OK, no time for an intro. I need to leave for work in about 10 minutes and eat my oatmeal while writing this. Gotta be quick, here goes Three Things Thursday.

1. Loving my new job out here in Colorado, especially the dress code. I’m usually in the minority when I wear jeans. The majority is in shorts. On Monday, I was in a meeting with seven other people and I noticed that I was the only one not wearing flip-flops. I felt so overdressed in my old Asics. But I’ll never wear flip-flops, not with my horrendous runners’ feet.

Speaking of work, we’re having a Biggest Loser contest. I don’t have the most to lose, but I have a strong work ethic when it comes to this kind of stuff and I’ve wanted to get my weight down for a while. I just haven’t cared. Well, when it’s a competition, I care! I’ve dropped 3.5 pounds from my 204-pound (now 200.5-pound) frame in the past 10 days. Really, really want to get down to 190. Haven’t eaten ice cream in a week!

2. I’ve been drinking my coffee black for about two weeks now. Never turning back.

3. In 2010, I ran a race in Mobile, Alabama that benefitted a charity called L’Arche Mobile, which is an organization that provides group homes for mentally disabled adults. I loved the cause and was proud to participate. I placed in my age group and the prize was a 5×7 canvas painting by one of the residents. I’ve won a lot of age group awards, maybe 40 or 50, and this is the only one I have on display in my house. I love it, absolutely love it.

Well, I contacted L’Arche, and it looks like we’re going to make a donation to them and they’re going to make paintings for our age-group awards for the Operation Jack Marathon this year. I am so, so excited about this. Not only is it better to send our money out to a great cause like L’Arche instead of a trophy company, but an award like this is pretty much everything my race stands for. I am so excited about this!

Here’s a couple of pictures of the award I got:

OK, that’s all y’all … have a great day!

I was driving home from work one day last week and I had a flashback to a party I went to in about 2000 or 2001. Some guy there asked me the Stupidest Question Ever and as I thought about it, I thought, “hmmm, I could write a blog about this one.” Me and Tiff laugh about it all the time. Now, the challenge is to convey it well, better than a “you-had-to-be-there” punch line. So, here goes …

We were somewhere around 25 and at a party at the house of one of her friends, who was also her boss at the time. There were probably 40 people there, quite a few from her work. Since she worked at Victoria’s Secret, it was a bunch of women co-workers gabbing and a bunch of guys drinking beer and talking to the other husbands/boyfriends who didn’t know anybody there.

I was standing there in the back yard with Tiff and there was a nice-sized pool. It was nighttime and there were these plastic floating thingies in the pool with lit candles in the middle. They were kind of nice and were a nice touch by the host.

I’m in the middle of talking to a few people, and a guy walked up and broke into the conversation with the Stupidest Question Ever. No, “What’s your name?” or “How’s it going?” or “What’s a guy like you doing in a place like this.” His icebreaker, the Stupidest Question Ever, was, [Read more…]

If you’ve been here before, you know I frequently blog about my son Jack because of his autism, or my wife Tiffany because she’s my everything, but I don’t really talk about my other two kids a whole lot. Well yesterday, I took my son Benjamin to the Cardinals-Padres game in San Diego, and he did some things I knew I had to blog about.

Ben’s favorite player is Skip Schumaker of the Cardinals. We have a personal connection to him, so Ben roots for him and likes to watch him play. Once a year, we head down to San Diego to watch the Cardinals play. This year, that day was yesterday. We arranged to have him say hi to Ben during batting practice, and Ben was pretty excited. What 9-year-old wouldn’t be excited about saying hi to a real baseball player while he’s on the field?

It was an afternoon game, so we pulled him out of school early. Does it get any better than leaving school early to go to a baseball game? I guess it does if your favorite baseball player says hi to you!

After taking the picture, the funniest thing happened and I’ll be able to tease Ben about it in 50 years.

[Read more…]

I had such a great nutrition day yesterday, I felt like I had to share the details here today. But first, I have to wish my wife Tiffany a happy 12th anniversary. Since I’m going to talk about food, I always joke that the most expensive meal I ever had was my lunch on May 23, 1999 — it cost me the rest of my life! But really, I’m madly in love with her and as difficult as our life is, I am grateful every day to have her as a partner. She’s my best friend and I’ll never be too macho to admit that.

Anyways, I said I was going to talk about food … I had the most incredible day from start to finish yesterday. [Read more…]