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!