helping friends

One of our dear friends, the Richins Family, is moving out of their home of a billion years, into a rental, while they look for the perfect home to die in. After 20 some years aof accumulation, they had quite a bit of stuff. We, as an entire family, went to their old home and helped them load up all they owned and move it a block to the rental home. To make it interesting, it was cold and snow was everywhere around us, which makes moving interesting. We took 2 truck loads over to their rental, with the first load being packed by TJay. He loves to pack trucks and gets great joy out of cleanly stacking things as high as possible, filling the space as well as possible. The second truck load contained many odd shaped items and could not be as packed as tightly as the first truck load.
We started around 10am and figured we'd give a few hours of help to this family before being done. However, in the end, we spent over 6 hours with them, and this comprised many trips back and forth, moving many boxes and items, along with removal of enormous snow drifts both in front of and behind the new rental home. Much energy was expended by all Belt Family members. Much sweat was created. Happy memories of helping, working and being together with our immediate family and those Richins we have adopted into our family as more than mere friends. A Saturday well spent.

Chili Cook Off

Tomorrow, our company will be having its annual Chili Cook Off.
Last year I entered a white chicken chili into the contest, and took 3rd place. Woohoo.
This year, i will put a little more time into the preparation of the meal, and cross my fingers. I have also submitted this description to the judges to describe my chili.

This award winning chili boasts a spicy yet full and soothing flavor. It accosts your senses with is seemingly simple algorithm of culinary delights. While is seems smooth and creamy, it will punch you in the gut in a way that you will gladly ask for more. Its assortment of rapturous ingredients may have as well been picked by the gods of our ancestors when they initially descended to inspect this dish and judge it worthy of the term the mere mortals had dubbed it with; ambrosia. Eat up me hearties, yoho!

I hope that above all, it tastes ok, and someone enjoys it. At best, I win something for the effort. At worst, its simply enjoyed.

Seeing Him...

Seeing Him

In spite of the cold, it always makes me feel so young.  It only happens once a year.  Each year I yearn to experience it as if it were the first time that I remember from so many years ago.  I yearn to believe and continue to believe.  Although an entire year has been added to my age each time it happens, I quickly regress to the era before I was the one being called Dad.  Back in time I would travel, to when I was eager to venture into the frigid night, to stand with rapt attention peering into the darkened sky, searching for the sign.  The feelings welling up inside of me always cause me to reverse in age, if only for a brief stint.  The excitement I experience, waiting to catch a glimpse of my oldest friend.  I believe that he has always been there, though we only rarely commune.  He is up there now, I know it.  I’ve always known it.  I believe it.  High overhead; out of sight; never too far from my thoughts.  For some, he has ceased to be.  Luckily, this has not yet happened to me.  As far back as I can recall I would brave the weather, entering into the cold night, to go through the annual ritual of seeing him again.  Just on this one night and ever so briefly.  In my mind’s eye I can make out every detail of him, along with his trusty steeds.  Regardless of my age, or maybe because of it, the details seem always be clearer than they should be.  When I was the child, the details were just bits and pieces of the whole vision.  As I aged, the details would alter as my experiences were developed.  What I never realized as that child from long ago was that all this vision started with a single color. The color red.  No matter what was in the sky, at the suggestion of that blinking red light sailing overhead, the vision begins.  Real or not, the rest of the dream wasn’t actually there at all.  Yet it seemed then as clearly as it seems today to be so real.  The rest of the details simply became real as it filled itself in; as I believed.  Now I perform the role of the Dad, the ritual continuing, granting my children the opportunity to have their one on one encounter with him.  To call him their friend as I have.  The mere suggestion of that glowing red orb is all it takes to begin to paint the entire picture, and once again meet my old friend.  I look forward to meeting him again and again and relish the chance to introduce him to each of my children with every passing year.  On marches time, on continues the ritual, each year waxing and waning, and the belief gets stronger as the seasonal reunion approaches.  I believe.
 
 

Kylie and Racquetball in 2012

This year has been a huge one for Kylie and racquetball. She is a full fledged member of the Evening League with me at Orem Rec. Often we do not even play a game together, and she plays the other players from the league.

She has also attended High School Racquetball LEague on Mondays for practice, and Thursday for games. She has yet to be defeated in the Thursday games with the other travelling high school teams she has been pitted against. Each player on each team is ranked, and then they are pitted against those of the other team in similar order. Sometimes her games have been challenging, sometimes not. She has won them all.

She has participated in various tournaments this season. As a single player, and as a double partner with her dad. It has been a great experience. The last tournament, the UVU tourney, she took first place both in the doubles division and the singles division she entered. She actually was a little bored in some of the games, wishing that the competition was a bit tougher.

Tonight is our regular league night, and High School league is over for now. She misses playing racquetball, and didnt play since almost a week ago. She expressed to her mom how excited she is to play tonight, as she has missed it recently. Some weeks, she'd play almost every day.

She has gotten pretty tough, has learned some great skills, and has earned confidence in herself, her skill and her game play. Its great to see her progress. Its even funner to see strangers come up and ask us about her, having heard about her from their friends, and wanting to know more. How did she get so good. How old is she. How long has she really been playing racquetball. And so on.

Go Kylie, Go!!!

Racquetball and Fitness

I play a lot of racquetball, and do so because it is fun, but offers rewards in fitness as well.

But in order to keep track of each time I play, I use a tool called RunKeeper that doesnt translate well to racquetball. It wants to know how far of a distance I ran? or hiked? or biked? But how far would I run if I could keep track of how far I move in a racquetball game? The court is only 40 feet by 20 feet. But if I run a bunch within the court... how far did I go?

What about calories burned? Ive read that in a competitive game one could burn up to 900 calories in an hour. This is a gauge I have been using for some time.

But today I found a website that has some descent information about the game and how it translates to other activities.

Here is the website. Here is the information.

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FITNESS BENEFITS

The average number of calories burned during racquetball play ranges from moderate at 640/hour (Prevention, 1995) to 794/hour (Men's Health, 1995) - to a high level at 822/hour (Sports Training Institute). At the UW Racquetball Club, according to commercial heart rate monitors, top players average between 1000 and 1200 calories burned in an intense hour long match.

An average game will take 20 minutes, during which a player will run a distance of approximately 3,650 feet - or over two miles in one hour of play. (U.S. Olympic Training Center).

Racquetball players work at a constant rate of 75% to 85% of their maximum heart rate for the duration of the typical racquetball game. (USRA Elite Training Camp, 1992).

Racquetball offers both aerobic and anaerobic benefits, with both sustained high level heart rate activity and quick bursts of energy required during play. The nature of the game, with intense bursts of exertion, is similar to high intensity interval training which has been shown to be the most effecient method to burn fat. (The main difference is that racquetball is fun!)

Racquetball works nearly every muscle group, including sustained, repetitive use of large muscles that increase calorie burn and reduce fat percentage.

PARTICIPATION (based on the 2005 SGMA study)

There are 5,533,000 Racquetball participants in the U.S.

The number of players increased by 13% in 2004.

69% of the participants are men.

Racquetball participants are more likely than the general population to engage in activities such as squash, scuba diving, volleyball, and rafting.

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According to this, an hour of racquetball gains me nearly 2 miles of running and almost 900 calories burned. Of course, if the level of play was less, these numbers would be less as well.

This I will use from now on, which will help me keep track of the numbers that RunKeeper likes. As well as notifying my of goals met or exceeded. If I play for 3 hours, at a high level, this would be a record, for example.

My 2011 SALPASS Schedule

Just 3 more sleeps til I'm at the annual PASS Summit

To copy everyone else, here's where I'll be during week:

Monday

• Arriving in Seattle mid-afternoon

Tuesday - Friday

• Attending the Summit

Saturday

• Leaving Seattle early morning

Ok, haha. There are more details than that... here is a better one. As of Friday 11:20

Monday

• Leaving my house 9:00 AM to go to airport
• Flying to Seattle at 11:00 AM
• Arriving in Seattle 12:30 PM
• Finding the hotel
• Monday Night Networking Dinner @ Lowell's - 6-9 PM

Tuesday

• Breakfast w\ Andy Warren at Top Pot Doughnuts on 5th Ave. - 6-8 AM, maybe
• Special Networking with Don Gabor - 3 PM - 5 PM
• First Timers Meet and Greet : room 618 5:15 PM - 5:45 PM
• First Timers Orientation and Networking Session - 5:30-6:30 PM
• Welcome Reception and Quiz Bowl - 6:30-8 PM
• Red Gate Party - Sponsored by SSC - 8 PM - 11 PM

Wednesday

• Day 1 Keynote - 8:15-10 AM
• I want to attend 12 sessions in 5 hours
• Chapter Lunch - 12-1 PM
• MVP Deep Dive 2 Book Signing - Between Expo Hall and Dining Hall - 1 PM - 2:30 PM
• Exhibitor Reception - 6 PM - 8 PM
• SQL Karaoke at Busch Gardens - 9:30 PM - 2:00 AM

Thursday

• Putting on my Kilt
• Day 2 Keynote - 8:15-10 AM
• I want to attend 12 sessions in 5 hours
• Women In Technology lunch - 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM
• Community Appreciation Party - 7-10 PM
• Friends of RedGate Dinner - 7:15 PM -

Friday

• Day 3 Keynote - 8:15-10 AM
• I want to attend 13 sessions in 5 hours

Saturday

• Leaving hotel 7:00 AM - 8:00 AM to go to airport
• Flying to Utah at 10:19 AM
• Arriving in Utah 1:10 PM
• Go Home
• Rest

As many of you are, I too am excited to attend the Summit. I look forward to learning and networking. The rest is extra. Those are the goals. LURN + NETWORK.

If you see me, say hi. I have new MOO cards to share with you. You might even get a hug or at least a fist bump. If I don't recognize you, just realize I am getting old and forgetful. Remind me who you are and we'll talk about stuff.

Visiting my Sister - SQL Saturday Austin 2011

I had the opportunity to visit my sister this past weekend. Worlds collided, and I was able to attend a SQL Saturday event in Austin Texas, which is where she lives. I brought Christy with me and we flew out on a Friday midday, arriving in Texas around 6pm. There was a speaker dinner for the event at 6pm that we attended. By we, I mean myself, Christy along with Nisa and her 3 kids, whom came to pick us up at the airport, braving traffic on a Friday night to retrieve us. The kids loved seeing the planes, I fear more than seeing us. But we made them fall in love with us by the end of the trip. After they met us at the airport, we went into downtown, near the college campus, mere blocks from where the event was scheduled to occur, to a BBQ joint and had us some dinner. The host of the speaker dinner were nice enough to allow me to bring all my visitors along.

I always love these events and especially the networking that goes on. There is something exciting about walking into a room of strangers and striking up a conversation with them. Even more exciting to keep it going, changing, evolving. What is fascinating to me is the nervousness I feel that is wrapped with a confidence that allows me to push the conversation. Others struggle, while yet others seem to perform this task easily. I fall somewhere in that gap, more on the less struggle side. Not that it's easy, but it just happens. My good wife will accompany while I perform this feat, even though she may or may not enjoy it. But I was fascinated that my sister would simply slip into a conversation with a bunch of SQL geeks as if she lived in that world already. It must be a genetic thing to be able to join in a conversation, easily, efficiently, and flow with whatever is occurring already, organically. I was impressed.

After the dinner, we went back to Nisa's home and simply hung out with the family and talked, chatted, played, goofed, and so on. Until way too late. Way too late. When we finally got to bed, it was after 2am. This normally wouldn't be a problem, except that I had a 7am start to the day, with a 30 minute commute, and little idea how to get from point A to point B.

The morning came way too quickly. As it usually does. But this morning, it was way too quick. Once awake and showered, I left the house I barely had seen the night before, crawled into a vehicle I wasn't sure had a color or not, and drove north, to an area I had seen only 12 hours previously. Along the way I decided to take a scenic route, adding 15 minutes onto my commute and a bit of back tracking. Once on the correct path, I was able to find the event location and park the car and leave it unlocked. Doh. I didn't realize this until the end of the day as I returned to the vehicle (remember I wasn't sure what color the car was? that made finding it in the parking lot quite fun. I shoulda paid more attention to it). The SQL Saturday event was great. I had volunteered to help out with sessions and as luck would have it, I had one of the first sessions. I attended a session each hour and learned quite a bit. At lunch time I practiced a technique I later blogged about on my professional blog for talking to strangers at events. At 2pm it was time for my session. There were 20+ people in my session that created a great interactive event that let us all learn from each other, with me simply directing the conversation. Once completed, and depleted of energy, I struggled thru the next sessions. Its always so draining to perform thusly, but I wouldn't give it up, its energizing as well as depleting.

When the event was completed, I reluctantly left my cohorts and wondered a parking lot until I was able to locate Brett's vehicle, and returned south to where this house was that I forgot to look at when I left closely. 98% of the return trip was completely controlled and directed well. Once I reached their neighborhood though, I realized that I wasn't quite sure how to get to their home or even once there, which one was theirs. It happened, all by myself I was able to find it, ultimately. But not quickly. Once back at their home, only the boys were left, as the girls had all left to go shopping for cowgirl boots. I rested a bit, and even fell asleep (remember the 4 hours of sleep the prior night, yeah). As soon as I did fall asleep though, the girls returned, awaking me to their excitement and stories. Soon, we all took off, with a friend of Christy's that happened to lives nearby, to dinner. A great little TexMex food locale called Chuy's was our watering hole for the night. All 10 of us talked, played, ate, and enjoyed each others company.

The next day found us sleeping in, hanging out, watching LDS conference, hanging out, jumping on the trampoline, killing flies, getting tickled, wrestling, and simply enjoying each others company. We had a flight out of Austin to Salt Lake City at 7pm, which allowed us a large portion of the day to simply 'be' together. We took advantage of it. We forged bonds and rekindled friendships. Check out our photos over on Facebook that we took of the kids and us, mainly at the end of the last day, as we traveled back to the airport.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150328100408402.357051.695503401&type=3

All in all it was a lot more fun than I thought it would be. That's not to say that I was expecting a disaster or an awful time. Its just that you can look forward to something, make plans, and when it actually happens, it happens better than you could have planned. That's what happened. Fun was had. I learned tons and shared tons of my passion with SQL Server. We had a great weekend.