grace.kindness.peace.disruption.pain.processing.rinse.repeat.have a nice day.

Hey friends. If any of you are available on Tuesday, I'd greatly appreciate any help you could give me. I'm almost done, but still need some hands for Tuesday. You can sense how desperate I am in the fact that I'm asking the world for help. Please give me a call. Thanks!

Well the day has finally come, as we knew it would. Our beloved Peter Tam Von Tobel has pulled the trigger, and in very "Pete" fashion. The photo says more than the email. He's blessed the posting of both for your edification:

Dateline: Phoenix, AZ
October 11, 2006
Subject: Moving on…

Moving on… to the married life that is. Wanted to let everyone know that I’m engaged

Here’s a quick rendition of how it went down. Then check out the pictures (only one attached at mp.com) that are attached.

I don't know if you guys have watched the most recent version of the movie Pride and Prejudice, but I pulled out a page from that script. Heather (my girlfriend) was home with her family in Fort Wayne because she had a week off for fall break. One of her younger sisters is getting married over thanksgiving – so they were doing a lot of planning/showers. Anyway – I flew into Indy late Sunday night, drove up to Fort Wayne on Monday afternoon, and surprised Heather during the family dinner. Her mom and dad were in on it… here's how it played out. Nate (sister's fiancé) and I snuck into the house… in costume; Nate was an 1800′s dickens era butler with white tights and a fancy white wig and I was a normal dickens era gentleman of higher class with a big top hat. Halfway through the dinner, Nate came out of the dark and slowly walked up to the family (there was some extended family and friends as well) dinner table in front of everyone, cleared his voice to get every one's attention, introduced me as Mr. Von Tobel, and gave a subtle bow. After a couple seconds, I made my grand appearance (remember, I live in phoenix and I typically don't dress in tights, capri-like pants, a tailed sport coat, a little white puffy neck scarf, and a top hat… so I kind of shocked the crap out of everyone). Anyway (similar to the movie), I said "I know that this is all very untoward, but I would like to request the privilege of speaking to Miss Heather". Though everyone was pretty much a deer in front of headlights, Heather's dad accomplished his duty of clearing everyone from the room. In Pride and Prejudice (favorite movie of the girls), I just really liked the idea that a guy would walk into a room, asked to speak privately to a certain daughter, and EVERYONE ELSE left the room… instead of the two of them just going elsewhere. It's just how they did… and I liked it… and I wanted to respect our forefathers. The rest is history. I ask Heather to marry me; she actually said yes.

Just wanted to let you know… feel free to pass this email along if you think anyone would like to know

Pete

There are things more dangerous than mosquitos flying around: Cow Abduction

I felt peppy today and changed the header image. What do you all think? The picture is of my pair of wooden clogs that my floor purchased one year in lieu of a shirt to show our solidarity. The other shoe is proudly branded with "Brotherhood," the name of my floor.

I also updated the library plugin because of a bug in the previous version. Not that this makes much difference to you, but my life is ever so slightly easier now. However, there is a new feature for you, if you wish to waste another moment or two of your time. Scroll down to the bottom of the sidebar and see the new link titled "view full library." Click on it and enjoy reading a list of all the books that I've read since November-ish. The current count is 13 which very well might be a personal record for me in a five month period of time – sad in a sense, but hopeful.

Time that is. Seven days from now I'll be scrunched between a large Frenchman and a window on a jet plane over the Atlantic. It won't be the first time … at least in reference to the Frenchman. I once flew back over the Atlantic sitting next to a 300-pound Frenchman and his eight year-old daughter. She was cute. He wasn't so cute. I'm not small either. This perfect marriage of West meets old West (as in Europe) was only enriched by the fact that my seat's headphones did not work. I watched the very gloomy, dark movie Dark City and made up my own words. I turned it into a love story. What can I say; I'm a hopeless romantic.

But I digress (that's for you Wally). Anyway, it is true that I'll be traveling within the week. I'm going to take my first anti-malaria pill now ….

There it is. The deed is done. The type of anti-malaria medicine I've been prescribed has some fairly common side effects including "vivid dreams" (oh yes, I quote) and hallucinations. Please stay tuned to see if I am common.

I feel like I didn't get much done today, but this is a flat out lie. I probably feel this way because my desk is still messy. Much that was not done when I woke up is not in a complete status … whether that be truly finished, indefinitely postponed, or deemed unworthy of my time. I'm happy to say that most things fell into the first category. Sadly, my taxes did not fall into any of the three categories seeing that my TurboTax program got an attitude around 9 in the p.m. After a couple reinstalls, I'm back in action and ready to get back the money that the proverbial man has been holding for me all year.

I had lunch with my many of my old team members today from the small pharmaceutical company that has granted me a leave. It was great to see them and catch up a bit. I enjoyed talking about "business" for a little while, though I quickly realized that I missed the people more than I missed the work. So far my unemployed status feels mostly like a vacation – as if I should be headed back to work tomorrow. I'm sure that once I hit the ground in Sierra Leone that the vacation feeling will have stayed safely back in the States.

Welp, that's about all I should put in tonight. I need to get to bed and see what this medicine can do to me.