Enron

The trial of Kenneth Lay, founder of Enron, and Jeffrey Skilling, former CEO of Enron, began several weeks ago. Both are facing charges of fraud, conspiracy, insider trading and lying to auditors.

This weekend I watched Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room and it is a gripping documentary and I recommend it.

This documentary sparked my interest in the subject and if you are interested in following the trial of United States v. Jeffrey K. Skilling and Kenneth L. Lay then you can following it with this Blog .

If you want even more information, the Department of Justice is posting all of the evidence on their website. Go here to access it. This includes emails, transcripts of conference calls, minutes from Board of Directors meetings, new releases, earning releases and even a floor plan of the Enron offices.

I know I'm weird but I am finding some of this stuff fascinating...

I'm Finished

I finally finished my novel or I should say I finally hit the 50,000 word mark. Actually, the number is 50,019 (how is that for close). It took me 59 days versus my original goal of 30 days but I am still pleased that I finished. This is the most I have written at one time and actually has some resemblance to a book, not a good book, just a book. I'm not sure what I am going to with it now but I do know I am not going to look at it for a month or so.

Missed Opportunity

I have been praying for someone in my life and asking God to give me an opportunity to reach out to them. This week he teed it up for me and I missed the opportunity. I not only missed it, I didn't even realize it had been there until several days later.

I just pray God gives me another chance and I promise I wont' miss it this time.

Date Night

Shelley and I got to take a Date Night this past Friday and it was awesome. Getting out alone was great and I wish we could do it more. I took her to her favorite restuarant, Joe T. Garcias and it was great. If you have never been to Joe T's, you should and if you are ever visiting Fort Worth, check it out.

After dinner we went to Four Day Weekend. It is an improv show in downtown Fort Worth and it is one of the funniest shows you will ever see. It is amazing to watch them come up with their material right on the spot. Also, the audience helps shape the direction of the show so that makes it very interesting. Go check it out if you haven't.

I Hope I Don't Snore

Last night Shelley was up working and Seth had an accident and wet his bed. This was the first time he has done that since we declared him "officially potty trained" so I am unsure what the cause was.

Shelley brought him to our room to sleep in our bed instead of trying to change his sheets in the middle of night. After she laid him in bed and left, he sat up, looked me in the eye and said very sternly "you aren't going to snore like mama?" (Mama is his Grandmama).

I wanted to reply, "No, as long as you don't pee in the bed." but I chose not to.

Introduction to a New Blogger

I would like to introduce you to a new blogger. Cathy at Take Captive Every Thought has the beginning of an awesome blog. If you read her most recent post you will see what I mean.

Cathy and I use to work together but she was the victim of downsizing. I think Cathy would probably agree, getting "laid off" might have been one of the best things to happen to her. But, we have been friends ever since and she is just an awesome person.

Go check her out...

The Story of a Lifetime - Engagement and Wedding Story

Shelley and I are writing another installment in our The Story of a Lifetime series.

This one is what was our Engagement and Wedding like?

We got engaged September 19, 1998 and I have to be honest I don't remember a lot of the details leading up to it or about the evening. I was extremely nervous and was a little unsure about my decision.

I had only been divorced for about 18 months and was really concerned that I was making a poor decision. Shelley was the only person I had dated since my divorce and now I was going to ask her to marry me, I just knew this was not a wise decision. But, I also knew I loved her incredibly and really couldn't see spending my life without her.

Shelley and I had talked about marriage but we had not set any time tables so this was going to be somewhat of a surprise so I was also a little unsure what her response would be. Plus, I didn't even have a ring to give her because I had made a decision to let her pick out her own ring. This turned out to be a good thing because I would never had bought the ring she picked out but that is another post for another time.

I made reservations at a restaurant called Barclays (it is now out of business) and explained to them that I was going to ask my girlfriend to marry me. Well, it was run by a bunch of women and they were really disappointed that I didn't have a ring or really any solid plans on how I wanted to pull this off. I just planned on asking her without any drama like the waiter delivering a glass of champagne with a ring in the bottom in it.

I picked Shelley up and like I said, I have no idea what she was wearing or what I was wearing. We went to the restaurant and had a nice dinner and during the dinner I kept trying to determine how I was going to do this. I kept having the thought "I should have planned this better" running through my head because I didn't even have a speech or script planned. So I had something real poetic like "I want to spend the rest of my life with you" and I assume she said yes since we have two children now but I don't remember her response.

We set our marriage date for June 12, 1999 and decided we would get married on a beach in Destin, Florida. I highly recommend the beach wedding to anyone.

The entire event was very simple. There were just a few guests and they were just our immediate family and we all stayed in a Bed and Breakfast right on the beach. The ceremony was scheduled to start at 7 pm and just hours before we were all playing in the ocean.

Shelley wore a dress her mom had made and no shoes and I wore a suit with shoes. In fact, none of Shelley's side of the family wore shoes and my entire family did. This was definitely an indicator of some of our differences. We were married by a notary because notarys can marry people in Florida. The ceremony was short and simple and some people who were taking a walk on the beach decided to stop and watch so we did have a few extra guests.

After the ceremony ended we had some time to kill because our reservations at a local restaurant weren't until 8:30 PM so we sat and watched game 6 of the Stanley Cup playoffs between the Dallas Stars and Buffalo Sabres.

How is that for a wedding day? Play in the ocean, get married, watch hockey and then go to dinner. It really turned out to be a perfect day.

My Lame Sex Life Update

Here is a video from Foxnews DaySide show of Mark Beeson from Granger Community Church talking about the series he is running on sex.

The two questions from the audience highlights why a series like this is so important. The first lady questions whether Church is the appropriate place to talk about sex. God invented sex so why not talk about it in church. I'm sure she believes a better place is in school.

The second gentleman says God "condones sex" but he setup rules for sex. This is a true statement so what a better place than church to talk about what the Bible says about sex and how to glorify God through sex.

Where have you lived?

I have lived in several places.

August 1966 - Born Springfield, Missouri
February 1967 - Lockesburg, Arkansas
July 1967 - Joplin, Missouri
October 1967 - Overland Park, Kansas
November 1968 - Springfield, Missouri
February 1970 - Detroit, Michigan
July 1971 - Cincinnati, Ohio
January 1972 - Oakland, California
November 1972 - Portland, Oregon
May 1973 - New Boston, Texas
September 1973 - Gresham, Oregon
June 1974 - Fort Smith, Arkansas
June 1976 - Des Moines, Iowa
June 1978 - Kearney, Missouri
August 1985 - Fort Worth, Texas
December 1990 - Euless, Texas
October 2000 - Bedford, Texas

No, my father was not in the military, that would be too easy of an answer and way too boring.

My Lame Sex Life

Did I get your attention? I know Shelley's heart skipped a beat.

I have been following a controversy surrounding Granger Community Church and the current series they are conducting called My Lame Sex Life and to say it has caused quite a stir would be an understatement.

I really like the post that Perry Noble did on this subject.

Taxes

I took the opportunity of this cold weekend to finish up our taxes. This is a time of year that I dread. Partly because of the work involved but thanks to tools like Turbo Tax, doing your taxes has become much easier. I remember the days of going to the post office and trying to gather up all the correct forms and then trying to figure out what goes in what box on the form. It was a nightmare and thankfully Seth and Chase will never have to do that. Hopefully when they are old enough we will just have a flat tax of some sort but that is a whole other post.

The main reason I hate tax time is because I am still scarred from doing my taxes in 1992. I was 25, recently married and dirt poor. I didn't have a cent to my name because I had spent the last 2 years either in graduate school or unemployed. Well, I did my taxes and we owed $3,000 and when you don't even have $3 it might as well have been $3 million. I am still not sure what happened but we didn't withhold enough and we also got stung by that nasty little marriage penalty.

Now, every year I still have this fear of owing this enormous amount of money that I don't have. I know, I know, I need to grieve it and get through it...

I still hate taxes!

It's Cold

My normal weekend routine is I go to the gym for about an hour and half in the morning and then following that I go and run six miles. Well, this morning when I returned from the gym it was 27 degrees with a wind chill of 17. This is just a little too cold for my taste for running. Now if I lived somewhere where this temperature occurred more consistently then I might adjust but I don't have to worry about that in Texas.

So the decision not to run let me enjoy another activity. I crawled back into our bed and laid there with Seth and Chase watching Little Bear. We had a great time and I tried to savor every minute.

I've Been Tagged

4 Jobs I've Had:

House Painter - Best tan I ever had
Debt Collector - One of the most fun jobs I've ever had.
Selling computers - This sent me back to graduate school because I wasn't cut out to sell.
Front Desk Clerk at a motel - Met a lot of interesting people


4 Goals I've Set for this year:

I don't really set personal goals like this but,

Write a book
Get my Concealed Handgun License
Spend more times with my sons
Get Lasik

4 movies I could watch over and over

Citizen Kane
Star Wars
The Right Stuff
Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure

4 Places I have lived (I'll post the entire list some other time)

Des Moines, IA
Fort Smith, AR
Springfield, MO
Detroit, MI

4 TV Shows I love to watch

24
NCIS
CSI
Numbers

4 Places I've Been on Vacation:

Clearwater, FL
Park City, UT
Lexington, KY
Winter Park, CO

4 Websites I visit daily

Bloglines
Foxnews
Drudge Report
ESPN

4 of my Favorite Foods

Pizza
Joe T. Garcia Chicken Fajitas
My grandma's Fried Okra
Bow Tie Pasta with Creamy Pesto Sauce

4 Places I would Rather Be:

Any place with my family

I'm Tagging

Bowden McElroy
Tony
Arlan

Discount Tire

I believe if you receive good service you need to tell people about it.

I have always had good experiences with Discount Tire and today wasn't any different. They checked all of the tires on Shelley's car for leaks, fixed one that had a screw in it and rotated all four tires, and they did this all for FREE.

I have always been impressed by the fact that they fix flats and rotate tires for free irregardless of whether you bought the tires from them or not. But, what has always impressed me more is that when they perform this free service, it is truly free. They never try to up sell you to new tires or to something they charge for. They just go on faith that if they provide you with good service, you will remember them when it is time to buy new tires.

The Secrets of a Happily Married Man

Found this on Counseling Notes.

From the Salt Lake Tribune:

In The Secrets of Happily Married Men: Eight Ways to Win Your Wife’s Heart Forever, marriage counselor/psychiatrist Scott Haltzman suggests that since most divorces are sought by women, men need to learn how to divorce-proof their marriages: and that doesn’t mean giving up Monday Night football or entail endless sessions with a marriage counselor.

The author says ""If you work hard to win your wife's heart as you once did when she said, 'I do,' her emotional need for closeness, connection and love will bring her back into your arms."


This is all so obvious, I wonder why it is so hard for us to do?

Amazing Women of the Year

Swiffer , the sweeper maker, is running a contest to find five Amazing Women of the Year. Swiffer will award five women the title, and each will receive $5,000 for the charity of her choice.

I have nominated Shelley and you can go here to nominate the woman in your life.

Why I Am Married to the Best Wife

Now I know many men might take me to task by claiming that I have a wife better than theirs but that is how I feel. I have written about a lot of the fantastic qualities of my wife but right now I am really appreciating the fact that she doesn't like Valentines Day. Yes, that is correct. In fact she even said that she wished it wasn't a holiday. I didn't spend this last weekend frantically running to Victorias Secret, or Bath and Body Works, or buy flowers or candy. I didn't even get her a card. She will be able to say though, "after 6 years of marriage, all I got for Valentine's Day was this stupid blog entry".

Shelley, I love you and Happy Valentines Day!

NFL Pro Bowl

Am I the only one who completely missed the fact that the NFL Pro Bowl was played this weekend? I am a pretty big sports fan who stays on top of such things but the Pro Bowl has become a non-event on the sports calendar. ESPN didn't even have it on its main page this morning initially.

I propose we just make it an award that includes a trip to Hawaii for the players and just quit playing the game.

The Joys of Fatherhood #20

This weekend was full of things I could detail out that were just pure joy. Here are just a few examples.

Last night Seth entertained Shelley and I with a medley of some original works. He sang for over ten minutes straight, barely taking a breath and they were some of the funniest songs you could ever imagine. He has a real gift for entertainment.

Today when I came home from being out with Seth, Chase was on the other side of the living room. I sat on the couch and he crawled as fast as he could over to me. It was the equivalent of him running to meet me at the door except this took a lot more effort on his part. The smile he had on his face when he made it to me was worth a million dollars.

Class Rings

Tonight Shelley and I were talking about our high school class rings. The topic came up because Shelley's 20 year reunion is this year. She commented that her's was quite simple and she isn't even sure where it is. I, on the other hand, knew exactly where mine was. My ring has my birthstone, peridot. On one side is our mascot, the Bulldog, and on the opposite side is my name along with a baseball cap, my number 11 and my position, second base. Inside the ring my initials are also engraved.

I only wore my ring for a few months before I turned it over to my girlfriend who wrapped it with the obligatory yarn and wore it right up until she broke up with me during my freshman year in college. I never wore it again.

I'm not sure why I have kept it with me all of these years because I don't have fond memories of high school nor that girlfriend who first wore it. The only thing I can think of it is that weird combination of personality traits of being a cheap, sentimental, pack rat.

Well, I better but it back in the drawer now so when the topic comes up in another 20 years, I'll know right where it is.

Novel Update

For those of you that are curious, I am still working on my novel and I am up to 44,000 words. I am still on track to finish this month.

I Met Shelley Nine Years Ago

I met Shelley nine years ago this week. She wrote a very good post on the night we first met here.

I told the story last August and if you want to see my version go here.

I'm Back

I haven't blogged in several days because I have been out of town on business. I went to Austin to attend a conference on call centers. Yes, it was as exciting as it sounds.

Traveling really messes my system up and I am grateful that my job doesn't require me to do it often.

Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

I just figured out that Shelley and I are only 4 degrees seperated from Kevin Bacon.

We know someone who knows Lisa Whelchel.
Lisa Whelchel was in The Facts of Life Down Under with Cloris Leachman.
Cloris Leachman was in a TV movie with Kevin Bacon called The Demon Murder Case.

Super Bowl Sunday

I love Super Bowl Sunday almost as much as Christmas day. And if the Cowboys are playing it is over the top. But, sadly, the Cowboys aren't playing this year so I just have to make do. I always like to have a rooting interest in the game and sometimes it can be tough if the game doesn't involve the Cowboys. This year it isn't tough to choose because the blue and silver blood that flows through me will never allow me to root for the hated Pittsburgh Steelers.

Go Seahawks!

Hall of Fame

Congratulations to Troy Aikman and Rayfield Wright for getting voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I was prepared to be very upset if none of the Cowboys got voted in and I already had my blog entry about the east coast media bias written but I think this was a good outcome. While I would like to have Michael Irvin voted in as well, not because I think he necessarily deserves it, but just to get in as many Cowboys as possible. But, I personally don't want to see any receivers get in until Drew Pearson is voted in because he is the true Dallas Cowboys' wide receiver.

What Makes Your Marriage Work

There are a lot of things that makes Shelley and my marriage work and it includes our deep love for one another, a shared love of Jesus, common political views and our open, honest and direct communication. With all of this Shelley and I often need time apart. Shelley went to her mother's for the weekend and we both have been looking forward to it all week. Is that wrong, I hope not.

Lasik

About 6 years ago Shelley got Lasik surgery and she has been very pleased with it. I have been wearing glasses or contacts since I was 12 years old but at the time Shelley had her surgery, wearing contacts was not that much of an inconvenience. I even stated that I wouldn't get Lasik until it was available in pill form.

Well, it isn't available in pill form but my opinion of my contacts has changed drastically. In fact, every morning I wake up, I just about scream at the thought of having to go put my contacts in. There was not one individual event that pushed me over the edge, I have just gotten to the point where I can't stand my contacts.

So, today I went to one of the most popular area Lasik surgeons and got my "free consultation". Ouch, I am still stinging from the sticker shock. Six years ago Shelley paid about $800 an eye and today I was quoted $1,800 an eye.

I am not looking for the cheapest but $1,800 seems a little high to me. I'm wondering what experiences others have had regarding Lasik surgery? Have the prices gone up that much or do I need to keep searching?