For the past couple days the running content has been very lean. But really, can it compare to rapelling firemen? I didn't think so. Maybe if there was shirtless, sweaty runners maybe but not right now.

So, back to that thing that I do… for fun. It seemed that today was just going to be one of those running days. It had been cloudy ALL morning long… all morning long until I stepped out of the T-Recs building. Yes, I had to go to the T-Recs building because UT is hosting some aquatic competition and there were tons of kids and their soccer swimming moms out there.

The benefits of the T-Recs building is that it's air conditioned, but that's about it. The negatives is that if I run outside, I have to bring my ID. If I bring my ID outside that means that I can LOSE my ID. At the Aquatic Center, we get the plastic party bands around our wrists and therefore we don't have to bring our ID to workout outside. Also, the lockers in the T-Recs building are the DUMBEST thing ever. One of my shoes does not fit when I put it lengthwise (or widthwise) for that manner. My toiletry bag rests on the bottom of the locker and I have to CRAM everything I own in there. I even have to hold my stuff in and then quickly close the door and remove my hand so that it will close.

Okay, so at the T-Recs building there are personal shower stalls with plastic curtains as opposed to the Aquatic Center with the open area shower area. But a giving up a little privacy makes up for more locker room and a cool wristband.

So, as I was mentioning before I distracted myself, the sun decided to shine its warm little face as I started running today. I was even trying to keep this a easy run but that didn't work out very well. What happened was that the speed workouts of this week caught up with me, so that I was running slower than what I thought. In fact, that coupled with the newly discovered sun, caused me to really pay the price on the 3rd mile.

Luckily I had brought water with me, so I decided that I would walk a block and drink some water. That actually happened on a number of occassions and I ended up drinking my water within a 1/2 mile distance. I just tried to keep going despite the fact that the run workout was going downhill really quickly (as I was running uphill). I missed the 3 mile split, which was fine since I wasn't going to be getting any fantastic time, I didn't need to worry about it. What was encouraging was that I wasn't doing all that great but my legs didn't feel too bad up the last big hill.

I knew then that my fatique was more of a result from the faster runs that I had done this week especially from the extended rest period of last week.

I signed up for the Scholar's Run 5k which will be held on August 19th. I'll post more on this race later as it holds some significance in my running history. The course, does not lend very well to PR times, so I am not sure if I will even try for a PR time, but perhaps a course record. I would like to get some track workouts but not in the sun. Maybe the treadmill would be a good alternative.

Tomorrow we might take Eric the Elder to see the movie Cars. This would be his first theatre movie… I'm a little skeered. We might see the whole thing, we might see 5 minutes. Who knows!

The last Day is a half day getting out at noon. This way most people can get an airplane ticket back home and get home at a reasonable hour. Unfortunately, you are not fed (by the company) on this day. But there is a hole in the wall diner that is in between Union Station and the Kennedy (hole in the head) Monument. We discovered it last year and looked forward to it this year. You get a decent amount of food for a semi-resonable price. The comforting thing is that it's homemade food, not the pre-processed fastfood plastic-like food.

I ended up getting the Stack O' Pancakes and could have actually gotten the half stack because I was struggling to finish the stack. We watched the developing story on Israel. If you don't follow the podcast Phedippidations, one of the Race Directors for the [DUN-DUN-DUNNNNNNNNNNNNNN] Phedippidations WorldWide Half Marathon, Mal is THE, not one of… but THE Cameraman for FoxNews. He is in some serious doo-doo right now, thank goodness that he loves his job. So, everytime I see something about that area, I pray for him. Thankfully, he can post to his blog and his accounts of what he does is simply amazing!

So we walked over to the convention center for the closing session. During the closing session, they love to give away free stuff… A Dooney&Burke (sp?) bagset, flat screen tvs, pink digital handi-cam, and some other stuff. But there are rules, well, just one really… “You Must Be Present To Win”. We were present, but we did not win. maybe next year.

We listened to speeches of the Top Directors in the Pearl Seminar. I might even summarize them and post them here, because really, most of the content is Life Applicable and not just information for Mary Kay. That's one of the reasons I love coming to these event because I get alot of them that I can apply to my life.

Oh before I forget, I did try to make an Voicepost from Awards Night, but my phone quality sucked SO BAD (How bad did it suck?) that you could understand… NOTHING. I mean NUHHHHHTHING. So, I ditched it. I should have been more diligent about Voicepost, perhaps in the near future I will make the resolution to use them, after all, I essentially paid for them .

So, we took some pictures (some of which I wanted to post but did not copy them to my Da Kruza USB drive) and maybe those will be the subject of a future post.

Overall, the experience was awesome. I arrived back in Tennessee rejuvienated about my Life, Jen's Business and my running. I've been actively working to do some major overhaul self-improvement ever since October of last year. This was a well needed boost. You can think of this reworking Project:T3rry.

The next big MK company event is called Leadership, which is for Directors Only. Where as Seminar is held in Dallas each year, Leadership is held in a different city each year. This past January (it's always in January) it was in Atlanta. In 2007, it is in San Diego. You know what's in San Diego? Well, lots of things. A Zoo, a mediocre NFL team… and Miramar. Miramar… the places where fighter pilots go to Fighter Weapons School… well, we know it as Top Gun. Remember a few posts when I said you DON'T MISS A LUNCHEON! Well, this lunch is on one of the ships! I am not sure which type of class (carrier, battle cruiser, tugboat) but it's extra special AND if Jen qualifies for another special event… (oh, I was SOOO EXCITED about this) REALLY EXCITED! We (because I am a director's husband) will be able to participate in a Fighter Jet Simulator! HOW FREAKIN COOL.

I love flying. I taught Hang Gliding for 2 summers. I passed the Ground School test for private aviation license. I have wanted to be an Astronaut forEVER! If I had been in the Military, I would have tried to get as close to (or in) aircraft as much as I could. I actually changed my Firefox theme to a NASA theme… FIghter Jet Simulator people! Oh I want to do that and all I have to do is help Jen!

Okay, since you were all over the firemen, I dug around and found a few more pictures for you all. You have to pardon the quality of the pictures… I was pretty faraway with super poor lighting. Photoshop did a decent job with the limited skills that I have:

Cowboys:

Egyptian Servants:

More Firemen:

Even MORE Firemen:

Disco inferno:

Is it just me or are those who have Blogger having a crappy day or what. It seems that ALL the Blogger blogs are timing out… geez.

Oh well, lunchtime!

I haven't been that focused this morning, so it was a huge surprise to me to remember that I needed to move on to Day 2 and (probably) Day 3. I need to close up Seminar and there a few pictures that I need to post. So, let's move on…

Day 2 of Seminar is the meat of the whole event. In the morning you can go to Workshops that are taught by the best of the best in your Seminar. Yeah, kinda like Top Gun instructors… however there is no soft-porn volleyball game going on.

I think that I mentioned before that the first question that most ask when they discover that Jen is in Mary Kay is “Does she have her pink cadillac yet?”. Now apart from have the use of a $36,000 “Trophy on Wheels” (as the late Mary Kay once declared) for 2 years, there is an advantage to being part of a Cadillac Unit.

Would you feel intimidated having to cook for 8000+ people breakfast and lunch. Uh, I would. So what would you feed them? How about this:

This is what you get in the general dining area. But, it's not what you have to settle for. If you want to give your arm and leg you can purchase 2 sandwiches, chip and drinks for around $20 out in the convention center. Or you be part of a Cadillac Unit.

When you are part of a Cadillac Unit, your “bowl” is replaced with a real, honest-to-God ceramic plate… that will break if you drop it. Plastic utensils… nope. Your silverwear wasn't extruded from some plant in China, nope… it was probably forged somewhere in China. Don't worry… it's not gold plated cutlery… or pink plated cutlery for that matter but it clinks against the plate. And the food, well, I didn't get a picture of it, but it's much better than a small portion of cereal.

At my first Seminar in 2004, Jen was part of a Cadillac Unit (her Senior Director had the Caddy) so we got access to the good stuff. I will appreciate the Cadillac food next year after Jen wins her car this year.

Now, the Cadillac Dining is not the end all, be all of dining. If there is anything you want to do when coming to a conference, is to complete the luncheon contests. Last year, Jen met one of the luncheon and we ate wonderful food. Oh… it was so good. This year, my wife didn't earn squat. So, Day 2's lunch was just a salad with chicken in it.

The bulk food this year was better than last year and I shouldn't complain, because I got to talk to some great women at lunch.

The afternoon session is broken into more classes for consultants or the director meeting. The director meeting is where the company reveals some secrets and gives training specifically from the company to the directors. So, as a director's husband, I know some of the new products that are coming out in the fall…

So with the classes over, it's time to get ready for the Corporate Awards night. That's right… another night in a tuxedo. One of the coolest things about Awards Night is the dance/signing group called Friends of Tyme. Mary Kay used to bring in headliners to the Seminars. She then commissioned to have their very own group which performs at all the large company events.

Friends of Tyme started out awards night with a catchy little number, but it was a shorter segment… maybe 5-7 minutes. Then there were some awards, they get bigger (naturally) over the course of the night. The first long segment that Friends of Tyme was themed about Women Ruling the World. It started out with a country song and then went into different women singers. However, we think that the singer for Cher (who we saw in Atlanta in January) is actually (or was) a guy.

After the next round of awards, the theme of Friends of Tyme was Disco Inferno. It was a high energy set of disco music. And more than halfway through the segment, Jen taps me on the shoulder (I was sitting in front of her) and gestures me to look up. Cool! There's people on the ceiling! It looked like the had rapelling gear on… but what the hell were they wearing???

Can anyone guess what song came on when the men rapelled down from the ceiling? It's Raining Men, of course. Not only, men, but FIREmen. It was cool because they slid about a third of the way down and did some dancing, then slid another third for some more mid-air gyrations and down to the floor.

This is another reason why (if you like men) that acheivement had its privileges. Seating in the Arena has some heirchy to the madness. First, you have to qualify for the Arena. Once your are in Arena, seating is loosely based on how you and your Unit did. The better your unit did, the lower to the floor you are. If your unit did real well, you are on the Arena Floor. The “front” row is reserved for the National Sales Director (the highest consultant level in the company).

So, a few select women were blessed to be next to the firemen as they hit the floor because these just weren't any ordinary rapel-from-ropes firemen… they were dancing firemen!

Maybe next year I can be near the dancing firemen… to take better pictures (because I know how all of you go Go-Go-Ga-Ga over them) of course!

The evening concluded with the Top Units of the Pearl Seminar. It's amazing how much jewelry (sparkly things) they gave away! All this jewelry definitely takes the pressure off of me to buy jewelry for Jen… she can win it. So, for the Directors… there are two (actually three) levels that hold great esteem in the Mary Kay world. First is the Circle of Acheivement which is part of the awards called 'Unit Club'. Jen made it about halfway this year to 'Unit Club'. The next level is Circle of Excellence. These Directors win the coveted Cruise. Last year's trip was a 7 day cruise to Greece, this year it's Spain. And if you are in the Top of the Circle of Excellence, you get an extra 3 day event before joing up with the rest of the cruise people.

Apart from Jen wanting to get to the Circle of Excellence, one of my friends and his wife acheived the Million Dollar Unit. What is inspiring about this is that right after last year's Seminar she was diagnosed with Cancer and had to get chemo and everything. However, her unit still acheived this award and she's in qualification to become a National Sales Director!

When you acheive the Million Dollar Unit Level, the company gives you a $5,000 bonus. So there were 4 Million Dollar units this year and they interviewed and videotaped the couples on what they are going to do with the money and show it during Awards Night. James, a husband, of a very prolific director last year settled with going to the NFL Pro Bowl in Hawaii instead of the Superbowl in Detroit (in the winter)… this year, he's going to put a “down payment” on a huge Home theatre, surround sound, entertainment, contact the space station system. Another husband, Ron, wasn't so fortunate… his wife said that she's going to give it ALL to him, but then quickly asks him “So, what are you going to buy me?” (I bet it won't be Jewelry or a Cruise!)… Ah women… always the comedienne.

So, that wraps up Day 2 of Seminar… Don't worry Day 3 is just half day and not too much involved. I think there is just one picture too and it's not of Firemen (sorry…)

okay… so I get this email from Pam of 'Pam & Bill' fame

*singsong voice*  I can't wait till you get your mail art….I'm so excited I could pee.  Oh, TMI? Pam

You see, I actually won TWO contests that Pam threw out there. One was a name this artist contest which I sorta won because in my response post I worded it so that names of other songs by the artist made my entry. However Pam, didn't know anything else this artist did… so she was staring blankly at my response.

The next mini-contest she had was her change from Post Titles to starting with “I am…“. I was declared the overall winner (WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO) on that contest and the reward… MAIL ART.

So, all I had to work with was that Pam's mail art was so cool that she was losing bodily control over it. It arrived sometime while we were in Dallas… but when we got it, well… just take a look:

To describe it, the pictures form a collage on one sheet. The words “My Life” are cut out of the picture collage. Then, very professionally, the whole thing is laminated.

Going from Left to Right, Top to Bottom
Terry: Seminar 2004
Terry and Eric: Nags Head 2005
Terry: March 2005 Trideltathon
Eric: Anchor Park March 2006
Terry: Knoxville Marathon 2006
Terry: 2006 taken by Eric
Lipsticks: Leadership 2006
Skip: Summer 2003
Middle Row
Tree: Photoblog shot 2005
Eric with Ear Goggles: April 2006
Hand Picture: Ryan 2005
Eric in Pink: Friends Wedding 2006
Ryan with Ring: Spring 2006
Bird's Nest: Photoblog shot 2005
Chevrolet: April 2006
Terry with Camera: Taken by Eric
Bottom Row
Ryan: Summer 2006
Eric with finger up nose: Spring 2006
Ryan smiling: Spring 2006
Jen with Ryan: 2005
Kids in Swing: Spring 2006
Skip looking out window: June 2003
Wheel: April 2006
Eric: December 2005

It VERY VERY COOL! Thanks Pam.
And just to be Terry… I will sign off with this quote from the Lead singer of The Smiths - Because it's a tie-in to the two contests for this mailart!
“I am Human and I need to be loved” - Morrisey

Before we venture on to Day 2 of Seminar, titled “It's raining firemen” I thought I should catch up on what's happening this week with me before I get so far behind.

Monday (I'll keep it brief)
Woke up (on time) YAY! And was able to attack and sort some of the email that had piled up from the past week. I had to move to a different version of Thunderbird and so my Message rules were no longer customizable as they had been on a previous version. This leads to more work work from me… bleh. But what can I say, Thunderbird does do some of the prep work for me.

I ran at lunchtime. A good 4 mile tempo run in the “heat”. Actually it was only 81 and compared with the heat in Dallas, it was quite nice

Jen has her unit meetings at the house on Mondays, so it's GO GO GO when I get home. Get the kids fed and then bathed plus cleaning the house. It forces us to keep the house clean and that is a good thing. That evening I entered receipts in our financial software… I was about 2 months behind. I really need to be more diligent on our finances, but everything gets paid so that's like floating in the ocean with a life preserver.

Tuesday (I'll keep it boxer)
Woke up… not so much on time. Usually on Tuesday's I don't get to work until 9:30 or so. Jen has her Networking meeting at 7:30am and her conference call at 9 and so I stay home with the kids until the babysitter gets there. He was going to preschool and I would take him to school at this time, but now he is getting a curriculum in home right now (more on that soon). However, the sitter/teacher wanted to leave early, so she arrived early allowing me to leave just a little earlier thereby making me not quite as late as usual.

I ran at lunchtime, however, I was a little sore from Monday's tempo run so I tried to keep it an easy run. That sorta happened. Since I wasn't such where I wanted to go, I ended up starting on my Market Square Fab 4 route (Monday's route) and I ended up running into the Fort Sanders area. Specifically, I ended up running part of the Knoxville Marathon course in the opposite direction. From Fort Sanders I ran into Tyson Park and then back to the Aquatic Center. I didn't do a great job on keeping time because I didn't know the spilt locations. I do know that my first mile was in 8:48 and I was happy that is was relatively slow. The heat wasn't bad, but the sun was a little draining. I mapped out the course to find out that I went 3.1 miles.

I am in the process of making my mom a computer and am in the Software Installation mode. I am putting all the auxillery programs right now. She'll go from a 166MHz computer to 1.6GHz… think she'll like the speed? I do have a picture to take which can be the subject of its own post. I just have to take it…

Wednesday
Jen and I had dentist appointments this morning and like every other dentist appointment in my life, no cavities! The used a saline, salt blasting procedure on my teeth that made them really clean and that was pretty nice. Eric the elder had an appointment at a Montessori school near our house. We are excited because of all the drama (I haven't posted anything about this) at his previous school. The teacher was impressed (or seemed that way) about what Eric was able to do for his age, apart from all the numbers (math) and alphabet letters. Did I mention that he will go through the alphabet phonetically?

I did not run today but did eat a bunch of Sushi from Kroger (yeah, I know… not the best but it was tasty!)

Tonight I need to make dessert for a get together with a couple from our Sunday School on Friday… maybe I'll even try to get on the treadmill! Alas, I do not know if there will be a voicepost for today. Perhaps…

After a little bickering with gmap-pedometer, I finally found out how far I walked from the DART station to Nick's house… just over 2 miles in the over 100 heat. Did I mention that I had a long-sleeved shirt and khaki pants on? Didn't want to make you think I was complaining on walking in the heat, with a map with no names, to a house I had been to once… 2 years ago, without water (or slurpees)…

if you'd like to see my route… the link is here

At most things, where it is a corporate seminar/exhibition you are pretty much on the go all the time. From sun up to sun down and if it's like MK Seminar you have something each night until midnight.

Seminar is the company's event that highlights the acheivments of the past MK year (July 1-June 30) and the different awards are too numerous to name here, but there are alot… alot of jewelry and prizes and money given out. Because Seminar is so popular, they actually have 5 different sessions back to back to back to back to back. Jen is in the Pearl Seminar and the dates rotate around each year as not to penalize any one group as the end of the month bears some weight. The Seminars dates are reduced to “Days”… Instead of Wenesday July 19th, it is reduced to Day 0.

So, my last post was about Day 0 and that day is the get-into-town day. There are some things, such as tours of the corporate office and manufacturing plant, buses breaking down, however, can happen any day. I have manufacturing plant pictures on my 35mm camera… you'll get the good ones at a later date on the photoblog.

So we are on to Day 1 DUN-DUNNN-DUNNNNNNNNNN more specifically, Opening Ceremony. There are two places you can sit… Arena or Hall A. Arena is where all the live action stuff happens and Hall A has HUGE video screens which show the action. We have always been in the Arena…

See those people on the floor seating… those are the top units in the Pearl Seminar. Mary Kay has their own dance company called Friends of Tyme… more on them on Day 2 for Awards Night. But the whole Seminar starts off with the Friends of Tyme coming out and doing a number and wowing the audience.

A number of different people spoke about a variety of topics… they showed the Habitat House that MK built for Hurricane Katrina relief. It was neat to see that the workers were all corporate people and no… it was not a pink house!

If the company ever offers an incentive, such as a luncheon… you have to win it! This was the first year that we did not earn a luncheon… and we were stuck with chicken salad sub. It was actually better this year than last year and we met a consultant from Eugene, OR.

Okay, stop giving me that blank stare… Eugene OR! People! Okay, in running… US running, Eugene OR is mecca. There is a university there called The University of Oregon where many great runners made their college career. Without getting all fanatical about it, one gentleman by the name of Steve Prefontaine (one of my role models for life and running) was a product of U of O. Also Bill Bowerman… used his waffle iron to revolutionize running shoes and in the process created a company called… you may have heard of it: NIKE. Pre was Nike's first athelete. Anyway, she offered her guest room plus her husband's connections for ticket to the Prefontaine Classic… one of the country's biggest running events.

In the afternoon, it was the General Session and then I broke off for the husband class. Apparently I missed a great speech while in the husband class. I didn't need to be in the husband class… I support my wife and know the advantages of this business… I wish I had seen Stacy James speak… darn it.

So, Day 1 comes to an end… at least the company part of it. This is the night of our National Area awards. Our National Area is a smaller grouping with in our Seminar. Our National is Sylvia Kalicak (she'll be featured below) and so we were going to the Special K National Area Awards night… hence the tuxedo. The dinner was held in the Hyatt and so there was no traveling… dinner was excellent (as always) but the big thing is the National Area Awards. Here is a picture of me and Jen on the Awards stage…

A handful of the husbands wear tuxedos and to make the whole affair even more top notch, we escort the winners up the stage steps and help them down. So that is what I did for most of the evening… sometimes taking pictures. Until it was time for the Mr. Mary Kay award. As a way to recognize the husbands, the directors nominate who they feel should get the award and vote. Last year's winner was the AWESOME Craig C., his wife holds the top spot in the National Area and will be a National one day. Craig has many qualities that I want learn, I hold him in high regard.

Well, he wasn't there… he is working in Iraq right now and was unable to make it back to the States… he'll be there a little while longer but his wife says that he is safe, so that is good. Anyway, they were talking about this particular husband and I was sort of listening, sort of thinking the best angle to get the shot. I have named myself as the Offical Un-Official Camera man of Awards night, so I wanted to get a great shot. Well, that was thrown all out of the window when they announce me as this year's Special K National Area Mr. Mary Kay!

That's right, your very own P3 was “crowned” with the title. They had me sit in the “Queen's Chair” but I didn't get a tiara. I did receive a certificate and also a framed certificate that had my picture plus 5 or 6 of people's affirmations on why I should get the award… it was so awesome. I was able to do an impromptu speech to the audience. Jen spoke a few words about me… it was very touching. Ahh, life is good. Here is a picture of me on the throne.

That cute little number to my right is Sylvia and the Hot little number to my left is Jen!

So Jen was one of the Top Ten units in her national area and I was Mr. Mary Kay for the area… SAH-WEET-TAH