Checking Out Boats

Madeline is reportedly enjoying her vacation, as is Katie. She always seems to know to smile when a camera comes out, too.

Madeline's First Beach Adventure

What better place to check out the beach for the first time, than in Naples, FL, in the middle of winter? The good news is that she loves the beach and took to playing in the sand right away. She also, with help, walked up to and into the ocean without so much as a whimper (about waist-deep). I think she's going to like LBI this summer! :-)

Thanks to Katie's nifty, new camera phone I got these pictures a few moments ago:

Katie and Maddie Off to Florida, Last Treatment Stage

My final stage of treatment (in the short-term at least) for my thyroid cancer is tomorrow morning when I take a 100 mci dose of I-131 radioactive iodine. Since I can't be around babies for awhile, Katie and Madeline are flying down to Florida for 10 days. :-(

Should be exciting to hear how Madeline did on an airplane for the first time! I love these real-time flight tracking tools. I can see that they are in the air, flying at 31,000 feet, flying at 524mph, and that they'll arrive on time. The site even shows a plot of the plane's flight plan and where over the U.S. the flight is located. Cool stuff.

Sager Wedding

Todd and Greta finally tied the knot and are now Mr. & Mrs. Todd Sager. Congratulations to them, of course. They threw a fun black tie affair downtown. Here's a picture before we headed to the wedding.

Some Mobility

Madeline hasn't enjoyed being on her tummy so much. She's getting to like it more and crawls backwards and in circles. He also appears to have accidentally sat up on her own this past week. She can now regularly pull herself to stand and shuffle around while holding onto something. And while on her belly she now lifts her butt up and rocks a bit on her knees and hands. Not sure if that means crawling is next or walking is next.

She has a new toy, which makes noise like all the rest.

Cool News - Baghdad - Bronze Star

I saw my friend Vicki over the weekend at our MBA residency. Her husband Brad was recently transferred from Afghanistan to Baghdad. When he was in Kabul, I and some folks at work, helped his unit out with a donation of cabling tools (they are a communications unit). Vicki tells me Brad has been honored with the Bronze Star. Pretty cool and quite an honor!

Brad is pictured, on the left, here in Baghdad recently. Congratulations!

From the Archive - Post 9/11 Pictures

I was just digging through some old pictures and came across the photos from New York City. I took these on a trip to NYC with Sam Lee to see the devastation and offer (in vain) some sort of assistance. These pictures speak for themselves.

http://www.thelivingoods.com/nyc09152001/web/