From Yorkshire To Virginia

Soccer Balls not Guns

2008-05-15T12:11:00.001-04:00

A parent at the University of Richmond has a son serving in Iraq and he has a request for our help. She said she has always asked him how she could be helpful to the troops, but he has never had a request until now. The military is trying to reach out to the children of Iraq through our wonderful game of soccer, but they are badly in! need of soccer balls. CVSRA would love for you to help fill this young soldier's request. We are hoping to send 200+ balls as soon as possible. They will take new or gently used balls (as long as they hold air) and any ball pumps we can come up with.

Premier Soccer at 9320 W. Broad, Richmond VA has set it up so people can call in by phone to purchase balls with a credit card for $12.00 per ball. Call 804-217-9191, please ask for Chris.

If you have used balls you can donate, please deflate them and send me an email (SBRUT@AOL.COM) or call 804-363-6553 and we can set up a collection place. You can also drop them by Premier Soccer and they will hold them for us.

If we can stop one young child from picking up a gun against our troops through this bond it will have all been worth it!! Our soldiers are counting on us!

Please know that there is no expectation for you to give if you choose not to. Please forward this email on to anyone you think might be able to help.

Yours in soccer,

Christie Bernas

CVSRA High School Commissioner

School Project - Gwyneth's Life so far

2008-01-28T02:05:00.000-05:00

The other week, Gwyneth was named 'Student of the Week', which basically meant that it was her time to shine. Her main duty was to create a timeline of her life so far. Here it is...

Sunset over Tampa (Airport)

2008-01-28T02:01:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago I went to visit a client outside Tampa, on the way back, while sitting in the airport waiting to board, I saw a rather nice sunset...

Save Now

Curious George visits for the weekend

2008-01-28T01:57:00.000-05:00

Gwyneth's teacher has a Curious George doll that she sends home for a weekend with each child in the class. The child has to write what they got up to with George that weekend. As you can see Gwyneth decided to teach him some Tae Kwon Do.

Recap of the last 3 months

2008-01-13T23:24:00.000-05:00

Wow, it's been 3 months since I last posted here. Why has it taken me so long? Well, I've been busy... really busy.

On October 28th I ran the Marine Corps Marathon in a time of 4 hours 48 minutes and 3 seconds.
In November I spoke at a Search Marketing conference in London on the topic of Reputation Management.
Later in November I spoke at another conference in Los Angeles on Pay Per Click best practices for Local Search Marketing
In December I spoke at another conference in DC on Social Media for NonProfits
In December I spoke at another conference in Chicago on Dealing with Difficult Clients.

In the middle of that was actual work, family, completing my first 10 speeches at Toastmasters, running my fastest ever 5k, finally getting round to setting up my Bowflex, moving offices at work, rebranding the company, writing for the other blogs that I write for, etc, etc, etc.

While I don't intend this blog to go for months at a time without updating it, when everything else builds up, this is going to be one of the first things to fall by the wayside.

So there it is.

Lol cats take over Gwyneth's school

2007-10-26T09:29:00.001-04:00

Take a look at this flyer that the people at my daughter's school sent home with her. This is allegedly an institute of learning. If you can't read the bit in red it says "Wear your costume. There will have a costume parade."

Do you Believe in Reincarnation?

2007-10-16T21:37:00.000-04:00

Since the Dalai Lama is in town, and I was sent a link to an interesting website, the title of the post popped into my head. The Buddhists believe that the new Lama is born when the old Lama dies, so they go looking for a child born at that time, and if they pass the tests, they anoint them as the new Lama.

Today I was sent a link to the site "The Death Report" by my friend Rhea. What this site does is to give you all the details of who died on the exact date of your birth, and who has died throughout the years on your birthday. So tying the 2 thoughts together, that would mean that I am the next incarnation of...

Harold Lloyd.

Well... ok... maybe I'm not a Hollywood action star who does my own stunts, but we do both wear glasses... coincidence??? ;)

Problogger birthday bash

2007-10-04T22:40:00.000-04:00

The excellent blogging site - ProBlogger - is currently running a series of competitions to give away over $54,000 worth of prizes. The way to enter these contest varies from as simple as leaving a comment, to writing a post on your own blog linking to their blog (such as this post). ;)

Coming Home to Blighty

2007-10-04T06:24:00.000-04:00

Yes, I'll be heading back to Blighty for a short trip in November. The plan is to get into Hadfield on the 10th, maybe get up to Driffield on the 13th, before heading down to London on the 14th, where I'm speaking at a conference on the 16th. Then, that night I'm going to head to Swindon for a couple of days before heading back to the states on the 18th...

Claytime Cafe Manassas, Poor Customer Service Ruins Party

2007-09-29T23:09:00.000-04:00

Today was Gwyneth's 6th birthday party. Going for something a little different it was scheduled for the 'Claytime Cafe' in Manassas. Their 'thing' is that you children paint pottery before the pizza & cake. However, the place has an attached cafe, so pizza and cake were the only outside items you were allowed to bring in. Prior to the event it was confirmed that we'd have some parents there that would be painting too, and at the event it was confirmed with a member of staff that they wouldn't mind the party running over a little while, as they didn't have another event scheduled.

The party went well, up until about 6.15. Admittedly this was 15 minutes beyond the time paid for, but still, a staff member had said not to worry about it. The pottery had been completed, and the cake had just been served. The owner of Claytime Cafe then came up and rather than saying in a polite manner that we needed to wrap up, started in with an attitude quoting the contract, and complaining that she'd not been told about the adults coming. She forced the party to disband, and made the party guests take their cake to their cars. In the process, she managed to convince the parents of 9 small children that they should not return to her establishment.

Her poor customer service skills also included not admonishing a member of her staff who decided to hold her personal belching contest, and then be rude to the guests when they complained. So the staff of Claytime Cafe are both rude and crude.

What could the owner have done better? If she had merely come up to the group and politely mentioned that the party would have to wrap up as the alloted time had completed, then everything would have been fine. Instead she chose to start out in a confrontational manner with the people that had just given her over $300. Oh, and she also complained that the pizza had been set up on a table outside the party room, as the contract clearly stated that the pizza had to be in the party room at all times. Again, this was where a member of her staff had said to place the pizza...

Gwyneth's 6th Birthday

2007-09-17T22:48:00.000-04:00

Yep, it's hard to believe that Gwyneth is already 6, but 6 she is. She had a great time today, opening presents and cards, playing with presents, trying on her new necklaces, etc. I even went to her school and gave out cupcakes for her and her classmates. In 2 weeks, she'll get to have her party, and another set of presents and cards... just like the Queen. ;)

Phildelphia Distance Run

2007-09-17T22:26:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I completed my second half marathon, contrary to popular belief, these things don't get easier the more you do them. Well, to be honest, it was going rather well to a point, but I'll get to that in a minute...

Firstly let me go off on PennDOT, who decided that Saturdays are the ideal time to cut interstate 95 N, the major North South artery on the East coast from 3 lanes down to 1 while they do road repairs. Of course, I knew nothing about this until I crossed the state line coming out of Delaware. With 4 hours to go until the end of packet pick up, and a mere 25 miles to go, how could I fail? 1 hour later, with 23 miles to go, I started to get concerned...

Thanks to my wonderful Blackberry (more on this later) I saw a way around the traffic, if I could only get off at the next exit... Slowly, but surely, I made my way over, and traveled through Chester and Ridley Park at what seemed like breakneck speeds, well ok it was about 25mph, but after the crawl of the previous hour...

Finally I made it to the hotel, a quick run to the convention center saw me arrive an hour before it closed.

The next morning I was up at the starting gate, waiting for the horn to sound. At 7.50 am, off it went. The first 5k was faster than my fastest 5k time (no wonder really, given that I've only run one 5k, and that was back when I was starting training). My 10k time was faster than my best 10k, and my 7 mile time was exactly equal to that of my previous 1/2 marathon 2 weeks ago. As long as I kept this pace up I was going to finish in under 2 hours, and probably around 1h 54m. By mile 9, I was still doing well, but I started to feel some twinges in my left leg, I carried on. By mile 10, my left leg was really starting to hurt, I didn't want to slow down to a walk, as it's hard to restart once you do so, but soon I had no choice. At the 11 mile marker, I was still on for a sub-2 hour race, as long as I paced myself at 10 minute miles, but the leg continued to get worse. It got to the point where I couldn't even jog. Switching my knee brace from my right leg to the left one helped somewhat, and I continued to limp / half jog the rest of the way. I reached the finish line in a time of 2 hours, 3 minutes and 1 second. Not great, but I finished, and it was still a personal best, so I'm happy with it.

As for the leg, apparently it was a pull between my quads and my knee that was causing the pain, it's a lot better today, and we'll see how it goes when I do my next short run tomorrow night...

Oh, and as for the Blackberry, it was in my bag when I left the event, but between there and the taxi back to the hotel, it was gone... Thankfully I'd taken out the insurance plan, so I'll have a new one waiting for me at the office tomorrow.

My first half marathon

2007-09-03T19:32:00.000-04:00

Yep, despite the fact that I'd planned to run my first marathon in Philly in 2 weeks, I decided to run this morning in the Abebe Bikila International Peace Half Marathon in Alexandria, VA. I drove down for the start, with a plan to finish in 2 hours. Starting at 9.04 am I ran the first 7 miles in exactly one hour, well on target. Then, at about 9 miles, a nasty blister started to form on my left foot. It forced me to walk from the 10 mile marker to about 11-1/2 miles, when I decided to just run through the pain. 2 hours 3 minutes and 37 seconds after I started, I crossed the finish line, and got the following medal.

Now I know that in Philly, in 2 weeks, I can easily finish below 2 hours (barring injury).

My trip to Los Angeles

2007-08-29T22:39:00.000-04:00

After the wonderful conference, I headed down to Monterey, and then down the beautiful pacific coast highway to Los Angeles (clicking on any of those links will take you to my pictures of that portion of my trip). The pacific coast highway was not the fastest way to LA, but it was by far the most picturesque. I had to force myself to stop stopping and taking pictures, the scenery was just amazing. Yes, there were those windy roads in the hills & mountains that you see in the movies, and yes, it goes on for 63 miles, but it was so worth it. If you get the chance to travel down that road, take it. (oh, and if you happen to come across a LG bluetooth headset at one of the vista points, I'd appreciate you picking it up and sending it on to me).

I stayed over in Simi Valley, which is about 30 miles to the West of LA, but it gave me a central location to LA and the beaches, so I was quite happy with it. I arrived there on the Friday night, in time to head to the movies, so off I want to see "StarDust". Saturday, I did the 10k race, then tootled around for a while (not having much of a choice, since the road back had been closed by the police, so I ended up being detoured through many LA suburbs), before heading out to dinner with a friend (The Lisa) and her boyfriend.

On Sunday, I decided that I really needed a rest day, so I hung around the hotel pool for a while, before heading to the movies to see "War", and " The Bourne Ultimatum".

On Monday, I decided that I really needed to hit the beach, so after looking at the map, I decided that Malibu sounded like a good place to be. 45 minutes later, after driving through more hills and narrow roads, some of which were 1/2 closed (wasn't this how Alf Roberts died in Coronation Street?), I made it to Malibu.

The beaches there were wonderful. I lay out for a while, and ended up playing beach volleyball for over an hour, before deciding to head back to the hotel. That night I drove out to Sunset Boulevard and had a really nice Mexican meal, before heading back to the hotel to pack for the long trip home on Tuesday.

All in all, a wonderful holiday / vacation, especially given that I hadn't had one for quite a while, thanks to all who either offered advice (Ian, Lisa), or were a part of the trip (too many to mention).

San Francisco

2007-08-29T22:15:00.000-04:00

Yes, it's out of order, but hey at least I'm writing it now :)

The other Sunday, prior to the conference, I met up with Kim Rapp and her daughter, and we went for a trip to San Francisco. Not sure why they call it the foggy city though. Anyway, here's a picture of the Golden Gate bridge in all its majesty...

Funny thing was, as soon as we made it to the other side, in Sausolito, it was absolutely gorgeous weather.

Coming back, Kim wanted to show me the streets of San Francisco (no, there was no sign of Karl Mulden, or Michael Douglas). So we went for a roller coaster ride around town...

In San Francisco, I'd say that people don't pray to god first... instead they must pray to the midas or meineke man that their brakes are up to snuff... We actually did well, up until we hit traffic half way up a hill, then Kim's poor car with manual transmission refused to move forward... backward was no problem though, so it's great that Kim managed to hit the brakes before the Mercedes behind. We ended up having to coast back down the hill in reverse, hoping that a street car wasn't going to pop up behind us at some point. It all worked out fine, and we took the long way around the city that avoided the hills. All in all, it was a good getaway prior to the work at the conference. Thanks Kim.

Running update

2007-08-29T22:02:00.000-04:00

Before I left for San Jose, I had a target of running 18-20 miles. Well, I managed 17.3 miles, which was the longest that I've ever run. I would probably have been able to go longer, but unfortunately I ran out of Gatorade. Poor planning? Not quite, I'd put extra Gatorade bottles on the route, at round about where I knew I'd need them. Unfortunately, it looked like some kind soul saw them, assumed they were garbage, and tossed them in the dog waste bin around the corner... Anyway, I was still happy to make 17.3 miles, and next Saturday the target is 20-22...

Knowing that I'd be in LA, I looked ahead to see if there were any running events going on there, while I was there. There was. So on Saturday I was down in Playa Del Rey, CA, at 8.30 am for the Jet to the Jetty 10k run. This was a really nice course along roads next to the beach, so there was a nice cool breeze the whole way. At around the 2 mile mark, I'd hit my stride, and found a woman running at the same pace as I, so we kept each other company for the rest of the race, up until the 6 mile marker when I sprinted for the finish. Thanks to her help I ended up with a time of 50:27, over 4 minutes faster than my previous personal best. I ended up 95th out of 282 runners, and the 12th fastest man in my age group (out of 27). Not bad at all :)

Monterey California

2007-08-24T00:18:00.000-04:00

The conference I was at all week ended today. I had a lot of fun, met some old friends, and plenty of new friends. It was a great opportunity to meet some of the people whose blogs I read and comment on. So what did I do when it was over? Go to the airport and wait 7 hours for a flight to take me to one airport where I'd wait for another flight to take me through the night? No, instead I went to the airport, rented a car and headed south.

My first stop , the beach town of Monterey California. For the first time in my life I saw the pacific ocean (San Francisco is in a bay, so that doesn't count).

Checking into my hotel I notices that the establishment next door was an adult book store and theater... thanks Expedia... Well at least the room was clean...

I went for a brief walk along the beach, where the wind convinced me that the idea of sitting on the beach in the morning may be replaced by a trip to the aquarium instead. Anyway, I took a walk around downtown, and one of the first stores I walked past should make Bryn and Susan happy. :)

Unfortunately they were closed, but I'll check them out in the morning. Continuing along I came across 2 British pubs. I decided to go into the one with the football shirts and scarves all over the walls... aahhhhh they had dry cider. :)

Next it was off to the Monterey Live internet cafe / bar, where I'm typing this right now. there's a fairly decent easy listnening band off to the side, and I'm on my 6th cup of earl grey, so I'm quite happy. :)

Day one in San Jose

2007-08-19T01:33:00.000-04:00

This morning I woke up at 3am EDT, and headed out on a trip to San Jose California, stopping briefly in Denver, CO to change planes. My friend Dr. Kim Rapp, picked me up at the airport, and took me back to her house on the campus of Stanford University. Along the way we stopped off at the Google campus in Mountain View, to see such sights as this guy...

Here's a pic of me with Kim's daughter and ~~hellhound~~ dog Ellie
Later, Kim & I went out for a nice Indian meal at the Saravanaa Bhavan restaurant in Sunnyvale, followed by a play: "Oda Oak Oracle" - "a legend of black peoples, told of gods and god, of hope and love, and of fears and sacrifice", at Stanford University. The play was decent, it dragged a bit in places, most notably at the end, but it was at least entertainment.

Tomorrow, Kim is taking me to San Francisco to ride a trolley car, and see the Golden Gate bridge, before depositing me back in San Jose for the conference I came to town for.

Aaargh - A Tiger...

2007-08-16T06:32:00.000-04:00

Unfortunately she scared herself when she looked in the mirror and started crying, which is why some of the makeup had run a little bit.

My First Toastmasters Evaluation

2007-08-16T06:29:00.000-04:00

For every speech that's given at Toastmasters, a 2-3 minute evaluation follows. Last night was the first time that I'd been asked to do an evaluation at my club...

I think it went well :)

Another weekend, another 10k

2007-08-12T22:34:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I had looked into running a 5k, but my aching bones wouldn't let me. So I just went for my regular game of soccer. When I got home, I had an email from a running group I belong to, announcing a 10k and 20k race this morning in Leesburg, 22 miles from home. I decided to see how I felt in the morning. The alarm went off at 5.15 (yes, such a time does exist on a Sunday), and off I went to Leesburg. I decided not to risk the 20k, and entered the 10k.

This time, unlike the last 10k, I was actually able to pace myself. My first mile was 10 minutes, exactly what I was aiming for. I then picked up the pace a little, and with the sun not beating down on me, was able to run the whole race easily. Coming to the finish line, I saw an older gentleman who had collapsed just shy of the finish line, 2 people raced over and picked him up, ensuring that he finished, before carrying him to the waiting EMTs. Determined to finish ahead of my previous finish of 59.40, I pushed for the line, and was actually helped by someone trying to pass me in the last tenth of a mile... no way I was going to let her pass. As I ran over the line I saw the time at 54.40. A good 5 minutes faster than last time. I still don't have my actual finish time though, as the race was chip timed, which means that the exact moment that I crossed the start and finish was logged. That should go up on the website over the next few days, and I'd anticipate a 10-15 second drop in my finish time, as I was in the middle of the pack...

All in all, a good start to a Sunday.

Soccer Academy

2007-08-08T22:50:00.001-04:00

I've not been posting much this week, on any of the blogs I contribute to, as I've been busy every night at Soccer camp. Yep, I felt that it was time to actually find out how to do this training properly, and figure out how I should be playing the game. So every night this week I've been over at the fields in Centerville with 13 other people learning, having fun, and aching... always aching...

Dave the Rave - married...

2007-08-02T22:55:00.000-04:00

Congratulations to the new Mr & Mrs Dave and Vicky Hiscock.

Simpsons Simon

2007-08-02T16:15:00.000-04:00

Following on from South Park Simon, here's Simpsons Simon

...and Gwyneth had to get in on the act too...

Poor India

2007-08-01T06:01:00.000-04:00

For those of you that know India as my fat cat, who used to weigh in over 13 lbs... she's now down to 5lbs 7 oz. She's had thyroid issues for a couple of years now, and has been shedding the weight, but lately she's been looking sick, so off to the vets she went. Diagnosis: She has a large, aggresive, inoperable tumor wrapped around her pancreas. All that can be done is to make her comfortable until such a time as she's in pain, and then the next step is obvious. I can take comfort in the fact that she's had a good life, and had 11 more years than she could have done, had she received her scheduled lethal injection that day rather than being adopted... Still, it's sad.

Caricature time

2007-07-29T21:28:00.000-04:00

The guy made Gwyneth look a bit older than 5...

I didn't mention anything about running, or about being a Hull KR fan... ;)

My first 10k

2007-07-28T21:32:00.001-04:00

Yes, I'm moving up the distance categories. Tonight I ran in the Friends of the W&OD 10k race from Vienna to Reston, and back. The goal: to complete the 6.2 mile course in under 1 hour. The challenges: Eye irritation caused me to have to throw away my right contact lens prior to the race, meaning that I ran 1/2 blind. The race was run at 6.30pm in fricking July in 85'+ temperatures!!! Nice and humid!!! Thirdly, dummy here played soccer for 2 hours in the morning on a 5-a-side game in 88' temperatures.

I actually ran the first half of the race very well, in fact - too well. At the 1/2 way marker I had taken 23 minutes, well on time for a sub 50 minute 10k. Unfortunately, it was at that time that my legs decided that the heat and humidity was just way too much, and I made the mistake of slowing down for a walk. I tried to start running again, but could only keep it up for short spurts. When I saw the 6 mile marker, I buckled down and started running, then I started striding, and before I knew it, the finish line was in sight... and there was the race clock reading... 59 minutes and a number of seconds that I couldn't see (remember I was 1/2 blind)... at the line I closed my right eye and squinted, there it read 59 minutes 42 seconds... I did it, I made my goal... next time I know I'll smash it.

Sad magazine

2007-07-26T01:19:00.000-04:00

As an alumni of Virginia Tech I receive their monthly magazine. Usually I'll flick through it to see if there are any items of interest. This month they sent out their memorial issue for the victims of the crazed gunman. Inside were memorials for each of the students, transcripts of the speeches given by the Governer, and President Bush, among others, and images from around the world of the sorrow felt by people both involved and not involved with VT.

New business cards

2007-07-23T22:30:00.000-04:00

Today I got my new business cards for RedBoots Consulting, and waiting for me at home were my new SearchEngineTigers cards (with 4 different back images). Now I'll have plenty to hand out for my next trip.

My Headshot

2007-07-22T22:13:00.000-04:00

I had to get a headshot for a website that I am writing for, and it doesn't look too bad, so here it is.

Krustilu Studios

2007-07-22T22:10:00.000-04:00

Gwyneth has found her new favorite cereal...

More from LA

2007-07-22T22:01:00.000-04:00

On Wednesday I decided to see the sight of Simi Valley (that's not a typo, they only have the one). So off I went to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. The rumor was that it was a mere mile from the hotel, not too bad a walk I thought... 2 miles later I reached the bottom of a mile long hill up to the library. Still, the walk was not too bad, and the view was very nice.

The library itself really wasn't too bad, I actually got to walk through the old Air Force One plane that had been used by 6 presidents. No wonder they upgraded it, it was quite small (apparently you could fit 4-1/2 of the old planes in the current plane). One other interesting thing that I saw at the Library was the Berlin wall... yes, the actual Berlin wall.

On Thursday night, it was time to head back home, with a brief stop over in Las Vegas, where they even have slot machines in the airport...

La La Land

2007-07-16T11:24:00.000-04:00

7 am scheduled departure time... actual departure time - slightly after 10.15. Here I am over part of northern CA.

Of course, with my original flight being delayed, I ended up spending an additional 4 hours waiting in cloudy San Francisco Airport for my connecting flight.

Eventually, both I and my luggage arrived at the Bob Hope airport in sunny Burbank, CA. Here's a pic of the countryside whizzing past at 70 miles an hour from my non-air conditioned aiport shuttle...

Finally, I arrived at the hotel, and am all ready for training to start this morning. Here's a pic of the palm trees outside my room window...

Following Becks

2007-07-14T22:21:00.001-04:00

Yep, tomorrow morning I'm off to LA for the first time. I'm going for work for training, and won't really have much time for sightseeing, but still, it should be fun. :)

(Beckham's first game for the Galaxy is Saturday, I leave on Thursday, so I won't get to see him play, although I would guess that it's been sold out for a while).

My first 8k

2007-07-05T06:02:00.001-04:00

So yesterday morning at 7.30 am, I was standing at the start line of the July 4th celebratory 8k run at Belle Haven Park and Marina, just south of Alexandria, VA. Exactly 42 minutes later I crossed the finish line. While my average time was a little slower than my time for the 5k I did a few weeks earlier, some of that was due to the queue at the 1/2 way line for water. Rather than having multiple volunteers, or pre-filled cups of water sitting on a table, there was one volunteer who was filling the cups on request. This probably slowed me down for a minute, as I did want a drink prior to resuming the race. Anyway, 42 minutes is still a time that I'm happy with :)

Hull City away kit 2007-2008

2007-06-28T14:15:00.000-04:00

Just when I was thinking that I need to get a new white shirt to play football in (not the regular cotton t-shirts that I've been wearing up until now)...

Rawhide

2007-06-25T06:16:00.000-04:00

I know that I now also write for a blog called RBD Rodeo - but this is me taking that a bit too far ;)

The horse was called Rawhide which, coincidentally, was what I ended up with after 1-1/2 hours on the trail...

Spot the dog

2007-06-24T22:01:00.000-04:00

In England there's a game run in the newspapers called "Spot the Ball". A picture of a soccer game has the ball taken out of it, and you have to put an X where you think the ball is. Here's the American version... see if you can spot Sirius, the lost dog ;)

Trophy Time

2007-06-17T22:49:00.000-04:00

While my team didn't make it to the final to compete for the prestigious championship t-shirts, Gwyneth did get her end of season trophy.

Why yes, that is a Hull City shirt that she's wearing, and what's more it's personalized. :)

Consolation prize

2007-06-16T19:04:00.000-04:00

So this afternoon we took on the team that finished 4th in the league, and players for the team that finished 5th were allowed to make up the numbers on both teams. Even if I do say so myself, I played pretty well, at left back and right back (and even one brief foray towards the end of the game as right winger), whenever they did make it past me, I would force them out wide, or crossover with the central defender as he closed them down.

The game was even at 0-0 with shots from both sides, although their shots were all saved, and 3 of our shots beat the keeper, only to hit either the post or the crossbar... Finally one of our players was brought down in the box, 1/2 way through the 2nd half. He converted the penalty, then, as they tried to chase the game, we scored 2 more. To end at 3-0, and finish as the 3rd place team for spring 2007. While we didn't win the whole tournament, at least we ended the season with a well played win.

My first 5k

2007-06-16T14:11:00.001-04:00

On Thursday night I found out about a 5k race being held locally, so I decided that it was time for me to start doing these. I had a time of 30 minutes in mind before the race. I didn't do a particularly good job of pacing myself, and did 1/2 walk 1/2 jog the last 1/2 mile, but in the end I came in at 25:38, which gave me an average speed of 8 miles per hour, much faster than on the treadmill, but then again, on the treadmill you don't have other people to pace yourself with. All in all, it was a fun morning, my knee held out, and now I'm off to my final game of soccer for the season...

Not the champions

2007-06-11T08:35:00.000-04:00

So on Saturday we had our chance to make the final. As the game allows for unlimited substitutions, it was hot, and we had 15 players in attendance, we made use of them. I was off the field for the first goal against, but made it back on for the equalizer - a penalty, after an opposing player used our captain's leg to clean his studs. That was the score at half time. Then, they scored to take the lead, while I was again off the pitch. I came back on, and we scored an equalizer, a cracking shot by one of our female players from well outside the box. With 5 minutes to go, and the specter of extra-time looming, I came off. 3 minutes later the other team scored what would be the winning goal, in a 3-2 game.

Next week, we play in the 'losers final', or the 3rd place play-off, while the true final takes place after our game. It's a shame we didn't make it all the way, as we're the only team to have beaten the other finalist this season (and from what I heard, for the last 2 seasons), so we may have stood a chance. Ah well, it's not to be... this year.

Snake stops play

2007-06-02T18:25:00.000-04:00

Midway through the second half, I cut out a pass and knocked it over to one of my players. One of the players on the other team raced over to challenge. Suddenly both of them turned and backed away from the ball, yes, there was a snake on the pitch. A snake that did not appreciate a regulation size 5 ball landing close to it. The referee chased it off the pitch, and the game restarted with a drop ball~~, as the handbook clearly states after a snake invasion~~...

Since you asked sis

2007-05-27T01:16:00.001-04:00

My sister asked for a recent picture of me, since I lost the weight. So here I am, the facial hair is just for the week, it'll go before I start the new job on Tuesday :)

Cows N Corn

2007-05-23T19:44:00.000-04:00

Since I'm off for the week, I decided to go along with Gwyneth's school on a field trip to a local farm - Cows n Corn (they have to do something about the neon on that website). She learnt all about chickens, cows, and sheep shearing. Well, she was told about chickens, cows and sheep shearing, but when I asked her about it tonight, she couldn't really remember much of the details. Anyway, she had fun hanging out with her friends, and it was a nice chance for me to see her in that environment.

Changing jobs

2007-05-20T22:43:00.000-04:00

After 7-1/2 years of working for the same company I decided that it was time to make a move and look for a new position. I found 2 positions that looked interesting and sent off to both of them. To cut a long story short, 2 weeks after applying I accepted a new position, and last Monday handed in my 2 week notice. On Thursday I was told that I didn't need to come in for the rest of my notice, but that I would be paid out to the end. So now, instead of the 4 day holiday that I'd planned in between jobs, I have 11 days. This means that I now have time to do some landscaping plans that I've had on hold for a while. Pictures to follow at a later date...

Busy weekend

2007-05-20T22:32:00.000-04:00

On Saturday morning, the 3 of us ran in the Braemar 1 mile fun run, Gwyneth was thrilled to get a medal for completing the course. Right after that we headed out to her soccer game, where her team kept up their unbeaten record. Then it was off to my game. The team that we were playing hadn't lost for 1-1/2 seasons. At half time we were down 4-2, but we came back to win the game with a final score of 7-5. Of course, it helped that they didn't have a full contingent of players, so our 11 beat their 9.

On Sunday, despite the aches, I had another game. This time, my team was short, and the other team was full. At half time we were down 2-1. After we went to 3-1 our goalie got fed up with the lack of cohesion on the forward line and decided that he wanted to play up front. Muggins volunteered to take over in net. Naturally we ended up losing 5-1. Ah well, it just means they won't ask me to play in goal again...

Nostalgia

2007-05-18T16:43:00.001-04:00

Yesterday I drove up to Pennsylvania for a meeting, and really experienced a wave of nostalgia. The route I ended up taking took me up roads that I used to travel on every day over 10 years ago. Route 202, from 95 through Wilmington to King of Prussia, and route 30 from Exton to Lancaster. It's strange how driving once familiar roads, that haven't really changed that much can make you remember the past, and wonder for a fleeting moment whether the present is real, or just a daydream. Yes, I know, very existential... ;)

2 hours in Tuscany

2007-05-13T09:57:00.000-04:00

Last night we went to a Tuscany wine seminar, which is basically a wine tasting with wines from that region, along with a slide show on the history of the Tuscany, and the Frescobaldi family in particular. It was an interesting evening, where we found out that the Frescobaldi family has been in the business for 1000 years. The wines themselves? Excellent. I'm not normally a red wine drinker, as I'm not a big fan of the cherry taste that a fair few red wines carry, but these had such a variety of flavors. They varied in price from the cheapo $15 bottle of Chianti to the $190 bottle of 2004 Ornellaia Estate Bolgheri, which was apparently flown in specially for the event last night, so our group was the first on the Eastern seaboard to taste it. All in all a nice evening out.

Great Gwyneth news

2007-05-12T10:18:00.000-04:00

Yesterday Gwyneth and I went to see her nephrologist for her 6 month checkup. The news was fantastic, everything looks good, and she's now off all medications. We just have to go back in 6 months for a final checkup, and then she'll be discharged, and this whole thing will be over and done with (well there's always the chance that it may flare up again before the age of 11, but given that it's been over a year since her last bout of HSP, it's looking good).

BHAG update

2007-05-09T15:01:00.000-04:00

Well, it's almost 1/2 way through the year, so what's the progress on my BHAG's? The first is still a work in progress, so I'll not reveal that yet, but the second well, I've hit the point where I can make an announcement...

Yep, I've made the daft move of registering for the MCM in October. Since deciding to lose the weight in December, I had this set as my goal. Before my knee injury I was running ~9 miles a night, 3 nights a week, so now that the knee is feeling better (not 100%, but better), I'm going to start the running back up, and do this race. Will I finish it in the 7 hours and 30 minutes max. time? Heck, will I finish it? I don't know, but I am going to try.

Midway through the season

2007-05-07T06:03:00.000-04:00

So our record after 4 games reads, won 2 lost 2, which puts us at 3rd in the league (out of 5). This weekend is our bye weekend, which gives some of our injured players an extra week to get fit. However, when we come back the following Saturday, not only do we have a game that day, but we also have one on the Sunday, that's going to be interesting given how my legs usually feel the day after a game...

Toastmaster elections

2007-05-03T23:02:00.000-04:00

So on Wednesday night the Manassas Community Toastmasters elected officials for the next 6 months. Yours truly was voted in as the new Vice President of Public Relations. Which means that I'm supposed to interface with the local press, and perhaps put together a monthly newsletter (although the club doesn't currently do that). Anyway, it's going to be interesting.

Sad end

2007-05-03T17:41:00.000-04:00

Scott Singer of Durango Colorado apparently had some demons that he couldn't handle, he blogged infrequently about them, as well as about his joys with his children. The last post that he put out ended with the text that his wife had filed for divorce that day. 29 days later he used a gun and ended his life. I'm sure that people in his life tried to help him, and from his posts, he'd tried to seek help himself, but unfortunately it ended how I'm sure no-one wanted it to. Sad.

Looking for a job?

2007-04-28T23:17:00.000-04:00

This job listing was forwarded to me by a friend who is currently on the market for a new position...

Office Jester

The Motley Fool seeks an outgoing, multi-talented Fool to be our full-time Office Jester. That's right; we work hard and have fun too. We couldn’t be the Motley Fool without our own Jester, after all. The ideal individual will embrace our core value of Joyful Optimism, bringing humor, entertainment, and amusement to all employees and visitors of Fool Global HQ. This is not a new position but it offers great flexibility in execution.
Primary Responsibilities/Objectives:

* Roam office entertaining employees
* Plan and execute parties and happy hours
* Participate in all company meetings and gatherings as an interstitial speaker
* Identify struggling or overworked Fools or Teams and brighten their day
* Function as office DJ, managing/programming the office sound system. Manage musical requests efficiently, while keeping the office bumping.
* Order pizza for Pizza Day
* Repair damaged jester caps
* Construct complex balloon animals
* Care and feeding of the office monkey, Dr. Zaius
* Ride in Foolmobile as body double decoy for Gardner brothers
* Piggyback carry the winner of The Motley Fool Stock Picking Contest in St. Patrick’s Day Parade

Core Competencies:

* Current on all reality TV
* Pop Culture expert, able to postulate about Season 3 of Lost
* Always at the ready with a quip or comeback.
* Equally comfortable in a jester cap and bear suit
* MS Excel
* Proven game room skills as a formidable adversary in Halo, Ms. Pacman and Bubble Hockey; ability to convincingly let management win on occasion.
* Juggle chainsaws, bowling balls, and one item of your choosing
* Have >50 answers to knock-knock jokes, at least half of which must be funny
* Must have authored at least one viral video of moderate fame.
* Can tap a keg on the first try
* Extra napkins and utensils at the ready for Fools eating at their desks
* Can chug beer, shotgun beer, guzzle beer, snort beer, play beer pong, flip cup, 3 man, do beer bongs, beer cheers, keg stands, and bluegills with the best of them

Preferred Qualities:

* Friends would tell you that you are “seriously funny!” but they are laughing so hard they can’t breathe
* Tall or short but we prefer that you not be of average height, as it’s not as funny
* Crazy hair
* Annoying and easily recognizable laugh
* Friends with at least one B list celebrity. (No reality contestants)
* Experience in three of the following: Stand up, Street mime, rally racing, horticulture, pottery, rapping, paragliding, cattle ranching, roller skiing, ballet, actual break dancing/popping, ice fishing, chess
* Blood type AB (or equivalent)
* Ability to type 90 words a minute, replacing all vowels with various forms of smileys

Education:

* Clown college, Improv school, School of the Americas, Brown, or equivalent experience

For an internship position they've really gone in for a lot of detail, which means that the position is very well defined. There should be no ambiguity on the topic of roles and responsibilities. I wonder how many people have been turned off by the Excel requirement though? ;)

Bjork - WTF?

2007-04-24T21:56:00.000-04:00

Ok Bjork, I thought that you took a lot of undeserved flack over the whole swan dress, and laying an egg on the red carpet at the oscars, but your new album cover just takes it to a whole new level of strange...

Tooth and Knee

2007-04-22T10:03:00.000-04:00

Friday night, on the drive home, one of my teeth started to ache. Later on that evening it started to hurt. By 10.30 I was in a lot of pain, so I called the dentist. By 11.30pm I was in his surgery, and he began drilling. An hour later I was on my way home, nice and tired and numb.

Yesterday I went to my soccer game and played for pretty much the entire match (I was subbed out for about 10 minutes), and the great thing is that my knee held up. We won 5-1 and I actually set up the second goal with a nice pass into the middle. I'll be back out there next Saturday.

Balderdash practice

2007-04-18T23:04:00.000-04:00

Have you ever played the game Balderdash? You're split into teams, given a dictionary word, and have to make up a definition. The person in the middle reads each fake definition, and the real one, and you have to vote on which one you believe to be the real definition. Should you get it right, you get a point. Should others vote for your definition, that's a point for each team that picked it. Advanced versions of Balderdash have you writing what happened on a date in history, or to describe why a particular person is 'famous'.

The game I prefer, however, is the abbreviation game. You're given an abbreviation and each team has to come up with a believable group, society, or association that uses those initials. How can you get easy practice at this? Easy! The next time you're stuck in traffic, look at the license plate of the car in front... no, not that one with the personalized plates, the one next to it... take those 3 letters and try to come up with a group that could use those initials. For instance, today I was behind a car with a license plate starting with GLA. What organization could use those initials? "Guy Lombardi Appreciators"? "Gay, Lesbian Alliance"? "Gladioli Lovers Association"? "Greatest Living Americans"?. The possibilities are endless (well as long as you're not behind a license plate starting with ZQX), and the next time your friends come over for a friendly game of Balderdash, you'll be ready for them...

Toastmasters Table Topics

2007-04-18T11:46:00.000-04:00

So tonight is another meeting of the Manassas Community Toastmasters, where we'll be trying something a little different. Usually we have the speakers go up and do their 5-7 minute presentations, then we have the table topics (where audience members are picked at random to give on the spot 1-2 minute speeches about any topic - such as "If you won $30 million, what would you do in the first week?", and "Who is the Greatest Living American?"). After a break, we then have the speech evaluators come up and give 2-3 minute talks on each of the earlier speeches. Everything is timed, and the whole group votes on the best speaker, the best table topics speaker, and the best speech evaluator for the evening.

Tonight we're doing a backwards meeting, which means that we're going to have the evaluators present before they hear the speakers... yeah, and this would be the first time that I've been picked to be an evaluator. How can you evaluate something that you've not heard I hear you cry? Easy, you make it up. Anyone that knows me, knows that I'm going to have fun with that. :) (Of course, the official evaluations will be done post-speech, and recorded in the manuals).

Virginia Tech Tragedy

2007-04-16T19:37:00.000-04:00

As a graduate of Virginia Tech (2003 - Masters) my thoughts go out to those impacted by the horrific events of today.

From an email I received today from the Alumni Association

Many have asked how they may send financial memorials… any memorial gifts, payable to the “Virginia Tech Foundation,” designated specifically for the “Virginia Tech Family Fund,” should be mailed to University Development, 902 Prices Fork Road (0336), Blacksburg, VA 24061.

Customer service differences between the US & UK

2007-04-11T23:12:00.000-04:00

I had a couple of good customer service experiences tonight that I thought I'd blog on. The first was at the local Pizza Hut. I'm not a frequent visitor there, but Gwyneth won a free pizza at school today for her reading, so I took her. We ordered 2 personal pan pizzas, a cup of tea and a glass of milk, which after the free pizza came to ~$6. Despite the fact that he wasn't going to get a really high tip based on the ticket, our server kept bringing out hot water, milk and teabags for my tea, when I was close to finishing (fairly normal you may think, but he was overdoing it a little, by the end of the meal I had 4 unused teabags sitting in front of me). He talked to Gwyneth and listened to her responses, brought her out a balloon, crayons, and coloring menu, and just generally had a great attitude.

Then when I got home I had a phone call on the answering machine from the Washington Capitals ticket office. I'd been to one game all season, and inquired about tickets for another, but they had called me to say that it was the end of the season, and they wanted my feedback on how I'd enjoyed the game that I'd attended, and to thank me for supporting the caps.

Then tonight I read this article in the Guardian about how the HSBC bank in Canford Cliffs, Dorset, England has a rule that

Only customers with £50,000 or more in savings, a hefty mortgage or a salary of at least £75,000 are being allowed to talk to staff. Everyone else has to make do with the cash withdrawal and automated paying-in machines.

What a difference...

My Marketing Pilgrim Contest Entry

2007-04-11T10:43:00.000-04:00

I've written an article on the Ways to improve the Conversion Rate for your Website, this is my entry for the Marketing Pilgrim Scholarship Contest. The article talks about using Dynamic Keyword Insertion, Geotargeting, and making sure that you send people to the Right Landing Page. Take a look, and feel free to leave comments there.

Football schedule

2007-04-06T14:42:00.000-04:00

...assuming my knee holds up...

April 2007
2002	Sat	Apr 14	4:45 pm	Team 2 - Dobbins	vs	Team 4 - Key
2004	Sat	Apr 21	4:45 pm	Team 4 - Key	vs	Team 5 -
2006	Sat	Apr 28	4:45 pm	Team 4 - Key	vs	Team 3
May 2007
2007	Sat	May 5	3:00 pm	Team 4 - Key	vs	Team 5 -
2012	Sat	May 19	4:45 pm	Team 4 - Key	vs	Team 3
2015	Sun	May 20	3:00 pm	Team 4 - Key	vs	Team 2 - Dobbins
June 2007
2013	Sat	Jun 2	3:00 pm	Team 4 - Key	vs	Team 5 -

A busted knee, a forearm to the head and a missed open goal

2007-04-01T18:37:00.000-04:00

Today I attended the Fairfax county pick up soccer game, organized through meetup.com. It was the first one that I'd attended, and was held at a school ~30 minutes from home. The game started off ok, but as it went on my knee started to hurt, and after I was in a tackle where my ankle went in a different way to the rest of my leg it got worse. I stayed on the pitch, collecting a forearm smash to the head from my goalie when we both went up for the ball along the way. Eventually the other team figured out that they didn't need to mark the gimp, so the left me alone, which meant that at one point I was all alone in the penalty box, when the Carlos Valderama lookalike crossed in beautifully for me at the far post, naturally I shanked it wide. Ah well, there's always next time, although maybe my doctor will say that there isn't for a while after he takes a look at my knee...

Chateau LaTour Pauillac 1995

2007-03-29T22:38:00.000-04:00

So on Monday night we opened the most expensive wine (~$370) that any of us in the room had ever tasted. We'd had this bottle for about 2 years, waiting for the right time to open it, and since Uncle Peter hasn't been over to visit us, we decided to open it anyway. ;)

The reviews that we'd read said that it was fruity with a heavy oak aftertaste, which mellowed after 2004. It was very nice, and enjoyable to drink, although maybe we should have had a better meal to go with it than Joe's Pizza. I could definitely taste the raspberries, violet and oak, with most others in the room saying the same thing.

Last Saturday we did go out in the VA countryside and do some tasting. The plan was to hit 4-5 wineries, which was narrowed down to 2 after the first winery - Pearmund Cellars - had us taste what 13 different wines for $5. The second winery we hit was one of our favorites- Gadino Cellars - so we did end up purchasing a couple of bottles, none of which cost close to $370 :)

Back from vacation

2007-03-29T21:57:00.000-04:00

So I've spent the last week showing Bryn & Susan around the area, and dropped them off last night in Philly, taking a nice slow ride back today. They'll be back in town on Monday, before heading off back to Swansea on Tuesday. Here are a couple of the sights from the week...

The new WW2 memorial in DC

Horse & cart in Colonial Williamsburg
(note the Union Flag in the background)

A trip to the vets ends in bloodshed

2007-03-19T22:34:00.000-04:00

Poor sweet Lizzy had a follow up appointment tonight, I took her to the vets for the vet to listen to her heart and lungs. I started off holding Lizzy by her paws, she ended up holding my hand by her teeth, literally hanging by her teeth. I have a couple of nice holes in my hand, one in the knuckle, one in the side of the hand.

The vet walked out and returned with some bandages and a pair of thick gloves to finish off the exam. Everything worked out ok, she's doing well. I just need to call the doctors tomorrow to find out when my last tetanus injection was...

Toastmasters Award

2007-03-14T21:47:00.000-04:00

Tonight I did my 2nd Toastmasters speech. The topic I decided to go with was "Religion and Fanatacism". The big twist was that the fanaticism I was actually speaking about was sporting. Anyway the speech went well, although there was no vote for best speaker of the evening because one speech ran over, and another under, so I was the only qualifier for the award and was awarded it by default. Still I have it, and I'm sure the next time I hopefully win it it'll be a proper competition.

The Easter Bunny cometh

2007-03-11T00:11:00.000-05:00

Yep, it's that time of year when the Easter bunny makes a quick trip to the British store in Aldie, VA. So naturally Gwyneth wants to visit and get some chocolate :)

Boothferry park remembered

2007-03-09T23:01:00.000-05:00

So as a present to myself I got a limited edition print of the last game at Boothferry park, the stadium I used to go to to watch the tigers play. The first time they framed it they put a rather large hole in it, luckily I was able to order another (that the store paid for), and on my birthday I got the call that it was ready.

I'm still deciding whether to hang it at work or in my office at home. Either way I'm happy with it.

36...

2007-03-07T19:20:00.000-05:00

It's hard to believe that 1/2 my life ago I reached the legal drinking age (UK). Now here I am at 36 (ok, I'm about 4 hours early with this post), with a BA, a Masters, a wife and a child... So the important question is, what did I get?

Riding through the glen...

2007-02-26T08:10:00.000-05:00

To those in the UK: This new Robin Hood series, is it Michael Praed- Robin of Sherwood- good, or Jason Connery- Robin of Locksley- mediocre? It starts over on this side of the pond on Saturday, just wondering whether I should try to carve out an hour to watch?

Wintery mix?

2007-02-25T14:21:00.000-05:00

Yeah, that's right DC area weather forecasters... we'll maybe get 1/2" of snow overnight. Not sure why I just had to shovel 5" from my driveway though... At least Gwyneth got to make Frosty. :)

The new member of the family

2007-02-24T19:44:00.000-05:00

So 3 weeks ago I purchased our new ~~clothes horse~~ treadmill.
How's it going so far? Well, I'm running 3 nights a week, for 6 miles each time. When I used to run at the gym I'd have trouble making 4.2 mph. Now that I've lost the weight (down 39lbs from December) I've picked up the pace and am able to sprint at 8mph for short bursts, with my speed last night ending up around 5.5mph. What is even better is that the price of the treadmill went down a week after I bought it, and Sears quite nicely honored it and gave me $100 back. :)

Marketing Pilgrim contest draws to a close

2007-02-12T14:20:00.000-05:00

So I've been a member of MyBlogLog for a couple of months now, it's an interesting place, with lots of different blogs and bloggers on view, heck it's brought me some traffic to this site and my local search blog. For over a month now a contest was going on to see who could get the most community members, Andy Beal of Marketing Pilgrim offered a free Zune or iPod, and ShoeMoney offered up a picture of a nice looking young woman to entice people to join. The contest ends this Friday, and Shoemoney has won handsomely with over 815 members to Marketing Pilgrim's 473. So I now have a 1 in 473 chance of winning an iPod, which will come in useful with my current one playing up a lot...

Good news for the Tigers

2007-02-12T14:17:00.000-05:00

Lifelong City fan Geof Pearson was the toast of the KC Stadium on Saturday after winning £250,000 for the club live on national television in Coca-Cola's 'Buy A Player' football promotion

Anything that helps the tigers out is fantastic :)

Full story here

The Ice Breaker

2007-02-07T23:25:00.000-05:00

So tonight was my first speech as a member of Toastmasters. The topic was all about me, with the first 1/3 being about my life, and the last 2/3 about the disastrous track record of every company that I've worked at bar my current one. It seemed to go down well, and I'm over the first hurdle (I even got a little ribbon). :)

The view from my office

2007-02-06T08:23:00.000-05:00

Up here on the 10th floor we have a nice view of the Route 7 & International Drive intersection. About 1/2 an hour ago there was a loud bang, followed 10 minutes later by a firetruck and several ambulances... (sorry Ben, but you weren't here to blog it)

(it's a cell phone picture which is why it's so grainy).

Gwyneth and the big game

2007-02-04T22:17:00.000-05:00

Yep, today was the day to take Gwyneth to her first NHL game (what other big game did you think I was talking about?) . ;)

She had fun, although it was probably a period too long for her, and she didn't mind that we were in the "Eagle's nest" (at least there's no-one behind us).

She liked the cheering, but not when it got too loud. Strangely at one point she started shouting "Come on America", which was very even handed given that the game was between two American teams - the Washington Capitals and the New York Islanders. The game ended up tied 1-1 and going into overtime and finally a penalty shootout, with the Capitals winning 1-0 after 3 shots each.

She said that she'd like to go back and see another game, so we'll probably do that. :)

Beware the claw...

2007-02-03T18:51:00.000-05:00

Lizzy believes that she can open the door from below... It generally works as I usually let her in :)

Beautiful South to split

2007-01-31T18:24:00.000-05:00

Well, after 19 years together the best band in Hull has split due to musical similarities... ah well. At least I met them once in the Grafton when I was at Uni there and had a nice chat about the Tigers (Hull City AFC for those that don't know).

The first snow of winter

2007-01-21T17:42:00.000-05:00

BHAG update

2007-01-17T10:46:00.000-05:00

Since I mentioned that I'm not making any resolutions this year, but am instead setting some BHAGs, I thought it was time to give an update. I've been working out physically, and have so far lost 30 lbs, but this isn't one of my BHAGs. One of my BHAGs involves making a presentation at a certain event, and given that it's been a long while since I've made a presentation to a group larger than will fit in a conference room (maybe 10 years), I've decided to work on those skills. So tonight I am going to be attending a meeting of Toastmasters, and I'll see if it can help me hone my presentation skills.

Surrealism at the store

2007-01-11T09:03:00.000-05:00

So I was at Target last night, purchasing some groceries (ok, it was a SuperTarget). At the checkout the guy had an issue with the carrots that I was purchasing as they didn't have the little sticker on them to let him know what code to enter into the register. He turned to the cashier at the next desk and asked "What's the code for carrots?", to which the reply was "What color are they?". There was a moment of stunned silence while we both tried to process this request. "Orange, what other color would they be?" was the response. The 2nd cashier looked over "Oh carrots, I thought you said pears"...

Farewell Rose video

2007-01-08T21:34:00.000-05:00

Ok, another Doctor Who video, for those who lament the end of the relationship between the Doctor and Rose. It's done well, timed nicely with the music.

KLF and the Timelords

2007-01-08T21:11:00.000-05:00

I actually own a copy of this on vinyl (dating myself there), I came across the video for the song on youtube, those have got to be the worst daleks I've ever seen :)

South Park Simon

2007-01-04T15:22:00.000-05:00

Finally, I've been immortalized. Here I am as envisioned by the creators of South Park. Ok, I went to this site and did it myself ;)

Goodbye Great Aunt Eve

2007-01-01T20:44:00.000-05:00

One of my maternal great aunts - Evelyn Westaway - passed away today. Here's a picture of her holding Gwyneth from 4 years ago. She always used to have chocolate and jigsaws for us when we'd come over, and strangely, for a Yorkshire woman, she loved baseball...

A rare picture of me

2007-01-01T19:50:00.000-05:00

I don't usually post many pictures of myself (in fact this is the second one on the blog), but since there was a nice picture of Gwyneth and her cousin Jesse taken this morning, just because I happen to be in the middle of it doesn't necessarily spoil it. ;)

No resolutions here

2007-01-01T19:00:00.000-05:00

I don't really believe in new years resolutions, which is why I started the whole weight loss thing back in December, if I'd waited until now it would have probably been the same as for everyone else, lip service for a few days then forget about it. Therefore I'm not bothering with any resolutions this year.

This doesn't mean that I don't have any goals for this year, in fact I do have two rather larger BHAGs for this year (Big Hairy Audacious Goals as defined by Jim Collins in his 1992 book Built to Last, or Big Hairy Ass Goals as defined by Craig Adams of AMP in 1997 (my former manager)). One of these is a professional goal, that I'm going to try to accomplish in April, failing that in August, the other is a personal goal that I'll be attempting to accomplish in October, but I'll know by May whether or not it's a realistic possibility... What are they? Well, you may well ask, but I'm not going to tell. Rather like a birthday wish only works if you don't tell, I'm going to let you know if and when I accomplish my goals. There are other, more realistic goals that I have, but these 2 are the real 'leap out of a plane' ones that I'm going to do my very best to do, and if I don't make it on one or both, I want to at least know that I tried, and that's my promise to myself.

The perfect fit

2006-12-31T20:36:00.000-05:00

We took some present out of the gift basket they came in, a few minutes later Lizzy found it...

Getting fit - part II

2006-12-30T16:17:00.000-05:00

In the last post I did on this subject I mentioned that I'd post again when I hit my initial goal of 1stone, or 14lbs of weight loss. Well, that happened about 2 days after that post, so instead I decided to not mention anything else on this topic until I hit the next goal of 20lbs or 1st 6lbs of loss, with my aim being to complete that before the end of the year. Well this week took me a lot longer to lose those last few pounds, but based on the scale last night, and this morning... I'm there :)

So in 22 days I've lost ~21lbs. I would anticipate that it's now going to take me a lot longer to lose any more, but I am going to keep at it, as I want to be able to enjoy the football (soccer) games in April and May, not just the first 5 minutes. As for other changes brought about by this... I've gone down 2 jeans sizes, I can fit in t-shirts that had obviously 'shrunk in the wash' over the last year or so, and my whole body aches ;) (no pain, no gain).

Well, that is it on this topic, I know I'm starting to bore some people, but hey it's an achievement for me (not necessarily a new achievement, as I did this same thing 9 years ago, but then it was for a contest and I had no intention of keeping it up, so I didn't), and I just wanted to share.

Xmas, and a new bike

2006-12-26T22:14:00.000-05:00

...and that's all that needs to be said :)

Backsplash

2006-12-24T12:09:00.000-05:00

My brother in law - Guillermo, does tiling for a living, so when he came up here for Christmas he offered to do the backsplash behind our stove.

Looks nice :)

Gwyneth, Jesse & Santa

2006-12-23T14:07:00.000-05:00

Some last minute lobbying for good presents from Gwyneth and her cousin...

An Inconvenient Truth

2006-12-19T22:58:00.000-05:00

If you haven't seen this film, go rent it now. You'll see the evidence about global warming, and the reality of what will happen if nothing is done about it (as per the current administration). It really makes you wish that the butterfly ballot had been outlawed in Florida before the 2000 election...

Getting Fit (or dying trying)

2006-12-19T20:53:00.000-05:00

So, when I returned from Chicago I decided that it was time to turn over a new leaf. I signed up for the over 30's football (sawker) league, kicking off in April, and started my get fit regimen. I now get up 40 minutes earlier than usual, and take the dog for a 30 minute walk. I no longer eat breakfast at home, but do so at work, replacing the milk in my cereal with soy milk. I've cut back on my caloric intake throughout the day, removing bread and cheese (2 of my main problems) from my diet. Then on a night, I take Kelli for another 30 minute walk. The results so far after almost 2 weeks? I've lost 11lbs (down to a weight I haven't seen for 9 years), I feel healthier, and I feel better with myself. I don't aim to lose too much more weight, maybe another 10lbs or so, but I am going to be concentrating on building up my stamina; I want to be able to play a full game and not collapse after 10 minutes in April.

I'll probably not post too much more about this (except probably for when I hit my next milestone - down a stone (14lbs)), but I thought I'd say why I've not been posting much, I've been out getting fresh air and exercise, and staying away from the pc and the tv. :)

Splitting the tab

2006-12-12T21:46:00.000-05:00

So on Wednesday night last week, after a 20+ block forced march through the streets of Chicago, a group of 8 of us found ourselves at a really nice Greek restaurant. After good food and good conversation, the check arrived. It was then that we realized that the 8 of us needed to get this check split up so that we could each submit it to our companies for expenses. We asked the waiter, and he informed us that it was too late to do separate checks, but if we wanted he could split the check evenly. We all smiled and said that was fine. A few moments later he brought us all a check that was indeed split 8 ways as you can see below. First time I've seen it done this way :) (click the image to enlarge it if you can't read it)

Flickr

2006-12-10T14:01:00.000-05:00

Back in July I signed up for a Flickr account, so I could post images to the web for all to view. I posted the one set, and then forgot all about it. Well, now I've gone back, signed up for the professional service, and have gone on a posting frenzy. Don't believe me? Well go to my Flickr Stream and take a gander. Who knows, there may even be a shot of you there... ;)

(I've also put a link to the stream on the right hand side of the page)

Early Xmas Present

2006-12-07T23:40:00.000-05:00

Ok, I'm a Doctor Who geek, but you should probably already know that if you know me. I got back from Chicago tonight to find a box waiting for me, inside... well, my own personal sonic screwdriver :)

...and my own Tardis (4 port USB)