G'day, Uncle Garth.
My cousin, Lane, has four children, two children with Usher's II Syndrome. Children with this condition lose their sight and hearing typically by the age of 18. Lane and her husband, Todd, have faced this challenge with aplomb. They've created the Hear, See, Hope Foundation, hoping to find a cure by raising thousands and thousands of dollars for research with Oregon Health and Sciences University (OHSU). Here's the link to a Seattle KING-5 special that aired in December about local children experiencing something "For the First Time," where her infant boy, Dalton, receives cochlar implants and hears for the first time.
Mick's cousin, Andrew, who was a little fifth grader (I think) when I met him, is now an amazing and accomplished athlete. He swims competitively for Louisiana State University and was recently chosen to swim for the US Swim Team at the 18th World Maccabian Games in Israel. What a stud. 
Page" January 30, 2007.) He's out on a ship right now and sends us these great email updates. An early one was about piracy off the Somali coast, another was about when he was Sailor of the Week (Mmmm hmmmm, everybody say, Go Sailor!), and most recently about a revered Navy tradition, Crossing the Line. Here's what he wrote about that:
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The ceremony of
Crossing the Line is an initiation rite in the Royal Navy, U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard, and other navies which commemorates a sailor's first crossing of the equator. Originally the tradition was created as a test for seasoned sailors to ensure their new shipmates were capable of handling long rough times at sea. Sailors who have already crossed the equator are nicknamed (Trusty) Shellbacks, often referred to as Sons of Neptune; those who have not are nicknamed (Slimy) Pollywogs.
The two-day event (evening and day) is a ritual of reversal in which the older and experienced enlisted crew essentially takes over the ship from the officers. Physical assaults in keeping with the 'spirit' of the initiation are tolerated, and even the inexperienced crew is given the opportunity to 'take over'.[citation needed] The transition flows from established order to the controlled 'chaos' of the Pollywog Revolt, the beginnings of re-order in the initiation rite as the fewer but experienced enlisted crew converts the 'Wogs' through physical tests, then back to, and thereby affirming, the pre-established order of officers and enlisted. Like the old physically- and emotionally-intensive boot camp, the "Crossing the Line" ritual deconstructs then reconstructs the initiates' experience from newbie outsider into the experienced military fraternity.
The eve of the equatorial crossing is called Wog 
Up-Rising and, as with many other night-before rituals, is a mild type of reversal of the day to come. 'Wogs' - all of the uninitiated - are allowed to capture and 'interrogate' any shellbacks they can find (eg, tying them up, cracking eggs or pouring aftershave lotion on their heads)
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This has been another edition of NETTY'S BRAG PAGE. (C) 2006
Barritt is SEVEN.
Big Share and Donny Daring
Andrew Schneidler passed the Washington State Bar exam!
Mick and Anjie Reynolds kicked some serious booty
