..........

Life
sometimes it feels like everything is happening all at once...
because it is.

To say that the past few months have been intense would be a mild understatement. We've had some highs, and some serious lows as of late. But closure, even when it isn't what you want, can at least help make life a little less hectic. If you want, please feel free to skip these first few paragraphs, it's all pretty downer stuff (I'll take no offense, I promise)

March and Early April - in mid March my uncle Chuck went to see the doctor because he hadn't been feeling well. The following week he found out that he had liver cancer. He met with doctors, and they recommended chemo. It was later revealed that it had actually started in his pancreas, but was a rarer form of cancer that may be better treated with chemo.

He had started chemo in late March.

We came together as a family, we planned meals, we got him a new recliner, we took care of his cat, we felt the love...

Sometimes love is not enough

Unfortunately his liver was too fare gone. He passed away 3 weeks later on April 6th.

About the same time, my boss at work left to fight his battle with Urothelial (bladder) cancer. Fortunately that's fairly treatable and everyone at the Help Desk looks forward to his speedy recovery.

Jaime didn't get the job at Childrens. It sucks that their study won't go as well, but whatever, that's their mistake and we're over it.

Begin more uplifting (and totally randomly spaced) blog post...

Jaime and I had dinner at Teatro Zinzanni back in March - good food, great wine, drag queens, and my awesome wife - loved it!

We had a great time at niece Kendal's Easter concert, and she's a great performer -


I've been promoted! When I return from our trip to England/France I'll start training for my position as a Help Desk Level 2/Escalation analyst. It's not huge, but it's a step in the right direction for me, and I'm starting to feel like the 2+ years that I've worked my tail off at the Help Desk are starting to pay off.

Went to Opening Day at Safeco field with Deke and Miranda, and despite an M's loss, had a lot of fun.

Earlier this month, we had to take the Sportwagen to the shop because the check engine light came on - but you know what? I didn't care, because our new Tiguan has reached port! I've been tracking its journey from Emden, Germany on the "Cygnus Leader". Nerdy, eh? The ship arrived in San Diego this morning and offloaded its cargo, including "Tigger" (Jaime has already named our car and we don't even have it yet!).

(Somewhere inside that boat is our new car)

Holy Crap! Barring continued volcanic activity, Jaime and I leave for London in a week and a half! We've been planning this trip for about a year, and it's finally almost here. That reminds me, I need to buy some power adapters! We've got our Eurostar tickets, a hotel reservation in Paris, a new prime lens for the camera, and all kinds of plans...But the most fun will be to spend two weeks with niece Isabel and nephew Peyton!!!! See you guys soon!

We had a wonderful visit with Jim and Judy two weeks ago! They came out because we've finally decided to actively look for our own house and they came to offer advice/guidance. Their visit was also a great excuse to hold a barbecue, and since Jim was here, the weather was spectacular. No solid leads on the house front yet, but we're not under a timeline, so we're taking it slow.

So, that pretty much sums up the past two months. As usual, I've just kind of dumped out my thoughts into one gigantic post (no one's forcing you to read the blog, mmmkay?) We're still working on plans for a "Summer of 30" party. Stay tuned. I hope everyone is doing well, and if you haven't heard from me lately, forgive me.