Syzdekistan

One year ago, two weeks before our 9th wedding anniversary, my wife sat me down and said she was leaving. By the end of February, she had moved out. Her decision caught me completely by surprise.
The first half of 2009 was a painful blur: there was the unexpected blow of her unilateral decision, some [...]

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I found out today that my divorce is final. Someone in black robes finally signed the stack of papers, the County Clerk filed it, and an attorney mailed me a copy which was in my mailbox this afternoon.
I was surprised to not feel much today. I guess I felt a little relieved to close [...]

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I just posted pictures of my birthday party last month here. The iPhone cake was amazing!

It was quite the bash. Special thanks to Steve for taking such great pictures. If you have pictures, feel free to upload them to that page.

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Solo artist and lead singer of the Smithereens, Pat DiNizio played a three-hour acoustic concert in the living room hosted by my friend Robert Hollowood.
The concert was a blast. Pat shared a bunch of amusing anecdotes about, well, everything. He played a lot of Smithereens songs including “Blood and Roses,” “Behind the Wall of Sleep,” [...]

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I just want to say thanks and good luck to my intern, Cheska, who has been doing a great job keeping me out of trouble for the last two years. Cheska is beginning her career as a biology teacher and will eventually be moving to upstate New York. Cheska is extremely smart and very patient. [...]

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Today, I received word that Mojave Max, the desert spokestortoise for the Clark County Desert Conservation Plan died. I had the pleasure of feeding and taking care of this tortoise at the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center in the early 1990s. He was a very friendly tortoise with a great personality and he lived in the [...]

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Yesterday, Spencer died at the vet’s office. I could go into detail about his changing condition over the last few days (hey, I’m a scientist and took accurate notes and even produced a spreadsheet) but this isn’t the time.
His right front leg was amputated last Wednesday due to a chondrosarcoma tumor on his scapula. We [...]

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I did get to go out for dinner with Hot Wife and Terry and Morgan for my birthday.
It was their first night out without kids. Ever. They have three kids. Let’s just say, the drinks flowed like water and we had a really good time.
Terry and Morgan are so cool — they got [...]

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The vet had noticed a lump on Spencer’s right shoulder blade. I hadn’t noticed it and I felt terrible for missing it. However, Spencer is a pretty hairy cat and before his grooming, it was probably well hidden by hair. Also, like many semi-domesticated felines, he is pretty independent and doesn’t like to be petted [...]

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Congratulations to Terry and Morgan on the birth of their daughter yesterday. Mom and baby are fine and they haven’t decided on a name yet but have narrowed it to Bevin or Berkeley. Baby was 8 pounds 12 ounces and 18.75 inches long.

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