It’s been a few months, but Romeo is on our mind a lot. Today we had some friends send pictures of their big snow storm. I thought it would be fun to contrast the two. Can you figure out which is which? Romeo or San Diego? (Both of these were taken today)
Picture #1
Picture #2
Wanna guess?
I found this really cool. If your kids are like mine, they are hooked on Club Penguin. Now they are asking kids to help them pick out ways to give away $1 million. Check out this post on their blog. (Megan’s 4th favorite blog!)
Donation booths are set up at the Beach, in the Plaza, and on the Migrator. Remember – every little bit counts, so you don’t have to donate a lot to make a difference.
On December 25, we’ll announce how you’ve decided that the one million dollars will be split. Check out the Kids Helping Kids page on the website to see how your donations are changing the real world. Let us know any other ideas you have for making the world a better place for everyone! link
Having spent 29 of my 32 year in the upper midwest, I am resolute that we will not need to turn on our furnace this winter. Seriously, it doesn’t get cold enough in San Diego to even turn on the pilot light. Call me cheap, but I don’t plan on firing up the furnace this winter.
For those outside of Southern California. While the San Diego climate is mild year-round, it does get noticeably cooler in fall and winter. Hardly cold, but still chilly.
If you ever visited our house in Romeo you’d know that Kristen and I like to keep the house cool. Todd and his family talk about putting on layers to come over for dinner. Of course, the joke was funnier knowing that we would actually turn the thermostat up to 70 when company came over. At night, we allowed the house to cool to 58. Understand that we lived in a 135 year old house and keeping it warm all night long would mean the furnace would literally run all night long if I tried to keep it at its day time temperature of 65. At the same time, we’ve always kept our houses at similar temperatures. Some people like a really hot house, I like a relatively cool house.
So, some things about us never change. Just like in Michigan, Kristen and I wake up and tiptoe to the kettle to warm up water for coffee or tea. Just like our house was in the mid-fifties in the mornings, the same is true of our San Diego home. But, just like in Michigan, we are thinking of cheating by installing a couple high efficiency space heaters just to keep the nip off the air.
After all, we’d feel like bad parents if the kids could see their breath when they crawled out of bed.
There is no glamor in business travel. I would never want anyone to think that I don’t genuinely love my job or meeting so many cool people, because I totally do. And I am always fully aware that a ton of people would die to do what I do every day… God continues to grant me undeserved favor. Yet, there is nothing quite as wonderful as knowing that today is the day I am going home.
Home.
Romeo people will jump on that. It is true, San Diego is now where I think of as home. Forget that idea that “home is where you hang your hat.” Well, it is true if by hat you mean my wife and kids! It’s not like I hung Kristen, Megan, and Paul on a hook and they just chill at the house waiting for me to come back. They are home doing stuff while I’m away… doing really fun stuff like going to the zoo, or a museum, or taking the dog to the vet. Their life doesn’t stop… it just carries on without me.
Another thing about going home is that I need to take care of stuff. I’m sure hard core business travelers are better at this than I am. But when I’m away I always forget to pay my bills! While I think that is funny, something tells me that there are some companies kind of wishing I would send them some money.
So, in just a couple hours I head back to Midway and fly home. Loved Chicago. Loved Planet Wisdom. Ready to get 10 days at home before Pittsburgh.
My fall travel season has arrived. When I took my job at YS I knew that this time of year would happen. In fact, one of the reasons why there are some really soft times in my year-round schedule is to make up for this time of year. Here’s the rundown, pray for Kristen and I.
October 9-13, NYWC Sacramento. Live blogging the convention and overseeing the smoking YMX booth at all three locations.
October 16-19, Planet Wisdom Chicago. No official role, but I’ve never been to one and I really need to grasp what goes on.
October 30-November 3, NYWC Pittsburgh. Same as Sacramento.
November 20-24, NYWC Nashville. Same as Pitt & Sacramento.
OK, so now that I wrote it out like this it doesn’t look that bad again. I think the stress comes from realizing I’ll be gone for about 2 weeks straight starting this week.
By the way, I’m totally looking forward to being on site at these events. It’s going to be super awesome fun exhaustion encouragement time.
I don’t stress out too easily. But the last 48 hours kind of rattled me. Our super reliable car seems to have blown up and our super simple dog had to be rushed to the vet. So when a man’s best friend and his ride both get busted in a day… now you know that freaks me out a little.
The car. After comparing sounds on YouTube with what my car is doing, I’m 99% sure I need to have the engine rebuilt. I plan on taking some time tomorrow to talk to mechanics and decide if we should sell it for parts and use that money to buy another car or pay to get this one repaired. With Kristen starting work in a couple weeks we’ll need to get a second car soon, which just makes that a whole lot more fun to think about! In the meantime, I headed over to Enterprise to get a rental car. You know, they really do pick you up! For those who know San Diego, the office is at 46th & El Cajon Boulevard. (About 4-5 blocks from where we go to church.) The mananger actually said to me, “I don’t see many white people in this store, do you live near here?” So until we get this sorted out, we’re driving a Mazda 5. It’s half minivan and half car. Weird, but I really like it too.
Stoney. Yesterday I made an appointment with a vet that a coworker recommended. (Ian recommends all kinds of great things for my area since he went to school up the street at San Diego State.) Stoney’ right hind leg had swollen to about double it’s size, was leaking all sorts of nasty fluid, and he simply couldn’t leave it alone. The vet helped us a ton! She gave Stoney the infamous e-collar, a cortizone shot for the infection, and 3 prescriptions to keep down the swelling, fight the infection even more, and dull the pain so he could sleep. It turns out our dog is super allergic to fleas. This lead to him chewing a hot spot that got infected. I’m happy to report that this morning the wound is about 1/3 the size it was yesterday. Stoney is starting to act a little more chipper despite the silly collar thing which runs into everything. Just wait until he realizes that we’ve halved his food again! He’s 13 pounds overweight… considering he’s lost 15 pounds already since the spring… that’s a lot more hard work. One may wonder how I’m getting a dog to take so many pills. Let’s just say Stoney thinks he’s getting a lot more treats made of cheese and pepperoni!
Wow, our car took a rapid turn for the worse. I don’t know exactly what happened but I do know the engine is making a horrible knocking sound. It started yesterday on the way to work. And today on the way home it got really, really loud.
Websites I know. Bible stuff I know. Cars? Forget it.
I need a mechanic and being new in town I don’t even know where to start. Adventure time!
UPDATE: After comparing the loud sounds my engine is making to some stuff on YouTube, I think the operative word is “the engine is blown.” So I’m grabbing a rental car until we can get some estimates for a repair… or if it’s just wiser to scrap this car and get a different used car. I’m trying to focus on the good here… it didn’t happen to Kristen while I was gone. It didn’t do anything dangerous. (Still runs! I drove it home from work.) And it didn’t happen in the middle of nowhere when I was driving Megan and Stoney across the country. See, lots of good news amidst something really inconvenient.
My oldest daughter, Megan, is just like her mommy. Besides being endlessly sassy, sarcastic, and competitive… Megan is a hard core learner.
Her latest weakness is reading long chapter books. We will send her to bed at 8:30, but she’ll stay up super late enraptured by her latest book. And just like her mommy, it’s all top secret.
It’s impossible for me to get angry with a little girl wanting to expand her imagination. Dream big girl.
