film it wasn’t that special. If you want to see a great brainless movie this one is it, I did laugh but not as much I expected to for a Jim Carrey film.

Ok gang that’s it for tonight, have fun I’m toast. Tomorrow night we will talk about how The Amazing Race is the best reality show on the air.

Till then

Peace and Friendship

Mike

June 4, 2003

Well tonight I’m going to let you into a little bit of Mike’s psyche. Have you ever had something in your life that you rely so much on that it becomes almost a part of you? Five years ago it would have been no problem to live without this item, but in this day and age with it I feel like a total recluse. How did anyone survive with out one? What am I to do? If I don’t get it replaced soon I’m just going to go nuts. What am I talking about, and it’s not my computer or an Internet connection. Those I have lived with out for many months at a time, no this is even more important to my lively hood. I actually feel, my god should I say it… “NAKED” without my debit card.

Living on the West Coast for the past 10 years I have gotten very spoiled by a continuing trend towards a cashless society. I have gotten so well adjusted to my card that I rarely carry cash anymore. It has become more of a problem since moving to Atlanta since it seems they are a little bit behind the times. But that’s not where I’m going tonight with this tale; the backwardness of a major metropolitan area like Atlanta is kind of frightening and shall be discussed further at a future time. So anyway, something must of happened to my card in the last few weeks, at first the ATM part of the card died, but that was no biggie since I used my card mostly as a Visa, but then last Friday night disaster hit. Judy and I were still reeling from our disastrous outing to try and see “Bruce Almighty” and stopped at Wal Mart to do some shopping. Everything was fine till I went to pay for the few items I picked up. Low and Behold the card didn’t’ work. Yes there was cash in my account to cover everything I purchased. The woman at the store said I should contact my bank the next day. So Saturday came and I went into my local branch of Washington Mutual (a decent bank as far as banks go). The bank manager and I sat down and tired to see if the card was just dirty or if it really was the magnetic strip dying. After a few minutes we came to the conclusion that my debit card had gone to the big card swiper in the sky.

So since then I have been cardless, and feeling oh so out of place. I was even today thinking to myself “How will I pay for gas, and take William out tonight without it”, then one of my co-workers said “you can always withdraw money from your bank or go to the grocery store to cash a check”. God I felt like such a doof, where the heck was my head. I just couldn’t believe my dependency on a little piece of plastic. Well actually, I do understand it the convenience and ease of use is intoxicating but I can now see that I will have to wean myself from using as much. Ok who am I kidding as soon as the replacement comes I’ll be rearing and ready to get started once again. Hey some people just don’t learn, At least I can admit it. Damit.

Ok, I feel better with getting that off my chest. Last night I had a chance to see Fleetwood Mac, a band I have always been a fan of since I was a little kid, I can still remember the day I heard “Go Your Own Way” on my dad’s stereo. I was totally blown away and still am by “Rumors” what a well-crafted album it was just so raw and deep from the beginning to the end. Yesterday afternoon my friend Allyson e-mailed me asking what I was doing. Of course me being the total party animal that I am came back with “NOTHING, maybe some work”. Well she wanted to know if I wanted to go see the concert with her, since she knew I like them. She had gotten free tickets in the corporate suite through her work. Of course I agreed, and it was quite worth it. Well let me clarify something here, I am a Fleetwood Mac fan, but I also am a firm believer that TUSK was there last great album. I think maybe these guys should of remained broken up, but thanks to a former US President, and using “Don’t Stop” as his theme song (thanks Bill) we are now seeing the return of Fleetwood Mac. It was a good concert, but not a great concert by no means. It was great seeing the band cover all their old favorites “Don’t Stop”, “Silver Springs”, “Go Your Own Way”, “Tusk” (which I had hoped the UGA marching band would of come out to, but alas not) and the other favorites. One thing that was missing of course was long time member Christine McVeigh, she had always been an integral part of the band and a few of her songs are among Fleetwood Mac classics. So that was an odd feeling alone, The show had a lot of energy but it was just like seeing a band go through their moves, nothing really memorable except for one song. When Stevie Nicks did “Landslide” and the whole audience was singing it with her, was a reminder to why you came to see this legend of a band.

As you can tell by now that I survived the gym with really no problems. Just a little sore in my biceps, I just have to remember, no pain it’s not working.

Ok talk to you tomorrow, and will try to remember to talk about the newest version of the Amazing Race, my one guilty fortitude into reality TV.

Peace and friendship always

Mike

June 2, 2003

Well, well, well. Today I took a big step into getting back into better shape. Now don’t faint or anything but I actually broke down and joined a Gym. I had a few different choices from a one we will call “LA Fitness” or Meat Market Central as I like to call it (not that anything is wrong with it). Then I checked out the JCC, which had a nice gym but was too much $$$. Then we have my apartment complex which has a workout room that hasn't been updated since the 1980's. So I finally decided on Gold’s Gym, which seemed to have a nice mix of all the other gyms I checked out, but they also seemed serious about their workouts and the price was more in my ballpark. So this will be the first place to announce my goals with the gym. I’ll be checking in once a month with you guys about my status. I’m thinking right now that I would like to mostly tone up and get tighter. My goal is to loose another 20 –25 lbs. So that way I can be thinner then I have been since high school. I’m already thinner now then I was when I got married to Angela, so this is just the perfect step to help me with the cause. It should be interesting to see what happens. Tomorrow after work is my first work out. If I survive the first workout, I’ll write you all about the gory details.

Ok, that’s it for tonight. I hope you guys are doing well and I’ll talk to you soon.

Peace and friendship always

Mike

June 1, 2003

Well I bet you were coming back here and thinking that “Ah Mike hasn’t updated the website again”. WRONG!!! Here I am at 11pm writing a brand new update. Have a few things I wanted to quickly touch on tonight.

First let me tell you if you were looking for the movie reviews of “Bruce Almighty” and “Finding Nemo” well I ended up seeing neither. What No movies, heck usually I would of at least seen one of these two films. Nope, nada, Judy and I went on Friday night to give “Bruce Almighty” a chance, but when we got to the theater we found out that they only took cash, and of course living in the 21st century and thinking they took credit or debit cards, boy were we fooled. This theater didn’t find it necessary to take any other form of payment then cash. So quickly we both emptied our pockets to see if we had enough cash, we ended up coming up $2 short and no ATM in site. DOH!! With “Finding Nemo” I had planned on taking William to go see the movie, but when I got to Angela’s to pick the kid up for the day she informed me that they had taken William the night before. The William review of the movie was just average. He said “Monsters Inc.” was more fun and neater then “Finding Nemo”. (From the mouth of babes). Hopefully will get to either of these films sometime this week.

When we were out on Friday night we decided to have dinner with the Faber’s of Canton (Roy, Ivy and Dan), in the middle of dinner Roy informed me that one of my favorite coffee shops in Canton was getting direct competition from Starbucks. Ok you might say “Mike every town in America is pretty much being overrun by Starbucks”. That much is quite true. The audacity of this leasing agent in Canton to put a Starbucks not only in the same shopping center, as one of the founding tenants, but how about six doors down? Usually I don’t get too upset by the little guy vs. the big guy, but this is just cold hearted. There just seems no loyalty of the management company, it’s not like Courtyard Coffee has been hurting financially or was a bad tenant, it’s just the monster coming in and throwing their money around. OY, Just the typical destroying of the American dream by the Corporate Machine. If you ever get a chance in the next few months to stop by Courtyard Coffee in the Riverstone Shopping Center in Canton, GA, stop in for a cup of coffee or pick up some ice cream. Sad to say I really don’t think they will be around too much longer after that.

A quick comment in the world around us was the amazing discovery and capture of Atlanta Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph in North Carolina this weekend. It’s interesting on how sometimes something like a small fluke of fate can lead to one of the largest national fugitives in the country was caught dumpster diving by a overzealous rookie cop. It just goes to show that no matter how cold a lead may be, something may always pop up. Read the full story here.

Ok my eyes are starting to feel like 100 lbs. weights, so I’m going to call it a night. Hope you all had a great weekend.

I’ll talk to you all soon

Peace and friendship always

Mike

May 29th 2003

Hey Look two updates in a row, wow I'm on a roll. Actually tonight I'm only doing a real quick update. Just wanted to check in to say Hi and see how everyone was doing. I was reading one of Odd Todd's updates and almost fell out of my seat reading about his traveling misshaps. Take a peek, they are quite funny.

This weekend is a William weekend, have a few ideas what I want to do with him, maybe the zoo, maybe taking him to see the movie "Finding Nemo" the new film by Pixar (the people who brought you "Toy Story", "A Bug's Life" and "Monster Inc.") I'll give you all a full report on Sunday night. Also I'm going to try and get out tomorrow night to see the new Jim Carey film "Bruce Almighty". Will give you my reviews in Sundays update.

Anyway, it's late and I hope all of you have a great weekend.

Talk to you soon

Peace and friendship always

Mike

P.S. Tonight's fun website is one that my friend Michele sent to me quite some time ago. A great site called Movie Boo-Boo's, try to find some great inconsistencies in all your favorite films. So far only 57 mistakes in the Matrix Reloaded.

May 28th 2003

Hi All, have you missed me?

Wow, you take a few days off to try and clear your head, and boom almost two weeks go by without an update. You know it’s not that I have been trying to avoid you guys; things have just flown by before I realized it, and the end of May is here. So I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend. I took the long drive down to St. Augustine to hang with my favorite nephew in the whole wide world (Ok I know Danny is my only nephew, but still you get the point). It was totally incredible to just let the rest of the world wash away. It was so nice just playing on the beach, and just being a big kid with Danny & Judy. I think this was really my first vacation in quite some time that I have actually have come back fully relaxed and stress free. It also helps to have a great kid who is almost as wacky as his uncle. Here's a few pictures of the trip.

The world around us has been very odd, it has seemed that a lot of people have been on edge, and even many countries have been creeping closer to a violent solution. It almost seems like the worlds Karma is kind of screwy. Things that would normally seem easy and happy have lately been tense or aggravating. I don’t know if everyone has noticed it, but I do know that quite a few people have commented, that they have felt the “bad mojo” also. Take it for what you will. It’s my website so I’ll talk about what I want, so nee neener.

The war in Iraq is officially over, not that the country here or there is any better for it. Yes Iraq is liberated, but in a lot of ways the US was totally unprepared for rebuilding a country. It was real easy to come into Iraq and take out their government and military, but in all truth “we” (I use that term very loose) were unprepared to set up a new democratic government. Ummm kind of thinking about we hasn’t done a great job at setting up a government at home either. So now the U.S. is basically an occupying force in a very hostile part of the world. I almost shudder to think if we are going to be attacking Iran or Syria next. Heck we are doing a great job at setting up the Iraq oil industry, go figure 4 or the 5 top officials in the Bush administration are Texas Oil men, go figure. Having a “cowboy” in office is like watching any John Wayne movie over and over. We figured we got one “Bad Guy” out of the picture; let’s just go for the next. It feels like the U.S. has become a giant professional wrestler and looking for “Who’s Next”. Oy, what a world we live in.

Ok I did go see the Matrix Reloaded about a week or two ago. I have a few friends of mine who live, eat and sleep the Matrix. Luckily I’m not one of those types of people. I will admit that the original movie was quite stylized and wonderful. Matrix - Reloaded was just an overall fun film. This one wasn’t. I know it’s the middle film in a trilogy so it had to just explain and expand on the original. I won’t go into of the plot, except that the story dose take a few interesting twists and turns, but overall I don’t think the film lives up to all they hype. There were some great effects, but I was almost ready to scream if they did that stupid slow motion kick scene (which was cool the first time, but after the 10th time it was a little ridiculous. The effect has been copied all around Hollywood a million times or so). I probably will give the film another chance, since there were some things that did make me go wow, I think the second hour of the film makes the film for me, and makes the film worth seeing (remember I’m not revealing anything about the plot).

Anyway, have lots more of things to talk about, but will hold it for another night. My eyes are starting to feel like slits. Hope all of you are doing well and having a blast.

Thanks for putting up with my lack of updates. I promise to keep up with updates more often, and let you know what’s going on with my mind.

Some Good news and some sad news to report before I crash for the night, first the good.

We would like to welcome a new member to our family, on April 24th Riley Figiel was born to Jamie and Rich. The happy parents and child are doing quite well. Congrats guys. Mozel Tov.

On a sadder note on Tuesday we lost a very vital and important member of our family. Fred Blitzer my great Uncle passed away at the age of 91. Uncle Fred was a great man who lived life the way he always wanted to, living it to the fullest and always had a smile and a positive word for you no matter how gloomy things were going. I know I’m guilty of not seeing him much over the past few years but the times I did see him it felt just like no time had passed between us. He will be missed.

Ok that’s it for now. I’ll talk to you tomorrow night

Peace and friendship always

Mike

May 11th 2003

Hi All, hope you had a great weekend. I’m actually finally sitting down for the first time this weekend, and guess what you my dear friends are the recipients of my full attention. Ok maybe not my full attention, I do have the TV on for noise, currently watching "Six Feet Under" on HBO. I run hot and cold on the show, overall a great TV show, but some of the characters I have a lot of trouble connecting with.

The weekend was pretty good, did a lot of running around on Saturday (flea markets, outlet shopping, and even had some to get some mini golf in with Judy). The hot season has gotten here a little early, over the past few days the temperature here had slowly creeped into the high 80’s low 90’s, and the humidity creeped along with it. Yesterday was the worst. Mid 90’s and very high humidity. My friend Allyson had told me about how wonderful the monthly Lakewood Antique Flea Market was. Usually I would love going through the event but the heat was so bad, it made the event almost unbearable. Ok maybe I’m a wimp and can’t handle the heat yet, but even Judy a native was dragging.

Today was Mothers day, a day I’m always quite torn with this holiday, for two reasons. First of course is because my mom passed away almost six years ago. Wow hard to believe it’s been that long, there really isn’t a day that I don’t think about her, and wish she were still around to be an active part of Cheryl’s life and mine. Second of course is about William. Of course I respect Angela for the job she is doing in raising William, but I don’t feel comfortable enough with our relationship to celebrate the holiday with her. I would almost feel like it would fall on death ears. Who knows maybe someday we might be able to celebrate together, but I think a lot would have to change for that to happen. Partly I do hope it will for William’s sake, only time will tell. I hope no matter where your Mother is today; I hope you at least took a few minutes of your day to at least let her know that you appreciate her.

Oh yeah forgot to mention that I was able to hit the movies on Friday night, and went to see the new movie by the makers of “Waiting for Guffman” and “Best in Show”, a great new film called “A Mighty Wind”. This film follows a reunion tribute show of three fictional folk bands (the Folksman, Mitch and Mickey, and the New Main Street Singers). The film is done kind of in the same style as “Best in Show” with a huge cast, bringing this almost fully improviizational tale to life. This movie moves very quickly between the three bands and makes you feel like you actually have known these characters for many years, like old friends telling you a tale of how they are coming back for another generation to enjoy their music. Eugene Levy, Christopher Guest and the gang have done it again. I’m already trying to decide when I want to see this film again.

Also last week I made it to see X2 – X-men: United. All I can really say is wow. This film pretty much reunites all the main characters from the original and take them all to the next level. Of course being the total comic book geek I was worried that they wouldn’t be able to capture the feel or energy from the first film. Boy was I wrong. X2 was truly a fantastic high-energy movie. I couldn’t believe how intelligent, and pretty close the characters were to the comic (ok not 100%, but without 30 years to explain the comic background they did a great job). Of course Hugh Jackman as Wolverine still completely made the movie for me, but the introduction of some "new"characters (Nightcrawler, Iceman, Colossus, Deathstrike and Pyro) were a nice touch. The film’s story was nicely detailed and kind of helped rectify the mystery of Wolverines past. I’m leaving out a lot of details of the movie since the story is so good it’s worth seeing. Oh yeah the story does leave itself wide open for a third one, but that you have to see also. So neener neener. Of course this Thursday is the opening of Matrix Reloaded. Should be interesting if this one lives up to the hype. The previews do look great.

Well that’s about it for tonight.

I hope your all well and will talk to you soon

Peace and Friendship always

Mike

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