Mom - is the worlds best Mom. She liked to kick a path through the house as I grew up (we were good at building piles of stuff :-) and the vacuum cleaner kept it's square of the floor really clean by not moving all that much. Mom collects Elephants - lots of them for years and years. Mom rides a red Honda 350 motorcycle (that used to have flowers on it). She also took a belly dancing class. She was even a religious director in Mars.

Dad - well... Dad is the worlds best Dad. He worked a LOT as I was growing up. He always provided for us, everything we needed was always there. Dad had a lot of jobs - worked on the railroad, manager of gas stations, became a paramedic for the city of Pittsburgh. He was also in the reserves and did disaster recovery. Now he has a great little train shop in my home town (Turtle Creek) - J&J's Railroad. It used to be really hard to talk with Dad, but he's really gotten a lot easier to talk with since the train shop.

I have four sisters and a brother. I'm the oldest kid :-)

Donna is the oldest sister - and she's living in North Carolina on the coast now. She's really enjoying the beech. Donna has a boyfriend - Mark. They like to visit lighthouses too.

Chris is the next - and she's married to a wonderful guy, Greg. They have three cute kids - Sam, Matt and Shanon. They bought 50 acres of woods and are about to close on building their house. I liked drawing with crayons with Sam a while ago (seems like yesterday, but I'll bet that it's been a year by now). Time really flys.

Jennifer is the next - and she's married to a nice guy named Christopher. I believe that they have a baby - he or she is about a year old. Jennifer is currently separated from our family. I know that part of the problem is related to something that happened between Donna and Jennifer (and the fact that it hasn't been resolved). It's also partly because of lots of other details - none of which I can fix. We've been praying for them for the last couple of years. I'd love to see this situation cleared up - and I really do believe that everyone has to forgive in this instance. Nothing easy here - but that won't stop me from loving her and Chris and their child even if I can't contact them in any form at all (they've moved and I don't have their new address or phone number and they wouldn't answer the phone even if I did have their phone number). We need prayer and forgiveness in this area of our family.

Josh is the next - and he's my brother. Josh is a good brother. He was REALLY little while I was going to college. Mom used to let him honk the horn while waiting sometimes during my first year of college. Josh is a gear-head (loves cars, here's a set of pictures of his spiffed up Civic SI) and he does pretty good with computers. He has a few degrees from the community college and we're praying for his continued education at Pittsburgh University.

Izzy is the next - and she's the youngest of us all. Elizabeth currently has a boyfriend (rat's I just can't remember his name) and is pregnant and even has an engagement ring. Izzy used to work at a retirement home and loved helping the retired folks out. She'd even go in on her days off to talk with them. We're praying for her - there are major life changes going on here and it's not easy stuff at all.

I'm going to be fuzzy on some details because my life has been a little busy during the last couple of years. I had been working at a startup for over two and a half years. Great job - learned a lot and shared everything I know. I'm at a different startup right now and it's a nice place. I'm getting questions and chasing down answers for hard stuff - which is good. The drive is a bear and that makes my days long which has kept me away from home more than I'd like. Because of the startups, I haven't had a chance to get home to visit and find out everything that going on and be involved. I'm hoping and trying to plan for a trip to go visit for Thanksgiving this year (it'd only be Maureen and me and the three dogs and maybe even Toute :-)

Life - It's complex, but I'll take every minute I can of it. I'm also looking forward - God is active in our lives. I have a personal relationship with Jesus. That doesn't mean I know anything more, but I do trust in the Lord and He's always come through for us.

Just in case it hasn't been abundantly obvious - I love them all. Gotta tell the world the important things like this.

That's a little of my family - there are lots more folks that I'll be mentioning in the near future :-)
9:57:48 PM  #     comment []  trackback []

9:15:02 PM  #     comment []  trackback []

Who'd've thunk it? Arnold running for governer. I'm finding this California recall election really interesting, especially with as many people running. And the problems are fun to hear about too (how do you have a debate with that many people? Or who should be in a debate?) It's unlike any election I can remember.
2:46:17 PM  #     comment []  trackback []

Here's the part that I found enlightening:

After gameplay has been mapped out, the less enjoyable but critical task is to fine-tune the mathematics. Behind the aura of excitement and riches of every casino game lies a single guiding principle: Through a combination of perfect and imperfect play, payouts to players must total between 90 and 96 percent of the money risked. Any less and it will be shunned by gamblers; any more and the casinos won't turn a profit.
11:29:31 AM  #     comment []  trackback []