On Thursday night we went up the road to check out the Greek Festival. It was pretty cool, great food, fun music and old men dancing. We shall have to plan a more social event next year.

On Friday night we went out with Aimee and Mike Barham for dinner and then a couple of drinks at Scotty Quix were Shawn and Regina meet up with us... Regina's BFF Cathy was in town also.

On Saturday I got up and played golf with Shawn and Taylor Michael Pope. Yet another person who I will help learn to play golf and who will end up being better then me... I really should play more.

On Sunday I had a soccer game in the morning (see previous post) and then we went to Nanny Tureman's to help her celebrate her birthday. When we got done with that we went to Red Robin with Shawn, Regina, Jack and Pearl.

Pearl's last chemo treatment is Tuesday!! So we are going out to celebrate this weekend, since she will be feeling ill for Wed-Thurs, most likely. She is very excited.

I am playing in the Over Thirty Soccer Leaugue in Virginia Beach. It is a pretty competative leaugue since they mix up the teams every year. Going into this mornings game we were 2-2-1, but spanked the team this morning, 6-0. I had one shot on goal, but missed wide, and had one assist to a teammates finishing header. You gotta love it when you win.

Click link to see "I never copped a feel"

Pearl is almost done with her post-operative Chemo Therapy. She had a CEA test last week and the results came back early this week. When she was initially diagnosed she had 9.8 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL) of blood. Normal results for adults should be less then 5 ng/mL if they smoke, and 3 if they don't (HINT HINT... YOU ARE STUPID IF YOU SMOKE). Levels higher then 10 are bad news.

Pearl's latest results were 1.8 ng/mL!

As for the rest of her treatment, she is so excited to only have one more chemo treatment left. This version of the therapy, which is different then the drug they used for the pre-operative therapy, has been much tougher on her system and typically causes nausea to the point of throwing up. She has handled it well, and true to her nature has shown very little signs of weakness. She chooses to have some pajama days, but is typically out in her yard tending to the flower beds and grass.

Her white blood count was a little low so she does need a shot to help bring that up. I don't know the information on that right now, but it can be pretty painful and she is getting it this weekend (happy mother's day, right!?).

All in all, the doctors and her are very pleased with how things are going.

My good friend Ryan McGraw has asked me to be in his wedding next March. I am very excited about it, and it doesn't hurt that the wedding is in Mexico (where Sherry and I got engaged). He is marrying a beautiful girl named Anne (who sometimes checks in with some comments on this site). You can check out some details and pictures on their wedding website (nice job on the flash, Anne) hosted on wedding window.

And since I am not just in the wedding but the best man, I get the honor of taking him to see boobies.

Going to Florida tomorrow, and very excited. 3 days at the beach hanging with the family... and two days off from work... can't complain about that.

Here are some photos of Olivia the newest member of the Mccammon family.

So my friend at work just showed me a site that translates any page into a eubonics readable site (it's called gizoogle):

Here is what my site would look like if I were cooler.

My friend from college, EN (short for Edwin Noah, but said as you would Ian), works for GE, setting up some big plants or something or other. Anywho, he was recently transfered to a city near Rome and sent out the email below.

A little backgroud, Ewa is his polish wife and they have been living in Italy for about 2 years now.

I've been assigned to Civitavecchia, on the coast, near Rome, for the next two weeks.

So I drove through Rome today, around it really on the GRA (The Rome Ring). Traffic was normal, but the attitude in Italy is hardly such. On Saturday night when the Pope died, we had just finished dinner and were walking through the old town to a bar and people were milling around outside of the church. I was with the English teachers and when I asked the barmaid if the Pope had just passed, she said "Si, dieci minuti fa." ~Ten minutes ago~. They were holding a mass/vigil for the Pope when he passed. EVERY tv channel showed nothing but footage from St. Peter's, Pope montages and related news.

On Sunday, the only thing on was Mass from St. Peter's Square. They suspended the soccer matches for the weekend. Rome added something like 40 trains a day funneling into the city. I could not get a reservation where I wanted and am therefore staying on the coast away from the city for work this week. MTV has been showing nothing but inspirational-type videos for the last two days, streaming text messages across the bottom.

I had immediately texted Ewa when I heard the Pope was dead. She heard the announcement in between songs, inserted insignificantly it seems, between country hits on the Armed Forces Network radio station in Frankfurt. Poland, according to Ewa's sister Hania, has shutdown. The mourning period has commenced and will remain until the funeral. Hania and her boyfriend, Sebastian, are considering coming here for the weekend.

Ewa is flying back from Frankfurt on Wednesday, into Rome. My sister Becky is traveling to Rome on Thursday to stay with us in Civitavecchia and she and Ewa are going to go to the funeral on Friday. I, of course, am working, but they will be in my thoughts. Even my atheist self was in tears watching the coverage on Saturday night. Truly the biggest scene to hit Rome in 27 years is happening in the next few days. It's a very interesting time to be here.

E.N.

More Georgia Tech and Norfolk news:
Norfolk is number 34 on the list of unwired (WiFi) cities
and surprisingly (and sadly)
GT is number 100 on the list of unwired colleges.