“I will never stop learning. I won’t just work on things that are assigned to me. I know there’s no such thing as a status quo. I will build our business sustainably through passionate and loyal customers. I will never pass up an opportunity to help out a colleague, and I’ll remember the days before I knew everything. I am more motivated by impact than money, and I know that Open Source is one of the most powerful ideas of our generation. I will communicate as much as possible, because it’s the oxygen of a distributed company. I am in a marathon, not a sprint, and no matter how far away the goal is, the only way to get there is by putting one foot in front of another every day. Given time, there is no problem that’s insurmountable.”

From Gina Trapani of Smarterware.org

Blake had his final checkup on Monday and it couldn’t have gone better.  He was given clearance to go back to work and most importantly for him.. start driving again.  Mandee went riding around with him later that day and it was like riding a bike.  He still has to work on his strength to get ready for tennis next spring but he is pretty much back to normal.

Now that he is through his rehab I want to send out some thanks to those who helped during the entire situation.  All the grandparents, brothers, sisters and friends who did and would do anything to help Blake out.  I also want to thank Blake’s friends who came over and just spent time with him when he couldn’t do much but watch tv.  Hunter, Matt, Drew, Hayden, Nick, Nate, Brenda and Rylie are the ones I remember. (sorry if I missed anyone)  I want to thank Mandee for keeping it together when she could have easily broke down and made herself sick.  Blake deserves a huge thank you for being mature past his years and taking on this situation as a challenge and staying positive.  The entire thing could have been much harder on everyone but he made it as easy as possible.

Mostly I want to thank Bryce who really went out of his way to help Blake and us whenever we needed.  He did everything asked of him and more.  He never once gave us any attitude or did anything other than want to help.  Alot of kids in that situation wouldn’t have handled it the same.

Mandee and I are both very thankful for all of our friends and family but most of all we are thankful to have two very kind, thoughtful, respectful and most importantly caring children.  Thank you Blake and Bryce, we love you!

For those that know me they know I am a big fan of standing desks.  Here is another great story about them with some information on where to get one so you don’t have to have one built like I did… enjoy!

Being A Desk Jockey Makes You Sick.  Design, To The Rescue

Yesterday was a good day.  Blake was able to hit some tennis balls against the wall while Bryce and I played a quick set.  It was good to see Blake out there and if you didn’t know what he went through you would have had no idea by his performance.  He looked like the Blake of old.  I am confident once the Dr. gives him a complete clean bill of health he will be back to 100% soon.  Once that happens we will start working on getting him and Bryce back in playing shape for their senior year.

While watching some recent TED videos I ran across the Khan Academy.  Initially I was a little disappointed Ricardo Montalban didn’t walk onstage but I got over it pretty quick.  Here is the TED Talk explaining what the Khan Academy is.

Anytime you mix Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page & Kevin Bacon a movie has to be good.  It is a good independent film and definitely has that feeling.  The beatings are nice and gruesome with a comedic air about them.  I would recommend it to those who are looking for a fun movie with no thinking needed.

Well our normal guy (Chris Garcia, Club Tattoo) was on vacation so we decided to try a new shop.  After checking out yelp.com we went with Atomic City Tattoo.  We all got our tattoos from Johnny Vegas and they are all solid.  Since the boys are 17 I made sure they got something they wouldn’t regret.  We all agreed as long as they were family oriented there would be no regret.  Here are some pics.

Blake’s tattoo is an audio sine wave of his voice saying Mom, Dad & Bryce.

Bryce’s tattoo is two squares, the outer square signifies Mandee & Me, the inner square signifies Blake and himself.

Mandee’s tattoo is a heartbeat EKG with the word family in the middle.

My tattoo is very simple, 18 vertical lines signifying how many years Mandee & I have been married with two horizontal lines (red & blue) on the first vertical line signifying the year the boys were born.  This one will be an ever grown tattoo.

When you run across a great idea you should share it.  Pizza is one of the two or three food groups in our house so needless to say we eat quite a bit of pizza.  Now that is it clear that I am a pizza expert I wanted to share something.

Not only does the Great Value brand from Wal-Mart taste good their packaging is the best by far.  They make it so easy to just peel the top right off the plastic wrapping so your cheese and pepperoni don’t get messed up. 

This was a great movie tonight.  Jason Bateman and Jason Sudeikis are always fantastic but Charlie Day from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia fame was the best.  If you haven’t watched It’s Always Sunny you are missing one of the best shows on tv.

Jennifer Aniston was a very believable sexually abusive boss as well.  Overall I recommend it highly.