Tyler Jorgenson

I came across this interesting website that sells very unique pieces of furniture. Take a look at this fantastic Entertainment Center:

Notice anything unique? The unit is designed so that the main piece can be used as your coffin once you kick the bucket. I guess if you have one of these there is one last thing to worry about in the will. Don’t worry, if your dearly beloved feels left out all you need to do is purchase this sofa:

Although I love the idea of getting multiple uses out of something, this is just going a tad too far in my humble opinion. Although, I actually sort of like the look of the sofa.

We were very happy to be invited by some friends for an evening at the Magic Castle in Hollywood. We don’t get out to do couple’s things nearly enough. Dinner was good, dessert was great and the company was fantastic. There were some good magicians and shows as well but the best part was just spending time with my wife and friends, telling stories and laughing.

Tanya and I came to the Magic Castle a few years ago for a company party and had a good time. Somehow coming with friends made it a little more enjoyable.

I don’t know if I’m ready to stand on a stage with Al Gore and talk about the ice caps, but I’m certainly greener than I used to be. My Green Mercedes is ready to be picked up from the mechanic (the heater was stuck on and it didn’t always turn off when I took the key out), and this video seems to make more and more sense to me. I am unapologetically a Capitalist, but I believe VERY strongly in ethical capitalism.

I just thought I’d share, that and I didn’t like seeing my post on Disneyland being the last post on here.

Happy Birthday Disneyland.

At the risk of being utterly lame, I am doing a post about Disneyland. Why? In addition to it being the site of the upcoming 5k let me tell you a few reasons why I still love Disneyland.

1. Tanya agreed to marry me when I proposed at Disneyland . (It’s a great story, but she can tell it if she likes)
2. The only photo I know of with my Maternal Grandfather was after a trip to Disneyland when I was almost 2, and all of the kids are wearing Disney shirts. It’s an image easy to recall from years of looking at the photo.
3. My kids love the place. They seem to really love Toon Town right now.
4. I love how excited Tanya and Taylor get at the end of the night to get a Churro.
5. The Jungle Cruise

I really enjoy the spirit that went in to creating Disneyland, as evidenced in the dedication by Walt Disney.

Dedication

	To all who come to this happy place – welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams, and the hard facts that have created America… with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world. Thank you.
	— Walter E. Disney, July 17, 1955 4:43pm,

What is your best memory of/at Disneyland?

But it’s been a LONG time since I’ve been able to run a 4:47 mile like I did in College. My hot wife made me do a little run with her while we were in Capitola this past weekend and apparently she thought I did OK so she signed us up for the Disneyland 5k on August 30th. I’m going to have to do a little training, since I don’t want to be too embarrassed by my time having been a runner in High School.
I stepped on the scale on the 4th of July when we had to take our kids to the Dr. and I was down to 178lbs. I was amazed. I had been up to about 215lbs less than a year prior and although we did start eating better I think we pinpointed the weight busting source… a bigger house with 3 active kids. We’re chasing our kids around up and down stairs, around the house and yard and even jumping on the trampoline. Combine all of those extra calories burned with consuming fewer calories and you get a Tyler that is 37 pounds lighter.

Tanya told me while we were running that she didn’t really notice how fat I had gotten before, but now that I’ve thinned up a bit she likes it. One of my co-workers even complimented me today (thanks for making my day April).

So, I guess I’m getting back into running thanks to my wife. I have to admit I’m looking forward to getting back into shape.

Ever since the birth of my oldest daughter 3 1/2 years ago I have had to really focus on the balance I maintain between work and family. It certainly is not an easy thing to do. This week I traveled up North with my wife, kids and parents to visit my Grandfather. My Dad’s Father is 93 years old and is battling 3 types of cancer. My Granny couple of years back so my youngest two were never lucky enough to meet her. To add to the importance of taking this trip, my son is the only Male Jorgenson of his generation from my Grandfather’s line, none of my Jorgenson cousins had boys. We felt it was very important to make sure they met at least once and take a 4 generation picture.

We’re staying at my Aunt and Uncle’s beach house in Capitola, which is like living in a dream because it is so beautiful. The challenge is that I had to travel and be here during the week, so I am still fielding work calls and emails. I don’t mind being accesible for my clients because I understand that we are dealing with time sensitive matters and financial issues that can be very stressful. Other than the fact that my cell phone doesn’t work in the house I have been responding to emails and calls promptly. But then I see this sight, taken yesterday evening, and put the phone away and remember what is most important.

I love my clients, and count many of them as friends, but nothing trumps my wife and kids.

This morning as I was getting ready to go to work I remembered that I was low on fuel in my new Mercedes. Luckily, we had some in the pantry. What? Don’t you keep you automotive fuel in your pantry?

In case people didn’t catch it in the last post, I am running my ‘new’ Mercedes on WVO (Waste Vegatable Oil).  I haven’t set it all up yet, since I didn’t want 200 gallons of old fry oil in my garage until I actually had a car.  I’ve had a LOT of questions about how this works, and whether or not I need to install some sort of conversion.  Here’s a video showing that this works.  It is from a British show, so you’ll need to replace some of the terms like ‘chips’ with French Fries.

There are people that make Biodiesel which is basically a pH balanced and additive rich version of WVO but there are questions as to the emmissions emitted due to the additives.  The bottom line is most diesel’s (pre 2007 for the most part, but don’t quote me and ruin your motor) can run right off of vegatable oil.  Wolfgang Diesel, the inventor of the Diesel engine designed his invention to run on peanut oil, but big business has worked to help us forget that these were designed to run organically.

Here’s the problem.  I love my new car and I want more.  This one is really a simple and fun commuter, but isn’t nice enough to take to meet clients.  I’m looking for a late 90’s E or S class diesel and a G wagen.  Then I’ll have my ‘sports’ car, my SUV and luxury car and never pay for fuel in any of them.

I was going to post the video of the Mythbusters episode where they prove the myth that this works, but it became unavailable from youtube.  They showed a large diesel mercedes getting 30mpg on pure WVO with no modifications.

A few months ago when the economy really started getting bad and the housing troubles had really spread a few partners and I launched TD Financial. We have a lot of vision for where the company is going but right now we are focusing on note modifications and other ways of assisting homeowners remain homeowners.

In reflecting on my post on gas prices the other day I thought about getting an diesel vehicle and running it on WVO (waste vegatable oil). I was on Craigslist the other night and found the car I wanted. I emailed the ad poster and asked if perchance he would be in need of my services and would he be willing to trade the Mercedes. Long story short, here’s my new ride.

I know, I know. You can be jealous. By the way, if any of you have left over vegatable oil after cooking french fries, floutas, etc just let me know. I get about 30 miles to the gallon on that stuff now.

The way I lost the last 25 pounds, in reverse order.

3.  Get really sick so you can’t eat for a week.
2.  Enjoy a lot of anxiety in a changing real estate market.
1.  Eat This Not That

Tanya and I really started trying to eat better.  We didn’t really eat horribly before, but we made some small changes.  At dinner Tanya would make the lower fat or lower calorie versions of the meals, and 90% of the time they actually tasted just as good or better.  If we have to eat out we don’t order french fries, even the kids want the fruit cups at Chick-Fil-A.  I stopped eating a bag of tortilla chips with cheese dip every week.  I had no idea how bad those were.  Tonight I had carrot sticks with fat free blue cheese dressing and a few slices of cheddar cheese on low sodium saltines.  It’s not very scientific, and I am no nutritionist, but it’s been working for Tanya and me.

Recently I found this great site and have loved the blog posts from the author of the book ‘Eat This, Not That’.  Here’s a link to the most recent post, and a brief excerpt.  In this post he gives 7 great snack foods.  #6 was the one that destroyed my favorite on the go breakfast.

6. When You Need to Wake Up and Go…

Eat This:
Eggs and Whole-Wheat Toast
Eggs are a great source of protein, and having them for breakfast sets you up for a perfect day of eating. Saint Louis University researchers found that people who eat eggs for breakfast consume 264 fewer calories the rest of the day than those who eat bagels and cream cheese.

Not That!
Bagel and Cream Cheese
At 500 calories and 20 grams of fat, this deli disaster is one of the worst ways to start your day. Sixty grams of fast-burning carbohydrates will cause a dip in energy and a spike in hunger, long before lunchtime. The same goes for croissants, danish, donuts, and pancakes.

I have never been too big of a donut fan, but I love Bagels and Cream Cheese.  I always got the low fat Cream Cheese so I thought it was pretty healthy.  Most bagel store bagels are at least 250 calories plain… so it’s just not a good start.  Tanya recently made eggs for breakfast for the kids and they loved it, so I think we’ll have to start doing that more.  Whole Wheat English Muffins are REALLY good tasting too… maybe I’ll go get some for breakfast tomorrow.

Now that I’ve lost a bit of weight I need to get into shape.  As the world will see on July 29th, I am VERY out of shape.  I am preparing for the mocking.

I’ve always been frugal.  I can remember going grocery shopping with my Mom when I was a kid and pointing out the items that were lowest price per ounce.  I also learned how to get a lot for my money in many ways, truly trying to stretch each dollar I had, which was never as many as I wish I’d had.  It seems gas prices have been causing people to think about buying new cars, scooters, carpooling to work, etc.  It’s always good to think of ways to save a buck, but it often takes a nudge like gas prices approaching 5 clams to prod us along.

I’m really glad that I only commute 10 miles each way to work.  My truck gets a solid 8 miles to the gallon around town so it still costs me $10 just to get back and forth.  I remembered a website that somebody shared with me a while back where you can enter your zip code and find the lowest priced gas in your area.  I ran a quick search for my zip code and here’s what I found.

Now this may not seem earth shattering, and it’s really not, but here’s the math on the potential savings.  I usually pump at least 20 gallons of the refined black gold into my behemoth every time I fill up and the difference between the lowest and highest priced stations in my search was 22 cents.

.22 Savings per gallon
x 20 gallons
=  $4.40 per fill-up – For some of you $4.40 isn’t much but to me it’s a free spicy tuna roll next time I’m eating sushi.

$4.40 per fill-up
x 52 fuel stops a year (if you’re lucky to only stop once a week)
= $228.80 – Now that’s a lot of spicy tuna rolls!

My Dad probably fills up 2-3 times a week so just making sure he hit the right station could save him as much as $686.40 a year.  He gets better mileage than me, and has a smaller tank so these are just numbers for examples sake, but it makes a decent point.  To drive it home I’m going to take it a step further.  Let’s say that you are in a 35% tax bracket, that $686.40 you would have spent by not hitting the cheaper station would have taken $926.64 of earned income to buy.   Lastly, if I were to invest that $686.40 savings every year into a interest bearing account earning 6% by the time my oldest daughter would be turning 18 (14+ years from now) the account would have nearly $15,000.  All of that just by making sure you pull into the right pump.

Here’s another list of ways to save money on gas, not endorsed by me but it’s out there on the ‘interweb’ so it must be true.

I love the 4th of July. Yes, I love the celebration of the independence of our Nation as I am a true patriot, but really I just love fireworks.

I was hanging out with my good friend and neighbor Craig and although I totally overstayed my welcome (sorry guys) we did have some fun with fireworks they brought back from the Valley of Fire in Nevada as well as shot his wrist rocket. Nothing like some juvenile fun after a long day at the office.

I wouldn’t have blogged about this otherwise but Sara jokingly asked if I’d already blogged the firework since apparently I mobile blog a bit. The video is pretty fun, but I turned it off before we noticed the ground was smoking which was great.

I’m looking forward to lots of fun pyrotechnically enhanced July 4th celebrations… so let me know if you have the goods and we’ll come to your place. I’ll bring hot dogs and a lighter.

P.S. Craig is an Architect and does great work… if you need any plans worked up or know of somebody let me know and I’ll get you in touch.

When I was on WIPEOUT I made a couple of political comments. Apparently, they’ve leaked out quite a bit and it’s created quite a buzz. I first heard about some online forums that were talking about the forward thinking ideas I shared and their positive impact, but then I heard about some serious talk. Anyways, a friend forwarded me this video and I was stunned.

Two quick things. My sister had this test on her blog, so I thought I’d see how I measured up against husbands of the 1930’s. To be totally fair, my wife would need to take this for me but I tried to answer honestly.

161 As a 1930s husband, I am Very Superior Take the test!

What’s funny is that I was just recently considering how much more Men do these days. This is not a sexist argument. I am not saying that Men do more than Women. My wife is an amazing, remarkable woman. How she takes the kids shopping alone is enough to earn her a Super Mom badge. I was watching an old show and saw the Dad just kicking back in a lounger reading the paper after a day at the office and chuckled to myself. When I come in it’s kids around the ankles, roll up the sleeves and help any way I can. I think this is how most Men are these days. We’re more domesticated than our Grandfathers were.

Secondly.

WIPEOUT starts tonight. I’m not on until July 29th, but it should still be a fun show to watch.

These are my prescriptions since Wednesday (not including the two batches of IV drugs during the ER trips). I can't even think of the last time I've had to get a prescription for being sick so this is a real treat. Rush Limbaugh would be proud.