Salamasond

Plans for 2011

2011-01-02T08:11:00.000-06:00

Run at least one marathon - already registered for Go! St. Louis in April
Weigh less than 200 lbs and maintain a "normal" BMI for at least 6 months of the year
Get into a homework routine with Ellie
Four random unplanned vacation days to spend with family
Maintain budget and continue to reduce debt

2010 Recap

2011-01-02T08:05:00.000-06:00

I kept a list of my 2010 plans on the fridge all year long and I think I did alright. I didn't complete everything I had planned, but do plans ever turn out exactly as you expect? Here's the recap from January 2010.

Continue to get in better shape:

I definitely did this. I didn't get quite as far as I'd hoped, but I finally got the Wii Fit to tell me that my weight was in the "normal" range.
I did run a half marathon, which was awesome, and have continued to run. My speed has increased so that I'm running 10k in under an hour.
Throughout the winter, I've been running in the St. Louis Track Club's Frostbite Series of runs, which will get me up to a half marathon in late January. I'm also registered for the Go! St. Louis Marathon in April!!
I gave myself credit for the "do pull-ups" goal because I was doing them on the swing set while pushing the girls on the swings this summer. I'm not proficient, but good enough for now.

Make the home office presentable again

This summer, my sister and her family came to live with us for a while as they transitioned to being St. Louis residents. The home office became my niece's room. And I'm thrilled with how nice it looked when she moved in! (In the end, she wanted to spend more time sleeping in her mom and dad's room, but it was still worth cleaning up.)

Improve financial management skills

We've definitely been pretty good at maintaining our budget. I think we missed one or two months, but we've done alright.
We also restructured some of our debt and have been able to make great progress. Close, but not quite a 50% reduction.

Improve work/life balance

Work/life balance is always complicated for me. With running during lunch at work and having lunches at home sometimes, I've definitely made progress. I haven't taken off as many random "let's go do something fun" days. There's progress to be made there.

Academic Avocation

I started NaNoWriMo again, this year, with the best of intentions. It didn't work out, though. My wife wasn't doing it along with me and we had a lot of things going on. Excuses, sure. After a week, I decided that it just wasn't worth it this year. Maybe next year.
I also didn't submit any book proposals. Oh well.

Other things I did accomplish this year:

A five mile hike up in the Snow Range in Wyoming that was truly awesome!
We're now expecting another child to join the family in March 2011.
I joined a business intelligence workgroup as part of HIMSS, which may lead to contributing to a book.
I volunteered to be a mentor for a Wash U engineering student.
I grew a winter beard.

Friday's Wednesday Weigh-in

2010-06-04T07:04:00.001-05:00

I feel like I've struggled with weight all my life. I remember times when parents told me I would hit a growth spurt and grow into my weight; I remember the day that my waist size got larger than my inseam; I remember telling myself thousands of times that I just have a big frame and would look silly any skinnier. Really good at deceiving myself. Well... today I reached a huge milestone. The Wii Fit told me that my BMI was in the "Normal" range today for the first time. As all of my friends know, I haven't weighed this little ever. I have only one close friend that's ever seen me weight less, and that's because we went to Junior High together.

From 2010-06

Happy National Running Day

2010-06-02T18:31:00.000-05:00

I got my long anticipated new running shoes today: Vibram FiveFinger Bakilas. I've only run halfway up the street and back a couple of times (with the girls), but so far so good. We'll see how they do on a longer run tomorrow maybe!

Coincidentally, today happens to be National Running Day!
Coincidentally, I officially announced the founding of the Sisters of Mercy Health System Running Club today, too.

Yeah for running!

Wednesday Weigh-In / Running Log

2010-05-19T06:57:00.000-05:00

Today's weigh-in came in at 205.4.... which is .9 lbs away from "normal." I'm less concerned about really being in the "normal" BMI range according to my Wii Fit. What I really want is just to hear the Wii Fit say "that's normal" or whatever it's going to say. I think I'll take a video of it when that happens!

Running plans include the St. Louis Science Center 5k/10k this weekend. Sarahlynn is running the 5k. I'm going to run the 10k. The girls are running a kids 1/2 mile around the planetarium. Fun stuff!! We practiced this past weekend in the nice cool weather.

More fun - Sarahlynn's parents are coming to visit this weekend and help watch the girls while we're running. (I think they're proud of us.)

Wednesday Weigh-In

2010-04-28T18:34:00.000-05:00

I feel like I've been pretty flat in my weight loss for too long. In the past month, I'm down just a pound. So, I took the time to look back on the Wii Fit (really wish I could do that online and post some graphics here easily). Last April, I was at a high of 265.4 (obese). Today, I weighed in at 206.8 (barely overweight). If I hit my goal by next Wednesday, I'll have lost exactly 60 lbs since last April and will have crossed over into the Wii Fit's definition of "normal" BMI range.

Clearly, I'm using my Wii Fit's calculations and ratings to measure my progress. I do recognize that my ultimate goal isn't to satisfy the Wii Fit. It's to get to a place where I'm comfortable with my weight. That's obviously both a physical exercise as well as a mental one.

And update to my running log, too. I'm now using SmartRunner on my phone for GPS tracking. It also keeps my running log up to date online, too. My RSS is here.

Before and After

2010-04-18T20:56:00.000-05:00

December 2005:	April 2010:

Granted, I think I was sick in the Dec 2005 picture.

Running with the girls

2010-03-19T19:39:00.000-05:00

Mommy is out of town at a weekend retreat tonight and tomorrow night and the girls had a late nap, so... we all went for a run together! I thought the girls could just ride in the bike trailer / stroller, we'd run down to see the Clydesdales, and then run back while listening to some Disney read-along stories. Well, the first 3/4 mile went that way, but then Ada REALLY wanted to get out and run, too.

She did great!!! She probably ended up running more than 1 full mile (on and off) of the 4.8 it takes to run down to the horses and back. Ellie got out ran a little bit along the way, too. They both got some great praise from a pair of mommies running past, and got to put some dogs, and throw rocks over the bridge into the creek. It was great!

But not very fast:
Time:    0:86:40
Distance:    4.85
Average Speed:    3.36
Average Pace:    17:52

Wednesday Weigh In

2010-03-18T00:36:00.000-05:00

Today's weigh-in: 213
Pounds left until I'm out of the "overweight" range on the Wii Fit: 7.5
Distance: 4 miles
Time: 40 minutes + 15 cool down

Challenges:
I gained 6 pounds while Nana and Grandpa were in town. In response, I went back on South Beach Phase 1 for the next couple of weeks. That was very effective at helping me take some weight off right after the Nov/Dec holiday binge. It seems to have been very effective again! As I said, I gained around 6 pounds with grandparents in town and have already taken that back off. That's awfully fast to lose that weight, but I'm not eating unhealthily.

Running Revelations:
First, I'm really enjoying Born to Run. It's helped me realize how lucky I am that my natural running stride is probably also a very healthy one; and really motivated me to keep running. It's an excellent read!

Second, I want to run faster. I'm getting good exercise at my 11 minute/mile pace, but it does limit where I can run to in an acceptable amount of time. I'd love to get to a consistent 9 minute mile for 10+ miles. So, I stretched out in my last 1/2 mile today and pushed to see what a faster pace would look like. I stretched out to an 8 minute mile. That felt a bit fast, but I kept it up. So, I've got something to work on and strive for other than distance now, too.

I like this running stuff -- I also like that I'm in better shape than I probably ever have been. I had a friend from college tell me that I look like I'm in better shape than when we first met, Freshman year.

Running with purpose

2010-03-15T00:54:00.000-05:00

I don't think that I'll ever be a full time running commuter, but I do like running with a purpose. Last week, I ran the 9 miles home from work even though my fully functional car was sitting in the parking garage. Today, I ran 6 miles round trip to the grocery store for a few things that we needed. (No 8.6 pounds of milk, but I did have 4 pounds of sugar and 2 pounds of butter. We were making cheese fudge to auction off at church. And, yes, I did probably indulge myself of enough fudge to cancel out the calories burned in the 6 mile run.)

Today's run: 6 miles, 70 min

Late morning run

2010-03-10T08:09:00.000-06:00

Late morning update today:

Distance: 2.9 miles ("around the block")
Time: 35 min + 12 cool down

Weather: sunny and mid 50s... perfect!

Wednesday Weigh-In

2010-03-10T06:06:00.000-06:00

Today's weigh-in: 213.4
Pounds left until I'm out of the "overweight" range on the Wii Fit: 7.5

Challenges:
Nana and Grandpa are in town. Which means we like to go out to eat and there's deliciously tempting treats around constantly.

Powerful Reminders:
That it's my choice, what I put in my mouth.

Helpful:
Did 30 Minute Shred on Monday.
Ran 9 miles from work to home on Tuesday.
Maybe I'll run tomorrow and Friday morning, too.

Wednesday Weigh-In / Running Log

2010-03-03T20:00:00.000-06:00

No-frills today (actually Thursday, but I'm going to pre-date my post.)

Today's weigh-in: 214.2
Pounds left until I'm out of the "overweight" range on the Wii Fit: 9.2

Today's run: 3.1 miles / 33 minutes

Don't Panic!

2010-03-02T07:30:00.014-06:00

Yesterday morning, my wife noticed a strange smell -- a "first day of winter furnace" smell. Hmm. Maybe we need a new filter, I figured. I don't change those nearly as often as I should. "I'll stop and pick one up after work. Oh, and the other four things I've been meaning to pick up at the hardware store, too."

No problem finding everything on my list:

Furnace filter
New kitchen faucet nozzle
New stopper for running toilet
New ceiling fan light bulbs

When I got home, I went straight to work on those repairs without even taking my work clothes off. Dunking my hands and shirt sleeves in cold toilet tank water; replacing the kitchen faucet nozzle over the disposal; up and down the stairs to replace the furnace filter; cleaned the bathroom sink drain with draino; etc. Ada needed to go potty. Helped out with that...

Something is wrong.

ACK! My wedding ring!! Where is it!??!

I should mention at this point that I've lost more than 55 pounds over the past year. In the cold, my wedding ring can almost slip off. I thought it was almost. Yesterday it really slipped off.

I practiced my parenting patience tool:
Stop
Take a breath
And
Relax

OK. Where have I been. (Go back and read the list. Toilet. Sink. Disposal. Basement.) Ugh. The worst places you can imagine to have potentially lost a wedding ring.

Long story of searching and near state of panic later -- my ring was in an outside open pocket of my work bag. As I'd slipped by bag off of my shoulder, it must have caught my ring just enough to pull it off. I was so focused on getting chores done that I didn't notice right away.

Oh... and it turns out that in the midst of all that. I discovered the furnace is broken. No pilot light. No power to the ignition module (which was just replaced last January). So, we had a fire and spent the night with the gas oven on trying to keep the house warm. I'll be calling the furnace guy in 40 minutes.

Skating

2010-03-01T00:14:00.000-06:00

It took us until this year and the very end of this year's skating season, but we finally took the girls out ice skating at Steinberg Rink.

I was impressed that both of the girls got around walking in their skates just fine. In fact, it got my hopes up that they'd take the ice more quickly that I had imaged. But, they didn't. Both girls had an absolute blast out on the ice with Daddy supporting most of their weight.

Today's back pain has been totally worth the joy I got from having them argue over who got to go next, and finding out that Ada threw a fit when I took Ellie around for two laps IN A ROW without taking her in between.

By my fifth lap around, I thought I had a good position for crouching to keep my balance and not kill my back. I felt really low to the ice, like Anton Ohno! By the end of the eighth lap, though, my hamstrings were starting to ache a little bit. (Still I ran 10.5 miles later that afternoon!) Luckily, the girls were ready for lunch, so I got a reprieve.

Needless to day, next season, I think we'll get out a few more times. I'll need some practice to get my back in shape for it.

Running Log 2010-02-27

2010-02-27T16:56:00.002-06:00

Time:    0:130:33
Distance:    10.53
Average Speed:    4.86
Average Pace:   12.34

First Wednesday Weigh-In

2010-02-24T23:07:00.000-06:00

It would have been more satisfying if I'd started this a year ago, but that's no reason not to start now. I haven't reached my weight / body image target... not quite yet.

In February 2009, I weighed 270 pounds and was starting to stretch the limits of my 44-inch "comfort waist" pants.

In February 2010, as of this morning, I weigh 215.4 pounds and just bought the first pair of 38-inch "regular fit" jeans that I've worn since I was a freshman in college. I wore my wedding tux a couple of weeks ago and noted, with their lack of belt loops, that if I lose any more weight, I'll have to have them taken in.

So, here's my first Wednesday Weigh-In, starting off with a very satisfying history of where I am today.

Running Log 2010-02-10

2010-02-10T22:15:00.000-06:00

Time:    0:105:31
Distance:    9.04
Average Speed:    5.14
Average Pace:    11:40

View Larger Map

Running Log 2010-02-07

2010-02-07T21:59:00.000-06:00

Distance: 11 miles
Time: long time
Exhausted

Running Log 2010-02-05

2010-02-06T07:01:00.000-06:00

Quick little jaunt around the highway in the snow. Pointed out that I need some wedgees for my glasses (we just bought some for Ellie and they're great).

Distance: 3.02 miles
Time: 34 minutes

View Larger Map

I'm Registered!

2010-02-01T22:31:00.001-06:00

It's official. I'm registered for the Go! St. Louis 1/2 Marathon. Phew... now to get over this cold and get back to training!

Date: 4/10/2010
Time: 7:00 AM
Location: Downtown St. Louis
Target Time: just to finish

Running Log 2010-01-27

2010-01-27T23:34:00.000-06:00

9.5 miles
2 hours

View Larger Map

Running Log 2010-01-17

2010-01-17T16:18:00.001-06:00

My longest run ever, by a couple of miles...

View Larger Map

Time:	0:107:13
Distance:	8.39

Running Log 2010-01-10

2010-01-10T16:53:00.000-06:00

Distance: 4.6 miles
Temperature: 20 deg F

Interesting experience: From my sister-in-law, I got a tight, long sleeve, wicking shirt. When I was done with this run, my body was completely dry, but the cotton shirt I had on top of that bottom layer was soaked like I'd been running in the summer. Amazing textile technology!

Very tired.

Running Log 2010-01-08

2010-01-08T20:58:00.000-06:00

Ran with a friend at work today!
Distance: 3.38 miles
Time: 40 minutes

He pushed my usual 4mph to 5mph. Exhausted!

Running Log 2010-01-06

2010-01-06T22:56:00.001-06:00

Yes, I know that it's one of the coldest days of the year so far and all the schools are going to be closed tomorrow. But I got some awesome cold weather running gear for Christmas and had to try it out. So, yes, I went running tonight. Yeah! It was GREAT!

Distance: 2.8 miles
Time: 38 minutes

Plans for 2010

2009-12-31T23:50:00.001-06:00

Not resolutions, but plans for the new year...

Continue to get in better shape

Weigh less than 200 lbs at some point in the year
Run and complete a half marathon
Attempt to complete a full marathon
Be able to do pull-ups
Buy bikes

Make the home office presentable again

Not used for random storage any more
Filing cabinets accessible and used on a regular basis

Improve financial management skills

Maintain a functional monthly and annual budget
Reduce non-mortgage debt by 50%

Improve work/life balance

More "random" days off from work for fun with family

Academic Avocation

Submit book proposals
Write another non-fiction NaNoWriMo / PragProWriMo

Great Headlines

2009-12-19T08:26:00.001-06:00

Great, real headlines. Collected by Informatica.

Christmas Card

2009-12-17T20:58:00.001-06:00

Note the postmark on this card from our friend in the government:

Messy Play

2009-12-08T00:51:00.000-06:00

I'm not great at keeping the house clean to begin with, so the idea of messy play is usually a bit intimidating to me. I guess I have to be in the right mood for it. Tonight, though, was finger-painting night at our house:

Lessons Learned Today

2009-11-28T22:53:00.000-06:00

Superglue near eye burns
Glasses are hard to fix when the frame itself actually breaks
The new Super Mario Bros game is chaos with four people all playing together... fun chaos
Preparing the night before for a 10:55 flight is more relaxing than preparing for a 7:20 AM flight
Being fewer than 2,000 words away from finishing NaNoWriMo / PragProWriMo feels really great! If you're interested in data warehousing, you can see a few highlights of the 48,061 words I've written over the past month on my tech blog: Sharpening Stones.

10 Random Things to be Thankful For

2009-11-27T22:47:00.000-06:00

48,061 words on NaNoWriMo / PragProWriMo with 3 days left to go
Friends willing to watch our dog
Margaritas and Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups
Nintendo Wii
My wife
My family
My brother-in-law
Children who go to sleep
Christmas music
Life

I can be silly and sentimental in the same post if I want to!

38,761 words; 158 pages

2009-11-23T00:39:00.001-06:00

PragProWriMo going well and looking for a strong finish over the next week!!

Getting it done

2009-11-10T23:05:00.000-06:00

I really have to give a lot of thanks to Sarahlynn for how much fun I'm having this month with NaNoWriMo / PragProWriMo (despite having come down with an annoying cold yesterday). See "snot" reference.

Setting a pace of 2,000 words per day for 6 days a week, and not having a goal 1 day per week has been great. If I can find 20 minutes to write during the day and an hour or two at night, I seem to be able to keep pace.

#pragprowrimo word count: 18,297

Liking People

2009-11-04T17:27:00.000-06:00

...not licking people...

It occurred to me just now that maybe I would like people more if I took the time to learn more about them. Not that I don't really like people, but I just don't take the time to ask people at work about their personal lives.

I like sharing things about myself with other people. Maybe I'd actually like to hear more about them, too, if I took the time.

Huh.

Accountability

2009-11-03T23:14:00.000-06:00

"People aren't accountable enough for things..." is a phrase that I heard at work a few times over the past couple of years. The phrase bothered me a lot. I couldn't tell why, but it gave me one of those visceral "that doesn't make sense!" reactions.

Tonight, I finally figured it out. You cannot independently and simply be accountable. Rather, accountability is directed outwardly. You are held accountable by someone else, by yourself, or by God.

Accountable and Responsible are sometimes used inter-changeably, but it seems to be there is a very important distinction. When you are responsible for something, you simply and matter-of-factly are responsible for that thing. By definition. When you're accountable for something, it is because of an expectation or obligation that is a third-party to the relationship between you and the thing for which you are accountable.

Interesting.

Running Log 2009-11-01

2009-11-01T20:49:00.000-06:00

Distance: 3.01 miles
Time: ~30 minutes

My favorite part about this run: after a little bit of warm-up and providing for a little bit of cool-down at the end, I ran the entire distance without walking. Lately, I feel like I haven't been able to get more than a mile without walking a bit, so this was a good accomplishment. I think the 55 degree weather helps, too. By the end, though, I feel like I was breaking through another wall; as if I could have possibly done the entire loop again. Maybe I'll try that next time.

Now, it's off for some more PragProWriMo / NaNoWriMo!
You can follow my progress on my other blog, Sharpening Stones, or via twitter.

PragProWriMo Begins

2009-11-01T08:10:00.000-06:00

It's begun. Less than 8 hours later, I'm off to a running start at 1,492 words!

Track my progress on my NaNoWriMo page or my Sharpening Stones blog.

Almost Time to Write!

2009-10-29T02:03:00.000-05:00

NaNoWriMo starts on Sunday and one of my favorite tech publishers is encouraging geeks to participate, too!

Time to run

2009-10-29T02:01:00.001-05:00

Tonight's run was a bit ambitious, and a huge success!
It's also fun to have do a one-way run, because it really is productive on multiple levels: exercise and transportation!

Happy National Computer Science Education Week!

2009-10-25T23:16:00.000-05:00

Mark your calendars! The week of December 7th is officially National Computer Science Education Week. I'm a big fan of the idea. In fact, I wrote a paper in my Argumentation 101 class in college that suggested that every liberal arts student should be required to take an introduction to computer science class. It was the only paper I got an A on all semester and the English teacher told me that she was actually convinced!

As anyone working in a CS or MIS department knows, enrolment in CS and MIS graduate programs is down dramatically over the past 10 years. (Enrolment in female students has dropped off particularly steeply!) So, I'm glad that there's some good publicity going on.

The Information Management website, however, has a ridiculous editorial about the state of affairs, though. The article suggests:

...there is another powerful factor that steers young people away from what they see as humdrum careers, and that factor began with us, the parents of those who are about to enter the workforce. Specifically, I’m talking about the idea that a growing child “can be anything he or she wants to be.” Now I never heard that from my parents growing up and most of my friends didn’t either, but I know plenty of parents nowadays who tell that awful lie to their kids. And this fantasy is reinforced millions of times daily by the likes of Disney and Nickelodeon.

Perhaps I'm younger than the author of this article, but I did grow up with the clear message that I could be anything I want, that I could do anything I put my mind to. Now, I may not living the rich and famous life of a hugely successful 90's IPO success, but I do love what I do. I'm passionate about data, information, computers, and that's what I get to do almost every day of my life. It's great!

Perhaps the other point that the author makes almost in passing is more salient:

In the past, I have speculated that since this generation has grown up with computer technology—much the way my generation grew up with television—computers are just a ho-hum fact of life for them.

I think this is more likely the situation for many students. When I was growing up, the computers I had access to provided me with the opportunity to examine physically, to take apart, to dissect and gain an almost intuitive understand of just through that physical examination. Today, I have a dozen far more powerful computers within arms reach at almost any moment, but none of them can easily be disassembled and reassembled by your average 10 year old.

So, I think it's true. We're most used to computers. They're less technically accessible and therefore less tempting for many people to examine. Perhaps some of the best ways to regain interest in computer science and technology is to go back to some of those roots, through programs like elementary school robotics competitions, programming FPGAs, Motorola 68k assembly programming, and building an Apple II from the ground up. My Palm Pre has an intuitive interface, but programming on it (while not too hard) is not intuitive. TTL logic and k-maps are intuitive. Maybe one of the things that we're missing for our modern computer science students is a connection with their intuition. They see computer science as programming using patterns and frameworks that someone else has built, Googling for code samples to copy and paste, and coding out some spec that someone else wrote. I don't think most people find that thrilling. Writing up some chips and praying that the magical blue-smoke doesn't escape -- that's a thrill!

What are we teaching?

2009-10-14T07:58:00.000-05:00

I hadn't been following this story until today, but I have to stop and ask "what are we teaching our children when we give them a punishment with potentially long lasting punitive impacts for doing something that has the potential to cause harm?"

That feels too much like a scene from Minority Report, in which the police have a way of predicting future crimes with very high but not perfect accuracy. The preemptively arrest people for crimes that those people haven't even contemplated committing, yet.

In the case of kids bringing weapons to school, what does it teach out kids that if they make a mistake, they'll be kicked out of school. No second chances. No chance for rehabilitation. No opportunity to teach them about appropriate behavior and safety. It seems to me that our schools should be both safe and a place for teaching, not just by making an example of others but also by experiencing situations.

I recognize that there are rules to prevent dangerous situations. I'm not questioning the rules in this argument as much as I'm questioning the punishment. (Making rules more practical is for a separate argument!)

Politics in School

2009-09-07T08:24:00.003-05:00

I'm proud to say that my daughter's elementary school (the whole school district in fact) will be showing President Obama's speech this week.

I'm dismayed by what a controversy this speech has become in general.

It amazes me that anyone would even consider pulling their kids out of school to avoid exposing them to a speech that the President is directly specifically to them. I think I would pull my kids out of school to ensure that they had a chance to hear the speech! Rather than leaving it to individual teachers to review and use later, I think that schools should be holding all-school assemblies and broadcasting the speech live.

It isn't often that a President takes the time to speak directly to our children. They should have the opportunity to hear from the leader of their country just how important they are.

Running Log 2009-09-31

2009-08-31T23:48:00.003-05:00

Still going pretty strong with the running.

Tonight's route had some tough hills on the first 1/2, but that really does make the second half go so much more easily!

Logged 4.2 miles tonight.

Still going....

2009-08-30T22:49:00.001-05:00

Today's total:
6.2 mile bike ride around Forest Park (with 80 lbs of girls in tow).
4.2 mile run up and down some good hills.

Phew.

First Day of Kindergarten

2009-08-17T10:31:00.002-05:00

Ack!

Ellie's off for her first day of Kindergarten. Mom and Dad are awfully nervous, but Mom is going to school to have lunch with Ellie.

I think she's going to love it, but I know that she's nervous about it. There was very little sleeping last night.

Running Log 2009-07-19

2009-07-19T22:16:00.003-05:00

Today's run: Shooting for my 5-miler this week
Distance - 5.07 miles
Time - 01:12:00

Grant's Trail, from Big Bend to Grant's Farm and back.
I did a brief walk in the middle at Grant's Farm, and walked the last 0.7 miles. So, I'm not really counting this as a 5-miler. Maybe next week.

I didn't blog it, but yesterday, we did about half this distance on Grant's trail with my mother-in-law, with me and the jogging stroller. Not a huge fan of running with the stroller, but it did provide some good tricep work.

Running Log 2009-07-16

2009-07-17T09:23:00.000-05:00

Today's run: Trying to go a bit longer
Distance - 4.2 miles
Time - 00:53:00

I walked up a couple of hills... the Adams/Couch corner in Sugar Creek Valley is pretty steep.

Running Log 2009-07-14

2009-07-14T23:02:00.003-05:00

Today's run: Running with Grandma tonight! (My mother-in-law.)
Distance - 2.7 miles
Time - 00:37:43

Not much distance tonight, but part of it was running up the hill in Sugar Creek Valley! Not fair!

Running Log 2009-07-13

2009-07-13T23:13:00.004-05:00

Today's run: First one with my new shoes.
Distance - 4.69 miles
Time - 01:05:00

A running I will go!

2009-07-13T20:18:00.003-05:00

I've decided to take up running as a standard part of my workout routine. I gave it a try several weeks ago... and realized it wasn't so bad. Maybe I was expecting a worse experience considering the 50+ ft elevation change that occurs withing 1/4 mile any direction of our house. There's no where to run from here that isn't a hill. Still, I went out running. Came back. Measured my route on Google Earth.... and realized I'd run 2 miles. Not bad.

Now I'm up to a nearly 4 mile routine (including warm-up / cool down).

Sarahlynn encouraged me to go find the "Marathon for non-Runners" book we had in the basement. We'll see.

At the very least, I've committed to 300 miles over the next year. That is, I bought good running shoes.

Wish me luck!

Mii NOT Fit, yet

2009-06-23T06:53:00.002-05:00

We got a new Wii Fit exercise game last night: EA Active

I thought that I'd been getting a good, well rounded exercise routine with the eliptical machine, running, and occasional Wii Fit work out. My 40-minute workout last night blew me away. Way too many squats, squats on tip toe, roller-blading squat/jump.... my thighs are jelly this morning. Now there's some diversity in my workout. Wow!

Aggregate / Summary

2009-06-19T00:07:00.001-05:00

One of my wife's pet peeves is when technologists take a word that already has clear meaning in the English language and then twist the definition to mean something not-quite-close-enough in a technical context. Great case-in-point in the world of data warehousing:

What is the difference between an aggregate and a summary?

I did a Google search and came up with a lot of junk floating around what I would consider some not very good answers (albeit from 2002) from some industry analysts. In fact, David Marco goes so far as to say "Summarized and aggregation are the same thing.

In my gut, there's always been a difference between an aggregate and a summary. So, I decided to try to articulate what the difference is. In doing so, my wife's advice of "just look in the dictionary" came in very handy.

Aggregate:
Comes from the Latin word for "to flock together" or "to flock or group."
Just to point out that there's nothing necessarily in that definition about the idea of reducing the specificity of something or the fact that the flock or group is made up of individuals. Rather, the idea is that there is a group of individual things acting together.

Summary:
From the Latin summa, one meaning of which is "total" or "sum," also the "principle or main thing."
Clearly, the idea with this root word is that a level of detail is being removed when the summary of something is presented. Rather than still being individual things, the summary of things is another layer of abstraction that represents the underlying detail.

Not so much the same thing.

That's Overweight!

2009-06-17T23:48:00.003-05:00

It may not seem like something to be proud of, but this past week, my Wii Fit finally started telling me "That's Overweight!" This, rather than, "That's Obese!" It doesn't sound great, but it sure felt great!!

I've still got a ways to go, but (not to brag), I'm down 20+ lbs and 2+ inches on my pants in the past 2 months.

The Wii Fit thinks "normal" for me is something I can't ever imagine achieving, but we'll see where things are in another 2 months, and maybe 2 more after that. At this same rate, I'd be where the Wii Fit thinks I should be, but I expect the rate of weight loss to slow soon... maybe.

On top of "eat less" and "exercise more," I've also bee using this resource as well. It's providing me with some good ways of thinking about food and eating.

Potty Training Again

2009-05-30T07:20:00.000-05:00

T-minus 32 hours and counting....

The morning of Sunday, May 31st will be Ada's last morning in diapers. The plan is to train Ada tomorrow afternoon. With luck, we'll be done in 4 hours and into a mode of "dry pants?" checking throughout the day rather than diaper changing.

The technique for us has been: Toilet Training in Less Than a Day

Well worth the $6.99 on Amazon. It's a potty training session based on research done the 1970s with developmentally delayed adults who had never been taught to toilet themselves. The education experts and researches took their research results and turned in around into a training technique for toddlers. It worked very well with Ellie (though we've decided that Ellie needs a refresher session to help her become more independent before she gets into kindergarten this fall!)

Bye bye diapers!

Dead Phone

2009-05-29T07:56:00.002-05:00

My phone started seriously flaking out on Tuesday. In the morning, I was trying to call Sarahlynn and it kept dropping the call. I didn't have a usable signal all day long. I couldn't get a data connection to keep synced with my work email/calendar. Of course, I've had lots of past problems with this phone. Time for a new one pretty soon any way. (I'm jonesing for a Palm Pre, but I don't think it will support synchronization with work out of the box).

So, Wednesday morning, I took the phone in to a Sprint store, first thing in the morning. As luck would have it, as I sat outside the Sprint store, waiting for it to open, my phone started working again! I was sure these guys inside wouldn't believe me that it wasn't working; or they'd just blame the storms yesterday for bad reception; something like that.

Luckily, they took the phone back and ran some radio tests on it, and it failed the diagnostics! Phew. I'm not crazy.... but I am out a phone. And the Palm Pre isn't out yet.

Replacement phone: $120 Ugh.

Another stroke of luck, though: Sprint is having "open enrollment" for insurance plans. Usually you can only buy phone insurance when you buy the phone or renew your contract. They happen to be allowing open enrollment right now. So, I start up my insurance contract for $7 / month.... and voila, I get a new phone on Thursday for free! Great!

The last funny part of the story.

I swing by the store on Thursday at 12:00 to see if they happen to have it in, yet. The nice woman at the desk explains that they usually get the shipment in around noon and sorted out by 3:00. OK, I go on my way, with my mostly dead phone that they're going to try to contact me via when the new phone arives.

I get to work (7 mile drive) and notice I have a voicemail. Of course. It's the Sprint store telling me my new phone is in.

Well, now I've got my replacement phone and it's working better than ever. No funky dropped calls or screwball reception or anything, yet. Let me bang it around for a while. I'm sure it'll start acting flakey soon enough.

Fast Shoes

2009-05-25T06:18:00.002-05:00

Thanks to my wife's planning, it's been a weekend full of fun family entertainment: Gateway Arch, Greek Fest, Renaissance Faire, Zoo, and more to come today!

From 2009-05

Saturday morning, we packed the girls in the car and headed down to the Arch. The girls love going up in the Arch to look out over the Cardinals stadium or down on the great muddy Mississippi River. From the north parking garage, Ellie RAN most of the quarter mile down the path to the Arch! We were so proud to see her keep it up and not ask to be carried once! What I didn't realize was that Ellie's new found interest in running was going to be a harbinger of future trouble.

Sunday afternoon, after good solid naps, we watched the thunder storm blow past and decided it might make for a good end-of-day at the zoo. As we walked into the zoo, the girls asked to go see the big cats and the zebras at Red Rocks. So, we parked the stroller and hopped on the train. Two stops later, we were headed up the hill, past the water buffalo statue, and up the ramp that bridges between the jaguar and tiger pits. Ellie stepped up into the iron fence to strain for a better view to search for the jaguar. No jaguar to be seen, but Ellie's shoe got stuck a little bit in the fence. Great kid - she got unstuck by pulling her foot out of shoe. Then picked up her shoe and threw it over the fence into the jaguar pit... $200 orthodic insert and all.

From 2009-05

As we went around to look at the shoe, we saw that there was indeed a jaguar in the pit. A beautiful black jaguar. Jaguars don't typically need orthodics, but maybe Ellie figured he might get a little extra speed with her shoe.

After an embarrassing call to the ranger station, in which I learned that it takes 3 zookeepers to safely move the cats around, we headed down to the carousel for a nice ride ON a black jaguar.

Luckily, the wonderful rangers at the zoo were able to retrieve the shoe after the jaguar went to his sleeping quarters on his own. So, today, we'll head to the Science Center and pick one hopefully-not-chewed shoe and orthodic.

Kids.

Ada Lovelace Day

2009-03-24T01:33:00.004-05:00

March 24 is Ada Lovelace Day.

My own Ada (Adelaide), who looks more akin to Einstein here, was named partially for Ada Lovelace -- our criteria was that it should be a name not typically associated with children in our generation, preferably a family name, and a name that felt like it had some substance. The reference to Ada Lovelance satisfies that third criteria, obviously.

I am embarrassed to say, though, that I've never learned to program Ada -- either as a father or as a software engineer. Though I do remember sitting up late at night with her older sister trying to understand what programming bug must be causing her fuss without any discernible reason.

Even Lego-People are Giddy

2009-01-18T09:44:00.003-06:00

It still feels a long time away (thought it's the day after tomorrow). And every time I think about the inauguration, I feel giddy. There are a lot of challenges in the world and reality always gets in the way of expectations and plans... still, I think there's a lot of good coming this way for the USA.

Part of the reason I feel this way is because the excitement and energy seems to be so broad to me. Even inanimate Lego-People are getting excited and showing up by the thousands for the inauguration:

http://blogs.reuters.com/oddly-enough/2009/01/18/the-inaugural-a-proud-legocy/

Two Fishermen

2008-12-11T00:16:00.002-06:00

Forwarded to me by a co-worker:

Two men went fishing. One man was an experienced fisherman, the other wasn't. Every time the experienced fisherman caught a big fish, he put it in his ice chest to keep it fresh. Whenever the inexperienced fisherman caught a big fish, he threw it back.

The experienced fisherman watched this go on all day and finally got tired of seeing this man waste good fish. "Why do you keep throwing back all the fish you catch?" he asked.

The inexperienced fisherman replied, "I only have a small frying pan."

It's good to dream big sometimes. Even if you can't go buy a new frying pan.... you can still cut up the fish and fry it a bit at a time.

100,000

2008-10-18T17:18:00.003-05:00

Today, I was at the largest Obama rally ever... 100,000 people showed up in St. Louis, today, to hear Obama speak. Wow.

Here's what 100,000 people under the Arch looks like:

From 2008-10

And here's Barack Obama looks like!

From 2008-10

Mathematical Reflexes

2008-09-20T20:16:00.002-05:00

One of the blogs I read regularly posted a reference to a Nature article about a correlation between a kind of mental reflex and mathematical acuity.

Take the NYT test

I got 14 out of 15 just like the blog author.

How about you?

Midnight Conversations

2008-09-04T01:39:00.002-05:00

[Actually 1:30 AM Conversations...]

"Daddy?"

"Yes"

"Daddy?"

"Yes."

"Daddy?"

"Yes..."

"Daddy? Woody missing his arm."

"But they can sew it back on."

"Daddy? Ellie's arm."

"Does it need a kiss?"

"Yes Daddy... Thank you Daddy."

Ugly Taste

2008-09-04T00:51:00.002-05:00

[Unrelated forward: I've always found phrases like that, "ugly taste," -- phrases that mix sensory adjectives with a differen sense -- interesting. I'm reading (via audible during my commute) Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. He does an outstanding job of this in a lot of different places. In particular, there's one character who has the ability to communicate with wolves, but the wolves think in images and senses rather than distinct ideas, and senses that are different than human ones. So, it's interesting to read. There was a Star Trek episode kind of like that, too, where an alien race spoke in metaphor and allusion rather than with the same kind of "logical" sentence structures that we use in most human languages.]

I was watching Giuliani and Palin on the RNC tonight. As Giuliani stood, back dropped by a twin-tower absent skyline of New York and spewed ridicule after ridule of Obama, the DNC, and anyone idiot enough to support him, I couldn't picture anything more than a school yard bully. His language was ugly. Admitedly I come from a different value-perspective, but some of his "jokes" didn't make any sense to me. For instance, why is it so funny to the entire hall gathered there that Obama was a community organizer. I guess I come from such a different place. According to wikipedia, McCain stood up for other guys getting bullied at the Naval Academy. Sure hope he stands up for Obama against Giuliani! It nearly made me sick to my stomach that all the people at the RNC were laughing their heads off... not just cheering the superiority of their candidate, but laughing at the seemingly ridiculousness of the democratic candidate. Wow. How ugly. Even if they believe someone isn't suited for a job, what kind of people make fun of that other person and laugh at their expense. It made me sick. Sick.

I don't have any respect for that kind of behavior.

I admit I want to go back and watch the DNC speaches. I want to make sure I'm be fair in my emotional reaction. It doesn't seem, in my memory, that the democratic speakers ridiculed and made fun of McCain, though. They said "he is wrong about what we need to do." They afforded McCain some decency. Giuliani, and Palin to some less extent, just plowed into Obama and poked fun at him like his was only 1/2 human. And everyone gathered laughed and laughed.

As I write, it makes me not just want to vomit, but want to go shake Giuliani. That kind of bullying behavior actually makes me want to be violent. ARG!

I hope there aren't too many people out there that think that kind of behavior is acceptable. If McCain does get elected, I hope that the behavior of his party's strongest supporters doesn't rub off on him and that his a protector of the bullied.

There's a Christian value question: "Do you put down and laugh at people who you believe to be at a disadvantage, or do you respect them for their contributions, their courage, and their potential?"

Still no pig

2008-08-23T00:27:00.002-05:00

"Alas. No prob this end."
"We have cheese."
"Still no pig."
"Next."

Crack me up! Sarahlynn discovered the "drafts" folder full of unsent text messages on her phone. These were the last four message that she hadn't ever sent. Something makes me think thank her T9 didn't guess quite right on that second to last message.

I think this is almost as good as the infamous Lester-family game of Balderdash where Ben Jett defined "mopoke" as something like "what a red neck says when asking for a second helping of bbq, as in the quote: I said, mo' pork!"

That Time Again

2008-08-04T07:21:00.001-05:00

You'll notice a new feature on my sidebar - the read-out from electoral-vote.com.

It's that time again. I don't know what we'll do in this house with the debate and election season. The last two presidential election cycles were pretty dramatic for us:

In 2000, we were on the last night of our honeymoon, on a magical Disney cruise in the middle of the Caribbean, trying to learn if we should ask the captain if he would drop us off in a different country or if we could return to the States. We spent the evening at a dinner table with some very un-likeminded guests, and all took turns heading out to the lounge to see where things were on the TV. Sarahlynn stayed up all night; I gave up in the wee hours. As we all remember, the results were still unclear the next morning when we docked. So, we disembarked anyway.

In 2004, we rented a huge 52" rear-projection TV that looked like a martian ship in the middle of our little living room; and we hosted debate parties. We had to rent the TV for at least a month, so we decided to host an election night party as well. Everyone was required to bring a food item that was either red or blue -- lots of interesting concoctions showed up. We all remember where that election went as well.

So, here we are in 2008. Seems like we're on the cusp of change. I sure hope so.

INTP

2008-08-03T01:04:00.006-05:00

As most who know me would probably expect... I'm an INTP.
...
My team at work has a couple of challenges. First, 80% of the people in the department we're part of have been there for less than a year. Second, people don't understand much about what we do. The department is only 3 years old.

So, there's a lack of trust between people, a lot of inefficiency in process, not a lot of camaraderie sometimes. Since other managers in my department were complaining about things not getting done well and people not working together effectively, I decided to try to fix some of those issues, with join team meetings.

This latest meeting was a lot of fun. Everyone participated in a simple "Meyers-Briggs for programmers" personality inventory.

I'm an INTP:

E=2 Extraversion
I=9 Introversion

S=7 Sensing
N=13 iNtuition

T=12 Thinking
F=7 Feeling

J=9 Judging
P=10 Perceiving

INTP - Physicists, chemists, biologists, photographers, strategic planners, mathematicians, university professors, computer programmers, computer animators, technical writers, engineers, lawyers, forensic researchers, writers, artists, psychologists, social scientists, systems analysts, researchers, surveyors. Highly analytical, they can discover connections between two seemingly unrelated things, and work best when allowed to use their imagination and critical thinking.

What I found really interesting was that the largest majority of people in the room were in a category with career notes including "mob boss."

I do think those team meetings have been effective!

Duct Tape

2008-07-25T20:20:00.003-05:00

Yes... I am an engineer.

WD40 (from my last post) is second in value to duct tape.

Two years ago, I was looking for a Christmas present for my uncle. I decided that he needed a duct tape wallet and a book to go with it: Ductigami. I found a great deal on a duct tape wallet - only $6 including shipping. Wow! When the box arrived... it was a case of 20 duct tape wallets!! And they only charged me $6.

What does one do with 20 duct tape wallets?!

Over the course of the past 2 years, I've given all but one for me away to friends and coworkers. Including a friend over in Iraq for 18 months. He still uses it today. I expect mine to last a while longer, yet, too.

Testing again. Hope...

2008-07-25T00:55:00.001-05:00

Testing again. Hope it works this time. Who knows. listen

Powered by Jott

Silent Victories

2008-07-24T21:04:00.003-05:00

I'm a bit of an introvert... or at least I claim to be.

One of my pet peeves is squeaky swing sets. Having two young children who LOVE to swing means that I keep a can of WD40 in the minivan at all times... just in case. Every time I get to the park, I take the WD40, just in case, and oil every squeaky swing I can find.

Sometimes the other parents (including my wife) don't like that I spray WD40 over the kids heads while they're swinging. As they say on the website: "we can't tell you what it contains, but we can tell you that it contains no known cancer-causing agents" !

New PC(USA) Blog

2008-07-14T07:30:00.002-05:00

After some discussion and waiting for discernment to guide the way, some friends and I have started a new Presbyterian Church (USA) community blog: PC(USA) Bloggers. Share. Contribute. Think. Enjoy!

Memories

2008-07-06T08:26:00.002-05:00

I like making memories with my family...

And it's a lot of fun to look back and think about them from time to time, too.

I Heart Huckabees

2008-06-19T00:04:00.002-05:00

We just finished watching our latest NetFlix movie, I Heart Huckabees.

Great cast.

Weird movie.

Felt sorry for Jude Law at the end.

Sort of reminiscent of Being John Malkovich, except with some twists.

My Next Career...

2008-06-18T00:59:00.002-05:00

...will not be as an accountant! Sarahlynn and I just spent the last 2+ hours going through our Quicken register to double-check the classification of expenses and income. We had to start with June 1, 2007 -- yes, not a typo: 2007. We haven't really been paying detailed attention to our finances for about a year.

Needless to say, there are some things we could be doing better on this front.

New resolution:
No Starbucks without a gift card.
No more than once / week eating out lunch.

Here goes! Wish me luck.

Breaking my car... and my fasts

2008-06-13T19:56:00.002-05:00

Sarahlynn posted about the car being broken.

I think she's already posted about the new car, too.

And maybe she even posted about me being sick.

But I'll be the first one to post the fact that I've broken my 3 month fast from blogging!! (And my several day fast, except bread and gatorade, from being sick.)

Don't think this means I'll be blogging regularly, though!

Zoo Keeper

2008-03-09T21:58:00.003-05:00

Turns out that my Zoo Keeper friend and I have something in common...

http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/dilbert-20080304.html

Remember my job title - "Manager of Business Intelligence Architecture" - means that I have 7 "architects" and 18 "programmers" reporting to me.

Out of Minority Report

2008-03-09T21:37:00.002-05:00

Remember back to the Minority Report, a Tom Cruise movie about some super-evolved humans that could predict the future and the police used this to pre-arrest criminals. This post has nothing to do with the plot of that movie, only one tiny piece of technology. In the movie, the police used a huge invisible screen that responded to some special gloves that Tom Cruise wore to control what appeared on the screen.... Not so futuristic anymore:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SymMTWxH3fc

This video shows off two amazing technologies. The first is a project called Photosynth, from Microsoft labs, that takes a deck of images and stiches them together into a 3D landscape. One of their examples is to pull public images of Notre Dame off the web and build those into a pretty good 3D model. The second is the amazing touchless screen from Ubiq LM3Labs.

Proud of My Minister

2008-01-20T20:20:00.000-06:00

Today, the minister of our PCUSA church preached a sermon about tolerance. It started out with some horrifying statistics about what the American culture, age 16-29, thinks about Christians:

1. Anti-Homosexual – this is toward the person not the deed – 96%
2. Judgmental – 87%
3. Hypocritical – 81%
4. Sheltered
5. Politically Motivated
6. Insecure

So, our minister preached about what it means to the future growth of the church that the "golden demographic" thinks Christians are so intolerant. I was proud to hear him raise this issue in our church of the frozen chosen. I believe that the vast majority of members of our particular congregation are open-minded, but we very much keep it to ourselves. I'm not sure that silent tolerance is a whole lot better than intolerance.

Throughout the sermon, I couldn't stop thinking about Matthew Shepard. He's the Wyoming college student that was tied to a fence and beaten to death in 1998. He was also one of my best friends from grade school to high school. I still get sick to my stomach and ferociously angry whenever I think about him being killed.

I'm proud of my parents' church in they consistently conservative state of Wyoming. For a while, they hosted the local PFLAG meetings, despite threats of violence and property damage. I'm also proud of the city of Casper, where they live, for electing an openly homosexual mayor in 2005 - another high school friend of mine, Guy Padgett.

I can also say that I'm a little more proud of my church now, too.

What Year Do You Belong In?

2008-01-20T08:47:00.000-06:00

My wife was 1983... I'm not sure (being younger than she) how I ended up here:

You Belong in 1956

You're fun loving, romantic, and more than a little innocent. See you at the drive in!

What Year Do You Belong In?

Work Tour

2007-12-12T00:37:00.000-06:00

Last weekend my boss sent me a late night email saying: "Interested in traveling to one of our hospitals on Tuesday? We're having a meeting between our supply chain executives and Walmart about the health care industry and I can't go. I think it'd be a good opportunity."

I don't much care for Walmart, mind you, but a chance to visit with executives is almost always a good thing. Besides, I've worked here for 10 months and haven't done any actual tours of facilities. After all, my job is to sit in a back room and think up great ideas that have no practical implication!

It was a really great experience. We got to tour the route that medical supplies, equipment, and drugs take from our central distribution center (where manufacturers deliver them and we warehouse them); to a hospital inventory location; and from there to a patient bed. One of the statistics that our company quotes in presentations is that "based on the current rate of growth, spending on technology, equipment, and supplies with overtake labor expenses in the next 15 years." In a SERVICE industry like health care, that's very unusual. Usually labor far exceeds equipment in service industries.

The tour and discussion really gave me a lot of pride in the health system that I work for. I'm still only now learning about all the different ways that we're really a market leader / innovator. Still, health care is behind the times compared to other industries, but we're pushing hard to catch up.

Weather Bonk

2007-12-11T01:34:00.000-06:00

Speaking of my work trip (note that it's 1:35 AM and I have to leave the house at 6:00 AM tomorrow) - there might be freezing rain along my route tomorrow. How do I know, exactly? WeatherBonk!

Work Trip

2007-12-11T01:25:00.000-06:00

I got an email from my boss at 2:26 AM Sunday morning saying "there's this meeting that our supply chain group is having with some friends from Walmart on Tuesday. I was invited but really can't go. I want you to go to represent our team. Let me know if that works for you."

Now, I don't much care for Walmart as a company. I know that they're a shrewd business, but I think they compromise levels of quality and service in place of profit where I don't think it's appropriate; but our company just appointed a new board member who happens to be a former senior executive from Walmart.

It makes sense for us to learn from them - particularly because they have one of the top 2 largest commercial data warehouses in the world! (First and second place keep flopping between Walmart and AT&T.) So, the more they can say about how important data warehousing is, the better for my department.

Despite my distaste for their business practices, the meeting should be fun.

Title

2007-12-08T07:20:00.000-06:00

Manager of Business Intelligence Architecture

Lots of people ask me what I do for a living, and usually it's easiest to just say "I work in IT." Of course, most people immediately think that I'm a computer technician (which I don't feel qualified to claim despite my degrees in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering). So, I often used to add "I do software development," which is sort of true, but "software development" in an IT organization is a bit different than "software development" at Microsoft; and the kind of development I did was mostly about putting information in databases. Not something that most people can picture, because I wasn't building anything with a user interface. It's a little easier now that I'm a manager, because some people are willing to just stop at "manager" with assumptions about pointy-haired bosses; but when I have to start explaining what everyone on my team does, it gets even harder than it used to be because my current team has about 6 different roles.

For the unindoctrinated, here's the break-down of my title and an explanation of what that means I do (at least according to my current employer):

Manager of
...some who spends a lot of time in meetings, tries to organize and direct the work of other people but usually just makes things more complicated than they need to be, and should be required to have unexpected degrees in social work, psychology, political science, and anthropology.

Business
...the art and science of making money doing something for someone that they're willing to pay for.

Intelligence
...a measure of aptitude or acumen. In the context of "business intelligence" how "smart" a company can be about delivering the right services or products to the right people in the most efficient way.

Architecture
...the overall design or patterns or rules used in governing the construction of a thing.

Does that help?

Going Out

2007-12-08T07:04:00.000-06:00

In the past couple of weeks, I've gotten to go out with my wife a few times -- something that we haven't done as much as we should have been doing since our first daughter was born. No surprise: I love dating my wife. My advice to newly-weds and new-parents: keep dating!

(But make sure it's only each other!)

First Christmas Adventure

2007-12-01T19:00:00.000-06:00

Last year, partly because we were going to be hosting Christmas guests, we decided to go out a cut down our own Christmas Tree at a farm. This is tradition for Sarahlynn's family, but something that I don't believe I've ever done. It was wonderful! Sarahlynn beautifully pregnant, Ellie tromping through the snow, we had Oliver tromping through the snow along with us (and we almost lost him). We got a great tree, there was hot chocolate and hot dogs, and Santa Claus!!

Well, this year we went back to the same Christmas Tree farm.... Having our fancy new car with navigation system, we decided to let it tell us how to get there. It started by sending us North off the highway instead of the correct way - South. Bad start. We got there out of our own memory instead of with the aid of hundreds of GPS satellites. Things went fine for a while. We found a good tree - though Ellie wanted be carried even though there wasn't any snow to slow her walking. She LOVED seeing Santa again, which was really great. Ada got to see Santa for her first time, too. She didn't do as well, but it also wasn't too bad.

The problem... I forgot to bring anything to tie the tree down with other than some cotton twine (not that strong). Being stubborn, I figured it'd be good enough and I could just make it work. Never mind that the place where they shake and bundle up your tree is right next to a huge barn with all kinds of twine and rope... or the fact that that if I asked, they probably would have given me some. Still, stubborn gender that I am, I decided that if I used enough cotton twine, that'd be good enough.

To keep the story short, let's just say that the 30 mile drive home took enough time that Ellie got to watch ALL of Finding Nemo. The tree didn't fly off between the tree farm and Walgreen's (which had a nice selection of thick nylon rope to make sure our tree didn't fly off the roof as we drove down the highway at 65 mph and smash trunk first into some unsuspecting driver's windshield, causing them to swerve off the road, a 6 car accident, and 3 deaths -- glad that didn't happen.)

Good Shepherd School for Children

2007-11-28T23:03:00.000-06:00

For the first three years of her life, we spent a great deal of time supporting Ellie's development with a host of therapists - physical, occupational, developmental, and speech. They all came to us from Ellie's first daycare/preschool, Good Shepherd School for Children in St. Louis.

The other night we got to attend a black-tie gala event celebrating Good Shepherd. It was incredible! A silent auction, wonderful dinner, awards, good speakers, and a video presentation about the school. That's been uploaded to YouTube, and I wanted to make sure everyone got a chance to see it:

UPDATE: Sorry the video has been removed from YouTube because of a parent's privacy concerns. If you'd like to hear more about the school or receive a copy of the video, please visit the school's website: www.goodss.org

When I watched it, it made me want to cash-out my 401k and write a check to the school right then and there. Luckily for my family, I was talked out of that. It does make me think about where my money should go, though.

Calendars

2007-11-27T21:10:00.001-06:00

A friend was looking over my shoulder tonight as I was looking at my work calendar for tomorrow and joked about how full it was.

One of the things that I noted when I became a manager was that my calendar fullness almost instantly tripled overnight. On the plus side, I take my 4-year old to school every morning and that inflates how busy my calendar looks. On the down side... all those times that I'm double booked... I should really try to be at both (or all three or more) of those meetings.

You'll also notice that tomorrow (Wed), I'll only be attending 4 of the 11 meetings on my calendar:
Meeting 1 - Take Ellie to School
Meeting 2 - 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Meeting 3 - 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Meeting 4 - 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Probably all the same room. At least my chair will stay warm.

I take it back

2007-11-27T00:11:00.000-06:00

...turns out that we did get all of the family we visited over Thanksgiving sick with the "blech!" Christmas 2005, I got both sides of the family sick. I guess it's better this year that I only got my in-laws sick. Uh... not because they're my in-laws, just because it was only one side of the family!

Happy Thanksgi.... blechhh..... Ugh.

2007-11-25T23:28:00.000-06:00

I like to brag that two years ago, I single-handedly got people in 5 states sick with a horrible stomach flu and put my brother-in-law in the hospital! So, that isn't such a feat... he's already got bad kidneys to begin with. ;-) None of it was pleasant for anyone in either my family or my wife's though. I seemed to get ALL of them sick.

I don't take credit for the fun this year at Thanksgiving. It wasn't quite as bad for anyone except for the 4-year old, and it doesn't seem to have spread anywhere outside of the house - except my father, who we didn't go visit, but who got sick anyway. Weird, that one.

Still it wasn't very fun. Ada got sick first. We took her to the doctor Tuesday afternoon. The doc said it was just the flu -- Ellie said, "Ellie sick, too." "Isn't that cute. No, Ada is sick. Ellie's OK." The next morning Ellie said, "throat hurt." So, we took her to the doc, too. "Ellie has strep." Luckily she doesn't have her father's allergy to penicillin, so a not-so-quick shot and she's on the mend (after a few more hours of dry heaving and vomiting up every sip of water).

Thanksgiving Day was enjoyed with limited vomiting, lots of attempts at rest, and a first after-sick meal of chicken noodle soup. Mmm mmm good, but nothing next to turkey, ham, green bean casserole, stuffing, yams and apples, mashed potatoes, sweet breads, and pies. By Thursday evening, though, we were all well enough to head out of town on my weak attempt to break the infamous Christmas 2005 flu-vector record.

48 hours of official Day After Thanksgiving leftovers and Wii play seems to have left everyone uninfected.... so far.

Kids

2007-11-19T23:05:00.001-06:00

It was very nice of our friend Scott to come over and watch the girls. It was going to be for a specific appointment, but that got canceled. So, instead, SL and I got to go for pizza. Instead of having to feed one kid and constantly tending to the other... we got to sit and talk to each other.

I love my kids, but sometimes it is nice to get away for a dinner alone.

Sometimes I get very jealous of people who have relatives that live in town with them and get to go on a date every week.

Thanks to Scott for the great job watching our girls and the opportunity to go out on a date!

Triadic Continuum

2007-11-18T08:58:00.000-06:00

One of the Vice Presidents that I work with sent me an email the other day with the subject line "Is this something we should be looking at?" He's no pointy-haired boss, but a subject line like that, followed by a cut and paste of an article from an industry magazine certainly does bring images from Dilbert to mind. As I read the article, those images only got stronger.

This particular article is about something called the triadic continuum - yes, sounds like something out of Star Trek, doesn't it? Still, it is interesting - especially if you have a PhD in cognitive science. There's a book about this invention that goes into more detail for those of you who are curious.

After a couple of back and forth comments in which I tried to look smarter than I am (and considering pitching the idea that if my boss wanted to send me back to school for my PhD that I'd be happy to go), this VP ended with: "But they said simple, scalable, universal." Yeah, right there on the package! ;)

My snide remark (being in a healthcare field) was going to be something like:

Right, and so is DNA!
Simple - only 5 compounds in the whole thing!!
Scalable - from a flee to a whale!!
Universal - it is a defining characteristic of life!!

I didn't send the response, yet.

DNA is simple, universal, and scalable, too.

As an introvert

2007-11-18T08:45:00.000-06:00

I've been doing a lot of interviewing at work - as the interviewer. We've been looking for a department admin (sorry Rob, but we've already picked someone), and data architects, and Business Objects expert. (If you know anyone, let me know.) Somehow it came up in many of those interviews that I'm a bit of an introvert... but one that likes being around people. All of the interview candidates say something like "I'd never have pegged you as an introvert." Which either means that they think being an introvert is a bad thing and they don't want to insult their potential boss, or I some how pull off being friendly.

Well, maybe I'm not really an introvert, but I do have this love/hate relationship with the idea of having other people around. I like having other people around, interacting with each other... but not necessarily having to interact with them a lot.

At work, for instance, I'd much rather sit and watch a meeting happen rather than run the meeting; but I'm a manager and one of the senior technical people in my department, which means that I often need to run meetings. I like being part of a team, but I struggle with the "ask people how their family is doing" kind of stuff.

At home, too - last night we had a game-night party with about a dozen friends. I like having people around, I like playing games, I don't usually like just watching people play games, but last night I felt more like just watching the kids while they watched Finding Nemo, putting Ellie down to sleep, watching other people play games, and then playing the Wii by myself as people were leaving. Not very friendly or polite, I suppose. It was a great time, I just didn't feel like having by interacting with other people last night.

Hope everyone else had a good time, too!

Back

2007-11-18T08:42:00.000-06:00

I'm lying here on my back on the couch, letting the girls fight over books and watch TV and figure that now is as good a time as any to start blogging again. I'm on my back... and back to blogging.

Wow!

2007-09-28T21:52:00.000-05:00

I haven't published a post since July!?!? Wow.

Well, if you've been eagerly awaiting something profound and stunning from me... then here it is!!! I've launched a political website about the importance of having local, personal conversations about the political candidates that we are presented with in the voting booth.

Ask Me How I'm Voting

The website is still a bit rough, but there's an "about" page that explains my motivation and opportunities to support the cause via a CafePress store.

I think it's important to make sure that we all have conversations with each other about politics. It astonishes me how much I learn about politics through discussion that I miss in the sound bites. Obviously, individual people don't always have perfectly accurate information about issues and candidates, but the conversation stimulates thought and research and a desire to learn more. If you agree, feel free to support the movement by posting links to the site, displaying merchandise, but most importantly - talking to people you know about political issues and ideas.

Good luck!

Grandpa G. (part 1)

2007-07-10T00:12:00.000-05:00

This past week, my Grandpa G. died. He was only 89, but that's a lot older than many people from his generation lived, I suppose. He wasn't in the best of health, but it did come somewhat unexpectedly. For the past few years, there's been a big rift in his children's (my parent's) generation, but yesterday I talked to one of my cousins and we've resolved not to let it impact our generation permanently like it seems to have our parents' generation.

This post is about memories of Granpa G.

Since I can remember, Christmas was a time to get together at the farm house in Iowa where Grandpa G. was born, raised, married, had his kids, and lived until it just wasn't practical anymore about 7 years ago.
At Christmas, the extended family all got together and stayed at the farm house. When I was little, I slept on a cot in the middle room upstairs with some combination of my sister and my three cousins. Usually I was in there with my sister and cousin Amy, who's nearly the same age my sister. Down the hall were either my parents or my aunt and uncle. On the pull out and couches downstairs would be my other two cousins and my other aunt. Sometimes, Amy's cousin would stay with us, too.
We'd watch movies, play pool in the basement, go sledding on the rolling farm hills outside, and have an annual bowling competition.
Christmas eve was always snowy.
We'd pile into my aunt and uncle's fullsize van and one or two other cars and head into town for church. The service was a traditional Christmas nativity story told and acted out by the church youth. When I was little, I'd shift laps between my aunts and oldest cousin. The service always ended with silent night sung to the light of a hundred little white candles with waxed-paper guards for your fingers. I always let the wax drip on me so that I could play with it.
After church, we piled back in the cars and van and headed back to the farm house for food and presents... but not before our own service using Grandma G's advent wreath and bible. The grandkids (those who could read) always did the reading. My Mom always lead the hymns.
Christmas eve food was always incredible. Little smoked sausages in bbq sauce. Fudge. Scramble (aka Check Mix). Annis candy. One Christmas my Mom brought a new recipe of cheese dip with salsa and ground beef... that was a huge hit, though it only repeated for a couple of years.
Our tradition is to do presents on Christmas Eve and stockings on Christmas Day. When we had really little kids, we start with the youngest. Out of respect, we started letting oldest go first later. I remember how unusual it seemed that my Mom and her older sister had both married younger men... and how weird it was when my other aunt married someone between my parents' ages. That broke things up in a weird way. Not bad. Just notable.
Never on Christmas Eve, but I remember getting to sleep on the couch in the family room where we did all the present opening, eating, and TV watching. The room had a great fireplace in the garage wall. My grandpa and Dad regularly discussed how the hardwood that they burn in the midwest burns so much longer, but cooler, than the soft pine wood that my parent's burn in the Rockies. My Dad knew so much... The couch was black leather, but soft and comfy; and it always had this black and white and brown wool blanket that was warm and cozy. I always associate the couch and blanket with my eldest cousin, for some reason.
On Christmas morning, we'd eat egg casseroles and coffee cake, then open stockings.
My favorite present in Iowa... when I got the Omega Supreme Transformer.

Part 2 tomorrow...

Scotland

2007-06-27T22:28:00.000-05:00

This week, we got back from a 10-day vacation in Scotland, where we decided to move... once the mortgage is paid off and my wife has written a couple of successful novels. Then I can learn to fly fish, again, and she can sit in our loch-side home (or castle depending on how successful those novels are) and write. Until that happens, we've got some great memories:

Knee High

2007-05-27T19:50:00.000-05:00

Ada's about knee high, but she doesn't stand on her own yet. I have certainly known her since she was "knee high to a grasshopper," though!

Turns out that "knee high by the Fourth of July" doesn't hold true any more. I get the impression that most farmers are pretty worried if their corn isn't knee high well before the Fourth of July.

Because I don't read nearly as much as I should, I thought this was a "knee high," too.

Is there a saying, though, for when you let your yard get so overgrown that it's nearly knee high? A few more days of rain/sun/rain/sun, and I'll be there!

Bold Commentary

2007-05-26T08:05:00.000-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qknkxPw9aDA

Quick Birthday Post

2007-05-22T07:10:00.000-05:00

Thank you to everyone that made my birthday party this weekend so much fun -- namely my wife, but also all the guests and entertainment.

I was suspicious that there was going to be a surprise party. First, there was Cherry Coke in the house. I only know one person who drinks Cherry Coke, and I'd planned for only two couples to come over for my birthday, not including him -- no offense Scott, I was just planning a much smaller party. Second, my wife was insistent on getting me out of the house for a while. Very pushy about it. But those were the only clues.

I had no idea that there would by 50+ people at the party!! No clue that my parents would drive all the way from Wyoming (not just for my birthday since our 3-month-old was baptized this weekend, too)!! And never could have imagined that there'd be a CLOWN!?!

She was there for the kids. ;)

It was a blast. Thank you to everyone who helped out. And that you, especially, to my wife. The party was great and made me feel very loved.

Proxy

2007-05-20T22:31:00.001-05:00

I don't remember learning the word "proxy" until learned about "proxy servers." OK, that sits between you and the Internet so that it can filter out undesirable websites, perhaps improve performance by caching, whatever... Only later did I start thinking about what the word means in the context of regular people:

An agent or substitute authorized to act for another person.

I think the first place I heard about "proxy" outside of computer science land was the idea of having a proxy vote a shareholder issue on your behalf. Which reminds me just how much my wife really dislikes when computer science takes an existing word and uses it for something in their field that's only slightly related.

I'm involved in a controversy that is clearly (and merely only) a proxy for a totally different situation. The idea being that there's really some other huge issue, but hiding behind something concrete is an interesting one. Rather than let an other idea proxy for you, why not speak you mind?