File #:27 Subject: New Job

*Wipes dust off of blog*

Hello? Anybody still out there?

So obviously I haven't been updating my blog recently.  I looked back at File #:25 and I'm probably not going to follow up on those planned posts.  The post I had for Angelina's mom  was started, but I had written over 10 pages in a spiral notebook throughout the trip and just have not typed it all up.  I still have the notebook, so maybe I'll make the time to type it up.

Anyway, to todays subject...

NEW JOB!!! After five years as the internal auditor at the credit union I work at, I finally got a promotion!  Earlier this year a second indirect loan processor position was created.  I thought about applying for it, but I didn't feel it was the right time and it was eventually filled.  We were preparing to add a second auditor and I wanted to stick around and help with that addition.  Once that had happened, I was once again ready to move to a different position.  I or the most part enjoyed the position I was in, but it was more of a job than a career and with Angelina talking about a bigger house and a b... b... baby (Phew, I am still getting used to saying that last part), I needed to find a job with more of a future.  Then the indirect loan processor position opened back up, I decided that the postiton opening back up was a sign to try for it.  I applied, and waited, and waited.  About a month and a half later the loan ops supervisor contacted me and set up an interview with me.  I had interviewed with this supervisor once before, so I knew her style and felt very confident.  It was taking awhile to hear about the decision of who got the job.  I started to get worried and anxious about what I was going to do if I didn't get the job.  During all my complaining and whining, Angelina sent my resume out to all kinds of job postings on the internet.  I was having a hard time dealing with the fact that I might have to leave the credit union to find a better career.  One evening at the gym, I was thinking about possibly leaving the credit union, I prayed about it, and realized that I could leave if I needed to.  That evening with that peace in my heart, I slept the best I had in awhile.  That morning when I got to work, I had an email fom the loan ops supervisor asking to meet with me.  This was the moment, I was either going to have the job, or have to keep looking.  We met in the breakroom, and she told me that she wanted to offer me the position.  I had the BIGGEST grin on my face and I couldn't make it go away.  She told me that if I needed time to think about if I wanted to accept the position I had a few days.  I told her that I had been thinking about it since before the interview and I would love to take the job.  I finished up the three weeks until I officially switched jobs by training the other auditor.  I started last Monday and I absolutely love it!  I'll do more updates later, I have to get to bed so I can make sure I'm not late on my second Tuesday.

Thanks for tuning back in, and I'll be trying to keep the Fleming Files updated better.

Special Thanks to the people at Mind the Net Goaltending!  A very encouraging message from them in a post at goaliecrease.net has me motivated to write more here.

File #:26 Subject: New Tattoo Design

I started working on a new tattoo design shortly after I got my last tattoo.  It's of the year of the ox symbol of the chinese zodiac.  I don't have any spiritual attachment to it, but of all the zodiac signs that are attached to my birthday, it is the one that actually seems to describe me.  I wanted to find a cool way to put it on my right lower leg.  The idea started out as just the symbol on the back of my right calf.  After two or three weeks of thinking about that, I wasn't too crazy about it.  I was thinking bigger, something that would cover a lot of my lower leg.  After trying a few tribal designs incorporated in and around the ox symbol, I finally found a tribal ox and was able to put the symbol in that design.

I love this design! My plan is to have it on my lower right leg, the symbol and "face" on the outside of my leg facing to my right with the horns about an inch apart on the inside of my leg.  I spent a ton of time finding the right design, and spent the whole time, plus some, weighing the pros and cons of this tattoo.  Would I regret it?  What would make me regret it?  Could this tattoo hurt my professional life?  How would it look in 20 years?  Would my leg hair grow back, or would I have an awkward bald spot on my leg?  So far, none of the answers to these questions has detered me from wanting this tattoo.

What will deter me from getting it? Angelina watching a documentary on the "body art/self mutilation" arguement.  She likes my current tattoos, but is not crazy about this one because it doesn't have a meaning like my first two do.  Maybe she's right, but that doesn't mean I still don't get the itch.  I will be getting my kids' names tattooed on me whenever we have kids.  So maybe I can wait until then to scratch the itch.  In case I can't wait, I still like to have options.  Maybe I'll put this design on the back burner and start on another one.  I will probably use hockey as the theme for a new design, but I don't want to over hockey myself (HA, like that's possible, hockey's not a sport, it's a way of life!), because I already plan on a tattoo of the Sabres logo and a Stanley Cup if/when they win it.

I would like to hear what you think of the above design, and if you have any good ideas for new designs, lets hear those too!

Speaking of hockey, I have to go get ready to go to the UK hockey game, starts at midnight!  Thanks for stopping by everyone!

File #:25 Subject: Busy is an understatement

Life has been crazy recently! Here's a brief overview:

1) Angelina's mom died in a motorcycle accident
2) Ice hockey started
3) We got a kitten
4) We had a yard sale
5) I worked on a new tattoo design

For those of you who read this blog that know Angelina and I know about everything going on the past couple of weeks with the loss of her Mom.  I am not going to go into too much detail yet because I want o have Angelina give the okay on anything I post here about this subject.

The other subjects I will work on and try to get out by next weekend.  We are heading to California this weekend, and I will try to focus and draft up some of these while on the plane.  Please don't lose hope in this blog, I promise that once things calm down I will try to at least do one a week.

Thank you all for coming back after such a long wait, and please don't be disappointed with just a teaser post.

File #:24 Subject: New Workout Method

I have started a new approach to my workouts recently.  I have cut out most of the free weights and weight machines from my routines.  I still do dumbbell curls ('cause it's good to have big guns) and benchpress sometimes, but now I mostly do plyometrics.  My strength workouts now consist of push-ups, pull-ups and other similar exercises.  The most recent activity I have added (courtesy of Becky's birthday present to me) is the punching bag.  I purchaced a pair of MMA gloves and gave the heavy bag a good beating today.  It felt great!  Beating the crap out of that bag, working up a sweat and getting any frustration out was amazing.  I'm hoping it also helps with some eye/hand coordination and speads up my hand reaction times also.  I'll let everyone know how this all goes soon. I will be updating my "Getting Fit" file soon, if I can swallow my pride and admit I haven't done too well this past month.

File #: 23 Subject: Road Trip

Last Friday Angelina and I packed the car and headed out of town.  We left on a 10 day road trip to see family as far away as Connecticut.  Here is a day by day memoir of our trip.  I hope you enjoy reading about it as much as we enjoyed living it!

Friday Day 1:

I woke up early and dropped Bruno off at the kennel.  After stopping for gas and loading up the car we sarted out on our first leg of the trip, a ten hour drive to Hills Creek State Park in Pennsylvania.  It rained the whole hour and a half that we were in Kentucky.  The sun came out almost as soon as we crossed the Ohio border.  It was a pretty uneventful drive up until we stopped at a Subway for lunch.  It was the cleanest, nicest Subway I've ever been in.  The problem was, no napkins, they forgot to give Angelina a fork for her salad and then there was the dude in a 1980s work out video leotard walking in as we walked out.  Neck hair and package showing, made it hard to keep lunch down.  After that encounter we headed back out on the road.  The only other exciting event happened about two hours away from the park.  A semi's trailer blew a tire right as we passed it.  If we were a few seconds slower passing the truck we would have been showered with pieces of tire.  Our back bumper had just passed the tire when it blew.  We arrived at the park, found the cabin that were staying at with Mom and Papa, and then went to the other cabins to see the rest of the Mazurs.  After eating dinner at Uncle Marty and Aunt Vickie's cabin, everyone went to the campfire where we caught up with everyone until it was time for bed.

Saturday Day 2:




Lake Seneca

 

On Saturday Mom, Papa, Angelina and I drove to Watkins Glen and toured wineries and a distillery along the Finger Lakes.  The first winery we stopped at, Silver Springs Winery was our favorite (Our wine cabinet is proof of that).  There was a distillery that was stucke between all the wineries.  It had a window that you could look down to see the distilling process.  We spent most of the day winery hopping and trying all sorts of different wines.  Once we finished up in Watkins Glen, we all heading back to the cabins for a Mazur Family Camp Out tradition: Chili night!  Every camp out, there are two big pots of chili made (one hot, one mild) with a mystery meat.  This year's meat was Alligator, and it was delicious!  Another fun and exciting campfire followed.  We got busted by a park ranger with alcohol (Boose is not aloud in state parks in Pennsylvania).  It was really creepy because he was hanging out in the dark in front of the cabins, and he hapened to catch Papa as he went back to our cabin.  He stayed around our cabins for a couple of hours after that also.  The whole thing was just creepy.

Sunday Day 3:

On Sunday Angelina and I Went to the Corning Glass Museum.  That was very fun and interesting.  Half the museum was set up like an art/history museum and the other half was set up like a science museum.  The art was interesting to see how glass was used throughout history and how styles changed.  My favorite part was the demonstration of glass blowing.  Two employees made what looked like a giant martini glass during the demonstration.  I have always been amazed by glass blowing, the danger and beauty of it has always made me want to try it.  Although, the fact that the glass is kept around 3000 degrees when it's melted has kept me from REALLY wanting to try it.  3000 degree glass accidentally dripping on you would just plain suck.  After the glass museum we headed back to the cabin and ate a delicious salmon dinner with Mom and Papa.  Our last camp fire was a fun one.  No creepy park rangers, but I had a good time talking with Uncle Tom and Uncle Ron.  They are two very fun people to talk to (You should follow Uncle Tom on twitter @oldbuffalo. His tweets are always entertaining.).

Monday Day 4:

Monday morning we said our goodbyes to the Mazur family and started the five and a half hour journey up to Connecticut.  Besides getting lost trying to get out of the park, the drive was the most uneventful drive ever!  That's a good thing for the safety of everyone, but holy crap driving through New York is BORING!  Oh yeah, and their roads are horrible.  We started texting with Monica (My Stepmom) when we were about an hour away, and she informed us that Patrick and Madeline, my little brother and sister, had been waiting outside for us all day.  That made the last hour of the drive go so slow!  We were so excited to see them and how big they have gotten.  We finally arrived and were welcomed with hugs and signs made with chalk.  We unpacked the car while we waited for Dad to come home from work.  After he got home we went out and swam while Monica cooked us a pot roast.  We stayed up late and talked for hours before we decided to turn in for the night.

Tuesday Day 5:



Tuesday morning after breakfast Patrick and I went out and played street hockey, and of course I was the goalie.  Patrick schooled me.  At first I was thinking, "Remember, he's your little brother, let some shots by once and a while to boost his confidence and to keep it fun for him." Yeah right!  I think he started to shoot some into my pads to keep my confidence up!  Patrick has such a quick shot, and he is really good at placing the shots right where he wants them to go.  Maddie wanted to join in the game, so Angelina took pictures while the three of us played.  Watching Patrick and Maddie play so well together was so much fun.  After getting way too hot playing hockey, we all got our swim suits on and spent the rest of the day in the pool.  We had fun playing shark, and they also really enjoyed me tossing them in the air so they could make he biggest splash they could.  After hours in the pool, Angelina and I went out to dinner together to a small hole in the wall restaurant called Anne's Pizza.  It was some of the best Italian food we've had in quite some time.  Oh, and if you're reading this Monica, sorry for leaving my leftovers in the fridge, I know it was just cleaned.  After dinner we tried to find somewhere to go for desert.  Angelina searched for desert places on our GPS and we decided on a complany called The Rootbeer Company.  We followed the GPS into a random neighborhood and it stopped us in front of a house.  Angelina called the number and found out that it was a company that set up booths at fairs and parades and stuff.  Angelina then asked the lady if she knew of any places to go for desert and the lady asked, "Well, where are you right now?"  I had to laugh when Angelina answered "In front of your house."  We ended up going to Friendlys.  Everyone was out back swimming again when we arrived back from dinner, so we got our suits on so I could show Dad the proper way to toss Patrick and Maddie.  After swimming, we watched Wipeout and went to bed. 

Wednesday Day 6:

On Wednesday we went over to Mam's house for lunch and Madlibs.  We also stopped by the farmers market.  After that we just hung out around the house until it was time for hockey.  Not a lot of swimming because I was pretty sunburned from Tuesday.  We went to the Enfield Twin Rinks to watch Patrick and Dad play hockey.  Patrick is in an instructional and drills league right now, and it was really fun to watch him practice hockey.  I'm assuming what he was doing will be very close to what I will be doing next month, so that was really neat to watch.  Between watching Patrick and Dad's game, the rink was giving out old jerseys.  Angelina, Dad, Patrick and I now all have matching jerseys.  During Dad's game he almost got a goal, but got an assist on the play instead.  Angelina, Patrick and I left halfway through Dad's game and went and got dinner and ice-cream at Friendlys.  That was a lot of fun to spend that time with Patrick.  We talked about school, hockey, being a big brother and all kinds of other things.  We got home from that late, and went straight to bed.

Thursday Day 7:

On Thursday Dad, Patrick and I went to the Holyoke Mall to get Patrick some new shoes, and then stopped at a hocky store to get me some gear for ice hockey.  I was able to find skates, a jock and chest pads.  The gear totaled around $400 dollars, but I was able to get the price dropped down to my budget of $350! Can't do that online!  Family and friends came over Thursday night for taco salad and drinks.  Monica really knows how to through a good party.  We were able to see Grandma Dot and Aunt Karen, who didn't recognize Patrick at first because of his long hair.  It was good to catch up with them.  Sue, Uncle Donkey and Mary all came over also.  It was fun hanging out with them while Patrick, Maddie and Collin (cousin) played in the pool.  Once everyone left, we turned in for the night and tried to get as much sleep before we started our journey again in the morning.

Friday Day 8:

Friday morning I woke up at 6:30, which was good because I was able to see Dad one more time before he headed to work.  We loaded up our car, hugged everyone and said our goodbyes and started on the road around 10.  Another eight and a half hour uneventful drive followed.  Pennsylvania is a very boring state to drive through, it just goes on forever!  We finally arrive in Youngstown Ohio, checked into our hotel and walked over to Quaker Steak and Lube for dinner.  That place has amazing wings!  We almost ate too much, and had a hard time walking back.

Saturday Day 9:

Saturday morning we woke up, went downstairs to eat breakfast, then packed up the few items we got out the night before.  We were about 99% packed when the fire alarm went off.  We finished packing really quick and raced to our car so we could get out of the parking lot before the fire trucks blocked us in our parking spot.  The five hour drive went relatively quick.  We hit a traffic jam just outside of Cincinnati, but it only took us 20 minutes to get through.  We arrived at our hotel in Louisville and relaxd for awhile before we headed to the Louisville Boat Club for the KPMA Annual Gala.  There we ate, danced and partied the night away.  We won baseball tickets in the silent auction, so another trip to Louisville is in the near future.

Sunday Day 10 (and my birthday):

Sunday we took our time heading home.  We got back to Lexington, went and picked up our kitten Koshka, and had lunch with Angelina's dad at Shamrock's.  Jeanette and Elliot walked in just before we started to leave, so after we said goodbye to Angelina's dad, we headed back inside and hung out with them for awhile.  We headed home after that, and just sat around the rest of the day.  Good times.

File #: 22 Subject: Getting Fit

I haven't posted on here for awhile, I've been trying to get the courage to write this post and you will see why in a minute.  I honestly can't believe I'm doing this, but below are pictures of me from every angle.  They are what I look like now, at 195 pounds.  I wanted to post them on here as a reference for me in the future and as motivation to keep up the work I've been doing.  This time last year I was 235 pounds.  Between going to the gym and Angelina cooking healthy foods, I have been able to drop 30 pounds so far.  I have also gotten over most of my snacking habits.  At work I drink water instead of grazing all day.  The biggest hurdle for me is portion control.  It doesn't matter if Angelina cooks healthier if I still eat three plates of it. 

My end goal is to be down to 185.  hopefull before the end of the year.  Angelina has started going to the gym with me, and that has helped me go on a more regular basis.  I'll update everyone on this more later, with hopefully great results.

File #:21 Subject: Pump-Up Music

During the Memorial Day cookout at Mom and Papa's house, we started talking about how I wear headphones at work.  I wear them most of the day for multiple reasons.  I use them to drown out loud conversations and other noises.  Music also helps keep me from getting distracted by other people in the office. I am able to focus on work and not get sucked into conversations going on around me.  Papa was saying how he can't have anything with words in it or it gets distracting for him.  I am the opposite, if it doesn't have words, it puts me right to sleep.  Angelina and I then told him about the phenomena of "Pump-up Music". 

Pump-up music is music that gets your blood flowing.  It puts your state of mind in a place that makes it feel like you can do anything.  It's like the PA guy in an arena picks the perfect song and plays it in your head!

I have 9 or 10 songs on my MP3 player that I always start the day off with.  I choose which ever one I feel like would pump me up the most, hit play, and close my eyes for the first minute or so of the song.  When I'm fully feeling the music, I start working and leave my MP3 player on shuffle.

Here are some of my go to pump up songs.  They are in no particlular order.  There are more, but these are one's I've used recently and could think of.  Also, if you have any songs you use to get pumped up I would love to hear about them in the comments (links welcomed).

Dance With The Devil - Breaking Benjamin
Harder Better Faster - Daft Punk
My Hero - Foo Fighters
Stylo - Gorillaz
Band On The Run (Cover) - Foo Fighters