Off to WI via KC

So we're headed to KC tonight.  My little sis is pregnant and has a 2 y/o daughter so she wasn't keen on flying or driving by herself so we're headed there tonight and driving to Wisconsin tomorrow.  A nice silver lining is that my sister has an ultrasound scheduled for tomorrow morning so we'll be the first to find out the baby's sex! No real news from home.  Mom says dad is the same old dad and isn't showing any outward signs other than the impending surgery.  He's getting a specialized MRI sometime this week as the doctor is being cautious because, with no major symptoms, we have the "luxury of time" to figure out the best way to attack this thing.  2 hospitals in the state have this toy, so whoever can get him in first wins.  Other than that, my parents are just putting things in place at work, home and other places for what will undoubtedly be a very different next 3-6 months than what they expected.  Well thanks again for all the thoughts and prayers, it means a lot.

When "How are you?" is a tough question.

So I've never had an experience like today where "How are you?" was such a terrifying question.  People would ask and I sort of felt obligated to be truthful, so figured I'd do the social media blast and get it out there.

Got a call from my mom yesterday letting me know my dad had been hospitalized.  He had fallen a few times the last couple weeks and a CT scan discovered a brain tumor.  He's in good spirits and not displaying any real outward symptoms, but obviously has a long road ahead.  The tumor appears relatively large and fast growing in the frontal lobe.  The latest test today was encouraging, showing that the blood vessels feeding the tumor are all surface and don't go appear to go deep.  He's being discharged today and will head to Madison, WI middle of the week for a specialized MRI to map the tumor so they know what's good and bad so when they go to cut it out they can remove as little good stuff as possible.  They'll meet with the surgeon at the end of the week to come up with the final plan.  They're most worried about his speech and left leg with where in the brain it's located, but you can learn to do those again through rehab.  Oh, and in all the testing they found an aneurysm too, but that's actually a low priority and something to be tackled for another time, guess when it rains it pours, but better to find it now.

My mom is a nurse who used to work neuro and he's got one of best brain surgeons in the country, so he's in good hands.  The surgeon was #1 in his high school, college and med school class, so I guess he's probably a pretty smart guy.  It appears brain surgery is probably my dad's near future, we'll know more in a few days.  I'm still in ATL, but no doubt some quality time in Wisconsin is in my future, probably leaving Tuesday.

He still has his sense of humor.  We were supposed to leave for our annual father-son Las Vegas trip tonight and he seems more upset about missing that than anything.  Mom also said she wanted us to be sure to get up there prior to surgery due to the risk of "complications" to which I heard my dad joke from the background, "Yeah, like I could die!"  My family has kind of that morbid sense of humor in tough times.  So under the jokes I can tell a lot of worry from my mom under a strong exterior, but my dad and family are all trying to stay upbeat.

My prayer requests are that this can be benign, easily removed and that my dad stays positive and strong.  Also for strength for everyone involved as my little sis is pregnant after the last ended in miscarriage, my mom has a history with heart disease and, oh yeah, Pam and I are trying to plan a wedding too, so it wasn't like stress was low to begin with.

Well there's the update.  When I'm worried I tend to shut down a little, so if I seem a little quiet, cut me some slack (some of you will probably call it an improvement!)  Yep, in bad times I still keep my sense of humor too, wonder where I get that from :)  So I'll try to update where I can, but we're not expecting a lot of news for the next few days.

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers!

Shoebox Challenge

So here's my challenge this Christmas season to all my family and friends, pack a Samaritan's Purse Shoebox for every pair of shoes you purchased this year.

If you're not familiar with Samaritan's purse one of the great things it does is Operation Christmas Child. It takes shoeboxes filled with donated items like toys, toothpaste, art supplies, books, etc. and distributes them to the less fortunate around the world for Christmas. They also add a Bible stroybook to each box. You specify the age and sex best suited for the box. Look here for more info: http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/OCC/

So that's the challenge, pack those now empty boxes with gifts for a less fortunate child, for me that means 6 boxes. I figure if we're wealthy enough to buy so many shoes we can give a child Christmas and the message of Jesus each time we do. There are drop-off locations almost anywhere and National collection week is November 14th -21st http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/OCC/Drop_Off_Locations/.

So will you take the challenge with me?

Renewable Fuel?

Was reading and article about making fuel from waste food like sausage http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/8610666/Companies-turn-to-sewage-taramasalata-and-sausage-rolls-for-power.html. Read one time that in the US about 40% of the food we produce is thrown away, so at least this way scraps go for something. My company (www.hydrodynamics.com) actually has a biodiesel arm (www.advancedbiofuel.net) so this topic is actualy near and dear to me. The throwing away of so much food also just bugs me with so much starvation in places like Africa. I always feel awful when I let leftover or fresh produce spoil. I remember I used to own a diesel car and I sometimes drove it on biodiesel made from chicken fat and my tailpipe smelled like KFC. Now in the article the also talk about making fuel from sewage, that for sure is a waste product, but based on my experience I'm not sure I'd want to be stuck in traffic behind one.

Thanks Mom and Dad

So at church I've been given the honor of interviewing kids for baptism. It's really been an amazing experience, I love it. As faith building as it has been to see these kids so excited about God, I've also seen some things that are hard. When I was being trained for this the thought was maybe 1 in 30 would be difficult, I've done 6 (5 solo and 1 training) and 3 of them have been a little rough for one reason or another. Now I put on my best Doug charm with jokes and fun to lighten the mood, but some were just hard. Two of the three that were rough can at least be partially traced back to parents going through a divorce and the kid being shaken by that. I've also seen the impact it has on kids in my regular UpStreet groups. It just makes me so appreciate my parents. Never once as a child did I ever fear mom and dad not being together. Now I'm sure they had their rough times, but to us they were always a unified loving front. I took it so for granted and now realize how lucky I was. I wish every kid could have that.

Any Restaurant?

Went to a great brunch today with the family of one of my UpStreet kids. Great food and company, really enjoyed it. During brunch a funny travel story came up. A couple of years ago I did a crazy day trip to LA for work. I was only supposed to be there for 3 hours for a lunch meeting. I think I left at 6am and got home at midnight. I told the people I was meeting that lunch was my treat and we could go anywhere. I figured we'd go to a restaurant with some LA character, maybe Pink's hotdogs or something. Instead they asked for the Sizzler down the street. At first I thought they were kidding, but we really did go to Sizzler. Oh well, from a business perspective the meeting was so-so, but the Sizzler part makes for a good story now.

My new book chapter!

I wrote a chapter in the recently published book, “Ultrasound Technologies for Food and Bioprocessing”, part of the Food Engineering Series published by Springer Media. The my company, Hydro Dynamics, Inc. (www.hydrodynamics.com) is featured in Chapter 8 entitled, “Controlled Cavitation for Scale-Free Heating, Gum Hydration and Emulsification in Food and Consumer Products.” Not what I'd term pleasure reading for my friends, but a nice personal accomplishment. More detail about the book can be found at http://www.springerlink.com/content/978-1-4419-7471-6/.