Say Goodbye to the Old, and Welcome the New

We upgraded our boat yesterday. Given all the time we spend on the water and my insatiable desire to go wakeboarding and wake surfing, we purchased a newer Supra ski boat. Bought it on Craigslist - what a great service. I've purchased now two boats, a lift and a golf cart through Craigslist. Hopefully, I'll sell a boat and a car through it too.

The new is a 2003 Supra Launch SSV Gravity Games Edition. It's a great wakeboarding boat. It rides smooth, and creates a large wake due to the built in ballast system. Since its a V-drive inboard, the engine is in the back as opposed to the middle. Consequently, there is much more room on te deck. It also has the wakeboard tower to pull boarders and tubers, alike.



The old boat will be missed. It's a 1985 Supra, and was well worth the money I paid for it. Great entry level boat that taught us how to be boat owners. However, it has served its purpose, and is now on the market. I only listed it yesterday and have three people looking at it.

As part of this package deal, I'm selling our 1991 Porsche convertible. I've had that car longer than I've had the kids! I'll miss that too, but we NEVER use it. I'd much rather invest the capital in something we are getting a lot of use from.

Ready for Some Football?

I've retired from active participation in Football Outsiders, and this year am not listed as an author. Nevertheless, it's great book that I still wish to promote:

http://www.amazon.com/Football-Outsiders-Almanac-2010-Essential/dp/1453671188/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279989316&sr=8-3

Ride 'em, cowgirl

Katie and Emily have finished their first of two weeks of Horse Camp. When I say, "horse camp," it's not a full day of riding. They go to the local YMCA camp; however, for each week you sign up, you can sign them up for a specialty. In this case, they ride horses for an hour a day. Originally, they were scheduled for only one week, but liked it so much, we moved them into two. Katie is riding Bella, and Emily is rising Cash. It's unclear whether they will have the same horses next week.

My Kind of Town...

We decided to meet in Chicago after Alison and the girls vacationed two weeks in New York. Although we only spent one full and two half days, we got a lot done and saw a bunch of interesting things.

We spent a good portion of Saturday with Alison's cousin Jay, his wife Becca and their 2 year old daughter Keelan at Navy Pier. From there, we went to see Blue Man Group. Alison and I had seen it in Boston years ago, but I thought it was just as good the second time around. The kids thought it hilarious. We ate dinner at Ditkas Steakhouse and called it a night.

Sunday morning we ate brunch atop the Hancock tower, traveled across town to walk the skydeck of the Sears building (now apparently called the Willis Tower), which included a "skywalk" with a glass floor. On the way back from Sears ...um... Willis, we saw them filming a scene for the upcoming Transformers 3.

Atop the Hancock

Skywalkers

On the Transformers set. PAs were running around telling the dozen or so amateur photographer, "no pictures." Um, last I know, you can't prevent me from taking a picture on a public sidewalk of a public street. Nice try.

Waking in Wayzata

My new favorite thing is wakeboarding pre-work.

6am on the waves means three people can take 15 minutes of runs, and still be at work by 7:15-7:30.

Last week I did it three times, and this week twice. It's also been great because I've utilized my new activity to meet some new people, and ride their boats (which btw are WAY better than mine). Here is a clip from Wednesday.

Random Fact of the Day

In 2008, U.S. Coal mines employed 85,679 workers. 23% of coal miners are union employees; however, only 18% of coal production is from union members. Shocking!

One might leap to the assumption that union workers are less productive because they are more focused on safety. Nope. Union workers were only minimally less productive in underground mines (the most dangerous kind) at 3.1 tons per employee per hour, vs. 3.2 tons. However, in surface mines (the significantly less dangerous operation), non-union employees were substantially more productive at 10.3 tons per employee per hour vs. 7.6 tons.