Proud Parent ...

This week was proud parent week. Two big things happened.

The first was Anthony's football awards dinner. Julie and I are really involved. She worked with another parent on team dinners as well as the awards dinner. I helped out and made the highlights video. But I digress, this is about Anthony.

He had a great year. He played soooo many positions, it was cool. He played running back, full back, tight end, reciever, inside linebacker, outside linebacker, long snapper and did kickoffs. He was a captain and called the defense plays. But the highlight was the awards he received at the dinner.

There are three big awards the coaches give: Leadership; Coaches Choice and Hustle. He got the hustle award - for someone who was tireless in practice and games! And the award he is most proud of, all league first team outside linebacker. It is great that your coaches say nice things about you. It is even better when the league recognizes you.

Now on to Nick. Not yet as much to say since soccer just started, but he made the JV team (as a freshman). That was pretty expected. The big thing is that has been asked to play center mid. That is kind of like the quarterback for the soccer team, the person who runs things on the field. This is a big honor and a nice reward for all of the hard work with his CYSA team. His coach there recently moved him from defender to mid field, and his skills have improved significantly!

So proud parent week (sorry to brag a bit!).

The disaster that is Al Davis

I usually don't write a blog entry that is like this, but just listened to the interview of Al Davis after he fired Lane Kiffin. What a complete and total disaster.

"We will be back. We will be back."

Right. Who would work for the man. He doesn't pay for coaches. He doesn't let them coach. They have to do what he says. And in the case of Kiffin, when he didn't resign as Davis asked him to do, he goes after his character. This is a firing for cause. That means he will do everything that he can not to pay him for the remainder of his contract. I hope Kiffin goes after him, gets what he is owed and finds a way to get more, lots more.

I use to be a Raider fan. That was before the debacle of moving to LA and back. When they returned, I always wanted to be a fan but just couldn't return to those glory days of old. I have still made a point of watching games and cheering for them. But this does it. Until they replace Davis, I am done. And until he is gone, they will not be worth cheering for.

2x4x8 Guys Multi-Sport Weekend

Just back from a fun weekend in PG with Craig, Ian and Brain.

It was what I am calling a 2x4x8 (x16) weekend. That is, 2 days, 4 guys, 8 games and 16 scoring opportunities. What? - you say:) Let me explain. So what do guys love to do when they get together. Come up with a game they can play that always includes some friendly competition. That is exactly what we did over the weekend.

We played golf, frisbee golf, bocce, cards, dice, horse shoes, basketball and sac toss. We had multiple games within some of these creating a pretty busy couple of days. The winner of each received 5 points, second 3, third 1 and fourth 0.

The champion was Craig. He got a huge lead and wasn't seriously challenged after that. The battle ended up being for second. I pulled it out in our last game - frisbee golf.

We all had a great time. The games were fun. The drinks were good. We had some good food. And lots of time to hang out, BS and get away from work. We will definitely be doing this again next year, maybe up in Truckee.

Been a while - anyone listening??

I have not posted in a while. But since today I nailed one of the items from my bucket list - thought that it was time to post again!!

I got to drive a race car today. Julie gave me Introduction to Racing at the Skip Barber school of racing at Laguna Seca. And it was awesome! Check out the rest of my pictures on Picassa Web.

For those of you who have raced before, you already know this. But it is way cool!! I wanted to drive in one of these open wheel cars because they are so different. And I think I made a great choice. You kind of lay down, are tight in the compartment and really feel and hear the race noise.

I don't know if I was the fastest. Kind of think I was in the top two (they moved us around a bit to put similar drivers together). I did manage to spin the car all the way around on one corner and ended up in the dirt, but restarted and was on my way. But in the end - definitely recommend it. What a blast!

Cool Cars!

Julie and I went this morning to check out a Euro Car Rally. Here are a few pictures of the cars we saw.

Vintage Lamborghini.

Lotus.

Matching Porsche's.

Totally custom!

Great trip to Arizona

We just got back from Arizona - great trip with our neighbors the Staffords!

While there, we kept busy. We took 4 hikes - two of which were in Sedona. We went golfing twice. Hung out at the pool. Rented ATVs. Went to some nice restaurants. And in general enjoyed the nice weather!

Is Jason Castro ... IZ or Tiny Tim????

The fans seem to love Jason Castro from American Idol. I am not sold on him. I think he is a combination of IZ (who I actually like) and Tiny Tim (who I can't stand).

You be the judge ... Here is Jason.



And this is IZ.



And the beloved Tiny Tim.

Catching Up

It has been a while since the last update - so this one will be pretty long.

First off, a quick picture of Julie up at Burrell School winery up off Summit Road at the top of Highway 9 in the Santa Cruz mountains. Beautiful place, beautiful March day enjoying a glass of wine:)

Next Nick and his Yosemite trip. The eighth graders go every year on a week long field trip. It is one of the highlights of the year. Nick and his buddies had a great time. Excellent weather. There was snow all around them. They did a bunch of things including a number of hikes and some cross country skiing.

Other than the first of these, Nick took all the pictures.

And last but not least - Anthony had his Junior Prom last night! I could go into lots of detail around the full learning experience (from who to ask, the asking, buying the "bid", using Fred's tux, Julie helping to buy flowers, the restaurant, who should drive ...). Anyway, he and Tiffany looked great and had a good time.

And boy am I feeling old.

SLAP Lesion - Planning Surgery

I have had my shoulder looked at every way now. I had the following done over almost a two year period:

• Five doctor visits
• Two doctor calls
• Three x-rays
• Two MRIs (one with an Anthogram)
• Six weeks of rehab

The last Anthogram and MRI did it. You could see clearly (or at least the doctor could see clearly) that the Labrum had pulled away from the Glenoid. They call this a SLAP Lesion. I have a pretty significant tear. It basically goes around the Glenoid counter clockwise from 12 o'clock to 7 o'clock!

So what to do about it. Two choices. Do nothing. It will not get any better, it will not get much worse and it is certainly not life threatening:) Surgery. This will basically reattach the Labrum to the Gleniod using basically molly bolts and sutures.

I am pretty set on the second option. What I have is limiting, sometimes painful and it will ultimately cause faster degeneration. The only questions now is when - the recovery and rehabilitation will take nearly 4 months.

College Visit Week ...

We just got back from a week of Southern California college visits. This was both fun, a good learning experience and a chance to hang out together (a bit of a vacation!).

We drove to San Diego Sunday. Long drive but we got there early enough to drive in to La Jolla for dinner. We ate at Jose's Courtroom restaurant. Good start. The town is really quaint and the food was GREAT!

Monday was San Diego State University. This really isn't on Anthony's list, but while in town we thought that we would check it out. And who knows, might be right for Nick who is thinking of nice weather together with a good school:) Well - we were pleasantly surprised. The school was impressive. Definitely moved up on everyone's list!

In the afternoon we made a quick swing through the Mission Basilica San Diego de Alcala and then to old town. And that night we went to Hotel Del Coronado for dinner. The weather wasn't great , but didn't stop us.

Tuesday was on to UC San Diego. We all had high hopes for this visit as it is in the top 3 UC schools in terms of entrance requirements. None of us were impressed:( It didn't feel like there was a theme to the buildings or any kind of consistency. The feel was just odd.

That night we traveled back to LA swinging by UCI (where we decided we needed to go back on Friday for a visit). We stayed in a Courtyard Marriott. It was excellent! Wednesday was UCLA. We all liked it. Better than UCSD for sure. Took Anthony a bit of time to feel comfortable, but then fine. It is the smallest UC campus but the space is well used and the layout makes for some good open space.

Thursday was open. Santa Monica beach and pier (rides mostly closed), Hollywood Blvd where we saw preparation for the Oscars and went to the wax museum, and then a basketball at the famous Pauley Pavilion. UCLA vs Oregon State. Cool being there but a blow out.

Friday was UCI. Kind of backtracking but well worth it. Nice feeling campus. Big open park in the middle with a simple layout of buildings around it. Ate across the way, checked out the book store, etc. and then drove home.

Overall - well worth the time. More for Anthony to chew on. The ordering as of today is something like UCB first, fall back is likely UCI in close with UCSB. UCLA is good but if he doesn't get into UCB, then he would likely not get into UCLA (all goes well, this should not be an issue:)).

Check out the pictures.

http://picasaweb.google.com/daleferrario/20080218SDSUAndMission

What a Superbowl!!

I think Nick and I were the only ones rooting for NY. So not only was the game great, but the team I was rooting for won. And after watching most of the commercials again - they were pretty good as well.

Before getting into my favorites, I want to give another plug for the Sports Business Radio podcast. On his most recent podcast, Brian Berger did an awesome interview of Denny Galati who is the VP of Creative Development for Anheuser-Busch. They discussed the company's $18M expenditure on Super Bowl XLII TV commercials - explaining how the cost of reaching their customers is actually fairly reasonable (this was a surprise to me!).

And one last thing. I was impressed with Jordan Sparks rendition of the National Anthem. Pretty traditional with just a bit of flair. Very nice.



Now back to the commercials. I like the AOL sports site to view these. My top five are:

• Audi, Godfather - nice mix of old and new, and a VERY COOL car!
• Budwiser, Rocky - engaging and fun, first time I have seen the story applied to a horse:)
• GoDaddy.com, Danica Patrick - the only one that got me to their website
• E-Trade, Baby and Baby II - cracked me up, especially the comment about the clown
• Victoria Secret, Model - duh!!
  

On the other end, a couple I didn't like.

• Energy drinks in general
• Amp, Jumpstart - painful

How about you?!?!

The Bucket List

The movie by the same name has inspired me. I have yet to see it, but found an article in a magazine also talking about your bucket list. Thought that I had better create one so that I can check them off. This is starting as a block but will end up as a block on the side of my blog.

By the way, I have already checked off a bunch of them including: falling in love (a bonus - marrying my high school sweetheart); having a great family; starting a non-profit; visiting Italy, France, England; Playing golf at Pebble Beach; etc. These are just the ones that are left.

• Visit the great US National Parks (Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, etc.)
  
• Parachute
• Drive a race car (maybe Laguna Seca?)
  
• Complete the swim from Alcatraz (escape from Alcatraz ...)
• Visit the Alps
• Tour Japan
  
• Oktoberfest in Munich
• Golf enough to get my index under 10 (been there before :()
• Meet someone really famous that I respect (Oprah, the President, Warren Buffet, ...)
• Get involved in local, regional or state politics
• Get a patent
• Spend New Year's in an exotic location
• Buy a car in Europe, drive it there (including the Autoban) and have it shipped home
• Leave a lasting youth related legacy
• Go up in a hot-air balloon

Some that I still need to decide if they actually make my list ...

• Visit a pyramid (Egypt?)
• Taj Mahal
• Machu Picchu
• Write a book

I will add to this over time, but that should get me started:)

Skullcandy and Sports Business Radio

Two things that I just had to blog about.

The first is Skullcandy - a company that makes headphones. Anthony just purchased a set of these. They are the full on headphones so that he can listen to good music and hear the full range of sound. He loves them. And the company is really cool. Great styles and some really awesome marketing. Even down to the guarantee that they have for their headphones.

If your product should fail in your lifetime, Skullcandy will replace it free of charge, but that's not all, if your product gets damaged by aggressive music listening, sliding a rail, running into a wall, sky driving, road biking, in fact just about any way (they say this means you were using them as they had hoped you would) Skullcandy will replace the product for a 50% discount from retail.

The second is a podcast that I just LOVE. It is called Sports Business Radio. You can get it from their website or from iTunes. It is totally entertaining and looks at sports from a completely different perspective. Check them out. And check out the clip from an upcoming documentary on Nike that they discussed on the last podcast.


That's it for now:)

After Christmas ... Back to WORK!

It is three days after Christmas. Back to work!!!

FreshBrain is about a month from our Beta release. There is a LOT to do. Just to give you an idea:

• Complete the development of the new freshbrain.org website
• Complete the work with the legal firm to create our Privacy Policy, Website Terms and Conditions, Copyright and IP Policy, Website Usage Policy and the Student Consent form.
  
• Populate the website with Activities, Projects, Tools and Training for the Students
• Find our first set of Advisors
• Create training for the Advisors and train them:)
• Complete background checks on all Advisors
  
• Create an invitation program for Students
• Implement the invitation program - get the first set of students for projects on freshbrain.org
• Market FreshBrain and freshbrain.org in order to get lots of visitors (note that ALL students will be able to do activities, use the tools and use / take training - but only those with an invitation will be able to do projects)

All the while we need to be building our pipeline for donations and increasing the number of partners that we are working with.

Of course once we get the Beta release out, we will take a day and get back to it. We need to make an update to the site no later than March and then provide new features no later than June!

Merry Christmas!!

Here is my Christmas 2007 slide show!



Hope you enjoy.

Thanksgiving Weekend Update

I am doing well in updating my freshbrain blog. Not as good with this one. Here is a QUICK list and a couple pictures:)

• Great progress with freshbrain.org and our Button & Icon design contest. We have about 100 entries. We have had over 2300 people visit the site. Getting ready to launch another contest, this time video in about a week.
• Both Nick and Anthony have finished their soccer seasons. Anthony also finished football. Now Anthony is wrestling and Nick indoor soccer.
• Twisted the crap out of my ankle last weekend paying indoor soccer. Doing well until I tried to step in front of one of the kids and rolled my ankle on his foot.
• While on medical issues ... found out what is wrong with my shoulder. I have a ganglion cyst. Took an MRI to figure out what the problem is. Not sure of the next step yet, but likely will go straight for surgery.
• Pacific Grove for Thanksgiving. Haven't been there in WAY too long. Enjoyed great weather. Took a long walk at Point Lobos. Mountain biked at Fort Ord. Played frisbee golf in Monterey. Hung out!

Talk to you soon:)

Sooooo Much Happening:)

With everything going on with FreshBrain - and the rest of life in general, haven't managed to get to updating my blog. I have updated my freshbrain blog a number of times. Please check it out. And check out the Preview Release of freshbrain.org!

So what has been happening lately. Here goes.

• I went on the yearly guys golf trip - this year to Myrtle Beach. The golf was awesome. The weather held out and was in the 80's. And I played really well (won most of my bets:))
• Nick has been playing soccer and just had a Halloween soccer tournament last weekend. Nick played well and the team is getting better and better.
  
• Anthony continues to play both football and soccer. No idea how he keeps up most often with two games on the weekend! The team has the best record in years.
• Even the week nights seem to be full. We went to the Color Purple in San Francisco earlier this week. GREAT PLAY!
• And of course this weekend was Halloween. Nick and his buddies dressed up in suites. Nick was the star and the other guys were his body guards.
  

And to end this blog entry ... one of my favorite cartoons growing up. Julie and the boys have heard me say this so many times, but they don't remember the cartoon the way I do:)

"Drizzle, drazzle, druzzle, drome; time for zis one to come home."

Quick Weekend Update

This weekend was winter come early. We had been preparing for the first Lynbrook varsity football team dinner at our house with swimming, the game itself, Nick's soccer game, Anthony's soccer game, my bike ride and Julie's art crawl - and it was suppose to RAIN!


Well, it all came off ok:) I only have pictures from the dinner and a short highlight video from the game:)



Nick's team really played well. No goals for either team. There were lots of chances but they just couldn't find the back of the net. Nick did get a chance to play some forward and loved it. We will see if he starts to play more there as the season goes on.

Both Julie and I got our activities in as well. And we managed to sneak out for a date - to see Bourne Ultimatum and have a quick dinner!!

Friday night

Friday night it was late
I was walking you home
We got down to the gate
And I was dreaming of the night
Would it turn out right?

How to tell you boy, oo
I want to build my world around you, yeh
Wanna tell you that it's true
I wanna to make you understand
I'm talking about a lifetime plan

Not at all sure why this came to mind. Well, maybe I am. What a week. A couple of fun and interesting events.

• Met up with Chris Iglesias (a high school football buddy) in San Francisco. He has responsibility for CityBuild, and project under mayor Newsome. Check out the video. But while this is awesome stuff that he is doing, that isn't the point. We were Reminiscing about high school football. Great memories!

• And tonight we had Anthony's varsity football team over for one of their pre-game team dinners. It was a total blast to have them here and watch them laugh and joke and do what a bunch of guys do together - get stupid. Long story short, they got into a belly flop contest off the diving board for what started out being $20 and ended up at $50 for the winner. We would have done the same (and just for kicks - Anthony won and has the welt to prove it).

• After they left we were hanging out watching football, looking forward to Nick's soccer game tomorrow, then Anthony's football game tomorrow night.

So back to the song. I totally remember high school when this song was popular. Julie was my girl friend. We were having a good time together, talking about being together - building a life long plan. And we are living it! (ok, kind of mushy)

By way of recognizing the artists - the song is Reminiscing by Madison Avenue re-released in our high school days by the Little River Band.

The IRS

I spent more than an hour working with the IRS to clean up an inquiry they sent me.

The all started with a letter from the IRS that said I owed a bunch of taxes from the 2005 tax year - roughly $17k!! When I received this there was a bit of panic. First was the amount, then it was a bit of embarrassment. You see - I do my own taxes, so how could I have screwed up that badly.

I went back through my taxes and found everything that they pointed out as missing with the exception of one item. So I went back, recalculated my taxes after adding this item in, found that I owed roughly $1,000. So I sent them all of the information and a check.

I then received a letter stating that the inquiry was closed. It didn't mention the check that I sent. It just said they closed it.

So I called them to ask what this meant. Did I actually calculate the new amount correctly? That seemed pretty amazing. Or did they decide that I didn't owe them anything? After a long conversation, the person from the IRS said that it looked like I owed $17. So I would either get the amount I sent less $17 or they would forgive the $17 and send me back all of my money. I was suppose to get a check in about two weeks.

About a month passed. I never received a check. So today I called them back to see what happened. The first person I talked to said (after being put on hold a number of times) that they should have sent me a check but it appears that they messed up. She said she would put a note in my file so that the check would be cut and sent. But she said no-one would read the file so she needed to transfer me to Fresno so that they would open the file and proceed with cutting the check. You can imagine wonder about where she was and why I needed to talk to someone in Fresno - but we will ignore that for now.

I then talked to another person at the IRS - this time in Fresno (how would I actually know, and why do I care ...). Anyway she said that they would need to cut a check. She would pass my file along and I should hear something in a couple of weeks. I asked her what I would be getting back. Her answer was, "I don't know." She said she thought that it would be the whole amount plus interest ... I asked her how I would hear back from them. Her answer was, "I don't know." Starting to sound like a Bill Cosby routine. She said she though I would receive a letter. I asked her what the letter would say. She said ... Anyway, seems that case has been handed to AUR Audit Recon. I did find that using google. It is Audit Reconsideration. Kind of the place where things go that got screwed up:)

What was the point of that. Well, not really much. Just kind of amazing. Seems they would be pretty good at this kind of thing. And given everything else that I have been doing with FreshBrain - really a waste of my time. And now I have blogged about it so it cost me even more.