So, here’s the buzz…

It was an amazing day! My bride, Sue, was surrounded by the love of our family and friends, not to mention an ocean of PINK!

Our team, Sue’s Crew, was a testiment to how much Sue is loved. We had team members from our circle of friends, our peers, and even some of our business relationships! There were quite a few of Sue’s clients that didn’t even hesitate when asked if they wanted to join the team to honor my bride. Two of our friends, John & Brenda, drove more than two hours to be part of the team! The Sue’s Crew team also raised the most money for the cause thanks to the efforts of our team members! Our major donor, Sue’s company, Mountain West Benefits, pushed us over the edge in dollars raised, and I am very thankful for their support.

This is only part of the team, but we had a total of forty people sign up to be on Sue’s Crew!

But the biggest surprise was…

Sue’s Crew on T.V.!

Check it out!

May 21st is Race for the Cure in Helena, Montana.

So what, right?

Well, it’s a big deal in our home. Sue has been cancer-free for one year as of May 27th, and we’re celebrating! I’ve formed a team for the Race called Sue’s Crew, and had specially designed t-shirts made for everyone on the team. If you want to join us or donate to our team, here’s the link.

What’s pretty interesting is

Home sweet home.

Yep! We came home on Saturday afternoon, and all is well.

Sue is feeling tired and has a little pain, but overall she’s really doing great! My mom came over this morning with Easter brunch… tasty!

Thank you all for your love, prayers, and friendship. Especially our kids, without whom we would be nothing. For it is them that reflect the love, mercy, and blessings God has given us.

It’s all how you look at it.

This is what we woke up to this morning… surgery day.

We had to be at the hospital at 7 a.m., and when we walked out of the hotel I notice that my car is buried in almost a foot of snow!

This photo is taken from the front door of Starbuck’s where I sit, gulping very dark roast coffee, feeling the caffeine turbocharge the anxiety that’s already running through my bloodstream.

A foot of snow is not what we needed today. Sue has been anxious about this surgery for about a week, and so have I. All I want to do is take care of my bride. Love her. Hold her. Comfort her. Make sure that everything is good, so that she has nothing else to worry about. And then comes this damn snowstorm. I could easily sit here and bang hard on the keyboard, all the while cursing God under my breath.

But it’s all how you look at it, right?

24 percent sugar…

Grapes… one of God’s most beautiful creations.

They get harvested when their juice is approximately 24% sugar by weight.

Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics record the cultivation of purple grapes, and history attests to the ancient Greeks, Phoenicians and Romans growing purple grapes for both eating and wine production. Later, the growing of grapes spread to Europe, North Africa, and eventually North America…

…and eventually in the glasses that Sue and I sipped from last night… gulped  might be more accurate.

You see, we drove to Great Falls Thursday afternoon for Sue’s reconstructive surgery on Friday. Little did we know when we woke up that morning what a day it would be.

truth in advertising

So, I’m in Toronto on business early October. I’ve never been to Toronto before and I found it to be a really interesting city. As I walked the streets downtown where my hotel was, I heard no less than five different languages being spoken at any given time. A very international and eclectic city, to be sure. Of course, I always have my local office to go to for working… Starbucks.

No matter where you travel, Starbucks is Starbucks is Starbucks… never-changing, always consistent. Consistently good coffee, consistently tasty snacks, and consistently interesting people. In Toronto, “interesting” is increased by a factor of three hundred, compared to Helena, Montana where I live!

Take this chap, for example.

fear not

I was with a bunch of guys tonight, hangin’ out. Before we moved to the field to play a ball game, our conversation moved to the topic of fear. Strange, huh? A bunch of guys sitting around talking about being afraid? When’s the last time some guy you know told you he was going off to meet a bunch of guys and talk about being afraid? Never happen, right?

This group of guys is not what you think, though.

Tattoos and caffeine

So, yesterday I dropped by my off-site office… Starbucks. It’s funny how sometimes I seem to be able to get more work done there in an hour than I can get done at the office in three! I don’t know, maybe it’s the caffeine.

Anyway, I’m sitting there working on my laptop when a very pretty woman walks in with her five-year-old in tote. Cute kid. Both are dressed really nice. Casual, but Lands End kind of casual. You’d think this was your typical soccer-mom in Irvine, California, except that Mom had tattoos all over her body! That would include the full size tiger on her lower right leg, the word “Love” on her upper right arm, and a left arm that’s every color other than flesh.

It was very interesting watching all the people in the store watching her. One guy about my age (north of fifty-five) could not take his eyes off her. I’m watching him watch her until he finally noticed me watching him, which was only because she and her son sat at a table in the line of sight between me and the other old guy.

I think if you had listened v-e-r-y carefully (and the espresso machine weren’t making a racket) you probably could have heard

Beetles everywhere!

About a year before we moved to Montana I bought Susan a gift. It was her 40th birthday ans she deserved something special. We had raised four kids together, but she was (and is) the core of our family.

Sue drove the typical soccer-Mom mini-van. First, it was a 1985 Chrysler… the very first mini-van made. Then, in 1992, we bought a new Plymouth Voyager with all the bells and whistles. For thirteen years, Susan drove a mini-van, most often filled with kids and dogs… and sometimes the occasional projectile vomit from too much cotton candy or a bumpy airline flight.

So, when the kids were all well into their teenage years, too smart for dumb old parents like us, and far too cool to hang out with us, Sue decided she wanted a new car. I told her she could have anything she wanted. She decided on a