The Missing Year 2005

October 11th

Well hello there, I didn’t see you come in. Welcome back to Faber’s Place. Yes I know it’s been 5 months since I have updated the what’s new section on the website, would you believe I had every intention to update the site, but you know how things go, a little something here, a little something there.

I in all truth have no one to blame but myself, (and George W. Bush, he’s always to blame). It was always something else taking precedence on the site, and to that I do owe a major apology, but on the good front I have finally started a honest to goodness blog which I have been doing for the past month, just jotting down my ideas and thoughts to the world. Not that anyone is reading it anyway, how unfair is it that Judy barely updates hers, but she’s getting tons of readers from people all around the world, and it’s all because she has a bosom. (Damm I knew I knew should have gotten those implants). Ok enough bitching, if anyone out there wants to read the new Fabersplace Blog Click Here.

I’ll be updating the site here a lot more I promise. I’m attaching three of my favorite pictures from the past few months. I hope everyone is doing well, and I’ll talk to you soon.

Peace

Mike

Me And Judy
The Boy at the Beach
A Woman and Her Dog

May 16th

Hi there, greetings from the guy who used to write for this site, I’m not making any excuses or such, but man dose life sometimes throw you into a tizzy when your not expecting it. But as they say the road to hell was paved on good intentions. Well first off the good news, Judy and I actually did it, and tied the knot back on April 10th, but then again most of you should know that by now, since almost anyone who reads the site was invited to the wedding. If we forgot to invite you OPPS!!! SORRY. Believe me you were invited, but the invitation got lost in the mail.. ummm year right.. HA HA HA.

Actually in all truth the wedding was fantastic, for all the hard work and such it flew by pretty flawlessly. Everyone seemed to have a wonderful time, and we lucked out so much with the weather. We also want to thank the air traffic controllers at Hartsfield / Jackson Airport for moving the flight path right over the wedding so we got to view all the pretty planes coming into land during the ceremony. (Hey at least the fire trucks from the station right across the street remained quite the whole time).

Thanks to the few who helped us out with the wedding (set up and running around before and after) Judy and I so appreciated it, more then you could ever realize. We would of looked like to schnooks on our wedding day if you weren’t around. And of course thanks to William to being the best co-best man in the whole wide world. You were perfect. And to Judy what can I say, other then we made it. It was a long tough road, and now the real adventure beings. I’m so looking forward to facing the winding road with you. You are everything I could of imagined for a partner and then some. I am the luckiest person on the face of the earth to have met and fallen in love with you. (Someday I’ll get around to even thanking Jdate for the introduction).

If anyone wants to see any pictures from the pre-wedding events and the honeymoon click here, I’ll be adding more pictures to this site of the honeymoon and the wedding.

I have lots of other stuff to tell you about Honeymoon, life getting back from the trip, etc. but that will come in tomorrow’s update (yes there will be an update tomorrow, bla, bla, bla)

Till then Peace

Mike

April 6th

OK let me get it out the way first, I’m sorry, I’m so, so sorry.  So, so, so, so, so Sorry. I know you have been tirelessly coming back to see a new update on the website, and boom nothing is here, still stuck at the beginning of February. Well here I am, there you are, and you are wondering where the heck have you been??

Well I won’t make any excuses, I’ve been around and but haven’t had the time to work on updates. Things have been so crazy planning for this wedding and getting all my freelance projects done, that I couldn’t really tell you were the time has gone. I know that’s no excuse, and in my defense I did start quite a few updates, I just didn’t have the bandwidth to finish them.

This wedding thing is just taking so much out of Judy and myself. Things have just been totally crazy. I had forgotten how much a wedding can take out of a person (the planning, the plotting, the $$$), but we are now in the final phase of everything, which when done will free up tons of time and such. It’s so strange it just seems like yesterday that we had four months to the wedding. Man time flies when you’re having fun. Don’t get me wrong, I am looking forward to the wedding and sharing the rest of my life with Judy. But man I am so looking forward to enjoying a relaxing week on the boat around the Caribbean. So after this update I guess I’ll be gone again for a least a week and a half, but then when I come back I’ll have pictures of the trip and the wedding.

Lot’s going on in the world. Kind of sad that the Pope passed on this past week, yes I know I’m Jewish and we didn’t agree on a lot of our issues, but he still did a lot of good for this world, and for that he will be missed.

A lot of you already knew my views on Terri Schiavo from previous updates, I’m just glad to see the whole affair. I do understand what it’s like to watch a loved one determinate right in front of your eyes, but I also no when it was time to say goodbye and let that person go. I don’t think Mrs. Schiavo’s parents the Schindlers were able to do that at all, which was very, very sad It didn’t help that quite a few conservative groups and politicians got behind their cause for all the wrong reasons. Yes it was honorable that loved their daughter and such, but they couldn’t face it that her soul was gone and all was left was a shell that used to be someone they loved. I hate that they made Michael Schiavo out to be the bad guy, it’s totally wrong. If for some reason I was brain dead or in a vegetative state I would want Judy to get on with her life, it’s the only humane thing to do. He held out hope for many, many years, longer then most people would of, but then he realized it was what his wife would want. The end result for this with me at least is to totally get a living will with Judy so no one else can stick their two cents into my life and what will happen.

Mr. TImber RattlerOy, sorry didn’t mean to go off on that little bit of a rant. On some upbeat and fun news, William has gone out for T-ball. For those of you who don’t know T-ball is baseball for beginners, where the kids hit the ball off a pole so they are mostly guaranteed a hit. It also gives the kids a chance to learn how to run the bases and play a field position. If you ever want a cheap form of fun entertainment I would recommend going to the game. Heck watching the coach’s face turn red is worth it alone. I’m proud to announce that William has been doing quite well, learning how to throw, and bat has been great for him. The only issue is watching him run. William is built for power, not speed, it’s so cute watching him “run” around the bases. It kind of reminds me of watching Edgar Martinez of the Mariners run the bases. Guess William will become a home run hitter, not a base stealer.

So I did it, I have completed my first update in two months. Like I said I’m so sorry for missing you guys. I promise the next update will be a lot sooner. I’m still thinking about turning this page into a full fledged blog. Not sure yet.

Hope to see a lot of you on Sunday at the wedding, if you can’t make it for some reason. Oh well, I’ll have plenty of pictures up soon to show you what you missed. Oh and to answer a question that everyone has been asking.. We are registered at Macy’s, Target, Crate & Barrel, under Faber / Weinstein.

Ok all, be well

Peace

Mike

P.S. And lest we forget a warm welcome to our newist memeber of the Faber family, Snickers Faber, he arrived with us about two weeks ago, and boy has he been a handful :)

February 4th

Ok, well here we are coming on to another weekend and man things have been busy as ever. During the past week I was busy working on the latest and greatest issue of Insite Magazine, it’s a little thing I have been doing for the past year to help keep my graphic art skills in check. It’s nice because I have actually been able to learn quite a bit working there. (Color separations, and learn the new Adobe Creative Suite). I always hate the rushed and tired feeling at deadline time (sometimes 15 to 20 hour days) but the end result is great know there is something out there that people actually read that I designed and put together personally. (Yeah it is a total ego stroke, I admit it, but I’m an artist I need to be stroked sometimes.. well you know what I mean).

The only problem with deadline time is usually the day after I go to press with the paper, is the beginning of a William weekend, so there is no real let up for me. It’s really amazing to me when I started thinking about it, that at the end of next month I will be coming to a big anniversary date. The first weekend in April it will be officially a year that William has been spending weekends overnight with me.

It’s so strange it feels like William has been sleeping over forever, and everything is so comfortable and normal about it. We never really even had any issues with going from my old apartment to living in our new house with Judy. I give a lot of kudos to William for being so adaptable and such; I have heard horror stories about kids and divorce. Staying between two places can be traumatic (even as an adult), so for a child it’s even more of an impressive situation. I’m not going to say we haven’t had a few bumps in the road, but it’s nice to see how normal things really are.

I’m not 100% sure what we have planned yet for the weekend, I do know though that Sunday is the Super Bowl, we might go over to some friends house and watch it in Hi-Dev. Woo Hoo. I pretty much think the Patriots are a shoe in this year. Being from Washington, DC and growing up a Redskins fan you just can’t bring yourself to root for the Eagles, it would be sacrilege. So my pick is the Patriots by a field goal. I’ll write my update with my favorite Super Bowl commercials and such Sunday night.

Anyway I’ve got to head out and pick up the kid for another fun weekend

Peace

Mike

P.S. Here’s a great joke Judy sent, enjoy…

Some science humor for a Friday afternoon :)

Ratio of an igloo's circumference to its diameter = Eskimo Pi
 
2000 pounds of Chinese soup = Won ton
 
1 millionth of a mouthwash = 1 microscope
 
Time between slipping on a peel and smacking the pavement = 1 bananosecond
 
Weight an evangelist carries with God = 1 billigram
 
Time it takes to sail 220 yards at 1 nautical mile per hour = Knot-furlong
 
65.25 days of drinking low-calorie beer because it's less filling = 1
lite year
 
16.5 feet in the Twilight Zone = 1 Rod Serling
 
Half of a large intestine = 1 semicolon
 
1000 aches = 1 megahurtz
 
Basic unit of laryngitis = 1 hoarsepower
 
Shortest distance between two jokes = A straight line
 
454 graham crackers = 1 pound cake
 
1 million-million microphones = 1 megaphone
 
1 million bicycles = 2 megacycles
 
2000 mockingbirds = two kilomockingbirds
 
10 cards = 1 decacards
 
1 kilogram of falling figs = 1 Fig Newton
 
1000 grams of wet socks = 1 literhosen
 
1 millionth of a fish = 1 microfiche
 
1 trillion pins = 1 terrapin
 
10 rations = 1 decoration
 
100 rations = 1 C-ration
 
2 monograms = 1 diagram
 
8 nickels = 2 paradigms
 
2.4 statute miles of intravenous surgical tubing at Yale University
Hospital = 1 I.V. League

January 30th

Well another myth for me has been blown completely out of the water. It actually does get cold down here in the ‘Deep South’. A matter of fact we just got a nasty dose of winter in the Atlanta area this weekend. The area was hit with a nasty ice storm, usually when you think of the south you think of shirt sleeves in January, but no. For the first time since moving here I had to deal with the grips of old man winter.

You know living in Seattle for almost 10 years; I thought I had been with the most non-winter weather people, but then now being here in Atlanta I think I have seen it all. As soon as they announced that there was a slim chance of any kind of winter weather the schools started closing and the grocery stores were being picked apart (hordes of people screaming ‘MILK, BREAD & TOILET PAPER’). By the time I got home from work on Friday night, people were huddled in their homes expecting the worse. We even went out with some friends, and the streets were completely empty. It was so creepy but fun to get places quickly.

Yes the weather did come finally late Friday night and into Saturday morning, but we dealt with it.  Judy and I even ventured out of the house and decided to go grocery shopping Saturday afternoon, but we ran into one minor problem, our driveway was completely frozen over. For those who don’t know we happen to live on the steepest driveway on our street. Thinking ahead we parked my car down on the street the night before just in case we got stranded up the hill. The only problem was getting down the frozen hill. So using my brains I just sat down on my ass and slid down the driveway to the bottom. Judy did the same thing screaming the whole way down. Once we got the car cleared off, there were no problems, and we made it to the grocery store with barely seeing anyone on the street. It was pretty scary how bare the shelves at the stores were, and the clerks not knowing when new supplies were coming in.

When we came home we once again parked on the street but were faced with a new problem, how do we get to the top of the hill to the house. We started up the hill with our arms packed with groceries (I let Judy carry the eggs, I knew I would break them if I carried them).  Smartly I dug my feet into the ice, clearing it away so Judy could follow me to the top. It still took almost 20 minutes to get to the top, (normally it would take less then a minute), but we made it to the top with no real issues (Ok, Judy did get stuck, but I rescued her, digging a path for her to follow).

We did end up loosing power last night around 7pm, it didn’t come back on till after midnight, and our gas furnace has an electric starter, so man it was chilly in the house for a bit. The problem with ice storms is that they do weigh down the trees and they take out power lines. Around 6:30 last night we were in the house, and heard this huge cracking sound outside then BOOM,  I looked out the office window and saw that one of our trees in our front yard had cracked in half and fell across our phone lines, and into our neighbors yard. Overall I feel fortunate since the only damage was to the lines (not to the house), and no one was hurt. The scary part was it had fallen right where Judy and I had hiked up the hill an hour before.

Already today, we were able to get out of the house, down the driveway, and most of the ice had completely melted, almost like nothing happened.

Here’s a few pictures of the storm in our neighborhood.

Missing Driveway
 Baby's Water Dish
The Driveway Was Gone Baby's Water Dish
Judy Stuck on the Hill
Judy Stuck On The Hill
The Back Yard Covered This is What We Slid Down (Well, When It Had Ice)
The Tree In the Front Yard
The Tree Down In The Front Yard

 

Hope your all staying dry and warm

Peace

Mike

January 25th

This morning the Academy of Arts and Science announced the nominations for the 2005 Academy Awards. Overall there were not any real surprises. Most of the nominations were quite worthy of what they got. I noticed though that Paul Giamatti was left off of best actor for “Sideways”, which was disappointing. That both “Fahrenheit 9/11” and “The Passion of the Christ” were basically ignored, but was not surprised, especially with how Michael Moore acted when he won for “Bowling for Columbine”, and how touchy the religious issues are with the academy.

Both Judy and I would go through our picks and will be posting them here in the next few days. Please feel free to send us your picks or who do you think was left off and why. We would have William doing his movie picks also, but since “The Incredibles” wasn’t nominated for best picture he refused to do it, ah to be a temperamental 5 year old again.

Ok here’s the list…

Best Picture

Achievement in Directing

Best Actor in a Leading Role

Best Supporting Actor

Best Actress in a Leading Role

Best Supporting Actress

Best Original Screenplay

Best Adapted Screenplay

Best Foreign-Language Film

Best Animated Feature Film

Achievement in Art Direction

Achievement in Cinematography

Achievement in Costume Design

Best Documentary Feature

Best Film Editing

Achievement in Makeup

Best Original Score

Original Song

Achievement in Sound Mixing

Achievement in Sound Editing

Best Visual Effects

Best Documentary Short

  • AUTISM IS A WORLD
  • THE CHILDREN OF LENINGRADSKY
  • HARDWOOD
  • MIGHTY TIMES: THE CHILDREN'S MARCH
  • SISTER ROSE'S PASSION

Best Animated Short Film

  • BIRTHDAY BOY
  • GOPHER BROKE
  • GUARD DOG
  • LORENZO
  • RYAN

Best Live-Action Short Film

  • EVERYTHING IN THIS COUNTRY MUST
  • LITTLE TERRORIST
  • 7:35 IN THE MORNING
  • TWO CARS, ONE NIGHT
  • WASP

‘Whew’ that’s a really long list, remember the award ceremony is on February 27th, will be fun to see where we all come out in our picks. If anyone picks 100% correct I’ll send them some kind of prize, so remember to send us your picks by February 26th. I’ll announce the winner after the show is over.

Over this past weekend William went to his friend Jonathan’s 7th birthday party. It was pretty fun watching the kids try to do indoor rock climbing, William was a little scared of trying the wall climb, but once he did it a few times, and he was watching the other kids, he seemed a lot more “brave” about it. I’ll admit he didn’t make it all the way up the wall, but I was impressed he made it up the wall higher then me. (Not too shabby for his first time out, and being the youngest one there). Here’s a picture of the kids at the party.

Ok gang that’s it for today, don’t forget to get your votes in, I’ll talk to you soon

Peace

Mike

January 20th 2005

Well here we are well already into January and I’m actually doing another update. Woo Hoo!!! LOL, which was actually one of my new year’s resolutions this year, was to be better about updating the site. More then just a few times a month, so from this point on I’m going to be jotting down ideas during the day and the compiling them and try to give you a more fresh look at what’s going on.

This week has been totally crazy, over the past weekend Judy and I painted William’s room, and man it took up a lot more time then I would have ever thought. (See pictures on the side), then on Tuesday we celebrated the 17th anniversary of my 21st birthday. Ok yes I admit it for those aren’t that great with math, I turned 38 this year, and man surprisingly I’m ok with it. I couldn’t of asked a better way of spending it though, (ok a day off of work would have been great), but dinner with William, Judy and Goldie was quite fantastic. But when I was laying in bed Tuesday morning thinking about stuff, a strange thought came across my head. Man, “you know what, you’re now officially closer to 50 then you are to 21”. I don’t know if that thought just put a total cold shiver down my spine, but oh my god, that almost put me into a mid-life crisis, but then I realized, Your only as old as you think you are, the age thing isn’t really that much of a bummer to me, I never really ever act or think like my actual age anyway. (Usually much closer to William’s age group as many have told me).

 Today’s the inauguration for George W. Bush’s second term into office, something about that either puts a smirk on my face or put the fear of the almighty into my soul. Every time you hear him talk or listen to him discuss any of his policies, it just doesn’t sound like he’s reading his teleprompter properly. One of these days I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s in the middle of reading a speech and he will just spurt off, “I didn’t mean to say that” or “What? I just said we are doing what to all those poor people?” But then again you would need a conscience to realize what you’re doing right or wrong, and I don’t think he has a clue about that. Listening to his speech was just a bunch of dribble and the same thing over and over again. Later in the day I was listening to NPR on the way home from work, and the news reporter was talking to individuals who went to the ceremony, and one woman told them that “She was so proud of George Bush becoming president; he’s a good Christian and can make so many changes over the next four years”. The announcer asked the woman, “You know this is his second term, and usually second term presidents get less done then first term officials?”  She replied “Oh he will get all he wants to he’s got the Republican Congress and God on his side.” I just sat there for a moment with my jaw hitting the floor, and thought “Dam, now we know how George W. won that election.” After that it was just pointless listening to the radio broadcast, I had to listen to William’s super hero theme song CD for the rest of the drive.

Ok, Judy and I came up with New Years resolutions; let’s see if we can keep to them this year.

Here are mine..

1. Work out at least 4 times a week.

2. Get myself into a better place financially

3. Be able to relax more

4. Update Fabersplace at least three to four times a week.

5. Read at least two to three new books a month

6. Be open to new situations & possibilities

7. Continue being there for William no matter what

8. Always try to understand Judy no matter what

9. Continue to Watch Less TV, and start going to the movies more

10. Get on The Amazing Race!!!!

Here’s Judy’s Resolutions:

1. Loose Weight

2. Exercise More

3. Balance Checkbook Monthly

4. Pay Off All Credit Card Debt

6. Try Harder to Understand Mike

6. Be at Work on Time More Often

7. Read At Least 2 Books a Month

8. See At Least Two Movies A Month

9. Throw Away More Junk

On that note, here’s to a fun new year and let’s keep this all going.

Peace

Mike

Ok today’s funny was sent to me by Evan … it’s an oldie with a new twist on the Iraq war

A soldier came to a fork in the road and saw a nun standing there.  He asked her, "Please Sister, may I hide under your skirts for a few minutes?  I'll explain why later." The nun agreed to his request.  Shortly thereafter, two MP's came running along and asked her if she had seen a soldier running down the road.  She replied, "He went that way."  After the MP's disappeared, the soldier crawled out from under her skirt and said, "I can't thank you enough Sister, but you see, I don't want to go to Iraq."  The nun said she understood.  The GI said, "I hope you don't think me rude or impertinent, but you have the most beautiful pair of legs I've ever seen!"  The nun replied, "If you had looked a little higher, you would have seen the most beautiful pair of balls you've ever seen! I don't want to go to Iraq either."

January 12th 2005

Well are you as surprised as I am that I’m writing so soon again, I’m actually going to try and do at least three to four updates a week. As it used to be I’m going to write just what ever is on my mind, and see where that day’s update will go. (Most of the time I end up with something completely different on what I started out with).

Judy the PainterI’m not going to try and fill these updates with wedding stuff; I figured that information will be talked about on the wedding pages by both me and Judy. It dose though seem that a lot of the activities in live lately have been either revolving around the wedding or working on our house. Judy has lived in this house now for five years and it seems she settled on stuff when she moved in and then left it that way.  Now that we are living together she has gotten motivated to making the house a better place to live. It’s not all that difficult the projects that need to be done, but it still needs to be done, and I’m glad my moving into the house has pushed her to work on these projects.

We have already gotten both bathrooms repainted (was two easy projects, a ½ day each), see the pictures of us paining. We also have cleaned a lot of old stuff from around the house (it got so bad that goodwill was getting to know us by name). We then rearranged our bedroom to utilize the space better, and even got a new bed frame from Outpost.com.

Next on our list is to paint William’s room two-tone blue, and add a great space stencil along the color borders, (should only take a full day to paint the whole room), and over the next few months we will also replace the floors in the main bathroom and kitchen, and also the kitchen. Put new carpet down in the den, and replace the sliding door to the back yard. Then we want to add a new ceiling fan in the living room and put new instillation in the attic, and a storm door on the front door. So you could say we will be kind of busy around the house for a bit, but man the returns will be so worth it. The house is really starting to feel like “home”.  I’m actually starting to fell like a real Tim “the Tool man” Taylor, Grunt, Grunt, Grunt.

Real quickly, it’s so weird to see all the images from Southern California from the crazy weather hitting the area. Areas that I used to drive around when living there are now destroyed by mudslides or under water because of flooding. It’s so strange to see. Here are a few pictures I grabbed off the net earlier today.

So anyway, I hope all is well with everyone, I’ll talk to you again real soon, (Ok I had no idea I was going to talk about home repairs this whole update, see I told you, you never know where this going to end up).

Peace

Mike

P.S. Here's a cute California joke to lighten the mood out there.

Californians

So as not to be outdone by all the redneck, hillbilly, and Texan jokes, you know you're from California if:

1. Your coworker has 8 body piercings and none are visible.

2. You make over $300,000 and still can't afford a house.

3. You take a bus and are shocked at two people carrying on a conversation in English.

4. Your child's 3rd-grade teacher has purple hair, a nose ring, and is named Flower.

5. You can't remember . . . . is pot illegal?

6. You've been to a baby shower that has two mothers and a sperm donor.

7. You have a very strong opinion about where your coffee beans are grown, and you can taste the difference between Sumatran and Ethiopian.

8. You can't remember . . . is pot illegal?

9. A really great parking space can totally move you to tears.

10. Gas costs $1.00 per gallon more than anywhere else in the U.S.

11. Unlike back home, the guy at 8:30 am at Starbucks wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses who looks like George Clooney really IS George Clooney.

12. Your car insurance costs as much as your house payment.

13. You can't remember . . . .is pot illegal?

14. It's barely sprinkling rain and there's a report on every news station: "STORM WATCH."

15. You pass an elementary school playground and the children are all busy with their cells or pagers.

16. It's barely sprinkling rain outside, so you leave for work an hour early to avoid all the weather-related accidents.

17. HEY!!!! Is pot illegal????

18. Both you AND your dog have therapists.

19. The Terminator is your governor.

20. If you drive illegally, they take your driver's license. If you're here illegally, they want to give you one

 

January 10, 2005

Ok, Yes it's me your long lost friend and page writer. You could even call me the ghost of Faber's Place past. But yes I'm back and have lots to talk about. Things in the world around us are nuts as ever, man can you believe what's changed since I have been gone? It's sad, and scary how it seems that mother nature is striking back at humanity around the world. Heck my friends in southern California are already looking at building an ark. And the poor people in Asia, India and Africa being hit by the Tsunami right before Christmas. Man if that wasn't a sign that something is happening I don't know what humanity needs. Please find it in your heart to donate some money or your time to a charity of your choice. They are not asking for a lot, just remember to give to those less fortunate then yourselves. :0)

As many of you do know Judy and I are planning on getting married on April 10th here in the Atlanta area, I would invite everyone but I think Judy would pretty much have a cow if everyone who reads the site shows up. I have put together a new page on the site completely for wedding information and any questions you might have. If I did miss anything drop me an e-mail and I'll add it to the page.

I will be updating the sight a lot more often (I PROMISE), I'm actually even playing with the idea of adding a blog to the site. What do you think??

Peace and Friendship always

Mike

P.S. Here a pretty cute cartoon that Judy found online from the holidays, talk to you soon...

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