Goodbye Mortis

As many of you know, my pet Russian Tortoise, Mortis, lives in a tank in my home office. He's been relatively "low key" for a couple of weeks. I needed to go to Boulder for work. Since Jen works in the early morning, my parents graciously offered to let her and the dog and AJ stay at their house. Jen would have to stop back at the house occasionally and we decided that Mortis should be fine just being fed every couple of days.

I returned home on Friday to a flurry of conference calls. I fed Mortis but noticed he ate very little if any food. Saturday morning came and I decided to give him his weekly bath. When I place him in the tub he hardly moved, which was very odd. All he did was poke his head up to get some air and dip it down again. I freaked.

I immediately pulled him out of the bathtub and started prodding and poking him. He would move a little bit, but he was nowhere near normal. I called the vet and I finally got hooked up with Animal Emergency Clinic in St. Paul near University and Marion. I put him in a shoe box and high tailed it. After hours of waiting (they were really backed up) I got the grim news. Mortis had pneumonia.

Pneumonia is fairly common in reptiles. The vet told me that it's frequently fatal. She wrote up an estimate for 36 hours of observed care, but told me he had a 50/50 chance at best. The estimate was over $800.

As much as I cared about him, I couldn't bring myself so spend that kind of money given the odds. The good people at Animal Emergency Clinic gave him some antibiotics sent me home with some heat packs and instructions for care.

Jen and I spent the evening together keeping him warm in a shoe box and holding him on our lap. Toward midnight it seemed like he was gaining strength and might take a turn for the better. I placed him on our bathroom where it stays warm and I placed a hot water bottle under his shoebox.

You can imagine how poorly I slept. After a nigh of tossing and turning I checked on him around 6:00 AM. I did some nudging and he opened his eye up at me as if to ask "What are you doing?" I promptly told Jen that he had made it through the night and I logged on to my laptop to catch up on some work that fell off my plate during my trip.

Mortis's tank light in my office came on about an hour and a half later. I took that as my queue to grab the little guy headed upstairs. I was hoping that I might get him to eat something. When I picked him up it was immediately evident that he had expired. His eyes were still open. I'd like to think that I was the last thing he saw before passing away.

I skipped church and took my only other pet for a walk at the Tamarack Nature Center. I'm quite overwhelmed with feelings of guilt. The attention that Mortis received dropped significantly after we purchased Charlie and even more after AJ was born. I don't think he was out in the yard at my house here in White Bear Lake. You can imagine how horrible I feel for not getting him checked when I saw his energy level drop off and for not insisting that Jen take him with to Mom's this past week.

Mortis went to meet his maker on his birthday. I bought him on March 7, 1995 from Pets Plus on Robert Street in West St. Paul with my tax return. Since his date of birth was not known, I always considered it to be tax day. I suppose there's a bit of irony in the fact that death and taxes are the only certainties we have.

He cost me a grant total of $159.99. I've since seen Russian Tortoises at big box pet stores for $65 or less, but I never felt jipped. He was energetic for a tortoise, quite inquisitive, hungry, and a bit of a grump. You could often count on him to hiss at you when disturbed. One time while I was still living at Mom and Dad's he tried to eat my toe while I was playing on the computer. Man did that hurt. When given reign of the house, he would often wander off when nobody was looking and fall asleep in the strangest places. There were times that it took over an hour to find him.

All I know is that Mortis was a far better pet to me than I was an owner to him. He brought joy into my life by simply letting me observe him. I'll miss watching him eat and take a bath most of all. There was many an evening that I would play my banjo in my office while he bonked along against the side of his tank. He was a great audience. I'm taking the banjo out to my back yard to play him a requiem of sorts. I'll be dropping his body off at the Golden Valley Humane Society tomorrow night to be cremated.

Rest in peace Mortis. I loved you.

Anniversary Weekend Part 2

Duluth
We woke up Saturday morning and did the house cleaning and packing that we should have done the night before. I hate coming home from vacation to a messy house. We didn't need to be to Duluth at any particular time so we stopped at the Tanger Outlet Mall in North Branch. We bought AJ some new pajamas and I get a nice par of Levi's for a phat $25. Quite a savings over what we would have spent at Macy's.

We rolled in to town in the mid afternoon and mosied over to our good friend Scott's house. He was a good and gracious host. The 3 of us had dinner at The Pickwick Restaurant . It's one of Duluth's older and well known restaurant's along with Grandma's and Fitger's. We beat most of the dinner rush and were able to enjoy a good view of the lake and some pretty good food. I got a pepper burger which is hamburger and pepperjack cheese mushed into a patty, breaded and then deep fried to perfection. Good, but NOT good for you.

Jackass Number Two
I'm particularly proud of myself for convinving Jen to see Jackass on our anniversary weekend. I was a big fan of the series and the first movie. This movie is just as good if not better. Johnny Knoxville and company have come up with some pretty creative and hilarious ideas in their time off. I had not laughed so hard at a movie since I saw the South Park Movie for the first time.

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.

I have a bike. Now what?

OK. Long time no post. I'm going to get better. Blah blah blah.

So I got a tidy pile of money from people for graduating from college. I've been talking about buying a bike for a while since I've stopped running marathons. After some serious looking and research I found a heck of a deal on this bike at REI.

I'm not clever enough to know what half of the specs mean, but I know that this bike is a lot faster than the huffy ten speed that I got when I was 15. I had originally wanted a cross bike that can be used both on the road and for off road stuff. They were just too goofy feeling. Every one of them was like an entry level bike and just felt cheap. This guy will do dirt or gravel trails if I put the right tread on it. That's probably about as much as I'll need.

I just wanted something that I can ride around the lake or take on the Gateway Trail. With the price of gas, it will be nice to have something that I can hop on and take over to the coffee shop, to the YMCA, the grocery store or to grab lunch. I am not going to turn in to one of those wanna-be Lance Armstrong people with their spandex pants and $150 helmets acting like they own the road. I hate it when people take things too far.



Yes, those were shelves that you saw in the picture behind the bike. Uncle Scott came over 3 weeks ago and helped me put those up. Well, Scott built them and I held stuff. Jen and I put everything in to tupperware totes, labeled them and organized the whole garage last weekend. Now the big challenge will be not to acquire more crap just because we've got some extra storage space. Don't let your possessions posses you, right? Easier said than done.

Tomorrow is the annual infamous Guys camping trip. There will be pictures and many tales to tell. Stay tuned.