My Time. My Boys.

Many of you may have wondered why within the last year I've written a total of four blog posts, this being the fifth. Oddly enough, my lack of anything remotely personal, such as blogging, has disappeared now that I have not one son, but two. It's not so much the diaper changing that swallows your time. It's the diaper change after the diaper change, followed by playing football and baseball - in the living room when mom's not home - and the occasional snow man, bath, feeding, doctor visit, and temper tantrum. It's amazing how much time those things take away from your personal space and time.

But you know what? It's totally worth it. Spending time with my boys is the greatest experience I've ever had. No, I don't have time for happy hour, blogging, working out on Saturday mornings, or reading a book a week. The things that fill up this space such as skating and skiing lessons, watching my baby army-crawl towards the Christmas tree, educating the oldest that to get a good swing on a ball you have to come down on the ball (even though it defies what your mind is telling you), are things that I wouldn't change for anything in the world.

Now, off to watch Handy Manny and scream at the oldest to clean up his toys.

2011 Militia Open

Here are the results from the 2011 Militia Open. These are brought to you by Justin Bieber and a panda.



Longest Drive #4 = Jake
Closest To The Pin #7 = Mac
Closest To The Pin #11 = Mac
Closest To The Pin #13 = Jake

1st = Aaron/Patrick (75)
2nd = Keith/John McN. (78)
3rd = Jake/John Wild. (79)
4th = Mac/John Sch. (79)

It's believed that the 75 by Aaron and Patrick is a Militia record.

My Gopher Football Schedule - 2011

Here is our lineup for the 2011 Gopher Football scheduled with Coach Kill.

09/10/11 - New Mexico State (Matt)
09/17/11 - Miami - Ohio (Sell)
09/24/11 - North Dakota State (Mac)
10/22/11 - Nebraska (Mac & Matt)
10/29/11 - Iowa (Mac)
11/12/11 - Wisconsin (Matt)
11/26/11 - Illinois (Mac & Matt)

My Proust Questionnaire

Here is my Proust Questionnaire for writing class.

What do you want people to say about you 100 years from now? The amazing thing is that he's still sexually active.

Why does your wife stay with you? We both ask ourselves this daily.

What is your dream job? Writing some useless, yet extremely expensive and needy, software from a Northern Minnesota cabin after a morning of golf.

How many years have you been in school? 28 years, and counting.

What are you most proud of? My children.

Your name is Mac, why don't you use a Mac? Because my wife is cheap. I do have an iPhone though, which took, among other things, begging.

Who do you despise? I get along with most anyone, with the exception being the people I don't get along with.

How many books have you sold? Not nearly enough to retire.

Your desk is always messy. Does that mean your unorganized? I don't see it as being messy. I see my desk as being busy. If you have time to clean your desk, you're not nearly busy enough.

Who is your favorite author? Bill Bryson. Who else?

What is your favorite music? I listen to country and rock. And while working out, I occasionally listen to genre that I won't admit in public.

Who do you most admire? My dad. Everyday I look in the mirror and see myself becoming him. And I'm good with that. He's a great guy.

Why don't you go to church very often? This is a dilemma for me as I want my children to grow up with some religious background. My wife is Catholic and I'm Lutheran. That means we'll join a catholic church. I have issues with giving that organization money.

Will you someday own a BMW? Who's buying it for me? I like Hondas. The only thing they need is gas. And often not even that.

Will you ever move from Minnesota? Never say never, but I can't see my family leaving the Twin Cities. My wife wouldn't have her mother to shop with, and that would be unfavorable for all of us.

Who cooks? Occasionally my wife does. We often outsource. Thus my weight gain.

Where is your favorite place to vacation? Oddly enough, we really like the North Shore of Minnesota. Our best times have been by the lake with a few cocktails.

What is your favorite beer? Anything you're buying. Honestly, right now it has to be Surly Furious. Though, I'm willing to try most anything, with the exception of Jacob's Best.

What is your biggest regret? I missed a blocked punt in 11th grade against Fairbault. Wish I had that one back. And, back between the ages of 18 and 23, I wish I knew then what I know now. This is a catchall for a few things.

Thoughts on Coach Kill

When Coach Jerry Kill was announced as Gopher Football coach, I, like many alumni and season ticket holders said "who?" Top on my list was Marc Trestman and Mike Leach. Both would have brought national attention to the program and given us the prominence we need.

I didn't have a grip against Coach Kill, it was just that I had never heard of him. (Though I had seen him as they beat the Gophers this year and I was unfortunately at the game.) He was from a non-BCS conference and someone that wasn't once mentioned as a candidate.

This all being said, after reading no less than 10 articles on Kill and finding out from my brother that he called all Northern Illinois season ticket holders in 2010 thanking them for their business, I have become a big fan.

Coach Brewster drove me ^%$#ing nuts with his grand pontifications about Rose Bowls and Big Ten titles. As an alumni and season ticket holder, I'm not unaware that our most immediate goals should be beating a team from Dakota and getting bowl eligible again. Brewster should have taken the patch of Rose Bowl grass and burned it after losing to South Dakota.

I figure myself as a pretty good judge of character and within the first three minutes of listening to Brewster, I knew we were screwed. After reading and listening to Kill on the radio. I think we have a chance. I really feel that this down-to-earth, coach who has won at every level, manager who has kept almost his entire staff intact the past 15 years, businessman who called every season ticket holder last year, will do fine job.

I'm taking a big gamble here by saying this, but I'm betting Coach Kill is here for the next 20 years.

Walter Football

I run a small NFL Pick'em league where you have to pick the winner against the spread. It's just like in Vegas, though without the free drinks and smoking.

To gain an edge against my opponents, I wrote a small program that uses the line and home field advantage to create some synthetic numbers based on data I get from USA Today. So far I'm 44-41 using it.

I've been looking for some other data to add into my algorithm and in the process came across Water Football. If you think I get a bit nutty with data (e.g. my yearly golf scores, puts, greens and fairways hit are recorded in a spread-sheet), this guy has crazy stuff.

His picks take a bit to get through each week as he writes a novel for each game. But if you're really into Pick'em leagues, this guy is the bomb (technical term). He has his weekly and yearly winnings (he must play online or live in Vegas), which I find interesting to look at. I'm not sure if they are real, but he did admit losing over $1000 last week, so at least he has some humility if he's lying. Looking at the results, I think he's probably being fairly honest.

If you have a few minutes (more like a hour) to waste, check out his site. Good stuff if you're into fantasy sports and Pick'em leagues.

Bond Valuation Class

I just finished up with a course on bond valuation at the U of M. If I end up passing, I'll have two classes left to finish my MBA.

The first thing you learn about taking a class on bond valuation is that you should never take a class on bond valuation. For those of us not in finance, time value of money is tough enough. Toss in trying to value static spreads, forward rates, and locked in arbitrage opportunities, we're thrown for all kind of loops.

The professor was not only a professor, but the head of finance at Carlson. He was a very good teacher, but gave us more work than a full-time working father/husband cared for. Five homeworks (hard homework), three quizzes, two group homeworks, five short papers (really short) and a final. All for a seven week class. Seemed a bit demanding to me, but I struggled through it.

My next class is on business writing, which should prove to be far less demanding than calculating the yield to maturity using treasury spot rates. Lets at least hope so.

2010 West Blue Golf League - Results

Here are the results from the 2010 West Blue Golf League.

Playoffs
1st - The Mulligans
2nd - Swing Doctors
3rd - Earth Movers (over Mentally Handicapped)
Consolation = Pinseekers (over Double Eagles)

The tournament weather was around 70 degrees, but with a prevailing two-club wind. I'm thinking the wind, along with the Gopher Football's poor play against South Dakota, affected most of the players (Travis Ranger and Jim Conry excluded). Compared to years past, scores were down about three strokes. We also had our first + score under my tenure. Unacceptable.

Lastly, the three-sum taking second was due to a no-show. The two defined three-sums finished 9th and 12th.

Tournament
1st - Bjerken, Wagner, Spilman, Schwartz (-9)
2nd - Porter, Braxmeier, Remarke (-8)
3rd - Gleiter, Trzynka, Fermoyle, Gebhart (-7)
4th - Price, Noland, Loya, Gerding (-6)
5th - Steigerwald, Conry, Englert, Finander (-6)
6th - Kuznia, Prout, Rehfeld, Walberg (-5)
7th - Hanson, Augst, Harlow, Piere (-5)
8th - Sole, Lenz, Ronning, Rowan (-3)
9th - Wendt, Madigan, Mohs (-3)
10th - Schwartz, Kroening, Olenius, Rager (-3)
11th - McNaughton, Hunecke, Grausnick, Vlasak (-2)
12th - Meggitt, Tschida, Daml (+2)

Longest Drive #3 - Gerding (280 yards)
Closest to pin #4 - Fermoyle (not even close)
Closest to pin #7 - Prout (driver into the wind)
Closest to pin #16 - Bjerken
Longest Put #18 - Rager

Two skins were awarded. The Gleiter, Trzynka, Fermoyle, Gebhart team eagled #1 for the first (second year in a row that a eagle took a skin here). And the Bjerken, Wagner, Spilman, Schwartz team birdied #11 for the second.

Tom Horner

I can't say I agree with Tom Horner on every point, but out of the three candidates for governor, I like what I'm hearing from the Independent candidate.

If you're not familiar with Horner, check out this short opinion from the Pioneer Press.

Like everyone, I'm sure he has some holes in his policy, but he seems to be a level headed politician.

Credit Card Reform - Not For Me

Since Congress passed the Credit Card Reform Act, I've seen my card add an annual fee and increase my borrowing rate. The Act has a number of consumer protections (predatory lending, debiting higher interested balances first, advanced notice of rate increases, etc.,) but none of them directly help me. I pay any balance monthly and threaten to change cards if any unfair change is thrust upon me.

I guess in a way I was benefiting from other's ineptitude to manage their expenses or fend off aggressive banks. So maybe my new annual fee from Chase is simply my way of giving back to the greater good. Or, maybe we're continuing to babysit people who struggle to financially take care of themselves. The answer is probably somewhere in the middle.

Apple iPhone 4.0.1 upgrade

It took three days, one call to Apple, two calls from Apple, two support staff members (the last being a senior level tech), a one-time approval to re-download previously paid for music, but I'm finally upgraded to iPhone OS 4.0.1.

We're not 100% sure why it happened, but during the upgrade process something went wrong. And then during the restore process, something went really wrong. When the restore failed (error 1604 I think), my phone was rendered useless and prompted me to try six different steps, the last being "call Apple."

The tech reps were excellent. Though my phone does not include Tech Support, being it was an upgrade issue, they agreed to help me. And then even agreed to go through some hoops to get all my music back. Apparently, music is not included in your backups (or syncs) by default. So I had to re-download it all. They showed me how to change my sync settings so now music is backed up.

All in all I lost just a couple of songs that for some reason didn't show up on the list of things I've purchased from Apple's iTunes. It's only a couple so I'm not complaining.

Now that I'm pieced back together, I'll review some of the new features in 4.0.1.