July 3, 2009: Day Trip To Kitt Peak

Kitt Peak and Dinner at the Feast (Tucson)

Fran was understanding enough of my interest in astronomy … and I think a little curious herself to agree to drive to Kitt Peak today. Kitt Peak is a mountain southwest of Tucson that was selected 50 years ago out of 1,000 potential sites to be the location where the National Science Foundation would put a national observatory. Formally known as the “Kitt Peak National Observatory” (KPNO), part of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO). NAOA has three facilities … KPNO plus a facility in Hawaii and one in Chile. These three facilities are run by a consortia of universities including the University of Arizona. The KPNO web site: http://www.noao.edu/kpno/

We made a day trip out of it leaving Phoenix at 9AM and getting to KPNO a little after 1PM with a short stop for lunch and a long mountain climb by car to 6400 feet elevation. We arrived shortly before their 1:30PM tour of the 4 meter Mayall telescope that was one of the original scopes used back in 1970. Today’s telescopes use something called adaptive optics to help manage the shape of the mirror as temperatures change and the angle of inclination changes. Adaptive optics use little computer controlled actuators to put pressure on the backs of the mirror to change its shape ever so slightly and allowing it to retain its perfect reflecting shape. Back when the Mayall mirror was built adaptive optics did not exist so they needed to build the mirror as big and and as rigid as the state of the art allowed. So, the mirror … it is 158 inches across and weighs about 12 tons! But now picture that the mirror has to tilt and rotate to look at different parts of the sky and it has to be accurate to a millionth of an inch! So they had to design a 300 ton monster of a table to sit the mirror on and this is the way they have operated it for 40 years. Then they had to drag all that equipment to the top of Kitt Peak ... unbelievable feat!

Another little "factoid" ... KPNO has a million gallon water tank on top of the mountain ... that explains why they have flush toilets! The neat thing about it is behind the visitor parking lot they have a BIG concrete cone that collects rainwater that runs to a collector and is then filtered and treated for storage and use on the mountain. It also comes in really handy in case there is a fire.

So after a two hour tour of the Mayall telescope and a walk around part of the mountain top we headed into Tucson for dinner. I had looked up on “TripAdvisor.com” for a suggested restaurant and the top rated restaurant was a place called “Feast” on Speedway Boulevard. We made it there and had a very nice meal and spent time with Megan … I think … the owner or manager who also waited on our table. Tucson is more a laid back atmosphere than Phoenix and this was certainly the case at the Feast. It was very tastefully decorated and equipped and I could tell from the clientele that came in while we were sitting and how they interacted with the staff that it had a very high percentage of regular customers.

June 26, 2009: Westin, Silverthorne Mall and Vail Gondola

We took it pretty slow today. Fran was again up all night coughing but by 9AM she seemed well enough to go for a walk along Gore Creek and then after we changed we went for lunch at the brand new Westin Resort located next to and overlooking Gore Creek and the Beaver Creek Resort. The Westin was quite impressive and we had an OK meal and the view while eating was awesome! After lunch it started pouring as we made our way to the Silverthorne Outlet Mall we had seen on the way in from Denver. I am a little surprised to hear me say it but I actually enjoyed the mall … it has about 80 outlet stores on three campuses. OK … the river running through it and the towering snow covered mountains directly behind it were pretty impressive and gave a pretty positive impression. But the stores we went to were pretty decent and while we were not able to go to very many of those stores Fran was pretty impressed and claimed it a “successful” shopping experience.

After shopping we stopped at our favorite place ... the Vail Lionshead Village for a quick bite to eat. We went to a restaurant next to the Gondola and were pleasantly surprised to see the Gondola running … and because it was after 4PM it was FREE ☺! So we quickly ditched our dinner plans and rode to the top of Vail mountain and had dinner at 11,000 feet in the mountain top lodge called “Bistro 14” in honor of the many 14,000+ foot mountains in the area. It was a great way to wrap up the week!

June 25, 2009: Aspen and Independence Pass

We took a 200 mile round trip south of Interstate 70 today. Going south through Leadville on state route 24 and had lunch at the “Tennessee Pass” restaurant (really good food ☺). Leadville is quite a nice little town situated at 10,000 foot elevation. We passed so many beautiful spots along the way to Independence Pass … one was called Twin Lakes. A little five building village overlooking a lake under some towering 14,000 foot peaks. There were a few cabins for rent here … maybe for the future?

Another hour of climbing a winding state route 82 along a rushing stream brought us to Independence Pass … a high mountain pass connecting Leadville and Aspen. The highest point is at 12,000 feet and is above the tree line and even in late June has plenty of snow. Mountains rose all around us up to and past 14,000 feet … it turns out Colorado has 52 mountains over 14,000 feet. After cresting the mountain pass we began a 10 mile journey down the other side of the mountain into Aspen. This pass is typically closed from the first snow fall through late May. Fran and I were amazed at the number of cyclists who made the trek up the mountain. Not only are they climbing thousands of feet in elevation the air is so thin their lungs must have been burning terribly. I was relieved to find they had support vehicles waiting for them at the top of the mountain.

Aspen was so picturesque just like I imagined but … it was raining and everything we wanted to see was outside. We tried to make the best of it but we were getting tired and ended up calling it a day after about 45 minutes and then started the long drive up route 82 to Glenwood Springs and then Interstate 70 back to Avon. Before we arrived in Avon we decided to have dinner in Edwards at a place called “E-Town” … a part of a planned live / work / play community. Edwards reminded me of a rural community suddenly facing an onslaught of development spreading out from the Vail ski area and encompassing the entire Vail valley.

June 24, 2009: Colorado Vacation Vail Pass Bike Ride

On Wednesday the 24th we got daring and signed up for a 25 mile bike ride starting in Vail Pass. This was stunning beautiful and quite a nice ride for Fran and I especially for Fran as she had not ridden a bike in over ten years and had never ridden as fast or on such steep hills as we did today. A shuttle bus picked us up outside the Sheraton and brought us out (with 12 other people) 25 miles east to “Vail Pass”. Vail Pass is at 10,660 foot elevation and is at the snow line for June. After getting used to our bikes at the start of the bike path Fran and I followed the trail for the next 12 miles down winding paved trails occasionally turning into country roads that we shared with a few cars. The only real danger was letting the speed get away from you and then having to navigate one of the many turns through the forested areas. Easily we could have 40 miles per hour on these downward slopes but we kept the speed to less than 25 at the maximum and more like under 20 mph for most of the faster runs.

At around mile 12 we entered the east end of Vail and came across the Gerald Ford Amphitheater and the Betty Ford Garden. The Ford’s came to Vail quite a bit and when he became president the entire entourage would come to Vail while he vacationed. This attention by the national media is what put Vail on the international spotlight and development of the area subsequently took off.

From mile 12 through 17 we navigated the Vail ski area winding through some beautiful neighborhoods and the Vail villages. At this point we could have met the shuttle bus but we decided to keep going and followed the bike paths and marked roads back into Avon and returned our bikes. In all it was a 25 mile trip and close to a 3,000 foot drop in elevation. This mostly downhill (with a few ups) is definitely an enjoyable way to go biking ☺

In the evening we went out to dinner at a restaurant in Vail Lionshead Village called the “Montauk Seafood Grill”. June is a slow month for the Vail Valley and the specials were fantastic at many restaurants. Montauk’s offered a special for June for all their entrees to be $19. Fran and I both had great meals for a very modest price.

June 23, 2009: Colorado Vacation Hiking in Vail and Gore Creek

On Tuesday the 23rd we went to the Vail ski area again. Vail ski area actually has five little “villages” that serve the ski slopes; Golden Peak, Vail Village, Lionshead, Cascade Village, and West Vail. It is only 10 miles and this time we went to the Lionshead village hoping to ride the gondola to the top. It turns out the Gondola was only running Friday, Saturday and Sunday this week. It brings sightseers and bike enthusiasts to the top of the mountain. The sightseers get a return ride but the bikers actually ride down any number of groomed trails. The level of difficulty for riding bikes down hill cannot be underestimated … from relatively easy “Green” slopes to the “Double Black” equivalents of the down hill ski world. The hardest hills require bikers to wear what can only be called body armor from head to foot in case of a spill. The bikers are a regular sight in Vail Village during the summer.

Fran and I wandered the villages of both Lionshead Village … and then after a short walk up the slopes and across a trail we proceeded down into Vail Village for lunch and a shuttle bus ride back to Lionshead

After returning to Avon we went for a walk along Gore Creek and saw the new Westin resort that has just been completed. It is spectacular and sits right over Gore Creek and looks up to the Beaver Creek resort and ski slopes. It even has its own gondola ride to the base of the ski resort … too much! Leave your room and step right into the skiing resort.

Fran and I sat in the Sheraton hot tub that evening before dinner and met a couple from Tucson who had just bought their first time share unit at the Westin that day. They were so excited to have bought but their maintenance fees are about $2100 per year and that would likely translate to a $30-40K purchase price. Too rich for us but we have run into multiple people who have 3, 4, 5 and even seven condo weeks that they absolutely love.

June 22 2009: Colorado Vacation w/Camelot Balloons and Grouse Mountain

We started Monday morning at 4AM. I awoke not knowing if Fran would be able to go through with our plans for a hot air balloon ride to celebrate her 50th birthday due to her bad cold. Her body was racked with coughing all night long and as a result neither of us were able to sleep more than a couple hours.

I had chosen Camelot Balloon rides for this morning’s adventure and they did not disappoint. The launch site for Camelot sits just north of the Eagle County Regional Airport or (EGE). EGE was closed to commercial traffic this summer but it remains a busy general aviation airport while they are expanding their runway capability. When reopened this fall it will be able to support large commercial flights from anywhere in the US. This is a great airport to get to Vail, Aspen and Beaver Creek ski resorts.

Camelot Balloons is owned and operated by “Merlin”. His flight crew chief “Sir Shrek the Red Neck” and three young men that served as his flight crew were all wonderful good old boys in the nicest sense. It was obvious that Merlin and Red Neck had worked together for many years and their stories, good humor and expert ability managing the balloon launch and recovery made our morning quite enjoyable. We were joined in our first time balloon ride by two other couples; two attorneys from Chicago and another from Charlotte, NC.

The flight consisted of rising to 1,800 feet above the launch site (which sits at 6,540 foot altitude) and going back and forth across a valley boxed in by mountains. Merlin would take advantage of winds that were different at every altitude … so to go west he would rise … to go east he would drop … to go north he would hug the tree tops. The time in the air was so pleasant … it was quiet … almost breezeless (as we were part of the air current) and very enjoyable. After our soft landing and return to base we were treated to champagne and a light lunch and stories. I highly recommend Camelot Balloons … it is not fancy but it is fun, safe and memorable! Merlin’s next adventure is to launch a balloon service in the Cayman Islands this fall where he will launch on one end of the island chain and land on a boat. One of his prior balloon clients is the general manager of the Ritz-Carlton in the Cayman Islands and paid for Merlin to bring his balloon down and test out the whole process including landing in a boat.

After a light lunch … and a manicure & pedicure we rested and took a short walk along the Gore Creek bike trail. The trail parallels the creek for many miles and provides a nice way to walk and enjoy the sight of a creek swelled by mountain runoff. Monday evening we went for dinner to Grouse Mountain Grill in Beaver Creek. GMG is breathtaking to arrive at and the food and service matched the first impressions. Fran and I were the first couple of the year to eat outside on the patio overlooking the mountains and the ski resort. BC is a beautiful ski resort community next to Avon nestled into a set of spectacular mountains. Our waiter was a free spirit and at 60 years old someone who had experienced Woodstock, and numerous late 60’s and early 70’s events that most of us only read about. He did have a story about traveling through Schenectady in 1973 at 2AM and pulling over for gas and looking into the car next to him where there was a lion and a poodle in the car. Turns out the driver was only one of a couple licensed owners of a lion in the country and he was taking the lion out for a drive (one of the lions favorite activities) … but he could only take him out in the middle of the night as his day time drives caused accidents from drivers to shocked to drive straight.

At the end of the day we were able to return to the Sheraton (just five miles from GMG) and admire our certificates of accomplishment signifying we had participated in man’s first aeronautical experience by ascending into the heavens on the hot air balloon “Caerleon” and piloted by the wizard of Camelot “Merlin”.

2008 Holiday Times in Phoenix

Happy holidays from Phoenix!  Maryetta flew in from Florida ... Mike, Agatha, and Annabelle drove in from Texas .. Matt from WDC and Julie from Tempe to join Fran and I for good times in Phoenix.

Fortunately, the weather cooperated and while we had a few rainy days the temperatures were in the 60's most every day and we were able to get out and about town.  

Annabelle was so much fun!  In the photo below she is racing to the camera and we are hoping the shutter clicks before she gets there.  AND ... Dec 31st was my birthday so Maryetta took us all out to dinner at the local Kona Grill where Julie was serving.  We got there early so it was not crowded and then we went home for my favorite cake the "Mother Lode" from Claim Jumper!

Annabelle got to ride on two trains ... the 1st, a kid size version at the McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park at the corner of Indian Bend and Scottsdale Road, and the 2nd, the adult version our new Phoenix valley light rail.  

Maryetta arrived before everyone else and she was able to join Fran and I at a six course dinner at George & Sons asian restaurant in Scottsdale with my swim team. Lots of fun where we had close to 30 people enjoying a number of different dishes served up by George and his staff.  Simon, our team sommelier provided a wonderful selection of south African wines to complement every course.  

August 1-3: Granite Dells and the Oak Creek Canyon West Fork

Yea verily ... a quarter pound of fresh rocky road fudge is a great way to top off two days of hiking and some nice dinners with my wife Fran.  

Fran and I made our way up to Prescott, AZ on Friday August 1st.  We left Phoenix 10AM and by mid-day had lunch just east of Prescott.  Just north of Prescott we found the entrance to Peavine Trail and then hiked near Watson Lake in the middle of the Granite Dells.  Its a straight shot hike up the Peavine Trail from the trail head and we saw some nice views of Watson Lake and the dells.  The trail is converted from an old rail road bed and is wonderfully groomed, flat and soft to walk on.  We did a little over a four mile round trip in two hours and stopped for scenery breaks often

The evening of the first we had a great dinner at a little restaurant in west Sedona called "Heartline Cafe" it was recommended by a friend of Fran who held her wedding up their recently.  We had a wonderful meal there with great service.  Saturday morning we had breakfast at our motel and travelled up route 89A to try to get into Slide Rock ... a real favorite of families but as we found out at the Chamber of Commerce that parking lot fills up at 10AM during the summer and stays full all day long.  Lines of cars back up onto the highway waiting for someone to leave.  We did not want to get that line so we went further to the north in Oak Creek Canyon to a park called "Call of the Canyon ... West Fork".  Prior to arriving we stopped at the Indian Gardens Deli.  I recommend this place highly.  Good food and drink and a beautiful garden in the back to sit in the shade and eat and drink.  The West Fork turned out to be a spectacular hiking grounds and led us for several miles (I was told it goes for 10+ miles) back into the national forest.  Along the way we crossed the stream many times with what seemed at times to be towering 1,000+ foot cliffs on either side of us.  This northern part of the Sedona region we were told is nicer to hike during the summer months as it goes along stream beds and has tall lush vegetation and is surrounded by high cliff walls.  During non-summer months the rest of the Sedona area trails are much more bearable.

Along the trail we talked briefly with many hikers but the cutest ones were the kids we found at a water hole where they were trying to catch tad poles.  This was one of the most simple pleasures I remember as a kid when my parents used to take us kids camping.  Watching these kids for about 20 minutes ... it seemed they could just go on for hours chasing the tad poles, catching them and then letting them go.  It was so peaceful back there, no sounds except the high altitude wind swirling from the cliffs so far over our heads and the sound of the water rushing over rocks and the sounds of the kids happy and care free.  I wish every kid had a chance to experience what they were doing at that moment.

In the evening Fran and I had dinner in "uptown" Sedona at the Cowboy Club.  After dinner we walked the streets a little before I managed to somehow end up in front of the fudge shop :-)

May 18 2008: Matt Graduates from George Washington University with MBA

After two short years Matt is graduating from George Washington University!  It seems like such a short time ago that Matt was transferring to WDC and attending GWU.  What a change of events going from a management training program at his prior employer and fully paid at GWU to Matt finding his new employer and him having to pay the bill himself.  It all makes sense now but at the time it seemed like Matt was taking a big risk ... he is making a great salary, got a partial GWU scholarship, and his new company kicked in some reimbursement funds.  He has to take a couple more classes that complete in June but then he is complete.  The WDC experience has been transformational for him.  He is in one of the most amazing cities in the world and gets first hand exposure to some of the world's leading thinkers in politics and economics.

Fran, Julie and I went Washington DC on Thursday May 15th and stayed through Monday May 19th at Matt's apartment.    He has a beautiful apartment in Arlington, VA and is just a short train ride from the capitol.

Matt's girlfriend Bri is staying with Matt and is pursuing her career in theater production after graduating from Webster University in St Louis, MO.  They were wonderful hosts for our visit and took us to several places across the greater DC area.

Friday night was Matt's graduation walk at his school of business

MS150 Roundup Ride in Florence Arizona

A big thank you to the kind people who supported me and my fellow riders on the "Prime Time Posse" team that rode in the 150 mile bike ride to benefit Multiple Sclerosis on March 29th and 30th in Florence, AZ!  Our collective team of 60 contributors raised over $3,000!!!

Your generosity was overwhelming and much appreciated by me, my riding partners and the people on whose behalf we rode.   I'll share a little about the ride, some photos and some special conversations that I had during the weekend to provide a little insight to the special nature of this event.

In prior years we have ridden with more people but due the marriage of two of our riders on March 30th and another of our riders attending the wedding, our riding team was cut down to just three people; Jennifer & Alan MacColl and me.  We lacked in numbers but met many wonderful people on the ride from other teams as well as MS staff.   This year's format was different than the last several that left from Lake Pleasant on Saturday and arrived at Parker Dam on Sunday at the California border.  We arrived in Florence, AZ on Friday evening March 28th and stayed in a camper at a very nice little park on the North side of town.  Saturday we started riding at about 7AM and had options of riding 50, 75 or 100+ miles.  Sunday a similar format with options of 25 and 50 miles.  I ended up riding all 150+ miles and except for chapped lips and a tender bum it was a long ride ... but if you like long bike rides at a fast clip with beautiful desert scenery and not many cars it was a great ride.  

On Saturday after I was done riding I received a nice treat (after I showered :-); a massage, a couple glasses of wine and some wonderful conversation with MS volunteers.  I was explaining to them how I have come to know several families afflicted by MS and their stories are very moving and inspirational and that was why I was doing this ... because of them.  It did not occur to me as I was talking to the four volunteers that they were all afflicted with MS or their children were afflicted with MS ... only when I paused did they offer some insight to their own situations ... can't pick up their children because they may drop them, all dishes in the house are now plastic, periodic blindness, no clothes with buttons ... only snaps and zippers, can't feel heat or cold on extremities, and "when I fall down ... I can't get up".  Their comments were in the same conversational tone as if I were describing an irritating little bug bite.  They were so young and all had families.

Saturday evening is the big social get together for all riders.  A big dinner provided by Fazolies is set up and live music entertainment is provided ... not that it is a late night ... we start dinner about 5PM, there are remarks by the MS leadership, a big thank you to the riders and the donors and by 8 or 9PM most people are looking for the pillow to fall asleep!  Sunday is a "short" day of 3-4 hours riding and then a barbeque lunch, saying goodbye to friends and heading home.  It really is a great time to completely get away from everything and to just focus on the event at hand and to be with friends.

So again, thank you!  It was a great time and I would like to encourage all of you if you are interested in a riding next year in Florence, know someone who is interested, or just want to join us on the overnight trip and maybe do a little volunteer support work let me know.  We should be back to full team strength next year but would like to have more riders join us.  We will start putting next years team together in about six months where we can do some team preparation and set up some training rides with a couple cowboy cookouts to go along with our "Prime Time Posse" moniker :-)

Regards

Dave Ryan

2007 LaJolla and Lawrence Welk Resort

Friday September 7, 2007: We finally made it! After six months of waiting, our week vacation in Southern California was here, and coincidentally the timing worked out great as the first weekend away was the La Jolla Rough Water Swim … a one and three mile swim in the La Jolla harbor. I had swum the one mile distance a couple years ago and had a ball. Julie has swum there seven or eight times.

The first several days of our vacation was meeting up with friends for evening social time and the big race on Sunday the 9th … the balance of the trip was taking in sights like Catalina Island, Temecula, Wine Country, and even golfing as a couple for the first time in 15 years!

We have a time share unit that we had only used once before on a trip to Spain but this year we wanted to stay closer to home. We both love California so we chose to look into trading our time share for a unit within driving distance in Southern California. Fran found a unit for trade September 7-14 located in between San Diego and Los Angeles in a city called Escondido at the Lawrence Welk Resort putting us within easy driving distance of both cities. Interestingly, there are not a lot of time share resorts in Southern California for trade so even though we started looking in March … six months ahead of time … many locations were booked. The resort is on 700 acres purchased by LW back in 1963 for $150,000 when there was nothing near it … I’ll venture a guess each acre is now worth a million! There are four sections, or neighborhoods, to the resort each built at different times over the last 30 years. Each section has a pool and some form of community center and the main “shopping district” near the lobby has a pizza hut, convenience store, a 380 seat theater, a restaurant, and a store for buying gifts. There is also an 18 hole regulation golf course as well as a 18 hole short course … for golfers in training.

Fran and I traveled from Phoenix on I10 / I15 directly to the Welk Resort … a total of about 380 miles. We left about mid-morning … I even managed to get a swim workout in at SAC and by 5PM we were within sight of the resort. Simon and Wendy had already arrived in La Jolla and were on the beach when they called us to ask about dinner. After checking in we met them in downtown Delmar at a very nice Italian restaurant at the central plaza. It was so nice to spend time with Simon and Wendy as we have known each other now for close to eight years when our kids were attending SAC age group swimming. We always have a lot to ctach up on.

Saturday September 8: I slept for nine hours … what a treat … although I think I was more tired than if I had slept my normal 6-7 hours! After a slow morning Fran and I went to La Jolla to meet up with our daughter Julie at the cove. I love swimming there … both in the protected cove as well as on the seaward side where some decent waves come breaking in. I got in about 800 yards of swimming by myself in the outer cove and then 30 minutes in the waves with Julie.

Fran and I took our time around La Jolla enjoying the small eateries that line the streets both before and after the playtime swimming. Coming down the day before the race is quite helpful for me as I rarely do ocean swimming and getting used to the seaweed, the huge number of fish constantly around you and the ocean swells gets some of the anxiety out of the way … although I must say looking the 1.5 miles across the harbor and knowing that I would be going out and back the next day did leave quite a few butterflies in my stomach.

Sunday September 9: The La Jolla Rough Water swim is actually composed of multiple events comprising youth short distances, Age Group, Masters, and a “Gatorman” distance … a three mile swim across the bay and back to the cove. The Age Group and Masters events are a competitive one mile that are sent off in waves of about 500-700 people at a time. Arizona Sun Devil Masters / SAC had about 15 swimmers in these events. The Gatorman is the premier event as the 3 mile open water US championship and attracted about 550 other swimmers this year including several swimmers from SAC (Winston, Patty Gray, Julie, and me) and an olympic hopeful or two.

I received some ribbing about this afterwards but I actually count my strokes … I’ve done this for as long as I can remember when swimming long distances. It helps me keep my mind off of how long I’m actually out there. I made the turn on the north side of the harbor in 1,100 full strokes and I felt pretty good … the swells were running about four feet and the water was a little choppy but not too bad. The return leg though was harder … it took over 1,300 full strokes to get back! I’m not sure why … my sighting was good so I kept a steady heading but the swells seemed a little higher and the water a little more choppy … and there were a few times where I felt I was swimming strong but not making any headway as the water pushed and tugged on me. I finally finished after an hour and 37 minutes … not exactly one of the speed folks out there that day but a time good enough for the ultimate objective … a Gatorman tee shirt … a very prized tee shirt that only swimmers who make the cut off time of 1:45 are eligible! Some photos to look for show Fran, Julie and I as well as other photos with various swimmer friends from my Masters swim team.

Monday September 10: The highlight of the day was having dinner with Mike and Sue at “Su Casa” in La Jolla. Mike and Sue went there 30 years ago on the honeymoon. We spent 2-3 hours just sharing stories about our families and teenagers while enjoying dinner, fresh made at the table guacamole and a few margaritas. Mike has a swimming background very similar to me in that he was not a swimmer prior to joining Masters Swimming. I was a runner, Mike was a bike rider and sore bodies led both of us to the pool and building ourselves up to the point where we could even attempt an open water ocean swim.

Tuesday September 11: Fran and I had a bad experience at golf about 15 years ago … Fran thought it was a social thing … I thought it was a competitive thing … we ended up walking off the course and thinking we would never play together again. But the LWR offers some free golf clinics and on Tuesdays it is learning how to swing a club … not how to hit a ball … but the process of how to swing a club through a ball. The instructor was very good and both Fran and I learned quite a few tips … to the point where Fran even suggested playing golf together later in the week. I think she was feeling a little competitive ...

After the golf clinic we went to the Wineries of Temecula Valley. After an outdoor lunch at Baily’s in Old Town Temecula we went down the main road where most of the 20 or so Temecula wineries are located and decided to go to one called VR La Cereza. It was actually quite pleasant there. We tasted a few different wines and ended up buying one called “Tempranillo” bottled in 2005 and meaning … “they loved to dance”.

As we returned from the winery tour I was thinking of the outdoor grills provided by the resort and how I would like to cook a couple steaks one evening. As we pulled into the parking lot I had this thought in my head … and got to wondering if there were cooking utensils either in the room or under the grills. As I got out of the car and headed towards our condo I decided to make a beeline for one of the grills and even noticed a tong on top of the wood surface next to the grill … before I thought about it further I went right over to the grill, noticed it was hot and proceeded opened it … only to hear a high pitched whiney “that’s my chicken”! Fran had her hand over her mouth as I turned to look at a big Grizzly Adams type of guy who was trying to get to me before I could get to his chicken. Talk about acting before thinking … I quickly apologized profusely and kept apologizing and walking with Fran back to our room where we got a big chuckle out of the “Chicken Incident” and the fact the Grizzly Adams was our loud next door neighbor.

That evening we attended “Thoroughly Modern Millie”. Modern Mille is a new play presented at the Welk Resort Theater featuring a large Broadway quality cast. It is about a young woman from Kansas intent on achieving fortune and fame in NYC during the early 1920s. She eventually achieves the fortune part but only after several perilous plights involving failed relationships and saving young women from being kidnapped and sent to Shanghai for the sex trade. It was a nice play to watch starting at 8PM and finishing around 10:45PM … but we felt bad for the cast as the audience gave a polite applause and then went home to bed. But Fran and I were thinking that if you perform the late evening show at the LW Resort don’t expect much of an enthusiastic response for an audience up past their bed time J

Wednesday September 12: Without a lot of planning we decided to go to Catalina Island today … turns out there are several pickup points for the Catalina Shuttle and we left from Dana Point, a very nice area filled with restaurants and shops supporting the wealthy yacht owners of Southern California. A very beautiful place! It was a quick 90 minute trip to Catalina and Fran and I spent about five hours visiting the city of Avalon. Lunch at the Beach House, buying a few shirts at various shops and after a short trolley ride we went on a walking tour of the Wrigley Memorial arboretum. Wrigley Jr owned the island about 100 years ago and bequeathed about 80% of the island as a permanent conservation site. Some photos to look for are from lunch at the Avalon Beach House, the “Dragon Tree” at the Wrigley arboretum, and the streets filled with electric carts. Avalon is only about two miles on a side … so cars are pretty much wasted here … and expensive!

Thursday September 13: Fran and I returned to the golf clinic and learned some basics for chipping this morning. Pretty much the same as for full contact swinging … finding your line, bend at the hips, arms hang straight down, interlaced grip, square feet & shoulders & hips but then pull your feet out at an angle but keep your shoulders parallel to the line to the hole. Whew ... I wanted to write it all down! Seems like a lot when you just want to hit the ball! Then put weight on forward foot and leading arm extended forming a little “y” with arms. Three position back swing (low, medium, high) and the position of the feet prevent the arms from too much of a back swing. No movement of the wrists … it’s all arm movement … from position 1, 2 or 3 depending how far the ball needs to be hit. Club selection is based on loft needed and distance of desired roll.

After lunch at Panera Bread company we played 18 holes of executive golf at the Oak Ridge course at Welk. Most of the holes were 80-90 yards long although a few were a whopping 125 yards. There is a longer course called Fountains but we are a long ways away from being able to use that course. Fran had a number of good shots including a 20 foot putt. It helped that we were almost the only one's on the course so no rushing and we took our time every hole. We played "best ball" and and per hole scores were capped at 5 ... so we got to celebrate the holes where we were successful and by definition we had no unsuccessful holes! It was a nice time together and we got to thinking about when and where we could play next!

That evening I made dinner … OK, not that hard … a couple steaks, store bought salad, and the bottle of “Tempranillo” I had bought on Tuesday but it was nice to cook on the outdoor grills provided by the resort ... and while I was cooking ... I kept looking over my shoulder for Grizzly Adams as I kept reliving the Chicken Incident ....

Bike Ride to the Towers

Today was not supposed to be a ride to the "Towers" ... a well known turn around point for cyclists at the entrance to Bartlett Lake reservoir. I was intending on waking up early and driving down to South Mountain where today is "Silent Sunday" a no motor vehicles day that lets cyclists and hikers take over the park without the fear of getting run over by someone too intent on getting through the park fast than watching out for others. Ouch ... That sounded cycnical ... but you should see some of those drivers ... scary.

Anyway, Chester went in my room last night and peed on my rug and my comforter at about 3AM. I'm not sure why ... sometimes I think He does not like me and took advantage of me at a weak moment. So here it is 3AM and all of a sudden the room went from smelling nice to smelling not so nice and I had to overcome the urge to not through my dog out the window ... because I don't need an animal abuse charge. So I left Chester to sleep and cleaned up the mess and decided to sleep in. But, instead of driving to the south end of Phoenix I woke up at a reasonable hour and rode my bike north to the Towers. It's about a 39 mile ride round trip ... much faster on the way back because from my house the ride to the Towers seems all up hill.

I've attached a few photos showing view from the turn around point. 12 more miles to get down to Bartlett Lake from that point ... that extra 24 miles of hills turns an enjoyable 39 mile jaunt into 63 mile ride of agony. But the views are spectacular! In the photos you will see "4-Peaks" near Roosevelt dam, Weavers Needle behind the Superstition Mountains, and "Tom Thumb" a granite precipice atop McDowell Mountains. I've even included a picture of the Carefree Town Sundial. All for now.

OK ... I've Had Enough Rain

OK ... so it seems like it hasn't rained for about six months ... hello, this is the desert! But this past month it has been pretty hot ... about 20+ days where the high was over 110 degrees ... and wasn't even really a dry heat. We have been looking forward to the rain so much and it finally hit us today. The past week spot thundershowers hit various parts of the Phoenix valley but none came near our house. We got a few "blow & go" storms ... big swirls of dust and wind to make us go inside but no rain. Today we got our first good rainstorm and right after the "Monsoon" season officially began. When the humidity gets above 55 percent for three consecutive days is the official beginning of our summer storm season. We can expect about another four weeks of stormy weather not knowing from day to day whether it is our neighborhood that will get hit with a thunderstorm or the worst thing a "Haboo"!

The Haboo is a pretty amazing sight. It does not happen too often but about once every 2-3 years a wall of dust and dirt rises up to a mile in the sky and it can stretch for 10-20 miles across and it looks like a wall moving across the valley. If you have seen the movie "The Mummy" you saw a Haboo there swallowing the plane. It's like that here as well when the Haboo moves through your area it envelopes everything and leaves a dusty dirty place behind. It does not seem to be really damaging ... unless you are caught on the highway ... it's just a big blow & go ... but it is one of the amazing sights you will ever see!

I've attached a few photos of our backyard after the storm today looking over the back fence at the golf course and then one of Fran grilling dinner. All for now.

Some China Stories: Beijing in April 2004

My experience in China in April of 2004 was actually quite limited ... 3 days in Beijing and 3 days in Shanghai and virtually all my communication was with Honeywell China based personnel but I did have several interesting and sometimes funny experiences that I have not written down so if you will bear with me I'll put some memories to paper ...

BEIJING:
I had one young sales manager who was basically assigned to me for the week by the local Honeywell management. He was there to help me with local language issues and to make sure I got to where I needed to go. Not in a micro manage sense but the big things ... like get to the right hotel, make sure I could find the local office, and to help with office translation as I was often speaking to 10-20 people at a time most who had limited English language ability. He was also there to report back to his boss if people were paying attention to me ... and I'm sure whether I was conveying useful information to the local Chinese sales teams. I got the sense that he felt it was a big deal for him to be assigned to support an American. First in Beijing and then in Shanghai my 'assistant' and I got to speak more freely and he was able to open up and tell me what a big deal this was for him ... to be able to travel between Beijing and Shanghai. He had to have special permission to travel between political jurisdictions ... it seemed this type of travel was forbidden otherwise. And this was just for travel ... let alone wanting to move to another area within the country. He smiled wistfully when we spoke of the freedom of travel between states in the USA or between countries in the European Union. I did not realize how tightly the Chinese controlled movement but with 1.3B people it is far easier to have order when you inhibit movement.

This story brings back memories of when Fran and I were tutoring English as a second language back in South Bend, Indiana in 1990 and I had a young female student who's husband was studying for his PhD in computer science ... she had her masters in computer science. We spent a year together and she picked up English quite nicely. She asked so many questions for things that we often take for granted ... how do we number highways? ... what are zip codes? ... what are area codes? ... how many types of political jurisdictions do we have (county, town, city, state, country, etc)? But the point of the story is that they had to leave their 3 year old baby at home for three years while they came to the US to study. It was to guarantee their return to China. Things changed dramatically during the 1990s as they were able to be reunited with their child and subsequently moved to Chicago ... we still get Christmas cards from them.

THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA!
In Beijing I had a day to myself and I signed up for a tour of the Great Wall. It was AWESOME! $50 for an eight hour tour ... including lunch. I had a delightful young lady as the tour guide and she spoke excellent English. There were about eight of us on the tour ... our first stop was unscheduled ... the "Official" Chinese Jade Manufacturing Company. We walked into a little store front and the guides inside showed us about four extremely hard working Chinese workers dutifully shaving and sanding and polishing Jade jewelry and ornaments ... showing us every step of the process ... giving me the impression that it took these four workers about an eight hour shift to produce but a few pieces for sale to the public. After about 30 minutes of that we rounded the corner and it opened up into a giant room filled floor to ceiling with unbelievable amounts of Jade ornaments, statues, and artwork. It was incredible! They must have had an army of workers out back ... cause it wasn't those four workers in front who did this! I bought a very nice warrior horse representing one of the four types of horses favored by an ancient warrior emperor.

Now on to the Great Wall! Well ... almost, we got half way there when we stopped at the "Official" Chinese Porcelain Bowl Manufacturing Company. Same deal as the jade place ... four workers up front taking sheet copper, using a wooden mallet to pound the metal into a bowl shape around a mandrel, then 1,000 little hits making the copper conform to the mandrel, followed by 12 coats of porcelain each with a separate kiln firing, and then final finishing and painting. It made me exhausted thinking that these four workers could maybe turn out four bowls a day from their one furnace ... then we turned the corner ... you got it ... a huge room ... a warehouse filled floor to ceiling with the most gorgeous pottery you have ever seen. Little bowls, big bowls, ornate bowls, plain bowls. I bought a beautiful porcelain bowl that sits with my jade horse in our living room. Lunch was on the second floor of the building. A five course affair of delicious food.

Now on to the Great Wall! Well ... almost, we were almost there and we stopped at a location where many of the emperors from the last 3,000 years were buried. Incredible buildings and sights. The most impressive building was held up by tree trunks a 1,000 years old! These trunks were well over 60 feet high and 10-12 feet in diameter and straight as an arrow. The architect of the building specified these trees as the only way that this great building could be built. One small engineering challenge ... the trees only grew in southern China ... over a 1,000 miles away. But like many things in China's history, when the emperor wanted something he gathered enough people and made them do it. There were about 20 of these huge tree pillars each the height of a five story building and they had to be carried, pushed, and floated for over 1,000 miles ... it must have been an incredible sight!

Now on to the Great Wall! Yes, we finally made it. The wall ... its pretty big. If it was hard to picture moving those 20 trees 1,000 miles now I'm looking at a stone wall several thousand miles long 20-30 feet thick and 30-80 feet high and built over 1,000 years ago. But the invasions by the Mongols must have provided plenty of incentive to build the wall so over a period of a few hundred years and with the blood and sweat of over 1,000,000 slave laborers the wall was built. I was able to climb over about a 1 mile stretch of the wall as it traversed steep hills and ravines ... it basically follows the nape of the earth. Sometimes the climb is so steep it took my breath away! At one point I was stopped by a large crowd and they one by one gave me their babies to hold so they could take pictures of me holding their children and with my arms around them. The line was five deep at one point. They loved it. Not sure why but I'm sure they didn't get to see many foreigners and I had a good time sharing a smile and a laugh with them.

After the Great Wall! After climbing around the big wall I thought our tour guide would bring us back to the hotel ... but there was one more stop. The official Chinese herbal medicine center. Seriously, we were brought to a "hospital" with multiple buildings in a compound. It was actually quite pretty and had multiple pictures of "eminent" doctors who had discovered various treatments to benefit the citizens of China. We were asked to choose between viewing the displays and pictures among the halls or to have an opportunity to talk with one of the eminent doctors. Naturally I wanted to meet one of the doctors ... we were led to a small room with little tiny wooden chairs where we waited for about 20 minutes and a nurse who spoke english entered. She asked for a volunteer from among the 10 or so in the room and when no one stepped foreward I raised my hand and became the doctors first "patient". I went to the front of the room and was introduced to the doctor who had a long robe and a long white beard and sat down across from him. He held my hand looking at my palm and asked me if I was feeling any back pain ... well after travelling across the world, visiting the jade and porcelain factories, climbing across the great wall and then spending about 20 minutes on a smal wooden bench I had to admit my back was feeling a little sore. Long story short ... he offered to send to America a special blend of herbs guaranteed to remove impurities and cleanse my kidneys and solve my back pain ... for $50 per month ... and they take Visa. I politely declined and after a short while ended back up at my hotel with some great memories. To this day ... I wonder if the eminent doctor really had something that would make my back feel better ... :-)

That's all for now. Hope you enjoyed the stories. It was fun writing them down.

Next installment ... Shanghai!

Some China Stories:

July 2007: Turns out I'm heading back to China on August 3rd for a week stay in a city called "Tianjin" just outside of Beijing.

I was in Beijing and Shanghai for about one week and in India for a week several years ago. Pretty interesting ... between the two countries China (1.3B people) and India (1.0B people) they contain about 38% of the world's 6B population. U.S. is the third largest at about 0.3B population and represents about 5% of the world's population. Contrast that with the respective gross national product (a measure of wealth) of the countries; U.S. at about $13Trillion, China at $2.3Trillion and India at about $0.8Trillion. So with 5% of the world's population we have over four times the wealth of China and India combined and they collectively have almost eight times our population.

I've also spent some time in Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, and Australia and I think it is fair to say ... with the exception of Australia, Korea, Japan, and Singapore, the Asian countries have a long way to go to meet what we or the Europeans would consider acceptable levels of water quality, available electricity, roads, schooling for their children, adequate housing, etc. It is absolutely staggering to see the levels of poverty that exist in these countries and yet in the midst of the poverty is a fast rising middle class and an even faster super rich class driving the globalization of their major industries.

It is quite exciting to watch these giant countries find their way forward as their populations become more educated and their standards of living increase. Contrast that with many of the European countries and Japan where populations are shrinking and populations are aging rapidly. It is no wonder that the U.S. is reaching out to China and India so strongly as when we look 20 years from now the countries that will be replacing our European partners in terms of population are currently the source of much of the world's angst ... Pakistan, Indonesia, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Iran ... and they will increase rapidly to represent 20% of the global population, they are all impoverished and they are all being radicalized. In 20 years we will be down to about 4.3% of global population.

A very interesting and very disturbing phenomenon that is very apparent when overseas looking at the U.S. is the fact that for all the good we do globally and the tremendous influence that we have on virtually every country in the world ... and with all our wealth and education and military strength we spend very little time and effort trying to truly understand other nations ... at least not nearly at the level they try to understand us. My goodness ... a good example of this is the fact that we have over 20% of our population in the southern U.S. is of Hispanic origin and we can't even be bothered to learn Spanish in our schools or study their cultures.

I am absolutely fascinated by this topic as well as global energy ... but that is a whole different story that gets pushed off the national discussion ... to talk about Paris Hilton.

Lake Tahoe June 7-10

Another great trip with my friends from RxRunning! We took two teams to Lake tahoe again this year and had a wonderful weekend. The weather was perfect and after 11 hours of running the 72 miles around the lake our two seven person relay teams were exhausted but came within 10 minutes of each other at the finish!

Fran and I used this for the second year in a row to escape the Phoenix heat and travel to Reno for an evening of rest and then to travel up to Tahoe the following day. We stayed at our usual hotel in South Lake Tahoe and went out for dinner both evenings with our larger group. Saturday night after the race was absolutely beautiful as we had dinner late into the evening on the shore of Lake Tahoe.

Next year ... three teams! This is too much fun!

Dinner Celebration for Fran at Methode Bistro

To celebrate Fran's first week at her new place of employment we went to "Methode Bistro" south of the Scottsdale / Lincoln intersection. What a great place!

I had purchased a $50 dining coupon from KOOLradio.com for $25 a couple weeks ago and it seemed like a perfect time to use it. Fran had just changed jobs and was so pleased to be hired by what so far looks like a very nice place to work and with good long term prospects. They acquire land and develop it for residential use. They treat her wonderfully and it is only a short trip from our house.

The dinner itself was great. Everything about it ... the bread, wine, appetizer, and main course of Sea Bass for Fran and Prime Rib for me. I would highly recommend this restaurant ... but it is expensive. The Mediterranean Cuisine for two is easily $100 sharing an appetizer and each having a glass of wine ... but the food is so good and the atmosphere casual but I thought elegant.

Here is a link to directions: http://www.methodebistro.net/location.aspx

And a Review: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/arizonaliving/articles/0520therest0520.html

Tupelo Visitors May 26-28

Fran and I hosted four high school girls from Tupelo Mississippi this weekend. They were part of a 40 person church youth choir visiting Arizona and Nevada. They sang for us at church on Sunday and they were awesome to listen to and to watch their youthful energy. Marion, Lizzie, Mary Morgan & Caitlin only spent two nights with us but they were such a treat to talk to and to learn a little bit about life in their town of Tupelo.



We have lived in Phoenix now for eight years so we have lost a little of our memory of when we lived in small towns like Hendersonville (population 10,000 ... on a good day), Utica (population 60,000 ... and shrinking) , South Bend (60,000 ... and also shrinking), or Bellbrook (5,000). Being in a Phoenix metropolitan area of 4M people brings a certain numbness to many things that go on in a big city and memories fade about the simple life afforded in small towns.



Tupelo is known as the birthplace of Elvis Presley and currently stands at a population of about 37,000 people. Talking with the girls brought back a lot of the small town memories that we experienced when our kids were younger and grew up in an environment very rich in simple pleasures. We have lived in six towns/cities before Phoenix and yet never had a fence between us and our neighbors, the schools were close by, there was time to spend with friends, and one time when my hub caps were taken ... the police came to my house to take the report ... it even made the paper the next day :-)



Marion, Lizzie, Mary Morgan & Caitlin reminded me of those times when they spoke one evening about the "trouble" they used to get into when they were younger ... one had "two" timeouts during pre-school ... another got caught eating chocolate toppings off a birthday cake at school and had to sit in detention with her girl friend.



So girls ... thanks for staying with us and I hope we see you again!



"Miss Fran" and "Mr Dave"

Europe Trip to Bracknell and Prague - March 2007

I went to Europe for a week during March with my boss and several of my peers. Our group is responsible for global activities so we needed to meet up with our European co-workers to develop plans for this year and next. Hopefully, we'll do something like this for Asia in the near future. We ended up working most daylight hours but did have a few opportunities to get out and see a few sights. We did not wander far in Bracknell except for a local shopping district and a nice dinner with local co-workers and did not have time to get into London, but Prague we were able to get out a few times.

Old Town Prague is spectacular! It dates back centuries and the King's Castle actually goes back to the year 900. We had a very nice dinner one evening overlooking the river cutting through downtown, visted the King's castle and adjoining cathedral, and one morning I was able to find my way via local tram to the largest pool in the Czech Republic to do some swimming. It was not easy finding my way there ... I actually tried one day and almost made it but got lost and had to return to the hotel but the next day armed with better information I made it in time and had a nice swim workout. I've attached a few photos of Prague including the hotel I stayed at (Paris Hotel - very nice), the hotel across the street (Grand Hotel Bohemia) and the Podoli pool complex. This is definitely a place worth visiting again!

Julie's First Marathon: The "Lost Dutchman" Feb 18, 2007

Julie ran her first marathon today! What a beautiful day. Slight overcast and early morning temperatures of 40 degrees warming up to about 65 by noon.

When she mentioned it a few weeks ago I was surprised. She has really been ramping up her running this past few months and did very well in the PF Chang 1/2 marathon in January but I knew her legs were hurting. She was so uncomfortable that it did not occur to me that she would want to do the marathon but she did and I was very happy to go with her as her support crew ... and while I was there I ended up running a 10K. It is quite an impressive event that the city of Apache Junction puts on every year. A full and half marathon, a 10K, an 8K and a 2 mile run. Lots of music and food as well. All in a beautiful park nestled against the scenic Superstition mountains.

Julie got up at 3AM and I got up at 3:30AM to be able to make it to the marathon start. I dropped Julie off at the buses and they brought her six miles into the desert where they had 30 camp fires waiting to let the runners warm up while they were stretching prior to the race start. So Julie started at 7AM while I went and raced the 10K starting at 8AM. After my race I picked up my camera and went to mile 23 ... an absolutely brutal mile marker in any marathon but they had an especially nasty hill right at mile 23 that runner after runner who went by me struggled mightly to get up.

I ended taking a handful of pictures that are attached. They don't do the place justice in terms of stark beauty but two of my favority mountains in the area are "Superstition Mountain" that I have climbed a few times and one shows "4 Peaks" in the distance. I've been near to the 4 Peaks but not climbed them yet. They go up to 8,000 feet and overlook the biggest reservoir in central Arizona "Roosevelt Lake" put in by "Teddy" Roosevelt over a century ago.

The Superstition Mountain area has quite a bit of legend associated with it going back 150+ years where prospectors found gold, were killed, but the gold was rediscovered decades later only to have the miner take the secret to his grave. People still go looking for the old mines and / or hiding places for the gold.

26 mile PF Chang Marathon Jan 14, 2007

29 degrees at start time in downtown Phoenix!

What a way to start the day at 7AM in downtown Phoenix! Julie and I were entered in the PF Chang 1/2 marathon and full marathon races. Fortunately it was clear skies and no wind.

I think there were about 10,000 people entered in the marathon and about 26,000 entered in the 1/2 marathon ... quite a few folks. Julie ran well and finished in 1:56 and I did pretty good as well running the full distance in a little under 3:32.

The 3:32 time was actually good enough to qualify for the Boston Marathon in 2008 as a 50 year old ... so I felt pretty good about that. I ended up taking a pretty good fall at the 19 mile mark running through old town scottsdale zig zagging back and forth through 90 degree turns. One particular 90 degree bend went from black top to cobblestone and I don't know whether I slipt or tripped but I went down flat on my face. Fortunately, it was cobbelstone and instead of road rash I ended up skidding on my stomach and race number and the tucking and rolling as other runners went by me. As I was tucking and rolling the crowd (yes it was packed intersection) that was previously cheering went silent as they watched me fall and then gasped as I rolled. As I was rolling I was thinking boy that is a pretty cool sound effect ... but then all I could think about was getting up and running again.

I was so proud of Julie. She has run a few of these 1/2 marathons now and runs a pretty aggressive race. There are a few trails near our house and she has been steadily increasing the distances ... and she seems to really enjoy the running and is looking very graceful as she runs. Go Julie!

Glendale Glitters at BCS Block Party

OK ... it's the first time Glendale has hosted a block party of this size since the move from Tempe but they did a pretty good job of moving the crowd and providing an entertaining evening for a large crowd of Ohio , Florida and local fans of their respective college football teams.

The "Glendale Glitters" theme with many glowing hot air balloons, 1.5M lights, and many shops provided the setting. The Ohio State and Florida State marching bands provided the main entertainment.

Fran and I started out at Glendale Community College and took the free shuttle to downtown. Not too bad ... a 30 minute wait in the GCC parking lot and a 15 minute bus ride to get there. On the way back we lucked out and avoided the whole return line when a bus that was returning people to the GCC parking lot got out of sequence, overshot the pick up point by 100 yards and stopped right in front of us as we were on our way to go stand in line. We felt bad for all the people who had patiently waited in line but .... it sure did feel good to sit in the bus without waiting for an hour

:-O

Round trip it was about four hours from our house. We had a good two hours in the downtown area, enough to see the marching bands, take a walk around the balloons and light show, and have a couple burgers at a local restaurant. One thing we could not figure out was why there were so few places to eat. There were 10's of thousands of people in the downtown area for hours and only a few places serving food or drink.

Lunch at Carlsbad Tavern

Why write about lunch? I've wanted to go to a place called Carlsbad tavern for a few weeks since I heard about about it from a friend at work so today seemed like a good day to try it. Mom is in town for couple weeks and I was off from work ... so off we went. It's located at 3313 Hayden Road in Scottsdale and true to it's name is a New Mexico themed restaurant.

We had the Tortilla soup and the Roswell Reuben ... and they were outstanding! Right or wrong I often judge a restaurant on whether they can make a good Reuben and these folks really got it right! Now that I've checked it out I'll be back with Fran!

www.carlsbadtavern.com

See reviews: http://phoenix.citysearch.com/review/1683785

30K ARR Desert Classic - Sunday Dec 17th

Drive as far west as you can on Bell Road ... to the edge of Surprise and that is where the 30K out and back course starts.

I've been preparing for the PF Chang Marathon in January by running in distance races the last few months; a 20K, 10 Mile, 1/2 Marathon and now a 30K. I'm glad that phase is over! My calves have been crampy for the last few weeks and it was no different during the 30K. By the time I hit the 15K turn around point both my calves were pretty tight and by the time I hit 20K I was forced to slow down to a jog. Still ... I finished and that's a good thing. Now I just plan to get healed up, get loose and run shorter distances till race day! Only four weeks to go!

Race Results: http://arizonaroadracers.com/Results/desertclassic30k-2006.html

Dinner at Trente-Cinq

Our cultural maven Christy brought us together for a wonderful evening of fun, food and conversation on Saturday at "Trente-Cinq" a small restaurant on 7th street. The food was awesome ... even though the much promised Belgian Waffles were no where to be found! Dan & Liz, Fran and I, and Christy and Al had a wonderful meal and lots of fun talking about anything from bicycles, to politics, to kids, to asking ... is life that much different than it was 35 (trente cinq ... hmmm) years ago?

Christy found the place through some reviews in the local papers and after seeing some write ups on line it is easy to see why she suggested we meet there. Liz and Dan had the hallmark muscles dish, Fran, Al and Christy had the lamb, and I had a seafood entree. All awesome dishes!

This is such a fun little group we have here with some shared life experiences related to kids and school, a passion for reaching out to others, and enjoying life!

Trente-Cinq 35 [Map]
2333 N. 7th St.Phoenix, AZ 85006
602-254-0244

From the New Times: Jean-Claude Van Damme, a.k.a. “the Muscles from Brussels,” ain’t got nothing on Lionel Geuskens, the Belgian-born proprietor of Trente-Cinq 35.

From Cenpho Mavens: Trente-Cinq (French for "35") is a Belgian bistro located along a section of 7th Street between Thomas and McDowell Roads that is slowly emerging as a hub of restaurants and shops to service the evolving Coronado Historic Neighborhood. The restaurant's owner and chef, Lionel Gueskens, is a Belgian native who used to be a chef at Coup des Tartes. Apparently Chef Gueskens had a goal of opening his own restaurant by age 35, and Trente-Cinq is the result of that goal.

December 2006: Feliz Navidad y buenas fiestas a nuestros amigos y familia

Just a quick note for us to wish all our family and friends a Merry Christmas, happy holidays and a wonderful New Year in 2007!

We had a very nice 2006 and there was one special thing that I wanted to be able to say … that 2006 was the year the entire Phoenix Ryan family has Spanish as a second language ... I can’t say that … but at least one person in our family did add Spanish to her skills!

Julie (20) spent this semester in Spain at the University of Alicante studying Spanish, Spanish culture and Spanish history as part of the ASU international studies program. It was a wonderful opportunity for her to experience life and school in a different culture and it turned out pretty well for Fran and me because it gave us a place to visit for our 25th anniversary in November J All things considered … it was a great experience for Julie but homesickness can be a powerful emotion and Julie experienced it strongly. The good news for Fran and I was that it seems like we communicated more with Julie these past three months than we have in several years!

Matt (23) is working for Lockheed and has moved to Gaithersburg, MD as part of his second year of a three year training program. They are also putting him through George Washington University for his MBA. He is doing well at work and school and is a very doting boyfriend to a wonderful young lady “Bri” who is studying to be a theater manager in St Louis. Her studies and internships take her all over the U.S. and Europe and it is fascinating to listen and read about her travels.

Fran and I are doing great and enjoying the western lifestyle going out and about on one thing or another every week. Big treat … we saw the “Rolling Stones” a few weeks ago … I wanted to see them before they or I were dead! We are also enjoying watching our Matt and Julie grow into fine young people as well as watching all our other family and friends progress through their own lives. And while we have been watching everyone progress … 25 years of marriage went by! And the 25th year is one of those special anniversary years so I thought I had better get Fran something better than the cheeseboard and the food processor I bought her during our first year of marriage … Julie bailed me out and gave us a great reason to travel to Spain for our anniversary. We spent a week in Marbella in a time share resort we traded for and then two days in Alicante. Julie’s host family Ana and Luis Sanmillan and their two daughters Ana and Bea invited us over for dinner one night and we were just so pleased to be able to spend time with them and thank them for taking care of Julie for us.

We had a special treat this past summer having Joe and Karen Fortuin give us a call on a Friday evening when they were passing through Phoenix on their way back to Albuquerque. We were able to stay up past our normal 9PM J bed time and actually stayed out until 1AM with Joe and Karen catching up on over 15 years of not seeing each other! It was like we just picked up from where we left off in Utica, NY. Awesome seeing you two!

See my blog http://djrryan.blogspot.com/ for more stories and plenty of pictures. Feel free to leave a message or two on the blog. We would love to hear from you!


Dave and Fran Ryan

13.1 Mile Fiesta Bowl 1/2 Marathon - Sunday 12/3/2006

I didn't respect the marathon today ... I took it for granted that I would just go run it. My time was OK, 1:36:06 or about a 7:20 pace, but I've been paying for it all day.

http://www.raceplaceevents.com/fbm06res.htm#Male%2045-49

The marathon does funny things to you if you are not prepared ... or if you are not respectful. I had the prepared part pretty well done ... not top shape but good enough for a 7:00 pace. I cruised the 10 mile ARR Thanksgiving day race just a couple weeks ago in a 7:06 pace and felt pretty good during the race and throughout the day. I was overconfident thinking that a few extra miles was not a big deal ... just go run it ... and if there some left over energy I'll stop at LA fitness for a little extra workout. What a dreamer!

The thing about the ARR race on Thanksgiving was I had the previous 12 days off on vacation. I did some running but got lots of rest. It showed on race day as I had no pain and plenty of spring in my step. Today was different altogether ... I had gone to a Christmas party last night and ate and drank nothing that would have been good on a training table. Also, the day before I did a 1 hour swim workout followed by a 1 hour spin class ... and I had done a hard spin class on Friday as well. As a result I had no spring in my step at all and my calves were crampy the last eight miles!

By the time I got home today I was feeling pretty miserable and have felt pretty crappy all day. Next time ... I taper and I watch what I eat!!!

10 Mile Run - ARR Thanksgiving Day Race - Thursday November 23, 2006

I've got two big races coming up ... I define "big" as those where I have already pre-paid and can't get my money back if I don't participate. The RnR Phoenix on January 14th, 2007 and the Phoenix Ironman on April 15th, 2007. It's been a little tough getting ready for those events as I've had one injury or another bothering me for the last six months but thankfully I can usually bike and/or run if my shoulder hurts and can swim if my knees, calves, heels, or hamstrings hurt.

Thursday the 23rd was one of those days where nothing hurt :-) Definitely, a good day for a run. After returning from our trip to SpainI did not feel like I would be able to run fast but I at least wanted to get a race under my belt so I could gauge my fitness level leading up to the January marathon. I ended up finding a nice pace that I was able to maintain the entire race and finished in 1:10:50 or about a 7:06 per mile pace. Not too bad and it gave me confidence for my next two checkpoints; the Runners Den Fiesta Bowl 1/2 Marathon on December 3rd and the ARR 30K Classic on December 17th.

Espana - and now back home

We had a great trip to Spain and a smooth return home late Monday the 20th. Awesome time starting off on Nov 9th with a day & night in London on the 10th, six days in a Marriott time share unit in Marbella, and then two days in Alicante before returning home through London.

It was great seeing Julie and her host family in Alicante. They are a wonderful family and have a beautiful home overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. The parents, Luis and Ana have two beautiful children, Ana (12) and Bea (8).

Every city we visted; Malaga, Marbella, Granada, Ronda, Seville, Alicante, and Altea were pretty as a post card. It took us a while but we even learned how to drive in the cities. Seriously, the highway system was great but the city streets for a 500+ year old city have something to be desired. Every city was driveable .... except we never did figure out Granada. We drove there easily enough from Marbella ... but still ... after visiting the Alhambra ... the city streets were completely illogical to us. Anyway, a picture of Julie, Fran and I is attached showing us at the top of the Alicante fortress overlooking the harbor.

Espana - Altea - Sunday November 19th

On our final day in Spain we drove to the beaches of Alicante. They are sooo beautiful! We did not spend much time there but it was good to take a few pictures to remember what they look like if we return sometime. The night before I ended up running several miles along the shoreline of this beach.

After sighing over the beach we drove north from Alicante in our little Mercedes to a small coastal city called Altea (all-te-ya). It was about an hour drive to reach this picturesque location and it was so worth it! We walked for quite a ways on the board woalk before eating a light lunch at one of the many retaurants lining the beach. OK ... it was not really a full lunch as the prices shocked us at first and we ordered our standard cafe con leche and a small platter of cheese.

One area that really intrigued me is shown in both pictures but is enlarged in the right hand picture is the small city next to the large rock jutting into the ocean. I'm not sure what that small city is called but the map shows a town called "Calpe" in that direction. I would love to drive to the top of that rock!

After leaving Altea we returned to Alicante and dropped Julie off at her hosts home and then drove to the airport for our flight to London via Barcelona.

Espana - Alicante Dinner at Trada Family Home - November 18, 2006

What a nice way to end our vacation and 25th wedding anniversary trip in Spain by going to the home of the family hosting Julie for the semester. They have a beautiful home with a view of the Mediterranean out their back window.

Ana, Luis, Ana (12) and Bea (9) have been Julie's family away from home these last couple months and they have taken good care of her. Julie is not easy to take good care of in that she tends to be pretty independant but Fran I could tell instantly that this is such a good home away from home for her. Julie has not had a younger sibling so having two younger sisters had to be fun for her.

Dinner starts late in Spain so we arrived at 9PM and met with the family and then Ana's brother and his wife joined us. Fran and I bought the family some things for them to remember Arizona; a booklet showing typical Arizona scenes and two ceramic pieces. One of the pieces showed a mother owl sitting on a barrel cactus with her young babaies in a hole of the cactus and the other piece showed a mother coyote and her pups resting on a rock.

We had a delightful dinner of soup, roast beef, salmon, and pastry for desert. It worked out very well from a language perspective as Ana, Ana's brother and his wife each spoke English to some degree with Ana's brother being quite fluid in his speaking.

We were very proud of Julie and her ability to speak Spanish so effortlessly while we were in alicante with her as well as during the social time during dinner. Such an awesome thing for her to travel to Spain to live with aother family and to learn about another language and culture. And we are equally impressed with the host family and their willingness to open up their home to host a foreign student.

Espana - Alicante - November 18, 2006

The area of Alicante has been inhabited for about 7000 years, first by early tribes and later by Greeks, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Visigoths and Moors.

We had quite a nice day in Alicante today first going to an open air market in the downtown area, then going to the top of the fortress that looks over Alicante and at one time protected the bay area, then we went to an exposition on the faces of Jesus. Finally, that evening we went to Julie's host family's home for the evening dinner.

The open air market is quite an eye opener with 100+ booths selling anything from shoes to scarves to clothing in one long lane and then two parallel lanes selling foods, spices, chocolates, fruits and vegetables. Many of the locals use this market to stock up on fresh produce twice per week.

After the market it was a short walk to the base of the Castillo de Santa Barbara a centuries old castle built on the summit of mount Benacantil at 166m above sea level. It was quite a hike to get to the summit but we made it to the top and were treated with a beautiful panaramic view of the entire region and took several beautiful pictures.

The exposition on the faces of Jesus was actually in three locations but we chose to go to only one in the Concatedral de San Nicolas. The Cathedral was recently renovated and sits in the heart of downtown accessible only on foot as the streets are very narrow and appear to be shut off from normal car access. Inside the cathedral is a series of paintings, statues, and ornamental pieces all devoted to the Christian faith and mass. The exposition attempts to answer why so many cultures and peoples represent Jesus differently in appearance from blue haired blond to dark and swarthy in complexion. Pretty church and what must be priceless memorabilia but maybe because so much was in Spanish (there were a few English subtitles) I missed the point of the exposition.

Leaving the exposition we went to the seafront promenade (Paseo de la Explanada) an absolutely stunning walkway along the harbor frontage built in 1957 with more than six and a half million small tiles. After that we went back to the Hotel MIO CID to rest up until time for dinner and Julie went back to her room to rest as well. I ended up going for a run on the Alicante beach. Wow! Totally gorgeous and it just goes on for miles. True to form I did not try to return the way I came and ended up getting lost for a while and what should have been a 45 minute run turned into 90 minutes! But ... were those beaches nice or what!

Espana - Lunch in Puerto Banus - Thursday Nov 16th

Today was supposed to be a trip to Gibralter but we were diverted to a sales pitch and a nice lunch in Puerto Banus after being contacted by the Marriott sales rep Wednesday night. The weather for Thursday was going to be rainy anyway and she convinced us to stay in Marbella and enjoy the sights. She stopped by with a free bottle of wine and gave us the overview of how the Marriott Marbella resort worked and what were some of the nicer restaurants and attractions in the area. We told "Suzanne" about our owning a Starwood time share unit and that we had traded for the Marriott location where we were at but that we would be willing to go through a sales pitch at the new Marriott "Playa Andalucia" resort just south of Marbella.

The sales pitch at the Playa Andalucia was low key and we learned a lot more about how the time share industry works and how to get the best value for our unit or any future unit we may buy. In return for our time we recieved two $100 euro gift certificates to be redeemed when staying at a Marriott for a two day period.

After our visit to Playa Andalucia we travelled north returning towards Marbella and stopped in Puerto Banus, a small city that is playground to some of the world's richest people. It was raining quite heavily and we walked through the narrow streets to the water front that was lined with multi-million dollar yachts and expensive restaurants and shops. On a nice day it would have been quite pleasant to wander the streets. As it was we just wanted to get off our feet and out of the rain so we quick stepped into a little Italian restaurant. The staff were very friendly and the food was quite excellent and that helped take the sting out of the 16 Euro salad, 15 Euro pizza, and 4 Euro bottles of water that Fran and I split.

Steep prices aside, Puerto Banus is a must stop on a future trip.

Espana - Seville - Wednesday November 15, 2006

The Marbella to Seville trip was our longest yet taking about three hours to complete each way. As we did the prior day in Ronda we made our way to a parking garage in the part of the city we wanted to be in and then walked. It was a lot of walking but we managed to see the two primary sites on our list; the Plaza de Espana and the Seville Cathedral & La Giralda. Along the way we managed to get next to the "Rio Guadalquivir" that cuts through Seville and is lined with parks and homes, had lunch next to the bull fighting ring and went on a tour bus ride (top deck) around a good portion of the downtown area.

The Plaza de Espana is a spectacular semi-circular plaza built as the center piece of a 1929 exposition. There are numerous sections embedded into the semi-circle depicting historic moments and heraldic symbols from the 40 regions of Spain. Most surfaces are completely covered with beautiful glzed tiles. It has a spectactular fountain in the center and a boating canal that follows the arc of the structure.

The Seville Cathedral is the largest church by volume (they have a Guiness Boook of Records certificate handy to attest :-) in all of Christiandom. It was built to replace the Almohad mosque over 500 years ago, starting in 1401 and completed 100 years later. It measures 415 feet by 270 feet and is 140 feet high. La Giralda is the grand tower adjacent to the church. It was built between 1172 and 1195 and is the symbol of Seville. La Giralda has 35 ramps, instead of stairs, that make the climb easier as well as allowing a man on horse back to make the climb. The top of La Giralda allows for good roof top views of the Cathedral and surrounding areas.

Espana - Ronda - Tuesday November 14, 2006

Ronda is located in the mountains near Marbella and half the fun getting there is taking the winding roads. The sky was somewhat overcast as we travelled to and from Ronda but with the Mediterranean in the background the view from the mountain roads was spectacular.

The Puente Nuevo "New Bridge" (built in late 1700s) over the river Guadalevin is the symbol of Ronda. It bridges two parts of the city over a 300 foot deep gorge. Ronda is one of the oldest towns in spain with caves and relics dating back to the stone age. Located near Ronda is the archeological site of the Roman town Acripa. Also, Ronda is the home to bullfighting. Starting approximately 500 years ago the tradition of men challenging bulls in battle originated in Ronda.

We learned from our trip to Granada to not try to navigate the entire city by car ... it's just too frustrating unless you are a local, so we parked and walked into town and came across an old hotel called "El Tajo" that looked like it would be a wonderful place to stay but we asked for suggestions for tourists and the hotel manager gave us a small map that proved to be excellent in guiding us. We used the map to take us down the main shopping streets (closed to autos) and plazas, as well as, the Puerto Nuevo, and the various churches and other sites. Standing at the edge of the city and looking into the fields below provided a perspective that I would imagine has not changed in a thousand years.

Ronda turned out to be my favorite city to visit. True it was not next to the Mediterranean but the history, architecture, and relaxed lifestyle was beautiful.

Espana - Granada - Monday November 13, 2006

Granada was our first trip away from Marbella and after a couple uncertain moments where we were trying to figure our the Spanish roadsigns we had a very pleasant two hour trip up through Malaga and on into Granada. Fortunately, there were a number of signs pointing the way to our primary destination the "Alhambra" a huge fortress built on a mountain side by the Moors over 1,000 years ago. The photos don't do it justice as there are so many magnificent views but one of the photos above shows Fran at the top of city facing side of the fortress with the Sierra Nevada mountains in the background. The Sierra Nevadas are the highest mountain range in Spain and already hold a significant amount of snow. Another photo shows the view from atop Alhambra looking down on the interior walls and showing the outlines of living accomodations.

We learned in history class about the "Crusades" and the conflicts that raged through the Middle Ages, but it is here that these lessons come to life. The Alhambra is on a site that once was Christian, then Moorish when the Jewish inhabitants helped the Moors drive the Christians out, then reverted back to Christian in the 15th century as the Jews and Moors were either driven from Spain or converted to Christians. The Alhambra structure reflects Moorish as well as Christian styles although clearly the elegance and style of this huge structure is from the Moorsih tradition.

Seemingly unrelated and housed in the second story of the round coloseum like structure was a display about the life and times of Christopher Columbus. Pretty interesting as it covered not only the successes of Columbus but his failures and wanderings before he died.

Espana - Marbella - Sunday November 12, 2006

Fran and I arrived at the Marriott Marbella Beach Resort on Saturday November 11th and we kept pretty close to the resort to get used to the accomodations and to recover a little bit more from the jet lag. The resort is really quite lovely with a beach on the Mediterranean, pool, restaurants, store and a workout center. There are also numerous restaurants all around the area.

On Sunday we drove from the resort to the city of Marbella and walked on the boardwalk for a while before eating a wonderful pizza lunch at a little Italian restaurant called "Da Fabio". The beaches that we could see in Marbella range from pretty nice to "OK". The Mediterranean is the background so you can't go wrong but if you don't go to a fee for service part of the beach make sure you bring a chair because it can get pretty rocky in the free parts of the beach.

London - Covent Garden - Friday November 10, 2006

Fran and I travelled from Phoenix through Chicago on Thursday evening and landed in London late morning on Friday the 10th. after checking in at the Sheraton we made our way downtown via the public bus back to the airport and then down to Covent Garden via the "Tube". There are many many places we could have chosen but since we were very limited by time we had to select one spot and since Covent Garden is so poular with restaurants and theater it seemed like a good bet. We walked around for a little bit but it was quite cold and windy ... curiously the locals looked at us like we did not recognize balmy weather :-) We went into a renovated buliding filled with shops and came across a very delightful little restaurant called "Punch and Judy" where we had dinner.

I say delightful because I really enjoyed the place and the food. Perhaps because it was so new and different for me because when I looked up the restaurant on a local London restaurant review ... it did not fair so well: http://www.fluidfoundation.com/venueDetails.asp?Venue_ID=441


I made sure to write a nice review just to list them up a little :-)

Rolling Stones in Phoenix November 8th 2006

Well THAT was a concert! Fran and I went to see the Rolling Stones tonight at the new Cardinal Stadium. Beautiful place and the concert was awesome!

Grip It, Rip It, Stick It

What a name for a golf tournament but ... I leave that to our golfing legend / security guard Don. As brainchild and host for the infamous annual tournament where golfers of all abilities are brought together for a morning of fun, sun and golf.

The interpid IT team of Alan, David, Anders and Dave managed a respectable -4 to par total score on the par 63 using a scramble format. David and Anders were the mainstays contributing the majority of the drives, chips and putts while yours truly managed to contribute a putt or two ... putting before the others could prepare themselves. Alan contributed well, including a magnificent final hole, final tee shot to within three feet of the pin to allow us to birdie the final hole.

Another member of our IT department, Al, managed to get himself associated with the winning team at -16 to par. Quiet guy ... but he knows how to pick his team mates !

MS150 ... a.k.a. MS172

October 28th and 29th were beautiful days for a long bike ride. Even better to support the Multiple Scerosis Society and their MS150 ... a 150 mile bike ride from Lake Pleasant to Parker on the border of Arizona and California. Actually, there is an opportunity to finish in Parker after traveling 150 miles ... OR add on another 22 miles and travel into California follow the Colorado River north for a ways then cross over the Parker Dam. After traveling that far it's just too tempting to make the full distance ... but that last 22 miles is Bumpy & Hilly!

I went with a friend from work, his wife and several of their friends. Being the older member of the group I thought they would defer to my seniority and we could travel at a leasurely pace. Little did I realize they would push me faster ... for a longer period of time than I had ever ridden! Out of a total of approximately 14 legs (10-15 miles each) over the two days we traveled quite fast for each of the legs while resting at each of the break areas. More than half of the legs saw us traveling in excess of 22 mph and a few averaging 24 miles per hour peaking in the high 20s for flat roads with no wind. Even the hill climbing legs saw us traveling at a brisk pace.

So ... great time and I look forward to doing it again next time. Who's interested in signing up?

some photos of Alan & Jen, Julian, Lars & Jen and Dave?

First Day: http://www.photoreflect.com/scripts/prsm.dll?eventorder?photo=055Q005F020077&start=0&album=0&adjust=-1

http://www.photoreflect.com/scripts/prsm.dll?eventorder?photo=055Q005F020076&start=0&album=0&adjust=-1

Dave: http://www.photoreflect.com/scripts/prsm.dll?eventorder?photo=055Q005F020082&start=0&album=0&adjust=-1

Alan: http://www.photoreflect.com/scripts/prsm.dll?eventorder?photo=055Q005F020081&start=0&album=0&adjust=-1

Jen: http://www.photoreflect.com/scripts/prsm.dll?eventorder?photo=055Q005F0A0081&start=0&album=0&adjust=-1

Lars & Jen: http://www.photoreflect.com/scripts/prsm.dll?eventorder?photo=055Q005F0A0091&start=0&album=0&adjust=-1


Second Day: http://www.photoreflect.com/scripts/prsm.dll?eventorder?photo=055Q005F0A0080&start=0&album=0&adjust=-1

Religion and Foreign Policy

Wow. Different topic this time!

I went to a lecture by Jack Miles, a Pulitzer Prize winning author of "God, A Biography". He was hosted by ASU's Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict at the Old Main building this afternoon. Several hundred people in attendance as he spoke about some of the situations we are in globally and how some of our foreign policy leaders have no insight to some of the basic religious differences that exist in countries where we are trying to have an influence; in particular, the lack of basic historical knowledge and lack of understanding differences within the Islamic community (why are Shites and Sunni different) was astounding.

The biggest takeaway that I had was related to how we counter the growing fundamentalist threat (Islamic, Christian, Hindu, Jewish) is through openness not confrontation.

The author espoused the theory that relationships between countries that support freedom of religion will be resistant to warefare brought about by Al Qaeda type organizations. My analogy to this is how our current United States National Security policy is economic security (see: http://www.thomaspmbarnett.com/published/pentagonsnewmap.htm) and that strong economic relationships with free market economies define a network of connected nations that will be resistant to warfare amongst themselves.

Throughout this country and many others, organizations are springing up with the sole intent of providing openness and a forum for discussion about religion and conflict. We've proven that conflict only yields eye for an eye. Maybe we should try this light and openness thing ...

Matt and a 23 year old picture

I was just going through some photos and came across one that I love. Both our kids have great pictures and memories of when they were younger but this one is in our front hallway and I can't but get a chuckle out of it every time I walk by.

23 years ago this month Matt was nine months old. What a fun kid he has been since the day he was born!

This picture captures Matt's personality to a T. Persisent: he walked from his mom's side around the whole room holding onto furniture to get to his Uncle Mark taking the picture. Inquisitive: he loved to find out what was going on every where. Fun Loving: he always loved to have fun and would curl into a little ball when tickled.

Now he is a big guy, 6 foot four, and living on the East Coast making a living and going to school. We are so proud of him.

20K South Mountain Classic - Oct 15, 2006

A beautiful day for a run. Lots of fun last Sunday helping the Arizona Road Racers set up the race ... OK I only helped with the registration and then running.

My hamstrings were a little tight from over working them the prior week but they behaved long enough to let me finish. I had a time of 1:45 ... slower than I would have liked but it was a nice steady pace and was actually the longest competitive run I've done since the Springtime.

SACistan: A Crucible Of Swimming?

A thought that has recently piqued my interest is related to the masters swimming team that I have belonged to since the Spring of 2001. Not so much the swimming part of it ... the great friendships, and not even the social network we have developed, but more around how does a swim team come into existance ... and grow, evolve and thrive over 20+ years?

On one level, the long term survival of a swim team is about reproduction. Kind of like evolutionary biology, where organisms that survive long enough to reproduce create the next generation. Those that don't tend to fade away. So if the swim program keeps attracting new swimmers ... and they stay, the swim program can continuously regenerate itself, and evolve.

But I suppose where my real question is related to is the patterns of evolution of a swim team. There are many public and private pools in Phoenix capable of sustaining a swim team, but why do some pools have teams and some pools don't? And the pools that have swim teams ... why are some teams bigger, or more competitive, or more social than others? Why do some teams come into existance only to fade away after a few years? Why do some teams last for decades even after most of (or all) the original members have long since left?

And OK I got it ... you need a pool to have swim team, but ... there are evolutionary pattern theorists that talk about time and those that talk about space. Maybe their thoughts can be extended to swim teams ...

• Time: Do swim teams form and evolve in a smooth and gradual manner over time or through a series of bursts of change interspersed with periods of stability?
• Space: Are there conditions that exist at some pools that essentially become better crucibles for swim team formation and are more nuturing than others?

OK, that's enough. Too many questions. I'll write more when I talk with Steve Bo.

Reference: http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=7995205

Julie is back in Spain

Julie was home for the week and just returned to her school in Spain. She is making what was a daunting trip on the first time in August seem routine. Fran and I brought her to the airport last night, she gave us an email update from London this morning, and then a safe arrival note when she arrived at her hosts home.

When she first told us she wanted to come home for a few days after six weeks of taking classes I was worried she would not want to go back. But she was really feeling bad, really homesick, missing her family and her boyfriend Tim. It was really great to see her though, she is so open to discussion, so interested in exploring thoughts and feelings. If that's what six weeks abroad will do I am all for it!

She is now recharged and knows that we love her so much and fully support her no matter what she chooses. OK, I'll be upset if she came home before the end of the semester, but really this is about experiences and decisions. And these are her experiences and her decisions. Like any of our decisions she will be proud of what she has done or if not she will use the decisions she makes as a learning experience.

Vote for Sparky Prelude

ASU Homecoming Weekend: Current students turn out and alumni return in droves for; parties, a big football game, and a fun parade.

I'm part of the Arizona state University Parents Association. A group of parents 6,000+ at last count who have chosen to identify themselves as a member of an association that has at it's mission core to do good things for the students, the teachers and administration, and the university. There are a few philanthropic things that we do during the course of the academic year but throughout the year have a little fun along the way. One of our more outgoing moments is around the time of "Homecoming Weekend" where current students turn out and alumni return to campus in droves. There are parties, a big football game, and a parade!

The fun part is that the Parents Association enters a float in the parade and a team of parents and student scholarship winners build the float and walk with it down the parade route. This year's parade theme is "Maroon and Gold, Catch the Spirit"! Our float is built along the theme of movie "Napolean Dynamite" where we will have parents and students dressed in character ... the only twist being that instead of the infamous "Vote for Pedro" expression from the movie we will be promoting our ASU mascot by wearing T-Shirts that say "Vote for Sparky". Hopefully, Sparky will be voted in as Homecoming King!

Anyway, today we did all the float preparations, and are now ready for next week and our parade down University Boulevard!

See our link for more info: www.asu.edu/parents

Julie is Home for the Week!

Well, we have mixed emotions, but in the end are overjoyed to see our daughter Julie. She is studying abroad this Fall semester and has been out of country for six weeks. We thought she would be gone until mid-December but she has a really bad case of "I miss my boyfriend". Not "I miss my parents" but alas we have to take what we can get I guess.

She will be home for a week (I checked, she has a return ticket) and then will stay with her host until her planned departure date 9 weeks from now. Having been overseas in multiple cities I realize how absolutely isolating the experience can be and I support her need to come home and 'touch base' so to speak. Coming from a background in the U.S. where choice, freedom and autonomy are rooted in her personal makeup to suddenly be living in a different part of the world must be quite a challenge. Not only is the language different but the different social obligations (e.g. living with a host family), sense of uprootedness, and not wanting to submit to local practices can create an overwhelming sense of lack of control. Scary, challenging, ... yes but this must be an incredible learning experience for her as well!

DJRR

Friday Night at Streets of New York

Another Friday night in Phoenix. Fran and I went to Streets of New York for dinner. There are so many restaurants to choose from around here ... sometimes it just seems hard to decide. We ended up going to SNY not because the service is good, but the food is inexpensive, there is no wait, and it is a nice relaxing time to be alone. No different tonight, we left the busy restaurants of Desert Ridge behind and spent a nice relaxing time at SNY.

Hey but who did we see ... Steve Pohle! What a nice surprise. Steve was out with his family and saw us sitting there and came over to say hi. Always a pleasure to see "6:12" aka Steve-Bo from my Scottsdale swim club.

Julie is home safe. She arrived this evening from Spain and is home for the week. Tim picked her up and will drive her to Flagstaff tomorrow to see a rugby match he is in with NAU.

DJR