…well, not really Lex but Michael Rosenbaum who plays Lex in the show "Smallville." Yes, I’m a huge Smallville fan. It’s "teenage soap opera" fluff disguised as a "TV Super Hero genre" but I haven’t missed a show yet. Sure, it can be a silly show at times but that’s part of the charm. It’s a show I watch faithfully.

I was on the 10th floor of a building on Wilshire Blvd. and we both got into the elevator at the same time. He’s chatting away at me and we were making small talk. By the time I get to the 1st floor, I realize it’s Lex with hair (before that, I had no idea). I’m pretty sure I turned into a silly fan at that point and told him how much I love his work…etc. He was gracious and nice.

Couple things I noticed… 

• Michael is MUCH taller than I thought he would be…I’m about 6′2" and he is at least a few inches taller than I am or maybe it just felt that way.
• He’s much "hipper" in person.. I mean, not that he’s not hip on TV. I’m just used to his "Serious Evil Lex" thing in a suit and tie rather than the down to earth jeans and T-shirt guy I met. Sign of a good actor ah reckon.

Anyway, it was pretty cool. I just wish I would have recognized who he was right away so by time I got to the 1st floor I could have drilled him on some Smallville questions. Maybe next time =)

I just realized that I really need to post something new since the last 2 posts are "downers"…

So on to something different. Happy 5th of July- So I missed the 4th by a day. Yesterday was the 1st day I had to myself in what feels like 3 months. I planned on just staying home and getting some work done that I needed to catch up on here… but around 4pm I headed over to a friend’s BBQ. I didn’t stay too long though.

I wanted to get back home before it got dark and the fireworks started. I wasn’t sure how my dog was going to react with all the noise. Turns out, he didn’t really care. Perhaps it’s because I watch a lot of movies where everything explodes so he was just used to those sorts of sounds. 

Speaking of movies, I think I’m going to try and see the new Will Smith flick at some point. Did I mention I went to see the new Hulk movie and TOTALLY LOVED it? I HATED the last one but this one made up for the bad taste left from Hulk #1.

Hmm..oh yeah.. Tomorrow’s my birthday… depressing stuff.  Some days I feel like I’m 60 and others days 16. Up to now, it’s been a good life. Sure, I may not have reached every goal I’ve set for myself but I have done quite a bit and I’ve been lucky more times than not. I’m thankful for that. 

Now if I could just match all of those damn LOTTO numbers =) 

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)