PERSONAL NEWS: Mazel Tov, Elle & Vince!

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Hi Everyone,

Well, as many of you know, my sister got married this past Sunday and it was wonderful... I'm very happy for her, my new brother in law and their five children. I had a great time and while they kept the event small (I don't think there were more than about 30 to 40 guests), it was nice and cozy. I saw many of my cousins whom I hadn't seen in ages.

It was a hot day (easily over the 100 degrees Fahrenheit range...) and I opted to take my suit jacket off... someone snapped a photo of me:

One of my jobs was to pick up and later drop off one of the guests, an old family friend, Dale. It was the first time I'd seen him for ages and probably the first time we really sat down and chatted as adults. I never realized that Dale was a WWII veteran... he flew B-26s and A-26s in the ETO (European Theatre of Operations). It's amazing how little we sometimes know about our neighbors. We had a long chat about WWII, the Martin B-26 Marauder and other topics of interest on the way to the wedding and back.

Dale's a tough old man and has had the same girlfriend for over fifty years... wow! That's something anyone can respect.

The ceremony and reception were held at the Oak Leigh Wedding Center, which is really a nice out of the way site. You can learn more about it here:

http://www.oakleighwedding.com/

And the photographers were wonderful. I highly recommend them. I've known the Bannish family for years, consumate professionals and extremely kind people. Their web site is here:

http://williamphoto.com/

And I took a ton of photos with my little digital camera, which I'm sharing on my Photobucket site so that everyone from the wedding can have access to them (...and my friends and blog readers!). The photos I took are here:

http://briefurl.com/Sis_Wedding_7-8-2006

One last shot of my new nephew-in-law, Austin... aren't kids crazy?

Have a great day!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

PERSONAL NEWS: Quick Maksim Update #1...

Hi Guys,

I'm still around... sister got married yesterday... it was nice.

Working on and off on hobby projects...

Received a "Hammers Slammers" package yesterday from Ralph... Thanks, L-4!

Oh yeah, and I got to flirt with a good-looking woman I've had my eye on at the gym who I had thought hadn't noticed me... nice to be corrected.

And, I'm receiving "job announcements / invitations to apply" from various State jobs so that's nice as well.

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

PERSONAL NEWS: Happy Fathers Day (18 June 2006)!

Hi Everyone and especially the fathers among us!

First of all, Happy Father's Day to all!

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Secondly, things have been very busy on the home front...

I'm still gaming and have the materials for several more gaming session reports, but I've been kept busy with the job search... earlier this year, I got on with the State part-time, but there was no chance for uch more than part-time so I moved on and ended up working for CBT / McGraw Hill, an educational company, and not the best job in the world, but a decent filler job until something better comes along...

The last few months, I've been obsessive with the job search... applying all over the place and very often at that... on the 27th of this month, I'll FINALLY get another chance at a State job... they finally opened examinations again after having what's been at least six months of a hiring freeze and very likely longer.

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I also have two weddings coming up in July... the first for my friend Jon Compton and the second for my baby sister... alot is going on.

http://joncompton.com/

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I'm still gaming and looking forward to ConQuest SF coming up in about a month or two and, in the meantime, am still gaming at A-1 Comics on Sunrise just about every Wednesday evening and occasionally elsewhere.

http://avalonconventions.com/conquestsf/

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The gaming group has been busy too...

Kurt and Mark are addicted to on-line computer gaming crack...

Kimbo is getting over a move and a phobia that the dice have it in for him...

Dave is in a weird sort of malaise although well...

Dick bought a new Toyoya Prius and is trying to salvage the MWSS gaming club...

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/M_W_S/

Mike O'Brien is looking for a better job and taking care of his lovely girlfriend, Donna, or maybe the other war around...

Tony recently hurt his leg and is getting over that...

Mike Warde has been very busy lately... his son Conor is getting ready to head off to Bible camp...

Chris has been around quite a bit lately... I'm really getting to know and like him.

Nils is vaccilating between building a 10mm and a 6mm WWII miniatures set...

Joe Riddle has been doing some amazing things with his 15mm HOTT armies...

George has hosted several games lately and is out of his cocoon...

Vynnie is well and kicking...

http://www.recon-in-force.com/

Marcus has put up a web site for his wonderful beer & pretzels skirmish game, Skank:

http://www.skankgame.com/

And the rest of the gang has plenty going on as well!

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And concurrently , I've been on a quest to drop some pounds at the gym and actually HAVE! It must be close to six months now and I've lost at least ten to fifteen pounds and gained a ton of muscle mass... The hardest hurdle for me has always been making working out a habitual part of my life and I've been at it with success for a long time now... just need to keep it up.

http://www.24hourfitness.com/html/

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I'll be trying to update the blog sometime in the next week or two... I have drafts for a number of posts ready and just need to get them finished. I also added a link to my Photo Bucket gallery on the right side link lists of my blog and most of my photos are posted there for public perusal... even though they haven't found a post to belong to yet.

http://s44.photobucket.com/albums/f23/Maksim-Smelchak/

I'm wishing everyone well and would be happy to hear from anyone wanting to drop me a line!

Happy Father's Day again!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.