Dancing Lessons From God, Part 5.

Being back in Nashua suddenly became like a prison. I had gone back to my mundane assembly job at my mother’s company but I just could not focus on anything. All I thought about was the three weeks I spent on the road and experiencing what life was like elsewhere in the country. My relationship with my girlfriend at the time suffered terribly as I was never happy and she thought it was because of her (which was not the case at all). One day it dawned on me that the way out could be the Air Force, just as Randy had done. I called a recruiter and told him I was interested in joining. He asked me several questions such as my age, marital status, did I have a college degree, then told me that I was a perfect candidate and asked me to come down and see him. I told him that I was currently in the Army Reserves and he sighed as he replied that he couldn’t take me after all because they were not allowed to enlist people from other services. Needless to say, I was absolutely crushed. My only hope of getting out and doing something meaningful had just vanished. Going active duty army was not even an option because my experience in the Reserves had made me realize that I didn’t really like the army. I had a lot of friends in my unit who had once been active duty and hated it which really soured me to the idea so I never even considered it. After that I spent a lot of time at the local Barnes and Noble scouring the newspapers from around the country looking for something – anything – that I might be qualified for. The only good prospects I had were all sales related and I didn’t want to go down that route again. Things were looking bleak when one day I opened the local newspaper, the Nashua Telegraph, and noticed an interesting ad in the classifieds. It seems the paper was buying a new voice information system and was looking for a motivated individual to run it, promote it, and basically handle every aspect of it. The qualifications they listed matched my resume so I half-heartedly applied and didn’t think much of it until they called me for an interview. The interview went well but I wasn’t really thrilled about it until the sales manager told me that they would start me off at $31,000 a year. Now, that may not seem like a lot of money but to someone who had spent his share of time toiling away at temp jobs, menial assembly work and who had even sold Kirby vacuum cleaners for a couple weeks, it was a small fortune. Suddenly my attitude changed and staying in Nashua didn’t seem so bad after all. I convinced myself that I would be happy because I finally had landed a job that would pay me enough to make a good living and everything that came with it.

I loved the job right away. It involved sales but that was only a part of it. First they sent me down to Pottsville, Pennsylvania for training on how to run and promote the system. When I got back I hit the ground running. The system was fascinating at the time. It was basically a computerized phone system that received satellite feeds from various media services. Then anybody in the local area could call free and get information by pressing a four digit code. For example if you wanted the baseball score from last night’s game you would call the number and enter the four digit code for the baseball scores and you would receive them over the phone. We also had stock market updates, soap opera updates, weather updates, pretty much anything you could imagine. The newspaper would run a full or half page ad every day with a listing of what was available. Part of my job was to sell ads on the system and I received a commission on what I sold. We called the system Pressline and it was an instant hit, averaging over 30,000 calls a month my first year. Advertising revenue was steadily climbing as I invented new and creative ways for local and national businesses to spend money on Pressline. I loved the fact that, although I answered to the sales manager, I had a great degree of freedom at the job as I’ve always worked best without someone looking over my shoulder every two minutes. I also loved putting on my tie every morning and going to work in my big office and doing business lunches and all that stuff that I thought I had left behind. I did a lot of public relations projects with local charities, businesses and schools. It was also rewarding when someone would ask me what I do for a living and I would tell them I run Pressline and their eyes would get big as they told me how much they love it and call it all the time. While I didn’t feel important per se, I certainly did feel like I was starting to make my mark – such as it was – on the community.


(Click HERE for Part VI)

Dancing Lessons From God, Part 4

One of my best friends from high school was Randy Pouliot. Randy had spent a semester at University of Lowell in Massachusetts after graduation but had run out of money and had to drop out. He was going nowhere, working at a pizza place when he decided to join the Air Force. At the time he was stationed at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas and called me out of the blue one day to tell me that he would be finishing up a temporary duty stint in Italy soon and he and his wife Kelly were planning on driving from Nashua to Las Vegas when he got back, and was wondering if I wanted to go with them. I had no job and no commitments so I eagerly agreed and in the fall of 1995 we took off for what would be the greatest road trip of my life, one that would also plant the seeds for my impending wanderlust. We went south from Boston on I95 and drove down to Manassas, Virginia where we stayed overnight at a small military installation then the next morning set out across Virginia towards Tennessee. I was struck by how beautiful the area was. Randy had arranged for us to stay the weekend at the home of a fellow Air Force colleague whose family lived on a farm outside of Knoxville and it was in Knoxville, at a Waffle House, that I was introduced to how seriously people in the south take their college football. It was a Saturday and the University of Tennessee had a game that evening, which we all planned to attend. We were stopped at the Waffle House for breakfast before we met Randy’s friend Shaun and for some reason the waitress was being extremely rude to us. This went against everything I’d always heard about southern hospitality so I asked her if there was a problem. She responded by yelling to everyone in the restaurant “Hey y’all, we got us a Bulldog fan over here!”, at which point the entire wait staff and the cook came over to out table looking very angry. It suddenly dawned on me that I was wearing a British soccer shirt of Manchester United whose colors are black and red. And UT’s opponent that night was the University of Georgia, whose colors are…yep, black and red. Now, I’ve been a huge Notre Dame fan my whole life but that probably didn’t matter to these people. I tried desperately to make them realize that this was not a Georgia shirt, I even showed them the British flag on the shirt to no avail. Finally I said “Look, I’m not even from the south, I’m from New England!” to which the cook, an older gentleman with greasy hair, an even greasier apron, and a cigarette dangling between his lips, replied in a thick southern drawl, “New Anglin huh? He prob’ly a god-dam Notre Dame fan…”. At this point I got up, went out to the car and changed into a plain white t-shirt. When we met up with Shaun an hour later he just laughed and said “Damn Rik, are you trying to get killed?” The rest of the weekend was very enjoyable. We went to Knoxville that night for the game which turned out to be a thriller as Tennessee, led by sophomore phenomenon Peyton Manning, defeated Georgia right at the end of the game.

From there we drove to Nashville and checked out the Grand Ole Opry then continued on to Memphis where we took in Graceland. I wasn’t too impressed by Arkansas which had some of the rudest and slowest people I’d ever encountered but Oklahoma was a bit better. Through the Texas panhandle where I enjoyed my first visit to a Hooters restaurant, then straight through New Mexico and Arizona until we hit the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead as the sun was just coming up which was a sight to behold. Finally, Las Vegas. I stayed with Randy and his family for about two and a half weeks. He showed me all around Las Vegas, we went to all the casinos, I gambled a little, saw some shows, the usual stuff.

Eventually it was time to fly back home but I would return a changed man. The trip across country and the subsequent couple weeks in Las Vegas had made me realize for the first time that there was a whole world outside of Nashua. And I liked it. I wanted more of it.


(Click HERE for Part V)

Abbiamo rinviato!

We just got back from bella Italia a few hours ago and I gotta tell you, it might have been the best vacation we've ever taken. I'll try to get the pics posted this week but until then here's my favorite one, taken in Austria on the way back home yesterday:

Short break...

We're leaving this afternoon for Italia, sort of our last foray to the motherland before the baby comes. We'll be there through next week so there might not be any blog entries until then as I don't know if I will have wireless down there...

Dancing Lessons From God, Part 3

My four years of college were a microcosm of how my life has sometimes gone. I had no plan, no thought to what I was supposed to be working towards. I didn’t go to college because I had a particular career in mind that I wanted to prepare for. I went to college because I didn’t know what else to do and my father had always drilled into my head that I was not going to be successful in life if I did not go to college. What he failed to tell me was that simply going to college does not make one successful. You have to have a plan, a goal, something to spend your four years working towards. I had nothing of the sort and as it turned out, I spent my four years so wrapped up in how I was going to pay my tuition and my bills that I didn’t even declare a major until my junior year. And when my last year came around I had no more idea of what I was going to do after college than I did when I first started. It was not a comforting thought I can assure you. My four years of college were not completely wasted, I had learned a lot of cool stuff, met a lot of nice people from different parts of the country and had been exposed to an unbelievable amount of culture that I would have missed out on had I never gone. However, the one thing I didn’t leave with was any kind of idea about how to put any of it to use in the real world. I had majored in Mass Communications with a specialization in television and media but since I didn’t plan on moving to Los Angeles or New York, there was little chance I would actually work in that field. I graduated in May of 1993 and by autumn I still had absolutely no idea about what I wanted to do. My best friend Mike had gotten a great entry level job at a promising new company out near the seacoast and his grandparents had offered him the use of their beach house since it was too far to commute. He asked my friend Scott and I if we were interested in moving in with him there and I figured what the hell, I can look for a job there as easily as I could anywhere. I worked a bunch of temp jobs to keep food on the table which was a horrible way of life that I wouldn’t wish on anybody. The only thing that got me through was to keep convincing myself that it was only temporary until I could land a good permanent position somewhere doing…well, doing something. I figured that with my Mass Communications degree maybe the best thing to do was get into advertising or sales so I started applying for every opening I could find but nobody would hire me because I had no experience. I eventually talked the sales manager at one of the bigger local radio stations into taking me on as an unpaid intern so I could gain some experience. I worked my ass off for them, researching statistics and graphics, putting together advertising proposals and such. After several months one of the salespeople quit and they were so happy with my work ethic - imagine that! - that they hired me to take her place. I was so excited, I felt like I finally found something that I could excel at and make a successful career out of. As it turned out, my career in sales and advertising was just like everything else in my life; I didn’t do it because I enjoyed it or was really interested in it, I did it because I felt it was the best or smart thing to do. As I would figure out years later, this is the absolute wrong reason to do anything. I never thought about everything that the job would entail, I only thought about the fact that I finally was where I was supposed to be, at a job where I wore a suit and tie every day, drove a nice car, had my own business cards, took clients out for “business lunches”, all the stuff that made me feel successful. Not surprisingly, I lasted less than a year before I realized that it wasn’t for me, despite some decent success at it.

So what next? I thought about what I wanted to do, what interested me but not much occurred to me. What did occur to me was that the happiest times of my life were spent with the high school youth group of the church that I grew up in. People used to say that I would make a great youth minister someday and so I thought maybe that was my calling. The only problem was that I would need to go back to school which I couldn’t afford, so I decided to move back to Nashua and spend a year working to save up enough money to go back to school. I got a mundane job at my mother’s company doing general assembly work but after about six months it was clear that a career as a youth minister was not to be my calling. Not only had I not saved a penny to go back to school, but I quickly realized that although I have always been a religious person, my lifestyle was nowhere near as pious as such a career would demand. So I found myself once again with no career prospects, no direction, no clue whatsoever what to do with my life.

Enter Vegas.


(Click HERE for Part IV)

Dancing Lessons from God, Part 2

I was born in Nashua, New Hampshire, the youngest of three children. I grew up in one of those sleepy little bedroom towns you always hear about. It was called Litchfield, NH; it’s a suburb of both Nashua and Manchester, New Hampshire’s two largest cities. Nashua is a very modern city of about 80,000 people, most of whom work in the greater Boston area. Boston is about 50 miles south but Nashua is very attractive to a lot of people who work there for several reasons. Firstly, it’s a lot cheaper than Boston. Property taxes are lower. Schools are better. There’s a lot less crime. There’s a lot less traffic. It’s much quieter. New Hampshire has no sales tax so Nashua, being right on the Massachusetts border north of Boston, is a shopping haven for people from below the border. The southern part of Nashua is crammed full of shopping malls and car dealerships. For people who work in the greater Boston area, Nashua and its surrounding towns are perfect because they can work in Boston and enjoy all its advantages yet live in New Hampshire to avoid all of the normal disadvantages of a big city. In fact, it’s this favorable juxtaposition that led Money magazine to twice name Nashua as the number one city in the entire United States to live in, first in 1987 then again in 1997. My parents divorced when I was 3 or 4 years old and my mother received custody of us three kids. We lived in Litchfield while my father was one of the many people described above who worked in the Boston area yet lived in Nashua. My mother had no college degree or formal job training so she did the only thing she knew how to do for a living and ran a daycare out of our home. It didn’t pay very well and even with the child support she received from my father it seemed like she was always struggling financially. My father on the other hand had a pretty good paying job and dabbled in real estate on the side which allowed him to live in a nice condo and take yearly trips to the Caribbean to go scuba diving. We weren’t poor but I certainly never had anything handed to me. I learned from an early age that nothing is ever given to you easily, you usually have to make some kind of sacrifice for things that you really want.

As for me, I was born in 1971 which means that I was a bona fide child of the eighties. I’m old enough to remember a lot of things that happened in the seventies but my formative years all took place during the Ronald Reagan years. I was a below average student, partly because I never considered myself that smart and partly because I didn’t have a great work ethic. The only thing I truly enjoyed doing were sports. My sport was soccer. I grew up watching and playing and as far as I can remember, it’s really the only thing that I was better than average at. I played one year in high school but unfortunately my need for money to pay for things like a car, the prom, senior pictures, etc. superseded my need to participate in sports so rather than play my last two years, I worked. I mention this because it has always been one of my main regrets. I wouldn’t realize it until years later but soccer was the only thing that I ever really had any passion for and had I been born in any other country, I truly believe my fate would have been as a professional player.

My work ethic – or lack thereof – had put me in a bad position by the time I was a senior in high school. The year started and it suddenly dawned on me that I would be graduating in less than a year and I had absolutely no plan for the future. Most of my friends already had their immediate futures laid out and were applying to colleges. I had honestly never really considered college. However, a conversation that I’d had with my father a few times during my high school years crept into my mind. It had various versions but usually went something like this:

Him: “You’re going to college.”
Me: “Dad, I don’t really have the grades for college, I’m a C student.”
Him: “Doesn’t matter, you’ll get in somewhere, you’re going to college.”
Me: “I’ll never be able to afford it, it’s too expensive.”
Him: “Let me worry about that, you’re going to college.”
Me: “Well, I don’t really want to go to college.”
Him: “I don’t care, you’re going to college.”

My sister, three years older than me, had gone to work for the local police department out of high school and my brother, a year older than me, had joined the Navy. So in retrospect, it was obvious that I was my father’s last hope of having one of his children go to college. With the aforementioned, reoccurring conversation in my mind, and with no other post high school prospects, I figured I’d better go to college after all. I thought my father would be ecstatic when I told him of my decision but his only reaction was to inquire about how I intended on paying for it. It turned out that he did intend on helping me financially but that he certainly wasn’t going to pay for the whole thing. I would have to come up with some money myself. Had I known this before I probably would have dismissed the notion of going to college as soon as it entered my scattered little mind. However, by this time I had already been accepted to Franklin Pierce College and was starting to feel good about my future as a member of an institution of higher learning.

Well, I was crushed. The only jobs I’d ever had were menial high school type jobs; janitor, video store clerk, stuff like that. Certainly nothing that was going to allow me to afford whatever portion of the cost my father expected me to pay. My mother would have helped in a second if she could have but she was in no financial position to do much. So it was that I made my second major life altering decision that year and decided to join the US Army Reserves to help pay for college. It turned out to be a bad decision in the end but it was not without its good aspects as well, not the least of which was some financial benefits that allowed me to go to college.


(Click HERE for part III)

Has it been 10 years already?

Exactly ten years ago this month I was meeting with an Army recruiter about signing up and getting the hell out of my hometown. I ended up signing on the dotted line and coming to Europe of course, and the day I stepped off the plane at Rhein-Main AFB in Frankfurt, Germany was May 1st, 1998, or as I like to call it; the day my life really started. That means that this May 1st will mark exactly 10 years that I've lived in Europe. This fact, combined with my recent health scare, has me feeling very nostalgic lately. Looking back over the past decade, I just can't believe how much living I've packed into ten short years. And when I think about the events that led to me calling the recruiter and what my life was like before I did so, it just literally blows my mind. It was the smartest decision I ever made and I shudder to think of where I would be today if I had never taken that leap of faith, trusting that there was something better out there for me.

In honor of my impending 10 year anniversary, I've decided to post the first several chapters of the book that I started writing last year so people who read this blog can get a bit of an insight into what my life was like immediately before I joined the Army back in 1998, the events that drove me to consider such a life changing move and how my life changed when I came to Europe ten years ago.

I had chosen for the title of my book "Dancing Lessons From God", a title which will explain itself after the first few chapters. Thus each excerpt I post will be under the heading of "Dancing Lessons From God", followed by the sequence number in case people fall behind and want to catch up. I'll try to post a new excerpt every couple days or so, time permitting. So without further ado, let's start with the introduction...

DANCING LESSONS FROM GOD
By Rik Thibodeau

“I’m miserable here and I’m going nowhere…but joining the army?”

I sat at the kitchen counter at my mother’s house and spoke those words rhetorically. She offered no advice – not even her customary “well, maybe it’s something you should pray about” – but rather stood by the stove silently and let me pour out my frustrations. I was trying to make the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make in my life; I was 26 years old, and I was contemplating enlisting in the US Army. I was a college graduate, I had a seemingly good job with my own office, a lot of friends and plenty of reasons to stay right where I was at. So how had I reached this point? It didn’t come about suddenly; looking back it had been building for quite a while although I didn’t realize it at the time. I don’t believe in destiny or any of that kind of crap but the forces that led to my sitting on that stool in my mother’s kitchen trying to figure out what to do were at work for a long time. I would make that difficult decision and it would change my life in ways I could never imagine. To understand and appreciate my journey, you must first know a little bit about me and the life and times I grew up in…

(click HERE for Part II)

RIP Charlton Heston

When celebrities pass away I seldom bat an eye but I was quite taken aback to learn of the passing of Charlton Heston yesterday. Heston was one of the finest actors of the past century. He was a man's man. He was a breath of fresh air in Hollywood. I really wish there were more people like him in movies nowadays but alas, his kind have all but gone the way of the dodo.

RIP and Godspeed Chuck, we'll miss you.

The X Man does it again...

Last night we were watching tv and there was a hot girl on stage singing. I said to the wife "Wow, she's hot!" and the X Man goes "Daddy, are you gonna hit that?".

The wife smacked me and was like "Look what you're teaching him!" but I was laughing so hard I didn't even care.

Some recent pics

The wife (6 months pregnant) and the X Man.

Me and our friend Tavares at his birthday party a few weeks ago.

What I'm eating...

I'm living proof that you don't have to starve yourself or give up food that tastes good to lose weight or get back in shape. I'm very fortunate to be married to a woman who is probably the best cook I've ever known. Anything my little heart desires, she can whip up in no time. This has particularly come in handy since my recent scare has forced me to drastically change my diet. I spend a lot of time online researching which foods are best for losing fat and lowering blood pressure and cholesterol and such and the wife dutifully incorporates them into dishes that are delicious and healthy. Mainly I have to increase my intake of fiber - especially fruits and vegetables - so salads have become a big part of my diet. But these are not your mother's salads; the salads my wife makes are impressive meals unto themselves. Another thing that is working very well is eschewing red meat in favor of fish.

Here is a small sampling of some of the typical meals that make up my diet (click image to enlarge)...

Spinach salad with black beans, red peppers, red onions and avocado slices. Black beans have become a staple in all my salads as they are very high in what I call the holy trinity of BP-lowering nutrients: potassium, magnesium and fiber. And high in protein as well. I buy organic vegetarian black beans which are much lower in sodium than the regular kind and only cost a few cents more.

Grilled cuttlefish and a green salad with peppers, tomatoes, black beans, zucchini and red onion.

Here is my typical breakfast on the weekends or on my days off: 2 egg whites and 1 whole egg, scrambled. The wife then adds red and yellow peppers, red onions, garlic, olive oil and parsley and serves it in a whole wheat fajita. Very tasty.

Two of my favorites: grilled tuna and grilled eggplant. I've always loved eggplant so I was pleasantly surprised to learn that it has been effective in treating high cholesterol. Also a good source of folic acid and potassium.

Grilled swordfish and whole wheat pasta with broccoli, parsley and garlic. Whole wheat pasta is a lot healthier than the regular stuff and the wife is so adept at cooking in the Mediterranean style - garlic, olive oil, basil, etc. - that it still tastes delicious. Parsley is another wonder food; many herbologists recommend it for lowering high blood pressure. One of the main reasons why is that it helps the body rid itself of excess sodium while also helping it absorb more potassium.

Smoked salmon. The heart-healthy benefits of salmon are well documented. It's loaded with omega-3 fatty acids, which are the healthy fats that help lower blood pressure. It's also credited with everything from building lean muscle to combating depression. Smoked salmon is pretty cheap here so we eat it once or twice a week with lemon. Salmon is one of my favorite foods.

Grilled salmon and a green salad with tomatoes, red and yellow peppers, the ubiquitous black beans, carrots and walnuts. As I said, salmon is one of my favorite foods and since it's so healthy, I usually buy it at least once a week. The wife has several recipes for salmon and they're all great. Walnuts have a lot of health benefits too; they're high in omega-3's and also help keep the blood vessels elastic. I try to eat a small handful each day.


Poached tilapia with green beans, tomatoes, red peppers, red onions, thyme, black pepper and garlic. I had never tried tilapia before this but it really is quite tasty. Like most fish, it's also very low in fat and high in protein. The way she served this dish was quite inventive, she spooned the vegetables and broth into a separate dish with a few other ingredients to make this:
Black bean salad with tomatoes, green beans, red peppers, walnuts and red onions.

Sometimes the wife doesn't feel like cooking. When this happens, she usually prepares this salad which is quick, easy, tasty and very healthy. It's just the basic salad with the usual suspects; spinach, red peppers, carrots, black beans and a handful of walnuts with tuna on top. For the tuna, we use Chicken of the Sea brand, packed in water because it's the lowest in sodium.

As I said earlier, that's just a small sampling of the kinds of dishes that the wife prepares for me. My new diet is paying dividends too; not only is my weight dropping, but tonight I had one of my lowest BP readings yet. The most important thing is to make the change permanent. I still enjoy wine with my meals sometimes and occasionally we go to our favorite Italian restaurant and enjoy some cucina Italiana. I even enjoy a couple pints at the pub while I'm watching the matches sometimes. The difference is that these things are now more than canceled out by my newfound healthy lifestyle.

Now wait til you hear about my adventures in juicing...

New sideline feature.

Well, as you can tell my diet and exercise routine has been paying off considerably thus far, to the tune of 13 pounds in the past three weeks. I can't even begin to describe how much better I feel. I've gone down a full pants size and I'm rediscovering clothes in my closet that I'd forgotten about. The best part is that even at my heaviest weight, I still hit the weights regularly so in addition to the fat, I had also added some bulk in the form of muscle; now that I'm losing fat, the muscle is starting to show more and more, revealing some pretty good definition in my upper body. Despite this, I'm laying off the heavy weights right now and concentrating on cardio and fat loss. A lot of people are remarking to me that they can tell I've lost a lot of weight, mostly by my face which looks thinner.

So anyway, rather than keep writing updates on my progress, I've decided to chart my progress on the left side of the blog. When I first started, I set a goal of losing 20 pounds. But, since I'm already more than halfway there after three weeks, I've decided to be ambitious and shoot for a total loss of 25 pounds. If you wanna be a bear, might as well be a grizzly, right? Once I hit the magic number of 25 pounds lost, I should be right where I want to be and my blood pressure should come down right along with the weight. If 25 goes well, who knows, I may just decide to shoot for 30, but that's a long way away; right now 25 is the goal. Can't wait to get there.

In the meantime, I'm really enjoying getting my old body back...and so is the wife...HEY NOW!

Update

Here's a general update on all things us, for anyone who cares:

* Baby continues to be healthy and extremely active. The wife is still suffering from lack of sleep because the baby jabs, sticks and moves all night. And most of the day. I think he will probably arrive early, my prediction has been May 16 or 17. We're still no closer to picking a name.

* We are looking into putting the X Man into a German kindergarten. We're doing the paperwork now to figure out the cost but we're hoping to get him in there soon. The kid is really ready for school and he has no friends his own age so it'll be good for him.

* My new diet and lifestyle change is continuing to pay dividends. It was three weeks ago today that I was in the emergency room and as of this morning, I've lost 12 pounds, an average of 4 pounds a week. I'm fitting into clothes that I haven't worn in over 2 years and will probably have to buy a new wardrobe soon if I continue on this pace. My BP is doing better but is still high. I take it several times a day and it's averaging around 145/95. Lately the bottom number has been around to 90 which is encouraging. The only pills I've been taking are the water pills that make you pee a lot so that means I'm doing a good job of lowering it naturally.

* It's Easter weekend so I'm taking Friday and Monday off to relax and recharge a bit. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and I'll be able to get out and do some hiking. It's been so cold and crappy out the past few weeks that I haven't gotten nearly as much exercise as I need to. Hard to believe I've dropped 12 pounds in three weeks by just changing my diet and taking walks a few times a week.

* I'm also looking at options for my Masters Degree which I hope to start sometime this year. My health scare has me contemplating the idea of a career change to something a little less stressful but it's easier said than done. Who knows what the future holds.

Not much else to tell. Our lives are pretty boring these days...

Life lessons from a walk.

I do a lot of walking these days and I'm very lucky that I live where I do because it's hard to imagine a more picturesque town to go walking around in than Heidelberg; there's a reason why this is one of the top tourist destinations in all of Europe after all. Those of you who have been here know exactly what I'm talking about. If you've never been here, there's a ton of videos of Heidelberg on Youtube and an endless number of pictures online.

Last week I was doing my usual walk and I was striding along and my total focus was on people I was passing or looking down at the sidewalk to avoid dog crap when suddenly I happened to look up and the view of the Altstadt from across the river with the huge castle overlooking everything just hit me hard. It was a view that I've seen hundreds of times but it still gave me pause at how beautiful it was.

In that moment, what occurred to me was that I was so concentrated on my walk and focusing so intently on watching the ground 3 feet in front of me to avoid stepping on dog crap or tripping over something that I almost missed the real beauty that I was surrounded by. It was there, all I had to do was look up to see it and enjoy it.

And so it is in real life. So often we muddle through our days so focused on what is right in front of us that we never take the time to look up and see the beauty around us.

My walks are a lot more enjoyable now.

I have no regrets.

One might expect, in light of the events that transpired a couple weeks ago, that I would be filled with regrets about letting myself get in such bad physical shape that it almost killed me.

The short answer is, I don't.

If you know me, then you know why I joined the Army and came to Europe 10 years ago. I got tired of living a mundane life, working a mundane job and was dying to experience life in all it's glory. I longed for adventure, for new experiences, for stories to tell my kids someday. And looking back over the past 10 years, that's exactly what I got in spades. Leaving for Europe back in 1998 was like starting my life over and I'm satisfied that I grabbed every little bit I could. Sure, there are places I still have yet to see and things I probably will never got to accomplish now but I've had a great run.

I've seen the best Europe has to offer. I've experienced the best life has to offer. When I think back over the life I've had since coming to Europe 10 years ago, I feel many things but I gotta say, regret is not one of them. When I think about what life was like before I joined the Army and came here, it makes me shudder to think of where I would be had I not made the great leap of faith and chucked it all for a new life.

Remember the book that I started writing last year? I had to scrap the project for various reasons but before doing so, I managed to get the first several chapters written, about how I came to make the decision to join the Army and come to Europe. I've been rereading it a lot lately and it's reminded me of how miserable I was in my former life. It's coming up on the 10th anniversary of the day I arrived in Europe so I guess it's fitting to reminisce.

Perhaps I'll post some of the story on here in small bits at a time so some of you can reminisce with me...

Finally, some good news...

When we had the ultrasound a couple months ago to find out the sex of the baby, the doctor found a little white spot in the heart so he asked us to do a follow up appointment to make sure it's nothing to worry about. We had the follow up today and the little white spot has turned into part of the valve in the heart. The baby is healthy and doing well. The doc says he's currently 2.6 pounds and he's very active - the poor wife can't get any sleep because the baby kicks, punches and somersaults all night long.

And in case you're wondering...we still don't have a name.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes..

It was a exactly a week ago today that I got the scare of my life. As you can imagine, I've made quite a few changes since then. For one, I have a blood pressure machine in the house now and I take a reading 2-3 times a day. My BP is starting to come down a little but I've still got a ways to go. The good news is that I'm off to a decent start. Here are some of the changes I've made over the past week:

* Eating a lot more fruits and vegetables. Fortunately I'm married to a woman who is a fruit and vegetable fanatic so this hasn't been that hard to do. And thanks to our time in Italy, she has learned how to make a salad taste like a full meal, Mediterranean style. I've been reading a lot about how potassium and magnesium are key to lowering BP so I'm eating more bananas and other foods high in each of these minerals.

* No red meat. This is temporary of course as I am an avowed carnivore. However, there are some things that I've decided to cut out altogether until my BP comes down to an acceptable level and this is one of them.

* Fish fish fish. I love fish so this is another easy one. Only problem is that it's impossible to find good fresh fish here so we have to rely mostly on frozen. A typical week will include salmon, mahi mahi, cod, swordfish and tuna. Occasionally some trout, cuttlefish, shrimp or scallops. The wife usually puts tuna in my salads, just like we used to eat in Italy. Being born in the Philippines and spending most of her life in Hong Kong has made the wife a master at preparing fish.

* No alcohol. As with red meat, this is only temporary until I get my BP down to an acceptable level. It's difficult for me to eat a nice meal without the requisite glass of vino.

* Exercise. I'm actually doing less exercise at this point but that's only because I'm under doctor's orders not to exert myself too much. However, I'm realizing that exercise is a major key in bringing down my BP and I'm planning on starting to build up to a good level here soon. This week has been extremely tough because it's been either raining or freezing cold which prohibits me from doing much outside. But fortunately for me, Heidelberg is the quintessential city for walking. And as the weather gets warmer in the next few weeks I'll be getting back to my hiking in the mountains around the house. Last spring and summer I dropped 20 pounds mostly from hiking. If I can do the same this year, I'll actually weigh less than I did when I got out of the Army a few years ago.

* Juicing. We bought a new juicer the other day and have started juicing regularly. I've always been a major proponent of juicing so this was an easy one. It's amazing how much better you feel after just a couple days of juicing (fruits and vegetables, Gino, not steroids...).

* Apple cider vinegar. In my research online about lowering BP, one thing that kept coming up was people touting the use of apple cider vinegar as a home remedy. So much so that I figured why the hell not? I take 2 teaspoons with a glass of water once or twice a day.

The upshot of all these things is that I've already dropped 6 pounds in the past week and am currently at my lowest weight since coming to Germany. My gut is shrinking, my pants are starting to feel loose and I have a lot more energy. I'm so motivated that I'm chomping at the bit to start hitting the weights but for right now I'm resigned to just taking long walks. The biggest thing I need to work on now is my patience. The healthy diet is one thing but I'm finding that stress is the biggest contributor to my high BP.

SERENITY NOW!

God rubs it in.

There's one part of my aneurysm episode that I hadn't mentioned to anyone yet because it still freaks me out a little bit. In fact, I just told the wife this morning. As I was laying in the ER waiting for my CAT scan, I had plenty of time to sit on the table with nothing to do except think about things as they had a backlog and I ended up waiting for almost a full hour. The first thing I thought about was my wife and what would happen to her if...well...if. Then my thoughts turned to my two boys - the X Man and my unborn son due in May. What would it be like for them growing up without me, who would take care of them? Who would teach them the life's lessons that I haven't had time to impart to them yet? You can't help thinking about these things when you're in a situation like that. You think about not having a chance to watch the X Man grow and see what kind of a man he will become. You think about never getting to see your unborn son and that you'll never get to see what he looks like and what he'll be like.

I realized that I wasn't doing myself any good with this kind of thinking so I tried to relax and clear my mind. And just as a I did that, I suddenly heard the song that was playing on the ER radio. The song was called "The Living Years" by Mike and the Mechanics. But what was so freaky was that, just as I tried to clear my head and think about happier things, this is the verse that just happened to be playing:

I wasn't there that morning
When my father passed away
I didn't get to tell him
All the things I had to say

I think I caught his spirit
Later that same year
I'm sure I heard his echo
In my baby's new born tears
I just wish I could have told him in the living years

Needless to say, I almost lost it right on the spot. I managed to hold it in until I was released and got to my car by some miracle. I still get choked up thinking about it. Either it was proof that God has a sense of humor or he was just rubbing it in. Whatever it was, he certainly got his point across. And I don't ever want to hear that freaking song again.

Taking Stock.

It's been a few days now since my aneurysm episode and while I'm still getting over the initial shock of it all, I have certainly had time to ponder things. My first thought was, how the hell could this happen to me? Sure I've put on some weight since getting out of the Army but I'm still only 36 and it's not like I'm grossly obese, hell, I'm only about 20 pounds (10 kg) overweight. I'm still pretty active, I lift weights, work out regularly with my kettlebells, and when the weather is warm I do a lot of hiking in the mountains that surround our house. I also go for a walk everyday at work after lunch for about 20-30 minutes. Meanwhile I see people all around me who are exceedingly overweight, eat like pigs, never exercise and yet they seemingly have no health problems.

Looking back I probably should have seen this coming. Way back in 2000 when I got transferred from Germany to Italy they did a medical screening on me and told me that I had borderline high blood pressure and that I should be careful. Now this is back in 2000 when I was in the Army at the peak of physical condition. I did PT (physical training) 5 days a week and had very little body fat. I was in the best shape of my life and yet my BP was borderline high. So I guess it would make sense that it would go up considerably when I got out of the Army. As my friend Don said, aneurysms are hereditary, there's nothing you can do about them, but BP is the trigger that can set them off - and you can do something about your BP.

So that's where I'm at. Major changes to my diet and cutting way back on alcohol. I'm taking my pills but, as I told Don, I HATE taking drugs for anything. I much prefer to do things naturally and since my wakeup call I'm finally taking this seriously. I'm doing extensive research online about all kinds of foods and such that will help me lower my BP. I'm already down a few pounds the past couple days just from taking it easy and watching what I eat (and when I eat it). I've got the top number on my BP down to around 140-150 which is still really high but a hell of a lot better than what it was the day of my episode - a whopping 190. I need to get it down to around 120 to be normal but I'll be happy with anything between 120-130.

I'm lucky to be alive.

That's what the doctor told me this morning.

Today started out as a good day. Then it all went bad rather quickly. I was getting ready for work when suddenly my head felt like it literally exploded. I cannot describe the pain I felt, it was maybe the worst pain I've ever felt in my life. It was as if someone was drilling into my head with a power drill. I couldn't see straight and I couldn't stand up. About 5 minutes later the pain subsided enough that I was able to finish getting dressed and brush my teeth even though the entire right side of my head was throbbing. My immediate thought went to my friend Don who almost died from a brain aneurysm. My next thought went to my Uncle Ronnie who DID die of a brain aneurysm. I went to the computer and looked up info on brain aneurysms and the symptoms described matched what was happening to me. I told the wife I'd better make a doctor appointment when I got to work, kissed her goodbye and left. Driving to the office, the right side of my head was still throbbing immensely and I could not shake the feeling that something was happening to me so instead of going to the office I kept driving until I got to the base hospital and up to the ER. They took my blood pressure and admitted me immediately. Apparently my blood pressure was so high that they were worried about me keeling over right on the spot. They hooked me up to a couple machines, drew some blood and put in an IV while they waited for the doctor. I figured they'd just give me a once over and send me home so needless to say, this started to really scare me.

As if I weren't scared enough, imagine how I felt when they wheeled in an EKG machine and gave me one of those. I breathed a little easier when the nurse said the EKG looked normal. Eventually the doctor showed up, a German doctor named Dr. Maral. There's one great thing about German doctors - they don't sugarcoat things. She told me in no uncertain terms that my blood pressure was "disastrously high" and that based on what I told them had happened that morning, coupled with my history of hypertension and my current BP, I very possibly could have (or had) an aneurysm. She then yelled to the nurse that she was going to radiology, came back and told me that I would have a CT scan (CAT scan) ASAP to see if it showed anything. Radiology was busy so I ended up laying on the ER table for about an hour waiting. The nurse took my BP every 10 minutes and I remained hooked up to a couple machines. Eventually they were ready me and I received my first ever CAT scan then went back to the ER and waited another 45 minutes for Dr. Maral to read my results. Fortunately the CAT scan didn't reveal any major damage. She explained to me that a CAT scan is not sensitive enough to show any leakage caused by an aneurysm so the only way to be 100% sure would be a lumbar puncture. But the fact that nothing major could be seen on the CAT scan was positive. She also thought I might have had a mild stroke at first but since I didn't experience loss of vision or most of the other symptoms, she all but ruled it out. But she could not rule out an aneurysm.

An aneurysm. That is the scariest word in the English language to me right now. I sat there laying in the ER waiting for my CAT scan and could not stop thinking about my wife and the X Man and my unborn son. What if I really had keeled over? What if I did have an aneurysm and it ruptured and killed me on the spot or turned me into a vegetable. The thought of never seeing the X Man again and never getting to meet my little unborn son who has been kicking me every time I put my hand on my wife's belly...well, it scared the hell out of me. So scared that when I left the ER and got into my car, I lost control and started crying into my steering wheel. I guess a brush with death will do that to you.

Dr. Maral prescribed a couple blood pressure medications for me to start taking. She told me to take some time off from work and relax so I'm on leave for the next week or so. She said that I'm a walking time bomb right now and if I'm not careful I could explode any minute. She told me all the things I'm supposed to avoid from now on. I have to avoid lifting weights and doing anything that causes me to exert myself until my BP comes down a little. I also had to buy a BP machine for the home and I'm supposed to take my BP 2-3 times a day and keep a diary of the readings to make sure it comes down.

So I guess the past 10 years of hard living have finally caught up with me. At least I have a second chance, some people never get that. But when a doctor tells you that you're lucky to be alive, it kind of has an affect on you. I guess it's time to make some changes...

Uncle Steve-O, this one's for you...

"Fresha peppa?"

I could not stop laughing at this...

Awesomeness.

From the song right down to the hairdos, this video is...

PURE AWESOMENESS

Valentine's Day

We went to our favorite Italian ristorante here in Heidelberg, La Vite's and it was unbelievably good. The wife had minestrone and the spaghetti frutti di mare (spaghetti and seafood) and I had the insalata di polpo (octopus salad) and agnello di ferrai (grilled lamb with garlic). For the wine I started with a valpolicella but when the lamb arrived I made a quick switch to the chianti and it was the perfect compliment...I've still got it baby.

After that we went to the Dubliner for trivia night and we cleaned up, taking first place by a whopping 5 points. In all the times I've been to trivia night the closest we've ever come to winning was finishing in second place by 2 points. Not only that but the team we beat play there every week and have won something like 30 times or something crazy like that.

Needless to say, it was a great night all around.

Happy Birthday Gaylord!

Me and Eric at my wedding, October 2002.

Time for a snack.

Sauvignon blanc, assorted olives, grano padano and pecorino (sheep) cheese.

IT'S A MIRACLE!

My mokka is alive! My wife, industrious person that she is, was able to somehow get the cover fixed and I'm currently sipping a deliciously bitter espresso as I type this. When I'm finished, I might even make another one.

I want to thank everyone who sent their best wishes and condolences. Next time you come visit, I will make you a coffee!

RIP Mokka.

Some of you may remember this post:

How to make an Italian espresso at home

in which I described the way that Italians make their coffee at home. The mokka in that post is one of my most prized possessions. My Italian neighbor Marissa had bought it for me as a gift way back in 2000 or 2001 and it's been one of the best gifts I've ever gotten. As I mentioned in the post about mokkas, the secret to the mokka is to use it a lot and let it get a nice coffee stain build up as it makes the coffee taste better. Well, after 7 or 8 years of coffee flowing through my mokka, it had become a perfect coffee making machine. From my years in Italy right through my move to Germany a couple years ago, the one constant has been my mokka. No matter what, I knew I could always count on a good espresso.

This morning, as I was going through my morning ritual of preparing the mokka for my wake up call, the little black knob on the cover broke off.

I was horrified.

I tried to get it back on but it would not stay. My mokka, for all intents and purposes, is dead. In a strange coincidence, Virginia found a used one at a local fleamarket a few months back and bought it. After a brief mourning period, I must now begin the healing process and attempt to forge a new relationship with this replacement mokka. I will never forget my first mokka and the many years of great coffee that it gave me. But alas, it's time to move on.

RIP mokka. You will remain in my coffee stained heart forever.

Super disappointment.

Well, my New England Patriots couldn't do it. They could win 18 in a row but could not win the last game, the only one that counted.

Believe it or not, I'm not as depressed as I thought I would be. This season has been one of the least enjoyable ones that I can remember due to all the spygate nonsense (and it is nonsense) and having to listen to everyone and their brother talk about how the Patriots and Bill Belichick are true evil incarnate. It's almost a relief that it's over, although I really wanted to see them pull off 19-0 just to stick it to all their critics. In the end though, they just could not get it done. Credit the Giants who played a near perfect defensive game and did just enough to pull off the upset.

As disappointments go, this one hurts but still not as bad as the Red Sox colossal collapses in Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS to the Yankees or, of course, 1986. I'd list my top 5 sports disappointments in this order:

1. 2003 Red Sox, Game 7 vs. Yankees
2. 1986 Red Sox, Game 6 vs. Mets
3. 2007 Patriots, Superbowl vs. Giants
4. 1987 Patriots, AFC Championship vs. Colts
5. 2005 Notre Dame vs. USC

Thankfully, as Gino reminded me earlier today...21 more days until pitchers and catchers report...GO SOX!!!!!!!!

We went to Italy last weekend.

What's in a name?

Ceasar Augustus Thibodeau?
Well, we know we're having a boy now so that pretty much leaves picking a name as the only remaining loose end. Picking a name for your baby is a huge deal. Think about it; the name you give your unborn child is something he will carry for his entire life. So how do you go about picking a name? One obvious way is name your son after yourself. For those who don't know, I am a junior, named after my dad. When I was younger, I had always thought that I would do the same and carry on the tradition. This changed very quickly when I was in college and got a crash course in the dangers of being a junior - I filled out one of those credit things at Sears for the free gift and neglected to put the "JR" after my name on the application form and was subsequently greeted with a phone call by my father who spent the better part of 5 minutes cursing at me for ruining his credit rating. I decided right then that I would never give my son my name.

We picked the X Man's name rather quickly. My heritage is French Canadian so I kind of wanted to give my son a French name but the problem was that I hate most of them - Pierre, Francois, Jacques...they all sound pretentious. So I was in Germany for a class, perusing the internet sites for baby names but finding nothing. Frustrated, I slumped in my chair and asked my buddy Paul Granneman, "What the hell am I going to name my kid?" It was rhetorical but without missing a beat, Paul quickly replied "Xavier". I knew right away that he was right. I loved it. Surprisingly the wife did too and the legend of the X Man was born. We were living in Italy at the time so I also wanted an Italian name so we went with the most famous Italian of all time; Michelangelo.

And now it's time to do it all over again. We were both kind of hoping for a girl this time (actually, the wife was REALLY hoping for a girl) so we already had a name picked out: Scarlett Reagan. However, we hadn't really thought about boy's names so we currently have none. We don't really have a system for picking names so occasionally one of us will throw out a name and see if the other person likes it. The problem is, while we both agreed on Scarlett pretty quickly, we've yet to find a boy's name that both of us agree on. For my part, I would really like to give our second son a prolific name, a name of someone who has made an indelible mark on history. My favorites are Augustus, Ceasar (or the Italian form, Cesare, a very popular name in Italy), Napolean, Fausto, Romulus, Constantino, Hannibal, Ulysses. Those are names destined for greatness. Naturally the wife hates all of these.

I wonder how she would feel about "Manny Papi Larry Brady Moss Cam Bobby Beckett Curt Raymond Ted Youk Pedro Wes McHale Garnett Yaz Thibodeau"?

So...

Stay tuned for news...

At approximately 1530 CET (that's 3:30 pm Central European Time for all you civilian types), we have an appointment with the German clinic downtown for the ultrasound during which we will of course find out the sex of our unborn baby. I will be posting the results here afterwards so check in later if you want to find out.

Sup.

I'm bringing it back!

The goatee that is...

A Very Gino Christmas

[Editor's Note: Gino sent this to me over the holidays but since I wasn't at work I didn't get it in time to post it. It is in response to my "Ghost of Christmas Past" post on December 23rd. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.]

It isn’t often that I think about Christmas past, but Rik’s last blog entry started me thinking about what is great about Bon Natale.

My greatest gift was as a 9 year old I received a Red Ryder BB gun. It was carbine action that held 650 rounds, had the leather saddle strap attached, and the burned in image of the Red Ryder with his lasso in hand on the stock. It remained my favorite gift for 35 years.

Christmas Eve ‘07 I watched from my rocking chair as my son Jake opened his very own Red Ryder BB gun. It hangs by the backdoor, every time he leaves the house it is in his hand. Our homestead is now safe from cattle rustlers, storm troopers, and all around “bad guys”.

My favorite gift is still the Red Ryder, only now it’s in the hands of my son.

Thanks Pardner!

Worst New Years...EVER.

A few days after Christmas, the wife got really sick with the flu. It was more of an intestinal bug than anything as there was no fever, just a lot of vomiting out of "both ends", if you know what I mean. It got so bad that we even had to call the doctor to be sure that we shouldn't worry about it having any negative effect on the baby. The doctor said nothing to worry about, as long as it doesn't last too long.

So we had plans to go out New Year's Eve, the plan was to meet up with a bunch of friends at the Dubliner around 9, hang out, then head to the old bridge to watch the fireworks. Needless to say, the X Man was very excited. The wife was getting better and was feeling well enough to go out so we were looking forward to a fun night. As luck would have it, she got hit with a bout of, erm...well...that is to say...ummm...how do I put this...well, let's just say that she had to go to the bathroom before we left. The X Man and I waited in the living room...and waited...and waited...and waited...eventually I took my coat off because I got hot...waited some more...

And then it happened.

Stomach pain. It came on slowly but surely, but enough so that by the time the wife got out of the bathroom, I told her that I was not feeling good and that we'd better not go. And sure enough, within an hour I was in bed, writhing in pain. I felt like one of the people in the movie "Alien" right before the parasitic creatures come bursting through their stomach. I spent all New Year's Eve and New Year's Day in bed with intense stomach pain, complete with the requisite vomiting and diarrhea.

Of course, the bright side is that I'm starting 2008 about 5 pounds lighter than I left 2007...

The Ghost of Christmas Past...

Me at Christmas, somewhere around 1987:

The X Man is 4 today.

Happy Birthday little man...

The greatest moment in music history...

...just might be the last stanza of Luciano Pavarotti's "Nessun Dorma" when he hits the high note and the orchestra comes to a crescendo. I listen to it almost everyday and every time that part comes on I get goosebumps and (if I'm not driving) I always close my eyes and let the combination of Pavarotti's powerful voice, followed by the driving emotion of the accompanying orchestra take me to a higher place, if only for a brief moment.

Grammy's Visits the X Man

Last week we were fortunate to have a visit from my mother, the X Man's Grammy. She was here for a week and her and the X Man were inseparable during her stay. Despite the freezing cold weather, we were also able to show her a little bit of Germany while she was here. Here are some pics from her visit (click on image to enlarge)...

The X Man greets Grammy as she gets off the plane:

Grammy and the X Man make a Gingerbread House...at one point I walked into the kitchen and the X Man exclaimed "Daddy I'm having so much fun!!!":

We took Grammy to Rothenburg ob Tauber, a quaint little Medieval town where she learned how they punished people back in the middle ages:

We were fortunate to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner with Grammy:

We normally don't put up our tree until December 1st but we made an exception this year so Grammy could decorate the tree with the X Man:

Grammy couldn't get enough of the X Man. She kept saying she was going to take him home in her suitcase. I'm pretty sure he would have gone too:


Alas, it was time to bring Grammy to the airport and say goodbye:


Come back and visit us soon Grammy, we miss you!

Thanksgiving...Sports Edition.

What I'm thankful for this year...

* I'm thankful for another World Series win by the Red Sox. You spend your entire life living through heartbreak after heartbreak, wondering if you will ever witness the Sox win a World Series, then suddenly they win two of them in 4 years. Which brings me to...

* I'm thankful for John Henry, Larry Luchino and Tom Werner. They have done the impossible since buying the Red Sox a few years back; they've somehow managed to cultivate a winning mentality in Red Sox Nation without laying waste to the traditions and history. Fenway Park for example - while previous owners have cried that they needed to tear it down and build a state of the art stadium to compete, the new owners simply tweaked it, added seats over the Green Monster, and continued to develop new revenue streams in other places. The fact that Red Sox are on the verge of a mini dynasty if they win it all again next year...well, all of Red Sox Nation has a lot to be thankful for. Speaking of which...

* I'm thankful for young players such as Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia and Clay Buchholz. They are so fun to watch and they give us hope that the Sox will compete for years to come. They are one half of what makes the Sox such a great team - a good blend of young studs and seasoned veterans. And speaking of seasoned veterans...

* I'm thankful that the Red Sox have re-signed my current favorite player, Mike Lowell and one of my all-time favorite players, Curt Schilling. And that they did not make a play for Alex Rodriguez (AKA, "The Cooler"). Things are good in the Nation right now, the last thing we needed was the constant controversy that "Gay-Rod" would have brought. And speaking of controversy...

* I'm thankful for the 2007 New England Patriots. For the new guys like Randy Moss, Wes Welker and Donte Stallworth. For the old guard, guys like Bruschi, Vrabel, Brady, Faulk and Harrison. The Patriots were so bad for so long that watching what this year's team is doing doesn't seem real. It's like I'm playing the season on Tecmobowl or something. We're witnessing history. I don't give a damn that the rest of the NFL hates the Pats; I couldn't be more thankful to be a fan and it's all because of one man. Which reminds me...

* I'm thankful for Bill Belichick. I don't care that he got caught doing something that plenty of other teams have been doing for years. I don't care that he dislikes and distrusts the media. What I care about is the way he has molded the Patriots into a juggernaut. How he has won three Superbowls and is on pace for a fourth. How, when many of us couldn't see it at the time, he realized that replacing a pro bowl QB with a sixth round draft pick that nobody had heard of was the right thing to do. How he is able to pluck supposedly "washed up" players off the scrap heap and turn them into valuable cogs in the Patriots Machine. How he has built a team that top tier free agents are actually willing to take less money to join. How he has created a system and atmosphere that can turn malcontents into team players and model citizens. Take your spygate and shove it up your culo...I wouldn't trade BB for anything. He's given Boston fans our first dynasty since the great Celtics teams of the 80's. Speaking of whom...

* I'm so thankful that the Celtics have finally become fun to watch again. I'm thankful for the new "Big 3" of course but I'm equally thankful for the "other guys" who are providing legitimate hope of a 17th banner; Posey, House, Perkins, Allen, Rondo, Pollard, Big Baby Davis...and yes, even Brian Scalabrine. It's a shame that all the focus and credit for the C's hot start has been given to Pierce, Garnett and Allen but I am extremely thankful for the role players as well as their play has been impressive. I don't want this season to ever end! And speaking of seasons ending...

* I'm thankful that Notre Dame's season will soon mercifully be over. I don't think I've ever seen a worse college football team in my life than this year's edition of the not-so-Fighting Irish. I'm thankful that it will all soon be over and we can start looking to the future.

* I'm thankful that my beloved Italy - the Azzuri - are World Champions and have just topped their qualifying group for Euro 2008 next year. During my 6 years in Italy I watched every single match the Azzuri played so it has been great to relish in their current success.

Overall, I am very thankful this year because - Notre Lame aside - I am in the middle of the best hot streaks that any fan has ever seen. This will probably never happen again so I'm enjoying every minute of it.

2007 is indeed a year in which a Boston sports fan has quite a bit to be thankful for. And 2008 is looking like it may be even better...

Grammy is here.

She arrived yesterday morning and the X Man has not stopped playing with her since then. He sure loves his Grammy.

"Kiss the Chef"

People I Miss

I started thinking about people I miss; whether they are friends and family from back home or people who I have met in my travels. Although I know I will regret this since there are bound to be people I will forget and who will think that I've snubbed them on purpose, I'm going to spend the next few minutes trying to think of people who have made their mark on my life and whom I miss considerably since I moved to Europe back in 1998.

I'll start with Pepere. The man that I admire most in this world. WW2 vet, sacrificed everything for his family regardless of the cost. I can only hope to be a fraction of the man that he is. They just don;t make men like him anymore and that's a shame.

Eric, my brother. We were born a year apart and spent much of our lives apart for various reasons. But for some strange reason, through it all, nobody understands me more than Eric does. We have a unique bond, as only brothers can have I guess.

My parents, Judy and Dick. Divorced when I was very young but I've learned many life lessons from both of them. Judy in particular, struggled her whole life but still made sure that we had everything we needed. I could never repay her for everything she has done for me in my life. Dad, aka Dick, gave me my love of the outdoors. I miss the conversations we used to have. He married a total sweetheart a few years back named Nancy. She is a wonderful lady and I really regret living so far away and not being able to spend more time getting to know her. Dick has very good taste.

Steve Lester. My love for Steve-O is well documented on this blog. Steve and I became friends in high school but it wasn't until I arrived in Germany in 1998 that our friendship really took off. Since then we have shared so much that I can honestly say he has become my best friend. It is no small thing to say that I - as well as Virginia and the X Man - look forward to his annual visits more than any other. When Steve-O is here, all is right with the world. I only wish he could visit twice a year...

Giampietro e Agnese. Our neighbors in Italy. They really became our surrogate parents during our time in Italy. They often had us often for dinner, taught us so much about Italy, and practically adopted the X Man as their own grandchild. When we finally had to say goodbye, poor Agnese bawled her eyes out and still calls us once a month to talk to the X Man. When I think of how much I miss them, my heart hurts. In some ways, I was closer to them than my own family.

Mike and Jen (Hen) Buczynski. Mike was my best friend for many years before I came to Europe back in 1998. We had so much in common and I used to spend so much time over their house that I probably should have had my own room. We hardly ever talk anymore since I've been in Europe but when we do it's like we never parted. To me, that's the true test of a friendship. Our biggest bond was always the Boston sports teams - especially the Red Sox so the past few years has been really tough since we have had to rejoice in the Sox success alone. But we always make it a point to talk on the phone whenever the Sox are in the World Series.

Dave "Slav" Broussard. Dave and I have been best friends since the 4th grade. To this day we spend hours talking about sports and this and that. Dave is unique among my friends in that he is the only American friend I have whose passion for soccer matches mine. Dave is like a brother to me. Has been since the 4th grade.

Eugene Lynn "Gino" Martin. What can I say about Gino. Those of you who follow this blog should know what he means to me. In a short time, Gino has become like a brother to me as well. If you want tot know how much Gino means to me, consider this; when I went to the States last spring, my hotel offered 60 free minutes of free calling each night anywhere in the US...I called Gino and talked sports with him almost every night for the full 60 minutes. I miss the hell out of that sonofabitch. Gino and I once had a deal in place with AFN in Vicenza to let us host a weekly on-air sports talk show. Unfortunately it never materialized, but it doesn't matter - we would have killed. Gino, I know you're reading this so let me just say...you're the Michael Wilbon to my Tony Kornheiser.

Fausto. Those of you who read my blog regularly know of my Italian buddy, Fausto. He is awesome, a true Italian and I miss the hell out of him.

My sister Tracy. In a way, I'm sort of living Tracy's dream - living amongst the castles and fairytale cities of Europe. Growing up, we didn't get along that well but as we got older we have developed a bond and I often tell my wife how much I wish she could spend some time with us here so we could share a little bit of this place together. Tracy also has a little boy a couple months older than the X Man so it would be so perfect for them to grow up together. Unfortunately, as it is, they only see each other once a year or so.

Mark and Jane Santaw. Friends we met in Vicenza, it was almost like a match made in Heaven. For one thing, Jane is a Filipina (born and raised in the US) so her and Virginia get along swimmingly. Someone in Virginia's family is from the same town in the Philippines as someone from Jane's family but Virginia is in a bad mood as I'm writing this and doesn't want to answer my questions (must be pregnancy hormones, which means it's my fault as usual...) so I'm not sure exactly who, what, where, etc. And in a strange coincidence, Mark was actually a high school classmate of my cousin, Brent.

Steve and Tammy Lentz. My best friends during my first two years in Germany. We shared so much in such a short time. They're back in Philly now and someday I really hope to be able to go to the city of brotherly love to visit them. I'm confident that we could go years without talking and still go out for a pint and pick up like we never left. Steve and Tammy are special people.

Mike and Karen Rayfield. Sort of the Steve and Tammy of Italy for me. I was devastated when they left. I owe so much to them.

Ranger and Simonetta Pitt. Two of our best friends in Italy. Many of the people and places in Italy I came to love, I owe to Ranger (John) Pitt. I often say that were it not for him, I would not have developed the love for Italy that I have. He has such a "joie de vivre", he almost forced me to appreciate everything that Italy had to offer and I am eternally grateful.

The residents of Caldogno. Seriously, practically the entire town of Caldogno adopted us as their own. There are many people I miss there; Sylvia (Bar da Sylvia), Luca, Antonio (Pizzeria Antonio), and so many others.

Danielle and Elisa Rossato. Danielle is the owner of "The Sports Bar" in Caldogno. Elisa is his daughter. I met them during my first week living in Caldogno as they were my local bar. In my 6+ years there I probably spent more time at their bar than any other place. It was my home away from home. They treated me like part of the family and it made my time there more enjoyable than you can ever imagine. When I married Virginia and had the X Man, they both were also adopted as part of the family. To this day, it's free candy and ice cream whenever the X Man goes in there. God I miss that place.


You know...there are so many others that I know some of you are going to be offended that I forgot you. I apologize now for that but I've been writing for too long and I need a break (and a refill of my vino!) so I will end here. Besides, I doubt most of you have even bothered to read the whole thing so far, lol...anyway, if I have forgotten you, please forgive me. There are really just too many of you to remember. Until next post; onward and upward...

Don't Tase me Bro!

The X Man in his Halloween costume (click on image to enlarge):