Dietbolical Goal Reached!!

What a day. What an amazing f'ing day.

I had mapped out my run about a week ago -- I designed my route to spell the word "dietbolical". [For those unfamiliar, "dietbolical" was a plan I hatched 100 days ago. My aim was to run every single day until I reached my target weight of 180 lbs. I started at 198 pounds. You can read my original commitment here: http://bit.ly/kITf5o] As the days passed, it was looking more and more like I would hit my goal about day 100, BUT I DIDN'T EXPECT IT TO BE EXACTLY ON DAY 100!!

Tonight, after running the dietbolical route, got home, showered, stepped on the scale, stepped off, stepped on, stepped off, stepped on, and finally yelled to my wife "Hey! Come here! I have to show you something!" Understandably, she walked up the stairs timidly because usually this request is usually ends up with her wishing she never responded. However, what she saw was me standing on the scale in my shorts saying "Look! I did it!!" No matter where I moved the scale on the floor or how many times I stepped on and off, I could not make it read a number higher than 180. I did it. I freaking did it!!

I don't know what I'm going to do next, but I don't think I can stop running daily now. Now that I've met my goal, I can see there's still a bit more that I could stand to lose (175 lbs. seems like a reasonable goal). I knew nearly 100 days ago (I wrote my commitment 2 or 3 days after I started) that if I wrote it down and "published" my goal, it would be reached. I only wish I would have done it sooner -- I wouldn't have bought 3 pairs of shorts and 3 pairs of dress slacks in the spring with a 36" waist (I'm now a 33 or 32!).

Thanks for all of the encouragement particularly to Jane S. , Rachel B. , Keith H. , Chelsey F. ,Reggie W. for nearly daily encouragement and Tim C. for being the guy who put this crazy idea into my head in the first place. I owe you all a beer. ;) I owe many others a giant thanks too!

Thank You, Glen Campbell

Today is the official release date of Glen Campbell's "Ghost On The Canvas." I was unaware that the album was in the works until I heard the title track on Milwaukee radio. I was aware, however, of Mr. Campbell's battle with Alzheimer's disease. This is his final album until he slips off into a life of dementia. Truly, truly sad.

However, what is not sad, is how magnificent this album is. I think this is going to be THE album of 2011. It's the type of album not many artists get to make. Warren Zevon's 2003 farewell album "The Wind" is the only one that comes to mind. After purchasing it for only $3.99 today from Amazon.com, I listened to it all day and during tonight's run. I remain awed by the lushness and expanse of the production, the melodies, the musicianship, and -- most importantly -- the power and smoothness of Mr. Campbell's voice. Oh man, I'd give up running if I could sing like that! (First love -- strumming and singing; running's fine -- but it's much farther down my list.)

I hate to seem like I'm shilling for The Man (not Campbell -- the corporate machine), but this album is available for this price for only a few more hours at http://bit.ly/psQcWc. Some won't like it; that's just the way it is, but most will at the very least have a strong appreciation for the man's talents.

Detractors may say, "Who can't make a great album when Jakob Dylan, Paul Westerberg, Brian Setzer, Billy Corgan, Dick Dale, The Dandy Warhols, Chris Isaak, Teddy Thompson, and Keith Urban (and more!) are your collaborators?" But I'd respond that, despite the quality and fame of his fellow musicians, Glen's voice stands above with a soul and quality that makes him a truly gifted artist. Which, I'm sure, is why so many of today's artists fell over themselves to make this album with him.

When I was a little boy, I had 2 hamsters: Johnny Cash and Glenn Campbell were their names. Like hamsters do, they passed away and were buried in the backyard. For a year after that, I would tell people, "Johnny Cash and Glenn Campbell are buried in my backyard!" Mom explained, "Mike's talking about his hamsters -- not the singers!" And regrettably, once my hamsters were gone, I went on to become a HUGE fan of the Man in Black, but The Rhinestone Cowboy was forgotten. Listening to this new album, I realize I've missed a lot and I look forward to going back into his archive and listening before his time with us has passed.

This post was extracted from my dailymile.com post for the day.

Badass Minivan

"So we bought a minivan. No kids, but we own a minivan. Go figure."

The Minivan

That was my post on facebook yesterday and judging by a few comments, I got some raised eyebrows. "Why in the world would someone without kids ever own a minivan?!" Well there are reasons, both practical and indulgent. Yes, indulgent, but I'll get into that later.

First off, the vehicle that we replaced was my 2001 Ford Ranger pickup. I'm going to miss that pickup, but it was tired at nearly 128,000 miles. It still ran like a champ, but there were suddenly more than a few problems with it -- a slipping transmission being the most significant. Also, this truck was seldom compatible with city living/driving. It was great for those hauls to the city dump every so often, but as a daily commuter, it was awful. Poor gas mileage and a pain-in-the-neck in small parking lots -- with an extended cab, it was a long truck! -- made me curse the vehicle more than praise it. The writing was on the wall; it was time to replace the truck.

Next, it would be nice -- and less expensive (probably) -- to buy a car. However, most sedans seat 5 adults maximum (4 comfortably). My wife owns a receptive tour company (KBC Tour Company); a number of times per year she would have a need to provide a tour to 2 couples or a family. Our other vehicle -- a Mazda Tribute (SUV) -- was just too small. In these cases she would be forced to rent a minivan and the her profits (if there were any) would plummet. She could not cost-effectively conduct business by having to rent a minivan every time she had a group between 4 and 6 people.

Lastly, I LIKE MINIVANS!

There. I've said it. I've always been a pretty practical guy and these things are wonderfully practical. Good driver visibility, cargo carrying capacity (remember, I'm replacing a pickup), decent fuel efficiency, and they are comfortable. I don't like all minivans. It was only until Chrysler and Dodge came out with their current versions of Town and Countries and Caravans that I thought minivans became mildly attractive. Despite all their practicality, I wouldn't have considered a minivan until these models were introduced. The T&C is a little more well-appointed than the Caravan, but I like 'em both.

Puppy Bailey!

We spent the morning and the better part of an afternoon at Schlossman's in Brookfield considering the differences between the models (and prices!) and we finally came home with a 2011 Town & Country Touring model (link). The thing is awesome. I've not had a vehicle with this many features. It may be a pedestrian, suburban vehicle, but it has the feel and styling of a higher end automobile. Particularly cool is the 30GB hard drive that I've already loaded with a bunch of my favorite tunes and the picture viewer that now displays Bailey's face every time we turn the key. ("Turn the key" is figurative. All you have to do to start the thing is press a button. That's going to take some getting used to!)

Despite what should be my midlife crisis, I've never been motivated to own a "sexy" vehicle. My ego has zero connection to the type of car I drive. I'd rather arrive at my destination safely, comfortably, and with the ringing of heavy metal still in my ears.

This probably means only one thing: I've already passed midlife and am now just comfortably settling into being old. ;)

We Got the Beet!

Beets. They're the one thing from childhood that I still haven't developed a taste for. Tomatoes, mushrooms, eggplant -- I've overcome my dislike for their odd textures a long time ago. But beets?! What are they supposed to be? Fruits? Vegatables? Canned purply roots?

C'mon you damn beets, make up your mind!

But then I saw this video. I think if mom prepared beets like this, I would love beets. Chocolate, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, butter -- is this food porn or what?!

And how can I possibly write about beets without recalling "The Beet Runner!" http://bit.ly/5PsD1q


beet cake from tiger in a jar on Vimeo.

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Two Thumbs Up!

The new "Downtown Milwaukee Night Out" video is fabulous.

I feel as though I have lived in this city at just the right time. After being born and raised here until I was 8, my family moved north of Green Bay. After I graduated from the University of Wisconsin—Stout, it was back to the Mil for me. In the early 90s, we thought Milwaukee was pretty cool. It actually surprised my then-girlfriend (now wife) and me. We had spent some time in other cities and looked back at Milwaukee like an archaic rust-belt has-been. However, once we relocated here, we became pleasantly surprised -- Milwaukee had a "feel" to it that we just didn't feel in other places. Call it an independent streak ("We're not Chicago dammit! We do things our way. Sometimes they don't make any sense, but dammit, they are OUR way!")

Fast forward 20 years and Milwaukee has really grown up. We no longer can keep up with all the things there are to do here. New bars and restaurants open monthly, the concert scene has become huge, performing arts and cultural events are plentiful, museums offer lively exhibitions and activities, and the festival scene explodes in the summer (not just the big ones either—there are plenty of small ones that deserve attention (last year's New Belgium Tour de Fat and this year's Beer Lovers Festival come immediately to mind!) ).

And people are cool here.

The new video below is great not only from a marketing perspective, but it feels like my Milwaukee. It shows the city that I've come to love over the past 20 years. I think it is exciting to look forward towards the next 20 years. I believe only good things are headed our way.

Milwaukee. Check it out.

Oh, and those Brewers aren't bad either!

My 25,000th Tweet

Like sands through the hourglass, so go the tweets of our lives.

How I got to 25,000 tweets I have no idea. You write a couple a day and over the course of a few years, they add up. I know during last year's NFC Championship Game, I probably dropped a couple of hundred right there!

I noticed yesterday that I was approaching 25k. I almost went over too, as I was on a roll with the #cheesysongs meme. [My favorite: 30 Seconds to Mars Cheese Castle!] When I saw the number 24,999, I put twitter away for the day so I could use it for something ... special. If I could make it only 12 more hours with no tweets, I could use my 25,000th to celebrate my 16th wedding anniversary to my wife Kay [@kbctourcompany].

I thought about it over the course of the day and especially during my 2-mile #dietbolical run this morning. I wound up keeping it nice and simple with this little rhyme:

Tweet 25,000 
Is a big one you see, 
It celebrates 16 years wed 
to @kbctourcompany!

That tweet was posted about 7 hours ago. It's like a house of cards -- one new tweet and it'll tumble. I'll lose the synchronicity between the tweet and the number of tweets. But before I tweet again, I did what any blogging nerd would do: I grabbed a screen print of it so I could save it forever!

A Stirring Song: Gather by Jay Farrar

I'm a music lover -- always have been, always will be. But lately I'm finding too much new music boring or uninspiring. There's some good stuff out there, no doubt, but seldom does it seem lasting. It's good for a few weeks or months, but soon forgotten.

However, I recently heard a song -- now 9 years old -- that just floored me and made me recall why I love music so much. It's from the Jay Farrar produced "The Slaughter Rule" movie soundtrack. The song is Gather. I never saw the movie and can only barely remember ever having heard of it, but recently, Amazon offered a Bloodshot Records sampler ("Bloodshot Records Spring Cleaning Sampler") and Gather was the second track. I listened to the whole sampler one straight though before starting another listen. On the second listen, driving home from work, Gather played again. This time I was riveted. I played it over. More riveted. A third time. More riveted; more moved.

Simple. Soaring. Beautiful.

At home, I put the song away for a few hours until I could sit down with my wife and I told her "You must hear this song. I love it. Turn off Twitter, shutdown Facebook, and just sit here and listen with me for the next 4 minutes." She did. By minute 2, my eyes had watered up and I could barely talk. Verklempt, I said "I don't know what it is about this song that moves me so much. It just does!" And together we listened until the song was over. I think she liked it too, but wasn't used to the chordal progressions the way I was.

I discovered that the song has a video to go with it (I don't think it's official) and the video is nice, but I think the visual stimulation in this case hinders rather than helps the song. This is a song best appreciated with eyes closed and just taken wholly in by the ears. Also, tinny PC speakers don't do any song true justice. If you'd like, the whole sampler is still available as a free download from Amazon (click on the link above; it's got many good rockabilly songs on it too). Get it and play Gather through your highest fidelity set up. I'm sure you'll be moved too.