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I’m not sure if you have come across this site but PracticallyEdible.com is a Domino based food encyclopedia. Check it out … cool stuff!

It’s hard to forget the events of, man, 8 years ago now, though I try.

I live and work in New Jersey. Throughout my life, trips to Manhattan and DC have been and remain commonplace. I’ve been doing it as long as I can remember.

In August of 2001, a few short weeks before, I interviewed for a job in The WTC. I remember getting done and walking through the PATH station. I glanced up at the signs and saw directions to the observation deck. I thought about going up but didn’t. I remember saying to myself, “Eh, it’ll always be here.”

Little did I know.

On 9/11, I was home. My Mom was staying with me as she recovered from a heart attack. Good to have Mom around on a day like this. I got a call from my then girlfriend who asked me to turn on the TV to see what was going on in New York. It was eerie.

As the horror unfolded in Manhattan, DC and “somewhere else in the skies” live on TV, Mom started panicking. I didn’t really know why.

See, we had the very unique experience of having one of my sisters working in the financial district of Lower Manhattan, my oldest brother was on a flight to somewhere and my #2 brother, the now Admiral then Navy Captain had been recently transferred to a new gig with the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Pentagon.

In one fell swoop, three of her six living children could be dead!

Since we’re a large Irish-American family, we know the tragedy of losing loved ones well before their time intimately. We aren’t really proud of that fact. It just is what it is. God’s time is … well … whether we admit God exists or not, we are all on His timetable. But this … fuck … this would be too much to bear.

Minutes ticked by … there was no word from anyone. You couldn’t get through on the phones or emails went unanswered. The news coverage of the carnage didn’t help. The minutes turned to hours and still no word from anyone.

Mom finally got a call from my sister at about 2 PM. She wasn’t downtown but, as you can imagine, couldn’t get a call out. About 3 PM, my sister-in-law, wife of my oldest brother, called and told us he was fine.

The only one left was The Captain at The Pentagon. When I heard that it was the Navy’s side of the Pentagon, I couldn’t help but think that tragedy had befallen my family again. When the news would go back to Pentagon coverage, and remind us that it was the Navy side, Mom would start sobbing. I, of course, had no way to comfort her. I made feeble attempts but Mom has had all sorts of tragedy in her life. What could I really say?

Finally, around 7 PM, The Captain called and was fine. Turns out, he had been in a meeting with Rumsfeld and the JCoS on the other side of the building and had been helping rescue efforts.

Simply by His grace, my family spared that day. For that, I was then, am now and will always be tremendously grateful.

In the years since, I have met others whose lives changed that day; some lucky, some not but all undoubtedly changed… [Part 2 later today]

Hope you got everything you need from them because they are down until 8 PM EDT Sunday.

Now, my question is, ummm really, considering all the patching that will be going on this weekend, is this such a hot idea?

It seems as though the good prof is now Tweeting with the rest of us!

Rushing to Finish Your ND7 Cert Upgrade? You now have more time!!!