Measure of Strength

Strength is measured
not by mass of muscle
or size of body,
rather it is measured
by the resistance to failure,
by the will to go further,
to fight harder than the body allows,
and the never-dying will to live.
The strength of a person
is not seen on the outside
but felt on the inside of others
when touched from afar
without sight,
without a voice
without knowing.
This is how true strength
of a strong person
is measured.

1/20/12

The Fight of Her Life

You will not read about what I'm about to write on the news. The media only cares about 'celebrities' who have zero impact on our lives. What you are about to read is real. It's not taken from some stupid website asking you to "like" it if you're against cancer. This is true. This is real.

Tonight, a woman is losing her battle with cancer. A woman who did no wrong, never committed a crime, never hurt anyone, is laying in bed slipping away every minute that passes by. This woman is my cousin, your cousin, she is family and is loved by everyone who has ever known her.

Her name is Linda Iraci. She is a wife, a mother, a grandmother, a daughter, a sister and a fighter. I will not pretend to know what she has gone through the last few years fighting this disease because I do not know. What I do know is Linda has blessed her family with her love and strength. I am not a deeply religious man nor even mildly but I do believe God does things for a reason. This is one of those things I cannot understand completely, even minimally. During Linda's fight, sometime last year or more ago, she was told to go home and die. She refused. She won. The cancer was gone and she was able to meet her grandchildren last February. I heard from my mother a few weeks ago that Linda had taken a turn for the worse. The cancer had come back and had taken over. It is my firm belief that God himself gave Linda an extension on life. Maybe to see her grandchildren, maybe to say goodbye to her family or maybe to just be at peace with what was happening to her body.

Tonight, I sit here at my desk writing this with a million other things running through my mind, however, this is the most important. Linda doesn't deserve this, nobody does. Linda does deserve to be pain-free. Linda deserves to be at peace. Tonight, I think about her husband Danny and daughters Jessica & Rebecca. I pray for them to be given the strength to get through this difficult time.

Until now, most of you were probably sitting on your couch watching football (I was too) or playing with your kids or at a bar or in bed or just going about your normal Saturday night routine. If you have children, hold them and tell them you love them. Tell your wife or husband you love them and mean it, don't assume they know you love them. You never know if you will be in this situation yourself one day.

Now you know, someone is fighting for their life. This is not an uncommon story but it is uncommon to hear about it on the news. The media doesn't care about real people. Linda is a real person and she will likely never be known around the world. She should be.

Please keep Linda Iraci and her family in your thoughts and pray for her.
----------------------------------------------------
Update 1-16-12: Linda has made her way to heaven. Pain-free and peaceful.

So Long, 2011

My final post of 2011 comes just before Christmas this year. My last post reported Osama Bin Laden was dead. I stopped blogging after that post because of the significance of that event in history. In 2012, I hope to write more here about random topics.

Since my last post was in May, here are some of the highlights of the past year

- I managed to stay with my company

- (July '11) We did not sell our condo, unfortunately, as badly as we wanted to sell it. Our realtor from re-max was a douchebag. He took forever to respond to my emails and took it upon himself to not do what I asked him to do. I won't use his name here but he was more interested in terminating our contract than anything else.

- (July '11) Dana, Aidan & I went on our first family vacation to Chestnut Grove in the Pocono mountains in PA. It was nice to be together and it was great to hang out with our Maryland friends Joanna, Paul, Alex & Julien. Without them, the trip would probably have sucked. The place is a dump but the staff was very nice. We started in one of the poolside bungalows for about 2 hours. The rain poured and flooded in front of the cabin and inside of the cabin. We ended up getting a room in the lodge. This was one of the longest weeks of my life but it was nice to be with my family.

- Aidan began getting teeth and started crawling towards the end of the summer. He has managed to start walking alot more now before resorting to crawling.

- We had Aidan's birthday pasrty on Nov. 5th to celebrate his 1st birthday. This was quite a bit of fun. The food was good and we had a great turnout for a 1 year old.

- December 17th our family welcomed a new cousin, Phoenix Storm Sessa! (Congrats Pete, Nadine & Cygnus!)

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. This will be the first Christmas Aidan is mobile enough to play a little with the other kids. This should be a lot of fun!

We don't have any plans for New Year's yet but I'm sure it will include going out to eat somewhere and picking up a 6 pack and sitting home to watch the ball drop. I'll likely be in bed by 12:15am Jan 1st.

BIN LADEN IS DEAD

I have been thinking all week what to write about. After the recent news of bin Laden's killing I can't think of anything else I could possibly write about.

Today, May 2, 2011, The United States of America stands together again. United once more to rejoyce in the death of the most evil man on the face of the planet, Osama bin Laden. This country has become more divided in the passing days, months and years since bin Laden's planned terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and Washington, DC on September 11, 2001, a day which will live in infamy much like December 7, 1941. Today, every American citizen should feel a sense of relief, pride and resolve that the leader of the enemy who attacked us is dead. I had many thoughts today, most included what was going through the minds of the brave Navy SEAL's who volunteered to take out bin Laden, knowing full well they may not survive. I imagined looking down the barrel of my gun and seeing bin Laden at the other end of the room. The thing is, I could not feasibly imagine having the true fortitude to be in that situation. I assume most of us would feel the same way. We all can talk and say "yeah i'd take him out" but think about it seriously for a minute. You're toe-to-toe with history, with the most evil cynical human being to ever walk the earth. If you fail, you're dead. Your country may be at greater risk and you run the risk of losing bin Laden again.

With that, I say god bless you all, Navy SEAL's who volunteered to do the necessary, the incredible and the difficult, without second guessing yourselves. Thank you for putting your life in danger so my family can live a little bit safer in the future. Thank you for fighting for your country even when you have people in this country who don't support you. To all of our military men & women who have served at home, in Iraq, Afghanistan and around the globe, thank you. There is no possible way your country can repay you for your service. We are all in debt to you for your service and for putting your lives on the line every day to protect our great country. This is not President Obama's victory or President Bush's victory. This is a victory for the United States of America, lead by its military. Thank you, President Bush, for not backing down on September 11, 2001. Thank you for leading the global war on terror for 8 years. I don't agree with some of your decisions but you have a big hand in the death of bin Laden. Thank you, President Obama, for having the guts to stand up to your security advisors and for believing in your military to get the job done. Thank you for having the balls to make the impossible possible.

May today's event send a message to the entire islamic extremist world: Don't mess with the US. If you dare, a Navy SEAL has a bullet with your name on it!

God bless the United States of America

Gas Prices, Baseball and Whatever else comes to mind!

4/23/11

Beginning Thoughts

I woke up earlier than I wanted to this morning, again to the sound of Aidan's legs pounding on his mattress. Thankfully Dana decided to get up and take care of him so I was able to get a few extra minutes of sleep. I get up, make my coffee and look outside and see rain. More freakin' rain! The one thing I cannot stand any longer is the depressing weather the Northeast has from October until about mid-May. Moving south is sounding better every day. Maybe one day this year we can sell our condo so we can make this a reality.

Gas Prices…..  Going up…. again…..

I had to go out shopping for Aidan's christening so I started on my way down Rt. 1 and started seeing the continued trend of rising gas prices. $3.69, $3.71, $3.75 a gallon or more. This is just absurd! You might be asking yourself "Why are gas prices so high?" I ask myself this very question every day as I pass a good 3 or 4 gas stations along my route to work. So, why exactly are gas prices so high? Speculation. Speculation from oil traders who are scared of the middle east. Scared because Libya is in civil war, Egypt and Tunisia ousted their so-called leaders, and Amadinijad sneezed the wrong way (Excuse the spelling.) There is no oil shortage. No one is crying supply & demand. We have plenty of stock and reserve.

What is going to happen if oil prices keep skyrocketing? We're going to go into another recession or worse, a depression worse than in 1929. How much more can the people of this country take when it comes to gas prices, taxes and all that other fun stuff we pay into? Gas prices drive just about everything. Shipping, commercial airlines, tourism, every day travel, just about everything is affected by the cost of gasoline. How long is it going to take before we start seeing the same things happen from 2008? What market will crumble? How many more people will get laid off from their jobs? One of the worst things we all see is companies actually use the economic troubles, gas prices etc as a marketing scheme. How many advertisements for cars do you see plugging high gas prices and how many miles per gallon this car has over that one? Just about every car ad I've seen in recent weeks has done this.

"These tough economic times"

The next thing I say might get some people a bit excited, but hey, that's what I want! The next politician I hear say "times are tough" or use "in these tough economic times" I want to punch square in the face. How the hell can someone making over $300,000 understand what those terms actually mean? Are they struggling to put food on the table? Are they struggling to pay their bills? NO! There are millions of people in this country who are struggling just to get by and I, for one, am tired of hearing rich millionaires bitching and complaining that they have to pay more taxes when we get tax increases each year that are significantly more than an increase in a pay check.

Good ol' condo association

Now, I'll be clear, I have a job. I work my ass off every day to make sure I still have a job and can still feed my family and give them what they need. I don't get paid an incredible amount of money but I'm doing OK considering living in New Jersey is probably the most difficult state to live in cost wise. Making things a bit worse is my ever-so-wonderful condo association. They felt it was appropriate to give the community a $300 assessment fee for snow removal. The idiots who did the budget didn't take into account that they should have put more money into snow removal this year considering they were over budget $50,000+ in 2009. To make things worse, apparently 15% of the community is short on their association fees now. The cost of this is the EXACT SAME AMOUNT as the community was over budget for snow removal. Two reasons why this happened:

1) People just don't care

2) People cannot afford the 6% increase from last year

So, while I'm not one of the 15% delinquent on the association dues, we have to pay an extra $300 to bail them out. Sound familiar?

The lighter side

Ok, now that I got that off my chest here's some lighter thoughts from the week.

The Yankees are off to a nice 10-6 start to the season. I haven't really been able to watch many games yet this season. Hopefully the game today will not get rained out again. The rest of the AL East has some pretty bad records. That will turn around as I believe the AL East is still the toughest division in baseball. The discussion of expanded playoffs came up this week. Good for you, Bud Selig. I wouldn't mind seeing an extra few playoff games as long as we're not playing into November anymore. I like the 1 game playoff idea and not so much the best of 3 series before the Division Series. I think this will give more cities a better opportunity to have a team in the playoffs.

Easter is tomorrow but we have a full weekend planned for Aidan's first Easter celebration. Today, we will be going to Dana's parents for dinner and will go to my parents tomorrow for Easter Sunday. I'm looking forward to a lot of good food and my sister-in-law's baking! Sadly, Dana did not make her bonnie butter cake. Since she mostly has her hands full with Aidan she is excused.

Well, I think I have rambled on enough for one day. This is my weekly update. This has been the Outlet for my brain to speak, eyes to watch and for you to read. Thanks to all who took the time to read. Please comment as you wish.

Mid-Week Ranting

I'm writing this tonight as my son is beating his legs on his mattress in his sleep behind me. He is without a doubt the reason why I do just about anything in life. My son brings so much to my life that was missing before. He's starting to sit up on his own now and is eating with a spoon like he's always known how to do it. He is truly amazing. Watching him grow up these past few months has been an incredible experience.

Yankees this week: So far the Yankees sent the Rangers packing, but it was a good series. The first game in Toronto is tonight. I apparantly needed to edit this portion since the Yankees ended up blowing the game 6-5 last night in 10 innings. Note to self - post AFTER the game is over.

Reflecting: I used to be a huge WWE fan back many years ago but not so much any more. I did tune in last week to hear long-time wrestler Edge, Adam Copeland, is forced to retire due to serious neck and back injuries. For those of you who think it's "fake" just ask Adam Copeland how fake wrestling is. He was almost confined to a wheelchair at 36 years old. I wish him the best of luck in his future. I remember when he started with the company back in 1996.

Mid-Week Thoughts: I will reserve this time to vent about work and people who just don't get it.

1.      Your login to the company social networking site is not all that important. You can wait your turn. And no, your kid cannot connect to the company internet.

2.      It really isn't that hard to remember the password you just set for yourself

3.      You're the ones who begged for Office 2010. Now you have it and do nothing but complain about it and want Office 2003 back. No.

4.      Why wasn't your request finished in 5 hours? Because it's not OUR problem! (No really, it wasn't our problem to fix). Stop being a whiney baby. The Ph.d at the end of your name isn't meant as an excuse to complain louder.

Random Thoughts:

My dog is lazy but is really good at holding down the couches during the day. Libby also enjoyed snacking on our slider door blinds last week.

Aidan needs new songs on his ipod. If I hear elton john sing "can you feel the love tonight" one more time I'm going to scream!

I love my wife. More than the average guy will admit to in public.

Dana is selling avon again and thinks everyone should contact her and buy stuff from her website. I will plug it next post with the actual website.

I need a vacation. Badly.

We cannot sell our condo fast enough. We're running out of room!

I can't think of anything else....so i'm going to bed.....at 10:30.

Goodnight all.... until next time.

Baseball is Back!

Baseball is Back!

What better way to start off a blog site than to talk about my favorite past-time, Baseball. Specifically the NY Yankees. I will try to appear as unbiased as possible but let's face it, I'm a huge Yankee fan. I have been since I was around 8 years old. I remember the days when Yankee Stadium was a tomb. They couldn't give away seats in the 80's and now you can barely get a ticket that's not in the bleacher's for a reasonable price. I suppose that is the price for having a winning team for so many years.

There is nothing better than walking into Yankee Stadium and understanding the history behind this franchise. In the old stadium you were able to see the same field where baseball greats like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra all the way up to Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera just to name a few. I could go on forever but all I would be doing is naming Hall of Famer's for the entire post. I don't just love the Yankees because they won 27 World Championships and 40 American League Pennants. The Yankees are modern day baseball history. There are organizations playing since the late 1800's who still cannot claim close to the amount of success of the Yankees. This is what draws me as a fan.

2010 Yankees:  Who thinks the 2010 Yankees were a failure? Some, but not me. Yes, I was disappointed in the end of the season but only one team can walk out World Series Champion. Realistically, one team cannot possibly win the World Series every year. The Yankees fell 2 wins short of going back to the World Series for a second straight year. Two more wins against a very good Texas Rangers team, but it was not meant to be. I waited eagerly all winter for the new baseball season and finally it's here!

2010 Offseason: MLB had an active off season with some monster moves but none by our good old Yankees really shook the foundation of the league. Cliff Lee went to Philadelphia for less money. Good for him. Stay in Philly, Cliff. We'll see you in October. The Red Sox went on a Yankee-like spending spree buying Carl Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez, Bobby Jenks etc. You would think those Red Sox were looking pretty darn good. Fast-forward to the first 2-3 weeks of the 2011 Season....

2011 MLB Season starts: The Yankees have been off to a good start so far this year. They're in first place early with a 7-5 record. I'm not going to crown them Champions yet but it's not a bad start. And those Red Sox?  2-10 record. Looks like money well spent there Boston. Only 4 teams in baseball history have started worse and made the playoffs. Then again, the Red Sox have been consistent with breaking history. This isn't the same Red Sox team from '04 and '07. Nope, these guys aren't using steroids. Right David Ortiz? Manny Ramirez? I'll go into the whole steroids issue in another post. Before I go any further, yes, I think A-Rod, Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens are idiots for doing steroids at any point in their careers. Like I said, I'll go more into this in another post.

Phil Hughes is now on the Disabled List (DL) with a dead arm. I'm a big fan of Hughes. I think this kid is going to go a long way in this league and will be an elite pitcher in the future. I hope Phil recovers quickly and finds his mojo again to help out the team.

Early on, it looks like Bartolo Colon is back in form. He'll finally get a start with Hughes on the DL. Freddy Garcia had his first start today and pitched an amazing game. He pitched 6 innings of shut-out baseball allowing only two hits. Maybe he can keep this up for the season but it's still too early to tell for sure.  Rafael Soriano has been disappointing so far. Hopefully he will pick up his game as the year goes on but so far the money seems to be wasted.  We're going to be hearing about Derek Jeter's 3,000 hits until July when he will likely hit number 3,000. Anyone think he's going to catch Pete Rose's 4,256 hits? If Derek can stay healthy he might have a chance but I cannot express enough how incredibly difficult it will be for Derek or any human to reach that number of hits in this era.

I realize this post is getting longer and longer as I keep typing so I'm going to cut it short here. More will follow throughout the year but probably not as extensive. Comment, post, follow as you wish. I will post again next week. Not sure about what yet. You'll just have to tune in and find out!

Albert