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2011-07-19T00:00:00.001-05:00

Can we watch some football?

2009-10-14T21:28:00.000-05:00

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

2009-10-13T11:11:00.003-05:00

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

2009-09-25T08:30:00.006-05:00

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...

2009-07-31T23:18:00.003-05:00

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.

2009-07-08T07:01:00.000-05:00

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...

2009-04-30T00:41:00.003-05:00

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

2009-04-20T23:04:00.001-05:00

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

2009-04-20T09:01:00.000-05:00

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

2009-04-19T14:49:00.004-05:00

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?

2009-04-18T21:14:00.007-05:00

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.

Masters Widget

2009-04-09T12:41:00.001-05:00

5!

2008-12-04T23:40:00.001-06:00

Before leaving Austin, I was fortunate enough to catch up with an old friend from high school, Ben Brumfield. We had lunch a few times with catfish and good beer to talk about old times and share stories about what everyone we used to know is up to.

One story that we talked about was about a practice for an academic decathlon event. Our English teacher, Miss Holier was the sponsor. On a regular basis, we would stay after school and she would quiz us on possible questions we would face. She was calling out questions and we were answering quickly, each of us trying to beat everyone else to the punch. All of a sudden, she came up with something that stumped us all. She called out, “5!” with all the enthusiasm and exuberance that only she could muster. We all looked at each other wondering if that was really a question. She yelled “5!” once again. After a long pause, Joel Lack hesitantly spoke up with a possible answer. He said, “120” as if he were the one asking the question. We all understood immediately and started laughing.

Mrs. Holier on the other hand was amazed. She had no idea how Joel came up with 120. We then explained to her that the exclamation mark didn’t mean she needed to yell. It meant factorial and everyone knows, or at least all of us nerds knew that 5! = 5x4x3x2x1 = 120.

So, for those of you that were there, I hope this makes you laugh. And for those of you that ever doubted, I am proud to be a nerd. Everyone has to be something…

Getting to know Halliburton

2008-08-06T16:36:00.000-05:00

It has been a while since I have posted and for a very good reason. The item consuming my mind for the past few months was the impending transition to Houston and Halliburton. I couldn’t very well spill the beans here and have the world know too soon.

I am officially in the Oil & Gas industry now. I was able to go to one of the many Halliburton facilities today to see a tool that is in development. The guys who knew what they were looking at were very excited. As the newbie, I was just excited to see anything at all. What a different world this is going to be. So far I am having a blast and learning a lot. As long as that continues, I’ll be fine.

Having Beth and the kids still in Austin is not at all the ideal situation, but it seems to working so far. The house in Kyle will sell soon. We keep telling each other that. We both know it will be over soon.

9 already...

2008-06-27T12:20:00.003-05:00

Wow. These little things turn 9 today. It's hard to believe. Here is a pic of their 1st 1K. They were awsome. For their birthday they are going to get their nails done with Beth and a few friends. They are really just girlie girls now.

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah!

2008-06-09T21:55:00.004-05:00

I'm tired and bored because my family is gone tonight. I could go to sleep early, but I wouldn't want to shock my system. I'm updating my podcast so I can go on a run. But first I want to do a little bragging on my Bethy and her sister. Yesterday they completed a zip line and challenging ropes course at Cypress Valley Canopy Tour.

I'll try to get more pics on Flickr! soon, so check back if you want to see more. I am very proud of both of them. I know this wasn't easy and they chose the hardest route possible. Way to go!

My big boy…

2008-06-06T11:51:00.002-05:00

My desktop background was corrupted and I started looking through some of my old pictures to reset the desktop. Anyway, I ran across this picture and couldn’t resist sharing it. His 6th birthday party is tomorrow and he is so excited.

It’s hard to believe that it was June of 2002 when this little guy first came home with us.

Milt’s BBQ:

2008-05-20T15:21:00.003-05:00

I am working from home today, so Beth and I decided to go to lunch together in Kyle. We were planning to go to an old stand by, but they were closed. Sitting in the parking lot wondering where to go, we remembered an article in our community newsletter talking about a new BBQ place. We decided to try it out.

There was only one car out front, but it was already after 1pm, so we did not take that as a bad sign. The seating reminds me of the porch at the Saltlick. We sat in the covered porch under one of the fans. Even with the heat today, it was very comfortable. They have a signature wall that is filling up fast. Look for "Dax Loves Beth" that I had to get on there while I could. They also have a sign requesting old license plates for them to display. It’s a great atmosphere for eating slow cooked BBQ.

The menu features a great selection at reasonable prices. My wife and I each ordered a bird’s nest. That’s a sandwich with sliced brisket and sausage. I also ordered a side of ranch beans. They have chopped brisket mixed in. It was all wonderful.

There were other great menu items as well. The family meal comes with a pound of brisket, 2 chicken quarters or 2 sausage links and 2 medium sides for less than $20. I am getting the Haystack during my next visit. That’s BBQ Frito Pie.

Next time you are in the mood for great BBQ, you owe it to your taste buds to give Milt’s a try. They are located at 905 N Hwy 81, Kyle, TX 78640. You can call in your order at 512-268-4734.

Gratitude

2008-04-16T00:22:00.003-05:00

Today I ran across an article about the affect of positive thoughts that I found to be quite interesting. You can find the article here.

The premise is that gratitude has a positive impact on our lives. I won’t go into the details, but the article is great.

Here are just some of the things that I am grateful for.

1) I am grateful for the wonderful wife and kids that chose to come into my life. They define me and I will never be the same because of them.
2) I am grateful for the job I have. It challenges me on a daily basis and forces me to improve myself.
3) I am grateful for the wonderful cars my wife and I drive. It is great to have two vehicles that our entire family can comfortably fit in.
4) I am thankful for my neighbors. They help raise our kids as we help raise theirs.
5) I am grateful for the school we have across the street. It is great to watch the kids walk into the door each morning.
6) I am grateful for the staff, especially Mrs. Carow, that is making sure my daughter overcomes dyslexia.
7) I am grateful for the wonderful home we live in.

Like I said, these are only a few of the many I can think of now. I will keep writing my thoughts on gratitude in my journal rather than here, but take note: You must play the cards you are dealt. It is up to us to decide if we play them with gratitude or bitterness.

Cyber Junk

2008-04-14T09:44:00.003-05:00

Space Junk is a term used to describe the garbage created during space exploration. This may be parts of broken satellites, a bolt dropped by an astronaut while on a space walk, or entire satellites that have ceased to operate. Most of this stuff will eventually fall back into earth's orbit and burn up in the atmosphere. But what happens to Cyber Junk?

Millions of people are creating their own content on the web through social networks, blogs like this one, and countless other mediums. What happens to all of the stuff we create? How long will articles that I write on Helium.com be active? When will this blog go away?

I started thinking about this when I got to work this morning. I had an e-mail from Plaxo reminding me of a birthday that is coming up. I usually enjoy getting these so I can send a funny e-card to the person celebrating a birthday. Here is the content of this morning's e-mail.

Needless to say, I am extremely aware that my sister would have been 26 on 4/21 of this year had she not died in a car wreck in August of 2006. I contacted Plaxo to find out about getting her account deleted. Their initial response simply suggested that I change my settings to make sure that I would not get anymore alerts from her account. While I agree that this would work, doesn't it seem odd that Plaxo would not want to get an account off their system if the person is no longer with us?

Is telecommuting an option?

2008-04-10T00:40:00.001-05:00

After being back from sabbatical for three days, I feel like I am back in the swing of things. I already have a trip to California scheduled for later this month and a ton of things to keep me busy. I have to give credit to those on my team that filled in for me while I was away. Without them, my return would have been a much rougher experience.

Everything at home is also getting back to normal, which is a terrible way to describe a life with four kids. There isn’t much that is normal, but I love every minute of it. Beth had to run to Houston tonight to pick up our nieces and nephew. The plan is for me to get the kids off to school and go on to work. Emma isn’t feeling well, so I may be working from home with a sick kid. That’s the beauty of the internet though; I can work anywhere I can get an internet connection. All of my phone numbers route to a single cell phone, so the transition from the office to the home office is nearly seamless. This brings me to another topic: Gas Prices.

I was talking with my life-long friend Aaron tonight about the cost of commuting. I did some numbers in the back of my head while we were talking but I wanted to see what the real numbers were. I opened up Excel and here are the results. I drive 26 miles one way to get to work with an average mpg of 16. (I know this is low, but I love my Suburban.) With gas at $3.20 per gallon and assuming I drive to work 5 days per week for 50 weeks each year, my annual cost for gas just to get to work is $2,600. By working from home just one day per week, I can save around $520 per year and reduce the miles on my car from 13k per year to 10.4k per year. That sounds like a pretty compelling argument to start working from home when possible.

Back in the Saddle…

2008-04-07T09:51:00.000-05:00

Today is my first day back to work after four glorious weeks of sabbatical. I am glad to get back to the routine and I am sure that I’ll be going 100mph for the next couple of weeks to catch up on the things I missed. I had a great time that included a trip to Disney World and many fun activities with the family. I’ll post more later about Disney.

Starting Fresh

2008-01-04T13:49:00.001-06:00

Happy New Year!

Christmas was a blast with the kids and family. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we were able to see nearly everyone in the extended families. My Dad is heading to Austin for a visit this weekend to complete the rounds. We’ll be eating well. A good friend of mine sent me some Turducken that we will be cooking Saturday or Sunday. I can’t wait.

Catching up…(has it really been 6 weeks?)

2007-10-17T21:38:00.001-05:00

It has been a long time since I posted. Let me start with the training program. I have not been keeping up. I have some illness and work to blame, but I won’t go into the gory details. The bottom line is that I have not been putting in the miles to complete a marathon on 1/13/08. Houston marathon is a no go. I am just starting to feel better and I will start running tomorrow 10/18/07. I am going to run something affiliated with the Austin marathon. I am going to see how the training goes before I decide on the half or the full marathon. At the same time, I may elect to skip it and run for fun that day.

On the job front, things are pretty interesting. I was called by two separate recruiters within a span of three days for the same position. Is that an indication of what the company is like? Who knows? I am happy at Spansion (for now), so it probably won’t amount to much. Another note is that they finally got me to Japan. I left on the 22nd of September and came back a week later. It was a blast. The food was great. The Japanese are some of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. I missed Beth and the kids terribly, but I’ll go back given the chance.

At home, the kids are doing great in school. All four of them are having a great time and learning a lot. In fact, Ollie had been giving Beth problems with going to school. Today, he told her, “I’m not going to cry anymore. I am going to go to school and have fun.”

I have more to say, but I need to get to work.

1st day of school

2007-08-27T07:53:00.001-05:00

We just dropped the kids off for the first day of school. Dede was first. No issues. Then we dropped off Emma. Very excited. Next was the hard part. We got Jax to his Kindergarten class. We hung up his backpack. Put his lunch box on top of his cubby. We found his desk and put his name tag on. He looked so proud. He already had a worksheet on his desk to start coloring. He started to work without a second thought about us. I was very proud of Beth for keeping it together. As we were leaving Jax’s classroom, we noticed that Ollie was crying. That was all Beth needed. We are about to go to breakfast and spend the day making Ollie feel special. More to come later.

Vacations and broken bones

2007-08-20T12:24:00.000-05:00

It has been a while, so let’s see what we have missed.
1) I broke my wrist. I am now wearing a brace that is a pain in the butt.
2) I have not run since I got the brace until today. Not a god excuse. I know.
3) I am on vacation for the next two days. Gotta love forced vacations.

I don’t have much time now. I’ll be back.

thoughts at 32k feet

2007-08-10T09:14:00.000-05:00

I am on the plane back to Austin. The pilot said that the ground temperature in Austin was 91 when we took off from San Jose. That’s really hard to imagine after leaving Sunnyvale with temps in the 70’s .

Beth sent me a video of the kids on her cell earlier today. I have only been gone a couple of days, but I miss them terribly. Only about two more hours until I sneak into the room to kiss them good night.

I am really looking forward to this weekend. We are heading down to Galveston and won’t be back until Tuesday. The kids love to fish, swim, and play. This brings me back to the importance of play. Jack Nicholson provided his commentary the lead character in the Shining: All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. I am not saying that the movie is a realistic example. There is some truth in it though. You will lose your mind if work is what life is all about.

You should value the things that value you. Take your company and your family for example. If you were hit by a truck tomorrow, which one would be affected more severely? Your company would send flowers to the wake with a nice card. Some of your coworker might attend the service. Six months down the road, your position is filled and you are no more than water cooler chatter.

Your family on the other hand will never be the same. Your spouse will be left to handle alone everything you once shared. Your kids will have lost one of the most respected and influential person in their lives. Six months down the road, the pain of your loss will still be intensely felt.

I need to keep this in perspective. I’ll be back for more later.

Running and Being

2007-08-09T02:14:00.000-05:00

The problem is that I have done much more being than running lately. I am still on the road. I am eating more than I should and not exercising. This combination is not a good one. I am having a great time, but I miss the family. I wish they could be here to see all the sights I am seeing.

Thursday night, I’ll be on a plane back to the sweltering heat of Austin, TX. I just got off the phone with my wife. In less than 24 hours, I’ll be asleep in my own bed.

Life is going great and I think it all has to do with perspective. I choose to be happy in what I am doing. I love my job. I am learning something new everyday. I have a bunch of kids that still think I am great. I have a beautiful wife that adores me. I have in-laws that I actually love to be around. I have nothing to complain about. All is good.

As part of my reading, Dr. Sheehan wrote, “Shakespeare was wrong. To play or not to play: that is the question. Anyone with a sense of humor can see that life is a joke, not a tragedy. It is also a riddle and, like all riddles, has an obvious answer: play, not suicide”

What he is saying is that the question “to be or not to be” is nothing more than an eloquent contemplation of suicide. You are. In other words, if you are reading this you have chosen “to be.” Good choice. In his interrogative: to play or not to play, Dr, Sheehan is pointing out that we have a choice how we spend the time between being and not being.

The person in the most perfect form is the child. The child doesn’t “know” enough to think of himself as foolish for acting on impulse and imagination. The child is not inhibited by social etiquette that limits volume and speed. My kids play at full speed until they drop. My youngest is the best example of this. We find him asleep in some of the strangest places. There is no moderation. 100mph until you run out of gas. That’s the joy of acting like a kid.

I get the same feeling from running. There is no work, no deadlines, and no politics to distract me when I am running. There is only me and the road. Sometimes I listen to my mp3 player, but often I run without it so I can hear the birds, my feet hitting the pavement, and the other sounds that people in their cars just don’t hear.

I’ll be back for more. For now, I am heading to bed.

Six Flags

2007-08-08T10:58:00.000-05:00

It’s been a while since I have posted. I have not made the time. I am sitting in the LAX airport waiting to board my flight to San Jose. I have nothing but time for the next 30 minutes.

The running program has not been what I had planned. There are excuses, but none of them good enough to share. Because of travel timing Beth and I did not run the Moonlight Margarita run as planned. Instead, I took that day off and took the girls to Six Flags in San Antonio. Just the four of us had a great time. The girls rode the Boomerang. It has two loops and a corkscrew. They were terrified, but they made it.

More to come.

Back on track

2007-07-12T18:50:00.000-05:00

I went to Bridge City last weekend with Beth and the kids. I saw my sister's grave for the first time since the funeral. It wasn’t nearly as difficult as I thought it might be. It was sobering. My mom has done a great job of decorating the site with mementos. The headstone is beautiful. How could it not be? It has a picture of my sister on it. The rest of the trip was great as well. We had a party for the June birthdays at Dad’s house with burgers and dogs.

Beth and I went to the track Saturday morning to run. It seems like my old high school stadium shrunk. I remember thinking how huge it was the first time I stepped on that field for 7th grade football. The track was bright red when I was there. We are the Cardinals so it made sense. It is black now. It is a little depressing.

Biscuits and Gravy

2007-07-04T01:08:00.000-05:00

We brought the kids to their first concert tonight. I have to thank my neighbor Sean Claes for arranging the trip. We went to the Paramount Theatre in Austin, TX to see the Biscuit Brothers with their band Gravy. It was a blast. The whole thing was very exciting for my kids ranging in age from 8 to 3. They were taping their first live DVD. I can’t wait until it comes out. The music was quick, fun, and interactive on a level that all my kids could participate.

This was our second time seeing these guys live. The first time was at a festival in our neighborhood. We were hooked by that performance and have been fans since then.

They have two CD's that you can buy on thier site or download from iTunes. Chek them out and you will not be dissappointed.

Perseverance and Inspiration

2007-07-03T10:42:00.000-05:00

Many people have been asking me about my experience training for and running marathons. I wrote this quite a while back, but didn’t do much with it. I hope you enjoy the read and gain some insight into where I am on the road to the marathon on 1/13/08.

I was very active in sports from the age of 5 through high-school. I was involved in everything from soccer, baseball, basketball, track, cross-country, football, and water skiing. In college I played intramural softball and soccer. In the Marines I ran way more than anyone should while wearing boots, but loved it.

I got my degree, a “real” job as a logistics consultant, and twin daughters in the span of 45 days in 1999. Between corporate lunches, endless travel, and little sleep when I was home, needless to say, I lost my athletic build for something that was a little more round.

Fast forward about five years. I am in no better shape. I now have a third child. I am no longer consulting, but I am a workaholic who is still out of shape. I knew I needed to get back into shape. My wife was on her way to the bookstore to pick up something a friend had suggested. I asked her to pick up something on running. I figured she’d come back with something like “Running a 5K and having fun”. Instead she picked up Jeff Galloway’s “Marathon: You Can Do It”. When I read the title I just laughed. She explained that it was the only book that looked like a good read. The others looked like technical manuals from the 70’s. I read the Intro and was hooked. Jeff convinced me that I could go from sitting on my butt to running a marathon in only 26 weeks. I checked the website of our local running store and sure enough, exactly 26 weeks to the day I got the book, the Motorola Marathon was going to be held in Austin, TX just 20 minutes north of me.

I went from couch potato to training for a marathon and it felt great. I slowly built up the miles and can vividly remember the day that I said to my wife, “Today won’t be too bad. It’s only 8 miles.” I finished my 27 mile training run with 3 weeks to go and was set for a 4:30 time goal. Then tragedy struck. My father was in a near fatal car wreck on the Monday before the race. He broke his neck and had to wear a halo for 9 weeks. On race day, I was helping him drink through a straw and trying to help him adjust to eating while being immobilized.

About a month later, my fourth child was born. I kept running, but very low mileage. With an infant in the house, I chose not to attempt training for the 2005 Marathon.

Late in 2005, I decided to begin training for the 2006 Marathon in Austin. Now it was known as the Freescale Marathon. In October of 2005 I got a sinus infection that ended up requiring surgery and bed rest in January of 2006. Needless to say, I was in no condition to run the Marathon in 2006.

2007 was going to be the year. I was finally going to get the Galloway book out, type my plan into my Excel spreadsheet and finally run what is now called the Austin Marathon. On August 13th, 2006, my sister, 24 years young, was hit by a semi-truck traveling at 60 mph when she ran a stop sign. She was killed instantly. She was my only sibling. I have a great wife and extended group of in-laws as well as my parents that are all grouping together to cope with this loss. She would have been 25 on April 21st 2007. Doing anything at all has been tough. I stopped running altogether in favor of just being with my family as much as I could.

Last Christmas was especially hard without her. We knowingly spent way more than normal as a form of retail therapy. We knew it couldn’t replace her, but it made us feel better, albeit temporarily. One of the items I splurged on was buying my wife one of the new video iPods. She was very excited about it. A side benefit for me was that it meant I got her old iPod shuffle.

As soon as I got it, I went to the iTunes store and subscribed to about 50 podcasts. I’d listen to an episode or two of each and deleted most of them. I got hooked on Phedippidations.

Steve, the guy who produces the podcast, got me back on the road. He has been someone that helped me a great deal. He turned me on to Dr. Sheehan. Incidentally, I suggest everyone buy a copy of Running and Being. I love it. Running isn’t just something I do; it is a part of who I am. To be the best animal I can be I need to run.

I hate to wax philosophical, but I think there is a reason that things happen. There is a reason that I have been planning to run a marathon for so long and have not been able to. There is a reason I put down the cheesy poofs and started running. There is a reason that I picked Phedippidations over the 15 other running podcasts on iTunes to try. What are those reasons? I don’t know and probably never will, but I am happy knowing that a greater being out there knows exactly what’s going on.

For the 2008 spring marathon season, I have picked the Houston Marathon on January 13th, 2008. In August, I will start a 4 hour time goal training plan found in Galloway’s Marathon book. If anything comes up that prevents me from being in Houston on that day I can fall back to the Austin marathon in February.

To summarize:
2004 Motorola Marathon: Completed training, but missed race due to father’s car accident
2005 Freescale Marathon: Did not train because of an infant in the house
2006 Freescale Marathon: Training derailed by sinus infection, surgery and bed rest.
2007 Austin Marathon: Sister died in August 2006 and pretty much everything stopped for a while.
2008 Houston Marathon: Training starts in June and I will complete my first Marathon on January 13th 2008. Fifth times the charm?

MBA: Check...Beer: Check!

2007-07-03T00:36:00.000-05:00

It is done! I have finished my latest academic endeavor. I now have an MBA. The reality of it all has not sunk in yet. My grade actually posted a little while ago for my final class.

Through all of this, Beth and the kids have given me more support than I really deserve. There were several times when I had to bring my laptop on vacations in order to keep up with classes. They would give me a little grief every now and then. That was the exception, instead of the rule.

I am going to take a good long break from school to focus on my career. I just started a new role in capital equipment procurement late last year. There is still a great deal to learn about my new position. I am actually thinking about pursuing a certification of some sort. The Institute of Supply Management offers a Certified Purchasing Manager (CPM) program that my new boss suggested.

Yahoo!!!! I am done!

lazy sunday

2007-07-01T21:46:00.000-05:00

We had a really lazy day today. Beth let me sleep in until the kids couldn’t stand it anymore. Then they woke me up to cook some French Toast. We went to see some friends for lunch, then on to run some errands. After we got home, we just laid around and did a whole lot of nothing.

Hopefully everyone feels better soon. I’ll have an update tomorrow.

Diva Party

2007-06-30T00:31:00.000-05:00

My girls celebrated their 8th birthday with a few of their friends today. It was a Diva party held at My Party Palace.

I heard "this was the best birthday I have ever been to" several times. My duaghters loved it. More importantly, we did not have 13 girls around the age of 8 in my house.

If you are planning a girls party, you must check out this place.

Running in the rain...then getting shot with espresso

2007-06-28T13:51:00.000-05:00

The cancellation of a meeting this morning allowed me to get my run in before lunch. It was very humid and hot. It rained on me near the end to cool me off a little. I did 3.8 miles in 41 minutes. It felt great.

Getting my run in early was especially good, because I had a buddy of mine take me to Gumbo’s for lunch. The food was overpriced. The service was not great. I had a cup of espresso poured on me by the waiter. Needless to say, I won’t be going back again.

A good long day...

2007-06-27T22:17:00.000-05:00

I am exhausted. I got up this morning a little before 6AM and went to the pool. The 30 minutes of cardio made the rest of the day sail by. We had softball practice tonight. We even had enough players to field a whole team.

The big news of the day is that Beth created a new blog about fitness and exercise. You can view it at http://ebethysfit.blogspot.com/ or just the follow the link in the side bar.

The workout plan for tomorrow is to run 4-5 miles. The problem is that I have meetings all morning and a vendor taking me to lunch. I will eat responsibly or pay dearly for it during the afternoon run. Stay tuned. I’ll let you know how it goes later.

Crashed!

2007-06-26T21:36:00.000-05:00

This pic of my boy shows about how I feel. Today was a scheduled day off from running. My left knee is a bit sore from the long run yesterday. I need the time to recover. I am also going to take off Wednesday this week to allow more time for recovery. I think I'll hit the pool in the morning for some low impact cardio instead.

Running into Trouble

2007-06-25T16:33:00.000-05:00

Repeat after me, “Gadgets are good. Gadgets are good.” Well, I guess I should clarify by saying that gadgets are good when not in the hands of someone who is not going to think when using the gadget. The only thing limiting the number of gadgets I have is my budget. I have to save and justify purchases of gadgets. That may be part of the reason I love them. Anyway, this is how a gadget got me in trouble today. So it is actually a story about how a guy who misuses a gadget can get into trouble.

I run with an iRiver T10 mp3 player and listen primarily to podcasts. I also have a Garmin Forerunner 301 for tracking progress and heart rate. Today, like many other, I went out at lunch to go on a quick run. A quick run normally consists of running through the streets near my office, trying to work a convenience store into the route if I need some Gatorade. A huge advantage of having a Garmin is that I can run any route and know at the end of the run how far I have gone and how fast I did it. If I see a big dog or a wreck up ahead, I just turn down a side street and still get a great work-out without losing the ability to know how far I ran.

The plan for today was to run for 30-45 minutes at a nice and easy pace. I started out slowly and felt really good. About 20 minutes into the run, I realized that I was thirsty and wasn’t quite sure where I was. Another great feature of the Garmin is the “Back to Start” in the map mode that points the way back home. I could have used this, but I didn’t pass a store on the route I had taken. I didn’t want to go back that way. I saw a road name that I thought was familiar. That’s where the trouble began. When I finally “found” myself, I was much farther from work than I thought I would be.

I knew of a store about a mile down the road. The problem with the store was that it was a mile farther away from the office than I already was. I had already been on the road and on the move for a little over thirty minutes. Despite wanting to only run for about 30-45 minutes, I was about to run away from my starting point by another mile. I was really feeling thirsty so I went for the store. I bought some Berry Rain Gatorade, ripped it open and started to ponder the route back home.

I could easily track back using the Garmin and make it home with no issues. Unfortunately, the Gatorade gave me a boost and I started thinking, “I know where I am now. I don’t need to use the map.” That was another mistake. My run ended up lasting 1:47:02 and covered 9.28 miles for an average pace of 11:30.

So what’s the point? Pay attention to what you are doing and where you are going when you run and don’t count on gadgets to do things they were never intended to do. One day, we’ll be wearing the equivalent of the TomTom navigation system, but until that day, we must work with what we have.

dax

Can I buy this?

2007-06-19T15:13:00.000-05:00

My wife sent me this pic from the store the other day with the text "Can I buy these?" What dad in their right mind is going to say no to this. My boys are getting bigger and bigger and now they have Astros hats, just like dad.

Breaking through the blogosphere

2007-05-29T23:48:00.000-05:00

I am finally here. I am not sure what to say or if anyone will read it, but this will at least give me a forum to vent about things that are on my mind. Right now, it is nearly midnigth and I am watching Polar Express with my 3-year old. He isn't feeling well and he wanted to watch a movie.

I'll be back at a later date to add more.

dax