Customer Service at Home

I am trying to be a better husband. I love my wife so much, and am so thankful to the LORD every day for bringing us together. Recently, I have come to realize that even though she knows that I love her, I am doing her a complete injustice if I am not constantly trying to show her how much she is loved.

My job description where I work is essentially to be an account manager for gas station and auto repair garage owners. It's a blend of customer service, sales, and public relations. I work hard to make sure they are taken care of, that their business is running smoothly, and that they feel well represented to the (often difficult to work with) oil companies. My customers have learned that when I come see them, before I leave I will always ask them the same question: "Is there anything I can do for you?"

What I realized today was kinda sad. My employees have heard that question time and time again, my wife? Rarely ever. Don't get me wrong, my wife and I do a lot for each other. But the fact that I consistently show this kind of service to practical strangers, and not to my wife is pathetic. Well, that changed today.

This conversation actually happened 45 minutes ago:

Me- "Is there anything I can do for you baby?"
Her- "What?"
Me- "Is there anything I can do for you? Anything at all?"
Her- "Why?"
Me- "Because I love you and want to take care of you."
Her- "Uhhh... you can change the channel." (I was watching ESPN)

This may have just been a baby step, but I want her to understand that I'm willing to do what it takes to make her feel as loved as she deserves to be.


Thank you God for blessing me with Bri. She is truly an amazing woman and I hope that I can honor her daily, only as you would.

A Rare Opportunity

I haven't posted anything in a really, really long time. To break the slump, I'll keep it short and sweet and go with something I know well: sports.

Today is a really good day to be a Utah Ute fan. Why? Because it's very rare that your team has the chance to play in a win-win game. Any sports fan will tell you that winning is all that matters, and that is just what makes today's game so weird.

Tonight my Alma Mater, Utah, faces off against the #4 TCU Horned Frogs in Fort Worth in one of the more highly anticipated Mountain West Conference match ups of all time. Utah has just one loss (at Oregon) coming off their perfect season a year ago and TCU is probably ranked the highest they have ever been. There are both conference and national implications riding on tonight's matchup. So how is it a win-win for Utah fans? Let me explain.

If Utah wins, they have the inside track to another MWC championship. They would continue to build a reputation as a top tier program which helps in both recruiting and garnering national attention. It would also be huge for the future of the team to have freshman QB, Jordan Wynn, go into a hostile environment, against a very good team, with all the hype of national media coverage, and lead his team to victory. Unfortunately for the Utes, due to the loss at Oregon in September, the benefits of beating the Frogs pretty much ends here.

If TCU wins, they have a perfect regular season practically locked down, with only contests against Wyoming and New Mexico remaining. TCU is currently ranked #4 in the BCS. Two of these teams (Florida and Alabama) still get to play each other, and the other (Texas) still has to make its way through the Big 12 Championship game. What all this means is that if TCU finishes their regular season perfect, they have a BCS game on lock, and a decent shot at the national title game. Imagine how big this would be for the Mountain West, a so called "mid major", to have yet another team making noise on the national stage come January.

Maybe even better than what it means for the MWC if the Horned Frogs win, is what it could do to the BCS. Let's think about this scenario. TCU finishes the season undefeated and ends up playing in the Sugar or Fiesta Bowl, while Boise State (yes, that hook n' ladder, statue of liberty, cheerleader proposal, punched in the face by Lagerette Blount Boise State) finishes its season unbeaten and winds up in the Liberty Bowl. There's no way the out of touch BCS lets two of these "mid major" programs in their club in the same year, they already feel begrudged to have one. After all, LSU or Iowa fans would travel better than Boise State fans, meaning more money for the hosting bowls, and that's what it's all about, right?

Games like this are weird to root for, but either way you look at it, there's something positive coming out of this for Utah fans. Enjoy the game, and Go Utes????

KERRCHEL FEST '09!!!

Last weekend Bri and I went to Utah to attend our friends Kerr and Rachel's wedding. We were both looking forward to this trip for so many reasons. For me, this was going to be my first time back to Salt Lake since graduating from "The U" and I was stoked to spend some quality time with some good friends I hadn't seen in a while. Bri was excited to finally meet Rachel (the bride whom she'd heard so much about and Facebooked with for a couple of years) and enjoy the closest thing to a summer vacation she was getting this year. Needless to say, we were both excited for Saturday night when we would be able to welcome another set of friends into "couple hood".


The weekend really was everything we could have hoped for. We landed Thursday night and had just enough time to see Kerr and Rachel for a couple minutes before it was off to bed for Bri, and back to the airport for me to pick up Freddie. Friday we got the chance to go over to the campus to see some old friends in the athletic department before heading to lunch in Park City. The weather was stunning and Bri loved it (she had never been to PC without there being snow on the ground). Probably the only thing she liked more than the weather and scenery was Fred's dog "Pete". Between the weather, a great lunch at the Wasatch Brew Pub, the mountain views, and Pete, my wife was already pleading her case for a future second home in the small resort town before we had made it back down the hill.


Friday night we headed to rehearsal where we met up with another former Ute, good buddy, and fellow groomsman Chad. We got to the venue early enough for Fred to bust out his cooler for a quick wedding tailgate as you can see in the picture (you can also see I didn't get the no jeans memo... oops). Kerr and the rest showed up shortly after and the show was on the road. At this point in the trip is where Rachel began to score huge points with Bri. Having been through her own wedding hoopla, Bri was more than able to appreciate how laid back, relaxed, and sweet to everyone Rachel was. After about a ten minute rehearsal, we were off to dinner. Dinner was hosted by Kerr's folks (some of the nicest Texas folks you'll ever meet) at Tuscany, a really nice Italian restaurant down the street from the hotel. This was a great time for Bri to get to know some of these new people a little more and for me to catch up with my buds. After dinner we headed out to a little local dive bar where we hung out, laughed, met more baseball players from years after mine, and even danced a little.


Saturday morning all the groomsman and the fathers went to play some golf at a nice course out near the airport. Even though I am truly awful at the sport (as is Kerr), it was an awesome time for all of us to get out and play, laugh and relax. I left the rental car with Bri that morning so that she could make a mall run to shop for a dress for the wedding. That morning Kerr's bride scored even more points with Bri. Not only did Rachel have the presence of mind with everything else going on that weekend to think of Bri, she even invited my wife over to the house to hang out, get ready with the rest of the girls, and follow the limo up the hill. Bri really had a great time.




Saturday night's ceremony was the reason we were all there, and it wasn't about to disappoint. The venue was a beautiful cottage tucked deep away in Brighton Canyon (I think). The ceremony was outdoors, with dinner on the patio under the stars. The bridal party hiked way up a hill on one side of the cottage, to come down through the trees to walk the aisle on the other (I was struggling worse than the chick behind me that was pregnant with twins). Rachel looked beautiful and Kerr almost cried. The bishop that officiated the ceremony did a good job following Kerr's one rule, "keep it short." Afterwards we headed across the street for pictures where we had our option of picturesque backdrops between the duck inhabited pond and the 100 ft. waterfall. Dinner was awesome and it was followed by toasts and dancing. Fred, Chad, and I teamed up to roast Kerr as we hadn't known him as long as his other groomsmen. We burned him pretty good as we recalled fun times and funny things he's said in the time we've known him. Kerr and Rachel and the guys in the audience we knew all enjoyed it, and that's exactly what we were aiming for. The reason I say this is because I actually heard the next morning that we had offended some old people in attendance, to which I replied, "ah well... what are ya gonna do?"

Our Utah jaunt was wrapped up with brunch at Rachel's folks' house Sunday morning. Bri and I told our friends to enjoy their honeymoon in Cancun and feel free to come to Phoenix and soak up the Arizona sun anytime they feel like it. We really feel blessed to have great friends like this, and I thank the LORD every day for putting people like this in my life. One of my favorite parts of this trip is it reminded me how funny life can be. For those of you that know the story of my baseball career, you understand how up and down it was. I lived those years and thought that baseball was the reason for everything in my life. What becomes more and more evident to me every day is that those events in fact had very little to do with the sport. Me coming to ASU for one year before being advised to leave, but finding my wife in the process is the most obvious example of this. This weekend though, was another. I still don't know what to think of my year as a Ute from a baseball aspect, but there's no questioning the success of that year off the field. I, by far, made more lifetime friends in my 12 months in Salt Lake than I did in my time in Tempe. Seeing Kerr, Rachel, Fred, Chad, and some of the others last weekend, really served as an awesome reminder about how good my life has been.

The Un-skip-ables

Everyone has those songs... you know the ones. Those songs that every time they come up on your iPod or on the radio you're hooked. You're not changing the channel or skipping to the next song, you're probably going to turn it up, and you may even push "repeat" when the song gets to the end. I was thinking about those songs the other day. Here's what I decided my list of un-skip-able songs looks like:

-Foo Fighters, Everlong

-Kenny Chesney, I Go Back

-Taking Back Sunday, This Photograph Is Proof

-AC/DC, You Shook Me All Night Long

-Dierks Bentley, Wish It Would Break (Live)

-Blink 182, Dammit

-The Used, Buried Myself Alive

-STYX, Come Sail Away

-Brand New, Okay I Believe You, But My Tommy Gun Don't

-Metallica, Turn the Page

-Thrice, To Wake and Avenge the Dead

Kind of a weird mix, I know. What does yours look like??

Sick Wife Update

Bri's been in bed since we left the hospital about 1:30 AM. Fortunately she hasn't vomited since then either. Her stomach still hurts, though not really as nauseous as it had been. She's been able to keep down some liquids, some bread, and a jello cup. She doesn't quite feel up to soup or anything like that yet.

I know a lot of people got freaked out when they heard we had to call paramedics. That basically came about because last night the only doctors open out here was the ER. I was going to take her but with all the dehydration and probably some hyper-ventilating, she wasn't able to stand. Her hands were clinched tight and her back couldn't straighten up (that part, I think, really worried her).

Thanks again to all you that are praying for her, please keep it up. She's had a little blood in her stool today, but from talking to our nurse sisters (Dani and Mandy), it's hopefully just from the irritation her body has gone through. I've been going in every 20 minutes or so to make her drink water. One good sign was when she started to give me attitude because I was bugging her. Pray that she doesn't regress tonight because she has come a long way today.

I love her. Thanks.

Wigan Athletic 0 - Manchester United 5

Coming off their stunning midweek defeat at the hands of Burnley, Manchester United was looking to bounce back and take it out on a much weaker Wigan Athletic.

With Man U on the rebound, their strikers looking to answer questions about their ability to finish, and playing a team with a keeper that wears a goofy hat and looks like Smalls from The Sandlot (HT to Nick Asolas for that visual); the Reds capturing three points didn't seem to be a matter of "if", more so a matter of "when".

The first half appeared to be dominated by the Reds (although half time stats would show fairly level play) with Darren Fletcher, Paul Scholes, Wayne Rooney and Nani all having good chances to put in the first goal. None were able to capitalize. Heading into intermission with the score tied at zero and leaving these chances on the table seemed to be heaping more pressure onto Man U. Could Sir Alex's men really fall to back-to-back bottom of the barrel EPL opponents? Well, whatever he said in the dressing room, it worked.

The three time defending Premier League champs came out in true form for the last 45 minutes and ended up turning a question mark into a laugher. In the 56th minute Antonio Valencia (whom I had been critical of in the first half for his lackluster play) steered a beautiful cross into the box finding Rooney's head, which in turn found the back left corner of the net. The goal was a milestone for the striker as it was his 100th in Man U colors. The goal not only got Rooney over a hump, but it opened things up for his teammates as well. Two minutes later, much criticized Dimitar Berbatov created an amazing opportunity for himself when he received a ball in traffic, flicked it over the keeper's headed, then bounced it by one more defender for a beautiful goal. In the 65th minute, Wayne Rooney capped off a historic day in style. His shot deflected of a defender and by the keeper and the route was officially on.

With the game well in hand, Sir Alex mixed things up in the 72nd using all three of his subs, one of them being off-season transfer Michael Owen. About ten minutes later, Owen took a crisp pass from Nani and reminded everyone why the Reds desired to bring him in placing a beautiful floater off the far post for his first goal with United. In the 92nd minute, Nani not only added to his already solid performance, but possibly helped answer some questions about who would be able to replace Ronaldo in taking free kicks. The winger curled a ball over the wall for a beautiful 25 yard strike that left the opposing keeper motionless.

The game, which went into halftime with some hope for the home side, ended with a resounding dominance that many expected from this fixture. Man U will need to keep this form as next Saturday they take on rival Arsenal at Old Trafford. The Reds aren't typically known for their blistering hot starts in Premiership, but beating the Gunners less than two weeks after falling to Burnley would be a good sign and help answer a lot of questions in Manchester.

NOTES: The starting 11 saw seven changes from the midweek game at Burnley. The most positive of these changes was welcoming back defensive star Nemanja Vidic, who has been battling calf problems to start the year. I don't know what time kickoff was at the venue, but to catch it here in Arizona, I was up at 6:45 (yes, I am a man). This is the first time I have seen EPL on the ESPN family of networks; I really hope the ratings are decent so it sticks around.

Gettin' the Squeeze

This story is ridiculous! I guess NYC has to get creative if they're going to pay for those two new ballparks they have.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/08162009/news/regionalnews/sweet_lemonade_kid_lapped_184770.htm