Jim's Den

Friends and Lovers

Over the years I have become very selective in the people I put on my short list of friends. I know a lot of really nice people, but the people on this page are the people I would go to the line for. I have chosen them because of the people they are. When the chips are down and the Shiite is hitting the fan these are the people I want on my team.

Wife, Lover, #1 Best Friend, Sandi

A big part of what makes my life so much fun is my wonderful, intelligent and lovely wife Sandi. The greatest luck I have had in my life is marrying her. How she manages to put up with me and my long hours at work I don't know.

Above are some pic's taken over the years of the only lady for me.

Sandi is the only woman in the world for me. She is my best friend, wife and lover. She can handle a Harley, use a sword, shoot a 485 out of 500 at the range with a .45, speak 5 languages, (English, French, German, Finish, Russian), hostess a grand dinner party, cook a wonderful dinner, finish the New York Times crossword puzzle in ink, quote Shakespeare, play Celtic harp, save lives at her job and keep me in line. Just to list a few things she's good at. I could list other skills she is world class at but she would blush, and then hit me. She's a red hot red head, and built like a brick outhouse. I love her with all my heart. She's my Mama Maureen.

Below are some pic's taken over the years of the only lady for me.

Sandi Shooter Sam Sexy Sam

Sandi, Nuff Said!
Sandy shooting a 44. cal long Colt.

Sexxxxy Sandi

Grandmom Sam
Sam Boobs

Wild Red

Loving Grand Mother with Robby

Very Sexy Wife

Wild Red Head

Biker Sandi

Sandi at one of the bike parties we've gone to

Sandi at Sturgis

Young Sandi

Look at the hair

This is what Sandi looked like the day she agreed to marry me!

Some years later and still going strong!

Sister Sam

Sister Sam, at a Halloween Party

Sam In DC

Sams hair

Sam's hair at it's longest.

Best Friends

Over the years people have come and gone from my life. However, there are three guys I will consider my best friends until the day I die. Bill Peel, Vito Lumetta, and Chris Hunter. Oddly enough they don't know each other. Bill and I worked together at St. Joseph Hospital. Vito and I worked together at Comcast. Chris and I were in the same fencing club. Theses three guys are the most honorable, nicest people I have come across on the planet. They are eclectic, with a huge range of knowledge and all enjoy life. A real friend is someone you may only see every five or ten years but when you do, it's like you just saw each other last week.

Bill Peel: What can I say about a guy that likes motorcycles and guns. I bought my first handgun from Bill. It's old and beat up but I will hang onto it forever. He got me into shooting and Bill was the one who found my favorite gun, my Colt Combat Commander. Bill and I have worked video shoots together, ridden our bikes together and popped off more rounds of ammo than I can count. Bill and I have worked, played and gone through divorces together. I am very glad be both did MUCH better the second time around. Bill and I worked for several years together at the Mercy Health. When he told me he was moving to Florida I was the first to encourage him.

To let you know what kind of guy bill is, for almost two decades Bill has been doing free-lance work for the Florida Cleft Palate Association. They honored Bill Peel with their “Honors of the Association” award. It's an award given to an individual that has contributed outstanding service to the association. It is one of the few times that it has been awarded to a non-member, non-credentialed,non-medical person.

All Bill could say was, "I was very humbled and flattered. This group treats me more like a peer than a service person."

Now that I'm in Florida we still don't get to see each other as often as I like. It's a bitch getting old. Bill and his wife Michelle are true friends.


Bill Peel. He's a cowboy handgun shooter. He loads his own and when the chips are down you could not have a better person on your side. In the shooter community Bill is somewhat of a celebrity.	For those of you that only know Bill now, "back in the day" we called him "Psycho" A real wild man. We've ridden in the rain, on sand roads to get to the gun range and even attended a few fancy dinner party's together.	I think there is still a little bit of "Psycho" in there behind that Mustache.

Vito Lumetta: What can I say about Vito. They don't make people nicer than him, not a bad bone in his body. As you can guess, Vito is Italian. He's so Italian he makes his own pasta, from scratch!. It's odd, Vito and I went to the same elementary school in New Haven, Michigan, but never met until I went to work for MaClean Hunter. Vito ran a TV real estate network for them. We hit it right off and over the months became close friends. One day we were at lunch with an intern and something was said that brought up where we went to school. When we both said the same school it got real quiet. Then the questions started. Turns out Vito was a year or so younger than me. We did find out we dated different sisters from the same family. (He dated his after I had left the state to return to Florida.) I call Vito the "VOICE", he's a professional announcer and if you have a commercial or narration you could not do better than hiring Vito. Every thing I know about voice work, I learned from Vito. Vito and his wife Alice are good friends.

Vito Lumetta

Like me, the beard is no longer dark but Vito is still just as talented, crazy, professional and funny as he ever was. I got to see him in 2007 He's as great a guy now as he was when we first met. Scotland meets Italy. This is the way Vito and I went to our company's Christmas party. Vito had been wearing a different far-out smoking jacket or fancy robe each year, and talked me into wearing my kilt. Yea, we're drunk.

Chris Hunter: What can you say about a lawyer that used to run a Bunny Fencing game at Ren Fairs? Chris is a lot younger than I am, and yet he still allows the old coot to hang around. Chris and Sybil at a fencing club. Chris and I played together with The Ring of Steel Stage Combat group and attended Ren Fairs together. I am the person that told Chris about flash-paper. Flash paper is a special paper magicians use to make the big flashes of fire. I had gotten some to use in our act and we were heading to Ann Arbor for a rehearsal and got stuck in a traffic jam. I took the time we were waiting for them to clear an accident to show Chris the flash -paper. The tiniest spark will burn the paper up in a fraction of a second. However, you can light it in your hand because it burns so fast it doesn't burn skin. I first showed him how it worked. I then gave Chris a "Small" piece to try and my lit cigarette. He lit the paper, and for some reason, panicked and dropped it in his lap. The funny part is that even thought it's hard to burn skin with flash paper (it can be done, always use caution with any explosive) it's easy to burn hair. Chris did have shorts on and "did" have a lot of hair on his legs. The smell of burning hair was bad. To top it off we looked in the next car, and a cute girl was doubled over in laughter. That just got us started laughing and by the time traffic cleared we could hardly breath from laughing. Both Chris and Sybil are our good friends.

Jaws

Bunny Fencer Chris Hunter. Chris is also a ranked Olympic style fencer, as is Sybil. Chris will move to FL if he can find a six figure job. Any offers? I'd show a young/old pic like the other guys, but he's still young and still looks like this. However, he usually doesn't wear a shark as a hat.

Good Friends

This is Heather. Old coot that I am, I don't have a lot of female friends but she's one of them. Heather is a Web editor, writer and NASCAR fan. Heather is also a twin. In the pic on the right she is with her sister Steph. Heather is on the right.

For a long time it was just me and Heather working the web at News 13. Heather is a much better writer than I'll ever be and I have learned a lot from her.

This is documentary photographer, photo journalist and fellow Scot, Ulen. Ulen and I worked together for Time Warner as producers and later at Central Florida News 13. When I left Time Warner for News 13, Ulen went with me (after some arm twisting). Ulen is now a Photo Journalist for WKMG, Ch 9 in Orlando and doing a great job. Ulen is one of the finest photog's I have had the pleasure of working with in my 45 year career. To the right is Ulen next to Air Force One.

Click Here to see Ulen at Work

http://www.myspace.com/ulen3702

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=629794335

Lewis Bailey, artist, rock musician, Halloween freak, costume designer, Dr Who fan and Master Tardis builder. Right now Lewis and built a Tardis in my garage, (he did all the building. I just watched.) On the right is Lewis playing a Halloween gig dressed as Space Ghost. Lew is a graphic artist, Podcast host, and all around eclectic guy.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1529021672