All,
   Once again, trailing on the Breeze, as has been the case much of this first half of 2009 (which is almost done!).  A ton has transpired since the last post on my end of things, but do not have the time nor the "oomph" to blog all of it.  And anywho, today...the 26th...is a time to give a huge 27th birthday shoutout to the man...the myth...the legend...

   Standing some 6 foot 4, able to dunk on a ten and a half foot rim, this man known once as "Jared" prior to 1997 has become a star from the tri-county area to the 'ville to the 'burg.

   His size 16 shoes coming down Sparky's basement stairs struck fear in any guy's heart, while all the ladies stopped in their tracks knowing "the great one" was about to arrive.

   He was the creator of corporate e-mail.  It was not any of the other "Mendota and Friends", nor any part of rival group "NIU and Michigan".

   From the radio waves to the AIM to the corporate e-mail and to the face-to-face convos, no one is more clever with their words than this now 27 year old.

   He has been known as a football player, a basketball star, a baseball...well viewer, a janitor, a bouncer, an announcer, a mortgage specialist, and a closing specialist...but no matter the job, he is known as "the man".

   He arguably has held the "Best Non-Tennis Team Tennis Player in Mendota" trophy for a decade now, and would challenge Rafael Nadal at Stroble Avenue courts anytime.

   One day, three of the five starting basketball players on MHS's team will be sons of this man, of course according to him.

   He has said such quotes as "For a long time single dude, I'm an expert in relationships..."

   He was the first ever to predict a Sweet Corn Queen and Ms. Congeniality to be the same person, and was mentioned the next year in the Queen's speech because of his expertise.

   For over a decade he has never used the word "I", always referring to himself in third person.

   No matter how wild that Saturday night was, Slim will always be found in a church pue the next morning....saying "thanks be to Todd."

   His name has preceded him...as years before my college friends ever met him, they always referred to his name and his greatness.

   He brought "ghost knucks" to Mendota, which Sparky and I have and continue to badly abuse.

   I have partied with him from Illinois to Kentucky to Missouri to Ohio to Minnesota...and we'll add Wisconsin to that list this September.



I have met celebrities with this man...and he was not afraid to tell them he would "punch 'em in the nose".




He taught me everything I know about how to talk to the ladies...and it clearly worked for him!




He has introduced us all to a newer and cooler shade of Myles...





As opposed to the only one we had known before...




Now granted, he has had some questionable friends...




While he has had some extremely classy ones...



No one has raised the roof like him...



And no one, and I mean no one, fishes like him...





And he can eat at any time in any setting....no matter how strange that setting may be...



His most famous quote from 1997 to the present couldn't be more true...."Slim is the man".

Leave him some love folks!  The big fella, the Phenom of Mendota, the Conscience of the W.G.L.C., the one they call SLIM SCHRADY turns the big 27 today!






And he loves this line ...."From the 'Sota to the 'Dota"...ghost knucks Slim!

MTF ... or as Slim has coined ... "Zilla"