Bebop and Dad

Is this not the best picture ever?

School Portraits

Dad's Blog

Many of you know that back in November my Dad was diagnosed with an incurable and rapidly progressive neurological disease called Multiple System Atrophy (MSA). After the shock wore off, and after a lot of research, he’s decided to travel to a clinic in Germany next month for experimental stem cell treatment to slow down or hopefully even halt the disease. He’s started a blog to chronicle his treatment and to help educate others who may be interested in doing the same. After a few short days, he’s had hundreds of hits.

I’m proud of him for doing this, and for the straightforward, open, and strong way he’s facing this illness. My Mom too. The subtitle of his blog says it all “I Have This Disease – It Doesn’t Have Me.”

Check out the blog and, please hope, pray, cross fingers, light candles, sacrifice small animals – whatever you do to send good vibes for successful treatment.

MSA Journey Blog

Can-can show

Found this photo in late Aunt Carol's photo album. I assume it's from her office. Not sure if she's in the photo, but I love it.

The West Wing!

How cool is this? I couldn't get us tickets to the public White House tour, but I did get my parents a private tour of the West Wing of the White House from a very nice man I know who works there. The tour lasted about an hour, and they went all over the place, including the Rose Garden, the Oval Office, and the press room. And, they saw Malia (or Sasha, whichever daughter is the older one) playing with Bo the dog in the Rose Garden.

Outside the Old Executive Office Building.

Outside the West Wing entrance.

In the press briefing room.

The White House while they were inside.

Happy Birthday Lily!

Lily turned 5 years old on Thursday, and Grandma Fran and Grandpa Steve came up to celebrate with her. Here are some of Grandma Fran's photos:

Carvel cake. Mmmmm. There's only half a cake because we couldn't wait and had some the night before Lily's birthday.

Licking the plate(s) clean.

Aunt Lee sent Lily a neat Dinosaur Dig kit. Lily the junior archeologist gets to patiently excavate a dinosaur skeleton from this block. It will take hours.

Grandma and Grandpa, by Lily.

We went to a Washington Nationals game Friday night. Our neighbor gave us 4 free tickets!

Great seats, behind the bullpen. Getting windy...

Uh oh, rain delay. A 3 1/2 hour rain delay, after only 1 1/2 innings. The Nats went on to win 13-1, but we went home (after eating our share of hot dogs, pretzels, nachos, and sno-cones). At least we got to see a home run.

I really hope we're not related

Found this photo in Abuelo's albums. Who are these kids?? Who would pose the birthday girl with a knife like that? Look how terrrified the infant looks. The clumsy hand-tinting makes it all-the-more surreal. I should sell this to Hallmark for their creepy line.