OK...allow me to geek out for a second.

First...I HAVE to get this off my chest. There's been a lot of press about Princess Diana and her tragic death and whether there was a conspiracy or the driver was drunk or the paparazzi killed her...whatever. My point is this. Is, or was, Diana not one of the most BEAUTIFUL women ever? I sure think so. Just wanted to tell you all. Thank you.

Second...today was the OCFA Holiday Luncheon. All of us at headquarters went over and congregated in this really big open area and had a turkey dinner. As I'm sitting there eating, the A/V guy for the fire department came up to me and says, "Dude, you wanna announce?" My ears perked up. Ohhhhh COME ON!!! ME?!?!?!? ANNOUNCE?!?!?!? :-))))) In any event, one of our big wigs was going to be the MC for the event, and they wanted someone to "announce" him on to stage. So I was "volunteered". LOL!! Oh, I forgot one thing. Said big wig was dressed up--like Borat. On the fly, I was able to announce him on to the stage. It was fun. However, what was even WEIRDER was sitting backstage and "Borat" had two "assistants" who were his "band". Well, ONE of these band members happened to be a former student of mine from my days WAY back in the 80's when I used to teach for the Arcadia HS Apache Marching Band (now California's largest marching band, thank you very much). SMALL WORLD. But it got smaller. Because as I joking around and waiting for my cue to do the announcing, said former student said, "Ohhhhh, and by the way, I read your blog." DOH!!!!!!!!!!!!! And then he said, "And you sure don't spend anytime talking about work!! You just talk about band and judging!" WOW!!! So...now I'm writing about work! YA HAPPY!!!!!???? :-) And how the heck did you know I had a freakin' BLOG!?!?!?!

Third...it tickles me to no end when I consider someone "FAMOUS" reads my blog. I have a vast amount of respect for this person and for HIS blog and for his unbelievable ability to do amazing things with the talents he's been blessed with. I know that sounds geeky, but this is a person who I've given great credit to for me starting my own blog, and I tend to idolize people that make impacts on my life. Not in a weird stalker sort of way. Not in a notebook full of his pictures sort of way. But in a totally HEALTHY manly sort of way!!! LOL!!! But seriously--this person made a goal a couple of years back to pack his bags and head to LA LA Land, and either fail miserably at what he was going to do, or be unbelievably successful. Apparently the LATTER occurred. Which is actually mind-blowing considering that he's breaking into--LITERALLY--the movie making business. And trust me, it's not that I would ever aspire to BE what he is doing (because I have the talent level of a piece of lint in comparison) however, it's HOW he sticks to his guns and makes life a freakin' adventure that just continually inspires me. He makes it seem like being SCARED of doing MORE than what you think you are capable is for PUSSES. And THAT my friends is partly why I wrote 11 shows this season, judged every weekend including NEBRASKA, why I'm sitting in my own office now at the Fire Department, and heading up a whole new "thing" AND organizing a Dispatcher Academy AND doing CQI for EMD's AND being a family man and raising two kids AND doing several music related projects for church. Yeah. I would probably be able to do all of this anyway, but I found a new inspiration this past year.

Soooooooooooooooo...with that--my hats off to Lee Rudnicki--and you can read about his exploits and to what I specifically refer to on HIS awesome blog at http://drumlaw80.blogspot.com/ . And thanks Lee for your example and humor--whacked as it may be.

Let's see...that's about it.