I shake my little tushy on the catwalk...I'm too sexy.

This is my cute baby...I just like to look at him and smile! Nothing too heavy today, just a picture of my cutie!

...all my friends drive Porsches...

WOW!!! Lot's o' new stuff to talk about today. Hope I can get it all out...

First...I am selling my beloved Porsche 944S2 Cabriolet. I need a more practical mode of transport and a 16 year old sportscar that burns super no lead is NOT exactly practical. My son can't go in it, it is useless except for fun in the sun. Don't feel bad for me, however, I will replace it with something fun!


Buy Me!

Speaking of fun...I am in San Jose right now and Gabi and Alex are flying down to meet me on Thursday night! We are all going as a family to the Monterey Aquarium on Saturday. My boy loves the "fishies" and hopefully we will see a sea otter or two.

I got the new job!!! I will be working locally for a company called Precor. They make fitness equipment (yeah, I see the irony) I will be their technical training leader for the entire U.S. consumer division. Most importantly, I will be at home every night! I get to see my wife, and put my baby to sleep every night.

I missed The Posies in Seattle the other night. I was flying to San Diego. But in Posies related material, I would like to publish a seperated at birth photo. One is my friend Lane, the other is Matt Harris from the Posies. Who is who?

Conversations on and on...

Unfortunately this is a sad "Did I ever tell you about the time..." Please read it, and then contact a friend you haven't talked to for a while and catch up.

Did I ever tell you about the time my friend Ray and I wanted to see Journey in concert. We got tickets to a show in 1981 in Saratoga Springs, New York. Saratoga Springs is about 2 hours from where we lived. Ray and I had our licences (just) but Ray's dad Tony insisted on driving us. He was worried that with Ray and I being such young drivers, we might have been tired from such a long drive, as well as driving at night. Thing is, Tony was narcoleptic and there were not two more attentive and alert people in that car than Ray and I making sure that HE didn't fall asleep.

Did I ever tell you about the time when I was young, during the first few years after my parents divorce, I pretty much could do whatever I wanted. I lived with my dad, and, he had his own struggles at that time, so I went unchecked from age 13 to age 16. In those 3 years I did just about everything you shouldn't have done. I was going down a very wrong path and there was pretty much no slowing me down. I moved back in with my mom, hoping to straighten out my life as well as hang around my old friends who were good citizens. I may have fixed some things, but, I still remained in touch with some of the bad influences and naturally, fell into some bad habits. I did get slowed down...big time, in 1979. Without going into details I had hit rock bottom. During this time, Tony came down to my house and talked with me. I had grown up with his son Ray and he didn't want to see me ruin my life. He made himself available to me when I needed it and promised to get me through it. By the following year I not only had cleaned up my act, but I was active with sports and doing well in school again. I credit Tony with stepping up and saving a good kid going bad.

Tony worked for IBM. He was the epitome of the IBM motto "THINK". He was in charge of safety and was known as the axe man for his stringent attention to the details of his job. To this day when I need to come up with something on the fly, I always remember Tony and say "Think Andy, Think" either out loud or to myself.

Most of all, I remember, that as a little kid, as a teenager and as an adult, Tony always treated me as one of his family. Yes, he ribbed me a bit. Everybody had to have a healthy dose of Tony ribbing to know you were part of his inner circle. But, make no doubt about it, he was a huge influence on my life.

I left my hometown in 1989. I last visited Tony and his family in 1990. One of those long distance things. They had their life in New York, I had mine in California. Gabi and I visted NY in 1991 and I had been back in 2000, 2002 and 2003, but never stopped by to say "Hi !"...Too much thinking about myself, perhaps, maybe just too little time on the trip to stop with my friends (total strangers to him, which thinking now he wouldn't have cared), but either way I had 4 chances, yet never stopped.

Tony died the other day. He was driving his bike on 9W in Highland, NY when a trucker pulled right out in front of him. The man was only 61 years old. It was senseless and tragic. Not only do I feel for his family, but I feel for everyone who knew him. Now, I also have to live with the fact that I never got to see him one last time. Never got to tell him about my wife and family. Never got to hear about his grandkids. Never got a chance to say thank you for everything he did fo me.

Regret...it is very hard to live with. Please, if you know someone who was a big influence, was special to you or just was a great friend and you have lost touch...find them and catch up. Introduce your wife, husband, girlfriend, boyfriend or whomever. Just do something. I didn't, and now I am suffering, and can never do anything to fix it.

Rest in peace Tony.

Runnin' with the Devil...

I did not get a high enough score on part two of my Cisco exam. I was consistant in getting the same amount of answers wrong! I did pretty well considering my experience. I dare any of you to pick a technology, completely different than the one you work in, and see if you can master it in a few days...it is not easy.

Anyway...on to the Devils. I got a chance to see my beloved New Jersey Devils tonight at the Continental Airlines Arena. A few comments:

The fans: The lower bowl was empty. I would guess maybe 30% full. (I am being generous). The upper bowl was probably 90% full. This should be a tipoff to Devils management. You did not reduce ticket prices. A family of 4 can do a lot more with $360 besides go to a hockey game. It's time for a bunch of premium seats and then ends and corners need to come down starting at the bottom by $10 and up to top by $25. The top bowl needs to be family friendly. Kill the $35.00 seats and make an entire upper ring and ends $25.00. The bottom ring center needs to come down from $70 mark to a more reasonable $45.00. New Jersey is a blue collar state and I don't blame the fans one bit for staying away. You lowered player salaries, it's time YOU give back.

Onto the Devils themselves. I have been going to Devils games for 20 years now, and I must say tonights "effort" was the absolute worst I have ever witnessed. Lets have a look.

8 players deserved their paychecks : Gomez, Kozlov, Pandolfo, Madden, Gionta, Marshall, Brylin and Brodeur.

The rest should send us a refund.

Some individual comments.

Malakov: Simply horrible. The Flyers fans were right. This guy is done.
Rafalski : Was exposed for what he is...the defenseman that looked better than he was because in the past, the opposition was concerned with Niedermayer and Stevens, leaving Brian alone. Now he is the man, and cannot handle the pressure.
McGillis : Is Abelin still looking for a job?
Mogilny: Would we get the Mogilny back we had in 2000-2001? Or would we get bad hip Mogilny? The dude was as slow as me. His hip is definitely hampering him.

To sum it up...there are a few guys that need to step up. If not, it's time to cut some dead wood when Elias comes back and on defense, bring up some kids from Albany and have Larry mentor them.

I am simply disgusted.

I'm about to have a nervous breakdown....

Get that one Suzy!!!

I am about to go in for part II of my Cisco exam. I just have so much floating around in my head that I need to clear it now...I will go in within the next half hour.

Let me just say...this thing has been a bitch, not that the material and theories are hard to grasp, but more of the fact that there is alot of names and acronyms to remember. I truly feel that if I did this for a living and had hands on experience it would go a lot smoother. I am NOT a network guy by trade, but wanted to know more. I figure I will now concentrate on getting that better job back in Seattle and slowly take classes to help me absorb the stuff that flew in and out of my head. I'm going in soon...

Other notes of interest...I will be seeing my dad on Sunday. I am hoping he looks OK. Gabi told me I may be shocked. He has bone cancer. I am hoping he is well enough to see Alex one day. He is 76 years old now. I can only hope for the best.

Where The Arizona Moon Met The Arizona Sun....

I don't like it here. I lived here for four months last year. We moved here for two reasons...the proximity to San Diego for Gabi to visit her mom, and, my friend Aaron lived here. Flash forward a year later...Gabi sees her mom more from Seattle than she ever did from Arizona and not only did Aaron and I not get to play hockey together, we hardly got to see each other because of our respective jobs. I would like to add Aaron is long gone to Denver.
I have 4 dealers to see...and if lucky, this will be my last time here. Thor will be taking over my SW territory in the next few months.

I just want to get out of here. Please get me out of here.