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12/05/05--20:50: Ice Cream (chan 1843584)

This is 100% of my daily value of deliciousness right here:



P.S. Thank you, Lord, for giving me the metabolism of a cheetah.




12/09/05--22:03: Saturday, December 10, 2005 (chan 1843584)

Watching my sister lying in a hospital bed is one of the hardest things I’ve had to do in the past few years. The worst part is that the doctors don’t even know what’s wrong with her. They keep taking blood tests and interpreting the results, but they haven’t been able to come up with a definitive diagnosis yet.

 

My parents took my sister to Northwest Medical Center last night at about 9:00 pm, but she had to be transferred to TMC in an ambulance. She was running a high fever and vomiting, and she also had some sharp stomach pain and other stomach-related issues. I went and visited this morning for a couple hours, and I just got home now after being there for another few hours tonight.

 

I felt so helpless as I watched this little 12-year-old girl, hooked up to an IV and struggling to swallow pills. I hope the doctors can figure out what’s wrong with her soon, but in the meantime, keep Anna in your prayers. Intellectually, I know the Lord is going to work this out according to His will, but that just isn’t meshing emotionally right now.




12/12/05--21:31: Tuesday, December 13, 2005 (chan 1843584)

First of all, I want to thank you all for your prayers!

Anna had a colonoscopy today, and the doctors were finally able to determine what has been causing all of her pain and discomfort. They diagnosed her with a disease called “ulcerative colitis,” which is basically sores (ulcers) along her large intestine (mainly her colon). She’ll be taking steroids for the next 2-3 weeks to make the inflammation go down, and then she’ll have to take medicine for the rest of her life to keep things under control.

If everything goes well, Anna will get to come home within a few days. I’m writing this entry from the hospital, and I can tell you that her condition improved drastically today. She’s laughing and talking now, and she even went for a walk around the halls tonight! They took her off the IV sometime this afternoon, and she ate some Jell-O and a popsicle earlier without throwing them back up again. Everyone we know has been so nice, and her room is starting to look like a flower shop/toy store with all the stuffed animals.

Thanks again for your continued thoughts and prayers. My family and I appreciate your support so much!




12/14/05--22:55: Thursday, December 15, 2005 (chan 1843584)

This entry is going to be neither eloquent nor well-planned, but I just wanted to tell you all that Anna came home from the hospital today! She got home a little after noon and slept until about 5 this evening, and that's after having slept for 12 hours last night! We're still concerned that she's getting dehydrated, but I'm going to see to it that she drinks plenty of Gatorade. She's currently on steroids and a few other things to treat the inflammation and pain, but she has an appointment with the doctor in a week, so we'll find out more about her long-term medications then.

Well, God gets the glory for this one, and you guys all get a big "thank you!" for your thoughts and kind words. Thanks again.




01/14/06--20:16: Sunday, January 15, 2006 (chan 1843584)

Well, good! I almost went an entire month without a new entry. It would be nearly impossible to sum up everything that's happened in the last 30 days or so, but I think I'll give it a shot anyway. I now present you with a bulleted list for your reading enjoyment.

• Alix came home for a few weeks, and we spent Christmas, New Year's, her birthday, and pretty much every day together. It was lovely. We also went to the dullest office Christmas party in the history of the universe, and on the 10th of this month, we celebrated six months together.
• I got to see lots of high school friends, including the Gillan crew, Kari, Carissa, Andrew, the Watters, and countless others who will surely be offended because I haven't listed their names.
• I visited with two sets of friends who are getting married this summer. Congrats to Emily and Garret and also to Kelly and Greg!
• I bought plane tickets to Italy for the week of spring break. To say that I'm excited would be the most heinous understatement of the century. Tentatively, we're gonna hit up Florence, Venice, and perhaps Pisa or Lucca.
• I worked nearly 60 hours this past week, but thanks to school starting, that's about to change. As of Tuesday, I'll be working nearly 60 hours a week and going to school full-time.
• A few of us are taking a dance class this semester on Saturday nights. After 16 weeks, I'll be able to do Latin and ballroom dancing with the best of the best.
• Mute Math is coming to town on the 26th. You can bet your bottom dollar that Alex and I will be there. Heck, I'm even going to buy a CD.

Again, I apologize for anything or anyone I've left out of this little summary. My head hurts from regurgitating all that information, so I hope you're happy!

Edit: Carissa whomped the crap out of me in Boggle. I didn't even put up a respectable fight. I have a good excuse, though! I was preoccupied with Alix being sick, and thinking about her took precedence over making words out of square tiles.





02/18/06--13:20: Saturday, February 18, 2006 (chan 1843584)

This is from yesterday. I don't have time for a full entry, but I had to post something, right?






03/19/06--20:01: When in Rome... (chan 1843584)

I wasn't actually in Rome, but I did just get back from Italy yesterday! The Pope wanted my opinion on some public policy issues for the Catholic church, but I told him I had more pressing matters that I had to attend to. Instead of the Vatican, the Matt Jacob 2006 World Tour included stops in Venice, Florence, and Lucca, as well as an all-out sprint through the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris.

Out of consideration for my esteemed readers, I won't bore you with hundreds of pictures from my trip (and believe me, there are literally hundreds---261, to be exact). I've decided to post just a handful of my favorite pictures with brief captions, but if you want to see more pictures or find out more about the trip, you can take me out for coffee sometime. I had a fantastic week of spending time with Alix and exploring parts of Florence on my own while she was in class, and I definitely wasn't ready to leave as soon as I did.

Now I'm going to turn over the rest of this entry to the pictures and let them do the talking.

 
The Grand Canal in Venice, as seen from the Rialto bridge (see below).


The Rialto bridge in Venice connects the two sides of the Grand Canal and is more than 400 years old.


Pigeons run rampant in Venice. Alix thinks I have an irrational fear of these dirty little birds, but I think it's perfectly justified.


A cool walkway on the side of Palazzo Ducale in Venice.


A random, neat-looking canal in Venice, of which there are hundreds.


Touring the Grand Canal in a gondola during sunset. It's the romantic (read: tourist) thing to do in Venice.


The Grand Canal at night.


The famous Cupola of the Duomo in Florence.


The view from the top of the Cupola (see above). This panorama is actually 8 pictures stitched together.


Some statue in Florence that I wish I knew the name of.


I commissioned an artist to do a sculpture of me while I had some free time to kill in Florence.


Florence's Ponte Vecchio bridge, which spans the dirty Arno River. The bridge itself contains lots of jewelry shops.


A shot of the Arno taken from the Ponte Vecchio.


An old man sitting on a bench in Lucca. The wall in the background was built in the 16th century, and it goes around the entire city.


We rode bikes around Lucca, and this picture was taken just outside the city walls.


It was a good trip.




03/31/06--22:27: Finally Got a New Job! (Maybe) (chan 1843584)

A couple months ago, I was complaining about my job like I always do, but then I was struck with a thought---"If I dislike my job so much, why not try to find a better job?" Well, I always talk about how cool it would be to work for Google, so I found their listing of current openings (there are literally hundreds) and started poking around. I found an opening entitled Assistant Webmaster, but the only catch was that it was for Google's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. "What the heck?" I thought. "It couldn't hurt to apply!"

So I polished up my resume and started dropping hints about Mountain View. I asked Alix if she knew what it was like there, and we agreed that being in the same state for a majority of the year would be a good thing. This was at least a few months ago, maybe back in January or even December of last year. Out of the blue, I get a call today on my cell phone while I'm at work. The area code on my caller ID is showing up as 650, which I don't recognize, but I go ahead and answer it anyway.

"Is this Matthew Jacob?"

"Um, yes."

"Hi, Mr. Jacob. This is Mark Lowenstein from Google. The reason I'm calling today is to see if you're still interested in the assistant webmaster position you applied for a while back."




04/02/06--21:49: I'm a Fool for April (chan 1843584)

Well, friends, I sincerely apologize to anyone who was caught off guard by my April Fool's Day entry yesterday. I appreciate a practical joke just as much as the next guy, and unfortunately, that means that I'm not going to California to work for Google. Maybe someday, though.

To make up for my prank, here's something that's not a joke: 171 pictures from my trip to Italy. Enjoy!




04/03/06--23:02: Ciao, Xanga (chan 1843584)

It's. About. Freaking. Time.