Yesterday, at 5:00 AM, my 10 year old son woke me up and said “Hey Dad, we haven’t had a breakfast alone for a long time, left’s go!”  Of course we could not find anything open besides Denny’s so we said our prayers and headed there.

We had a great time, talked about school, XBOX 360, Spring break plans, summer vacation, it was all around a wonderful time :)

Then came the time to pay and head back home.  Oops, I forgot my wallet at home!  No credit cards, no cash, no driving license, nothing.  The bill was $17, so I went to the cashier and explained the situation and she was not pleased :(

She went and brought the manager on duty who said “I am sorry if you have no way of paying the $17 I will need to call the police”  I laughed, I thought he was joking!  unfortunately he was not.  I asked if he would take a credit card over the phone and he said yes!  So I called my wife and woke her up and got the numbers and passed it to him while he was still very upset.

The final part of the story is my favorite part, while he was entering the numbers manually into the system, he stopped at the end and turned around and asked me “How much would you like to leave for tip?”

What a year this has been! Only God can transform a life like He did with mine this year.

One year ago, my heart stopped during the second operation that was scheduled to make my life better and healthier. After 3 weeks in a coma, I woke up on Christmas day no idea what the future will have for me or how long it will be there for.

I am blogging again today to share with you how the first year went after the operation and how blessed I am in all aspect of my like hoping that this will encourage or inspire others to live their life to the fullest and just simply enjoy the gift of life.

As of today, I lost over 100 pounds this year, I feel great! Energetic, HAPPY and always laughing and enjoying life with my family, my team and my friends worldwide!

In the middle of one of the worst recessions ever in the USA, my company had the best year in business ever with tremendous success financially and technically.

My wife and I grew even closer to each other after 16 years of marriage; embracing life with a tremendous gratitude for the second chance I have been given.

I spent a lot more time with my kids and bonded well together. We enjoyed lots of trips this year to Rome, Venice, Bahamas, Disneyland and other small trips around the bay area. It was so awesome!

I took Jessica with me for the first time to almost all my business trips this year, like Paris, Sofia Bulgaria, Redmond WA and others…

I enjoyed my team at Falafel tremendously this year (they worked very hard) and it was a pleasure to take them all to Bora Bora this year. It was a dream vacation for a dream team! All of them volunteered to open a Falafel branch for me in Bora Bora, how thoughtful! But I would never ask you guys to do that for me; I will sacrifice myself for that that mission and will do it for the team J

God has put so many people in my life that have been nothing less than a GIFT and a BLESSING, like John Waters (the President of Falafel), Sean Samuel (Falafel Office manager) , my sister in law Abir Tadros, my mother in law Rosa, the entire team at Falafel in all 4 states (CA, CO, TX & MI), all my friends in the US and Europe that proved to me that a man with friends like them is the richest man in the world!

May God bless you all!  We all here at the Tadros household and the Falafel family wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year 2010!

On December 9th 2008, I went into surgery to place a Lap Band around my stomach in order to get help in losing weight and regain back my health that I neglected for 18 years by working 15 to 17 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The operation was successful but I could not even drink water for several days as the Lap Band was too tight.  The doctor decided to go back in and fix it surgically.

I went back in on December 13th for a second operation.  It was successful and was completed in less than 45 minutes.  In the recovery room few minutes later, my heart stopped.

They had to bring me back which took 33 seconds.

I was in a coma from the 13th of December to the 25th.  I woke up on Christmas day.  I stayed in the ICU for 3 weeks and a total of 28 days in the hospital.

I got back home on December 31st (My anniversary) and for the last 2 weeks I have been learning to walk again like a baby, but things are getting better every day and I am truly blessed to be alive.

I am sharing this personal experience with you for 2 reasons, the first is because God is great, I had a lot of people world wide praying for me.  It was a really tough month on my family.  The second, is because I want others to enjoy the gift of life and not take it for granted.  Be healthy, or get healthy.  Nothing in the world is worth it.  Your family and friends are the biggest assets you could ever have.

I want to thank all the hundreds of people that came to see me or called me from all over the world and for all the beautiful flowers that flooded our home for the last 30 days.

Thank you all and may God bless

- Lino "with a new life" Tadros

Isn't it weird that Joe the Plumber is what the Republican party is trying to focus on in these final days of the 2008 elections?

I have been a republican since I immigrated to the USA in 1991 and I believe the difference between the parties is very clear and has no middle standing. I never thought the day will come when I will be voting for a Democratic President.

I also thought someone like "Joe The Plumber" would be someone that Democrats would use to show their point about equality for all and bridging the gap between middle class and people that make a lot of money in the USA.  I would have thought that MCCain would go for someone like me "Lino The CEO" to show that he will not raise taxes on myself or my small business.

Anyway, my decision is made and I have to say it was not an easy decision.  I am voting for Obama on Tuesday.

Yes, I know, Obama will cause me to pay more taxes because I am in the higher 5% bracket of the country.  But honestly, taxes can not possibly be the only reason someone would vote for a President.  I am voting for Obama because I am convinced he is a great human being, great father, calm person, shows respect to the people around him, shows respect to other countries (friendly or not). I was also in Europe 2 weeks ago and I was amazed on how many Europeans are wearing Obama shirts in the streets.

I am sick of wars and arrogance and looking forward to being led by a decent President that make me proud and continues to remind me of the gift I have been given to live in the USA.

John MCCain is a decent man and I think he would have been a decent President, unfortunately these times call for more than what he has to offer.

I predict that Obama on Tuesday night (before 10:00 PM PST) will be announced the new elected President of the USA by at least 12 points differential.

May God bless our beautiful country and our next President.

The last few month have been very hectic flying all over the USA and Europe for business and yesterday I finished teaching a TestComplete class in Virginia and I decided to take today off and visit the DC area.  I have been in the USA for 19 years, traveled over 27 states and never been to DC.

I started early this morning and visited the Capitol building, the Lincoln memorial, Jefferson's Memorial, Washington Monument, Washington Cathedral and finally I stopped at the White House and spent some time there looking at the beautiful building and grab the moment.

It was a truly proud moment after 19 years in the US to visit these bigger than life places.  My love for the USA is also bigger than life, so the day was extremely emotional for me and will stay with me for the rest of my life.

God Bless America!

I was honored with the MVP award for the 4th year in a row this month from Microsoft corporation.

The Microsoft MVP Award recognizes exceptional technical community leaders from around the world who voluntarily share their high quality, real world expertise with others. Microsoft MVPs are a highly select group of experts representing technology's best and brightest who share a deep commitment to community and a willingness to help others. Worldwide, there are over 100 million participants in technical communities; of these participants, there are fewer than 4,000 active Microsoft MVPs.

So last night, I took the plunge and decided to update my IPhone to 2.0

It worked, I let ITunes do the work and 20 minutes later, Voila!

Then I decided to hook my IPhone to my hosted Exchange Server for work. It took less than 2 minutes and Voila!  very cool!

Connected my Exchange Calendar to my IPhone calendar and Voila!

I really like Apple's superiority in User Interface, it is just pretty cool!

I heard a lot of people had problem yesterday (first day for the release) to get hooked up to Apple Store and ITunes, but I tried at 10:00 PM PST last night and it was pretty painless.

I am looking forward to start writing some applications on the IPhone 2.0 SDK

More on that later :)

Well, I have been a Republican since I immigrated to the United States in 1991. It was a simple choice for me really, I just did not believe that people that don't work hard should enjoy the same benefits in life as those that work their butt off.  There has to be a difference between these two categories.  I could never force someone to work extra hours or study very hard to become somebody but I reject the notion that they deserve to be at the same level of standard of life of those that do.

That said, this is the first time I am contemplating voting for a Democratic President, Barak Obama.  I like this guy!

President of the United States of America for me is not really a Job, it is a title.  I expect the President to be surrounded by a lot of very smart people that are expert on the subject matter at hand to advise him.  My expectation is also that the President be smart enough to listen to them and make the correct choice based on their feedback.

For me, the President of the USA has to have "PRESENCE", when he or she speaks, people listen!  it is a gift, not everyone has.  I expect when my President travels abroad, citizens of other countries receive him in awe, respect and admiration.

You have to be able to tell that you are listening to the most powerful man in the world from the most significant country in the world.

Barak Obama gives me that feeling.  Very elegant speaker and a convincing one for sure.

MCCain stands for all that I believe in, I am with him on Iraq (I think I am qualified on this as I spent more than half my life in the middle east and I know how things work there).  I am also with him on the latest economy issues like bailing out consumers on the mortgage crisis.  Why? Why should the US Government bail citizens out that made bad choices in getting ridiculous mortgage deals that they can not afford, why should I be paying for that?  And what about my mortgage and my good choices, I get nothing for that?

So it was hard this year to find an easy answer of how to vote, until I decided to do what I am good at and use numbers:

Capital Gains Tax:

• MCCain -> 15% (no Change)
• Obama -> 28%
• Clinton -> 24%

How does this affect you? If you sell your home and make a profit, you will pay 28% of your gain on taxes. If you are heading toward retirement and would like to down-size your home or move into  a retirement community, 28% of the money you make from your home will go to taxes. This proposal will adversely affect the elderly who are counting on the income from their homes as part of their retirement income.

Dividend Tax:

• MCCain -> 15% (no change)
• Obama -> 39.6%
• Clinton -> 39.6%

How will this affect you? If you have any money invested in stock market, IRA, mutual funds, college funds, life insurance, retirement accounts, or anything that pays or reinvests dividends, you will now be paying nearly 40% of the money earned on taxes if Obama or Clinton become president. The experts predict that "Higher tax rates on dividends and capital gains would crash the stock market yet do absolutely nothing to cut the deficit."

Income Tax:

• MCCain -> No Change
• Obama -> Reversion of pre-Bush tax cuts (Very Significant)
• Clinton -> Reversion of pre-Bush tax cuts (Very significant)

Inheritance Tax:

• MCCain -> 0%
• Obama -> Keep the inheritance tax
• Clinton -> Keep the inheritance tax

How does this affect you? Many families have lost businesses, farms and ranches, and homes that have been in their families for generations because they could not afford the inheritance tax. Those willing their assets to loved ones will not only lose them to these taxes.

New Taxes being proposed by both Clinton and Obama:

• New government taxes proposed on homes that are more than 2400 square feet
• New gasoline taxes (as if gas weren't high enough already)
• New taxes on natural resources consumption (heating gas, water, electricity)
• New taxes on retirement accounts
• and last but not least....
  New taxes to pay for socialized medicine so we can receive the same level of medical care as other third-world countries!!!

So although I like Obama as a person very much, I am afraid I can't afford him!  Go MCCain!