Good to have GREAT friends!

Kelly and I returned to Arizona last Wednesday. On Thursday, my best friend Scott came out to visit me for the holidays. Few of us our blessed to have good friends, few of us have GREAT friends. That is the best way to describe Scott. I’ve been living in Arizona a little over 4 months now and I’m loving it, but I do miss my friends. Many have talked about coming out to Arizona to visit, but the first one to visit me has been my best friend of 15 years. Scott was excited to get away from the gray and cold of Ohio, so he came out to sunny Arizona to see me and Kelly and to accomplish one goal……TO PLAY GOLF EVERYDAY! Scott accomplished that goal. He played four straight days; I played for three. We were both rusty, but it was great to be playing golf in December. You can’t do that in Ohio. Before I post some of the photos, I need to give a report of my golf game. 1 pool hit, 2 houses hit, 4 balls lost and my very first 300 yard drive. Things were going bad until I got to my very last hole and sank a 15 foot putt. Wow I love this game! Thanks for coming out to visit Scott! Come back anytime! I plan to have a better golf game when you return!

Christmas in New Mexico

This year I spent Christmas in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Kelly and her family are from New Mexico, so we celebrated the holiday with them. The trip started with me a scenic drive from Phoenix to Albuquerque. Outside of Flagstaff we say six elk on the side of the road. It was my very first time seeing elk and I had no clue how large of an animal they are. I couldn’t get my camera out fast enough to take a picture. But I hope you enjoy some of these photos from the drive.
Michael Jordan Cologne anyone?





After we arrived at Kelly’s sister (she’s the one who introduced us to each other), I was off to the New Mexico Bowl with Kelly’s father, brother-in-law and nephew. The game was my very first Division 1 college football game and my very fist bowl game. The temperatures were in 30’s and very windy. New Mexico was leading 20-0 over Nevada at halftime. With the game secured, free gifts in hand and a very frozen group we headed home to thaw out! New Mexico won 23-0.





The rest of the trip was spent eating lots of food, celebrating Christmas and Kelly showing me around the city and the state. She was really excited to show me her culture, family history and tourists sights. During my personal tour of northern New Mexico, I learned that Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie Houser) and Fredie Prince Jr. went to high school with my girlfriend. Kelly also showed off the Santa Fe. Santa Fe is the state capital of New Mexico. The city is also the highest capital in the United States with an altitude of almost 7,000 ft above sea level. The town has a lot of historic Spanish and Native American architecture. Christmas is a huge tourists time in the city. The big event in the Canyon Road walk on Christmas Eve. Canyon Road is about a one mile long tiny street full of historic homes and art galleries. I also got to see the church that was seen in the Arnold Swarzenegar movie "Twins." On Christmas eve; carolers, tourists and musicians line the street. There are holiday lights, vendors, mini bon fires, singing, music and entertainment. It was a lot of fun. Enjoy these pictures from Kelly and my first Christmas together. The dogs name is Bandit!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! I would like to wish everyone a very Happy 2008! I'd also like to send wishes for a very successful 2008 to all of you!

New postings of my Christmas, 2008 Spring Schedule and New Year's Eve will be up later this week!

Happy Holidays

I wanted to with everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Chanukah, Happy Ramadan or any other Holiday you may be celebrating this Holiday Season. Currently I'm in New Mexico celebrating the holidays with Kelly's family. There are views of the mountains out of every window! The views motivated me to blog and thank everyone for reading my blog and leaving comments. I'll be sure to post lots of pictures over the next couple of days. Enjoy the time with your family and loved ones! ...........Frank

Beware of the Hot Tub

A friend of mine read my posting about using the hot tub after running and pointed out a very important point. After you run it is important to ice everything versus putting heat on your muscles and joints. You can actually injure yourself more by applying heat. I should have typed that after we finished running we iced everything down and later that night we got in the hot tub. Anyway I would like to thank Bridget for the input/advice. Thank you!

12 miles down 1.1 to go!

Sunday, December 16, 2007. Long Run training Day. Kelly and I have less than a month to go for our half marathon. Sunday's are the days we go out for out long runs to practice for the race. A half marathon is 13.1 miles. A few months ago that number seemed HUGE. To be honest, it looked HUGE on Sunday. Kelly saying we're going to run 12 miles sounded HUGE. Two hours later, 12 miles was complete! Wow, I could have run an extra mile yesterday, so I'm excited for race day to come. We're going to go out and run between 13 and 14 miles after Christmas just to get the milage in one time before the race on January 13th.

Quick Tip: Our condo complex has a pool and hot tub. I used to get in the hot tub after running. Over the last couple of long runs, I've been getting in to the tub before I run. I get in the tub, stretch, then go and run. The hot water helps to loosen up all of my joints and muscles. I've noticed less pain by the end of my runs. This will be continued pre race/run ritual.

Back in Ohio

Last week, i was back in Ohio. I was in the state to work with Rodger. We had jobs in Columbus and Athens. We were the keynote speakers at the kickoff luncheon for the OASFAA Conference (Ohio Financial Aid employees). We then headed to Ohio University to give two training/employee development seminars for college employees. There were about 400 people at the Financial Aid Luncheon. We spoke to about another 200 people at Ohio University.

Being back in Ohio gave me a chance to see a lot of my friends. I also got a chance to catch two division one Men's basketball games. The Ohio University staff took us to the game between Ohio University and St. Boniventure and my best friend Scott took me to the game between Cleveland St. and Youngstown State. Both games were blowout victories for the home schools.

So, one week lots of friends and lots of traveling. Phoenix to Cleveland; Cleveland to Columbus; Columbus to Athens; Athens to Cleveland; Cleveland to Phoenix!

Enjoy the pictures and the stories below!





Pictures from the OASFAA Conference. Rodger and I gave another great show. We had people in tears and on their feet when we closed the presentation. It was snowing outside, so we made up a song (about 5 minutes of planning) about financial aid to the music of "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!" It was my first time ever singing solo infront of that many people.






Pictures from Athens, Ohio and Ohio University. It snowed both days we were in town; about 4 inches. The Ohio Bobcats won their basketball game 77-59. We stayed at a Holiday Inn Express and it was very nice! We now know why the commercial says people feel so smart for staying at the hotels.


My good friends Teresa and Brian welcomed twins boys to the world about two months ago. It was my first time seeing the twins, Cole and Caden. Cole is normally on the left in pictures and Caden is on the right.

It does rain in the desert!

A week ago I got to see something that rarely happens here in the desert. Two days of consistent rain! We got almost 2 inches of rain. There was a lot of flooding, just check out some of the pictures below. The one is of the courtyard outside of our condo!