Christmas Greetings to Family and Friends

Seasons Greetings from Minnesota! As I begin to write this years letter the mercury has already dropped to zero. It really helps you to appreciate sitting by the fireplace in a toasty warm house. For those of you that may not know, our family relocated from sunny Southern California to the heart of the great white north. We have experienced a wide spectrum of weather in our first four months here. August had temperatures in the 100’s. The fall leaves were at there glorious peak colors in late September. We had our first measurable snow fall on October 11th and our first zero temperature on December 7th. The kids are now hoping for their first ever white Christmas.

Our new home is in Excelsior, located about 1 mile south of Lake Minnetonka, one of the largest lakes in the state. Excelsior has a very nice small resort town type of feel. Downtown has quaint little shops and a beautiful lake front park and beach. Minnetonka cruise boats also dock there along with several lake side restaurants. To say we love the town would be an understatement! The house has a nice big yard that backs up against the soccer fields of Minnetonka West Middle School where Catie goes to school. After living an So Cal in houses that are short on storage, we really like the less cramped feel of our new place. And last but not least, we are 20 miles from my office in downtown Minneapolis, a 30 minute drive in traffic. 30 minutes!!! I spend less time commuting in a week that I would spend on a bad DAY in California. Wow, what a wonderful difference.

Being closer to home has been a real blessing. We traveled to Milwaukee for my cousin Aaron’s wedding in September. Also that month My sister Debra and her family came and spend a nice weekend with us here. The leaves were turning the temps were in the 70’s. Chris and Catie made a trip to Milwaukee in October during teacher convention weekend. And, we had a awesome Thanksgiving weekend with the majority of my family coming to town. Including my Uncles, Aunts and cousins from the Twin Cities, we had 35 people for Thanksgiving dinner. Highlights of the day were the 1st annual Uncles vs. Nephews touch football Turkey Bowl. A fun and hard fought game that saw experience prevail over youth. Also, the flexibility challenge call the Bag Game that involved picking up a paper grocery bag with your teeth with only your feet touching the floor. The evening closed out with a rousing game of Pictionary and dessert. Thanks to everyone that made the trip both near and far to join in making this one of the most special holidays we have ever experienced.

Catie is now 11 years old and in sixth grade. She attends Minnetonka West Middle School. She is fortunate that the school is literally right behind or house, so she has a 5 minute walk to school in the morning. She is making friends and is active in the knitting club. Catie is still maintaining her relationships with her best friends in California, cell phones and Internet chat help them to bring the miles. She also is enjoying the chances she has to spend more time with her Wisconsin cousins.

Alex is 15 and a Sophomore at Minnetonka High School. He is a huge NFL fan, so the first thing he convinced his dad to do upon arriving in MN was to get Vikings season tickets. We have had a lot of fun going to the games. The highlight was watching Brett Favre and the Packers beat the Vikings in a very exciting game. Alex’s beloved Jacksonville Jaguars are having a tough year, but if things go well they will still end up in the playoffs. Alex is making friends at his new school and adjusting to the new climate. Like his sister he is also staying close to his CA friends through Texting and Chat. He will be spending a week of his Christmas break visiting his second family, the Herbst’s, in Santa Clarita.

Nik is going to turn 18 this coming January. Can you believe our little Nik (well, big Nik now) is a senior in High School?! He has had his senior portrait taken and his getting ready for his final semester in High School. Nik reminded me that he will be able to vote in the next presidential election, something he is really looking forward to. Nik is not such a fan of the cold weather just yet, but he is looking forward to the snow. On the weekends, you will still find Nik lounging around the house in his t-shirt and shorts.

My lovely bride is absolutely loving being back in the Midwest. She loves being close to family again. She really missed the changing of the seasons in California, so that is bringing her lots of joy as well. As many of you know, several years ago Chris completed a degree in Culinary Arts. Well, now that we have settled into our new home she has started to apply her knowledge at a local chef owned catering company, that specializes in 4 star culinary cuisine. She really enjoys the work environment and loves her flexible part-time schedule. The owner is understanding to her back issues and allows her to work around them.

We are all looking forward to spending Christmas with our family in Wisconsin. We are hoping for a white Christmas which the kids have not yet experienced. From our family to yours we wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Sun and Ice

Chris was working today so Catie and I decided to get out for a little exploring. The weather was beautiful, sunny blue sky and temps in the mid 40's. Not bad at all for early December. Our first stop was Excelsior to check and see if Lake Minnetonka had any ice on it. Wow, did it ever! It was really cool to see the ice extending all the way across the lake. We walked out on the pier to take in the view. As we stood there we could hear the creaking and groaning of the shifting ice along the presure cracks. Catie had never seen a lake frozen over like that so she thought it was pretty cool. We later walked our onto the ice. Another first for my wee one. Along the shore the surface of the ice looked like waves frozen in time.

Next stop was Chrismas Lake, named after William Christmas. We walked out on the lake and it was very different from Minnetonka. Since this lake is smaller the water froze extremely clear. You could see straight down to the bottom. In some spots you could even see little fish swimming around under the ice. We probably spent 30 minutes exploring the shore line, noticing the air bubbles that had frozen into the ice, a tennis ball that must have been floating in the water when it froze now locked into the ice. All in all a pretty neat experience for us.

We finished off the day by doing some Geocaching. We found three caches in all. It was a nice afternoon spent with my little girl.

Formula One 2006 Season Review

Well, it's the end of the season and the end of an era. The winningest F-1 Driver of all time has hung up his helmet. Thus leaving the prancing horse in the capable yet somewhat suspect hands of Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa. Ferrari with Schumacher have been the most dominant team and driver combination in the history of Formula One. Anyone who knows me is aware that I was a fan of Michael. There have been times in his career that I was embarrassed by his actions, but these were far surpassed by the pure joy I've experienced in watching him work. I'm sad to see him go, but I think it's awesome he went out the way he did, fighting tooth and nail with Fernando for the championship. I now look forward to March 18 when the new era of Formula One begins.

So, how did I do on my predictions for the season? Not as good as I'd hoped, but still not to bad.

2006 Drivers Championship (From March 20th 2006)
1. Fernando Alanso
2. Michael Schumacher
3. Jenson Button

So, Alanso will win his second championship by at least 10 points over Schumacher. Michael will get at least 1 win but I still don't think he breaks Senna's pole record it will remain in the history books as a tie. The battle for second in the championship between Michael and Jenson will go down to the last race. Kimi will win at least 3 races, but his lack of consistency will relegate him to 4th in the championship. Consistency is what wins drivers titles and Kimi doesn't have that. Perhaps a change of scenery to Ferrari next will help him to mature, but I fear he could be a driver similar to Michael Andretti that has all the talent in the world but is cursed with bad racing luck.

Other driver thoughts. Like I stated in a previous e-mail to you guys Ralf will still suck this year. He will loose his drive at Toyota at the end of the season and ride off into the sunset to watch all Brady Bunch re-runs! Nico Rosberg is a future world champion. He will get at least one podium this year. He will be the driver that gives Frank Williams his next world championship, no later than 2008. I still feel like this will end up being Michael Schumacher's last year. Kimi goes to Ferrari.

2006 Constructors Championship
1. Renault
2. Ferrari
3. McLaren

Renault should win this one by at least 15 points. McLaren will have more podium finishes, but the consistency of Ferrari will give them the edge for second place.

2006 Drivers Championship Final
1. Fernando Alanso
2. Michael Schumacher
3. Felipe Massa

Man, I really missed the mark with Button. He did have a very good second half of the season including a memorable first win. Fernando did beat Michael by 13 points. Kimi is going to Ferrari, didn't score a single victory. I also still question his consistency. Only time will tell if the switch to Ferrari will help. Nico came as close to a podium as you can get without actually reaching it. Had the Williams performance not eroded so badly over the course of the season he would have done it. Still hope Ralf goes bye bye but that doesn't appear to be happening.

2006 Constructors Championship
1. Renault
2. Ferrari
3. McLaren

Well did get this one right. However Kimi went from 12 podiums in 2005 to only 6 in 2006. Overall a very disappointing year both from Kimi and from McLaren. In the end the consistency that earned Ferrari second place in the constructors championship is what cost Michael his 8th drivers championship.

Observations on Multi-time World Champions

In the History of Formula One there have been 14 drivers that have won the World Drivers Championship two or more times. These men are the true ledgends of Grand Prix racing.

• Since it's creation in 1950 there have been 57 world championships. These 13 multi-title drivers account for 43 of the 57 championships. A winning percentage of 75%

• Since it's creation in 1950 there have been 768 Grands Prix. These 13 multi-title winning drivers account for winning 397 of the 768 races. A winning percentage of 51%. These same drivers account for capturing 354 of the 768 pole positions, a percentage of 49%
  

• Only 8 drivers in the history of Formula One have one three or more World Championships.
  

• Only 3 drivers in the history of Formula One have one 4 or more (Michael Schumacher, Juan-Manuel Fangio and Alain Prost).

• Schumacher, Fangio and Prost account for 28% of the World Championships (16), 21% of the race wins (166) and 17% of the poles (130)

• In the history of Formula One, 308 drivers have taken part in at least one Grand Prix. Of those drivers Michael Schumacher by himself accounts for 12% percent of the World Championships (7), 11% of the Grand Prix victories (91) and 9% of the Pole Positions (68)
  

The era of Michael Schumacher has ended. He has been the dominant figure in motorsport for the better part of 2 decades. He leaves behind a legacy of passion, competitiveness and overall statistics that may never be surpassed. Farewell Michael, you will be missed and certainly not forgotten.

1st Snow!

Believe it or not...we got our first measureable snow fall tonight, on October 11th! The kids were bouncing off the wall they were so excited. They all ran outside to catch snow flakes on their tongues. Catie and Alex got there jackets on and went for a walk in the neighborhood. They then got on there cell phones and call their friends back in California to share the news. The low tonight is going to be 25 degrees so the snow will be here at least until the morning. I've created a photo page on the familiy web site with a few more photos. Looks like we are in for a beautiful snowy winter.

Week two in Minnesota

Well, I'm wrapping up my first week in Minneapolis sales. The team here is very nice. They have all gone out of there way to make me feel welcome. It’s a lot to absorb though, new targets, new competitors, new team…wow! I've spent the week immersed in learning the market, meeting with each of the reps. I gave my first imaging tour to Best Buy today. He committed to having us quote their next buyers guide so that's a cool way to end the week. Next week I will be mixing in prospecting and meeting with the imaging side to start building relationships with that part of the team. I also have two customer visits set up and hope to add a few more before the week is done.

On the home front we are probably 85% done unpacking. Lots to do this weekend. The house is starting to feel more like home, but that will take some time. Catie really loves it here, and both Nik and Alex is starting to look around and notice things that they think are pretty cool. We live about 1 mile from Lake Minnetonka so we spend the evening there at the beach swimming and watching the sun set. It's not the Pacific Ocean in MDR, but it's still pretty nice. Next week we will have the kids signed up for school. The high school where the boys will be going just finished construction of they new indoor hockey arena for the high school team.

It was super hot here last week and early this week with temps over 100 and humid. The last few days it's been in the 80's so it's pretty comfortable now. The kids have about 4 more week to go before they start school so we are trying to make time for as much exploring as possible between now and then.

Alex flew into town on Monday with his best friend Nick Herbst from California. He and Nick spent the week exploring the area. They went to a Twins game on Wednesday afternoon. The Twins lost, but the boys had a really great time at the game. Alex also has fallen in love with downtown Excelsior. He took the camera there the other night so he could take pictures to share with his friends back in Cali.

There was a neighborhood block party on Tuesday night so we got a chance to meet all the neighbors. Really a very friendly group of people who really have made us feel welcome. Of the 10 houses in our neighborhood, there are two California families here. Paul and Judy just moved in across the street from us a month ago from Newport Beach. Across the other side are Less and Alice who live here in the summer, spending the rest of the year in Silicon Valley working in the Tech sector. Catie is making friends and is really having a great time.

Our first week in Minnesota

Wow, I can't believe it's been a week since we ended our road journey from California to Minnesota! It's been a very busy week. Monday we took advantage of the empty house so it was a day of painting and cleaning. Dad and Bonnie arrived on Monday afternoon. How fun to have our first visitors already. We also met several of the neighbors and they all were very friendly. We headed back over to Uncle Doug’s place for dinner and spend the night. Tuesday the moving truck arrived. Took the entire day for a team of four guys to unload the truck. It was also the first of what has become a string of hot and humid days this week. Temps in the upper 90's. That same night at Catie's urging we dug out the bedding and spend our first night in the new place. Nik and I slept on the couch in the media room and Chris and Catie slept in Catie's room.

Wednesday I had to go into the office. We had two Quad VP's in town so Stu my new boss suggested it would be a good time for me to come in ahead of my first official day so I could meet with them and also get a chance to meet the team in Minneapolis Imaging and Sales. We really have a nice group and I'm looking forward to rolling up my sleeves and digging in.

Thursday we really started to jam on unpacking. Chris focused on the kitchen. This is the heart of our home and the place where she wanted to start the sanity. I concentrated on finding, unpacking and setting up all the TVs, Tivo's, Satellite boxes, DVD players and VCRs. The DirecTV installer is coming on Friday so all this needed to be set up before he arrives. Also, this is the day that our DSL connection goes live so I needed to get the office set up. Two desks, two Macs and the printer are the minimum we need right now. What a challenge finding all this stuff. The packing crew in CA did a pretty crappy job of labeling boxes so I probably opened at least 50 extra ones before finding all the needed pieces. By Midnight this was all done any my Energizer bunny wife had made a serious dent in the kitchen.

Friday, man it's great to have Internet access again. I have a 7 Megabit connection so I totally screams. It's at least 5x faster than the connection we had in Cali. Really getting to be hot out. Temps in the upper 90's and humid today. I felt sorry for the DirecTV guy, he said that this is the hardest install he's ever done. 7 TV, 5 with Tivo almost blew his mind. After almost 4 hours he was done and we are back in touch with the world again. And not a moment to soon, the German Grand Prix is today through Sunday.

Saturday the goal was to get Nik's bedroom up and ready for him to sleep in. He and I have been sleeping on the coach, with Chris and Catie sleeping in Catie's room. The kitchen is pretty much done. Family room and Dinning room are next. We also got the Master bedroom bed set up so we all get to sleep in our own beds for the first time in over two weeks. It was hot again today, 100 degrees. Chris, Nik, Catie and I went and explored downtown Excelsior. Had dinner at the local Pizza Hut and walked along the shore of Lake Minnetonka. There is a nice little beach area and the west end of a park area called the Commons. We got our feet wet, the water really felt nice. Perfect temperature. I have to say, Excelsior is a very cool little town. It has a small resort town type of feel. And on the weekends it's really hopping.

Today we Alex's room set up in preparation for his arrival from California tomorrow. That took me most of the day. It was 102 and steamy today. Catie and I went to the beach for a swim in the evening to cool off. Man that water felt good. Slowly the house is falling into place. Lots of work yet ahead of us, but we will just keep chipping away at it. My first day of work is tomorrow, so I'm going to try and get to bed early so I can get a good nights sleep. All in all I feel pretty good about how much we've accomplished this week.

The Road to MN - Day Nine

We all woke up this morning early, the excitment of seeing out new house in just a few short hours had everyone up ready to go! We got on Interstate 94 and started our final drive east. Our first tast of Minnesota was a rest stop. All indoors, with a big lobby and vending machines. Very wooded and a beautiful lake. Nik and Catie were very excited to see their first MN lake. The last 250 miles from Fargo to Excelsior were uneventful. We arrived at our house around 1:00pm. The house looks great, even though the grass is a bit brown. Turns out someone turned off the sprinkler system at some point in the last six weeks.

After spending alittle time poking around we headed off to Uncle Dougs house for dinner. Dana and Bonnie where there as well as Darcy and her two little ones Re Re and Collin. We had a really nice visit with all of them. We will be spending the next few nights at Doug and Sue's house until the furniture get here and we find our bedding. It's good to finally be here, hopefully our furniture will arrive in a few days and we can get started!

The Road to MN - Day Eight

First off, did I mention that the town of Glendive is a total dive! As Alex would say it's a real one horse town. It is the largest town east of Billings Montanta and there is nothing else in North Dakota until you get to Bismark. There was a Geocache in town so it wasn't a total loss. I did the Loose Caboose cache to log my find in Montana. After a decent breakfast we headed out of town, east on I-94. Our highlight for the day was visiting Theodore Roosevelt National Park. TR is in western North Dakota and is located on land that used to be his cattle ranch. He lived here for several years before becoming President. He credited is stay in North Dakota for making him tough enough to be President and also for the inspiration to create the national park system. We all owe Teddy thanks for having the wisdom and vision to put aside and preserve these national treasures.

The park itself is located about 40 miles east of the Montana/North Dakota boarder, just off the interstate. There is a nice scenic loop drive that gives you a really nice overview of the park. It takes about 90 minutes to do the drive, unless like us you get out of the car and explore a bit. There are several Prarie Dog towns throughout the park. Catie and Nik got a kick out of seeing all these little guys standing on there hind legs checking us out as we drove by. There is also a herd of Bison and a herd of wild horses that are freely roaming the park. We saw both and it was bretty cool. On Bison was only about 50 feet from the road so we got a really a great close up look at him.

Just outside the park is historic Medora. The town was built in the 1880's by French nobleman Marquis de Mores and named by him for his wife. In 1883 he build a large slaughterhouse and meat packing plant complete with an ice house for refrigeration. The plan was to slaughter local beef and ship it via the newly completed railroad back to the east coast. The plant never really made it and was abandoned. In 1907 the old buildings were destroyed by fire. The Marquis operated his meat packing plant during the years the Teddy ran his Maltese Cross ranch on the land that is today the National Park that bears his name.

Nik and I did a cache just outside the park entrance called the Frenchman's Folly. We also spend some time exploring the shops in medora and had lunch in a rustic dinning hall, complete with stuffed Buffalo and Elk.

The rest of the drive to Fargo was uneventful. The terain slowly leveling out to the mostly flat farmland. I can't believe we are spending our last night on the road tonight. It's really gone by so fast! Chris' back is doing really well. After the initial scare of Day two, it's gotten steadily better each day. We are all excited to get on the road in the morning to see our new house.

The Road to MN - Day Seven

Got a bit of a late start this morning, the kids were pretty tired so I let them sleep in until 8:30. Unfortunatly this ment we didn't have enough time to stop and visit the water fall that Great Falls is named after. This is a spot that gave Lewis and Clark a pretty hard time during there exploration of the Lousianna purchase. Combining this late start with the 450 of road we had ahead of us we didn't have much time to stop along the way.

The first 150 miles was on state and local highways leading from through the rolling wheat covered hills between Great Falls to Lewiston. After a brief stop for lunch at the Buffalo Trader Cafe. Next we passed through Billings which is up on a high bluff overlooking the Missouri river. Finally we ended our drive winding our way along the Yellowstone river on our way to Glendive Montana. I was stuck today by the diversity of the scenery we where blessed with seeing today.

The Road to MN - Day Six

First things first, Chris' woke up with her back feeling really good this morning. I mean, it's not perfect but it is so much better than it was a few days ago. Our drive today took us through Glacier National Park. This is a park I've been looking forward to visiting for a very long time. We entered the park from the west with a plan to drive the "Going-to-the-Sun" road which goes all the way through the park and exits on the east edge. We had an audio driving tour for this road that our friends the Porters had given us, so we listened to this during the drive. I was nice to have the highlights pointed our to us, there were several senic areas we would have probably missed if not the the audio. One thing that was pretty disapointing was how crowded the park was. It wasn't so much the number of people, as it was the totally inadiquite amount of parking there was. There was not a single parking lot today that had any open spots. In fact, most had signs declaring a minimum 30 minute wait for parking. We have been to parks with a ton more traffic that didn't feel nearly as crowded as this place.

This aside, the park had some very beautiful scenary. The continental devide runs through the backbone of the mountains here. There are several perminant glaciers. Mountain goats are roaming free around the devide. Crystal clear mountain lakes with color so blue you can't believe it's real. I'm glad we had the chance to visit, I think I'd like to come back at a less busy time of year. Late spring or early fall would be cool. We ended up our day in Great Falls Montana. It's hard to believe that we are 2/3 of the way through the trip. Time truely fly's when you're having fun!

The Road to MN - Day s Four and Five

Spent the night in Cour d' Alene Idaho last night. We had a great drive from Portland along the Columbia River, up through Eastern Washington and finally into Cour d' Alene. Chris zonked out almost imediately after getting settled into our room. She's not used to having to do all the driving, but since we have two cars we both get to drive full time. She woke up this morning with a much reduced amount of back pain, so praise the Lord she is feeling better.

I woke up around 5:00am this morning to so some Geocaching. I have never found a cache in Idaho or Washington, to this was my chance to check both of these states off my list. I got out just as the sun was coming up, my favorite time of day. I found the On the Line cache in Washington. I was also able to find the Garlic cache in Idaho, located next to a Greek Resturant. So, I've now found caches in 19 states, 40% of the way to my goal of finding caches in all 50 states.

Today we drove through the Idaho pan handle and through the Bitter Root Mountains in western Montana on the way to Kalispell. This town is the gateway to Glacier Nat'l Park where we will be exploring tomorrow. Nik and I have been listen to the audiobook Undaunted Courage, the story of the Lewis and Clark Expedition written by Stephen Ambrose. A big part of there adventure took place in this part of the country. We drove by Lewis and Clark University in Idaho and I-90 follows the same path as the Clark Fork river.

We arrived in Kalispell around 5:30pm. Chris got out of the car and for the second day was able to walk to the hotel without crutches. I pray she continues to heal so we can enjoy the rest of our trip and actually relax and recharge our batteries from the stress of the move. I'm short of running out of steam from the early caching and long day of driving so I'm going to sign off.

The Road to MN - Day Three

Woke up this morning and Chris’ back is a still pretty bad, but not quite as bad as it was last night. We decided to see how it felt at the end of the day. Our drive today took us along the scenic Oregon coast. It’s like no other place I’ve ever visited. Huge rock formations jutting out of the ocean. Large waves crashing up on the rocks. Crystal blue sky making it all the more beautiful. With Chris’ back still shot, we didn’t spend much time stopping to take in the sights. Our main goal was to try to get to our friends the Blocks in time for dinner. So, after lunch, we headed inland to hook up with I-5 to whisk us up to Portland. We pulled in to Dan and Eileen’s house by 6:15pm. We enjoyed catching up on each others lives over a dinner of burgers and dogs. The kids played a new PS2 game called Guitar Heroes. It’s an interactive game were you play guitar to classic guitar songs, kind of like Dance Dance Revolution, only with plastic guitars. Dan and I also took a turn and it was great fun. Looks like a great Christmas gift idea.

The Road to MN - Day Two

Got on the road around 9:00am this morning. We adjusted our plan and rather than head straight west to the Pacific Coast Highway, we are making a diversion to Napa Valley. Our favorite vineyard V. Sattui is there and we wanted to pick up a case or their famous Gamay Rous. We spent about an 2 hours at the vineyard, shopping and enjoying lunch at lunch of hard salami, Italian bread, blue cheese, roasted veggies, roasted garlic and strawberries in there garden. After lunch we continued north on highway 29 to highway 101 north. This route took us through the Redwood Forest all the way to the coast. Our final 80 miles was along the northern California coast, ending up in Crescent City. We rolled in to our hotel around 10pm. Chris’ back has been tightening up since yesterday morning and now it’s full blown out. It was all she could do to get out of the car and into the hotel bed. It was so bad that I started looking into the option of having her fly to Minneapolis from Portland, our destination tomorrow. My thinking is that after Portland it gets a lot harder to get decent air travel options. I’d then have to fly someone out to Portland to drive the car the rest of the way. Chris and I spoke quite a bit about this and decided we’d see how she feels in the morning.

The Road to MN - Day One

Chris and I spent the morning finalizing the cleaning, packing and painting at the house. We finished up at around noon. After getting the two cars organized and packed we said our goodbyes to our good friends the Herbst’s. We spent our last two nights in California staying with them. Rick and Donna and Ann and Shelly adopted us as surrogate family when we moved into the neighborhood back in 2000. I can’t thank them enough for all the love and support they have given us over the years. Alex will be staying with Rick and Donna for the next two weeks, hanging out with his best friend Nick. After Nick’s last performance in Grease, Nick and Alex will be flying to Minneapolis so that Nick can visit us for a week.

We finally got on the road around 2:30 pm, with our first nights goal of making it to the Bay Area and our hotel in Berkeley. The drive north was un eventful and we rolled into town at about 8:30pm. The Holiday Inn Express was a great little hotel, close to the freeway and of course as yummy continental breakfast included.

USGP Here I Come!

Alright, my USGP adventure begins. This trip really will be my own private version of Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Because of the uncoming move to Minnisota, I wasn't sure until a couple weeks ago if I would be driving or flying to Indy. Well, by the time I knew I was still coming from LA. all the flights into Indy were booked solid. The closet airport with any kind of flight available was Chicago, a day earlier than planned. So I'll fly into O'Hare today and drive up to my sister Debbies house to visit, Then drive down to Merriville IN were Tom and I will meet up and finish the drive together to Indy on Thursday.

So, here I sit at LAX waiting for my flight to Phoenix. I'll write again soon.

Fun Sunday

The kids and I had a fun afternoon on Sunday. The kids wanted to go to the Apple store in Northridge. Alex needed a replacement battery for his iPod Mini, Catie wanted to by a new PS2 game (Kingdom Hearts) and Nik just wanted to play with all the new Mac stuff and dream about the day he buys his iBook laptop. Then, after all our shoping commitments were done, we got to the fun part (for me anyway) a Geocache in a really cool location.

I have been wanting to do the Stoney Point cache in Chatsworth for quite some time. It's on the northern edge of the San Fernando valley, just east of Santa Susanna Pass which leads to Simi Valley. This area is infamous as the location of the ranch owned by Charles Manson and is cult of murderers. In a twist that only shows who is really in charge of this world, the exact location of the Manson ranch is now owned by Rocky Peak Christian Church. Is the Lord awesome or what!

Anyhow, back to my story. I knew from reading the logs on the cache page I knew the cache was near the summit. I thought since I had all three of the kids along I should find the easiest trail possible to the top. So, the most worn trail must but it right? Well we hiked almost the entire parimeter of the peak and didn't find an easy trail. OK guys, looks like we need to do a bit of rock hoping and scrambling. Still trying to find the path of least resistance. Well, we ended up doing quite a bit of climbing. I was very proud of all the kids, they did a great job. Even Nik, who is pretty cautious when it comes to all things gravity hung in there and made it to the summit. After snapping a few photos I checked my GPS to see how close we were to the cache. 15o feet and all I see is Down! After a lot more scrambling I finally made it to the cache, located not more that 18 inches away from a 50 foot cliff. Not as dangerous as it sounds, but still pretty exciting.

As with most climbs I've done, coming down is always harder than going up. Nik and I share the same challenge in this regard. Cautiously we worked our way down. The scenery was really nice. Had to keep reminding myself this was in the of a heavily populated part of SoCal. Our serenity would be shattered from time to time as we would run across graffiti on the rocks or patches of broken glass from beer bottles. Yep we are in So Cal afterall! Ultimately we made it down safe and sound. Thanks guys for sharing this adventure with Dad. For more pictures of our adventure, please visit our Family Web site.

Southwest Road Trip - Day Five

Home Sweet Home! The boys and I arrived home yesterday late in the afternoon. We were right on the fringe of a Pacific storm the whole day, but for the most part avoided the rain. After emptying the car, we all kind of blobbed in front of the TV and caught up on TiVo before falling asleep. The boys are still out cold as I write this. Today I'll get going on updating my Geocaching account with our finds, organizing all my photo's and working on the Wunrow Family web site updates. I'll be creating a photo page for the trip to share with family and friends.

Southwest Road Trip - Day Four

Today is the big day, The Grand Canyon! After and early breakfast we begin the 70 mile drive from our Hamton Inn hotel to the south rim. The drive on Highway 180 winds us through the Coconino National Forest, in the shadow of the San Franciso Peaks. We practically had the road to our selves this morning, a beautiful and relaxing drive. The traffic leading into the park was better than the 405 at rush hour, but not exactly delay free either. It took approx 20 minutes of stop and go to get through the entrance. Once inside we were reminded that it was spring break, tons of people and very hard to find a parking spot. After about 30 minutes of driving we found a spot close to one of the shuttle stops. We had a quick lunch of canned pasta and got our hiking gear organized before heading out to the shuttle. We made a pretty big mistake in deciding to take the shuttle around the village rather that walk the 0.3 miles to the rim. We were on a packed bus for almost an hour before we could get off anywhere close to the rim. I have to say the shuttle system in Zion National park is head and shoulders above the one on the south rim.

Finally off the flippin' bus we walked over for the boys first view of the Grand Canyon from the south. The boys were speachless as we walked up to the edge. No matter how many times you see this place, it does get pretty overwelming as you stand there and try to take it all in. It's just SO BIG! There is not a photograph ever taken that really captures the grandure of the canyon. The lighting on this side is much more dynamic than it is on the north rim. We hiked along the rim on for a mile and a half, stopping many times to soak up the sights and take pictures. It's amaizing how few people actually walk along the rim. I'd say it's less than 1 in every 100 or more. Once we arrived at the main village we stopped for a break. Around 5:00pm we set off for the Bright Angel trail. This trail actually takes you down below the rim, eventually going to the Colorado river and back up the other side to the north rim, a 30 mile one way hike. Since the sun was on its way down, we only hiked down about half a mile. The going down as not bad, but quite a bit harder on the way up. An even smaller number of people hike below the rim, we probably saw less than 75 people for the hour we were on the trail. It was a really neat experience, one that I heartily recomend.

Once we arrived back in the village, the boys were pretty tired. We got back to the car and headed out Tusayan the little town just outside the park. There was a cowboy steak house we had noticed on the way in. Alex and I split a plate of steak and ribs while Nik enjoyed an Angus burger and fries. The car was pretty quiet on the 90 minute drive back to the hotel. A long and rewarding day completed.

Southwest Road Trip - Day Three

We had a big day of driving today so I got the boys up earlying so we could have breakfast and still get on the road by 7:30am. New Mexico is on Mountain time while Arizona does not do Day Light Savings to they are an hour earlier, so the boys were a bit groggy as we started our drive. Our first destination is the Four Corners Monument, where the states of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona all come together in a single point. Nik and Alex took turns posing with each limb in a different state, pretty cool. The photo at right shows the boys standing on the platform of the four corners. Since this is on Navajo Nation tribal land, it is a big money maker for the people. Alex got a cool Navajo ring and neckless, and Nik bought a refrigerator magnet of showing the four states.

Next stop, Wupatki National Monument. Located between the Painted Desert and Sunset Crater National Monument, Wupatki was a thriving Anasazi village. When the Sunset Crater Volcano erupted 800 years ago it buried much of the village in volcanic ash forcing the people to leave. Years later they returned and rebuilt the village, farming the newly enriched soil left behind by the volcano. There are several ruins from the village still in almost perfect condition. There is a virtual Geocache called Wupatki at the Wukoki or "Big House". We were able to walk around inside this amazing structure which is located on a large rock slab with an great view of the Painted Desert to the east and the snow covered San Francisco Peaks to the west.

Our final stop on this busy day was the Meteor Crater impact site and museum, located about 35 miles east of Flagstaff, AZ. At this location approx 50,000 years ago, a huge iron-nickle meteorite slammed into the Arizona desert with an explosive force than 20 million tons of TNT. The result of the impact was a huge bowl shaped crater over 4,000 feet across and 700 feet deep. This site was used by NASA during the Apollo missions to train the moon walkers how to cope with the crater filled environment of the moon. On display in the museum was a 3 foot long piece of the meteor, the largest piece ever found. Running his hand over it, Alex remarked how cool it was to touch something that could have come from another galaxy, on the other side of the solar system. This place with one of the trip highlights for both Nik and Alex.

Southwest Road Trip - Day Two

Enjoyed our complimentary breakfast before checking out of the Holiday Inn in Holbrook, AZ. Our first stop was Petrified Forest National Park. I've heard about this park for a long time, but was never sure what it was all about. I knew there would be wood that had turned to stone, but I didn't realize just how much of it there was! As you can see from the picture, there are big tree trunk size pieces all around. We took a cool 1 mile loop hike that walked us through a badlands type setting we lots of petrified wood.
We did two caches in park. The Petrified TeePees cache was a virtual that took us to pyramid shaped rock formations. The Painted Desert cache took us to the Painted Desert which is actually on the north end of Petrified Forest. The Painted Desert boasts the puriest air quaility in all of North America.

Next we headed north for Hubbell Trading Post Nation Monument. The post is the oldest continuously operating trading post on the Navajo Nation. We had a picnic lunch and Alex made friends with a young German Shepard dog that was roaming the park looking for food and attention. Alex named him Hubbell and begged me to let him come home with us....ah...No! We did a quick cache here as well. Hubbell Trading Post 2 for 1 cache allowed me to get credit for a cache and a benchmark. This is the first benchmark I've seen that is not on the ground, but rather on the side of the visitor center.


Our final park of the day was Canyon de Chelly National Monument (pronounced De Shay). This was the highlight of the day for all three of us. We only had time for a short hike to Spider Rock overlook. As you can see of the picture to the right, the views are spectacular. The boys really got sucked in to the serenity and beauty of this place. Canyon de Chelly is known for its shear rock walls, Anasasi cliff dwellings and Petroglyphs. The park is also still a working Navajo community sustained by farming on the canyon floor. There are also truck tours available from the Navajo's that take you down into the canyon and upclose to the dwellings and Petroglyphs. There was one cache in the park called Canyon de Chelly - Spider Rock Overlook. Not much question about what prominant landmark is featured in this virtual. We left the park just before sunset and headed for our next hotel, The Comfort Inn in Gallop, NM.

Southwest Road Trip - Day One

The boys and I began our week long road trip to the scenic southwest today. It was a bit slow getting ready this morning since we have been on the go all weekend at the Long Beach Grand Prix. We did manage to get on the road by 9:00am, with all things considered was not too bad. We took our time on the drive, stoping several times along the way to do some Geocaching. The picture at right is just inside Sunset Crater National Monument. We tried to do a cache there, but the gate closed at 5:00pm, so we where turned away. Some of our more memorable caches we did today include Eight Cribs located in historic Williams, AZ and the Standin' on a corner cache located in Winslow, AZ. The Winslow cache was inspired by the Eagles song Take it Easy. There is a tribute on a corner in downtown Winslow right on historic Route 66 compete with a flatbed Ford truck and a bronze statue of the Eagles Don Henley. We also took advantage of our stop in Winslow to have a delicious Italian dinner at the only resturant open on a Monday night. From there we finished off the drive to our hotel in Holbrook, AZ. We eased our road weary muscles into the hot tub for a nice soak before turning in for the night.

Middle Aged Cat

On Friday March 31st we helped our cat Cookie to celebrate his 35th birthday. Now before you call the Guiness Book of World Records you should know that I've already adjusted for the whole dog year/cat year thing with that age. We have Had Senior Don Gato for 4 years, and he was one year old when he joined our family. We rang in is big day by opening a can of moist cat food, by hand (nothing but love for Donnie G)complete with a flaming birthday candle. He also received a nice little gift bag with a fine asortment of play mice stuffed with Cat Nip. Judging from the fact that he has been running around like a mad kitty for several hours, I'd have to say he likes them! Dad and Bonnie arrived on the same day and were able to help us with Cookies celebration as well. Actually, I think they kind of thought we had lost our minds! Cookie, you are aging well my friend, you don't look a day over 4! We wish you happiness and a frugel use of your existing 8 lives.

Father/Daughter Dance

Caties school put on their annual Father/Daughter dance last night.The theme this year was a formal Ball. Catie was so excited, she began planning her outfit over a month ago. She had a beautiful pink dress and found some cute acrylic high healed shoes to go with it. On the day of the Ball she went and had a full manicure/pedicure in pink to match her dress. Chris did up Catie's hair, found some cute Cookie Lee earrings and wow, my little girl looks so grown up! I put on my best dark suit and my now famous party tie. The Fair Oaks Elementary school Multi-Purpose room was all decked out in streamers and balloons. A live DJ was on hand to play a fun variety of fast and slow dance music. There was also a limbo contest for the girls. Catie was so cute, she is really getting to be such a good dancer. Too bad her Father has two left feet! I think all the acting and ballet has really helped to develop her confidence around other people. We met up with Caties friend McKenna and her Dad, also named Jeff after the dance at our local McDonald's for an ice cream treat. We both had a very memorable evening together. This may be our last formal dancing until Catie gets married. Wow, that really puts things in perspective! Catie, thank you for a wonderful time. I love you very much.

Formula One 2006 Predictions

Wow, what a great start to the 2006 world championship chase. Qualifying is pretty interesting, although there was definately less drama in Malaysia than in Bahrain. I think as the season wears on there will be fewer suprises in the first two knock out rounds. However the third round should consistently give us some exciting results. It's so nice to have an extra team to fill out the grid. Go Super Laguri! Hopefully someday we may see 24 or even 26 cars on the grid again.

Well, now it's time for my predictions on how the season will pan out for both the drivers championship and the manufacturers championship.

2006 Drivers Championship
1. Fernando Alanso
2. Michael Schumacher
3. Jenson Button

So, Alanso will win his second championship by at least 10 points over Schumacher. Michael will get at least 1 win but I still don't think he breaks Senna's pole record it will remain in the history books as a tie. The battle for second in the championship between Michael and Jenson will go down to the last race. Kimi will win at least 3 races, but his lack of consistency will relegate him to 4th in the championship. Consistency is what wins drivers titles and Kimi doesn't have that. Perhaps a change of scenery to Ferrari next will help him to mature, but I fear he could be a driver similar to Michael Andretti that has all the talent in the world but is cursed with bad racing luck.

Other driver thoughts. Like I stated in a previous e-mail to you guys Ralf will still suck this year. He will loose his drive at Toyota at the end of the season and ride off into the sunset to watch all Brady Bunch re-runs! Nico Rosberg is a future world champion. He will get at least one podium this year. He will be the driver that gives Frank Williams his next world championship, no later than 2008. I still feel like this will end up being Michael Schumacher's last year. Kimi goes to Ferrari.

2006 Constructors Championship
1. Renault
2. Ferrari
3. McLaren

Renault should win this one by at least 15 points. McLaren will have more podium finishes, but the consistency of Ferrari will give them the edge for second place.

Well that's it. Going to be hard to beet my record from last year, but hey that's the fun of it!

Formula One - Gettin' Ready for round 1

With the start of the Formula One season less than one week way, my thoughts are now firmly fixed on the World Campionship. I typically don't like to make a prediction until after the second race of the season. By then I've had a chance to see the cars through a couple of practice and Quali's and have a much better feel for how the teams look. However, sight unseen there are a few things I think will happen

- Kimi will sign with Ferrari, as Michael retires.
- Filipe Masa will get at least one podium finish.
- Nico Rosberg will finish the season ahead of Mark Webber in points.
- Ralf Scumacher will still suck!
- Toyota will not ever reach their potential until Jan Brady, err I mean Ralf Schumacher is gone...Marsha, Marsha, Marsha!

Does anyone else remember that the last time the Super Aguri car (aka Arrows) raced was in 2002?! Good God that's 4 years ago! How slow are they going to be? Any chance they won't be lapped at least twice at every race? I doubt it. The single biggest wild card for the championship is how many front runners Taku will take out fighting to not be lapped. That more that any other dynamic will determine the championship this year.

Also, I've heard about the latest talks between Kevin Kalkoven and Tony George regarding a reunification of Champ Car and IRL? Robin Miller broke the story on Speed news last Sunday, but I haven't seen anything written anywhere else. Funny how even though Tony has the Indy 500 he knows that Champ Car is eating his lunch. I really hope they can petty politics aside and create one really strong series. CART in the 80's and 90's was arguably a much better show that F1. I'd love to see us get back there.

5 days until P2 on SpeedTV...oh man I'm soooo freakin' ready!

2006 Olympic Winter Games Remembered

The Games of the 20th Winter Olympics were the kind of grand drama on the world stage that I have come to expect from the Olympic Games. They will also be remembers as the first Winter Olympics since Mom passed away in February of 2003. At the last Olympics in Salt Lake Dad and I made the trip to Utah and spend almost a week at the games, seeing 5 events and soaking up all the amazing atmosphere that make the Olympics so special. Little did we know then that in 12 short months Mom would pass away suddenly, leaving large painful holes in the hearts of all those that loved her. I can still picture her wearing the Blue Salt Lake Olympics jacket that Dad bought for her at the games.

This is also the first games I was able to experience watching it in High Definition with TiVo. The images were so big and bold and breathtaking, 65 inches of pure HD wonder. TiVo allowed me to record all of the NBC, USA and HD Universal coverage, watching the games and zooming through the commercials. I couldn't have done this if I had recorded it on tape. The only down side is not being able to save it long term due to storage limitations on the device. It was great to feel so connected to the events, as they unfolded. Some of the most memorable events for me, in now particular order are as follows.

Figure Skating
Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto, coming from 6th to 2nd in Ice Dancing to win a silver medal, the first Americans to medal since 1976. With the new scoring system, this is now a very competitive event, much more exciting to watch with more drama and athleticism. Sasha Cohen recovering from a devastating fall in her long performance, killing her chance for a medal of any color, picking herself up off the ice after two falls and skating one of the more moving programs in Olympic history to WIN the silver medal in Ladies figure skating.

Speed Skating
Joey Cheek winning a gold and a Silver in Long Track and them donating his USOC bonus money to Right to Play, a charity set up to promote sports in under privileged nations. The brilliant skating of Chand Hendrick in the 5000M and Shani Davis in the 1000M. It's too bad they allowed their personal differences to become an international drama. After earning bronze in the 1000m, Apolo Anton Ohno won the 500m and took third in the relay on Day 15 to grab three Torino medals and earn a place in history. Apolo's 500M win was one of the most exciting moments of the entire games for me. That race had me screaming at the TV at 11:30pm, waking up half the house!

Curling
This is a sport that before the 2002 Salt Lake games I thought was a big joke. However, we saw a bit of the coverage on TV there and it hooked my interest a bit. The full coverage NBC gave to Curling really gave me a chance to learn the sport and also develop a greater appreciation of the skill level. The US men's team winning it's first ever Medal, a bronze make it even better.

Nordic Skiing
This is another sport that never gets the prime time coverage on TV and as a result I didn't get a chance to see in the past. This year I saw most of the Nordic events. The finishes in the Mass Start events are always sooo close. The Bi-Athelon events really peaked my interest. I didn't realize that for every missed shot, the skier has to ski a 150M penalty loop. Wow, the pressure is really on and mistakes can easily cost you minutes. I really got Alex hooked on this event, we ended up watching quite a bit of this together.

There was lots coverage in the press on how the Olympics were not being covered well, especially the NBC evening coverage, that was beaten by a reality show American Idol four times during the two weeks of the games. They complained about the 9 hour time difference, that most everyone knew who won well before the telecast started. The cry for more live coverage was loud as well. Given the current dynamics of TV ratings, I'm not sure how NBC could have done it any differently. If they showed everything live, all the coverage would have taken place between 3:00am and 11:00am. You think the ratings were low for the Prime Time slot, imagine how they would have been for this! The saturation of other media covering sports like ESPN, Web sites, Blogs, Radio...It's easy to get updates on the events quickly anytime during the games. All of which helps people to feel like the Prime Time coverage is irrelevant. Personally, I made it a point not to put myself in a position to hear about the events prior to watching them on TiVo. So, for me there was all the suspense and drama I could ask for. I don't know what the answer is to make this better.

I'm concerned that we have a nation filled with people that think reality TV is anything but audio and video pollution, Low cost pandering to the lowest common denominator. Want proof of the dumbing down of America and you only need look at the kind of TV America is watching. With time shifting, advertising on TV is becoming less effective every year. The current model of Nielson ratings is becoming more and more outdated. There needs to be a measure of what shows are being recorded on DVR's to give a more accurate view of what people are watching. Also, we should be able to measure which ads are being fast forwarded through and which ones are actually being watched. This will reward advertisers who get it right and encourage others to do the same. Finally the networks need to come up with a way to make shows more portable and accessible, with out cumbersome DRM forcing the consumer to become a criminal for trying to watch a show on their terms instead of the networks terms.

In closing, I will always be a fan of the Olympics. My hope is that there will be coverage of future Olympics to watch. I hope this can be worked out so that the millions of views of Idol can understand and embrace the wonder of the original "Reality TV", the Olympic Games.

Winter Olympics 2006

The games of the 20th Winter Olympiad are now under way! I'm so pumped, the Olympics, both summer and winter are some of the milestones that for me mark the passage of time. They are an event that my family and I all share as a common touch stone through out our lives. This will be the first Olympics that we will experience with High Definition Television. The images we saw last night were amazing. The opening ceremony last night was everything you would expect in an opening. The pageantry of the parade of athletes, with the pride of watching our team of young Americans walk in overflowing with hope and promise. The symbolism of the entrance of the Olympic flag and the arrival of the Olympic flame and the lighting of the Caldrine. An unexpected highlight was the inclusion of the Ferrari F1 team doing a mock pitstop on the 2005 F1 car, followed by a parade lap of the stadium and a max rev doughnut! The sound was awesome! I'm so ready now for the begining of competition this morning. The the games begin!

Nik's Birthday Weekend

Happy 17th Birthday Nik! It seems like just the other day that we were bringing you home from the hospital. Our first little bundle of wonder. Now you are 17! How the time has flown by. We had a great weekend to celebrate your big day. Embassy Suites is your all time favorite hotel. You love the Suites, the heated pool and best of all the made to order breakfast! This year we made a mini road trip to San Diego. Our first stop once we arrived in San Diego was to visit the Midway Aircraft Carrier Museum. There is a lot of history on this ship. The Midway was very involved in the Manned Space program in the 1960's. The crew developed a very specialized skill of retrieving space capsules after splashdown. In fact, five Apollo missions ended on the deck of the Midway including the first mission to land on the Moon, Apollo 11.

The Hotel was one block off the water near Seaport Village. Our room actually had a view of the Midway from our window. We had a wonderful dinner at the hotel restaurant, the Pacific Fish Company. You had birthday phone calls on your cell phone all day, including calls from Grandma Olga, your aid Mr. Kahn, Untie Julie, auntie Jenny and Grandpa Wunrow. After dinner we retired to our suite and did your gift opening which was fun too. You got lots of fun gifts.

I snuck out early on Sunday morning while you guys were all sleeping to do 7 Geocaches. It was a beautiful morning to be out for sunrise along the water. Buy the time I came back, you guys were all just waking up, so we got dressed and headed down to the yummy complimentary made to order breakfast. You had two servings of French Toast and Bacon for breakfast and loved every bite. After breakfast we all enjoyed the heated pool, Hot tub and sauna before checkout. From the Embassy Suites we headed off to Balboa Park and its great collection of museums. Our destination was the San Diego Model Railroad Museum with its amazing recreations of various California cities and there history with rail travel and transportation. We really had a great time walking through the exhibits and were blown away by the level of detail in the scale reproductions.

On our way home from San Diego we stopped off for dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner. This restaurant is one of your favorite places to eat. The Fullerton location is part of the Fullerton Amtrak station, which made it even more special as the final stop on your birthday weekend. To top it off, we saw the Amtrak Californian pull into the station as we were leaving! We all had a wonderful time, and I can't wait to see what we get a chance to explore next year on your birthday!

Packing it in...It's a sad Day

Well the Packers season is over. This has been a season of bitter disappointment. I knew from watching them play in the pre-season that it was not going to be a Super Bowl year. I figured they'd win 8 or 9 games, maybe make the playoffs. Then the string if injuries to Javon Walker, Aman Green, Robert Fergeson, Najay Davenport, Bubba Franks, Tony Fisher, Samkon Gado...pretty much all the skill players on offense with the exception of Brett Favre have been hurt for part of or most of the season. The team was in most of the first 10 games with a change to win in the final minutes, but Brett seemed to always end the game on a turnover. He definitely didn't have one of his better years ending with 20 TD's and 25 INT's. With a win over Seattle yesterday, I feel that I may have witnessed Brett's last game as a pro. He went out with a win, extending his consecutive start record and with his TD pass extending his record for seasons with 20 or more TD's to 12. Alex e-mailed me at work late yesterday morning to let me know that the Packers have fired coach Mike Sherman. With him gone it's almost a certainty that Brett will retire. Not the way I wanted to see his career end. At least there is some joy in the house though. Alex's Jacksonville Jaguars also won on Sunday securing their first playoff game in 6 years. He is very happy and excited. Not sure how deep into the playoffs the Jags can make it this year, but having them to cheer for this weekend will help take little bit of the sting out of the Packers season for me. My hope now is that we con find a head coach that will be able to over the next year to two rebuild the team and set us back on a course to the playoffs and by the end of this decade back to the Super Bowl. I can also look forward to five years from now, experiencing the joy of watching Brett get inducted into the Pro Football hall of fame! Long Live Brett Favre and Long Live the Green Bay Packers! Go Pack Go!