ok , ok, so it’s been a while since i had a journal entry. what can i say, i’m a busy guy. a lot has happened in the last month so i think the best thing to do is just jump in and dish it all out.


well they did it, by brother and chistina tied the knot. i figured my brother would screw it up, but he surprised me as he usually does. i love ya bro … heheh … but ya gotta admit that she is the best thing that ever happened to you. thus i can see why you married her. anyhow, i took 3 days off work to go home and help out for the festivities. the first 2 days we spend preparing for the rehearsal dinner. we dressed my dads backyard up real nice, put up a huge tent (which fell down after we put it up, long story, big wind) , planted flowers, blew up balloons, etc. it looked really fabulous. it was a bit on the cold side, but once everyone got a few shots of the family wine and some other assorted juices into their system we were all raring to go. it was a great nite … you couldn’t have asked for a better rehearsal dinner in september in my opinion.


on to the wedding day … my brother was actually nervous. mr “i’m not nervous” … mr “na, it’s no biggie” was nervous before the wedding. between the chain smoking, the shaking hands, and the glazed over almost crying eyes in the back of the church you could tell he was a mixture of excited, nervous, and frightened. the ceremony went on without a hitch … though my aunt lynn came in late with the flower girl we went on without them and it was beautiful. other then a sobbing episode by my brother, ya right he had something in his eye, everyone got a laugh out of it and a cry, everything was phenomenal. christina was radiating the whole time, i swear she never stopped smiling … you could tell this was the biggest day so far in her life and she was damn happy about it. that was the first thing my aunt said to me, she sure smiles a lot … well ya gotta know christina is all i said.


the limo ride to the rehearsal was neat, nothing to exciting happened. not as lively as i have seen the bunch but i think everyone was just anticipating the reception. on to that i suppose … now imagine this … a humongous room filled with a ton and a half of white roses, throw in some pedestals, an ice sculpture with “ellis & christina” on it, a huge desert table, a bar, dance floor, coffee bar, and an italian band and you have the reception. it was frigging amazing … that’s all i can say. one damn fine layout for the end of one damn fine day. i started getting pretty nervous the closer it came to my speech time. i had spent the previous evening with ellis at his house. he relaxed while i wrote my speech. well, that night i had a blast of ideas on what to say and i wrote them all out. i figured i had about 7-10 minutes of talk time full of laughs … well as the speech approached i realized that i would have no microphone. there was no way i was going to be able to talk over this huge room on top of the fact that everyone was obviously hungry. so after her dad and my dad spoke i was on … a bit nervous i stood. i then delivered from my heart my true feelings for my brother and the changes i have seen in him over the last 10 or so years. i had trouble composing myself a few times, i think i almost cried like 5 times … but i made everyone laugh and cry … and it was from the heart. so in all i think i did a pretty good job, got a nice applause afterward and half of the women in the audience said it was great throughout the evening and that i made them cry.


we danced, we ate, we drank, we danced … it was great. i spent a lot of time running around here and there trying to help out the photo guy, the video-agrafer, get my cousin to calm down and grow up, taking care of seating, getting drinks for people, talking to old friends, and messing with my brothers car. nothing big … just 5 rolls of tp and a roll of plastic wrap … hey, ya gotta do what ya gotta do. anyhow, to sum the night up in one word … i would have to say … “perfect”. honestly, it was a phenomenal wedding for two very special people. after the reception the plan was to party at their condo while they were gone but everyone was pretty much obliterated and they all passed out, me included.


lets see what else … amy and i are doing ok. we are headed to vegas in a few weeks for the mr/mrs/fitness olympia weekend. i am looking forward to this. my workouts are going well … i started following the body for life workout regiment again. i was not seeing as much progress on the push/pull/lower split so i went back to what was working before. why change something that works right? i stopped taking a few supplements … zma, creatine, hmb, etc … i am only taking myoplex, a multivitamin, and on my cardio days i take either phen-free or betalean. pretty much i am trying to flush my system of supplements and see what works for me. i have been biking a lot more … trying to get in at least one ride a week but two is possible. i really love to ride and like my bike a lot … plus it is great exercise as i usually ride for about an hour.


work is going great … our next release is coming along really well. i actually really enjoy going into work every day now … amazing how that feels. i have some solid responsibilities that are pretty well defined and i was given a fairly big piece of the software to rewrite in jsp (java server pages) for the future. can’t ask for more … and i don’t even mind working late. anything for the benefit of the company and the value of the stock is how i look at it.


i think i covered the big and the small of the last month …. ttfn.