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!