Wendy had her third and final baby shower this past Sunday April 20th. It also happened to be my birthday. The boys hung out in the basement, while the women all ooohed and awwwed over the little socks, and tiny blankets. I had to go up and take some abuse for a while, but really Wendy (and I) have great friends and a great support system. We are truly lucky and blessed. We got lots of good stuff that the baby can use for a long time to come. Sandy bought me a neon guitar for the baby’s room. I thought it was neat.

So, I decided on Sunday that I am going to try to grow out my goat-tee. My friend Joe G. competed in 2007 at the beard and moustache championships.

Here is a little about them…

Beard Team USA competes for the United States at the biennial World Beard and Moustache Championships. In doing so, our primary goal is to promote the worldwide appreciation of beards and moustaches. Other goals include making the United States competitive in the WBMC, promoting and publicizing the WBMC, facilitating the attendance of members and others at the championships, having fun, and making new friends from our own and other countries.

Joe competed at the world championships held in Brighton, England in 2007. He took 4th place in his category. If you are interested you can visit their website:

http://beardteamusa.org/index.html

Here is a picture of Joe:

So over the next several months I will attempt to document the growth of my goat-tee (or partial beard as they refer to it). The next championships is May 23rd, 2009 in Anchorage, Alaska. What a great reason to get to see Alaska. I did notice that there is a Pennsylvania State beard and moustache championship in Oil City, PA. Perhaps I’ll try attending this one and see what happens. I’ll have to let Joe know about it.

…I’m interested to see how long it takes Wendy to get mad and tell me to shave. I hinted that I am in “training” but I don’t think she has taken me seriously yet.

I’ll keep you posted.

Smile…today could be your last.

I have a ton of work to do today, but I couldn’t help myself. I wanted to get these pictures posted. I took off this morning from work at around 11:00, and met Wendy at the hospital. Her appointment was at 11:20. We sat in the waiting room until about 11:40 (she peed twice).

I can’t believe the pictures that they can take these days. The 3-D image is simply amazing. Wendy and I were just speechless. Amazing.

As of Monday (4/14/08) Cooper weighs 5 lbs. 5ozs. The doctor says that he is right where he needs to be and that everything looks good. He is in the upper 58 percentile as far as his weight goes. The doctor expects him to be about 9 lbs. when he is born. He also expects him to stay in there for pretty much the entire term.

Cooper’s arms are behind his head and his feet were up by his mouth.

I think you will come about a week early. My prediction is that your birthday will be on May 18th. Ok, I guess that is not a full week early, but early nonetheless.

These are Built to Spill lyrics that remind me of being a baby…

”Living in the womb. Running out of room. Have to come out soon. Have to meet the sun and moon and…”

Here is Wendy and Dr. Stewart. (I think it's funny that his name is Jon Stewart.)

Smile...today could be your last.

I just got done watching a lecture by one of the most inspiring people I have ever seen. Randy Pausch, a professor at Carnegie Mellon has terminal cancer and has shared his story and inspired millions by his last lecture. I will say nothing more than the fact that this is truly inspirational. I have never been moved like this by a lecture before after ten years of college. Check it out: http://youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo

Watching Professor Pausch’s lecture has inspired me to create a list of things that I want to do before I die. Having cancer myself, I realize that life is short and precious. So here goes...

1) Earn doctorate
2) Coach football
3) Teach PE in a gymnasium
4) Ride my scooter all day long with no agenda
5) Learn to play classical guitar
6) Learn to play the piano
7) Learn a foreign language
8) Meet Ben Stein
9) Own multiple businesses
10) Take my Dad fishing
11) Travel with my wife
12) Write and record music
13) Leave my family financially stable
14) Finally, and most importantly, I cannot wait to teach my son about life.

I’m sure that I have others. And I’m sure that there are some things on this list that I will not accomplish. Some of the things on the list are very vague. For instance “travel” does not say much. I need to leave this country. I need to see first hand how others live, and try to become part of that culture for even a week or so. This one is important to me.

I also need to learn to play the guitar. My brother left me three beautiful guitars which I need to get into. I have been playing a little, but my skills still leave much to be desired. I can do better.

I cannot wait to become a Dad. I want to teach my son all about what is important in life. There is nothing more important. Enough said.

Every day is precious, and you have to have fun.

Smile…today could be your last.

At this point in my life, I don't think there are many "cancer remedies" that I haven't heard about. The real answer is nobody knows.

I would like to think that if we cut fast food out of our diets, and stopped putting our plastic bottles in the freezers that cancer would just go away. But I think we can say with some certainty that this is not the case.

When I was diagnosed with cancer I was 28, and I like to think I was in pretty good shape. I watched my diet (to some extent), lifted weights, rode my bike, ran, etc... I had an overweight, out of shape teacher growing up, and I always told myself that being a PE teacher that I had to practice what I preach. Nobody feels like exercising all the time, but I did it, and it's what drove me. Unfortunately for me, I still got cancer.

Now considering that I had just watched my brother die a year earlier of Leukemia, I was in amazement, shocked, and stunned. The doctor's told me that my cancer is in no way linked to that of my brother, but I to this day do not believe that. I am still waiting for a researcher to approach me about doing a study, because the chances of two brothers getting cancer before they turn 30 have to be astronomical.

In essence, I think that it does not matter what type of milk you drink, or how many milligrams of chocolate per day you consume. The key to everything in life seems to be moderation. And even then, people will still get cancer. However, there are always exceptions to the rule. Ever meet somebody that has been smoking 2 or 3 packs a day for 50 years? Or the person that drinks 8 diet cokes, or 24 beers, or eats 3 squares of burger king and is 300 lbs. overweight? None of these things are healthy. But to answer the question of why some of these people get cancer and others do not, is to this point uncomprehensible.

It has to all go back to genetics. Yes, it is true that we all have cancer causing agents in our bodies. And it is also true that we are all exposed to different things in the environment. So, then is it our environment that triggers these cancer genes to surface in the form of tumors? Not an easy question to answer.

It is my belief that the truth is that cancer is a combination of environment and genetics. Cancer cannot exist and flourish without both. Much like a mold growing on a sandwich, the conditions have to be just right.

In conclusion, I do not believe that we can change how cancer effects us in our lives...at least not right now. Our technology is not great enough. If you are unfortunate, as my family was, to have cancer in your life, it is just bad timing. Much like polio killed hundreds of thousands of people in the 30's, 40's, and 50's, we are just soldiers of bad luck. Stuck in a time that is fighting for a cure. We have made great strides in the last few decades with cancer treatments. While we are on the right track, but it could be a while.

Smile...today could be your last.