Bailout needed in Detroit!

We suck. The first team in NFL history to go 0-16. Sure the Buccaneers lost all their games in their inaugural season, but there were only 14 games back then.

It's not even as if many of our losses were close. In only one game would a field goal have sufficed (12-10, Minnesota). 3 more games we could have won or tied with a touchdown. Everything else - absolutely blown away.

We've got one of the best receivers in the game (Calvin Johnson) who, like Barry Sanders of the Lions' 90's teams, has no supporting cast.

We're going to get the first pick in next year's draft. But even the entire first round of picks won't fix Detroit's problems. We need some congressional intervention and maybe an Obama-esque spreading of the wealth from the hardworking, well-organized teams to allow our underachieving, mis-managed program to have some success.


Post-script: Here's something interesting: we lost to Minnesota two times and by a total of 6 points, and they won the division (and beat the NY Giants in the process).

Another note - the Lions won all four pre-season games: the NY Giants, and then both Ohio teams (with 8 combined wins and a tie this season), and the in-famous Buffalo Bills.

There's always next year.

Super-size me? Eunuch-ize me.

No, seriously, why would McDonald's do a whole marketing scheme to rename McNuggets "Nuggnuts"?

They even have a facebook page for the newly-re-christened breaded-processed-meat-parts.

The new name does not suggest that I am "Nuts for Nuggets" as I suspect they're aiming for. It suggests to me that they're no longer the same nuggets, and that - perhaps - they are now made of - well - um ... something besides assorted chicken parts and just some particular parts.

In my neck of the woods (the Rocky Mountains) we already have this product - oysters.

Anyway, I'm hesitant to log on to facebook as a friend of Nuggnuts, as I've seen the episode of the Simpsons where the German kid disappears and the cafeteria begins serving a delicious new sausage called Uderbraten. I'm not so nuts about nuggets that I'm eager to eunuch-ize myself in order to serve the public at large.

30 Stores!

The PaceWheel is now for sale in 30 stores across North America!

Made in the USA

Struggling with supporting our own economy or supporting my own economy.

As the PaceWheel's success continues, we are expanding our product line to include Strengthwheel - a weightlifting calculator. But, as we approach the final design phases and move toward production, I'm in a bit of a quandary.

I can cut my production costs by nearly half AND produce in plastic (for more durability) by outsourcing. Alternately, I can produce it Stateside for what PaceWheels cost me (in UV-Coated cardstock) or for about 50% more than PaceWheels cost me (in Plastic).

The bottom line is: is my bottom line the most important thing here? How important is "Made in the USA"? How valuable is "Made in the USA"? I certainly can't just look out for number 1, but it is an important factor. Weigh in, and let me know what you think.

Thousandaire! 23 and counting

This just in - The Original PaceWheel is now for sale in 23 stores continent-wide!

And with committed sales made this morning, the ambitious goal of becoming a thousandaire has been achieved!

You can say you knew me when I was just a hundredaire, but now with more than one-thousand PaceWheels sold and in the hands of coaches and athletes in all 50 states (plus Washington, D.C.) and 16 countries (Canada, USA, Mexico, Honduras, Cuba, Ireland, England, France, Serbia, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, India, Kenya, South Korea, New Zealand, Australia), and 5 of 7 continents, I've made a net profit of nearly $1 per wheel. Way to go American Dream!

Portmanteau part deux

If you already read my first entry about a portmanteau I created, you know that a portmanteau is a combination of two existing words (or word parts) that makes a new meaning, like guesstimate.

Anyway, here's my new one: Talibangelist. You know, that guy who's always threatening to decapitate somebody on Al Jazeera. He's a Talibangelist.

And, yes, I did see the pre-release of Obsession. And, yes, it's truly frightening. Just like a Talibangelist or a Televangelist.

Who would have guessed?

This morning, the Washington Post reported a recent study suggesting that "Sexually Charged TV Might Raise Risk of Teen Pregnancy." Now, you and I both know that TV is not responsible for people's bad decisions. Clearly, teens repeatedly exposing themselves to sitcom sex does not make them repeatedly expose themselves in the backseats of cars or at band camp.

However, duh. I'm certain that my having watched Animal House, Revenge of the Nerds, Top Gun, Risky Business, Friends, and all manner of lousy movies with boobs in them definitely affected my decisions and desires. And now, I can't even watched Saved by the Bell or Full House - it's all tainted.

An interesting note about the article: the writer claims that the CDC says that 1 in 3 girls will get pregnant by age 20. I find that incredibly hard to believe. So I looked it up: the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics article on Teen Pregnancy says that there are 40.5 live births per 1000 women between age 15 and 19. That's slightly more than 4%. Even over the 5 years given, that's still only 20%, which means that there would have to be another 26 abortions per 1000 girls 15-19 PER YEAR.

I suppose that's not terribly unlikely, and perhaps I'm simply insulated by the posh school district I teach in where I can think of only a handful of pregnancies at my 1500+ student school in the last 9 years I've taught here.

Interesting.

It's about time, isn't it?

All of the sleepless nights have paid off.

5A Region 5 Regional Championship Results
1. Coronado 65
2. Palmer 69
3. Rampart 70
4. Durango 107
5. Pine Creek 144
6. Liberty 164
7-12. Other teams I wasn't worried about.

We made it in! Last year, we ran a team total time of 90:38 - an average of 18:08 (rounding up) - for the 5 scoring runners and missed by a mere 2 points. The year before that, we missed by 4 points.

This year, we ran 88:11, an average of 17:38 - and still got 5th. My team really pulled through and ran fantastic just at the right time. I was anxious, to be certain, but the boys ran smart, and it paid off.

To be certain, "Run Smart" doesn't sound as cool or aggressive at the line as many of the other cheers teams shout just before the race (my favorite to laugh at: "S-C-X-C-S-C Sex it Up!" from the other ____ Creek team in our region).

Anyway, I'm elated. It's the first boys' team appearance at the State meet in school history, and I feel pretty good about the work they've put in and how it's paying off. Now, if we can just keep it up.

Fear/Anxiety

It's late--admittedly not that late for me--but here I am posting some drivel to my dilapidated blog.

You may not remember, but I've had a string of narrow defeats at the Regional Cross Country Championships of late.

But this year, I've got five of the fastest 15 PCHS runners in history on the team (4 of them in the top 10), 2 guys who have run under 17 minutes for 5k, 1 just over 17, and two more under 18, plus my next two guys are right around 18:30. Last year, our scoring 5 ran an average time of 18:07 and missed qualifying for state by two points. Two weeks ago, without my number one guy, we ran an average time of 18:05 on the same course. We ran a scoring-runner average of 17:09 earlier this season (a school record), and we expect to be that fast again at the regional meet.

But...our region got tougher this year. There are no fewer than 4 teams in our region with at least 3 guys under 17 minutes. Plus, 4A powerhouse Liberty moved up to our region, and though we beat them in the season opener, they took 4th from our region at the Coronado Cougar Classic on the 18th. Even if our top runner had raced that week, he couldn't have moved us ahead of Liberty even if he had won the race!

There are six schools in our region who will have a scoring-runner average of 17:45 or better, and one of them will stay home. The race will be so close--again--that every point will really count for everyone. I suspect that Durango will win the region and that, probably, Palmer will take second, but the next four spots are really up in the air. Who knows which team will take 2nd and which will take 6th? It's impossible to say. Last year, spots 4, 5, and 6 were separated by only 3 points! I'd bet that this year places 3 through 6 are decided by less than 25 points.

I believe we can make it through, but we can't know until the 16th.

The end of a really bad day...

...and then I walked out to the parking lot, only to find my spot empty except for this:
















This is true irony -- not Alanis Morissette irony -- actual, dictionary-definition, textbook-example situational irony.

I, The Coach, did indeed find this beautiful example of situational irony in person though--fortunately--it was not my car.

Finding out the Hard Way

So, our 2-year-old has his first peanut butter sandwich. Consequently, we had the paramedics, some firemen, and a police officer at our house shortly thereafter.

Two ambulance rides, an overnight stay in the hospital, and a prescription for self-injecting epinephrine pens.

It's not like my being allergic to cats, tobacco, or pollen. I'll just get a headache or a runny nose. He'll die. I'm pretty sure I never understood how serious a peanut allergy was until it was my kid in the ambulance, covered from ankles to forehead in a red, hivy rash -- knowing that his throat, stomach, and lungs were having the same reaction simultaneously.

More than 1 in 20 kids have a food allergy that causes anaphalaxys, according to the Food Allergy and Anaphalaxys Network. And now my kid is one of them.

I fell a little bad saying this, but I wish he had just broken his leg like I did as a little kid. I eventually got over it. But this poisoned-peanut affliction? It will actually get worse with time. You can't develop a resistance to it. You just learn to stab yourself with the epi-pen and pray.

He'll never eat a Butterfinger. He'll never get to shape peanut butter cookie dough ith a potato smasher. He'll never shell peanuts at the ballpark. And the kicker for me is, he might not even get to be near people who do those things depending on his sensitivity.

I realize it's not the end of the world, but it's kind of hard to wrap your head around something that will last him longer than I've been alive.

Argh.

I feel left out...

Slick recently posted a blog (on which I am not even allowed to make a smarmy comment) about some ancient pictures of some of his friends, and the one of Matt from the yearbook is not the same picture he gave to me:


































In the interest of full disclosure, I've submitted my own senior picture:

National and International Success

Okay, so it's been a while, but believe me I've been busy.

Since the Running Times article came out on May 30, I've filled 126 orders for 149 total PaceWheels from the website and sold PaceWheels to 5 more retailers. With these additional PW's out there since the RT article, the PaceWheel is in use by coaches and athletes in 48 states (Where are you Alabama and Vermont?), and 11 countries (in order of first PaceWheel sent): United States, France, United Arab Emirates, Cuba, Honduras, Ukraine, Serbia, Mexico, Canada, South Korea, and India. PaceWheel is also sponsoring a benefit 5k run which will start simultaneously in Colorado Springs and Biyumba, Rwanda.

It's crazy to me. Something that came out of my brain is a valuable commodity? A small business my wife and I started is out of the red in less than a year, and I do believe it may indeed pay for my Masters' degree (which has nothing to do with running or calculating or wheels, as far as I can tell).

The most fun thing for me: coaches and runners across the country and around the world are saying that my idea is helping them!

Worth the wait.

Go to your local Barnes & Noble and pick up a copy of the July/August edition of Running Times magazine, and on Page 22, you'll see this:

It reads:

"Dial in Your Pace

In contrast to expensive, high-tech workout accessories such as heart rate monitors and GPS-based mileage tracking watches, Michael Pollard, a USATF-certified coach in Colorado Springs, has developed an effective training tool that's decidedly low-tech and affordable. The Original Pace Wheel ($16.95) is a circular cardboard calculator that uses an individual's recent race effort or a predicted time from 800m to marathon to calculate five key training paces: aerobic base phase, marathon race pace, lactate threshold development, VO2 max development and running economy intervals. Want to train for a sub-3:00 marathon? Spin the dial to determine the appropriate paces for each of the five zones. The Original Pace Wheel works with established training plans, and it has the stamp of approval of Troy Engle, the chair of USATF's Coaching Education. For more details or to purchase, go to pacewheel.com."

I couldn't have paid for such good advertising (no seriously, I have no budget for such things).

One income...

No wonder one-income families are so rare these days. We thought we could move into the district where I teach. But we can't afford it.

If you're supposed to spend less than 30% of your monthly pay on your mortgage, how do people buy houses in the first place? A $160k home with a 30-year mortgage and 6% interest is about $1150 a month. That means you've got to be bringing home at least $3800 a month!

I've got a master's degree, and 8 years on the job, and I won't be there for a while.

This sucks...now I've got to tell my realtor that, well, after all, we won't be needing your help because we can't afford it. I should have been a realtor. 3% commission on each house you help someone buy or sell could add up pretty quickly.

Best birthday cake in the Galaxy.

Wednesday was my birthday, and a student made me a cake (maybe out of guilt, maybe to get a higher grade. It is easily the coolest birthday cake I've had since the R2D2 cake I had for my 9th or 10th birthday party at Burger King.

Check out the video:




This kid recreated the battle scene from the forest moon, Endor, from Return of the Jedi. He used Star Wars Legos and he used cinnamon sticks for the trees, it's got a river with swedish fish in it, the ewoks are gummi bears, and there are chocolate "rocks" all over the place. One of the stormtroopers is getting hit in the head with a rock. It's awesome.

Plus, the cake was big enough to cut 54 pieces from it, and had a huge crowd in my classroom at lunch.

Funniest Blog Post I've Read Recently

This is post one (1) of two (2) for me today. It's just a link to a hilarious post on the blog "Stuff Christians Like." Absolutely worth your time. Just don't pee your pants laughing.

Christian Romantic Fiction: Porn's Eviler Cousin

That'll do it. Now people will read this blog, and then stop reading forever.

I was just reading Prodigal John's recent post on Christian Romantic Fiction and I remembered I wanted to do a post on this.

I seriously do think that Christian Romantic Fiction is more insidious for Christian women than pornography is for men. Considering my considerable experience with pornography (see my post on 3 years of Freedom - soon to be 4), I consider myself a sort of lay-expert (pun not originally intended but now left in on purpose).

Since porn is a false god set in place of an appropriate view of God's intention for sexuality, and since it is addictive, and since it is so destructive, it is obviously bad. But because it is so obviously dangerous, huge battles are fought over it. Your local Family Christian Store retail outlet isn't going to carry it.

However, since Christian Romantic Fiction is written by Christians and is about Christians in ministry situations (why, if the Prairie-Living schoolmarm, Marie, isn't able to tame the wildness of David Gideon's rebellious but lonely heart by the end of the 28th Chapter, I don't know if I'll be able to live with this world), it clearly belongs in our Christian stores.

My mom's not reading this, and she's not going to, and neither will my dad, so I'm pretty safe here I think, but if not, I guess this is no surprise to either of them: My mom probably read every book by Brock and Bodie Thoene, and she did so (and does so) because she had and has a desire for genuine affection. When my dad didn't give it, she found it in these formulaic, sanctified romance novels.

It's Danielle Steele meets Jesus and Zondervan publishing house on the same day.

So why is it eviler? It's been baptized and cleansed by its presence in the bookstore alongside legitimate Christian writings. At least we recognize that porn is dark and we don't let it in the front door. This stuff arrives in broad daylight, ready to seduce hearts with saccharine-sweet "goodness."

Just one more example of being "Of the world but not in it."

You saw it here first

I was just goofing around with the "Live Trace" feature of my Adobe Illustrator CS3 program, trying to figure out some silk-screening stuff, and here we have it: Mr. Cool smiling!

I don't believe it had ever been photographed before, and I'm fairly certain it hasn't been photographed since.

You're welcome, world.

Soon, spray-painted Che Guevara faces on utility boxes and stop signs will be replaced with this revolutionary mug right here.

By the way, it's 2:59 a.m.

"Hate Free Zone"

I work at a public high school, and as we all know, public education is run by well-meaning but absolutely deceived people who are bound and determined to improve the self-esteem and self-worth of kids. My school has a diversity club whose acronymic title boasts that the purpose of the club is that students will Learning "Acceptance" through "Education." I hesitate to name the club's real title lest some kid google it, find this here blog, and get me railroaded out of town for the upcoming tirade.

The club is officially not about sexual orientation decision issues; it is ostensibly about race relations - which in my school actually are a big deal. But the sponsors of the club and others around the school have "Hate Free Zone" signs hanging in their classrooms and office spaces. The original "Hate Free Zone" poster was created, printed, and distributed by the local Gay/Bisexual/Transgender alliance. The "Hate Free Zone" poster makes me incredibly cranky, and the picture at left is my response to such idiocy. If you click on the picture, it'll bring up a big version, and you are welcome to print it and hang it in your office or classroom.

I've got one hanging by my door. For now, at least, I still have my right to free speech.

Guess how old this boy is

That's right.

Old enough to spell his name.

Old enough to "take care of" his "baby" (the penguin at the bottom left of the picture).

Old enough take trips to the moon, to Chicago, to a lake, to track meets, to the country of "spee-chu-spahn," etc. all from the rocket/airplace/boat/van/catamaran that is our living room couch.

Old enough to use the potty "all by myself."

Old enough to say "No, I amn't."

Old enough to recognize the haircut place every time we drive by it at 45mph.

Old enough to be influenced by brands and logos: "Daddy, there's Target. There's Home Depot. Let's go to Sam's Club. Is that Wal-Mart?"

Old enough to not need a bib because he will eat his yogurt carefully.

Old enough to enjoy a banana split and choose his own toppings for it.

Old enough to repeat phrases daddy shouldn't say in front of him (and probably shouldn't say at all).

Old enough to recognize the flag of the United States.

Old enough to recognize (in traffic) a bumper sticker with an outline of Texas with red, white, and blue and the lone star on it as "part of a United States flag."

Old enough to say (as only a child could say) that Texas has lots of guns in it. How he knows this I have no idea.

Old enough that I must be older than the 22 years that I wrote down on some form the other day.

Chicago - Initial Reactions

Well, I came to the Big windy city with high hopes to sell a whole mess of The Original PaceWheel and set in motion the dynamo of an automatic money-maker that would drive me almost directly to being a thousandaire.

Costs for the 2-day Bank of America Shamrock Shuffle Health and Fitness Expo break down about so:
10' x 10' booth rental - $1200
Itinerant merchant license - $25
500W Electrical Power Outlet - $85
3 days of parking at Navy Pier - $39
Car Rental - $150
Meals - $150
Inventory (PaceWheels, Flyers, Brochures, etc.) - $2650
Plane Tickets - $370
Business Insurance Policy - $379
iPod for Giveaway - $52
Banners & Banner stands - $135
Oversized Display PaceWheel - $35
Custom-embroidered shirts and hats - $66
Miscellaneous supplies - $35
Car Rental Gas: $45

Total Cost: $5416

Traffic was light most of Friday, and we sold 25 wheels. I was pretty disappointed. I thought "What have I done?" PaceWheel, LLC had just broken even last month, and I was getting ready to pay myself a share of the profits when we hit a big positive round number (student loan payments started again as my Master's Degree deferment expired). But we re-invested the money we'd made into the Chicago show.

Saturday was better. We had lots more traffic, but we sold just 36 wheels directly to runners. But people were listening and asking questions that indicated they actually understood what it was for and how they would benefit from it.

At slow times, Joel (Stephanie's cousin from PA and a Triathlete) would watch the booth, and I'd go hit up Running Stores' booths. I showed the PaceWheel to the owner of one store in Naperville, IL and he said "You have inventory here? I'll take two dozen." Then he introduced me to the owner of another store and said "This guy has something to show you that you are going to carry." He took a dozen. 5 other Chicago-area running-specialty stores are looking at carrying it.

Then, a guy I'd been talking to all weekend introduced me to the head of training for WorldVision's (the Christian humanitarian organization) Chicago Marathon team. He bought a dozen to help his coaches' train their athletes. PaceWheel is now an official sponsor of Team WorldVision Chicago! The guy who introduced me also works with an Autism research foundation which is also raising money by training athletes for its team, and he wants to partner with PaceWheel and he's going to connect me with a guy who developed the PaceTat, a temporary tattoo that has Marathon mile split times for your goal. Last year he was at the expo, and he got connected with Saturn!

I also made a connection with the head of coaching for the Chicago Area Runners' Association, and he's interested in possibly ordering PaceWheels to be a giveaway for an upcoming run or series rather than or in addition to a t-shirt (how many t-shirts does one person really need?).

Lots of other contacts came out of the trip, too.

PaceWheels Sold: 109
Money Received: $1276.75 (assuming all the credit cards clear)

Deficit: $4149.25

I had hoped to sell 400 PaceWheels and that we would at least break even, but the networking will really be quite valuable.

We'll see what happens. Did I mention the guy from the Naperville store is also on the board of the Independent Running Retailers Association? They've got an annual convention he said I should go to. PLUS he asked me if he could be the exclusive vendor of the PaceWheel at the Chicago Marathon Expo! I'm excited even though I'm back in the hole.

Free Wi-Fi

I'm not in my usual wi-fi harnessing spot, and I must say the seat I'm in now is more comfortable than my usual porcelain location.

You see, I'm at DIA waiting for a flight to Chicago. I opened up my laptop to do some work, and my wireless detection system notified me that the network DIAFREEWIFI was available for a connection. I logged in, watched an inane 30-second commercial (ostensibly for Toyota but really just a man in a fox/raccoon? suit digging through trash), and here I am.

It's nice to get a nice connection somewhere besides a room that is potentially smelly (not that airports aren't potentially or actually smelly). Look for a post about my Chicago Expo venture, possibly posted from the Midway Airport Free Wi-Fi. Here's hoping!

Best book I've read in ages...

I was reading my sister-in-law's blog today, and she had written about her penchant for U.S. Presidents and Presidential history. It brought this book to mind because the man is Presidential (with an intentional capital P).

Okay, so I finished this book several weeks ago, and you may not give two darns about track and field, but I really couldn't put it down. In fact, I enjoyed the book so much I actually wrote a thank you note to the author.

If you don't know who Bill Bowerman is, here's the brief run-down:

• He founded Nike
• He was the catalyst for America's running boom
• He is quite possibly the most influential college coach of all time (and I know there are some out there who might suggest Bear Bryant, Knute Rockne, or Mike Krzjewqks2i, Bobby Knight, etc.)
• He was a member of the greatest generation and as a member of the 10th Mountain Division effected the surrender of a German division in the Italian Alps
• He coached more Olympians than I can recall off hand, including but not limited to: Mack Robinson (1936 runner-up to Jessie Owens and Jackie Robinson's brother), Olympic Gold-Medalist and world-record discus thrower Mac Wilkinson, Gold Medal Marathoner Frank Shorter, 2-time Olympian (and author of the book) Kenny Moore, the legendary Steve Prefontaine (someday I'll write a post about him), 1964 Bronze medalist Bill Dellinger (who also coached Prefontaine), and a slew of others
• He was also the head USA Track & Field coach at the 1972 Munich Olympics
  

The book is huge, at least two and a half inches thick, and it covers Bowerman's life from well before he was born through his youth, college, army service, early coaching, the founding and growth of Nike, and retirement years.

You all know I'm a coach, and I want to model myself after this guy. I also wish I could write like Kenny Moore.

Anyway, the point of this is that if you're in need of a good, long read, pick up this book.

Feeling Useful...

My local running store (which does, by the way, carry The Original PaceWheel) tries to market the store in various ways including Jack Quinn's Running Club (meet at a favorite local pub for a quick run followed by happy-hour-priced beer and free appetizers) and special guest Saturdays. They bring in some local running or fitness guru for people to talk or listen to at the store - all in the hopes of drumming up more business.

Today was "Meet the Inventor of the Original PaceWheel," and I was the invited guest speaker/presenter/guru. I talked to not one, but two people about the PaceWheel in my four hours there; and I sold not one, but not even one PaceWheel in my four hours. I was a little disappointed at the result.

However, I made myself useful nonetheless (and this, I suppose, is really the point). The weather was beautiful, track season has just begun, and the store was seriously swamped from about 11:30 to 2:00 today. The four employees had more than enough people to work with, and people kept asking me for help, not knowing I didn't work there. I did my best to help each customer, acting as the triage nurse, before sending them to the appropriate actual employee to get help.

But at one point, everyone was busy, and one lady asked me for help. Actually, she motioned to me for help. I walked over to her, and she quickly communicated that I would need something to write with to help her. She could neither hear nor speak. I get the feeling that I was at the store today specifically to help her. My English teacher's penmanship-deciphering and unconventional syntax-decoding skills were put to good use. American Sign Language syntax is not the same as The Queen's Written English; grammar is truncated, and I actually got a chance to serve someone. It was a great way to spend an hour.

This woman had been sent by her doctor for some good, supportive walking shoes to ease her pain from a heel spur among other things, and the store was recommended by this doctor as "the best." However, she ended up with me. I blindly wandered the store-room looking for the right model of shoes in the right sizes; got help from the actual employees when I could; and actually helped her find several pairs of shoes that would work.

I don't doubt that any of the actual employees could have helped her. I'm sure each one of them could have deciphered her writing and each one would have been patient enough to serve her for an hour. I'm not saying I was placed there because she needed me. I'm pretty sure that I was placed there because I needed her. I needed to serve her with my skills as a reminder to me that serving others serves my need for fulfillment and value, not because I am so great, but because I am so needy.

Moving past anger...

I'm sorry about the vagueness of this post, but you never know who's reading.

I just stepped out of a meeting where work that I've been asked to do has been attacked because I did it. I didn't, apparently, consult the right people. I didn't, apparently, take into consideration what certain noisy yet uninvolved people might think. And I didn't, apparently, expect that I'd get taken to task for it.

It's this kind of meddling bureaucracy that makes getting anything useful done impossible. I went into the meeting expecting to get attacked, especially considering all the cryptic emails and questions I've been getting leading up to the meeting. I was hoping I'd get a chance to clear the air, but I just got magnanimous and condescending apologies and promises.

I can't decide if the title of this blog means that I'm getting over my anger or if I'm really getting so angry that it's not just anger anymore.

Blogging Equality/in the black...almost

Pardon me for being too busy to really post anything of value for four weeks, and for weeks before that.

But hey hey, what can I do? Wanna tell you bout the girl I love...

PaceWheel, LLC is within striking distance of breaking even. My father-in-law and I sold 77 wheels at the Colorado High School Coaches' Association Track and Field Clinic in Fort Collins, CO. (which was sponsored by the USA Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches' Association - USATFCCCA - just in case you were wondering). HC! WTH? IDK.

Anyay, after the CHSCAT&FCiFCCO, my dad and I sold 50 wheels at the USATF Level 1 Coaching School held at the OTC (Olympic Training Center) this weekend. Add to those numbers all the internet and other in-person sales, and I've sold 286 PaceWheels since I got them in hand on November 1.

I figure just 50 more wheels and we'll break even.

Then we can go back into the red to get a place at the Chicago Shamrock Shuffle Expo on Navy Pier in March.

Portmanteau

So there I am, asleep, and yet another great idea pops into my head -- better than "Rosencrantz' Underpants" but maybe not as good as The Original PaceWheel (which was recently endorsed by the Chair of USATF Coaching Education).

No, no...my dreaming self came up with a clever new Portmanteau. A portmanteau is a combination of two existing words (or word parts) that makes a new meaning. For example: guesstimate combines guess and estimate and gives a new word loaded with more meaning than the other two.

Now, before I head to my psychotherapist to figure out what I could have been dreaming about to bring about this new word, let me get it out on paper...er...whatever.

My new portmanteau combines the words caboose and bustier. One is your rear, and the other lifts and separates. What better way to accentuate the junk in your trunk than the combination you'll get out of a pair of low-rise jeans and the caboose-tier (or is it ca-bustier...or caboostier)?

Top this slogan:
"The wonderbra for wonderbread."