I have started playing soccer this winter (I know kinda dumb time to be playing, but so far it hasn't been too cold). Our team isn't very good and we are playing in Division I (should most likely be in Division II). But I am out there for the exercise and to get rid of some of my manly testosterone. I played defense in High School (which was the peak of my soccer career) but I have apparently gotten slow in my old age, last weekend I was getting burned left and right and always chasing people as they blew by me. But I have gotten better (with age) and playing smarter and playing midfield and forward, so I have two assists (I think we have scored 3 goals total) so not too shabby.

Will update the games as I play them. We are currently 0-2.

Merry Christmas everyone! Sorry I have been so non-present lately. Just been doing holiday stuff and nothing has really struck my fancy as interesting lately... so I've just been living. But I have gotten some complaints about depriving some peeps of their once a month entertainment so I figured I would take some time on this Christmas-eve-eve and write down some thoughts.

PEARL
After Thanksgiving Pearl told us that the doctor had gotten a 2nd opinion and that the second opinion concluded that there was some cancerous cells in the tissue surrounding the removed colon. This scared Pearl, but after talking to the kids and talking to the Chemo doc (Dr. Tan) she is feeling better about it.

Her treatment has always been expected to include post operative chemo in anticipation of some cells still lingering around. So all this information tells us is that some definitely exist and it helps the team of doctors know where to concentrate their treatments. So they have decided to include post-operative radiation in hopes of offering the best offense against her cancer.

She goes in Jan 3rd to have the temporary ostomy bag removed which is a big mental thing for her and will help her feel more "normal" (even though I think she is pretty damn normal already). She is looking really good... she looks healthy and she has started gaining some weight back which is great news.

CHOLESTEROL
So my weight loss is great, all of my "health statistics" are doing wonderfully, but given that Beebe3 died at 50 and Lois1 has high Cholesterol my doctor has decided that I should start taking some Crestor. Main side effects are sore muscles and potential liver problems, so I am going back to have my blood work done and have the liver checked out in 2 more weeks.

In case you are curious, here is a snapshot of Ben's Cholesterol:

Date       Weight  Cholesterol  HDL  LDL   "LDL/HDL Ratio"

---------------------------------------------------------

12/23/97    200      223        51   149      2.9

03/14/01    242      220        39   147      3.8

03/25/03    240      227        46   157      3.4

02/02/04    235      221        39   167      4.3

05/17/04    197      216        46   149.6    3.3

11/24/04    192      237        54   165.4    3.1

On the bottom of the blood test reports is the following chart:

     LDL/HDL RISK FACTORS

MEN     WOMEN         RISK FACTOR

-----------------------------------------

1.0      1.5       1/2 Average Risk

3.6      3.2           Average Risk

6.3      5.0       2 Times Average Risk

8.0      6.1       3 Times Average Risk 

The February appointment was my baseline to see what was going on prior to starting the Atkins Diet. And it worked, there is no doubting that... my weight loss was significant and my cholesterol levels improved dramatically, the doctor was very pleased, but given family history it is still wise to be on medication.

But since the drug has a potential side effect of liver problems and Atkins has a potential side effect of liver problems I have decided to switch back to the a low fat diet, trying to eat a lot more fruit and vegetables... less meat, keep the bread and refined sugar intake down, and so far so good... I swelled up there for a week, but today I was down to 188 which is right around my low anyways so I am pleased.

POKER NIGHT
So I have two groups of poker players that I play with... one is from work, the other is the boys in the family. I hosted the family poker night last month and had a good time... all in all I broke even (as I think I have every time I have played recently) so I have no problem playing for a few hours and not spending any money... to me that is a win. Hopefully I can get a game or two in during the break. I have 11 days off in a row (staring tomorrow) during the holidays so I am pleased to be able to finish up on the house and just relax.

I just played a super cheesy skymiles promotion game and apparently won 10,000 skymiles. Check it out at Dash to the Gate. Free skymiles are a good thing!

We are having a poker night on Friday with the young men from Sherry's family. Franklin, Mark, and Joseph will be representing the Everett's, Shawn and I will be representing the Tureman's and Chuck will be representing the Fergeson's.

Should be fun... will let you know how much I win!

Not much has been going on... we had a wonderful Thanksgiving here in town and then departed to go spend the rest of the long weekend at Sarah's house since the rest of my family was going to be there. It was good to see everyone.

Pearl is doing good, she is driving herself around and in really good spirits despite her lack of having my daily computer lessons.

We got to see Alison (Sherry's college roommate) and Chris last week as well. Apparently they have lots of new friends and don't need us anymore, but we do appreciate them stopping by to say 'Hi'.

Other then that... same ol' same ol' I need to do some stuff around the house and get it ready for visitors.

And great news! The lymph nodes are clean. So we have a the best results that we could of had... a 2nd staged case with everything reconnected and full functionality expected, and a VERY LONG LIFE :)

She had the staples removed from her stomach and is recovering and gaining weight daily. She is still staying with Sherry and I, but has been talking about trying to go home.... hopefully she will listen to reason, which is my middle name.

Next steps: January 3rd is the reverse ileostomy (removing the bag that she is using to go to the restroom and resume normal digestive functionality), and a follow up in a month to see how things are going. She will most likely start the final round of Chemo after the January 3rd surgery which is 4 months long.

So all in all today is a great day.

Pearl moved in without a hitch. She has been recovering with Sherry and lots of guests to keep her company. The home nurses came by yesterday to admit her into the home care program, and her assigned nurse is coming tomorrow for her first visit. Sherry has taken off work for these first couple of days and will reevaluate the status or Sunday night. But Pearl seems to be happy to be out of the hospital and in the care of her family with an occasional visit from the nurse.

She is eating and the swelling is going down as her body readjusts to all the changes it is going through. Her feet are swollen and Shawn purchased all of Walgreen's heating supplies for feet... heating pad, electric socks, the foot spa, the works. She likes the socks the best.

She is sleeping much better and has been napping regularly as she recovers. She has to get up often in the night to urinate as her water weight continues to drop which is normal for post operation patients. I fly home tomorrow and get in late at night so I can't wait to see both Sherry and Pearl. It's been hard to be away.

Wanted to say Happy Birthday to Greg. In honor of your birthday I am going to go eat dinner with your brother. We are going to Farallon, which I have eaten at before, last time I was in town. We might go for drinks afterwards.

Anyway, Happy Birthday... Yeah Come On!

So Pearl is coming "home" two days early. She will be living with Sherry (and I) for the next couple weeks until she feels healthy enough to go back home (where her bedroom and bathroom are on the 2nd floor). She has surpassed the expectation of the doctors as far as recovery and pain tolerance (no surprise to anyone that knows her) and they thing she will be ready to go tomorrow. Which is flippin' great news.

These last few weeks have been crazy busy. My friend Lee is in town right now trying to setup the closing of her house, and I feel bad since I wasn't able to help her out as much as I wanted to during this stressful time... I forgot to tell her that buying a house (especially the first one is one of the top 5 stressers in life). So I attended the home inspection on Sunday with her, then got recruited to help Shawn avoid city citation by getting the front of his house looking "uniform" and then at 7pm Shawn and I started the cable running project that I had been delaying for a long time so that Pearl could have a TV in her room while she recovers. We got it down before 9 with a little luck and some "oh so much fun" under the house crawling, and on the fly GT (and a little UVA) engineering / rigging.

I then got up this morning at 5am and had my lovely wife drop me off at the airport so that I could be at the San Francisco office before noon PST. It is now 7:18 pm and I am about to head out of the office and get some grub. I was stupid and forgot my cell phone at the house this morning so I will not get to talk to Sherry as much as I usually do.

The Kitchen is complete as far as what I had paid for, all that is left is priming and painting, and so other small finishing touches. But we are pleased, and very confident that we have greatly raised the value of our home, plus I love being able to talk while in the kitchen now... the hole was key.

I will try to post nightly while in SF, since I know my biggest fan checks this thing hourly.

GO PEARL GO!

but if it is true, it is interesting
IQ and Politics

The operation went well. I was lucky enough to get to hear Dr. Vargas tell Shelley, Shawn, Sherry and Pearl's mother that the surgery went well. He believes that all of the tumor was removed and that there was no spreading to other organs. The lymph nodes and tumor have been sent to the labs and the pathology report is expected no later then Tuesday. From that we will receive the prognosis and the staging information.

The tumor was large.

Roughly 9 inches of her large intestine were removed and the majority of her rectum, but he was able to successfully connect everything back together so she will regain full use of her digestive system in around 2 months. She has a temporary colostomy while everything heals. The mass was so large that although the radiation had shrunk the tumor down to basically nothing the outer mass had grown large enough to act as a clamp on her intestines.

Previously we had been informed that her small intestine had fallen during treatment and might have been burned by the radiation, but that was not the case. So she should not see any effects of that which is huge news, because that was a potential life long pain (unbearable to most of us) that she would of had to endure.

So you can understand what we are waiting on it is important to understand TNM Staging (and that metastasis = spreading).... for Pearl we know the T and M components.

TNM Definitions

Primary tumor (T)
T0: No evidence of primary tumor
T1: Tumor invades submucosa
T2: Tumor invades muscularis propria
T3: Tumor invades through the colon wall*
T4: Tumor directly invades other organs or structures

Regional lymph nodes (N)
NX: Regional nodes cannot be assessed
N0: No regional lymph node metastasis
N1: Metastasis in 1 to 3 regional lymph nodes
N2: Metastasis in 4 or more regional lymph nodes

Distant metastasis (M)
MX: Distant metastasis cannot be assessed
M0: No distant metastasis*
M1: Distant metastasis

Stage I
T1, N0, M0
T2, N0, M0

Stage II
T3, N0, M0
T4, N0, M0

Stage III
Any T, N1, M0
Any T, N2, M0

Stage IV
Any T, Any N, M1

* What Pearl has

Which gives us T3NXM0 so far, and stages the cancer as either II or III. From WebMD:

Stage II
Also called Dukes B colon cancer, the tumor extends through the muscular wall of the colon, but there is no cancer in the lymph nodes (small structures that are found throughout the body that produce and store cells that fight infection).

The 5-year survival rate for Dukes B colon cancer is 87%.

Stage III
Also called Dukes Stage C1 or Dukes Stage C2, the cancer has spread outside the colon to one or more lymph nodes (small structures that are found throughout the body that produce and store cells that fight infection). Tumors within the colon wall are classified as Dukes Stage C1, while tumors that have grown through the colon wall, and have spread, are classified as Dukes Stage C2.

The 5 year survival rate for Dukes C colon cancer is about 55%. Patients with one to four positive lymph nodes have a higher survival rate than people with more than five positive lymph nodes.

So we are basically praying for a negative result for the cancer presence in the lymph nodes. But in either case she has the upper hand and statistics in her favor... and if you know me, you know how much faith I put in numbers... they are a pure language :) Plus I think my mom has St Peter himself taking a few minutes out of his day to offer up a prayer for Pearl.

All in all the doctor, Pearl, and the family and friends are pleased with yesterday. It was an excellent start to the road to remission.

Off to the hospital.... please keep us in your thoughts today.

I played poker last night at Hal's house last night. It was my 2nd time playing poker with the boys (plus Erica) from work.

Poker really is a game of swings. I was never actually up last night, but I had fun and only lost $16. We started off with dealer's call format, but after the female player left we transitioned into a No Limit Texas Hold'em tournament. I busted out first :( trying to play what I thought was "the hammer" but was informed after my "all-in" was called that they have to be unsuited to be the worst hand in poker. You can reference Hal's blog to try and understand why there is foolish pride in bluffing (or somehow winning) a pot with the worst starting hand in poker.

But it was fun and hope to host one of them at our house soon.

Please go vote! I have just cast my ballot, and it honestly does feel good, given what is going on in the rest of the world. I heard someone on TV say something along the lines of "Lets show the world how the oldest and strongest democracy in the world does it" and I agree whole heartedly. It is the least you can do to honor those that have given their lives to give you this right. Take the 60 minutes of your life, watch one less episode of <insert stupid reality show here> and get it done. The excuse that "my vote doesn't count due to the electoral college system" is WEAK. Get off your ass and make a difference.

Read up on an ESPN.com article about Football in America and it's spotlight on Georgia Tech. Sad but true.

Had fun watching the kids tonight. We sat on the porch and handed out candy... it was a wonderful temperature and the kids were pretty cute. We stopped by Shawn and Reginia's afterwards and hung out with some other couples for about an hour before calling it a night.

It was a great weekend with Sarah and Heidi. We had a blast... will not provide details, but lets just say that Ben ended up worshiping the porcelain goddess again. I am such a lightweight these days.... but I am not really complaining. I think they want to move to Norfolk now.

Most of you ask me this and I should have been doing this more regularly, but to be honest her treatment of chemo and radiation was such a non-event it was a good thing. We did recently find out that her intestines dropped and received some burning from the radiation as a result. This could cause her some problems, but it might also fix itself. Truth be told, we are just in waiting mode right now... her body is healing from the radiation... not something that anyone's body enjoys going through, but her blood counts and other typical indicators to how well ones body is coping are all positive. She had to have two shots of Procrit (actually another similar drug) to ensure that all her levels were kosher.

She goes into surgery on November 4th, so take 15 - 30 seconds and concentrate on willing her to have "travel mercies" as she passes the mid-way point on her voyage to health. And feel free to amplify your thoughts with a prayer if you are lucky enough to be a believer.

To answer the second most asked question, Sherry is doing alright with it as well. Some days are sadder then others, and it breaks my heart to see her sad. But more days then not, she is the strong woman that her mother raised. It is pretty humbling when your wife has more emotional control then you do, as exampled at our wedding.

Pearl will be occupying the guest bed across the hall from us as she recovers and once the doc gives us the thumbs up we will plan the next few months of our life from there.

So my mom was here last weekend (well one day I should say) and Sarah and Heidi are coming this weekend. Lee is coming for her home inspection the 6th, and Pearl moves in on the 12th (not sure exact date yet).

Sounds busy... but I like people (most of the time) so it makes me happy that my home is coming in so handy :)

Ok, I know that the above title might be a little funny to you, but I can help make Hampton Roads more of a business town... Shawn and I are on a two man mission (with Regina taking on the culinary places, Sherry and Shelley handling the educational development of the area, and Mike showing us all how little we actually know about home ownership ;) )

Check out with Mike Brookbank (sits around the corner from me) has to say about Symantec's involvement in the technology growth in the area.

Y'all best recognize... SYMC in the house! Ring it loud Johnny boy.

So I just finished it this morning. Quite a wonderful book. Pretty thought provoking I must say, and that is about all I will say, because I am one that is over sensitive to revealing too much about things that are going to be mentally consumed. I think that even the slightest comment give the mind a hint as to whats to come, or prepares it to be prepared for a surprise, twist, exrememe sadness, takes away from the artist's intent. But by sticking to my rules I am not able to express much more about this book, and I am dying to do so.
I will add this one bit of encouragment, the first section (there are 3) is slow, plow through it, the ROI (return on investment) is worth it.

Been in San Francisco for a while now, and don't have internet at home, plus just been really busy with work out there, so to my wife (the only one that checks it 6 times a day, I apologies for not providing you with some good stories, and interesting links)

Here is one that just caused a co-worker of mine to gag. I am not sure if it is a farce or not, but it made me laugh, hard.

Top doc backs picking your nose and eating it

Picking your nose and eating it is one of the best ways to stay healthy, according to a top Austrian doctor.

Innsbruck-based lung specialist Prof Dr Friedrich Bischinger said people who pick their noses with their fingers were healthy, happier and probably better in tune with their bodies.

He says society should adopt a new approach to nose-picking and encourage children to take it up.

Dr Bischinger said: "With the finger you can get to places you just can't reach with a handkerchief, keeping your nose far cleaner.

"And eating the dry remains of what you pull out is a great way of strengthening the body's immune system.

"Medically it makes great sense and is a perfectly natural thing to do. In terms of the immune system the nose is a filter in which a great deal of bacteria are collected, and when this mixture arrives in the intestines it works just like a medicine.

"Modern medicine is constantly trying to do the same thing through far more complicated methods, people who pick their nose and eat it get a natural boost to their immune system for free."

He pointed out that children happily pick their noses, yet by the time they have become adults they have stopped under pressure from a society that has branded it disgusting and anti social.

He said: "I would recommend a new approach where children are encouraged to pick their nose. It is a completely natural response and medically a good idea as well."

And he pointed out that if anyone was really worried about what their neighbour was thinking, they could still enjoy picking their nose in private if they still wanted to get the benefits it offered.

Here is an interesting development in the late night drinking department... Busch is going to make a beer that competes with the likes of Red-bull and Vodka... they are calling it B-to-the-E ...or as it will say on the can "B^e"

I pulled a fast one over on Sherry this week. I hired Kent (of the previous renovation work) and his assistant, Brian, to work crazy hours to get it done, and I also hired a granite guy (Robert) to do the countertops. She was pretty suprised. We have been in San Francisco all week and then went to the Georgia Tech / Miami "game" this weekend. Picture from that are also posted on flickr.

Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure:
<--Before After-->
(click on image for larger view)





There are additional pictures on flickr if you click around.

It is also interesting to check out the images of when I graphically planned this out a few months ago.

Had a great time at the game this weekend... click on the image below to see more pictures of the game and tailgating.

The fire and ice contraption is a must get for anyone who does tailgating... very cool indeed! Well done, Anne.

Well I experienced my first earthquake today. It was a 5.9 and it was barely noticeable ... in fact I asked the other people in my office if they could feel that and they said no. Then an hour later one of them said "Check out Yahoo... there was an earthquake at 10:15!" So I have spidey senses, I guess.

Here is a link : Moderate Quake Strikes Central Calif.

Check out what they predicted would be a home computer in the year 2004:

Shawn, Regina, Jack, Sherry and I went to Charlottesville this weekend for a little history and football weekend. UVA was playing the power-house known as Akron for homecoming so we went to the game and got to see what college was like for Shawn-boy. I would like to say that those Beta boys sure are friendly! (story for a later day)

We did have a great time and luckily the hurrincane leftovers only dumped on us as we drove from Norfolk to Charlottesville. On Sunday we got up and made the short drive to Monticello to see Jefferson's house. Very interesting for the adults... Jack just slept the whole time... maybe because we had him covered up like a Micheal Jackson offspring.

I have posted some pictures on my flickr site for your enjoyment. (click on the link in the right column).

Here Sherry and I are hanging out in front of Monticello:

Can I just say that I am really enjoying working at a larger more established software company. And when they do things right it makes you feel even better.

Here are some classy senior pictures

Apparently there is a theory out there that a recent decrease in the amounts of spam is related to the hurricanes and having the loss of power, etc means less spam!!!

Shit... I think we should just sent 5000 good ol' Georgians and northern Floridians to the middle of the state with chain saws and cut the lower part of the peninsula off. Let it go hang out with Cuba.

Sherry and I are hosting our first Cuddle Party next weekend. We are pretty excited but we need to reiterate the rules...

1. Pajamas stay on the whole time.


2. No SEX. (Yep, you read that right.)


3. Ask for permission to kiss or nuzzle anyone.
   Make sure you can handle getting a no before you invite or request anyone to cuddle or kiss.


4. If you're a yes, say yes. If you're a no, say no.


5. If you're a maybe, say NO.


6. You are encouraged to change your mind from a yes to a no, no to a yes anytime you want.


7. NO DRY HUMPING!


8. Communicate, communicate, communicate.


9. If you're in a relationship, communicate and set your boundaries and agreements BEFORE you go to the Cuddle Party.
   Don't re-negotiate those agreements/boundaries during the Cuddle Party. (Trust us on this one.)


10. Get your Cuddle Life Guard On Duty or Cuddle Caddy if there's a concern, problem, or question or should you feel unsafe or need assistance with anything during the Cuddle Party.


11. Crying and giggling are both welcomed and encouraged.


12. Outside of your personal relationships, it's nobody's business who you cuddle, so please be respectful of other people's privacy when sharing with the outside world about Cuddle Parties.


13. Arrive on time.


14. Be hygienically savvy.


15. Clean up after yourself.


16. Always say thank you and practice good Cuddle Manners.

So this 7 year old boy loves Georgia Tech football. His name is Carter Martin. Sadly he also has cancer, and it has spread to his brain. Over the last week he has gotten worse and this past weekend he was not doing very well. The rest is the story of his passing and it happens to put some things into perspective, but in general it is just a story worth retelling.

My prayers and thoughts are with the Martin family....

Carter Martin, age 7, has spent the last 2 years fighting cancer. Over the past 3 weeks the cancer reached his brain and his condition grew worse. He was also a huge Georgia Tech fan and loved the football team.

Saturday night he asked his father to do a play by play of the Tech game, as he was unable to see the television from his bed. As the time grew late and Tech was losing in the fourth quarter, his father asked him if he could stop, as it had to be miserable to hear Tech losing and he needed his sleep.

Carter said, "please don't stop... I know Tech is going to win."

His father bravely kept doing the play by play and Carter struggled to stay awake. As Tech scored the winning touchdown Carter squeezed his fathers hand tightly. Shortly Carter fell asleep, aglow in the Tech victory.

He died Sunday and will be buried on Wednesday with a Tech football helmet painted on his casket.

You can check out the guestbook if you want to leave his family a message or if you want to see the impact this story has had on others (it is interesting to see the Clemson fans that have so gracefully posts to offer their sympathies).

Check out the 3rd photo of this real estate listing.

San Francisco was fun... didn't post from there as often as I had intended to, but work was rather consuming. Plus I tried to go out to eat at as many fancy restaurants as I could... here is a list of some of them (at least the ones with reviews or websites):

Boulevard - super expensive, but very good... the service was efficient and doing my favorite dining alone trick (eating at the chef's bar and watching the production that is the kitchen) I was very impressed with how the restaurant was run.

Neptune's Palace - this was my tourist day restaurant. With a great view of the bay, and a window open to hear the sea lions and feel the chilling San Francisco "summer" air roll in as night fell was yet another romantic dinner that I got to share with another nameless waiter. Food was ok, signs stated that it was rated best seafood restaurant 10 years in a row had set my expectations high. I had the seafood combo and it was just ok. I have heard I should have tried the soft-shell crab... so maybe I will give it another chance.

La Taqueria - cheap burrito place... have to rate it as one of the best burritos I have had in my life. Not much more to say about that.

Thep Phanom - had to get my Thai food craving taken care of since the better half wasn't there (she isn't a fan of peanut sauces or curry... so no Thai for her). This was decent priced place that served up very yummy food. I ordered my favorite Prawnag Curry and although it wasn't as good as "Bankok in Boca" it was quite yummy. We also had a interesting appetizer that was fried vegetables served in a soda fountain glass half filled with peanut sauce... it was quite good.

Nob Hill Cafe - this was a back-up recommendation for the concierge at the hotel I was staying at (he also recommended Boulevard and Roy's... so he was pretty good!!... should have tipped him I guess). Anyway, went here with Lee and Andy for dinner. It was small and cute, although I did have to sit on a window ledge that had been converted to a booth. We got there just in time, cause the wait got real long after we got there... we only waited about 5 minutes or so. I had the Vodka Penne pasta and it was yummy... I also got to sample the gnocchi and risotto, both of which were good. We also had desert and maybe it was due to me not eating real deserts in so long, but the had a gelato that was served as a slice of pie, with cheesecake layers on top and bottom of it (serving as a crust and topping)... IT WAS GOOD.

Kokkari - went here with Laura, a friend from college, and one of her friends from town. Very good food. I thought it was a little overpriced but the atmosphere was wonderful. Our server was a bit stressed and it came through in her service, with her rushing us when we were asking questions about the menu. She tried to make up for it buy bringing over free shots of Ouzo (which we enjoyed) but the damage had already been done. I would give it an 'A' for authenticity of Greek food... all the waiters and bar staff seemed to be Greek, and the decorum was very nice. All in all didn't think it was worth the money, but would try it again if I am on expense account.

Cafe DeLucchi - went here on Sunday for brunch with Lee and Andy. We had to wait in a decent line, about 30 minutes. The food was good, typical breakfast food, with an upscale presentation. Nothing really striking about the place, it was good, but nothing spectacular.

Ok... that is about it, maybe I should be a restaurant reviewer. This was kinda fun.

... you're either covering it, laughing it off, kicking it, kissing it, busting it, trying to get a piece of it, or behaving like one.

I went to eat at Roy's tonight... after realizing I had a max of $80 a day to spend on food. After a rip off breakfast downstairs and a cheap lunch with the chaps from the San Francisco office, I had around $54 to blow on dinner... I reached my goal easily and even went over by $3... shouldn't have gotten the coffee.

I sat at the single diner section, which offered a glass wall so that you could watch the chefs... it was pretty entertaining. Fran was my waitress... she was nice, and the also had a very good beverage server. Plus 3 other waiters checked in on me while I was eating... I love good service.

The first two days here have been unremarkable (that is my new word... the doctors kept using it to describe Pearl's other organs... it's apparently a good thing), work from 9-6:45 (that is noon - 9:45 for you East coasters). Did get thanked by the former CEO and VP of the company Symantec purchased. This is a good opportunity for me to get some visibility. I say former cause they are now Exec's with Symantec but not Senior Execs. But they are my boss's boss's boss and his boss respectively. One or two down from John Thompson... the CEO of Symantec.

Lee and Andy are coming into town this weekend to keep me company. We only have a giants game planned, but I am sure we will have a good ol time. Will be good to see them.

I was also told today that I will be on this team until at least the end of the year, so that means I will be coming out here in the future... I imagine 2 or 3 more times. I will be bringing my wife with me if she can afford the time.

I think this bear was in the fraternity with me

Here is a picture of myself with the Reunion Queen (aka my wife)



You can see more reunion photos by clicking on the picture above.

I had a great time in Jacksonville this past weekend at my 10 year high school reunion. Will post some of the high light pictures for you guys once I have had time to review them... but I am leaving for San Francisco in the morning so time is not something on my side right now, considering I am still at work. But I got to spend some QT with my mom and Don and my BFFs from high school. Nothing like a little recharge before going into a very tough 3 months up ahead.

Pearl had her first dose of chemo and radiation yesterday and said that she is feeling good. Uneventful is good when you are putting such strong medicines in your body. Please continue your well wishes for her.

Will try to log my trip to San Francisco, just very uncertain of the schedule right now.

This new site meter is pretty cool (I put it at the bottom of the page), it gathers more information for me then the simple counter I had before... you can click on the number to see the same report I see.

But when I was looking through it this morning, I found this site, BlogShare, that had referred at least one hit to my site. I have yet to read up on it, but it looks like someone has made a stock market for blogs? Kinda weird, but at the same time, in a dorky way, kinda interesting. But I do think that he should at least let us know that he is tracking our sites.

I consider myself one whom doesn't care much with matching my socks, how scruffy I look, how long my hair is... etc, etc. But come on, getting a dorky looking hair cut 4 days before your 10 year high school reunion sucks! Hopefully it will grow out by then, but I look like Alferd E Newman right now.

I think someone is trying to tell us not to go to the reunion. We are basically trying to fly into the perfect storm with Bonnie and Charley meeting up in Jacksonville on Friday morning (the day we are suppose to arrive).


Things are not looking good!

Looks like cancer is a major concern for a lot of people. My counter has gone from around 3,500 views on Friday to over 430,000 this Monday. Guess I need to be more insightful about the research.

So either in response to the hectic week or just because certain friends bring out the hell raiser in Sherry, we got tore up this weekend. I wanted to mention this for several reasons. The first being that life goes on, and although we have received this horrible news, everyone's attitudes have been really good, mainly the doctors, but Pearl is in good spirits and everyone knows that life must go on. Secondly I worry about my blog turning into depression daily, and that isn't my style. Thirdly, I can't remember the last time I threw-up from drinking only beer.

So, Sherry has two friends, named Sara(h). Yes, they are both named Sara(h) (one with an h, one without), in fact they are both named Sara(h) B. Batkins and Bagley. They are quite humorous human beings, and good times abound when ever we hang out with them. Only problem is they don't live in town, although they are in town frequent enough for you people to know about them. Anywho, Jason (Sara(h)'s boyfriend... I am not going to specify which just cause I think it is kinda funny) had a birthday that we were celebrating this weekend. So on Saturday night, we went over to Jason's apartment for a few drinks and to blow off some steam. Apparently we both had a lot of steam to blow off.

The evening started out simple enough, I had brought over my handy dandy Michael Graves poker set, and we played a few hands (not real money... so therefore I kicked ass, cause I suck when real money is involved). After 2 hours of poker, diner was served. Jason is quite the cook, hooking us up with kabobs, steamed shrimp and the neighbors brought out some edamame.

After that, trouble started. We proceeded upstairs for 26 rounds of flip-cup, after which, Sherry decided to "lay down" which produced the typical post drinking experiance for her. A technacolor yawn into the closest flushable peice of furniture. Luckily it was the toilet this time. But don't worry... the newly trimmed down lightweight (me) was only 45 minutes behind her, with his offerings to the porcelain goddess. So the lightweight married people (yes we were the only married people there) layed down on the bed for the next 2 hours until Sherry was sober enough to drive home, since although I had puked out the alcohol, was still feeling quite ill.

Sara(h) thought it was the non-Atkins approved corn.

I took Friday off work to be an official member of the Tureman entourage. Cancer treatment is a three headed beast (as most of you know), but just to reiterate... the weapons are surgery, drugs (chemo), and radiation. Of course the medical profession refuses to use simple terms so we will also refer to the doctors as the Surgeon, the Medical Oncologist, and the Radiation Oncologist, specifically in Pearl's case David Vargas MD, Valiant Tan MD, and Mathew Sinesi MD.

As of Friday Dr. Vargas had given a rough diagnosis of a T3 mass (N and M are still unknown) meaning that she is either in Stage IIa, IIIb, IIIc, or IV... but she has had two CT scans that should have shown spread to other organs and there has been no mention of it, which is wonderful news.

Given this diagnosis, Vargas has decided to use Chemo and radiation as the first line of defense to stop potential tumor spread and decrease the tumor before surgery. She begins radiation and chemotherapy on August 16th, with surgery scheduled 6 weeks after treatment completion (to allow the organs to heal prior to surgery). She will undergo 25-30 treatments with the radiation being given 5 days a week (at 11 am everyday) and chemo therapy being delivered via a continuous drip being removed on the weekends. Dr. Tan (the Medical Oncologist, aka Chemo doctor) has selected 5Fu as his weapon of choice.

Dr. Sinesi (as far as I can tell the head of the Cancer treatment center at the hospital) seemed like an excellent human being and a fine doctor. The treatment center was quite impressive, issuing a scan card to Pearl, and being very precise about the radiation... giving her an additional CT Scan in order to pinpoint the angles to point the radiation and tattooing her (with single pinpoint dots) to assist in lining up the radiation rays for quicker treatment sessions. Pearl told the nurse that she felt a little to old to be getting tattoos :) When she arrives daily, all she has to do is scan the card and the office will automatically go into action, knowing that she is there.

They said that since the 5Fu is pretty easy on the system and the radiation is localized to the rectum the typical negative effects of radiation and chemo (hair loss, body sores) should be non-existent. She shouldn't lose her hair, and potentially only experience mouth sores and rectum discomfort, with slight hair thinning.

Please offer up a prayer to whatever it is you believe in. Sherry's mother (Pearl) was diagnosed with colon cancer yesterday. We don't know much more then the fact that there is a mass and 5 polyps were the rectum and colon connect. She was diagnosed yesterday during a colonscopy. I have spent the last two days on WebMD getting up to speed.

She is meeting with the general surgeon on Friday and from there we can assume she will be schedule for a CT scan and then surgery as quickly as possible. The GI doctor said the mass was around 10 cm. Will post more details as I get them... til then please pray.

Sherry had a work evaluation today and the boss guessed (correctly) that Sherry's personality type was INTJ... so that got me thinking, I couldn't remember what I was, but remember thinking that when I had taken the test back in High School (#1 in the country by the way) that the Myers Briggs psychology test results were very insightful. So I took a quicky test (takes about 3 minutes) and it pegged me as ISTP (which upon seeing the letters together I remembered was correct).

I put some value in knowing what type of personality you have and knowing the personality types of those around you. It is especially useful in stressful situations, like starting a new job or moving or getting married or house projects. So I think everyone should take the test and post some comments to let me know what you guys are. Be interested to find out.

The thing I stumbled on was a chart that maps all these different personality types*. The Enneagram typing had some additional insight for my type (7w8). If you drill down into the Enneagram types you can get to a compatibility matrix to gain some insight on relationships in your life.

*I had to use a google cached page since the site had exceeded it's bandwidth limit for the day in the middle of my writting of this entry.

Craig's List is a simple web page which lists alternative things / event to do in some major cities. Norfolk has a list, as does Atlanta, Miami, and it looks like Jacksonville's is coming soon. Check out all the cities here.

With the end of the other projects wrapping up we are moving onto the kitchen which should be a much easier project... no drywall involved, only some minor destruction, and cabinet and tile installation.

Here are some pictures from Mill's Pride website... the software is actually pretty damn good.

        
(click any image for a larger version)

Here are some pictures of the existing kitchen for reference:
Similar to view #2 above
Similar to view #3 above

In case any of you wanted to read the 9/11 Commision Report, here ya go.

So it is time for me to post some weight loss pictures. I am kinda scared to show the world my half naked body, but I think it is important for you guys to see how truly overweight I was. My body is by no means ready for Men's Health, but compared to the before pictures the change is quite drastic. Since January 1st, I have gone from 240 lbs to 183 lbs. My goal is 175ish, and yes, I am under a doctor's supervision. For me to be considered "ideal" according to the BMI, I need to weigh 179 or less, given that I am 5'11".

So, without further ado... from fat to skinny (not to be confused with "From Justin to Kelly")

  (click for larger pictures)


  (click for larger pictures)

Although it might not look like it... I am not "pushing out" or "sucking in" in any of these pictures... I was really that fat.

Sidenote... Sherry and I just went to the store and I had noticed that my jeans were getting a little big... so we went to American Eagle and I fit into some 34s! So naturally I had to buy them. I can also fit into all the suits that PaPa gave me, and just had my good suit resized, and I can fit into my father's tuxedo, which I havn't been able to fit into since freshman year in college (I wore it to my senior prom).

How would you like to piss on your food before you eat it? Sounds good to me, but only as a last resort!

I think I should buy a computer big enough to act as a server, and start a company that creates and hosts websites for individuals. All they would have to do is call me up, tell me they want a website, describe what they want, and I could do all the domain name registration, routing, email address setup, and design the pages for a nice price. I just don't know what to charge to make it worth my while. I enjoy creating pages and showing people how easy it is to have your own webspace, and I have been doing it for peeps here and there over the years, why not just set it up so it is fast and easy, right. How much do you think is the appropriate cost for such a service? Leave a comment below to let me know.

The reason this recurring business idea is fresh is my brain is due to Heidi wanting a website for a new business she is thinking about starting. I put together a prototype site for her (hosting it on my free geocities account). I used Frontpage for the first time in my life to throw it together in about 1 hour. Check out the "Dig It Landscape" website and let me know what you think.

The only reason I am sharing this site with you guys is because I thought I made some pretty funny comments in news and services sections (I was getting bored making up example text).

So I work at a software company, and I don't mean to sound like a geek-snob, but if you can't work the printer, you should be fired on the spot. It is not that complex, people.

My office is right next to the printer so I get to personally check the stupid people and I have no outlet to tell them... you stupid idiot... stop wasting paper and take your time if it is so damn complicated for you. This one dude literally has to print EVERYTHING 3 times before he gets it right, and it is usually around 30 pages a pop. Can't you read on your screen or email to someone else to read on their screen? You work at a company that protects email systems for goodness sakes. Use the half a brain you have to be more efficient. And stop cussing at the printer when it is only doing what you tell it to do. idiot (that was for the printer).

Fun for the whole family... a Bush and Kerry sing-a-long.

PS I got this a while ago but the site was so slow.... this one is much faster.

I have posted pictures to my flickr account for your viewing pleasure. There are some new ones of our progress todate... and some older ones from a family dinner with Regina's cousins, Pearl and Charlotte.

Holy shit.... I have never been so intensely scared for someone's life as I just spent the last hour. The best T.V. bar none is HBO's Six Feet Under. I have never seen anything like it. It is the only reason that I have yet to cancel HBO. I have been hooked now since season 1 and it is the first time in my life (besides star trek: next generation) in high school, that I have planned events around at show.

The acting is the superb, the story lines are amazing, and visual imagery is wonderful. It is show that perfectly captures so much of the human life... if you have never watched, go rent the season disks from Blockbuster, or better yet, buy them from Amazon.

I wanted to say a big THANK YOU to Shawn and Mandy for helping us over the last few days.  Their priming expertise was very much appreciated! 

Any of you remember him?  Here are some pictures of him (one transformed for Terran Surroundings, the 2nd as a semi):


Anywho... We have been priming the upstairs bedroom and Den over the last two days... reaching the home stretch of our renovation. I touched up last night and we will prime needed areas tonight and paint the ceiling.

Tomorrow we will paint the upstairs walls, and on Sunday we will paint the Den. Then hopefully on Monday, Kent will come back and knock out the trim work.

Then we will be done!!!

...are mothers and cell phones... you are not going to break it, and running out of battery isn't going to hurt anybody... JUST LEAVE THE DAMN THING ON.  The point of a cell phone is to use it, and allow people to reach you no matter where you are. 
 
Both my mother and Sherry's mother are cool enough to have cell phones, yet... neither one of them can EVER be reached by it.  What's the point?!!?
 
Sorry... just had to vent.

Fun with Saddam and his court room antics.

THE POHAOMNNEAL PWEOR OF THE HMUAN MNID

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht
oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist
and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses
and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid
deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Amzanig huh?

I have some pictures that I need to post, but the renovation is going nicely. We have put up our first coat of mud everywhere... and the 2nd coat on most of the den. We should be ready to paint on Thursday and do the trim work on Friday and Saturday, at which point the rooms will basically be done. The carpet will still need to be installed, and furniture added. But the major work will be done.

Didn't do much for the 4th, Shawn, Regina, Sherry and I went over to Pearl's where Shawn and I mowed the yard. Shawn then took us on a 4th of July tour of all the poor sections of Hampton Roads. Since that wore us out, Sherry and I took a veg day and watched a couple of movies and fireworks from the comfort of our couch.

So underneath our house we have been housing some racoons. Apparently they had been playing with our duct work, and I decided to go under the house yesterday because one of our rooms was feeling unusually muggy and their was some water forming near the A/C unit. As Sherry correctly guessed, one of the vents had come loose and was causing our A/C unit to crank way harder then it needed to. Luckily it was a quick fix and the ductworks has been secured and the underneath of the house sealed up.

I have heard about this 4d pre-natal scan... but seeing it is something else!

Check out this link from MSNBC, absolutly amazing.

The upstairs bedroom is done with hanging the sheet rock! The ceiling in the den is done and all the lights have been wired and the speaker wire is done.

I am taking Tuesday and Wednesday off to work on ModelExchange and then we are going to knock out the walls in the den and start "muddin"

Interesting article that I am copying from Gatoreena...

10 Foods you should never put in your body

For those of you thinking about doing the Atkins diet (or any diet for that matter) take some time and listen to this squirrel.

WARNING
This link contains bad words, consider yourself warned.
WARNING

The anti Atkin's Squirrel

So I have purchased the components needed to update the wiring in the Den to be half as cool as I would like. It will have two ethernet (internet) jacks on either side of the built-in entertainment center and in-wall speaker jacks to plug audio out cables from the back of the reciever into.

Pretty cool what you can do when you take the walls and ceiling off a room.

My sister Leigh is going on the second part of their Lewis and Clark expedition Saturday. They have / will continue to bike most of the trail and ending this 2nd phase with a canoe section that will closely match the original trip performed by the Lewis and Clark corp so many years ago.

You can follow their adventures online!

Just to give further context... she works at Western Carolina in their Talent Search outreach department

Good Luck Leigh and Crew! Be safe.

Do you like to laugh at people being klutzes while on national TV?
Yes | No

We looked at this house when we were thinking about buying (Sept. 2003)... it was listed for right around $200k ... talk about markup!

So I am going to try to write this entry so that my mother can understand the importance of the following article.

First... some definitions (well I think I will use analogies):
A protocol is like a language.
  Analogy Don can understand the words that Lois is speaking because they both speak the same language
  substitution Don's cell phone can understand messages that Lois's cell phone are sending because they both use the same protocol

Wireless communication is like radio communication
  Analogy I am able to listen to the radio because a radio station transmits signals over a set frequency and my radio has a receiver that listens on that frequency (I have a range of frequencies that I can choose from). The radio receiver has to also translate the signals into sounds (songs, talk radio, etc)
  substitution My cell phone is able to communicate with other nearby cell phones because the other cell phones transmit signals over a set frequency and my cell phone has a receiver that listens on that frequency (it listens on only one frequency per protocol). My cell phone has to also translate the signals into displayable text and instructions ("You are currently in my area... I am looking to sell a washing machine" or an instruction to the owner of the cell phone, like inform owner that a profile of a potential friend is available if they would like to check it out)

Given those two things and knowing that Bluetooth can be considered a protocol here is an article about a new service in Singapore that allows your cell phone to notify you of strangers in your proximity that are looking for friends or have something that they would like to sell or purchase.

Kent and I hung 12 pieces of sheet rock last night, and will be finishing up with the upstairs bedroom tonight... well finished with screwing up the sheet rock... then comes the tapping, mudding and sanding. For an overview of the process check out Hometime's How To on the installed drywall (drywall, sheet rock, wallboard... all the same thing). It really isn't that hard, but it is nice to have an experienced handy man helping me out. He has all the cool tools. For example, we get to use his panel lift versus have to use homemade T-Braces (or even worse balancing them on the tops of our heads).

I have to run the wiring for the new lighting in the den on Friday night and the speaker wire for the in-wall speakers that we are going to install. I also have finish caulking the new windows that were installed last week... they are insulated and caulked from the inside... just hadn't found time while it is light to get to the outside, and luckily it hasn't rained yet.

We have decided to have Kent create a built-in for the den with a desk on either side and a entertainment area in the middle. We are going to pimp it out with some back lighting and accent lights for the desks. Kent's actual title at the Navy base is carpenter so it should be his specialty... will post pictures when it is all done so you guys can see how good he is.

Ripped out the celing in the Den tonight... and now more nasty carpet either... just need to wire the room for the new lights, getting excited about the progress.

Last night Kent didn't show up for an hour and then called to say his daughter's graduation was last night and they were taking her to dinner.... ummm couldn't you have know that before an hour after you were to show up?!?

So tonight I decided, I am going to take a break and go to a work party (her work, not mine) so I can at least sample the cheesecake I made (I have made 6 in my relatively short life span,and only tasted 3 of them).

I also had to cancel the Tree removal guy until next Thursday, but oh well.

So Saturday we will be installing the windows. Last night I finished running the wiring in the upstairs bedroom, and hooked must of it up to the outlets and light switches... I really enjoy doing electrical work. After I got tired of doing that I wanted to lift heavy things, so I cleaned out the mess in the Den and carried it all out front to the trash container. VERY Exhausting. But the den is now "preped" for us to dry wall it.

Sherry has purchased the new carpet for the Den and we will be picking it up Sunday (or it will be delivered tonight if Mike Hunter is able to fit it into his trailer).

So at my work I am known as "the Java Guy" (for those of you that don't know, Java is a computer language that I have been using to writting software for the last 5 years or so). They call me that because they are all C++ programers. I don't mind, because I feel that getting good in both can only make me stronger, so I am learning my way as best I can. But something that is commonly said is that C++ is so much faster then Java... I found this interesting little article on the subject and although most of you could care less about it... it is my blog so I get to post whatever I want

Here is a picture that my sister Leigh wanted me to post (why she couldn't post it on her own flickr page is beyond me??!?!). It is a picture of Aqua Caliente in Tijuana, Mexico. If I have the story correct, my grandmother aquired this photo while she was there back in the 30's.

This track is pretty significant in the horse racing world, and is of recent signficance because of the movie Seabiscuit. Many of the greatest horses of all time competed at this track, namely Seabiscuit and Australia's dream horse (Phar Lap). It is quite interesting how closly related these two horses are... I think I will go rent the movie Phar Lap this weekend after reading up on this race track.

If you are like millions and enjoy reading up on this blog every once and a while, but don't like to remember to come check it out... you can enter your email address to the right (in the field titled "Enter your email address below to subscribe to Beebe's Thoughts!") and have a free service called Bloglet email you a summary of the day's posts. The service is smart enough to only email you on days that I post something (no email will be sent on days that nothing is posted).

Another tool I want to point out, for those of you that read multiple blogs, is a free service called Kinja, where you can set up a list of blogs that you would like to aggregate and it will provide you with a summary of recent posts for all of the blogs in one place, so you only have to check one website to see if anyone has posted versus visiting all of them. Click here to see my digest of blogs that I check daily.

I am pretty busy as of late. With this construction work going on at my house all of my free time is taken up with the "homework" I have to do between the days that I am paying the "professional", Kent, to help me. I figure it is the wise move to have someone around that does this for a living to help with the renovation work falling into the skilled category. His rate is a pretty fair price, since he is a friend of Pearl's from the church, but I do have to make sure he doesn't talk his way into a lot of free money... because the dude can talk!

Last weekend Shawn and I ripped out the sheet rock, and some of the cardboard sheets that were holding the old insulation in place (wish we had known better, and left them in place)... once we saw how ancient the insulation was, and considering we were not sure if it was asbestos or not, we decided to wear respirators for the rest of the weekend (see Sherry during cleanup). After I was finally able to find a piece of insulation that was intact enough to read, Sherry did some research and found that Kimsul Insulation is not asbestos based, but was in fact popularized by the 1948 movie "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House" in which Cary Grant says, "Wrap your home in blanket of Kimsul."

On Monday night I ripped out the den's walls and built-in book shelves, and on Tuesday finished the prep work for the upstairs and went with Kent and Sherry to Lowes to purchase the sheet rock, replacement windows, and other materials.

Sherry had also volunteered to bring a cheesecake to a work party on Friday, but after her first attempt at cheesecake on my Birthday (story not posted to protect good intentioned, but you can use your imagination) she had to swallow her pride and ask me to make it. So in between loading all of our deconstruction mess (from the street to the container), I whipped up a cheesecake. We decided after hauling all the old drywall to the road that it would be worth the $300 to get a trash container, which was delivered yesterday (only two days late). The good news about them being two days late was that after some angry phone calls asking "where the hell is my container" they gave me the free upgrade from the 12-yard to the 20-yard, which I think we will need anyway.


After the cheesecake was baked... and cracked (pretty upset about that one)... I decided that I had better run out to Home Depot (have to spread the love... can't just spend ALL our money at one home improvement store) to pick up some wiring. I like older homes, but wiring from the 1940's just gives me the willies. So since we have the walls out I figured I would take this opportunity to update the wiring and decrease the fire hazard of older wiring.

So when I got home at 9:30, eat some homemade wings (THANKS REGINA!!) and then made Sherry get out of bed and help me. I know I am sounding mean, but one person could not (quickly):

• make sure the circuit breaker was off


• see if the conduit I was wiggling was the correct one


• and push from one end while pulling from the other end of some tighly run wires which was still running through the insulation and behind the cardboard

So I would like to say thank you to my lovely wife for getting up after you had already gone to bed and helping me last night, even if you were still in your pajamas.

Here is the happy graduate... and his girlfriend, Anne. Check out the pictures from his party on the flickr link. I had a lot of fun and finally got to bond with some of the other male family members. Funny how guys get along so much easier when a game (like horse shoes) is involved.

While out in Vegas I meet up with an old friend from Sengent. We talked a little about work and he mentioned something that gave me an idea for an opportunity. So when I got back I called Gioel and it turned out to be an interesting idea all the way around... so I have agreed to moonlight for the Model Exchange project and do some community maintainance and site development. I am pretty excited about it.

We started a new project in the house. We have torn out the left upstairs bedroom's walls and ceiling in preparation for putting up some new sheet rock and a fresh coat of paint. Pearl has hook us up with a guy from the Church she works at who is charging us $10 an hour for his labor... pretty darn good deal if you ask me, of course that is his rate if I help him. Shawn helped me this weekend and it turn into a bigger project then we had hoped for (surprise, surprise?!) so it took us much longer then expected... and we were not able to get to the Den to start the deconstruction in there.

My sister Leigh has setup a picture site on flickr.

The URL for her photo page is http://www.flickr.com/photos/44124305809@N01/

I have set one up also, my URL is http://www.flickr.com/photos/beebe4/, I will add a link to the right shortly.

Today, I celebrate my 2 year anniversary of being married to my wonderful wife. We have agreed to not spend any money on each other since we just dropped a couple thousand on a very nice vacation to Las Vegas, NV and Scottsdale, AZ... but I decided to get her some flowers anyway. And still trying to convince her that we can afford a decent dinner... maybe at our favorite place, Fellini's (not that same chain as in Atlanta). They have the most amazing salads there, big enough for two man-children to share and still have left overs!

I will post pictures of the vacation soon... you can go to my yahoo pictures to see them now, I just haven't commented on them or organized them very well.

Details as to what we did will be coming soon too. Feel free to leave us a happy anniversary comment below!!!

I will be gone for the next 7 days. Write all about it when i get back... have fun without me.

So when I was in college I worked at a company that was trying to integrate your email, faxes and voicemails all in one place and provided interfaces via any of those 3 technologies (i.e. you could have your emails forwarded to a fax machine by calling up your toll free number and enter the fax number to forward the email to, and voicemails were saved off as audio files and sent to your email, etc...).

Although it was a pretty interesting job, I think my sister Mandy's summer job is pretty much the coolest thing I have heard of. She has a nack for finding this obscure, really cool jobs. She is spending the next few months out in Death Valley (can you say HOT!) working in the library at Scotty's Castle (which is not a Castle, and not Scotty's... but who's counting). While looking into the Castle, I found an archive of some old photos, which I thought were pretty cool. Here are the results of the search from the Online Archive of California for "Scotty's Castle".

I say that she has a nack because she also had lined up some sort of cataloging gig with a company that keeps track of vintage Ringling Brother and Barnum & Bailey posters, but that fell through.

See how fast you can move that mouse by trying to Slap that Ho.

So this lad recently posted a comment to offer his congrats for the recent weight loss. His blog tracks his progress of lossing 50 kg. I wish him the best in his efforts, and will check in periodically to see the progress... he needs to post some pictures... actually so do I... I have some before and after of the fat reduction, but wanted to get svelte before posting.

In honor of our 2 year anniversary coming up (hence the vacation starting on Saturday) lets take a look back at our wedding page on The Knot. Let's also take a look at the place we stayed... since it was pretty nice and I often find myself wanting to go back there.

They have overhauled their website, so here is the new link to Las Brisis.

I had a doctors appointment this morning. It went well. The doctor was impressed with the 42 lbs weight loss, and gave me these numbers from the blood work that had been done the previous Monday.
                           Before   After
Total Cholesterol   221       216
HDL (good)            39       46
LDL (bad)             162       149
LDL/HDL Ratio      4.3       3.3

All in all he was pretty impressed. He wants me to get down to 175 (ideal for my height) and get the LDL/HDL ratio down to 3.0, but 3.3 is pretty good, considering 3.6 is "average risk"

I helped my sister Mandy develop a homepage for school tonight. I love helping people learn HTML ... once they get it they usually find it pretty cool.

I should add that I only helped with the page here... she did the main homepage all by herself.

So my company has decided to acquire a proven anti-spam company, named Brightmail. Here is a decent article about it from Fool.com.

Now this has a direct effect on the product I am currently working on, and when the office found out about it everyone got a little nervous. We are a good 3 months from knowing what will actually come down due to this action, but I will keep you posted. Most likely we will just have to integrate their anti-spam technology into our products... but we will see.

Do we really need a butt-kicking machine?

Seems they found a Rocket launcher near MARTA!!!

I'm sorry, but TV evangelists are just made for us to make fun of. (FYI... Ebaum's world is a great site... check it out)

So I have lost 40 lbs now. Down to 194. I ran three miles on Saturday and lifted weights on Sunday so I am basically sore all over.

Happy Mother's Day Mom! I love you.

Cut the grass today (well Sherry did, which makes me feel like less of a man, but I swear she really does like to do it, and thinks that I am stupid for feeling that way. She likes for me to edge and blow so we get the job down faster), stained and nailed down some 1/4 round onto the stairs to cover up the visible gaps in the stairs, and then helped clean up the house for our guests. Pearl, Shelley & Mike and kids, Shawn & Regina and Jack all came over for a mothers day fiesta. We had Margarittas that 66% of ended up on the floor, and fajitas that were pretty good, although I had mine over salad to reduce the carbs.

All in all a pretty busy day.

Here are some pics of Scott's wedding, credits go to gmol.

Sorry I haven't blogged much... been very busy... will try to get take some time soon and update you on the boring life of Beebe.

So being the dork / stud that I am... I have been asked to put up a website for our class reunion... and without further ado, I present the Stanton College Preparatory School's Class of 1994 Reunion page.

Looks like there will be an expedition to find Noah's Ark atop Mount Ararat this summer.

Here is an interesting concept... buy a disposable camera, put some instructions on it... and give it to a stranger. Then hope they use the prepaid postage to send it back to you and post them on the internet... Check out Randompixel

So Google, who I love, has just "asked" me (it was on blogger.com when I logged in) to beta test their new email system. So far it is pretty cool. But if each of you could send me a short note I would like to test some stuff out... They give you way more space and organize stuff very interestingly (like they always do). Click on the Contact Me link to the right to send me an email.

Thanks

1 yard of compost - 23 dollars...
2 rolls of garden fabric - 36 dollars...
3 yards of mulch - 81 dollars...
Hard working family that helps your yard step it up in the neighborhood... priceless

I would like to say a huge THANK YOU to Mark, Joseph, and Pearl for all of their help and hard, hard work on Saturday (I still wish Joseph had told me he had two baseball games he could be playing instead... I would have insisted that he not come). I would also like to thank Taylor and Caitlin for their help on Sunday. So without further ado, here are some Before - After photos in my Yahoo photos section (click here if you have troubles with this link, and click on the Before - After album).
I could go on and on about the hard work, but I am pleased with the results and will simple let the pictures do the talking. Sorry if I sound conceited... well not really. Come by and see it sometime, we have two beds and would love some visitors.

Here is a press release for a sister product to the one I am working on. The Lotus Domino Security solution is one of three products all grouped under Symantec Mail Security, the other two being my team the SMTP team, and an integrated product for Microsoft Exchange. These three products don't get much press, since sales are usually taken care of by direct visits to corporations, versus a commercial purchase at Office Max.

Pretty interesting little site... if I were looking for a best friend.

I didn't know that you could retire a hurricane name... so basically it is like a reward for the badest hurricanes around, kinda like have your jersey hanging in the Garden. Isabel may be removed from rotating hurricane name list.

Check this out... the Bellagio has lost power now for two days, and they can't fix the problem. Talk about losing some money! I bet they are having a hissy fit over this one. Wish it had happened to us... we could have gotten a free room am I sure!

Check out my friend Darren at the Alamo Dome for Tech's run to the NCAA championship (he is the E, and yes that is a light saber in his hand!)

And no, I wasn't jealous of him for going without me!!!

Here is the image for your viewing ease:

I used to work with him:


He is getting married soon and I just wanted to say best wishes.

So we have secured tickets to see Cirque du Soleil's "O" instead of Mystere, and since we are staying in the hotel where it shows, we got special seating... 2nd ROW (section 104, row B)!!! A little more then I wanted to spend, but how often will I get to see this show on the 2nd Row... not often.

We also secured some outfield seats (section 104, row 23) to the May 31st game between the Arizona Diamondback's and the San Francisco Giants! If you couldn't tell, we are a little excited about this trip.

We have also decided that we would like to check out the Heard Museum, and Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West Museum, while we are in Pheonix / Scottsdale. Any other suggestions would be appreciated... just click on "Add a Comment" below.

Sherry and I have just dropped the Ciz-ash on a little trizip we like to call our 2 year anniversary. We have opted to stay state side versus crossing the big pond. Sherry has wanted to check out the midwest so we are going to the desert. Here is our itenerary:

We are heading out Saturday, May 29th to Phoenix (Sky Harbor Intl.) touching down at 10:29 am. We will then rent a car, and head to our fancy hotel, The Fairmont Scottsdale Princess, where we will unpack, take in some sights, and then go to a "dive-in" movie (movies that you can watch while you are in the pool).

We are going to stay 3 nights in Phoenix / Scottsdale and then head out on June 1st to the Grand Canyon. We are only going to do the drive-by tour, but it should still be a wonderful thing to see. We have alotted two hours or so there since after driving there we have to head over to LAS VEGAS, BABY!!! Sherry and I have decided to continue the pimpin and stay at The Bellagio, since last time I was in vegas I was most impressed with it. We also plan on checking out the Cirque du Soleil production, Mystere, while in town.

After 3 nights in Vegas we are heading home to return to a life of working for the Man.

But needless to say, we are very excited about our little trip. Tony and Jo might also be going to Vegas at the same time so it would be cool to have some friends there to hang with.

Thanks for a great season Tech. Last night was rough... but getting there was an amazing experience, and next year you won't be so shell shocked by the whole experience. Keep up the summer practices and next year will be a very nice thing indeed.

Check out my friend Anne's tale of being born a Tech fan... pretty humorous, cause it's true.

Well I have met my new year resolution.... to loss 30 pounds. I weighed 204 this weekend for the first time in about a decade. I can SQUEEZE into a size 36 pair of pants (been wearing size 40 for the last 8 years), but a 38 fits comfortably. The only reason that I know I can fit into a 36 is because Sherry's "Papa" (pronounced Papaw) gave me around 15 suits this weekend. Everyone was quite impressed with my fashion show when I tried them on. Although my voice was a little higher then normal, I was able to zip everything up and didn't rip any of them. Hopefully in a few weeks they will start to fit a little better.

"Georgia Tech fan George Burdell of Atlanta, cheers for his team before their semifinal game in the NCAA Final Four against Oklahoma State, Saturday, April 3, 2004, in San Antonio."

- from Yahoo!

Georgia Tech to the finals!!!!!!!!! Go Jackets!

Here is a new piece of software that allows you to make free calls. All you need is a set of speakers and a microphone, and this software will enable you to make free calls over the internet. Check out Skype for more details.

I didn't know that I had my own town? And it is even big enough to have it's own newspaper! Check out the The Beebe News.

Check out this essay on a look at a ghost town after a nuclear catastrophe (and give her a break, English is her second language).

excerpt: "In Ukrainian language Chernobyl is a name for a grass, wormwood (absinth) This word scares holly beseeches out of people here. If I tell someone that I am heading in a "dead zone"... You know, what I hear.. In best case- "are you nuts?" My dad used to say that people afraid of a thing which they can not see, can not feel, can not smell and that kills. Dad is nuclear physicist and he also says that of all dangerous things in my life, he can only think about one, which is riding my bike on fifth or sixth gear. In any way, dad and their team work in "dead zone" for last 18 years. They doing researches from the day when nuclear disaster happened. The rest of guys in a team are microbiologists, doctors, botanists.. etc. I was 7 years old back in 1986 and in a few hours after accident happened dad sent us with sister off with the train to Grandmother. Granny lives 800 kms from here and dad wasn't sure if it was far enough for us to stay away of troubles. Communists kept silence about this accident. In Kiev, they forced people to take part in their stupid labor day parade and then people start learning about accident from foreign radio, from relatives of those who died and real panic began in 7-10 days after accident. Dad says, that in those first 10 days exposure to radiation was the most powerful and can not even be compared with what we have now."

Found this nice little write up on our neighborhood, Talbot Park.

By beating Kansas 79-71, Georgia Tech is going to the final four for the first time since 1990!!

To add a little drama to the game, our leading scorer for the season, BJ Elder, hurt his ankle two nights ago. So Jarrett Jack, who Sherry has a crush on, stepped up BIG TIME, scoring 29 points. For more on his dedication to the game, check out how he spent his summers.

So now, GT will face a very strong Oklahoma State team, in San Antonio on Saturday, for the chance to play in the NCAA championship game! Hopefully BJ Elder's ankle sprain will be a thing of the past by then.

GO JACKETS!