Anniversary Weekend Part 1

So the Mrs. and I celebrated 5 years together on September 22nd. Frankly, we needed an excuses to pawn the little man off on the grandparents and kick up our heels a bit. Here's what went down...

Morton's
I actually shut down my laptop on time. While Jen dropped dude off at grandma and grandpa's I managed to work out at the YMCA and was ready to leave at 6:15. We made it down town by for our 7:00 reservation at Morton's Steakhouse with about 3 minutes to spare. I've been fortunate enough to have eaten at all of the finer steakhouses in Minneapolis on several occasions: Morton's, Murray's, Manny's and Ruth's Chris. While Manny's probably has a better menu and a more ballsy "In your face" attitude, you can't beat Morton's for a romantic dinner.

We coudl have been seated immediately, but we opted to wait in the bar for a booth to open up. Two drinks, two salads, and half a dozen oysters later, the main course arrived. Our filets were perfectly done with both temperature and flavor. They were slightly charred on the outside and not smothered in butter like I've had them at Murray's. It was like eating a river of velvet. I had a crab cake the size of my fist and Jen devoured 3 large shrimp that weren't half bad for shrimp. I'm not a fan. I can't get past the texture. Anyway, we topped off the evening with some of Morton's famous molten chocolate cake. It's a warm chocolate cake with a liquid chocolate center served with strawberries and ice cream. It was simply awesome. It's worth a trip there just for the cake. The good people at Morton's even sent us away with a massive piece of key lime pie on the house as an anniversary present.

Five stars to the people at Morton's in Minneapolis for their prompt service, excellent food preparation, and professional yet elegant atmosphere. It's the best steak experience in the twin cities.

Book Review: The Consultant's Calling

Let me start by saying that I am not a consultant. I read Geoffrey Bellman's book "The Consultant's Calling" because I am interested in moving to a consulting role within my company. I read one of Bellman's other books, "Getting Thing Done When You're Not In Charge" before I became a team lead in my area and I think that it helped me tremendously. The book helped me understand how to craft my position into position of greater responsibility and leadership without formal authority.

Unfortunately, I didn't walk away from The Consultant's calling with the same level of knowledge that I got from Bellman's other book. I do almost feel called to do consulting as the book's title suggests. The Book's subtitle "Bringing who you are to what you do" didn't really hit home with me. The book discusses Bellman's personal work/life philosophy. A lot of time is spent exploring love of work, client and partner relationships, and organizational theory. A more felicitous subtitle would probably have been "The observations and lessons learned in 25 years as an independent consultant".

Although one chapter specifically addresses making the leap to consulting, very little time is spent discussing the concrete steps that can be taken. The book almost completely discounts the role of an internal consultant or even consulting as part of a firm. This is unfortunate because Bellman has spent so much time at large corporations where both roles can be prevalent.

While I didn't get what I had hope for from the book, it was worth the read. In the end, I have come to view the role of a consultant as more of a coach than an expert or a problem solver. It's about helping people see the same old problems, the problems that all organizations struggle with, in different ways. Good consultants help people to take a step back, connect the dots, put their resources into the right things and support them through the process. Bellman's constantly emphasizes the fact that good consultants do work that they find rewarding and interesting and the money is not their primary motivator.

The most useful tips for someone interesting in breaking into consulting or building a practice are as follows:
- Join a professional support group or association
- Speak to civic organizations
- Attend or lead public workshops
- Write and publish articles
- Do internal consulting
- Attend conferences
- Meet consultants

The book is worth a read for anyone who is exploring the idea of striking out in their own to become an independent consultant. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who has been consulting for 5 years or less. It's well organized with short chapters that are easily skipped or skimmed if they are not fitting to your particular place in the world of consulting.

First Weekend of Fall

Whew! I'm glad it's Monday.

Mom and Dad came over fro an improper visit on Friday night. They do that sometimes when they miss seeing the little guy. Mom starts going through withdrawal if she goes more than a week without seeing her grandson. I think she actually start physically shaking.

Jen and I quickly seized the opportunity to head to our favorite place: The Washington Square Bar and Grill in downtown White Bear Lake. Eating a hot meal, together, and not in shifts was a wonderful change from our normal dinner routine. For the life of me, I can't figure out why their burgers are so darn good. There is only so much that you can do with a 1/2 pound of ground beef, but they satisfy you more than a steak dinner on most nights. Maybe the beer or cocktails have something to do with it. Everything is always better with a good beer.

On Saturday I ran my first and only competitive run of the season. The Bear Water Run is a 10 or 20 mile run around White Bear Lake. Since the longest run I've done all summer has been about 6 miles, I opted for the 10 miler. Far out of prim running shape, I had hoped to finish in 100 minutes or less. As it turns out, I finished at about 1:27:30 or 87 minutes. That's about an 8:45 pace which if a little slower than my 5K pace of about 8:30. I think the marathon bug is back.

The balance of Saturday was spent cleaning up the house, playing with the little man, and having dinner with some friends. Jen moved everything out of our 4 season porch and moved all of AJ's toys into there. We now have one completely child proof area of the house! We can leave him unattended in there for short periods of time and we don't need to worry about him hurting himself or destroying anything. Why didn't we do this months ago?

Sunday was really day at our church. The weather didn't really cooperate, but we had a good meal and got the chance to socialize with some folks. I quickly hauled a bunch of brush off to the compost and then we headed to visit some friends who moved to a new house in Rosemont. It really made me want to own a new home - especially now that I don't need to commute. It's something we'll need to keep mulling over. One AJ starts school moving probably won't be an option.

I tried two new creme brulee recipes over the weekend. The peanut butter fudge recipe turned out well. It was a little rich, but very satisfying. The eggnog recipe was not quite what I was expecting and Jen said I added too much brandy to it. I tend to do that.

I am listening to the new Iron Maiden album on Rhapsody. They still sound good after all these years. Maybe they'll tout some time soon. I've never had the pleasure of seeing an Iron Maiden show. Better late than never I suppose.

Time to start work. Monday Monday.......

Book Review: Tuesdays with Morrie

I'm probably about the last person in America to read Tuesdays with Morrie. I received the book as a graduation present and really enjoyed it.

The book is written in a style that I really enjoy. There are a lot of very short chapters. Mitch Albom keeps things fresh. He gives just enough details to keep things vivid, but he doesn't waste time with details. He gets to the point and then moves on to the next subject. The style is very similar to his other book, The Five People you Meet in Heaven.

Albom dedicates chapters to subjects such as fear of dying, marriage, family and the perfect day. The chapters center around conversations that Mr. Albom had with one of his former professors. As someone who is contemplating a career change toward post-secondary teaching, I found the relationship that unfolds between teacher and student to be engaging. The book explores the meaning of life and the steps that can be taken to enjoy life every day without getting too preachy.

Some of the central themes of the book are the value of teachers, the eventual uselessness of money, finding and pursuing a life's mission and enjoying each day. The idea that piqued my interest the most was the concept of a "Perfect Day". In one of their conversation, Mitch and Morrie explore the idea of what the perfect day would consist of. As it turned out, the perfect day for Morrie consisted of ordinary things such as getting some exercise, visiting with friends and having a nice dinner with his wife.

Perhaps my biggest take away from the book is how enjoyable life can be if you take the time to detach yourself from the moment that you are in and give yourself permissions to soak up all that is going on around you. No small task for someone like me! I think I'm up to it though. I've got a couple of weeks of vacation left to burn before December. During that time, Jen and I have agreed that we'll plan out and live 1 perfect day each. Updates to come.