A Queen's Birthday

This past Saturday, October 24th, was a very special day for our family. My grandmother (affectionately known to all as "Queenie") turned 90. The funny thing is though, is that there isn't a soul in the world who would have guessed it, and not because she stopped counting at 39 and has told everyone that is her age for 51 years, but because she still acts that way. She continues to still drive (God help us), volunteers on weekends in the emergency room at St. Joseph's hospital, and still hosts dinner parties for her friends and family on a regular basis. Thank God I have her genes as she is simply amazing!

My cousins and I grew up congregating at Queenie's house on weekends and after our yard chores were done and a winner was crowned in our big wheel destruction derby, we were always treated to a good movie. I am not just talking any movie, because Queenie had a favorite genre - Horror flicks! And we grew to love them too, ever since we were 6 years old! The Saturday jaunt to the Alabama or River Oaks theater always began with the obligatory trip to K-Mart for our candy. Not that she needed it (but because she had a lot of doctor friends), Queenie would whip out her handicapp placard, throw it on the windshield and we would go straight to the front row at K-Mart. Ask Chris to tell the story when she forgot it one time and they missed the movie when her car got towed. Anyway, she didn't just like to get any kind of candy. Queenie loved the square caramel things on that little white stick that were about as hard to chew as a block of cement! I don't know what those things were made out of, but they were so damn hard and sticky that one time my mouth got stuck shut and it felt like super glue! I think that's where they got the name for the "jaws of life", because they had to use them to pry my mouth open! Can't we just get some M&M's or something??? So after Michael or Jason or Freddy or Damian got killed (supposedly) at the end of the movie, we would head back to her house and enjoy the rest of the weekend until our parents came and got us on Sundays. It was a special time and none of us will ever forget those many incredible memories we made at her house. Thank you Queenie.

Because I hosted a Halloween party on her birthday this past Saturday night (which she attended in costume as well!), we all gathered at my aunt Ollabelle's house on Friday for a lovely dinner with our family and Queenie's numerous friends to celebrate the glorious 90 years that this woman has graced this wonderful world. Suffice it to say she has a long way to go! I can't wait for 10 years from now when we celebrate 100!

I hear Saw VI is out now - I'm calling Queenie! We love you!

It's the Little Things in Life That Matter Most

And in little things, I am here referring to little people and one in particular. I feel like I have been the most blessed person as well as the most cursed person in the last year. The people who have entered my life in this time span have been some of the best people I will ever know and I am lucky enough to still call some of them my good friends. However, there is one individual who came into my world and created an impact of which I will never forget.

I've come to realize thru the course of my time here that some of the most special people enter your life when you least expect it and it's those moments that make life so grand. If you would have asked me a year ago if I would be having some of the most fun of my life playing Mario Kart, riding bikes, going swimming or just sitting and watching cartoons with a six year old I would have told you you had lost your mind! Well, it happened.

In his six short years, this kid has been thru more than most of us have at 40 and you would never even guess it. His strength is unmatched and his love is unconditional and I was lucky enough to be the recipient of that firsthand. A lot of who he is and the kind of loving soul he has is attributed to his mother as well as those directly associated with him in his life and I give them all incredible props for giving him the guidance to be the kind of little man he has grown to be.

I certainly hope and look forward to the time when we can play/ride/swim/and watch again, but in the meantime I want him to know that I am missing him immensely. There have been very few things in my life that have been harder for me than this and I want him to know that I am eternally grateful for all of the love he has shown me and all of the things he has taught me. It is ok to go thru hardships in life and still be able to love. It is ok to fall down, scrape your knee, and get back up and do the trick again. And it's really ok to cry and be sad and express your feelings and still be able to want those people in your life who are there for you and are willing to accept you for all that you are and want to be by your side. I have heard it said many times that we can all learn a lot from children. Well, I have learned a lot from him and for that I am thankful. I wish more of us in this world could.

I love you little buddy and I will always be here for you.

Birthday on the Thames

If you haven't heard my aunt Patti sing, then you are missing out. She broke thru the LA music scene in the early 70's and had four albums before Helen Reddy made one of her songs, "Emotion", a huge hit. I still have the gold album hanging in my home. You can listen to Patti sing her own version here, courtesy of her good friend Artie Wayne.

I was fortunate enough to get to experience all that LA had to offer back then as a kid as my parents would let me go out and see Patti on numerous occasions ever since I was 5 years old. I even got to record my own music in one of her artist friend's studios and although it didn't make the Billboard charts back then, I still have proof that even I have musical talent - NOT! Patti made a handful of close friends in the business with the likes of Jim Croce, Artie Wayne and John Denver and I can still remember her bringing the latter back to Texas to our house for dinner one night...very cool. Still, something always brought her back to Texas - family. And thankfully, she came home to teach the music business and share her experiences with those who, like her, wanted to follow their dreams and showcase their talent. No telling how many young artists out there have come from her guidance.

Unfortunately for those of us close to her, however, she decided last year to pack up her belongings and make another move. She was determined to get her Masters so she could teach at another level and thus shipped herself off to London where she is currently working on her thesis at the London Metropolitan University.

So on this wonderful day 62 years ago, we were blessed with a glorious soul. I can only hope for selfish reasons that she gets that darn Masters and comes back to teach here again! We love you and miss you Patti!

Happy Birthday! :-)

Fighting the Good Fight

Bottom line – cancer sucks. It’s not something you wish on your worst enemy. Yet so often from this incredibly debilitating illness springs something so amazing and so opposite from the carcinogen’s purpose - life. I have been witness to this on more than one occasion both personally and thru other’s stories. My father fell victim to the illness after a long and hard battle with the disease in 1998. Through his many years with dealing with that in his life, I was lucky to see a side of him with which I may never have known. His strength was enduring. His passion for life was astounding and his love of family shone through like a ray of light from heaven itself.

Since his passing, I have seen and experienced others go through similar trials and tribulations with cancer and all too often the same thing tends to rise out of these people: Hope, Love, and Life. I often try to imagine myself in that position and think how I would handle it and although it’s easy to say I would be as strong as those who deal with it on a daily basis, I don’t know for sure if I would. Sure, I wouldn’t be out there winning the Tour de France every year afterwards, but I think there is as much admiration for those that get up each day, put a smile on their face, fight the fight, and live life to the fullest. I have recently become close to another of these amazing people. She is a wonderful mother, a great friend and an immense inspiration to all those around her. Luckily she is going to win her war, but it still comes with the hardships of the battles. The example she sets for her son and those around her are invaluable and I couldn’t be happier to know her. She is a rock and has a hard “Shell” and she will endure.

I can only say this to all those out there who fight those daily battles and are close to those that do: I pray for you, look up to you, and am thankful for your example. You are a true inspiration.

Hope, Faith, Love.

*** A good friend of my family, Tina Farinola Savino, is participating in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer which is a 2-day, 40 mile walk to raise support for the people whose lives are affected by this illness. She is currently the top fund raiser in Houston. Please support her efforts by visiting her site and donating if you can.

Houston Blizzard 2008!

First white stuff ever at my casa!

Git R Done!

We came, we saw, we brought our girlfriends (uhh…I mean our sisters). Thanksgiving added a new and interesting twist this year in the form of the 1st Annual Redneck Games at Little Paint Creek Ranch. We all convened with our wife-beaters, tattoos, bubba teeth, and mullets. Once we were able to pry the contestants away from the Pabst Blue Ribbon and Boones Farm reserve, it was time to get the events started.



Two teams of 8 inbreds had been chosen the night before following the turkey spread. The winning team would be idolized in a team photo framed in a golden toilet seat to be hung for the year in the deer cleaning house of the ranch. Once this became known to me, I began my mission to throw the games for my team! The first of 5 events was Baggo. If you have never played this game, it’s similar in fashion to washers where players throw bean bags at a slanted board with a hole in the middle to score points. Our French chef for the weekend, Philippe, fit right in on one of the teams and scored the winning point. My team lost. 0-1.



The 2nd event was called Redneck golf. I had never heard of nor seen this before but it was a very interesting game. The Springer wannabes threw two golf balls that were attached together with a piece of string at a multi-level bar contraption in the hopes of wrapping the strung balls around one of the levels whereby each level was a different point value. See photo above.



Bubba Philippe once again scored the winning points and will never live his newfound redneck heritage down! He never had this much fun working for Tracy McGrady! My team lost again. 0-2. One more lost event and we can call it a day and retire to a comfortable evening of unscrewing the wine and kissing our cousins.



Not that fast. The real fun was just getting started. Event #3 – The Plunger Race. If you have never peed in your pants laughing so hard, then you weren’t around to watch this next event. And yes, we do have the video footage, but I will need to transfer it to the computer and double think whether I want the world to see this spectacle we all made of ourselves. Someone (and I will find you!) sent my aunt an email, which actually got this whole idea off the ground, of a bunch of ladies doing this relay race whereby one person holds a roll of toilet paper between her legs while another person on her team runs toward her with a plunger between her legs. You can then imagine what happens next. If you haven’t seen this on youtube, you can watch it here.



Well, come to find out, it’s an old wives tale about the French. They really aren’t that good at you know what! Needless to say, my team won this one! Of course, I had to show I was good at something! ;-) New score 1-2. At this point, I was beginning to feel the power and I was thinking it might not be that bad to be enshrined in the toilet seat hall of fame. Indeed – it wasn’t the Stanley Cup, but it was redneck glory at its finest! After everyone picked themselves up from rolling on the ground uncontrollably with laughter, it was time for the 4th event – Redneck Horseshoes.



We’ve all seen this one. You fling the toilet seat instead of a horseshoe and score it the same. Of course, the comeback continued and my team tied things up after a close match. 2-2. Things were getting a little heated and tempers were beginning to flare. A couple of cousins got into over who was the real baby’s daddy so they decided to solve the issue the following week on Maury Povich. After all, it’s a free DNA test, right?



The last and deciding event was the sack race relay and although we got off to a bad start we made things up and it was neck and neck. However, after a couple of my teammates fell, there became too much ground make up and the bad guys won! All in all it was a great time and everyone had a ton of laughs. Colt took home the best dressed prize which consisted of a 6-pack of Miller High Life and a vat of Pig Out wild beast bait for the hunter extraordinaire! Sorry Phil – There wasn’t an award for best gay redneck outfit or you would have won hands down!



After all was said and done, it was decided that the tradition will live on and the games will continue, however the theme will change from year to year. Needless to say there are only so many sister loving jokes you can use. So 3 themes were voted on (Obama, the 70’s, and Hollywood), and the 70’s won! I think the only one who doesn’t need a new outfit might be Phil. He could wear the same thing and go as one of the Village People! See you all next year…Now where did I put those bell bottoms?