Chris's Musings

I have been watching the news with baited breath... as negotiations occur in dark rooms in which the fate of many will be decided... and the clock is ticking to an eventual doomsday deadline. Yes, my friends. I'm talking about the July 31st baseball trade deadline. I am, sort of, watching the market for who may be traded to my current hometown team, who has been somewhat crippled when Brian McCann went on the DL just recently.  With the loss of his bat, the Braves really need to pick up some offense, especially against left handed pitching (where they were recently quoted as batting a measly .227 as of about a week ago). But more so, I'm nervous and watching the biggest seller on the market.  After all, I am from  Houston and I am a Houston Astros fan. And yes, I know.... They really stink.  Actually, that may be too kind. That's why we are the biggest seller now, because we own the most marketable player that is being talked about as a trade target. ...

Some of you know that I organize a once a month dinner club for friends and friends of friends to explore new restaurants in the city, meet new people, and have interesting conversation.  I am somewhat of a foodie and started organizing these dinners a few years ago because I wanted to go out to nice dinners but was on a dating fast at the time (and usually you go to restaurants like these on dates), so why not organize a "dinner club?" For this summer, I have themed my picks as the "Summer of Celebrity" and am picking restaurants that are owned by well-known celebrities or have been featured on a national program.  For whatever reason, this month I felt lazy (I say this, because I usually never choose restaurants that are part of national chains) and picked Ted's Montana Grill as it is owned by one of Atlanta's most famous (or infamous) celebrities, media mogul Ted Turner.  I organized for last Thursday night.   On the way from my office to the restauran...

As soon as the election of 2010 started, you had to know this was going to happen... The national debt, which was already bad, is starting to get out of control.  The Obama/Pelosi "stimulus" package did nothing more than to throw away several billion dollars in funds and produced *ahem* higher unemployment (well, not really, but it didn't perform as promised and unemployment is conservatively at 9.2% today, double what it was during the heyday of the Bush administration). The "Obamacare" health care overhaul was passed.  This was a very bad piece of legislation by most people's counts and the greatest government encroachment on the US healthcare system in our history.  Applauded by people on the Left, demonized by people on the Right, and controversial all around. And a very vocal group of average citizens, empowered by fear over the economy and the government's seemingly unbridled approach to spending and power grabs over the private sector, rose ...

Well friends, I had my final visit (I hope) to Dr. Peebles today and got the go-ahead to start ramping up my running. Good thing, because on June 1, 2011, otherwise known as National Runners Day, I registered for the inaugural Savannah Rock and Roll 1/2 Marathon on November 5th.  A $13 discount from Competitor.com had something to do with my getting signed up then :-).  My goal is to start going into "training mode" for the race in early-to-mid August. Interestingly enough, when I was at the L.A. Rock and Roll (also an inaugural), marathon record-holder Deena Castor was speaking to a group and encouraged everyone to think of the "next goal" you have... to have something greater in front of you. For me... it is to finish this next race without any injury, without walking, and to bust my PR of 2:32 wide open. Now this will be the third race I've run so the third time is a charm, right? My goal:  2:10 - stretch, under 2 hours. But for now, I am going to c...

I've been thinking about this recently, and a conversation I had with a married friend of mine about this topic got me thinking about the "F-word" in relationships.  You know it. "Let's be..."  (I can see you cringing now :-) ) Friends. My friend told me, "You know that once you're friends you never get back."  That may be true, but sometimes when you're interested in, or have gone out with a great girl a couple of times and "something" is not right which you can't put your finger on - sometimes surrendering the romantic is the right thing to do.  Obviously, there is risk to it, but it is in my opinion the most honoring thing to do for the other person too. Even if it may be the "kiss of death."  Perhaps this is why I'm still single.  Ha!  I'll get to that in a second. Being an expert on being friends with women (in my own mind), in my opinion there are four or five "friend dynamics" (from...

Several years ago, I had made fun of a friend of mine that, on our group ski trips would insist on going snowboarding even though for three consecutive years she would get injured.  From my recollection, the injuries were: A foot broken in several places An ACL tear (and I can't remember what the third was, nor can I perfectly recall the order) And this girl was a pretty good skiier, but she insisted on going boarding despite the ribbing and the, as I can imagine, frequent trips to the hospital. Well, I can understand it now... Guess what friends?  I've signed up for my next Half Marathon. This is after, Silver Comet race - torn miniscus... surgery.  L.A. Rock and Roll - painful achilles tendonitis... finally able to run after 7 months and a lot of chiropractor and pediatrist visits.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can finish this year injury free?   But am I a glutton for punishment?   Maybe.   But I get what my friend (who still boa...

I don't know if you saw this post from Tyler Stanton, but I thought it was pretty hilarious.  Not only because of it's obvious snarkiness, but also because it's pretty obvious that I'd probably not impress Tyler (me being the movie line quoting, Android phone carrying, theologically minded guy that I am).  But I laughed, so I gave it the fanfare that a great post is due.  Here is the link, in case you haven't seen it. http://www.tylerstanton.com/2011/06/06/16-things-that-dont-impress-me/ I've actually thought about posting my own, but I think I'd rather ponder what actually DOES impress me (even though in Henry Cloud's "Nine Things" chapter about "hating well," what we dislike (aka - doesn't impress us) is an indication of what we value).  If you don't really care about impressing me, then you can ignore the rest of this blog, but in case you're curious then you can read on... :-) Things that impress me in general 1...