Carne Asada and Rice

I love Spanish Rice! I also love a Portuguese twist on Spanish Rice that one of our friends makes that is spicy. I decided to make my own last night. I started with QTRHT's recipe. I added some chili powder and a splash of tapatio sauce. That made some great Spanish Rice with a kick. It was fantastic if I must say so myself.

I also made some carne asada on the grill. I was trying to figure out what to season it with. I did not marinade it, so I needed something better than just salt and pepper. I started looking through the refrigerator and the pantry and pulled out some stuff. Here is what I ended up with for my mojo sauce:

I think it was flank steak.
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 jalapeno pepper, coarsely chopped with the seeds
onion powder
orange juice
the juice of 1 lime
Bud Light Lime beer

I put the meat on the grill and added salt and pepper. I grilled it for a while on indirect heat and then flipped them over. I added salt and pepper to this side. I then put the mojo sauce on each piece of meat and continued grilling on indirect heat.

I was so excited to try this meat and rice. I just could not wait for it to be ready. QTRHT heated up some tortillas on the stove as I cut the meat into long slices and we sat down to eat. I put some slices into a tortilla. Added some rice and cheese. My first bite tasted fabulous. I was very happy with the way the rice and carne asada turned out. I usually do not get very excited about food, but the spiciness of this food just really hit the spot.

The girls both scraped the jalapeno off the meat and they both really liked it a lot. Meg kept asking for more which is very rare. She does not eat very much meat. I think we were all very satisfied with this meal.

Read more...

Biggest Misperception

I read an interview with Tony Hsieh of Zappos.com in The New York Times. The article was about how to find employees that fit in with your company culture. Tony was asked for some specific questions he asks interviewees.

At the end of the article, the writer asked, "If you could ask only one or two questions to get a sense of a person, what would they be?" His first question was, "If you had to name something, what would you say is the biggest misperception that people have of you?"

This really made me think. I have been thinking about this question for at least a day. If I had to choose one, I think it would be that I think that I am better than people. I have always thought that people think that I am "stuck up" or that I think I am better than them. While this is true to a certain extent. The real truth is that I am an introvert.

As an introvert, I just don't need to talk to people as much as most people. I prefer to stand back and observe and listen to what people are saying. I like to learn, so I have always been the type of person that listens much more than I talk.

The second question that Tony would ask is, "What’s the difference between misperception and perception?" I assume that Tony is asking for the literal difference. A misperception is something that is misunderstood. For instance, people may misperceive me as being a person who thinks that I am better than other people. In reality I am not completely that type of person, but it is accurate to a certain extent.

This is one of the pieces of my personality that I need to work on. I need to be open to different types of people. I judge people too much, which limits my exposure to certain types of people. By limiting myself in this way, I am not able to learn things from this segment of the population. I am really doing myself a disservice.

Read more...

Loss and Emotion

People react differently to loss. Some people take it really hard. Others push it down deep inside of them and hide it so they don't have to deal with it. I tend to fall into the later category.

As I think back to the times when I have experienced loss in my life, I don't remember much. Luckily, I have not had to experience loss in my life very often. I don't remember how I dealt with the losses. I think I just try to go on with my life. I think about the people all the time, but I haven't let the losses tear me apart.

I often question if I just don't care enough. Am I less of a person because I don't cry as much as I should? Is there something wrong with me? Am I just too selfish so when I lose someone around me I don't care?

I don't think that is the case. I think I care about people as much as the next person. I just deal with my emotions differently than a lot of other people. I think that I am a well adjusted person.

I sometimes wish that I dealt with my emotions like most people. I feel like I am not very normal.

Read more...

Priorities

We all make choices in our lives. Most of us make selfish choices when we are young. I would hope that we become better at making choices as we get older and mature. It doesn't always work out that way though.

There are people who never grow up. They never get any better at making choices. They never try to get over their selfishness. These people are not good parents. They are the type of parents that choose to go to Las Vegas instead of paying for things for their kids. They are the parents who don't pay child support so they can buy motorcycles or video games or whatever they want.

These people are also the type of people who make their kids feel bad for wanting things. The things that are important to them are not the things that are important to their children, so they make their children feel guilty for wanting them. They make their children feel bad for them. They tell their kids that they don't have money or that they can't pay their house payment, then they go off and play golf with their friends.

This just doesn't make sense in my world. I try to do everything I can for my children and family. I don't spoil them and give them everything they want, but I do what I can for them within reason. I teach them the important lessons of life. I teach them the value of things. I teach them the difference between wants and needs. I do what I can to make sure they don't end up being the type of selfish, immature people that I dispise.

I know for a fact that people do not change unless they want to change. So, if you expect your spouse or parent to change you are out of luck.

Read more...

Expectations

Expectations are all around us. I have expectations of what other people should do or how they should fee. I have expectations about how I should be treated by other people. I have expectations about how my food should taste. I have expectations about how much my pay check should be. We all have expectations. Maybe that is why we all get dissappointed so often.

When you go into a situation with an expectation, chances are you will be dissappointed. Especially if you have not communicated that expectation to the other people involved. How do you expect people to meet your expectations if they do not know what those expectations are. It is not uncommon for two people to have two different expectations of a situation. That is where a disconnect happens.

Someone at work today asked me if I had problems in my first year of marriage. I told them that everyone has problems in their marriage. I also told them that most of those problems are due to unrealistic expectations and lack of communciation. I think the two go hand-in-hand.

Communciation is the most important thing in any relationship, whether it be a work relationship or with your spouse. Without effective communication, your relationship will fail.

Expectations are difinitely second most important on my list. I think if we can stop projecting our expectations onto others we will be much more satisfied. Our work and personal relationships will be much more rewarding and we will be happier as a society.

The problem is that it is very difficult to stop having expectations for people. I try really had to remove expectations, but it is hard to do it all of the time. It is something that you can never stop working on.

Read more...

Writer's Block?

I am really struggling to write on this blog 5 times per week. My two posts this week have been horrible experiences for me. I also think they are just plain bad posts, but I am committed to writing at least 5 times per week so you are stuck with them. I have been thinking a lot about what the problem is for me this week and I cannot come up with an answer.

I have considered writer's block, but I am not a professional writer and that is one of the criteria for having the condition. Here is the definition from wikipedia: Writer's block is a condition, associated with writing as a profession, in which an author loses the ability to produce new work. The condition varies widely in intensity. It can be trivial, a temporary difficulty in dealing with the task in hand. At the other extreme, some "blocked" writers have been unable to work for years on end, and some have even abandoned their careers.

This sounds about like what I am experiencing, but I keep forcing myself to write. For this reason, I don't think I am experiencing writer's block. I think I am just bored. Nothing really exciting is happening in my life right now. I am just going through the motions.

We are in a holding pattern with our foster/adoptive child. I just got an email last night that said they still need some items from us. This was after them telling me everything was in about a week and a half ago, so this was not welcome news. I now have to scramble to get the other items completed. It seems to be delay after delay. It is such a let down from all of the excitement we were experiencing at the end of last year.

I am also really affected by the negative emotions that my teenage daughter is going through. It seems like she is never happy and that upsets me. I am frustrated that she feels this way and I don't understand it. She has more than most people, yet she is not as happy as I think she should be. I need to stop having expectations for her feelings and just let her experience them on her own, but it it had. She projects her feelings on everyone around her.

I can't blame her though. The problem really exists within me. I need to shake things up a bit and get some excitement back in my life so I have something to write about. I need to experience something new. Maybe the answer is to just start running again to train for a 5K. That kept me motivated on a goal.

I guess it could also be all of the rainy days that we have been experiencing lately. The fourth of six storms should arrive today. I really like the rain and I know we need it, so I never thought it would get me down. Maybe it has though. Oh well, that just means I need to try harder.

Read more...

Anger

Anger is a strange thing. Some people can control it and other just cannot no matter what they do. I believe it is something that you can learn to control, but I just don't know for sure. It seems like a lot of people who have anger issues are also very stubborn people. I don't know if the two always go hand-in-hand or not, but it sure seems that way.

What causes anger problems in people? I don't know why I am able to control my anger, for the most part. I don't know why other people are simply unable to control theirs. Maybe you can control it if you want to. I just don't know. I personally believe that I can control all of my emotions pretty well. I don't think it is something that was learned, but rather something I was born with.

I generally have a lack of emotion. Maybe that is why I am able to keep mine under control. My observation is that a lot of people who are unable to control their anger are very emotional people. Is the control of emotions a personality trait? If so, what personality types are able to control their emotions and what types are just completely unable? This post brought up many more questions than it answered, so I will have to revisit it at a later time.

Read more...

If You Dig Deep Enough, You May Just Find What You Are Looking For

I am sure that most people have head the term that you can make data say whatever you want it to say. When given the same data, two different people use that data to support totally opposite conclusions. All you have to do is leave out the data that does not support your idea and solely focus on the data that does. I think this applies to life in general.

This applies to every subject you have a discussion, or argument about. You can make valid arguements for both sides. It is usually the person who is better at the arguing who ends up winning the discussion. It is really hard to go into something without bias. That bias can end up skewing your results, thus making your findings questionable.

The same thing goes for history. You can look back at a person like Rosa Parks who I wrote about last week. If you really want to find something wrong with her story, then you can. If you really want to believe something about her story, they you will be easily convinced. That doesn't mean that it is the truth. It just means that you believe it to be true.

What brought this to my mind was the look of Google today. When I first opened the page this morning I noticed that they had updated their logo for the special occasion of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday. At first I did not even know what it was representing. I wondered why it was in black and white. I hovered my mouse over the logo and saw that it was for MLK Jr.'s birthday. My first thought after learning its purpose was, "why is it in black and white?"

If you wanted to dig into this or look for a deeper, hidden meaning you could. You could associate the black and white to Martin Luther King, Jr. being black. You might even be able to accuse Google of being racist or some other nonsense. Maybe it is just in black and white because of the era he lived in. Who knows what influenced their design, but I do not think it is racism.

Read more...

What Not to Buy in 2010

I came across an interesting article on Yahoo Finance today. It is titled "10 Things Not to Buy in 2010." Here is the list:

1. DVDs I think it is still safe to buy DVDs, especially Blu-ray. Internet downloads of movies just take too long and if you are looking for a high definition movie it will take even longer.

2. Home Telephone Service This one is a toss-up for me. I don't want to have a home phone, but I don't want salesmen bothering me on my cell phone. I have Google Voice, but have not really used it to its full potential. I actually have not even given out my phone number. It is a nice service because you select which of your phones you want to ring when someone calls the number. I will have to experiment with it in 2010 to see if I can eliminate my home phone.
3. External Hard Drives I strongly disagree with this one. There is still a place for an external hard drive. The online backup services are much more expensive and you are putting your cherished photos and music collection in someone Else's hands.

4. Smartphone Also-Rans Other than the Blackberry and iPhone, none of the other smartphones have really caught on. The Blackberry is still the business phone of choice. The iPhone walks the line between hipsters and wannabe hipsters. I personally really like my iPhone, but it does have limitations and annoyances.

5. Compact Digital Cameras I made the switch several years ago and have not looked back. I think there is still a use for a compact digital camera. The size is ideal and the ease of use is what many people like. A digital SLR is more expensive and is more complicated.

6. Newspaper Subscriptions Newspapers have been dead for several years now. They need to change their business model if they are going to remain viable businesses. Our society wants news now, not in in 12 hours.

7. CDs Song downloads are fast and the quality is good. There is no reason to buy a CD in a store or online when you can get it almost immediately from iTunes.

8. New College Textbooks With ebook readers catching on and Apples tablet about to be released, there is no longer a need for printed textbooks. The transition will take some time, but I see it happening soon. Printed books are bad for the environment and are too expensive. They stretch our education budgets thin.

9. Gas-Guzzling Cars These went out with the 70s. I love my Prius and while I am not looking forward to the projected gas prices in 2010, I am also not afraid of them. My car has enough power, cargo capacity and gets great gas mileage as well. I don't think there should be any new cars sold that don't get at least 30 miles per gallon and have a hybrid drivetrain. We have the technology, we just need the car makers to embrace it.

10. Energy-Inefficient Homes and Appliances Again, we have the technology we just have to use it. Appliances have come a long way. Home building technology has as well, it is just very expensive still. Appliance prices benefit from economies of scale. Home building technology does to a certain extent as well, but prices just aren't falling fast enough for most types of items. A lot of people just don't want to pay the extra money for energy efficient items other than windows, doors and insulation.

Read more...

Was Rosa Parks' Protest Staged

QTRHT and I were in the kitchen cooking dinner tonight and she was talking about her day at school. Out of nowhere she told me that some of the teachers at her school told her that Rosa Parks' protest on the city bus was staged by the NAACP. One teacher said that her husband told her that and even showed her the proof. Another teacher agreed that she was not the first to refuse to give up her seat to a white passenger.

I told QTRHT that I knew that Rosa Parks was not the first to refuse to give up her seat, but that I had never heard that her protest was staged by the NAACP. I told her I would have to do some research. She knew that I would and told me that was why she told me.

I did some research and have not found anything to support the idea that her protest was staged. Here is a summary of what I did find.

Rosa Parks was a seamstress and also worked as a volunteer secretary at the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP. She worked directly with kids as an advisor to the NAACP Youth Council. On March 2, 1955 Claudette Colvin, a 15-year old girl was arrested for not giving up her seat on a public bus to a white passenger. Colvin was a member of the NAACP Youth Council. Rosa Parks began raising money for her defense. Colvin was not the first to refuse to give up her seat, but the NAACP was looking for someone to be the face of their fight and her timing was right.

Soon after Colvin was arrested, she began a relationship with a married man and became pregnant. E.D. Nixon, the president of the Montgomery NAACP, decided that Colvin would not be the right person to be the face of the civil rights battle. He later explained that he had to be sure that he had somebody he could win with, and Colvin was not that person. Her pregnancy and relationship with a much older, married man would give the opposition reason to argue.

In 1943 Rosa entered a bus through the front door and sat down. The bus driver told her to exit the bus and enter again through the back door. She started to exit the bus and dropped her purse. She sat down in a seat for a white passenger momentarily to pick up her purse. The bus driver was angry and as soon as she got off the bus he sped away, leaving her standing in the rain.

On December 1, 1955 Rosa Parks was on a bus in downtown Montgomery. She sat in the "colored" section. She noticed that the bus driver was the same one who had left her in the rain in 1943. The white passenger seats on the bus filled up and a few more white passengers got on the bus. The driver, James Blake, walked back to the "colored" section and moved the sign marking the section back behind the row of seats Rosa and three other black passengers were sitting in. He told them to get out of their seats. The three other passengers complied, but Rosa moved to the window seat instead of moving back to the new "colored" section. The police were called and she was arrested.

E.D. Nixon now had the face of the fight. Rosa Parks was a morally clean, reliable person that did not have anything in her background that would taint her story. The NAACP had to pick its battles and Rosa Parks was deemed to be worthy of the fight.

None of my research supports the ideas that were expressed to QTRHT today at school. I don't know why anyone would want to portray Parks' protest as a staged event. It seems like they are trying to taint her actions and legacy. The way we treated black people at this time was wrong. I don't fault the NAACP for waiting for the right person to come along before taking up their fight. That is just smart.

Read more...

A Whirlwind Weekend Comes to an End

Wow! After the Seattle Seahawks fired their coach on Friday, rumors started to spread that Pete Carroll had accepted a deal to be their new coach. I took everything with a grain of salt since the media and Internet posters are all trying to break news. Their was no word from Pete or USC. The NFL has the Rooney Rule that requires all teams to interview minority candidates for jobs and at that point it appeared that rule had not been satisfied.

The one minority candidate they had targeted told them he would not waste his time to interview if a deal was in place. The Seahawks convinced him to interview on Saturday morning. On Sunday, Pete called the group who enforces the Rooney Rule and told them that he had not done anything to be out of compliance with the rule.

Monday morning it was officially announced that Pete was leaving USC. It was later made official that Pete had accepted the job with the Seattle Seahawks. I was glued to the Internet all day Monday. There were rumors about who would be the next coach at USC. There were rumors about who had been offered the job and who had turned it down. It appeared that the front runner, Jack Del Rio might make a decision on Today.

After meeting with the Jacksonville Jaguars owner earlier today, Jack told the media that he was staying put. Another mini meltdown happened on all of the USC message boards. Who was next in line? Nobody knew. I certainly didn't know.

At about 6:15 today an announcement came out of left field. Lane Kiffin was named the new head coach of the USC Trojans. Lane was a backup quarterback at Fresno State. After a few coaching stops he was hired by Pete Carroll at USC. He started as a wide receivers coach and quickly worked his way to offensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator.

Kiffin was hired as the Oakland Raiders head coach in 2007 and fired by Al Davis in 2008. Two months later he was hired by the University of Tennessee as their head football coach. He started making waves in the SEC immediately. He was calling out other coaches and just generally being mouthy. He also had some recruiting and player issues while head coach at Tennessee. He had assembled a pretty good coaching staff with his dad, Monte Kiffin, ad defensive coordinator and Ed Orgeron as recruiting coordinator, associate head coach and defensive line coach.

Kiffin is bringing both his dad and Ed Orgeron with him to USC. Ed coached at USC and was the recruiting coordinator prior to being hired as the head coach at the University of Mississippi. Kiffin was Ed's replacement as the USC recruiting coordinator. It is great to see coach Orgeron coming back to USC. He has a fiery personality and is a great recruiter.

The rumor is that USC is in negotiations to hire Norm Chow back as the offensive coordinator. That would go a long way for recruiting. He was a great quarterback coach while at USC. He has struggled in his more recent stops, but maybe he can bring that magic back with him. We will have to wait and see.

I don't know how I feel about Lane yet. I will have to wait to see how the team does before I pass judgement. I guess I am excited about change right now. Fight On!

Read more...

How Young is Too Young

Meg's friend came over on Saturday and slept over at our house. She is a very energetic girl, just like Meg. Her parents are divorced and mother lives in another state, so she lives with her dad. She is a handful and her and Meg are a little out of control when they are together, but they have a lot of fun.

She was at our house for a few hours when she started frantically running through the house saying that she lost her phone. I was surprised and asked her what phone she was talking about. She told me she lost her cell phone. I assumed her dad had given her his, but she told me it was hers. I was in total shock. She is in third grade! For what does a third grader need a cell phone?

I started thinking about why she would need a cell phone at that age. I am assuming she is eight years old. She can't drive and is too young to be walking anywhere by her self. As far as I know she rides the bus to school and back home again. She is not involved in any sports or other extra-curricular activities like dance or gymnastics. Why then does she need a phone?

She told Meg that it is because she rides the bus home. I don't understand that at all. A parent should know exactly what time their elementary school child needs to be at school and what time they get out of school. They should know what time the bus picks the kids up at their stop and what time they are dropped off after school. I cannot see why that would be a good reason for a third grader to have a cell phone.

After a lot of thought, I told my wife and mother-in-law that the only reason for a child that age to have a cell phone is if the parents are just not good parents. I believe this 100%. One of the ways that we have ensured that our girls are growing up with the right values and are making good decisions is knowing where they are at all times. I think that giving a kid a cell phone gives you a reason to not stay for their soccer practice or to not be there waiting to pick them up after practice if you don't stay. It gives you the potential to check out of your kids life more often.

Some parents may argue that it gives you more access to your child because you can text or call them at all times. My argument to that is that I am with my child at almost all times, or they are with a friend or family. Why then would I need to text or call them? I just don't understand this. Beside the fact that you are then spending at least $10 a month on the phone plan without any texting plan. That could cost another $5-$20. That is just an unnecessary expense in my opinion.

I guess this post ties in well with my earlier post about the difference between wants and needs. A cell phone is definitely a want, not a need and is therefore unnecessary.

Read more...

The End is in Sight

We received word from our social worker at FamiliesFirst on Thursday that we are done with everything except our home study. It will still take a few weeks before they can take care of that because they have a back log.

Our social worker will be presenting us as adoptive parents at a Tulare County adoption meeting this week. I guess this is the first step in finding us a child to adopt. We are all very excited.

When we told Meg she asked us if the child gets to select us. I had to explain to her that it is a decision that involves many people including the child and our family. She understood the process a little better at that point. We all just hope that we can find a child sooner rather than later.

Who wouldn't want to be a part of this family?

Read more...

Education Reform?

Earlier this week, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said that the state needed to change policies that spend more money on prisons than on the state’s education systems. On Thursday he signed a major school-reform package. The plan calls for California's lowest-performing schools to be targeted for a sweeping overhaul and it enables the state to try to get piece of $4.35 billion in federal Race to the Top funds.

I agree that our school system needs to be reformed and I do not know enough about this plan yet to make a decision on it. our schools need more funding. I truly believe that funding is necessary for education improvement. We can't be so quick to cut school funding the minute we get into a difficult budget situation. I believe that we should establish a set budget per student and that amount should never be decreased.

California's education spending per student is about 14% less than the national average. As a matter of fact, California ranks 44th out of the 5o states and Washington DC. On K-12 achievement, California ranks 39th and again falls below the national average. I think we can see that there is a positive correlation between education spending and student achievement. The two top performing states, Massachusettes and Maryland spend at least 10% more than the national average per student on education.

We have a long way to go in California to get our school system back where it belongs. I have a real problem with the state taking over schools that are not meeting the state mandated performance levels. The reason I am against the state taking over schools is that they automatically reduce the curriculum, eliminating science and history education to focus on language and mathematics. In my opinion, this is just a band aid that will help the schools get back to the mandated level over time. If you focus more time on language and math, it naturally follows that your scores in those subjects will eventually improve. The problem is that these students will be behind in science and history when they enter middle school.

The plan also enables parents to hold their schools accountable, demand change and may even allow them to move their child to another school. I do have a problem with this part of the plan. The schools that perform the best in an area do so because the parents are more involved in their children's lives. They are more involved in their children's education. Allowing a parent to move their child to another school can have sweeping ramifications.

First. The higher performing schools could experience increased class sizes and maybe even over crowding. This would lead to less individual attention from the teacher which would lead to lower performance.

Secondly. Some of the children who move to these schools might not have the level or parent involvement in their lives that the other students do. This may make them fall behind which would then drop test scores for that school.

Thirdly. If all of the children whose parents have even a little bit of involvement in their lives leave the lower performing schools then what will their student populations looks like? The students who are left there would have virtually no parent involvement in their education. This would lead to a lower performing school. This would create an even larger gap between the high performing and low performing schools.

It is proven that children who receive more individual attention from their teachers and parents perform better in school. They have better test scores and are more well rounded students.

Read more...

The Difference Between Wants and Needs

I was having a discussion with some coworkers today. It was about crime and punishment for the most part. We discussed marijuana and prostitution in particular. We were talking about laws and the punishment for breaking a law. We were in agreement for the most part, until another manager walked into the room.

He moved the conversation from marijuana to guns. He started babbling about taxing guns and ammunition and was equating them to cars or some nonsense. For the most part, he is a pretty level-headed person but he is a very old school, country, conservative person. I stopped him and asked him why he needed a gun. He said that it makes him feel safe. I asked him how he used his guns. He said to shoot things and animals.

I explained to him that my belief is that the vast majority of people who have guns do not need guns. If you are using your guns for hunting animals that you and your family eat, then you need guns. If you are using them to shoot things, then you don't need them. You want them. There is a big difference here and I think many people get very confused. A need is something that you must have in order to survive, like food, water, clothing and shelter. A want is something that you can live without, but still desire. For most people guns are not necessary, they just want to have them.

The problem with people in this country is that we think that we have a right to do whatever we want. There are generally some limits, but if we can afford to buy something we feel like it is our right to own it. The problem is that you have a right to things that are necessary. You don't have a right to something just because you want it. That is just plain ridiculous. The people who believe this way are never happy with the decisions our government make. They often contradict themselves because they are emotional people for the most part.

It is a fact that in countries with stricter gun control laws there are fewer crimes committed with guns. In this country we are still too arrogant to learn from other countries. We insist that our way is the best way. We are very slow to change our ways. I just wish that people would open their minds and think about the larger picture before making a decision based their own private views.

Read more...

Personal Goals for 2010

I don't like to make resolutions, as I blogged about previously, but I have been thinking about a few goals that I would like to achieve in 2010.

1. Read 1 Book a Month. I have really tried to read more books to improve myself and I have a really long wishlist of books at Amazon.com. Here is a link to My Reading List. I am currently reading "SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance" which Tina bought me for Christmas.

I am not a very fast reader and I don't remember what I read very well, so reading has always been a challenge for me. It is hard to stay motivated to read a book if you cannot remember what you read yesterday. I have been better about this and still need more improvement.

2. Run in 2 5K Races. Last year I ran in my second 5K race. The Visalia Emergency Aid Race Against Hunger on the morning of Thanksgiving day. Meg ran with me, but she says that she will not run in another race. I am fine with running on my own. Meg and I finished that race in 27:48 and I think we could have easily cut another minute off of that time. I think the cold weather and standing around so long before the race affected her.

I would like to run at least one race out of the area and maybe the Race Against Hunger again. I would also like to run a 5K in a time of about 25 minutes. It would be pretty cool to run a race on Catalina Island or somewhere else that we could also take a little vacation after the race. If I accomplish my goal this year, I would like to run in a 10K race next year.

3. Volunteer. As I stated in a previous post, volunteering on Christmas Eve at the Visalia Rescue Mission was a great experience. I came away thinking that I need to volunteer more. I really need to accomplish this goal in 2010.

4. Change a Child's Life Tina, the girls and I went to watch The Blind Side last night. I was not really that excited to see the movie, but I came away from it feeling great about going throught the process to become a foster/adoptive parent. The movie shows the power that someone can have in a child's life and it really touched all of us. Meg has wanted to see the movie since she first heard about it. It wasn't the best movie that I have seen, but it really fit in with what we are going through in our own lives at the moment.

As far as the foster parent process, we just have one item left to be completed. We are waiting for a social worker to schedule our home study and interview. After that is completed, we are ready to accept a foster child into our family.

Read more...

Cell Phone Networks

I was talking to a few coworkers yesterday about cell phone network quality. I told them that I just want to know who has the better network. We know that either AT&T or Verizon is lying on their commercials and this is a disservice to consumers. How can we make an educated decision if we are not getting the truth?

We brainstormed for a bit and someone threw out the idea that there should be a company that offers a phone that switches to the strongest carrier in the area. This is a great idea. I don't know how exactly the financials would work in this deal and how much a plan would have to cost. Maybe this is something that an upstart like Google could accomplish in their war with the iPhone. What better way to kill the iPhone than offer something that Apple cannot offer, the absolute best coverage available.

I don't know if something like this is even possible since each cell phone provider has their own network. I don't know if they would even allow something like this to happen. It is a great idea, but this is something for someone else to figure out.

My idea was that there should just be one cell phone network in the United States. All of the carriers could jointly own the network including maintenance and upgrade costs. The network would have to be substantial to handle all of the cell phone and media traffic. It would need to be on the leading edge technologically. That is what we should have anyway. The networks in other parts of the world are much better than ours.

A nice result of one cell phone network is that there would not need to be as many towers as we have now. If each carrier is installing their own towers there is overlap in areas that does not need to be there. There is environmental clutter that can be avoided. This would be the best all around solution for consumers, but if the cell phone carriers will not go for it I hope someone does come up with a phone that will automatically switch to the strongest network in the area.

Read more...

New Year's Day

Earlier last week I told Tina that we should go out for the evening with some friends. To have a nice night of dinner and drinks with Chris and Christina. She called them and they were in. On New Year's Day Tina and them had a few conversations and we agreed to go to a local restaurant named Jack & Charlie's.

The restaurant is located in the basement of the historic Tulare County Jail building. The sign out front is inside an old red British phone booth. The restaurant is decorated in an art deco style that is very original in Visalia. When we walked in, there were a couple people at the bar and a couple, who we knew, sitting at a table. This was a surprise to us.

After looking at the menu and trying to decide what drinks to order, I noticed "beer in a bag" on the menu. I decided to order an Olympia beer in a bag. When the drinks were brought to our table I was handed a brown paper bag with an Olympia beer in a can. That was very original. I had not had an Olympia beer before and was pleasantly surprised.

We decided to order a cheese plate and marinated olives as an appetizer. I ordered the Buccatinni with Meatballs for dinner. The olives were good, but I have not had many olives that were not good. The cheese plate was sparse and it almost looked like they were trying too hard.

When dinner arrived, everything looked great. I had never had Buccatinni before, so I was excited to try it. It was very good. It was spicy and had great flavor. The portion was small for the price. Everyone was very satisfied with their meals. They do a really good job with their menu.

As I think back on the evening, I realize that I was feeling uneasy from the minute we sat down. I felt uncomfortable and out of place. Not because I have never been to a nice restaurant before, because I have been to many much nicer than this one. I felt bad that we were going to pay too much money for a dinner that was not worth the expense. The food was great, but is any food worth paying an exorbitant amount for? I don't think so.

Throughout dinner I just kept thinking about what could be done with the money we were spending. I thought about people that do not have food to eat. I thought about where we could be eating for much less money instead. I felt guilty the entire time we were there. I guess that I have undergone a major change. I care about other people more than I ever have before. I guess the curse of this caring is that I will feel guilty whenever I do anything that can be considered a splurge. This is a new feeling that I will have to learn to live with or do something about.

Read more...

We Made it to the Snow!

We finally made it to the snow yesterday! Tina and I called around on Wednesday to find some snow chains. We found them and ended up paying more than we wanted to for them, but we had to do it. I could not imagine trying to make it to the snow again. Meg's dissappointment would be unbearable.

I woke up early and made some chorizo, egg and potato burritos. I wrapped them up for the trip. One the way out, we stopped to get some donuts since Meg doesn't seem to like the chorizo very much. When we got to the gate to Sequoia National Park, there were two long lines of cars. Of course, our line moved the slowest. When we got to the Ranger, I asked her if we needed chains. She told me that we did not. Just my luck. After paying too much for chains, we didn't even need them.

Tina and the girls had a snow ball fight when we first arrived at Lodgepole. They had a lot of fun while I was taking some photos of them and the surroundings. Then they started making the snow man you see in the photo above. While all this was going on, Homie Gnomie had wondered out of the car and was playing in the snow himself. I found him making a snow angel. This was his first trip to the snow and he really enjoyed it.

He got in a little over his head, not knowing that he would sink in the snow. I had to pull him out and get him back to the car. Once we were there, Tina gave him some hot chocolate to warm his little body back up. We were all having a lot of fun in the snow and decided to try to go down by the river where we camped this past summer.

We drove into the camp ground and found a little trail. The girls started down first as Tina realized that they were very close to the river. We warned them to stay on the foot prints that were already in the snow. At one point, we were all standing in the snow over the river.

We all had a lot of fun. And it seems we now know how to control Meg's car sickness. That should make our mountain trips a lot more enjoyable for her. When we got home I asked Meg if she wanted to go to the snow again. She was a little hesitant. We bought the annual pass, so we can go as often as we like.

Read more...