That's Quite a Few 0s

Today was the first day of school. 8th grade started.

I had lunch with a long time friend. He has been a financial planner for 14 years. He gave me a staggering figure that made me think. The average cost (in CA I believe) to raise a child today is $1,200,000. So that got me thinking.

1. Spend it wisely
2. You only get to do this once with your child or children so make it count.
3. If I had that much in cash right now I couldn't spend it.
4. There is nothing I'd rather spend that kind of money on than Marco.
5. For you new parents or those thinking about children yes, it is per child and yes it's a whole bunch of money but it's kind of like diapers, you never knew a kid could go through so many diapers and then when they are done with them you forget all about the diapers and only remember the kid.

It's a good life...
Dave

Dinner with Love

For years whenever we got to opportunity to go to Ani and Papi's house for dinner we would go. Clearly it was always nice to spend time with my Dad and my step mother in fact it was always special. But special too was the meal. Ani is a cook. She's not a cook of extraordinary measure but she always tried something new and she always put love into it. It was always a treat. 

Not long ago Marco asked me to hook him up with Ani for a cooking lesson. Yes, that's right, Marco wanted to cook and he wanted Ani to teach him. So last night was the night. Ani guided Marco not only in the cooking but in the entertaining part of cooking. He poured wine, made the table on the patio, he did it all. The only thing Mary and I had to do was show up and eat. 

Dinner was Homemade Meatloaf, summer squash, mashed potatoes and a Salad with homemade olive oil and lemon dressing. It was awesome. Tons of flavor, very much summer and a classic night. I think the thing that really made it special was Grace. It has always been a tradition at Papi's house. When Papi was around he would say Grace. Ani has taken the duty over but last night Marco said it. It was honest, and from his heart. Simply amazing. 

For dessert we had Tapioca Pudding with fresh blueberries. Yum, Yum!

Dinner with Love from Marco.

It's a good life...
Dave

Cardiff Kook Run

Mark it. February 5, 2012.  Cardiff Kook Run.
Details to come.

Now That's a Swim Workout!

All in Yards
Warm Up - 500
Warm Up - 12 X 75 (swim,something, swim) 10 seconds rest.
Kick 10 X 25 Fast tightest interval possible.
Easy 100
Main Set
3 X 400 Base
3 X 300 Base for first 2 Base minus 5 for the last one.
3 X 200 Base for first 2 Base minus 10 for the last one.
No breaks at all.
Recover

Total Yards: 4, 200 yards

It's a good life....
Dave

I Need to Get Bigger

I was in the gym last night. The end of a very long day of getting out there and hitting it. I had just finished doing a set of back squats and was preparing to get into some front squats. I didn't know if I was using the best rack for front squats and in the moment of hesitation Mr. Big showed up. He was huge and comparing him to my 140lb frame was like comparing a Boing 747 to a Lear Jet. Anyway he shows up and asks if I'm done with the rack. At that point the thought came to me that I could say "no I have one more set to do" and have him watch me struggle with my small amount of weight or I could let him have it as though I had planned all along to use the other rack. I chose the "I planned to use the other rack" version and said "Yep, All done here". He sheepishly smiled and said, "good, I need to get a little bigger". I started laughing and said "Seriously, you need to get bigger".

I found a friend in the Gym and he's the complete oposite of me. He can lift with one arm what I can lift with two legs and two arms. He's 6'3'' or better and he's twice my weight. But it is solid strength. We both have the same problem, finding clothes that fit. We both have the same issue of people watching us (that of course is in our heads only). We both are trying to get the maximum out of our bodies. I hope to see him again so we can train together. We'll both get lots of rest when we switch the weights for each of our sets.

It's a good life...
Dave

You and Me

The other day I was walking along with my Ipod when this song came on. When I first heard it years ago, I felt it was kind of anthem like for Mary and I. The other day when I heard it and had all the emotion of losing a friend to Cancer I just started to cry. I came home that night picked up my guitar and taught myself how to play most of the song.

It's a good life...
Dave

Long Live the King

Today we learned that Larry "King" Solomon passed away. He fought bravely and with dignity but Cancer won. Larry leaves behind a lovely wife and two great kids. I worked with Larry for 12 years and knew him for 16. He always greeted me with a smile and always left me feeling better. He had heart. A really big heart. His passion was his kids. His priorities were his kids. He would come to work at 6am just so he could get home to coach baseball, or go to a swim meet or a football game. There was nothing more important to him than those kids. They will grow up to be outstanding adults because they had Larry as a Father. I hope one day when I'm gone someone writes this same thing about me. 

Larry we will all miss that big heart of yours. I feel very lucky to have known you and to have you in my life. I can't express how much you taught me. Thank You!

Below is a video Lance did for Larry. Yes that's right Lance Armstrong took time out of his busy day to send a message to Larry. A huge thank you to TK and Jimmy for getting this to Larry. It made an impact. 

Rest in Peace Larry. We love you. 

A Running Partner

I've built some great running partnerships over the years. This past week I experienced two of them in the same week.

Marcus Voss - He's the guy in charge of Zoot Sales in Europe. I think we get along because I understand Germans and just roll with his way of doing things. We also get along well because we love sport. Generally any time we are together we run at 6:00am. This week we moved it to 6:30am but it's the same run. 1 hour at a steady pace. So far this year, Marcus and I have run in Annecy, France, Hamburg, Germany, and Cardiff, CA. For sure we have runs in Belgium planned later this year. I look forward to those runs. 

Scott Schilter - Scott and I have worked for years together. Either as sales rep (him) to retailer (me) or working to build the same brand (adidas running). Friday we ran togehter and it brought up thoughts of the places we've run together. Austin, Boston, Dallas, Chicago - San Diego, Portland, Herzogenaurach, DE and Wisconsin. I'm sure there are others that I can't remember but Friday was something special. We were both in Salt Lake City, UT for the Outdoor Retailer show. We loosely discussed running together when we found out our hotels were in the same city. Lehi, Utah. 20 miles south of SLC is Lehi. Not the hotbed of those going to the Outdoor Retailer show. In fact it's not the hotbed of anything I found. But somehow we booked separate hotels in the same small town and now can add Lehi to our list of many places we've run together. 

It's a good life....

Dave