Day 208

I was real busy earlier today getting work done and getting prepared for the big weekend in Chicago so this is being written from the airplane. Nothing new for me as the road warrior continues. Leah is along for the ride this weekend to see her friends. As beautiful as last weekend was weather-wise, this weekend should be a 180. We left on an earlier flight so we could get out as Chicago is expecting a foot of snow overnight and into tomorrow. Should make for an interesting day. I’ve got my usual vendor Friday and stopping by our corporate office beforehand. The real reason for the weekend visit is clearly sports-related. My beloved Kansas Jayhawks, fresh from their 51 point pasting of those tough Ivy-leaguers the Dartmouth Big Green, are playing Depaul on Saturday afternoon. Pretty much everyone I know who lives in Chicago and went to KU will be there. I am fully expecting to see a 50/50 crowd at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont. It will be good to get together with everyone as well. We are hitting up a couple of old favorites for dinners – Hacienda and Wildfire. I’m looking very much forward to it.

I’m not joking when I tell you the guy sitting across the aisle from us has been picking his nose like a 3 year old. We watched him at the gate and it has been non-stop since. Literally for an hour the guy continues to dig for gold. I have never seen anything like it. Get a Kleenex or a clue dude, for real.

I played a wicked game of doubles tennis last night with my cousin Jan against Uncle Kenny and my mom. I forgot how much fun doubles is. I am loving playing tennis again. Playing with Uncle Kenny is pure hilarity. My man has game, no doubt. He is a beast at the net and rarely makes mistakes. Watching him hit across the way was like watching my dad. They hit the same way. He came out with the headband and I knew I was in trouble. Jan and I took the first set 6-3. The elders took the second 6-4. Then in the best out of five games, they took us down 3-2. I guess in the end, older is better.

The last two nights I have watched college basketball games on ESPN. Both games, Indiana vs. Duke and Ohio State vs. North Carolina, were being called by the famous Dick Vitale. Dickie V is no for his joyful exuberance and love for the college game. While I admire his passion greatly, the guy has officially jumped the shark. He has become an unbearable screamer and a guy who thinks he is bigger than the game. Everyone who comes in contact with him loves him and says what a nice man he is, and I’m sure that is true. But listening to him now has become a chore. How many more times do I need to hear that the alternate possession rule needs to be changed? How many times can one man stroke the Duke program? His catch-phrases aren’t fresh, his act is so tired, and its time for him to hang them up. I knew it was bad when I heard the same exact schtick back to back nights about how OSU coach Thad Matta is getting an early Christmas present when all-world Freshman Greg Oden returns from injury. I can honestly say I went to the mute button in the second half.

What does it say about this country when I read today that despite the called-for Boycott of the Seinfeld DVD’s by Jesse Jackson (who is a phony and a buffoon, but that is besides the point), sales of the DVD’s are way up?

What did we all do before the internet anyways? How much less work is being done in this country do you think? Everyone I know, while working hard, seems to find time to be emailing with friends all day long. I am the biggest culprit. Do I get things done? Absolutely. But a day doesn’t go by (unless I am in meetings) that I am not discussing why Indiana guard Rodrick Wilmont doesn’t play more with Mark P, or why Torry Holt is slumping on my fantasy football team with Sean, or receiving forwards of Britney Spears coming out of a car in Hollywood bottomless from ten different people. Its even worse now with my Blackberry. Everything I need when I am not in front of my computer is now right in my hand. I have truly become a Blackberry addict, just like my guy Joe Dumars. I’ll save that story for another day.

I gotta give quick birthday shoutouts to my man Jeremy who turned 33 today and The V-Dog herself, Vera, who turned a whopping 69 yesterday. When she told me last night that she was 69 I almost dropped. I thought she was my dad’s age or a little younger. When I was guessing she said “My grandson is 23.” Jer has been my best friend since moving back to C-town. Who else would go see Borat and the People vs. John Lennon with me? We have been close since we were kids – we signed each other’s Ketubah’s when we got married – and he is one of the few people I put in the same category with me for pure love of his sports teams.

One day until we get to December; this gives us one month until the year in which my son will be born. Yikes! I’ve got to cut this short as I am beginning to get nauseous from this bumpy flight. Its been 30 minutes of constant turbulence…..catch you all on the ground…..

Song of the Day: "Don't Let me Down" by The Beatles

Day 207

Back to reality. It was such a mail-in week of work last week, but it came at a good time. It was so great to see so many of my family and friends. As you know, Thanksgiving is always going to be a tough holiday for my family, but I will say that this year, the sadness was less than I expected. Last year was the first one plus the stone-setting, that was obviously rough for all of us. They say that it gets a little easier every day or every year for that matter. I don't disagree. I never forget the feeling though. Apologies in advance to coo-zon Steve who this weekend told me that I describe every meal I have ever had. Thanksgiving dinner is always over at my Uncle Kenny and Aunt Linda's out in Waite Hill. They have 15 acres in a very quiet, peaceful neighborhood. Over the past 10 years or so, I have equated Thanksgiving with their house and Aunt Linda's wonderful cooking skill. While the food filled me up, my Cabernet flowing, and watching the growing number of great-grandchildren running around, I was only disappointed in one thing. I have never attended a Dery family function in which there wasn't chopped liver. Until now. A family meal isn't a family meal without it. It was replaced with hummus and pita? come on now. I just buried about 15 shrimp instead. Then there is the desert. My cousin Debbie came strong last year with a chocolate trifle desert that was unreal. I was hoping for a repeat performance we I got it. the you have the hi-jinks which is giving my nephew Jace one body slam after another in the basement. The best is that our one and a half year old niece Reese wanted to join in on the fun as well. Steve and I took turns slamming them on the couch while they laughed and jumped up for more every time. As usual, the fun ended when Steve slammed me and the wood on the arm of Uncle Kenny's 25 year old couch sounded like it snapped. KD had the whole thing on video, but the look on his face said it all. Overall, it was another nice Thanksgiving meal with the family.

I haven't gone out drinking once here since I moved back here. This week, I did twice. Wednesday night I was at Moxie for a drink and then Sushi Rock with Gregg and Rafal. I figured we would run into a lot of people, but it turned out not to be that way, which was fine. I still had a good time. The best was that we were driving to Sushi Rock about to role in and one of them said, "here we are, three fathers about to role in to a bar." So strange. Gregg has a daughter and another one on the way and Rafal has a daughter as well. We have come a long way since the days when I was both of their big brothers in the high school fraternity and we were drinking cases of Keystone Light. Friday night, MD and I met Steve, Coo-zons Katy and Julie, Ags, and a few others at the Claddaugh Irish Pub at Legacy. I ran into a bunch of randoms there including a guy I know from Chicago who was in town with his girlfriend. It was a classic Chicago moment as he said "I know we are not at a bar in a strip mall are we?" That is Cleveland for you. Nevertheless, it was a great time. I really felt old a couple of times when I was talking to two girls, Lindsay and Mallie, that I went to high school with who were 2 grades below me. They started showing me pictures of their kids and Mallie is pregnant with #2. Lindsay was the littlest thing when we were younger (still is). She went to camp with me and I have known her since she was 9. Now she is showing me pictures of her son. I was floored.

Then there is Saturday night. Leah and I started out at dinner with the kids, Mom, MD, and Grandmom at Brio, then stopped by Les' to celebrate his 60th birthday. Les was my father's best friend. We used to say they shared the same immature brain. They brought out Les a big cake and he gave a little speech to everyone and in it he said how much he missed dad, which was so nice. The kids were having a lot of fun playing with the other various young kids running around this house. Leah and I left as we were having a few people over to watch the big event of my weekend, Kansas vs. Florida in college basketball. The game tipped off at 11 PM EST which is ridiculously late, but I would have waited up until 3 AM for this game. It lived up to all of the hype. My Jayhawks, a 6 point underdog, came out smokin, playing great defense, and showing swagger they have yet to show this season and upset the defending National Champion and #1 Florida Gators 82-80 in overtime. The game had March intensity and a tournament feel. Sean and I were in full freak out mode, yelling and screaming, and drinking beers like water. MD enjoyed the game thoroughly. Then there were the girls. Leah was watching, but clearly wanted the game to end so she could go to sleep. Nancy, Sean's wife, was spotted peep a People magazine. In an effort to keep Nancy at the house and awake, Leah at halftime pulled out the Rummy Q game and that took up a solid 35 minutes or so. Meanwhile, KU blew a 4 point lea with 14 seconds to go as Florida forced OT. Sean and I of course thought it was over. But behind the clutch play of stud Freshman Darrell Arthur, KU weathered the storm and knocked odd the Mighty Gators.

Lastly, Rafal, Mom, Leah, Uncle Kenny, Aunt Linda, and I attended the Browns/Bengals game yesterday. All I can say is wow. Yet another bottom-feeder performance by my sad excuse for a football team. Time for Randy Lerner to man up and sell this team. He has done a pathetic job running this organization. From the top to the bottom, we are the laughingstock of the NFL. The Browns were shut out by the Bengals 30-0 in a game that could have been worse. You know what is even more sad? The Bengals had the 32nd ranked defense in the NFL. You know how many teams there are in the league? 32. That is right, they had the worst defense in the league and the Browns still couldn't score. Steve and I decided that we may have to bring a camera in and videotape Uncle Kenny and make a documentary about him watching his beloved Browns. I give him a ton of credit. He cares and loves this team unconditionally. No matter how bad we are. But we are all lemmings. We waste our time and money on this bad product year after year and we deserve better. Looks like its house cleaning time once again GM Phil Savage looks like he isn't assertive enough with his coach Romeo Crennel. Crennel has no control over his team as there is a ton of infighting, including right in plain sight on the sidelines yesterday. Big mouth WR Braylon Edwards, who called out his own safety Brian Russell as a cheap-shot artist earlier in the week (where he was wrong and Crennel did nothing about) got into a heated sideline exchange with our minor-league QB Charlie Frye. Yet, Crennel inexplicably did nothing about this either and sent Braylon right back out there the rest of the game. Romeo is a nice guy. And we all know where nice guys finish. The season is spiraling out of control and the organization continues to sink to new lows every week. How sad. Maybe MD has been right all of these years. They aren't worth our time anymore.

Song of the Day: "The 6th Sense" by Common

Day 206

Today is the two year anniversary of the passing of my father, the great Bobby D. Instead of talking about my Thanksgiving or the week that was, I want to talk a little about what I am thankful for. As you know, we have gone through a lot of hardships over the past 2 years. On the positive side, things seem to be turning around for us.

I am thankful for the so far healthy and growing baby boy that is currently in Leah's stomach. As the days go by, I get more and more impatient and I cannot wait to meet him. Everyone keeps telling me to enjoy my time now, and we are trying to do so, but the suspense is killing us.

I am thankful for having such an amazing, beautiful, and patient wife. Dealing with me on a daily basis is not easy - I will be the first one to admit that - but she does it masterfully.

I am thankful that our journey has brought us back to Cleveland, the city where I was born and raised. This town holds so many incredible memories for me and I cannot wait to make more while watching my children grow up as I did - full of C-town pride. It is funny, last night I was over at my friend Allison and Lindsay's house and our friend Betsy G, who no longer lives here, was discussing growing up here. She said that there is just something special about growing up here, it seems like everyone really had a pretty decent adolescence here and how fortunate we all were to grow up in a place that is so easy to raise a family. I couldn't agree more. My friends from Chicago always bust my balls about it because everyone from Cleveland's go-to line is "yeah, but its a great place to raise a family." Its the truth.

I am thankful for having an incredible group of friends and family that have been an amazing support system for me. Whether over email, on the phone, or in person, you all are what defines me. I deeply miss all of my Chicago crew, but through the power of email, I feel like while I don't see them as much, I am not missing a beat. While we are not blood, you are all my family.

I am thankful for having the best dog in the world. Casey has truly changed me forever as I am now dog person #1. She is on her little month vacation in Arizona and I miss her deeply. I promised Leah that I wouldn't mentioned how she cried when we got home because Casey wasn't here. Chalk it up to hormones. I am also thankful that for the last week, I have been sleeping better than I have since we got her three years ago.

I am thankful that I was blessed to marry into a great family. My in-laws are truly second parents to me. Jessica and Scott are like siblings - They have been in my life now for 12 years. Unbelievable. I am even more thankful that my in-laws live in Scottsdale and that I can make it a vacation spot twice a year!

I am thankful for my family, both nuclear and extended. Since moving back here, my mother has been pretty amazing. Being back in Cleveland and seeing her as much as we do is good for both of us. My brother and his children are lights in my life. You all should see Reese now. She has put on a clinic thus far in the last two days. I swear all she wants to do is hug me. I am thankful that my little guy Jace is so full of energy that he keeps MD on his toes. Not only am I thankful that my brother is my best friend, but more so I am completely impressed with his parenting skills and patience. The guy has to be commended.

Lastly, I am thankful for the 28 years I had with my father. The best father, role model, and friend and son could ever ask for. You've read time and time again how much I revered this man, but it bears repeating. Nobody disliked him. He was one of the most well-respected, intelligent, and flat out funny men that there has ever been. Not a day goes by that I don't think of him and smile. I wouldn't trade my years with him for anything. Later today I will go see him at the cemetery and tell him so in my own way.

Song of the Day: "That's The Way" by Led Zeppelin

Day 205

I cannot believe that Thanksgiving week is here. Leah and I were talking the other night that time has just flown by here. This Thanksgiving is different for us. For the first time since my senior year in high school, I am not traveling Thanksgiving week, and I cant say that I am disappointed about that. This is the busiest travel season every year and driving back and forth to Chicago usually took an extra hour. Add in the Dan Ryan expressway construction this year and it could have potentially taken seven and a half hours plus. A ton of our friends and family are returning to C-town this week so we are packed with plans. I am very much looking forward to seeing MD and the kids. The ex-Mrs MD actually sent me pictures of the kids this past week and they were adorable. I have posted one above. Thanksgiving week also symbolizes the worst of my world - Friday will be exactly two years since my father has passed away. Things have been moving in the right direction over the last 6 months, so I choose to stay positive and remember my father for all the good times we had during this week. The person who I most worry about this week is my grandmother. My mom, MD, and I are all affected and will have a tough time later in the week, but she has taken this harder than we have. The holidays in general are always tough for her. She is in her early 90's, has lost her husband and son, and is ready to go. She always says to me "I've lived a great life." I agree, but the last three years have definitely weighed on her. On Thursday, I will tell you what I am most thankful for.

My weekend was very football driven. First off, I am sick to report to all of you that I pretty much missed the entire Michigan/Ohio State game in Saturday. Here was my dilemma. One of my biggest clients is a huge Steelers fan. The Browns played the Steelers on Sunday. About two months ago, I gave him two tickets to the game and was going to take him. Therefore, I had to fly home on Saturday. There were only two flights on Continental that day. A 10:30 AM and a 12:55 PM. When we were booking, the 10:30 was already sold out and the 12:55 became our only option. Then earlier in the week, my client's mother in-law died and he had to cancel. By this time, trying to get out on Sunday was an $100 change fee plus the difference in fair, which would have cost me another $500. Three years ago, this would have freaked me out - missing a sporting event of this magnitude. But I have come to realize its just a football game. Ok - all that being said, I really wish I would have seen it. Everyone told me how amazing the game was. I know a couple of people that were at the game. My boy Ags, a die-hard Buckeye fan, said he can't imagine it getting any better than the experience he had. Earlier in the year, he had gone to Austin for the Texas game and I told him he had to bring a camera. He didn't. But this time around, he learned his lesson and I saw his photos today. As you probably know, I am a big picture taker. Like my father, I love to document everything if I can. I remember as a kid, dad always wanted to take our pictures at big sporting events, vacations, etc. We always hated it. But looking back, it was the smartest move he could have made. I picked right up on that. As for the game itself, it cemented Ohio State's #1 ranking and place in the national championship game in Glendale, AZ on January 7th. What is moronic about the whole thing is that the Buckeyes don't play now for 50-plus days. That is a great system they have in place there. Michigan's season is over with one loss. Notre Dame plays USC this Saturday and the winner will also have just one loss. Arkansas and Florida play each other in a few weeks and most likely the winner there will have one loss. The computers and pollsters will decide which one loss team gets a shot of the Buckeyes. If USC loses to ND, it will most likely be a re-match with Michigan, which I would love to see since I didn't get to appreciate the first game. But how is that fair to Ohio State? Having to beat an angry team twice and if they lose, both teas have one loss, yet Michigan is the national champion? Strange stuff. But congrats to the Buckeyes. Great picture above of the goalposts being guarded by the cops after the big win.

Now on to the NFL. I woke up yesterday, looked out the window and saw pouring rain. But it was Browns/Steelers week, so I knew regardless of the weather, I was going. The other thing I knew was that mom was going to back out. So I headed down to the Lakefront with my poncho in tow. Waiting to get frisked to get into the stadium is absurd. I wrote this after the opener, but it just reminds me of how 90% of Browns fans are lowest common denominator; Swearing up a storm, smoking cigs, drinking beers, and picking fights for no reason. The best part of the game is getting out of that swarm and into my seats. So I arrive about 12:55 in my seats and it is a driving rain storm. The real men (aka the idiots) sprawled across our eight seats were cousin Billy, Uncle Kenny, and me. A solid crew definitely. I was there because my dad would have been. In the meantime, it was a very entertaining game in which the Browns had control over for the first 55 minutes. Unfortunately for the Browns, the games are 60 minutes long. At the 4:14 mark of the 4th quarter, the Steelers scored a TD to cut the Browns lead to 20-17. I turned to Bill and Uncle Kenny and said "guys, its been fun." They couldn't get why I was leaving, but i am from the Bobby Dery school of Browns watching - "You don't want to be here when we blow it." I told them I already knew what was going to happen; The Browns would go three and out, punt, and the Steelers would drive down and score a TD to win it all. Sure enough, my call came true. I was in my car getting off at my exit when the game ended. I saved myself from the torture that is watching the Steelers do it to us again. Nothing good could have happened if I stayed. That is the way I looked at it. I don't leave tribe games early like that, just Browns games.

This story has flown under the radar, but Michael Richards, the man who played the lovable Kramer on Seinfeld, had a terrible incident at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles. While doing stand-up and being heckled, Richards launched into a racial tirade on the hecklers, dropping a series of N-bombs, amongst other insults. The whole incident was caught on video. Needless to say, his career has to be over with this one. Click on the link to see the video and read the TMZ.com article. It is not to be believed. I don't care of he was drunk, on crack, whatever; How can you be that stupid? Its clear this guy is a racist because any normal human being wouldn't have dropped the N-bomb the way he did. I am eagerly anticipating his public apology and see him backtrack.

Song of the Day: "To Be Racist is an illness" by Macka B

Day 204

Well many of you in my circle have complained to me via email or voicemails that I have been MIA of late. My own brother, who I talked to incessantly, left me a message saying “hey, it’s your brother, MD, you remember me?” I’ve been out in Arizona all week for our senior managers meetings and it has been an adventure to say the least. There are 12 of us out here. My company as always puts us up in first class accommodations, at the Phoenician, which was absolutely beautiful. Monday night was a bad dinner and drinks. Tuesday we had meetings all morning, then a golf outing. They took us out to Troon North, which is literally a driver and a 9 iron (hahaha Max) from my in-laws house. When we received our foursomes, I was put with the V.P. of sales and our National sales manager, who is my direct boss. On one hand, I was honored to be placed in their foursome (if you know these two guys, you know they choose who they want to be with and who they don’t), on the other hand, my boss is well known for his “beer a hole” edict and the V.P. of sales is also an interesting cat to say the least. The course was amazing; in the mountains surrounded by 2 plus million dollar homes and amazing views. My golf game needs a little work, but as I told them, I can do everything; it’s just usually not on the same hole. Turns out the head-honcho and I share a similar game, while my boss and my other co-worker gambled throughout. I only had a couple of beers and wasn’t killed for it, and listening to my boss talk shit while betting on his golf game was pretty amusing. Overall, it was a solid experience, a lot of fun, and my score was somewhere North of 100 (can’t reveal). We had reservations at Drinkwater’s City Hall, which is a Mastro’s Restaurant. Steak and Seafood are their specialties. Honestly, I give the food and A+. For a teaser, they brought out two giant seafood towers which included King Crab legs, lobster, shrimp, and clams. They provided us each with our own three sauces, cocktail, the Joe’s stone crab mustard sauce, and horseradish. They told me the horseradish had some bite to it, but I wasn’t prepared for what I was about to experience. Now I am not a hot food guy, but I usually can handle a little spice. I am not joking when I tell you it was the single hottest thing I’ve ever tasted. Immediately, I thought my eyes were going to pop out of my head. I drank a full glass of water. It was crazy. I wasn’t alone, I saw 5 other guys at the table do the same thing. My dad was Mr. Spicy food, he would have loved this and even he would have said it was hot. We had the Seafood towers, then salad, and then for my entrée I proceeded to bury an 18 oz bone-in filet. It was one of the better pieces of meat I have ever had. We had probably 10 bottles of wine. The whole evening was great. Good people, good eats. We all planned of going out and by the time dinner ended at 11, everyone was literally too stuffed to move.

And then came yesterday. One of the crazier days I have had in a long time. It started off as I had to give my presentation on my accounts and how my role differs from the others. Things went well. After that all of the regionals took there shots at their presentations. The first guy who went, let’s refer to him as “Chatterbox Charlie,” had a classic experience that I won’t soon forget. My man was all over the place, made some silly mistakes, but nothing too serious, but he never stops talking. He ended up talking himself into a corner with the bosses who questioned him. He gave dumbass replies and then the roof caved in on all of us. It became an hour dissertation about how we all suck, have no fresh ideas, and can be easily replaced. Chatterbox Charlie actually then spoke up and said “I don’t appreciate being talked to this way, it doesn’t motivate me.” The rest of us looked at each other and were counting down the seconds until he was clipped. He got reamed badly. He was told that if he doesn’t like it he should quit, this is how things work around here, he should stop feeling sorry for himself and this job and company aren’t for everyone. All I can say is yikes. The rest of the meetings and presentations ended up becoming an exercise in futility. One region got ripped up after the next. Luckily for us, we had an activity scheduled for the afternoon and mercifully it came to an end.

And you think that was hairy? We all get picked up in vans and headed northeast into the mountains for an afternoon of 4 wheel riding. In the van, we all quickly signed these waivers without reading them and jokingly talked about signing our lives away. It was a great time. You have a leader who you follow and you can drive as fast or as slow as you want throughout the rocky terrain. We all were completely covered in dust. I don’t want you to think this was that safe, because as we were riding through the mountainous trails, one wrong turn or hot of a big rock and you could be off a cliff of into a cactus. Probably an hour in, the elder statesmen of the group hit a rock wrong and flipped his bike. I was a few behind him, so we saw came up and saw he was pinned under his bike. We helped him up and he had a huge chunk taken out of his arm. He said he was alright and we patched him up and he was more than ready to continue, but you just had the feeling that something worse was about to happen. The next minor incident we had, a guy lost control of his bike and the bike headed down a mountain, he literally chased after it and saved it from crashing. At the next little break we had to catch everyone up, the tour guide told us to go slower, this would be a very narrow area and we should be careful. I said to the guy next to me “one of our bosses is going to pop a tire and get seriously hurt you know.” Within 3 minutes of that statement, we came upon a major accident. The guy who had lost control of his bike before, hit the side of a rock, spun out of control, and flipped his bike. The guy right behind him, who happened to be the V.P., slammed on his breaks to avoid him, but there wasn’t any room, he rammed into the bike and was thrown off as well. As I drove up to the scene, the V.P. and another guy were standing over my co-worker and he was out cold. We stood there for 5 minutes trying to wake him up. He was breathing, but was unresponsive. 5 minutes later, he came too. He had no recollection of the accident what’s so ever. He was moving his arms and his legs, but was very dizzy. They paramedics were called in. We sat him up and he kept repeating himself? “What happened?” We’d tell him. “Did I wreck the bike?” We’d tell him yes. “I don’t remember a thing” he’d say. Then say again “Do you guys know what happened?” This occurred for 30 minutes before the paramedics arrive. When they arrived, no joke, one of the paramedics got out of his SUV and snapped his ankle. Finally after probably an hour and a half, the helicopter arrived and he was airlifted to the hospital. By this time, the sun was down and it dropped like 20 degrees. We had 20 minutes or so left in the dark to navigate our way back to safety. I’m happy to report that our guy after spending 4 hours in the hospital, made it to the meeting this morning with a huge black and blue make on his thigh and sporting a severe limp. Nothing was broken, just a concussion.

We ended the night in style. 8 of us, not including the two injured guys and the bosses, went to my brother in law Scott’s restaurant Olive and Ivy, at 9, had a great private room and an even better meal. Everyone was raring to go out after dinner and we ended up stumbling on a club called Myst. Now the crew consisted of 6 guys 38-42, all married, and a single guy at 33, and me. Two of the guys clearly wanted no part of it and went home right away. The line to get in was extremely long, but one of the guys with us pulled a Sturch. He duked the guy a C-Note and magically we were all in. We were clearly the oldest guys at the bar, but that didn’t stop us. We closed the club down with a lot of shots, drinks, and laughs watching a couple of guys attempting to dance with women clearly out of their league. The talent in that place was unreal. This is one good looking city that is for sure. I got to sleep around 3:30 and was up by 7 for our meetings. We had a state of the company address which was very encouraging and impressive. We are a very healthy company, up 25% in business this year and heading down the track of being a $700 million company this year. I love working here, but this meeting gave me more reassurance that I’m in the right place. I just woke up from a 3 hour nap and I should be back to normal again.

Lastly, I cannot even begin to discuss the KU loss at home to Oral Roberts this morning. On Monday I will talk about it further. Saturday’s Ohio State/Michigan game may be the biggest game in college football history. My prediction: Ohio State and the Columbus crowd will be way too much for Michigan to overcome. Troy Smith will lead the Buckeyes to a 35-21 victory and a spot in national championship.

Song of the Day: “Crash” by Dave Matthews Band

Day 203

My travels have now taken me to beautiful Scottsdale, Arizona. We have a senior manager meetings out here this week starting on Tuesday. Luckily for me, my in laws live out here, so we decided to make a week of it. Leah told her job before taking it that we were coming out here for a week, so she was fine. I made a couple of extra appointments for Friday to get clearance. The joke of it all is that a company considers me "senior management." I still find it funny. They have hooked it up with 5 star accommodations. We are staying at the Phoenician. We work in the mornings until lunch, then we have activities. We playing Golf tomorrow at Troon North, riding 4 wheelers in the mountains another afternoon and have great dinners planned as well. I'm sure I will be ready for detox after these three days. This is a big drinking group so I'm sure I will have some stories to tell when its all over. We all have our own presentations to give during the meanings. My power point skills we be on full display. Overall though, it should be a good working experience. I am very much looking forward to it.

Flying out here with Casey is always an adventure. She was drugged so she slept most of the way, but as we were walking to the gate (all the way at the end for a change) I told Leah once the baby is born, Casey travelling with us is officially over. Its hard enough bringing her with us. Add in a baby and I would probably freak. Meanwhile, Casey and my in laws new puppy Bailey are getting along ok. Bailey wants to play with Casey all the time and Casey just doesn't want to be bothered. I'm hoping things will improve as we are leaving Casey here until our next visit. They are really cute together though. As usual, Casey can't figure out the time difference and proceeded to wake me up at 4:30 this morning. Looking forward to my late afternoon nap.

Saturday was the KU opener against Northern Arizona. I was very much looking forward to watching the game and had it all set to go at the KU alumni bar out here, The Upper Deck. Well my in laws and Leah begrudgingly agreed to go with me, have dinner, and watch the game. The place was 30 minutes away towards downtown. Of course we get there right at 6 and the place is closed due to a private party. I was given bunk information by my Western Jayhawk brethren. By the time we drove to another place that didn't have the game on, it was already halftime. I could tell this was not something the other three wanted to do in the first place and I probably should have given up after the first place. It ended up being a blessing in disguise. Yes, we did blow NAU out 91-57 behind 22 points from Brandon Rush, but this gave us the opportunity to eat at Scott's new restaurant Olive and Ivy. When we got there, the place was completely packed. Scott was able to finagle a table for us at 7:45. We hung out in the bar area for a while checking out the scenery. First off, the place is very swanky. It is right up the alley of my guy the Buatch. A ton of good looking late 20's to early 40's people, a ton of hot chicks and silicon. The decor is very cool. Has an open kitchen and a huge outdoor area as well. It is definitely a spot to be seen. Then there is Scott. Scott is the younger brother I never had and I have known him now for 12 years. I was at his bar mitzvah. If you have seen the show Hell's Kitchen, he was in the Gordon Ramsey role that night; checking out the appetizers and salads and making sure they were properly prepared. He is a big deal there and it was so nice to see. I was very proud of him. For the first time, I looked at him in a different way. He was a hard-working, conscientious chef, not my little bro Scott. The food was great. Scott sent over some teasers - Fallafal balls with Tzizki sauce, garlic shrimp, and Saganacki. They were all great. Their dinner menu is very eclectic, from braised sort rib to scallops. Leah and I both had flatbreads - mine was a caramelized mushrooms and sausage, Leah's was a Pesto and Tomato. My in laws spilt a piece of Halibut. All of the food was great. I'm not just saying this because Scott works there, but it is a great spot that I highly recommend to anyone who is out here.

I spent yesterday watching football and hanging out with my friend Jules and Andrew and their daughter Winter. A solid time was had by all. Since our boy is coming soon, I am trying to talk to as many new parents as I can and get as much advice as I can. I took a couple of things away from yesterday. First and foremost, its all about being as patient as possible. When we put Winter down for her nap, she began to wail. Rafal said to me you have to just block it out, it will last 10 minutes, and then she goes right to sleep. Sure enough, it did. Winter was pretty good, no major meltdowns, but I could just tell that were relaxed. I know its easier said than done, but I've got to do my best to be patient as a parent. The other thing we have to get is the video monitor. Instead of the audio only deal, they now make these handheld video monitors that you put in the crib so you can see your kid without having to get up if you don't need to. Being the lazy man that I am, this is an absolute must.

Meanwhile, The Browns somehow won in Atlanta yesterday 17-13. Typical that I have literally seen every down this season and we pretty much have played like crap, yet yesterday when I wasn't watching, the Browns put on their best performance of the season. Its a big weekend in Ohio football. Not only is it Steeler week, but on Saturday is perhaps the biggest regular season college football game in the past 30 years, as the Michigan Wolverines travel to Columbus to meet their bitter rivals, the Ohio State Buckeyes. The winner goes to the National Championship game, the loser more than likely won't. The hype this week will be over the top. I feel like this game has been talked about for 2 months and now it is finally here. I will hold my prediction until Thursday's blog.

Song of the Day: "Drop" by the Pharcyde

Day 202

To quote Ice Cube: "Peace....don't make me laugh." That is what I have to say to outgoing Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld this morning. Yes, the man most Americans have come to love to hate, has finally stepped down from his position, long after he should have done so. The majority of the time, when someone resigns, it usually means they were forced out, and you would have to think that he was fired. Although, with this administration and the comments last week from George Bush that he wants Rumsfeld to stick around through the rest of Bush's tenure as President would make you think otherwise. Its an interesting thought - Rumsfeld, the day after the elections in which the Democrats took over control of both the House and the Senate, saw the writing on the walls and cowardly quit. Bush claimed yesterday that this decision was made before the election, but that clearly can't be the case. If that was true and he were as smart as he thinks he is, he would have relieved Rumsfeld of his duties before the election, therefore gaining some credibility with the swing voters in key states such as Virginia and Ohio. But again, that is vintage W. In reading about Rumsfeld online, I found a website devoted to the memorable quotes if this man. A couple of my favorites:

• "Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know."
• "We do know of certain knowledge that Bin Laden is either in Afghanistan, or in some other country, or dead."

It is great to see so many right-wing conservatives backtracking now that the Senate and the House are in Democratic control. I heard a clip of Rush Limbaugh yesterday saying that a lot of the things he was saying and backing, he didn't really agree with, he was just trying to go along and push his party's policies and keeping them in place because "the stakes were too high." As a friend of mine said to me yesterday, "now how is that for a flawed sense of things, the stakes are high, but you're defending something you think is wrong, because your party is selling it?" I couldn't agree more. The bottom line here is that the country has spoken through the power of the vote. They wanted change and that is what they are getting. It should be an interesting two years.

Lets move into some less thought provoking topics, like my favorite wanna-be celebrity, Kevin "K-Fed" Federline. So Britney Spears finally decided to drop this no-talent loser and served him with divorce papers. This is perfect timing for "Fed-Ex" since he is out touring and promoting his new album "Playing With Fire". A couple of his shows have been cancelled due to a lack of ticket sales, including here in Cleveland (I'm proud to say). I heard yesterday his show in New York sold only 300 tickets, and he came out 3 hours late because he was sitting back stage waiting for more people to show up. Then I came across this gem of a story. K-Fed played at the Chicago House of Blues last night. Several songs into the set, he referenced his breakup with Spears. "Hey, I see a lot of fine ladies in here," said the rapper. "You know I'm a free man, right, ladies? You wanna dance with a pimp?" HAHAHAHAHA! What a tool! Make sure you click on the link above and read about the rest of his evening in Chicago. Meanwhile, he is now suing Spears for full custody of their two kids. What judge in their right mind would grant custody to a hard-partying, no talent zero with pretty much no earning potential and three kids from two different women who he is no longer with? He may be getting the last laugh though. He did at one point land Britney Spears and will probably come out of this divorce with enough money to last anyone a lifetime.

Faith Hill of all people should now, when you are a celebrity, the cameras are always watching, especially at an awards show. At Monday night's Country Music Awards, Hill was one of 5 nominees for Performer of the Year. They had cameras on each of the 5 nominees, and when they announced the winner, Carrie Underwood, Hill let out a classic reaction. You can see her genuine shock as she yelled out "WHAT!" Its an unbelievable piece of footage.

A couple quick sports notes:

• The Tribe just landed their second basement for the next 5 years in trading for young stud Josh Barfield. We only had to give up third base prospect Kevin Kouzmanoff who was stuck behind both Andy Marte and Ryan Garko and has a chronic back problem. No doubt Kouzmanoff can hit. That is why The Padres, desparate for a third basemen, were hard after him. Barfield is perfect for the Tribe. He is only 23, plays a great second base, has speed, and best of all for our ownership, comes very cheap. We can control him for 5 more years.
• Lebron James caught a lot of flack nationally for walking off the court with 7 seconds left as the Hawks were running the clock out the other night in their win over the Cavs. Predicatbly, this story didn't even register on a local level here because Lebron can do whatever he wants. In small print, the one quote James had was "The game was over. I walked off the court. We were down by seven [actually nine] points with three seconds left. There was no way we were going to win."
• The KU season starts this Friday with some baggage weighing over the program. You recall a few weeks back, I told you the story of CJ Giles, who was suspended. Since then, our other top Center, Sasha Kaun, hurt his knee and will be out for 6 weeks. Magically, Coach Bill Self re-instated Giles saying "we are in the business of helping kids succeed." Two days later, Giles was arrested for battery of a female student. He was kicked off the team for good a few hours later. I don't like how this reflects on the program. Self put himself in a precarious position by re-instating Giles out of necessity. He will deny it, but that is the truth. Giles screwed him big time and the already immense pressure on Self to succeed this year was just heightened.

Day 201

Live from Toronto, Canada. The world tour continues. We had a nice weekend with Jessica, as she was in town visiting. We are running lower and lower on time before the baby arrives and throws our world upside down, so it was good they Leah and Jess got some sister time in. This also gave me some time this weekend to see the much anticipated, and highly praised comedy, Borat. Jeremy and I had this time pegged for weeks as we are both fans of Da Ali G show, where Borat’s character was first shown. Every review I saw gave it at least 3 and a half stars. All I can say is wow. No comedy movie that I have seen in my life can come close to the sheer insanity that is the Borat movie. It is literally indescribable. It is not for the easily offended. In fact, you have to have a sense of humor about this and realize that with all of the outrageous antics, there is an underlying message here. This country, especially when you get out of the metropolitan areas and into the south/bible belt areas, there is still rabid anti-semetism and racism. It was almost scary to see the way some of these people viewed Jews and Blacks. Without giving anything away, there was a scene in which Borat walks into a southern gun shop and asks the clerk "what is the best gun for killing a Jew." Without batting an eye, the clerk offers up two suggestions. Crazy. Borat's character is played by Sasha Baron Cohen, who is Jewish; hence the reason he is so easily able to get away with the anti-semetism of his character. The movie is definitely shocking, but it is also brilliant, and unlike any other movie. It is truly in a league of its own. We laughed throughout the first two-thirds of the movie non-stop. You will too. I give it 4 stars for originality and for hilarity. Its is an equal opportunity offender. It also brought in $26 million this weekend.

I just started reading the Barack Obama book, The Audacity of Hope, on the way here. It is a very interesting read thus far, and I am only 50 pages in. It definitely is a slower read for me. I found the pages taking longer than other books I normally read. The funny thing is that this is a big step for me - reading a book that is NOT about sports. Mark P advised me that while this is a very interesting book that is full of great political ideals, it is very engrossing. So much so that you find yourself re-reading whole paragraphs so yet get the full gist of what he is saying. So in other words, this should take me about a month to read.

Tomorrow is election and from all accounts, the most important non-Presidential election day of my lifetime. Everyone's favorite George Bush is out there stumping for his Republican brethren. Watching his smug arrogance makes me so sick. But in my favorite Bush statement of the week, he announced that he wants both Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary and war criminal Donald Rumsfeld to stay in their jobs through the full term of his Presidency. He actually was quoted as saying "They are both doing an excellent job." No wonder his approval rating is now down to 35%.

By the way, there are certain terms that you only use for one specific thing. For example, has anyone ever "stumped" for anything else other than a political candidate? What about Don Shula being the all-time "winningest" coach in NFL history? Ever used the word "winningest" to describe anyone but a coach? Why is it that only left-handed pitchers are described as "crafty?" Just a thought.....

Gotta send some birthday shoutouts to my girls Jen and Lindsay and my boy Stu who all turned 31 yesterday. The craziest thing is that I really only know a few sets of twins. Stu has a twin sister. Jen and Lindsay are fraternal twins. They were all born on November 5th, 1975. How strange is that?

Next week we are off to Arizona as I have a conference for work in Scottsdale. Now my in laws offered to take Casey off of our hands for a month. Since we are going back for the holidays, we can pick her back up then. At first, I couldn't believe I was feeling this way, but I didn't think I could be away from her for that long. But after thinking more about it, I relented. Stacey wants to socialize her new puppy Bailey and Leah could use the break. I'm sure after 1 week away from her, I will be freaking out because I'll be missing her so much. We shall see.

Song of the Day: "She's Crafty" by the Beastie Boys

Day 200

I didn't even realize that I had made it to 200 posts until I went back to see what day I should title this entry. Pretty amazing huh? You know none of you thought I would make it this far. let alone 50 posts. I will keep doing it as long as I continue to enjoy it. Which I still do. I love venting on all kinds of topics and reporting back on my life to you all - especially now that I am no longer in Chicago where 90% of my friends are. So with that, here is #200.

Tuesday as you all know was Halloween. Now I have never been a big Halloween fan. I wrote about this last year. But this year was going to be different. This was our first Halloween in suburbia as home owners. For those of you that aren't familiar, we live in a development that has a ton of kids and is a very popular spot for trick or treating. As a kid, I trick or treated here a few times. We were told by the neighbors to expect a big crowd, so we loaded up on candy. From about 6:15-8:30 we had a constant flow of kids. Randomly, my cousin Debbie's son Brian showed up at my door. I'd say half the kids looked too old to be trick or treating and didn't have costumes. I made the conscious decision to give candy to everyone and not skimp, for the sole fact of ensuring the safety of my house from eggs and shaving cream. At one point, I looked out the window and on the street in front of our house, I'd say 40 high school kids had congregated. Some younger kids came to the door and I asked them what was going on out there. One said "It smells really bad. They are just standing there and lighting candy on fire." That lasted about 15 minutes and then cops drove by and they dispersed. I bet O saw 6-7 cop cars drive by throughout the night. But in this neighborhood, other than high school football Friday nights, there isn't much for cops to do. Overall, we got out unscathed with less left-over candy than I thought we'd have.

The picture above is of my niece Reese and Nephew Jace as the Flower and the Knight. I'd like to tell you that I got those directly from the children's mother, but in true immature fashion, that woman who wonders why she is an ex-wife didn't add me or my mom to the email list. 50 other people, including my Aunt were on there, just not mom or me. MD had to forward them on to us. Nice huh? Well her shit list's top two names are Patti and Todd. We are in good company.

Props out the city of Cleveland and its city hall offices. I am off to Canada again next week for work. Starting January 1, to get into Canada you must have a passport. A birth certificate, which is allowed now, will no longer work. I applied for a passport a couple of months ago and in doing so, they take your birth certificate. So I had to go down to city hall and get a replacement. Being in downtown Cleveland is so funny. There are minimal people on the streets. I actually got a metered spot right in front of city hall no problem. Went into the office and there was a line probably 50 deep. It moved so swiftly, had great signage, and took only 10 minutes total. Not only that, but everyone was so nice. We may be the poorest big city in the country, but at least the people are nice.

In my never ending quest to tell everyone that I am going to get in shape before the baby is born, we are going to go back to an old friend, the tennis court, for some help. Mom and I are playing tennis later today. We will see how that goes. Last time I played was in Florida last February with mom. I had a great time and told her I'd like to get back into it. I'm hoping today is a spring board to that. Believe it or not, I was once a pretty good tennis player before I burned out Junior year in high school. We will see how the old Jokewood indoor courts are.

I actually watched an entire regular season NBA game last night for the first time in years as the Cavaliers won their home opener against Washington 97-94. I have to admit, it was a very exciting game. But its all about Lebron. Take him off the team and I don't think I could watch as intently unless I was there. A few quick Cavs thoughts (non-hoops fan, you can skip this):

• If Larry Hughes plays this well all year, the Cavaliers will be a serious force. He'll never shoot this well again though.
• Maybe it was the matchup, but the big Z, Zydrunas Illgauskas, looked exactly as he did in the playoffs last year. Slow and old. The Wizards run too much for him to be any sort of factor. Lets hope it was just a matchup problem and not the fast deterioration of his game and body.
• Damon Jones is terrible. He should thank Shaquille O'Neal everyday for being on his team for one year and allowing him all of the open looks he knocked down. That is how he rooked Danny Ferry into signing him to a 4 year deal. If he isn't knocking down shots (2-10 last night), he is completely worthless. He can't dribble, plays zero defense, and stands around on the offensive end doing nothing.
• Its so nice to have Lebron on our side. He is just incredible to watch.

The clown prince of VH-1, Flavor Flav, is going to be a father....again. Flav, the self-proclaimed Public Enemy "hype man," has fathered his SEVENTH child, with yet another "baby-momma," due in January. The best part is when asked if he would marry the woman, whom Flav described only as a "shorty in Las Vegas," Flav said, "I'm not marrying anybody--I'm too young to die." I was listening to Howard Stern this morning, and sidekick Artie Lange brought up a good point. He said "if you want proof that there is no God, look at all of the well off married couples who could provide a child with a loving home and everything they would want, and have to go through every single method of trying to have a child. Invetro Fertilization, shots, therapy, everything. Yet they cannot have a child and this guy is on number 7?" I couldn't agree more. Its a crazy world we live in.

I have to weigh in on the John Kerry "botched joke." Lets get it out of the way first - John Kerry is a moron. Any guy who couldn't defeat George Bush when pretty much half of the country hated him, doesn't deserve this much attention again. But he continues to put himself in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. That being said, he botched a joke targeted at President Bush and not at the soldiers in Iraq. This guy wouldn't be that stupid as to criticize people going off to war. He fought in Vietnam. He gets it. The Republican party has predictably jumped all over this and Bush is now weighing in. He was quoted as saying that John Kerry owes every service member an apology. That may be the case, but to me, Kerry butchered this by not coming right back, apologizing right away and saying, yes, I screwed up a joke, and I apologize, but President Bush is the one who should apologize for misleading this country and getting us into a war that is looking like a bottomless pit. The desperate Republican party may have gotten a shot in the arm at the best possible time for them, a few days before an election day that could very well overturn power in the senate to the Democrats.

Song of the Day: "Beautiful Disaster" by 311