I am hooked on a new site for tracking my gardening progress.  Folia is a garderning geek paradise.  Check it out…

This is the second year for ThreeWill to field a Relay for Life Team.  We returned to Alpharetta High School and had a great start to the evening.  Linda and I walked the Survivor’s Walk together, which is what kicks off the event.  I had the honor of carrying the “Celebrate” flag (see  http://www.flickr.com/photos/8849782@N07/3506701787/in/set-72157617776857542/ for a video of Linda and I… youtube version below).

The kids enjoy playing ball on the field.  I had a soccer buddy named Bella (Sean Hester’s daughter) – I had a “ball” kicking with her.   On the day of the event (Friday, May 1) we had a heavy rainstorm during the day and it cleared up just in time for the event.  Everyone had a great time in the daylight and as the sun set that evening you could see thunder in the distance.  This eventually hit the event and at about 11pm we pack up a soaking wet camp. 

The organizers of the event push up the luminary ceremony (lighting lights in Memory or Honor of people effected by Cancer) and we were able to get a lap in before the downpour of rain.  I dedicated my walk (lighted luminary bags) to:

• In Memory of Jim Marks (a friend that I made during my stem cell transplant in Houston).  He passed away the weekend I came back to Houston for a Survivor’s Celebration in Houston (about 6 months post treatment)
• In Honor of Bob Buhay (a friend that had a stem cell transplant after me and is a 2 time Hodkin’s survivor like me)

The rain cut short the event, but we had lots of fun and were able to raise our goal of $3,000 (we always like to do things in 3’s at ThreeWill… including having campsite #3).  The overall event raised over $150,000 that night for the fight against cancer.  Thanks for everyone’s support!

This event (as it did last year) gave me time to reflect on my cancer experience.  My treatment seems so distant, but this walk reminds me of the struggle and pain others have and are going through.  It is too easy to take life for granted.  This event helps ground me in the reality of how fragile life is and celebrate the blessing of life.  Thank God for Life!

You can find pictures of the event on flickr – http://www.flickr.com/photos/8849782@N07/sets/72157617776857542/

Here is our team page for Relay for Life - http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?pg=team&fr_id=13043&team_id=380700

Trip to High Museum in December

Originally uploaded by Tommy Ryan

This picture is during a family field trip to the High Museum on 12/28/08. We saw the “First Emperor” Exhibit. This is the best exhibit that I have seen at the High.

BTW, this blog post is creating through sending an email. Awesome integration… Outlook email -> Flickr email address -> Post to WordPress based on a predefined template. It is sad that these things are exciting to me .

Linda and I are in the middle of a remodel of our basement.  I started this with my Dad on 2/14 and have been chipping away at it each weekend since then.

Here is a short journal.  I have shared more pictures up on flickr.

Weekend 1 (2/14-15)

• Put up walls (Thanks Ray Whitaker!)
• Run wiring (did everything but connecting to the box)
• First coat of ceiling paint (a spray gun is the only way to go with this)

Weekend 2 (2/21-22)

• Hang Drywall (Almost broke my dad’s back with this task… he was a trooper!)
• Put up blocking above the walls between the rafters
• Wiring ceiling light cans
• Final coat of paint on ceiling

Drywall is up!

Weekend 3 (2/28-3/1)

• Finishing drywall (oh boy… this task is not hard, but VERY messy… dust everywhere)
• Finishing wiring

Man this creates a mess!

Weekend 4 (3/7-8)

• 1 coat of prime
• 2 coats of Irish Tea paint
• Preparing trim (painted the trim)
• 3/4 of crown molding done
• 2 coats of trim paint on window and door

Walls painted and trim around the pipes. Lots-O miter joints.

We are getting close, but probably have 3 more weekends of work.  We need to get up all the trim, install door and ventless heater, and lay carpet.  I will probably post after it is all done… maybe even do a video (we’ll see)…

Pandora is an awesome internet radio site.  I constantly see the “Pandora for iPhone” ad and the ad for the “Pandora for Windows Mobile” lead me to believe that it was not yet available for the Samsung Epix (see – http://www.pandora.com/on-windowsmobile)… until I found this archive post on Pandora (http://blog.pandora.com/pandora/archives/2008/12/index.html - see the December 17, 2008 post).

I just downloaded the app on my Epix (see Dec 17 post for the details on how to do that) and noticed a “Free Trial” and then a “Full Version”.  This made me suspect that AT&T charges for this service… which confused me since I know that my bro, Danny, has this on his iPhone (AT&T service) and does not get charged.  Doing a quick search, I found that AT&T does charge (http://forums.wireless.att.com/cng/board/message?board.id=samsung&message.id=64669).  That is too bad… because that will keep me from using that app (and gives me another reason to buy an iPhone).  I am trying to be loyal to my Microsoft buddies, but things like this really put the WinMo devices at a disadvantage.

Austin had decided to go with a more generic running blog name and url.  I updated my earlier blogpost to have the new url (probably violated 101 of blogging, but did not want people to go to the wrong place).  The new url is http://trail-clocks.blogspot.com and the name is “The Deeper Side”. This fits Austin well. He is our deep thinker.

Here is the image he has for his blog -

Austin's blog image

BTW, he got is first comment and he was estatic. I thought it was a very thoughtful comment… see – http://trail-clocks.blogspot.com/2009/01/i-am-able-to-hear-my-distance-pace-and.html#comments.

The single is “Get On Your Boots”.  It is available on iTunes now.  Here is an announcement on U2’s site. 

Very interesting…

Austin is trying out blogging for the first time.  He is a passionate runner and decided to have the topic of “Half Marathon Training”.  Here is his blog – http://trail-clocks.blogspot.com.

He wanted to start the blog as a way to earn money.  He is a very entrepreneurial person and is having me setup an AdSense Account so he can advertise on his blog.  Looking forward to seeing how this works out for him.  It is great to see him apply himself.

This is not the first time that Austin has looked for ways to make money.  His last idea was to borrow $5,000 dollars from his parents so he could open an ETrade Savings Account.  I will have to keep on his good side… some day I will probably be borrowing money from him.

For those who are looking for an update to my 1.5 year checkup at MD Anderson, you can find it on My Cancer Journey Blog.

My sister, Deanna Ryan, invited me to present the use of Stem Cell Transplants for curing cancer to her elementary school class. Deanna was teaching a science lesson on stem cells and really thought her class would benefit from learning about how stem cells can be used to cure certain types of cancers. At first, I almost did not take Deanna up on this… but it did not take long for me to see what a great opportunity this was. Not only did I get to the opportunity to maybe inspire a future oncologist, but I was able to see my sister at work with her children. She is such a great teacher. She cares about her kids and is always finding creative ways to teach her class. Her class was well behaved and I could tell that even though she is very firm with her students that her students truly feel that Deanna cares for them.

Dea sent some pictures of the event that I have posted up to Flickr. I also saved a pdf of the presentation (see - My Stem Cell Transplant Presentation). I don’t think this will be the last time I cover a presentation like this. I really enjoyed sharing this with inquisitive children. They were so interested in stem cells and my personal story. The questions I got were very thoughtful questions – even the last question… which really was a tough question. I mentioned a friend (Jim a 24 year old young man for Louisiana) I made that had an interesting treatment of rabbit antibodies (a very interesting story) that were used to prepare for his alleogeneic stem cell transplant. This boy that asked the question at the end wanted to know if my friend was alive today and I had to tell him that Jim’s cancer came back aggressively after his treatment and he passed away about 3 months after his stem cell transplant. That was a sobering final question, but it is the reality of making friends while going through cancer treatment.

Thank you again Dea for this opportunity!