Happy Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you and your family!

I've been meaning to write...

So this blog thing isn't so easy. It would be if I could find something funny all the time. But alas, I can't. I'll give you a few updates so far. The first is Guitar Hero World Tour.

Okay, so I know what you are thinking... Guitar Hero is just a popular thing that I should have been playing about a year ago. Well, I hadn't ever actually played the game other than at a family reunion and that was the game Rockband. For those of you like me, Rockband and Guitar Hero are competitors and have slightly different benefits and drawbacks, but my Mom bought me the Guitar Hero World Tour version which is the first in the series to have the original songs and not the covers.It also has a drum set as you've seen from the above.  The kids loved it.  The game has a "beginner" level that lets you just strum or hit the drum set anywhere and doesn't kick you out if you miss a lot of notes.  It's perfect for the kids.

Anyway, I really like the game and find it's hilarious to play with a group of adults.  That's even better.  The selection of music is unique too.  From Willie Nelson's "On the Road Again," to Michael Jackson's "Beat It," to "Everlong" by the Foo Fighters, to Beastie Boys, or Lincoln Park.  It's great.  Anyone else play this game?

St. Jude Memphis Marathon

I've been meaning to write for some time now. Last week I took a trip to my parents house and had an entry in the St. Jude Marathon. It's pretty exciting to run two half-marathons in 4 weeks. Let me explain...

Sorry no pictures, but I ran the half marathon on December 6th. The trip, which I took by myself, was a short one but a good one nonetheless. I left school early on Thursday after my Materials Science test and flew to San Francisco where my flight couldn't get to the gate for about 15 minutes. It's already only a 30 min flight there so you can see how many of us were anxious. I missed my plan to Denver by about 2 minutes, but took the next available one 30 mins later. In Denver I had no problems (that I knew of) but the plane I was supposed to board didn't take off from Idaho Falls until I landed in Denver so the flight out was about 2 hours late. All of this was sorted out, crazily, but nothing was really a problem. Then finally when I landed in Memphis Friday morning (the 5th) at 12:22 my luggage didn't come out on the belt.

That kind of sucks. STILL I wasn't worried because Denver flies in to Memphis all the time. After a day of waiting, I got my bag late Friday night and was ready for the race the next day.

If you've ever run this marathon or half, you know that it's the rare morning SATURDAY run. Gassia drove me to the race and I was pretty much on my own. I had some friends that I met there and ran with them for a few miles.

All in all I had a GREAT run. I trained for 2:10 and ran a 2:18 officially. WAIT! I forgot to tell you that I stopped at mile 4 to use the potty. When I say, "potty," I mean #2 people! I HATE that part about running... having to go in the middle! UGH! Anyway, after the line... I probably took 5-7 minutes total there!

Once I was back in the race I ended up running a 10 minute pace and finished REALLY strong. I'm happy about it.

After the race, it didn't really feel like I had run a half marathon, it felt like a long run and that's it.

The flight back was great and I have only run 3 time since! Talk about a break! yikes! I have to jump on the wagon again!

Thanksgiving

I LOVE THANKSGIVING! Mostly because I love to eat. One of the many reasons I run stems from that too. I hope everyone had a great holiday yesterday.

Xbox

I got an Xbox. Yep. Abbey said I could do it and I did. Am I an idiot? Yes, of course... but it's SO fun. I don't exactly play online, but I do sync it to the online content for the NBA game I have. It reorders rosters and stuff like that. Man, it's great. I used to spend HOURS going online and finding out the current trades and stuff like that. HOURS. This was before I had children, but that's not the point. I got two games with the Xbox and bought two others.

Here's a picture of Hannah singing the new Disney "Sing It" game. It's like Rock Band or whatever but only the vocals. If you get another mic, you can do duets, etc. It's all songs from the "tween" movies that Disney's produced lately and also includes Miley Cyrus songs (with and without the Hannah Montana outfit). For the record, Kung Fu Panda and Lego Indiana Jones are pretty darn fun too.

Appropriate Terms

I have this pet-peeve. It's called the appropriate term. For goodness sakes people! Everything has a name for a reason!

I know people hate these but I prefer them to touchpads... really.

New X-Box?

I have no idea if I spelled that correctly.  X-Box I mean.  Really, I love football.  And college basketball.  Heck, I like sports in general.  With that said, I'm sure I shouldn't be getting one.  To make a comparison, I had a Nintendo when I was in the fourth grade, and played it for years.  Then when I was a Sophomore in college, I was one of the first people to get a Nintendo-64.  When I was in grad school in 2002 I bought a PS2.  Then two years ago I bought both a Nintendo DS Lite and a PSP.  Do I really need ANOTHER console?

Gosh, history of Josh lessons never cease.  You all are lifelong learners huh?

Anyway, today in class most of my classmates learned that my thesis was complete and I really had "nothing to do except take classes!"

Yes, it's true.

Then one of them asked, "Did you buy your X-Box yet?"

So that's my question.  Do I really WANT an X-Box?  Let's do the math.

Fact: I love football and football season is in full swing.

Fact: College basketball JUST started and will end about the time the NBA season starts to get interesting.

Fact: I have a family now, unlike the last few times I bought video game consoles.

Fact: Abbey will get annoyed FAST if I play on the X-Box too much.

Fact: After buying one first person shooter game, I will buy one basketball game and one football game and play them for a year before they become "out of date" and I try to adjust the players attributes on my own.

Yeah... it doesn't look like I should be buying an X-Box.

Great(?) Run!

Don't get me wrong, I like my time.  Excuse the history of Josh lesson, but I ran 3 half marathons last year (St. Jude in Dec 2006, America's Finest City in Aug 2007, and the Silver Strand Half in Nov 2007).  Then I held off from running a few more since I was moving during the summer sometime of 2008.  I did run a 5K everyday from Thanksgiving to New Years and did a few small things to challenge myself.

So when we finally moved and I signed up for the Big Sur Half Marathon, I didn't "train" per se, but I did run all of my runs at about a 10 minute pace.  I did my last long run two Saturdays before the race at 12 miles and tapered down the next week running 8 miles the Saturday before and a 3 mile on Monday, 3 mile on Wednesday, and 2 miles on Thursday with Friday and Saturday completely off.

So... my EXPECTATION was to run 13.1 miles at a 10 min pace.  That wasn't the case.  I ran the first 7-8 miles at 9:04!  Holy FRICK!

You know the old saying, "If you go out too fast, you'll pay for it in the end."?  (sorry about the punctuation, I'm an engineer at heart)  Well I did.  To put it in perspective, I hit the final turn averaging a 10 min pace, and finished the race at 10:30 average pace.  Not too shabby you say?  Well, if I went a little more than half way at a 9 min pace and finshed at 10:30 then my last 4 miles were around 13 mins/mile... It's just disheartening.

Yes, I'm happy with a 2:18, no I didn't hurt myself, and yes, I finished strong.  I get it.  I did better than 50% of runners my age.  I should be happy.  I am happy.  I'm going to run another... it's just a matter of point of view I guess.

To add to this already long tale, on Saturday my Mom called and asked if I wanted to run the St. Jude half marathon (the Memphis Marathon is what some people call it).  She said since I ran in 2006 she thought I'd be interested.  Hi Mom, it's not like I forgot about it?!?  Anyway, she thought she would sweeten the pot and offered to cash in frequent flyer miles to buy me a ticket.  Hey cool, I thought.  But then I looked at registering for the half marathon.  It was not too late to register, but I had to pay the late-comer registration fee.  I did NOT want to pay $70.  Yes, call me cheap.  I won't deny it.

So I was kind of bummed I didn't get to run, but oh well.  Then as I was resting after the run yesterday, my Mom called again.  She had her neighbor Gassia over.  Gassia is a big runner.  Gassia works for a running-friendly company.  A company that has already purchased 10 entries.  Gassia only has 9 people ready to run.  So... to my Mom... it was a free entry.  And then she said she already purchased tickets to Memphis for me.

So, now I have another half marathon less than 4 weeks (yes, I know it's only 1 day less, but still) from the one I ran just yesterday.  And yes, I'm actually pretty psyched!

Big Sur Half Marathon

Wish me luck you guys!

Also, for the funny in us.  (Someone please tell me why I saw the OSTRICH option...)

My Avatar

There are a few things I've NEVER thought I'd go and do.  One of them is getting an Avatar.  If you don't know, an avatar is technically: a manifestation of a deity or released soul in bodily form on earth.  If you are like Matt, then you'll laugh at me and correct me, probably saying something to the effect of, "In modern terms it's basically (because he always says basically) a moveable icon representing a person in cyberspace or virtual reality graphics."

Since I don't have "Second Life" or anything like that on my computer, I was checking out the Nike+ website, and there's recently been an option for a "My Nike+ Mini".  So I clicked and sure enough... it's an avatar!

I designed my avatar in about 25 seconds (maybe less) and posted it for everyone to see.  Since the "My Last 5 Runs" isn't working regularly, but the "My longest Run" is... I thought people could see my last run and my avatar's reaction to the run.  In fact, if I don't run, the avatar will mock me to try to encourage more running.  I think I'll like that, if even for the humor in it.

Vagabonds N' Such

I've been living with Matt and Jen while I "worked" my last few weeks at work.  I know what you are thinking... didn't I stay with Jeff and Jaime?  Yes, I did for about 10 days.  I was dog-sitting Max and Molly, but they came home and I moved out.  I didn't have to... but I've lived in their house (well, next door actually) for too long so I know how small those houses get with any more than a few adults.

Living with Jen and Matt was great!  It really reminded me of home and I was really a live-in rather than a nuicance because of their back bedroom.  It had a full bathroom!  I was all set!

I went to church with them and the picnic, etc... it was almost like I hadn't left!  Gordon and Sandy invited me over as did Greg and Lisa.  So I really didn't lack for meals.  I did have a few movies to catch up on... and I took full advantage.  I did miss the girls BIG TIME.  But now I'm home!

My running went well while I was gone and I watched the Olympics for 2 solid weeks!  I couldn't get enough!  Did you know NBC and CNBC and some other station had Olympics on like 24-7?  I discovered the CNBC thing too late and didn't watch near enough handball.

Otherwise, I started reading a few books.  I started and finished "A Case for Easter."  It was pretty good, but it's only an excerpt from another book.  Then I started reading "The Aztec Heresy," and while I got nearly half-way through the book... nothing had happened!  I gave up and started reading "The Twelfth Card."  Wow... that one is great!  If you like CSI and/or any books written by Dan Brown (The Da Vinci Code for non readers) you'll love it!  It's by the same author as "The Bone Collector" so you might have seen the movie.

Whoa Nellie!

In honor of College Football's Keith Jackson, this sentiment sure does sum up the course of events during the last few weeks. In fact, right now I'm next door to my old place and it doesn't feel like home at all. It just sucks.

Summing up, let's see...

Movers (we'll call them the packers) came to pack us up two weeks ago. They basically put everything in boxes. While it wasn't too exciting, it's still weird. I've moved like 6 or 7 times during the past 7 years. This time was the hardest by far. The kids went to a friend's house while Abbey and I watched. That sucks too. I guess you can't pack yourself, because if anything gets broken then there's no getting money for it. I kinda think that sucks because if it wasn't for the Navy in the first place, I wouldn't have moved... see what I mean?

Anyway, the movers came back (different people, we'll call these guys the pick-upers) and finished packing the bedding materials, put stickers on EVERYTHING, made a list of everything with a sticker on it (bill of lading?), and put it in the truck. I talked with Scott (that's the name of the driver) who was one of two pick-upers, and he asked if I would be ready to accept my stuff on Monday. Since he wasn't going to be able to contact the dudes that put it in storage until Monday anyway, he told me he would touch my stuff until it came off the truck.

If that sounds weird, it isn't. See truckers/movers/anyone who makes a living doing this sort of thing makes more money for being on time/early or making more trips. This of course depends on someone being there to accept the load in the truck. Get it? If not let me know.

Anyway, we left the same day (Friday if you are keeping track). It was hard. Really hard. Abbey and I have lived in that house for 4 years and lived in San Diego for 6. That's a long time for the military "norm". She cried/wept for at least a week. I think it's harder because we have a "groove" established. Yes, we are in the military, but one often takes for granted the fact they know the sidestreets, or the fact they know the grocery store in and out, or the fact they don't have to buy ketchup when they move. Do you know how much money we spent buying staples? Sheesh... almost a week's worth of groceries and the cart was literally overflowing. Abs almost had to get a second cart.

We slept in San Bernadino on Friday night so we could wake up early and scoot through Los Angeles in the middle of the night. I would usually quote the word slept, because we didn't sleep much, but I did attempt so no quoting. We had checked out and were back on Interstate 5 North by 3 a.m.

We arrived in Monterey early Saturday morning. Scott and Alicia were kind enough to offer a home for Boomer and Maggie (and me) so the rest of us could spend the night in a hotel. From what I understand the girls loved the hotel. Scott and Alicia did much more than that, and I'm so very grateful for them, but this post is getting long so I'm starting to skim.

Will and Ginny invited us over for meals and when we were able to get our keys and Scott (the driver, not my buddy) arrived on Monday morning, it was much relief. Ginny even let the girls come over all Monday morning while Abbey and I got the stuff delievered and unpacked the beds, etc.

Speaking of that, I'm going on record by saying that if Abbey wan't a full time Mom and educated as a teacher, I think she could make great money unpacking people when they move. She was a beast... an absolute animal. It's funny to say, but even the unpackers were impressed. Scott even suggested getting her an application.

Anyway, Mondy thru Friday all I did was either unpack, clean, or get rid of boxes. MOVING SUCKS! We tried to do stuff with the girls too... we took them to play at parks, to see otters, to swim at the neighborhood pool (which closes from 10-12 for swimming lessons so you have to use the kiddie pool, there were 15-20 kids in the pool and most Mom's didn't care! It clearly states no more than 6! I was pissed... that was Wednesday while Abbey registered Hannah for school and got the mail key I think). At one point Hannah said something to the effect of: "I've been very patient and waited while you organized! I need to get out and play!

The below picture is really "Maggie optional" if you ever visit.

Saturday and Sunday (that's was the second and third of August) we had a little part for Elliot (she's 3 now!) and got used to the neighborhood. We even found a little pre-school for her to start. She started today in fact. Below are a few of her pictures. Her "boyfriend" there is Connor. Will and Ginny's son. They are only about 2 weeks apart. Cambria is her other friend. Well, really Connor's friend that Elliot likes too.

Hannah started on the fourth and seems to really love it. The move was hardest on her and I didn't expect that. I thought Elliot would be our "problem" but no... not at all. Opposite in fact. As you can see, she's pretty shy.

My big project early this week was to sod the lawn. It was nothing but dead crab-grass. The foxtail pricker things were ALL OVER the house and Boomer. Maggie not so much being a Dalmatian, but it sure was a pain in the butt.

I had it delivered at 10 and by 1 I was finished. This is a picture. Then I flew home yesterday and am staying with Jeff and Jaime. They needed a dogsitter the rest of this week and next... so here I am! I did run a bit while I was gone, but nothing super. Next weeks starts my 13 week training time to run (another) half-marathon. My goal is to beat 2 hours, but I'm also not holding myself to that... just having fun! We'll keep you posted!

Sorry Peeps

Sorry everyone... gosh, it seems like I've been away forever.  Recent trips to family reunions and all these "happenings" about the move have my blog on the back burner.  A quick catch-up is that Oklahoma was great (but hot) and I didn't get to run once!  I took Hannah with me and Abs and Elliot stayed home.  It was a great trip, but I'm glad to be home.

We also got a "pre-dump" of cash for the move from the Navy.  I guess it's really from the government, but whatever.  Anyway, that "pre-dump" will cover food on the days we don't have any in the house... and gas... and "incidentals" you can't think of until your stuff gets packed up and you have no more of it to go get until you unpack it on the return trip.  Stuff like renting vacuums or buying cleaning supplies to clean the house with.  It's also good for the hotel rooms you have to rent on the way and setting up phone lines and cable tv.

Anyway, just a quick shoutout!  Peace out, sports fans!  I'll update why I'm better than I deserve in a week or so!

Nice and Easy... well, kind of

To say that I went nice and easy the last few weeks would be untrue.  I did try to run nice and easy today, and that is below, but if you've ever had to move to a new place then you'll know that even a month or more out you are going nuts!

Abbey and I are moving to the Monterey area and even now we are going crazy with MORE stuff to do to prepare.  It's not the cleaning and organizing and throwing away of crap (although that's another BLOG entry about possessions.  We'll save that lecture for a later date), it's everything else.  It's getting our daughters ready for adjusting.  It's planning the drive.  It's trying to move bills and when to forward mail.  Oh yes... to do that you have to have a new address!  All craziness.

Irregardless... (isn't it regardless? Oh well, no time for an english lesson) below is my run.  I'm bummed that the "last 5 runs" thing on the right isn't working.  I would have to post every other run.

Goodness Gracious

I'm kind of a dummy.  I ran too fast (again) for my own good.  Maggie is pretty darn good at keeping me at a lower pace when I want to run long.  Today I had visions of running at least 4 miles, if not longer.  To my dismay I ran at a 9'17" pace which isn't fast, but it's too fast for me if I'm going to run like 5+ miles... yuck.

(Warning: trite phrases coming...!) I run because I love running.  Not because I'm competitive with anyone, although I am with myself.  I run because it's just me out there.  If I fail... it's because of me.  If I succeed... it's because of me.  I know that to run faster than 2 hours in the upcoming half I've signed up for... I know I'll have to train LSD (that's long slow distance) and repetitive sprints.  A combination of both.

I just threw up in my mouth a little bit... I'm done though.

Great run today... maybe a little too fast?

What do you think?

Still Broken...

Okay, the Nike+ thingy worked great for a long time, now... it's poop.

Maggie and I did just over 4 miles and she kept wanted to cross the streets leading back to our house. I don't think she realizes it's just an (extended) block we are running around, but that's okay. We've run Monday and today so she's happy. I have duty today so I have to be in very early tomorrow so we won't get our Wednesday run in, but I'm okay with it (if Abbey can stand the unexercised dogs!)

There's a new blog I stalk on the right side, "I Signed Up For This?!?" Pretty funny and a prototypical blog. I think it's great.

Class is postponed for this week. I have to catch up and do the lesson(s) that I put off last week. I very much like the point of the class and Abs and I are sitting down twice a month to discuss our financial status. Dave helps out... so does my class.

Since the holiday is fast approaching, so is the San Diego heat. It's AMAZING to me how the winds change and one day it's overcast and cloudy and the next day is 85 and humid. Man... I really feel like Dad. He watches the news (really the weather) every day. I'm finding myself doing the same so I can plan how early I have to go to bed. Which tells me when I have to wake up to run...

Nike +iPod

I'm kind of upset that the Nike +iPod data isn't showing up like it's supposed to!  GRRRRR...

Anyway, I appreciate the comments both on facebook, here, and on the phone of my blog entries of late.  I know I'm not the best at putting up topics for discussion, but it should be noted that Abbey and I are moving to Monterey!

I am also officially letting Alicia know that I signed up for the Big Sur Half marathon!  Alicia, your gauntlet has been thrown and I WILL BREAK 2 hours!  The question is... can you break 2:10?  That's the real challenge... isn't it?

On to better things.  I'm lastly putting out this quote I found on Jessica's friend's blog.  I thought it was amazing:

"I always loved running... it was something you could do by yourself, and under your own power.  You could go in any direction, fast or slow as you wanted, fighting the wind if you felt like it, seeking out new sights just on the strength of your feet and the courage of your lungs." -Jesse Owens

On that, I'll leave you.  Maggie and I are going to do her first 5 miler tomorrow.  I want to start getting her to do longer runs.  We've worked up from three 20-min runs a week, to 6 runs of three 30s and three 20s, and now to four 30's and one 45 minute run.  Wish her luck!

Books

I read ALMOST all of "The Official Book of the Dalmatian."  If you've never read any of a book like that, it's quite like reading a coffee table book.  You read it several times and you seem to find new stuff all the time.

I also "finished" "Wicked."  If you can call it finishing.  I skimmed past about the last 20% of the book and when I read the synopsis on wikipedia it was pretty darn close to what I understood the end of the book to be.  So... we'll call it... done, but I won't count it when you ask the number of books I've read.  From what I understand, "Bringing Down the House" (aka: 21, for the movie folks) will be out on video (or netflix) soon so we'll see how close it was to the book.

Lastly, I'm taking a class, or Bible study, taught by Crown Financial Ministries in my Church.  It's good, but I haven't found anything that wasn't yet in Dave's podcasts or book.  I'll keep you updated.  I very much do like the way it shows you Biblically how we don't OWN anything and how we are "stewards" rather than owners.

More to follow, as my boss always says!

Books

I received 3 books for my Birthday.  The first one was the one I really wanted:  The Official Book of the Dalmatian.

The Second and Third ones are going to be really good, but I'll let you know after I've read them.  I still have 2 classic novels to read this year.  When the family is in Monterey, and I'm here, I plan on catching up with both my reading and running.

Memorial Day is almost here... it's the day for the resting

You may be wondering what that means... it is a poem Alex wrote when we were doing 7th grade poetry anthologies.  Yes, that was the whole poem.  Not a haiku or anything, just that.  The thing was... it stuck!  Ha ha.  Suckers.

Anyway, today was Memorial day and day 3 that Maggie and I haven't run.  We'll start that back up tomorrow.  Today instead of a run, we went to dog beach for the first time.  Maggie LOVED it.  She wasn't too keen on actually getting in the water, but loved the freedom to roam.  She is such a great dog.  We also do at least a 20 minute run every day now, and try to walk 3-4 times a week.  This gives me time to listen to Dave Ramsey's podcasts and get my PT in too.

Today is also my anniversary.  Abbey and I didn't do anything this year because it was Memorial Day and are saving to have an all expenses paid trip to Hawaii for our 10th.  Should be achievable if we do it right and save!

The mice on the bed

Sam brought us some mice this morning.  It was disgusting, but it makes me think... Sam probably thought she was doing a good thing.  Don't get me wrong in any way, shape, or form,  I appreciate her catching mice... but when Abs and I freak out... does she get upset?

It was, after-all, a gift for the family.  So does she get mad?

I have the weirdest thoughts sometimes.

Ride your bike to work day!

Yes it is... and yes I did!

It's been a long time since I've ridden my bike to work, but I used to ride quite a bit last year.  Now, with teaching and my job riding has been more of a challenge.  Just based on time there are times I could have but didn't, and times I work BIG hours and I'm glad I didn't.  Anyway, it's a great thing to do if you ever get the chance.

Reuniting with old *friends*...

Facebook has good things and bad things already.  First off, I've been blessed to know some VERY cool people and be friends with a number of them.  So to that extent, it's been GREAT to catch up with the two that have written several times now.  One of my very close (and lost) friends was there and she and I have emailed a few times now.  Very cool.

My complaints.  First of all, it's not well set up.  There is TONS of ABSOLUTE CRAP on there.  You can get lost if you are a *newbie* like myself.  Secondly, it's beginning to get similar to "my space"... and to that I want to explain why the friends in the title of this post has asterisks around it.  There are about 30 people on my friends list that I haven't spoken with in 10+ years.  And even when we verified that we were friends, I still didn't write them.  Heck... there are people that I speak with every day that I verified were friends of mine that I wouldn't write on facebook even when I leave San Diego.  I guess I don't like being a big friend whore.  

Facebook

Yes... I did it.  I got a facebook account.  I think it's re-donk, but I've found a few people that I hadn't "heard" from in YEARS.  So I may continue with it.  Alex and I definately keep up and that's good.

I'm going to sign up for the Big Sur Half Marathon in November.  I'm pretty excited about it.  I'll let you know how the training goes.

Lots to chat about!

So, I haven't been checking in as frequently lately, but quite a bit has happened.  I have been "adjusting" my blog as things pop in my head.  Debtfree-Revolution has gotten my attention lately and I've really enjoyed seeing a "real" person trying to get a "clean" bill of heath as far as debt goes... 

Otherwise there have been 3 big things to happen to our family lately... all good, but depending how you look at it you might say I went "backward" with my BS2.

First, I got my "test" results back... it's official... I've taken the bullets out of the gun/taken myself out of the gene pool... if you

 catch my drift.  We're pretty happy.

Second, we got another dog!  Her name is Maggie, she's a dalmatian, and she's awesome!  Most of my runs will include her if you care to track them (see the right side!).

Third, we bought a new car.  Well, van to be exact.  So... instead of being out of debt at minimum of February 2010 (becau

se I'm not including ANY extras that may come our wa

y, like Abs working, tax refunds, etc) the new figure is April 2012!  Yikes!  I'll let you know how it's going as I get closer, but HER new van is a fan favorite here.

XKCD

If you don't already read xkcd on a regular basis, please make it a habbit.

I totally agree with him, not only here but in most cases. (ps-Always read the mouse rollover... it's usually the funny part!)

Saturdaily and Thoughts About Dave

... for the record, I'm STILL psyched about Kansas winning the NCAA Championship!  I won BOTH of the pools I was in (neither for $$!) and for the first time ever, I got the final 4 correct!

I ran 6 miles today as shown above.  Good times... I'm really really enjoying what I'm doing this year with my running.  I'm running (or working out aerobically thru basketball) at least 3 times per week, if not 4.  If I'm getting my dog (and that WILL happen SOMETIME) then I need to run him or her EVERY day.  So I'll probably run lower miles quite often to get the same mileage.

Anyway, I still listen to "The Dave Ramsey Show" podcasts while I run.  It's very insightful and motivating to listen to his advice.  I try to guess what he'll say at times (if I'm not doing speedwork) to see if I'm really learning.  Today there was in interesting caller... well, not today but I guess Thursday... but his point was, if you rack up a debt on your credit cards then do you have the moral responsibility to pay it all off, vice asking to pay a reduced amount and be free and clear?  This would be similar to paying medical bills at 40 cents to the dollar or a short sale, etc.

Immediately I said yes.  But Dave... tricky Dave (j/k!) spun it around and gave me quite a bit to think about.  He made the comparison of a loaner having a similar responsibility in getting into a mess with someone who wasn't going to pay and that they should forgive the debts free and clear if the loanee is in an extreme situation.  While the call continued I never heard Dave mention "The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant" (Matthew 18:23-34) but I could tell he was thinking about it as Dave's advice was pretty DARN similar.

What are your thoughts?

ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK!

Go Kansas!  They've been my BBall team for some time now and I'm psyched they made the NCAA finals!

To go along with that, I'm really in love with the game of basketball.  I'd love to continue playing, but it's becoming harder and harder to find a good gym with good guys, who are competitive but are just out to have a good time... not to pretend they will be pros... not holding on to high school glory...

I'm probably going to hang 'em up soon.  To much running to do, not enough baskets!

Orders!

Being in the military you get "orders" from time to time.  Usually you expect them... usually you are excited at the change in jobs/location/etc.

I'm TOTALLY psyched to be leaving my job.

I'm TOTALLY bummed to be leaving San Diego.

When I joined the military from college, I wanted to go to San Diego in the worst way, and I knew after about 6 months I'd be there.  Sure enough... I got orders to Monterey, California and was bummed.  Turns out, I loved it!  I left there after a year... then another 6 months later I was moving to sunny San Diego!

So here I've been (with my family) since then... and when I move I'll have been in the area for 6 and a half years!  It's cool to think about that.

With that said, I'm moving soon.  Away from San Diego, but I'm definitely trying to make the best of it because (like I said) I'm PSYCHED to be away from my job!  Right now I hate it.  I don't hate much.  This is the worst thing I've ever done in my life.  SO HAPPY to be doing something else... but you can't have your cake and eat it too.

TMMO

I did it!  I read The Total Money Makeover.  It was very good... pretty darn inspiring.  Abbey and I are really looking in to what we can do MORE for ourselves, MORE giving, MORE for our plan.  Right now it is looking good, but I KNOW we can do more (in whichever category), but right now we still are living a lifestyle that makes it hard to REALLY push.  What I mean by THAT is we are military and will move in less than 6 months from now.  SO... we have to save for moving expenses so we DON'T just put it on the card, etc.  It makes for a longer baby step 2, if you catch my drift.

Mayport, FL

I went to Mayport this week.  It was OK.  I don't think I'd mind living there.

On another note, we had a bad week with Carter.  He was SUPER sweet with one big exception.  He decided to play "alpha male" with Elliot.  Not good.  We had to give him back to the rescue.  Sometimes life kicks you in the teeth.

Matt and my run

So, I usually run by myself, but today Matt came over (on his work trip), and we ran.  It was really good!  I also did a mile this morning with Carter.

Carter

While I wouldn't call myself a Dalmatian zealot right now, but if they are all like Carter then I'm hooked!

Carter is the best dude!  He loves to just hang out and play.  He pretty much lets the girls get in his face and loves to just hang out and vegg.  Provided he gets some exercise.

We're going to call him Carter (or keep the name anyway) because he's a liver spotted Dalmatian rather than the traditional black and white.  (Get it?  Carter?  For Carter's Liver pills?  If not, ask your parents.)

I took leave on Friday and we drove to LA/Santa Monica area to pick him up from the Dal Rescue of SoCal (I took liberties on the name).  Boomer and Carter were great in the back of the car, but the kids were kids so it was a bit of a long trip.  Tiring to say the least!

Anyway, Carter is acclimating pretty darn well if I do say so myself.  So far the "worst" thing is his growling when preparing food.  That's easily remedied by putting the dogs outside until Carter is full up and around.

Dalmatian Myth Busters will be posted soon!

Also, I need to get "us" in shape again.  Below is our first run together... er... above I mean... because I STILL haven't figured all this BLOG crap out!  Speaking of... why the heck did the run show up like that?  Weird.

Manic Monday!

So, when I tell a story there are usually more details that I like to add so you get the feeling of my thoughts, etc.

With that said, I didn't work out this morning like I planned. Monday started well with work, and I seemed to have a good handle on stuff when half my staff is gone or on travel. I'm in between sessions with work so I need to do a few things with Algebra class, kinda like Spring Break right now! Only much less cool.

We got confirmation that one of the dogs we've been looking at is available this Friday and if everyone gets along, we can take him home. His name is Carter and he's a liver spotted Dalmatian.

We will be going to see him around noon, so I hope the yard is ready. There's much to do in that backyard!

Otherwise the night was well.

There was a brand new "How I Met Your Mother." It was awesome! And I went to bad happy.

UNTIL! The frickin doorbell rang at 3:30 in the morning! Let's do the math, shall we?

Hmmm... Monday is St. Patrick's Day.

Hmmm... San Diego has quite a few Irish.

Hmmm... San Diego also has quite a few young sailor and marines.

Hmmm... I live on a Naval Base.

Wait! Naval Base! You can't just walk up to my door! No way! Not unless you are:

1) Base Police

b) My neighbor

4) Drunk and Lost

Take a gander at which of the idiots would KNOCK on my door (knock being the operative word here)...

I'm a nice guy... I took him to his barracks. BUT MAN AM I TIRED TODAY!

Saturdaily plus Dog Updates

There's a lot I need to get myself to do on a regular basis.  I'm doing the "money" thing, I try to do the workout thing, and I'm reading more...
 In fact, this is a picture of my run today.  It was GREAT!  I got a new pair of shoes after my class ended on Thursday, and my knees weren't recovering as fast, so I tried to calculate the milage in the shoes I was wearing.  Pretty much about a year's worth of running.  For me that was 2 half marathon's plus the 5K-a-day I ran in December and the 100 miles I ran (so far) in 2008.  SO... I needed a new pair... badly.

LET ME TELL YOU!  It was a great run, as evidenced above!

Update on the dogs... we are still in contact with Gail, our lovely Dalmation rescue "owner".  When the time is right and the dog is right we'll be getting our very own Dalmation.  Spotty, the dog we looked at last week isn't good with cats so we won't be getting her.  But there are lots more at http://www.1-800-save-a-pet.com/shelter14806-pets.html or http://dalrescuela.petfinder.org.

I really liked Bailey (adopted) and now I think Carter is cool too.

This week we had a Boomer scare.  Abbey talked to the vet-tech when Boomer got neutered this week.  Boomer had a "high" level of lymphocytes.  His were around 6000.  "Normal" puppies have between 3000-5000.  Now... high lymphocytes (like around 30,000) are an indicator of canine leukemia.  So the vet wanted to test Boomer in a month... but what the vet-tech said was, "He has high lymphocytes so the Doctor would like to see him in a month."

"Oh, what does that mean?" Abbey asked.

"Usually leukemia."  The vet-tech responded.

Oh fantastic.  What the heck else are we supposed to think!  I'm glad we got the straight skinny the next day.  Abbey was a wreck.

Taxes and Basketball

Benjamin Franklin said, "There are only two things a man cannot avoid... death and taxes."  I got our tax return and it's KILLING me not to put every dollar on Abbey's car.  But I think we are making the right decisions.  We funded our "Emergency Fund" and were able to figure the delta in what we had versus what we owed for Hannah's school.  PLUS, we were able to put some dollars away in a different savings account for our trip to Oklahoma this summer.

I know what you are saying... why are we going to Oklahoma when I could just skip the trip and use that money for OTHER crap (considering our move to Monterey, etc...)

Well, because we had NO money 2 years ago when I couldn't go to the reunion and I promised my Dad I'd save and go in 2008.  So, it's 2008, and here I am.

I found out about a basketball team my church has once a year in a one day tournament in April.  I was invited, joined, and played today.

Since I had run both Friday and Saturday I wasn't "rested" to play for an hour and a half today, but I did well.  One thing I noticed... since I've been distance running I can play FOREVER but I can't sprint for crap.  It's weird.

Now, it makes sense, because I don't exercise the sprint muscles often at all anymore... but it still makes me feel old.

At least I wasn't the old guy trying to be young at the gym today... I was the median age from what I could figure.

Lastly, for the record, there was A LOT of rust on the basketball mind and body.  As I like to say... "It's been a long time since them days!"

What my running has to do with Dave Ramsay

 Here is my best 5K according to Nike+

 This is today's run (I went NICE and easy)

Yeah!  This is the first time I've figured out how to post my runs.

As the post indicates, I think I'm on to why I enjoy listening to Dave's podcasts during my run.  First off, it's good advice.  Secondly, because just like getting and staying in shape, there is no magic advice to getting in shape and losing fat.  JUST like getting out of debt.

IT TAKES HARD WORK over a LONG PERIOD OF TIME!

It's not rocket science!?!

For those that don't know me, or know me well, you may think it's funny that I have 2 spreadsheets for my budget/debt tracking.  I have 3 graphs.  Yes, that may be a little excessive, but so is tracking all these runs and comparing PB's when training for a marathon or whatever.  So, really what I'm saying is that I'm a losery kind of guy who wants to improve myself by running and improve my family's life by getting out of debt.

The dog someone left outside (no matter what!)

Here is a picture of the dog I'm thinking of rescuing.  Her name is "Spotty" but I want to change it possibly.  Either "Maggie" or "Big Jay".

Tell me what you think!  The dog was not abused, but wasn't treated well.  So, I'm thinking of adopting/rescuing.

Running has come back BTW.  I have 15 miles this week for the first time in a few weeks.  The last three weeks I've only logged 4, 8, and 7 respectively.  EEEKK!

Dance Pictures?

Let me know if the pics come thru... for some reason my mac isn't letting me do it at home, but I've written the webmasters and told them of the disparity.

Thoughts on parenting

Okay, so let me know what you think.

My parenting thought is about "teachable moments".  It all started with "The DaVinci Code" and my Mom-in-law.  Long story short, she said it isn't a good movie/book because uneducated will think it's true (even though the author has stated many times that it's fiction, similarly to a Michael Crichton, etc).  I said, "Why not educate yourself and therefore you can provide that "teachable moment" (although I said something different at the time).

She didn't like it.

Not even close.

Thought it was blasphemy or some crap.

Anyway, when "the golden compass" came out recently a lot of people said we shouldn't watch it, it was atheist, it was of the devil, how could Nicole Kidman do this movie! (because she probably got paid!)  Just all sorts of wacky crap.  You know... I'm a smart guy... let me make my own decisions.

That all made me want to watch it more.  The same thing with the Harry Potter series.  I read them all.  NONE of it made me want to learn more about witches and crap like that.  The argument is, "Why not let a kid do something relatively benign and create a teachable moment?"

I'm unsure this isn't a bad idea... your thoughts?

I'm not crazy

The pictures are coming... apparently it's a "mac" thing.  I'll try to do this at work!

The Dance...

We had a great time.  We got all dressed up and Hannah danced the night away.  There were quite a few daughters who were in the 4-9 range and then just a very few in the teenage category.  Surprisingly there were a few young military with their fathers in suits.  I guess that's to be expected but not something I expected.

Hannah was very much a "bull in a china closet" because she was so excited.  She was hungry too!  We sat down to eat at approximately 6:30 or 6:45 and Hannah scarfed down 2 rolls with both of those balls of butter they put on the bread plate early... you know?  She wanted to eat those in the worst way!

We saved two seats for Julia and her dad Greg, and sat with them.  The best part of the evening was Hannah's "cha cha slide".  It was pretty funny.  She loves to dance to that song!

All in all it was a great time!

Father Daughter Dance

Hannah is very excited.

Can you blame her?

I can't.

Not even a little.

Pictures should post on this site (it I can figure it out) after the grand to do.

Surgery

Abbey has surgery today and she'll do great.  It's sinus surgery on BOTH sides.

See... Abbey was a preme back in the day and her sinuses never fully developed.  She had nasal cavity widening surgery before we met because of the constant sinus infections, but that has only recently come back to haunt her.

We have to be there at noon.  Pray for us if you think about it!

I took off work for the rest of the week to be Mr. Mom and take care of her.  We had two friends offer to make dinner for us and a babysitter is coming over when I have to go teach math class.

I'll keep you updated.

Family Game Night?

So, it may be a bit premature to do "family game night" but we are going to incorporate this during upcoming nights as the girls get older.

I was told by Abbey that the Stedje-Larson's bought "Monopoly Junior" for Olin and Anna and they LOVE IT.

I doubted that VERY seriously, but bought the game this afternoon in my trip to the Exchange for thread, a new black belt, soap, and a gift for one of Hannah's church friends.  We ended up looking at board games for her, so I thought... what the heck.

It's WAY easy for a kid who has a concept of buying/owning and it's a good precurser for early math skills at the K or 1st grade level.  Not that I'm the expert there...

The game is played similarly to Monopoly, but once you buy a ride (property) you put up a ticket booth of your color (it's done in a amusement park style) for the ride and charge the amount you bought the ride for.  Remember it's for young kids so it's really simple.  There are a few other nuances to the game, but you eventually run out of things to buy and the game goes until one person runs out of money.  The winner is also declared at that point by adding up the money you have, without regard to rides owned.  REMEMBER IT'S FOR YOUNG KIDS so it's really simple.

Hannah LOVED playing it until she lost all her money... and cried her little eyes out.  It was pretty funny as well as feeling a teeny bad for her.  She has my competitiveness but she cares like Abbey does.  Not a great combo, but typical of the type A.

We decided to play a few games of UNO.  It took 3 games for Hannah to finally win one, but we quit at that point to end the night on a good note.

Update for the week: my running sucked but I did better than last week.  I don't think I'll get to 50 miles this month but I did more than 60 last month so it's pretty realistic to get to 750 miles this calendar year.

Dear LA Lakers

Dear Los Angeles Lakers,

I want you to know I hate you again.  Yes.  Hate.  It's not a word I use a lot.  I've thought long and hard about this and I'm probably going to get some season tickets to cheer for your opponent.

This anti-devotion started way back during the 99-2000 season.  See, I'm really a San Antonio Spurs fan.  At the time, I thought the addition of Tim Duncan would bring many titles to San Antonio.  It has, but not in the way I thought.  Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal, and timely 3-pointers from Robert Horry.  Damn you.  I had to watch every game and curse every move you made.  All because I wanted my Spurs to be the best in the West.

As it turns out, 1999, 2003, 2005, and 2007 were good years for the Spurs.  But in-between 1999 and 2003 were 3 seasons ending in defeat for the Spurs and NBA Championships for the Lakers.

The hate continued.

Lately I haven't been watching the NBA.  Your Laker teams have been an absolute mess.  I loved it!  Kobe thought he was the man.  He wasn't.  Phil Jackson came back to be the saviour.  He wasn't.  You drafted very well in hopes to resurrect the magic of the early decade.  Nope.  Come on... Kwame Brown and Lamar Odom?

But then...

Very recently you traded for one of my favorite "young" players for some time.  Pau Gasol.  You traded the absolute rock of a struggling franchise and added a perfect compliment to a triangle offense.  Only Dallas Maverick Dirk Nowitzki would have worked out better.  He shoots well.  He runs well.  He rebounds well.  He passes well.

He passes to Kobe... Kobe Bryant.  2 years ago Kobe was NOT the best player in the NBA.  He demanded to leave LA and I loved it!  What value did anyone on that team have that would be worth anything now?  This isn't AAA baseball.  In the NBA it isn't as easy to "grow" farm players while being THAT competitive.  But you traded expiring contracts to Memphis who lately seems to be throwing in the towel and starting over from scratch.  Now Kobe has a few pieces to the puzzle that is Phil Jackson's triangle offense.  PLUS he can create his own shot.  I mean, Andrew Bynum?  He's a true 7 footer!  Sick.  And to think the "only" way you could get options for Kobe would be to trade one of the true centers in the NBA.  He has worked out VERY well for you LA.

Now Kobe is the best player in the NBA.

Now you are competitive.

LA, I want you to know that I hate you again.  You made me watch the NBA again.  It's the best thing to happen to fans in a long time.  Brilliant.

Thank you Lakers.  I love you hate you.  You are the best!

Sincerely,

Josh

Still ignorant...

Yes... no pics.

Findings and Resolutions

Ok, most that have logged on to read this have given me a bunch of crap.  To that I'll say if you can teach me to put pictures on this... then maybe some pictures will be posted.  If not... then there will be ZERO pictures.  Sorry.

As for resolutions I also want to brag about my reading.  My New Years Resolution was to run 750 miles this year and to read 3 classic novels.  Totals to date are below (again please teach me so I can put this crap ON the blog and not write it in the narrative).

Mileage: 68.5 this year

Books: Dracula (counts as a classic), I Am Legend, Salem's Lot (not realizing I had a whole vampire thing going), Wicked (currently reading)

I figure to read AT LEAST 3 more this year.  Last year my total books started was around 8.  I only completed 2.  No matter how you shake the numbers that's not good.  I am going to read "Alice in Wonderland" after Wicked.  I think I want to see if the whole "tripping on mushrooms" thing is all that it's crapped up to be.

Lastly, if Andy and Bo would like to comment... I would be ecstatic.  Not just an impertinent reply but some solid criticism.

My goal is to be as good as Jess.

(all blogs are located within, see if you like them!)

California Dreamin'

Finally done! Wow... what a week. We worked "half-days" this week and to most of you that means "half work days" or 4 hours if you do the typical 40 hour week, 8 hour day kind of thing. In the military that usually means 7 to 7. Yes, I showed around 6:30am to prep for the Captains so they could work 7am to 7pm. Brutal. Now, that was good because we had a successful board for the EDOs and I was impressed with the outcome.

I probably should explain how these things work too. We had 73 AZ and IZ's. To break it out there were 35 AZ's and 38 IZ's. Plus 67(?) BZ's. The BZ's just get a "look" and then it's see-you-later-aligator. Mostly because when they become IZ's they will get scrutinized and have their turn. Anyway, the promotion rate was 90%. Which is good. But remember that's 90% of the IZ's. Which can be bad. 90% of the IZ's was 34, so if an AZ or BZ gets picked then the rate of IZ's goes down. Clear as mud? If so, please call and I'll explain it to you.

Anyway, we had some great records that did well and others whom should have probably gotten picked but those are the breaks. Since the SECDEF says I can't say any more, DON'T ASK!

I'm still in TN, but will fly out tomorrow. That will be fun. The girls are flying out today. I really missed them this week and I'm glad we were able to come out. We bought the tickets before Christmas so I hadn't been on my Dave R plan yet... so it's like a benefit, but there won't be anymore until we save up the money and buy with cash!

I only ran ONCE this week... pathetic! I did impress myself with the run. 34 minutes for 4 miles. That's pretty good. 8 and change per mile. Wish I could download it on my Nike+. I think it would really show a huge downslide there. In fact I know it will.

Christmas in Millington!

So... It's been a bit of time, but I'm alive (promise). I went to Millington, Tennessee for work for (probably) two weeks. Good news: it's a break from the "hell" job and my parents live around 30-45 mins away. Bad news: the first week is a pretty mind numbing part of the job.

What happened was... I was selected for this years O-5 selection board as a recorder. In a nutshell, I scrub the records of about 100 O-4's whom are all "in-zone" for the possibility of being promoted for O-5. Then, next week when all the admiral's come to actually make the selections... I'm allowed to take copious notes in the tanks where they vote each and every officer's record for promotion. I think there are about 4500 officers total, but some of them are above or below zone.

Zone is simply math on when you are up for promotion. It's a big math game that I can explain later if you are so inclined to learn.

The reason I'm stating "Christmas in Millington" is... when scrubbing officer's records, I've found MANY MANY errors. I'm unaware of how much these guys really care... but, if there was ANY indication that an officer had an award, you put it in their record. That's good, especially if there are mistakes. When you give the guy the benefit of the doubt (because you can't prove it wrong...) it's CHRISTMAS again!

I flew to Memphis last Sunday so I only saw the 4th quarter of the Super Bowl. I heard the commercials were good.

I've NOT listened to any Dave and only run twice. BAD WEEK! My runs were only about 4 miles each.

By the way... I'm reading "Salem's Lot" by Stephen King. Scary as hell.

In case you are an avid weather person... yes, the tornados that struck Tennessee and Mississippi early this week were RIGHT smack in the middle of where I was. It was neat.

3.5 miles and FNL

FNL is "Friday Night Lights."  As I've stated before... awesome in pure form.  It was really a set-up show so the plots or story-arcs (as most people think this is the cool way to say it now) didn't really do anything except set up for later.

EXCEPT FOR LANDRY!  He finallly got together with Tyra, but at the expense of some new girl Jean whom he crushed with 8 words.

Very exciting for the show.

It's a big deal.

Otherwise Matt is depressed and Coach Taylor pushed him in the shower and Smash is VERY upset for having been suspended for the final 3 games of the season.  What makes that a big deal is that TMU (Texas Methodist, I think) rescinded his scholarship for "questionable character."  Gaius Charles did an amazing job in the final scene.  He wasn't the normal cheeze I expected of a guy trying to act like he cared about high school football.  It was really good.  REALLY GOOD.  Even Abbey believed him.  It was a great performance.

Wouldn't you be?  Upset I mean... the reason he is suspended is a rather long story as most evening soap operas are, but in a nutshell he was suspended for assault on another kid in the movies.  He assualted him for saying some pretty nasty things about Smash and then about Smash's sister.

I think I would have acted in the same way.  I can't blame him, but neither can I excuse the behavior, but I can't blame him.  Yeah, can't blame him at all.  Can't blame him.  It was his SISTER man!

4.75 miles

I ran quite slowly at the beginning of my run today, but if you look at my Nike+iPod chart, I increased in speed the entire time. Slowly I guess, because I tried to keep a constant speed. I listened to Dave again. Monday he talked quite a bit about "commissions" to give your children. It's a pretty interesting concept stating it that way. If you work then you get paid. In a way we all work for a commissions! If you don't believe me, stop going to work for 6 weeks. I'll bet you won't get paid!

Otherwise I'm doing well. I finished "I Am Legend" on Sunday and it's playing at the base theater. I may go see the movie to see how it stacks up against the book. The book is pretty money (and short too) and I liked it immensely.

4 miles

Got up early today and ran.  I usually run early in the morning unless I'm extra tired, then I'll run at lunch or some other time during the day.  Bo told me one time, "I REQUIRE 8 hours of sleep."  I don't know if that applies to me... being in the Navy I mean.  Not that the pilot's don't get their fair share, but for years the SWO's often brag about how little sleep they get.  I remember being onboard ship sometimes we'd get 8 hours over 3 days.  Depending on the schedule and if your department/division was involved.  You get used to being jealous of everyone at one time or another.  It's hard not to break that habit now that I have the girls.  If Hannah's not getting up early then Elliot is.  Back to what I was saying...

If Bo requires that much sleep and folks say you need 30-45 minutes 3-4 times per week... then I figure she has (168 hours in a week minus 8 hours per day for the "requirement") 112 hours  left during the week to run.  If I can find 4 hours during my week to run, then she can too.

I shouldn't leave everyone thinking I'm a huge a-hole.  I love Bo and Andy.  They are really good friends of ours and therefore I care (their blog is one on the right).  The flippant attitude I usually have is a defense mechanism I have from "not" having had anything I wanted in the past (time to run, money, time to read, etc)... to now realizing how much is in my life that I don't need.  I'VE GOT A BASEMENT FULL OF "I NEED NOW".  Sorry to yell at everyone.

On youtube.com I found 9 Dave Ramsey videos.  I don't know that they are supposed to be there, because I'm not a copywright lawyer or anything, but they don't look amateur to me.  Anyway, it's basically the motivational speech by Dave on his video you can buy with the workbook, etc, when you take the TMMO class, I think.  Abbey and I watched all 9 of them last night.  She was hooked.  I was too.  It makes so much sense to me now that I realize how much people act like cattle or lemmings.

Take, for example, the 30 year mortgage.  Why do we do it?  I don't know either.  I tried really looking at it on the internet today, but I found out that Australia now has the longest mortgages in the world.  They average something like 45 years or some crap.  Anyway, the 15 year mortgage (depending on the APR) isn't too much more a month than the 30 year note.  Pretty interesting.  I think that once I get out of debt I'll need to really look into how to purchase a house.  Nothing solid, but Abbey and I may not ever buy one until we find out where we are settling down.  That tells me to really open another savings account or something (like a decent growth stock mutual fund) that I can "save" for that down payment for a house.  I'd like to be able to walk up and pay 20-25% outright.  Seems to me I can do it.

For the record, it took me about 36 minutes to run the 4 miles this morning.  I was up at 5:50 and back and in the shower by 6:40.

For the record (part two), as of today Abbey and I want to buy a house in San Diego county (preferably Coronado).  We'll see how long it takes us to wake up and stop dreaming.

Pumpkin Pie

For the record, I love pumpkin pie.  In fact I love it almost as much as I like lemon meringue or key lime.

Last night, knowing I was going to run today, I asked Abbey to buy me a pumpkin pie.  She did.  She split the pie into (6?) pieces.  She had a piece.  I had 3/4 of the pie last night and the rest of it this morning.

Wow.

Saturdaily

HAD to run today.  I ran last Wednesday and didn't run on Friday because it was raining a bit.  I know... I know... you aren't supposed to NOT run because of a little rain... but I live in San Diego!  I never rains right?!  Whatever.  I'm going to try to post a run on this blog to show everyone my Christmas present: a Nike+iPod.  It's pretty DARN cool.  Let's see if this works:

Nope.  I'll try that later...

Dave was pretty cool this morning, and to that I mean it was his Friday show.  People call in to tell their success mostly, rather than just asking questions.  The very first caller screamed, "I'M DEBT FREE!" while a Braveheart clip yelled "FREEDOM!" in the back ground.  90% of the time I have to smile.

Abbey and I decided to start paying extra on our car rather than the Bank of America card we have 0% interest on until October.  I did the Math on my spreadsheet (goodness, I need to tell you about that story too!) and it comes out that I pay less interest, I pay off my "first" debt sooner, and I pay off ALL my debt a month earlier.

Yeah, it's probably against Dave's advice, but I like to think that it's one of those rare exceptions.  If I ever get the guts (and time) to call I'd ask that question.

I'm also thinking of joining his total money makeover (TMMO) so I can get some advice that's backdated, full podcasts, and chatrooms full of people trying to do the same thing as me.  I hear it's about $90 per year.  Abs won't exactly agree, but she did listen to Dave with me last night as we waited to watch "Friday Night Lights".  We listened to Thursday's show.  There was a caller who matched each of her kids (they were older with families) Roth IRA contributions in order to teach them, and give to them, the power of savings and investing.  I thought that was awesome.

Speaking of Friday Night Lights.  If you don't watch the show... you should.  It's GREAT.  I would recommend anyone who has the ability to rent the first season on DVD.  TOTALLY WORTH IT.  I thought about buying it for Abbey for Christmas.  It's THAT good.

Title of my blog...

I've already been asked what my blog title means. For some of you, it will be automatically obvious that I listen to "The Dave Ramsey Show". And now, the rest of you know that I listen to "The Dave Ramsey Show!"

Wow... I just realized when you put thoughts on paper it doesn't make sense to say some things first and then explain the obvious in the next thought... it's not like talking.

Anyway... "The Dave Ramsey Show" is now my new favorite radio program. Unfortunately I live in San Diego and subscribe to Dish Network. Neither of these give me access to the show on a regular basis... so I can't get it through something I already pay for.

BUT, those brilliant folks at iTunes give me one hour (without commercials, so it's like 40-42 minutes) of the show for free. TOTALLY WORTH IT! I laugh, I have empathy, and I can think about financial things that affects me. I used to liken it to my grandfathers advice, and every now and again, Dave will say the phrase, "We'll give you the same financial advice your grandmother used to, only we'll keep our teeth in!" If you don't listen, I can't urge you enough. I happen to listen to it while I run.

Speaking of running... for those that DON'T know me, I've been a big runner since high school but I quit when I started graduate school and throughout most of the early part of my Naval career.

So... about... let's see... 2001 through mid 2006... about 5 years. Goodness! I didn't realize it was that long of a time, but Bridget guilted me back in to it and I ran my first half marathon in 2006.

Now I run quite a bit! I ran 3 half marathons over a year-long period (December 2006 through November 2007) and Matt Cegelske "challenged" me to run 3 miles a day during the month of December.

So I streaked... I did AT LEAST a 5K during the month of December. I hated it the first 4-5 days, but after a while Abbey would push me out the door because I would "need" to run. You'll have to ask her what that means. I still don't know.

Currently I'm trying to run 20 miles a week. 5 miles 4 times a week. Sometimes I get there... sometimes I don't... for example last week I did around 19. It just so happened that I didn't run quite 5 miles each time. It was most likely because lately I've been running fast, and for only around 45 minutes. I'd say I run somewhere between a 8:30-9:30 pace. Since I'm really only doing "maintenance" miles I'd say that's too fast. What do you think?

First One

So... hey everyone! I'm supposed to have a blog, in fact I started it on Monday, but this is my first post. I'm pretty interested in how this goes because sometimes I have these odd thoughts or questions and it will be fun to see what's been on my mind after some time. We'll see!