Facebook Link

Just checking to see if my Uberfit blog posts get put on my facebook notes. I've lost control of the Intertubes, me thinks.

The Hazards of Owning a Nice Red Parrot

Today was a milestone. After running hundreds of miles, a couple of thousand of miles bike riding, and swimming a few hundred yards in the past decade, I suffered my first notable knee injury this morning when I bent down to retrieve Hina our female parrot (when she flew off her perch to hide in her favorite hiding spot -- a clear violation of house rules). That was almost enough for me to fry her up for dinner.

But then shortly after I got home after a long day at the office, she proceed to bite both the spousal unit and me, hard enough to draw blood. We were simply trying to spray some moisturizer on her plucked areas. We are both now nursing our wounds and killing the pain with some nice Chimay Blue (that's real nice Belgium bier for you unfortunate statesiders). At least getting nailed by a parrot twice in one day has it's rewards. Cheers.

Well, life goes on as a defense contractor at EUCOM and it is proving to be very interesting and not a little challenging. I'm getting a handle on the acronyms and just have to get back up to speed on speaking the buzz phrases. Here is a little tutorial for those of you wishing to improve your Combantant Commander linguistic abilitities:

English 4 Star Staff

publish or post something on a portal "hang it on the portal"
objective "effect" "capability" or "who knows"
Be Prepared To "BPT"
staff something " form a B2C2WG and put it on the Battle Rhythm"
War Phase Zero to Phase Four

Helping out the new Prez

Well, we have a new Prez, so I can officially return to the States. But now that I am back in the official world of Defense machinations, I feel a certain responsibility to help out Barack and get our country back in front of the pack. So Mr. President, I'm here for you. If you want me to come to the White House and become your liaison with the Combatant Commanders (ie, your SecDef), I'm your man. If you want me to become your personal trainer (probably a much better option), I can do that too (as long as T gets to come and hang out with Michelle).

By the way, Mr. President, your white half has possession of your dance gene. You gotta get some brothers to help you out and have your soul side take over that gene so you can get your groove on before having your first White House State Dinner with some nice entertainment/dancing. Or maybe you just want us to think you can't dance! Anybody that can play basketball as well as you can has to have a better sense of rhythm than what you were showing at those Inaugural Balls...

Back to the Real World

Hoo boy.  Today was a milestone -- I think.  53rd Birthday and after a few years of vacationing with MWR Sports and Fitness, I reentered the world of Jointness, Training, Readiness, Assessments, and Defense.  Suits. Ties.  Cubicles.  Conferences.  Reports.  Exercises.  Briefing Flags Again.  What have I wrought???

Christmas Letter 2008

Christmas Letter 2008                              Dec 7, 2008   Hi everyone!  We hope that you have had a wonderful 2008 and a relaxing holiday season.  Here's a little update on our continuing adventure overseas in Stuttgart Germany ... We started off 2008 with a lot of skiing, enjoying the finest of European "après ski" in Zell am See, Kitzbuhel, and St Anton.  We also visited Rome , where Theresa served as the experienced tour guide.  We were also busy acclimating our new addition to the family, Kaiser, a male eclectus parrot!  At first, Kaiser was a neglected, raggedy, psychotic bird, who has since transformed into a healthy, robust, and handsome green companion to our other psychotic parrot, Hina!  Hina has been sporting the latest in avian fashion this winter with multi-colored sweaters to deter her from plucking her chest and keep her warm.  As spring turned to summer, Theresa retired after a 20 year naval career and transitioned into a great GS job at European Command here in Stuttgart overseeing US personnel manning for NATO.  She had a traditional retirement ceremony, including a walk through honorary sideboys and a Bosun piping her into the civilian world.  Theresa enjoys many aspects of her NATO job, including traveling to Brussels and always brings back an assortment of Belgium beers and chocolates to share with our friends....plus she looks much better in business suits and dresses instead of her cammie utilities and combat boots! We had some challenging and enjoyable races this past year.  We started off the season by completing a harrowing mountain bike "marathon" up and down the mountains in Garmish, and participated in several Sunday "RTF" club rides through charming German towns and the beautiful local countryside.  Marty had a little scare on one of these club rides as he collided with a VW driven by a little old lady; he escaped with no major injuries but had to retire his faithful Trek 5900 bike.  Theresa had a great year bike racing, as she won both the European Military road and mountain bike championships!  Our first triathlon was Xterra Czech Republic in June, a nice race, made even nicer by drinking Budvar lager beer with our Xterra friends from Hawaii .  In late July, we drove down to the French Alps to do the Alp d'Huez triathlon.  We stayed in a lovely chalet, enjoyed gourmet cooking, and even enjoyed racing up the 21 famous Tour de France switchback turns of Alp d'Huez.  T won another age group trophy, and we had such a good time that we immediately decided to return in 2009 to do the "long course" triathlon (Gwen and Mike will be traveling from Hawaii so that Gwen can race too!).  We competed in several local races and then completed the season with two half-ironman triathlons, 70.3 Germany , and 70.3 Monaco .  We finished our long racing season by flying to Athens with a local running club, where Marty ran the original marathon course which finished in the first Olympic stadium -- and says he has now officially retired from marathons.... Marty had a busy year as fitness coordinator for the Army garrison, directing several running and two bike races, and keeping the sound systems working in 4 fitness centers… Thanks to a team effort and a great staff, the Stuttgart Sports and Fitness program was recognized by the Army as the best large installation program in the Army for 2007-2008!  One of the highlights for him was directing a half-marathon race which was dedicated to the memory of fallen soldiers from our military forces here in Germany . Marty and T both ran on the Stuttgart Garrison Army 10-mile team, and we both got on the podium and helped the team win the European 10-mile championship. As much as Marty enjoyed going to work in sweats for the past 2 years, and micro-managing some 20 female fitness instructors (after a lifetime of working with men in submarines), he decided to give up his private office overlooking the weight room and accepted a position as a "defense contractor" in the Joint Training and Readiness Office of EUCOM... so no more free race t-shirts and other swag from him!  He has no idea of what he'll really be doing, but he's sure his work colleagues will not be nearly as cute and athletic…   2009 will no doubt be another busy year for us as we continue to experience the fun and challenges of living in Europe , along with our new jobs.  Please try to come over and visit if you get the chance – we have plenty of spare bedroom space and extra mountain bikes!                                                        Love and Aloha, Theresa and Marty

Obviously a little Wacko from too much Sarah Palin Coverage...