Commute

For ten years, I've had almost no commute because I work out of a virtual office. I wake up most mornings and walk downstairs into my office to start my day. When I'm done, I head upstairs. When I need a change of scenery, my office is the local library, the deck in my back-yard or the local coffee shop. I'm a huge fan of working virtually. Sure, I go through cycles where have to travel, but the most time I spend in the car for my job is going back and forth to the airport. I couldn't imagine spending an hour on either side of my job sitting in traffic just to get to my job.

As I've been working on this project on the east coast, I've been running into more and more people who have a serious commute. By serious - I mean 3 hours, each way, for a total of 6 hours of travel time! I couldn't imagine this. The people I talk to live in Jersey, drive, boat, train and then subway just to get to their job. Someone even came up with the brilliant idea of offering an MBA for the two hour train ride each way. Makes me appreciate what I have even more.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

We decorated our tiny little tree on Tuesday night. The angle of the picture is such that it makes the tree look a little bigger than 5 feet tall. Each of the kids hung their own ornaments, and we laughed at some of what they'd put together. I still have the goofy ornaments that I'd made in pre-school. I remember putting up the tree as a family and how my Mom would tell us the story of each ornament we'd put up.

Thought Leadership Redefined

My "thought leadership" presentation went fairly well, short of a small miscommunication. I was talking about how people are impacted by the documents they interact with, and how companies can optimize these touch-points to drive additional business, loyalty and satisfaction. This would have been fine if I hadn't been talking to a group of Health Care executives, who just so happen to refer to customers as patients or "members".

Note to self: Never use the words "touch" and "your member" in the same sentence, even if it's quickly followed up by the phrase "with your documents".

NY

I'm in up-state NY today to speak at a Executive Exchange we're doing with a group of customers tomorrow and then flying back. I was brought it at the last minute when one of the other guys bailed to fill in as a "thought leader" and do another guy's presentation. "Thought Leader" seems like a pretty lofty title, especially if you believe there's no such thing as original thought. My best guess is that I should speak in iambic pentameter, have as much of what I say rhyme, or at the very least illiterate - with lots of big hand motions, and an occasional haiku. Nothing like taking another person's presentation and trying to make sense of it in front of a group of people who know plenty already about the subject you're addressing. Should be fun.

Note to self: Here's where you left your car at the airport

Nothing like forgetting where i've parked twice in a row. Wednesday travel means all of the good spots are being taken up, which means I pay $18/day to park on the roof in the worst spot on the ramp.

Kidnapped Em from School for Lunch

I picked Em up from her classroom and Em got to announce to all of her classmates that she was going to McDonalds, followed by all of them asking to come along. At lunch Em told me all about her student council meeting and sharing with the whole class afterwards the decisions they made. After lunch we stopped by the dollar tree to pick up a small snack for the whole class and and a junky $1 statue as a gift that her teacher will feel obligated to keep on her desk for months to come.

My Motto

Thanks Noel for this:

“The one important thing I have learned over the years is the difference between taking one’s work seriously and taking one’s self seriously. The first is imperative and the second disastrous.”
-Margot Fonteyn

Second time is the charm

We have a fairly steep driveway and Cathie got creative today in trying to get up it in the snow, as the tire tracks show. On very snowy days you have to make a run at it from the end of the block and then cut a sharp turn past the cul-de-sac to make it up. The other option id to shovel the driveway, which isn't too appealing either.

Kidnapped from school to have lunch with Dad

Snowy the Snowman

After work, we had perfect fresh-fallen packing snow. Perfect enough for Emily and I to go out and make a snow-man. I ended up helping and building more on the base that Em had already made. In true Em tradition,she named the snow-man "Snowy" (Em adds the letter "y" to whatever she names - blanky, quilty, etc)

Zach and Matt

Twelve years ago, Matt and Zach were two sixth grade guys in our youth group. They were both quiet, introverted guys who rarely talked to anyone except each other. Brad actually lead a group of these sixth grade (this was when I thought I was above working with junior high kids) boys and we still laugh about the stories. Matt and Zach stuck with the youth group all the way until now (well, Zach is on a break for the past six months) - with both guys helping out as leaders at camp now that they're in college. (The pictures above are freezer bags filled with dead rats).

Matt, Zach and I went to a movie last week to catch up on life and afterwards went out to BW's for wings and a beer. I mentioned to Brad that we were going out for a beer afterwards and his response was "They can't be old enough to drink beer." My response: "Brad, they're 23. You're old." The guys thought the whole idea was funny, asking, "is it weird for you to drink a beer with your kids?" I guess it kind of was for the first few seconds, both most of it was lost what a cool thing it is to have stuck with the same youth group, church and kids for this long.

To add to the whole deal, Zach came over today and fixed the passenger door that Cathie's foot -rope debacle broke.

The Leaves have left

Today was a fairly productive day. I hung our Christmas tree lights outside and Cathie and I got outside with the kids and raked our big 'ol yard full of leaves, even with Cathie's hurt foot. We had a billion stinking leaves to bag up, but it's done, and it felt good to get it done. The leaves were wet from the melting snow so they weren't much good for playing in. We got them all cleared up just in time for us to get an inch of snow tonight.

Nate and Maddie helped rake the leaves (referring to one of the rakes as a hoe) and asking lots of
questions about the hoe, like "Dad, does this hoe work?" and Nate asking "Dad, can I have the hoe?" all of which made me laugh and Cathie to give me looks that said, "don't say a word".

Cathie's Mysterious Foot Injury

Cathie hurt her foot today and we're not sure how.... Well, ok, we know how, but not HOW. On our way to church this morning we loaded up the van and started backing out of the driveway. When we got to the bottom of the driveway, I heard a crunching-noise and Cathie started screaming at the top of our lungs. By screaming, I don't mean anything informative about WHY she was screaming or what was causing it. By screaming, I DO mean that she screamed as if she was being decapitated slowly, but decapitated in such a way that her vocal cords were still in tact. I stopped the car and tried to figure out what was going on. Cathie's foot was wrapped around a piece of rope and badly bruised and hurt. The fender in front of the passenger-side car door was bent from the rope. We're not really sure how.

Here's what I propose happened: Getting into the car this morning, Cathie dragged her foot on a piece of rope and pulled part of it into the car, with her foot caught in the loop of rope, with two pieces of the rope hanging out of the car. At some point when I backed out, the rope caught under the tire and pulled itself back, tightening the loop around Cathie's foot, causing lots of pain and doing damage to the car. Cathie's foot will heal for free. The car will cost money to repair. I love Cathie more than the car, though. Even if she's a little clumsy.

Lebbon Thanksgiving

The obvious question is this: "Why are you dressed up in Japanese garb in a post about Thanksgiving?" Great question. Cathie's Mom returned last week from a three-month stay in Japan and she was kind enough to give us all traditional Japanese clothing. The kids especially dug their outfits. Nate never took off his Samurai robe and head-band and the Cathie's Mom helped the girls put on their very complex outfits.

After tree shopping, Cathie's brother Ed and wife Stacy came by for Thanksgiving dinner on Friday. Again, we ate and ate. Cathie's Mom is a great cook and single-handedly made a ginormous delicious meal for all of us.

We hung out that night playing a game of ultra-competitive-family-Uno. It was the kind of game where people held long grudges on draw-fours, and Emily (sitting between Cathie and her Grandpa) never quite understood how someone could skip, reverse, or draw-two/draw-four her.

It was a great game, and I (sitting between Cathie and Ed) got it from both sides, losing badly, while Emily finished in third place.

As the kids grow up, it's fun to watch them get involved in some of these family traditions.

You can see the rest of the pictures here.

Annual Tree Outing

Due to the past Susan inspired Christmas Tree debacles, we tried a new place for our annual Christmas tree expedition. We got to the place, grabbed our saws and jumped on the tractor for a ride with a toothless old man to get ourselves a tree.

Nate and I decided to admit our true roles in the process and give complete power to the girls to pick the tree, thinking we'd simplify things a bit. It didn't work. Cathie and Madeline found what we thought (at the time) was a great tree, but Emily didn't quite agree. Being the stubborn little monkey that she is (which she inherited from Cathie) she wanted a taller tree (one that was taller than Cathie) and decided to pout (which turned out later to be rather ironic). She was in such a funk, we swapped out Allie to be in our picture, but still took one with a pouty Emily.

We strapped the tree to the top of our car and headed back to the Lebbon's for our second Thanksgiving dinner. When we got to the Lebbons, they pointed out that it looked kind of small. The next morning, I stopped by Susan's and noticed the same thing with there treee.
We finally got the tree setup at home last night, only to find that it was in fact very, very short (Emily was right). The on way we could make it look tall was to stand it next to two short people.

You can see the rest of the pictures here.

Kurt Thanksgiving Dinner

I love Thanksgiving and this year's Thanksgiving felt semi-normal after the weirdness of last year's Thanksgiving, a month after my Mom's death. The whole family was there without our usual collection of extras (we invited Mike Koch and Sarah, but they couldn't make it). Everyone brought lots of food and we ate and ate and ate. Cathie finally decided to not make her nasty-green-bean casserole that only she eats and make regular green-beans with bacon that everyone liked. My brother Jon made creamed peas, which only he likes. (He used to have my Mom make these as kids, not because he liked them, but because they made us gag).

Kevin and I watched the Lions game until I crashed in a triptophane induced food coma in the den. After chucking a remote control at Kevin's junk, I figured I needed to strategically place my hands to protect myself while I slept. Jon and Dan brought guitar Hero III and with two guitars, we had lots of duals. As usual, my brother-in-law Kevin picked up on the game in 30 seconds and was able to smoke me, even thought I'd put many hours of practice into the game to date.
My Grandma is getting to the point where she can't (doesn't feel comfortable leaving) make it out of Burcham Hills to come to hang with us for the holidays, so I went over and hung out with her for a while.

Before we left, my Dad gave us each a collection of his memoirs for the kids to have when they're ready. It's the story of his life, his marriage, his successes, his failures, the things he's learned as a man, a dad, a son, a brother and a husband. It's a fantastic thing to pass onto the kids, and to their kids. I'll be disappointed if we don't end up playing "Dad Jeopardy" at Christmas time.

You can see the rest of the pictures here.

Gross Game Night

On Monday night we had a Gross Game Night at Chaos that would have made Ingrid angry. We started with a game that about made me ralph. We blended up a whole collection of food - brussel sprouts, goldfish crackers, baby-food, Spam and lots of other nasty stuff. The smell was enough to make me gag, but we had three kids drink this stuff like it was pop.

We then had a turkey decorating contest followed by raw chicken-bowling (yes, the kids wore rubber gloves) and then bubble-gum sculptures. I'm not sure what we've taught the kids about Jesus this year that would challenge their soul to the point that they would make a cross with a heart on it out of chewed gum, but I'm guessing that means we're doing something really, really right. Right?

The bologna slowflakes went well, but the shaving cream balloon shave didn't go off as planned.

The idea is that the kids shave the shaving-cream covered balloons with dinged razors, the ballons explode and cover the kids with shaving cream. It works great if you remember to blow the balloons up enough. Otherwise, the kids end up in a giant shaving cream battle. Between Jason, Jess and I - and all the years between us, none of us really saw this coming.

It was a fun night with a big group. We've done something new this year in adding some fifth graders into the mix. Mostly, this started because Nate is in fifth grade and he's at a point where he's ready for it, and he's been in the kids program at our church to the point that it's gotten old for him. We've added some of the other fifth graders who were in the same boat, and they fit in well. We've now got a pretty noticeable difference in maturity levels between our fifth - seventh and our eighth (and a few ninth) graders that come.

You can see the rest of the pictures here.

Love your neighbor's leaves as your own

I tried to mow my lawn nice and short so that on the next windy day, all of the leaves would blow somewhere other than my yard. Somehow, this didn't work. I seem to have every stinking leaf in the neighborhood in my hard and my neighbors yards are pristine. Maybe they just cut their grass even shorter than I did. Doh!

Lions vs. Giants Game

Bill, Mark and I took our boys to the Lions/Giants game yesterday at Ford Field. The Lions lost and played badly 95% of the game. This was Nate's first Lions game and he was super excited. We'd been talking about this all year as something I wanted to do as recognition for his hard work and dedication in Panthers football this year. Nate and I have Eli Manning in our Fantasy Football League, so we were torn as he'd make a decent play or two. Luckily, Eli is no Payton. We had great seats (thanks Bob) at about the 40 yard line, 27 rows back.

Once we got there, Bill changed into his Lions outfit that he wears to watch every game:

The one bright spot was this huge catch in the end-zone by Calvin Johnson. Apparently, no one on the Lions staff thought he was worth throwing to the rest of the day. Maybe he's just too tall, and good, and fast.

We got see Kitna get the crap beat out of him frequently. These are just two - there are many more in the photo gallery.

It all ended with lots of horrible plays, including the two game ending plays like these last two:

You can see the rest of the pictures that I took online here in my web gallery.

Fifty women to watch

Our CEO Anne is #7 and President Ursula is #15 in the WSJ's Top Fifty Women to Watch. Have I mentioned before that I'm a big fan of Anne? (On a side note, I once $5 for using the word trifurcate properly with Ursula, and then getting her in turn to use the word later in a presentation)

One in a Million or One in Ten?

Susan, Kevin and the kids were in town to see East Lansing play for the semi-finals in football at South Lyon High School. It was about 35 and rainy - just plain nasty out, but Kevin and Bender hung at the game like die-hards. The girls decided they wanted to dress Gabe up and watch High School Musical. He was a good sport about the whole thing, laughing the whole time. Oddly enough, he no longer wants to go hunting with his father and has picked up crocheting very quickly from Maddie.

Bigger Better

We had our first annual "Bigger Better" event tonight for our Junior High youth group. The kids went out in teams and started with a penny. They took the penny door to door and said something to the effect of, "We're from Crossroads Church's youth group and we're doing this bigger better game, starting with a penny, trying to trade up for bigger and better things. Do you have anything to trade for this ______?" The goal was to get either the largest thing, or the most expensive thing. We trade the penny for a pen, the pen for a marker, the marker, the marker for a bop-it game, the bop-it game for a flood light, a flood light for a scooter, a scooter for a TV and so on. We added to that a monitor, a coffee table and some other junk.

The other teams ended up with a scaffolding, couches, chairs, a star-trek phone and a giant roll of carpeting. Not too shabby. It was a great time. We had about 25 kids there, with lots of kids bringing their friends.

You can see the rest of the pictures here.