First, I want to extended my most sincere condolences to the Speedie family.

I didn't know Drew, but I did know his work. His passing hit me as hard as when my friend Ed Rauh passed.

Second, the Fox Community has lost a significant advocate in the developer community with the leaving of John Koziol from Microsoft. I knew some of the personal issues, but none of the professional one. Gonz, good luck.

Third, I've been away for a number of reasons.

The first is that I can't and haven't been able to access the UT in over a year from work.

At first, this wasn't a big deal. I was still able to offer my advice and learn from others from home.

The problem occurred when the number of personal problems that needed attending outweighed what I could contribute on the UT.

These problems included, but aren't limited to:

My wife's cousin dying, that required a trip to Chicago.

My wife's aunt dying, that required a trip to Chicago.

My cousin's relapse into Bone Cancer when she had be in remission for years.

My wife having to have had 3 MRI's to determine the source of pain she was having. The last was an MRI on her brain to determine if she had MS (she doesn't, thankfully).

My fighting with my insurance company to make sure than she could get the shots (at 4K per) she needed.

My finding out that, according to my doctor, I should have all my teeth removed.

Undergoing oral surgery to do so, then finding out that it wasn't covered by major medical.

That led me to another fight with the insurance company (that hasn't been resolved).

When I could deal on-line from my office, everything was cool.

However, when dealng with dial-up, it wasn't. I found myself spending entirely too much time that could've been used better.

At any rate, now that I'm on a cable modem, I hope that I can contribute to the community as I did before.