I think that I’ve finally started to get out from under the mountain of phone calls, emails, and requests from clients. The other night after playing poker with Brendan all night I woke up around noon and had zero voicemails - wow! The influx of emails has calmed down too - probably because basketball season is about to start, thus the majority of requests have been handled.

Carrie and I (and her friend Laura) are headed down to Cancun for a short getaway next week - just Thursday through Sunday. Thanks for my sister Natalie for hooking us up at the Omni! I’m looking forward to a few days away and am really going to try to ignore any emails for the couple of days that we are gone! Thankfully things always seem to slow down on Thursdays and Fridays. I’ve been reading a lot lately and have some new books to take along on the trip… One book I recently finished was “Honeymoon” by James Patterson - the was the first book of his that I’ve read. I knew he was popular, but didn’t realize that he is the author of “Kiss the Girls” and “Along Came a Spider” - both of which were made into movies. After reading Honeymoon I can see why. I picked up a copy of Grisham’s new book, “The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town” and just started it — it’s actually a non-fiction, his first I believe - pretty interesting.

On a geeky note, I am seriously considering making “The Switch” and picking up one of the just-updated Macbook Pros - they are sweet! I stopped by the Apple store in the mall yesterday to check out the notebooks and play around on the 30″ LCD displays - my old-school monitors may be a thing of the past! I’ve been checking out Mac software for the past couple of days and think that I could move over without too much trouble. Since OS X is based on UNIX there are some cool things that I could do from a development standpoint. Besides, the Macs are just cool - and I am so impressed with how easy it is to do things on them. When you go to install an application there is no long install process or rebooting - you just drag the app to the applications folder and that’s it - how it should be. I’m actually blogging this from the Mac mini that I have for web development testing - there are definitely some adjustments that I will have to make if I switch over, but everything seems to work fine so far.

Finally, it’s hard to believe, but Carrie and I are coming up on our six-month anniversary this Sunday! Wow - that flew by! So happy to be married to her - she is an amazing woman in every way and we really have a great friendship and relationship!

Filed under: Business, Personal
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I don’t know how it’s been over a week since I blogged — that time seemed to fly by! Anyway, here’s an update on a few things that have been going on the last week and a half…

• Went to Dallas for the NCAA and other coordinator meetings. Brendan came up Saturday night and we got to hang out, along with JFLO and Steve, which was cool… Other than having to rush back home because I forgot my notebook’s power supply it was fairly uneventful. On the way back we did sit on the tarmac for two hours due to weather, but happenstance had me seated next to an old referee friend, so we got a chance to catch up.
• We finished up TASO training last Monday — it’s always enjoyable to help teach new officials, but it’s a lot of time investment, so I was kind of glad to have that come to an end. Besides, it’s time to start the season!
• I got to have lunch with my parents on Thursday… They were having a “Spa Day” in Houston — must be nice!
• Carrie and I went to the Texans game yesterday — it was a great game, especially since they won! And we had great seats thanks to our friend Josh!
• Backing up a few days though… On Friday, we had a little birthday celebration for our friend John Flores (aka “JFLO”). His actual birthday is today – so be sure to leave him a celebratory comment! His girlfriend Angie arranged for Royce to cook him up a gourmet meal at our house Friday night. Royce arrived around noon – no kidding! – to start cooking and he outdid himself! Here are a few pics to make you hella-jealous…

Royce (off to the left handling the tongs) preparing the main course…

…which consisted of breaded pork chops with a marsala sauce, mashed potatoes (of course make completely from scratch!), and asparagus covered with a bell pepper sauce! YUM!!!

Royce putting the finishing touches on the dessert he prepared – a chocolate fudge cake with blueberry sauce and fruit. JFLO and I had to make a quick run to Spec’s to get the amaretto that he needed for the sauce, but they wouldn’t let us in at 9:00pm! So, we may or may not have found another liquor store down the street whose owner was happy to sell us a bottle at 9:07pm (as long as we paid cash, of course )

There is a reason no one was looking up at the camera!!

Thanks Royce for an incredible meal and everyone for great company.

Happy birthday JFLO! You are officially an old man!!! (35 if anyone is wondering )

Filed under: Personal
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If you know me or have read my blog for any length of time, you know my friend Brendan – the best man in our wedding, officiating buddy, and in general cohort in crime! You probably don’t know as much about his wife Julie – as I have never dedicated a post just to her (obviously a severe oversight on my part!) — but she is a great friend as well and Carrie and I have really enjoyed spending time together as “couple friends” (not sure exactly what that means, but it’s something that happens when you get married).

Julie just had their third child – Kendall Rene – just under four months ago – rounding out their family of three with their other daughter Hallie (6) and their son Jack (3) [I think those are the right ages! At least I hope so and I’m sure I will be corrected quickly if I am wrong!] Needless to say, Bren and Jules stay pretty busy with their kids, among other things like work and officiating (ok – well, Brendan officiates – Julie paints!)

As many of our friends and family met them at our wedding back in April, I wanted to share something difficult in their life that they are going through right now. Julie has been diagnosed with cancer and just started her first treatments this week – obviously the last couple of weeks, since they found out, have been pretty tough – and they are just starting Julie’s “Road to Wellness” – an apt description of the road ahead.

I’ve talked with Brendan a lot recently about many things and as I’ve told him – I don’t really know what to say. It’s hard to me to imagine what they are going through – I just know that it is not easy. In order to not feel compeltely helpless, I did help them setup a blog – at lyonsfamily.org – so that they could share this journey with family and friends.

So, if you want to stop by their blog and post a comment for them, please do so… If you would like to pray for them, I know they would welcome that – you can never have too many prayers!

I don’t think that there is any way to understand something like this… My sister Natalie shared a poem with me the other day that I thought was meaningful, so I will close with it, as it expresses how many people going through life’s stuggles feel. Bren and Jules – we love you guys!!

Dark Threads the Weaver Needs

My life is but a weaving,
    between my Lord and me;
I cannot choose the colors,
    He worketh steadily.
Oftimes He weaveth sorrow
    and I, in foolish pride,
Forget He sees the upper
    and I the underside.
Not ’til the loom is silent
    and the shuttles cease to fly,
Shall God unroll the canvas
    and explain the reasons why.
The dark threads are as needful
    in the weaver’s skillful hand,
As the threads of gold and silver,
    in the pattern He has planned.
                    -Herbert Lockyer

Filed under: Personal
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Tonight in our training meeting for the Houston TASO (Texas Association of Sports Officials) basketball chapter, I shared a few things about officiating. One of the great things about officiating for me has been the relationships that I’ve made along the way, as well as the places that I’ve been able to go.

Carrie and I were able to enjoy both of these Saturday night, as we dined with my good friend John Flores (aka “JFLO”) and his girlfriend Angie, at an amazing steak house – Phil Stephani’s 437 Rush. John and I have known each other pretty much our entire officiating careers – we met at a “camp” just after our first year and have been friends ever since. So, to be able to visit a great city and enjoy an incredible dinner with our significant others, simply because we were both hired into the same conference was something to celebrate!

We tried to get reservations at Tavern on Rush, which came highly  recommended from Kelli, but it was booked solid. Just browsing his website, I found out that Tavern is also a Phil Stephani restaurant – no wonder it is so popular!

I was pretty much set on ordering the filet – probably before we got to the restaurant, or even decided which steak house we were going to! However, as we were looking over the dinner menu, Carrie asked, “Did you want to share the Chateaubriand?” Talk about your rhetorical questions!

I think that the last time we had Chateaubriand was three years ago in Vegas at Del Monico – and it was as fabulous then as it was Saturday night! I’d get it more often when we go out to a nice steak place, but you have to share as it’s intended for two — and Carrie sometimes has to get a little surf with her turf. However, this night she did her rancher dad proud!

All in all, it was a great time with good friends – which is really what is important! It was enjoyable for John and me (and Carrie and Angie) to be able to enjoy a tiny celebration of the payoff of our hard work over the years – and to toast to the great things that are to come!

Filed under: Officiating, Personal
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Here are some more pics from yesterday at Navy Pier…

It wasn’t too crowded since it was a weekday…

The Windy – pretty cool name for a Chicago-based boat!

A lighthouse off of the pier.

They had a stained glass exhibit at the pier – pretty interesting.

The Navy Pier ferris wheel — we had to take a ride, of course!

Great view of Chicago from the ferris wheel – and, no, I would not lean out of the car to take a picture!
I don’t like heights!!

Carrie showing perfect putting form here!
Of course, it did not help her as I completely DOMINATED HER!!!
(Ok, I won by one hole, but being the competitive person that she is, she was NOT happy about it! )

The Riva café – cool! We ate lunch here…
I had “fish and chips” and Carrie had crab cakes — the seafood was awesome!

Carrie and I both thought that this was a neat sculpture.

Today we are off to do a little shopping at the Magnificent Mile, then off to the ESPN Zone to watch the Red River Shootout (Texas vs OU) with our friends John (JFLO) and Angie, then to Sullivan’s tonight for dinner (Steak! YUM!!)… We tried to get reservations at Gibson’s and Tavern on Rush, which are both supposed to be awesome, but they only had 5pm or 11pm! Apparently there is a convention in town with 50,000 people – no wonder hotels and restaurant reservations have been hard to come by! We’ll have to plan further in advance next time!

Filed under: Personal
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