The Point

So, it is a little after 6:00 a.m. Sunday morning and I am trying to stay busy until the sunrise gives me an energy boost (I hope). Yesterday started out like a super Saturday. We have some good friends in town visiting and we all got ready and went to Bojangles for a nice Saturday morning biscuit, of course, when we got there we were greeted with stares and pointing since we had a group of 9 adults (two pregnant) and 5 kids, and we reconfigured the dining room to meet our needs. Upon the successful completion of phase one of the Saturday plan without incident, it was on to shopping quickly followed by a transition to more shopping for the women and a father/child afternoon for the men and kids, this happened at about 11:45 a.m.. This afternoon was AWESOME, even though the men were outnumbered by the kids. We started with ICEE’s and then over to Deer Park for swinging, running, jumping, sliding, etc. After about an hour at the Park, we took the kids to swim and had a blast throwing, splashing, jumping, dunking, etc. for a couple of hours. Since the women were still enjoying their “girl time”, we went straight from the pool to Chick-Fil-A, were we proceeded to hydrate and feed the kids before putting them into the soundproof glass enclosed play area (One of the best ideas EVER), where they continued to run, jump, slide, climb, etc. By about 5:30, we decided it was time to take the kids to the house in preparation for the trade off…

An Aside, Alexander will be three at the end of September and still takes a nap most days, by the time we got home, he was visibly tired and within a few minutes I found him kicking everyone out of his room so that he could sleep, since it was now about 6 p.m., I wouldn’t let him and this started a spirited exchange with my 2 year old ending in his emphatic “I’m GOING TO SLEEP, GET OUT OF HERE!” He thankfully caught a second wind during that screaming which caused him to get out of bed and run around some more.

By the time “the wives” returned from their 7 hour shopping spree, three dads and five kids were pretty whipped, but…now it was our turn.

The agreement was that we would be given a “boys night out” to go watch some football and get into a little mischief. It started well enough at CBC, watching the Alabama vs Clemson football game and playing some pool, after a few hours of this and with an increasingly angry Clemson fan in our group, we decided it was time to find some karaoke or create our own! While driving down Brainerd Rd, we started to notice that the road felt like it suddenly had a lot of potholes, but we couldn’t see them…it wasn’t the road, it was our flat tire…

So there we were, after a FULL day of fun, pulled over on the side of the road changing a tire around midnight, no problem for three big strong men right… Turns out many German car companies think its helpful to put anti theft keyed lug nuts on your car and then hide the key! After an hour of raising and lowering the jack, kicking the tire, beating it with feet, hands, crowbars, etc., all while being occasionally reminded of our inability to change a tire by our “concerned” wives via phone and text, we give up to go get some “tools” and regroup. Several more hours and dollars later, we finally give up on trying to change the tire, roll the car into a parking lot, and call a cab to get home (which we wait on for an hour and when he finally arrives then proceeds to stop for gas and drive well under the speed limit on our $60, 22 mile, 52 minute ride home).

So, I’ve been home for a little over an hour now, I’m going to take a shower before the kids wake up and we do it all again…well hopefully not ALL AGAIN!

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I was born in Germany, my dad (from Detroit,MI) and mom (from Sutton, WV), were there as missionaries for the Church of God. Growing up I remember watching Ronald Reagan in Berlin and realizing how close that was to me! We moved to Tennessee when I was 11 and from then until college, I became increasingly interested in politics. In fact, I was the first President of the Tennessee Teenage Republicans. My entire high school, and much of my college career, were spent planning towards my future run for the Presidency (seriously!). As I look back now, having just passed the birthday which makes me officially old enough to run for Senate, I realize that much of my idealistic exuberance may have been misplaced. I saw a great speech tonight from an excellent orator and politician (Barack Obama) as I sat here, I realized that I don’t want to be that guy. I want to make a difference in the world and that is very hard to do, but I think it’s pretty well impossible to change the world for the better as President. So, my disillusionment complete, I am going to bed.

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It’s that time again, another businessman’s guide to a southern city. Of course, you don’t need to be a businessman (or woman) to read and use the recommendations herein. Nashville is one of my favorite southern cities, offering both the great friendliness that personifies the south, while also being large and metropolitan enough to have anything you could want to eat or do. It is the Capitol of Tennessee, which was the last state to cecede and first to rejoin the Union in “The Great War of Northern Aggression”.

Tennessee is in many ways three seperate states, the mountainous conservative east with Knoxville and Chattanooga, the agrarian and low lying west with Memphis and the Mississippi delta, and the middle which sits on the shelf that is the cumberland plateau, which houses horse farms and the afformentioned capitol of Nashville, as well as Tennessee Sippin’ Whiskey (or Whisky to some).

Things to do– Nashville is a large metro area of over a million people, so there is something for everyone here. Being “Music City”, Nashville lives up to the name with live music nearly all day every day somewhere, usually a good first stop is Broadway downtown, there you’ll find The Stage, Wildhorse Saloon (Country as well as names from Pat Benetar to Hootie and the Blowfish), and my personal favorites Tootsies Orchid Lounge (two stages and great local performers) and Buck Wild Saloon (Karaoke often). B.B. Kings has a great spot on 2nd Ave right by Coyote Ugly. The Westend/University area has lots of bars, dance clubs, and dives, my favorite is the Flying Saucer, great selection of brews and decent food. The Bluebird Cafe is a Nashville INSTITUTION.
For sports, the NFL’s Tennessee Titans, NHL Predators, and AAA baseball with the Sounds, and it wouldn’t be the South if you couldn’t get some college football, the SEC doormat Vanderbilt, while a prestigious academic school, is always counted as a W for the other conference schools.
The state capitol, worth several hours to tour, literally sits on capitol hill, so downtown is not overly friendly to pedestrians due to the up and down, but it’s nice. My favorite daytrip would be to head out to one of the two middle Tennessee Whiskey distillers, the world renown Jack Daniels, or my favorite and much more interractive George Dickel Distillery in Cascade Hollow, if you don’t know what a “Hollow” is, that alone is reason enough to check it out! Of course, no trip to Nashville would be complete without a trip to Ryman Auditorium and/or The Grand Ole Opry. President Andrew Jackson’s home is also a neat tour in the Nashville area and if you’re a country music fan, you can do star home tours as well.

Where to Stay– Being the largest metro area in Tennessee and one of the largest in the south, there is no shortage of hotels, the best are downtown and include Union Station, the Renaissance, a nice new Homewood Suites, and my favorite and Tennessee’s only 5 star/5 diamond hotel The Hermitage, which sits directly across the street from the state museum and the Capitol. If downtown isn’t your spot, or you’d like to be a little closer to the distilleries, Murfreesboro has a brand new Embassy Suites. The largest hotel in the world without a casino is also right here, The Opryland Hotel is a city in itself, boasting over 2,500 rooms, it is truly a destination and within walking distance of Opry Mills Mall and The Grand Ole Opry itself.

What to Eat– This is a very good food town! If you want local, Jack’s BBQ is the real deal, nothing fancy, but very good meat AND sauce, a rare combination. One of my favorites is The Standard at the Smith house, this one IS New South at its best, a great blend of old recipes and ambiance infused with the best of a big city, it is also a lunch hangout for lots of local music industry types. The city also has a growing number of “Big City” places, chains like Ruth’s Chris and The Palm as well as local uppity spots like Watermark, all are good. If you’re looking for different, Gerst Haus is one of my favorite German restaurants on this continent! They do it right, and they also have a good selection of american fare for the pickier eaters in the group. Bosco’s is a good local brew pub with better than average food, they also have a Big River Grill which is a can’t go wrong stop for food and beverage. The best combination of show and substance may be The Capital Grill (not the chain) that is in the Hermitage Hotel, it is THE place where the lobbyists take the stage legistlaters to make things happen, and the food and atmosphere are both wonderful.

So there is the five minute wrap up. Nashville is a great town for young and old, rich and poor, alone or with the family and friends.

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I am nearing the completion of my August batch of books and just finished a very interesting one, The Shack by William P. Young. It has been getting a lot of word of mouth advertising and my wife is going to read it for her september book club, so I grabbed it too. It’s definitely a little different, but worth the read, check it out! The author will also be speaking at my favorite conference, Catalyst in October, that’s also worth checking out!

Still wrapping up Made to Stick, It, and Axiom…more on those later, and look for my next post about Nashville, TN, a very cool town.

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I have recently started making a conscious effort to get into better shape. To that end, I have a few things I am doing. I have a pretty good treadmill and the cleveland greenway is a great break from that monotony when I run and keep track of my distance via nike plus. I also have an AbLounger and some free weights and I am doing push-ups. Lastly, to break up routine, I look for other active things to do, the two recurring ones to this point have been playing basketball with Kevin Stover and going to the park with my son.

So there are the calorie burners, on the consumption side, I’ve started eating more fruits and veggies, whole grains, and low fat proteins, trying to limit calories to around 1800. The plan is that this will help not only lower weight, but more importantly, increase my energy and overall health. The goal is that I will be a bathing suit stud in time for a winter cruise…look for some pictures!

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I know that for many people, saturday is the highlight of the week. Personally, it usually seems anti-climatic. It ends up being the day of yard work, house cleaning, and general busyness.

The thing that makes a handful of saturdays exceptional, is College FOOTBALL season, which starts officially today, though next week it really starts to ramp up.

Today should be a good one! The Southern Brewers Festival starts at 2 p.m. in downtown Chattanooga and should be a blast, then we are having some friends over for dinner later…

I better get started with the house cleaning and yard work right now!

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Yesterday I did a throwaway twitter about working on my motto, turns out it was actually true. I worked through the process of vision and mission statements a few years ago, and the last piece was to boil it all down to a very succinct life motto.

What’s interesting about all of these, is that I think they morph and the priorty changes at different times in our life, for example, in my mission statement there was no mention of being the best Dad in the world when I wrote it, but now that is the opening statement. With the motto I wanted something that could stand the test of time and even leave room for changing definitions as time goes on. So with all of that in mind, my motto on how I will approach life is….

BE.DO.GO.

First thing I’m proud of, is that I was able to come up with three words that total six letters! But seriously, I could go on for a long time unpacking this, for now it’s enough to leave them open to interpretation and critique. Over the next few weeks I’ll throw in an occasional unpacking of each word as I want it to apply to my life.

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I just finished my monthly magazine morning, where I basically take a half day and read all my monthly subscriptions (GOOD, Conde Nast Portfolio, Smart Money, Best Life, Relevant). They all had some great stuff as usual, but there was an article on New Orleans food that was really great. The writing seemed really familiar and then I discovered it was written by Rick Bragg, the author of one of my favorite books, All over but the Shoutin.

I am a big fan of business, theology, and leadership books, which makes it all the more odd that this would be one of my favorites since it doesn’t have anything to do with any of those subjects, although there is a bit of theology if you really want to stretch the definition. What I like about Bragg is both his style which we all could learn from, but also his world view and upbringing resonate with me.

It reminded me that no matter how unique we are and special we believe ourselves to be, there are others out there who have experienced many of the same things we have, and if we remember that, we can use those shared experiences to draw closer.

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I love it! Even though my Detroit Tigers are a first class disappointment, I still have a great time watching a game especially at the ballpark. In fact, I think I might go to the ballpark even if there wasn’t a game, just for the interraction with other fans and of course, THE FOOD. It’s not an everyday thing, but once in a while a man just needs some peanuts, cracker jacks, and the all american ballpark frank.
I personally prefer mine with chili and cheese, although I will sometimes go for slaw. My wife likes ‘em with pickles and/or hot peppers on them (Chicago style), and my son prefers his with just ketchup. It all reminds me of a great question from the car hops at the world’s largest drive in restaurant, the Varsity in Atlanta, GA…”Whaddaya Have?” Well, how do you like your dog?

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It’s time for another city review, this one a little closer to home. I have lived in the greater Chattanooga area for nearly two thirds of my life at this point. I travel a lot for work and I always get asked why southeast TN is home? The short answer is I haven’t been anywhere I’d rather live yet, but there are other reasons…

Stuff to do–The area has a ton of outdoor activities to take on, like whitewater rafting, hanggliding, kayaking down the Tennessee river, or if you are more into spectating, the Chattanooga Lookouts have one of the best locations and ballparks in the minor leagues. Downtown has a great tourist district with the Aquarium as anchor, my son really loves the Creative Discovery Museum, and my wife is a fan of the various eclectic shops on the northshore. If you’re a shopper, it’s hard to beat the collection of chains in the Hamilton Place Mall area, CBL is headquartered here and they have done a good job bringing all the big boxes to their home town.

Food–Chattanooga, has a great local food restaurant scene, you can go as nice (St.Johns), or as casual (Big River Grill), as you like and can find a great meal in any price range. My favorites include the afformentioned along with Sticky Fingers, 212 Market St., Sushi Nabe, and if you want something really unique the drive to Cleveland for the Bald Headed Bistro and their wild game steaks is a trek you won’t regret.

Places to stay–Downtown has several newer hotels within walking distance of the aquarium, ballpark, and river. The best are the Hilton Garden Inn and Courtyard, though there are some great B&B’s and my personal favorite Bluff View Inn and their collection of rooms scattered through several buildings overlooking the River and adjacent to the newly expanded Hunter Museum of Art. Blurring the line between attraction and hotel is the Chattanooga CHOO CHOO, which at the least must be seen, also of historical interest is Missionary Ridge and the Read House hotel which was used as a hospital during the Civil War.

Chattanooga is a world class small city within an easy drive of many major metro areas and should not be missed. It will continue to evolve and grow with the recent announcement that Volkswagen will be building their first US manufacturing facility in the area, but one thing will not change, the friendliness of the people.

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