Waterloo, Iowa

Grandma Anderson celebrated her 90th Birthday today in Waterloo, Iowa. I'm guessing the total age of all 100 or so people who attended was 643, inclusive of the grandchildren. You do the math! Lunch at 'the club', Grandma's jokes off the internet and 140+ pieces of KFC extra tasty made it a memorable event. By the way, Grandma is really pushing hard for me work in Iowa, but could you live in a state with a mascot like this? And just see the Star Tribune's Top 10 list for Iowa. Tulip Time Festival anyone?

Lincoln Park Zoo

The Lincoln Park Zoo was a fun place to visit with its large number of African animals. As you can see, Sarah was particularly energized by the lions! As Sarah spent last summer in South Africa, she had all the info on the wild beasts from the Rhinos to the Wild Dogs. Did you know there are two kinds of Rhinos and Baboons can grow 7x stronger than humans? Me neither! I'm never going to the zoo again without a tour guide.


Check out Sarah’s Blog (link on right) she just started with more on Africa & Licketyship!

Lickety Ship

Ever wanted an item fast, so fast that even overnight mail wasn't fast enough? I hope you have! Sarah is going to work full-time this summer on a startup, Lickety Ship, that will make same-day delivery ubiquitous throughout the country (unless you're in the middle of nowhere - say, near South Dakota's Corn Palace). Sarah and crew are testing out the software in South Bend and working out the financing this summer. I'm trying to talk them into doing guerrilla marketing in a frog outfit.

Gurnee Mills, Illinois

We celebrated Sarah's Birthday at Six Flag Great America. While all the major rides were open, the park was completely dead as the park only officially opened a week before. Sarah is a regular 'carni' as she wanted to go on all the rides. Luckily I'm not scared of any of the rides; I just felt like getting cheesy fries while she went on the "V2 Vertical Velocity", the 70 mph twist of death. Here's a video of Batman, one of our favorite rides in the park. (It's 9Mb and will take a while to load)

Zion, Illinois

Tony and Laura Ferrara get pummeled with what I am told was candy (hope it didn't break any city rules, see link) as they make their way out of the church in Zion, IL. It was a great time to see old college classmates and catch up on old times. I'm feeling old as earlier in the day I realize my 10-year high school reunion is only a summer away!

Notre Dame, Indiana

Sarah and I have just graduated from the MBA program at the University of Notre Dame. It was a cold, windy day in South Bend during graduation - certainly not the 71 degree average for May. Here is my Aunt Vida, who provided so much support during my college years.

Castlemara, Sicily

As Justin & I walked into town, we were still looking for a hotel or the city which were both eluding us. We found both right over the next hill and right on the beach! The next day was nothing but relaxation in the sun; Justin with his cigars and bronzer, and me under a large blue umbrella and SPF 45. A whole day in the sun and no burns – well hardly any!

Abu Simbel, Egypt

Every piece of stone that you see from this Ramesses II temple was moved brick by brick to save it from the rising waters of Lake Nasser after the Aswan High Dam was put in around 1970.

Giza Pyramids, Egypt

Here’s Justin tottering on the back of a camel near the three Giza pyramids. I hope you all enjoy this picture, because I took a big tumble while getting in position for it! It’s been 10 days, and my leg is still black and blue.


Little did we know that around this time, and only 2 hours after we stopped to get train tickets downtown, Ihab Yousri Mustafa, jumped off an overpass 2 blocks from our hotel, the world class Nile Hilton. When he landed, the bomb he was wearing exploded. His sister and another woman later fired on an Israeli tourist van before both committing suicide. 7 people died in all. We didn't hear about it until we were safety at the hotel pool in Luxor.