Can we watch some football?

This was taken a few sundays ago. It was a pretty busy weekend of trying to catch up from the previous week and get ready for the next one. It was raining and Jax had wanted to play football all day. I kept putting him off because of the weather. I don't remember what I was doing, but I dropped it instantly when he came to me and said, "Hey! Since we can't play footbal, let's watch football."

This picture was taken about 10 minutes later. He tried to stay awake, but the sandman beat him in overtime.

Just in time for Thanksgiving: Dinner Planner

Given that:
1) I think Excel can solve just about any problem
2) I like to over plan everything
3) I am a complete nerd.

It should be no surprise to anyone that I absolutely love a site called Contextures. Debra comes up with all kinds of good stuff and this post is on par. The link above will take you to a holiday dinner planner that you can download and use in Excel for free.

What I like about it:
It is simple. Not simple meaning that anyone could create this. I say simple meaning easy to use. The instructions are included right there on the “DinnerPlan” tab. All you have to do is enter the steps it takes to complete one item, the time it takes to do that item, and the location needed to perform the action. For example, if Turkey were on the menu, you might enter the following

Item = Turkey
Activity# = 1
Activity = Prepare Stuffing
Location = Stove
Minutes = 30
Hours = “blank”

Continue this until all activities are entered. Enter the time you want to eat at the top and everything is lined out to make sure you stay on schedule.

Room for improvement:
Let me start this by saying that every application ever created could have one more feature. This one as it is will do a great job at exactly what it is intended to do.

One improvement would be to build in some type of capacity limitation. For example, how many ovens or stove burners are available? This would require the user to enter these values. Then some prioritization scheme would have to be implemented to figure out what goes first if three things need to be in the oven and you only have one oven. That would greatly affect the timing of when items need to start. This falls into the “easier said than done” file. So keep that in mind when reviewing your printed plan. Some adjustment may be needed if you have a small kitchen.

Again, this is not something wrong with the file, just something that could added to improve it. Maybe this would be a version someone would pay for. In other words, keep the free version, then add a resource constrained version for a fee. Who knows?

At any rate, check out Contextures for more items like this. I'll be using this to plan the holidays.

Get a Drop Box

I was listening to a podcast by the guys over at Boagworld the other day. It was episode 183. Inspired. You can get to it here. It was a great show as usual, but the part I loved the most was the review by Lyle Barras on a productivity solution called Dropbox.

The claims were pretty extraordinary. The product is an online storage device. I know what you're thinking. Google Docs works fine for me too. What differentiates Dropbox is that you don't have to go out to a site, download a file for use or modification, upload the changes so they will be available later. Dropbox works like any other folder on your desktop.

Simply open the file from your Dropbox folder, so what you need to do. When you are done and you save the file back to the folder. Then the magic starts. Dropbox synchronizes this file on every other computer you have installed Dropbox. Nothing more for you to do.

I have two desktops, and three laptops at home with this installed. Now I don't have to worry about sharing files from one to another. I just put something in my Dropbox on one and it will be available to all instantly. For computers that do not have Dropbox installed, you can still access your Dropbox via the web by logging into their service.

The final bit that makes this priceless is the price. It is free for up to 2GB. There are pay options if you need more space, but the prices are reasonable. Check it out and let me know what you think. You can get the software here.

I'LL GROW INTO IT DADDY...

Not too long ago I read a book by Dale Carnegie where he shared a story called Father Forgets. It is a short but to the point story that kids must be allowed to be kids. The story struck a chord with me, because I can be pretty hard on my kiddos. I want to balance holding them to a standard and allowing them to be unruly.


I took this picture tonight. This is Jax’s guitar that he bought with own birthday money resting in my guitar case. My guitar is in my office next to my desk, but that is another story. This reminds me how small by big boy still is. He is only going to be in the second grade this year. He wants so much to be like me in so many ways, but he is still so little. For that matter, they are all still so little. Here is to letting kids be kids and laughing with them with they make honest mistakes.

Those convinced against their will are of the same opinion still.

Dale Carnegie said this about 40 times so far in the book I am reading now. The count may not be that high, but the quote has been lodged in my mind for a few days. He has another one that speaks to the same point: “The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.” What he is trying to say is that arguing is pointless. Even if you are right, what have you accomplished by pounding your view into the other party? You’ve proven that you value showing how much you know over being friendly. So, next time you are with someone and they say how much they love the 1961 Mustang, don’t be a jerk and point out that that first model of the Mustang was the ‘64 ½. Say something benign like, “I do love the early Mustangs as well.” I’ll give this a shot over the next few months.

More meaningless stats and a plea to save the 7th inning...

Since I started planning for the 2010 Astros season, they have improved their winning percentage a full 10 points from 31% to 41%. They have averaged more than 4 runs per game. At this point they'll only win 67 games and be fighting for last in the NL central. Does any of it really matter? Probably not, but I love to talk about it anyway.

I was talking to the kids last night about how cool it was when I was a kid to listen to the Astros game with my dad. Milo would yell "Holy Toledo" every time someone would belt a homer. Those were good times and I still prefer to listen to the games rather than watching on TV.

I've been an Astros fan my whole life. Nothing will ever change that. I'll drag anyone willing with me to Minute Maid Park every chance I get. I love the atmosphere, the crowd, the train and the backdrop of downtown. The thing missing from the last game I went to was "Take me out to the ball game." Don't get me wrong. I love "God Bless America" as much as the next guy, but seriously, can we get back to what made the 7th inning stretch something to look forward to?

Astros drop another one

What can I say? The Astros are 4-9. Hitting 4 out of 13 at bats would be a great average, but 30.8% is a lousy winning percentage. I know they usually play better ball in the second half of the season, but at this pace they’ll only win 50 games and be competing for worst team in baseball honors. They’re not going to win the pennant, but honestly are they that bad? I don’t think so. The problem is that as the casual fan, I can’t see that they have a whole lot to work with. It seems that every player has been living up to their expectations. Let’s face it Astros fans, I think it may be time to start focusing on 2010.

Running with the boys

I went on a run yesterday with the boys. They were riding their bikes while I tried to keep up. I let Jax take the lead and he took us all over the neighborhood trying to find what he called “new places we’ve never seen before”. During the first few minutes, my Garmin 301 kept beeping at me, but I ignored it. I thought it was a low battery beep since I didn’t turn on the interval training or virtual partner. About the third time I glanced down at it to find that I was running at 7:45 per mile and the Garmin was telling me to slow down.

To put things in perspective, I usually do my training runs at 8:45 to 9:00 per mile with a walk break periodically. I was more focused on keeping the boys out of the traffic than my pacing. As a result we had to cut the run short to only 2.75 miles since they wiped me out in the beginning. I guess I should set the goal to keep pace with them rather than making them slow down to stay with me. It wasn’t too long ago that I would not let them go with me because they couldn’t keep up with my slow pace. They’re growing so fast it’s just amazing.

Boys weekend: Day 2

The boys and I decided to hit some golf balls today. We went to a great place just off 290 between Telge and Cypress North Houston. Prices are great and the kids hit free when the adult buys a bucket of balls. We all had a great time.

Have you ever seen the TOP of the fowl pole?

Well I have now. First of all, I didn't misspell it. Chik-Fil-A sponsors the foul poles in Minute Maid Park, so they are aptly named the Fowl poles. So how did I see it? The boys and I headed through the rain to have a tour of the park and watch the Astros from the cheap seats. Outfiled View Deck is only $7 for adults and $1 for kids. So $9 got us in the game. We had a blast. Here are a few of the pics to document the fun.

Watching BP from behind the plate!

Jax in President Bush's seat and Ollie in Barbara Bush's seat.

Ollie got his hat signed by Jeff Bagwell

Jax got his hat signed by Jeff Bagwell

We absolutely had a blast!!!! Oh yeah, the Astros won 7-0.

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