Planet Tabor

Movember 2009 Fund Raiser

I�ve committed to take part in the Movember Charity Event for the second year. During the entire month of November, I will be working diligently on not shaving in order to grow the best possible moustache. It is a silly enough task, but the reason behind it is serious. The fund raiser will contribute all funds raised to the Prostate Cancer Foundation and the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Prostate Cancer has directly affected my family and I�m happy to do what I can to help raise awareness and needed research funds.

If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to this cause, please visit my page at the Movember website. Any amount you can spare would be appreciated. I know times are tough for a lot of people, so I completely understand if you really can�t spare anything.

Stay tuned for the most ridiculous-looking moustache that I can muster.

Noah�s Third Birthday - January 2009

Our little boy turned 3 this past January. It is amazing how quickly time passes when you are measuring changes in a preschooler. It seems like we just had his first birthday party. It feels like we should still be searching for remnants of the blue icing with which he had covered himself, but this is not the case.

We celebrated Noah�s birthday with a couple of parties. The first was a tasty cake and some gifts on his actual birthday. And the second was a celebration of several Winter Birthdays with family at our house. Noah loved them both. And with great company, fun gifts, and lots of cake�what�s not to love?

Holiday Cheer to Ring Out the Year

My last post was photos from October, but I am going to jump right over November and post photos from December. I do not have anything against November. It was a great month. But I would like to post the pictures from the Holidays sometime before summer. ;-)

Hannah and Noah loved December. And there was a lot to love about it. They enjoyed the month-long buildup to Christmas, all the wonderful gifts they received, and the week-and-a-half �staycation� we had between Xmas and New Years. This collection of photos include:

Setting up the tree
Visiting Santa
Making a Gingerbread house
Birthdays
Christmas Eve at Grandma and Grandpa�s house
Christmas Day at Babcia and Dziadzia's house
Hannah�s Holiday Recital
and a ton more.

October 2008 � A Month-Long Celebration of the Pumpkin

Hannah and Noah have fallen in love with Halloween. It is a favorite of Rebecca and I also, so I suppose this was only natural. We spend most of the month going Halloween-ish things, from visiting pumpkin patches and fall festivals to dressing up in costume for 4 or 5 different events.

We let Hannah pick her costume this year. We did try some gentle persuasion once or twice, but she knew what she wanted the moment she saw the costume in a catalog. Hannah was a very proud, and pretty, Pink Supergirl. I don�t think she knows anything about Supergirl. And I don�t know if anyone knows why she would we be in pink. But Hannah was delighted with it and that�s all that really matters.

Noah was a Brown Bear this year, inheriting a great gender-neutral costume from his sister. He loved wearing it and did a great job of being in character while wearing it. His bear growl was impressive, and usually came with a cute clawing motion.

Scenes from the Summer in the Cold, Cold Winter

After a month of posting only photos of my face on this website, it is a pleasure to return to sharing pictures of the kids with our family and friends. I�ve fallen sadly behind in updating these photos, so be ready for some time travel. Sherman, set the WABAC machine for August-September 2008.

The collection of photos begins with some shots of the kids visiting Grandma and Grandpa for a birthday celebration. They loved the visit, especially playing outside and laughing at me showing off my pogo-stick skills. Later that month, we went to see Grandpa square dance. Grandma was at home sick, but we can�t wait to see the two of them dance together. Jump ahead a week or two and there are some pics of Hannah�s first day of Senior Preschool. She had been talking about school all summer long, so she was so excited to be going back. The remaining photos cover everything from Harry�s birthday (Arrr!) to the fall festival at the Children�s Farm.

Movember Fund Raiser � Retro Mustache Success

Respect My Authority!

The attached photo shows my final Movember Mustache in all it�s 70�s-era-cop-show glory. I was aiming for a tribute to Frank Zappa, but this is as close as I could get in a month. It looked only slightly less ridiculous without the $0.95 mirrored aviator sunglasses.

I would like to again express my deep appreciation to everyone that sponsored me during this month-long fund raiser. The event itself was certainly silly, but the cause was very serious. I am proud to have helped raise some money for the Prostate Cancer Foundation, as well as a little more awareness of men�s health issues.

Movember � Day 25: Saying Goodbye to the Beard

The itchy phase of the beard is behind me now�just as I am counting down the days to shave it off. :-) Part of me is going to miss the beard. I�ve never let a beard attempt to beyond a couple of weeks, so it is interesting to see how much a difference a few days can make on my opinion. Still, I am ready to move on to trimming the full beard down to a memorable mustache for the final post at the end of the Movember Fund Raiser.

Thanks to the generous donations of my family and friends, the Prostate Cancer Foundation has received over $500 thus far. Thank you, everyone!

If you would like to learn more about this charity and how you can help, please visit my page over at the Movember website.

Movember �Stache at 20 Days: Itchy, itchy, itchy

Two-thirds of the Movember fund raiser is now behind me. The beard continues to grow unabated. I�ve been debating when exactly to trim it down to the Movember Mustache. It is very tempting to do it now to remove some of this itchy beard from my face, but I may wait until the very end for a final reveal. :-)

As itchy as I am, it is good know there are over 6,600 guys in the US doing Movember this year also, so I am not alone.

I�m happy to report that my itchiness is going for good cause. Several more of my family, friends, and co-workers have graciously donated money to the Movember fund raiser to support the Prostate Cancer Foundation.

If you would like to learn more about this charity and how you can help, please visit my page over at the Movember website.

Movember � Day 15: Midway to Moustache

I�m at the midpoint in the Movember fund raiser and have never felt fuzzier. While I am doing my best to let the full beard grow most of the month, I did trim up the edges a bit so that I look at least a little less scary.

One of the great things about the Movember fund raiser is that the sudden appearance of facial hair leads to conversations. And conversations lead to more awareness about the fund raiser and donations.

I�d like to thank some of my family and friends for their generous donations since the last update.

If you would like to learn more about this charity and how you can help, please visit my page over at the Movember website.

Movember � Day 10: Scruffy Gives Way to Scraggly

My fashionable stubble has turned into a light beard. It is light in patchy thinness as well as light in color due to all the grey. While it is a challenge not to shave this off as I continue to look more like the love-child of a transient and a lumberjack, I resist the urge because I know Movember is a good cause. It is fortunate that my kids were willing to sit next to their old dad to make me look a little younger.

I would like to thank Nicolle and Cristine for their generous donations to the Movember fund raiser. Take that, Prostate Cancer.

Movember: Day Ten

Movember - Day 5: Scruffy Against Prostate Cancer

I�m finishing phase one of the Movember Moustache for Charity: General scruffiness. My razor is gathering dust and my follicles are frolicking in their newfound freedom. The length is similar to every male soap opera star under 50, so I have been practicing my best smell-the-fart acting.

Any suggestions on the best moustache for this project? I don�t think I will have time for a full Tom Selleck. John Waters is a possibility, although it seems a shame not to go big.

Many thanks to Mark for his donation to the fight against Prostate Cancer. If you would like to learn more about this charity and how you can help, please visit my page over at the Movember website.

Growing a Moustache for Charity

I stumbled across the perfect charity event for me: growing a moustache to help fight Prostate Cancer. The event started a few years ago in Australia and occurs each November. Participants start with a clean shave on November 1 and spend the rest of the month growing an appropriately righteous �stache. The goal, besides ending up looking like Tom Selleck, is to raise awareness of men�s health issues and raise money for the Prostate Cancer Foundation.

I will pledge to post a new photo of my progress at least once a week. Feel free to laugh, point, and download for future humiliation. While you are doing that, however, please stop by the Movember website and make a tax-free donation for this cause. It is a good cause and your donation will help me feel a little less silly.

Movember: Day One

A Fun-Filled Summer by Land, Sea, and Air

Summer has ended in Chicago and the signs of autumn are inescapable, from the changing of the leaves to the Halloween decorations. The Tabor clan spent much of the summer of 2008 in motion. We seemed to always be heading out for a day trip from the day preschool let out in June until it started again in September. This latest collection of photos includes a few of these outings from June and July. The trips include:

A model airplane show
Painting in the backyard
Swimming at the local pool
Brookfield Zoo
Lambs Farm
Morton Arboretum
Sports camp
And a train ride to Joliet

A Day at the Pool

This has been the Summer of the Pool for Hannah and Noah. They have probably been in the water in some way during most sunny days since preschool ended for Hannah in June. Their new favorite place is the Aquatic Center over at Centennial Park. Rebecca signed Hannah and Noah up for swimming lessons at the start of the summer and we have been back to Orland Park�s fantastic pool as much as possible. When they don�t make it there, Hannah and Noah can usually be found in a small pool in their own backyard.

I did not get many photos of Hannah during her lessons since she was off in the deep end, but I will make it up to her with more photos in the next update.

Visit to the Museum of Science and Industry

I�m taking a rare opportunity to post an almost real-time update to PlanetTabor. There is a backlog of a couple thousand photos from May through early August that I need to go distill down to a few small posts, but that will have to wait until another day.

Today�s photo comes from the U-505 exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. This was my favorite museum as a child, so it was a treat to take our kids to see it. Hannah and Noah seem just as awestruck and excited by the museum as I was some 30-odd years ago.

It is amazing how much it has changed since I was last at the MSI. From the new underground parking and the massive U-505 permanent display to the Idea Factory and NetWorld exhibit on the Internet, the museum has re-invented itself in many ways.

The photo included in this post comes from in front of the U-505 exhibit. The exhibit is amazing and I loved the photo op�but it doesn�t it seem a little odd to have a picture of your family smiling in front of a WWII-era German Submarine?