Month: June 2006

Saturday by Ian McEwan

The book club book this month was Saturday by Ian McEwan. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I’ve only read one other Ian McEwan book, Atonement, but I enjoyed that too.

Saturday is about a brain surgeon, Henry Perowne. Perowne and his family live in London.  Saturday follows him through one Saturday of his life. I couldn’t help liking Perowne and in a way I think I identified with him. McEwan is able to capture how nothing in life is black and white, whether it be the war in Iraq or the man with whom Perowne has a minor car accident.

McEwan’s ability to make you see and feel the place and the people is another reason that I enjoyed Saturday so much. I liked his descriptions of London, of his house, of the music his son plays, of his wife, of his daughter’s poetry and especially of his visit to his mother who no longer knows him. They were all astoundingly real to me.

I understand that McEwan’s early books where very macabre. I doubt that I would like them.  Saturday and Atonement are, on the other hand, warm and loving. They are the kind of books that stay with you and make an impression on your life.

Deja Vu all over Again

Talk about coming full circle. The PortfolioMinder group moved from Intuit building 3 to Intuit building 2 over the weekend. The strange coincidence is that I am now sitting about 10 feet from where I had my first office at Sun almost 20 years ago. Back then it was Sun building 2, part of the Sun campus, which is now the Intuit campus. Today was the first day in the new office and it brought back lots of memories.

One of the people who sat near me way back then was Chuq. He was a
interesting person to talk to then and as you can see from his blog he
is a still an interesting person to have a conversation with.

I’ve done lots of other jobs in between, but my job has come full circle too.  Currently I am managing a group of people who do customer care for Intuit and twenty years ago I was managing software customer care for Sun.

Of course a lot has changed in twenty years too. When I started at Sun my daughters were 2 and 5. Today they are both college graduates. I’m older too of course but it sure doesn’t seem like twenty years!

One Year on the PortfolioMinder Team

Claire Giordano wrote a great post about habits and getting back in the habit of writing blog entries. I know I really want to start writing regularly again. My excuse is that I have been incredibly busy at work. At first I wrote "I’ve been busy at the new job" but I can’t really say that any more. I’ve been at Intuit a year now. It has been one of the busiest if not the busiest year of my working life. When I look at our progress on a day to day basis it seems slow. But when I look back over the past year the PortfolioMinder team has accomplished a lot. We  launched PortfolioMinder and are supporting automatic downloads from Schwab and TD Ameritrade.  We are building a customer base and most importantly we are learning a lot about the financial adviser market.

I am especially proud of the customer care team and the support we are providing. Since I am the Customer Care Manager for PortfolioMinder I may be biased but I think the support team we have created for PortfolioMinder is awesome. The team is a virtual team who are mainly financial planners and are located all over the U.S.  The expertise we are developing and the understanding the team has of the needs of advisers is very special. I really enjoy working with this team of great people.

I often think about what it takes to develop habits. In addition to getting back in the blogging habit I would like to get in the habit of lifting weights and exercising daily. I have been in this habit in the past but I let it slip. I really need to focus again on what is important. Exercising must certainly be on that list. I don’t understand why it is so difficult.

Ronni Bennett wrote about habits today in her Time Goes By Blog. She recently moved and says that moving spurs you to change your habits. I wonder what else is a catalyst to changing habits and what catalyst I can use.

A Fitness Trend?

I wonder if the over 70 market is a growing market for fitness clubs? I was surprised and inspired to see the number of 70+ people working out when I  accompanied my Mom to her gym the last few days. The gym, Personally Fit, in Rancho Bernardo also provides physical therapy.  They have lots of bicycles, treadmills and weight machines and most of them were in use  by older people when I was there.

I wish I had taken my camera so I could show you a picture of my Mom (I won’t reveal her age but she is over 70) working out on the weight machines.  Exactly a year ago Mom had a small stroke. After she got home she had balance problems and had real difficulties being up and around. Her neighbor recommended the trainer at her gum and Mom started going. The change is amazing. Mom has gone out for a walk every day we have been here and at Shannon’s recent graduation she maneuvered steps and sat in the bleachers. The improvement in her mobility is inspiring.

Claudia, Mom’s personal trainer  is great. She has her doing cardio vascular, strength, and balance training. Mom says that Claudia has several clients over 90. 

Escondido

I am in Escondido right now visiting my Mother while my Dad is in Canada on his annual fishing trip Mylies Place at Lake of the Woods.   I talked to him yesterday and he had already caught a 24 inch 4 pound  walleye. He is having a good time!

I arrived here on Saturday night. The plane was supposed to land in San Diego about 9:30. About 10 minutes out the pilot came on and said the weather was clear and warm,. About 5 minutes out he came on again and said the fog had come in and they were changing runways. Then 10 minute later he came on a third time and said that the visibility was so bad that we couldn’t land and were on our way to the Ontario airport which, for those to don’t know southern California, is in the LA area.

Southwest Airlines was very efficient. Within an hour they had us on a bus headed to San Diego (a 2 hour drive). We got to the airport there at about 1am. On the way we went right by my parent’s house! Mom and  Allison were at the airport to meet us and we finally got to the house about 1:45. Since then we have been relaxing, enjoying the peace and quiet, shopping, cooking, gardening and taking Mom to the gym. It is a nice vacation.