HispageTONOway

Special Day for my tummy and senses!

I'm looking forward to the visit to El Pollo Loco, Costco and IKEA later today. I'm spending the afternoon/evening with my wife and my mother-in-law, who is visiting from Florida. I know it's going to be a good day for my tummy!--and senses! As you can guess from my posts, I thrive on getting exposed to different places and different cultures. It has always widens my perspective toward life, and helped me appreciate life more.

I know that sometimes my wife doesn't feel it because I don't tell her enough times, however, I know that I am a blessed man to have a wife who loves me the way that she does, and the many sacrifices that she makes because of my long hours, my schedule and just putting up with just me. It's all the more important on this special day!

2009 Thanksgiving wish ... and 46 years of it!

I send 2009 and coming up on forty-six years of Thankful wishes on this symbolic day to the paradise island of Hawaii to the glitter of Southern California to the infamous gates of Northern California to the high arches of St. Louis to the cultural influences of Memphis to throughout the entire Volunteer state to the coastal beaches of the Sunshine state in Florida for all the memories and making me who I am.

Anti-climatic 2009 NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship

I am very disappointed in the 2009 Sprint Chase for the Cup Championship!  I was disappointed in the anti-climatic last race of the season at Homestead.  I honestly don’t know if there is anything that can be done to pique the interest of the general public at that time; I would like the sport to survive.  The over 100 point lead going into Homestead from Phoenix caused the lowest television rating for the 2009 Chase for the Sprint Cup.  Television viewership has been down from this year from last.

I kept on thinking as the 2009 season came to a close I thought about the season that could have been!:

• Mark Martin should have earned the championship.  If this happened, it would have helped to gain more interest from more general public.  It really was a special moment to be at the Sharpie 500 to witness his 1000^th race in his career.

• Knowing what happened in the end, it soured the two races that Sunshine and I were part of the stands.  It really makes me wonder if attending another race in 2010 would be any more interesting, and provide a different storyline ending than Jimmie Johnson winning the 2010 championship title.

• It would have been more interesting if the NASCAR drivers who demonstrate the humble, yet competitive spirit, like Mark Martin and Carl Edwards would have won the championship, because they are class acts during pre- and post-race interviews.  It would have been a better role model for the public at large, a better story that I could comment on—or question if being on the top changes either one of these drivers.

The good thing about the 2009 season is that Kyle Busch or Juan Montoya didn’t win the championship.  The latter driver I found an article of his very blunt and arrogant personality which just turns me off!

Eleven and a half weeks till the NASCAR 2010 season starts.  I’ll keep you updated on the off season noteworthy news.  I’ll be reading stories online to come up with solutions to revive the sport.  Apparently, I am like many others who have turned out from the sport from television viewership numbers.  The challenge lies ahead.  I’ll be posting some of my ideas in the future.

Six openings down ... three to go!

I just completed six days of opening the restaurant. I have three more days to do so. I really know that I am not a morning person, waking up so early in the morning. I wished that I didn't have to work so many hours, up to twelve to fourteen hours a day for each shift. I know a lot of that has to do with MY methodical style. I am blessed to have a job, no doubt.

Water flowed into the night … onto the apartment’s carpet!

I suspected something would happen after we would arrive back home.  But not as soon as it did!  I was scheduled to open early on Monday morning.  I planned on sleeping early enough in the evening to get at least six hours of rest.  I ended up getting to bed on time.

I was resting really well until I was awaken by my Sunshine.  I heard her say “Honey, wake up … I need your help!”  When I walked out of the bedroom into the hallway, I noticed that the carpet was covered for about fifteen feet with water.  The source was the closet that housed the water heater.  The main pipe that provided water to the apartment broke so that water was flowing freely out of the closet onto the carpet.

While I tried to put the pipe back into where it came out, my wife tried again to turn was seemed like an on/off knob for the water.  The water stopped flowing, but the water on the carpet was still on it!

I couldn’t believe it!  It was surreal.  Fortunately, we rent.  We called the main office to report what happened.  It took about twenty minutes for anyone in the apartment office to respond.  It took another hour or so for the carpet guy to come out to extract all the water from the carpet.

Right now, about twenty-two hours later, there are blowers on the carpet to dry top to bottom.  They are to come out and clean it also after it is mostly dry.

I cannot imagine how it would have been if my wife wasn’t a light-sleeper, or if it happened when we would have been on vacation.  There is no doubt that it would destroy everything that we owned.

“Weekend to Remember” worth the registration fee and time: What type of Legacy will you leave?

The registration fee of the “Weekend to Remember” workshop is something most couples can’t afford during these difficult financial times, but I truly believe that it was worth it to answer this question: what type of legacy will you leave?  There were about 600 attendees that decided to make a commitment to oneness in our God-centered marriage.  Even if you think that you’re not having any serious arguments, fist-fights, and yelling matches, I would still recommend many married couples attend this weekend conference.  It’s worth the time, and money.  I believe that it’s an investment for the spouses, family, and society are worth the sacrifice for a while.  There are too many broken families, and this workshop provides a blueprint of how we should interact with one another, what our roles are in a marriage—and our positive impact with our community and society.

Without giving too much of the conference, because I believe that it has to be experienced, listening to the speakers, being active in taking notes by filling in the blanks, completing the projects, (even one that I had to write a love letter in long-hand) to really get the full effect of the conference.  The only way that you’ll get the most out of workshop, is to be truly active in paying attention and searching our own hearts.  It’s worth the soul-searching and keeping on the schedule.  Every marriage is different and every married couple will get something different from the conference. When you leave the conference and face the real world, it’s the persistence of leaving a life’s legacy more important than just living for my own self-centered perspective will be tested, which I know, is more important for those around us.

Intense answers to Weekend to Remember questions … more than a flow-thru to the bottom line

This will be an interesting "Weekend to Remember."  It’s really an effort more than another action plan that I draw up at work.  It’s more than just another goal in the restaurant business.  This will be one of those projects that will be on-going, constantly changing, ever so more important than earning another dollar flow-thru to the bottom line.  The issues discussed will be priceless!

If there is time, I will post comments during this weekend.  If I don’t that would mean that I’m too intensely answering questions that runs deep within me.  I know that my Sunshine will interested in every answer that I give.  Maybe you can ask her what really went on in the conference.

More important plans this weekend than the “In Search of Colors” trip …

It’s been over a week since my Sunshine and I have returned back to our everyday life.  It’s been pretty intense getting back to work, back in the routine. I’m sure it will not be as intense as this weekend, when we will be attending a marriage conference/seminar that we’ll be together discovering four bullet points from the Weekend to Remember Web site. 

• God’s purpose for bringing us together.
• Our distinct roles as husband and wife.
• How to resolve conflict and fight fair.
• Secrets to putting sizzle in our married sex life.

It is my hope that it’ll help us to be the type of man and wife that God desires for us.

This is what the Web site says I need to focus on for the time:

• Listen carefully during the messages to the overall purpose and plan for marriage, even if you’re not sure you agree with a particular point at first. Many of the concepts and applications become clearer as the weekend progresses.
• Think about how you can apply the principles in your own life rather than what you think your spouse needs to learn.
• Complete the projects—they are crucial to the conference experience.
• Decide upon at least two or three action points by the end of the weekend that you and your spouse agree to apply in the next thirty days.

I can say that I’ll have my focus and commitment out for another one of my adventures with my Sunshine.  It’ll be a working during my personal time off from my day job.  This is obviously more important, no doubt.  I will keep you informed on what the weekend holds and challenges within me!

Over 100 pictures posted on “In Search of Colors" 2nd Wedding Anniversary trip!

It’s back at work for a day, and I realized that the vacation is over.  I think it’s one of the best vacations that I experienced.  I have over 100 pictures on the photo album site for the trip.  It will be moved on the left sidebar with all the other photo albums.  The pictures turned out better than expected.  There are many of my infamous self-portraits.  In a lot of ways, it was a lot of places I visited for the first time.

It was the first time to Connecticut and Washington D.C.  I will definitely remember this first.  I ended up driving through these states for the first time: Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and the District of Columbia.  Because of that, it’s always going to be special.  For the nine days, I was with my Sunshine throughout the journey.  There were many interesting stories during what I’ve called “In Search of Colors 2^nd Wedding Anniversary trip.”

In Washington D.C., the weather wasn’t really cooperative because it rain for about the thirty-six hours in the nation’s capital.  For the time that we were there (it wasn’t the first time for my Sunshine), I got pretty good pictures of the area, especially since we walked to the sites mostly in the rain, when I took the pictures.

I will be reflecting on the many interesting thoughts and feelings during the trip.  When I can give you a good picture of what when on, I’ll write about them.

We made it home!

We made it home! ... Sad, thinking it's back to work in several hours.