Self Examination

Have we lived our lives to the fullest? How do we know? Is it just a gut feeling or is there something more quantfiable? For me, getting the most out of my life was the quality of my relationships. While fundamentally true, I believe there is more. Why question this now at 51 years of age? Is it a midlife crisis or am I reflecting back on my life and questioning my accomplishments? I believe I have lived a wonderful life, I have a wonderful wife and family, great friends, have overcome adversity and seen the world among a few to name. I just completed my 4th ( out of 5) classes on wines at a local community college with my father ( 78 yrs old - go pops!)and I realized that there so little I know about a subject I am interested in. Why is this? Here is my answer to have we lived life to its fullest - If we have continually improved every day be it our relationships with loved ones, physical health, knowledge, etc...then we have lived life to its fullest. So the bottom line is this, I have been coasting. I have not been trying to continually improve in any facet of my life and that is going to stop. I will develop a plan to continually improve and will live my life to the fullest.

My Man Mario

I have Mario Battali called " Grill". It has many great recipes. As you may have read in one of my previous postings I made a T Bone recipe. Today I tried a new one with Lamb Chops. Please try the attached website link to review steps to make the lamb chops. Enjoy.

Marcy's Blog

one day a hero the next day a .........KILLER

Well last week I saved a dog from certain death and this week I run over a animal. Thats right I made road kill out of a possum. I was on my way home about 10PM when the thing succuried out in front of my car. I tried to go over the top but the thing bore the full force of Mr. Goodyear. Even though I cannot stand the way a possum looks ( zombie rat from hell) I still did not want to hit the thing. I did turn around to verify and yes it was nasty. The tail was sticking in the air and nerve endings were firing. I wanted to hurl but maintained. I quickly put the whole thing out of mind however as I wanted to see the last hour of ER!

My New Job!!!!

As all of you know I have been a sports fanatic my whole life. I also listen to alot of self help CD's. They encourage going after your biggest dream. Well my dream job would be being a GM for a NFL Football Team. Well obviously I have no experience. Back in December I submitted to the Detroit Lions a report. The first part of the report is a in depth analysis of the past 10 years worth of Super Bowl Teams showing trends of defensese and offenses among other things. For example Pittsburgh and New England both run a 3-4 defense. Coincidence!? The second part was basically a sales pitch of how someone from a project mgt background could bring some organization to a NFL Team. Well someone actually read this report and I had a meeting last week with Martin Mayhew ( GM of the Lions). We talked for just over 2 hours. I could hardly believe it. I thanked him for reading my report and talking to me and then wished him well for the upcoming season. I never really thought I would ever get a chance to talk to someone let alone get a job offer but yesterday I got a call and soon thereafter a e mailed offer to work as an assitstant to Martin Mayhew. I still have to take a physical but once my results have been received I will begin my employment with the Lions. This seems almost like a dream but it is happening. Please wish me success in my new career.

My New Blog

I had a pretty interesting week last week. In a good way. As I was recapping what a cool week I had my wife suggested I blog about it. Well after a few previous lame attempts at blogging which basically was favorite movie video's, I decided I would give it another shot. Here is why I think last week was pretty cool:

I was coming home from work one night and I got to the corner of Cherry Hill and Sheldon. Darting in and out of traffic was a part golden retriver and part whatever dog. On the corner was a woman with a leash and a cell phone to her ear and while I am no genius, it was easy to figure out what was going on here. I drove north on sheldon and pulled into the church partking lot ( driveway). The dog was coming my way and I whistled for the dog and hit the side of my car to call the dog over. The dog did come over but while I am trying to be helpful I am not about to get bit by a strange dog so I stayed in my car. The woman was getting closer but the dog got tired of me and back out into the street it went. I took a chance and blew my horn and yelled for the dog and by chance it did come back and at that time the lady got to my car and got her dog. She said thanks and appreciated my help. I felt pretty good about helping out.

Later in the week I was on my way back from lunch with my boss and we drove by the really big and beautiful house on canton center. I told my boss that the owner of republic tool and die owned the house and that once I had been in Republic T&D and it had at least 60 presses. My boss said no way and before you know I pulled up in front of republic tool and die. We walked in and before you know it we are meeting the owner named John. John has to be in his 80's and has been handicapped by a stroke. We sat down and started to talk with John. He shared pictures of Republic back in the 40's to today. It was absolutely incredible. He then told us how he started a foundation that helped construct several thousand churches worldwide ( he had various pic's on the wall of this). My boss is in the process of helping build a new church now. Wouldn't it be something if John ends up helping build another church all from a chance meeting.

My last story comes from saturday when my wife, daughter and I went to eastern market in detroit. Long story short, I have a Mario Battali cook book called Grill. Theer is a recipe thats calls for a 3" thick T Bone. Well I wanted to try it. We went to the central market in eastern market and went to the meat counter. I put my 3" thick 3 lb T Bone order in. It seemed like everyone in the meat counter stopped. It was like the passing of the holy grail. As the butcher finshed his duty, at least 3 of them starting bowing proclaiming " We are not worthy". It was a lot of fun.

All in All a pretty fun week.