One of my favorite things to do is put on Chris Tomlin's "Hello Love" CD while I'm riding in the car with my daughter Lauren. The first cut is "Sing Sing Sing". Lauren sings along with the song really loudly and is pretty cute. Song here:
Here's another version, done live at a concert. They do the melody slightly differently. Very cool part a little after the 3:00 mark where the band stops and lets congregation sing, then comes back in big.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Fun playing with Daniel Jones (but only in D!)
This past weekend we had a guest minister, Daniel and Shakeera (no, not THAT Shakira) Jones from Australia. They're a pretty young couple (about 25) and have two realy cute little boys, Zayd and Levi. See photo above.
Daniel plays a honest-to-god didgeridoo which happens to be a D instrument. So went spent quite a bit of time playing a D-chord during those services. I seem to recall that another guest minister from Australia that we've had at our church, Chris Harvey, also plays an instrument that is in D, a Navajo-style flute.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Musical Friday -- Cinderella
My daughter Lauren (above, getting ready for ballet class) is 4. I was looking for a clip of a Steven Curtis Chapman song I like called "Be Still and Know" (link here). Over on the side, I saw another link about something called "Cinderella", which I had not heard before.I wasn't prepared for what was about to hit me like a 2x4 while I was sitting in my cube at work. The video comes first, then a clip of Steven explaining the story about how the song was written. The inspiration came from a frustrating evening trying to get his young adopted girls to take a bath, when they just wanted to play and dance (really funny part is about "pray quickly -- no praying for children in Africa!"). He remembers later that his oldest daughter has left the house and how he used to play with her, and then writes this song about cherishing the times with your daughter while she's young.
His daughter was killed in a tragic family accident not long after the song was published. Thinking of that, and then also thinking about my own daughter (and how fast she's growing up) made me cry. It's a little tough when something like that sneaks up on you out of the blue when you're trying to look normal and stoic at your office. ... trying to say things to a co-worker like, "Dang, these allergies are really rough today! (sniff)".
Be careful, especially you dads out there, before watching this at work. You've been warned!
He's BAAACK!
photo by Mark RebilasTiger Woods will return to competitive golf on the PGA Tour Feb 25 with the World Golf Championships Match Play. Link here for story. Can't wait. I really can't wait for the Masters in April. Maybe I'll scare Natasha again yelling in my living room at shots like this:
Thursday, February 19, 2009
NRO: The Audacity of Irony
I'm very happy today because I'm finally just about over a nasty cold that has lasted 16 days. My wife is probably very happy too, because I'll no longer be keeping her awake hacking and coughing all night. We also had a really fun music practice last night, working on Delirious' "Miracle Maker" and "Solid Rock".
Came across a really well-written article from conservative writer Victor Davis Hanson's column from National Review Online, The Audacity of Irony.
Came across a really well-written article from conservative writer Victor Davis Hanson's column from National Review Online, The Audacity of Irony.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
My favorite camera / photography web site, The Luminous Landscape
About a year ago I came across a web site I really enjoy, called The Luminous Landscape. It's a very informative and interesting site run by Michael Reichmann, a Toronto, Canada based professional photographer who specializes in landscape photography (something I enjoy). The photo above is his photo taken on a recent photo trip to Antarctica.
Micheal does a lot of digital camera equipment reviews, and writes very insightful articles on myriad topics in the world of amateur and professional photography. He is very technically knowledgeable, but has a great sense of when to trust your eyes and go by feel rather than just relying on technical data (see a recent essay here). He's an excellent writer, and he also publishes lots of training materials on how to use photography and printing software.
He seems to be the type of photographer I would have been had I gone into this field instead of my current job. I'm a person who has both a highly technical and an artistic side, and Micheal seems to be like that, too. He even enjoys watches and wrote a cool little article here making an analogy between choosing a watch and choosing camera equipment.
These Go To Eleven
My blog title refers to having a beverage after a round of golf, but giving a nod / tribute to Tiger Woods' US Open win in a Monday playoff over Rocco Mediate, which went one extra hole, thus 19 holes. So the celebratory beverage after would be the 20th hole. The part about it being one louder comes from one of the more famous scenes from the 1984 movie, This is Spinal Tap.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
John and Kira's Chocolate
I wanted to give some love to John and Kira's chocolates, who make some of the best things I've ever put in my mouth. Their chocolates and candies are probably some of the best quality desserts available.
I first tried their chocolates at Christmas time a couple of years ago, when my wife's uncle Stephen and aunt Tami generously brought an every-flavor sampler box (link here) to share at a family dinner we were having at the Blackstock's house. I saw the box of assorted chocolates on the buffet counter and popped one in my mouth, expecting to taste the typical Whitman's Sampler type candy, hoping not to get the syrupy cherry-filled one (ugh). Umm, no. They use Valrhona chocolate and very fresh, high-quality flavors (such as mint from a local elementary school organic garden, whiskey coffee, or pistachio) to create really exquisite chocolates. These are chocolates for grown-ups, not kids (although I'm sure kids with discerning taste will love them, too!). Best I've ever had.
For Valentine's Day, I got Natasha and assortment of the painted ladybugs and bees, and I'm also trying some of their whiskey-chocolate figs. These are no Fig Newtons!
Torturing my children (aka making them eat their dinner)
We had a bit of a parenting adventure last night at dinner. My kids are very picky eaters, especially Daniel (pictured below eating a cupcake -- one of the few things he actually likes). He really only likes carbs (bread, tortillas, french fries, chips, crackers, mac and cheese, cake) and chicken strips. He doesn't even like normal things kids like like pizza, apples, strawberries, bananas, etc. He'll eat fruit flavored yogurt, but not actual fruit. Sigh.
We had baked salmon and rice for dinner last night, and it was very good. We also put a couple of pieces of apple and banana on their plates. Most nights, we make something our kids like, but occasionally we make them try something new, and they're not allowed to get up until they try ONE bite of each thing.
Daniel did OK with the one bite of fish, but had serious issues with taking a bite of banana. I was incredulous -- it's a freakin' banana! Daniel acted like I was making him down a bite of tofu, or maybe cyanide-laced brussels sprouts. He actually tried one bite and gagged and spit it out before he finally managed to down one. I think this process took like 30 minutes.
We had baked salmon and rice for dinner last night, and it was very good. We also put a couple of pieces of apple and banana on their plates. Most nights, we make something our kids like, but occasionally we make them try something new, and they're not allowed to get up until they try ONE bite of each thing.
Daniel did OK with the one bite of fish, but had serious issues with taking a bite of banana. I was incredulous -- it's a freakin' banana! Daniel acted like I was making him down a bite of tofu, or maybe cyanide-laced brussels sprouts. He actually tried one bite and gagged and spit it out before he finally managed to down one. I think this process took like 30 minutes.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Best Super Bowl Commericial: ETrade Golf Baby
I think the best Super Bowl commercial was the E-Trade baby golf commercial. Best line: "Why don't you try reading the rules, Shankopotamus!"
In other golf news, Tiger Woods reports on his web site that his knee is pretty much fully healed, that he is practicing "full bore", and that he will likely return to competition soon. He has not yet announced at which tournament he will make 2009 season debut. I think his return can't come soon enough. Last time I saw him, I was seeing things like this:
And this:
And this:
In other golf news, Tiger Woods reports on his web site that his knee is pretty much fully healed, that he is practicing "full bore", and that he will likely return to competition soon. He has not yet announced at which tournament he will make 2009 season debut. I think his return can't come soon enough. Last time I saw him, I was seeing things like this:
And this:
And this:
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Looking for an escape
Cool article in Forbes about some really nice secluded island getaways. News of the economy and my inability to afford a nice vacation has me day-dreaming of places these this.
Lizard Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia
Lizard Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Scary health plan stuff in current Obama stimulus plan
Very interesting and scary information I just read about the current proposed stimulus plan. This column in Bloomberg.com by Betsy McCaughey details how this stimulus would create a new Health Information Technology organization.
In his stump speeches pushing the plan, Obama is only mentioning the parts about digitizing health care records to ensure easier access / flow of information / health records. I don't have a problem with this part. It's the parts about government taking over health care and dictating what treatments our doctors can prescribe that scares me. As McCaughey writes:
But the bill goes further. One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and “guide” your doctor’s decisions (442, 446). These provisions in the stimulus bill are virtually identical to what Daschle prescribed in his 2008 book, “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis.” According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and “learn to operate less like solo practitioners.”
There are many things like this contained in the stimulus package that make me strongly oppose passage. See previous post for a plan I do support.
In his stump speeches pushing the plan, Obama is only mentioning the parts about digitizing health care records to ensure easier access / flow of information / health records. I don't have a problem with this part. It's the parts about government taking over health care and dictating what treatments our doctors can prescribe that scares me. As McCaughey writes:
But the bill goes further. One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and “guide” your doctor’s decisions (442, 446). These provisions in the stimulus bill are virtually identical to what Daschle prescribed in his 2008 book, “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis.” According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and “learn to operate less like solo practitioners.”
There are many things like this contained in the stimulus package that make me strongly oppose passage. See previous post for a plan I do support.
I support THIS stimulus plan
Click here for a link to a conservative plan on how to stimulate / improve our economy and jobs. This plan, by a conservative group called American Solutions, stands in stark contrast to the pork-laden bill proposed by Obama and the Democrat Congress that serves more to stimulate the growth of liberal government than our economy. I especially like the parts in the American Solutions plan about increasing our own supply of energy, lowering capital gains and business taxes, creating a more flat income tax, and eliminating the death/estate tax.
If implementing a plan like this means that the government needs to have layoffs, cuts in spending, and right-sizing, then so be it. Welcome to what the rest of us are going through!
If implementing a plan like this means that the government needs to have layoffs, cuts in spending, and right-sizing, then so be it. Welcome to what the rest of us are going through!
Friday, February 6, 2009
Musical Friday, Delirious Solid Rock
See below for a new song our band is working on for our church, Delirious' Solid Rock. We're trying to get Wes, our bass player, to dress and bop his head like Delirious' bassist (see 2:00 point in video). No luck yet.
I wonder if I put on some horn-rimmed glasses if I'd look like Delirious' keyboard player...
I wonder if I put on some horn-rimmed glasses if I'd look like Delirious' keyboard player...
How to Taste Wine
Came across a really good article in Forbes on the basics of how to taste wine. See here.
Mutual Fund Show / Store / Adam Bold / 401K
I started listening to Rush Limbaugh many years ago, in 1992 or so. I enjoy him not because (as his critics often assert) he's making me a mind-numbed conservative robot, but because I'd found someone in the media that, for the first time, was articulating the way I felt about many issues. He also does so in a very entertaining way.
Well, about 4 years ago, I came across someone that had a similar affect on me regarding investing for retirement. His name is Adam Bold, and he hosts a weekly radio show called The Mutual Fund Show. It airs on KLBJ 590 AM in Austin Saturdays 11a-12p, but I prefer to listen to the recordings on his web site, which are edited down and distill 3 hours of radio in different cities into about 50 minutes.
The radio show is an outgrowth of his financial services company called The Mutual Fund Store. His is the first fee-based financial advice / management firm for middle-class investors instead of the wealthy (although they have wealthy clients too).
Most financial advisers to the middle class are commissioned sales people, that make a living by selling you investments from certain mutual fund / annuity families. They usually make an up front percentage / load off of putting you in a certain fund. This means the advisers' incentive is to sell you a certain fund, not to grow your money as best as possible. While some commissioned advisers may indeed have their clients' best interest at heart, the way they're compensated does not correlate directly.
Fee-based advisers like Bold's firm instead offer advise based on a percentage of the total value of your portfolio. Thus, as your money grows through their (hopefully) good selection of funds, then you have more money and they make more. They do not take any commissions from any fund family and thus their interests are to put you in the best funds possible. I love this business model, which promotes honesty and transparency and an incentive for them to provide you with the best investing advice possible. I like this much better than firms like Ameriquest or Edward Jones, which are commissioned advisers that typically only recommend funds which pay them better commissions, regardless of whether it's the best-performing funds.
The cool thing is that Adam goes on the radio (which is free) and recommends funds in the various asset classes. He of course, doesn't mention all of his recommended funds, but gives enough to help me make good selections for my 401k.
I'm very fortunate that at my company, we get the option to invest in a self-directed 401k plan. Most companies' 401k plans only offer about 10-20 funds you can pick from. But with our plan, provided you keep a minimum amount in one of the basic fund selections (which include some good ones Adam has recommended like the Julius Baer International Fund and the Calamos Growth Fund), we can put our money in just about any fund out there. We even can access funds that normally have up-front loads for net asset value (NAV), or load-waived prices.
I'll post more later about his investing ideas / philosophy. For now, let's just say you want to invest in funds without loads, and you want to stick with mutual fund managers who have consistently out-performed the market indices over long periods. And mom, if you're reading this, don't ever buy an annuity!
Well, about 4 years ago, I came across someone that had a similar affect on me regarding investing for retirement. His name is Adam Bold, and he hosts a weekly radio show called The Mutual Fund Show. It airs on KLBJ 590 AM in Austin Saturdays 11a-12p, but I prefer to listen to the recordings on his web site, which are edited down and distill 3 hours of radio in different cities into about 50 minutes.
The radio show is an outgrowth of his financial services company called The Mutual Fund Store. His is the first fee-based financial advice / management firm for middle-class investors instead of the wealthy (although they have wealthy clients too).
Most financial advisers to the middle class are commissioned sales people, that make a living by selling you investments from certain mutual fund / annuity families. They usually make an up front percentage / load off of putting you in a certain fund. This means the advisers' incentive is to sell you a certain fund, not to grow your money as best as possible. While some commissioned advisers may indeed have their clients' best interest at heart, the way they're compensated does not correlate directly.
Fee-based advisers like Bold's firm instead offer advise based on a percentage of the total value of your portfolio. Thus, as your money grows through their (hopefully) good selection of funds, then you have more money and they make more. They do not take any commissions from any fund family and thus their interests are to put you in the best funds possible. I love this business model, which promotes honesty and transparency and an incentive for them to provide you with the best investing advice possible. I like this much better than firms like Ameriquest or Edward Jones, which are commissioned advisers that typically only recommend funds which pay them better commissions, regardless of whether it's the best-performing funds.
The cool thing is that Adam goes on the radio (which is free) and recommends funds in the various asset classes. He of course, doesn't mention all of his recommended funds, but gives enough to help me make good selections for my 401k.
I'm very fortunate that at my company, we get the option to invest in a self-directed 401k plan. Most companies' 401k plans only offer about 10-20 funds you can pick from. But with our plan, provided you keep a minimum amount in one of the basic fund selections (which include some good ones Adam has recommended like the Julius Baer International Fund and the Calamos Growth Fund), we can put our money in just about any fund out there. We even can access funds that normally have up-front loads for net asset value (NAV), or load-waived prices.
I'll post more later about his investing ideas / philosophy. For now, let's just say you want to invest in funds without loads, and you want to stick with mutual fund managers who have consistently out-performed the market indices over long periods. And mom, if you're reading this, don't ever buy an annuity!
Pets with teeth
My wife relayed a funny conversation she had with our kids this morning. This weekend we plan to go to San Antonio to meet Natasha's good friend Petra (she's named after the cool-looking lost city in Jordan, see photo below) for lunch, and then I plan to go window shopping for watches at a watch shop called Tourneau, which I think has much better watch selection than any store in Austin.
Petra, Jordan
On hearing the name "Petra", Daniel (age 5) said, "I want a pet! I think I want a dog." Natasha asked, "what about a cat?" Daniel replied, "No, a cat has sharp teeth!"
Natasha: "Well, dogs have teeth, too."
Daniel (pausing to think for a minute): "Ummm, how about a fish? I want a Nemo."
Lauren (age 4): "I want a GIRL fish!"
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Borrowing logo from Sassy Golf Balls
I have a new logo I'm trying out. The golf balls with various mixed drinks / martini / etc. on them just seem like a good combo of my interests. I found these on a web site called Sassy Golf Balls, link here.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Super Bowl, long labor
This weekend, we had a few friends from our neighborhood over to watch the Super Bowl. With me currently having the big plasma TV among my circle of friends, it's something I'm obligated as a man to do as a labor of love. Speaking of labor...
Things took a little twist in the party plans when one of Natasha's doula clients went into labor right around kickoff. So she left to go be at the hospital with her client and I had to go between hosting the party, watching the game, and checking on my kids (what are they screaming about NOW? ... can't they see I'm watching football!?). So I didn't really see quite as many plays or commercials as I would have liked, but I caught most of the important ones, including the unbelieveable 100-yard pick-6 that ended the first half. See my favorite column Tuesday Morning Quarterback's Super Bowl analysis here.
We were all pulling for underdog Arizona to win, so we were all very excited when Larry Fitzgerald scored the go-ahead touchdown to bring the Cards back from 20-7 down to lead 23-20. But then we saw that there was about 2:30 left on the clock. Pittsburgh's o-line started playing better, Arizona's d-backs stopped covering Santonio Holmes very well, and a few plays later, Pittsburgh scored on a somewhat decent catch in the corner of the end zone by Holmes.
Photo by Scott Boehm, Getty Images
Things took a little twist in the party plans when one of Natasha's doula clients went into labor right around kickoff. So she left to go be at the hospital with her client and I had to go between hosting the party, watching the game, and checking on my kids (what are they screaming about NOW? ... can't they see I'm watching football!?). So I didn't really see quite as many plays or commercials as I would have liked, but I caught most of the important ones, including the unbelieveable 100-yard pick-6 that ended the first half. See my favorite column Tuesday Morning Quarterback's Super Bowl analysis here.
We were all pulling for underdog Arizona to win, so we were all very excited when Larry Fitzgerald scored the go-ahead touchdown to bring the Cards back from 20-7 down to lead 23-20. But then we saw that there was about 2:30 left on the clock. Pittsburgh's o-line started playing better, Arizona's d-backs stopped covering Santonio Holmes very well, and a few plays later, Pittsburgh scored on a somewhat decent catch in the corner of the end zone by Holmes.
Photo by Scott Boehm, Getty ImagesSo although we didn't like the outcome, it was cool that it was a great / exciting game. We also had some great stuffed jalapenos (Jackson and Hart variations), chili (Natasha), smoked pork ribs (Vic), and sugar cookies (Sarah). Originally I thought about 15+ people were coming and we made enough food for that number, so with fewer people we ended up with several pounds of chili left over ... guess what I'm eating this week?
Natasha's client, a first-time mother, ended up in labor for over 24 hours, and Natasha didn't get home until almost midnight Monday night / Tuesday morning. This was by far her longest labor, and I was a little worried about her driving home from across town late at night after being awake for over 36 hours straight. But she finally made it home safe, and I'm expecting a glowing recommendation from these clients!
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