I just hung up the phone after speaking with my oldest friend on the planet, Mike Kasper. He's married now to a friend of our from high school, living in suburban Chicago, working as a regional sales manager for Michael David Winery. Lately, we've been back in communication with each other, and it truly is one of those friendships that picks up right where we left off.

Mike in a nutshell: When speaking earlier of my separation from Dara, after feeding him some details, he asked, "Did you say you went on a date with a girl?"

Me: "Yes."

Mike: "Russ, you're supposed to do that when you're MARRIED."

That's my Mike.

Above are shots of us dating back to 1985 and '87. Our public behavior was regularly referred to as, "The Mike and Rusty Show". He got the chicks and the laughs, I got the...laughs. DAMN HIM!