Learning Polish...well, not really.

Around the office, I have been dubbed "Polska." (Thanks Ruwaida & Luis!) Of course this is because I am a Pollack. Anyways, it was only a matter of time until the question was raised, "how do you say 'hello' in Polish?" This of course is "witaj." (Duh, everyone knows it's "witaj.") So at work it's now, "witaj polska."
This prompted me to use a great Google tool, "Google Translate." CLICK HERE to try it for yourself, it can be entertaining...

Some of the things I translated for office use:
Hello = witaj
Thanks = dzięki
Bye = cześć
Stupid = głupi
I’m an engineer = Jestem inżynierem
Our project manager is not competent = nasz kierownik projektu nie jest właściwy

If only I could rattle off something in Polish and not sound like a complete tool, I totally would use the last one. Odds are he wouldn't understand...but with my luck, he totally would!

Looks like I'm ready for our trip to Poland...although it's not anytime soon!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Cesilie!!!

My niece Cesilie celebrated her THIRD birthday on Saturday, August 15th. Happy Birthday Cesilie!!!

Being in Texas, Debbie and I missed her party. (Can we blame Texas for this one? Or is it a stretch?) I recieved a few pics from my parents of the birthday girl. Her eyes are still so blue!!
Here she is with my brother...in another shirt that I got him. I hope he has others...

Cesilie and her cake. She apparently was enjoying blowing the candles out...my mom said they had to light the candles a couple of times!

The "Other" Kadlec's

Now this isn't a "The Other Sister" type reference to my family, more like a "this is what the other Kadlec's are up to."

I get emails from my parents and sister daily, but rarely do I see the pics! Here a few I thought I'd share:

Cesilie...she is getting so big! She'll be adorable as one of our flower girls!I think the picture is just so cute with a full mouth of cereal or oatmeal or whatever she's eating. She truly is so cute in every picture, I had to pick one! One day she'll get her "Uncle Shrek" back.

Here is my brother and Cesilie playing at a playground near their house (gonna have to do something about that Mets shirt though. Even though I got it for him, I'm leaning away from supporting them at all anymore!)
Of course my dad being a big kid! I guess he went down after Cesilie. I don't think he got stuck, but I'll let him answer to that!
I would imagine Cesilie took this picture...my mom has this "hi Cesilie" look in her eyes...she looks quite happy out at the park.
And to my sister. She has just started at Heritage High School. It's a new school right around the corner. One day we hope she graduates. We should all just hope that she can pass her Basic Addition & Subtraction course...I'm rooting for you Tamara! :-) Haha, actually, she's a hot shot guidance counselor and this is her new office. Not bad either...better than mine, that's for sure!

Italy Insider Tips...

With our honeymoon beginning in 60 days, I am really trying to tap all of my resources online, message boards, travel books, and my Italian friends. I called upon my friend Paolo, and former colleague, in New York for some advice.

With time and/or excursions set for Rome, Naples, Venice, Livorno, Florence, Pompeii, Messina, Taormina, and more, I had many questions.

When I read through all his responses I feel like I got the insider tips about everywhere. The bread in Rome is apparently awesome (which was hard to hear considering we are staying away from bread right now), to only take cabs in designated areas so we don't get ripped off, and visit the Fountain of Trevi, Scala di Spagna, and especially the Pantheon; the pizza is amazing in Naples, we have to go to Pompeii (which we had planned), and try and climb Mt Vesuvius (which we hope we can do...pending no eruption!) plus we need to be aware of the pick-pocketers in Naples...apparently we need to leave our bling onboard the ship; in Taormina we'll have to hit the beautiful beaches, the town on top of the cliffs, the Greek amphitheater, gardino di naxos, Isola Bella, and take in the views of Mt Etna (tallest volcano in Europe); Venice...oye, everything! And so on and so forth.

I now have so much more advice and tips/thoughts, we are going to be better off and likely more prepared! Once I have booked all our shore excursions, determined what train schedules to follow, what museums and historic places we want to visit, etc etc etc., I'll be sure to post. Including webcam links and such, perhaps you'll catch us on one! But for now, I'm just excited that we now have more firsthand advice to go off of. (Plus Debbie's been to Italy twice, so she offers input too...) Why can't we just get the next two months overwith and let us begin our honeymoon!!! Oh and the wedding, too. :-)

Now I'll see what Luca has to offer, and maybe Victoria since she's been over a few times now...

Racquetball "Showdown"....more of a "letdown!"

Last year I took up racquetball and I really enjoy it. It's a solid hour, to two hours, of high intensity cardio. It's exhausting and a wonderful stress reliever. Here is a representative picture of a racquetball court:Here are the rules and other information from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racquetball

Lately I have been playing with Aaron after we took a bit of a hiatus earlier in the year. He hurt his back, I hurt my foot...we were bunch of 20-something old men per say. Anyways, over the last four sessions I've done well. In the first outing since our injuries healed, I was 5-0. Then we tied, going 1-1-1; with the tie being left at a 10-all situation (we lost the court due to time). Then last weekend we split it again going 2-2 or 3-3...it was another tie. For some reason I dubbed yesterday's match, "the Final Showdown."

Long story short, well, it was anything but. I was a big disappointment out there. Lost the first and second games...found some fortune in the third, but proceeded to lose 2 more in a row. My serves were not doing the same thing as usual (good backspin, hugging the back wall) and my returns were awful! Plus I think Aaron is learning how to hit those "wall huggers" and was all over the low returns. Much of this is mumbo jumbo, but it all equates to some fun on the court.

We are already planning the next match next Monday. This time I will do one thing different, I won't be trash talking him all day at the office. It bit me hard in the end!!!

NOTE: And after linking to the Wikipedia page I found the following: "The serving player must bounce the ball on the floor once and hit it directly to the front wall — making the ball hit the floor beyond the short line otherwise the serve counts as a fault[6]. The ball may touch one side wall, but not two, prior to hitting the floor; hitting both side walls after the front wall is a three wall serve, and a fault." This not only was my bread and butter serve, but an illegal serve! Considering it was an agreed upon "game variation," previous games are not void. All this means is my work is really cut out for me now! I hate to lose! :-)