Timeline Part 2

picking up where we left off here

1987: Met future wife #1 and decided on Economics as a major after taking an investment class. There should have been some sort of Economics of divorce class offered so that I could truly have had a valuable education.
1988: Moved to Baltimore and transferred to UMBC to finish Econ degree in 4.5 years
1993: Switched careers from accounting to computers. Bought 2000 Park Place house in Woodlawn. Got married in Ellicott City, MD 10/16
1996: Expecting child #1 - it's a girl.
1997: 4/15 - two weeks late, an induced Morgan Savannah enters the world at Howard County General hospital. 2 congenital heart defects, an ASD and VSD, prevent her from going above her birth weight and open heart surgery at Johns Hopkins saves her life.
1998: Expecting baby #2
1999: Ethan Luke shows up - also 2 weeks late. 7/22
2000: Y2K comes and goes with a whimper - big changes personally - separated.
2001: Justin Henry arrives 5/1 and scares the doctors, he's so big at birth. Twin Towers fall - I'm watching from F&G Life Insurance on Fleet Street.
2002: 11/23 - wedding #2 in Columbia, MD and a real honeymoon in Cozumel, MX
2003: our first true collaboration, Owen Christopher finally appears and comes home in a hurricane. Signs of things to come.
2005: Expecting twins, laid off from ABS Capital and travel to Mexico to rescue Grandma from the clutches of the Mexican healthcare system on the space of two weeks. Start at LCG Technologies.
2006: July 5th - Sabrina Violet shoots out like a rocket on a greased slip 'n slide. Simon Keith is extricated 3 minutes later trying to flee the scene.
2007: Osiris comes calling and the best, most difficult job I've ever had begins.
2008: I turn 40 and then things go from bad to worse to truly horrible. Quite possibly the suckiest year of my life with minor exceptions. We shall see.
2009: Debbi finishes first full year of undergrad work at Towson on Dean's List, kicks butt on her MCAT test and applies to University of Maryland Medical School. Gets clean bill of health a health scare and then we get a cockatiel. 5 baby ducks show up in the yard.
Life takes yet another unexpected turn.

"That's What She Said"

This is my favorite teacher note since this one.

Reason for detention: another student made the comment "you need to push it in further" (innocent comment) and Dalton added "that's what she said"

Highlight of this past week: Simon got carsick

Falling In Love In a Coffee Shop

Owen Interview Part 1

A few minutes with Owen

I can't for the life of me

figure out what Owen wants. He keeps saying he wants a bat snake on a CD, but honestly I don't think he even knows what a CD is. His brothers are asking me to help them burn a music CD. Googling batsnake comes up with these images.

Gary "BabaBooey" Dell'Abate completely blows Mets first pitch

Shadow Boxing

In the middle of running errands and chauffeuring athletes, bibliophiles and snake lovers around, I was reminded of one of the simple joys of childhood. Ethan was bobbing and weaving in the parking lot looking down and punching at his shadow, then mine and his brother's. Justin joined in and for a moment I looked down and thought of how many hundreds of times I had punched and stomped on my own shadow, too. I may have thrown a punch today.

Got Milk?

Watched 'Milk' last night and it just didn't have that feel-good Hollywood ending I was looking for. Kind of a bummer actually. Sean Penn was really good in it. They should give an Oscar or something.

Daddy Goes To School

Owen, remember that day I went to your school and had 14 Blackberry's in all the pockets of my cargo pants and a laptop half-tucked into my boxers? I'm glad you're back today - we enjoyed visiting with your alter-ego, Jack from Jupiter, but it's nice to have my boy home again. And yes, I remember that you hate school and school sucks.