That's too bad Maria! It must be especially bad coming as such a surprise (when I was laid off from NCR I had known it was coming for a long time). We'll all be praying this turns into a good opportunity for you!


I've been logging way too many phone hours this week trying to resolve Liv's class schedule. Her school is insisting she drop 2 (out of 6) classes because she is taking one class at the U. The State is pretty clear that this is not the way it should be done, but her Principal and counselor don't see it that way. Who knows what her schedule will be come Tuesday evening? Nancy and Mark - we may be calling on you for home schooling advice.

My colleagues and I were happy to see someone get arrested for the Blaster worm - though it didn't happen soon enough. We've been pulling a lot of long hours fighting to clean up the Univerity's network, and now those students are coming back, probably bringing thousands of infected computers to bring new waves of infections!

Hi Everyone,
Well, I have some bad news. I think Tom gave me the unemployed virus. After being sick and missing work on Tuesday, I reluctantly went back to the grind on Wednesday, eventhough I was still feeling crummy. I was asked to go the Eden Prairie location sometime that afternoon for a meeting. I was a little nervous, but was absolutely sure that I wasnt going to get fired. To make a long story short, I got laid off. The company was losing business fast and couldnt afford all of their employees, so they had to lay off five people and I was one of them. I was so taken by surprise and I am still in denial about the whole thing. I have never been fired or laid off before. I am not really looking for another job yet because I have jury duty coming up, plus I am so burned out. So, keep my job search in your prayers. I am not even sure if I am going to look for a similar job in the title business. Maybe I will do something different. I guess I cant be too picky. It's been kinda nice, however, being home during the day. I have gotten a lot of errands done that I have been meaning to do for months, but I know sooner or later I am going to get pretty bored not working.

This weekend Pete and I are going up to my parents cabin, so that will be a nice getaway for both of us. Hope you all have a wonderful labor day weekend!

I was just reading on Tom's address, so this will say it was posted by him... but it's not (It's Nancy)
We have had a student with us for a week from Switzerland (Simon). He was at our Free church Camp Shamineau for 5 weeks and needed a place to stay until his flight home (this morning). He's going to be a teacher and is starting his school year on Monday at U of Zurich. Because of the time change he won't get home til 9 a.m. Saturday morning.
I have been back and forth to Illinois this summer 3 times. My sister, Jan, has sold her condo and is just about ready to move into her new house. My parents are doing pretty good being on their own for 10 days while Jan is in Connecticut visiting our cousin Tom & Betsy Hammerberg. A very kind woman is coming in every day for a couple hours to help my parents with cleaning, exercises and companionship.
Tom is outside visiting with some Mormon friends and I have been applying for jobs... I have an interview next week, but I won't tell you where, as I don't think I'm qualified for it, so... I'll let you know when (if) I get hired anywhere! Mark is back to Roosevelt. Stevie was giving tours the other night at South High to incoming freshmen... He wasn't assigned the task, but he and his friend John Robert just started doing it and folks followed along. They had found a sign somewhere that said "Tours." Well, I gotta run. I want to see if the U will still let me use the Med. Library. It's really fun reading all of your posts. Nancy

Congratulations, Tom!

And Peter and Maria, no, we won't try to top your fat-eating frenzy.

Hey everyone- Today I was hired at a charter school in Brooklyn Park as a teacher aid. My job is to be with a special ed student all the time, helping him to understand the assignments and process the information. I guess he is "cognitively delayed" and I will be doing some outside of class teaching of reading and maybe math. I'm happy to have a job and got the connection through a friend.

I was at the fair today, but didn't see liv (but in all honesty didn't really look)
bye all,
Tom.

Joel, all we can say is Qapla'!

Crazy Uncle Joel...
Apropos of nothing....





I've been contacted by the American Bible Society regarding a CD of Bible software they are putting together for the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) annual conference in Atlanta this November.

I'm sharing my UTA software and "Bible translator," and this prompted me to go nuts with my relexification methods, and now I have a complete Klingon Language Version of the World English Bible:


http://klv.mrklingon.org
Click http://klv.mrklingon.org/klv.html for screen shots of this
integrated in the Crosswire Bible Society's "Sword Project"which you can find at www.crosswire.org.

Liv, sorry we missed you on Sunday at the Fair, we didn't get there until 5pm.. We stopped by your barrel in case you were still there, but of course you weren't.

We had a great time at the fair, on the hottest day of the year! We ate the following fatty foods: Mini Donuts, Cheese curds, french fries, corn dogs, pork chop on a stick, milk shakes, all you can drink milk for 50 cents, deep fried candy bars and ice cream. See if you can beat that!

Here we are getting out caricature done. We've always wanted to do it, and we finally broke down and got one..

Thanks Pete for the compliments, as far as the novel goes, I'm working on it.

chapters to come: Cuban Adventures starring Marco and the Cuban cigar black market, drunk dentistry students wanting to fight me and then inviting me to go drinking, gustavo the drunk car wash owner and my Mexican little brother ashing cigarettes and spilling tequila onto my bedroom floor, street preacher, orphanage, and the events leading up to the Mexican wedding in uruapan.

peace ya'll.
Tom.

Yesterday we drove past a car wash that advertised "Touchless Tunnel!" Joel said, "Is that the Tunnel of Love for Swedes?"