Family Rocks

I am sitting on the couch right now with my son and wife. My daughter is playing with Oliver (John and Dave's cute dog). We are all together in Philly to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday.

Being with Family (even if it involves a 12 hour drive) is the best. We drove halfway to Cranberry PA and spent the night. The kids were happy because they were able to swim. We are stopping back there on the way home as well.

As I write this, my wife is asking "you have a blog?". She really knew, but it is not of much interest to her, because she knows all that I write about before I write it.

Now I am going to give the Keyboard to my son Elliot so that he can write his first blog.

Here we go...........

school is awesome! and I got the teacher I wanted. family really rocks. these are my
friends: Connor, Cooper, Julia, Emily J, Emily A, Peter, Shama tomma , Nick, Jason, Jake s. Some things I like are, playing football, eating, and recess. That was fun!


Great Job Elliot. You ROCK!!!!!!!!

Chuckin' and Duckin'

This weekend I had the chance to go fishing. I won the trip on the radio (WLAV). The trip was supplied to the radio station by Doug Kool of Kool Toytota. I was fortunate to be able to go with a West Michigan Radio Legend, Tony Gates.

The day was cold and rainy. Perfect for fishing for Steelhead in Michigan. We were on the river by 7:30 AM and we fished until breaking for lunch at 11:30. The lunch was no ordinary lunch. Our guide, Dave Barkman of Schmidt Outfitters made us grilled tuna steaks and grilled shrimp.

After lunch we finally had some action in the water. We hooked up on 5 fish, and were able to land one. The one that we landed was my first Steelhead on a fly rod. We were using great Sage equipment. It made me want one of my own (maybe next year). The fishing slowed down once a cold front went through and the temperature dropped 10 degrees and the rain picked up again.

Above is a picture of me with the fish that we were able to land. It was a team effort. Tony hooked it, I landed it, and Dave rowed like crazy to get us there.

All in all a great day of fishing. Now I cant wait to get back out there. Maybe with a neighbor who can go fishing when ever he feels like it. You know the one that I am talking about.

Why Do They Call Them Wisdom Teeth?

I am curious why they don't call those teeth "they are going to hurt like hell when you get them out" teeth.

My lovely wife is in pain right now from getting all of her "wisdom" teeth out on Friday. She is in so much pain. We have called the doctor to see if we need to go in (and consulted with out Dentist friend - Thanks Jason) and they told us that today would be the worst day for pain. I sure hope that they are right because she is in a lot of pain.

I would also like to say hello to the only person that reads this blog. Are you happy now that I have added a post? If you are reading this and you are not either me, or the one other person who reads this (and you know who you are) - Thanks for stopping by.

No Place Like Home.

So I am back. It has been a while since I have added anything to my blog. Before that was not a problem, but now I have a friend (not plural yet - i am still working on that) that links to my blog. That means that there may be others actually reading this. To this point is has just been me, stopping by to see how cool it is that I have a blog.

This whole blog thing is pressure. I don't know what to write about. I could go into the boring details of the job that i do selling software, or i could detail the weather, or the state of the nation. But none of those really seem to be very interesting. So i will default to family.

My son has a birthday coming up that will make him 8 years old. I am so excited about how he is growing up. He is excited about school and sports, a trend that I encourage him to keep for years. My daughter is also in Kindergarten (going into her Senior Year of High School). She had me help her pick out her clothes last night before bed.

It is these types of memories that i want to hold on to. Family is so important. I hope that if anyone reads this, that they will be reminded of that. All families have their crazy aunt, or lose patience when your child waits to the last minute to do his homework, but there is still nothing that can compare to family.

I have to go sell software. (and maybe get home early to watch Oprah).

Crossing the Country for Fun

So as trips go, this was a big one. I was suposed to travel to Califonia for a business trip. I made it to California, but while I was somewhere over Colorado at 36,000 feet my meetings were cancelled. So I arrive in San Francisco to find a note that says that I am free of Client meetings.

So I spend a night in a great hotel (www.cypresshotel.com) and had an average dinner at the Elephant Bar (www.elephantbar.com). I had breakfast in the hotel and now it is off to catch a flight home.

Trip recap - Left at 6:30AM yesterday, Traveled 3,472 miles on airplanes, spent one night in a hotel that I prepaid for two rooms for three nights (a lot of $$$) and will be home by 11:00PM tonight.

So the trip continues.........

Community

I love a sense of community. I love tailgates, BBQs, get togethers, block parties, anytime that friends get together. Recently, I have added another category to my sense of community. I now enjoy reading blogs. There I said it. I am no longer a mysterious voyeur in blog land. I posted a comment for the first time this week.

While hosting a neighborhood BBQ, I went inside and posted my first comment. The comment was to a friends blog. It was a funny comment, that if you did not know me, would sound both out of place and incredibly vain. I would point you all (you all - like I have anyone but me reading this) to the post, but I don't know how to do that yet.

I must also confess that I am not sure how to handle the fact that I enjoy discussing US Weekly with my wife and the other Moms in the neighborhood. I think that it is alright that I was able to debate whether or not Britney is a fit parent right?

Well, that is enough writing for me today. I am getting ready for a business trip to California. I am taveling with our CEO, so i am sure that i will have some great recommendations for places to eat in Silcon Valley.

Stay tuned, the trip continues.

I am not sure about you, but when I was young going anywhere over an hour seemed like forever. We would be ten minutes out and the questions would start. When will we be there? How long does it take? Are we there yet?

Since then not much has changed. We are older now, but still ask the questions. What's more is that now we not only are asking the questions (the trip is a little different now), but we also have to answer the very questions that made the drive feel even longer for our parents. I think that kids are programmed to ask these questions.

This is the start of my blogging career. Well, truth be told, I have tried in the past, but it never seemed to stick. So I thought that i would try it again.


Here we go....... Are we there yet?