about me

Hello and Welcome to the new edition of getting to know your friends.
Okay, here's what you're supposed to do, and try not to be lame about this and spoil the fun! Just copy (not forward) this entire e-mail and paste into a new e-mail that you can send. Change all the answers so that they apply to you. Then send this to a whole bunch of people you know.

INCLUDING the person that sent it to you.


1. What is your occupation/job? Human Resource Manager.
2. What color is your underwear? Dark Blue boxers.
3. What was the last thing you ate? English Muffin.
4. Do you wish on stars? Yes
5. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Green
6. How is the weather right now? Warm, and getting hotter.
7. Last person you spoke to on the phone? My brother Tim.
8. Do you like the person who sent this to you? Yes, very much so, more than she knows.
9. Would you say no and send this back to him or her? I thought about it.
10. How old are you today? 44, I think.
11. Favorite drink? Used to be beer, any beer but now two fingers of Glenlivet Single Malt Scotch with no freaking water, and never any ice.

12. Favorite sport to watch? Football
13. Have you ever dyed your hair? No, I don’t really have much hair.
14. Do you wear contacts or glasses? No.
15. Pets? I own no pets but my neighbor’s cat spends more time at my place than theirs.
16. Favorite month? January, because anything is possible.
17. Favorite food? Cereal
18. What was the last movie you watched? I swear to god I watched “Goonies” on TV last night.
19. Favorite day of the year? The day after my birthday.
20. What do you do to vent anger? Go for a walk after work.
21. What was your favorite toy as a child? Hot Wheels miniature cars.
22. Fall or Spring? Fall
23. Hugs or kisses? Definitely KISSES
24. Cherry or Blueberry? Cherry
25. Do you want your friends to email you back? Yes
26. Who is most likely to respond? Pauline, my older sister.
27. Who is least likely to respond? Danielle, my younger sister.
28. Living arrangements? I live alone.
29. When was the last time you cried? A couple of years ago just before Christmas.
30. What is on the floor of your closet? 2 laundry baskets with dirty laundry.
31. Who is the friend you have had the longest? Jim
32. What did you do last night? I watched “Goonies” on TV.
34. What inspires you? I am inspired that anything is possible.
35. What are you afraid of? Snakes.
36. Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers? Cheese.
37. Favorite car? Porsche
38. Favorite dog breed? English Fox Hound
39. Number of keys on your key ring? 11
40. How many years at your current job? 13
41. Favorite day of the week? Friday
42. How many states have you lived in? 2
43. How many countries? 1


--Pete

All-Star Game

On Tuesday July 12th, 2005 is the MLB All-Star game in Detroit. I wish I was there, but I am not. I will be watching the game on TV at home but living it vicariously through a good friend.
I really, really wish I was there; but oh well.

Today

Today is a great day, do you know why? Because anything is possible. Thats right anything can happen, anything! Be positive, be alive and most importantly live each day.

July 4th

Happy Fourth of July to everyone. Thank God, Jehovah, Yahweh or Buddha that we live in the greatest country in the world and probably in history. As long as all of us remember this our great country will keep existing. When we give up on us than we will go the way of the Greeks, Romans, Mayans, Egyptians, Aztecs, Sumerians, Babylonians, Mongols, etc. If we fail we will be a footnote in history and nothing more.

Vote, participate, volunteer, go to a school board meeting. Write your congressman, your senator or your govenor. Send the President an e-mail and tell him how you stand on any issue you want, but please participate. In the last presidential election less than 50 % of Americans actually voted. This is a sad statistic but a true one. Apathy will lead to our ruin and to our demise one day. Listen to everyone and make up your own damn mind. Don't be a conservative or liberal because your friends, parents, husband, wife is. Be what you are or who you are because you have LISTENED, you have READ, you have STUDIED the issues. Nothing is free, nothing.

Our freedom's and our very existence today is because someone in our past sacrificed so that we may be allowed to grocery shop, surf the web, go to a concert, paint our house any color we chose and drive our SUV's.

PARTICIPATE or we will cease to matter.

Live 8

Is it better than LIVE AID 20 years ago. I mean 20 years ago, I can't remember anything but QUEEN with Freddy Mercury from Live Aid and after watching the concert today on MTV I found out that Madonna sang at Live Aid. If you had asked me about Live Aid I would have said Freddy Mercury and Queen were at the top of their game that day, (Thanks Green Day). 1985 was a lifetime ago, but is Madonna as relevant in music today as she was in 1985, I mean who really wants to watch her today.

Watching Coldplay play the backup band with Richard Ashcroft from the Verve singing "BITTERSWEET SYMPHONY" is more than I ever expected from this concert and will probably be my memory, could I be so lucky to see them perform that song in October? As hurtful as it sounds Paul McCartney should retire, please leave before your voice gets real bad.

Likin Park with Jay-Z was pretty fucking good, no was pretty fucking AWESOME,but MTV you owe everyone an apology, way too many commercials, way too many promos, How much did money did CBS/MTV/Viacom make today? If I want my music censored I will fucking buy it from Walmart, quit censoring what I hear, GOT IT!


Pink Floyd was pretty good. After not playing together for 24 years, they sounded like they played together last night somewhere. Dave Gilmour and Roger Waters on the stage together I never thought it would happen, who knows maybe a tour will be coming next?

Way too many commercials, way, way, way too many, MTV what a disaster. I will bet that in the 9-5 telecast the commercials and the insipid and inane MTV "VJ's" were on screen more than all of the the music shown. I saw the ABC re-cap Saturday night and saw acts and songs not shown on the MTV show. Hey MTV why couldn't you show sets on MTV and a different set on VH1, give people a choice right, no.

The deal should have been for no commercials just music with MTV getting the rights to a couple of replays where they could have added commercials and the rights to show the videos x number of times in the next 6 months.

All of the acts except Paul McCartney and Pink Floyd had 3 songs and only 3 songs, really.

I am glad I have a DVR and could record the whole thing and skip the BS, (sorry Bob Geldoff) I am not sure it was "the greatest concert ever"( Bob Geldof) or "the day music changed" (Bono)

If it isn't about my money and the artists all peformed for free, lets see how much the DVD will sell for?

Why?

Why is it that I can't change and be like everyone around me?

Why do I return phone calls yet close friends don't return mine?

Why am I always taken advantage of by women that I meet?

Why do I seem to seek more in life?

Why do I believe what am I told by almost everyone that I know?

Why am I disappointed when things I want don't come to fruition?

Why do I seem to care about things that no one else cares about?

Why is it that my bosses can't freakin show up for work until 2 or 3 hours after I do and then lie about where they have been?

Why do I have to put up with everybody's shit? Am I really that good a listener or just gullible?

Why does it seem that what is obvious to me; no one that I work with can grasp?

Why can't something just be what it is, why does everything have to have an answer, a solution or an ending?

Why do I feel that I am in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong set of skills for where I am?

Why do the people I work with seem so bland, so disappointing, so unbelievably stupid?

Why does it feel sometimes that I am a snob?

WHY?

Tsunami

If we get past the fact that the the tsunami warning last night here in Ventura County and all along the West Coast was almost surreal in the reporting of it, Michael Jackson was still the topic on the major news channels, ( FOX, CNN, MSNBC etc) while the Tsunami warning was blaring on the local channels.

Only in LA does this happen; Tsunami warning everyone up north is RUNNING away from the beach but in LA crowds gathered at the beaches to watch the Tsunami come in. Lets not forget that 6 months ago a Tsunami destroyed SE Asia. The knuckleheads crowded at the locals beaches to wait for the waves.

I can just imagine that the Hollywood "A-listers" throwing a televised fundraiser for the idiots that ran down the beach to witness the wave.

ONLY IN LA.

Isn't it true

Tonight I heard the following and I believe it to be true

Remember,


Two out hits will get you into heaven.


I hope so!

What is up with love?

My god the how twisted we get about love and the lack there of. I know Pat Benatar said that "Love is a Battlefield" but what are you gonna do?

When cupids arrow hits it hurts so good but not as much as when the arrow finally gets removed, right! Falling in and out of love over and over probably isn't a good thing but I will go with the feelings I have while I have them. The look, the smile, just the sound of the voice can drive us wild.

When things go bad at the end when that arrow gets yanked out of your heart, that is more painful than any thing I have ever experienced. The loss of love is a killer , a life changing event for some and for others it just isn't that painfully. I don't understand why some can move on so easy and others are crippled when a relationship is over.

Good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people. Life isn't fair and love hurts. Good love hurts and bad love hurts, but it is so much worth it.

She couldn't say no

Ok this chick from Georgia that ran away before her wedding has got me confused. First of all whats up with all of the pictures of her, BIG EYES is she high or what and the groom to be doesn't look like much of a catch biut I digress.

How come this stressed out lady could not have picked up up the telephone and,

"Hey, hubby to be, Fuck Off I'm not getting married on Saturday, See Ya."

She could have saved everyone a lot of trouble and time. She would not be the new media darling and just think of the idiots in Hollywood that are headed out to Georgia right now to sign her up for a movie deal.

Whoooo Hooo

I came home today from work and thank the gods I have phone service and cable.

Be Careful

If your name is Jennifer beware, Ben Affleck is getting engaged to Jennifer 2. Watch out Jennifer Love Hewitt and Jennifer Anniston, you could be next

My Weekend

Lets see what happened to me this past weekend. On Friday night while a crew was digging a hole to plant a tree at my place the crew drilled through a conduit that contained the telephone wires to apartment. So as of Friday night no phone, no internet. On Sunday while trying to fix the phone they broke the cable box.

Now I have no phone and no cable, I am at work at 5:45 pm adding to my blog and checking my emails. What a life I am having. Everything back working on Thursday or Friday.

No Pope yet just black smoke. Come on Butchie we are pulling for you.


Pete

A new Pope

We are trying to get a friend of my sisters elected Pope. I know it is a long shot but he is a baptised Catholic male that isn't married, never divorced. When asked what name he would take because the Pope never takes his real name, he said how about Pope Butch the First.

Great name, so I sent him an email:

OK tell his Holiness Butch the First, I'm looking for a few things from him when he takes over:

1. Change the taste of the wafer, Honey, BBQ, Ranch, Cheddar or Jalapeno Flavor I get the symbolism but the taste is horrible.

2. I want more than a sip of wine, I don't need a bottle but the after taste of the wafer in my throat needs a little liquid to wash it down. Come on everyone knows about a Dog and a beer, Cookies and milk got it, Wine and cheese, Coffee and donuts, Wafer and wine. Give me a cup; I will pay for it in my donation.

3. Lets make confession fun for everyone (posted anonymously of course) the top ten sins of the week kind of of David Letterman thing. Have everyone vote at Sunday Mass for the best sins of the week. If your sin is number one at the end of the week, you get a prize. Maybe first place is everlasting life or no more confession forever, something good not a ribbon or t-shirt.

4. Get rid of the little red cardinal hats, how about a baseball cap with LA Diocese, or Cardinal of South Africa. Keep the Pope hat, which by the way is very cool.

5. Lets work on the dress code at mass for everyone. Tuxedos and ball gowns are not required but if I see one more hoochie wearing tight spandex and earrings the size of Texas with the husband wearing his " Good Overalls" I will commit a sin.

6. I think we need a refined Ten Commandments; Coveting Thy Neighbors Wife needs some work. We are in a new Millennium, not everyone wants the wife these days, unless you live on Wisteria Lane.

7. I want Butch the First to get rid of the incense. If I want to burn my nose hairs I will call a drug dealer.

8. I am not real cool on the raising of the hands thing in mass. It's early in the morning and all of that standing, kneeling, sitting, I get tired; remember it is mass not a workout at the Y.

9. Keep the uniforms for Catholic School girls. I will be very honest; you definitely got that right.

10.. Last but not least, if the priest can't speak English because he is from the 3rd world, get a freaking nun to hold the mass. I am not suggesting that you let women in the priest hood, (Confession for young men would be very interesting) Trust me it is more important to understand what's going on and to make sure I am on the right page, than to have a little dude from the Philippines mumbling on stage.


Let His Holiness know I'm working on his election and if he needs something from me he should call on the phone or email me. I already have too many voices in my head and I am not sure I will be able to pick his voice out from the rest.


Thanks in advance, your servant

Pete

My wish

Having this young lady (who by everyone that knew her) claims she was the most private person and didn't really like to have her picture taken, it is so wrong that her picture has been spread all over the world. I have stated not only do I not want to be hooked up, I don't even want to be plugged in. Just jam me full of painkillers and stick me in the corner, I will die and that is it. I shudder to think that there is someone out their that doesn't believe me I DON'T WANT THE MACHINE AS PART OF ME, DARTH VADER IS JUST A MOVIE CHARACTER.


IF ANYONE EVER PUTS VIDEO OR PICTURES OF ME IN THAT KIND OF STATE OUT FOR OTHERS TO SEE, I SWEAR TO GOD, I SWEAR TO BUDDHA, I SWEAR TO THE DEVIL, TO ANYONE AND EVERYONE I WILL HAUNT THOSE RESPONSIBLE UNTIL THEY DIE. I WILL ENSURE A PAINFUL DEATH AND HORRIBLE AFTERLIFE, ALL I CAN SAY IS SHIRLEY McCLAIN.

I will awake from my coma and I will kill everyone in sight. Count on it.

To video tape anyone in that state and then to release it to the media, is absolutely horrid. To video me, the man that doesn't like having his picture taken would crush what little spirit I have left in an almost lifeless body. I am a private person who relishes my privacy and that will probably cause me to die alone and if anyone should publicize my suffering you are not fulfilling my wishes.

Do not FUCK me over and who ever steps in and claims that I was drunk when I wrote this, they are lying. One of you will think that you know what's best for me and will try to convince the others that I really want to be hooked up to a machine so that YOU ALL could feel better about yourselves, WRONG.

My wishes are known to all including GOD. I believe my spirit will live longer that in the body that it is currently resides in. I honestly believe all of us are more than just these "bags of chemicals and water" we drag around. I want to be cremated and I want a contest to decide what happens to my ashes, yep a contest. Everyone at the funeral gets to write down what they they think should happen to my ashes. Trust me I don't want to sit on someone's shelf or mantle.

If anyone wants to know what I want well I probably would like a sightseeing trip, how about everyone take a baggy or a little box of my ashes and take me everywhere. Or you could send me to experience a week with each person at the funeral, kind off like the Stanley Cup Trophy. I think that after a while most of the ashes will have been spilt all over the place and I will in essence BE EVERYWHERE AT ONCE, (I have been complaining for years about how I can't be in more than one place at once , well when I die yes I can.

I want a funeral where everyone will show up and tell lies, (all funerals are about lies, great guy , what a shame he died, blah, blah, blah) about me to everyone else that will agree with the lies. I want lots of music and flowers for all of the women to take home, they like the flowers not me. The music should be rock no god damn church funeral music. No choir no lady in the back playing the cello or a flute.

Have a party afterwards and then everyone take home a piece of me in a baggy or in a box.


These are my wishes.

My Family today?

Honest to God this is true and it is not a TV show episode.

This afternoon my Mothers Uncle William, (My Moms mothers brother), got that, calls and tells my Mom that his sister Florence has died and she, (my Mom) needs to get a hold of her Mom, Williams Sister the news. My Mom is upset and tries to get a hold of her Mom, (My Grandmother) and can’t. She calls and calls no answer. My mother finally calls her sister Joan and relays the news. My Aunt Joan finally gets a hold of my Grandmother and tells her that her sister has died.

Meanwhile…

My mother calls back to her Uncle William in New Hampshire. Now I am sure that he is 80 or 90 years old and his hearing isn’t so good but, when my Mom asks her uncle William, “How did Aunt Florence die” He yells to his wife in the back ground, “Hey was it Florence or Helen that died.” My Mom hears, “it was Helen, not Florence.” My mom hangs up the telephone and calls back to my Aunt Joan’s and tells her, “Don’t call mom yet there has been a mistake. Florence didn’t die, Aunt Helen did.” My Aunt Joan hangs up the phone on my mom and calls my grandmother back to explain that her other sister has died.

I don’t know about any one else but this is scary. I hope I live a long time and I hope that I never have to call one of my brothers or sisters to tell them that one of my other siblings has died. If I do, I hope I get the name right.

Here are some thoughts

I have been doing some thinking on Terri Schiavo. I have never met her or any one close to her and I can only comment from my point of view and give an opinion; I don’t pretend to be Solomon or to really reach meaningful conclusion here. Are we extending her life or are we prolonging the death experience. I signed the DNR letter when my father collapsed and was taken to the hospital. I had many conversations with my Dad over the years and I knew that he did not want heroic measures taken to extend his life if he was on life support. This decision was easy when I signed it at the hospital and I was standing next to him when he took his last breathe. Months later the nightmares began and I did feel guilty for some time, convincing myself over and over again that my decision was correct and then I convinced myself that it was wrong and I had killed my father. Today I have come to grips with the fact that I did what he wanted and that is all that I did, I fulfilled his wishes, not mine, and I did help my dad go to heaven the way he wanted to go, his way and on his terms.

There are a lot of hysterical people running around claiming that they know what is best for this poor women and family. None of these people have ever met her, met her husband until she unfortunately became the “flavor of the day” no one outside of her family knew her.

Her family is her husband and to a point her father and mother. When she married her father for lack of a better phrase, “ Gave her away.” I know this doesn’t mean what it says but when she married her husband was, is the one that is responsible for her. Tragic as it is he does have the right to make this decision. The husband has for years told the same story, that after a couple of funerals were family members died after being on ventilators she told him that she never wanted to be like that. Now his error was that he didn’t have her write it down, but how does a young husband tell his even younger wife she needs to write down this “living will statement.” I am sure lots of Americans are writing down their wishes now, but 15 years ago this was a quiet subject for everyone.
I have been married and I had conversations with my wife about our plans and our wishes that I never told my parents about.

While in hospice care her husband was asked to remove her from the facility because he demanded on a continuous basis better treatment for his wife. She has been bedridden for 15 years and has never had a bedsore. 15 years in bed and no bedsores, I would say that that isn’t mistreatment that is excellent treatment.

Her husband never mistreated this poor girl; she had a heart attack due to low potassium from an eating disorder. Her medical care was botched at the hospital and she was put in hospice. There was a settlement that pays for her care and has not made the husband rich. This is why the guy comes across as the bad guy because he didn’t sit by her bedside everyday and forgo any hope of a life for himself. He went out and met someone else and didn’t play the grieving husband or play the martyr role that we think he should play. Did he give away his right to make this decision when he gave up on her and started seeing someone else, maybe I think but she was already in a coma when he met someone else.

Terri’s parents are the ones I feel sorry for the most. What are they supposed to do, not fight and let her die? They are doing what I hope all parents would do love, cherish and care for their children forever. Some would say that they are not caring for her but extending her suffering, but I fear that they are doing all they know how to do, love their daughter.

Everybody has had his or her shot to make their case but the truth is she decided what she wanted to have down in her conversations with her husband years ago. I cannot imagine the pain and agony that her husband has gone through and has to deal with now and how has he changed in 15 years of battling to fulfill his wives wishes, but it seems to me that everyone should take a deep breath and let go.

I do worry in part because somehow it just doesn’t seem right have close 30, 000 people a year die from having their life support turned off by family members, yet I do not want to be on life support and be a burden for my family. We do not know what it is like to be the patient because only 1 person has ever “recovered” while being in the same degree of “coma” or “vegetative state” as Mrs. Schiavo and he remembers nothing of his lengthy hospital state.

Life is precious and should not be wasted and love is even more precious and is rarely viewed in such a bright light but so many people and when magnified by the TV cameras, the politicians and the religious people I fear we all loose sight of the absolute gift we have.

Spring Time Vacation

No matter what, I will head back to Phoenix next year for more baseball and sun. I will stay in a different hotel near a ballpark and will get to different stadiums than this year. I saw games Sunday Night, Monday afternoon, Monday Night, Tuesday Day and Night. I spent Tuesday morning watching the Angels take infield practice for 2 hours and I watched batting practice while leaning my face through a chain link fence like a little kid. I saw the sausage race at the Brewers Park and actually stood up and cheered for the hot dog to win the race. I talked baseball with some strangers at some of the games and sat alone on the grass at others and just enjoyed the day. I didn't have to leave early because I had a long drive home and I waited until the end of the games to leave. I watched Major League Baseball players play catch with their kids on the field right in front of me and they were not bothered for an n autograph.

I saw little kids sing the national anthem as well as a group of 75 years old ladies and heard a tape of a choir sing it as well. The park would become extremely quiet and EVERYBODY took off their hats and most of sang along. I was in a stadium with as few as 2700 people and again with over 12, 000 packed in. I saw big stars, Vlad Guerrero, Todd Helton, Ben Sheets, Sean Green, Adrian Beltrae, etc and saw future stars like Ian Kinsler and Macier Izturis.

While at the Angel game on Monday afternoon I watched a stupid fan from NY or NJ act like an ass. He was pasty white in color and wearing a NY Yankee hat and about 40 years old. He brought his elderly father to the game and headed down the aisle past me. He then proceeded to berate a couple of guys that he claimed were sitting in his seats. He threatened “I will beat the living shit out you if don’t fooking move right now”. That’s right “fooking” not fuck, but the long drawn out version only available from an east coast idiot.

The two guys just sat there in their seats and said, “Hey dude, these are our seats your in the wrong section.” The knucklehead from back east went on and on with the “Foook You” Then he pulls the “Do you know who I am” card. Yep, “Do you know who I am? Who freakin cares who you are. Finally the usher who is older than dirt comes down to see what the commotion is; the usher looks at both sets of tickets and tells Mr. East Coast that he is in the wrong section. Everyone around cheers, then Mr. pasty white east coast guy flips the double bird to everyone in the stands, classy guy giving the finger to everyone around while his dad stands there holding his drinks. His father looks embarrassed and they finally move over to a section where they sit down. Is it over, hardly?

A couple innings later this idiot has now moved down a few rows and sits in someone else’s seat. When this family comes to sit in their 4 seats Mr. East Coast is belligerent and tells them that they are ion the wrong section and that these are his seats. F bombs fly out of his mouth and finally security comes down and hauls this guy out. While he is being escorted up the aisle everyone claps and of course here comes the double bird again from Mr. East Coast. Everyone starts to cheer and his poor father slowly stands up and begins to head up after his son who has clearly embarrassed him again.


I watched grown men with notebooks full of baseball cards hound players for a signature. Most of these guys wanted the players to sign 5 or 6 cards for “My Family”. Each and every single player refused to sign more than 1 card and then some of these “adults” called the players “DICK” and “ASSHOLE” after getting their card signed.

I met a players agent at the Brewers vs. Rangers game and I talked to him about the behind the scenes stuff, paydays, insurance, contracts, travel arrangements, minor league stuff and learned a shitload of stuff about things I never knew. I met the sister of a wife of a major league player and while she proceeded to get sloppily drunk and the she asked me,

"Are you anybody that's important, you know you look important",

(I guess that's a compliment right?)

While being cute and someone to talk to, she did drink 8 beers in 2 innings and that was a real warning sign to stay away. Eventually she staggered up the stairs and she threw up on the walkway BEFORE she got to the restroom.

I got some sun but wore a hat and never got burned, I never got drunk and I only got lost once and only once, when I was detoured thought the ABC Extreme Makeover Home Edition House traffic jam on Monday Morning, (that was on TV Sunday Night about the little girl with cancer)

The drive is so easy, 6 hours is a trip to Vegas, (without the gambling), and everybody was friendly and nice. I felt a lot of anger, frustration and stupid stuff go away while I was away, and it's a real shame that 1 day back on the job and a lot of that stuff is back.

The ego trips and the lying and the “I’m more important than you are” BS is crushing to return to. Too much stupid stuff at work is absolutely killing me. I should feel better when I get back from a vacation, I should not feel this worn down after 1-day back.

I sat here on 3-15-05 in Suprise Arizona 

Vacation

I am going on vacation next week and I am working like a dog this week so that I can go. I am amazed that once my vacation shows up on the company calendar massive amounts of work flow to my inbox. I am suddenly needed to check documents, visit managers, solve aal of major crisis' among feuding employees and re-schedule court dates. If I am lucky I will work only 60-70 hours this week, so that I can take a vacation for a week so that I can return to the disaster that my desk, my inbox, my voicemail, my e-mail, my regular mail box and my 2 company mail boxes. Ahh the joys of going on vacation,

I will be in Phoenix AZ watching Cactus League spring training baseball and getting a tan. Maybe pictures from vacation on the blog, just what everyone wants to see.

Have fun