John Oleszkiewicz’s Weblog

Check out this person spinning on two escalator rails.

I bet we all wish we had thought of that when we were teenagers.

My parents alerted me to the fact that my former high-school classmate Cassie Truskowski made the local news this weekend. She just appeared on “America’s Got Talent” as “Miss Pussycat” - her stage name. She’s been performing in local acts for the past seven years. I have to admit that “circus performer” would not have made my list of top ten future professions for Cassie when graduating high school.

You can see her performance on the show on-line here. It is certainly a… spectacle. Watch for her again July 8th at the “Las Vegas Callbacks” round of America’s Got Talent.

By the way, a quick google search also shows she won an award for her tatoos. You can see the picture here.

The biggest set of pictures I have for you today are pictures from Karin’s graduation from Northern Michigan University in early May. Way to go Karin!

The other pictures we have:

• Goodbye party for Kim Dykstra - one of Patty’s classmates.
• Tom Bush’s wedding
• Us and my parents at Grand Rapids’ Festival of the Arts 2008
• JAFAX 13
• Kristy’s Birthday

Whew - we have a ton of pictures to catch up on. Let’s start with Patty’s graduation parties in Traverse City and Grand Rapids last month.

We have about 300 pictures between the two parties! Yowza!

We’ve got a lot more to come! Stay tuned!

Last week she gave her Master’s Thesis defense and this week she graduated!

The only thing left for her formal education is to take and pass the Michigan state board examination for Physician Assistants. That is in only a couple weeks - and then she is 100% finished!

Congratulate her today. She deserves it.

Patty’s party grandma celebrated her 75th birthday this past weekend. See the pictures here. From two cameras no less! Enjoy!

I finally have some new pictures! They’re from January 31st - my last night living in Burbank. We celebrated at the Burbank Bar and Grille. Thrill at pictures of my co-workers!

In other news - we just helped Jeremy move a bunch of his stuff from Chicago to Grand Rapids this previous weekend. Thank you Garmin c340 for making the me-not-getting-lost part possible. I have to say in no uncertain terms that GPS rocks!

I got the c340 on sale at Circuit City on Black Friday. Circuit City is evil, but I got it at a great price. I’m glad my last purchase at Circuit City was a good one.

I am now permanently back in Grand Rapids Michigan. I worked crazy hours in Burbank, California for the past five months and I will continue working long hours for the same project in Grand Rapids - but I’m still in Grand Rapids!

Apologies to all effected by the blackout in e-mail, webiste, and weblog activity. This is my first weekend back permanently, and I’m settling back into my life. I sure am looking forward to getting things back to normal!

The Singing Bee’s second season premiere is on October 2nd. Why should you care? Because I was in the audience for the taping of that show two weeks ago! Check it out and see if you can find me and the guys I was with in the way back and center of the audience! Handy rule of thumb - look past the attractive and well-dressed paid actors in the audience in front and look for the idiot tourist losers in the back. There’s me!

Being in the audience was a great education on how amazingly fake TV shows are. It was a game show and four people really did compete for $50,000 - but that’s about as closely the show and reality match. I can’t wait to see the taping to see what the final product looks like. I’ll give you a play-by-play after I see it. ;^)

So - for those who haven’t heard yet, I am now in Burbank, California. Last week my company asked if anyone could volunteer for an emergency assignment in Burbank and I volunteered. The assignment is estimated to last for three months. So I’ll be here until December.

I just posted the pictures from our first weekend here. The first pictures are from our trip to Hollywood boulevard. We had quite an adventure there which I will get into later. Just to tease you - make sure you watch “The Singing Bee” season premier. ;^) The next few pictures are the hotel I stayed at this week and the surrounding area - plus my Toyota Prius Hybrid rental!