Having seen the picture, your adoring fans are going to start asking when the beard is coming back.

While I’m here, I’d like to give a small shout-out to Todd’s World-Famous Chili. Another question for inquiring minds: Will he go commercial with the recipe?

Great series on Thankfulness.

As you know, I’m the recipient of a minor medical miracle myself. In late 2005, I went to a Dr. with a number of complaints. One of the things he suggested was having an echo cardiogram. As it turns out, we discovered a significantly sized aneurysm to my ascending aorta. Less than 6 months later, I was having open heart surgery. Even the surgery itself included a procedure (the Ross procecdure) that was first performed in the U.S in 1986!

I don’t have a crystal ball, but given the size of the aneurysm, there was a good chance I’d suffer the same fate as John Ritter: the aneurysm would rupture unexpectedly, and that would be it.

The more open & free a health care system, the more innovation, and the quicker the costs of those innovations can come down. Echo cardiograms are now reasonably inexpensive, and there’s a reason behind that.

Here I am two days after the surgery:
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2319/74/1600/DSCF0223.jpg