I really want this week to be over...

...I can't stand hearing about all my friends who have passed away.

*sigh*

Another Max...

Max Mandle
August 23, 1952 - April 28, 2008

Max, November 23, 1998

This isn't my week. Today I learned about that a good friend of mine, Max Mandle, passed away suddenly at the age of 55. Max used to work with me, and was my boss for a short while...and I learned a lot of things from him. Like Sonia, he was one of the most important mentors I had in my life. Max was funny all the time...but had a way of engaging you when he needed you to focus on something. Quick to laugh, Max was a lot of fun to be around.

Max was one of the first people to try out an old Polaroid land camera that I bought at a garage sale for $2. He took this photo of me when I came into work one Saturday in 1998.

I used to call Max on his birthday every year; Max lived up in New England, and we saw each other infrequently...but we did keep in touch once or twice a year, and I always looked forward to calling him on his birthday, just to say hi for a few minutes at least.

Max focusing intensely on the work at hand...

I hadn't worked with Max for several years now...and haven't seen him in person since 2001. But the friendship remained strong. While Max could get easily excited/stressed about things at times...there's one major thing that he never seemed stressed about: that he almost died on 9/11/2001. Max had tickets on one of the four flights that were hijacked that day...one from Boston to L.A. ...but Max switched flights at the last minute after some meeting details couldn't be worked out before his trip, so he decided to fly out earlier. If it wasn't for that...Max wouldn't have been here until now. But, just as suddenly...he's now gone.

The last time I saw Max, October 6, 2001, when I got to stay over at his place during a trip to Boston.

Max, I miss ya, buddy. You were a great friend, and someone I always looked up to and admired (not that you would have felt that was appropriate). I hope you are in a better place, and that your family and friends are taking your loss well.

Sonia Dietz

I received some very sad news today. Sonia Dietz, a friend as well as former boss/mentor of mine, passed away this morning. She had been fighting cancer for years, as well as heart problems, and the combination was finally too much for her.

Sonia was a wonderful woman. I would not be where I am...who I am even...if it had not been for her. A fellow red-head, she helped teach me to exhibit patience when I needed to the most, and, well, how to schmooze...but then again, I may have had some of that in me already.

(Sonia in a rare 'more relaxed' moment, not that she would have ever posed for the photo.)

A friend of mine and I were going to go up and see her next month...we believed it would be the last time that we'd have to see her. Sadly, she died before we had that chance.

Thanks for the prayers and well wishes. I plan on going to the funeral up in North Carolina on Thursday, and I'm sure it will be nice. I'm sad to see her go.

We love and miss you, Sonia!

(Sonia and I at her last day at work in 2006)

Some people are just sooooo lucky...

Today, a friend of one of my co-workers came by to show off his new baby.

No...we're not talking kid...we're talking about his brand new Lamborghini, still with temporary tag!

It was...beauuuuuuuutiful!

*cue Yello's "Oh Yeah" from Ferris Bueller's Day Off now...*

The lunar eclipse

It was pretty cloudy last night, but my camera did manage to eke out a couple of nice pictures, not just showing the moon, but also Saturn (at the bottom) and Regulus (at the top) also making an appearance! Fantastic!

Hector Dachelet

Hector Dachelet
12/31/1907 - 12/31/2007

My great uncle passed away on New Year's Eve...on the day of his 100th birthday. He had a good life, and I tried to see him as often as I could (he lived in Wisconsin, so I only saw him when I went up for Green Bay Packer games), even though he really didn't remember me as much as the years went by.

I have a special place in my heart for Hector. He was my grandmother's brother (on my father's side), and he was the last of his four siblings that was still alive. I had always wanted to have my grandparents see their great-grandchildren, but, sadly, they all passed away before we had kids. However, I did have the chance to bring my kids up to see Hector a few years ago, and he thought they were his grandchildren...and it really made me proud...and feel warm inside. He was very happy to see them...and the whole feeling of the importance of sharing family just hit home.

Hector, we love you and we will miss you!

Max

I am happy to report that I was mistaken in the last time I had seen Max. In combing through my photos, I did see him in 2005, when we were up in Wisconsin for another Packers game. I still miss ya, Max!

2007...can't say that I'll miss ya!

Rock on!

Rock Band is some serious fun...

It's a bird..it's a plane....it's...it's...

...no, it's just a plane.

For a couple of special friends...

...currently separated by a vast ocean...I hope this helps a bit!


Thankfully, I found a good place to buy them!

Careful when buying from Buy.com

They don't seem to package their stuff well enough...


NOTE: The item inside was not damaged, but was so poorly prepared for shipment that this is how it arrived, box crushed, torn...I'm amazed. I probably won't buy from them for awhile now.

R.I.P. Robert Goulet

Florida Wildlife

I'm starting to get scared of my backyard. First we had a white rabbit...now a huge iguana...


So I went outside to see if I could catch it...and you wouldn't think these things are fast, but boy are they! It got into a tree fairly quickly, and out of my grasp. Overall, head to tail, it was about 3-4 feet long.

Max

Max and I (December 10th, 2001)

Max Wenzel
8/14/1969 - 10/10/2007

One of my few first cousins (Max) committed suicide last night in Oregon. He had recently been diagnosed with systemic cancer, and just pulled away from everyone, visited his favorite places, some friends, made some type of arrangements to be cremated, left a note...and then took his life.

In my generation of my family (on my father's side), there were only five children total...my two sisters and I, my cousin Nick...and Max. My sisters were older than Max and didn't really have any real strong relationship with him, Nick is only 12 or so years old...but Max was about a year or so older than me, and he and I got along.

Max had difficulties finding his place in life. In particular, he was diagnosed only late in high school with dyslexia, he had a tendency to be somewhat anti-social. It wasn't easy for people to get close to Max. I think I did, however. I used to go up to Wisconsin in the summers when I was young and used to spend time with Max...we had a great time. I miss those days. Unfortunately, as we got older, we rarely spoke. The picture above is from the last time we saw each other.

While he had girlfriends over the years, he never got married and never had any children. He also never really seemed to find his 'true calling', but he did come to love the Oregon coastline.

Poor Max...and my poor aunt and uncle...

Max, I love ya, buddy...and I'm sorry that you felt this was the way that you needed to go...I hope you're finding the happiness and peace you wanted and needed. I'll miss you. We all will.

Time to beat Da Bears!

GO PACK GO!

Seeing patterns...

Coming into work the other day, I found this weird pattern formed in the condensation on the door to the office...who the heck would draw this weird pattern?

Upon further inspection, I found the culprit trying to quickly hide...

Indie and Harvey meet...

After Blue, Indie is our other cat. We had been waiting to introduce her and Harvey together, and today we finally had that opportunity. They each took turns sniffing at each other, and seemed fine. We suspected they wouldn't mind one another, and you can see, they seem to have gotten off to a good start!

Blue

Rest In Peace, Blue.
You lived a long, wonderful 21 years.
We love you and miss you very much. :(

Well, someone has the RIGHT idea...

...the only thing, there's no option to blast the thing into its subatomic particles. And put an asterisk on each one.