"Last Lecture" Professor Dies

It was sad to learn today that the famous "Last Lecture" professor, Randy Pausch died today. You can see the video of his lecture on YouTube. We can all learn a lot from his lecture and be entertained at the same time. It's full of wisdom and funny also. What a great man he was.

MRI Monday Feb 4

First, for those of you that get the blog emailed to you, something happened to the service this past weekend and plogs that were written late last week were not emailed at all. I made the system email them to you just a bit ago. Sorry about that... if you want to get the blog emailed to you, scroll all the way down to the bottom of the webpage to sign up... its free!

I have another three month MRI Monday afternoon at 5pm ET to see how things are up there. Please continue to pray that the tumor is still gone and that healing is continuing. I meet with my Rad/Onc Tuesday morning to review the results. I'll let you know how it goes.

This week is going to be a busy one... I finally have an appt with the VA to have my physical by them for my VA disability claim. And I have a meeting with my pro-bono attorney to prepare for my hearing on Feb 13 to appeal my initial disability rating from the Army. Yes, I will get a disability rating from the Army and the VA. I'll have to explain that at a different time. I'll try to get you caught up on the lowdown this week.

Oh - and what an awesome game tonight. Personally, I was glad to see the Giants get the win over the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII. The Manning brothers get back to back rings. How cool is that?

-Roger

Cathedral and News from a Friend

You know that sometimes I go on trips to get me the heck out of Walter Reed during the week. I saw that there was one going to the Washington National Cathedral this past Wed and I had to go. I have already been there several times, but the place is just so darn beautiful. Every time I go I find a different aspect that is just calling out to me. This time it was the light coming through the stained glass windows. The past few times I have gone in the summer, but this time it is winter. And the sun lays low in the sky for most of the day. From the time we got there until we left, the light shined through the stained glass and painted a heavenly and just beautiful splash of color on the walls and floors. I just could not keep my lens off of the resulting splendor.

We started off the trip by having lunch at this place called Booeymonger. I ordered a chicken cheese steak with light mayo. After a few minutes, they yelled that a cheese steak with light mayo was ready. Well, I didn’t order that, so I waited. Next they got on the sound system and started yelling. Since people that ordered food after me got theirs, I figured they screwed up and I’d better go up there. Sure enough, my name was on the receipt for the cheese steak (why didn’t they just call my name?). I clarified that I wanted a chicken cheese steak and I sat down. But then they kept calling out the cheese steak! I started to wonder if they were ever going to make it right and they did. They called me up and I got my sandwich. But then they called out for the cheese steak with light mayo again… sigh. The sandwich was pretty good and then we headed over to the Cathedral.

We were in a big tour bus and the driver was concerned that he was going to have to park on the street like usual, but they just finished constructing an underground bus lobby, as they call it, with enough room for about 15 buses. You get off the bus and get right on an elevator. They also completed a new underground parking garage. They claim that the Cathedral, which started construction in 1907 and has been continuously under construction, was finally completed in 2007. 100 years of construction!

As I said before, the Cathedral was as beautiful as always. This trip was organized by the Walter Reed Pastoral staff and so we attended a short service (the Cathedral is Episcopal). It was very similar a Catholic service, but easier to understand and follow, IMO. Then we were treated to an explanation of how the huge pipe organ there works and a recital. I wandered around close to that area and snapped some pictures. When the recital began, I wandered away but was still able to hear the organ as its rich sound filled every cavity of the Cathedral. It was quite amazing! After that, a docent gave us a tour of some of the features of the Cathedral and told us some of the history behind it. She focused a bit on the War Chapel and then took us around the Cathedral. After that, it was time for tea!

We made our way up to the 7th floor observation deck and enjoyed some very nice tea along with small sandwiches and other sweet goodies. We really had a great time. I took quite a few photos of everything and they can be found here on Flickr: Washington National Cathedral.

Moving on, I have a few birthdays programmed in my Outlook and I noticed that today was my friend Yoli’s birthday (Jan 31). On my drive to run an errand, I decided to give her a call to wish her a great day. Yoli and I met in the 8th grade, back in 1988, so I have known her for 20 years. She is one of a few people that I still have kept in touch with after all these years. Throughout High School I remember Yoli was one of the only people our age that had a job. She worked at a Christian Bookstore. At the time, I thought that was neat. I also remember how she always seemed to glow... She just has this happiness that made an impression on me and I secretly yearned for. We never talked about it and in 1993 we graduated. I moved to Texas and I stayed in touch with Yoli. One time when I went back to LA to visit, Yoli invited me to church with her. I didn’t know what to expect, but I was excited to go. I remember asking her questions about church and it was then that I realized what it was that she had that I was looking for, the Lord. I mean, I knew who God was, but I didn’t really understand Christianity that well. Shortly after I got back home to Texas, I got a package in the mail. Yoli sent me a bible… my first and very own bible. I still have it.

We didn’t talk that much more for a few years but we did still keep in touch. I don’t remember what led to it, but she and her husband Matt and daughter Kailee came to visit Holly and I during the summer of 2005 when we lived in Arlington, VA. And then Matt was in town in Nov 2006 and came to visit us again for dinner. We had a great time and we have stayed in touch since then. Fast forward to today… Yoli shared with me that she was diagnosed with stage 3b breast cancer about two weeks ago. They are going to treat her with chemo first to see what happens and then most likely perform a mastectomy and go forward from there. She had her first Chemo treatment this past Monday. I don’t want to get into all the details because you can find them here at Yoli’s blog. She’s a sweet gal and I know that she’s going to pull through this. Being a cancer patient myself, I was able to understand some of the feelings she’s having, so that was nice. I prayed for her on the phone and offered to lend my ear to them whenever they might need it. It just breaks my heart to know that they are now going through this trial. Yoli was the first person to put me on the right path to accepting Christ into my life… thank you so much Yoli. I am asking all of you to please pray for Yoli and her family while they go through all of this.

31Oct MRI Looks Good

Just a quick post to update you on my MRI last week. Basically, it looks stable and possibly even better than the one three months ago. But this one was done in a different machine at a different hospital, so the differences may have contributed to that conclusion. There doesn't appear to be any new growth so things are good. All of my doctors and therapists are currently submitting new and up to date information to the MEB. I have no idea if that will slow things down or speed them up. With the holidays approaching, I get the feeling they will slow down, but who knows? Thanks for the prayers!! :-)

Race for the Cure

I really needed to "do" something (like I'm not doing anything, hmmm...school, classes, work, reading, studying, researching, writing, housework, yardwork, trying to exercise, lots of praying!). But I was starting to feel unmotivated in response to my situational depression. And I know when I get like this, I need something to pick me up. Since I don't have time to paint the spare bedroom, work on my family tree research, put flooring in the attic, organize the garage and pantry, replace the crepe myrtles in my back flowerbed, extend the front flowerbed or anything I'd like to do, I needed to do something that would do the trick but not take too much time away from my reading, studying and researching. While I was driving to church this afternoon I heard a PSA for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure and the River's morning show female DJ, Heather, created a team. So I decided to join it. So I'll be walking in the race with the woman who keeps me smiling and laughing in Austin's horrific morning traffic on Sunday, November 4th at 8:00 a.m.





If you'd like to donate click on the logo above and click the "Support Holly" link under my picture. If you'd like to join me, click on the logo above and click the "River Pink Patrol" link under my picture. Guys are welcome to join us. And no, you don't have to wear pink, unless you want to. :)

Sandy Update

It has been a while since I've updated you all on Sandy's battle with breast cancer. She had been fighting hard and still seemed to be fighting hard even a few weeks ago as her husband Mike writes in this email:


From: Mike
Subject: update 9/16/07
Date: Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:16:30 -0500


Hello to all. It’s been a couple of weeks since I have written an update. This one was hard to write so it took me some extra time.

The last few updates have focused on Sandy’s radiation burns and her fight to recover from those burns and the nausea and fatigue she was experiencing. Well, the burns are still with her, but are getting better ever so slowly. She has more area that is less tender although she still has some setbacks occasionally in areas that I thought were healing. And I think we figured out the biggest culprit in the nausea too. Sandy is on so many medications that she and I figured that something must be causing the nausea. I read through all the possible side effects from all the medications and kept coming back to the antibiotic as the most probable cause. So two Wednesdays ago (on 9/5) we talked to the radiation oncologist and told her we wanted to stop the antibiotic. She agreed that Sandy should stop and see if the nausea got better and if the skin continued to not show signs of infection. Sandy’s nausea has been better and her skin does not show any signs of infection at this point. In fact, on Wednesday 9/12 the doctor told us we could come back in two weeks instead of one week. So we have all good news on the burn healing and nausea fronts. Slow and steady but moving forward.

The fatigue improved after the transfusion which took place on August 29th. Sandy still has more energy than she had before the transfusion, but her energy level has been dropping. The downside to the transfusion was that Sandy did not get her weekly chemo that day and by the next week (9/5) it was obvious that the cancer was spreading. Sandy has been through so many chemos and each one worked for a while and then quit working. We had hoped that this last one she was on would be the answer, but it now seems that it is becoming ineffective.

Last Wednesday Sandy received another dose of the weekly chemo along with a dose of the every third week chemo. The thought is that the combination may still have some effect. At the same time, her blood counts have been dropping since the transfusion so the oncologist is giving her next week off. That gives Sandy’s body a chance to recover a little more and allows the doctor to use a more powerful shot to increase her blood counts. Since Sandy got the shot on Thursday 9/13, she can’t have more chemo until Friday 9/28 so that is the next appointment with the oncologist. We tied the radiation oncologist in to the same day for the next skin check so we only have to go into the cancer center once that week.

The biggest prayer request I have tonight is that Sandy is running out of options and we need a miracle to find a treatment that will work and we need to find it now. I know everyone is doing all you can, but I ask that you don’t give up and continue the effort with Sandy. She is such a fighter it amazes me. Thank you for being a part of Sandy’s prayer warrior team.

Love, Mike


We didn't get any more news until Saturday, and it was not good:


From: Mike
Subject: update 9/29/07
Date: Sat, 29 Sep 2007 14:36:34 -0500


Prayer team,

I am sorry to tell you all that the news isn’t getting any better. We consulted with the doctors last week and determined that there are no other options available for Sandy. We contacted Hospice on Monday (9/24) and the nurse made her first visit on Tuesday. We did not go see the doctor this week – there is no reason to put Sandy through that if there is no treatment that can be given. We expected this to be a slow process over several months but we don’t call the shots.

Sandy was doing pretty well on Monday and Tuesday of this week. Nancee and Wanda visited her on Monday and Jessica visited her on Tuesday. They all would have given good reports if asked. Wednesday morning, things started to go down hill - Sandy got considerable weaker and just plain sicker. By Friday morning, it was obvious that she was not getting better. The nurse came over around noon and verified what I thought. She noted that everyone is different and each case is different, but she suggested that I call the kids and tell them to come over as soon as they could. I called Matt and he got a flight in last night. I told Sandy that all the kids were coming home to see her and it seemed to make her happy. She had been fighting so hard all day on Friday that I feared she would miss them.

Kimberly got home from school around 4:30, Jessica came over around 7:00 and Matt got home around 9:00. Sandy perked up each time she saw one of the kids and seemed happiest when all three of them were around her bed last night. She drifted in and out of sleep while we talked to her.

She actually seemed a little better this morning for a while, but is just worn out and tired of fighting. Although we have no way of knowing, I don’t think it will be long now.

Please continue to pray for her that she can make this last transition of her life at complete peace. Thank you for your support and prayers,

Love, Mike


Finally, yesterday, we got an email that was very hard to read:


From: Mike

Subject: update 9/30/07
Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2007 21:36:40 -0500


Prayer team,

As many of you know, Sandy died this afternoon at 4:05 pm.

She spent all night last night talking about all kinds of things, most of which I couldn’t understand. I went to bed around 10:00 and she was resting peacefully. She started talking around 11:00 and kept talking until around 8:00 this morning. She would talk for a while saying stuff I couldn’t understand and then say a few words or names as clear as could be. I spent all night hopping up out of bed to figure out what she was telling me. I am not sure I gained much wisdom, but I think she cleared her thoughts.

This morning I called Wanda, Nancee, and Ray to see if they wanted to see Sandy. I told them that the time was short and she was restless. The Hospice nurse told me that she may have someone she still needs to see. Wanda, Nancee and Ray came over around noon and after they left Sandy’s breathing seemed to become more labored.

She stayed true to being a mother first even as she died. Matt, Jessica, Kimberly and I were with her all afternoon – at least one of us all the time. We hooked up a DVD player and started showing some home movies of when the kids were little. Sandy always said that was her favorite time in her life. She labored to breath while we ate lunch up in the bedroom with her and watched home movies. Every once in a while she would smile at what she heard or saw on the movie. Jessica was alone with her for a while before 4:00. Just after 4:00, Jessica went downstairs as Kimberly went into the bedroom. Sandy quit breathing during that time. I believe she was protecting her kids from seeing her die and I believe she died at peace.

We are going to miss her terribly, but we know that she is in a better place. She was in so much pain and fought so hard for so long, that it is comforting to know that she is at peace.

Once again I thank you for your prayers and support during these last 16 months and ask that you continue to pray for us as we struggle with this loss. We will be making final arrangements tomorrow but tentatively we will have a visitation on Wednesday at Baue funeral home in St. Peters and the funeral will be on Thursday at St. Paul’s in Creve Coeur. I’ll try to update you if that changes.

Love to all, Mike


I don't know why, but today I picked up the phone and gave Matt, my good friend, a call. But there just wasn't anything to say. All I could manage was to tell him that I loved him and to let me know if there was anything I could do. And to let me know if there is anything I can do for him when we both get back to DC. I don't want to draw this post out any longer, but please pray for the whole family. Pray for peace and understanding. I'll have more details regarding final arrangements and will post them.















Kimberly,Matt, Jessica and Sandy in late 2003

Sandy encouraged me during my own battle with her strength and courage. At Matt's wedding, I was an usher and we all wore pink ribbons on our lapels to support her. She was a fighter to the end.

We'll miss you Sandy.

Bad News... Great News... A Rollercoaster Day

I finally stopped in to see my alternate case manager this morning and she pulled up the Radiologist’s report from my MRI a week ago. It still is not a final report and she was unable to print it for me. But I leaned in toward her monitor to read it. The first part sounded like the rest of the reports… mentions of scar tissue, dried blood, necrosis, edema… but the last line, which is the overall impression of the scan read, “cannot rule out progression of neoplasm.”

Without any explanation, that freaked me out. I thought the worst. What did it mean? Was the tumor back? I suddenly felt sick to my stomach. I read it again to make sure I caught it the first time. Yep… I read it right. I felt a little queasy and stood up. She said to me, “do you know what that means?” I said, “I guess it means I’m not out of the woods yet.” She didn’t really say anything back, so I was convinced by her reaction that I was right and I dropped my head and walked out of her office. A female Army Captain that I talk to quite a bit here was waiting to see the case manager next and was seated right outside. She saw my expression and asked me if everything was okay. I didn’t answer. I wanted to cry. She asked me if there was anything she could do. I thought of anything, but didn’t come up with an answer, so I responded with, “I don’t know…” and I walked away. Walking down the halls I ended up at my platoon sergeant’s office and plopped down in his chair. He saw the expression on my face and asked me what was up. I couldn’t talk much… I thought I might cry. So I just told him that the MRI might not be a good one. I really don’t remember exactly what we talked about… I just know that eventually I left and knew that I needed to get something in my stomach so I didn’t feel sick all day.

I hadn’t eaten since 8pm the night before and now it was nearing 9am. I knew I was hungry, but I was sick to my stomach. I went to the chow hall and managed to stuff down a breakfast burrito, some yogurt and a banana. Ii figured that would hold me over for a while. I walked out of the mess hall and wandered into the Chapel area of the hospital on the same floor as the dining facility. Walking in, I noticed there were not very many people around. Nobody seemed to notice me and I felt very alone. I think I was about to walk out when a Major… a Chaplain… asked me if he could help me. I could only manage to get out, “I need to talk to someone.” He looked into my face and immediately opened an office for us to talk in. I sat down, he sat and closed the door and I burst into tears. I sat there uncontrollingly sobbing for a few minutes. I finally cleared my throat and explained what happened earlier to me. But I guess the sadness wasn’t from the shock of what might happen to me, I was more upset at the fact that I could not comprehend why this was happening from a religious aspect. I knew that the Lord does not punish us for our sins… but I felt like I was being punished for some reason. He then stated that he believed, as do I, that sometimes God gives us a little nudge or a reminder to take care of certain things in our lives that we might have been struggling with for a long time. This immediately related to me as I’m sure it relates to many people.

He asked me what else I was feeling and I answered fear. Not fear of dying, but fear of suffering. Physical suffering for me and suffering for Holly and my family if we indeed did have to go through what we already went through. I did not want to go through any of that again. My mind was racing at a thousand miles an hour and I was just going through a whole range of emotions and thoughts of everything in my life. He mentioned some verses from Genesis and we had just studied Genesis a few weeks ago at church. Then he mentioned a few things that very closely related to a book study that we just completed that related to me too. It was just odd that so many things correlated to what I was going through right at that moment. We talked for about an hour and I decided I was emotionally stable enough to leave and go back to my room. Before I left, he handed me his card and told me that he was actually the Chaplain for the Brigade that I am in. I was supposed to go to him anyway and he was at our formation this morning. Freaky.

I went back to my room and finally called Holly to tell her what I had found out this morning. Then the Captain and another Sergeant came by to check on me. They invited me to lunch, but I really wasn’t hungry. They left and I then talked to my sister and my father. All of those conversations were a blur. It’s sad to say, but I was just repeating the same thing over and over again. I just felt like I needed people to know and to pray for me. I called up my friend Buddy and we talked for a good while. It was around that time that the Captain came back and I invited her in for a chat. She sat down and the first thing I managed to get out was, “Do you go to church?” She surprised me by answering, “You’re probably not going to believe this, but I used to be a Nun.” Holy Cow!!! We had another very good conversation that encouraged me and she urged me to call my Neurosurgeon’s cell phone. I had already called his office and emailed him, but never got a call back. She convinced me that he would not have given it to me if he didn’t want me to call… so after she left, I did.

I picked up my phone and gave him a call and he answered. I told him about what happened earlier in the morning and said he’d call me back on his land-line. He loaded up the MRI images on his computer and I loaded them up on my laptop. He told me where to look and we went through the images slice by slice together. This MRI, or ‘study’ as they call it, consisted of 5mm slices of my brain. He was comparing last week’s MRI to the one we did in April. We looked at a few things and did notice some differences. First of all, it looked like the edema, or swelling, had withdrawn about 5mm in one area – that was good. Everything else looked slightly different from last time, but the size of the mass was still 1cm. He said the differences in appearance could be due to how my head was oriented this time compared to last time. MRIs of the brain will never look exactly the same twice; there are just too many factors. He said that what is there could be scar tissue, blood from the surgery, necrotic tissue from the radiation (that usually does not appear until 12-18 months after radiation has completed – it has been 12), or it might be neoplasm, or tumor. The latter not being very likely in his opinion. He said that he didn’t think there was anything to worry about and that he was disappointed with the radiologist’s report and the fact that it has taken them so long to finalize it. He had never heard of the radiologist’s name, ever worked with him or knew who he was, so he didn’t even trust the report. Let me tell you, I’ll trust a neurosurgeon’s opinion of a brain MRI before I trust one from a radiologist that has to interpret MRIs from all over the body. My doctor just works on brains all day, every day. He suggested that the next likely step would to do a PET scan or a SPECT scan to try to determine exactly what the components are up there before jumping to conclusions. Those are very detailed 3D scans that can distinguish different types of tissue. What a RELIEF!!!

I have an appointment with my Radiation/Oncologist Monday and my Neurosurgeon wants me and Holly to stop by. Oh yeah… did I tell you that Holly will be coming out here for a few weeks?!? Yay! So, today has been a very emotional day filled with ups and downs. Can you count how many times God tried to get my attention today? I think he’s trying to tell me something. Thanks for your continued prayer.

By the way, you can have this blog emailed directly to you if you scroll all the way to the bottom of the page on the website and sign up. And if you use Yahoo or Google as your homepage, you can subscribe by clicking the buttons to the right on the webpage. Alright, it’s 11:40pm here on the east coast and its still 90 degrees out. Thank God they fixed the AC in our building today!

Big MRI Tomorrow for Roger

I know; long time, no blog. As you have been reading, thanks to Holly’s posts, I have been quite busy here. I now have formation every Mon, Wed and Fri at 0730, and I have to call in on Tue and Thu before 0800. Right now I am doing regular Physical Therapy (PT) on Mon and Fri at 0930 and Aquatic PT on Tue and Thu at 0930. I leave Wed open to rest. All the running around here in the heat and all the exercise from PT really wears me out. And let me tell you, I’m not just doing the minimum in these PT sessions either. I really push myself way beyond the numbers that they set for me. I want to get better and it feels good to work out. Yesterday, I pushed it a little hard but it didn’t phase me… I was doing this exercise where a therapist and I do a very quick side step while tossing a seven pound ball back and forth… we move at a pretty fast pace. Well, it was pretty crowded and there were lots of canes, people and wheelchairs lining the aisle. We did a couple down and back, but on the third one it looked like more stuff was in the way, and I was so busy looking out for stuff, that I ran into the curtain. Only problem was, there was a chair behind the curtain! So I fell on to the floor.. my right hip hit the ground but my arm hung on to the chair and that helped break my fall a bit. My therapist asked if I was okay and a Navy O-3 helped me up… I announced that I was fine… and we did a few more laps. No pain, no gain; right?

In other news: I recently started attending a group here that meets twice a week called “The Think Tank.” And I am also looking into helping out the newspaper here on post, the Stripe. More on those in another post.

So, here’s the BIG reason for this post: My One Year MRI after the end of my cancer treatment is tomorrow at the Naval Hospital at 1pm. The only problem is.. I can't talk to my doctor about it until Aug 13th! No worries though, after the MRI is done, I'm going to go downstairs and get of a copy of it on CD and pop it into my laptop. After looking at these things for over a year and having my last one to compare to, I think I'll be able to tell if there's anything growing that shouldn't be. And I'll be able to get a copy of the Radiologist's report in a few days to confirm. I know God has been good to me and I feel pretty peaceful about it and that it is going to be a good scan. But I might have trouble sleeping tonight thinking about it. Please pray for me... please pray that I get some rest and that it is clear. I can't tell you how excited I am to have this year behind me since I finished Radiation Therapy. I can't wait to finally declare to the world that I, Roger Mommaerts Jr, am a cancer survivor.

Sandy Update; Freezing Wx and Return Date

I haven’t updated you on Matt’s mom, Sandy, for some time now. Here are the highs and lows…

• 11/18/06 – Completed radiation but white blood count (WBC) is too low for chemo.
• 11/20/06 – WBC is good enough for chemo for following week. All chest tumors are now gone. Skin is red and peeling like crazy and mouth and nose are sore and red.
• 11/27/06 – WBC still good and got chemo. Still peeling but still no chest tumors.
• 12/12/06 – WBC too low for chemo. Still red and sore from radiation.
• 12/18/06 – WBC still to low for chemo.
• 12/20/06 – WBC borderline for chemo but doc approves it.
• 01/03/07 – There is concern that the cancer has spread to the other good breast. Biopsy and MRI next week. WBC is extremely high – got chemo but now there is a lump in right arm.
• 01/17/07 – 2 of 3 biopsies are positive for cancer. MRI results were improvement in the left armpit area but spreading to the right breast and armpit area; also cancer in the left chest. Doing old IV chemo and a new IV chemo and a new drug that technically isn't a chemo but is an antibody type drug that doesn't allow the cancer to form new blood vessels to feed it (I recently heard about that in the news.) Off of oral chemo. There are plenty of new side effects with the new meds, but she’s is feeling pretty good regardless.

It was a surprise to everyone that the cancer has spread, and although it is a downer, it certainly has not crushed their resolve to fight this thing off. She still has the will and as long as we all do and keep on praying and sending our best wishes to her, she’ll make it. Please keep praying for Sandy, Mike and the rest of the family.

As for me, I’m feeling fine. I have really not been very anxious at all recently regarding more seizures. But I have made a few changes in the way I conduct day to day things. For example, I no longer walk right next to the drop off to the tracks on the Metro. I stay a good distance away from the end of the platform until the train slows down. The last thing I need is to have a seizure and fall onto the tracks like that dude in NYC did! And now that I'm physically feeling better again, I've started working out in the gym again doing weights and cardio. Sure feels good to get moving again!

We got about 1.5 inches of snow yesterday – it started around 1pm and stopped around 8pm. Then we had freezing rain during the night. It is nice to finally get some snow here. Many of you heard about all the snow and ice in Austin last week. My good friend Jill took some pictures. Click to see those pics: Austin Blizzard 2007. She also came to DC back in Dec for a conference and we had a chance to hang out a bit. Click this link to see those pics: Jill in DC. We had a really good time. Jill, it was great to see you again!!

Lastly, Holly and I have picked a date to leave DC and head back to Austin. We’ll be driving out of DC on Saturday, March 3, 2007… more details on that to follow soon.