Day 193

I don't even know where to start. Thanks to all of you for your kind well wishes. The consensus was that everyone was thinking girl, but conventional wisdom was thrown to the side. Dave and Sara were in town this weekend with their dog, Yoffie, or as we like to call her "Coo-zon Yoffie" in our language. Coo-zon is a spin off cousin. The original coo-zon turns 40 later this week, but we will save that for later. As always, Dave was Dave - makes you laugh one minute and scratch your head the next. For example; Dave and Sara arrived at 3 am Thursday night, was up and out at 7:30 Friday morning for golf, and we didn't see him again until our dinner at Moxie at 8. We were all proud of him as he arrived at 8:10, or in Dave time, 20 minutes early. They treated us to dinner as a thank you for staying at the house. Dave was up and out early for breakfast Saturday morning - I got the girls Bialy's Bagels - before coming back to go shopping and to lunch with us. Watching Dave shopping could become a pastime. His antics at the Lacoste store were legendary. Just listening to him bullshit with the sales people is priceless. Sara, Leah, and I were waiting for him to pay and as usual, he was MIA. I went in to see what he was doing and he was busy arguing that he shouldn't have to pay shipping on an item that they were out of stock in since it was on sale that day. Hilarious. We buried Geraci's Pepperoni pizza for lunch, came back to the house and watched his beloved Florida Gators lay the smack down on LSU. It was great seeing them both and anytime they would like to finally set a wedding date would be fine at this point. As Gregg said this weekend, they can no longer call each other fiancee, they have to go back to boyfriend/girlfriend status.

In other news:
-In the same day, we had Bialy's Bagels and Geraci's Pizza. I'm not just saying this because I'm from here - I think it may be the best bagel and the best pizza I've ever had. I've never found bagels that can hold a candle to Bialy's (save your comments New Yorkers - you are wrong. The only bagels worth a dime in NY are H&H and only because Kramer once worked there). Sara, who had never had Bialy's before, said it was the best she has ever had by far. Geraci's Pepperoni Pizza is unreal. Eating it there makes it better too. I haven't eaten it there in years, but it really makes a difference.

-Saturday night we saw The Departed, the new Martin Scorsese movie, with Leo Dicaprio, Jack Nicholson, and Matt Damon as the three key players. The cast is even deeper, with Martin Sheen, Mark Wahlberg, and a brilliant Alec Baldwin playing excellent supporting roles. This movie is a must see. 4 big stars from Leah and me. I've seen a lot of movies over the past 5 years, and I can't remember liking one as much. It is so well acted all the way around. There was one point in the movie, where Dicaprio is talking to a police shrink and I turned to Leah and said "this guy is an incredible actor. One of the best I've ever seen." I'm serious, he was so good in this movie. Definitely go out and see it. Its 2 and a half hours and I didn't look at my watch once.

-We were invited to two weddings this weekend and couldn't make it to either. Kim, Sean's sister, was married to her longtime boyfriend Jordy in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin Saturday night. We are big Kim and Jordy fans. Of all of my friends little sisters, Kim has to be right there at the top of the list of my favorites. She is such a sweetheart, so normal, and so down to earth. Sean gave me the full report and it sounded like everything went off well and it was beautiful. Congrats out to both Kim and Jordy. The other wedding was out in LA for my boy Beej. Beej was my brother's college roommate from Pittsburgh. MD and my mom both went. It was so nice of him to invite our whole family. He was one of my first real email buddies. Pretty much a day doesn't go by without getting an email from him on the Steelers, his love for Mario Lemieux, reality TV, or celebrity gossip. My father and Beej were great friends believe it or not. I wrote to congratulate him on Friday and tell him how much I appreciated his friendship with not only me, but our whole family and he wrote this back:
I joke about the internet but its so powerful (to be able to read your weekly blogs and see pictures of people/kids is truly a great thang!) Pops was a good friend of mine. He was always there no matter what I wrote him, and many times I even called him. Pops will be missed. I have tears in my eyes as I write this. He was such an amazing, positive, supportive person to me, which made him that much more amazing because I probably knew him the least of any of MD's good friends.
At his rehearsal dinner, he carried the tie my mom gave him of Dad's in his coat pocket in honor of dad. That is a total class move and showed us just how much dad meant to him. I cannot tell him how much I appreciated hearing that. Mom and MD reported a beautiful wedding weekend in LA and Beej and his new wife Megan are off to Hawaii. Meanwhile, my mom says to me "Have you ever heard of Dave Grohl? He was the the wedding." Ah, yeah mom, he is only a member of Nirvana and the Foo Fighters and one of the bigger rock stars there is today. Kinda sweet. MD also had a confirmed Dennis Haysbert, aka Pedro Cerrano, at California Pizza Kitchen in Pasadena. Solid. I wish we could have been at both.

-Today is the 30th birthday of Randy Rash himself, Andy "call me Andrew" Rafal. His wife Jules threw him a surprise party this weekend in Scottsdale for the big 3-0. Gotta send the love out to the whole Rafal family.

-It was a big weekend for my inlaws. First, they find out that they are going to be having a grandson. Later that day, their new son-in law Justin received a job offer at the most prestigious Mergers and Acquisitions law firm in the country, Wachtel, in New York. This firm flat out doesn't hire anyone not from Harvard or Yale, and Justin (a Penn undergrad, and Northwestern law 3rd year) got the call. This guy is going places. And lastly, my brother in law Scott's new restaurant Olive and Ivy, is opening to the public later this week and they went to a friends and family test dinner last night. Early reports say it was solid.

-I know it was last week, so I won't get into the hypocrisy of the Republican party and their cover up of now disgraced Florida Congressman Mark Foley. You know the story, so I don't have to repeat it, but all of the right wing, anti-gay stance Republicans are getting worked right now, and I love it. Memo to Mark Foley, are you that dumb to be sending sexually explicit emails and text messages out to young pages? You reap what you sow you pederass!

Song of the Day: "Ecstasy" by Pittsburgh's own Rusted Root