Rob's Really Good Pulled Chicken Enchiladas

Three things I’m really good at (Rob). Two of which are enchiladas and lasagna. So far I haven’t tasted any better than my own. While we’re still waiting for our camera to arrive so we can post vacation photos, I thought I’d take a moment to jot down a good chicken enchilada recipe.

It’s as easy as 1,2,3,4,5,6,7:

Roll up 1) chicken, 2) sour crème mix, and 3) cheese into 4) corn tortillas (not flour); place close together in a 13x9 dish; 5) pour red sauce over everything, and 6) sprinkle with more cheese. 7) Cook at about 350 until the red sauce boils. Voila!

Pulled chicken recipe: place whole chicken into pot, add 5-7 cups of water, 4 sprigs of basil, and 6 sprigs of oregano. (You can also use a bunch of chicken breasts instead of a whole chicken, but add a cube of chicken bullion for depth of flavor.) Cover. On medium, bring to boil. Simmer 5 minutes. Turn off stove and let it sit (covered) for between 10 minutes to 1 hour. Then simply pull the chicken off. Stringy, chunky, whatever is your fancy! Keep the broth for the next part.

Sour crème mix: Mix in a bowl a container (8 oz) of sour crème, about 1/4 cup of the spicy chicken broth, and 1/2 can of diced peppers (jalapeno, hatch, etc).

Cheese: Chedder, what else. If you have never tried Tillamook cheese, you’re missing out. Yes, you can even get Tillamook in Texas at almost any grocery store.

Red sauce: Olive oil (or whatever) with 1/2 onion and 4 cloves of garlic. Add 2 sprigs of basil and 2 sprigs of oregano. When onions are translucent, add 1 can of tomato sauce (organic is best) and 1 can of expensive enchilada sauce (most enchilada sauces are nasty gravy). Add spices (2 tsp cumin, 1 tsp Italian Seasoning (or something else green-ish), 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (or something else spicy), and salt & pepper. Add the other 1/2 can of peppers. Simmer for a while (10-30 minutes, whatever). Remember to take out the sprigs of basil and oregano. That would be a nasty surprise in an enchilada.

Vacation Photos Soon

We left our camera in Boise (a surprisingly enjoyable city) - Sarah is mailing it to us soon, then we'll post some fun pics of our trip to Waldport. We really wish we had our camera between Boise and Houston. Some crazy stuff on the sides of the road in WY, NE, MO, KS, and OK.

In the meantime, here is a fun link: Wikihow. It's a compilation of "how to's" that anyone can edit. There's one on China adoptions, pretty nifty. The original author, Patti Urban, is a great help to prospective adoptive parents in the pre-adoption paperwork stage (of course my old agency, IFS, does this part of the adoption for free).

Summer Comes to an End

Two months ago I spoke to my old friend Jon. I mentioned I was in Oregon for the summer. Conversation stopped, and he hesitantly asked, “Are you and Rachel okay?” Yes, yes, we’re fine, thank you. This is just what MBAs often do - internships are often somewhere else in the country. Rachel (the sugar-mama that she is) can’t exactly follow along for 12 weeks. But now those 12 weeks have passed, and I’m returning to Houston to finish up my last year of school. Some parting thoughts from this summer’s experience:

Rob says: Many thanks to my colleagues in LTD Strategic Finance at Intel. Five months ago I finagled my way into an internship by bugging more than a dozen employees. LTD provided a positive learning experience beyond my expectations. I’m looking forward to bragging about my adventures to my Rice colleagues: cool project, lots of support (thanks Chau, Craig, Roberto, George), fun activities, “private” jet to San Jose, etc…

Rachel says: Thanks for giving me back my husband

Next up: 3 day trip to Texas. Should be loads of fun!

Good Cuppa Joe

Now that we live next to a Starbucks, Rachel is starting to train their baristas (coffee makers). Rachel has specific taste when it comes to coffee, and it's not uncommon for her to have a drink remade, only to have me ask for it to be remade a 3rd time. An example of Rachel's discriminating palate: anything hot should be 170 degrees, and anything iced should have an extra shot. Not only this, but a mocha should have half the chocolate, and 1 pump of vanilla. Her summer drink is an "iced double tall 2-pump caramel latte with pump caramel instead of real caramel." (My summer drink is an iced grande no-water Americano with extra ice, Rachel just calls this "3 shots over ice." When at The Coffee Cottage, we both get a double iced white chocolate mochas, because they're fabulous)

Coffee Thoughts:
1) Baristas should have a license (like bartenders, only optional) so customers will know where to find the consistently good coffee.

2) A great idea is to have a computer screen where complicated drink-orderers can enter their drink information, and the information is sent to the barista ensuring that the drink will be correct.

3) Any coffee shop that invests the money in a La Marzocco machine probably cares about the coffee they make. Two places to find great coffee and La Marzoccos: Dog River Coffee in Hood River (owner thought I was swiping the logo from the machine), and Vivace Coffee & Crepes on Portland's 23rd Street (owner winked as I exclaimed, "ooh, La Marzocco").

Tater Tot Popularity

I have a theory that the popularity of tater tots has increased markedly in America since Napoleon Dynamite's famous lines: "Come on, Napoleon, give me some of your tots ... No, I'm freakin' starving!" Since I haven't found the answer, and it doesn't look like anyone has either, someone else can do the research and can probably get published.

Summer Fun in Timbuktu

Our good friend Sarah Lawrence is always gallivanting around the world. I bet she's on her second passport by now (I'm on my third, but the second doesn't really count because it went through the washing machine). Sarah works with Reign Ministries, traveling to such exotic locals as Nepal and Cuba (legally). This summer she outdoes herself again by missioning in a country so cool, its name contains an article: THE Gambia. Where is The Gambia? All I'll say is, it's somewhere in Africa, somewhere around Western Africa, somewhere surrounded by Senegal. I'm envisioning lions, monkeys, leaches, and fire-breathing dragons. Learn more about her exciting life here at her website: www.xanga.com/sclawren.

Fun fact: Timbuktu, Mali, is actually 941 miles to Banjul, The Gambia.

Life Changes Again!

Practicing what we preach, Rachel and Rob strive to take up as little space on this Earth as possible. Witness our new apartment: we downgraded in size (to 750 sq ft), but upgraded in location and amenities.

Tangent: by "amenities," developers point to their walking paths, golf courses, and cheap-o fitness centers. But what about true quality of life? Living where you work, proximity to shopping, entertainment, social interaction with neighbors, and walking trails / green-space should not be mutually exclusive luxuries. If more people like yourselves demanded more densely developed areas and safe neighborhoods and better transportation and proximity to the rest of the world (rather than separation via cul-de-sacs, 6-lane suburban arteries and Petsmarts) developers and city-planners would certainly respond. I think we may give up too quickly on a truly good life by ghettoizing ourselves in the MBA nerd's NPV positive, poorly constructed world of master-planned communities (that's a mouth-full!) Ironically, these "amenity-rich" ticky-tacky communities become undesirable after 10 years because of said poor construction and isolation from the outside world. The once white-washed stucco Krogers are replaced by dingy 99c Only stores, and as home value deteriorates, so do ancillary amenities such as safety and socialization.

Anyway! Rachel and Rob found a wonderful apartment at the corner of Westheimer and Wesleyan, in Highland Village. Highland Village? Yes, in the mornings we walk to Starbucks, for lunch it's PF Changs, and for dinner it's a fantrasmical meal from Central Market (like a really cool Whole Foods). Rachel loves window shopping at Banana Republic and Crate and Barrel!

Before and After - our apartment is super "quaint," but it also feels much more comfortable and homely than our last place. Soon after this picture, Rachel walked over to Pottery Barn to get some cute (and cheap) window treatments.


Those green letters I'm pointing to outside our door say "Central Market" (like a really good Whole Foods). It's as far from our apartment to CM as our old apartment to our old parking spot! Hmm... I'm feeling like a portobello mushroom with hatch chili pesto spread... I'll be back in 5 minutes!

Intel and AMD

Click on the image for a cool tech story - Intel's newest line of chips, the Core 2 Duo, are blowing away AMD's current top-end chips. To be fair, AMD had a great run the past couple of years. But just as Airbus had better planes than Boeing for a couple of years, those times are now past.


Okay Chris, Airbus didn't have "better" planes, but they did sell a lot more than Boeing over the past 5 years.

Summer Vacation (pt 2)

Rachel's visits to Oregon always culminate into some excellent times. Never ones to sit idle, Rob and Rachel jaunted off to several places, including Coffee Cottage, Van Duzer, Dallas (Oregon), Hood River, Cannon Beach, the Tillimook Chease Factory (yum!), and many places in between. Thanks to everyone for making her visits so memorable. Here are some pictures from Rachel's most recent visit to Oregon:

Picking up Rachel at the airport (Rob, Rachel, Chris, Jeanne, Josh)

What we would look like if we had a baby! (Cole, Mitch & Kelleigh's baby)

Jeanne, Rachel, Kelleigh, Mom (Mardock) at Pacific City

Rachel and Dad (Mardock) at Pacific City

Grant and Mitch at Pacific City

Desi, Rachel, Jeanne, Heather at Vista House, Columbia River Gorge

Mardocks and Bellamys mingling on July 4th

Rachel, Chris, Josh, Heather, Joanne, Andy, Jeanne, Desi (Rob always takes the pictures) at Lincoln City getting ready for fireworks. Notice the squinting eyes and strained smiles... it's very smoky at the Lincoln City fireworks show.

Enjoying smores before fireworks at Lincoln City. Crazy fun times had by all!

Chris' Blog

Chris W. (my brother-in-law, Jeanne's husband) has a new blog. Unlike Rachel's and my family blog*, Chris is narrowly scoping his to general politics, religion, and technology trends. Chris is turning into quite the prolific writer - the next Matt Drudge. Check it out here: browngargle.blogspot.com

*that's how you describe 2 possessives: Dave's and my yorkie, Val's and my house...

Rachel vs. The CPA

Congratulations, Rachel, on passing part 2 (of 4 parts) of your CPA. Passing the first time, again! Beginners luck, or just super-smart? Deloitte is luckier than a drunken lottery winner for landing you. BEC and REG down, FAR and AUD to go.

CPA current events: A few years ago, accounting geeks complained that the "all-or-nothing" 1-weekend CPA exam was too gruelling. If the student didn't pass all 4 sections of the exam over the 2-day period, the student had to retake the exam months later. Everyone thinks they love the new system, whereby prospective CPAs have up to 18 months to complete the four sections at their own pace. Sounds great, and so think the students (including Rachel). I (Rob) have another theory - now that students have 18 months to take 4 separate tests, the level of business acumen and financial analysis required to exceed the 75th percentile passing score has increased commensurately. Students have more time to focus their energy on a specific test, and test-makers have more leeway to intensify each test's scope and difficulty. My own anecdotal evidence reveals that fewer people are passing the CPA, either from fatigue, indifference, or intensified difficulty and competition. What does this mean for the future of the accounting world? I predict that the CPA will be both more distinguished if you have it, and less necessary if you don't. Those who have a CPA will end up being managers who oversee business decisions and subordinates. However, it will also be more unnecessary on a daily-basis as fewer people manage to acquire the designation.

Big 4 firms spend million of dollars training bright-eyed youngsters to pass the exam, but increasingly their victory does not outweigh the Pyrrhic (self-inflicted) battle. I predict that more emphasis will be placed on obtaining a masters in accounting. Whereas today it is required to have a CPA to become a senior, in the future the only requirement will be "masters degree and 2 years of experience." Are these observations wrong? Any accountants want to comment?

299,022,231 Americans and Counting...

Congratulations, Kelleigh, on successfully bringing a beating heart into this world. Cole ROBERT Ratzlaff was born June 14th after a lengthy labor. Kelleigh is already hopping around and jazzercizing. Alright, that might be stretching the truth, but she (and Mitch) are looking great.

Summer Vacation (pt 1)

Trying to make the most of our summer apart, we (Rob and Rachel) fill our days with hard work and whatever social activities we can find. Rob's living with Chris and Jeanne this summer. Chris & Jeanne just bought a new home in the Cedar Mills area of Portland. Thankfully the place is a mere 15 minutes from Intel - commutes are a breeze. Random note: today I saw a poor driver spin out on the freeway when the road came to a sudden halt... did a complete 180 right in front of me... very interesting... he was okay... My evenings are typically spent chillin' with C-Dawg and Green Jeans.

Rachel was brutally bored the first week I was gone. She worked from home half the day, which added to her under-stimulated state. Rachel gets to pack up our apartment this July for our move to a cheaper and better apartment. Our new place will be in the same parking lot as Central Market (like a really good Whole Foods). It's also in the same parking lot as PF Changs, Banana Republic, Pottery Barn, Gap, Williams Sonoma, etc. After spending a year in Houston, we discovered the very best place to stay. Just our part to entice would-be visitors to our stoop. On a separate note, we just found out our only friends in Texas (Jarrod & Katherine - of the fishing story below) are moving from Austin to Houston. Tangent: many months ago J & K mentioned they wanted to travel to Napa Valley for their honeymoon, but it was overpriced. We implored them to consider the Willamette Valley instead. After some research, they concluded they would do the Oregon wine country and coast. Good call, guys! Remember to check out Portland City Grill if it's a nice day! Back to story...

Rachel is severely lacking stimulation for over a week, so she gets up here to Oregon to visit and she's a little ball of energy (pictured). Rob and Rachel go crazy doing all the things we've been wanting to do up here ... most of which involves food and coffee. On one occasion, Rob (me) get's a nasty bout of food poisoning from one of our very favorite restaurants (no names mentioned... I still love that wonderful Bavarian restaurant). Rob spends Memorial Day worshiping the ceramic god until he breaks down and goes to urgent care ... doctor is impressed I'm still standing and I.V.'s 2 liters of fluid (and happy medicine) in my itty-bitty vein. The worst part was that I missed my dad who was in town for only the weekend. The Mardock clan was meeting in Dallas (Oregon) at Mitch and Kelleigh's place. Kelleigh is about to have boy # 2. Evidently the Ratzlaff's haven't given birth to a girl since the Pilgrim times. Some mutant gene or something. Kelleigh rocks though, a great mother and hilarious like her brother.

A couple of days later we give food another try - visiting our favorite Thai restaurant (Typhoon). Andy orders up the spiciest pad thai known to man. We all make him eat it - the results are illustrated in the nearby photo.

During all this, Rachel gets suckered into painting C & J's home - but she does such a good job. Rob (me) did a great job with the roller - that's my weapon of choice. Afterwards, the entire Bellamy clan jaunts off to Medford for Heather's high school graduation (pictured - it's the best I could do!). Our clan also passed the time at the go-kart track, in Jacksonville, and generally having a great time in S. Oregon. Heather's graduation ended at 9:30pm, we all socialized for another couple of hours. Then Rachel, Rob, and Mom (Linda) drove up to Portland. Poor Rachel's cheap flight left at 8:00am. We arrived in Portland with enough time to catch 2 hours of shut-eye. The next part of the story is very fuzzy - I was probably not okay to drive to the airport, but whatever. We evidently said our goodbyes. I remember it was the closest to crying I've felt in several years (something you never cared about: I can't cry. It's psychosomatic).

The story continues... Mom (Linda) flew to Houston 4 hours later (my 2nd trip to the airport that morning). Mom is spending a week down in Houston keeping Rachel company and generally enjoying a quiet week away from family and friends in Medford. Rachel is happy to have a friend in Houston. Rob plays Mario Kart with Chris. We both seem to be doing okay. I'll write more in a few weeks should there be something neat-o to write about.

Like Pulling Teeth (for Sarah)

My brain (Rob) has devolved rapidly since school ended last week. It's so flipping hard to think of something inteligent to post. All I want to do is lie in bed, catch up on current events, attend happy hour at McCormicks with Rachel, and watch Grey's Anatomy (also with Rachel). But oh, Sarah keeps wanting to know what's going on in our lives. Sarah Lawrence (no relation to the university, as far as I know) is one of the best people in America. So here, Sarah, is an update: I'm driving to Oregon on May 17. Oil has been changed, tires have been rotated - I'm ready for the 3 day trek. I start work at Intel the 22nd and expect 60-70 hour weeks.

Busy season is over for Rachel - she's now working on a hospital benefits plan. During the evenings she's been studying for part 2 of the CPA exam. A year ago I had no idea how intense the CPA was - it's like an MBA degree in a single test. No wonder they split it into 4 separate tests.

We both try to keep this blog totally non-political, but we love politics so much, it's sometimes very hard. Rachel has some really great thoughts about the role of females in church and business. She's right on - it's good stuff. But who knows if she'll ever write about such a hot topic. Me - well, every day I supress the urge to attack urban sprawl. The fundamental problems and solutions are so obvious to me, but for some crazy reason, people (including my own mother) disagree :-)

Summer Internship

Wow, I totally just landed an internship at Intel. In Hillsboro. It's a very fun story of how I got the internship, involving months of determination and friendly reminders about my great interest, copious amounts of networking, and - evidently - interviewing very well. Everyone's first response has so far been "oh no, what's Rachel going to do!?" She's already bought a plane ticket to visit, and will probably buy another couple of tickets to visit during the summer. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Still, we spent 2 years staring at each other in Romania, so a summer apart will be rough!

Mixing Work and Play

Rob visited Rachel in Corpus Christi (aka, the place where Dick Cheney shot a grandpa in the face). They had a great time. By day, Rachel reconciled accounts payable, and Rob updated their blog while drinking coffee. (They highly recommend Agua Java for caffeinated treats. Who knew CC had such great a great coffee place). By night, they dined at Landry's and enjoyed the cable TV mind-candy.

Go Rachel!

Congratulations, Rachel, on passing part 1 (of 4 parts) of the CPA exam! And on your first try too! I'm so proud of you. A lot has changed since those summer days in Romania eating $0.15 ice cream. You've grown to be such a responsible lady...

PSA: Get Your Passport

Did you know that only about 20% of Americans hold valid passports? I learned this the other day when I was reading the Iran Daily News Online (a good source of info if you want to be a "well rounded" current events buff). A commentator criticized that, (paraphrase), "Americans just don't understand anything outside of their own country, as illustrated by the fact that only 30% of Americans hold current passports." Actually - this is the sad part - his scathing attack was generous! The numbers are more like 15 - 20%. Below I have listed a few insightful reasons for why you should get your passport (besides the obvious, ie. "you can travel to Djibouti"):

• Impress McDonalds employers by showing them "one item from column A" instead of "one item from column B and C"
• Stick it to government-sponsored Iranian journalists
• If you ever do have to travel to a foreign country, you won't have to pay the "rush" fee because you didn't give yourself 3 months notice (Andy)
• A good conversation piece ("Yes, of course I have my passport. Why don't you?")
  
• It's much easier to get through immigration in Tijuana
  
• It lasts for 10 years. You sure you won't travel before 2016?
  

Lunch with the CEO

“Is Robert M. in the room?” The 80-person audience looks around; a few second-year students roll their eyes and prepare themselves for a lengthy diatribe. “Well, I wish he were here,” continues the CEO, “because I’d like to defend my company against people who share his opinion. Let me read you the letter I received from him.” The CEO proceeds to read the letter Robert sent to the company two weeks prior. My letter kindly, respectfully, and firmly asks (paraphrase):

“Why are you giving a speech along with this other organization, when your two mission statements are the polar opposites? Your company does ‘this’ to the environment, while that organization promotes ‘that’ to the environment.”

The CEO continues to read my letter to the audience, word for word. Eventually his message changes gears and he discusses his company and its place in the economy. Unfortunately, I'm not attending the speech, which makes the situation worse. Now, instead of understanding that the CEO enjoyed the letter and used it as a platform from which to give an otherwise pedestrian 30-minute speech (which ended up lasting over an hour), the tightly-wound, sycophantic, second-year students begin to feel incensed. Minding my own business at home, I get a phone call from an irate MBA second-year, ex-Marine drill sergeant reprimanding me for my inappropriate letter and lack of judgment. To be fair, he was correct. It was not appropriate to send a letter to an upcoming guest speaker. But on the flip side, isn’t activism a big part of college? Perhaps not in the obsequious world of B-school – but that’s beside the point…

After hearing Ex-Marine’s one-sided tale of horror, I feel awful. I’ve let down my school, my classmates, and even my classmate’s chances of finding a job in said company. I proceed to write a big apology letter to the students in attendance, and a separate letter to the CEO himself. I go way overboard. That’s just my style.

About three days later, after the furor dies down and school gossip has shifted to more mundane topics, I get a phone call from the CEO. “Man, I hope I didn’t get you in trouble. I thought your letter was great. It gave me a good chance to talk about my company, and to confront one of the biggest political issues we currently face… How about lunch next month? Call my secretary to set it up.”

Uh, okay. I’ll call your secretary and set up a lunch with you. And as March 2nd approaches, secretary calls me to confirm lunch. We have lunch. Lunch is great. Good times, good talks, good conversations about our two lives, the future of his company, and the future of Houston. CEO is particularly passionate about the state of education in Houston. An hour passes; CEO invites my wife and me to his private party a few weeks later. Sure. No problem. Thanks for meeting with me. Have a nice day.

Hip Hoppin' in Houston

Rachel n Rob visited tha Galleria on Saturday. Boo-Yaa! It was packed wit people. Hollaz to the East Side. A tripple whammie fo gettin yo pimp on: NBA All Star weekend, winta sales, n Presidents Day weekend crazy up in there. It was tha busiest anyone has eva seen tha Galleria so jus' chill. Thousands of thugz cramped togetha look'n fo` celebrizzles, athletes, n hip hop stars. Ive neva seen so mizzle bling bling straight trippin'. Im sizzuch a whitey fo' sheezy! Translation courtesy of gizoogle.

Update: nothing to update

Bits and pieces for family to munch on: Rob's parents are in town (it's fun to get so many free dinners). Rachel is working until 11:00pm most evenings (but Rob still got a bigger Christmas bonus when he worked at Schlotzskys Deli at age 17). Evidently Rob has the time to post to this blog (final exams next week, oh well). Rob wanted to mention that this blog looks much nicer on Mozilla Firefox. If you haven't downloaded it yet, you should. Rachel is taking the CPA exam next week during the busiest part of busy season (can you say masochistic). Our apartment is really nice, but we have no visitors to see it (and our view of Hermann Park), so we'll probably downsize next year. Still trying to find the perfect coffee shop in Houston. So far we've found and enjoyed Empire Cafe, Agora (both on Westheimer) and Salento (in Rice Village). We don't really consider anything outside the 610 loop to be Houston. The best Mexican food place in Texas (so far) is Trudy's in Austin. Rob made his first pro forma financial statement the other week - it was a hoot. Who knew predicting the future was so easy?

WSJ Letter

I just discovered that my letter to the editor was published in the Wall Street Journal (1.20.2006). Pretty fun stuff! Quick note though, I didn't say, "Do you have a vendetta against Portland," I said, "Does the WSJ have a vendetta..." The edited version sounds much more confrontational - which is not my style.



(Click on image to enlarge)



My only other "published" work was in a Newsweek from 2004. I can't find the magazine to scan, but the link is here (it's at the very bottom): Newsweek

Isn't my little industrialist cute?

As I sit around the house listening to Ben Folds CDs, waiting for my Christmas break to end, and cleaning up after myself, I notice an imposing book on the coffee table ominously titled, "Trading Natural Gas." Where did that come from? Rachel - of course! She's spent the last 6 months learning about accounting for energy trading and derivatives. I personally can't think of too many topics more arcane and tedious, but Rachel's family and friends might be proud to know she isn't wasting her talents on anything less than world domination.

New Years at Brazos Bend

Rachel and Rob returned to Houston from rain-soaked Portland. These pictures depict the dramatic weather difference between the two locations. Brazos Bend State Park (1 hour south of Houston) is definitely worth the $3 per person. Though walking around the park a mere 4 hours, they counted 40 alligators. It is commonly believed that alligators still exist in and around the middle of downtown Houston. This is important for Rachel and Rob to stress, since many uninformed West Coasters still think that Houston is a desert. Quite the opposite - it's a swamp! : )

Christmas in Oregon

What a tremendously wonderful time we had in Oregon. We were met at the airport by Jeanne, Desi, Heather, and a Wendy's Frosty. It doesn't get any more welcoming than that! Later that night, Josh and Chris kept us awake way past our CST bedtime playing Down the Tube. The next day we visited Grandma and Grandpa Mardock in Newberg and caught up on the news and anecdotes about the Mardock family and the [Evangelical] Friends Church. Next we drove to Dallas (Oregon) to visit Rob's sister and brother-in-law, Kelleigh and Mitch Ratzlaff. On a side note, Mitch is a State Farm agent. If anyone is looking for an ethical and hard working agent, we strongly encourage you to give him a call. Kelleigh, Mitch, and their son Grant Daniel (affectionately known by Rob as Little G.D.) always go out of their way to make us feel welcome when we barge into their home. We love them lots and enjoy our times together.

After our jaunt down to Dallas (Oregon), Rachel & Rob, Chris & Jeanne, Josh, Heather, Desi, and Andy (hereby referred to as "the family") caravanned down to Medford to celebrate an old fashioned family Christmas. We all had a super-good time relaxing, playing card games, and eating phenomenal food. On Christmas Eve, "the family" watched the ginormous 3+ hour-long King Kong.

Afterwards “the family” attended the Christmas Eve service at Trail Christian Fellowship. Pictured in order (left to right): Josh, Desi, Rachel, Rob, Pastor Rick Booye, Heather, Jeanne, Andy, Chris. Quick props to Pastor Rick: 1) One of the most influential people in Rachel’s young life, 2) Our favorite teacher / pastor - pastor of the wonderful Trail Christian Fellowship and president of Pacific Bible College, 3) Officiator of our wedding back in 2001, 4) All-around good guy. If Rachel or Rob is ever elected as President of America, they agreed they want Pastor Rick to give the invocation.

Our favorite gifts: Rachel got Jeanne’s “pre-owned” KitchenAid mixer. Rob got his dream backpacking lantern.

After Christmas, “the family” ventured north back up to Portland. Rachel took Heather on a tour of PSU. At the moment Heather is torn between Portland State and George Fox. We know that no matter where she attends, she’ll make a huge impact on the world around her. Later that week, we dined with Chris & Jeanne at Jakes Grill. Oh my! If anyone has the good fortune of spending a few days in Portland, this restaurant is a must. It’s been around for over 100 years, but the recipes are as fresh and exciting as the seafood itself.

Overall, a great time was had by everyone. We experienced a bit of weather-shock when we returned to Texas. Leaving behind flood-conditions in Oregon, we broke out our sunglasses and sandals in Houston.

Winter Wedding!

(Rachel) Our friends Jennifer and Elliot had a beautiful wedding in Austin. If you couldn't tell by the Bevo groom's cake, they are fellow Longhorns. We also got to see two of my other UT colleagues - Maya and Lauren.

Black-Scholes Excel Worksheet

After spending a futile hour searching the internet for a Black-Scholes Model (European-style options) for Excel, I made my own. Until I figure out how to post an .xls document to my blog, I can e-mail it to anyone who asks (free of course). It is very useful too! Just put in the information: stock price, exercise price, interest rate, variance, and time to expiration. The worksheet yields the value of the call and put. This just might save certain esoteric business students a few minutes.

Update from November '08: Who knew BS was so fascinating, this is definitely our most popular blog post. With a 95% confidence interval (3% sigma), I will e-mail out the model within 24 hours.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Cute Family








Rachel talks with family in Oregon... because we're a sad, lonely couple!












Mr. Ham









Don't mess with the cook











A warm TX T-Day

Swissair Executive Summary

One of my lesser lifelong goals is to have my words plagiarized by someone too lazy to write his or her own paper. Therefore this post serves three purposes: 1) my family keeps bugging me to update this blog, 2) it would be cool if someone copied this, 3) it's a good example of a 1-page MBA executive summary. Writing these is pretty much all I do these days.

I am clueless about how to post anything except a photo, so it is attached as a jpeg: swissair.

Update: The professor totally didn't understand my paper, so it's possible this paper really stinks!

I Once Caught a Fish This Big!

Rachel caught some flippin' huge redfish the other day in Galveston. Maybe she'll write a brief story. Rob is jealous - he was busy taking a silly accounting test at home. Pictured with Rachel is Rhett (Katherine's father). He did most of the dirty work. Rachel insists that she did a lot of hard work too. Reeling in the fish and all...

Evacuation

Rachel and I are safe, but thousands of others are not so lucky. Others either ran out of gas in the middle of nowhere, or after spending 5 hours traveling only 5 miles, they gave up and chose to brave the storm back home. Some might die because they chose to follow officials’ warnings to evacuate, only to run out of gas in the 200-mile gridlock.

Clever us, we thought we would miss traffic by leaving at 5AM. Not quite, immediately we realized this is the same plan to which everyone else ascribed. Houston was in utter gridlock. On the radio, callers wailed that they had been on the road for 12 hours with hungry children and pets, no bathrooms, no gas, and yet they were still trapped inside the greater Houston area. We heeded the advice of one caller who reported a wide-open back-road to Livingston, via Highway 90 and Highway 146. Unfortunately this was not the case. In fact the back-roads were perhaps the worst place to be. Realizing that 90 and 146 were virtually impenetrable, we changed courses. On a particular stretch of highway, between Dayton and Cleveland, 22 miles took is 12 hours. During that time we listened intently to the radio as the hurricane was changing paths in our direction: “folks in Dayton and Cleveland better get out of there.” Yeah, sure… One radio caller asked a TxDOT official specifically about the traffic standstill and lack of gas in our area. Her response (paraphrase): “We can’t help these people, we told everyone to use only the ‘three main evacuation routes.’ Folks who found their own routes are on their own.”

This is contrary to another of our favorite quotes, from Mayor Bill White: “Folks better be off the roads when the storm hits. Those highways are a death trap." For good measure, here is another great quote, from Governor Rick Perry: “I told everyone to get a full tank of gas two days ago. It’s not my fault that these folks are running out of gas.” (Texans say “folks” a lot).

After 14 hours on the road, Rachel and I reached Cleveland, TX. We decided to travel northwest through the Sam Houston National Forest. This worked very well, traveling a whole 25 miles before stopping at a standstill 1 mile east of New Waverley (pictured). 1 ½ hours and 1 mile later, we broke through the traffic and headed north on Highway 75. It was at this time that we began to worry about our gas. We had half a tank (still amazing for 15 hours on idle). Traffic ran smoothly up the 75 and east on the 19 until we reached Crockett and Elkhart. Again, there was no gas in sight, and the lines into those towns ran an hour each. Rachel and I were agonizing over the lack of gas. We were now nearly 200 miles from Houston, in the middle of “nowhere, Texas,” and every gas station still had no gas. People were lined up at the stations waiting for the next shipment of gas – which may or may not have come as of this posting. Still we persisted. We couldn’t help but think the worst as we drove. Maybe we would need to pull over to the side of the road; maybe the traffic would be better tomorrow. Maybe we would need to ride out the storm in a church, and wait 5-10 days for the gas stations to be replenished. Rachel and I prayed long and hard.

Entering the city of Palestine was no different. Dozens of cars were camped out at the gas stations, waiting for the next shipment of gas. Low and behold, on the far side of Palestine – next to a station with no gas – stood another … it looked like someone was pumping. I drove up, a man was filling his Sparkletts bottle with gas. “They have gas!?” I exclaimed. The man simply shrugged, “yup.” I did not and could not believe it, not until the dial started to roll. Indeed we had gas; the most precious commodity in the universe to the millions Houstonians trying to evacuate. I called my dad, almost in tears: “We got gas! We’re going to be okay.” Two hours later we rolled into Kaufman, Texas. Rachel’s colleague and friend from UT, Erin Wynne, offered her home to us. 20 hours after setting off, we were hungry, smelly (we turned off the A/C starting at 8:00AM), utterly exhausted, and safe.

Hurricane Prep 101

The disaster nerds are right: prepare early. Lesson learned this morning when I arrived at Target at 7:45AM, 15 minutes before it opened. Already a mob of 75 people swarmed around the entrance. When the poor employee (presumably he pulled the small straw) opened the door, a mad rush of customers pored in. I wish I had my camera... it was a sight. Overweight Houstonians pushing their way to the carts and running to the water isle. I missed out on the water, but it was okay (I have a Britta and a bathtub). I still managed to get some Dinty Moore stew and some votives. Unfortunately the camping fuel was completely sold out.

Thus begins my next adventure: to Academy Sporting Goods. With only mild shock, I saw the line at Academy stretched to the back of the store - literally. Of course the camping fuel was sold out. It was at this moment I remembered my trusty camping stove takes unleaded, so I drove to the Shell station, bought a 1-gallon gas can, and filled it with premium.

All of this is being finished while Rachel is in Chicago for training. Deloitte - her company - just told everyone from Houston that they are being put on the next flight back to Houston. Rachel called 15 minutes ago to tell me she arrives tonight instead of Friday night.

I may clean up this post when I have more time ... I have an ECON final exam in 2 hours...

Seriously!? Hurricane Rita?

Note to readers - We didn't intend for our blog to discuss Hurricanes. We have other things to worry about (Final exams this week for Rob). But it looks like this weekend will be quite rainy and trecherous:

My 5 Hours at Reliant Center

(Rachel) On Saturday I volunteered with the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts at the Astrodome with 10 other people from Deloitte. I was a little apprehensive about doing this because assisting with natural disasters is a new experience for me. However, I knew that thousands of volunteers were needed to run the small community of evacuees, and they needed my help too. Human resources were needed; specifically, people patrolling the buildings, serving foods, data entry, and councilors.

I pulled into the huge parking lot and was escorted by signs and police officers (who confirmed that I was a volunteer and not a spectator). Dozens of volunteers were arriving with me and we were all heading to a big grey building run by the Red Cross. Everything was very organized. They checked my ID, I signed in, and I followed a crowd to a 20 minute orientation. At orientation two rules stuck out in my mind: “do not pick up any children” and “do not take any pictures” (it is their home and you wouldn’t want strangers coming into your home and taking pictures of you). After orientation I joined about 150 people in a line to wait for an assignment. Finally, they sent us all to what they called “distribution.”

We were lead through “Reliant City” (aka Reliant Center) to a large hollow building where people were sleeping, eating, and playing. Beds were set up in rows. Some were occupied by people trying to sleep; others were occupied by mothers and their children.

Finally we came to our assignment. It was an area sectioned off as a makeshift cafeteria. They stationed me at the milk and juice cooler and I was responsible for keeping it well stocked and handing drinks to anyone who asked. I was happy to see that the milk and juice were popular with the cute little kids. They would come up and ask for 3 or 4 at a time and then barely be able to carry them back to their table. I was impressed by the system that Red Cross and Aramark had created. They served two hot meals a day (in 3 hour increments) and they had a variety of snacks and drinks served 24/7. I figured that the dinner would be something simple and bland like meat and potatoes, but to my surprise, they were serving sweet and sour chicken, rice, and steamed vegetables. I stayed until 6:30pm and was replaced by two nice high school girls.

My overall impression was that there are a lot of truly caring people in the US. Volunteers came from all over the US to do what they could for the people displaced by the storm. For me it was a convenient 5 miles away. Red Cross is doing it’s best to provide those in need with food and shelter (and a little spending money). I’m glad that there is someone to pick up the slack and take care of all the people who lost their homes in New Orleans.

Hurricane Katrina's Houston Impact

Just in case family and friends are wondering about the hurricane's impact on Houston. I will briefly state that the impact is quite enormous. We live about 3 miles from the Astrodome complex. Yes, the Astrodome, the Reliant Center, and the George R. Brown Convention Center (all very big buildings) are full, but that's only one part of the story. This is not just a news story about a distant land called New Orleans, but rather it is a story unfolding in our own neighborhood. Rachel and I see the result of the hurricane's destruction with our own eyes. In church this morning (the giant Lakewood church), Pastor Joel Osteen and staff announced, "any evacuees who are here today, please stand up so we can pray for you." In the auditorium of 10,000 - 15,000 people, about 200 people stood up. Next: "please raise your hands if you are missing family." 50 people raised their hands. As one can imagine, it was a very heart-wrenching moment for everyone in the room. Twice today, in our apartment complex, I overheard two separate families talk about loosing their homes. One family - over tears - exclaimed that "Houston is a big, scary place to start over again. I don't know how my children are going to make it in their new schools." 5 hours later another family was more optimistic: "We can make this work. I have family here in Houston. I just need to find a house. I hear Pearland is cheap, but Kingwood would work too. I need to find a job."

Rice University has opened its doors to Houston-area Tulane University students. Furthermore, Rice's Jones School of Management is opening its doors to Tulane MBA students. I may have another 10-20 temporary classmates next week. Update: I do have 20 new classmates from Tulane. Super people!

In our own small world, between Rice, Lakewood Church, and Deloitte & Touche, volunteers in the tens of thousands are donating their time to feed those who no longer have a home. Houston area churches were called upon by the mayor to raise $5 million to feed the hungry for 30 days. These aren't evacuees from Indonesia or Iraq whose images are strewn distantly on CNN and Fox News. These evacuees are the ones Rachel and I see walking down Main Street on our way to Rice, Target, and McDonalds. Backpacks containing their earthly possessions...

Life Changes Again!

Here we are in our apartment in Houston. As you can see, Rob is already hard at work. Rachel is enjoying her free time now that she's working 9 to 5.

Rice, Rice, Baby

Rob recently began school at Rice. 2 weeks later, Rachel graduated from UT with her masters degree. Incredible timing, huh? We'll write more about Rachel's accomplishments later. For the moment we'll talk about Rob at Rice. Rice's Jones School of Management requires a 2-week pre-term where everyone learns the fine arts of adjusting account entries and public speaking skills. In this photo, Rob's team - Team 2 - was selected to represent their 50-person "Section" in a sort of case study "speak-off" held in a large auditorium in front of the entire class of 2007. Closely resembling a pack of hungry hyenas, the class of 150 students tossed out marketing, logistical, and financial questions to try and stump the team. Their interrogations were in vain, as Team 2 dexterously parried the classes verbal assault.