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With the shortened work week, Ellen decided to sleep in a little today. As I saw the sun come up, I knew it was going to be a gorgeous day. Little did I know how gorgeous it would turn out to be. Ella had slept the entire night in her crib without waking up at all. I think she's still pooped from her parties this past weekend.  Since both ...

My grandmother holding my sister and I in 1972. I love the smirk on my sister's face. As you know from my post last week, I attended my grand mother's memorial service in Boswell, Pennsylvania a couple days ago. It was a rough visit and one of the few I've made to my father's hometown in a long while. I was given the nod to write an eulogy for my ...

As you may have seen from my Twitter or Facebook updates earlier in the week, my grandmother passed away suddenly a few days ago. She lived a great life to the ripe old age of 90, but her death was sudden due to a freak accident that occurred in Ohio. Well today I flew from Seattle to the middle of nowhere Pennsylvania to say goodbye to her. ...

Those of you who receive the news letter for Climb For Kids, already received this message, but I am posting it here again for those who might have missed it. I may try to send out updates via twitter, but coverage on the mountain is very spotty. Wish us all luck! ----------- Friends, The Climb For Kids 2008 Mt. Rainier Climb is upon us. Chad ...

It's been a while since I blogged. Sheesh have I been busy and on top of that my Tablet PC died. It had a good run for 4 years, so it was about time I replaced it.  Yes, the rumors are true, I did buy a Mac to replace it, but I'll save that story for another post. Next week, Monday thru Wednesday, 4 other climbers and myself will be ...

For those of you who have been following the news or my twiiterfeed, you'll know that Randy Pausch, acclaimed professor from my alma mater, finally succumbed today to the pancreatic cancer that has been haunting him for 7 months. I don't claim to know Randy personally, but I do know the person inside the man. I did happen to meet Randy at an ...

You might remember that we recently took a road trip in an effort to understand Emma's tragic death and to search for answers why. As with each trip I've taken across the US, I stop at bizarre and interesting places to get the flavor of the region. While in West Texas, we stopped at the Loneliest Prada Store, outside of Marfa (really Valentine), ...

As part of Emma's donation, we'll be placing a plaque on or by the new swing set.  It's turning out to be much harder to figure out what to say than we thought, so we'd love your help.  The parameters: 10 words or less No ''memorial language'' May include one date We'd love to get a Yellow Submarine and/or sunshine reference ...

When I signed the girls up for Microsoft benefits at the end of last year, I was offered the chance to get child life insurance.  I was leaning against it until I saw it was only a couple of bucks a month.  Given that I wouldn't even notice the change in pay, I decided to go ahead and sign up.  At the time I had no idea things ...

As I mentioned in my eariler posts, my climbing partner and good friend Armand summited Everest this past month. Emma died while he was in Nepal, but I emailed him to let him know what was happeneing. I also told him Em would be looking over him during his summit attempt. He was able to read the mail but was unable to respond. Well, Armand got up ...