i'm back...

Wow! It's been a while. Here's a summary of some things that have happened in the last three weeks:

I am now beardless (to my lovely wife's liking)

I am back online after the internet and email fast. In some ways, it was easier than I expected. In other ways it was more difficult. I was "obligated" to check in on work email to prevent emergencies and I realized how internet dependent I have become.

We visited Christkindlmarkt in Bethlehem, PA for the first time. It was a lot of fun.

I now have a GPS. This is sweet. A great gift; something that I now use constantly but never would have purchased for myself.

I surprised my daughter and wife with a trip to New York City to see the Mary Poppins show on broadway. It was a great show (extremely well done), a great day and a great time.

I got to spend lots of time catching up with my family. Here's a pic of my brother and I.

I have also been reading/listening to some great books. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah and The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Thomas L. Friedman. These are two extremely interesting and profound books. I will review each in the coming weeks.

I thank God for the amazing blessings in my life and the opportunity to begin a new year refreshed and refocused. I'm excited to see what He has in store for 2008. Please join me in praying for the people of Kenya, particularly in the slums of Nairobi, as violence still breaks out in the aftermath of the election. You can get local news and updates here.