Help me fight cancer: The Pan-Mass Challenge

No, I don’t have cancer. But many people around me have had their lives changed or cut short by the many diseases we know as cancer. That’s one of the reasons I signed up for the Pan-Mass Challenge. The PMC is a primary fundraiser for Dana Farber Cancer Institute (through the Jimmy Fund), and last year raised over $23 million for DFCI.
My part in all this is modest, but challenging nonetheless. On August 4th and 5th I’ll ride the 192-mile route from Sturbridge (in west-central Massachusetts) to Provincetown (at the extreme end of Cape Cod). For that privilege, I’ll need to raise at least $3500. But I’d like to raise a whole lot more. That, of course, is where you can help me. You can donate through my PMC Profile Page, or by getting in touch with me.
Over the next few weeks I plan to write more about the specifics of why I’m riding, how my training is going, and who is coming along with me. Until then, thanks for reading, and take care.

Late Night with Andrew

Here’s a transcript of a midnight exchange between #1 son and myself from a couple of days ago.


DAD: ZZZZZZZZZZZ


ANDREW (from down the hall): AAAAAAAAAH!


(DAD wakes up and goes to ANDREW’s room)


D: Andrew, what’s wrong?


A: (Wailing) AAAAAAH!


D: Did you have a bad dream?


A: (Sobbing) I want my bagel!


D: Andrew, it’s the middle of the night! You can have a bagel for breakfast in a few hours.


A: WAAAAAAAAH! I’m still hungry!


This went on for about ten minutes until Andrew abruptly threw his head back down and resumed snoring. When I got back to bed, Elise told me that Andrew’s teacher threw away his partially-eaten lunch bagel, before he had a chance to finish it. Obviously this left its mark on his psyche.


In other news, Maggie – all 7 kilos of her, as of last week’s checkup – has started crawling. She’s now agile enough to get into whatever Andrew happens to be playing with, and has developed a particular taste for his Finding Nemo-themed Go Fish cards. Let the sibling rivalry begin!

Recommended download: IE Dev Toolbar

If you’re developing for IE as a browser client, I highly recommend the beta IE Dev Toolbar. It’s like the Firefox DOM explorer, but more featureful. The element outlining and window resizing are especially handy when you’re trying to get your element positioning just right.
Now, if they’d just give me a standalone Javascript debugger, I’d be all set.