Liz Wilson, my mother, lost her fight against ovarian cancer at 6:15pm yesterday. She passed away peacefully in Wishaw General Hospital, Scotland and is survived by her husband, three sons and two grandsons.
After originally being diagnosed with the disease 21 months ago, surgery and successful chemotherapy gave her 18 months of remission during which time she and dad continued to travel extensively, got to know their 3 year-old grandson well, and met their second grandson. As late as May this year, we were able to share a wonderful holiday in Florida. Symptoms returned in June, however, and despite further chemotherapy, her condition continued to worsen.
Mum’s loss will be felt by many, many people. Aside from being an outstanding and loving parent, she was a well-respected school teacher in Lanark and the surrounding area and was very active in many local organisations including Greyfriars Parish Church, Upper Clyde Operatic Society and Lanark Museum. An organisational powerhouse, her never-give-up attitude amazed and inspired all of us.
As a parent, my brothers and I could not have asked for a better mother. We had a wonderful, safe, stimulating upbringing filled with love, encouragement and new experiences. I strive to be half as good a parent to my two sons as my parents have been to me.
Mum, you will be sadly missed.

Darn! I missed all the festivities as part of international Left Handers’ Day which The Register tells me was yesterday. Remind me to put this in my diary for next year.

I’m in Bristol (UK) this week and can agree that it is definitely bl**dy hot over here just now. Friends and family back in Texas are probably thinking that folks over here are wimps – it was 108F in Austin when I left and it’s “only” reached 100F here – but you have to remember that most buildings over here have no air conditioned and the ones that have (for example, this office) seem to have been set up assuming they would never have to deal with any day over about 80F.
This is the second UK trip this year where I have found myself eager to get back to Austin and a work environment that is cooler

It appears that the US government has come to the same conclusion about MCI’s ethics as I came to a couple of months ago.
Despite being a loyal customer of MCI for about 10 years, I finally switched to AT&T recently over a question of business ethics and poor customer service.
As far as ethics are concerned, I feel strongly that MCIs charge structure is designed to confuse in such a way that making a small mistake will entail customers paying through the nose for something they expect to be cheap. Two examples:
1. Calling card calls. Our calling card charged 12c per minute in most cases (calling anywhere in the US to anywhere in the UK, calling from anywhere in the UK or US to out home number). If you do anthing outside this, for example, using the card in the US to call a number other than your home phone, the charge jumps to about $2 per minute.
2. International calling. The plan I was on charged 10c per minute to call the UK. During one recent call, I was interrupted by an operator after dialing and asked what number I was calling. I told him and the call continued as normal. When my bill arrived later, I discovered that this call had been charged at $2 per minute since it was considered an operator assisted call. My usual half hour call cost me 20 times what I expected. I was not aware of any problem in my dialing and I was not informed that the call would be charged at a different rate by the operator. On complaining, I was told that there was nothing that MCI could do.
So far, AT&T have been a great deal more pleasant to deal with and, reading all the charges associated with various call types on the plans we have chosen, I don’t see the same kind of gotchas that MCI seems to enjoy. Hopefully, I won’t have the same kind of problems in future.