What a wonderful birthday celebration it has been! Although I prefer to celebrate all month, things crescendo'ed last week. On birthday eve, a couple of guys came over to try out some new beers. Instead of beating our chests and male bonding, though, we found ourselves talking politics, economics, science, and entrepreneurship until we realized how late it had become - very stimulating!
The day of my birthday itself I started by playing Dad's old pinball machines. There must have been some birthday magic at work because I set a new high score on The Black Knight - 30 years later he still puts up a good fight!
It was actually a pretty intense day at work but I managed to duck out for a good workout (Birthday tradition!) and the evening weather was great for some beach volleyball - very refreshing after our recent cold snap. When I came home, Katie surprised me with some decadent chocolate cake - I guess that's a tradition too!
Most importantly, I had offered up a birthday challenge to match dollar for dollar any donations to GIVEWATTS on my birthday. Several friends and family rose to the challenge and together we managed to contribute several hundred dollars to the cause - THANK YOU to those who participated! It is always nice to receive gifts and wishes on my birthday but it is even nicer to pay forward my blessings to others!
The real treat for me was over the weekend, when I hosted a dear, dear friend from IMD. Katie and I did our best to introduce him to regional cuisine during his short stay: BBQ (City BBQ), biscuits and donuts (Rise), fried chicken (Time Out), ice cream (Fresh Local), and fried green tomatoes and grits (Mama Dip's). We also visited the NC Museum of Art for a "hike" around the spacious sculpture park and interior exhibits on Ansel Adams and the Venetian Renaissance.
The pièce de résistance was enjoying the nice weather by smoking cigars and sipping bourbon out on our back deck. He and I shared cigars very early in the IMD year and neither of us smokes them terribly often so it was special to re-create that event in a very different context - different location, different cigars, and [very] different US!
It was a wonderful visit and my heart is quite full (Not to mention my stomach!) so I am deeply appreciative of him, Katie, and everyone else who has made my birthday so special. Of course there are still a few days left in March so there is more time to celebrate!
Showing posts with label birthday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label birthday. Show all posts
2017-03-26
2012-03-24
33rd Birthday Musings
Birthdays are always good times for reflection and this year I'm feeling particularly introspective. Perhaps it is because 33 is a number of great significance to one of my good friends or perhaps it is because my last multiple of 11 year was so impactful (graduating from college, meeting Katie) that this birthday feels . . . auspicious!
At the same time, 2012 so far has felt . . . stretched. In all candor, I am struggling to keep up with everything I'm working on. First and foremost is my cleantech startup, Smart Office Energy Solutions. I love the work we are doing, the success we are having (awards, customers, etc.) so far, and our future opportunities. Moreover I continue to be humbled by the faith our investors have placed in us. With all this, though, I am feeling mounting pressure to make this a huge success. In baseball terminology my entrepreneurial career so far has yielded a few singles and no strikeouts (So maybe I'm not swinging hard enough!) but no home runs yet. Given the upside of this venture, it is clear to me that this has the greatest potential of any of my previous attempts to be a grand slam so I am pouring my time, energy, and emotion into making that happen - not only for me, but for our "extended team" including employees and investors.
This year I have been thrilled to start teaching entrepreneurship at Rice as well. This was in answer to a call by Rice's top leadership to help inspire and empower Rice students to pursue paths of greater impact. The teaching experience has been incredibly rewarding thus far and I am honored to have been entrusted with it. It is a lot of work, though! Perhaps future semesters will be easier but teaching something the first time requires a great deal of time and thought - if you care about the outcome for students, which I do passionately.
I also care a great deal about trying to foster entrepreneurship at Rice specifically and, more generally, within Houston. This has led to me engaging ever more frequently with several sets of stakeholders in discussion of a new initiative to bring together Rice's commercial and tech powers that be for a new initiative to catalyze entrepreneurship in an entirely new way.
Concurrently, I continue to volunteer at Rice in other ways: as a Lovett College associate, an active member of the Grad-degree Alumni Committee, and as co-chair (with Katie) of our Centennial Homecoming this year. I'm trying to create more of an alumni community in Houston too for my other alma mater, IMD. The rest of my volunteer efforts go to Give Watts, which has more opportunity for major impact and more traction than ever before.
Through all of this I'm trying be the good husband that Katie deserves (and a good "father" to Max!) while also keeping up my health, fitness, and rest. Of course these are the most important priorities.
As best I can tell, there are ~20% as many hours in the day as there need to be to accomplish everything I'm working toward. I am furiously pursuing all of them and continually trying new ways of working smarter-not-harder to increase efficiency. There is nothing new about this; anyone who knew me in college will recognize the same patterns! At the same time I am deathly afraid of failing at any of these efforts, especially as it seems that so many people are depending on me.
It doesn't take too much psychoanalysis to find clues about why I live in a perpetual state of overcommitment. I suspect that having a father who died when I was pretty young imbued me with at sense of mortality. Somewhere in the back of my mind is a sense that it could all end tomorrow which, coupled with a strong motivation to have a major impact in the world, leads to a fervor - a desperation, almost - to achieve at least some of these goals before it's too late.
Don't misunderstand me, though; this is not a hidden plea for sympathy. I love my life. I am excited by and energized by all these frenetic threads and I wouldn't have it any other way. My blood pressure is really low!
Ever since I first heard the term "deferred life plan" I immediately related to the desire to live in the now and never lose sight of my dreams. If I were hit by a bus tomorrow, I may not have accomplished nearly what I had set out to do during my short time in this world, but I would at least be satisfied that I have lived every minute of my 33 years. I have loved passionately and relentlessly pursued goals consistent with the values that I hold dear. These, I believe, are fundamental to the human experience.
At a moment like this, reflecting on my past and anticipating my future, I can't help but be overcome by how blessed I am. I stand on the shoulders of giants; I would be nothing without the friends and loved ones who have been and are with me. I apologize to you all for your emails and voicemails that go far too long before I respond; I'm definitely falling down on the job. Know, though, that I live in a constant state of gratitude for and wonder at your presence in my life. Thank you for making my 33 years such a joyous journey . . . here's to many, many more!
At the same time, 2012 so far has felt . . . stretched. In all candor, I am struggling to keep up with everything I'm working on. First and foremost is my cleantech startup, Smart Office Energy Solutions. I love the work we are doing, the success we are having (awards, customers, etc.) so far, and our future opportunities. Moreover I continue to be humbled by the faith our investors have placed in us. With all this, though, I am feeling mounting pressure to make this a huge success. In baseball terminology my entrepreneurial career so far has yielded a few singles and no strikeouts (So maybe I'm not swinging hard enough!) but no home runs yet. Given the upside of this venture, it is clear to me that this has the greatest potential of any of my previous attempts to be a grand slam so I am pouring my time, energy, and emotion into making that happen - not only for me, but for our "extended team" including employees and investors.
This year I have been thrilled to start teaching entrepreneurship at Rice as well. This was in answer to a call by Rice's top leadership to help inspire and empower Rice students to pursue paths of greater impact. The teaching experience has been incredibly rewarding thus far and I am honored to have been entrusted with it. It is a lot of work, though! Perhaps future semesters will be easier but teaching something the first time requires a great deal of time and thought - if you care about the outcome for students, which I do passionately.
I also care a great deal about trying to foster entrepreneurship at Rice specifically and, more generally, within Houston. This has led to me engaging ever more frequently with several sets of stakeholders in discussion of a new initiative to bring together Rice's commercial and tech powers that be for a new initiative to catalyze entrepreneurship in an entirely new way.
Concurrently, I continue to volunteer at Rice in other ways: as a Lovett College associate, an active member of the Grad-degree Alumni Committee, and as co-chair (with Katie) of our Centennial Homecoming this year. I'm trying to create more of an alumni community in Houston too for my other alma mater, IMD. The rest of my volunteer efforts go to Give Watts, which has more opportunity for major impact and more traction than ever before.
Through all of this I'm trying be the good husband that Katie deserves (and a good "father" to Max!) while also keeping up my health, fitness, and rest. Of course these are the most important priorities.
As best I can tell, there are ~20% as many hours in the day as there need to be to accomplish everything I'm working toward. I am furiously pursuing all of them and continually trying new ways of working smarter-not-harder to increase efficiency. There is nothing new about this; anyone who knew me in college will recognize the same patterns! At the same time I am deathly afraid of failing at any of these efforts, especially as it seems that so many people are depending on me.
It doesn't take too much psychoanalysis to find clues about why I live in a perpetual state of overcommitment. I suspect that having a father who died when I was pretty young imbued me with at sense of mortality. Somewhere in the back of my mind is a sense that it could all end tomorrow which, coupled with a strong motivation to have a major impact in the world, leads to a fervor - a desperation, almost - to achieve at least some of these goals before it's too late.
Don't misunderstand me, though; this is not a hidden plea for sympathy. I love my life. I am excited by and energized by all these frenetic threads and I wouldn't have it any other way. My blood pressure is really low!
Ever since I first heard the term "deferred life plan" I immediately related to the desire to live in the now and never lose sight of my dreams. If I were hit by a bus tomorrow, I may not have accomplished nearly what I had set out to do during my short time in this world, but I would at least be satisfied that I have lived every minute of my 33 years. I have loved passionately and relentlessly pursued goals consistent with the values that I hold dear. These, I believe, are fundamental to the human experience.
At a moment like this, reflecting on my past and anticipating my future, I can't help but be overcome by how blessed I am. I stand on the shoulders of giants; I would be nothing without the friends and loved ones who have been and are with me. I apologize to you all for your emails and voicemails that go far too long before I respond; I'm definitely falling down on the job. Know, though, that I live in a constant state of gratitude for and wonder at your presence in my life. Thank you for making my 33 years such a joyous journey . . . here's to many, many more!
A Birthday Feast for the Ages
Last night capped off 36 hours of wonderful birthday celebration! Thursday evening my favorite wingman took me and a couple of other friends out to Experience Hendrix, a Jimi Hendrix tribute tour featuring several blues legend performers. It was a great show, covering the entire Hendrix canon. Some notable performers were Dweezil Zappa (son of Frank Zappa), Robby Krieger (of The Doors), Jonny Lang, and Kenny Wayne Shepherd. Awesome!
Then last night Katie put together an exquisite dinner with a few friends. We began the evening with 1998 Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin Champagne Brut La Grande Dame, which went really well with light caviar. This was not your elegant, airy champagne; it was very fruit-forward and dense - delicious!
We served the main courses all at once: zucchini salad, sardines in puff pastry, eggplant pesto on fresh sourdough, and thai beef (although we used grass fed, hormone- and antibiotic-free buffalo instead). Each of the recipes was taken from Cooking With Flo, a cookbook authored by a friend of ours to document the exquisite recipes of Florence, the hotelier we met during our visit to Cognac back in 2008. Scrumptious!
The wines we served weren't those you would classically pair with any of those dishes but hey, it was my birthday and we were going to drink what [the royal] we wanted! The theme of the night was 2001 Brunello di Montalcino, an excellent vintage not just for wine but also the year I met Katie. In fact, exactly 11 years ago yesterday Katie gave me a hug for the first time- and the rest, as they say, is history!
Before we dove into the Brunelli, though, one of our guests brought another wine to celebrate another vintage - 1979, the year I was born! The 1979 M. Chapoutier Côtes du Rhône Belleruche was exquisite, vivacious, and had plenty of life left (as I hope I do!). Our first two Brunelli were 2001 Castello Banfi Poggio alle Mura and 2001 La Poderina. Again, these weren't necessarily natural pairings with our food but they were great on their own and the La Poderina especially went well with the buffalo.
As we moved onto pecorino and gouda cheeses, we brought out the other two Brunelli: 2001 Castelgiocondo and 2001 Casanova di Neri Tenuta Nuova. As you may recall, I've had negative experience with Castelgiocondo in the past but this was my first time actually drinking their wine. It was good, but not good enough to cancel out my grudge from that visit. The Casanova was Wine Spectator's 2006 wine of the year. I'm not sure it's that good, but it was definitely my favorite of the night and will keep getting better over time.
Completely stuffed, we moved on to dessert: homemade blueberry cobbler and chocolate cake (Good thing I was carb loading for Sunday's 10k race!)! For this course we had a Sauternes-like late harvest wine from California. Imagine my surprise then when I took my first sip and it was . . . spicy! It turned out that this was not the dessert wine we thought it was. It was experimental jalapeno wine our friends had made and bottled in a dessert wine bottle! While it certainly wasn't for everyone, I happen to love spicy wine so it was a perfect end to a fabulous evening.
Five hours of wine dinner . . . great company . . . and a spicy surprise . . . what better way to begin my next trip around the sun?
Then last night Katie put together an exquisite dinner with a few friends. We began the evening with 1998 Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin Champagne Brut La Grande Dame, which went really well with light caviar. This was not your elegant, airy champagne; it was very fruit-forward and dense - delicious!
We served the main courses all at once: zucchini salad, sardines in puff pastry, eggplant pesto on fresh sourdough, and thai beef (although we used grass fed, hormone- and antibiotic-free buffalo instead). Each of the recipes was taken from Cooking With Flo, a cookbook authored by a friend of ours to document the exquisite recipes of Florence, the hotelier we met during our visit to Cognac back in 2008. Scrumptious!
The wines we served weren't those you would classically pair with any of those dishes but hey, it was my birthday and we were going to drink what [the royal] we wanted! The theme of the night was 2001 Brunello di Montalcino, an excellent vintage not just for wine but also the year I met Katie. In fact, exactly 11 years ago yesterday Katie gave me a hug for the first time- and the rest, as they say, is history!
Before we dove into the Brunelli, though, one of our guests brought another wine to celebrate another vintage - 1979, the year I was born! The 1979 M. Chapoutier Côtes du Rhône Belleruche was exquisite, vivacious, and had plenty of life left (as I hope I do!). Our first two Brunelli were 2001 Castello Banfi Poggio alle Mura and 2001 La Poderina. Again, these weren't necessarily natural pairings with our food but they were great on their own and the La Poderina especially went well with the buffalo.
As we moved onto pecorino and gouda cheeses, we brought out the other two Brunelli: 2001 Castelgiocondo and 2001 Casanova di Neri Tenuta Nuova. As you may recall, I've had negative experience with Castelgiocondo in the past but this was my first time actually drinking their wine. It was good, but not good enough to cancel out my grudge from that visit. The Casanova was Wine Spectator's 2006 wine of the year. I'm not sure it's that good, but it was definitely my favorite of the night and will keep getting better over time.
Completely stuffed, we moved on to dessert: homemade blueberry cobbler and chocolate cake (Good thing I was carb loading for Sunday's 10k race!)! For this course we had a Sauternes-like late harvest wine from California. Imagine my surprise then when I took my first sip and it was . . . spicy! It turned out that this was not the dessert wine we thought it was. It was experimental jalapeno wine our friends had made and bottled in a dessert wine bottle! While it certainly wasn't for everyone, I happen to love spicy wine so it was a perfect end to a fabulous evening.
Five hours of wine dinner . . . great company . . . and a spicy surprise . . . what better way to begin my next trip around the sun?
2010-03-23
Birthday Retrospective
Another year comes and goes and each is better than the last. I have a few white chest hairs now and probably some gray head hairs, although it's hard to tell on my shaved head. I'm in the best shape of my life, though, and I'm spending my time and energy doing something I really believe in and with someone I love--what could be better?
As I am now 31 (!) I'm reflecting on birthdays of years past. The ones that most readily come to mind are:
30 (2009): This was a non-birthday as I was in the air between Amsterdam and Taipei for most of it. I had only been at Poken for a few months, but a few months "Poken time" is equivalent to years elsewhere and it was starting to dawn on me that I needed to re-focus on my energy mission. Two nights prior, Katie and I drank the last bottle of Valdicava Brunello di Montalcino at La Suite. It was too young but really opened up after awhile.
29 (2008): It was my first time seeing Katie in three months at IMD. She spirited me down to Lugano for a wonderful birthday weekend. Apparently at the same time my classmate, Mathieu, was experiencing his first kiss with Alessandra in Lausanne. They will be married this Fall!
28 (2007): Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles party! The movie debuted that night so we all wore TMNT masks and drank green jello shots.
26 (2005): I drank way too much during Sunday Funday at La Strada, Berryhill, and . . . I don't remember.
24 (2003): Katie took me to the Melting Pot--little did I know that I would one day live in the land of fondue! I also closed on my house that day.
23 (2002): My golden year started off innocuous enough with The Big Lebowski and white russians. Then it really, really devolved as I made an ass of myself while bowling.
22 (2001): Lovett College Night's theme was Titanic. Several of us wore formalwear for the dinner and then the Russian Rave, hosted by Eric, my COMP partner who was born on the same day. I received my first hug from Katie at the Lovett 2nd Floor pre-party--happy birthday to ME!
21 (2000): My 21st birthday coincided (not coincidentally) with Lovett Changeover. To begin the evening we had a meat buffet in the Commons. I then turned over the presidency to Phil and let loose!
16 (1995): After 16 years of telling me that I would never ever have a car on my 16th birthday, my mom hinted to me that something was waiting for me in the driveway at home. As I pulled into the driveway, I found a toy corvette waiting for me there. Wow, was that ever anticlimactic!
12 (1991): Jukebox party with my best 6th grade friends in Virginia.
10 (1989): Games party at my dad's house on Montesano: Nintendo, pinball machines, pool, darts, and jukeboxes. It was the last party I had there but man, what memories.
1 (1980): My first cupcake (with a single candle in it) - and it wouldn't be my last!
0 (1979): Surprised my parents by all of a sudden being ready to go. Popped out at 5:23 PM--just in time for dinner!
Many thanks to everyone for the warm birthday wishes. Although I'm still working hard today, I'm basking in the warm glow of everyone's regards.
2010-03-21
Beer Bike and Bryan Birthday Brunch
This last week featured many opportunities to re-connect with former classmates. Wednesday I met up with two IMD alumni, Jasmin (IMD MBA '08) and Andres (IMD MBA '09) at Antica Osteria, my favorite Italian restaurant in Houston. It was great to catch up with IMD folks on "my turf!"
Friday I connected with Milena (IMD MBA '07), Aaron (IMD EMBA '09), and Andres again for another IMD-filled day. In the afternoon I met up with Pat (TJ '97) at Brian O'Neill's to celebrate his birthday. Then it was off to Rice for the start of Beer Bike festivities. I haven't been to Beer Bike in three years so it was fun to re-engage. Friday afternoon I went to Lovett and met up with some other alumni over fajitas and beer.
Saturday morning it was clear that the weather was going to be terrible. After Katie and I completed our usual Saturday routine (Swim + farmer's market), I went as the advance man to scout out the situation on campus. Despite the cold and driving rain, there were many alumni at the alumni tent. There clearly wasn't any chance of a race, though, so eventually I took off to meet up with other Lovetteers off campus.
The first stop was Firkin & Phoenix for Guinness and pub fare. We followed this up at Anvil, which continues to impress me with their cocktails. I had one called "Satan's Whiskers." Yikes! As our party expanded, we moved to Ruggles Green for dinner. Here Katie had the vegan hempanadas while I revisited my old faithful, quinoa mac & cheese! Chocolate creme brulee cake for dessert was a perfect finish. Thank goodness we swam that morning!
Today Katie hosted a small birthday brunch for me at our house. My birthday isn't actually until Tuesday but this way we could take advantage of some other friends being in town for Beer Bike. She whipped up an awesome spread of fresh veggies + clam dip, veggie frittata, dark chocolate cherry-whole wheat muffins, and sweet potato hash. So good! We complemented this with bloody marys, champagne cocktails, and--of course--sangria!
It was my first time making sangria in . . . I don't know how long. Times have clearly changed for me, though. Because we were making a small batch, I used nice Rioja wine instead of the large format fruity wines I used to use when mixing up batches of 100+ gallons. I added just a dash of Everclear (for legitimacy!) instead of dumping in the full handle as per usual. Similarly, instead of adding "sparkle" via dry ice (so as not to dilute the alcohol content), this time I added champagne--talk about classing it up! The end result was delicious and I'm glad to have turned over a new leaf.
It was a great start to my birthday week and I'm so happy to have been able to catch up with so many people over the past few days. Here's to many safe returns!
2009-03-28
Taiwan!
I passed my 30th year mark somewhere over China en route to Taiwan. Actually, our KLM flight stopped in Amsterdam and Bangkok before arriving in Taipei but, unfortunately, there was no time to get out and explore either of those locations.
Our time it Taiwan was really excellent, albeit very rushed as we were only there for 48 hours. We arrived in the evening and launched immediately into meetings. First up was a group of women looking to bring Poken to the Taiwanese market. They have good ideas and I wish them the best success. Next we met with our manufacturing partners, who took us out for karaoke.
Karaoke was an amazing experience in and of itself. We were in a private room, waited on hand and foot, and singing slightly modified versions of late 80s soft rock--at least at first. With some help from the girl next to me (name pronounced like "Go-Go"), we managed to find the song lists for Michael Jackson and George Michaels--then it was on! Stephane and I belted out tunes (Fortunately the girls knew how to turn the background music up to drown out our singing!) until the music selection turned to the Backstreet Boys.
At one point in the evening a cake arrived and Happy Birthday was sung. Considering that I was far away from family and friends on my birthday, this was a great way to ring in the new year. I am also very, very, very appreciative of all the calls, cards, emails, and facebook messages people sent. Thank you very much for reaching out even from far away!
Our next day was filled with meetings, discussing new product versions and our ability to scale up production to address Poken's worldwide stock-out. We have far outpaced our original growth projections so modifications must be made to increase our manufacturing capacity. The meetings went well and I am very impressed with the professionalism of our Taiwanese partner.
Tuesday night we went out for Japanese food and then walked around local night markets. We also wandered around the outside of Taipei 101 but it was already closed so we couldn't go up. Stephane and I "turned in" relatively early (before 1 AM) but then stayed up for hours answering email backlogs. Our body clocks hadn't adjusted yet and we were energized. We shared a room (Yay, startup life!) but this time we had come prepared enough not to have to wear our underwear inside out!
Wednesday's meetings were more of the same (Korean BBQ for lunch!) and, again, went very well. Then it was back to the airport, through Bangkok and Amsterdam, and finally back in Switzerland. It was a real whirlwind but a great experience for my birthday and first time in Asia. Now I can't wait to go back, learn the local languages better, and spend more time soaking up the culture.
2009-01-23
Happy 1/23/45!
To all of my readers who understand what I mean, happy 1/23/45! Although I spent most of the day working, I did manage to sneak outside for an hour to play catch with a former professional baseball player in sunny, 75-degree weather. I also had a nice dinner with my favorite dining companion (Happy birthday to you too!) so all-in-all it was a great day.
2008-03-16
Oh What a Day
Yesterday was one of those days that made all of us glad we chose a program in Lausanne. It was around 60 degrees F, sunny, and absolutely beautiful. The flowers were blooming, the birds were chirping, and it truly felt like spring. I went for a run along the lake but had to keep stopping to take pictures, one of which I added in my FaceBook album. I wasn't the only one with that idea and it was great to see everyone else out running, walking, roller blading, sitting, picnicing, and otherwise enjoying the weather.
I've thought before that if there were one thing Lausanne could do to endear itself to me more, it would be to seem more Tolkienesque. Yesterday it checked that off its list. As the hot sun bore down directly on the cold water of the lake, mist rose from the surface, creating a transluscent shimmer between me and the mountains on the other side. It made me want to do the Misty Mountain Hop so I listened to Led Zeppelin IV during my run--not a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon!
Today it is raining and I've been inside working all day, which gives me plenty of time to ponder my birthday next week. I can't believe I'll be 29--another year closer to the big 3-0! So far every year of my life has been better than the previous, so I have high expecations for this one. Interestingly, this is the first time in my life that my birthday has fallen on Easter Sunday. The last time it happened was 1913--a little before my time--and, not withstanding some miracle of medicine, it won't happen again in my lifetime. I suppose I'll have to savor it!
I've thought before that if there were one thing Lausanne could do to endear itself to me more, it would be to seem more Tolkienesque. Yesterday it checked that off its list. As the hot sun bore down directly on the cold water of the lake, mist rose from the surface, creating a transluscent shimmer between me and the mountains on the other side. It made me want to do the Misty Mountain Hop so I listened to Led Zeppelin IV during my run--not a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon!
Today it is raining and I've been inside working all day, which gives me plenty of time to ponder my birthday next week. I can't believe I'll be 29--another year closer to the big 3-0! So far every year of my life has been better than the previous, so I have high expecations for this one. Interestingly, this is the first time in my life that my birthday has fallen on Easter Sunday. The last time it happened was 1913--a little before my time--and, not withstanding some miracle of medicine, it won't happen again in my lifetime. I suppose I'll have to savor it!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
