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LBJ National Grasslands 50 mile trail run 3/21/09

2009-03-23T12:02:00.000-07:00

We decided at the last minute to drive up to the Grasslands the day before the race for some good ol’ Texas camping. We found a spot right by the start/finish line, and there were horses EVERYWHERE! We very quickly befriended our neighbors on either side of us, who had 5 horses between the two of them. Justin was a very memorable young cowboy who repeated phrases like “I do apologize” and “much obliged” as often as I say “sorry” and “thanks”. He and his wife “went to town” for a short while and asked if we’d horse sit for him. I kinda laughed and told him I don’t mind keeping on eye on his site but if one of his horses got loose, I don’t know how to handle a horse! After showing me how to secure a horse to a pole with a slipknot, he was comfortable enough leaving his horses under our watch care! HA! Luckily, there were no major events. One horse did finally escape, but it was at the same moment Justin and his wife were returning from the big city of Decatur, TX.

I crawled in to my tent Friday night at a decent hour, but tossed and turned all night coughing from the sinus infection I had been fighting all week. The alarm finally went off, so I got up, got ready for the race, and walked to the starting line. I was anxious to see what the course was like. From what I had heard, it was a pretty sandy course, which didn’t sound too exciting. However, besides a short distance correction out and back, there were 4 “different” loops of varying distances, as opposed to running the same 12.5 mile loop 4 times like a lot of other 50 milers. This sounded good to me to break up the monotony of the course.

At 7am, the race director shouted “Go!” and about 60 runners took off. It was still dark, so most of us had our headlamps on to light the trail ahead of us. It was a single track trail, so there was a bit of walking until the line of runners spread out enough to run. This part of the trail wasn’t too bad – not too sandy or hard or rocky. We hit the turnaround point after 2.4 miles, and made our way back to the start. I had been hydrating pretty good Friday afternoon and evening, so I was pleased after about 3 miles when I had to step off the trail and “water a bush”. I came in to the start finish area in time to see the half-marathoners getting ready to take off (they had a later start time). I tossed my headlamp to Jenn, filled up on Succeed, grabbed a few potatoes, and took off on the first loop (blue).

It got lonely pretty quick. I tried to keep the runner in front of me in my eyesight at all times since the course was not always marked well, but there were plenty of times that I was all alone. I ran in to sand in several places, and that was very difficult to try and run through. Other parts of the trail was hard dirt with horse shoe tracks from when the dirt was muddy, and now was hard as a rock. Not too easy to run on. I was religiously going to follow my plan to drink a lot, eat a lot, and take two Endurolytes every hour. After about 10 miles, I could already feel the burn coming on in my legs and my hip flexors were complaining at me. This was not encouraging, but I kept moving, knowing that it sometimes just flares up and then passes. This first loop (after the 4.8mi initial out and back) was 13.5 miles, the longest loop of the course. After about 16 miles, I had to step off the trail again to water a bush and was again very encouraged by my hydration. As I was coming in to the start/finish area, completing the first loop, I saw Jeannette and she joined me for the final 200 yards or so. She said she had a good half marathon run. I approached the checkpoint and saw some of my family and my friend Kevyn, from Wichita Falls, who was going to run a loop with me. She had also just finished the half-marathon. I didn’t waste much time as I high-fived Kevyn, grabbed some more Succeed and food, waved at my peeps, at took off for loop #2. 18.3miles down, 32.1 to go. (The course was actually 50.4 miles).

As we started the yellow loop, I walked for a few minutes while I finished stuffing my face with potatoes and PB&J. This loop was 10.4 miles. I told Kevyn I’d be taking it easy because I was already starting to feel tired. About 20 miles in to the race I started feeling queasy. On top of that, the yellow loop had a lot more sand than the blue loop. I was not enjoying the terrain, and I remembered when I finished the Sunmart 50 miler in December, my friend Rene said I would be spoiled now because that was such a good course. I was quickly finding out what he meant, and boy was he right! Kevyn and I came up on a cow that had just crossed our path on the trail. Good thing it wasn’t in our way or we might have had to do some cow-tipping! A few miles down the trail, we came to an aid station, and one of the volunteers asked if I was feeling nauseous. Maybe she could see it on my face, I don’t know. So she handed me 3 pills and said they were papaya tablets and they’ll help with the nausea. I looked at her, a little unsure since it’s usually not a good idea to try something new on race day, and she assured me they were ok. She said sometimes she’ll take as many as 40 of them on a 100 mile race. So then I felt silly and just chewed them up. HA! I hadn’t been able to drink much or eat much for the past few miles, and I knew if this didn’t change soon, I was going to be in bad shape a few hours down the trail. I had started to walk a lot more, especially on the uphill sections, so my time was starting to slow down considerably. By the time we were nearing the end of this loop, I was feeling pretty beat up, dehydrated, and sick. I switched from Succeed to water a few miles back, but I was still having a hard time taking in fluids. As we neared the start/finish area, I saw the Wichita Falls group cheering me on (thanks Sandy, Kate, Don, and crew!) and then we turned up the final stretch and saw my family and a huge turnout from the Fort Worth group cheering me on (thanks Running Family!! You guys rock!!).

At this point, I was 28.7 miles in to the race. I had 3.5 hours to run the next loop (12.8 miles) to beat the 10 hour 41.5mile cutoff. My pace had slowed considerably to around 13min miles because of all the walk breaks, and based on how I was feeling, I knew my pace would slow down even more. As I came in to see the support crew, I told Jenn I wasn’t going to make it, and then I pulled Jeannette to the side and with a painful expression, fighting back tears, begged her to run this 3rd loop with me instead of the 4th as she had originally planned. Little did I know, she had already decided that was the better plan, seeing that my loop times were much slower than anticipated. As I went to the aid station to refuel, the race director told me I only had 3.5 hours to complete the 3rd loop, almost asking me if I was sure I wanted to even try. Without hesitation, I said “I know. It’s going to be close. I have a pacer.” And that was that. I thanked and hugged Kevyn for running the 2nd loop, and off we went for loop #3.

Someone had warned me earlier that the white loop was really sandy. But seeing how sandy the yellow loop was, I thought to myself – surely it couldn’t be worse than that. HA! How wrong was I! I remembered going to the beach last summer and how difficult it was to just walk through the sand, and here I was trying to run 50 miles on a trail that had a significant amount of sand. That totally sucked. Despite the crazy terrain, Jeannette was a great pacer – full of energy, trying to pull me along, optimistic, running slowly when I was trying to walk. I promised her I would let her know before I threw up. I felt bad though because I was not listening to her very well. I was sick, in a lot of pain, dehydrated, VERY thirsty and hungry, and couldn’t muster up much desire or ability to push myself any harder. I couldn’t drink anything except Sprite at the aid stations, but one small cup of Sprite every 3-4 miles was hardly enough to sustain me through this course. When I tried to eat, I just gagged. We suddenly reached a point in an open field where we felt like maybe we were lost, so we backtracked about a quarter of a mile and found two runners coming along the trail and said they thought this was right, so we turned back around and went back down the trail. It was a guy named Bob and a younger girl named Susan. She was struggling pretty bad. Bob seemed like a seasoned veteran who had decided to run with Susan the whole way. He did some math in his head and said if we could just do 15min miles we could beat the cutoff. If you’ve never been in this situation, then you can’t understand how difficult it is to run a 15min mile sometimes. We were probably 32 miles in to the race at this point. Anyway, we stayed with them for a few miles, running when we could and walking when we had to. We suddenly came to this point where I hear Bob up ahead say “Well I have good news and bad news. Good news is, there’s a sign for the trail. Bad news, we have to climb up this really steep hill.” Right as he was saying this, Jeannette turns around and holds her hands up with an “Oh crap” expression on her face, preparing to calm me down once I finally was able to see the hill ahead. HA! It was a really steep hill, possibly worse than any hill at Palo Duro Canyon. So, we slowly trudged our way up the rocky hill, not looking at the top, but instead just the next few steps along the way. After making our way down the other side, I was just beat. I had to walk to try and recover. Bob was up ahead a good ways, and all of a sudden, Susan comes screaming past me at what seemed like an all out sprint. That was the last time we saw them. At this point, I was on the verge of puking, and was in a lot of pain with every step. Now, I understand that I probably didn’t feel any worse than anyone else on the course, but I just couldn’t make myself push on any faster. We were probably at about 35 miles at this point, and I just couldn’t make myself run. My right quad was about to start cramping and I knew that any overexertion at all would make me blow chunks everywhere. So we walked. Jeannette tried one last time to push me along by saying if we made the cutoff she would also run the last 8.9mile loop with me! That would have been awesome, and it was more proof that she is mentally, and only one run away from being, an ultrarunner. However, it just wasn’t going to happen. I could not go any faster, no matter what carrot you dangled in front of me.

We were walking along, not sure where my mind was, when I heard Jeannette drop back and talk to someone. A moment later, here comes Rene passing by telling me to come on, after Jeannette told him to kick me in the butt and make me move along faster. He was on his final loop, where he went on to finish 13th overall! As much as I wanted to, I just couldn’t go any faster. The terrain had become even more ridiculous. It was rock hard dirt, with no flat trail to run on – just very uneven, dried up mud. Rene made it look so easy though! Not much further down the trail, Holly and Sonia came racing by looking very strong. They were screaming and hootin and hollerin having a good ol’ time, trying to push it fast enough to make the cutoff. They tried to push me along, but I just couldn’t. Finally, at the aid station about 37.5 miles in to the race, I saw that we had 4miles to go in 45 minutes or less. That was an 11:15/mile pace, including all walk breaks. I was feeling worse and knew that it was impossible for me to go that pace. So, as difficult as it was, I swallowed some pride and voluntarily DNF’d by asking for a ride back to the start/finish. I was so thirsty I wanted to guzzle something down, but I was having trouble just sipping coke or water. We sat in a chair and waited for our ride home.

It really sucked to DNF. I could come up with excuses like the sinus infection, the difficult terrain, being under-trained, whatever. But the fact is, when the race began, I took it very serious, gave it everything I had, and when the dust settled, the trail kicked my butt and I simply fell short. I honestly do not feel like there was anything else I could have done to have improved my performance, except trained harder. So that is what I will do now. I have the Memorial Run on May 2nd that you’ll hear about soon if you haven’t already heard about it. Then I’ll focus my training on the Palo Duro 50 miler in October. Right now (that may change),I honestly have no desire to ever run Grasslands again. I like the challenge of running 50 miles. You can add other challenges to this, like the hidden tree roots at Sunmart or the hills at Palo Duro, and I’m ok with that. But running 50 miles in the sand? That wasn’t a fun challenge.

Thanks again to the people at the start/finish area cheering me on – that was awesome! And thanks a million to my wife, Jenn, who was there anxiously waiting on me to cross through each checkpoint, from the start all the way until I DNF’d. And to Kevyn for running a loop right after her half marathon, and right after scarfing down a BBQ sandwich! And thanks to Jeannette for running that final loop, trying so hard to pace me along to the cutoff, despite my lack of cooperation. You guys are all awesome!!

By the way, Bob and Susan made the cutoff and went on to finish the race. They were the last two finishers. 43 people out of 60 finished, the other 17 DNF'd.

Lose Yourself In the Moment

2008-10-14T20:07:00.000-07:00

I love the advertisements for Pearl Izumi shoes. “Run easy is an oxymoron. What is it about running that scares people so much? Why do people feel they have to put friendly modifiers next to running so everyone can feel good about it. Well, here’s the ugly truth. Everyone shouldn’t feel good about running. It’s hard. It hurts. Running requires sacrifice and heart and guts. Any attempt to water it down with feel-good adjectives is a slap in the face to those of us who still hold running sacred. In fact, if you’re running easy, odds are you’re not running at all. You’re jogging. So do us a favor, don’t run easy. Run hard. Run like an animal.”

A couple of weeks ago, we (Jennifer, Karissa, Cara, and I) went to a fajita party for The Running Family, the group I run with on Saturday mornings. The kids had fun with new friends and Jenn was amused that all people talked about was running. I guess at most parties, you’re more likely to find social runners with a drinking problem…but at this party, you were much more likely to find social drinkers with a running problem. I was proud to introduce my wife and kids to my fellow running buddies who have suffered and celebrated with me on the trails for some time now, and I was proud to introduce them to my wife. I know it meant much more to me than Jennifer probably knows, and I completely understand that it wasn’t a big deal to her, in fact, maybe on the verge of torture. Thanks for going babe!

As the evening progressed on, an older man whom I did not know approached me and asked, “Are you Kirk?” “Yes sir,” I replied. “I’ve heard about you.” I always start running before the group starts, then I run with the group, and then I keep running after they finish. Most of those guys normally run around 14-16 miles while I’m running a marathon or more every other weekend, and 20-22 on my off weekends. So, I’ve gained a reputation of I guess sort of being the crazy one. Anyway, this man, Ed, tells me that he’s done the Palo Duro 50 mile ultra-marathon before. I was very excited to hear that, so we went on to spend a good 30-45 minutes talking about the course and strategies and training and hydration and nutrition on the run, etc. He tells me about a technical single-track trail in Sansom Park, which is only about 10-15 minutes away from my house. It sounds like a good trail, so I start trying to drum up some interest from some of my buddies. I found a few takers, so we set a date.

A few people backed out, and it ended up being just me and Jeannette, a buddy who I normally run with on Saturdays in a small pack amongst the rest of the group. She had never run an offroad trail like this before so she wasn’t sure what to expect. We met at 5:30am this past Saturday with our headlamps and supplies, and hit the trail. About one minute in to the trail, I kick a small tree stump and do a face plant in the dirt. Suffering only a slightly scraped hand, I pop up and keep running. A few minutes later, I hear Jeannette behind me say “I’m not so sure about this.” If you’ve never been on an offroad trail designed for trail running or mountain biking, they’re pretty rugged with an unlimited opportunity for wiping out. The dirt is uneven, and there’s always logs and rocks and tree stumps and roots and holes to contend with, so you constantly have to watch your footing and look ahead to anticipate your next few steps. And oh yeah, lots of elevation changes. Just as you think you’re starting to feel good, you find yourself powering up a steep 20-30 foot ascent, or trying to ease your way down a steep and winding descent without tumbling down to the bottom of the hill. About 20 minutes later, we’ve started to settle in to the run, and Jeannette says “I think I’m catching on to this.” I kept waiting for her to fall, which is usually what happens when you make a statement like that, but she didn’t…yet. About 3 miles in, the trail markers changed to red, so we knew we were entering the most difficult parts of the trail. I had heard from a few people about this one part where you turn a corner and all of a sudden the floor drops out from underneath you. Luckily, we were looking out for this, and managed to shift our way down the very steep and long descent with no falls. Then, about 50 feet ahead, we come across a deceptive little hill that doesn’t look steep or long, but about 3 steps into it, I find myself in an uncontrollable sprint down the hill. All of a sudden, I fall to the ground and land on my shoulder and roll 2-3 times, stopping 3 inches from a pretty good sized rock. Uninjured, I get up and look for Jeannette hoping she was not also tumbling down the hill. She managed to keep her balance. I walked away very dirty with a little blood and debris on my leg. Awesome! We went 13-14 miles and it was a lot of fun. Probably a little too risky to attempt the week before my 50 miler, but oh well. I guess I got lucky and remained injury free. However, Jenn and the kids and some friends met me up there after our run and we went hiking for 3 hours. We all had a lot of fun – the kids loved hiking along the trails. Now, here it is 3 days later, and I’m still sore. Hopefully I can fully recover before this Saturday.

I can’t believe the moment has finally arrived. We go to Palo Duro canyon this weekend to camp out and I’ll finally get to run my first 50 mile trail run! I’ve essentially been training for this for about 6-7 months. I am ready. My training has gone very well, and I feel like there’s not much more I could have reasonably done to be more prepared. My last 32 miler went exceptionally well, so I’m riding that confidence into the race. I’ll post a post-race report next week hopefully.

One of the things I’ve done recently to try to focus and get in the zone for my long training runs is listen to “Lose Yourself” by Eminem on the way to my run at 3:30am on Saturdays. I do not listen to rap music, mostly because I hate it. However, this song is one of the most powerful and emotional songs I have ever heard. It’s from the movie 8 Mile. I wouldn’t let my kids listen to it – and it’s not a perfect fit, but the driving beat and emotionally charged lyrics are very powerful. It starts out by saying “Look, if you had one shot, or one opportunity To seize everything you ever wanted-One moment Would you capture it or just let it slip?”

This part inspires me because my shot is coming up this Saturday…I will not let it slip. I will seize the moment, my opportunity, and capture it.

It goes on… “His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy There's vomit on his sweater already”

Yeah, maybe a little graphic, but put yourself in his shoes. He’s been presented with one opportunity to change his and his family’s life forever…will he capture it or will he choke?

The chorus is “You better lose yourself in the music, the momentYou own it, you better never let it goYou only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blowThis opportunity comes once in a lifetime.”

This really gets me going. When I’m trying to get mentally prepared for 5-6 hours of running, and the pain associated with that, this helps me focus in on the moment. You have to lose yourself in your long run….your moment. You have to own it. Never give up, even if you feel like you’re going to die at mile 22.

Then, my favorite part is when he says “Success is my only option, failure’s not.” That is the determination and tenacity that you must have to finish a really long run. I vision myself on the trail at Palo Duro and what the success of crossing the finish line will feel like….failure, or not finishing, is not an option. I will not quit.

Anyway, it’s a very powerful song. It gets me pumped up and “in the zone” every time I listen to it. I have teared up quite a few times on my way to my long run listening to this, because it is so emotional, and I “lose myself in the moment” of what I’m doing. I am so fortunate to be able to run like this and I do not take it for granted.

Brett the Jet

2008-08-08T07:15:00.001-07:00

So…what do you think about the Favre situation?

1) First of all, I hate how they make it sound like it was Brett’s decision to not play at Green Bay because of emotional scars. Green Bay moved on and did not show Brett any support in coming back, so it was just as much Green Bay’s decision as it was Brett’s. Media…Green Bay management…present the facts as they are, don't spin them.

2) Green Bay screwed up. I don’t care what has happened over the last 3 months, if your quarterback who resurrected your franchise, who took you to overtime of the NFC Championship game last year, who was the best quarterback in the NFC and runner up LEAGUE MVP, who IS the Green Bay Packers and the biggest sports icon in the history of sports, and who broke almost every passing record in the NFL…if he shows up at training camp and wants to play, you’re a freakin idiot if you don’t let him play. Green Bay just greatly reduced their chances of a Super Bowl this year, while it could have been a competitor with Favre. Green Bay is choosing a kid who has never even started a freakin NFL game before over the legendary Brett Favre. Sure he played well against Dallas, but that’s all we’ve seen! How tough is this kid? There’s so much uncertainty with him, so why in the heck would you choose uncertainty over Brett Favre when you’re riding a near Super Bowl season last year with a young team who is mostly returning this year making them very likely Super Bowl competitors again this year?! Freakin idiots.

3) If the Jets go 6-10, they win, because that’s a 50% improvement over last year. If the Packers do ANYTHING short of going to the Super Bowl, they screwed up and will come under HEAVY criticism for the poor judgment in letting Favre get away instead of supporting him and welcoming him this year.

4) I’m upset with the management of Green Bay, but I still love the Packers. They screwed up and it is very upsetting, but I will support my Green Bay Packers and Aaron Rodgers and hope for the best outcome of the consequences management has created. I still love my Green Bay Packers. Hopefully they won’t screw up like this again, because that is the reason I don’t get excited about the Dallas Cowboys anymore…it’s hard to love an organization who makes decisions like Dallas does, but that’s not the point of this commentary.

5) It is very surreal to see Favre in a Jets hat and/or jersey. Very surreal. But, it is what it is, and you might as well accept it and move on. The thing I love the most about football is the game itself. So I’m very glad this drama is behind us and Favre is in a position to once again grace the field of play with his magic and greatness, making it even easier to love the game of football. In fact, as time passes on, I get more and more excited about seeing Favre play at his new home. The coolest thing I can think of is seeing a large frame with 2 jerseys mounted in them of 2 football greats from the same franchise….Brett Favre and Joe Namath. How cool would that be.

6) Go Packers. Go Jets. Go Brett Favre!!!

"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go."

Beautiful quote!! 50 MILES BABY!!!

The Running Family

2008-07-26T14:21:00.001-07:00

With vacation last month, the increasing heat, and the loss of a running partner, I was starting to have some motivation issues with my running. So…a few weeks ago, as crazy and creepy as it sounds, I put an ad on craigs list for a running partner. I was concerned about some of the responses I might get, not wanting to attract weirdos with motivations not centered around running. Surprisingly, I got 2 responses, and they have actually been legitimate runners – no weirdos! One is a former Oklahoma University basketball player, who now works at a physical therapy office, who runs faster than I (not saying much) and really pushes me during our runs. We’ve actually only run twice, but I think that will pick up some. The other new running partner is a girl who just moved here from Colorado who is trying to adjust to the heat and train for her 2nd marathon. We’ve run 3 times, 2 of which has been with a big group of runners called The Running Family. She’s a little slower than I, but I’m willing to trade that off for the accountability so I’ll get my rear out the door and on the roads getting the miles in. My training now is focused on mileage, not speed, so it doesn’t bother me at all that I’ve been running at a slower pace. I’ve had some issues with my soleus’ anyway (lower calf muscles), so it’s been good to get the easy runs in.

The Running Family is awesome! I’ve never run with a group before. A few years ago, a guy who was a marathon coach for Luke’s Locker decided to branch off and start his program. But instead of charging everyone $200 or more like Luke’s Locker, it’s FREE! Every Saturday morning at 6am, they all meet near the Trinity River trail and run a different route each week. The person who creates the route also sets up an aid station along the course with water, Gatorade, M&Ms, pretzels, and ice cold towels. They run 3-4 miles to the aid station, and then do a few out and backs so you hit the aid station 2-3 times during the 12-13 mile run. There’s about 120 people on the “roster”, but typically about 30 show up each week.

Last week, I met quite a few really nice runners that I got to know on our 2 hour run. Then today, my new partner and I met at the trail at 5am to get 5-6 miles in before meeting up with the group at 6am for another 13 miles. Actually my partner ran 16 and I ended up doing 20 today. I saw most of my new running friends, and met probably 6-7 new runners. It was so much fun!! There’s just a certain camaraderie with runners that I’ve never experienced before. It also makes the miles go by faster and less painful when you’re having fun with other people. I actually feel better today than I have ever felt after a 20 miler. I even met 3 ultrarunners today! I’m hoping to soak up some knowledge from them since I’m training for my first ultramarathon (any distance over 26.2 miles).

One funny exchange happened with an older man I struck up conversation with after noticing his Palo Duro Trail Run hat. I told him I did the 20k last year and am planning on going back this year for the 50 miler. He said he did the 50 a few years ago and thought it was a beautiful course with top notch support. We talked about it for a few minutes and then I asked him about the “second wall” that ultrarunners get on a 50 miler that I read about…
“Yeah, it hits at about mile 26. Just stay ahead on your fluids.”
With a quizzical expression, I ask “Mile 26??” followed by another older man beside us who said “Didn’t you hear him say 50 MILES?!?!”
“You’re doing the 50 miler? You’re crazier than sh**!”
Me – “Well, I’m gonna give it a try”
“If you can do that, you’re a MONSTER. I only did the 50k!”

It was pretty funny. I need to hook up with the ultrarunners who won’t just think I’m a nutcase for wanting to go 50 miles. And I know I have a LOT I could learn from them. This weekend will be my second set of long run sandwiches, or back-to-backs. My 20 today will be followed by a 10 miler tomorrow. That strategy is supposed to get you ready for the long 50 miler, so we’ll see how my body holds up. I’ll increase my Saturday runs up to 32 miles about 3-4 weeks before the race. I think I have about 12 weeks now until race day. I’m starting to get excited, but these 50 and soon to be 60 mile weeks are starting to talk to me a little.

We have been foster parenting a beautiful Weimaraner for the past month, hoping she would get adopted pretty soon so we could 1)prevent her from being put to sleep, and 2)test drive an older dog that is past the puppy stage without committing long term. Well, for various reasons, she didn’t work out, so I took her back to the rescue center today. Before I even got home, they had called to let us know someone had adopted her – so that was great news!!

I don’t want to comment much on the Brett Favre drama. I’ll just say Ted Thompson is an idiot if he doesn’t have McCarthy start Favre…and if he doesn’t…I can’t see Favre playing anywhere else. That’s all I’m saying. It will be interesting to see what happens this weekend when Favre requests reinstatement from the NFL and reports to training camp.

I guess school starts back in about a month. I can’t believe we’ll have 3 in school! Kylie is ready to start Kindergarten, and Jenn is looking forward to only having Caleb at home during the day. Of course, he’s quite a handful so I don’t know how much of a break she’ll really get.

Some good friends of ours opened a snow cone stand, and we’ve been supporting them A LOT lately! We don’t always buy a snow cone – sometimes we’ll just go up there and hang out to try and make it look like a happenin place and attract more customers. They’re actually doing quite well with it. Makes me a little jealous! Wish we could do that and make thousands of dollars a month!!

Well, hopefully it won’t be 3 months before I post again, but I know you guys have come to expect that…so I’d hate to let you down. HA!

OKC Marathon

2008-05-05T14:59:00.000-07:00

“You have to forget your last marathon before you try another. Your mind can’t know what’s coming.” –Frank Shorter

April 27, 2008 - 6:00am

Jennifer and I arrive at downtown Oklahoma City and make our way to a free parking garage where I finish my oatmeal and sports drink. As I’m standing outside the van rubbing Vaseline onto my nipples, a girl drives up and asks if the parking is free. I tell her it is and she pulls in several spaces down, not so much as flinching at my prerace ritual. To anyone else, I guess the humor might be in the fact that I am rubbing Vaseline on my nipples while having a brief conversation with a stranger. But to a runner, the humor lies in the universal acceptance and understanding of rubbing Vaseline on my nipples. You see, it is almost certain that the stranger with whom I was conversing has experienced the after effects of an 18 mile run when rubbing Vaseline on her critical chaffing areas was forgotten.

It’s 41 degrees, windy, and a light rain is falling - miserable conditions to a spectator, but ideal to a runner. We begin our long walk to the starting line and both agree that we should have brought trash bags to wear just as most everyone else had done to stay a little drier. We find a spot in the ever increasing crowd near the starting line where I begin to try and stretch. At 6:15am, a moment of silence was observed, lasting 168 seconds to pay respect to the 168 victims of the Oklahoma City bombing 13 years ago. Soon after that was the national anthem, followed by the start of the wheelchair marathon. Jennifer wished me farewell and went to the sideline while I shoved my way toward the start, trying to inch my way through the sardines.

At 6:30am, the gun went off and the race was on. It was finally time to see how much all of my hard work would pay off. I had worked up to running about 45-47 miles per week, and my training was peaking at just the right time. My times had been consistently improving, and it had become much easier to run 16-20 miles at a time. It only took about 50 seconds to make my way to the official starting line. As I crossed the mat and heard the beep from my timing chip go off, I pushed start on my GPS watch and began my second marathon. Special attention had to be paid during the first mile as it was still raining slightly and people were shedding clothes, gloves and trash bags as their bodies started to warm up. The runners were still packed together pretty tightly, so with the slippery conditions and flying obstacles, the risk of tripping and falling was especially high at this point.

My strategy was to go out the first 6-7 miles at about a 9:00 per mile pace and then assess my body and decide whether to kick it up a gear, stay put, or ease off a little. During the week leading up to today, I had gone from hoping to finish in 4hours 10minutes down to 4hours 5 minutes, and finally thinking I had a long shot chance at a 4 hour marathon if everything went perfect. With regard to my 4:44 time just 4 ½ months prior, I knew my goals were ambitious, but I was feeling very strong. Trimming off 44 minutes would be huge, but it had become my goal.

I spent the first 2-3 miles trying to settle in to a good rhythm. At around 2.5 miles, the 4 hour pace group caught up to me, marked by an experienced runner with helium balloons attached to her that read “4:00”. I decided to run with them for awhile and see how it went. Somewhere in there, to my right I hear a “Hey Kirk!” It was my friend Daniel from Wichita Falls who I knew would be there. He’s faster than I, so we didn’t plan on running together. Knowing this, I wish him well as he passes by and tell him I’ll see him at the finish line. In a gentlemanly gesture, he replies “I bet you’ll pass me.” I shrug it off and feel comfortable with my 4:00 comrades. About 3-4 miles down the road, I’m still keeping up with the 4:00 pace group, feeding off their company and the coaching of their leader, when lo and behold, I hear a “Hey Kirk” to my right again. I look over and as Daniel passes me he says “Told ya you’d pass me.” Confused, I say “You must have stopped at the bathroom.” This was followed by a “Yep.” I proceeded to leave my 4:00 group and pace with Daniel for a bit. We chit chat for a few minutes about our goals and strategies, and after about a half mile of running at a 7:30/mile pace, I tell Daniel to go on ahead and have a good race as I drop back to an 8:30 pace. I have become so spoiled with my GPS watch because it constantly tells you what your current pace is, and that is key to having a good run. You have to know what your pace is. It was too nerve-racking trying to stay with the 4:00 pace group, so I was much happier being a few minutes ahead of them. I hated the pressure of knowing that if they passed me I would be playing catch up the whole time, or kissing my goal goodbye.

I studied the elevation map ahead of time and knew that there were 2 3-mile stretches of almost constant uphill. The first began at the 8 mile mark, so as it approached, I hunkered down and tried to get ready for it. The second one would come between miles 21-24, which I thought was very cruel. I had been pushing my pace pretty good the first 8 miles, so I was already starting to feel worked over a little bit. I sucked down an energy gel and felt the burn in my legs pick up as the hill came. My pace slowed a little over the next 3 miles, and when I finally topped the hill at mile 11, I felt pretty worn out. I was actually concerned at that point that maybe I had pushed it too hard and would end up gassing out in the 2nd half of the race. I decided not to worry too much and just kept running. The relief after the hill was surprisingly enough that I recovered pretty quickly and felt good again.

I have a Texas Longhorns visor that I wear when I run, and I didn’t even think about wearing that in OU country until the first Texas-hater told me I was brave for wearing that hat. HA! It was in fun, but that’s when I realized I may end up getting more attention than I care to have. Surprisingly though, I ended up getting way more comments from Texas fans than OU fans.

I was coming up on the half marathon mark, which I also knew was about the point in the race that would take us through about 3 ½ miles of trails. I was looking forward to that. Last week on a training run in Georgetown, I shattered my previous half-marathon time by over 5 minutes for a new PR, and I knew in this race I was on pace for another potential PR. I ended up missing my PR by 34 seconds. I did a quick assessment at the halfway mark and felt pretty good so far. My legs were definitely feeling like I was pushing them, but I had a lot of juice left in them. My cardio was fine, my overall body felt ok, and mentally I was doing great. I knew I was having a good run, and a 4:00 marathon was still a possibility, so that kept my spirits high. I was somewhat haunted by the fact that I knew I was only a couple of minutes ahead of the 4:00 pace group. I would not allow myself to turn around and see how far back they were as I knew that could be devastating mentally. Once we hit the trails, we were greeted by a nice view of Lake Hefner and a very nasty headwind that slowed everyone down. A half mile down the trail, the course turned a 180 and that headwind became a very nice tailwind that ended up pushing us most of the way back to the finish. It was beautiful.

At the 15 mile mark, I did the math and realized that “mathematically” I was on pace for a 3:50 marathon. In fact, I knew that as long as I averaged 10 minute miles or faster from this point forward, I would finish in 4:00 or less. I was so pumped, and I concentrated probably a little too much on my pace over the next few miles as the excitement carried me on. I knew my pace would slow down late in the race, but I thought I had enough of a buffer that I would be ok. We exited the trail and started the journey back through town after about 17 miles. I was still pushing it pretty good at this point and was surprised to still be kicking out some 8:30-45 miles. As I got closer to 18, I tried to mentally prepare myself for the 21-24 uphill stretch, which would time itself perfectly with the wall. Maybe that’s a bad choice of words – there’s nothing perfect about the wall. Anyway, I decide to start eating a little at each aid station, so I would grab a few pretzels and slices of banana from here on out. Hopefully this would lessen the blow of the wall, which I knew was unavoidable. I long for the day when my body becomes more accustomed to switching its fuel source from glycogen to fat, though I don’t think anyone ever completely avoids the pain of the wall.

I was on autopilot as I cruised through the 20 mile marker, feeling tired but still pushing it pretty strong. I glanced up and noticed my wife cheering me on, which was a nice surprise and a good mental boost. Of course, she didn’t offer me a ride back to the finish line – HA! That change of pace pulled me out of my spell and I started getting ready for the last 6 miles that I knew would get progressively harder. They say the first half of a marathon is the first 20 miles and the second half is the last 6.2 miles. There’s a lot of truth in that. Your body can carry you pretty easily through the first 20 miles, but it’s the last 6.2 that really tests your fortitude. How well will you be able to battle the pain and keep pushing on? I was about to find out.

I started taking energy gels at mile 8, and my plan was to take one every 3 miles. The course description said they would have energy gels at the aid stations, beginning with mile 16. I had my last one at mile 17 and was ready for another at 20, but what they failed to mention is that there would only be TWO aid stations with energy gels, and I hadn’t made it to the second one yet. I did not bring anymore with me. Hopefully that wouldn’t affect me too much, but I knew my body was used to that little shot of energy every 25-28 minutes. At mile 21, I had already started to slow down, but I didn’t feel like the wall had really hit yet. I had wanted to stop and walk since about mile 18, but I hadn’t felt the overwhelming desire yet. I ate some more banana, which helped wake me up a little, but it didn’t last long. I was drinking powerade at every aid station, which is a challenge while you’re running, but if you fold the paper cup in half and hold it to the side, you can usually get a decent drink without choking or sloshing the water up your nose. The powerade was starting to be too sweet, so I switched to water.

As I crossed through the mile 22 marker, I remembered that this was only the second time to be running beyond 22 miles, so it was still relatively unfamiliar territory. Looking at my watch I knew I had been slowing quite a bit and was getting nervous that a 4:00 time might be a little out of reach now. I expected the 4:00 pace group to catch up any moment, which made me want to pick it up a little, but I was giving it all I had. I still would not allow myself to turn around and look for them, but I finally reconciled that if they did pass me, I had to be ok with it because I’d had one heck of a run so far and I was giving it 100%.

I think around 23 is when I really slammed into the wall. Mentally, it became a major struggle to keep running. My body wanted to walk, but my mind wanted to run. I had to play little mind games and not think about how I still had 3 miles to go. I would pick a street sign 50 feet ahead and just tell myself all I had to do was run to that street sign. When I did, I would celebrate for half a second and then tell myself I only had to run to that tree 50 feet ahead. This cycle continued for the next few miles. At one point, the body almost won. For a split second, my mind realized that my body was stopping to walk, so my mind had to force the body to keep moving. It was a strange sensation, like I wasn’t in control of my own body. I knew it was going to be very difficult to make 4:00, but I just couldn’t find the energy to speed up. I was sucked dry of everything. All I had left was willpower, but luckily my tank was full in that department. I remembered from my first marathon that this was the point where you have to dig down deeper than you have ever had to in your entire life to win the battle against the marathon beast. However, I had an advantage this time…I knew I could.

Coming up on mile 24, I could hear the familiar voice of the 4:00 pace group coach coming, barking out her encouragement and words of advice. I instinctively picked up my pace, which was very painful, and I tried to keep pushing to stay ahead. I knew they were on my heels but I would still not turn around and look. Up ahead, I saw an aid station, which could help me out if they walked through it. I didn’t know if they would or not since time was quickly running out for a 4:00 finish. I snatched a cup of water as I ran through the aid station and moved back out to keep running. It sounded like I may have lost them for now, but I wasn’t sure. I just kept on moving one foot in front of the other with painful tenacity. About a half mile later, I heard them coming again and when I tried to pick up my pace, nothing happened. I was at top speed and couldn’t do anything about it. So, with 1.7 miles left in the race, I moved over and conceded my position to them as they slowly passed me by. The competitive side of me felt defeated, but I didn’t beat myself up. I knew I had run to the best of my ability and I gave everything I had. However, I couldn’t help think that their last minute strength could have come from conserving early on, and had I stayed back and ran 9:00 miles instead of 8:00 – 8:45 through the early to mid miles, maybe I’d be right there with them cruising to a 4 hour marathon. Or maybe not…

Normally 1.7 miles is about how long it takes to get a good rhythm, and it goes by quickly without even really noticing it. But when it’s the last leg of your second marathon, after pushing hard through 24.5 miles, time seems to stand still. I knew I was getting close to downtown and could feel the end coming near, but it just wouldn’t get here. I remember in my first marathon getting mad at this point, feeling like the finish line was afraid to show its ugly face to me. I didn’t feel that way this time. There was actually a part of me that felt like the finish line was encouraging me to finish strong and cheering for me to beat the 4:00 mark. I trudged along as hard as I could without causing myself to fall down or throw up or die, and I was still under 4:00 when I could finally see the finish line down the road. I knew it would take a miracle to make it happen, so I just hunkered down to see how close to 4:00 I could get. About 30 yards in front of the finish line my left foot cramped up. I felt a little twinge in my Achilles tendon and my big toe curled up under my foot and just locked in to place. I let out a groan and kinda limped along trying to release my toe, but it wasn’t happening. However, I didn’t make it this far to have a weak finish, so I picked it up and tried to run as fast as I could until I crossed the timing mats at the finish line. Luckily, when I stopped, the searing pain went away as my toe released and the cramp went away. Finish time: 4:01:10. I’m very happy with that. In 4 ½ months, I shaved 43 minutes off my marathon time. Who can complain about that!

I walked down the chute and someone put a foil blanket around me and someone else congratulated me and put a finisher’s medal around my neck. I thanked him and found my way to the refreshment tent where I began to guzzle a powerade down when I suddenly felt very faint. I expected this to happen since it happened at the last marathon. I walked over to the side and sat down. I knew I just needed to get some sugar in my blood. Two medics came by and tried to put me in a wheelchair and take me to the medic tent, but I convinced them I was ok, I just had low blood sugar, just like everyone else that just finished. I kept drinking, and after 2-3 minutes I started to feel better. So, I thanked them and they moved on to other finishers who needed help. I found Jennifer and then went and got my finisher’s shirt and a cheeseburger. I didn’t see my friend Daniel, so I called him and learned that he had an incredible run, finishing in 3:34:26. Not only was this a new PR, it was only 3 minutes and 27 seconds away from qualifying for Boston! That is heartbreaking, but he will do it in the fall at his next marathon. I, on the other hand, because of my age, have to finish a marathon in 3:10:00 to qualify for Boston. To put that in perspective, I finished this marathon at a 9:12/mile pace. To qualify for Boston, I would have to shave off an entire 2 minutes from every single mile to qualify. It requires a 7:15 pace. Unbelievable. Maybe one day I’ll be old enough to qualify for Boston since they increase the time as you get older. HA! I went to the massage tent, got a leg and shoulder massage, and we left.

Overall, it was a great experience, and I learned that I can push my body harder than I think for longer than I think. I will continue my training now and start working on my first ultra marathon in October. A 50 mile trail run in Palo Duro Canyon. Bring it!

"If you want to win something, run 100 meters. If you want to experience something, run a marathon." - Emil Zatopek

Half a Century

2008-03-29T20:17:00.000-07:00

Have you ever pushed yourself beyond your perceived physical and/or mental limitations and found out that you are capable of accomplishing much more than you ever imagined? There's a little place in your brain that tells you what your limits are, and understandably enough, you believe it. You think you can only go so far, whether it's related to athletics or stress or anything really, but it's only when you push the envelope past those limits that you realize how quickly the body adapts. An expansion of those "limitations" occurs and a whole world of new possibilities opens up to you. Sure, I'd call it a transformation.

Dean Karnazes, a well-known ultra-marathoner whom I strongly admire, in his book titled "Ultra Marathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner", quotes something that was an inspiration to him, that helped him realize that there's so much more to life than 12 hour days, a six-figure income, and the imprisonment of work pressures. Something that helped him realize there are people out there brave enough to push the body and mind past their perceived limitations and defy all expectations from the norm. Something that inspired him to break out of his mundane cycle, truly examine the void he felt in his life, and with incredible determination, explore the depths of his physical and mental capabilities. Here's the quote: "I read a story in the paper yesterday about the first mountain climber to scale Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen. Nobody thought it was remotely possible to climb the highest mountain in the world without using bottled oxygen, but this guy went and did it anyway. A reporter asked him afterward why he had gone up there to die, and you know how he responded? 'I didn't go up there to die, I went up there to live.'"

Admittedly, my daily runs of 6-9 miles are not always enjoyable, but I love the feeling I get towards the end of the run and after the run. Running cleanses your body in places a shower can't reach. However, I can say with all honesty that I ALWAYS enjoy the long runs - anything from 14-20+ miles. I've always been motivated by distance, and I think it's because of the feeling of accomplishment that follows a long run, especially when I feel good after the run. Even though I've been able to run that far for some time now, I routinely catch myself saying "Wow! I can't believe I just ran 18 miles." The feeling of self-confidence and pride and knowing that I have again defied what was once well beyond my perceived physical limitation is intoxicating and very addictive. It's true what they say, running is a drug. Why else would you voluntarily wake up at 4-5am every Saturday morning to get a "long run" in.

About 10 months ago, when I was highly motivated to run farther every time I ran, I wondered what would happen when my mileage got high enough that continuously increasing my mileage wasn't feasible. Would I be happy stopping at the marathon distance (26.2mi) or would I just turn in to a complete nutcase and start wanting to do 50 and 100 mile ultramarathons? I remember deciding that MAYBE one day I might be interested in trying to run 50 miles, but I'd never consider 100. Well, last weekend, I finally embraced the challenge of the 50 miler. Next month, I'm running the Oklahoma City marathon, and then I'll begin a 6 month regimented training program that will culminate in a 50 mile ultramarathon trail run in Palo Duro Canyon in October. I've been on a running high ever since I fully accepted the challenge without any reservations. I have been so pumped all week, maybe somewhat obsessed. In fact, this week I ran 45 miles, the most I've ever run in one week. I even woke up at 4am on a Thursday to get in a good run before my new 6am men's fraternity group at church. Jennifer sort of laughed at me when she saw that I had printed a 16 page "guide" on how to run your first 50 miler, but there is so much planning and strategy that goes in to successfully running 50 miles, you can't just go out there and hope for the best! You have to learn when and how to continuously feed your body a source of energy (food or energy gels). You have to decide when to walk and for how long (a 5:1 run:walk ratio is recommended, but a lot of people walk the uphills and run the straights and downhills). You have to plan a bag drop and decide what to include in your bag for the 2nd half of the race. You have to eat/drink electrolytes to avoid drinking too much water and getting the deadly hyponatremia. I'm going to love this challenge! If only I can remain injury free! I guess I'm so excited because it's another opportunity to push the envelope on what I think are my physical limitations, and I'm confident I can exceed them.

Brett Favre Hangs Up His Cleats

2008-03-04T20:48:00.000-08:00

Brett Favre. Heartbeat of Green Bay. Man's man. Favre Magic. Lambeau Field. Inspiring. Love of the game. Emotion. Toughness. Constant. Funny. Loving. Husband. Father. Hero. Champion. Legend.

Retired.

My day started off with an email from Josh breaking the news of Brett Favre's retirement. A day I knew would eventually come...but not this year. After a 13-3 regular season and a playoff run that ended one game short of the Super Bowl, and almost all of the Packers expected to return next year, I didn't think Favre could walk away yet. Getting to the Super Bowl next year is such a huge possibility. But, it can't be as simple as that. Though I deeply mourn Favre's decision to retire, I have to support it and respect him. He's 38 years old. He's tired. He's never missed a game in 17 years. That statement deserves to be repeated. Brett Favre has played through sickness, injury, & tragedy and has never missed an NFL game in the 17 years he played. Dislocated finger? Big deal...walk to the sideline, have it yanked back in place and be back in the huddle without missing a play. Concussion? Big deal...convinced the coach to put him back in and immediately throws a TD. Tragedy in his family? Definitely a big deal, but those times were some of his best performances of his career. Having a 4-12 season? Big deal...keep your head up, believe in yourself and your team, and lead your team to the NFC Championship game. These are a few of the things that makes Brett Favre one of the most legendary quarterbacks in the history of the NFL. In fact, he should have been inducted in to the Hall of Fame today...forget about having to wait 5 years. I guess he could change his mind, but I don't expect that to happen. He's been mulling this over for a few years now. Just like Mike McCarthy and Steve Mariucci have both said - Favre won't come back unless he knows for certain he can commit himself 100%. And I'm sure that's what led Brett to this decision. He's physically and mentally tired. Now he can be with his family year round. Now he can take his youngest daughter to school in Mississippi instead of going to practice in Green Bay, only seeing her on the weekend. Now he can be at home for his oldest daughter in college when she returns for school breaks. Now he can hunt on his farm any day he wants. As much as I'd love to see him return to football, as a coach, analyst, or commentator...I don't think that will happen. Sure, he loves the game, and it's hard to imagine him walking away from it, but he also loves his family and his farm and has been looking forward to the day when he can be there every day. Sure, he didn't win the Super Bowl this year, but he had an incredible season and went out on top. He holds almost every NFL passing record. He leaves behind a team poised for another strong playoff run, and Aaron Rodgers at the reins. We saw this year against Dallas how capable he is. Brett Favre will live on, and so will the Green Bay Packers. While today is a very sad day in the NFL and Green Bay, we have to congratulate and thank Brett Favre and his family for the success he brought to Green Bay and the league, and we wish him the best of luck in his new life.

Complete Devastation

2008-01-21T20:15:00.000-08:00

Where do I begin? It has been many, many years since I have been this devastated after a football game. Possibly since 2003 when the Packers lost to the Eagles in the playoffs...also by a field goal in overtime. However, the knife dug in much deeper this year as the unthinkable took place last night. Mr. Eli "whiner" Manning and the little Giants ripped the Super Bowl right out of the hearts of the Packers community. The players, the coaches, the staff, the Green Bay residents, the fans in Wisconsin, the Favre fans everywhere, the Packer fans all over the country, and especially the die-hard fans in a warm & cozy house in Saginaw, TX. A loss hurts, but an overtime loss in the playoffs is just so much more devastating. Particularly when it occurs courtesy of a team who shouldn't have even been in the championship game. The football life has literally been sucked out of me. I really don't think I can even watch the Super Bowl this year. As much as I hate the Patriots and want them to lose (they certainly could have to Green Bay), I don't want a team like the Giants to even have the opportunity to win or lose. There's no doubt they will get slaughtered by the Patriots, so now we have a wasted Super Bowl between two teams in which only one is deserving to be there. I know I'm spilling bad grapes, but there is some truth to it. I am so devastated.

A few things became clear to me in this time of darkness. I'll admit I've felt somewhat guilty the last few years as the realization has hit me that I'm a bigger Green Bay fan than my good ol' home team Dallas Cowboys. But last week, when the Cowboys lost to the Giants in a very close playoff game, I could care less. I really felt like it served them right for being a bunch of jerkoffs the last 6-8 weeks. I do not want to hash on the Cowboys, because I will always watch them and support them (unless they play the Packers), but the biggest epiphany I've had in the last 24 hours is that they just don't have an identity. Jerry Jones is an idiot and cares way too much about money and not enough about building a solid franchise with people of high integrity and work ethic. I can't even keep up with who is coaching them year after year much less who plays at each position and I even watch the games. There's no reason to be a proud Cowboy fan other than the HOPE of a successful Tony Romo. There's a few other good guys like Marion Barber and Jason Witten, but where is the TEAM? Anyway, this blog is not about the Dallas Cowboys. I just think that the final ounce of hesitation in coming out and admitting that I am 100% a Green Bay Packer fan was removed this weekend. Talk about identity. Green Bay has it. You will not find a more committed and dedicated fan base in the NFL than the Packer fans. Even the team is such a close-knit group of professionals. You never see them in the news for getting in trouble anywhere. But you do see EVERYONE building each other up, even after making mistakes in a game. The coach and the GM and the players and the position coaches are all on the same page. They're the oldest team in NFL history who still resides in their original town, and their ownership's legal documents stipulate that the proceeds of the sale of the franchise would go to a specific charity, so it will never be in anyone's best interest to want to send the team anywhere else in the country. The Green Bay Packers have always been and will always be in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Right there with the spirit of Vince Lombardi and Ray Nitschke and Paul Hornung and Reggie White and Bart Starr and Brett Favre. Talk about history. Wow. That spirit is real too. I felt it when I first stepped foot into the atrium of Lambeau Field and it brought me to tears. There is a presence that resides in Green Bay and in Lambeau Field that will make any unbeliever think that maybe there really are football gods. But despite this rich history and unity of past, present, and future, the games still have to be played. And sometimes, like last night at a bitter cold (-25 to -35 wind chills) January playoff game in Lambeau Field, even with Brett Favre, the football gods allow fate to take its course. Who knows why the Giants had to win that game. Surely it wasn't a cruel joke from Vince Lombardi who once coached with Tom Landry in New York! HA! No, but there is a place and a purpose for last night's loss that is just as much a part of Packers history now as all 12 of their Super Bowl and pre-NFL-merger championship wins. And that is why I can proudly hold my head up high and voice that even though I do not live in Green Bay, Wisconsin, my heart is with the Green Bay Packers. And I am proud to show my colors even the day after a devastating NFC Championship loss to a team who almost didn't make the wildcard round. If this year is for the Giants or Patriots, then so be it. Because my Green Bay Packers are not going anywhere. As cliche as that sounds, the Packers will remain at Lambeau Field and continue to be the example of a true NFL team and will be ready for next year with or without Brett Favre. Aaron Rodgers proved against the Cowboys he is a capable quarterback. However, I don't think Favre can walk away just yet. He'll be back to claim next year's Super Bowl title with the rest of his team, his coaches, his GM, his owners (who happen to be the community of Green Bay, Wisconsin), and his unwavering fans, who all make up one cohesive unit. The fans will still line up next year for the opportunity to sweep snow off of the seats and field before their games. The streets of Green Bay will be completely bare during all of the home games. Fans from all over the country will travel to Green Bay every single home game to experience the incredible feeling of being at Lambeau Field and truly feeling the unbelievable presence of history and tradition.

However, despite my unwavering support, it will take time to heal from this devastating loss. But I have to admit...Caleb made a little headway in that department late last night. I was tucking him in to bed and telling him about the game. He's too young to understand, but he will learn about this game when he is older and I want to be able to tell him that I told him all about it that night. I was amazed at how captivated he was. He listened to me with an unusual amount of sincerity, as he normally will laugh or do something silly to make me laugh. I think he sensed the weight of the conversation. He did say Brett Favre and football a few times, but he took me seriously. It was funny. When I speculated with him over Brett Favre's return next year, he said "Brett Favre no home". Impressed with his statement, I asked "Will Brett Favre go home next year or will he win the Super Bowl?" Know what his response was? "Brett Favre. Super Bowl." I LOVE IT!!!!!!!

I think we'll have to make another trip up to Green Bay next fall.

Which Candidate Should You Vote For?

2008-01-20T08:14:00.000-08:00

Check this out. You can take a short survey on key issues and it will tell you which presidential candidates most closely match your views.

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/projects/ongoing/select_a_candidate/president.shtml

Go Long

2008-01-18T19:18:00.000-08:00

Since my early college days, I have tried to live by the motto, "Whatever It Takes". Whenever you face a challenge of any kind, you examine where you are today, where you need to be to reach your goal, and then you do whatever it takes to make it happen. I relied on this A LOT through my bachelor's and master's degree. Today, I think I discovered a new motto, if you will. "Go long". I'm sure it's because of the versatile connotations it has, namely in football and in running. My childhood and teenage dream was to be a quarterback and I love the deep ball. And now as a distance runner, I love to "go long". I'll try this out in life and see how it works. Endure...persevere...no shortcuts...think big...go long.

Rewind a few months back to last August. You would have heard me saying ridiculous things like "The Packers' defense will be one of the best in the league, and will be a huge surprise to everyone." "If Favre returns, the Packers will make the playoffs, possibly even the NFC Championship." Not so ridiculous now, huh! The Packer defense is playing at a superb level and the Packers are playing the Football Giants this weekend in the NFC CHampionship, led by the NFL's toughest man, Brett Favre! Not only are they in the big NFC game, I think they should be able to handle the Giants and earn a trip to the Super Bowl where they will bring an end to New England's perfect season. I know, people in the know will roll their eyes. Oh Kirk, you're just a hard-core, biased Packer fan. Yes, that is true. But don't write me off...or the Packers. The Packers' defense will slow them down enough for Favre, Grant, Jennings, and Driver to hang enough points on the board to beat the pretty-boy girly-man Tom Brady...as long as they can continuously bring pressure to Brady. Brady will get mad and start forcing the ball. He'll slip a few by you and score some TDs, but I'm telling you...do not count out the Packers. This is gonna be fun...

My Achy Breaky Foot

2008-01-09T21:35:00.000-08:00

Here we are, exactly one month from the marathon, and I've been out of commission ever since. My foot still has this nagging case of tendinitis, forcing me to sit on the sideline against my will. Surprisingly it hasn't been as bad mentally as my injury last summer. I'm DYING to start running again but the withdrawal has been much more manageable this time. I guess because I reached my goal and I'm no longer pressed for time to train for my first marathon. I have gained 7 pounds though. I'm starting to get a little antsy too. There's a lot of exciting runs coming up, and I need to be out there training for them. Since I won't be running the full marathon at Cowtown in late February, hopefully I can help my friend train for his first half-marathon and run it with him. If not, I'd like to go up to Lake Texoma that weekend for a half-marathon trail run on a course that has a reputation for being very difficult. I'm halfway considering joining up with "Team In Training" to help raise money for Leukemia and earn an all-expense paid trip to Alaska where I would run a marathon with my team members and running coach. I'd have to raise $4400 which seems like a lot. The marathon is in June, so I'd have 6 months to do it, but I'm not real comfortable asking people for money. Especially since I just did last month. Another ambitious run is the Pike's Peak marathon in August that I would LOVE to do! You run up a trail to the summit and then back down. The difficulty of that challenge really wets my appetite! Anyway, there are plenty of local runs to train for, but these 3 are sort of the "big dogs" I'm thinking about. They may not be feasible logistically or financially this year, but maybe 2009.

I got a GPS watch for Christmas from Jennifer. It is awesome...except for the fact that I haven't even really been able to use it. It will allow me to step out the front door and just run wherever my feet want to take me. I will always know exactly how far I've been and I'll be able to back track if I don't remember how to get back home. It will also give me all kinds of stats like time, pace, calories burned, elevation changes, etc that can be uploaded into a computer program, which makes for a pretty sophisticated training log. Hopefully within the next week or two I can start using it.

We finally bit the bullet and got a new Dell computer. It is so awesome and was a great deal! Initially I selected a base model until I found a coupon code online that allowed me to save $350 if I spent $300 more! So...I beefed up everything a little, entered the coupon code and got a much better computer for the same price as the base model! How cool is that! Some of the highlights of the computer are the 19" widescreen flat panel, Vista Home Premium, upgraded sound card, and stand alone video card with dedicated memory - all of which are very, VERY cool! The coolest thing so far on Vista is the Windows Media Center. It lets you watch Internet TV for free, consisting of all sorts of current news reports and tv shows. It's like TV on demand! Instead of reading news articles or entertainment blurbs, you can watch short video segments! I can see society continuing to become more and more reliant on media and technology...maybe in 75 years we won't even need to learn to read anymore! HA!

With each of the last 3 presidential elections I have become more and more interested. This year I have actually been following the caucus and primary in Iowa and New Hampshire and I'm looking forward to Michigan. It's been interesting to see these candidates and know that one of them will be the next president of the United States. I will be voting republican, but I'm not sure who will receive my vote yet. If I had to guess, I think right now we will probably end up with a democratic president - UGH! I still need to study each candidate's stance on the key issues. I will say this - Hillary Clinton makes my skin crawl. I am not at all against a woman president, so long as it is Condoleeza Rice instead of Hillary Clinton! Too bad she's not running! And that Barack Obama - what an amazingly charismatic speaker! He could be the antichrist that unites everyone together! HA! I can see a lot of fence-walkers, or uninformed republicans deciding to vote for him because he's so likable and sounds so good in his speeches. However, despite not knowing much about his actual stance on key issues, I have to be skeptical because after all...he's a democrat. When he says he will provide a tax cut to the middle class, I'm not THAT gullible. One of two things will happen...he will either classify "middle class" as $20,000/yr income or less...or he will raise everyone else's taxes to offset it. Democrats don't lower taxes. I have heard that his plan to reduce health insurance premiums is supposed to be pretty good, but I'm not sure what his plan is. I'm sure it involves raising taxes though and making the government bigger. If anyone has a good website where I can study the candidates' views, please let me know!

There will be some GREAT football games this weekend! Both Green Bay and Dallas are in the divisional playoffs, so it will be very exciting! I also get to see if my prediction from about 4 weeks ago pans out. Call me crazy, but I think Jacksonville has a GREAT shot at beating New England! If their secondary can play well, their pass rush will knock Tom Brady off his game, making him mad. The Jags will control the game with a successful running attack (remember Baltimore vs New England?) and in the end, I think the Jags just might pull off the upset win! My Super Bowl prediction from 2 weeks ago...Jacksonville vs. Green Bay.

Work sucks. Seriously. Tomorrow is Thursday and I have already put in close to 40 hours this week - about 10 of which was from home. The market finally fell through its support line so we've been repositioning our accounts every day this week. On top of that, the guys from Indata (the software we have been trying to convert to for a year and a half...yes, I know...ridiculous, you're preaching to the choir) are in the office this week wanting to spend most of their time with me. Also, our transfer agent left a few weeks ago (ugly mess) so we are short-staffed and having to pick up her slack. So I've been reviewing resumes, interviewing, checking references, and discussing opinions with my boss all in between helping my trader buy/sell securities and hiding from the Indata guys! HA! All I really want to do is come home, play with the family, run, play with our new computer, run, and dream about what it would be like to enjoy my job!

I didn't make any New Year's resolutions. I just need to heal so I can run again. Sure, I'd also like to be a better husband and father, read more books, eat better, etc etc...but running makes me feel content and I think makes me a better person overall.

One night last week when I was a bachelor, I went to the dollar movie ($1.75 now) and watched Saw 4. I love those movies!! Jenn and I watched the new Die Hard this weekend and it was pretty good. I want to find a cool DVD to watch on our new computer! Any ideas? It has dual optical drives - a DVD-Rom/CDRW and a DVD burner...not that I would burn DVDs or anything. ;)

The last UFC fights were awesome! My man Chuck Liddell won an INCREDIBLE fight against his toughest opponent ever. Also, Matt Hughes lost! He's a cocky dude and I don't like him.

I subscribed to a Quote of the Day service from Runner's World. Here are my two most favorite quotes so far -

"Run when you can. Walk if you have to. Crawl if you must. Just never give up" Dean Karnazes

"If you want to win something, run 100 meters. If you want to experience something, run a marathon."

OK, I guess that's enough for this month...

Dallas White Rock Marathon

2007-12-13T23:34:00.001-08:00

Sunday, December 9, 2007
5:25am - I wake up 5 minutes before the alarm goes off and pop up out of bed. After putting shorts and shoes on, I decide to shove several shirts in my bag and decide what to wear once I get to the AAC (American Airlines Center). I down a glass of water, grab my bag, get my oatmeal and banana and load up in my Jeep.

6:00am – Back out of driveway and stop by a gas station on my way to the AAC. The guy next to me must think I’m an idiot standing out in the high 30s temperature putting gas in my Jeep wearing shorts. Had he noticed my “26.2” decal he might have understood better what was going through my head. Little did he know I was about to set out on an adventure of a lifetime. Just 7 months ago, the idea of running a marathon was something that was so far out of reach it was not even a consideration. 26.2 miles is just way too far, it’s ridiculous. I grab my receipt, climb back in, and take off towards 820 east. Normally, the fact that I had to use my windshield wipers would not have mattered. However, on this morning, it caused me to embrace mother nature and prepare myself to accept the rainy 26.2 miles ahead…exposed. I’ve run in the rain before and it’s actually quite peaceful, but I’ve never run in the rain with temperatures from 38-42. But that’s ok, nothing was going to stop me at this point.

6:40am – I pull in to the parking lot of the AAC, find a spot, and go find a bathroom in the AAC to get rid of my pregame jitters. I’m scheduled to meet my running partner in about 30 minutes, so I decide to sit down in the sheltered AAC for a little while as opposed to my cold Jeep. There are already thousands of people scurrying by in all sorts of disarray. Relaxed, nervous, tired, chirpy, fast, slow, short, tall, chunky, skinny. I decide to make a choice on my wardrobe before getting back to my Jeep. I go pee again and head out to my Jeep to get dressed. I opt for my long sleeve thermal under armour shirt with a short sleeve dry-fit shirt over it. This well thought out strategy should serve multiple purposes. It will keep me warm in the beginning of the race and give me the option of removing the under armour in case the weather warms up. It also means my nipples should be safe from chaffing as long as the under armour is on. OK, maybe that was too much info, but I’m trying to give you the whole experience here. So after changing shirts, I meet a guy next to me who is also getting ready for the run. As we put our timing chips on our shoes and pin our race bibs to our shirts, we make small talk. He missed qualifying for Boston last year by 4 minutes, but he feels pretty certain he will qualify this year. Wow – this guy is fast. Many marathoners never qualify for Boston. I tell him how I’m a little nervous due to my short taper and he tries to convince me that I’ll be fine since the last 6 miles is 100% mental anyway. I stuff my energy gels in my shorts, hoping once again that 5 gels are enough. I’ll drink water with these and Gatorade at the other rest stops, and I’ll eat often at the well-stocked aid stations. Hopefully this will help prevent hitting a wall, though I suspect the wall will be inevitable. I’ve never run more than 20 miles at one time, and I’ve only done that twice.

7:10am – I make my way back to the AAC to meet Wendell at the bag check in place. On my way, I notice a Vaseline tent and can’t believe I forgot to lube up my thighs to prevent chaffing. That’s enough to make a grown man cry like a little baby. So I grab some Vaseline and relish in the humor of how acceptable it is to rub Vaseline on your inner thighs all the way up to your crotch in public. I even put a little extra since I’ve never been those extra 6.2 miles. I find Wendell and his family near our meeting point and give him a pregame high five. It’s really cold outside and a little misty. As we start to stretch our legs out, I eat my banana and notice that the guy next to us who is also stretching is wearing the same Brooks Adrenaline GTS 7 shoes that we are wearing. This guy looks like he’s an experienced runner, so my confidence rises slightly. Yeah, maybe that’s a little silly, but I’ll take what I can get. We try to find better shelter from the light rain that started to come down, but eventually decide to just huddle under Wendell’s wife’s oversized umbrella.

7:45am – We watch the elites and wheelchair marathoners take off and then tell Wendell’s family bye as we make our way to the starting line. We find our way to the 5 hour pacers so we don’t get mixed in with racers who run 4 minute miles. It’s so crowded we can’t even stand in the street. I look around and start taking in the atmosphere. There are people everywhere you look. Some look like they’re in shape, and some look like you’d be safe betting on them not even finishing half of the marathon. But what do I know? More power to them and good luck. It is cold and I can’t wait to start running so I can warm up. At this point, I wish I had brought my gloves and ear warmers, but I don’t let it bother me. Wendell and I talk briefly about whether or not they’ll do the F-16 flyover since it’s so overcast. The rain had stopped, but it looked like it could rain again any second.

The race finally starts at 8:00am and we slowly scoot our way through the crowd onto the street and toward the starting line. About 3 minutes later, we hit the starting line and start our stopwatches as we cross the line. We’re off! Who knows what the next several hours will bring, but right now, we’re both feeling good and excited to finally begin the most difficult physical challenge either of us have ever attempted. We start off at a slow pace and I can’t help wonder how long Wendell’s bum knee will cooperate. Just 5 days prior, he tried to run 2-3 miles and had to stop 3 times, so from what I could tell, I really thought he would start to struggle pretty early on. It didn’t take long for me to really soak in what was happening. I was in heaven. Not only were I running with thousands of other runners, but there were also thousands of spectators lining the streets clapping and cheering us on. Ahhh….what a beautiful morning. Running through downtown Dallas on our way to White Rock Lake. The only downside at this point was the fact that I needed to pee. I knew it wasn’t going to go away, so I stopped at a port-a-potty 3 miles in to the race and relieved my bladder. We immediately hit the road again. It was about at this point when a funny thing happened that ended up being a lifesaver throughout the race. We were very comfortably strolling down the course when these two girls who were spectators yelled “Go Kirk – Go Wendell!” I waved as Wendell asked who they were. As he was asking me, it hit me that our names were on our racing bibs. How cool is that!! Every couple of minutes we heard people calling us by name cheering us on and encouraging us to keep running strong. It made an unbelievable difference mentally. Huge booster. We kept running at an easy pace, and after 5-6 miles we both agreed that we felt great and felt like we hadn’t even started running yet. Things were going great and Wendell’s knee was even doing surprisingly well. The weather for the most part was pretty pleasant. After about 9 miles or so, we finally reached the lake. The scenery opened up a little and we started feeling a little more wind coming off the lake, which was a little chilly to say the least. We hit a pretty good little hill around mile 10 that finally made our legs talk to us a little bit. Along the way there were a few live bands that were fun to listen to. It really helped me get pumped up a little, but I was disappointed to see that so few bands showed up. There was supposed to be a band at every mile but I guess the wet weather prevented them from being able to setup their equipment. It was enjoyable to run around the lake and chat with Wendell. We were still feeling pretty good despite the cooler weather and occasional sprinkle. We hit the half-marathon point and had just begun to start to feel things physically. Our 13.1 mile time was about 2 hours and 17 minutes, which was 7 minutes slower than my PR (personal record), but we were intentionally running a bit slower to ensure we could finish the full distance. It wasn’t much longer after this that we saw a little kid run by. We talked to him and found out he was running a 5 mile leg on a relay team, and he was 11 years old! He enjoyed the encouragement he received from us and other runners nearby and yet he continued to remain calm and patient in his running, keeping a good steady pace. Most 11 year olds would run too fast out of the chute and not be able to finish. Eventually, after a few miles he slowly took off and left us behind. Sometime around this 13-16 mile point I began to notice that the aid stations didn’t have food. I was a little concerned, but I thought maybe they were saving the “well-stocked” stations for the last 5-8 miles of the race when you needed it the most. Two very memorable events occurred around the 16 mile mark. First, I understood how Dean Karnazes (ultramarathonman.com) could eat cheeseburgers and pizza while running long distance. I started feeling famished and I relished at the thought of a big juicy cheeseburger. I would have paid 20 bucks for one right then and there. The second thing was pointed out by Wendell. As we came around a corner at the lake, suddenly, far off on the horizon we could see downtown Dallas. I mean, if you closed one eye, you could completely cover it up with your thumb. It was a very small piece of scenery on the horizon many, many miles away. Big deal right? Well except for one small fact - downtown Dallas is where the finish line was! Holy shnikes!! You mean we have to run all the way back there?!?!?! For a brief moment, it was a rather daunting thought. However, I quickly embraced it and starting telling Wendell how it was not a problem. We’ll just keep putting one foot in front of the other and make our way back….it was nothing we couldn’t do and we were going to do it. I’ve never asked him, but sometimes I wonder if Wendell thinks it’s annoying how I always talk out loud about how good we’re doing and how we’re going to keep on pushing on and finish the race. It helps me mentally to talk it out and think positive, while Wendell tends to keep it all inside. But I know he’s not afraid to tell me to shut up, so I guess he’s cool with it. Around the lake there weren’t as many spectators and we were really starting to miss that. Having a cheer squad is HUGE mentally and we were getting to the point of the race where you have to start relying on “mind over body” to carry you on. We finally finished the loop around the lake and were making our way back into neighborhoods when Wendell needed to stop and stretch his legs, mainly because of his knee I think. I had told him early in the race that we weren’t going to think about his knee and I wasn’t going to ask him how it was feeling anymore. So we stopped at around 18.5 miles for about a minute while he stretched out and stuck a Tiger Balm heat pad on the back of his knee. As we started back up I reminded him of what his doctor told him Friday…his knee wasn’t torn, so other than being in excruciating pain, he couldn’t really damage his knee anymore by running on it. I also gave him permission to tell me to shut up. HA! I was sort of tongue-in-cheek telling him to suck it up and finish this race even if his knee hurt. Of course, at this point, I was starting to feel the looming wall hit me in the face. We pushed on for a little ways and at mile 20 we agreed to stop for a minute. Wendell stretched again and I just kept moving. We started running again and the pain was excruciating. You probably know that the wall is the point where you feel like you just can’t run anymore. Well, you can, your body just doesn’t want to. See, your body can only hold so many calories before it stores them as fat. When you run, you burn up those calories in the form of glycogen (sugar from carbs). Typically the average person can hold about 2000 calories (maybe a little more if you carb load the night before). If you figure that you burn about 100 calories per mile, then after about 20 miles, you have no more glycogen to burn up, so your body tries to burn fat for fuel, but fat is not nearly as efficient as sugar. The result? Your body feels like it has NO energy and has to work harder to burn that fat for fuel, so you want to stop running. You can try to feed yourself carbs in the form of energy gels or oranges/bananas/etc or even Gatorade, but my experience is that once you reach this point, it’s hard to feel a noticeable difference. On my last 20 mile run, I tried to stay ahead of the wall and ate some orange slices and a whole banana and some energy gels and I felt great at mile 20, but as I mentioned earlier, the aid stations in this marathon were not well-stocked with food. We had a few orange slices here and there, which is good because it’s simple sugar and easy to digest, but I craved food intensely. Digestion requires blood, but when you run, the blood is sort of pushed away from your stomach making it difficult to digest which is why simple sugars are the best because of their easy digestion. So even though I craved a cheeseburger, it wouldn’t have been easy to digest. On top of the fact that your body has been literally depleted of energy, you’ve just ran 20 miles so your legs are hurting a little. OK, a lot. This is why running is soooo much a mental game. Your body is capable of moving on, it just doesn’t want to. So you have to fight against your body’s desires and keep on running. We continued the self inflicted torture until mile 21 where we again agreed to walk for a minute and then we started running again. At mile 22 and mile 23 we did the same thing. Now, I don’t fully understand as well scientifically how you break through the wall as much as why you hit the wall, but it happens. My thought is that your body just finally realizes the mind is winning the battle, so it quits trying to tell you to stop running. I don’t know. At about the 23.5 mile marker a truly amazing thing happened. And talking to Wendell afterwards I found out a similar thing happened to him at about that same point. It will be impossible to describe this accurately, but I will give it a shot. As I’m drudging along, I begin to realize many things. First, we only have 2.7 miles until the finish line. I think back to March of this year when I started running and kept on running. I thought about the moment after my first half-marathon in May when I embraced the challenge of training for a marathon. My injury/setback this summer. My many, many hours and hundreds and hundreds of training miles. Something began to stir deep inside. I have never in my life had to dig down this deep to finish anything. My MBA was a piece of cake compared to this. But right here, right now, I am so close to accomplishing something bigger than I have ever attempted in my life. Beyond my physical limitations. Beyond my mental limitations. I was pushing myself beyond limits I didn’t think was humanly possible. I am in awe right now as I recall this feeling and how deeply emotional it was. I fought back the tears and said to Wendell “This is sheer determination. I have never in my life had to dig down this deep. I am going to beat this beast.” I was suddenly overcome with a feeling of anger that I had never felt before. It felt like anger but it was probably super-intense will power and determination. It was an intense emotion that I had never felt before and I almost lost it several times. I was not going to let this marathon beat me. In fact, we didn’t stop running from this point forward. Also, neither of us spoke another word the rest of the race. As we got close to the American Airlines Center I was searching for it through the buildings like a warrior searching for its prey. I was getting mad at it like it was hiding from me, feeling like it was a coward not wanting to stand up and fight me. It knew I was going to conquer it. My legs hurt, I had no energy, I was light headed, but I was running to the finish line and nothing was going to hold me back. Finally, we turned a corner and several hundred feet down the road we could see the finish line. It was a glorious sight and I could sense that it had a life and was standing there, waiting for me. I focused on the banner above the finish line and quickly had tunnel vision, completely blocking out everything except the banner. Maybe 50 yards away, Wendell, the warrior beside me who couldn’t run 3 miles 5 days prior said “C’mon, let’s go”. I knew what this meant and as I said “I can’t, go ahead”, I found myself sprinting as fast as I could until we crossed the finish line, side by side. Two Davids had just defeated the Goliath. Except now those two David’s had become William Wallace’s. We beat the beast.

12:47pm – As soon as I crossed the finish line, I was completely spent. Completely depleted of everything. I high-fived Wendell and said “we did it.” Someone placed a space blanket around my shoulders and back and then told us to keep moving down the line. They took the timing chip off our shoes and I was so light headed I felt like I would pass out. We had our picture taken in front of a “FINISHER” backdrop. I searched around for something to replenish my body with. I was surprised and angry to not see anything…no water, Gatorade, food…nothing. We made our way down the chute to where the spectators were waiting and I found Jennifer. So many emotions and thoughts were speeding through my head. As Jennifer and I got close, I didn’t know whether to say something, laugh, or cry. She said “Are you alive?” Behind holding tears back, all I could get out was “barely”. I immediately went with her and Wendell to the side of the AAC and sat down. I felt like my blood sugar level was dangerously low and I was only seconds from passing out. It really felt like it was going to happen. Wendell gave me his last energy gel and Jennifer went and got me a coke. Within about 10-15 minutes I started feeling a little better. My brother and his wife were there too, and that was cool to have them there to see my accomplishment. I felt bad that they had to stand in the cold so long waiting, but I was glad I could share the celebration with them. We went inside the AAC for warmth and saw that they had food and stuff on the floor of the AAC but there was no way we were going to walk down those stairs. We found out later that they really only had popcorn down there. Jenn bought me some pizza and we found a place on the floor to crash. I absolutely can not believe after 38 years of having this marathon, with 15,000 runners and a $95 entry fee, that they can’t even give you a cup of water at the finish line. Every race I’ve done this year offered food and drinks at the finish line, except for the biggest race of the year. I’ve already sent them my feedback.

As soon as we got home from the marathon, Jennifer was running fever. Kevin and Katerina went home and Jennifer got in bed with a fever with what ended up being strep throat. So, after my marathon, I got to take care of kids the rest of the day. Fatherhood can be a wonderful thing at times…..but not all the time. HA!

Monday around 2:00pm my right foot started hurting. It’s the same place on my foot that I had the injury this summer, but on the other foot. By Monday night it was KILLING me and felt like it was broken. Now, late Thursday night, it still hurts but not as bad. I’m hoping I only have to take 2-3 weeks off from running because I’m ready to start training for the next beast. Oh yes, I will run one again. And another, and another, and another, etc. It is in my blood and the more I reflect upon it, it is truly one of the most enticing things I know.

3 Days and Counting

2007-12-06T20:48:00.000-08:00

Well here I am, Thursday night, 3 days away from the big day. What "big day" you may ask? The Dallas White Rock marathon where I will run 26.2 miles. I plan on getting up tomorrow morning at 4:45am for my last training run...which reminds me, why am I still up at 11pm?! Oh yeah, I went to the doctor this evening to find out I have an upper respiratory infection and the waiting time at Walgreen's for my antibiotic is 2 hours! So in 30 minutes I'll go get my medicine, take one, and go to bed. Things could be a lot worse, as I'll prove in a minute, but isn't it ironic that I can train for sooo long and then be sick right before "game day". I should have better prepared for the possible side effects of my 2 week taper (when you decrease mileage right before race day). I was up to running between 40 and 45 miles per week before the taper and then dropped to 26 last week and unfortunately only 16-17 this week. I read an article about the taper that said marathoners can get sick during the taper because your body is used to training at such a high level it works really hard and your immune system is in overdrive. However, when you start to taper off, your body sort of sighs a big relief and therefore your immune system doesn't try so hard to keep up resulting in a weak immune system and in my case...an upper respiratory infection. Now, I haven't studied this theory, but it sounds logical enough to accept on the surface for now. The benefits of tapering are significant though, so I guess you're supposed to take more vitamins or something during the taper to try to keep your immune system up. Anyway, I think I'll be ok, but it's forced to me to only run 16-17 this week instead of the 24 I was aiming for.

Wendell, my marathon training partner, has unfortunately hurt his knee and will be struggling a lot on marathon day. He tried to run tonight and had to stop a few times on just a 2-3 mile jog. I don't think you can even begin to imagine the disappointment this brings. You train and sacrifice and work HARD for 6 months with this goal being the #1 driving force...and then your knee goes out and you can't run. If this doesn't bring you to tears, you're not a normal human being. I will run with Wendell on race day until he can't run anymore. It will be very hard to leave my partner behind, but we both know he will end up walking at least half of the 26.2 miles. We have already agreed to run a marathon again in early 2008, maybe the Cowtown in Fort Worth in February, but that doesn't even come close to fixing this one.

My other training partner, John, whom I run with 4 mornings a week, has been GREAT accountability. We ran a 10k last Saturday in Arlington and did GREAT! We finished 5th and 6th in our age group. We wanted to at least finish at a 9:15/mi pace and we ended up blowing by that goal and finishing at a 8:53/mi pace! It was awesome!! I give John another 6-8 weeks and I expect he'll be asking questions about the marathon. He thinks it's near impossble now, but so did I in the beginning. He likes the distance part of running and has increased to 6-8 miles very quickly.

Well I'm sure I could type more, but I'm going to go get my meds and go to bed. I'll post again after the marathon. If you're interested, you can go to runtherock.com, click on the Runner Tracker link, search for Kirk Wimberley, and have either an email or text message sent to you as soon as I cross the finish line! Pretty cool!

Life is Good

2007-11-08T19:36:00.000-08:00

Since it's been 2 months since my last post and I doubt anybody even reads this anymore, I'll probably keep this one short.

* Training for the marathon is going very well! I ran 18 miles 2 weeks ago and felt great. I'll run 20 this Saturday, maybe 13-14 next Saturday, and 20 again the following Saturday (also 4-6 mile runs during the weekdays) and then start a 2 week taper, reducing my mileage a little to rest up for the big day on Sunday, December 9th where my friend Wendell and I will not only complete the 26.2 mile marathon, but we will kill it!! I am so pumped. I catch myself daydreaming of that day and how incredible it will feel when I cross that finish line. It is so close I can taste it. I have never worked so hard for something before, and the gratification is indescribable. The last few weeks I've been meeting a friend (head coach of Boswell High School football team) at the track at 5-5:30am. He wants to start upping his mileage so I'm helping him train for his first 10k while he helps me increase my weekly mileage to build a bigger base for the marathon. Some days I get up at 4am and run to the track (3.6miles), run 4-5 miles with him, and then run home. That is a completely new experience...running 11-12 miles before the sun comes up, getting home before anyone else wakes up, reading a magazine until the kids wake up, fix them breakfast, get ready for work, and then go to work at 8:30am already feeling like I've accomplished a lot. Gives me a whole new perspective of work, which has become something I just have to do in between running and living life. Surprisingly, I have really come to love getting up that early. We'll see how long it lasts...

*Football season has been a lot of fun. Tomorrow is our last game - we didn't make the playoffs. It's been a blast though. It has allowed me to "plug in" to football without the commitment of coaching. I've learned a lot, met some good people, and watched a lot of football.

*I think running has made me a more relaxed person, and has given me so much fulfillment and a sense of accomplishment I've never had before. I think this has allowed me to love being at home with my family even more than ever. I love coming home from work and seeing the kids run and jump into my arms. Especially now that I've been having breakfast every morning with them, it's like I get home and think "OK kids, where'd we leave off?" A lot of mornings they just argue at the table, but I'm still glad I'm having breakfast with them. I know one day thaey will be grown and out of the house...I think about that too much probably, but I think it helps me try to take advantage of them being home now. I also feel like I have a deeper love and appreciation for my wife. Lots of times in the past I would think about doing or saying nice things, but I rarely would follow through. Last week I acted on a thought and brought her flowers one morning after a run. I saw a new dry-erase board on the fridge tonight and wrote "Daddy loves Mommy" on it. I don't know what exactly has changed me, but I have to think my increased level of running has something to do with it. I was only running 3 days a week and now it's up to 5-6, and I'm starting the day with it instead of ending the day with it. Endorphins are an incredibly powerful thing! Work is not very enjoyable, but I've become content right now that work is literally just something I do in between running and living life with my family. Maybe it's somewhat of a defeatest mentality, but I'm happy that I don't feel like work has to be my identity.

*I seriously am a very happy person right now, almost feeling like things are just too good to be true. I love my wife, my wife loves me, we have 4 beautiful kids who are happy and love spending time with Jenn and I, I love Saginaw, I'm about to run a marathon, I have a Jeep, we have great friends at our church that we like a lot, I'm playing keyboard in the worship band, the kids are doing well in school, our extended family lives closeby, the list goes on and on...when I stop and think about it, I/we are truly blessed. Life is good. At least for right now, who cares that I'm not happy at work...my whole perspective on that has changed.

So much for a short posting, like you actually thought that would happen! HA! As we head into the holiday season, take time out to stop and appreciate the little things and the reasons for all the celebrations. Celebrate life! I'll end this with a picture of Caleb, our future little quarterback! At just 2 years old, look at the great QB form he has - you're either born with it or you're not...looks like he has it!! :)

Boswell Pioneers

2007-09-09T19:46:00.000-07:00

Friday night lights. A little cliche now with the movie, the series, website...but there's so much meaning behind it. Just the thought of seeing the blaringly bright lights shining from high up above a high school football stadium on a Friday night in Texas is enough to make me shutter with excitement. Seeing them from a distance makes me feel like I'm missing out on something. Seeing them from within the stands is just a part of the atmosphere, along with the smell of popcorn, kids running around thinking their parents can't see them, the sounds from the band, the cheesy horn from the scoreboard, the cheering, the heart and emotion of the players giving everything they have, along with the constant stream of memories from the past. Memories from when you were in high school going to all of the games. If you're like me, memories all the way back to your first game at 6 years of age that was the beginning of football being a part of your life. And now, seeing the Friday night lights from within the press box. With coaches/coordinators shouting plays and coverages into the headsets, scouts from other schools charting every play, reporters from local newspapers, announcers, camera crews, free food & drinks...and me and another guy tracking the statistics of every single play. A new perspective for me that I can really get used to!

Overall, my first game was a really cool experience. We played LD Bell, which is a team that goes way back to the beginning of my football life, but I'll get in to that in the next paragraph. It was a lot of fun being around all of the scouts and reporters, but more than that, it was fun scrutinizing every single play. It was difficult at times when they went to a no-huddle, but I had a blast doing it! Even better, I calculated the quarterback rating and gave it to the coach along with a few other ideas, and he loved the rating and was very big on having us track things like yards after catch, yards after 1st hit, mistackles, etc. Those things haven't been tracked before, but the coach would love to see them, so we'll do our best to make it happen!

To better appreciate another amazing experience from Friday night, I'll rewind 25 years back to when the Wichita Falls Coyotes played LD Bell in the quarterfinals in 1982. I was 7 years old and REALLY wanted to be at the game, but it was an away game. So, I found the game on AM radio, and listened to a GREAT football game. What made this game so memorable was that with a minute and a half remaining in the game, LD Bell was winning 21-20 when so many fights broke out that the refs called the game off!! LD Bell advanced and my beloved Coyotes were sent home. So...having set the stage with that story, I'll tell you about the guy I sat next to in the press box. Along with scouts, reporters, coaches, etc, there were also some honorary guests, but I didn't have a clue who. Could have been the mayor, council members, or the owner of the local Dairy Queen for all I knew. Anyway, every once in a while I would talk to this old man who was sitting next to me. He had a special game bracelet on, so I knew he was an honorary guest, but he could have just been a player's grandpa - who knows? The more I talked to this guy, the more he talked. He tells me about how in the late 1950's, he was the football coach at Wayside, a middle school in Saginaw. Kinda cool, but no big deal, right? He says a few more things and then mentions that he had several of his players from LD Bell go on to play at big schools and a few in the NFL (one of which is Tommy Maddux). That perks my head a little and I ask how long he coached there. "25 years." WOW! So then I realize I'm sitting next to a local celebrity. I do the math and guesstimate that he was the coach of LD Bell in the early 80's. So I tell him that I remember in the early 80's when LD Bell beat WFHS in the quarterfinals after the refs called the game off. He finished my sentence before I could even get it out!! It was unbelievable!!! Luckily the other statistician was paying attention, because I missed several plays right then! I couldn't believe I was sitting next to and talking to the head coach of the team whom I listened to on the radio 25 years ago that beat the Coyotes! WOW!!! That was really cool! Needless to say, I was a little starstruck the rest of the game.

Who will I meet at this week's game??? I can hardly wait...

Wee-Chi-Tah Trail Race

2007-08-27T23:31:00.001-07:00

This weekend was the Wee-Chi-Tah Trail Race, and it changed my running life! The trail is the same rugged trail that the mountain bike race was on...here's a brief description from the site - "The Wee-Chi-Tah Trail has been called the best urban off-road trail in the State of Texas! It is a fun trail with many short, steep climbs, and screaming descents." My expectations going into this half-marathon (13.1 miles) trail race were: 1)nervous about spraining an ankle on the uneven terrain, 2)expecting it to be fun, 3) expecting it to be more difficult than a half-marathon on pavement, 4)some paved trails mixed in with some dirt trails.

I ran it with my good friend and marathon training partner, Wendell, and we had a blast! standing around the starting line, a friend I saw there said his friend ran it last year and said it's not a matter of IF you will fall, it's more a matter of when you fall, how athletic enough are you to catch yourself without getting injured. Sounds exciting! The race director was giving a pep talk beforehand and said they did their best to remove all of the tree stumps, but it is possible that they missed one or two...thousand. HA! So we're standing around in anticipation of the starting gun, everyone all decked out in their endurance running gear, sipping water, doing last minute stretches, when the race director finally signalled our start...and we were off! All 106 of us. Starting out, it took about a half mile through a grassy trail to get from the starting line to the trail head entrance. I never like running in grass because you have to pick your feet up, which strains your lower legs and can cause shin splints (for me anyway), but luckily we hit the trail after only a few minutes. Immediately, we were running down a dirt trail with tree roots, rocks, trees, tree stumps, and holes in the ground. The exhiliration was pretty high at this point and you could feel it from almost everyone.

The "racers" quickly made it to the front and took off, leaving us "finishers" behind. Soon, the trail narrowed to about 2 feet wide, careening through a dense forest of trees with frequent descents and climbs up rugged terrain that would be challenging on a bicycle, much less running. About 2 miles into it, Wendell and I found ourselves leading a pace group of about 10 or so runners. Our strategy was to maintain an easy 10.5-11 minute per mile pace through the first half and then adjust depending on how we felt for the second half of the race. So, ignoring the runners who passed us earlier, and the strand of runners immediately following us, we settled into a good, steady rhythm. At this point, the trail was too narrow to pass people, so I just hoped for their sake that they were comfortable with our pace. Every so often, the trail would open up and 1-2 runners would pass. Of course, we passed quite a few of them at water stations trying to recover from overworking themselves too early in the race. It's always ok though, and you never judge anyone for their efforts...not seriously anyway, but it does feel good to pass someone who passed you earlier, even though you'd stop to help them if they needed it.

The running community seems to be a very friendly and caring group. It's rare to see someone without exchanging words like "good job", "keep it up", "you doing ok?", "you need some water?",etc., and when you see someone fall, runners always stop to make sure they're ok....now I'm speaking for us "finishers" who are less concerned with time than merely finishing the event. I assume the racers are also like this, but there may be some who are too concerned with winning than helping a fellow runner. I digress...

The course did not have mile markers, so we had to approximate the distance based on how long we had been running. So, feeling like we were at a 10:30 minute per mile pace, we guessed the first water station 32 minutes into the run was at about the 3 mile mark. We both felt good as we grabbed a cup of water from a volunteer's outstretched hand and kept on running. I carried 2 water bottles with me because I was uncertain how much fluids they would have to offer. So, I took a quick drink from the cup and poured the rest over my head. That's about the time I looked down and noticed my $100 mostly white shoes were solid brown from the dirt. We kept on running down the twisting trail, dodging branches, hopping over rocks and tree roots, steadily "run-bouncing" down steep descents of gravel/loose dirt/rock and powering up steep ascents of more rugged terrain. It was so awesome!! It satisfied the desire for adventure that most men have, probably more so than I have ever felt. It was about this time that my body started feeling good. By this, I mean my heart rate settled in to a comfortable rate, my breathing had slowed to a steady rhythm, my legs were loosened up and not hurting, and I was settling in for a good long adventurous run. Ahh....such a beautiful thing!

At the 45 minute mark, as planned, I took out an energy gel pack and sucked it down with some water. Nutrition and hydration are important on long runs. Your body uses up all of its glycogen, which is what makes you tired and hit the wall. Your body also sweats out all your salt, which is what dehydrates you, so you need to intake sugars, carbs, and electrolytes to replace these things. Too much water over a short period of time will dilute your body of sodium, which can be fatal in extreme cases, so you need to eat/drink sodium in the form of a good sports drink and/or gel/powerbar. However, even too much of the good stuff can overhydrate you, causing cramps or nausea, and even make you retain water and swell. I still have a LOT to learn in this department, but it can make or BREAK you in an endurance run, so I'm trying to be a good student. My plan was to consume an energy gel pack every 45 minutes with water. About 5 minutes after I ate the first one, I started feeling hungry, which wasn't a good sign since I still had a good hour and a half before I reached the finish line. I had 2 packages of oatmeal and a banana for breakfast, followed by a PowerBar 30 minutes before the race. I thought this was a pretty good breakfast, but 5 miles in to the run I had burned over 600 calories and my body was telling me it needed food. Normally these energy gels fight off the hunger feeling, but that wasn't the case now. I told myself I would rather feel hungry than injured or exhausted, so I just kept trucking along thinking I could take sips of water/gatorade frequently and maybe the hunger would eventually subside.

Being hungry didn't get in the way of me having the time of my life. It was so much fun being out there on the trail, in such dense and rugged terrain. And since I hadn't fallen or tweaked an ankle, I was gaining confidence in this trail running stuff (this was my first). At about mile 6 I believe, a volunteer on the course helping guide the runners down the correct path said "you're doing good, keep it up". Right as I said thanks, my left foot landed sideways on a rock followed by a searing pain in my ankle and an audible groan. Remembering that I heard you should run on a sprained ankle as soon as you can so it doesn't swell (not sure if this is ACTUALLY correct or not), I continued running, hobbling along, until finally after a minute or so, the pain went away.

We knew we had reached the halfway point, or were real close anyway, so we talked about how we each felt and decided to just play it safe and maintain our current pace since it was working out so well for us. We both felt great, reltively speaking. Part of endurance running is just that...running as you "endure" things like tiredness, sweat burning your eyes, hunger, weak and heavy legs, pains all over your body that shift locations constantly. First your knee hurts. Then it quits just in time for your shin to hurt, which quits just in time for your shoulder to hurt, which quits just in time for your hamstring to hurt...you get the point. So after 7 or so miles, feeling "great" means, yeah your legs are tired and a little heavy, you feel some pain in random places, your eyes sting, you'd love a big fat cheeseburger, but your cardio isn't stressed, you're not feeling any injury-type pains (there's a difference), and you have a positive attitude about continuing to run. I noticed at this point that my legs were feeling much better than they do after 7 miles on the pavement. I guess the softer ground helps reduce the impact on your body somewhat.

We recognized that we should be extra careful now that our legs were starting to get a little heavy. If we weren't careful, our feet wouldn't quite make it over that tree root or rock and we'd end up kissing the dirt. We saw a 55 year old man with a gut fall twice. In fact, throughout the whole race, we took turns passing each other, so we talked to him several times. One time, he was behind us on a very narrow part of the trail where passing wasn't possible. I could sense we were holding him back, so I told him we'd let him pass if he wanted to. He didn't say anything, but a few seconds later, he tried to go around us and immediately hit the ground! I felt bad like it was my fault and made sure he was ok as he stood up. He was ok, so he passed us and went on down the trail. We saw him svereal more times throughout the race. It was about this time, around mile 8 or 9 that I really felt a good rhythm. I was following Dean Karnazes' advice and just simply thinking about "putting one foot in front of the other", and not thinking about how my body REALLY felt. It's amazing what positive thinking can do. It wasn't really a runner's high that I felt, but I was overcome with a very strong sense of accomplishment and confidence in what I was doing. I felt great like I could run a lot farther, I was loving every second of it more and more, and was quite surprised that I didn't have any "real" pains in my legs. At the hour and a half point (just under 9 miles), I had another energy gel pack and some water and started preparing myself mentally for the final stretch. When you know you have 8-10 miles left, you don't think so much about it, but when you know you only have 3-4 miles left, you can't help start thinking about it, which can kill your positive attitude if you're not careful. You get impatient and start losing your drive to endure.

Somewhere around the 2 hour mark, I began to feel a little bit of nausea setting in, and I was feeling like I'd had too much to drink. My cardio was fine, but my legs were pretty tired. Wendell was feeling great still and pushing on. Thinking we still had about 30 minutes, I went ahead and had another energy gel, thinking this might get rid of the nausea and pep me up a little. Almost immediately, I felt a little worse, but knowing the finish line was up ahead, I suffered through it and kept running. Shortly, we exited the trail and ran along a grassy field back towards the finish line. I could sense that we only had a mile or so to go, so I told Wendell to go on ahead and finish strong. He refused and opted to stick together. As we reached the final straightaway to the finish line, I wanted to speed up and sprint across it, but I could tell that if I sped up ANY...I would surely throw up. HA! So, I kept my normal pace, moved one foot in front of the other, and soon crossed the finish line 4 seconds behind Wendell. I ended up finishing 14th in my division and 75th overall. Nothing to brag about at all, but I finished it alive, without injury, and in the process, completely fell in love with trail running! I can not wait to run another trail!!

Here's a funny tidbit of information: when I run at home, I always run without a shirt. Well I wore a shirt during the race and didn't think I needed to put my antichaffing cream on my nipples. Big...BIG mistake! Not to be too graphic, but my nipples have scabs on them today, they literaly rubbed raw yesterday...and that hurts worse than my legs have EVER hurt!!! OUCH!!

OK, I'm too tired to type anymore so I'm going to go to bed now. Sorry if you weren't interested in the trail run story!

Puzzle Solved!

2007-08-09T00:02:00.001-07:00

Sorry for the delay, but if you read my last post, you know I had been trying to reach a long lost friend. Well, I finally found him and left him a voicemail one night. The next morning at 9am he called me back!! We talked for about 30 minutes and it was so awesome!! I hope to meet up with him soon and visit in person.

Not that anyone cares, but the running is going very well...I ran 8 miles tonight. I was pretty sore from last night running 100yd sprints and walking the curve of the track. Wow - what a workout!! My hamstrings were killing me today. I was hoping a good, slow run tonight would loosen them up, but I don't think it worked. Oh well, it's a good pain....and you know what they say...no pain no gain. I'm hoping to find a renewed vigor toward weight loss so I can drop the next 10-15 pounds. If I can do that, then I'll just try to maintain at that point. Losing another 10-15 will help my running too! Anyway, enough about that...I have a half marathon trail run coming up soon. The Sunday after the Hotter n Hell 100 is the trail run in Wichita Falls. I'm a little nervous about running on a trail since I NEVER do that...I sorta have weak ankles and can turn them easily so the uneven terrain makes me nervous. But, Dean Karnazes' first major ultramarathon was a trail run, so he's inspired me to give it a try!

It's official. I will be keeping stats for the Boswell (Saginaw) High School football team!! I am SOOOOOO pumped about that!! Their first scrimmage is August 25th. AWESOME!!! I must admit...deep down inside, I'm fantasizing about this opening some doors allowing me to SOMEHOW get into coaching football or becoming a trainer or something like that where I will be surrounded by football for my job! Sure, it's a long shot...but DREAM BIG BRUTHA!!!

I thought I would include this in my blog tonight while I was running. Do you know what the most common smell is in neighborhoods while running all over town? Nope, not car exhaust. Nope, not grilled food. Wrong again, not garbage. Give up? I would have never guessed this, but it's fabric softener!! HA!! Seriously! Everyone's dryer vents blow that stuff outside, so you smell it all the time while running! Or at least I do...maybe Saginaw is just a clean clothes sort of town. Ha!

An interesting, yet extremely controversial debate ensued recently at work. All parties involved were pro-life with respect to abortions, except for this one lady who is from the northeast...a democrat. Yes, she gets harassed a lot. :) Anyway, she refers to an abortion not as the termination of life, but the termination of a pregnancy. At the baby's age during an abortion, the baby can not sustain life by itself outside of the womb, so she claims an abortion does not end life, rather it ends the pregnancy. She says pro-life people feel the baby is "alive" at conception for religious reasons, but it is not medically supported. I haven't researched it enough to know the medical theories they claim to this regard. She believes the baby is alive as well, and hopes people choose not have an abortion, but she is pro-choice because she very strongly feels that it is not the government's business what she decides to do to her body. You don't know someone's situation unless you've walked a mile in their shoes. Anyway, very thought provoking conversation. And for the record...I am pro-life and I believe the baby is alive at conception regardless of how medical researchers want to spin the fact that the baby is a living organism inside the womb. Maybe my belief is deeply rooted in a religious reason, but as far as I'm concerned, scientifically, the baby is alive at conception.

Jenn, are you proud of me? I didn't make this blog JUST about running!! Although I would like to mention that it was a blast taking the family to the track last night (read Jenn's blog). Kylie was so impressive, it was truly unbelievable!! After the first lap, Jenn said Kylie sorta cried and said she didn't want to run anymore. Jenn told her she didn't have to and to go sit down and drink some water, but Kylie said no and kept running. It was soooo cute! Maybe she has a strong drive and determination!! Maybe we have a little runner in our family! Even when Jenn and I quit running and started walking, Kylie kept running and yelled back over her shoulder "I'm faster than you!" I honestly didn't know a 4 year old was capable of running as much as she did!! Caleb was cute too...he ran a little and had his arms swinging back and forth for about 3/4 of a lap before he quit. Karissa thought she could run faster than me because I'm old...so I had to set her straight. :) Cara did great too, but she was probably the least interested in running. She just liked to cut across the field and say "Look dad, I found a shortcut!" HA! It was a lot of fun!

Final Piece of the Puzzle?

2007-07-24T21:35:00.000-07:00

For the past 2-3 weeks I have been trying to locate an old friend, and I feel like it's turned into a puzzle that is finally about to be completed. The reason I'm trying to get in touch with this old friend (Doug C) is because to my knowledge, he is the only ultramarathoner that I know. If my memory serves me correct, I have not seen him since I was about 9-10 years old. We used to go to church with him back then until he moved to Katy, Texas. I've always thought he was a neat guy, for several reasons. In 1970, he led, with Joey Abboussie, the Wichita Falls High School Coyotes' football team to the state championship game as the quarterback. They lost by one point. He used to take a bunch of boys from church to Lake Texoma for an annual camping trip. It was on one of these trips that I experienced my first snipe hunt. It was either me or my brother that got so scared at the sight of these snipe birds that I(he) literally ran across water. It was also on one of these camping trips that Doug got out of his sleeping bag (not in a tent) and approached the female park ranger who paid a visit late one night in only his underwear! HA! I also remember being in his wife's Sunday School class and getting in trouble with 2 other boys for writing bad words in the Sunday School book. We were in the 2nd or 3rd grade. Doug sat us down like adults and explained to us that we should not have done that, told us he understood we were just being boys, and told us he wouldn't tell our parents what we did. It was also Doug that participated in a Hands-On-Marathon where he kept his hand on a truck for many many hours (maybe a few days) hoping to be the last one standing to win the truck. If you took your hand off the truck, you were out of the competition. On occasion, the contestants would get a short break, and Doug would choose to run instead of rest. He made it pretty far, but got tricked into checking a little message attached to a sandwich causing him to remove his hand from the truck and consequently himself from the competition. It isn't until now that I more fully appreciate something else he once did. He, along side a doctor, giving him a special solution of electrolytes, attempted to run the 100 mile course in the Hotter 'n Hell Hundred bike race. He made it approximately 75 miles before stopping. Amazing!

So lately, I have had this burning passion to become an ultramarathoner. For those still reading who don't know what an ultramarathon is, it's basically any run that is longer than a marathon, or 26.2miles. My goal is to run a marathon in December and then run my first ultramarathon next spring. I'll start with a 50k race, which is 31 miles, and over the next few years, hopefully work up to 50 or even 100 miles. I LOVE the challenges of endurance running - you have to have a lot of stamina, learn how to treat your body during the run, stay hydrated, stay fueled up with carbs/protein, stay smart and focused, and ignore the pains until the endorphines kick in and then keep hydrating/refueling so you avoid exhaustion (the wall) where your muscles fill up with lactic acid and are unable to burn up anything else. It's much more a mental challenge than a physical one. Anyway, I'm very driven to train towards this.

One of my philosophies in life is in any new endeavor, educate yourself as much as possible by going straight to the horse's mouth. Talk to people who have direct experience with whatever endeavor you are seeking. So, I've decided to try and contact my ultramarathoner friend, Doug. I've gone through quite a series of twists and turns to get in touch with him. I started out by trying to find him on the internet in Katy, Texas, but was unsuccessful. My dad told me he recently ran into an old friend who said he had recently talked to Doug. So, I called this guy's dad wanting to get in touch with him, who coincidentally was sitting right beside him! He recommended I try contacting these other 2 guys who are friends with Doug. I tried contacting one, but haven't been able to connect. When I tried the other, it was actually this guy's father I was calling, whose wife informed me had passed away 5-6 years ago. However, after explaining my situation, she gladly gave me her son's phone number as well as her granddaughter's number (my age) and said either could probably tell me how to get in touch with Doug. I tried her granddaughter several times but could never connect. This guy's mother informed me that he would be out of town until this past weekend. So, I called him tonight and actually got in touch with him!! I also knew this guy from 20+ years ago, so it was neat to talk to him. He said he hasn't talked to Doug in several months, but he knew Doug was about to move to Dallas. He didn't have his home or cell number, but he gave me 2 possible phone numbers to try at Doug's work. He wasn't sure if either number was actually good, but it was more than I had before so I thanked him. After trying the 2 numbers, one was not in service and one was the technical support line for some energy company. So, for grins, I typed in the company name and Houston in google.com. Low and behold, there's a company by that name in Houston! I called the number and maneuvered my way through the voice prompts to the directory. I punched in the letters for Doug's name, and guess what I hear on the other end? A recording of Doug saying his name! So, I pushed pound to connect to his line, heard his voice mail, and left a message. WOW - what a journey to finally reach him!! So, I finally feel like the last puzzle piece is being put into place. Hopefully tomorrow he will return my call and my journey will be a success. Then I can pick his brain about being an ultramarathoner...and if all the stars line up, maybe if he's in Dallas, we could actually meet up and run together! This other guy that gave me Doug's number (sort of) said Doug just had a rare form of leukemia 2 years ago, was treated, and is now completely cancer free. He said he stopped running for awhile during the treatments, but he thinks he's started back up recently. So maybe that was a long and boring story, but it's a big deal to me, and I look forward to talking to Doug. I'll let you know how it goes.

I'm finally able to run again. I've been running 5 times in the last 9-10 days, and each time I feel better and better. I am now completely pain free and am back up to 5 miles. My pace is only about 10-15 seconds per mile slower than my pre-injury pace. I suspect I will be back to my 6-8 mile runs at a sub-10 minute mile pace within another week or two. Last night was the first time I was able to let go, relax, and just run...as opposed to counting laps and worrying about aches and pains that could be a lingering injury. All of my running recently has been at the track, which in some respects has been a complete beating! Do you know how intensely boring it is to run 20 laps around a track?? However, I am sooooooo grateful that I'm able to run again, so I'm not complaining.

OK, just so I can say this blog is not JUST about running, is it just me or is Drew Carey an odd replacement of Bob Barker on The Price Is Right?

Injury Update

2007-07-11T22:41:00.000-07:00

I'm working from home right now, but there's a lot of waiting while each process runs in the background so I thought I'd blog. I am suffering severely from not being able to run. At first it was endorphine withdrawals, and now it's a physical deterioration. I feel bad a lot now, I'm less motivated at work and home, I can't think as clearly, and I'm obsessed with the fact that I can't run and it's killing me! Running is amazing on so many levels, and the realization is magnified in its absence. I won't bore you with the reasons I love running, but I love it even more now that I can't do it. ARGH! My foot is feeling much better, but I don't think it's completely healed yet. Last Saturday morning it was not hurting, but when I ran a slow mile around the track, it started hurting again so I immediately stopped, went home, and iced it. Since Sunday it has not hurt at all, but I'm resting this whole week too so I don't rush back into running. I will try again this coming Saturday and see how it is. I HOPE it's better. I'm thinking it's probably not a stress fracture, but tendonitis instead...but I can't be 100% sure. Meanwhile, I tried learning how to swim freestyle so I could swim laps until my foot heals. Wow - there's a lot to think about, it takes coordination, and it just flat out makes me tired after 1-2 laps!! I've also tried riding a bicycle, but the last 3 nights I had issues with a tire/tube. Tonight I finally rode, but it was too dark and there was more traffic than I was comfortable with. ARGH! So much for cross training!! I can't wait until I can run again!!

Keep crossing your fingers - the football coach at Boswell called me tonight and there's still a good chance I'll get to do stats at the games! I am so pumped about that!!

Fantasy Football is right around the corner. Both the Texas Thunder Thighs and the Lambeau Leapers will win their respective leagues this year!! Take that to the bank!!

Football Stats and Stuff

2007-07-01T21:15:00.001-07:00

OK, so I missed the entire month of June. Sorry! A lot has happened in the last 6 weeks, but I'll just do bullet points instead of my normal 647 page blog.

I got fitted for new running shoes and they are amazing!! My first test run I went 14miles and felt great! One week later, after a few more 6 milers, I got a little too motivated and ran 16 miles (thanks to Dean Karnazes - check out www.ultramarathonman.com). Something bad happened. The outside of my left foot started KILLING me about 2 hours after my run. I sure hope it's not a stress fracture, but it could be a slight one. The pain eventually went away for the most part and this past Thursday I ran a slow and easy 4 miles on the track (soft surface) and didn't have any trouble with my foot. So yesterday I go on my normal 6 mile course and finally, just past the 3 mile marker, I had to stop and walk home because my foot was killing me again. UGH! It still hurts today. This is very upsetting, a big mental setback...hopefully not too much of a physical setback. My marathon is not until Dec 9th, so I have time to heal, I just hope I can find the patience. I've lost 34 pounds now and I can just see the weight coming back on since I can't run for at least a week now. ARGH!!!
Seriously, go check out www.ultramarathonman.com. This guy seems perfectly normal, but he runs marathons just about every day. Oh except for his weekly 100 mile training run. He has run 262 miles straight without stopping - that's 10 marathons!! He orders pizzas while running. They deliver pizza to him and he rolls it up like a burrito and eats it without missing a step! He ran for 75 hours, through 3 nights without sleeping and actually fell asleep running!! I just HAD to buy his book and I read the first 100 pages Friday night!! I have NEVER read that much in one night! NEVER!!! It is so fascinating.
We sold Lambeau. It was a very difficult decision, but ultimately my kids' livlihood won out over the dog. They didn't like going outside anymore because he always knocked them over, stole their toys, ran away and chewed them up. I think he went to a good home.
I also sold my truck! I finally sat down and listed it on autotrader.com, paid extra for the 8 week listing, and less than 16 hours later had sold it for $200 more than what I had hoped to get! If you ever need to sell a vehicle, I fully endorse autotrader.com!
You know what I love about work? Coming home from it! I'm so lucky to have the family that I do! I love my wife and my kids and I love being at home with them. I think it's about time to teach Caleb how to pee off the back porch. HA! I was throwing the football with him today and I must say...he's pretty darn good! I showed him where to position his fingers on the laces, and he actually kept trying to do it by himself quite a few times! And the girls...isn't it crazy how three daughters from the same set of parents growing up in the same house can all be so different? I love them all and everything about them that makes them unique. Jenn, I love you and thank you for supporting my habit (running-ha!) and for making our home a place I look forward to coming home to and for loving and caring for our kids and being a wonderful mom!!
I'm giving some serious thought to buying the Sunday Ticket this year. It's a little pricey, but we would LOVE the chance to watch Favre and the Packers every single week!! Since it will probably be his last season. Can't wait until late November when they come to Dallas!
Have you ever met someone for the first time and then thought about the brief encounter all day long? Well, I did today. At church this morning, I overheard a guy introducing himself, and his name perked my attention. I knew the name but not the face. So I sat there small-talking with a friend while listening to the head football coach of Boswell (Saginaw) tell another guy about some of his expectations for the approaching season. WOW!! How cool is that?! The opportunity didn't come for me to introduce myself to him right then. The service started and I saw him sitting out there, and admittedly, was distracted the whole time I was playing keys in the worship band with introducing myself to Coach. After the service, I tried to catch up with him, but he left very quickly. So as I'm at the nursery door telling Jenn that the head football coach from Boswell was at church, she laughs and tells me she just met his wife and exchanged phone numbers and talked about getting together. Jenn asked if I met him and right after I said no, he comes walking by so I stop him and introduce myself and Jenn to him. Jenn tells him that she just got to know his wife, etc. After exchanging greetings and kid talk and "where ya froms" (didn't like telling him I went to Rider when he asked, because Rider ended Boswell's season last year!), the conversation quickly leads to football, and before you know it, he's telling me he needs someone to do stats at the games if I'm interested! WOW!! You better believe it!! It's a dream come true!! I'm going to call him and talk more about the details of doing it, so it's not a for sure thing yet, but I am literally beside myself with excitement at the potential!! It has been difficult for me to think about anything else all day today! HA! I would absolutely LOVE doing that! Keep your fingers crossed...

OK this is long enough. Maybe I'll try to blog like this more often to avoid the HUGE postings. Hope you're doing well!

Half marathon a huge success!

2007-05-20T18:36:00.000-07:00

It is truly an unbelievable feeling to have accomplished what I did today. Just 2 short months ago (maybe less), completing a half marathon was a distant dream that I wasn't sure could ever happen. Now, I'm sitting here with sore knees and tired eyes after successfully running 13.1 miles this morning. It was a great run in so many ways! New scenery, the company of very strong runners, nice course, lots of people cheering on the sidelines throughout the whole run, and most importantly, I felt very strong!! I'm used to hitting a wall in about the 7th mile(the point in a run where you lose everything and are overcome with an intense urge to stop running - do you give in to your body's request or push it to the next level?). However, today I never hit the wall. I started at a slow 11 minute per mile pace so I could conserve as much energy as possible without running TOO slow. I don't know if it's a subconscious muscle memory thing or what, but I'm amazed at how close I can get to my goal pace. The first 3 miles I literally ran at exactly 11:00 each. Starting in to the 4th mile, I was pleased at how I felt, so I got off rhythm a little and accidentally kicked it up about 20 seconds per mile, but as I passed the 4 and 5 mile marks, I didn't get too concerned because I was feeling very strong still. During the 6th mile, I maintained my 10:40 pace and mentally started preparing for the approaching "wall". I sucked an energy gel pack down and got two cups of water at the next water station (ever try to drink water from a cup while running? It's not easy - I choked 3 times!) . At the 6.5 mile marker, we turned around and headed back, and I was still feeling strong, no wall. Miles 7, 8, and 9 came by, and I was still at my 10:40 pace feeling great! After 9 miles, I started paying more attention to how many miles were remaining instead of how many I had run. I got excited when I realized I only had 4 more miles to go!! I was starting to think I may finish this run without having to walk! At the 10 mile marker, I crossed over and told myself, from this point forward, I'm setting a new personal distance record. There's nothing that hypes me up more than breaking a distance record!!! However, my excitement was tapered a little by the pain in my knees. I've been fighting off tendinitis in my right knee, and at this point in the run, both knees were pretty sore. It wasn't enough to concern me, it's just typical soreness from pushing your distance - so I kept on at a slightly slower pace. I also try to "glide" more as I run through the discomfort to decrease the impact as much as possible. I eventually made it to the 11 mile marker and my knees finally reached the "numb" stage, where you know they're sore, but you can't really feel it anymore. There was a water station at 11 miles, so I got two cups again and settled in for an attempted "strong" finish. Emotions started rising at this point as I knew I was nearing the end, and I was passing runners who started too strong and were losing the battle. Let me rewind for a minute - at about the 1 mile point, I noticed a girl about 10 feet ahead of me who had about the same pace, so I just kept an equal distance from her, especially after hearing her tell one of her friends who was passing that she was at an 11:00 pace, but would kick it up to 9:00 at 6-7 miles. So, I figured I could try to pace myself with her until she kicked it up and then I would just stay back. About 5 miles in, she steadily increased her speed and I eventually lost sight of her. Well...just past the 11 mile marker, lo and behold, who do I see up ahead?? Yep, it's her. I could tell that I was slowly gaining on her, which added to the emotion of the race...so I kicked it up a notch without increasing my cardio too much. You can probably guess what happened at the 11.5 mile marker...yep, I passed her! I felt so victorious!! I kept my pace up and ran hard. As I crossed the 12 mile marker, I was in such disbelief of how great the run was going that I attacked the last mile like there was no tomorrow. The excitement and a deeper sense of accomplishment than I have ever felt in my entire life propelled me forward. I was almost overcome with joy, pride, satisfaction, and yet disbelief at the same time - it was indeed an emotional experience. A few people I passed looked at me like I was crazy, but I didn't care. I wasn't just merely going to finish this half-marathon, I was going to OWN it!! Kill it - crush it - make it MINE! I knocked over a minute off my pace time in my 13th mile and then did a full out sprint the final one tenth of a mile. It was incredible!!! Such a rush!! Those last two miles I was in such a state of euphoria, it's almost like an out of body experience. Amazing.

Jenn and the kids arrived 12 minutes after I crossed the finish line, but the directions I gave her were not as specific as they could have been - it was my first time there, all the way in Dallas, so I didn't know exactly how to tell her to get there. Sure, I wanted them there to cheer me on as I crossed the finish line, but even more than that, I felt bad that she had a hard time finding the place with 4 kids in the van. Thanks for trying Jenn (I'll take credit for not doing a better job of getting clear directions beforehand - sorry!)!! We'll plan the next one better.

So where do I go from here? I've been reading about how you should "recover" from a half-marathon (or full), and surprisingly one of the common side-effects is a mild state of depression. I honestly don't see that happening to me right now because of how excited I am still, as well as my new goals I have embraced, but I guess I'll have to monitor that (let me know if I weird out on you, Jenn). Other than that, I think I will take it easy this coming week and just do some walking and light jogging, maybe 2-3 miles. I could also gain a few pounds as my muscles retain water to aid in the repair and recovery process, but that weight should come back off within a week or less. Now for the big thing - I am going to run a full marathon December 9th in Dallas!! Or maybe we'll plan a trip in November to Austin or San Antonio for a marathon there. Honestly, today I feel like if I would have maintained my pace in the 12th and 13th miles, I could have run 17 miles. With 5-6 more months of training (double what I've already done), I feel very sure that I can complete a marathon. Key word - complete, not WIN! I'm excited about that! When I first started running, I dreamed of a half-marathon, but never even considered a full marathon until just recently. There's a good lesson here...you should always dream big. Don't blow something off because you think it's unattainable, just dream big and take one baby step at a time...eventually you will gain confidence in reaching your dream. I recently read a statement in my Runner's World magazine from John Kelley, multiple winner of the Boston Marathon in the 50s & 60s (in fact, 8 years IN A ROW). He said "Follow your heart, it's the one thing you can count on. Let your passion ignite bonfires, and feed the flames every day. The things we do should consume us. If they don't, our lives won't have any meaning." I love that. I recognize the potential danger in allowing our passions to consume us, but if you can keep a healthy balance, you can accomplish it. Dream big. If you don't know what your dreams are, take a few moments (by yourself with no distractions) and think about it...everyone has hope for something...a material possession, a vacation, a new skill, an accomplishment, anything. If you're married, share it with your spouse and see how each of you can help each other achieve them! Jenn, I thank you for supporting me in training for this half-marathon, and I want to help you achieve your dreams!!

Just for grins, you can go to http://www.thrustonracing.com/results/070520.html and see the results from today's race. In my gender/age group (men30-34), I came in 17th place!!!! That sounds really good, until you throw in the part about there only being 21 finishers in my gender/age group! HA! Yeah, I'm slow, but I finished!! :)

I'm going to bed now, but real quick - I am LOVING my Jeep!! Everytime I ride in it I love it more!

Jeep

2007-05-10T23:07:00.000-07:00

So I finally get to cross off another achievement on my lifetime dream list - today I took the plunge and bought a Jeep Wrangler! When I set out for my purchase about a week ago, I was specifically looking for a few things that I wanted in my Jeep - black, soft top, 6 cylinder, and standard. After seeing the small price difference in a base model 2007 and a used 2003-4, I decided to test drive the 2007. I plan on keeping this Jeep forever, so I might as well consider a new one, right? Well, the 2007's are very nice, but I think they're almost too nice. They've made DRASTIC improvements to the body (length/width), drive train, suspension, etc - it is a much smoother ride and you can get power windows, locks, and keyless entry. I'm sorry, but this is a JEEP, not a luxury vehicle. Jeeps are supposed to be bouncy, muddy, and MANUAL - EVERYTHING MANUAL. So I decided I definitely wanted a 2006 or older model. Well, I found a 2005 Sport model at James Wood - and guess what. Black. Soft top. 6 cylinder. Standard. AND I got it for about $2,200 under NADA market value. WAHOO!!! I pick it up Saturday morning! I AM SO EXCITED!! Here's a few pics, but don't think that top will be staying on long....

Just real quick, here's an update - I've lost 28 pounds now. I did good in my 10k Zoo Run a few weeks ago. My biggest accomplishment was starting slow and finishing strong. The first 3-4 miles people were passing me, but I maintained the pace I wanted. The final mile and a half, I kicked it up a notch and probably passed 50 runners who were struggling to finish. It was an awesome feeling! Since then, I have increased mileage a little. Last Sunday I ran 9 miles and this Saturday I'm running 10. Next weekend (May 20th) is a half-marathon in Dallas. It's sooner than when I wanted to try one, but the next one after that is not until November!! So, I'm going to give it my best effort. If I run the first 5 miles at an 11 minute pace, then I feel like I can finish the full 13.1 miles ok. I must admit, I'm nervous about it, but at the same time I think it's definitely possible to run the whole thing without stopping. If I stop, it won't be until mile 11 or 12, so if I conserve my energy, don't run too fast out of the chute, find my rhythm early, and stay hydrated enough, I think I can pull it off. I'm thinking it will take about 2 hours and 20 minutes. I can't imagine the feeling that will overcome me at the finish line...that is what motivates me. Couch potato to half-marathon runner in 11 weeks!! I'm no superman, I just made a decision to do it, and have religiously stuck to it - anybody can do it, that's for sure! So, what are you waiting for??? :)

Major League Hail Storm

2007-04-15T17:04:00.000-07:00

So Friday evening as I'm pulling in to Saginaw, I hear the tornado sirens going off. I can see a few funnel clouds, but no tornados falling from the sky yet, so I rush home to check on the family. As I pull on to my street, I notice something I have never seen this close before! Practically right above our house, I see a HUGE funnel cloud with circulation just a few hundred feet above the ground!! I meet Jenn at the door and let her know it is serious and to put the mattress over the kids in the bathtub. Now I, on the other hand, am so fascinated by such an incredible sight that I stay outside and watch the developing tornado. It was un--be--lievable. Sure, it was probably a stupid thing to do, but I accept that. Thank you. As the funnel cloud continues on to the neighborhood behind us, golf balls (and larger) start falling from the sky, so I run inside to check on the family. I say nothing of the funnel cloud behind us, but I explain to kids that the sirens are going off because of the hailstorm, trying to keep them as calm as possible. They did great! The hail storm lasted a good 5 minutes! Jenn had put the van in the garage knowing the potential for large hail was great, but our roof probably got dinged up. Insurance settlement maybe?? :) Anyway, here's a few pics of the hail -

This next picture is of the same funnel cloud that went over our house. It went on toward Texas Motor Speedway, which is where this pic was taken from.

What a crazy night!! In other news, the running is going well but the weight loss has stalled. I've lost 18lbs and have been at this same weight now for 2 weeks!! Any advice from people who have been in this situation would be appreciated. I know I could eat better. I mean, I'm doing pretty good, but I could improve on the eating thing. Still no sodas...7 weeks so far! I'm to the point where I could probably have one and be ok, but I'm scared that if I drink one, I won't be able to stop. My running is going quite well in my opinion. I've been running 5 miles every other day, and today I started a new 6 mile route! My time has also dropped to about 10.5 minute miles. I don't care so much about that, but it's nice to see my time improving without focusing on it. I'm just trying to get up to a half-marathon (13.1 miles). Maybe by the middle to end of the summer, but I'm concerned about the increasing summer heat and how that will affect my endurance. It would be nice if I could run on a treadmill on the 100+ degree days, but I can't do it. I went to the recreation center yesterday when it was cold to run on the treadmill. I set the speed so slow I was almost going backwards. Still, after about 0.8 mile, I was in a lot of pain with shin splints, so I quit and went to the weight room instead. I don't know why I can run 6 miles outside and NEVER get even a twinge of shin splints, but 8 minutes on a treadmill and I'm dying. I checked the incline and it was flat (0.0), but I'm wandering if there's a slight upward slant to the treadmill itself. Anyway, I just hope I'm able to run in the heat.

Just as you thought you escaped all the running talk, I realized I forgot to blog about the Race For the Cure! :) Thanks again to all who helped me raise $150 for the fight against breast cancer!! My very first sanctioned run was a success. I won!!! Just kidding. It was crazy at the start of the race. They had all of the non-competitive 5k walkers and 5k runners start together. So when the starting gun blew, it was pandamonium (I think that's the first time in my entire life I've actually typed that word)! After about 5 minutes of weaving and zig-zagging through the walkers, it finally started thinning out enough to run in a straight line. All of the excitement and adrenaline from such a huge event caused me to push it a little harder than my normal pace, so it was actually a bit of a challenging run. I averaged about 11 minute miles. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience though and look forward to many more events. In fact, I have signed up for the Fort Worth Zoo Run in 2 weeks. I'm going to run a 10k!! That's 6.2 miles, which is about 2 minutes longer than what I ran today. I'm hoping to run 7-7.5 miles next week sometime before the Zoo Run, but if not, I still think I'll be ok. I may not break any speed records, but it's the long-distance that I love so much about running. I'm addicted!! The feeling of accomplishment that I get every time I beat my previous distance record is so exhilarating!! I think that feeling is my drug, it's what I long for when I run. However, I'm pretty good about not pushing it too hard just to get that feeling. I only increase my distance about once a week now. When I run a route several times without increasing distance, it's also pretty exhilarating to run as fast as I can the final mile. During my last 5 mile run, after running 4 miles with some good uphill stretches, I kicked it up a few notches and finished very strong. I ran mile 5 in 9 minutes and 20 seconds...which is slow for seasoned runners, but I was pretty excited about my personal accomplishment. OK, I just realized I have been rambling about weather and running and you guys have probably had enough. Thanks for reading! Happy tax day!

Enjoying the success

2007-03-29T20:10:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been 31 days of no sodas, no sweets, LOTS of water, less food, healthier food, working out, a LOT of running (by my own standard), and if you were to see me, you would actually see 15 pounds LESS of me! WAHOO! It's really going quite well in my opinion. I'm sure in 31 days, if I had followed an actual DIET like south beach or north beach or lemonade and pepper or something, I would have lost more, but I am very comfortable with the way I am doing it. It's more of just a change in my diet/exercise that I feel I can live with long-term. I even had a cheeseburger Sunday night at 9:30, a greasy stromboli for lunch Tuesday, two tostados loaded with cheese last night, and I actually broke through a plateau and lost 3 pounds this week! HA! To top it off, I feel like a new person! I have more energy, I'm happier, I feel WAY BETTER, and I can focus on things easier and can tell I'm a little sharper mentally. The best is right after a good run, I guess it's what they call "runner's high", I don't know. I'm up to running 4 miles every other day and I hope to stretch that to 5 miles within the next week or two, but I won't do it if it hurts too much. My dream of running a half-marathon appears to be getting closer, but I know I'm still a long ways away. My 5k Race For the Cure run is coming up - April 7th. Thanks to everyone who sponsored me with their donation. I've raised $130 so far, and a few other people have said they plan on donating. Awesome! I teased Jennifer about wearing a shirt during the run that says "Jog for the Jugs" or maybe "Support Our Rack" (Iraq). HA! She was not amused, but I thought it was funny. Obviously, I'm not taking breast cancer lightly, so I apologize if that offends you...I guess I just have a warped sense of humor. :)

A few thoughts -
* Stop voting for Sanjaya
* Read the biography of your favorite person
* Smile if you recently fertilized your yard before all this rain (like me) :)
* Download iTunes and search/download some of your favorite music
* Stop voting for Sanjaya
* If you hear of a way to buy some shares of the Green Bay Packers, CALL ME!
* The Ultimate Fighter is about to start back up
* Tip your waiter/waitress enough for them to take notice, unless of course they were bad
* Don't leave crayons out unless you want your kid to draw a masterpiece on your wall
* Do something nice for someone today

6 lbs and counting

2007-03-05T19:56:00.000-08:00

Yes, my loyal and dedicated blog readers, in the last 7 days, I have lost 6 pounds! How? Why? Whoa boys and girls, settle down with the questions, I will explain. Ya know those little blood pressure chairs you see in WalMart and Target that make you think "I wonder how my blood pressure is?" as you walk by them only to be distracted by the question of "How did Michael Phelps get on the can of Barbasol shaving cream?" and as you turn the corner you think "Why do I always feel sort of 'taboo' when I walk by the condom section?"....and sure enough, as quickly as the thought of checking your blood pressure enters your cerebral vortex, it vanishes and you never actually sit down in one of those chairs to see how close you are to having a stroke. Well, last Saturday I stopped myself in Target and actually sat down in one of those chairs and discovered that I have borderline hypertension. I believe it was 143 over 83!! WHOA NELLY! I realize to people who actually have high blood pressure, this is probably a good reading, but I've always been closer to 110 over 70 or something like that. So, that concerned me a little and gave me some motivation to take better care of the only body I have. Also, the next day in church, our pastor mentioned how he's lost 18 pounds in 4 weeks. I talked to him afterwards and he said he's not following a diet per se, he's just drinking A LOT of water, exercising, and eating less at mealtime but a little more frequently. I can do that! So, in the last 7 days, I have not had a single soda, I have drank at LEAST a gallon of water every day, I have exercised 5 days (walking/jogging/weightlifting), I have cut back the amount I eat at mealtime, and I have tried to eat healthier snacks...like instead of a Mr. Goodbar, I eat a banana or grab some natural, unsalted almonds. I can not TELL you how good I feel! Physically and mentally. My body feels SO much better...I'm not as tired during the day, my stomach doesn't feel gurgly and sick from 4-6 sodas per day, I feel stronger, my attitude is better, I'm happier, etc. Can you imagine where I'll be in a month? I know 6 pounds isn't much, but it's a GREAT start to what I hope is a major change in my life. Seriously, I've gotten to the point (according to the scientific charts) where I am probably 35-40 pounds overweight. I'm not necessarily trying to lose that much (although I might), but if I can lose 25 pounds and be healthier and in better shape, I will be happy. I mean, I'm not going to put myself in prison in terms of a strict eating regiment. The only way I can make this work is to still eat whatever I want (sensibly), just eat less of it. For example, last week the boss bought everyone pizza. I ate 2 slices instead of 4. Three nights last week, I had my microwave popcorn, but I only ate half the bag instead of the whole bag. Probably, because of this, I won't lose 40 pounds, but losing 25 pounds and still enjoying the foods I like is a good compromise to me.

For the past year or two I have thought it would be a rewarding accomplishment to run a half-marathon. The only problem is that I never wanted to actually TRAIN for it. So, last week, I decided I would pick a sanctioned 5k run about 2-3 months away and work up to that. Understand that I do not run at all...so I'm starting from ground zero. Today I walked across the street to make a deposit at my bank and saw a pamphlet for the Susan G. Komen Race For the Cure sanctioned run to raise money to help fight breast cancer on April 7th. I took one back to the office with me and looked it over, and the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to do it. Even though I may not be able to run the entire 3.1 miles in a month, I can give it my best shot and walk the rest while feeling good about my registration fee going to a good cause. There's even a place in the pamphlet to list donations from various people you get to sponsor you. Awesome!! So, not only can I get a jumpstart on my goal to do a 5k run, I can try and raise money to help fight breast cancer! It's a win-win! A lady at work has already said she will donate money! You can win prizes for raising money, but that is sincerely not what is motivating me. What motivated me to try and raise money is something in the pamphlet that says "IF every participant raises $100, over $2,000,000 will be collected!" All to fight breast cancer - that is awesome!! So, I'd like to try and raise at least $100 just to play my part in that! So, if you're interested, let me know.

With this new motivation of attempting to run 5k in a month in mind, tonight at the gym (Saginaw Recreation Center - $20 annual membership - I know, that's CHEAP!) I got on the treadmill with the intent of walking 5 minutes and then jogging until I had to stop. Then tomorrow night and each night thereafter I would increase my time by 30 seconds. Every night up until now, I have only walked for 30 minutes at a very brisk pace. I was fully expecting to run for 5 minutes and then have to stop, go to the locker room, and puke my guts out. To my surprise, 5 minutes rolled around and I was feeling pretty good...my legs burned a little, but I wasn't breathing hard yet. Granted, I was jogging pretty slowly, but still. Pretty soon, 10 minutes passed and I was still feeling good and wondered if I should stop and not overdo it. Soon enough, 15 minutes and 20 minutes passed and I was still jogging! I had started to breath a little harder and my legs were getting tired, but by now, I wanted to finish my 30 minute workout, so I pushed it 5 more minutes and then cooled down. I ended up running 25 minutes without stopping!! WOW!! That was VERY encouraging! I'm sure you runners out there are not impressed, especially because I only ran 1.7 miles in 25 minutes, but to me, that FAR exceeded my expectations! I felt great afterwards too! I went into the weight room and worked on my upper body. Here I am now, almost 11pm, and I haven't fwlt this good in a very long time. Running is definitely a drug. I've heard that running one mile is like taking a prozac. HA! I believe it! I can't wait to do it again tomorrow night!

There's several other things in the pipeline that are worthy "feel-gooders". We've just decided to go with a small group from our church and help lead a weekend retreat in Winter Park, Colorado in early June. There is a brand new church in Denver that our church has adopted that is just starting up and they have asked us to lead a retreat for their church leaders to help them get on track with growing their church. I will help lead worship and possibly teach a class or help with the backyard bible school for the leaders' kids. The details are still being ironed out, so Jennifer is not sure what she will help with yet, but there will be plenty to do, so I know she'll find her place. That is exciting! We will be staying in cabins in the mountains! Colorado is my favorite place in the country, so I can not wait to bask in one of God's most beautiful creations!

Another "feel-gooders" - I talked with my boss and asked him if he could give me an idea of what he's thinking for me salary-wise over the next 5 years. He was very receptive to that and is putting a plan together that he'd like to show me sometime in the next week or two. He gave me the impression that part of my salary may be linked to assets under management, and could easily turn in to a salary close to what a marketing person would make (six figures). If this is indeed his plan, I am completely on board with that. This basically means I would get a set salary plus a small percentage of the assets we manage. Since I began working here 2 years ago, we have grown about 25-30%, which is good, but it's actually a slower rate of growth than the previous years. Anyway, I'm not intending to boast or build it up or anything, it's just exciting that we very possibly could be making a very nice income in the coming years.

Still another "feel-gooder" - I think I may actually be getting close to FINALLY getting rid of my ugly junker clown pickup and getting a jeep! Maybe next month!!

OK, as always, this is a very large post, and thanks for reading this far (Alyssa, you didn't skip paragraphs did you? I didn't mention the economy or politics or sports ONCE!). Hope you all are doing very well, and I'll probably post again in a month! I'll at least let you know how the 5k run goes! I will leave you with the following response to an email Jennifer received from our sister-in-law. Feel free to leave your own responses in a comment!

1. What time is it now? 11:14pm
2. Name? Kirk
3. What are you afraid of? how I will react when my children have to take practice TAKS tests
4. What do you drive? S-10
5. Have you ever seen a ghost? no, but I probably looked like one during my first snipe hunt
6. Where were you born? Glendale, AZ
7. Ever been to Alaska ? no
8. Ever used toilet paper for decorating trees? I wouldn't call it "decorating", but yes
9. Croutons or Bacon bits? both
10. Favorite day of the week? Saturday
11. Favorite restaurant: Texas de Brazil
12. Favorite Flower: that's gay
13. Favorite sport to watch: do I even need to answer this one? (football)
14. Favorite drink: Sangiovese
15. Favorite Ice cream: Oreo
16. Disney or Warner Brothers? I don't know
17. Favorite fast food restaurant: Taco Casa
18. What color is your bedroom carpet? Beige
19. How many times have you failed your driver's test? none
20. Before this one, from whom did you get your last email? Marcela
21. What do you do most often when you are bored? Watch recorded shows on my DVR
22. Bedtime? I hate going to sleep...usually somewhere around 12:30am or 1:30am.
23. Who will respond to this email the quickest? Jenn
24. Who is the person you sent this to that is least likely to respond: Chris Deges
25. Who is the person that you are most curious to see their responses? Josh Burgess
26. Favorite TV shows? The Office, The Ultimate Fighter, American Idol (please don't take my man card away), Saving Silverman Program
27. Ford or Chevy? I don't care
28. What are you listening to right now? Lambeau snoring
29. What are your favorite colors? blue and red
30. How many tattoos do you have? I've thought about it, but none
31. Which came first the chicken or the egg? God could have created either first
32. What would you like to accomplish before you die? I want to see my kids grow up to be healthy, self disciplined, and wise decision makers...marry wonderful people and have happy lives. I'd also like to see the northern lights, run a half marathon (maybe marathon after that), and own my own business.
33. What are your favorite birds? Quiet ones
34. How many people are you sending this e-mail to? none - I'm blogging it!
35. Do you recycle things? only bad jokes

February Posting...

2007-02-07T20:56:00.000-08:00

Well, the biggest news of recent days is Brett Favre's decision to play again next year! WAHOO! The Packers finished the season very strong and have a majority of players returning next year, so I think we will most definitely see the Packers in the playoffs next year! And guess what - the Packers play Dallas next year...IN DALLAS! When the schedule comes out in April, we will be purchasing tickets to that game! We'd also love to go back to Green Bay again...yes, I said we...Jenn actually mentioned it, but it's not really a serious thought right now. Of course, the way my job has been going, with the mounting stress and insurmountable increasing workload, I've been fantasizing of running away with my family to Green Bay to teach math and coach high school football!! :)

Karissa went to the orthodontist yesterday for a checkup (expander) and he said she would probably be ready for braces this summer. WHAT?! If any of you readers out there (if anyone still keeps up with my sporadic postings) have knowledge or experience with this, please let us know. The plan would be to just put braces on the top as part of phase 1 of her orthodontics plan, which is the "restructuring of the mouth" phase. Phase 2 would begin around 12 years of age and be the "teeth straightening" phase. I have a lot of research/understanding to do, but my uneducated thoughts now lean more towards thinking it may be a little early for braces. She's 8! Even between now and when she is 12, she will grow a meaningful amount, so what will that do to the structure of her mouth?? I don't know...any thoughts?

In case some of you don't know, I am a nerd. Here's proof: I have been watching the tryouts to American Idol, and have compiled my prediction for the top 15. Here it is in just an approximate order:
1 Haley Scarnato (I think she could win)
2 Jory Steinburg (could also win)
3 Jason Sundance Head
4 Nicholas Pedro
5 Brandon Rogers
6 Jordan Sparks
7 Jenry Beranjo
8 Shyamali
9 Alaina Alexander
10 Sanjaya
11 Chris Sleigh
12 Paul Kim
13 Sarah Kreuger
14 Bailey Brown
15 Ebony
Last year, the very first time Taylor Hicks auditioned, I told Jenn that he is by far the most talented and should win, but I didn't think he would because people wouldn't understand him. Obviously, people DID understand him and made the right choice! So anyway, it has become a personal competition to try and pick the winner or top contestants just based on their very first audition. Hey, I have to do SOMETHING for entertainment while not working during the football offseason, right?

Caleb is becoming so much fun and I'm LOVING the dynamic of having a little boy in the mix of our brude of children. He's such a good natured boy. I look forward to the days when we can sword fight and shoot each other and play football and pee on trees and see who can spit the farthest and fix things (or learn together) and take Lambeau swimming in a lake and teach him how to be a man (I'm still learning) and all sorts of cool masculine things...but I'm also thoroughly enjoying the present.

I've been reading the biography of Vince Lombardi and absolutely love it! Jenn gets to occasionally hear something extremely boring to her that I find remarkable in the book. :) If you haven't read a biography, I encourage you to find a successful person in an area of interest to you and get their biography. This is the 2nd biography for me, and I'm starting to think I'll never need another fiction book in my life - I love biographies! It's so cool to read so much about a person's life - it's like finding hundreds of puzzle pieces about a person that you never could have even imagined existed. I find it very fascinating! I'm also being forced into reading the bible more as I go through this "learning" phase to co-lead a small group, as well as starting a very structured systematic theology class at church with weekly exams and everything! It is setup like a theology class and you are actually graded on your exams. It won't earn a PHD in Theology, but it will expand my theological knowledge greatly, and that is awesome! I learned a LOT tonight about how the bible was written, who wrote it, how it became the authority, the history of the old and new testaments separately, why each was translated from language to language over the years and the persucution that followed, along with a brief history lesson of the last 3500 years or so. Very interesting stuff!

Pardon the Indecency

2007-01-15T21:59:00.000-08:00

Seriously, can a dog get any more comfortable than this? I laugh almost everytime I see Lambeau sleeping, because most of the time he's sprawled out on his back like this. I don't really have anything else. Just wanted to share this image. He's doing MUCH better on the "pooping in the crate" issue. In fact, he hasn't in a week now. I think it's directly related to the better food we started using. I went to a feed store and talked to a "dog food expert" :) who helped me decide to try Purina Pro Plan. I've been very pleased so far. I went back to the feed store Saturday and got the stuff to give him his 2nd round of immunizations. Jennifer held him while I gave him a shot in the skin on his back. He whimpered a little, but only for about 2 seconds and then it was over. I'd highly recommend it to anyone who is not nervous giving shots. I could take him to the vet for the same thing and pay $100, or I could get the shot at the feed store for $10. Hmm...I think I'll save the vet bill for later.

Happy New Year!

2007-01-06T12:07:00.000-08:00

Here's my monthly post, and here's Lambeau! Just as Lambeau Field is football in its most pure element, our dog, Lambeau, is a dog in its purest element. Just look at him...you can't get anymore "dog" than that! I love him! Except for the endless nights of pooping in his crate and cleaning up after him 1-2 times during the night and bathing him every single morning to get the poop off of him. He's worse than a kid in that respect! At least they poop in a diaper and it stays contained until you change them...well, most of the time. I know he will be housetrained soon, but it's not too much fun right now making sure you take him out every 30 minutes to an hour. It's ok, I know he'll be worth it.

We had a good Christmas and New Year. It was a stressful Christmas this year for me, but I think the kids enjoyed it. Work is very stressful and it was difficult to keep that from carrying over into my Christmas spirit. Hopefully things will settle down in the next 6-8 months. I got a bunch of really good gifts, including an espresso maker, the biography of Vince Lombardi, a new football, and many other great gifts! Oh yeah, I got Taylor Hicks' CD! I'd like to buy Chris Daughtry's CD now. Also, if you've never played Guitar HEro 2 on the playstation, I would highly recommend it. It's fun for all ages, genders, and skill levels! It's like karaoke on the guitar, but you don't have to know how to play...similarly to karaoke - you don't have to know how to sing.

We watched a silly movie last night, the Da Vinci Code. I know it's just a bunch of theories and there's no real proof to it, so I can accept watching the movie for its entertainment value, but I was hardly entertained. I felt like it was an overdone drama that tried to manipulate my thoughts, but failed. At least it was a free pay per view.

As you all know, I live for football. Here we are, one hour before the first playoff game, and I am pumped! I have been looking forward to these playoffs for about 6 weeks, knowing that it was actually going to be a good playoff bracket this year. I'm sure you don't recall, but in week 2, I posted on my blog that San Diego and Chicago would be in the Super Bowl. I still feel pretty sure San Diego will be there, but I don't think Chicago will make it. I'm sure you are all interested to know my playoff predictions. Dallas will beat Seattle. Philly will beat the Football Giants. Overrated Patriots will slide by the Jets. My upset pick - Chiefs will run past the Colts (Larry Johnson will rush for 200 yards). Round 2 will be Cowboys over Bears and Saints over Eagles. I know it's crazy, but I think we could see a Dallas-New Orleans NFC championship. Dallas plays all games on the road, which is good for them. Seattle is hurting very badly in their secondary and they have trouble stopping the run. I think Dallas can beat the Bears because the Bears can not do ANYTHING offensively, and their defense has been falling apart. That's what it hinges on. If the Bears' defense returns to midseason form, they'll make it to the Lombardi match. Anyway, round 2 of AFC, we'll see the Chargers beat the Chiefs and the Ravens beat the Pats. Then the Chargers will beat the Ravens and also beat whoever makes it in the NFC. What an exciting playoff bracket we have!! On top of all this, I found out this week that the Packers are playing in Dallas next year!!! WAHOO!!! Tickets will go on sale in mid-April when the schedule is released, so be sure you buy yours! Especially if Favre comes back next year...which is a real possibility. OK, sorry for me football indulgence. I bleed football and can't help it.

After such manly talk of dogs and football and stuff, I feel a little girlish saying this next part - I'm looking forward to a new season of American Idol!! I'm going to try and predict the winner in the initial tryouts. OK, I need to go get ready for football to start. By the way, a special shout out to my brother - he's getting married today in Czech Republic to a girl he is madly in love with. She works for the organization that he is going through to go to Tanzania to work on a childrens' orphanage. She's already been to the orphanage to work, and they plan on returning there together later in the year. I'm excited to meet Katerina in a few months!

A Tribute to Troy Gilbert

2006-12-04T19:32:00.001-08:00

As most of you know, a friend of ours was killed in an F-16 crash in Iraq last Monday. He leaves behind a wife and five children. He was flying a combat mission, bringing aerial support to American ground troops when apparently a mechanical issue caused his plane to go down. A week later, as I continue to think about Troy and Ginger and their family, my heart is still deeply saddened by their loss. It is unfathomable to think about Ginger and her children and what they must be going through. There is nothing that I can do to make the situation any better, but I have made a vow to pray for Ginger and her family every single day for the next year. I can’t go to the memorial in Arizona (Kelly, please pass on our condolences), so I wanted to write a little tribute, if you will.

Troy was absolutely one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. Always smiling, he had an infectious personality – people were drawn to him. He loved his family, God, and his church. My fondest memories include the surprise 30th birthday party he threw for Ginger at his parents’ house and the tour he gave me of Sheppard Air Force Base. When I was pursuing Officer’s Training School in the Air Force (6 years ago) and giving thought to applying as a pilot or navigator, Troy took me all over the pilots’ main building and showed me everything he could. He even got special permission to let me try out the instrument simulator – VERY COOL! What I remember most about that tour is Troy’s genuine interest in wanting to help me in anyway he could. He truly was a great guy who put others before him. I guess we’ll never know the exact details of this tragedy, but we know his F-16 flew erratically before nose-diving and he never ejected. If only for my own personal reasons, I’d like to speculate (100% speculation here) that American ground troops were under heavy fire and needed help from the air…so Troy answered to his call of duty and flew into enemy territory to fight off the insurgents to save American lives when his plane suddenly malfunctioned. Though he tried, he couldn’t gain control of his plane, so he steered it away from American troops to crash without injuring anyone else. I’m sure you could find holes in this speculated theory, but this sounds like something Troy would do, unselfishly putting others before him.

May God continue to bless the lives of others as a result of the life Troy lived, and may God take care of and begin to heal his family.

Lambeau Field Journal

2006-11-28T19:45:00.000-08:00

Saturday, November 18, 2006
Before I begin this journal, there is absolutely no way to express this experience in words, but here’s my best effort. After a smooth flight to Minneapolis, lunch in the mall inside the airport, and another smooth flight to Green Bay, the time had finally come to see Lambeau Field. As soon as we landed in Green Bay, I immediately focused on the series of events that had to occur in order to not miss our Lambeau Field tour. By the time we walked out of the airport, we had precisely 45 minutes to find a taxi, drive to our hotel, drop off our bags, get back in the taxi, drive to Lambeau Field, and find the meeting point for the tour! Not only did we make it, we had 20 minutes to spare! It wasn’t until when we were in the taxi, on the way to Lambeau Field when we saw it from a distance for the first time, that it finally hit me that we were really there – it was an exciting feeling! We arrive at the front entrance and get out to be greeted by the tall statues of Curly Lambeau and Vince Lombardi. Seeing these life-like statues sent a wave of history and tradition through the air and I was immediately in a very respectful state of mind as I recalled what I know of the history of these two men and what they brought to the Packers’ organization as well as the NFL. We walk in to the atrium and are amazed at the size of it. After we find the meeting place for the tour, I’m standing there looking at the pictures of greats like Bart Starr, Reggie White, Ray Nitschke, looking at the yard lines painted on the floor of the atrium that actually line up with the real yard lines on the field, feeling the presence of everything Green Bay Packers, anticipating the moment I get to see the field for the first time, and it’s just too much. I can think of 5 specific times in my adult life that tears were brought to my eyes. At the birth of each of my four children and now Lambeau Field. Yeah, maybe it’s a little corny, but if you shared the same appreciation of the Green Bay Packers - who they are, who they’ve been, where they came from, the legends born over the past 85 years, how they have changed the game, how the community owns the team and stands in line to sweep snow off of the field for free, how people literally come from all over the world to see the Packers, how season tickets have been sold out since the early 1960’s, how there is a 25 year waiting list for season tickets, how people put their name on the list so hopefully their grandkids can get season tickets, the Lambeau Leap, the Ice Bowl, the ACME Packers, Brett Favre and his magical ability to do anything on the field and yet be so humble while leading his team to success, Favre’s uncanny ability to perform at his highest during times of emotional and physical stress like losing his father, brother-in-law, finding out his wife has breast cancer and shaving his head to support her through chemo, Curly Lambeau inventing the forward pass, Vince Lombardi inventing the sweep, and the list goes on and on – but if you shared the same appreciation as me, and so many other people do, and it became your dream to see Favre and the Packers play at Lambeau Field, and then to have that dream enter your life as not a dream, but a real experience…maybe you’d also shed a tear or two. Soon after this minor breakdown, the tour begins. After a brief introduction, the tour guide led us outside to the statues and gave us a brief history of Curly Lambeau, Vince Lombardi, and the Green Bay Packers up to where they are now with Coach Mike McCarthy. Then we went up to the 6th level and went inside a $30,000 per game luxury suite for 49 people. The anticipation of seeing Lambeau Field for the first time was killing me. I wanted to push everyone out of my way so I could rush in there and see the field. I finally entered the room and the sight of such a beautiful field made my stomach drop and I really think my heart skipped a beat. It was so much more awesome than what I imagined it would be. Again, the history of what I was seeing hit me like a ton of bricks, but luckily I was able to keep my composure and save some embarrassment in front of the other 30 people in our tour. All I could do was stare at the field and replay game moments from the past that actually took place on the very field I was looking at. I was so entranced that I probably only heard half of what the guide said. We left the suite and went down to where the locker rooms are. We didn’t get to go in the locker rooms, but we saw them from outside. The next thing was something that was truly an unbelievable experience. We walked into the player tunnel and they played a recording of what it sounds like when the players are in there – the announcer announcing their entrance and the crowd roaring outside. It was quite the adrenaline rush! Knowing that I was walking down the same tunnel that Favre and the Packers and the Packer greats from the past walked down was almost an out of body experience. I closed my eyes and could feel the presence of all the players as I walked down the tunnel, especially at the place where they preserved actual cement and bricks from the original City Stadium before the modern-day Lambeau Field where Curly Lambeau and Vince Lombardi actually stood to address the Packers. What an amazing thing to see and feel! As we reached the end of the player tunnel, we had arrived at the grass of Lambeau Field. It was a sensory overload! I couldn’t believe I was actually standing on Lambeau Field! I’m sure it’s illegal, but as Jennifer took a picture of me touching the grass, I pulled some and stuffed it in my pocket. I will forever have a piece of Lambeau Field! I also touched and leaned up against the green wall where Packers perform the Lambeau Leap. Of course I imagined Donald Driver catching a pass from Favre and then running up to the exact point where I was standing to leap up over the wall where the fans would catch him and celebrate with him. Hopefully we’ll see quite a few of those tomorrow! After this, the tour was pretty much over after the practice facilities were shown to us in the distance. Here I am, the night before the game recalling the events of the day, and I can’t believe it will get even better tomorrow! I will actually see Brett Favre and the Packers play a game from the 4th row in the end zone! I literally can not believe we are actually here in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and will actually see the game tomorrow. Most dreams are never attained, but this dream of mine is being fulfilled right now! I am appreciating and taking this in as much as humanly possible. I will try to get some sleep tonight before going to the tailgate party and the game tomorrow!

Sunday, November 19, 2006
We wake up early in the morning, get ready, and board the bus to Lambeau Field for our tailgate party. It is probably 25 degrees, which is much colder then 25 in Texas…it feels more like 10! We arrive at the tailgate party, 2 blocks from Lambeau Field and make our way in. There are tents set up, tables, a DJ, and Gilbert Brown (former Packer on 1996 Super Bowl team), and TONS of fans, both Packers and Patriots fans. The fans on both sides are very classy and respectful of each other. We stand in line for the food and listen to the music, which is all Packers parody songs…songs like “The Bears Still Suck” and our favorite was “I love Brett Favre” to the tune of Toby Keith’s “I Love This Bar”- very funny! I fill up my plate with bratwurst, a cheeseburger, Brett Favre’s jumbalaya, and cookies – at 9am!! What a breakfast!! The food was delicious! We then go to find a drink, and were humored to see that you had 3 options – beer, bloody mary, or screwdriver! Again, at 9am!! What a tailgate party! I guess it’s so cold up there that they have to drink alcohol to stay warm! HA! Anyway, I grabbed a screwdriver that had been sitting for awhile with the vodka settled at the bottom and enjoyed a nice glass of orange juice. ;-) After hanging around for a bit, we make our way into Brett Favre’s Steakhouse where we bought a cheesehead and then a few more souvenirs on our way to Lambeau Field. It was a party the whole way to the field! At one point, I look over and see Vince Lombardi himself walking around with a Super Bowl trophy, so I had to get my picture with him! He was a very good look-alike. As we get closer to the entrance, we enjoy looking at all of the tailgaters in the parking lot – it was a very fun atmosphere! To our surprise, when we entered the stadium, we got free towels (like Pittsburgh’s terrible towel) and Brett Favre statues! Cool! We found our seats and were AMAZED at how close we were to the field! Being on the 4th row, we were only like 8 feet from the grass. Jennifer got excited too, she didn’t realize we would be so close. By then, it was probably 30-32 degrees or so, and in the sun, we could take our coats off (we each had layered clothing on over thermals), but when the sun went behind a cloud, it got COLD again. Seriously, it felt like the temperature dropped 15-20 degrees when the sun went behind a cloud! The players started coming out for pregame warm-ups and it was awesome to see them so close! Eventually, the game started, and it was absolutely one of the coolest experiences I have ever had! As the game went on, it was a little frustrating that the Packers were so flat. They never got pressure on Tom Brady (most overrated QB in the league), they couldn’t establish the run, and they couldn’t put together a string of completions. They also had a hard time stopping New England’s offense. The Patriots weren’t impressive or anything, they just nickel and dimed us. They had just lost two in a row, so I knew they were very beatable, but the Packers had to have some things clicking, and they just couldn’t get it going. Now, if you can imagine the irony of the situation here…Favre has started 251 games in a row, which is something that is just unfathomable as a QB in the NFL. It’s a testament to his toughness and ability to play through injury and pain. However, as irony laughs in my face, Favre goes down with 2 minutes left in the half. He of course pops up immediately, but is in obvious pain, holding his arm and wrist. The trainers come out to check on him, and funny enough, so do the refs! HA! After a few minutes, he looks like he’s about to go back to the huddle, but the trainers grab him and make him walk to the sidelines. He’s carted off to the locker room for testing. It was definitely a setback, but I tried to look at the positive side…I told myself that maybe it was luck that we got to see Aaron Rodgers play too – the future QB of the Packers after Favre retires. However, he didn’t have a good game. After halftime, Rodgers comes back out and Favre never does. I kept expecting Favre to come out any minute and come back in the game, because after all, Favre doesn’t get hurt – EVER! I notice early in the 3rd quarter, maybe the 1st or 2nd series, that Rodgers starts limping a little. It turns out that Rodgers had broken his foot and finished the entire game on a broken foot, which required surgery and a screw the next day! Must be part of being a Green Bay QB – no injury keeps you from playing! A few minutes later, Favre comes out of the tunnel and to the sideline, which of course was met by an eruption of cheers from the crowd. I kept waiting for him to come back in, but he never did. The Packers ended up losing 35-0. So here we are…living my dream at the frozen tundra in Titletown USA and the Packers lose to a team I think has been overrated for a decade and don’t really respect that much, and Favre gets hurt. Sure, I could have let myself sulk and get real upset at the result of the game, but it was seriously overshadowed by the fact that I was there in person. What an amazing experience! I knew the Packers lost 35-0, but they weren’t beat by the Patriots, they just simply didn’t show up to play. The Patriots weren’t 35 points better than them, they didn’t get shut down by an amazing powerhouse team, they just didn’t show up. So the game is over and we have 45 minutes to go back to the bus. I lingered in the stands as long as I could, because I knew it could easily be the last time I see Lambeau Field in person. I knew my perspective of the field would be changed forever, since I was there in person, but I just couldn’t let go…I couldn’t say goodbye. Finally, I gave it one last sincere lookever, and we left the frozen tundra. As we were walking underneath towards the exit, I felt as if I were on the other side of a new page in the history of my life. Major events come into our lives and carve out moments in time that become a reference point forever…for me, it was Lambeau Field. We stop at a concession stand since we didn’t get up the entire game and got some hot chocolate, a soda, and another bratwurst. There’s just something amazingly delicious about their brats – I don’t know what’s different, but they are soooo delicious! We make it back to the bus and eventually back to our hotel room, where we crash and watch the second half of the Dallas Cowboys game. What a game!! They beat the Colts!

Monday, November 20, 2006
We got up, went to pickup our rental car, and drove back to Lambeau Field. Being at Lambeau Field 3 days in a row was something I could get use to! It’s so amazing how every time I saw it for the first time in the day, it was such a rush! Even on the 3rd day, I couldn’t believe we were actually in Green Bay, Wisconsin at Lambeau Field. Unbelievable! We still had tickets to the Packers Hall of Fame as part of our package deal, so we (or at least I) wanted to take advantage of it. The tour was self-guided and took about 2 hours. It could have easily taken 3-4 hours if you stopped and looked at every single display and watched all of the videos and read all of the signs. It was really cool seeing the progression of the Packers from 1921 to the present, with actual equipment from the players of old and new. Leather helmets, jerseys that snap at the crotch like onesies, 80 year old cleats and shoulder pads, notes written by Vince Lombardi on the 7-4 defense, a hand-drawn chalk drawing of the infamous sweep play. There was also a setup of Vince Lombardi’s office, as well as life-size statues of players in formation at the Ice Bowl that you could stand next to. I stood next to Bart Starr and looked into the eyes of the Dallas Cowboys’ linemen and linebackers who were hungry to tackle me with all of their ferocious strength and it was quite intimidating. Very cool experience! We saw the three Lombardi trophies and made our way out of the Hall of Fame. After buying a few more souvenirs, we drove away from Lambeau Field toward Appleton, Wisconsin, where we would begin our journey home. It was a sad moment, leaving such an amazing monument behind, but life must go on. I have experienced a part of history that nobody can ever take away from me, and I hope to go back one day…with my son (and any other family member interested) :-).

Jennifer, thank you for agreeing to experience this dream with me! I am truly lucky to have a wife who loves football! YOU ROCK!

[Insert creative title here]

2006-10-02T21:12:00.000-07:00

I'm going to attempt to write an interesting blog, despite the fact that I am fuming - totally disgusted after tonight's Packers game. I don't know if I'm more disgusted at their mistakes or the ridiculously stupid announcers on ESPN Monday Night Football. I mean, give me a break, they speak without thinking and they jump on and off bandwagons faster than I can stop yelling at them for saying something stupid! Get an opinion and stick to it - don't change your mind after every play. I emailed ESPN and gave them an earfull. I am seriously almost to the point that I will either stop watching Monday Night Football, or I will subscribe to the NFL Pass and listen to the game online while watching it on tv to hear different announcers. Also the halftime/postgame show guys (except Steve Young) - I mean, it's so lame to talk trash to Brett Favre because the Packers lost. If it makes you feel like a big man, go for it, but I think it's pretty cowardly. A few plays with different results, the Packers win, and then what would your story be? Would it be how incredible Favre is? The media makes me sick with their shallow, emotional, unintelligent, meaningless blah-blah!! OK, sorry, I'll try to calm down.

We went to the Boswell (Saginaw) high school homecoming football game Friday night. One night last week, I saw the end of the homecoming parade and I was flooded with a desire to become a bigger part of our community. I absolutely love living here in Saginaw and I never want to leave. We will upgrade our house in 3-5 years(buy a bigger one), but we'll stay in Saginaw. Anyway, we decided to try and take our whole family to the football game, but after the first 6 minutes of the game, it became clear that our kids were not at all interested in sitting there through a football game. We took them down to the end zone in the grass to let them roam a little and play, but eventually, Jenn took the three youngest kids home and came back and picked Karissa and I up in the 4th quarter. Boswell actually looked very good! The were up 21-0, 6 1/2 minutes into the first quarter!! They ended up winning 55-22, but it could have been MUCH worse very easily had they kept their starters in. Karissa and I had fun. We went down to the bottom and stood at the fence behind the football players and cheerleaders. Karissa finally built up the courage to ask a cheerleader for a football, and she gave her one! Karissa was proud! It was fun to be part of the community like that.

This strong sense of wanting to plug in more to the community brought me to research local churches again. We like Christ Chapel Bible Church, but it is so far away (relative, I know) that we still haven't REALLY gotten plugged in and we only make it about once a month. We go to small group just about every week, but church only once a month. So I found what looked like a non-denominational church online (Eagle's View Church) that's right behind Karissa's school. I scoured their website and was not turned off by anything. I was a little hesitant because it appeared the pastor's style was more life-application than expositional study. However, I've come to believe that the life-application style is almost everywhere and I may need to just feed my in-depth biblical studying desires in a medium outside of Sunday morning church. I also recognize that the majority of people (and unchurched) prefer the life-application style. I agreed with the theologies detailed on the website, and liked the fact that it would take a minute and a half to get there, so we visited on Sunday. The website said the service started at 9am, so we get there around 8:40am and see a sign outside that the services are at 8:30, 9:45, and 11am. So, I got out to go see which time was right, and was immediately greeted in the parking lot by a guy who told me this was actually the very first Sunday they moved to 3 services. So I got back in the van to tell Jenn and we were trying to decide what to do for 45 minutes until the 9:45 service. The church member came back to the van and invited us to come in for doughnuts and coffee while we wait for the next service and he would show us around. So, we said ok and went inside with him. He's my age, plays the bass guitar in the worship band, and was very welcoming. We sat and talked about the church, the pastor, their theology, etc and then we checked the kids into their rooms and went to the service. He said it was a great first time to visit because the teaching was on sex! HA! The pastor is doing an exegetical study on the Song of Solomon. Cool! It was actually very good! He seemed to do a good job of balancing the story-telling surface-level style with the more in-depth style, explaining original Greek words/translations and pointing out historical references (cultural and historical facts to bring more light to the biblical text). There were a few cheesy pet peaves that I PERSONALLY am distracted by, like clapping after worship songs and saying "amen" throughout the teaching. However, those are just little personal distractions that I can overlook because it would be a silly reason to not attend a church because of that. We met our new friend's (Justin) wife (Misty), picked up our kids, and went home. Karissa said she liked it and wanted to go back every week. Cara and Kylie could actually tell you what they learned about. They seem to have a great children's program. The church is actually affiliated to a very small degree with the baptist church, but they are talking about dropping the affiliation next year. Justin said the pastor doesn't teach like a baptist pastor and he's not sure why they are affiliated with the baptist organization. He thinks it was because when the church was started about 7 years ago, non-denominational was still pretty new so they weren't sure if they should affiliate themselves with a religion that most closely resembled their upbringing and education or just go with the non-denomination designation. The pastor went to Southwest Theological Seminary, which stereotypically has a more baptist spin, but his focus isn't so much in line with a typical baptist preacher's. Anyway, it is essentially a non-denominational church. We liked it and look forward to going back, and I am excited about it! Justin said they need another keyboard player too, so I could immediately get plugged in to the worship team. They don't have an organized Sunday School program, but they have Lifegroups which are small groups you sign up for and attend weekly. They don't have a Lifegroup specifically for young marrieds (are we still young?) so maybe we could start one up? Jenn and I met Justin and Misty downtown today for lunch and had a great visit with them. They both work downtown. Anyway, funny how things just sort of worked out so spontaneously...almost like there was a higher power involved or something....possibly....

Oh yeah, I have a blog

2006-09-13T18:51:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've indulged in an excessive rambling session, so here goes. My last blog entry, I was a mere 30 years old. Those were the days...now I'm a much wiser and more mature 31. Funny how that seems old, but I still feel so young. Reminds me of the great country song...You're always 17 in your home town. It's true...when I visit Wichita Falls, I feel even younger! Anyway, this entry, as always, will be somewhat chaotic and skip around.

I went for a follow-up at the urologist today. To be brief and save you from too much personal info...I had a little side effect from the vasectomy I had to get checked out, but everything was ok, and I don't have cancer. That was good news. For the few of you out there (I know of 2 for sure) who are considering or have scheduled consultations for a vasectomy...don't worry about it. If you'd like to know about the side effect, send me an email. Josh, I'll save the details so you don't cringe. :)

Today I also went to my hearing at the Tarrant County Appraisal District office to protest the tax value of my house. They increased my tax value 13% from 2005 to 2006. This was mostly due to the fact that they had an extra 400 square feet of living space since our garage was closed in before we bought it (it was a model home). So, I won the protest with ease and they dropped the value back down to the sales price I paid for the home. Very nice...that will save us at least $5-600 in January!! Plus, we also get the homestead exemption this year. Double nice!

Here's a few funny bits - the other night I was in the recliner around 12:30 with my laptop getting ready for my fantasy football drafts when all of a sudden Cara appeared beside me. Here is the conversation that ensued:
Cara - "Dad, when are you going to get a new job?"
Me - "Do I need to get a new job?"
Cara - "Yeah." (she's very sleepy while talking)
Me - "Where do you think I should get a new job?"
Cara - "Well...you could drive the ice cream truck."
Me - "Yeah...I could do that."
Cara - "But you'd have to get some new clothes."
Me - "OK, I could do that.....Would you like to drive the ice cream truck sometime?"
Cara - "Yeah, but you'd have to buy me some new clothes."
Me - "OK...let's go get back in bed."
HA! Don't you love kids! Her ear has been hurting a little the past few days. She says "Dad, there's little pieces of cracker in my ear". "Cara, did you put a cracker in your ear?" "No, it's there because my ear hurts." "Well how did the cracker get in your ear?" "Oh, probably some time when I ate a cracker it just kinda floated around in my body and landed in my ear." So tonight I tell Jenn about it at the dinner table and Jenn tells Cara that it's just earwax. So I tell her that's what we make candles out of and Cara looks at me and says "I don't believe you!" She's pretty smart to already be catching on to my daddy lies...

Karissa had her expander put in towards the end of August. It was a traumatic experience, especially the first 2 days of rotations. But somewhere around the 3rd day it stopped hurting her and it was smooth sailing from there on out. Hopefully it will all be worth it in the end. I understand the logic behind it, but we'll still never know if it was really worth it until probably 10 years from now. She got a Gameboy Advance for letting the orthodontist put the expander in. I know, I can be a softy sometimes.

Caleb is such a blast! He is all about having fun and laughing and playing! He can throw a football...and everything else he grabs for that matter. HA! He turns 1 next Friday! Kylie is still the sensitive one. She loves to play and have fun, but she needs constant reassurance that you love her and are just playing. I think maybe she'll be the high maintenance one. But she loves to cuddle and listen to stories and is as cute as a bug!

This weekend was a bad football weekend. The Cowboys lost, the Packers lost big, the Texas Thunder Thighs lost, and the Lambeau Leapers lost. The last two are my two fantasy football teams. I'm excited about the new Keeper League I organized. I was able to find 7 other guys (in Fort Worth, besides Jeff) to form a new league where we use a performance based scoring method, and we have the option to keep up to 3 players each year for the next year...and you can trade draft picks, blah blah blah. I'm sure you are all very interested. Anyway, I hope the 'boys and the Packers just had a first week hiccup and will turn things around. The Cowboys just didn't play well for most of the game, and the Packers had some struggles, besides the fact that they were playing the best defense in the league, and a Super Bowl contender as far as I'm concerned. You heard it here first...Chicago in Super Bowl...against San Diego.

I have found myself of late watching too much tv. I watch Ultimate Fighter, UFC Unleashed, football, Survivor(starting Thursday), Two A Days, and soon the Office will be starting back up as well as Friday Night Lights and probably American Idol. I kinda quit watching the Apprentice. The nights I'm not outside with the neighbors and there is nothing on tv, I either watch NFL Network or play the playstation. I got Madden 07 for my birthday and it is awesome! I also got an MP3 player, which is really cool! If you don't have one, you should get one!

Well, I'm sure I am leaving some major news out, but I can't think of anything right now, so I will close this blog entry. Oh yeah, can you believe gas has dropped so much! I paid $2.33 today. Poor gas companies, I don't know how they're supposed to make any money now with such a significant decline in gasoline prices! HA! Economically, this is actually good from a psychological standpoint, especially with wage inflation creeping in (people are getting paid well) and a relatively full employment economy (low unemployment rate). Well, good for now, but if it gets too good, with all the money out there available to pump into the economy (more jobs, more wages = more spending in the economy) and the mere "thought" that gas prices are lower so we can breathe easier and spend more money elsewhere...it could bring more overall inflationary fears back into the forefront of the Federal Reserve and further monetary policy could be enforced (more rate hikes). So, hopefully we will kind of sit tight and maybe begin a SLOW growth rate in our economy so the Fed will leave us alone! Anyway, more importantly - Only 59 more days until GREEN BAY!!! Post a comment!

PS - I was saddened by the death of Steve Irwin. Such a tragic ending to a great man who has contributed so much to his industry. Shall I say, a tragic ending to his life, but his legend will live on forever in his field of expertise. My heart and prayers go out to his wife and 2 young children.

Green Bay, Here We Come!

2006-08-03T21:17:00.000-07:00

I know I could wait a few more days to officially make it one month since my last post, but I think I'll go ahead and enter my August post now.

I am literally beside myself, and have been all week. Why, you ask? Sure, I'd be GLAD to tell you! I called Monday morning and made reservations everywhere for our dream come true trip to Packerland...Titletown...Brett Favre & the Packers' very own...Lambeau Field. The pinnacle of all sporting arenas as far as I'm concerned. We fly out Saturday (Nov18th) morning at 6am and arrive in Green Bay at 11:40am where we will take the courtesy shuttle to our hotel and check in, and then go to Lambeau Field!! All transportation all weekend is included in the package deal we purchased. We have a 3pm tour of Lambeau Field scheduled! We will get to see everything! Even walk on the field! Either before or after that, we will tour the Packer Hall of Fame. Saturday night, after dinner (maybe at Curly's in the Lambeau Field Atrium!) I think we may hitch a ride to a casino. Sunday morning we will ride to Brett's Steakhouse at 9am for a lil tailgating party! Whenever we finish there, we will walk 2 blocks to Lambeau Field and walk around or watch the Packers warm up and eventually sit down and experience the ultimate in football. A Packer game at Lambeau Field!! We paid extra to get lower level end zone seats. What they will do is take all of us who ordered a package 2 weeks before the game and randomly assign seats. We are guaranteed to be in the end zone somewhere between rows 1 and 20. Today I called back and requested seats at the tunnel so we can high five the players! (ok, maybe that's corny, but ask me if I care) She said they can try to accomodate my request, but there are no guarantees. After the game, we'll grab dinner somewhere and do whatever comes next...casino again or something else, I dunno. Monday morning we can sleep in. Instead of taking the only flight out of Green Bay at 6:30am (there are other flights but the price doubles) we decided to rent a car that day and drive to Appleton, 20-25 miles away, and fly home at 3:20pm. The hotel has an indoor pool/hot tub, but also an indoor putt-putt golf course and bowling alley, and free cocktails at the hotel bar are included with our package. This trip has been very distracting this week because it is literally ALL I have thought about since Monday!! GO PACKERS!!!

In other news, there has been a lot of female turf-wars drama at work...and that is not fun at all. We've made it over the quarter-end stuff, so we should start slowing down a little....I hope!

I want to see Ricky Bobby - just the sound of that name makes me laugh. That is so NASCAR, I love it! Can you feel the excitement? All the way from over there? Well you should feel it over here!

OK, I would write more, but I'm falling asleep. Hope all is well!!

Making Memories

2006-07-07T21:00:00.000-07:00

Checking in for my monthly post. I think I'll just ramble some highlights and then call it a post.

- I spoke in great detail with Packer Tours and have made some decisions on our dream come true trip to Lambeau Field in November. Well, ok, MY dream come true trip, but Jenn is excited about going too, whether she'll admit it to any of you or not! More details later, but we will tour Lambeau Field, inside and out, Packer Hall of Fame, Tailgate party at Brett's Steakhouse, lower level end zone seats!! Watch for Favre to scramble in for a TD against the Patriots on Nov 19th and then run to the end zone seats for the Lambeau Leap...because I'll be there hoisting him up!!

- I'm REALLY looking forward to tomorrow night's UFC event. Tito Ortiz will make Ken Shamrock's face look like hamburger meat AGAIN!! Tim Sylvia and Andrei Arlovsky will be a good bout as well. I used to like Ken Shamrock a lot, back in the early-mid 90's, and since Chuck Liddell is my favorite fighter, I have always hated Tito Ortiz. However, since the Ultimate Fighter 3, I've lost respect for Shamrock and have actually come to really like Tito a lot. Sure he has a mouth on him when he wins, but that's just competition gone wild, right?

- We spent the 4th of July weekend at Jennifer's uncle's house right on Lake Palestine. Aside from illnesses, misadventures, and a little drama, we had a great time! Good memories: experiencing new things with my children like paddleboating, fishing, tubing, & boat riding. Caleb taking 3 steps. R&R away from work. Bad memories: getting thrown off the tube at 45 MPH and hitting the concrete water groin first and then skipping across the lake for 30 feet. If I would not have had my life jacket on, I would have drowned. That hurt WAY more than the vasectomy, I mean, WAYYYY more. I have officially retired from tubing. Other bad memories: someone stole $40 out of my bag. There was quite a bit of family there, and some I didn't know, so I believe it was one of these unknown wackos that stole it. Very upsetting. Oh and we also sunk Jenn's uncle's boat (with Cara aboard but in a life jacket of course) when the winds suddenly got very strong and created 3-4 foot white-capping waves that kept sweeping over and into the boat. Luckily, we all survived that injury free and we think besides cosmetic repairs to the boat, maybe the steering cable is the only meaningful repair needed to the boat. Another bad memory is the stomach virus we all caught. We finally made it home Tuesday (gave a new meaning to home sweet home - I'm in love with home!!), and then 3 of our kids started throwing up that night, followed by myself and Karissa Wednesday morning. Luckily, Jenn didn't get sick! However, she did an amazing job caring for 5 sickos!!

- Karissa and I watched a hot dog eating contest on ESPN the other day. A guy actually ate 54 hot dogs in like 12 minutes. Disgusting! Karissa said if she were to go to one of those contests, she wouldn't eat breakfast or lunch beforehand, but she would probably still only be able to eat 2 hot dogs. HA! Me too...

- My brother has decided to pursue international missions work. He's flying to the Czech Republic Aug 31st for 2 weeks to talk with churches and missionaries about an orphanage in Tanzania, Africa. Then, sometime next year, he will go to Africa for 6 months to an orphanage where he will help kids learn how to use computers, teach in the school, be a positive male role model, and more importantly teach the children about God. The initial plan is to continue going back to that orphanage, six months on, six months off. Your prayers and support are appreciated.

- Today, listening to Casting Crowns, my jealousy of the Trimbles was suddenly reinvigorated. When are you guys going to the concert again? That will be sooo awesome!

Nice Weekend

2006-06-11T20:58:00.000-07:00

OK all you blog peeping toms...my last post was up for a mere 5 days and even though I had 10 unique visitors every day, I only received 1 comment! Thanks Laura! You win a famous "Kirkburger", which you can redeem in September when you and Marco visit!

I had a spontaneous change of plans last week. After the 4th night of lonely bachelorhood, and a VERY stressful week at work, I decided Thursday morning to take off Friday and drive to Wichita Falls Thursday night to join up with my family (whom I missed terribly!) and have a nice 3-day weekend. Of course, the market has arrived at a very crucial technial point, which means we've been adjusting all of our portfolios like crazy, so I had to stay at work until 7:30 Thursday night getting everything figured out and ready for Friday. I probably should have stayed to oversee our moves on Friday. I guess it didn't matter though, since I ended up logging in from Jenn's parents' house and working until 12:30pm on my day off! UGH!

On my way to Wichita Falls Thursday night, my A/C ran out of freon!! Luckily it was at night and not too hot. I rolled in to WF at 9:45pm and met up with Jenn at On the Border where she was having dinner with Kelly and Alicia. I crashed their party!! Jenn and I went home to her parents' house and caught up for awhile, and then around midnight I went up to Chris Deges' work and hung out with him pretty late. He's a nuclear pharmacist and was mixing solutions for various tests like gall bladder tests that allows the machines to see all of the radioactive activity in the patient's body from the solution (if there's no activity in the gall bladder then it's full of stones and needs to come out)...anyway, Sorry Chris for probably not doing your job justice with my weak explanation. It was a great visit and very interesting to see what he does. Friday after I finished working on my vacation day (not bitter at all), Jenn and I took Karissa to Olive Garden for lunch. I learned that earlier in the day, Karissa had accepted Jesus and His free gift of salvation in the van with Jenn. We're happy for her and have suspected that she was ready, but we have been cautious to not create too much drama or emotional rah-rah! Don't get me wrong, it is a big deal and definitely worth being celebrated, but we want her to keep it in context. A little more on that later...

Friday night we went to Jeff & Kelly's house and cooked out with them and Chris & Alicia. We had a great time! Good food, good drinks, good conversation! It was fun to spend time and catch up with friends we haven't seen in a while! We went and dropped the kids off (put them to bed) at Jenn's parents' house and returned for some more fun. It just occurred to me that this blog is probably excruciatingly boring so far - HA! Anyway, the Deges' left and Jenn, I, & the Trimbles stayed and had some great conversation! Thanks again guys - it's too bad we're not closer - that would be fun to do more often. However, remember it's only an hour and 35 minutes to Saginaw! Today we made it back in an hour and 45 minutes, driving the legal speed limit most of the time, but that included one stop to find a lost pacifier and one stop to use the bathroom and get gas. So an uneventful trip really is ONLY an hour and 35 minutes!

Saturday morning we got up and went to visit my parents for awhile. After having lunch with them at CiCi's pizza, we went back to Jenn's parents' house and got ready for Kylie's "impromptu" 3rd birthday party with our families in Wichita Falls. It was 10 days early, but it was very convenient while we were in town - it saved our families a trip to Saginaw in a week! It was very hot Saturday! That evening I went and got the stuff to fix my A/C in my truck, but by the time I got back home, I was hot and tired, so I showered and watched some tv and then went to bed.

This morning we went to church to visit everyone and let the girls sing in their VBS program. They were cute! It was great to see everyone, and I was reminded after listening to Tom teach that we will never find another church like Grace. He started the whole lesson off by saying something I've thought for years, but haven't known how to express it clearly. He mentioned someone who was considering a business opportunity in another city, and before long, had moved his family and begun a new job. He said that he felt God was calling him in that direction. He didn't know it at the time, but he was letting his feelings determine God's will. You hear all too often "God is calling me to do such and such"...and I'm not the one to judge, but how many times do you think it's God actually calling or just a person's feelings that make them THINK God is calling them? The lesson was on spiritual enemia, relied HEAVILY on scriptural support, and was very in-depth and meaty. Very refreshing! After church, we went out to eat with Jeff & Kelly and we took up 3 tables!! Between our 2 families there are 7 kids!! We had another great visit and look forward to seeing them again soon.

I put more freon in my truck for the drive home. Karissa rode with me and the freon only lasted for about an hour! YIKES!! We rolled down the windows and enjoyed a nice, hot drive home. However, it was a good drive. After listening to her High School Musical soundtrack, we turned it down and talked for awhile. We talked mostly about her decision to accept Christ and what that meant on an intellectual level. I'm continuously amazed at how smart she is - how much she knows and remembers, processes, analyzes, and understands. They say you can judge the intelligence of a person not by the things they say, but by the questions they ask. She asks some pretty impressive questions for a 7 year old! I can already tell she's like me in that she's not happy with surface level answers. I assured her that she doesn't have to get baptized to be a christian since she was pretty nervous about that. She's trying to grasp the concept of the trinity, and I think she's doing a great job - that's a difficult one! She wanted to know how I accepted Christ, and since it was partially a result of my reaction to reading Revelations, we had a pretty in-depth discussion about the second-coming, what hell might be like, what heaven might be like, and how Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice for everyone. Karissa said she doesn't feel any different even though Jesus is inside her heart - :) which of course she meant from a physical sense.

I popped my hood tonight to get a reading on my A/C compressor, and the neighborhood guys immediately flocked to my driveway. Funny how that happens! I was very grateful though since I'm not very mechanical and they got my A/C to blow cold air again! I'm hoping it lasts a few more months...I'm planning on FINALLY getting a Jeep towards the end of the summer!!

Sorry this is so long! I know it's a chore to sit there and read one of my long posts. Leave a comment!

Bachelorhood

2006-06-06T19:25:00.000-07:00

Here I am for my monthly post. Jenn and the kids are in Wichita Falls for VBS at Grace Church, which leaves me as the lone resident in the Wimberley household this week. Believe it or not, I'm counting down the days until they come home. I don't like being here alone for this long...a day or two is a nice break, but a week is too long. I would sure hate to be single!! Jenn, kids, I love you and miss you!

Sunday I watched Jamie McMurray ALMOST pull off a win in the NASCAR race. Last night I watched the Hurricanes pull off a frustrating come from behind win in game 1 of the Stanley Cup. Never in my life did I expect to be cheering for the much-hated Edmonton Oilers, but it's hard for me to cheer for a relatively new expansion team. It's like they haven't been around long enough to earn their keep. After the upsetting game, I updated the check book and then read my new RealFighter magazine. Mysteriously, a few weeks ago, a RealFighter t-shirt showed up in my mailbox - neither Jenn or I ordered it, so it must have been a surprise gift from someone! Still don't know who, but thank you whoever it was! Well then yesterday, a RealFighter magazine showed up in my mailbox! WAHOO! RealFighter is the leading MMA (mixed martial arts) magazine with TONS of UFC coverage, which I LOVE!! It's been awhile since I've read a magazine cover to cover, but I sat up in bed until 1:30 this morning reading the whole thing! Tonight I watched Ron White - You Can't Fix Stupid. I hadn't seen that one yet, and was actually a little disappointed. I normally like Ron White, but this one just wasn't that funny. Larry the Cable Guy is the funniest one of the 4. Afterwards, I went outside and hung out with the neighbors for awhile. Celeste brought out some fresh iced tea and chocolate chip cookies!! YUMMY!! So now I sit here updating my blog in a quiet and lonely house. In a few minutes I think I'll go shampoo the carpet while everyone is away...at least I hope to get motivated enough to do so! I also need to go in the garage and workout. Jeff, as Josh already asked you, how did you lose 15 pounds?? I need to lose about 40!! However, I want to lose it while still drinking cokes, eating anything, and not exercising...is that possible?

Work is not fun right now. Very stressful and overwhelming. We're growing faster than what we can handle. Enough about that though - I'll leave work at work.

I really miss Grace Church. Our church down here is good, but not as good as Grace. It's a little more fluff than what I prefer - a little more Monday morning application and less in-depth studying. I miss Tom, Reggie, and Lance's teaching. I learned more in the ~5 years at Grace than I have in my entire life. We're starting a study of Daniel in our small group though, so I hope to get some good substinence from it. However, we don't have any DTS grads in our group, so it will be a little challenging at times. Nonetheless, I have a positive outlook towards it.

OK, before I end this, I HAVE to include a joke I just got in an email from Lou, my former boss in Wichita Falls...I laughed out loud!!

Donald Rumsfeld is briefing George Bush in the Oval Office.

"Oh and finally, sir, three Brazilian soldiers were killed in Iraq
today."

Bush goes pale, his jaw hanging open in stunned disbelief. He buries
his face in his hands, muttering "Oh, No...PLEASE, No".
"Mr. President," says Cheney, "it's terrible anytime we lose soldiers, but
I've never seen you this upset. What's the matter?"

Bush looks up and says..."How many is a Brazilian'?"

OK, I think I'll go workout and maybe shampoo the carpet...

The Balance of Work and Family

2006-05-10T23:25:00.000-07:00

Work has finally started to slow down. I hired a new employee to relieve my new accounts lady from her heavy workload and the new girl seems to be doing well so far. I was pretty successful last week in coming home every day at 5pm, but this week I've had to catch up from leaving early last week. However, there's less of a time crunch now, just a lot of work. We had a broker come in from Florida yesterday who is firing us as a manager but retaining us as a subadvisor, which basically means we do everything we've always done except send out quarterly statements, but we're losing $50,000 in revenue per year! He's our 2nd or 3rd largest broker at $25 million. Frustrating, but if we didn't agree to only "subadvising" we'd probably lose him entirely. He's a real nice guy and I actually agree with what he's doing, so I'm not too upset. It's a business move on his part to better streamline and simplify his business model. He's a West Point graduate, former Army Ranger and infantry drill instructor who has shaken hands with Ronald Reagan and George Bush, Jr. We had some very interesting conversation at lunch!

I accidentally double-booked appointments yesterday with a salesman from San Francisco who was coming in to give me a presentation on his portfolio management software. I had to call at the last minute and push it back an hour, which meant he had to reschedule a later flight last night. I felt bad, but the guy said it happens all the time so he is used to being flexible and making last minute changes. It was a productive meeting, so I hope he feels it was worthwhile. I think he does, since we may hand over $60,000/year for his software if we decide to go with his product! HA!

I called one of the "higher ups" at our biggest custodian (FiServ) last night to touch base with him and find out the status of a big project they're working on for us, and he asked me if I would be interested in joining their "Alpha Board". It's a small group of Operations managers from institutional money management firms like ours who meet at least once a year in Denver to provide FiServ some meaningful feedback on how they can improve their business. It's actually a big deal to serve on that Board, so I was very excited!! They will fly me to Denver for these meetings and put us up in a nice hotel, feed us lavishly, have meetings and provide entertainment like snow skiing or something fun like that - and they pay for everything! How cool is that?!

Anyway, sorry to go on so much about work. I'd really prefer to be at home more - I live for the weekends! Especially in a few weeks when our pool opens (May 27th). I also can't say enough about how much I am enjoying becoming close with all of our neighbors. That is something I've always thought would be cool. We all hang out and watch out for each other. One neighbor came over and treated some ant beds in our yard - we mowed our next-door neighbor's house who doesn't have a lawn mower yet - another neighbor borrows our stuff to do his yard - another neighbor called the other day to make sure they closed their garage door - our kids go back and forth to each other's houses - there's just a strong sense of community now, and it's awesome!

Caleb is sooo close to crawling. I've been play-fighting with him recently and he really enjoys that, which is a good thing. I plan on keeping him roughed up to help him identify with his masculinity since he'll grow up with 4 women in the house, plus all their friends who will come over all the time! I really hate only being able to see my girls for 2 hours or less each night, but I guess that's just the way it goes. Last week when I forced myself to go home at 5pm every day, a new perspective was realized. Work is obviously a high priority as the sole financial provider for my family, but my family is also a high priority. However, when 5pm rolls around and I'm looking at a stack of work...at that moment in time, what is the bigger priority? Staying an extra 30 minutes to an hour to finish up some stuff that can be done tomorrow...or standing up, walking away, and giving my family that extra 30 minutes to an hour? My goal is to ask myself that question every day at 5pm and try to act accordingly. Sometimes I will need to work later, but sometimes, it will be ok to leave at 5pm and finish work the next day...or at home that night when everyone else is in bed.

Here's a few quick and random thoughts before I go to bed:
*I'm still excited that Favre is returning one more year.
*I still can not believe that Royce Gracie is coming back after 10+ years to fight Matt Hughes in UFC! Unbelievable!! May 27th...watch it!
*I had hoped Elliott would get voted off American Idol tonight. I thought the final three would be Chris, Taylor, and Katherine. No worries though, Chris will be extremely successful!
*If you have a knowledgable opinion about "soul sleep", send me an email with your thoughts!
*Is today's rate hike the last one Bernanke will impose for awhile or will the near term economic data ahead cause him to continue manipulating our economy, succumbing to further inflationary fears?? I tend to think we're safe for awhile.

Good night!

Brett Favre, the Legend, Returns!

2006-04-26T23:09:00.000-07:00

I'm going to bed but I had to post a quick message to show my excitement for Brett Favre's return! WAHOO!!! I can't wait to watch him play again, in his final year of football. I thought the chances of him coming back were 50/50, but the longer it took him to decide made it appear more and more like he wasn't ready to call it quits. That is soo awesome!! Favre is the greatest football player of all time. Period. Don't even waste your time trying to argue.

Since he's returning, it means I have one final opportunity to fulfill one of my greatest dreams - going to Lambeau Field to see Brett Favre play in person in his own element. The thought alone of realizing this dream is overwhelming. I simply must do it. Favre has made it clear that IF he returns this year, it will be his final year. Therefore, this once in a lifetime opportunity is truly now or never. I've always been a dreamer and have worked and sacrificed to make dreams come true. This dream is now dangling in front of me with only a few obstacles: funding and ticket availability. Every home game at Lambeau Field has been sold out since 1960 - which is truly amazing, and a testament to the strength and support of the Green Bay franchise. I searched a little bit tonight on ebay and stubhub for tickets, and the cheapest I could find were $150 each for corner end zone, 59th row! A better deal would be lower level end zone for $177 each, which is the 17th row - low but too high to participate in the Lambeau Leap. I honestly don't care where the seats are...just being there would be enough to fulfill my dream. I met a couple from Green Bay who said you can ALWAYS find tickets once you get there from scalpers, but I can't risk that. Airfare would be about $277 per person, then a hotel and cab (or car rental) and food and souvenirs. So...for Jennifer and I both to go, we're looking at roughly $1300, give or take. Jennifer mentioned how sad it is that a quick two day trip to Green Bay to watch Favre play in his final season costs approximately half of our entire 10-day trip to Italy!! GULP! We have quite a few months to save, but that's a lot of money to drop for a football game....however, it's not just a football game to me. It's an experience of a lifetime that I will be able to pass down to my children and grandchildren.... "that's right son, I saw the legendary Brett Favre beat Tom Brady and the New England Patriots at Lambeau Field in subfreezing temperatures on November 19, 2006, after helping the other cheeseheads I tailgated with clear the snow off the field before the game started." They actually do that! The fans get on the field and clear the snow! Anyway, Jenn said if we can't afford it, I could go by myself...but I don't think that's fair. So...if anyone out there feels sorry for us and wants to help fulfill a dream and make a lifelong memory, please send your donations to the "Help Kirk See Favre" fund. :)

OK, now I'm going to bed. It's late Wednesday night (ok, early Thursday morning) and I've already worked 38 hours this week! I've been logging in to my work computer from home each night and working 3-4 hours. I'm getting checks made out to our brokers, so after I mail them on Friday, things should slow down considerably. I think I might even come home at 5pm next week! I'm looking forward to that...

This Is Only A Test

2006-04-11T20:45:00.000-07:00

My time on the internet over the past year has slowly decreased to about 2-3 hours per week, sometimes less. This is a huge change from the 15-20 hours a week it used to be. Consequently, the result is less blogging - both writing my own and reading yours. So, this blog is a test to see if anyone has given up on my blog site. We'll see how many comments I get in the next month, which is probably when I'll post again. I'll keep it short and sweet and probably somewhat disorganized.

As you all probably know, I got vasectomized Mar 31st. Here's a highlight - I'm laying back on the table in all my glory with the cute little nurse prepping me when the doctor walks in and asks if I mind if a medical student comes in and observes. I'm not embarassed, so I approve, and then in comes another attractive girl to observe the most intrusive event of my life. HA! Oh well, medical students have to learn too, right? I was supposed to take 2 valium, but I hate prescription meds, so I took 1 small dose of phenergan (oral) instead, which was the equivalent of 2 glasses of wine - somewhat relaxed. The numbing shot was excruciating...just kidding Jeff...no, it was pretty uncomfortable, but very short-lived. Maybe 8 seconds or so...like a bull ride, I held on for 8 seconds. The procedure literally only took 10 minutes. The doctor and student left and the nurse fixed me up and I was out the door on my own two feet. I was pleasantly surprised at the recovery. I had to make myself sit down, but I felt fine. I was hoping to milk it for all it was worth by planting my little rear on the recliner all weekend and getting served food and drink like a king...but I felt so good I was up walking around and pretty much going about life like normal. I highly recommend it to anyone who is considering it and knows they are finished having kids. If you have more specific questions, call or email and I'll tell you anything you want to know! Jeff, get er done! Since I lost some manhood, I've been experimenting with a goatee...maybe that will make up for the masculinity I lost. HA!

OK, I didn't mean to write so much about that. Next topic. I went to the Busch race this weekend. It was freezing Saturday morning when I left, which is why I thought Jenn was crazy when she told me to be sure I put sunscreen on. I'm an idiot. It warmed up and was actually pretty hot. I got so blistered it still hurts, 4 days later. My face looks like I have leprosy and my knees and arms are very red and blistered. UGH! It wasn't even a good race. It was fun being there and hearing the deafening sound of the engines and watching the incredible speed of the cars, but the race was boring. Even worse, Kurt Busch, a total moron who got heavily booed, won the race. Carl Edwards had engine troubles and did not finish.

The Ultimate Fighter 3 started, and Ken Shamrock and Tito Ortiz are the coaches. This will be a fun season to watch. For you UFC'ers out there, if you haven't heard, May 27th's main event is Matt Hughes vs. Royce Gracie!! Can you believe it?!?!?! That is awesome!!!

I asked my boss if I should give my employees annual reviews and he responded by giving me a 5% raise. Very nice!

Still no word on Brett Favre's decision.

It's been fun the last several weeks getting to know our neighbors better. We all hang out a lot of evenings and weekends outside. Sunday, we had 4 families grill out together at the house across the street. It's a lot of fun because we're all close to the same age and have kids close to the same age. The guys took a little trip to the Harley shop to salivate on some cool motorcycles. I'm not really into that, but I could appreciate it.

We're going to Wichita Falls for Easter weekend. For all you Grace-ites reading this, we'll be there Easter morning, so hopefully we'll get to see you! Is there a men's retreat coming up soon?

I got pulled over by a cop tonight driving home from work...in fact, where he pulled me over, I could probably throw a football and hit my house. Can you believe that?!?! He pulled me over because I had a headlight out. If it wasn't statement week and I didn't work until 8pm, it would have never happened. Luckily, he didn't give me a ticket though. That is the only "warning" I have ever been given. It wasn't even a warning really. He just told me why he pulled me over, took my insurance and driver's license back to his car, and came back and said "everything else appears to be in order." I said "OK, thank you sir. I'll take care of the headlight." He said "Have a nice evening." Then I peeled outta there doing doughnuts and blaring my horn....just kidding. I ate supper and then went to O'Reilly's to buy a headlight.

OK, I've been typing entirely too long. Happy Easter! Be sure to at least spend a few moments meditating on the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus and what that means to you.

Landmark Tower Implosion

2006-03-18T12:44:00.000-08:00

This morning we woke up at 6:20am and were out the door before 7am to go watch the implosion of the 50 year old, 30-story, Landmark Tower in downtown Fort Worth. This is the 2nd tallest building to ever be imploded, and the tallest in Texas. We were standing 4 blocks away from it and it was one of the coolest things I have ever seen in person. They were supposed to sound the sirens 15 seconds before they began at 8am, but at 7:45, they surprised us all and detonated the explosives with no warning. It was loud and it happened all too quickly! I'm curious to see my office Monday morning since this Landmark Tower building is literally across the street (catty-corner). They said a few windows were busted out in neighboring buildings, but hopefully our office was not one of those unlucky ones. Here's a video I took this morning - enjoy!

Video Sharing at DropShots.com

Television Junkie

2006-03-15T20:39:00.000-08:00

This post is for you blog-addicts who have repeatedly checked their regular blogs every single day only to find that THIS blog hasn't changed in 2 weeks...not even the comments. Thought you might want to see something else here. I don't really have anything to say. Are any of you watching American Idol? Who do you like and who do you think will win? My absolute #1 favorite is Taylor Hicks. I don't think he will win because I don't think enough of America understands him and his incredible talent and passion for music. He's become a popular contestant over the weeks as people get more used to him I think, but I remain pessimistic towards the odds of him winning. I like Chris and Katherine a lot, and I can see them in the final 2 or 3, and ultimately, I see Chris winning the whole thing. He has an amazing natural-born rock voice, and I am amazed that he has never had any vocal training. Katherine is by far my favorite girl. In fact, from the very first auditions, I predicted her, Chris, and Paris to be the final three. We will see. Finally, how Kevin could have more votes than Ace, Melissa, and Lisa is a bit disturbing to me. Enough is enough. No offense, but he's just an awkward and dorky little choir boy who can't stay on pitch and sings with a lisp. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure he sings better than me, but he does not belong at this level of the competition. I'm afraid it has become a game to keep voting for Kevin. Probably all of the 11-14 year old girls vote 500 times each. ENough is enough, the game needs to stop. Melissa deserves to still be in the competition while Kevin watches the remainder of the season on his couch sitting in between mommy and daddy. I don't mean to be rude, but that really irks me.

Anyway, I hope I don't lose my man card for religiously following American Idol this season. I haven't watched it since Kelly Clarkson won. I did, however, record two new sitcoms. The Loop and Sons & Daughters. I haven't watch them yet, but they both look really funny. Has anyone watched them yet? Geez, I think I've become a television junkie! I have watched more tv in the past year than I have in the 10 years prior to that! That's probably why I'm getting fatter and fatter! Once I turned 30, the weight started piling on. I hope to take control of that, but as you all know, it's not easy.

Jennifer and I have officially been married for 10 years! YAY! I'm glad we've made it this far, and because we've survived this 10 year roller-coaster, I think we can survive anything together! I love you Jenn! This date also means I'm two weeks away from the good ol' vasectomy. We've fortunately been very blessed with four beautiful and healthy children...and I think four is enough for us.

One Year Anniversary

2006-03-01T22:38:00.000-08:00

Well, today at work, it was my one year anniversary and my boss gave me a $5,000 bonus!! Well, at least half of that statement is true, but not the part involving a bonus. HA! That's ok - I'm happy with my job whether or I get a one year bonus or not. I can't believe it's been a year! Time has just flown by sooo fast! Looking back, I am so fortunate to have this job, and I am thankful for it. Sure it's horribly stressful at times and I envision myself having a heart attack before age 40, but at other times, it's a lot of fun! I'm learning to manage the workload a little, so the stress level has decreased a little, but it will always be there. I can't believe we've lived in our house for a whole year now! It still seems like we just moved in a few months ago!

I started to get a little bit of spring fever today! It was such a beautiful day outside! I went with a colleague to lunch today at the Pour House. We sat up on the balcony outside, overlooking Sundance Square...I'm so lucky to be in downtown Ft. Worth! Anyway, I started getting all the spring time urges today - like swimming, running, grilling and eating outside, washing cars, doing yardwork, playing with the family in the backyard, going to a lake, etc. Spring is my favorite time of year!

I guess I could post a personal item on here...I made an appointment yesterday to get the ol snip-snip!! YOWZA! My consultation is March 24th and the vasectomy is March 31st! YIKES! Actually, I'm not worried about the procedure much at all. As it gets closer, my anxiety may increase a little, but I'm MUCH more worried about having to take a Valuum (sp?). I have to take it an hour before the procedure. However, all prescription pain killers and anesthesia make me dizzy and/or throw up, so I'm nervous about Valuum. Maybe I'll just not take it and tell the doc that I did - HA!

Well, I got to watch my first NASCAR race of the season this past Sunday and it was fun! It was especially fun seeing my 3 favorite drivers finish in the top 10 (Carl Ewards, Jamie McMurray, Mark Martin) and it was AWESOME seeing both Tony Stewart AND Greg Biffle's engines mess up, causing them to have to drop out of the race! WAHOO!! :) I know, I shouldn't be like that, but those 2 guys are my least favorite drivers. Now, with the NHL coming back finally, and Nascar on every Sunday....I'm all set! Well, I'd be all set if Brett Favre would announce that he's going to play another season!! It's March now, so I bet we get an answer from him in the next few weeks. Well, I can't keep my eyes open anymore...so good night!

Come va? Molto bene, grazie!

2006-02-22T23:53:00.000-08:00

I have no idea what to post about, but it's been 10 days, so I'll just post some quick thoughts and call it a day.

* I'm somewhat embarassed to say that I am hooked on American Idol this season and actually look forward to vegging on the couch 2 nights a week watching it! For those of you who follow it, I would like to post my prediction - from day one, Katherine McPhee and Chris Daughtry made my top 4 and I predict they will make it to the top 2...followed by Paris. And wouldn't it be cool to see Taylor Hicks at the end?!

* Work has been killing me lately - too much going on.

* I'm still on a Casting Crowns "high" and am trying to process the changes their concert and music have inspired in me. I emailed Mark, the lead singer, and he replied! How cool is that?!

* Had a great time visiting Grandpa Bill and Grandma Sue! Grandpa is doing better now than he has been in years!

* I'm going with some friends to the Mavericks game Saturday. Our tickets are in a suite! I've never been to a Mavs game, and I'm not big into basketball, but it will be fun. Basketball is just weird to watch. I'm so used to watching hockey that I anticipate moves but the basketball players don't skate around and it's illegal for a guy to stand in front of the net and wait for a pass to one-time it in for a goal. It's just weird and I can never get into it because the momentum always stops. Anyway, it will still be fun to be there I think.

* I missed the Daytona 500 because we were driving back from Georgetown and I forgot to record it on the DVR. However, I have some thoughts. Carl Edwards finishing dead last because of a crash really stinks. Jamie McMurray apparently had a good race until the end. Terry Labonte, the debut racer for the Aikman/Staubach Hall of Fame team had a decent finish. However, due to an illegal carburater, which nobody realized was illegal, they got fined $25,000 and have been penalized points that knocks them down from 17th to 27th! It was an innocent mistake!! What irks me so much about that is the fact that Jimmie Johnson's crew chief intentionally modified his car to be more aerodynamic, knowing it was illegal and would give Johnson an unfair advantage...and Johnson was not penalized at all, even after winning the race. Neither was Tony Stewart for forcing Kenseth off the track after crying all week about how unsafe all the drivers are. Tony Stewart is a punk.

* I have found that the so-called sport of "curling" is actually quite addictive! To me, it's just human-sized shuffleboard on ice. It's intriguing though, and easy to watch. Those athletes must be in top physical condition! Just kidding. Canada beat USA in the men's semifinals today, so the USA plays Great Britain on Friday for Bronze.

* The men's USA olympic hockey team only won 1 out of 6 games. Quite humiliating. However, 4 of the Dallas Stars are on the unbeaten Finland team, who will play Russia Friday night in the semifinals. Be sure to catch the finals on Sunday at 1pm I think.

Casting Crowns & Nichole Nordeman

2006-02-11T22:50:00.000-08:00

Several days ago, we got an invite to a Nichole Nordeman/Casting Crowns concert from some friends in our small group whom we have been wanting to get to know better. Jim & Misty have followed Nichole Nordeman since she first started out, and they were excited about the concert. Neither Jennifer or I had even heard of her, but we thought it would be a good opportunity to spend some "kidless" time with our friends and get to know them better. Also, I've heard Casting Crowns and liked them a lot, so I figured we would enjoy the concert too. At first, it looked like it wasn't going to work out, but at the last minute, all the stars lined up and plans were made. Misty was going to meet Jenn and I at the downtown train station and take it to Dallas where Jim would pick us up since he works in Dallas, and we'd have dinner before the concert. However, due to some "directional uncertainties" and unexpected construction, we arrived at the train station in time to rush towards the train as it was pulling away. ARGH! Misty had gotten on the train thinking maybe we were waiting for her on the train. We got in the van and started driving to Dallas and phoned Misty and told her we'd just meet her in Dallas. So, we got directions from Jim to the restaurant and met them at Ninfa's, which had some pretty good Mexican food! We had a great dinner - good food, great conversation, and then piled in to their vehicle and went to Reunion Arena.

The seats were relatively close, on the risers at the bottom, and we arrived just in time for Nichole Nordeman's first song. She was at the piano and had a drummer, stand-up bass player, and guitarist/back-up vocalist. She talked in between each song, and I really enjoyed her honesty and message. I thought she had a very "relevant" sound with regard to the contemporary pop-ballad style. Music was great, lyrics were very deep and powerful, and the back-up vocalist had an incredible voice and talent. Some heavy songs and some good uplifting songs as well. I enjoyed her music and wanted to hear some more and take some time to pore over her lyrics....we bought her "Brave" CD today.

It was so fun to watch these professional musicians performing up there on stage in front of 20,000+ people. I haven't been to a concert in quite a few years, so when it comes to live bands, I'm still accustomed to the sound of the worship band I played/sang in at Grace Church in Wichita Falls. There are some very talented musicians in that band, who perform regularly with other cover bands every weekend, but really, they're probably still on an amateur level. Because of this, I was just in awe, listening to this concert with such high quality, professional musicians. I could easily pick apart each instrument and was impressed with their talent level. I knew very quickly I was going to enjoy the evening. After several songs, the stage lights go out and they start changing sets, getting ready for the main band, Casting Crowns.

Knowing that Casting Crowns had just won a grammy a few nights before, I was anticipating quite a treat! From the very first song, I just didn't think it could get any better. They can really rock! As the night went on, song after song, the lead singer, Mark Hill, talked a lot about the band and how they are the youth worship band at their church FIRST and then a touring band SECOND. Every single Wednesday night, even while on tour, they lead worship for the youth group at their church in Atlanta. How cool is that?! He is actually the youth pastor there. Minute by minute, I loved them more and more! After the intermission, I wondered how they were going to top the first set. They started out with a very powerful song - "Set Me Free" - that was so moving; musically, spiritually, and visually. They had 3 large video screens behind them that always had graphics/video playing that was very fitting to the songs they were singing. They also had all sorts of colored spotlights all over the place that they used to put on a cool and very effective light show during the songs. I was so "in" to it after "Set Me Free", and then Mark Hill starts talking about this little girl the band met a few years ago whom they stayed in touch with. She came down with cancer and ended up losing the battle. Through the ordeal, the band had grown close to the parents of the little girl and saw how faithful they had been through the "storm" of their precious little girl's illness. The band wrote a song for this girl and her parents titled "Praise You In This Storm". This song was so touching and heartfelt...very powerful. Especially since I've had some big struggles in the past, and still to some extent, of having a circumstantial faith...when the storms come, I don't always praise or remain faithful to God, and in light of this little girl and her parents, my storms have been nothing in comparison. After this song, I was literally beside myself, hardly believing I could be experiencing something as incredible as this. I've been to quite a few concerts and conferences with live music similar to this, but I have never experienced anything like this concert. I highly recommend them to everyone! The music is rockin' and fun and powerful and moving and uplifting and their message is very real and relevant to today's culture, regardless of age, gender, or religious affiliation. Mark Hill believes as a youth leader you have to earn the trust of the youth by letting them know that you have struggles everyday just like them. He has dyslexia and ADD...which he said means 2 things: he can't read good....and he doesn't care. HA! Anyway, it was a very "real" and worshipful experience.

At the end of the concert, he was introducing the band, and we got a little treat from the drummer. He was so fun to watch because he was so energetic with his playing style - slinging his arms all over the place while bouncing his head up and down enthusiastically with the rhythm. After being introduced, he proceeded to give us about a 5 minute drum solo - one of the coolest things I have ever seen!! After he finally ended his solo, Mark Hill says "Some people take pills, this guy plays the drums." HA! It was pretty funny. Anyway, they played one last song and then left the stage. Of course the crowd was going nuts, so they came back for an encore. What an awesome concert! Here's something funny - at the beginning of one song, he asked us all, sort of tongue-in-cheek, to hold up our lighters if anyone had one. After chuckling for a few seconds, what followed literally made my jaw drop. Thousands and thousands of people opened their cell phones and held them up with the backlight display lit up!! I mean, I know most people own a cell phone, but this was truly a remarkable sight. Mostly because of how many young teenagers I saw holding up cell phones. It was really something cool to see!

After the concert, Jim & Misty took us to our van at the restaurant and we stayed and chatted for a good 30 minutes before leaving. Jim and I have a lot of similarities and so do Misty and Jennifer, so we're excited about the budding friendship and we look forward to hanging out with them again soon! I will close this long post now, but not without urging you strongly to check out Casting Crowns! You can go to the following website to download 30-second samples of their songs - http://www.castingcrowns.com/. Just click on Music, choose either album, and then click on "Audio" by a song title and you can hear a little bit of Casting Crowns.

IRS QB Challenge

2006-02-07T23:08:00.000-08:00

One of the many beautiful things about having four children is the $4,000 Child Tax Credit we get to enjoy! Without getting into too much personal detail, because of the house and some other things, we are able to itemize this year and take advantage of some of the tax breaks that our wonderful IRS code so generously offers. I have just about finished our taxes, but I'm hesitant to file it because I'm still scrounging around for ANY deduction I can come up with! I know I can just amend if I come up with something else meaningful later, but it would be nice to be thorough now and not mess with that later. A few things I need to research are - where to deduct job hunting expenses, house hunting expenses (if possible), commuting in the early job transition, and utility deposits at our new house. I think I can deduct all of those, but maybe not...and I'm not sure where. My guess would be schedule A, but I haven't researched it very thoroughly yet. Maybe one of you fellow blog readers know?

I heard about an upcoming sports event that will be cool. April 20th is the very first Quarterback Challenge at Reunion Arena. It will be put on by the Ticket sports radio station and will be a flag football game with some DJs and listeners playing against each other...but here's the cool part - Troy Aikman will be quarterback of one team and Roger Staubach will be QB of the other team. Also, Drew Pearson, Tony Dorsett, Jay Novacek, and Moose Johnston will be playing in the game! How cool is that! As I heard the announcement this morning on my way to work, I began daydreaming about how incredible it would be to catch a TD pass from Troy Aikman, and then running around like crazy and jumping up to Troy Aikman for him to catch me on his shoulder and celebrate. This is when a subconscious dose of reality began to seap into my daydream, and I envisioned Aikman dodging my crazy jump like I was some kind of weirdo and then me crashing into the ground. Then I suddenly "snapped to" about 2 miles down the road...wandering how I got there. Ever get that feeling when you're driving somewhere? You have absolutely no recollection of the past 5 minutes or so...weird. Anyway, I'll continue to listen and find out how they will be selecting the lucky listeners who actually get to play...and of course try to be selected, but at a bare minimum, I'll just buy a ticket and go watch it!

My New Look

2006-01-28T17:28:00.000-08:00

Sometimes dads are called on to check out scary noises. Sometimes dads are called on to kill creepy crawly bugs. Clean up puke, nasty noses, cuts and scrapes, and dirty little potty-training-bottoms. Other times we're called on to give horseback rides, piggyback rides, or even throw little kids up in the air. If you're a dad, you know that we try to do these things with lots of enthusiasm because all of those things are important to our little children. And we know that if we don't go all out, our kids know it and always call our bluff. So when you're called upon by your children to do something for them, even when you're not up to it, or you happen to ALSO be scared of the strange noise in the dark or the extremely venomous spider no bigger than a freckle...suck it up and give it 110% anyway.

I had the opportunity today to go all out on one of my daughter's requests. Karissa had her friend, Raven, spend the night last night. This morning they came to me and told me they were going to give me a makeover. So, realizing about 4 strokes of a hair brush and a hair-clippy would probably suffice, I eagerly followed them into their beauty salon (girls' bathroom) for what I assumed would be a quick and painless procedure. However, as they began brushing through my hair, they laid out this elaborate plan they've come up with where they're pretending to be Mary-Kate and Ashley, and Raven owns the beauty salon and Karissa works for her, and they do complete makeovers. Suddenly, I get the feeling that I may be in for a long ride. My first instinct when I see the tube of lipstick approaching my mouth was get up and run as fast as I can, but I decided instead to fulfill my fatherly duties and allow them to have their fun at my expense. :) So...after spraying my hair with water, conditioner, glitter-gel, glitter (that's right, pure glitter)...a thick eye-shadow application, as well as all 10 eyeshadow colors rubbed ever so delicately and professionally into each cheekbone...a healthy application of 3 colors of lip-gloss, chocolate lipstick, and who knows what else....I got in between the cosmopolitan makeover professionals, struck my sexy Zoolander pose, and snapped this glamorous photo:

Straight Eye For the Straight Guy

2006-01-25T21:10:00.000-08:00

Last week I wrote the single largest check I have ever written to pay for anything, and it was both painful and rewarding, but mostly painful. For the first time ever, I had the delightful opportunity to take a purposeful stroll through the lovely and scenic downtown Fort Worth all the way down Main Street to the courthouse annex where I had the dubious pleasure of handing a clerk a check for an incredulous sum of money to satisfy my obligation to fund a portion of my community's schools, hospitals, staff, doughnut breaks, and beautification programs due to the simple fact that I am a property owner. We manage our own escrow account for property taxes for control as well as the little bit of interest we make versus letting some mortgage company dictate how much money we need to send them each month so they can make money off of our savings and then at year end say "Oops, we made a mistake in approximating how much your property taxes will be so you need to send us an additional $800 by tomorrow as well as an extra $100 each month, every single month this year, just in case we screw up again." HA! Wait a second...who are you calling cynical!?

Anyway, it was rewarding to be ABLE to pay that large sum of money, but it was painful to realize we now have ZERO DOLLARS saved for 2006 property taxes, due in one year. However, the pain is eased somewhat by 2 positive facts. The first is the homestead exemption that we now qualify for, thus reducing our tax burden for 2006. Secondly, we have the entire year to save for our reduced tax burden, unlike 2005. You see, when we closed in mid-March, the builder gave us his share of property taxes for Jan 1 through mid-March, but it was wrapped into the closing, not cash in hand. Therefore, we only had 9 months to try and save for a full year's worth of taxes!

A side effect from this monumental moment in life occurred Saturday morning while fighting my conscience (whom was urging me to be responsible and get out of bed to tend to our hungry children who were at the side of our bed imitating baby birds at feeding time). After paying so much for property taxes, I wanted something new to show for. I mean, I love our house and am very content with it, but this whole property tax thing made me want to invest in something nice for our house. So in between all the little birdies chirping for pancakes, eggs, bacon, or chips (?) I told Jennifer I wanted to decorate part of our house that we haven't done yet, and I want it to be a very noticable change. She starts kicking and screaming and begging me to please not spend any money decorating our house. OK, just making sure you are paying attention. Anyway, we decide to get up, eat breakfast, and load the family up for an excursion across north Fort Worth to Garden Ridge, which is a heaven-on-earth when it comes to house decorations. Can I lose my man card for saying that? Anyway, an hour and a half later and 427 reprimands to our cherubic children, we leave with a picture frame for our bathroom and curtains for our living room (it only took us 10 months!). The curtains were normally priced at $30 each, but were marked down to $5 each, so we saved $75!! After buying the sheers (?) and curtain rods, we managed to dress up our windows for a mere $50! WAHOO!

By now it's lunchtime, but our decorating craving has not been satisfied, so we stop for a break at McDonald's. Funny story - as we walk in, a young couple compliments my Brett Favre jersey. They just moved here from Wisconsin, home of the Green Bay Packers, so we exchange our mutual compliments of Favre and the Packers before I catch up with the family to order lunch. Afterwards, Jenn and the kids went to the play area, so I get our food and start towards the play area, but I'm so excited in my instant bond with the Wisconsin couple that I have to go back and talk to them more! HA! What? I'm crazy? Whatever. I find out that they have been to Lambeau Field for Packers' games many times, and I can't help feeling like I am in the presence of 2 higher beings. OK, that's a little overboard. But really, it was exciting knowing that I was talking to two people who had actually seen Brett Favre play with their own eyes. It was also fun to talk with people who were on the same wavelength in terms of Favre and the Packers. They gave me some pointers on how to get tickets to a game. Jenn realizes I may be awhile, so she comes and gets the food so our kids can eat - HA! Knowing I must part, I welcome the couple to the area (they literaly had a map on the table looking it over) and go join the family. I apologize Jenn, but during the entire lunch conversation, I was sorely distracted with dreams of Lambeau Field and Brett Favre. :) If he doesn't retire, and I think we'll know within a week or two, Jenn and I will see him play at Lambeau Field this fall.

We leave Mickey D's and go to Wal-Mart to buy some paint for our dining room and kitchen, which is enough to satisfy our decorating binge. We buy a deep red, along with some supplies, and finally make it home safely for a fun-filled weekend of painting. UGH! I'd rather someone tear my head off and throw it in my face than paint! In fact, reliving the whole painting experience this weekend is making the pit of my stomach turn in circles, so I'll skip the details. However, I'll include some before and after photos of the living room windows and the dining room/kitchen, and hopefully the photos won't be too dark. Try clicking on each one to blow it up - that might help see them better. We didn't clean up before I took the pics, so don't mind the mess. :) I'll close by saying that I really like our new decorations a lot! Our home feels cozier and while the red paint was very bold and scary at first, now that we are finished - I love it! Of course, we may wait 2 years to do anymore painting... :) Next month we will buy wall decorations for the kitchen and dining room.

LIVING ROOM WINDOWS BEFORE

LIVING ROOM WINDOWS AFTER

DINING ROOM BEFORE

DINING ROOM AFTER

KITCHEN BEFORE

KITCHEN AFTER

Just For Fun

2006-01-10T22:38:00.000-08:00

I post onhere so infrequently anymore that every time I do, I feel like I have to catch you all up on everything. So, I decided to post a new blog only 4 days after my last one with just some fun stuff for the heck of it. I'll pose a few questions, and I'd like you to answer them.

1) You have 1 week this year to take a vacation...where would you go? There are so many places I'd love to go, it's hard to decide. Definitely somewhere in Europe, and it's so hard to pick someplace other than Italy. I know I should see other parts of Europe, but I just love Italy too much. I didn't get to see the Sistene Chapel or the Leaning Tower of Pisa. An italian girl on our train tried to point out the tower as we went through Pisa, but at best we got a half-second glimpse from quite a distance away. SO I think I'd like to see those two things as well as Venice again, and then settle down in a Tuscan villa with the whole family, enjoying the simple life, and interacting with the Italian people the entire time.

2) What would you like to see anywhere in the world that you have never seen? I'd have to say the Northern Lights, Statue of Liberty, and of course Lambeau Field.

3) If you could choose one, with no negative side effects, which would it be: a pill to take that kept you from ever having to go to sleep or a pill to take that kept you from ever having to eat again? Definitely for me it would be the pill that allows you to never go to sleep.

4) If you had 10 million dollars to give away to one charity/organization, what would it be? I would donate it to a cancer research organization.

5) If you could be a doctor, what specialization would you choose? Orthopedic surgeon.

OK, this may be silly, but I thought I would do something different for a change. Now...leave a comment with your answers!

Hello Blog Strangers!

2006-01-06T20:47:00.000-08:00

Well here I am for what has become my monthly posting. I haven't kept up with this, and I've even quit reading my friends' blogs that I use to read everyday. Why? I have no idea. Maybe I'll go catch up on theirs after I finish this post. Let's see, what has happened over the past month?

I ended up winning the Fantasy Bowl for my first ever OFFL Fantasy Bowl Championship! Go Texas Thunder Thighs! We had a great Christmas and New Year's celebration. I made out pretty good! I got a double-disc DVD on the history of the Green Bay Packers, including the "Ice Bowl." I also got a cool playstation game and quite a few books, including "Favre" by Brett and his mother. I now have 6 books to read, and I know it may be surprising, but I'm already half way through my first selection - Favre! It is so fun to read about games and decisions and events of Favre through his own eyes. After I finish that book, I'll probably either start "1776" or a book by Francene Rivers called "Caleb" which hopefully will give me a better idea of who Caleb was in the Old Testament so I can pass down my son's name's meaning to him as he gets older. It's amazing how the kids can get so much for Christmas and still complain about being bored and having nothing to play with. Anyway, we all had a great time over the holiday season. Oh one more thing - we got a carpet-shampooer-steam-cleaner (?), which I used last Sunday night, and I LOVE IT! It took me 2 hours to do just the living room, but it made the carpet like brand new again...of course, the high traffic area is already beaten down again, but all the little spots are gone! WAHOO!

This paragraph is about the NFL, so if you're not interested, go ahead and skip down to the next paragraph. It came as a surprise that Mike Sherman got fired as the Green Bay coach. I thought he helped the team stick together very well through all their adversities this year. I think (and hope) he will get picked up rather quickly by another team. That move doesn't bode well for Favre's potential return next year, but I'm waiting in high hopes that he WILL return anyway! You could argue that it would be good for the team to have a veteran QB help teach Aaron Rodgers, Favre's eventual replacement, the new coach's system. However, I think physically, Favre still has several more years in him (especially with a healthy team)...but he and his family have been through sooo much recently, it would not be a surprise if he decided he was ready to focus more on his family than playing football. I will be checking the news every single day for the moment he announces his decision. I must admit, I was somewhat disappointed today to learn that Parcells extended his contract 2 more years. I've liked him less and less over the past couple of years. Oh well. This weekend will be fun! Wildcard weekend! I predict the Bucs will beat the Skins, Panthers over Giants, Pats over Jags, and Steelers over Bengals. However, none of these games will really mean anything because I think the Colts will beat the Seahawks in the Super Bowl.

One other quick football note - the Texas vs USC game was one of the best football games I have ever seen! I was so nervous from early in the 1st quarter all the way until the clock expired! I did pick Texas to win, but I felt like it would be a close game. I've only been watching college football over the past 3 years or so, when Chance Mock was QB for Texas...because he's my grandmother's sister's grandson. There is so much more emotion in a big college game than in the NFL, but I think the fact that they don't have a playoff system is absolutely ridiculous! That is why I've stayed away from college football for so long. I have yet to hear a logical argument for the way they determine the championship. Just pick the best 16-32 teams, throw them in a single-elimination playoff tree and see who comes out as the last man standing and there's your champion. I know the bowl games are important because of all the money, but you could still have bowl games in a playoff tree. Each playoff game is a bowl game if you must have bowls. And don't tell me there's too many teams because they use a playoff bracket in NCAA basketball. Anyway, I'll quit ranting about how stupid the current setup is in college football. What I don't get is that most people agree with me, but the system hasn't changed yet.

OK, this blog was not supposed to be entirely about football, but let's face it...my passion for football runs very deep. On to other things though....the most exciting news I've heard recently is that our friends from Milan, Italy - Laura & Marco, whom we met up with 2 years ago in Rome, Italy, are coming to visit us this summer at our house for 2 weeks!! I've really talked up my "Kirkburger" pretty big, so I hope they won't be disappointed. :) They went to Berlin over New Year's and we just received a postcard from them today - Thanks Laura & Marco! It will be a fun experience! They may decide to wait a long time to have children after spending so much time with ours! HA!

Work is going well, but we're approaching a very busy time of year. Hopefully I won't have to work late too many nights. Our director of Marketing has been in California all week working with our biggest brokers on an exciting deal. They bought another advisor's book of business ($90 million) who is retiring to the Hawaiin islands, so Jackie went to help them transfer everything over. We should get a meaningful portion of those assets, maybe half, which would increase our revenues by $450,000 per year!!! Our current assets under management are $160 million, so that would push us over the $200 million mark! Awesome!

It's late Friday night and I think I'm about to go to bed. Not much is planned for the weekend - watch some football, play with the kids, help my school friend from St. Lucia (Carribean) move some furniture from her old apartment to her new one, and that's about it. I feel sorry for my friend, Lua. We went through our MBA together and she was looking for a job here when her visa was about to expire, so she had to hurry up and find ANY job to extend her visa...so she's managing a Waffle House and absolutely hates it! She can't find dependable staff, so she has to work double shifts all the time filling in for people who don't show up or quit after 3 days. If you know of any job down here or even in Wichita Falls that she could do, let me know. Her boyfriend is still in Wichita Falls going to MSU, so she'd be happy to move back if she found a job. Also, a few things to keep in your prayers - Jennifer's back has been hurting her pretty bad, Kylie is sick (again) and could have asthma, and my grandpa is in the hospital with a bad case of pneumonia. He wasn't doing very good at first, but has been showing signs of improvement the past couple of days, so hopefully he is on the road to recovery - at his age and condition, it could be very serious.

Have a great weekend and make sure you leave comments!

Texas Thunder Thighs

2005-12-18T19:48:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting here all fat and sassy in my recliner watching the Sunday Night Football game, feeling somewhat nostalgic and contented. You see, I have played in the same fantasy football league since 1993, and a few moments ago, my running back scored the winning touchdown for my fantasy team in the semifinals, making next week my first ever trip to the highly coveted Fantasy Bowl. I have made the playoffs a few times in my 13 years, but never the Fantasy Bowl. Ahhh...what a nice feeling! I'd love to bring home the trophy next week!!

It's been quite awhile since I've posted on here. I don't even keep up with everyone else's blog anymore. Sorry guys! I want to get back to focusing on the game, so I'll make this quick and random -

I downloaded the full Diana Krall "Christmas Songs" CD from iTunes and I love it! If you enjoy jazz, this is a must have CD! She's a great singer and piano player and it's fun to hear her "skat".

Our 10th year wedding anniversary is next March. Jenn will still be nursing, so we won't take a big trip or anything then, but we're thinking about maybe going to New York next Octoberish. The perfect trip would be to enjoy New York, maybe take a side trip to Niagara Falls one day and then fly to Green Bay Sunday morning in time for a Green Bay home game at Lambeau Field to see Brett Favre in person, then fly home Sunday night. It is still uncertain as to whether Brett Favre will retire or not this year. I sure hope not....

We watched Love Actually again last night - and I'm comfortable enough with my masculinity to admit that I love that movie without any regard to what others may think. HA! Especially the writer and the girl from Portugal - that is awesome! Hugh Grant rocks too!

I'd like to watch more Christmas movies this week. All I've seen so far is Polar Express, which I highly recommend. I like Santa Claus 2, National Lampoon's Christmas, and of course Charlie Brown's Christmas. What are some of YOUR favorite Christmas movies?

Home Sweet Home

2005-11-27T21:26:00.000-08:00

Well, we had a good visit in Wichita Falls with friends and family, but it was sooo nice to get back home. I am so thankful for our home and I'm glad we love it so much. We've been here over 8 months now and it truly is home. The most relaxing thing in the world is to plop down in my recliner at home with my family. I've never been much of a TV-watcher, but over the past 8 months that has begun to change a little. This, I'm sure, has a lot to do with why I've gained 15 pounds since moving here! Yikes! I have finally reached a weight that I feel will keep me motivated to improve my overall health. I have been looking into the South Beach diet, but I really don't believe in dieting. I know they can help you jumpstart weight-loss, or teach you how to eat better, so I'm not going to say diets are bad. I just think there is no substitute for exercise, increased water consumption, and sensible eating. I heard a comedian say that with all the liposuction and stomach-stapling surgery and everything else, people will do anything but diet and exercise to lose weight. HA! Anyway, I didn't mean to chase that rabbit. I've been thinking that I need to lose about 30 pounds, but now it's more like 40-45 pounds!! Wish me luck!

We finally feel "plugged in" at church. We have a GREAT small group that meets every Sunday night. Two of the guys in the group also work downtown, so I've had lunch with both of them and I'm sure we'll do that often - I hope so anyway! We finally got to meet the pastor last Sunday. He went to Dallas Theological Seminary with our pastors from Grace Church in Wichita Falls.

I'd rather lick my armpit than go Christmas shopping. My wife is so organized and motivated to get it finished early, but I'm so mentally challenged in that area, I know it's frustrating for her. To my credit though, trying to buy the right gifts for our four children without buying too much for one or too little for another seems to resemble the organization efforts of distributing aid to thousands of Katrina victims!

This Friday at work, the owner of our company is going to give all of us debit cards as sort of a Christmas bonus. He's letting the girls all go to the mall together until 12:30 and then the guys get to go to the mall together until 4 or 5. That should be fun!

Overused Cliches

2005-11-01T22:40:00.000-08:00

Do you have a phrase that drives you crazy if you hear it? Something like - when someone asks what day it is, you tell them, but then they have to add "all day long" to it? That always makes me roll my eyes and think "that is stupid". Or when people pronounce Target like it's some European designer shop or something. Well, I think I've discovered the most overused cliche. It is somewhat fascinating, yet highly annoying, to realize just how often this cliche is used. Maybe it's just because I've grown to hate it so much, so now it stands out blaringly obvious to me. Like when the only time you hit your finger on things is when it has a sore. Or when all of a sudden you notice how half of all vehicles are a certain color and style. White truck, red car, etc. Anyway...the most overused cliche is "at the end of the day." I mostly hear this while watching CNBC or Apprentice, so I think it's probably just a business cliche. It is used to minimize the events of a day or a project and focus on the end result. Makes complete sense, I have no problem with the logic or usage of the cliche. Other than the frequency. I'm thinking of putting together a top 10 list of overused phrases/cliches that are really bothersome. Please, leave me a comment with one or more overused phrases/cliches that you can think of!! :)

I'm getting pumped about NASCAR this weekend! Especially since Carl Edwards won last week and is now in 4th. That would be awesome to see him win again in Texas! The only bad thing about the race on Sunday is that it starts at 2:50pm, and the Packers are actually going to be on tv at 3pm this week! I will just record it and watch it Sunday night instead of the Sunday night game.

The Cowboys are doing great this year. Despite a few late in the game mishaps. Looking at the NFC, I really think their only real threat is the New York Giants. I think they could handle Atlanta...and Carolina is still so overrated. I'm going to jump out on a limb here - it would be difficult to convince me that the Cowboys don't have as good of a shot as any other NFC team to make it to the Super Bowl. I know that's a big statement, but considering their competition, I think they could do it. It would not be easy, and I'm assuming no injuries or episodes of stupidity, but from what I've seen so far, at this point I pretty much expect them to win against all of the NFC teams. Go Cowboys!

The acquisition fell through at work. That's good and bad. Good because that was going to be a LOT of work for at least 6 months. Bad because it was going to present some great opportunities, both for myself and for the company.

A friend at work gave me 6 free tickets and a parking pass to the Shrine Circus on November 18th. They are box seats, and we'll be the only ones in the box! How cool is that?! So the kids can be silly and disruptive, and they won't be bothering anyone! That was very cool of my friend to do that - it cost over $100 for all of that! She said her and her husband donate to the Shriner's (?) Club every year by buying a bunch of circus tickets and then giving them away to people who have kids. We all know there's no shortage of kids in OUR household! HA!

Leave a comment and HAVE A GREAT DAY!!

Costume Ideas

2005-10-25T23:31:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post before I go to bed. I just caught up on all the blogs I read and thought I'd pose a question to all you bloggers out there in blogland. In my last post, I requested ideas for my Halloween costume for my office party. However, I received no responses. So, I will list a few ideas and ask you to give your opinion on what I should do.

1)Money Launderer - Get a large mesh laundry bag that I can cut holes for arms and legs and then fill it up with fake money.

2)Dead (or severely injured) Hockey Player - I have a complete uniform, but also attach half of a puck to my forehead with a lot of fake blood and cuts and bruises, etc.

3)Peeping Tom - Put a cardboard box on my head, cut out a window and make some little curtains, and then wear a trenchcoat with a name tag that says "Tom".

4)Holy Cow - Buy a cow costume and then wear a halo and wings with it.

5)Smartass - Dress up like a donkey and wear a graduation cap and carry a diploma.

6)Wear blue scrubs with cotton attached to look like clouds and carry a water gun. When asked what I am, respond "partly cloudy with a chance of showers" and squirt the person with the water gun

7)Proctologist - Wear scrubs and a stethoscope, smear chocolate pudding on the shirt and let it dry. Wear a nametag that says "Dr. Ben Dover, Proctologist". Just had another thought - I could wear a dreadlock wig and be Pokemon - a Jamaican Proctologist!!

What do you think? There are prizes, and everyone is dressing up, so I want to be creative and make it fun! Luckily, I'm losing my voice, so I won't have to karaoke!!

I'm getting excited about next weekend! I'm going to the NASCAR races!! I have tickets for the entire weekend, but I will probably just go to the Truck races and Busch practice Friday night, and then the Nextel race on Sunday. I'd like to see the Nextel qualifying on Saturday, but that might be a bit too much time away from home for one weekend. :) I'd really like to see Carl Edwards win it all, but I think I'll just be happy if Tony Stewart doesn't win. Jeff, are you going??

Conglomeration of Updates

2005-10-20T22:26:00.000-07:00

It's been 17 days since my last post, and I am finally updating. I'll just start off with a brief rundown of my day, and I'll try to stay away from economics and sports today. I was running late this morning so I left for work (after taking Karissa to school and coming back home to finish getting ready) without eating breakfast. Jenn picked me up at noonish and we went to Bennigan's. It took them 15 minutes and 37 seconds to bring us our food, so we got it for free. They have this program now where they start a stopwatch after they take your order and if it takes longer than 15 minutes, lunch is on them. We felt a little bad for our waitress and offered to still pay since she was real close, but she insisted that it was free, so we thanked her and left a nice tip. Back at the office a broker from Ohio arrives, but I lucked out and go to miss out on all the afternoon meetings, aside from a quick little 15 minute exchange regarding his portfolios' performance numbers. Just as I'm finally starting to get some things accomplished, Jenn calls to see if I'll be able to leave at 5pm so I can make it to Math Night at Karissa's school. Realizing it was already 5pm, I start winding down and finally get out of there in time to pick up a pizza on the way home, scarf 2 pieces down, and then off to Math Night. Aside from being very unorganized, confusing, crowded, and extremely silly, it was an ok thing, mostly because the kids probably enjoyed it. I guess. They just went from table to table working out math problems while the parent helped them. I still don't understand the reason for having it, but I wanted to support Karissa and her school activities, so I went and didn't complain until I got home and told Jenn how silly the whole thing was. We put the kids to bed and then started Survivor. Half way through, our electricity goes out. This just happened a month or two ago and it stayed out until around 10am the next morning!! I drove around in the van and discovered that half of Saginaw was without power due to a fallen power line. I was thrilled about this, since everything I veg out to/with is electronic. However, it did allow Jenn and I to spend some time talking about stuff, so it wasn't all bad. Finally around 11pm, the electricity came back on, just as I had resigned to the idea that once again, I'd be taking a cold shower in the dark tomorrow morning.

I had some terrible news last night. A good friend of mine just pled guilty to an embezzlement charge and now will most likely face prison time. I won't go into detail here, but it has made Jenn and I both sick to our stomachs all day thinking about it. This guy is one of the last guys on earth you'd expect something like this from.

We have a very diverse group of people at work, in terms of spiritual beliefs/disbeliefs. We have me, the self-proclaimed "knowledge SEEKER", the agnostic college student, the 7th Day Adventist, a northerner whom is Catholic and democratic :), and the new, gung-ho, cliche-dropping, christian buzzword dropping, gullible believer who has not yet come up with his own thoughts on anything. Not that I'm judgmental or critical! HA! I admit, I struggle with that, and I'm not proud of it. Anyway, I had a brief conversation today with the agnostic and the new christian. It was an interesting struggle, trying to tame the grandiose cliches and buzzwords from the new christian and respect the agnostic's views while also putting in my two cents occasionally. The new christian couldn't understand how someone could NOT believe God exists. While I sincerely hope the agnostic finds faith, I found myself defending him against the new christian's onslaught of church phrases attempting to convert the agnostic right then and there. HA! The new christian had the bible and faith as his basis, but I had to explain to him as politely as I could that he is assuming the bible is a credible book, and he is assuming there is a God to have faith in. Neither of these assumptions are true to the agnostic's beliefs, so the new christian, therefore, has no meaningful evidence to provide to the agnostic. I personally don't think there's any way to "logically" prove the existence of God on strictly a cerebral level - the only thing that makes it logical and believable is faith. Without an inkling of faith, I don't think anyone can ever be convinced there is a God, definitely. Anyway, it was a very interesting conversation.

I can't wait for the weather to get cool enough to use our fireplace! I need to buy some firewood and a rack to store it on outside. Do you think it would be ok to store next to an external brick wall? I don't want to get termites!!

At work we are about to acquire up to $200million in assets. I think $100-125million is more likely, so it will almost DOUBLE our assets under management!! This will be a HUGE undertaking and we are looking over resumes now to hire 4 more people to assist us in the acquisition. I have never interviewd people before, so I'm actually looking forward to that a little. I'm hoping that with my increased responsibility, additional monetary compensation will follow. :) There's also a chance I may go up to Philadelphia for a few days, where the company is located that we are buying assets from. That would be fun!

I only have about 35 pages remaining in the Biography of John Nash and then I can start my book on the theological explanation of evil. I also had a friend give me a book titled "Raising A Modern Day Knight". It looks pretty good. Have any of you fathers out there read it? It's about a father's role in leading his son to authentic manhood.

Next Friday night we have the office Halloween party. I'm not sure what I want to dress up as...do you have any costume ideas?? Well, hopefully it won't be 17 days until my next novel, I mean post. I do enjoy reading your comments, so please leave me one! ?

A Tribute To My Hero, Brett Favre

2005-10-03T22:55:00.000-07:00

I sit here in my recliner, heartbroken and dejected after yet another dramatic and painful Brett Favre comeback that falls short by one play. Tonight, the Green Bay Packers traveled to Carolina for a Monday Night Football matchup. Going in to the game, I had the feeling that we may see some Favre-magic tonight. If you've seen him play then you know what magic I'm referring to. The Packers were 0-3 going in to the game against a 1-2 team whom many bandwagoners predicted to go to the Super Bowl this year. Favre always performs well on MNF and he is hungry for a win like never before. Never in his career (which he has not missed a game since 1992) has he started out 0-3. After a rough first half full of Green Bay injuries, the Panthers were up 23-7, and then went up 26-7 midway through the 3rd quarter. Then something happened. Something a defensive player should never do. A defensive lineman got to Favre right after he unleashed a pass, and tweaked Favre's ankle enough to make him cringe and limp. Those who weren't familiar with Favre would have thought he'd gingerly limp to the sideline for at least a play or two. I knew better. I immediately made the comment to my wife - "He's about to throw a touchdown, watch this." Favre didn't go to the sideline, he gathered his team back up for another huddle and gave them their instructions for the next play. The pocket collapsed behind him and a huge hole opened up, and on his freshly twisted ankle, Favre scrambled 12 yards for a first down. Three plays later, he hit Donald Driver in the end zone for a 26 yard TD pass! It was no surprise to me, but just like Favre does when he scores, I couldn't help get giddy, and I couldn't help but smirk at the Panthers, knowing full well what was probably about to happen.

Favre is THE ULTIMATE competitor. You see, when Brett is hurt, mad, or emotionally distressed, something from deep within gives him the ability to overcome physical and emotional pain and he becomes a maniac on the field. Looking back just over the last year and a half alone, we see this time after time. Literally the day after his father passes away, he goes crazy on MNF and leads his team to victory, completing some 4-5 TDs and throwing for some 400 yards, give or take. A short time later, his brother-in-law was tragically killed in an ATV accident, and a week after that his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. How did Favre respond? He turned a 1-4 Packer team into division champions and playoff contenders. Most recently, his parents' house was completely washed up in the aftermath of Katrina. So far this year, 6 points is all that separates them from being 3-1 instead of 0-4.

Tonight, after the third quarter Donald Driver TD mentioned above (which gave me my 4th win in fantasy football!), that started a comeback, down from 19 points. However, with a minute left to play in the game, Panthers only leading 32-29, Donald Driver misses a short pass that would convert a 4th down around the Carolina 35 yard line. Worst case scenario, with that first down, they could kick a field goal and send it to overtime. But, no such luck. My stomach is still sick from this defeat. They have lost the last 3 games by 3pts, 1pt, and 2pts, respectively.

Even the naysayers said before preseason that offseason player movements made Green Bay a weaker team, but I sure didn't jump on that bandwagon. Sure, they lost a few good players, but you can never take anything away from that Favre-magic. Even with the loss of his primary receiver, Javon Walker, and the 4 key players that were injured tonight, even with the makeshift line and backup players, he still lead his team to a near comeback win over the team that so many have proclaimed to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl this year. But, I know it makes his job a lot more difficult, and admittedly, a weaker team, but I will never count the ol' beat up Packers out of any game. Bring on Indianapolis, San Diego, Pittsburgh...because with Favre, truly anything can happen.

I know you people who don't care about football or Favre just think this is another boring ol' blog by Kirk, but at least it's not about economics or work, right? I know you may think I'm just fantasizing about some football character whom I over-sensationalize...but ask me if I care. HA! Everybody should have a hero, and Brett Favre is mine. After the game tonight, there were more Panthers (including the Panther coach) than Packers that hugged Favre and congratulated him on his performance and professionalism, and unbelievable determination to not give up, almost winning what would have been one of his greatest comebacks ever. I have never talked to anyone who didn't like Brett Favre. You just have to like him. When his wife was going through chemo treatment, he shaved his head to be like her. You can see it in his eyes that he loves what he does, and you can see it in his team and opponents how much everyone respects him. I recall one game several years ago that he got tackled and dislocated his finger. He ran to the sidelines, gave his hand to the medical staff and turned his head while they yanked his finger back into place - and then he immediately went back in the game and played the rest of the game! Last year he suffered a concussion and the coach took him out, not knowing he had a concussion yet. A few plays later, Favre convinced his coach that he was ok and he went back in the game and immediately threw a touchdown. Unbelievable.

I will wrap this tribute to Brett Favre up now. I just have to voice my feelings after such a dramatic loss. Favre, you still rock! The silver lining is that Green Bay happens to be in a weak division, and even at 0-4, they're only 1 game behind the division leader! HA! I'm not giving up on Favre and the Packers.

Brett Favre. Resilient. Focused. Family-centered. God Loving. Determined. Persevering. Self-confident. Uplifting. Encouraging. Competitor. Winner. Champion. My hero.

Caleb knows football

2005-09-25T19:18:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's only been a few days and I'm already blogging again! I promise I won't bore you with work stuff or economics. HA! I'm really bummed because I have to go back to work tomorrow and I'm a little nervous that we may have some mistakes from last week while I was out. My trader called me 5 times while I was at the hospital!! Oh well, it's only peoples' money! HA!

It feels good though sitting here in my recliner, legs kicked up, Sunday Night football game on my new TV in our new entertainment center, Dr. Pepper nearby, and my laptop in my lap...and oh yeah, winning BOTH of my fantasy football games! Also, after all of our company from the weekend left, I spot cleaned the carpet tonight and it looks a little better, so I feel a little more relaxed. Spots on our carpet drive me insane, which by the way, is not very convenient with 4 kids now. I think our next meaningful purchase will be a steam cleaner. Being anal about things can be very good at times, but other times it can drive you crazy.

Caleb watched some of the Cowboys game today with me, so I have officially introduced him to the NFL. I'll give him another few days to get settled in, and then I'll start working on his precision passing and distance. He already can throw his arms up and scream, so I think he's been working on his touchdown celebration dance. Such an overachiever already!

Thanks to Kelly and Alicia for stopping by this evening. It was good to see the both of you again! Alicia, I'll be waiting for your blog address. :) Kelly you don't look prego. Hopefully my directions to Joe's Crab Shack didn't send you to Mexico or somewhere else!

Last week I finished a novel. I don't read books a lot, but I enjoy them when I do. I read a lot of news and sports and economic commentaries, but it may take me 3-6 months to read a book. This most recent book was "The Broker" by John Grisham. I vowed a few years ago to never read a Grisham book again because his endings are so weak. He does good with story and character development, and even builds a good climax, but his endings always leave me feeling like I just wasted the last 3 months. I decided to read "The Broker" because it is set in Italy. I really enjoyed that aspect, but the actual plot was not very impressive. I think Grisham just loves Italy and wanted to write a book about it. Can't blame him. Anyway, now I'm going to try and hurry up and finish the biography of John Nash (the guy in the movie, A Beautiful Mind). I started reading it in June 2003 when Kylie was born. It has been a slow read, mostly because I would go 3-4 months without reading it and then pick it up again. It's been a very interesting book, but when it delves into some of his mathematical and economical theories, or details some his delusional experiences, it gets a little hairy and you have to read (study) some paragraphs 2-3 times. I only have about 60 pages left, so I hope to finish it in the next few weeks. One motivation I have to finish the book is a new book I bought that I'm anxious to start reading. I say new book, but it was actually written in 1978, and I bought it from someone over ebay. It is called "The Roots of Evil" by Norman L. Geisler. It's a christian philosophy book on evil, or maybe it sounds better to say it is a theistic explanation/exploration of evil. People always ask, 'Why do bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people?' This book does a great job of explaining evil. One may say, "If God created all things, and evil is a thing, then God created evil." The book proposes that evil is not a "thing", but a depravation of good. A blind man does not have blindness, but he is instead deprived of sight. It's the absence of something. Another topic the book explores is why God doesn't stop evil, or why he allows it. One could say "God won't let anything bad happen to my spouse, so if I throw this knife at her, God will alter it's course so that it will miss her." Obviously, this is silly, because God isn't in the business of breaking the laws of physics. Of course he can, but can you imagine a world where God constantly intervened against the laws of physics? Anyway, I just realized some of you are probably bored by now, so I'll quit. The book explores many other theistic ideas of evil, and I think it will be very enlightening, so I must hurry and finish the biography of John Nash!! I think it's important to understand evil and where God fits in because it's so easy when times get rough to question why God is allowing something bad to happen.

I've found myself, once again, looking forward to watching Survivor and Apprentice. I think they're both kind of silly to watch, but for some reason, they are the only two shows I watch regularly. Donald Trump is a dork.

Twas the night before...

2005-09-21T21:40:00.000-07:00

I fully expect that all of you have stopped checking my blog. It has been 16 days since I have last posted. What can I say...I'm not the internet junky I once was. My level of internet-addiction has downgraded from "junky" to "moderate surfer". However, thanks to Josh's comment and my wife's suggestion, I am finally posting a new message. We'll just see how many of you leave a comment!

It is 11pm, the night before we "induct" our son into the Hall of Life. Moments ago, I ask my wife, "So...what are you thinking you'd like to name our son?" I got a laugh and a "I have no idea." I have four names I like: Colin, Michael, Alexander, and Zachary, but I don't know which one I like as a first name and/or middle name. Maybe we'll put the names in a hat and just draw. HA! I guess it may be interesting to some people to finally find out what we will end up naming him. Others probably are rolling their eyes in disbelief at how ridiculous it is to not have a name picked out!

Today was absolutely the busiest and most stressful day at work. I sat at my desk from 8:30 this morning until 8:30 tonight, only getting up a time or two for a brief moment. I knew going in this morning we would most likely hedge our high yield positions with some inverse high yield moves (not that anyone cares, but that allows us to reduce our high yield bond exposure without actually having to sell bonds, thus creating a taxable event), however, our forecasting model this morning showed a significant weakness in equities, so we had to scale back some of our large cap and international postions as well. For those of you still tuned in, I'll give a very brief rundown of what this entails. We have about 900 accounts ($145million) spread out among 25 different custodians, mutual fund companies, and annuity companies. Each one of these 25 companies has between 2 and 10 different allocation styles. Today we made between 2 and 5 exchanges in each of these allocations across all 25 companies. Sound like a lot? Well, it is. My portfolio manager (and boss) gives me new "targets" for each allocation and then I have to decipher what he's wanting to do, calculate the most efficient way to buy and sell to arrive at the new targets, and then delegate these moves to my operations staff, HOPING there are no mistakes along the way. A significant amount of these moves today had an early cutoff of 12pm, so we were racing frantically to get them done, and then some other funds had 2:30 cutoffs, and then the rest at the normal close of market (3pm). My boss was coming in frequently to see how things were going and questioning whether or not we'd finish them all. It was very stressful. A HUGE amount of work to do in so little time. Well, we did not finish, but completed about 85% of them. My Trader will finish the remainder tomorrow while I am at the hospital. Anyway...I know I've lost Alyssa by now so I'll start a new paragraph.

Alyssa, it's still boring, so skip to the next paragraph. If anyone is interested, the reason we reduced our market exposure is actually the result of many things. I personally think the impending hurricane and the 52nd straight rate hike (ok, maybe not that many) is what sent our model over the edge. The last report I saw was that approximately 70% of our oil refineries in the Gulf were closed/evacuated, which obviously reduces oil supply further. Just when we think we are seeing relief in gasoline prices, there is renewed fear of rising oil/gasoline prices. Inflation has also been a recent buzzword in the market commentaries. Barges are still moving slowly along the Mississippi river, straining the supply of grains and other commodities, thus increasing prices (inflation). There's also the fear by some of tax increases to fund the New Orleans recovery, despite the opposing "claims" by the government. It's a little surprising to see Bush creating a "big government" to help control the recovery. A little ironic for a republican who is such a big believer in entrepeneurialism. I love our president and I support the idea of recovery, but I don't know why he hasn't pushed more for privatization. Has anyone heard of any municipal bonds being issued yet?? Anyway...I just pray that hurricane Rita weakens and stays in the southern Gulf, missing as many refineries as possible.

I spent all weekend putting together our new entertainment center for our new 36" tv and surround sound system. I still need to install the rear speakers, but I haven't felt motivated to climb up in the attic and fish wires yet. I have thoroughly enjoyed the TV though! Football is great on the bigger screen, and I know hockey will be too!! With my son!!

Speaking of, it is 11:40pm and we are getting up at 4am to go to the hospital, so I better sign off and get in bed. Maybe Jenn and I can decide on a name...

Hope all is well and I hope you all leave comments!

My 30th Birthday

2005-09-05T23:25:00.000-07:00

Saturday was my 30th birthday. I feel so old saying I am 30 years old, but I know 30 is still pretty young. My weight gain and increase in gray hair is actually more troubling than turning 30. I had a great day Saturday! Jenn and I and the girls woke up and drove to Wichita Falls in time for my fantasy football draft at noon. It was another fun and successful draft. I've played in this same league since 1993, but I'm the only one who remains from back in the day, besides my good friend Wendell, who joined the league in 1995. However, over the past 4 years or so, we've had a good return of the same guys each year, and now we finally have a core group of 8 guys (thanks to our addition of Jeff Trimble this year!) who play year after year. This is great because we are building a history and legacy, and lots of fierce rivalries! To those who have never played, you make think it sounds silly, but it's a lot of fun! At the draft, Wendell brought a birthday cake and party blowers and a HUGE party hat for me to wear. It was a fun time!

After the draft, we went to Brian/Kay Chance's house to see them and the Hitchcock's. Dean & Tanya finally came back to the US (now in St. Louis) after being in Turkey for 2 years. It was great to see them and spend some time visiting with them. It was nice to catch up with the Chance's too. I had hoped that Marina and Lucas would have come with them, but they stayed in St. Louis. I was really wanting to hug Marina's neck, after her very scary "bleeding on the brain" incident last year. I guess we'll just have to visit them in St. Louis soon! Tanya put forth a very thoughtful effort in picking out an NFL baby outfit for our son. I guess the more traditional thing would be to pick out a team that you think the recipient supports, but Tanya bought a St. Louis outfit. HA! We razzed her a little, but in all seriousness, I love it! When our son wears his St. Louis Rams outfit, we will think of the Hitchcock's! Really, it means much more than if it were just some Dallas Cowboys outfit or even a Brett Favre outfit! Thanks Tanya (and Dean)!!

We ditched the kids and the 6 of us went to Texas Roadhouse for a nice dinner. I had never eaten there before -it was good! Brian went to the "bathroom", and then coincidentally, about 5 minutes later, about 7-8 servers walk up to our table and bring a saddle on a stand for the birthday to sit on. I tried to refuse, but you never win in those situations, so I played along and sat on the saddle. Of course, I look around and see the very crowded place looking at me as it is being announced that I just turned 30, and lo and behold, there are 2 people I know sitting at the table right next to us, and someone else on the other side of us. Somewhat embarassing, but it was fun.

We went back to the Chance's house and played Scene It the TV version. How Tanya could look at a big pink blog (literally) and know that was Tom Hanks is still a mystery. It was a fun game! Afterwards, the guys watched the TIVO'd A&M game, and with 2 seconds left, and the game on the line, with Clemson lining up for a potential game winning field goal...the recorded program STOPS!! HA! Brian had planned for the possibility though, so we were able to see A&M lose on another recording. Very good game though! I'm sorry for Brian, but I bet a guy at work $25 that UT would beat A&M at the end of the season...so it's fun in that respect to see A&M lose. Anyway, I had a great birthday and have my wife, the Chance's, Hitchcock's, and the OFFL to thank! THANKS!!

Sunday we had a family party for myself and my cousin, Paige, who turned 23 on Sunday. My uncle cooked some VERY GOOD filet mignons. Then today, I went and drolled in Circuit City for an hour, and when I returned, Jenn and the girls had decorated our dining room for a Happy Unbirthday party for me!! It was a very nice surprise!! Since we were busy with other stuff on Saturday, I didn't really get to see the kiddos much on my birthday, so itwas fun to have a little party today. Thanks!!

Probably one day this week I will be using my birthday money to help purchase a new TV. I would love to get the 52" widescreen that is onsale for $900, but I'd rather not go into debt, so I think I will get the 36" RCA. It will be a huge jump up from our current 25" that we've had for almost 10 years! I should have it in time for the first week of NFL football!!

We're starting to get more and more excited about the arrival of our son. Last week, we decided to name him Zachary Alexander, but now we've decided on Colin Michael. Next week, it could be something completely different. I think we got so burned out trying to think of names, that now it's hard to latch on to something we like. Maybe we'll go to the hospital with a few in mind, and when we see him we'll know what his name should be. We're crossing our fingers for next Thursday as the "induction day". If not then, it will be the 20th...unless he comes sooner on his own. Well this was quite a long post...

Real Quick Before I Go To Bed

2005-08-28T22:27:00.000-07:00

Hey, just thought I'd post a quick blog since it's been so long. I'm sure you guys stop checking after awhile. We went to church this morning and I instantly loved our pastor even more when he proclaimed, "We are against legalism!". We also went to small group tonight at church and had a good time. The only downside to all this is that we literally drove 80-85 miles today, just going to church and back twice!! That's $12-13 every Sunday for gas! Oh well...small price to pay for proper theology and fellowship, right?

We saw Million Dollar Baby Friday night. It was very good until the end. I just don't see the point in ending that way. Someone slipped and told me what happened, so I was expecting it, but it really disturbed me. It was an unneccesary ending to a potentially GREAT movie. I think I'm just especially sensitive to death right now for some reason. Our old friend, Tori, really got to me, and I even grieved over the 49er player from Ft. Worth who died last week whom I didn't even know! It is also sickening to know that in a matter of hours, people will die in New Orleans. Even if I didn't have a car, I think I'd find SOME WAY to get the heck out of dodge! Anyway, I'm not depressed, I think I've just become more sensitive to death.

Well, I'm less than a week away from turning the big 30, and probably less than 3 weeks away from being the proud father of my first (and only) son! WAHOO! OK I'm probably forgetting some stuff, but I'm going to bed now, so I'll blog more later. And sorry to disappoint you Jeff, but I don't have any fun happy hours or partying scheduled for this week. HA!

Funday Friday

2005-08-19T07:28:00.000-07:00

We're two weeks away from two significant events in my life. The 1st is my 30th birthday - wow, I'm getting old, but I still feel like a kid. The 2nd is the 2005 OFFL draft! This is the Our Fantasy Football League (OFFL-prononuced "awful") that I have been in year after year since 1993. OK, I'm a nerd, whatever! Anyway, draft day is the biggest day of the year. We all get together and have a live draft, choosing the NFL players that we think will take us to the top and earn an OFFL Fantasy Bowl championship. Well, last year I made about a 20 minute DVD for the draft - The OFFL Preseason Show. It was pretty funny, and I think everyone enjoyed it. Because it takes so long to put together, I almost decided not to do it again this year. But...as it gets closer to the draft, I just can't resist the temptation. So last night I began my creative brainstorming. I think this one will be even funnier than last year's, if I'm able to pull it off technologically. I have some neat special effects ideas...hopefully I'll be able to do it. Look out Jeff...

I'm sorry, that was probably boring to read. Once my creative juices start flowing, it consumes my mind 24 hours/day, so I guess that's all I have to talk about right now. Tonight we are having happy hour with my coworkers and their spouses. Jenn is coming for the first time, so it should be fun! After happy hour, we're going to Four Day Weekend, an improv comedy club, similar to the show, "Who's Line Is It Anyway". Jenn and I went a few months ago and it was HILARIOUS! We should all have a good time. OK, I better get to work.

Do You Want To Go To A Pants Party?

2005-08-10T22:22:00.000-07:00

I normally dismiss the idea of typing a new blog because I haven't spent any time thinking of what to say, but I'm throwing caution to the wind tonight. This will be a brief post, since I need to go to bed. It is midnight now. I stayed up later than normal last night, and shortly after I went to sleep, Cara decided she'd throw up the rest of the wee morning hours. She has fully recovered today, but I only got 2-2.5 hours of sleep last night. OK, here's a few brief notes:

A lady from Christ Chapel Bible Church called Jenn out of the blue on Monday and they talked for 45 minutes! Amy, she told Jenn about the Trinity Church (?), but it is closer to Hulen mall, which may actually be a little further then CCBC...or at least not any closer. Anyway, after reading my blog mafia's comments suggesting we just suck it up and go wherever it is that we like...after Jenn's conversation with this lady (interesting the timing of this phone call, wouldn't you say?)...and after reconciling with myself that no matter how long my list of pros/cons may get with regard to settling for a religious churchianity church (excuse my sarcasm) as opposed to a well grounded bible church, nothing will top my preference for biblical teaching. So, we will join a small group at CCBC (similar to a k-group, for you Grace folks) and begin attending CCBC again. I look forward to attending this coming Sunday!

Tomorrow night is the first BRETT FAVRE preseason game!! I can't wait to watch it! Jenn and I talked again tonight about whether or not we could work things out to go see Favre play at Lambeau Field. Even if it means we take OUR 1-2 month old Favre with us...that would be too cool! I must admit, I'm pessimistic, but I don't give up easy!

I watched Anchorman last night. It was pretty funny, but overall, I was somewhat disappointed. I think I expected it to be side-splitting HILARIOUS. Don't get me wrong, I laughed quite a few times, but it still wasn't as funny as I had expected it to be. The guy who played the retarded weatherman (Steve Carell, also in Bruce Almighty and The Office) definitely made the movie funnier. He's not the same style as Jim Carey, but he's the only other guy besides Carey (I can think of) who can make you laugh without even having to say anything. By the way, the title of this blog is a line from Anchorman that Steve Carell says as a pickup line. He just doesn't understand what he's trying to say...HA! OK, I'm going to bed.

6 More Weeks Until Favre Arrives!

2005-08-03T22:51:00.000-07:00

Well here it is, 1am and I'm just now starting my blog. There's so much to catch up on when I finally get to sit down and cruise the net! Work has been VERY busy the past week and a half, but should start slowing down in about another week or so. Tomorrow evening three brokers are coming down from California for a little "educate and entertain" session. It will be fun! They're coming for business, but we will have plenty of fun. Together, they have around $60 million with us, which is a little less than half of our total assets under management. Tomorrow night, me, JAckie (dir.of Marketing) and Byron (owner)will go pick them up at the airport, get them checked into their hotel, and then go eat at a nice restaurant. A nice juicy steak with a fine glass of sangiovese should do the trick for me! Afterwards, we'll either go to Four Day Weekend (improv comedy show) or to Pete's Dueling Pianos bar for some drinks and laughter. Friday morning they will trickle in to our office whenever they want, and mingle with the office until lunch. We'll take them to a restaurant downtown and then come back for the meetings. They will pitch their new business direction with 401k's and we will convince them we can handle it from an operations, compliance, and portfolio management standpoint. I've never had to "present" to such a meaningful audience, so it will be fun and a very valuable experience. We'll see how well my presentation skills from my MBA translates into the real world. I'm not nervous, but I also know they could easily ask some questions I won't know the answer to. Anyway, they really like us a lot, so it won't be a hard sell, and it could grow our business quite significantly! At 5pm, we'll change into very casual clothes, go eat another nice dinner in the Stockyards, and then go out to Eagle Mountain Lake to stroll around on Byron's new pontoon boat. We'll float up to Kelly's, which is a lakeside sports bar with live music, food, and plenty of adult beverages. I'm looking forward to it!! One of the brokers races a car in the NASCAR division that is just below the Busch series...maybe the Winston West?? I look forward to chatting with him about that!

I'm researching TVs. I can't afford a big widescreen plasma, and I think the normal bigscreens are still too grainy and distorted for the most part...so I'm thinking about getting a 32 or 36 inch TV. It is amazing the price difference between a standard 32" and a 36"...more than double usually!! I want to pay cash, and I'm really wondering how much difference the extra 4 inches would make. I'm sure it's noticable, but the price jumps from like $300 to $800!! Our couch is a good 15 feet or so from the TV, so it needs to be big. Right now you can't read the DirecTV menus on our little 25". What do you guys think?

Today was a rollercoaster ride in the world of hockey and the future of Dallas and the Stars. Last night Mike Modano was trying to negotiate a contract with Armstrong and Hicks, but by this morning, a deal had not been reached. I checked online briefly on and off all day, just KNOWING that he would sign. Then by late afternoon, I saw that Modano had rejected the Stars' offer, and was talking to other teams. My heart sank. However, much to my relief tonight, I saw where they had FINALLY reached a 5 year deal, almost ensuring Modano would retire a Star. That is how it should be done folks. His entire 15-20 year career will be in Dallas (Minnesota before they moved to Dallas, but still the same club).

I've been spending a little time thinking about churches. We found one we like, Christ Chapel Bible Church, but it's a good 20-25 minute drive. If we only went on Sunday mornings, we could possibly make do, but we'd like to get more involved than that, especially with 4 kiddos. The bible church in Saginaw is just too down home country. There's not really any other bible churches around though, so that presents us with a dilemma. We don't like the legalism and extreme evangelism of the baptist church...we disagree with too many of the armenian Church of Christ beliefs...and really, we don't like the religious customs of any religion. We don't disagreewith all of them, we just want a church where God's Word and his grace is the main focus, as opposed to a religion full of rules and customs. This is the problem. We either have to drive a long ways to church all the time, or find a "religious" church nearby. So, I've been thinking of making a list of things we'd like, prioritizing it, and making a decision based on what gives our family the greatest good with what we have to work with. So I'll close this blog with a few things I'd include on this list, in only the order that they come to mind...I'll prioritize them later. Trimbles and Turners (and whoever else from Grace reads this), maybe you could help with some things to add to the list...as well as anyone else who may have some good ideas. Thanks!
- close proximity
- more cerebral approach to the bible (minimal storytelling, only when absolutely necessary)
- less sensationalism (developing a deeper understanding of who God is instead of just trying to stir up emotions and manipulate you)
- plenty of couples our age in our stage of life we can relate to and build a support system with
- opportunities to serve individually and as a family
- help build a solid foundation in Christ for our kids, free from guilt and confusion (as a result of measuring their level of spirituality by how well they follow rules, read their bible, and become "do-gooders" versus simply understanding grace and focusing 100% on God (not shoulds/shouldnt's) so that the fruits of the spirit can more naturally flow)

Sideways

2005-07-26T23:20:00.000-07:00

We watched this movie last night, and I thoroughly enjoyed it! I love wine, so I found that element of the movie particularly entertaining. I was quite surprised that Myles' favorite was Pinot Noir...from my understanding, that's not one of the more popular wines. I also didn't know there was a white sauvignon! Anyway, when Mia was describing why she loved wine, it was awesome! There was one point in the movie when Jennifer got up to get a drink or something, so I paused it. She was really taken back and said "You PAUSED it?!?! It's not like you'd miss anything!" Obviously, she was not amused by the movie. I loved it! It was definitely on a much different level than your typical comedy. I thought it was a REAL movie. I could have done without the big ugly overweight man running naked, but it was short lived. A few observations: when tasting various wines, they never rinsed out the glass or got a new one, they just dumped it out and poured the next wine in, even with the remaining drops of the previous wine still at the bottom of the glass. How can you scrutinize the next wine at the level Myles and Mia did if there were always traces of other wines mixed in?? Secondly, everytime Myles hit a golf ball, it was a horrible shot, not even in the same zip code as his intended target. However, when it came time to hit a ball at the people trying to play through, he hit their golf cart dead on! I can appreciate the humor in that, but it didn't go unnoticed. I thought it was very tasteful when Myles and Mia stayed the night together. They went in to her house for the night, but the camera did not follow. Darkness faded to morning light and then the camera entered Mia's house. They made their point without including a sex scene. Not that there wasn't a sex scene...who could forget that! I think that scene should be shown to 12 year old boys who pray to God to please let them see a naked woman. Wow. They'd never forget that. Anyway, I really enjoyed the movie. I laughed quite a bit. Loved the scenery. One thing I can't figure out still is why they named it Sideways? I've been searching for some deep meaning or relevance, but I come up empty. Any ideas?

I've Been Tagged

2005-07-21T21:56:00.000-07:00

Been a while, huh? Well, my wife interrupted my intense game of Madden '05 to inform me that I really need to update my blog because people tagged me or something. So, I told Brett to hang on for a minute while I answer these questions...

10 years ago today- I had been dating Jenn for 2 1/2 months and was working at a bank and about to enter my sophomore year of college. I lived at home, played racquetball all the time, and drove an obnoxious looking pickup with a lift kit, mud tires, roll bar, and KC lights.

5 years ago- Was working for Monte J White & Associates, waiting to go to Officer Training School in USAF, but my horrible shin splints prevented me from doing that!

1 year ago- Recently finished my MBA and was feverishly searching for a new career.

yesterday- Worked all day, came home to eat dinner, go swimming with the family, told Jenn I SERIOUSLY want to try to see Favre and the Pack play at Lambeau Field this year, paid some bills and went to bed.

Tomorrow- Work all day, then come home and start the weekend, doing whatever comes next. I should finish mowing, but my lawnmower dies every 15 minutes...are you supposed to put oil in those things?

5 snacks I enjoy- extra super ultra movie butter lover's popcorn with a cup of salt, anything chocolate, Velveeta & rotel, El Chico's chips and queso, fresh homemade chocolate chip cookies

5 adult beverages I enjoy- dry red wine (preferably Italian), Shiner Bock on tap, shots of Premium Wild Turkey or Crown Royal, Killian's Red, margaritas

5 bands I know the lyrics to- Bon Jovi (dont laugh), Poison (stop laughing), Kenny Chesney. Uh...Celine Dion, New Kids On The Block, MC Hammer...just kidding. Garth and Tim McGraw.

5 things I would do with $100 000 000- buy a villa in Tuscany, buy nice cars and houses for friends and family, build a HUGE log cabin (with my own hands) in Colorado and host Christmas every year, make millions more in currency arbitrage and commodity futures, and oh yeah - tell Donald Trump he can be my apprentice

5 locations I would like to run away to- Italy, Rocky Mountains, Swiss Alps, Vegas, Italy

5 bad habits I have- grinding my teeth (I've had 2 root canals!), staying up too late, being lazy, getting the newspaper in just my underwear (just kidding), eating too much

5 things I love doing- playing with my girls, having friends/family over, traveling, going to NFL and NHL games, eating

5 movies I like- How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days, Radio, Shawshank Redemption, Top Gun, Varsity Blues, anything with Julia Roberts

5 famous people I would love to meet- Brett Favre, Julia Roberts, Bruce Willis, Condoleeza Rice, Larry the Cable Guy (JK!)

5 biggest joys at the moment- my wife & kids, waiting for my son to arrive, living & working in Fort Worth, not having to study for anything, upcoming NFL & NHL season!

5 favorite toys- new laptop, Playstation 2, Polly Pockets, Barbies, costume jewelry - HURRY UP SON, SAVE ME!

5 people to tag- Jennifer, Wendell, Paige, Laura, Josh

OK, we're 2 months or less away from the birth of our son and we still haven't named him yet. For months now, we've just been calling him Favre. This seems really crazy, but the name is actually starting to stick!! Maybe we'll name him Michael Favre Wimberley...or Colin Favre Wimberley...what do you think??

Was That A Compliment?

2005-06-16T20:48:00.000-07:00

* As I was waiting in the parking garage for my truck to come down, a very respectable looking man in a business suit approaches me and nods his head, so I politely nod back. He casually comes over and stands next to me with a smile on his face. I don't feel threatened and he doesn't even seem like a weirdo...maybe just one of those real nice guys who doesn't know a stranger. He says "How's it going?" like we've been friends for some time. I politely say "Good. Glad the day's over." Then, he asks me if I'm an attorney. I tell him no, and he says "Really? You look like an attorney." He's being friendly and a little soft spoken...so I think he was just simply trying to strike up a conversation...maybe a new guy in town trying to meet people...but it was kind of weird. Luckily, about that time, his truck is brought to him so he says "See ya later man" and leaves. So of course, my mind is racing, overanalyzing this encounter, and I think...is that a compliment? What does it mean to look like an attorney??

* Question. Can you lose your man card if you get a pedicure? A very clean cut guy I work with admitted today that he went with his wife to get a pedicure. He said he sort of felt uncomfortable, like he was gay or something, but he actually really enjoyed it! He's definitely the metrosexual type, so maybe pedicures are ok for those types. However, picture this...I'm out in the woods somewhere with some buddies of mine, and we're all decked out in our camo hunting gear (I've never been hunting) with face paint, the same underwear we had on 3 days ago when we started the hunting trip, all carrying guns and wearing deer urine scent on our clothing...spitting in the fire, scratching ourselves, lettin 'er rip, peeing on trees...ya know, acting like guys do when the girls aren't around....and then I pull off my boot and sock and show a perfectly pedicured foot and I say "Hey guys, check it out. I got a pedicure and it truly felt sensational!" I believe I'd be staring down the end of 3 rifles listening to threats and being called names I think I'd prefer not to be called. I don't know...what do you think? Can you lose your man card over something like this?

* Last Friday night I went with my uncle to Texas Motor Speedway. WOW! I was truly in awe the entire 4-5 hours I was there. When we first arrived, Danika Patrick and the rest of the Indy cars were practicing. My eyes about popped out of my head when I saw how fast those cars drive, with such amazing skill to be going around a corner at 215MPH only 3 inches away from another Indy car going the same speed, and they don't touch each other!! It is impossible to appreciate the speeds that these cars travel from watching it in tv. Also, if you don't wear some sort of ear protection, it is so loud, I think your ears would literally be bleeding by the end of the night. We had headphones and a radio so we could hear the drivers and announcers. It was very cool! After the Indy cars practiced, we saw the NASCAR Trucks race. Man, that was so much fun!! I loved it!! Jack Sprague ended up winning (Jeff, you may be the only one who even knows who that is), but for probably 90% or more of the race, Mike Skinner was leading by a mile. I was cheering for Ron Hornaday ( I think he races for Kevin Harvick's team?? If so, I think I will start following Kevin Harvick in the Nextel. Is that respectable Jeff?). Ron started out in like 20th place, and the whole race I watched him work his way up, and he was the only car to finally beat out Mike Skinner and then stay ahead until he had to pit. Anyway...I HIGHLY recommend going to a race. It is awesome!! Bring some ear protection, and bring your own beer. It's a good thing they don't do sobriety testing when you leave the parking lot...I dont think anyone would be allowed to leave!

* Last Saturday, I took my family to Cabela's...an outdoors store like Bass Pro Shop. It is a really cool place. If you're ever in the area, set aside an hour or two to go check it out. It's fun for all ages and genders, whether you're interested in hunting/fishing/camping equipment or not. There's so much other stuff to see! They have taxidermied animals in various exhibits all over the place...and I don't mean they just stood a deer up in the middle of the aisle. It's like going through a museum. The kids loved it!! The have a stream in the middle of the store with trout sitting in the current trying to catch food to eat. It's really neat! They also have a huge aquarium exhibit you walk through and see all sorts of game fish.

* Jenn and the girls have been in Wacky Falls since Tuesday. Her dad had heart surgery to clean out one of his main arteries that was clogged over 80%. He's doing good and will most likely go home Friday. So I've been a bachelor almost the entire week. I miss my four girls (and baby Favre in the oven) and I'm ready for them to be home, but I also enjoyed the brief time at home alone. Tonight I cried. Twice. Why, you ask? Well, when I got home from work, I sat in my recliner in the living room in front of the TV and I watched the rest of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour Rides Again. Oh my gosh...that is some of the funniest stuff I have heard in a while!! Larry the Cable Guy made me cry TWICE I was laughing so hard!! I won't repeat the jokes that made me cry, but if you've seen that...you probably have an idea of what I'm talking about. I like Ron White too...I laughed pretty hard when he said his dog ran away for ten hours...gone all day long...so when he finally came home, just to piss him off, he took him for a walk!! HA! GIT 'ER DONE!!!!

Some Thoughts and Highlights

2005-06-10T00:40:00.000-07:00

*I started the week off with a fun-filled visit to the dentist in hopes of curing my excruciating toothache. First thing Monday morning, Dr. Beck drilled a hole in my tooth and dug the nerve out! Root canals are awesome!! Just kidding. In all seriousness, they really aren't bad. I've had two now (because I grind my teeth and kill them) and I've gone immediately back to work afterwards, pain-free! If you ever have to get a root canal, don't sweat it. It's not really that big of a deal. I did start to get a little paranoid about cleanliness at the dentist office. I noticed that Dr. Beck didn't wear gloves, and he seemed to go from room to room without washing his hands. I hope I'm wrong... :)
*A few weeks ago, Cara, all by herself, said I could throw her pacifier in the trash and she hasn't asked for it since!! Amazing!
*I finally fixed my AC in my pickup, so I'm going to sell it and buy a Jeep Wrangler or CJ-7. Wahoo!
*We've decided to decorate the baby's room in farm stuff. My brother is a very talented artist, so I want him to come over and paint a barn and some tractors and some farm animals on a wall in the nursery. Whaddya think?
*We still haven't come up with a name for our son. I'm predicting we will decide in the first few moments of his life outside of the womb. AGH!!
*Is it just me, or do those membership cards at grocery stores make you uncomfortable. I don't like the idea of them tracking my purchases. I'm anti-Big Brother. I would rather pay more for my groceries than give in to that invasion of privacy. For the record, I have NEVER signed up for one of those, and I never will.
*My free 3 months of movie channels on DirecTV is about to expire...I'm somewhat depressed over that.
*What is the deal with modern day cartoons? Every single one of them is about people and their lives with all of this drama and stuff...or they're about fighting the bad guys in outer space...or the characters speak rudely enough that you don't want your young children watching them. Whatever happened to the good ol' cartoons? As I was watching Tom & Jerry the other night with my kids, I realized how incredibly genius that cartoon is! The central theme is very simply...comedy! You don't hear words and you don't have to try to figure out who is who. It's a simple game of cat and mouse with perpetual mishaps, one right after the other. Colorful and very funny. But why do kids watch cartoons more than adults? And why do most of today's cartoons seem to be adult cartoons? I think adults see things from a conceptual basis and kids see all the details. Think about it. When you read a child a book, you see a nice picture and when you finish the words, you just turn the page and look for more words, not paying much attention to the pictures. However, when you try to turn the page, the child is still fascinated by the details in the picture. We just see an overall picture, but the child is fascinated by the tiny raindrops on the grass and the prickly caterpillar on the leaf. Maybe we think the old concept of cat-and-mouse chasing is boring, so we think we have to create a new cartoon that is more advanced, but what we end up with is a cartoon that doesn't hold the attention of our children. There are some good modern-day cartoons and Disney movies (cartoons), but MOST of teh time when my children watch one of these, they must also have toys to play with to help keep them stimulated. However, when I watch Tom & Jerry with my kids, their eyes are glued to the TV, they don't blink, and they laugh every few seconds. It is awesome! I think I will introduce them to the Looney Tunes! Does any of this make sense or am I just rambling? The next time you watch a cartoon, try to imagine how a child sees it, and see if you don't find more humor in it!

Does Anyone Still Read This?

2005-05-25T23:49:00.000-07:00

This will be an interesting Thursday. Survivor is over...Apprentice is over...Jenn and the girls (and boy) will be in Wichita Falls...what ever will I do? I dunno...I'll probably work until 8 or 8:30 and then come home and watch some tv. I've recorded 10-15 movies on TIVO that I haven't watched yet, so maybe I'll watch a movie. I'm ready for the 3 day weekend coming up. We are anticipating that our neighborhood swimming pool will open this weekend! I sure hope so! We will probably spend the entire summer there. At least then we'll feel like we're getting some value from our homeowners' association dues! I hate to think the administrator spends all that money on Christmas gifts for her family at the end of the year! HA! I find it interesting that we paid $250 in our closing costs for membership dues, but we haven't heard ANYTHING from our homeowners' association! Hmmm...oh well. As long as we can figure out the code for the swimming pool lock, I could care less. :)

So how do you guys feel about the markets? Do you pay much attention to what's going on? Well, I'm bullish on the market, and I think that despite the Fed's attempt to control our economic growth, and because energy prices have shown some resistance finally, unemployment numbers are good, home construction/purchasing is GREAT, commodities as a whole are improving, inflation fears have subsided, and the markets are starting to react less to negative economic indicators...PLUS the fact that the Dow has finally broken through its resistance level...I think we are staged for a period of growth in equities. The only thing that the bears (market pessimists) can argue is that the Fed's monetary policy (raising rates) is flattening the yield curve, which is historically the most accurate prediction of a near term recession. I'm a little confused by that, but I think there's enough strength in the economy and markets to correct that. If you've studied the business cycle, then you know we are at the base of an expansion, and historically, financials and technology stocks have performed well in this stage...so if you've had cash sitting on the sidelines and you haven't invested it in equities yet - NOW IS THE TIME!! Despite the bears' speculation, there's a LOT of signs pointing toward an uptrend in the stock market...so put your money to work!

On a lighter note...has anyone seen Sandlot 2 yet?

Checking In...

2005-05-11T21:38:00.000-07:00

Hey! Just a quick blog since it's been so long. We're doing pretty good here. I think the air is worse down here or something because we've all had more sinus/allergy issues in the last 2 months. I've also had truck issues. After 3 upper radiator hoses, a failed attempt to repair a radiator crack with JB Weld, and hopefully a successful radiator repair (finally), I will have saved at LEAST $200 I was not expecting to have to spend anyway. So now the question...do I get rid of my pickup while it's still running? If so, do I go for the Jeep I've always wanted and never had? I told my wife we could buy a brand new one, and then I could give it to my son (that sounds cool, huh!) in 16 years! But then she reminded me that a new Jeep comes with a new payment.
Know what I'm sick of? The NBA playoffs. I have listened to the Ticket (sports talk radio) every minute I have been in my truck, but all they talk about now is basketball, and it is SUCH a beating. I can't wait for the season to be over.
Friday night Jennifer and I went to eat at Razzoo's in downtown Ft. Worth and then went to Four Day Weekend, an improv comedy club in the old Caravan of Dreams. It was HILARIOUS!! I highly recommend it to anyone! Afterwards, we got some homemade ice cream at the Marble Slab and strolled through Sundance Square. I love that place!! Especially on Friday nights...it comes alive. Saturday we went to the Stockyards with my parents and had a fun time! Karissa rode the mechanical bull, and Cara and Karissa both had their picture made on a longhorn!! Sunday we had a good Mother's Day hanging out with the extended family.
Saturday night I went to see "Kingdom of Heaven" with my dad. I thought it was a pretty good movie, but I have never seen a bad epic adventure. I'm not sure about the accuracy of the movie...I think the setting and the time period was accurate, and the Muslims really did take over Jerusalem, but I doubt the story line was accurate. One thing it did was reignite my hatred for Arabs. I know, thats a blanket statement...maybe it's more Muslim terrorists than Arabs, I don't know.

Life Keeps Getting Better

2005-04-29T20:58:00.000-07:00

* Watching, playing, coaching (?) football, baseball, hockey, etc...
* Camping, fishing, hunting, etc...
* Teaching lessons on what it means to be a man...
* Having someone else in the house that better understands your gender...
* Coaching how to pee on a tree for the first time...
* Hearing a voice imitate explosions and gunshots instead of conversation with toys...

These are only a few of the wonderful things I will get to experience now that I will finally have a son!! The sonogram was today and the tech was 100% certain that it's a boy!! He showed us the "stem on the apple", thus providing evidence of his complete and total certainty...and while I am skeptical by nature, I was also completely convinced that it's a boy!! WAHOO!!! It is such an awesome feeling to finally have a boy on the way! We're so excited!! This is very new for us, and the beginning of a fun adventure! We know all too well what it's like to have little girls, so it will be fun to add a boy to the mix. Today was literally one of the best days of my life!! Thank God for accidents...or surprises! Now...everyone post your ideas for a name! I will go ahead and announce that we will not name our son a cutesy, trendy name, so you can feel free to leave out those names. :) Any other ideas would be welcomed!! Examples of what I consider cutesy and trendy are (hopefully this won't offend anyone) Dylan, Tristan, Hunter, you get the idea. I like strong and full names like Alexander, William, Michael, Zachary, etc. Jennifer likes Caleb and Cameron. Go ahead - post your ideas!!

Life Is Good

2005-04-26T20:36:00.000-07:00

OK Jeff, I'll update my blog. Somehow, I have been cured of my internet addiction. I spend very little time online anymore. Once the kiddos go to bed, I'm either watching DirecTV, playing with TiVo, or working. I can log in to my computer at work from home, so I've been doing some work from home at night. I've actually had a night or two recently where as I was getting in bed, I realized I had not even checked my email that day!

We had another great weekend! Saturday morning, we chatted with our friends in Milan, Italy, and let the girls act silly on our webcam for Laura and Marco to see. It's fun! You should get a webcam if you don't have one. After we finished chatting, we all went to the Water Gardens in downtown Ft. Worth. The main areas were turned off, and the part where you can walk down inside was fenced off and closed. Last year, a few people fell into the little pool at the bottom, and because it was deeper than it was supposed to be, the pumps sucked them down and they drowned. I did not know about this before we went. Very tragic and unfortunate...the thought of drowning makes me cringe. Anyway, after that, we walked down Main street, but first we saw some sort of pep rally in front of the Tarrant County Convention Center, so we stopped to check it out. There was a high school band playing and some cheerleaders were performing. I asked a guy what they were doing and he said it was to honor some of the local basketball teams...the girls' teams of TCU, FW Dunbar, and somewhere else. The girls enjoyed watching that for a little while but then we headed down Main Street. Have I mentioned before how much I love downtown Ft. Worth?? We drove down to the other end of the courthouse and walked around in Heritage Park. It's pretty nice. There are fountains and walkways that lets you look out over the "mighty" Trinity River. On our way home, we stopped at the Stockyards and walked around for over an hour. It was pretty cool! The girls got to see some longhorns up close and personal, as well as a horse with a real cowgirl riding it! :) It was a fun and relaxing day...I'm very happy in Fort Worth. We went to church again Sunday and enjoyed it. We met more people and signed up for small groups. I'm optimistic that we will be "plugged in" in no time at all! In Sunday School, we sat by the girl who Jenn said reminded her of Alyssa and Kelly. I didn't pay mucha ttention to her previously...but WOW!! It is so strange...imagine taking a picture of Alyssa and a picture of Kelly, and then morphing them together.

We have our first baby doctor appointment tomorrow with our new doctor in Ft. Worth. We expect her to schedule a sonogram pretty soon. We'll keep you posted! Pray for a boy!! Jenn is finally feeling better for the most part.

Work is going well. It is still pretty stressful trying to get everything done before the market closes each day. On top of all the daily work that must be done every day, I am trying to revamp the policies and procedures in operations and shift some of the duties around in an attempt to increase the efficiency of our operations team. It's a big chore, but I wouldn't trade it for anything right now! Interestingly enough though...I noticed a call on the caller ID from Bass Enterprises the other day. Oh well...I'm not interested! :)

What a Great Weekend!

2005-04-10T20:56:00.000-07:00

Well, after my bout with strep throat and my family's various illnesses, everyone finally seems to be healthy. We had a very good weekend! Saturday morning, after the DirectTV guy finished installing the right face plates, surge protector, running a new phone line through the wall to the bedroom, and breaking our entertainment center (whole other story), we decided to spend the day at the Fort Worth Zoo. I normally only enjoy the zoo for about 30 minutes, but I actually had a good time the entire time we were there. Karissa's favorite is the Komodo dragon, Cara's is the lion, and Kylie's is anything but the big gorilla. My favorite has always been the Bengal tiger, and I think Jenn's is the Lemon Chill - just kidding! I looked, but I never saw a liger (Napolean Dynamite). We had a good time, and we thought about buying a season pass. Four trips and it's paid for!

Saturday night was a night I had been anticipating for over a week. Do you know what the Ultimate Fighting Championship is? My brother and I used to watch it in the early-mid nineties when it was brand new. Basically, two fighters are put in an octagon cage, and they fight whatever style they want until someone either gets knocked out, gets their arm/leg broke, or "taps out" from a submission hold that will break a limb if they don't tap out. Saturday night was a live event, a very first for the UFC. The main event of the evening was a new and rising UFC star taking on one of the greatest legends in the UFC, Ken Shamrock, who has been fighting since the very first UFC in 1993...he was beat by Royce Gracie. The other two bouts were championships from the realith TV show, "The Ultimate Fighter" on Spike TV. It was sooo awesome!! Much to my surprise, Ken Shamrock actually lost by TKO in the first round to this new guy. I could not believe it!! Anyway, I love the UFC and it was great to get to see a live UFC event. Next Saturday night, my man Chuck Liddell gets a rematch against the current light heavyweight fighter, Randy Couture for the title. It's only on Pay-Per-View, but I may be spending the money on this one!!

This morning we went to Christ Chapel Bible Church in Ft. Worth, which was highly recommended by our two pastors at Grace Church in Wichita Falls. They went to Dallas Theological Seminary with the pastor of this church in Ft. Worth. The morning went perfectly well! We actually left the house on time, made it to church, found where to drop off the girls - who all three went in to their classes without a fuss - and then we made it to the sanctuary for the "acoustic" service. They have other services that are more traditional. The music was incredible!! Very powerful, strong power chords being played on a wide open 12-string guitar (so it sounded anyway), bass guitar, piano, talented drummer, a violin player (interesting), and a man and woman who could sing very, very well! Ya know, I played the strings patch on the synthesizer at Grace Church, but the sound guys never mixed it right, so the strings were always too soft. Well, this morning, that single violin player added so much depth and richness to the sound, it was awesome!! I'm going to recommend it to Grace's worship team! You just can't beat a well balanced acoustical mix! The songs were fresh and very worshipful too. Jenn and I both loved it! Dr. Ted Kitchens is the pastor, and though he may be more of a storyteller than I like, his teaching was interesting. After the service, we went across the street to where our Sunday School class was. I was amazed at how welcoming and inviting the people were. There were about 30 people there, and probably at least half of them introduced themselves to us and talked for a few minutes. They made us instantly feel welcome. The class is for young marrieds, and my guess is that most people were late 20s and early 30s, and only 2 couples did not have children! How perfect for us is that?! Then the guy who was teaching is about to graduate from seminary, so he dug pretty deep in the bible, which is exactly what I love! Jenn really liked it a lot too! So we're going to signup for a small group, and Jenn already signed up for the MOM's group. I think we found a church home! It was funny in Sunday School...meeting all these new people...several of the people reminded me of people from Grace Church. We found people who looked like Heather Zauner, Pete Vitt, John Lane, and Jennifer thought this one chick was a mixed-breed of Kelly Trimble and Alyssa Turner! HA! Can you imagine that?!

The rest of Sunday afternoon was spent resting (the girls) and working around the house. I cleaned the van inside, outside, and everywhere. Then I turned the sprinkler system on for a few minutes to wet the grass, and got out my spreader and put some weed killer/grass fertilizer on the yard. Ahhh...I've never had that feeling before...taking care of a house that actually belongs to me! How cool is that! It rained a little bit this evening, and the girls ran out to play in the rain. I took some cool pics of a rainbow behind our house, as you can see below. Have a great week!

New Level of Maturity In a Small World

2005-03-31T21:49:00.000-08:00

I will admit something about myself I'm not proud of that I know other people feel the same way. Whenever I see a retarded person of any sort, I just want to avoid them and not make eye contact with them. Again, I'm not proud of this, but facts are facts. Well, several months ago, I was brought to tears while watching the movie, "Radio." It didn't make me want to change professions and become a special education teacher or anything, but it forced me (through media, albeit) to connect with a retarded person, and it was very moving. A month or two after watching this, Jenn and I went to the Rider football playoff game in Denton against Aledo, and when the Aledo team entered the field, a student in a wheelchair followed them out onto the field. I thought that was pretty cool since that's what "Radio" did, and still does to this day, though he's not confined to a wheelchair. Well, yesterday as I'm walking Karissa into her new school, a little boy about 8 or 9 who appears to have downs syndrome was greeting everyone at the door. He was such a happy kid, and it was very obvious that the students loved him. So as we arrive at the door, he very respectfully says to me "You look very nice, sir." Im wearing a suit and tie. I kindly thanked him and didn't think much of it as I raced down the hall with Karissa trying to beat the tardy bell. As I'm leaving, I walk out the door, and he's still there, and he reaches out his hand for me to shake and says again "Sir, you look very nice!" So, I went against all my previous tendencies to ignore, avoid, and not make eye contact with this little guy, and I shook his hand, smiled intently at him and said "Well thank you sir, you have a nice day." Walking to my truck, I could hear other people exchanging very friendly greetings with this boy, and I must admit, I was somewhat moved. So this morning as I walk Karissa to the front door, I see him greeting everyone at the door again. I smile when he sees me, because with a wide-eyed grin he says "Wow! That's a cool outfit!" I thank him and tell him he has some pretty cool sunglasses on. After dropping Karissa off at her class, I head back to the front door and there is "Nick". He tells me again I have a cool outfit, and he shows me his shirt to see if I like it. I tell him I think it's a cool shirt, hold out my hand for him to give me a five, and tell him to take care. As I'm pulling out in my truck, I see that he has found a dirty diaper that has fallen (hopefully on accident) out of someone's car...he picks up and starts saying EWWWWW while he holds his nose, still holding on to the diaper with the other hand. It was hilarious! I look forward to seeing him again tomorrow.

Being in such good spirits after leaving school, I stop by the donut shop before leaving Saginaw, and I get 2 dozen donuts to take to work for my coworkers and I. Needless to say, they were all gone by 3pm, and it felt good to have everyone thank me for bringing them! I know what you're thinking...you think I was kissing up for losing $100 of the companies' money! HA!

I went to the bank today after the market closed to deposit my paycheck. It was a very enjoyable walk, as the weather was beautiful, and the streets were buzzing with activity. I love downtown Ft. Worth!! So as I hand my check and deposit slip to the teller, I notice another girl beside her, and she says to me, "I had to come over here to be nosy...did you just move to Willow Vista?" Somewhat perplexed, I say, "Yes...why?" She's our neighbor!! HA! WOW! Small world! She recognized me when I walked in the door, so she had to see if I was her neighbor! Her and her family just moved to our block recently, but they live several houses down. Her and her husband have an 11yr old girl and a 7yr old boy. I told her maybe Karissa and her 7yr old could play. She said yeah, and maybe we'll have a babysitter in a few years! Anyway, we talked for a few minutes and as I was leaving the bank I thanked her for being nosy! HA! That would be cool if we get to know them!

We didn't watch Survivor or Apprentice tonight, but have no fear! I Tivo'd them! WAHOO! I even set it up to record those shows every week...and it will even record them if they change days or times! TIVO ROCKS!! Well, have a happy April Fool's Day!

Update From Saginaw

2005-03-29T20:11:00.000-08:00

OK, I'm finally updating this thing because Jeff told me he'd pay me big money to change it. I have not thought out any elaborate prose, I will simply type for a few minutes.

Work is going very well! I love what I do! It is very stressful right now because we have acquired so many assets under management. There is a lot of trading going on because we have to allocate the new clients' assets, but with the markets a little fuzzy, and no general trend established, we're easing the money in on an incremental basis...which translates to more work on the trading side. In fact, all I did today (in between the small issues that popped up in operations) was trade. It is very stressful at times when there are a lot of trades to be executed, and not enough time before the markets close. I had an unfortunate experience today. Last Thursday we made some pretty big exchanges, but amongst the chaos, we didn't get them uploaded by 3pm, so we had to upload them yesterday. Well, I reallocated about 30 accounts today that were off target, but I failed to realize that I had reallocated 2 of them last Thursday, so the trades were executed twice. To make a long story short, I had to cancel out some of the trades, and I cost the company about $100. That is a very small amount in comparison to other trading errors that have occurred, but I still beat myself up over it. I tucked my tail between my legs, went in to Byron's office (the owner) and explained to him the problem, how and why it happened, and what I will do to prevent it from happening in the future. As expected, he was very cool about it, and was pleased with how I handled the small error in a very serious manner. What a cool boss! Anyway, this was a great example of how stressful the job can be under big time constraints. An error on 2 accounts is not too threatening, but an error that effects 400 accounts could be very damaging to the company. And, as Director of Operations, it falls on my shoulders to make sure this never happens. As stressful as I may make it sound...it's really not too bad, as long as the procedures are followed and you don't get in too big of a hurry. It is a lot of responsibility, and I LOVE IT!!

The house is awesome! It's noticably bigger than our house in Wichita Falls. In fact, I told Jenn tonight that you have to walk a lot more in this house going from room to room! HA! We're slowly getting settled in. We got DirectTV a few days ago, and I love it! It came with a free dual receiver TIVO, and that is way cool! DirectTV is cheaper than cable, so it was an easy decision. I look forward to buying a new grill this weekend so we can cookout on our covered patio while the kids play in the backyard. Our backyard gets the morning sun, so in the evenings there is plenty of shade back there. No trees though...I guess that comes with the territory of buying a new house. At least I won't have leaves to rake this fall!

Jennifer has been very sick lately due to her pregnancy, but just a couple of days ago she started feeling a lot better! She's beginning her 2nd trimester. We haven't found a new doctor down here yet, but she's not scheduled to go back until around the end of April. She'll probably find one by the end of this week. We should be having a sonogram in the next month or so. Kylie was sick for about a week, running fever and stuff. Cara was sick for several days, then got better, but then got a bacterial infection in her eyes, and started running fever again, so now she's on an antibiotic. So, it's been difficult to establish a routine so far, but hopefully in the next few days everyone will be healthy. Karissa has not been sick, thank goodness, but she got her toe jammed in a bicycle she was riding barefoot, and had to get 6 stitches!! Her 10 days were up yesterday, so I removed the stitches last night for her...which she thoroughly enjoyed! HA! She started school today, and hated it. She said they didn't have music class or PE, and she had homework!! She learned at her old school that you only have homework if you don't finish your work in class. Well, today at her new school, she was assigned homework, so she thought she was getting in trouble. She also said a mean boy stepped on her toe and laughed at her. They eat lunch at 10:30 and don't have any snacks or anything until she gets out at 3pm! She had snacks at her old school twice a day!! She didn't get to play at the "centers" and they don't get to sit on a "rug" for story time. She also doesn't like her table partner, but she hasn't said why. :) She will adjust to her new school in due time. I don't think I will ever like public schools, mostly due to the stupid TAKS test. I have a feeling my mouth will get me in trouble when my kids are old enough to be involved in all that crap. I won't bore you, but here's what I think about the TAKS. The idea of having a standardized test for all schools to compare each other with is a great idea, so we all know how each school compares to our entire education system, and the strong schools can continue to foster their success, and the weaker schools can adjust their programs to provide the children with a higher quality of education. However, the underlying incentive structure is damaging the most important element of our education system...and that is the quality of education our children are receiving. Our teachers are pressured into teaching the kids how to score higher on the TAKS, and are sacrificing education out of fear of losing their jobs. You can't put all the blame on the teachers, because they need their job just as bad as you and I. That is why the incentive structure is what is corrupt, in my opinion. Don't link school funding to TAKS scores, or at least not as much as it is now. I could go on and on, but I'll wrap it up with this: The current system is preparing high school graduates to go out in the real world and do really well at multiple choice exams...but they are lacking in problem solving and critical thinking skills (this is obvious anytime you ask for help in any retail establishment). Just teach the subjects and they will naturally score well on the TAKS because they actually know the material. Don't hand out TAKS practice exams and fool yourself into thinking you are teaching something! Anyway...this makes my blood boil, and when my kids are of "TAKS age", I will not be able to keep my mouth shut. Maybe I will lead a movement against it or something! HA!

WOW! I only intended on typing for a few minutes. I better end now before I think of something else to blab about.

Quarterbacks, FBI, and Sports Coats

2005-03-10T18:56:00.000-08:00

Today was a BEAUTIFUL day!! Why you ask? I'll tell you. Yeah, it was a great day on the new job, a beautiful day outside in beautiful downtown Ft. Worth, but what topped the day off for me was a little piece of news I read before leaving work tonight. Brett Favre is returning next year!! WAHOO! There was a possibility that he was going to retire, but since his wife is doing very well and is well on the road to recovery after a bout with cancer, he has decided to return next year and maybe even beyond that!! I'm relieved his wife is winning her battle, happy that she wants Brett to keep playing, and ecstatic about my hopes of Brett leading the Packers to a Super Bowl next year!! True, the Dallas Cowboys are my favorite team, but they will not be Super Bowl contenders this year, despite some decent offseason moves so far. OK, enough about football.

The job is genuinely going great! It is quite a new experience taking on a supervisory role. I've always been pretty independent and have completed all of my work on my own, without asking for help...but I must learn the fine art of delegating now. I've always been a team player, and I always have the team concept in mind, but I've always been the running back. Now I must shift positions on the team and become the quarterback. The operations department is full of hard-working, internally motivated people, so I feel pretty good about managing these people. It will be a transition, but I'm confident I will succeed, thanks to the great support of the Operations team!

The house is coming along. They have knocked out the wall in the garage and installed a garage door! The workers are supposed to be finished up with everything tomorrow...but I went by there tonight and there seems to be quite a bit of work remaining. We'll see how tomorrow goes. I'm tentatively scheduled to meet the builder and real estate agent at the house next Tuesday for the final walk-through. The plan is to close towards the end of next week and move in Saturday the 19th. Any help on either end would be GREATLY appreciated!

Something kinda funny happened today at work. I received a call from the FBI this morning saying he wanted to interview me regarding a friend of mine as part of a background check. It sounded a little shady at first just because I had no way of knowing if he was legitimately with the FBI or not. I said "Sir, I've been here for a week and a half - how did you know how to get in touch with me here?" He kinda laughed and said "I AM the FBI." HAHAHA!! It was funny. Then he said he got my work number from my wife and he said "but I won't tell you how I got your home number." HA! He was pretty cool. Anyway, he wanted to meet with me in person, so I told him I would check my schedule and call him back. Then I made a few phone calls. I called Jeff Trimble (since he is good friends with the guy the FBI was referring to) and left a message, but then I remembered Trimble doesn't talk on the phone unless he's held at gunpoint, so I figured he wouldn't call me back...so I called Lance and found out that he is the one who gave the FBI my name. So, being satisfied that it was legitimate, I called the FBI guy back and setup an appointment. So I warned Byron (my employer) and a few coworkers near the front door that the FBI was coming, but don't be alarmed. HA! So shortly after 5pm, the FBI (that sounds cool) shows up and I greet him and we go back to the plush conference room for about a 30 minute interview. Fortunately, this friend of mine is a great guy, of high integrity, and someone I respect a lot, so it was easy for me to be very complimentary and give him a very good reference. Best wishes to my friend and good luck in your endeavor!

I just LOVE listening to the Ticket down here. That's a really cool sports talk radio show, for those of you who don't know. The hosts were all making fun of Greg-o, one of the other hosts, and telling him he's been gaying out on them by wearing his new blouses to work. HA! They were making fun of his new warddrobe. Then they started teasing him about how he always tucks EVERYTHING in...and Corby said he even tucks in his sports coat! HA! The mental image just killed me and I laughed so hard a tear came to my eye! Well, I hope everyone is doing well. Jenn, I miss you and the girls and I can't wait to get all of us moved down here!! Hope you're feeling better!

First Day of Work

2005-03-01T20:07:00.000-08:00

I was out the door at 8am and on my way to work. As I drank my Slim-Fast (doesn't work) and drove down Main Street toward downtown, I reminisced about how I used to make the same drive 6 years ago. Past the Meacham airport, through "little Mexico", the stockyards, more little Mexico, tattoo shops(with layaway!), across the bridge, over the river and through the woods...ok, not that last part. I make my way through downtown to my building, pull into the parking garage, place my pickup in park, take a ticket from the attendant, and walk inside the building while they go park my pickup! COOL! I spent the first 2-3 hours receiving a brain dump from James (the guy I'm replacing), learning how much GIM has changed in 6 years. Then I moved to a computer with the lady who does the new accounts processing. After I thought I had a grasp on how to process new accounts, I took a stack of about 15 new accounts and proceeded to set them up in our system. By 12:40pm I still had not seen anyone get lunch, so I HAD to say something since my Slim Fast ran out 3 hours ago. So in my true otter fashion, I stood up, looked around, and said "Does anyone eat lunch around here?" I got a few laughs, but most importantly, a date to lunch at Mi Cocino's with James and Trey (the owner's son who works part time). I was told that I would be frowned upon if I did not get the #7, so the #7 it was. It was nice to get outdoors and walk the streets of downtown (I love it!) during lunch. Back at the office I continued where I left off until 5pm snuck up on me. I actually felt very productive! They are so swamped in operations right now, so it felt good to be able to help them catch up a little with the new accounts on my first day! I went in to James' office and talked for about 30 minutes, then we both took off. We walked down the hall, out the doors, and handed a valet attendant our tickets, and 2-3 minutes later, there were our vehicles! How cool is that! I left downtown and went to Ridgmar mall to look for some shoes and one more suit. I found some pretty hip flat toe'd dress shoes, but I couldn't find a suit I liked that was in my price range, so tomorrow after work I will probably go to Men's Wearhouse to see what I can find. Tomorrow at work I will start executing some trades for several accounts, so that will be fun. I was very pleased with my first day, and I really think this going to be an awesome job! I love it! It is sooo nice to be back in the industry. I think I may actually look forward to going to work! No more internet surfing or personal emailing or blogging at work though. The SEC is very strict on investment firms, and the IT manager told me today that she has to keep a copy of every single email that comes in and out of the office. WOW! That may be a culture shock for me at first, but I think I will stay so busy I won't even think about it.

I watched part of The Amazing Race tonight, mostly because Rob and Amber from Survivor are in it. It was kind of fun to watch, but I must admit, I did more browsing on this laptop than paying attention to the 2nd hour of the show.

Jeff, I just saw that Dexter Coakley was released...what's up with that?!?

Twas the Night Before My New Job

2005-02-28T22:56:00.000-08:00

It seems like this blog thing has either gotten old or people just don't post comments. Even the other 3-4 blogs I read don't have as much commenting as they used to. In my opinion, that's what is fun and addicting about this. So again, don't be a blog voyeur...post a comment! :)

I'm sitting here in Saginaw, the night before my first day on my new job. Normally, I'd be a little nervous, but I'm not now. Probably because I've worked there before, so I know what to expect. My role will be different, but the environment is still pretty similar. Everyone asks, "So what will you be doing?" Well, it's a little difficult to fully explain if you're not familiar with what "money managers" do, but I'll try to simplify it. GIM (Green Investment Management) markets their services to brokers across the country. These brokers generally offer full service investing to their clients...everything from small cash accounts to indivdual stocks to bonds to mutual funds, etc. However, you've heard the old saying "Don't put all your eggs into one basket", right? Well, when a client has a significant amount of money, it is essential that they diversify, but they don't have the knowledge, time, and/or desire to do so, so they hire a money manager. Money managers, with respect to the industry terminology, are not brokers, and likewise, brokers are not money managers. So brokers defer these larger accounts to money managers, who then diversifies the client's money and watches it on a daily basis. The money manager earns a fee, let's say 2% of the account balance, and the broker earns a smaller percentage, say 1%. So the client effectively pays 3% for the money managers' services. GIM has a unique style of management. Not only does GIM employ an asset allocation strategy, they integrate an active style of management, commonly refrred to as "market timing." Byron Green, the owner of the firm, has developed a sophisticated economic model that forecasts the direction of the economy. As he sees definite trends forming, he moves in and out of the market to take advantage of various opportunities in the market. For example, if his model signals an upturn in equities (or stocks), then he will sell a percentage of bonds among the various allocations and buy a healthier position in equities. The actual investments are almost exclusively mutual funds. If you have a long time horizon, and you're comfortable with a little more risk and fluctuations in your portfolio, then you may have a "growth" asset allocation, which may consist of 85% equities and 15% bonds/cash. The 85% equities may be made up of 4-5 different mutual funds, making sure there is no duplication of holdings within each mutual fund. OK, I just realized I'm babbling and you're probably about to fall asleep. So in short, GIM is an active asset allocation money manager. My role as Director of Operations is to ensure that all of the operations of the business are completed in an acceptable manner. Why couldn't I just leave it at that?!

Well, the commuting has begun. I am staying my aunt and uncle's house now, and will during the weekdays, and then I will go back to my family in Wichita Falls on the weekends. We are scheduled to close on our house around March 16th (our 9 year anniversary!), so hopefully we'll only have to do this for 2-3 weeks. We had the house inspection Saturday, and the appraisal should be completed tomorrow. HOpefully the builder will begin reconverting the garage and some other projects this week! I'll post some more pics of the house in a day or two. But now I will go to bed and get a good 6 hours of sleep before my first day on the new job. I'll try to post more often to let you know how the new job is going.

I'm Still Alive...

2005-02-22T21:04:00.000-08:00

As I sit here listening to the rain and thunder, as nice as it is, there's a sick feeling tugging at my stomach as I think about how busy work will be tomorrow thanks to the nickel and quarter sized hail that fell in areas nearby. UGH! My last 3 days of work at State Farm was SUPPOSED to be smooth sailing. Maybe everyone pulled their cars into their garages and we will not have any claims to file. (yea right!)

Sorry for disappearing from the blog world...I've obviously been pretty busy lately. Here's a brief update: We have verbally made an agreement with the builder of the house in Saginaw we're trying to get. He wasn't budging on price, so we asked for him to throw in the farm, and he's obliging to most things. In addition to him paying almost all of the closing costs, he has also agreed to install rain gutters, window coverings in the bedrooms, a garage door opener, and the street number on the mailbox. He will also finish sodding the backyard and will convert the garage back to a garage (it is currently closed in and was used as the office since it was the model home). We also asked for a refrigerator, but he said that was too much. However, he said we could use his name at his appliance vendor and buy a refrigerator at a good discount. So, now we just have to sign the contract, send in our earnest money (which he agreed to accept only half of standard amount), wait for him to finish the work (convert garage, install gutters, window coverings, sod back yard, and some other structural projects), have the inspector come out, do a final walk-through, and then close on the loan!! Our realtor feels pretty confident we can close by mid-March. We shall see! Here's a pic of the house, before converting back to garage:

I went to Fort Worth today for an introduction meeting at Green Investment Management, and to fill out some paperwork. They gained 20 new accounts today (about $3million in assets!)!! I tried to connect with each person (half of which I already knew), and my perception of a strong team environment was only reinforced. I am very excited about this new job and I think I'm coming in at a great time. From what I've heard so far, I think the assets under management could easily double within 4-5 years! Wonder if my paycheck will....HA!

I rode down with my dad, and he sat outside and read a book for 3 hours while I was in the office. On the way down, we heard on his CB radio that a highway patrolman was out around Bowie. So we see him a few minutes later on the other side of the highway. Here's the funny (and not so funny) part: a few minutes later, my dad says something like "They normally leave you alone if you're only going 80 or so." Not 10 seconds later we see another highway patrolman on the other side, and about 10 seconds later, dad starts pulling over and says "here he comes." So my dad gets a ticket for going 82 in a 70! I guess he should have slowed down to 80! :) Sorry you got caught dad! On our way back tonight, we heard on the CB that a car was driving down 287 the wrong way, in the same lane we were in...so we were able to slow down and get ready for it. Sure enough, about 30 seconds later we see a set of headlights moving our way. The car was on the shoulder, but on the wrong side of the road. We were debating what the heck was wrong with the fool. Hopefully he corrected his dangerous mistake and nobody got hurt. Anyway, it was really cool to get a heads up on the radio so we could be prepared! I must admit, on more than one occasion I had to resist the urge to grab the CB microphone and scream something immature on the radio! HA!

Oh Yeah...A Baby...

2005-02-17T23:08:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been exactly one week since the phone call that is changing our lives forever. We now have a new job, are moving to Fort Worth, got approval on a mortgage loan, and are stressing over the house hunting process. All in one week's time. And oh yeah....we're having a baby! I must admit, over the past week, that fact has slipped my mind a time or two. I've been doing my yoga-zen-Chinese-meditations regularly though, so I feel pretty confident this one will be a boy.
I was feeling like I needed to update my blog, but it's 1am and I'm ready to go to bed, so I'll just close with a few quick thoughts:
* Why is health insurance so darn expensive?
* It is very upsetting that the NHL season was cancelled, but Milan plays Manchester United next Wednesday in the beginning of the Champions League and I believe it will be televised, so at least I have SOMETHING to watch. I don't watch basketball.
* I think this season of Survivor will be very good. Plenty of cool surprises tonight.
* Michael (Apprentice) was a lazy idiot, so I'm glad he got fired.

More later...