But this time was different.

During the off season, it appeared that Jagr would return from playing overseas, and would choose the Pens. Money appeared to be irrelevant in his decision. His “heart” was in Pittsburgh. Blah, blah, blah.

Whatever.

But what was most stunning in the off season was the departure of Max Talbot to the Flyers. Not that he left necessarily. He wouldn’t get maximum dollars in Pittsburgh, and this would likely be his last “big” money deal. Philly overpays, and the rest is history.

Sadly, last night just didn’t live up to the hype. It started off well, with Staal scoring 30 seconds in, but notsomuch after that. Here were the more entertaining moments from last night:

Jumbotron Welcome Back Max video

And of course, this guy:

Official Pens video of Talbot Tribute

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Image via Wikipedia

Like I said in May, this isn’t becoming a running blog.

I still plan on posting about races, and other things that seem relevant, but I don’t plan on posting every detail leading up to Vegas this December.

To that end, I had the “brilliant” idea while driving back from vacation to start 18 weeks to Vegas.com.

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I think.

Either way. Last night I set the alarm for 2:58 am, because the Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas Marathon re-opened registration and I didn’t want to miss the cutoff.

(Click the image for the full size version)

In hindsight, that was clearly unneccessary, as it still appears open. But with only 5,000 spots available (and some already gone due to an earlier 2 day window) I didn’t want to risk it.

Either way, a full marathon is now on the calendar!

Let the training begin!

No related posts.

Two half marathons.

That qualifies me for entry level in the “Half Marathon Fanatics” club, but I doubt I’ll spend the 35 bucks to make it official.

This time I didn’t need to travel far to run 13.1 miles.

May 28th was the 35th running of the Ogden classic, but the first edition of it as a half marathon.  For 34 years it was run as a 20k classic, but a little over a half mile was added this year to the streets of South Wheeling to extend it to 13.1 miles.

The best part of the Pittsburgh race, was seeing Christy and Aubrey as I passed Station Square.

This time, I knew they’d be standing about one mile into the course.

Sadly, Aubrey was scanning the crowd, and couldn’t see me run right in front of her along the sidewalk. Hearing her cry I DIDN’T SEE MY DADDY, about 5 times didn’t help!

After breaking two hours in the Pittsburgh half, and feeling good a few days later, I was hopeful to break two again. But this time, it would be on the hills of Wheeling WV. A little over 3 miles in, comes 29th Street Hill, clocking in at 1.8 miles.

The course then heads down to the halfway point near Bridge Street Middle School, before rolling along National Road until heading up Wheeling Hill for another .5 miles.

Shorter sure.

But after 12+ miles, it hurts.

Once again, I ran without headphones. It was easy in Pittsburgh, with bands every mile or so, It was easier in Wheeling, since I heard my name a lot along the course. Seeing old friends, and new ones along the way sure helped.

"This Guy" is in pain

What didn’t help, was the combo of hills and humidity. More than half way through, I was on pace to break two hours again, but could feel I was fading.

I was struggling through Woodsdale, but perked up knowing a good friend was taking pictures along “Chicken Neck Hill.”

After passing Jim taking pictures, I switched my GPS watch over to “time of day” so I wouldn’t see the inevitable ticking up of my average time past the 9:09 I would need to break two hours.

Not watching my pace didn’t hurt, although I don’t remember much between Sheetz and Fulton.

Wheeling Hill?

Oh, I remember that. I’ve pounded up it many times, and usually at a pretty good clip. What I haven’t done, though, is attack it, after nearly 2 hours of running.

I survived it. That’s about it.

At the top, my parents were waiting to cheer me on, and down the other side into downtown I went. I wasn’t flying, but was happy, knowing the end was just around 14th street.

Although I didn’t break two hours, I wasn’t off by much. Plus, I got to hear Aubrey yelling my name at the end.

Compared to the 18,000 people running the Pittsburgh Marathon, the Ogden was relatively small, which apparently meant lots of face time on the local news.

Here is the start of the race, courtesy of Channel 9 (I’m in the middle):

…and the finish (although not as good as above) courtesy of Channel 7:

View Larger Map

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This weekend was Aubrey’s third birthday. The past few years, we just had her party at home over Memorial Day Weekend.

But since she’s a little older and has been to “real” birthday parties, we thought we’d throw a party with her friends this time.

Or at least for our friends who have kids…

We asked her what type of party she wanted, and we weren’t surprised.

Jessie's Hat Cookies

She wanted a JEZZI PARTY!!

That’s Jessie, from Toy Story if you couldn’t translate.

We had balloons and decorations, and a Toy Story themed gift for all her friends. Christy even got creative and turned boring sugar cookies into Jessie’s Hat Cookies.

Waiting for my friends to arrive

Exercising with her friend Nate

Ball Pit!

What is it?

As if this weren’t enough, we turned her birthday party, into a birthday weekend with a trip to PNC Park to watch the Pirates on her actual birthday. We went with some friends, but as expected, spent more time eating before the game, and playing in the water than actually watching the game.

Best View in Sports

Aargh!

Finally! A sunny day!

Soaked!

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Because of the early morning start, we decided to head into town early and make a weekend out of it.

On Friday, we went to dinner at Atria’s, on the corner of PNC park near the Clemente Bridge. We were hoping to meet several friends who were running that weekend, but due to a variety of things, we only met up with one friend.

Fortunately with a 3 year old, there’s always enough interesting things to keep you entertained. After leaving dinner, we watched several party limo’s drop off couple’s out for their Prom. Sadly I didn’t get any pictures, but let’s just say the outfits have changed a lot since we graduated in 1995. A. Lot!

We did spend some time down by the river walking around the stadium, and had our own zoo-like adventure with the geese.

Saturday, we spent time picking up the race packet, and navigating the expo. Of course, all this did was make me debate whether I want to try the Vegas Marathon in December, or the Disney one in January. More on that later…

Since it was a family trip, and I didn’t want to monopolize the entire time with running events, we spent the afternoon at the Pittsburgh International Children’s Festival in Oakland. Fortunately the weather held off, and we were able to do most of the outdoor craft activities, bubble stations, and petting zoo.

After spending the rest of the day with my Aunt, Cousin, and her daughter, we went back to the hotel to rest up for an early wake up call.

Race Day!

After setting 3 cell phone alarms, the clock radio, and getting a wake up call, I woke up a half hour early at 4:30 am on my own. Yawn!

Since we were staying at Station Square, I got ready, had breakfast, and headed out to walk about a mile to the start line. It made for a good way to warm up, and left an hour for stretching, and standing in never ending bathroom lines. Good times.

I was hoping the weather would cooperate, and outside of the humidity, mid 60′s and drizzle made for good racing weather.

Before the race, my only goal was to finish under two hours. I knew I need to run a little over 9 minutes per mile to do this, and had done essentially that in an 8 mile race early this spring. Going into it with this plan helped, although I started out the first 5 miles a touch to fast at about 8:30 per mile. Not so fast that I couldn’t recover later, but if you look at my mile splits you can tell I slowed over the rolling section after the West End Bridge, and only sped up in the last mile.

View Larger Map

There were probably too many highlights to mention. I was able to see some friends who were volunteering just after mile 4, and found Christy and Aubrey cheering once I passed Station Square. Hearing “my daddy” sure helped push me through the South Side!

I ran this race WITHOUT music. Having bands along the course helped, and I think I’ve become a convert to racing without headphones. More on that in a later post probably.

All in, it was a great weekend, and awesome race. Here’s hoping my legs recover in time to run a respectable time in the Ogden Half Marathon on the 28th.

Friends Race Reports

Kelly – From Chasing Little Lion

Emily – From Feux de Foret

Deanna – From PRetty in Pittsburgh

Kellie – From Passive Architect

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Image by Getty Images via @daylife

No, I’m not slowly morphing into Brett Keisel, circa Super Bowl XLV.

I promise.

This is for a much better cause. Last year, I participated in the NHL’s “Beard-a-thon”. I was thrilled to raise nearly $1,100 for the Mario Lemieux Foundation through the Pittsburgh Penguins run for the cup.

You can read about last years efforts here.

Let’s Go Pens!!

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Image by Peter Fuchs via Flickr

At the beginning of this year, I set 3 personal goals for myself. I’ve never been a big goal setter. Typically, if I decide on something I want to do, I just start doing it.

I’m the same way professionally. I don’t always have a lot of patience for endless discussion around what we should do. I just want to get on with the doing it.

Having said that, I have found it helpful to lay out 3 areas I wanted to focus on this year:

Run.

Read.

wRite.

So far, so good.

Run: I’m nearing in on hitting goal number one, which was to run a half marathon. I’ve been able to steadily increase mileage since last year, with the goal of running the Pittsburgh Half Marathon on May 15th. In the past month, I’ve run a 10 mile and 8.1 mile race in preparation, and both were under my goal time.

As if that was going to be good enough, I also signed up for my hometown half marathon, the Ogden Half, two weeks later, on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend.

Read: Setting this goal was likely going to be the hardest to accomplish. Historically I’ve had the habit of buying books, but never getting around to reading them. As a result, I typically only finish 2-3 per year.

For the first 3 months of the year, I’ve finished 11 books in 13 week. A little under the pace I’ll need, but well above my typical pace. I’ve tried to mix up personal interest books, business books, and ones that friends have recommended to keep it interesting. I’ve found using Goodreads helps keep me on track, but also in finding new titles to read based on what friends are finishing.

wRite: After starting a blog at McKinley Carter, I’ve committed to only writing about personal finance there. That was my main excuse for abandoning this site for several months last year. So far, I’ve been able to write here at the rate I wanted to, without just putting up filler posts to hit the goal.

March was light on posts, but I have several events coming up in April and May that I think you’ll be interested in. Stay tuned!

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Joel Bruckenstein kicks of T3 2011

The 2011 edition of the Technology Tools for Today conference wrapped up this afternoon in sunny Weston FL.

Like last year, I’ve come away with several ideas about ways our financial advisory practice can make better use of technology.

For extensive coverage of T3, check out the live blog by RIA Biz. As for me, here are my main takeaways:

Integration

Without a doubt, this was the main theme of this years conference. Unfortunately, there is no clear consensus on how to accomplish this objective. Bob Veres pointed out in the wrap-up session, that there are multiple ways firms could integrate. The custodians have their view (and among the big four, they have four different methods), the paperless solutions offer another method, and then there are other options from CRM tools as well.

Many sessions addressed the integration concept. The “super sessions” from Fidelity & Schwab cited several different approaches to integration.

However, my takeaway fro me these sessions was not an overriding affinity to one tool over another. Sure, I have my preferences, but the message from talking with 3 network admins at dinner on Thursday. Integration doesn’t mean easy. Above all else, you must begin the process of designing work flows for much of your business.

Work flows that can be automated within your CRM will drive the biggest efficiencies in a firm. Yes the technology must exist to support your processes, but just having a new shiny object, so to speak, won’t improve much.

Furthermore, everyone on staff MUST buy into the process. After all, if actions are scheduled automatically, but never completed, what’s the point?

iPad

Standing room only for iPad for advisors

Although somewhat self serving, a big takeaway for me was getting to present on a panel with Bill Winterberg on the panel “iPad, How Advisors are using it productively.” I’ve known Bill for a couple years, but hadn’t met in person until T3.

I wasn’t sure what to expect of this session. We had prepared our remarks, along with fellow panelist Sandra Goodstein and moderator Diane MacPhee, but much of our session was dependent on audience participation. Given that our session was at 5:00 on Friday, after a long vendor break, i wasn’t sure how many attendees would be swayed away from happy hour to talk tablets.

Fortunately for us, the iPad seemed to be on everyone’s wish list. Half of the room had one and wanted to know more about using it for business, and the other half were considering a purchase. As you can see, we had a standing room only crowd.

As for the specific takeaways from our session, I think Bill said it best: the iPad IS digital paper. It really closes the loop for me in being paperless at the office, and it is my preferred way to read everything – books, articles, the Internet, and even scanned magazine articles I tear off for “later”.

Transformative Technology

Finally, the best session of T3 was held last. Also with Bill Winterberg and joined by Jo Day of Trumpet Inc. I knew ahead of time that they had prepared a sold deck of 212 slides to cover in their hour! 212, but only the contact slide contained any bullets. You can see their slides here by Sunday evening.

Bill Winterberg presenting

The concept was simple: of all this great technology, what are specific things wen could start doing today, to make collaboration and communication with clients and staff easier and better. Ideally, we’d choose one idea and test it out for 90 days.

Ideas ranged from using Dropbox for collaboration of documents, Tungle or Timebridge for scheduling meetings, and using Yammer or Chatter for creating a workplace social news feed.

My favorite idea was a way to use mindmaps to stop wasting everyone’s time!

How?

Jo covered ways to use mapping to organize thoughts for creating work flows, but her extra idea was fantastic. She keeps her Mindmap program open at all times with a tab for each employee she coordinates with. Then, every time she has an idea that she is tempted to talk to them about, she joys it down in their tab.

Possibly the biggest time suck of an organization are the random “brief” interruptions by coworkers. So the next time you’re tempted to stop by someone’s office, or email them, start a running list of issues, and then block off time each week to cover that weeks issues.

Sports

2nd Row!

Finally, my personal “fun” takeaway from T3, was a last minute decision to drive 10 minutes from our hotel to Bank Atlantic Center to see the Panthers take on the Red Wings. I went with advisory website developer Matt Peterson We didn’t have tickets, but given Florida’s record, we suspected getting in wouldn’t be tough.

As we parked the car, we were literally surrounded by 4 scalpers trying to unload tickets. They were so desperate that their initial offer was lowered before we could even say word one. We chose to pass on the first set of seats wondering of the tickets were knockoffs or legitimate.

We walked up to the gate, and after a brief check with the box office decided to find another scalper. We quickly found a guy with multiple options of 2nd row seats for $75 each (a decent savings from the absurd $250 face value).

All in, my second year at T3 was a success. Between vendors bringing their CEO’s to man the booths (a rare sight in any conference), the discussions outside the sessions, and spending time with other advisors each evening made the trip to Florida well worth it!

I’ll see you next year at T3 in Dallas.

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On Tuesday, we had tickets to the Pens vs Blue Jackets game at Consol Energy Center. Because seeing the Jackets doesn’t elicit the same feelings as playing the Caps or Flyers, and considering we have events three nights this week, I decided to take my 2 1/2 year old daughter to the game.

Having half the Pens roster out to injury didn’t hurt either.

Although I didn’t figure she’d want to stay for the whole game, I new she’d enjoy going out to dinner, and seeing part of the game with me.

As expected, her favorite part was the “trucks” that cleaned the ice in between periods, and the music they played during tv timeouts.

That was, of course, until we took a walk before the end of the first period and found a “penguins” winter hat.

It’s a little big, and slips down covering her eyes, but she likes it.

As expected, we lasted about 8 minutes into the second period, before heading out for home. Just like when we went to see Sesame Street, we finished the night looking for the pictures of her and both Grandpas on Mario’s Mossaic:

Since we only had 2 tickets for the Pens game, we followed it up tonight with all three of us at the Wheeling Jesuit Cardinals basketball game.

Like the Pens game, we lasted just past halftime.

But had fun nontheless

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