I went to my friend’s funeral today. Very sad stuff but also nice to see how many people’s lives were touched just by one person. At the reception they had a nice little slideshow. I’m a little tired and don’t really feel like writing too much …but I wanted to mark the date.

Sometimes, not saying anything… says more.  

Saturday, I got a call from my hockey teammate Carl. He asked me if i was supposed to be carpooling with another teammate, Mike (Mike and I live pretty close and he hitched a ride to the last game with me). Anyway, since I didn’t hear back from Mike, I told Carl "I guess that’s not gonna happen"-or something like that. Carl takes a few breaths and then tells me that Mike DIED earlier that same day. I was in complete shock… and still am.

They don’t know all the details but i was just told that he was playing volley ball Saturday morning and had some sort of seizure and died. It’s very shocking and sad.

So, driving to yesterday’s game was a little strange knowing that just the week before I was doing the ride there with Mike. Just before the game started Sunday, the rink owner was there and made an announcement about our teammate and they did "the moment of silence" thing. Another teammate spoke some kind words and was hoping the rest of us might say something. Tough stuff… I opted not to talk…i was having a hard enough time keeping my contacts in by this point.

None of us really had our heads in the game and we got smashed 6 to 0… Mike would have probably said something like "It’s good to know that some things haven’t changed"… 

I wasn’t really sure how to begin this post but I’m sad to say the "categories" are under "Hockey, Friends, and Death"… I hope to never mix any of those again any time soon.

I found a post from a few years ago with a photo of me and Mike. He was too young to go and will be missed.

So, I’ve pretty much got Vladimir trained to fetch, sit and roll over…or maybe it’s that he has me trained. So far, no more messes in the house. BONUS! I was worried about him with the three flights of stairs here but he seems to be quite the “stair-master”.

So rather than have Vlad take over my blog completely, i just gave him his own YouTube page at http://www.youtube.com/VladimirRocks. Maybe once he’s mastered some more tricks, I’ll post those.

My weekend was sort of depressing but having a little pup sure helps.

I think everyone could use a squeaky toy.

He’s hard to see hidden under my t-shirt but it was a little chilly yesterday when the pictures were taken. He’s only about 10 weeks old and weighs in at around 4 lbs. He’ll probably grow to about 12 lbs though. 

And so, the last week has been spent teaching the new dog old tricks…or rather.. TRYING to teach him. So far, he’s been pretty good about going to the bathroom outside…the number of mistakes indoors i can count on 1 hand…ok, well maybe 2 but that’s still pretty good. I’ve been watching him pretty closely though.

 Vladimir is an Italian Greyhound…sure, i know the name is Russian. I like the meaning mostly:

• Origin: Slavic
• Meaning: To Rule With Peace.

So it’s about 4pm on Friday and I’m thinkin’ "maybe i should blog something"…I go online and see the "people online" section about 4 minutes ago was over 40. So uh…thanks to whoever is giving me all this attention at once. I really hate attention… HA! I just want the total hit count to say a million…then i’ll have a Blog Party or something.

Ok…let’s face it, most bloggers want to to be read…otherwise, blog it in private mode. We all like to think our lives are so interesting that the masses all want to know. But I must say that at the moment, my life seems rather dull … I’m still chugging away trying to get this new CD done. Perhaps once it’s finally done i’ll be writing stories about hanging out of a hotel room window by a piece of toilet paper but for now my only news is that i just learned i have super high cholesterol (ah the joys of getting older).

I’m now taking a bunch of stuff to try to get it lower and there’s a list of stuff I can’t eat–turns out, it’s EVERYTHING I LOVE! Figures.

Anyhoot…Welcome to any lurkers =) 

This is one the coolest video game trailers I’ve seen in a while. It’s just a teaser but it’s enough to get my imagination going. I’ve never been that good at the Mortal Kombat games but I’ve always liked playing. 

I’ve been playing a the new Grand Theft Auto game and I can’t seem to stop. Driving to the hockey game on Sunday after playing the video game, i could actually feel myself wanting to drive a bit more crazier …no plans on stealing any cars for me though =)

And of course, I saw Iron Man over the weekend…and enjoyed it very much.

Oh, here’s something that’ll make me sound like an old man. I went to the doctor today to get my cholesterol checked. I guess it’s never a bad thing to get checked for these sorts of things. While at the doctor’s office, I told him I’d been having a little pain in my hand and he referred me to a hand specialist. I go see him on Thursday… it’s probably nothing, but the palm (on the thumb side) of my right hand has been swollen for quite some time. It’s almost twice the size of my left hand and it looks like my thumb has been lifting weights and taking steroid injections. 

It’s probably all the hockey, golf, piano, guitar and video game playing I’ve been doing…then again, i could just have a super muscular right thumb.  

It’s always cool to rediscover an old tune that you’ve forgotten about. The other day I was talking with a buddy of mine and he started talking about older songs…and then he brought up a band called "April Wine"…they had a few hits but I think their most well-known is a song called "Just Between You and Me"…

So i iTuned the sucker yesterday and have been listening to it ever since. Man, this song is jammed packed with nostalgia. Hearing it gives me this crazy feeling …hard to explain. This song was more my older sister’s generation but I was the tag-along little brother who always kept my ear open to what they were listening to. I liked the song then, and like it even more now.

Funny thing about nostalgic songs…even songs I couldn’t STAND in the 80’s (mostly due to them not being cool enough) are the same songs i CRANK when they come on the radio today. Ya know, those early 80’s bands like Haircut 100, Flock of Seagulls, The Thompson Twins [So, what was the deal with that chick who only played the wooded block??? LOL].

Ooooh… remember those silly late 70’s/early 80’s "coming of age" comedies? Ah …maybe i’ll go out and rent "Up the Academy"  for old time’s sake. They all were pretty formulated… i’m pretty sure you could watch "Caddy Shack", "Meatballs", "Revenge of the Nerds", "Porky’s" back to back and it would seem like 1 movie. I’m not sure I was old enough to be watching those movies back then but maybe that’s what made them seem "cooler"… Ok, I’m showing my age. Time to stop.

This month zoomed pretty quickly…

Two weekends ago, I had my friend from Michigan visit -from Thursday to Sunday. Thankfully, he’d already done all the Hollywood Tourist stuff from his other times here so we didn’t need to do that. I don’t mind going to Universal but having to get out of the car and walk around "The Walk of Fame" is about as exciting as shampoo in my eyes. They have cleaned it up a little and it’s cool to see the 1st 10 times but after that….bleh!  

So we ended up just hanging out and it was fun. We went to see a movie [Forgetting Sarah Marshall–VERY FUNNY]. Coming out of the movie theater, Larry Flint was being pushed around and while in the crowd, almost ran over my friend. We also bumped into Jeff Beck that same day. 

Anyway…Last weekend, it was around 100 degrees. I had a major case of cabin fever….not really sure it’s cured. When it starts to become Summer-ish, I start thinking back to childhood Summers … I know I’ll never recapture those but it sure would be nice to try =) I think the key is PLANNING(something I’m lousy at).

Like…let’s say with this weekend coming up? Today being Wednesday, I should start thinking of something to do on Saturday rather than winging it. So what’s my plan? A: The Walk of Fame (just kidding) 

Ok…. So this is freaky ironic… sure i know celeb types like to golf…but today I ran into more. And they all seem to be connected.

John Lovitz was there golfing today…I didn’t talk to him. He had a look that sort of felt like "leave me alone" [So Justine and John were both on SNL…connected]

About 20 minutes in… fucking K-Fed showed up with a baseball hat and sunglasses. Who’s watching the kids??!?!?! [So Justine and K-Fed = Britney…connected.]

Gee, how many other Britney ex’s could i run into at the driving range? I don’t really keep up with too much of that stuff but it gets HAMMERED in our faces all the time… sort of hard not to know a little.

No, I didn’t talk to K-Fed.

Anyway…enough with the "celeb sightings"

I’m all sunburned…my golf swing is kicking ass though. 

So I’m at the driving range today trying not to suck at my golf swing. I’m there alone since I don’t really know too many people who golf…anyway…

The place isn’t too busy and I’ve just smacked my 1st bucket around and on to my 2nd. So I look up and Justin Timberlake walks up to the spot RIGHT in front of me and starts hitting away. It was really trippy. So for my 2nd bucket of balls I’m just trying my best not to suck ass…and of course, I started to suck even more. Eventually we talked…I think I basically told him that his SNL skits are some of the best …he seemed nice. I really didn’t say too much more than that …he was there by himself (as most people are, at the driving range). Very surreal though.

I’ve told a few friends about this via text message after i left the driving range and some of the replies i’ve got back were:

1. are you bringing sexy back now?

2. did you guys start dancing around and sing "Dick in a Box"? 

3. Did the air smell like Britney Spears? 

I’m sure the comments will continue on for a good 48 hours.