"In a spell"

Rumor has it that one of Grandma Martin's cousins used to give ol' Blue Eyes, Frank Sinatara himself voice lessons. This cousin is still alive and lives in California. I find this interesting and hard to believe.

I'm not sure when I first got into the crooners of yesteryear, but I sure do like to put on some Frankie or Dean Martin when I'm relaxing.

They just don't sound the same today, what with their Rock music and their profanity...

(Said like a true elderly person.)

I found Puddy (from Sienfeld) funny on his new show Rules of Engagement yesterday when his wife was giving him a hard time about caring about the Knicks more than her and his response was "I haven't been cheering for you since I was five years old."

In other rambling...Lisa apparently had a funny run-in with a neighbor today who didn't enjoy being barked at by Grace. The fat old man with a cane looked to his wife and said, "Oh great, now I have to deal with a f*%$ing dog barking at me too." His wife says, "It's not my fault the f*%$ing dog is barking." Lisa who is about five feet away says, "I'm sorry, she must find you scary. Must be the cane."

Man, I love that girl!

"That I would be good"

If I wasn't a communication consultant what would I be? I think I would be a banker. I was offered a manager in training job at a Credit Union when I was a college senior. But I had to turn it down, because I had an interview with Mercer and wanted to hold out for that job. So if I wouldn't have gotten the Mercer job, my next step would have been to try HSBC (an international bank) as they had an opening for a loan officer position in Carmel. But the same day I found out about the HSBC opening, I found out that "things were looking good" for Mercer, but "you may want to think about Detroit."

Fortunately, the Metro Detroit area ain't a bad place to settle down with a wife and a dog.

Things I read everyday:
Entertainment Weekly
Headlines in the Wall Street Journal
40 - 70 e-mails at work
TV guide
Street Signs


Things I read almost everyday:
Yahoo News
Phil's Blog
Scott's Blog
Rogers' Blog
Shannon's Blog
Better Than Ezra Message Board
Alternative Addiction

Things I don't read very often at all:
Books
The Bible

How's that for priorities?

"Innocence slowly setting"

I suppose there's not much to say, but that hasn't stopped me from blogging in the past. Flemings is a great steakhouse. Lisa said it was the best "fancy" food she's had before. So that made for a nice date complements of my boss.

In other news, while we thought we were going to come home in 2 weekends (March 9-11), that is being pushed back another couple of weeks (23-25) due to Rogers' schedule at the Emergency Vet place. Let's hang out that weekend. What d' ya say?

The Oscars were a friggin marathon this evening, but it was pretty enjoyable. I don't know that I've ever laughed out loud during the Oscars like I did tonight during Ellen's monologue. And The Departed truly is a great movie. I'm glad it did well, although it's too bad the surprise Supporting Actor victor wasn't Mark Wahlberg because he rocked in that movie.

"Feelin Hot"

Not to take away from my other new post below, but I wanted to post this picture. It is of Me & Rogers at my recent office party. I like it...mi esposa es en fuego...

"The hours she's keeping"

If anyone wants to support a fellow Andersonian they should go to iTunes and download Jon McLaughlin's latest EP. I must say that I am quite fascinated by watching someone I had classes with climb the music industry's proverbial ladder to success. I think it's going to be pretty cool to hear him on the radio in the next 3 months or so. I also think it's cool that he apparently had Kevin Griffin lead singer of Better Than Ezra co-write at least one song on his upcoming album (after opening for BTE at Chicago's House of Blues in December). Unbelievable. It would be a dream to be a professional musician. Jon's coming back to the area in April, so Rogers and I should have a good time checking out that show and seeing Matt Wertz as well (he's the headliner). I'll say to him after the show..."hello Jon, this is my wife, you may remember her giggling as she walked by you at A.U. with her friend Shannon for no specific reason. Anyway, good show." Or something like that.

I've discovered that 8 hours goes by much quicker when you are not working (than when you are). Rogers had to work from 2 - 10 today and for some reason, I could not finish my work, workout, or watch a movie during that time. I, in fact, worked for about 3 hours, went to the library, played video games, finished making a cake, and ate some cheerios/fast forwarded through two episodes of American Idol. Time flies by, when you're not working.

So that's the news from Novi, where the women are sound asleep after a long day of working, the dogs are sound asleep after a long day of doing dog things (nothing) and the men are trying to decide what to do before going to sleep...

Tomorrow = Church + Steak Dinner

"The new pollution"

Good news. I was told today that I received a promotion -- the promotion that I was informed I was "recommended for" last December. So it was a long time matriculating, but it went through. I am now a Level E for what it's worth. The nice news that goes along with that is I receive a moderate percentage raise and am eligible for an annual bonus (each March). So there you have it. The icing on the cake. My boss gave me a $125 gift certificate to a fancy steak house up here, which was way beyond the call of duty. Did someone mention Filet Mignon this weekend? Or perhaps I'll go with the Scallops in Lobster Sauce...mmmm....why I haven't been to a Steakhouse since I polished off the ol' 32 ouncer at Santa Fe.

In other news, I'm addicted to NFL Street on the original XBox. It's not that great of a game, but I just want to finish beating every team before moving on to a real football game perhaps.

Listening to: The Shins - Wincing the Night Away
Watching: Lost, Sex and the City, South Park
Reading: Articles about retirement because I write retirement newsletters (you can contribute $15,500 to your 401(k) this year folks -- if you do so, you'll be rich when you're 65. In the meantime, you can survive on the streets with bread and water...)
Thinking about: going to sleep
First things first: Check the bank account and pay a bill
Tomorrow night: Relax and party
Saturday night: Relax and party
Sunday: go to fancy steakhouse!

"A lot of hungry howlers"

I never successfully flew a kite. The one time I remember trying I was in second grade. I was in Mrs. Jackson's second grade class and in between learning cursive writing and playing with legos after finishing classwork, we took a field trip to Pulaski Park. The very same Pulaski Park that we have all driven by many times on 38th Street. A good place to shoot hoops with Andersonian-Mexicans, have a picnic or shag some flyballs in a church softball game. This field trip to Pulaski Park, we were all to bring a kite and fly it. I had myself a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles kite. I imagine it was cheap. Seems cheap now that I think about it. But I can't blame the quality on what was really a lack of talent. I ran back and forth trying to get that kite to take hold and fly either 1) higher than ten feet off the ground or 2) after I had quit running. Either would have been fine with me. But my efforts were fruitless, leaving me now, precisely 15 years later disappointed that I never flew a kite. Someday. I'm still young.

"When they tap our Monday heads two zombies walk"

Nearly eight months into this Michigan adventure I've three things I'm very thankful for.

1) My wonderful wife. Today we celebrated Valentine's Day with a lazy day and a date out to Johnny Carino's one of our favorite restaurants. I'm so thankful to have Rogers in my life. She takes good care of our household. And we've got that special something that makes laughter and fun come easy when we're together.

2) Our friends. I miss you all a great deal. We'd love to have a bunch of you come visit (again for most) sometime. It's sad to know you're having a great time with each other and we're missing out. Don't take it for granted. Stay close to each other. We'll be around sometime in the next several weeks I imagine. The experienced ones say you make your friends for life in college. We're happy to have you guys and gals. And sorry, you're stuck with us. We'll be visiting you as you move around the country and back again.

3) My job at Mercer. The job brought us to Michigan, and I'm sure glad to be working for 'em (if not soooo glad to be in Michigan--although your neighbor to the North ain't too bad a place to live). The Company is a good place to invest a large part of my life. It's rewarding work mentally and financially and our time off policies are pretty generous, which is why I'm sleeping in on President's Day tomorrow. That being said, I'm taking a break from working right now, and plan on working at least a half day tomorrow. The job demands that I get my work done in certain time frames, but I'm free to do so at my leisure, which is nice. Plus we get to do work with huge companies that are in the news, so that is cool. (#3 was mainly dropped in to rub in the fact that we get president's day off)
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That's the news from Novi, where the women are asleep, the men are working (and blogging) and the animals are pooping on the floor in the living room (either behind the table or next to the DVDs).

"Round here we always stand up straight"

So the snow has come and gone with only white ground remaining. The streets are clean. The commute still sucks clocking in at over an hour every morning recently. The drive home is much smoother.

Lisa worked from 3 - 10 on Valentine's Day and works from 3 - 10 both Friday and Saturday night, leaving ol' Berg here high and dry with nothing much to do. So I guess I'll do some work, workout a few times, play some NFL Street and wish she wasn't working. We're going out for Valentine's Day on Sunday instead.

But in other news, I do have off work on Monday for President's Day. Chew on that for awhile, muchachitos. This thought made me miss you all. After all, it's been 2 weeks since we've been home...it's time for a visit! Really, we probably won't be back down until sometime in March just for the heck of it. We'll see since Rogers is working fulltime now (see her Blog for more info).

Saving the best for last: I have a Nephew nick-named Toc (pronounced "toke"). For the past 1.5 years my sister and brother-in-law have been in the process of adopting a child from Guatemala. Today they received pictures of their child who was born on 12/31/06 just before the dawn of the Year of the High-Five. The boy's name is Jose Luis Toc Mejia, but he will become Preston ? Spires. I'm voting that the ? becomes Toc, but my vote doesn't count for much. And yes, I do think I like the name Jose Luis better than Preston (but let's keep that on the DL). Toc will come home sometime in the next 6 months. Also, I'm happy to note that I will now be referring to my nephew as Toc rather than "Gomez," which is what I called him for the past 1.5 years (even though I knew he was destined to become Preston).

The kid rocks. Look at that hat he's got! He's so cool.

"Everything communicates"

I read two of my friends blogs today, that spurred comment.

To Scott's reference to needing to get on ESPN, I once tried to get on ESPN with some good friends of mine. Heck, Ricker and Josh we're undoubtedly right there with me. At a Colorado Rockies game when there was a light snow falling from the sky, six fellas wrote GO SPEN on our naked chests. After Stephen got in the right place it read GO ESPN and the television camera was pointed right at us. I like to think I may have been on ESPN that day even though I'm 95% sure I wasn't.

To Phil's reference to feeling like me. I hope he loves this feeling. Sometimes it's a good feeling (when eating ice cream, for instance) and sometimes it's not (when topless in the snow, for instance). I will happily pretend that I did not notice any context around his statement.

Goodnight, friends.

(time to play some NFL Street and hit the hay as I've got an early morning tomorrow to get to work at a reasonable time)

"Weekend warrior"

The weekend that was consisted of Macaroni Grill takeout, sleeping in, grocery shopping, an oil change, one game of NFL Street, watching the Grammy's, going to an office party, eating a nice meal at the office party, ordering a pizza after getting up at 1 p.m. on saturday, going to church, watching "To Catch a Predator," watching Jackass 2, laughing a ton at Jackass 2, being amazed at how much Lisa loved jackass 2, repeatedly saying "They're really doing it" during Jackass 2, getting dressed up fancily for the party, going to Detroit in the evening, living it up like a weekend warrior should, working 45 min. after planning to work for a few hours...

Lisa starts her new job tomorrow morning. She has to sit in on an animal's heart surgery. Pray that she doesn't vomit at the site (and sight) of the blood.

Adios muchachos y mujeres. (I think I dreamed I was speaking Spanish well the other night. Sweet.)

"I'm sorry long days came"

The Colts my friends won the Superbowl. I would be remiss if I failed to mention it here. I'm glad I was able to watch it in the familiar home of Joshua Campbell's childhood thanks to his 4th (and most likely last) Annual Superbowl party. It was a great game with great results great food and great friends.

In other news, my wife, Rogers, returned home to Michigan on little sleep. I'm sure glad she's back. I missed her quite a bit.

It's been a busy week at work and I am tired. Saturday is the company's mid-Winter party (holiday party rescheduled to February). Let's hope it's a good time.

Currently Listening to: HelloGoodbye
Currently Watching: American Idol, Scrubs, The Office, My Name is Earl, Lost
Today's Commute: 1:15 going to work, 1:00 coming home (sucks)
Today's Dinner: Hungry Howie's Pizza

"Well done!"

In 7.5 hours, Rogers will be landing in Indianapolis. I can't wait. I miss my Boo, as Squatch would say. This is going to be an awesome day. Rogers finally comes home and the Colts are playing in the Superbowl. How much better could a day get?

Wii Sports - Tennis is the coolest thing ever.

And today I accomplished something that not everyone does in their short time on earth. I ate a 32 ounce steak! It took a good while, but I got that beast down and kept it there. Even got some Ritters on the way home. That my friends is a big piece of meat. 8 quarter-pounders anyone? Congrats to Wilbe and Felder as well. We all deserve a pat on the back for this...and well we got a T-shirt and a Polaroid, both of which are far better than a pat on the back, so I'm happy.

Best day ever right after a short nap.