My wife, Dot, and I drove our daughter, Michelle, to Virginia Tech last Thursday. She's starting her VT years in West Ambler Johnston, on the 4th floor.
As always, VT is an incredible school. Even with the tragedy of last April, the school, and its faculty and staff are all top-notch. Wow...

Mark is now starting his final semester at VT. Like his siblings, we're incredibly impressed with all that he's done. Way to go, Mark!

The situation around San Diego is so strange. My sister-in-law's fairly new home outside Ramona, CA was completely destroyed earlier this week in the unbelievable number of wildfires out there. Now would be a great time to win the lotto somewhere!

Lian and Bruce Barton - Ramona, CA - house gone but family is safe and well
Sue and Mark Thygesen - Ramona, CA - house and family fine
Dick Chmiel and family - Ramona, CA - am trying to find out their status - Dick was my manager at General Dynamics - Electronics Div in San Diego during the late 1980's (a great guy with a very nice family)
Jack and Marjorie Cox - La Mesa, CA - house and family are fine
David Shumilak - San Diego, CA - am trying to find out his status - but his house is in the city so he should be okay - my fingers are crossed!

We're hoping for the best for the people in Southern California. I wish I could be out there to help them!
- Gerry

Dot and I drove Mark to his new dorm room at Virginia Tech on August 22nd. What a weekend! It's impressive how much "stuff" we can shove into our minivan. People make fun of them, but they ARE very useful!
Mark's major is computer science. Seeing how much time he spent in front of his computers at home, this was no surprise. We're sure he'll do well.
Michelle started high school this week. We're down to one child at home. It's a strange feeling - but a little less stressful, too.

Wow... It's been quite awhile since I last entered something here. Whew...

1. I have my new PDA, courtesy of Microsoft. Because the company I work for has an MSDN enterprise license, I was able to get a free ViewSonic V37 PDA. So far, it's great!

2. Dot, Michelle, and I drove Mark down to Virginia Tech on July 21st and 22nd for his freshmen orientation. Dot and I are very impressed with Va Tech. Very high tech and organized. We think Mark will do well there. (www.vt.edu)

3. After our stay in Blacksburg, VA (Va Tech), we drove across the state to see my sister, Judy, in Virginia Beach. I could easily live there. What a great waterfront town it is.

Our neighbor, Robert (Bob) Kulp, was memorialized at a nice service at Zion church on N. Potomac in Hagerstown, Maryland this morning. A few hundred people, including most of Bob's family, were there. Several people gave moving, and sometimes quite humorous talks about him. Dot and I came away with the feeling that we really wish we had known Bob better - and for a longer time. He made quite a impression on hundreds of people all over the US.
For what it's worth, there was no visitation since Bob was cremated, and he didn't like that kind of formality of life.

My family and I got quite a shock last Friday, June 27th. Our neighbor passed away suddenly from a massive heart attack right next door. Besides the sad thought that he died alone, he was only about one month older than me. He wasn't found until the evening when our local sheriff's department had a locksmith open the door to his townhouse. I waited outside while the deputy went in, gun drawn, to check out the place. After a few minutes, he came to let me know he found him, and that he was dead.
For what it's worth, my neighbor was quite a guy and a hell of a neighbor. My family and I will miss him greatly.

Do you want to minimize the "bull" in your documents? Check out this application:
Click here for Bullfighter!

It was written by a consulting firm and is free. It looks cool!

Last week was pretty busy:
- My son, Mark, graduation from high school on Friday, the 13th -- and is now resting (???) with his friends at Senior Week in Ocean City, Maryland.
- My youngest daughter, Michelle, finished middle school and will be a freshman in high school this coming Fall. Wow - she's growing up too fast.
- My oldest daughter, Heather, turned 20 last Thursday.
- Yesterday, we made a fun run to the Ikea store north of Baltimore. We'll be back... Heh-heh!!

It's amazing how popular Hillary Clinton's memoirs are. Are people's lives that boring that they need to read about HER? Whew... Amazing.

It looks more and more like Hillary Clinton is grooming herself to be a Presidential candidate within the next 10 years, or so. Good grief!
As long as Bill is around, I doubt if it will happen. There is NO way I would ever vote for her!

It will be interesting to see what happens over the next several months between Israel's Sharon and the PLO's Abbas. They're finally talking, but it remains to be seen what will come of their talks.
Personally, I'd like to see the Palestinians get their own country. Then the Israelis can charge them to cross their border. Heh-heh...

Some of the Palestinians just don't get it, do they? Their own leadership brings in a decent prime minister (Abbas?) and Arafat immediately works on undermining his authority completely. It's so frustrating. They've had 5 or 6 suicide bombers in the last 3 weeks, and about the same number in 3 months before that. It looks like someone in their midst is trying to oust Abbas, and I'll bet it is Arafat.
Too bad, too, since the US plan would give them an independent state in 2005. They're just too blasted impatient.
Of course, having a society based on a religion that condones hate between religious groups (section 55 of the Koran says Muslims should not be friends to Jews and Christians because they are friends to each other - how stupid!) can never work well at all.
Don't get me wrong, though. We Christians have our own idiot zealots, as well. Because of the extreme poverty and desperation involved in the Muslim fundamentalists (aka: zealots), they seem to be willing to do much more violent acts to further their cause. The world is getting way too violent these days.
When I was in the Navy from '75 to '81, they told us that the US government was not really worried about the Soviets (who were in power then), but they WERE concerned with the other hot-spots in the world. And, yes, they mentioned the Middle East. How true that has become!

Check out this guy's answer to chain emails. I completely agree with him!
Click here: A response to chain emails!

It's great (NOTE: sarcasm here) to hear the Democrats whining about President Bush's speech aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln last week. Yes, it was a show. Yes, it was meant to cheer on the troops and sailors who participated in the Iraq operations and YES, it was meant to psych the American people! Personally, being a Navy veteran, I loved it! Go for it, Georgie-boy!!!
It is irritating to hear the Dems complain about just about anything President Bush does, but the Republicans pulled the same garbage while Bill Clinton was President. It was stupid then, and it's stupid NOW, people.

The blog for the guy in Baghdad has finally been updated. He's at: Click here
Check it out! Some very interesting remarks from his perspective.

Check this article out from the CBS News website today:
(CBS) Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev said the United States cast aside international law by going to war in Iraq without United Nations approval.
Gorbachev praised resistance to the war in the U.N. Security Council by Russia, France and Germany, telling reporters the three countries "showed great responsibility and were correct."
MY COMMENT: I canNOT believe the Russians are giving US grief about being "imperialistic." Give me a break, people. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.
Granted, we don't usually engage in pre-emptive wars against our enemies, but times have changed drastically since 9/11.

My nephew flew into Oceana NAS yesterday after a 10-month deployment to the Middle East. Judy (my sister and his mom) called me last night to let me know. Now she can relax a little bit - and so can he. He's been through a lot so I guess I'll let him decompress for a little while before I start asking questions.
Thanks, Andrew, you've performed a great service for our country and for your career in the Navy. Way to go!

Now that the war in Iraq has wound down and my nephew is on his way home, my entries here will wind down, as well, I guess. It's nice that the worst of the fighting is over. Americans can be very proud that we didn't lose as many people as many naysayers had predicted - thank goodness.
Someday the Iraqi's will realize the vast majority of American's have honorable intentions, just as their people do.

It's frustrating to read about the Iraqi's complaining about the US so much already. Too many of their people are cynical about our motives. Overall, the vast majority of Americans just wanted to see a serious threat to our security (Saddam Hussein, in case you've forgotten already) out of power. It was not intended to be an anti-Muslim offensive at all.
Freedom of speech for their people is a great thing, but allowing the fanatics to get themselves so worked up could wind up being too dangerous for the troops who are still over there.
SOMEONE needs to convince their people that we do NOT intend to be there any longer than we need to. We'll just make the country secure and move out.

It's interesting -- and hilarious -- to read and hear of the many world leaders "demanding" that the US let the UN take care of all post-war Iraq issues. You guys really ARE kidding, right? As far as humanitarian areas, yes, that sounds practical, but nothing else. The UN has proven itself incapable of making truly beneficent decisions on world matters. Give us a BREAK, people.