THANK YOU 2013

I am thankful for many things this year.

My health continues to be good despite a few soccer injuries and the aches and pains of aging.

I have an amazing family with a great, supportive wife, two amazing kids, and a loving mom and dad and brother and sister.

Although I do not see my out of town friends as often as I would like, we remain close. When we do see each other, it is as though no time has passed since we last met. The connection, the understanding is still there. I have also made some great new friends this year - mostly through soccer and futsal. What is better than playing one's favorite game with great people?

I am thankful for cable television. I watch "Homeland" and so many football matches. NBC Sports and their Premier League coverage has truly changed our TV watching habits.



Many a Saturday morning, Nicholas and I will arise at 5AM to watch the latest "game of the week." What a treat. Here is the year in review.

We had wonderful trips in 2013. We went to the East Coast for Spring Break and saw some wonderful friends in NYC, Philadelphia, Wilmington, and D.C. In the summer, we went to Black Butte twice and Mount Hood. This Fall, we went to Barcelona to celebrate my 40th birthday. The kids did great on that trip, and we are already planning a trip to England for some football tourism next year. We ended the year with a great trip to Seattle.

There is no better gift to one's kids or better way to spend one's money, in my opinion, than travel. Who knows where we will go next, but I promise you we will keep going!

Several of the large federal grants that I slaved over in 2012 were funded in 2013, and I am truly excited about our research directions. I have three great people in my lab, who are committed to making breakthroughs and working their butts off. Fingers crossed that we will be able to contribute to our goal of a world without cancer-related suffering.

A wise man once said, all of us will die one day, but how many of us truly live? I am reminded of that each week as I care for amazing men and their families with my incredible team of nurses and clinical research staff. I could not imagine doing any other job!

These are just a few of the things for which I am grateful. Let's hope that even better and bigger things await us in 2014!