2/26/09

0430 gym arrival: 4.75 miles on the treadmill (.30 mile warm-up, 3.25 run, 1 mile interval sprints, .20 mile cool down) = 772 calories burned on the heart rate monitor.

I arrived at the gym this morning and noticed a new sign taped up to the front door notifying members that there was no hot water today in either the mens or womens locker rooms. The shower following the workout was brutal. It was ice cold and akin to jumping into a high alpine lake. If I wasn't awake from the run I was definitely awake after the ice shower.

To spend or not to spend will be the topic of conversation in much of the media today when Obama releases his first full budget proposal. The chatter over the past 24 hours has already poised the rhetoric to be drawn neatly down partisan lines. The dems spend too much, the repubs want smaller government, blah, blah, blah. I for one think we could use some much needed infrastructure upgrades. Water delivery, energy production, roads & highways, and bridges all need to be replaced or upgraded across the country. Our own levy system in the California Delta is over 100 years old and in desperate need of repair. To ignore it would be potentially disastrous to our food production in the san juaquin valley. I think Southern California needs to develop capacity to provide water via desalination, so we don't have to continue to pipe water from the north to the south. It's another grim year for the chinook salmon population and looks like there will be a 2nd year of banning commercial salmon fishing off of the coast of northern california and oregon. The water situation and the salmon are not disconnected...it's all inter-related.

Speaking of fishing....I purchased the necessary fly tying materials last weekend to make the deadly San Juan Worm and will begin producing this season's supply this coming weekend. It's probably one of the easiest patterns to tie as well, which bodes well for me and my beginning fly tying skills.

2/25/09

0420 gym arrival: 20 min weights & 45 min spin class = 772 calories burned on the heart rate monitor.  Based on calorie burn it looks like today's spin class was tougher than Mondays by about 100 calories.

Our DVR went haywire last night and didn't record anything we had scheduled.  I'm thinking everything was off schedule due to the President's address to Congress, which much to my surprise I did not watch.  I'll catch the bullet points later today.

Not much else to report.  It's hump day (Wednesday).

2/24/09

0430 gym arrival: 5 miles on the treadmill (.30 mile warm-up, 3 mile run, 1.4 mile interval sprints, .30 mile cool down) resulting in 887 calories burned. I went back and checked the calories from yesterday's spin class = 697.

If you haven't heard of the new show on Showtime called The United States of Tara, I highly recommend checking it out. Tara, played by Toni Collete, is a woman suffering from a multiple personality disorder (Dissociative Identity Disorder). The show is entertaining and well written by Diablo Cody (Academy Award Screenplay author of Juno). The episode last night included the introduction of a new "alter" previously unknown to onscreen husband played by John Corbett (Sex in the City, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Northern Exposure). Erica and I were both belly laughing and had to replay the scene over a couple of times. If you don't have showtime definitely put it on your tickler list for netflix or hope that itunes begins to carry it.

Off to the marathon of meetings today....

2/23/09

0420 gym arrival: 20 mins of weights and 45min spin class. Forgot to look at the heart rate monitor review to see the total calories burned.

Back in the office after what seems like a full week out of the office. I spent the majority of last week attending the ACCCA conference in San Diego followed by a full day of off-campus meetings on Friday. It is easy to see why people love living in San Diego. It was a balmy 70 degree sunny February day when I left San Diego and returned to Oakland where it was raining and about 55 degrees. All of the travel went without incident...all flights on-time, bags delivered and uneventful flight time activity. Way to go Southwest!

The conference marked the completion of my participation in the ACCCA mentor program, which I found to be much more fulfilling than I had originally anticipated. I was matched with Dr. Francisco Rodriguez, soon to be former President of Consumes River College. He will be taking the helm as Superintendent/President at Mira Costa College next month. I found it quite useful to be able to observe a different institution and have someone to chat with that was completely outside of my college and district. It was also helpful that Francisco was once previously an Exec. Dean of an off-campus center, so we had plenty to chat about and he provided me with some unique insights and invaluable advice.

The other wonderful aspect of the program was getting to know one of my colleagues and fellow mentor program participants, Chrisanne Knox, our College Director of Public Relations and Marketing. I don't think I have met a more optimistic person. Thanks Chris for making the program that much better!

The other neat component of the conference was being there to see our Chancellor, Dr. Helen Benjamin, be presented with the 2009 Buttimer Award, which is the highest honor a California Community College CEO can receive from ACCCA. Congrats again Dr. Benjamin!

No more three day weekends until Memorial Day. Glad to hear UC is on the mend after playing reality bumper cars. I'm still baffled by the fact that the airbag didn't deploy.

Have a great week everyone!

2/17/09

No gym today. Heading out of town to San Diego for the ACCCA conference today, so I will get in a run later tonight at the hotel.

I love long holiday weekends. It was great to see Mike & Erika Uribe this past weekend. Hard to believe it took us a year to catch up. Scary! Thanks Dana for all of the help with the Mac!

It rained all weekend and I'm impressed that Lance was only in one wreck riding from Sausalito to Santa Cruz. Although, I'm not sure it was truly weather related b/c he got tangled up with a motorcycle. I didn't see the footage, but I'm sure it was brutal. He had to pick up and ride on a spare bike....he still managed to finish in 4th place for the day.

Heavy rain slated for today and tomorrow up and down the coast.

I'm southbound on Southwest in a few hours and am desperately trying to get things done before I leave the office for the rest of the week. Ack!

1/12/09

0430 gym arrival: 4.90 miles on the treadmill over 45 min (.30 mile warm up, 3 mile run, 1.25 interval sprints, .30 cool down). I finally figured out the calorie counter on the heart rate monitor. I have to run the stopwatch function during the workout for it to be able to calculate the calories. Calories burned today = 838. It will be interesting to compare my running workout with the next spin class workout using the heart rate monitor calorie counter as a barometer.

Erica got pulled over last night b/c our registration had expired on the Tahoe and we didn't realize it. As soon as I get the registration renewals I renew online and as soon as I get the new tags I put them on the car and then put the new registration in the glove box. Turns out we were never mailed a registration renewal form, or at least mailed one to our new address, which we have been in for over 2 years. I think it was mailed to our old address, which sort of makes no sense to me b/c the registration for our other car, the Camry, was mailed to our new address. Keep in mind though we are talking about the DMV. The DMV is closed today and then closed again on Monday, but open tomorrow (go figure), so off to the DMV I go Friday afternoon. I did, however, forget to put the new insurance card in the glove box and the absence of that did not help the situation last night (again, sorry about that E).

I got the trinity river pics from Chris yesterday. The one to the left below is the first steelhead I've ever caught and the one on the right is the 2nd. Both are wild and, as always, catch and release was employed.

2/11/09

0420 gym arrival: a pathetic attempt at 20 min of weights followed by a 45 min spin that kicked my rear end.

Looks like american idol has some talent this year. I was impressed with more than a few of the singers they highlighted last night. Tatiana has to go. I want to flick her in the face every time she is on screen. I'm sure they will keep her around b/c she's drama and I suspect a little chemically unbalanced.

The fountain on our campus (see the header photo) got soaped for the first time last week and we are having a tough time getting all of it out (despite a complete draining over the weekend). I don't see the point of fun in soaping the fountain. It's not as if it were a complex chemical experiment or an original prank in any form. Being unoriginal is not a way to make one's mark in the world.

Here's to getting through hump day (weds.).

2/10/09

0430 gym arrival: 45min/5miles on the treadmill (.25 mile warm up, 3.25 mile run, 1.25 interval sprints, .25 mile cool down). Still can't get the calorie counter on the heart rate monitor to work. The instruction booklet is less than helpful.

The college received our accreditation report last week and we were all shocked to learn that the commission placed DVC on a Show Cause status, which is one step below losing accreditation. We went from nothing to Show Cause. The 5 items the commission focused on were the 5 items identified in the 2002 accreditation that were listed as deficiencies. There is no doubt we can improve in these areas, but why such a dramatic jump Dr. Beno? What happened to being given Warning status? Needless to say, we will be busy correcting these issues over the next 8 months when we have to report back to the commission in October. I'm fairly confident that all of our attention and energy will be going towards removing the show cause status and that pretty much everything else will be put on the back burner. The stakes are just too high to do anything else.

27 degrees this morning when I rolled into San Ramon. Rain expected tonight and tomorrow, which we desperately need. Everybody do their rain dance for us (especially you SoCal folks who depend on our NorCal water).

2/9/09

0420 gym arrival: 20 min weights, 45 min spin class. I purchased a timex heart rate monitor and used it for the first time today. It's going to take time to get used to wearing the heart rate sensor around my chest. I'm also going to need to re-read how to set the max hr and how to get it to tell me total calories burned for the workout. I must not have set something right this morning b/c it read 0 calories for the workout....that was definitely not accurate.

I had a great weekend fly fishing up on the Trinity River. It was a weekend of firsts for me. It was my first steelhead experience, first time on the trinity river, and my first time on a float trip with a bonafide guide. Chris Leivas, our college VP for finance (guy with the thumbs up), invited me up to experience the Trinity and I am so glad I went. I had a great time. It was dawn to dusk fishing for two days with our guide, Mike Hibbard (holding the fish), or as I will now call him the fish whisperer. He knew every honey hole and every feature of that river like the back of his hand. Turns out he spends about 230 days a year on the water between the Trinity and lower Sacramento rivers. Based on what Chris was telling me about guides and the differences between them I believe I was spoiled with one of the best on my first trip out.

Mike was great at giving feedback on casting technique and sharing tips about fly usage and rig set-ups. The amount I learned about how to properly use a strike indicator was worth the guide fee alone. I learned quite a bit from Chris as well. Chris pulled in the best fish both days and I learned a new technique from him for bringing in the slack line faster when you first set the hook. Much more efficient. I don't have any pics of me with the fish I caught b/c they are still on Chris' camera, but you can see the beauty of the steelhead with the ones that Chris brought in. He pulled in all wild steelhead. I pulled in 2 wild, 1 hatchery, and 1 brown trout. The hatchery fish are so much less impressive than the wild steelhead that we didn't even bother taking a picture. The brown I pulled in was a nice fish, but about half the size of the steelhead.

OK, back to reality and the week ahead.....

Pregnancy Update

There is a reason people should wait until they are through the 1st trimester before telling people. Our enthusiasm took over our better judgement from what we know we should have done, which was wait to share the news.

We are sad to report that a miscarriage took place. Erica is doing fine. Everything is in working order. Her body was doing what it should do and we trust that there was a reason and her body reacted appropriately.

The doctor ensured us we have no reason to think that we won't become pregnant again in the near future.

Thanks for the well wishes and good thoughts. We will give you the chance to send them again soon.

2/5/09

No workout today. Too complicated to get out of the house this morning prepared to leave from work this afternoon for the Trinity river.

Quality customer service is still happening. I have recently had two experiences in two separate stores that have exceeded my expectations in customer service. The first was with Men's Wearhouse. I purchased a couple new suits and pants that needed to be tailored in the Walnut Creek store. The WC store is larger than the Brentwood store and is convenient for me to access when I am traveling between the SRC and PHC, but is not so convenient to access from home in Brentwood. The Brentwood store is much smaller and has limited stock on hand, which makes shopping there frustrating. The tailoring wasn't quite finished at the promised date/time and a shirt I had ordered was delivered, but was the wrong size. Joseph, the gentlemen helping me with everything, ended up that night on his way home to Antioch driving to their pleasant hill store to pick up the correct size shirt and then dropping off the finished tailored items at their Brentwood store, so that I could pick them up that same night. I will definitely be contacting Joseph in the future when I am ready to make additional purchases.

The second experience was with the Apple store in the Pleasanton mall. I recently purchased a new imac with a wireless keyboard. The wireless keyboard does not have a 10 key number pad, which Erica wanted. So, I went to the Pleasanton store to check into exchanging the wireless keyboard for a wired one, which has the 10 key number pad. Turns out you have to return the entire computer to facilitate this exchange, which was disappointing b/c I had already transferred all of my files onto the new computer and was not willing to spend the time to remove them and then transfer them again to the exchanged computer. I was ready to and would rather spend the additional $50 for the wired keyboard. The manager of the store completely agreed that the exchange seemed unduly burdensome and then she simply gave me a new wired keyboard, which I was ready to purchase. She had few extras sitting in the back. Completely blew me away. I am so glad I switched from PC to Mac.

Congratulations to Tiffany Lightfoot for successfully passing her NCLEX exam and being sanctioned as a registered nurse in California! Tiffany was a student in my rec classes and has since been one of my TAs in several ensuing classes. All that hard work paid off...way to go!

2/3/09

04:30 Gym arrival: 4.75 miles on the treadmill over about 45 minutes. .25 mile warm up, 3 mile run, 1.25 mile interval sprints, .25 mile cool down. Felt good to be back.

Punxsutawney Bill may have seen his shadow for a continued winter season (obviously this applies only to the Midwest & East Coast), but can we get some clarity on the precipitation outlook? On the news this morning the statistics were a little frightening for the Bay Area. The Bay Area normal rain intake is approximately 31" of rain each year. To date we have received only 6" of rain, which means we need to get an additional 24" of rain over the course of February and March/April. It dries out in April, so February & March are literally the rain maker months for us. I think we are in deep......this year in regards to water. All of the water districts are already projecting water rationing, which ultimately means that water will cost a lot more this year. The residual impact of a decreased water supply also means lower water levels in reservoirs (and they are already scary low) and lower flows on most of California rivers. It's going to be a tough fly fishing year.

The photo above is of the Comanche Reservoir last summer, which as you can see was low last year. The Comanche feeds the Mokulume River, which I fished in October last year (photo of our float on the right). If the trend continues I don't think I will be able to float the Mokulume this coming October due to low flows.....ugh. Maybe I will put off the planned purchase of a pontoon boat this year.

Enrollments continue to climb as we approach the February 9th census date. As of yesterday, the SRC is up 11.4% in headcount (3,751 students) and 11.8% in FTES (766). We are at a 90% fill rate on the SRC and as a result we are having some parking issues at peak periods during the day. I have a meeting with the city next week to explore some temporary solutions, which include potentially graveling an undeveloped lot directly behind the campus to accommodate some overflow parking. There is an inherent drawback to the graveling project....it has an approximate $100,000 price tag.

2/2/09

No workout this morning. Too little sleep due to the gut bomb caused by superbowl junk food. Will have to make up the the calorie burn over the rest of the week. I did buy a pair of new running shoes though this weekend (yes 1, it was a little too long between purchases and the new tread was long overdue).

Back online. The home computer died. It fell victim to age and some virus that managed to get by the Norton Antivirus software (a product by which I am no longer impressed). Despite my best attempts to remove the virus, which included uninstalling and reinstalling lots of software, we decided to pull the plug on the HP. We originally purchased it from Costco about 6 years ago, so the virus gave me the excuse to go out and buy a new one.

I am back in the Mac family. Picked up a 20" imac at the apple store yesterday. I'll finish transferring files tonight. So far, so good.

Erica and I had a great time in San Francisco on Thursday night. The St. Regis was quite nice and Starwood continues to impress us. We enjoyed a couple of cocktails before dinner at the hotel bar and bumped into former SF Mayor, Willie Brown. Turns out he lives in the hotel residences. Couldn't resist the photo opportunity.

It was summer weather in the city, which was highly unusual. We ate dinner outside on the balcony at the cheesecake factory and then headed out for the show. It was our 2nd time seeing Wicked and the show was great. Carol Kane was in the production again. She must live locally and really like playing the same role every four years.

Many thanks to the parentals for coming down and taking care of Sage while we ran away for the night!