Hello!

As we all remembered Nate yesterday and tried to think of all of the fun things we have all done together, it was difficult not to feel sad and miss him. If he could see us today and understand are feelings I know he would be touched and feel the love we all have for him. I had hoped by now missing him would be less painful, but it is not, it is just different. Here's to Nathan and all that he was to all of us!

My sister has worked as a team mom, helped out with a variety of sports for kids over the year. Her company has a program which pays their employees for the time they spend with kids and volunteer programs. The check they receive is given to their favorite non profit which is Nate's Fund at the Colorado Rush, $690.00 will go to Nate's fund in about two weeks.

Thank you all for calling the Dove Inn and making reservations. I think Ruby and Frank will be staying with you as well. The wedding is coming along great and having fun putting things together. See you all soon in C-o-l-o-r-a-d-o. Yikes, it is just around the corner.

Annisquam for Sorrell and Dianna will be August 4TH give or take a day. Sorrell will be staying back east for about 3 weeks and Dianna, well who knows. I have joined the unemployed ranks as of May 16TH. I was laid off due to 5 homes cancelling due to the new home slump. We only build 30 homes per year so that was a big hit. I may stay a little longer than a week or just a week depending on the new job. At this point, I am thinking about working a temp. position and continuing to see my design clients and then look for employment after Annisquam. Not willing to give up Annisquam! Besides with the wedding, summer and all of those things happening this may be a great break.

Brad, wishing you a quick and healthy recovery!!!

Take care and enjoy the change of season!

FASTER THAN A SPEEDING BULLET

WOW! I am going back into the hospital on Friday, May 18th. I saw Dr. Vernadakis on the 9th and he felt that I was healed well enough to move onto round 2. We were hoping for something in 2 to 4 weeks but it turned out there was a cancellation so away we go! I am very excited as this means that we are continuing along the path to a well Brad and it also increases the chance that I will be recovered enough to attend Kaela and Justin's wedding! If I hadn't taken the Friday date, the surgery scheduling nurse said it would be June before I got in.

This procedure, while encompassing a larger area is much more straightforward. Dr. V is scheduling 2 hours for surgery as opposed to the 8 hours last time. We are going to do it in 2 stages again. Removal (debreeding) and probably 5-7 days in the hospital and then home for 2 weeks with VACUUM bandages and then back in for grafting and another 5-7 days in the hospital.

I am also going to request that I get sent back to Southeast Sixth Floor for my recovery. I know all the nurses (and to be honest have a bit of a crush on one of them). She is 40 so it is more a crush than a fantasy! Maybe that is one of the reasons I am looking forward to going back.

Well that is about it for medical news. Mom and I had a great weekend staying and Jeff and Maureen's Annisquam digs. The weather was beautiful if perhaps a tad cool but the ocean views and sunsets were awesome. We had a lovely Mother's Day cookout at Deb and John's along with John's mom Dorothy, brother Kevin and his wife Candy.

Mom had her seminar on Japanese Art and I worked on the Doug Obey for Massachusetts State Representative campaign today. There is a special election tomorrow to fill a vacant seat. We are very confident as we are running against a democrat and an independent who has already said that if elected he will join the democratic party so he are hoping they split the vote and we elect the 24th Republican out of oh about 200 seats on Beacon Hill. Well, you have to crawl before you can walk.

Link Added

Just wanted to let everyone know that I added a link to Dick Marston's great genealogy site. I am sure many of you have already visited the site but I figured this would make it handy.

Return from the sunny south

Annisquam gave us a sunny and relatively warm welcome home yesterday. I'm pretty much unpacked, but somebody else has the hall littered with moving detritus. The drive back from Sanibel was easier than the drive down (the only accident backup was less than 10 minutes), but the cats were a lot more vocal over their displeasure in being caged for hours on end. The overnight at the Red Roof in was uneventful and bagging Troika in the morning meant only holding up the king sized mattress and box springs while I snaked all the way under a bed, which had over the years apparently stymied all attempts to vacuum the carpet, to grab him. The overnight at John's sister's outside of D.C. was more eventful. John spent the night in the ground floor family room so the cats wouldn't be too frightened about being in a strange place (again). We blocked the stairway with two screen door packing boxes, one crosswise and one upright. However, the cats didn't stay with him. Since we were planning to leave at 05:00 we went to bed early, but at 12:20 John was upstairs trying to corral Minou. Later (or should it be earlier) I thought I heard Kobn thumping up the stairs, but pried my eyes open to see Troika's fluffy tail swish by. I chased him back downstairs, picked him up and threw him over the blocking wall. Then Tache came up for a visit. When I took her back down, I saw that she had wedged her way out between the packing box and the wall. I tightened that up. Then it was Minou's turn again. I gave up trying to sleep the rest of the night. In the morning Kobn and Baby were easy to capture and cage and Tache and Minou took only a couple of rounds around the dining room, but poor Troika had to be chased round and round the family room, then up and down stairs twice after he jumped the 6 foot barricade out of the FR and later back in. He finally gave up and let me pick him up and melted into the pillow in his cage. After being back a couple of hours, all of them seem to realize they are home and safe. Even Troika, after the trauma of yesterday's chase has let me walk up to him and pet him. They are complaining about being stuck inside. They loved the screened porch in Sanibel, as did I.

Happy birthday to Justin on Sunday. How did you break all those screws?

Brad, how come April 22 comes after May 7? Otherwise, I really appreciate your birthday list.

Beantown Update

Hey everybody. A couple of things going on. I met with my plastic surgeon, Dr. Vernadakis on thursday and he is pleased to report that I am completely healed from my initial surgery. I am meeting with him again on May 9th and we will hopefully plan a date for my next round of surgeries. This one will be to take care of some spots on my thighs, a couple of small spots around my original surgery area and the rather large area on my abdomen. This one will be a bit more straightforward as it is in a relatively flat area. We are probably going to do it in two stages again with first the removal of the infected skin followed by a short healing period and then skin grafts over the affected area. I will let everyone know when I have an actual date.

As most of you know I have been doing a lot of blogging during my recuperation. I got an e-mail from ThePolitico.com that one of my submissions "We Should Be So Lucky" from my political blog www.azamatterofact.blogspot.com has been picked up for publication in the printed version of ThePolitico for next week in their commentary section. Apparently it gets delivered to all the Hill offices as well as distributed free in DC. Who knows if anybody reads it but I think it is kinda cool that my first submission got chosen for publication.

I also got invited to watch the Republican Presidential Candidates debate at John McCain's New Hamphire office on Thursday. (I think making a donation probably had something to do with it.) But I think it will be a fun way to watch the debate and may give me an opportunity to make some contacts.

Well, I guess that is about it. Best wishes to all.