Oh My Goodness

This is SO COOL!

The Detroit Tigers are in the postseason for the first time since since 1987!!!

With an 11-4 win over the Kansas City Royals this afternoon, they are guaranteed at least a wild card spot.

Let's go for the division!

Project 2996, Part Three

Leobardo Lopez Pascual

Leobardo was born and grew up in the small farm village of San Pablo Anicano in the state of Puebla, Mexico. He was one of twelve children. He married Mirna Huerta, had four children, and began a farm of his own. In 1997, he made the difficult decision to leave his family behind and make his way to the United States and find a way to make a better life for his wife and children.

He came to New York City and got a job as a morning cook at the Windows on the World restuarant on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center. He shared a one-bedroom apartment in the Bronx with a co-worker and his family.

For four years, he sent every penny that he could home to his wife every week, and packages of clothes and shoes several times a year. He watched his children grow up in the pictures that his wife sent as often as she could. He dreamed of bringing his family back together.

Leobardo was no different than the stockbrokers and lawyers who went to work every day in the World Trade Center. He lived for his family, he loved his family, he took care of his family.

There is no better tribute.

Project 2996, Part Deux

Asia Cottom

Asia SiVon Cottom knew that she was the luckiest girl on planet Earth. Life had been just about perfect from the time she was born on January 13, 1990.

She was eleven years old.

She had just started sixth grade at Bertie Mack Middle School, and that was perfect for two reasons. One was that her school specialized in computers, science, and math, all of her favorite subjects. The other and best reason was that her daddy worked in her school! He coached the basketball team and worked as an aide in the library and patrolled the halls. Some of her favorite times during the day were when she would walk down the hall with her best friend Natalie, and she would see her daddy and they would share a wave and a smile. It was even better because the other students liked him, too. She loved all of her classes, even the ones that were difficult, because that just meant she had to try harder. It was fun to get up every day, looking forward to school.

Then there was church. Randall Memorial Baptist Church. She loved God and she loved Jesus and she loved church. Every Saturday she had dance rehearsal and choir practice. Every Sunday she had Sunday School in the morning, and then for evening service, she would usher before service and then perform with the chaurch dance group and the choir. She loved her week-ends filled with God and singing and dancing.

She had the best family, ever. Her parents were her heroes. They were strict, but she knew they loved her. Her mom had a beautiful voice and always sang around the house and in church. She even loved her brother Isiah. She didn't always like him, especially when they were walking to the bus stop for school, but she loved him.

But absolutely the best thing, the thing that made her know that she was the luckiest girl on the planet Earth, was being picked for the National Geographic Society field trip to California! She was one of only three students chosen. They were going to the Channel Islands off the coast of Cailfornia to be part of the Sustainable Seas Expedition. They were going on a boat trip to look for marine animals and birds. They were going hiking on the island to study animals and plants. And they were going kayaking to look explore kelp forests and sea caves. She had to look kayaking up on the computer to find out what it was.

She was going on a plane, for the first time in her life. She was going to fly far away from her family for the first time. The thought was scary and exciting, but she wasn't really afraid, because mom and daddy were in her heart.

She was the first one up on Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001. It was a beautiful day outside. She skipped around the house singing to herself. She was all packed the night before. She dressed carefully in her favorite Tweety Bird shirt, and made sure she had her Tweety Bird purse. On the way to the airport she chattered nonstop. Her parents hugged her, kissed her, waved good-bye, and watched her disappear down the hallway.

American Airlines Flight 77 took off a short while later.

Asia Cottom was an intelligent, articulate girl who loved science and math and dreamed of becoming a pediatrician. She was adored by her close-knit family, and loved by her friends, schoolmates, and teachers. Her voice is still missed in the youth choir of her church.

Her mother told one of her teachers, "My baby got her wings today."

A September 11, 2001 Tribute

Marina R. Gertsberg

"That day she had to go to school and that's why she was early." Roman Gertsberg, Ground Zero, 9-11-2002


On Tuesday September 4, 2001, Marina Gertsberg walked into 1 World Trade Center, and rode the elevator up to the 101st floor to start her new job as a Junior Manager at Cantor Fitzgerals. She had left her old job at Morgan Stanley because she was beginning a graduate program at Baruch College.

Four days later, September 8, she glided down the aisle of a church in Brooklyn in an elegant purple dress as maid of honor for her best friend Clara's wedding. Then she danced the night away.

At 10:00 pm Monday, September 10, Marina called her parents from her Brooklyn apartment to tell them that she was home for the night, she was safe, and to wish them a good night, as she did several times a week.

She had a day full of work and school ahead of her, so she decided to get an early start on Tuesday morning.

Marina Romanova Gertsberg was 25 years old on September 11, 2001. She was beautiful, intelligent, and funny. She had gorgeous, baby-blue eyes that seemed bottomless, through which shone her soul. She had a contagious, engaging smile that translated into the way she lived her life: with zest, confidence, adventure, wit, and love.

She graduated with honors from a school for the gifted, and from Stuyvesant High School, and for college from SUNY Binghamton. She learned Hebrew because she wanted to study in Israel. She wanted to visit her birthplace, the city of Odessa in the Ukraine (Her family emigrated to the U.S. when she was four years old). She learned Russian so she could speak to her grandparents in their native language. She was seeing a young man who had every chance of one day being her husband.

She was her parents' only child.

Marina is loved and remembered and missed by everyone who knew her, because of her sunny personality, goodness and strength of character, and her love of life. The world is richer because she existed.

"We see her in dreams. We talk to her. Usually when a person have a dream, they wake up and say, you know, thank God it was a dream, but we have opposite thing. We don't want to wake up." Anna Gertsberg, Ground Zero, 9-11-2002

To her friends and loved ones: Remember that a life lived fully and well, as Marina's was, though brief, is not wasted but is a precious gift.

Today's Favorite Picture

Link here

Why am I not surprised?

This is enough to make me start banging my head against the wall.

Yes, I know they have a constitutional right to say and do these despicable things, but there need to be some limits on their activities near the funerals of soldiers, because, by God, the families of these heroes have rights, too.

Finally!

After weeks filled with frustration screaming, I have finally managed to add a button to the sidebar.

Of course, the good folks at "2996" were good enough to write the code, and I just pasted it in, but it's there! TA DA!

To anyone who is reading this, please click over to that site and sign up. It's a good cause.