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.

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?

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.

9 already...

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.

Is telecommuting an option?

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…

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.

1st day of school

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.

thoughts at 32k feet

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.

Six Flags

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.

Biscuits and Gravy

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.

Diva Party

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.

Crashed!

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.

Can I buy this?

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.