Look familiar?!

Announcers were loving Michael Bush today who played his first full
game of his career due to McFadden and Fargas injuries. Said something
like, "It's great to see a guy seize his opportunity like this."

Then they said, "What a run by BUSH! He has taken this game by the
throat and squeezed fruit!"

Hey, I can't make this stuff up!

Bush finished with 27 rushes, 177 yards and 2 touchdowns and was about
2 yds from his 3rd TD. He also scored the 65 yard game winning
rushing touchdown.

Great game Michael Bush!!

Funny Things Kids Say & Do

This morning as I entered the kitchen, I was greeted by the sight
below . . .

This was the Post-it note that Mark brought into our room last night asking, "Is Mom awake?"

Me: "No, she's not. What do you need?"

Mark: "I need a blank piece of paper to stick this to. It's a note to my teacher telling her that I want to be called, Buddy."

Me: "You want to be called Buddy?"

Mark: "Yeah, I want to change my name to Buddy."

Me: "Okay Buddy, how about we just make Buddy your nickname and leave your name - Mark?"

Mark: "Yeah, that's what I want! I want my nickname to be Buddy!"

Me: "Okay, why don't you stick that on the refrigerator so we don't forget and we'll get the blank paper tomorrow?"

Mark: "Okay Dad. Goodnight."

Me: "Night Buddy."

P.S. The note says, "My" with a line thru it, "Mark's name is Buddy".

Happy Thanksgiving!

So you've returned home from visiting with family and friends and eaten enough for an entire week, or so it seems and now you're sitting watching football, putting up the tree, or whatever it is that you do when you get home.

Well, maybe you haven't thought about it yet or maybe you're thinking, "I'll worry about it tomorrow", but now how are you going to work off the pounds you possibly just put on by gorging yourself all day?

I've mentioned before that I'm a new iPhone owner and am enamoured with it. My latest addiction is the Application from Livestrong.com. Now if you don't own an iPod, don't stop reading here. This same info is available on their website. If you own an iPhone or iPod Touch, the App makes it even better. Plus, the App is free on iTunes.

You can search its database for various foods including most restaurants dishes. When you find the food/drink you're looking for, click "I ate this" to add it to your "Daily Plate". It will track calories, fat, carbs, fiber, etc. and show how much of your daily caloric goal you have met for the day.

I've been tracking EVERYTHING as I eat or drink it. It definitely makes me think about what I'm eating and even what my next meal is going to be. It also tracks any exercise you do and estimates calories burned. Today I made sure to start the day off with exercise after my morning coffee and actually was able to leave the house headed to our Thanksgiving festivities with negative calories since I had exercised.

Below is the chart of my daily weight since I've started using it! I'm anxious to see how the scale looks tomorrow but think I did pretty well today.

Deflation

You may or may not have seen the article today on MSNBC regarding the concerns that are rising about deflation. It's an interesting read and I'll include a link to the article in this post for your convenience.

We've all heard of deflation but it seems like all we ever hear about is its counterpart, inflation. So what is deflation? Deflation is a decline in general price levels sustained for several months often caused by a reduction in the supply of money or credit.

John Schoen writes, "While deflation might sound welcome, in fact it can be devastating to borrowers, banks and businesses. The Great Depression in the 1930s was accompanied by deflation of 10 percent per year, reflecting the widespread lack of demand."

He goes on to explain "As prices fall, consumers and businesses become less willing to spend and invest, worsening the economic downturn, as happened in Japan's "lost decade" of the 1990s.
A sustained drop in prices hurts in two ways. First, because consumers and businesses anticipate prices will continue to fall, they would likely cut back further on spending and investment. Why shell out $1,200 for that flat-panel TV today when you can get it for $800 six months from now?"

The problem with this logic is that as people and businesses stop purchasing the economy starts suffering, businesses suddenly have too much inventory, employees get laid off, spending further reduces because of unemployment, etc., etc.

The second pain that Schoen describes is the debtors pain. "Inflation is good news for anyone who owes money because, as prices rise, spending power is eroded and the real value of money declines. When inflation is rampant, you get to pay back the $1,000 you borrowed last year with dollars that are worth a little less each year. That debtor advantage is turned upside down if deflation takes hold. As prices fall, the spending power of your money goes up. But so does the real value of your debt — because you have to pay it back with money that has increased in real value."


Read the article here on MSNBC.com. I think you'll at least find it interesting and something to continue watching.

Winter Stinks.

I haven't posted in a while and was just checking out the blog and had to laugh at some of the pictures to the right from Derby/Oaks 2008. What a wet Oaks that was this year. Then it reminded me of the pic I took of the boys this weekend at the UofL game versus Cincinnati. What a wet miserable game that was . . .

So, I'm looking at the forecast this week and the HIGH - let that sink in for a minute - THE HIGH temp this week is supposed to be 51 on Sunday. It's currently 29. Ugghhh.

Well, the boys were troopers at the game Friday. It started raining around halftime and then just poured the rest of the game. We were prepared for the rain with our rain gear, etc. The boys are actually sitting on their rain gear in this pic. They later put it on. The demise of Louisville football continues. It looks like its going to be a long turn around at this point.

I did hear something funny yesterday on ESPN Radio's 93.9 The Ticket. They were discussing UK's weekend in which they lost their football game as well as their basketball team suffered another embarrasing loss to VMI after losing to Gardner Webb last season. The radio personality said it was now official - UK has become a volleyball school and started talking about the volleyball team.

For those of you that are not from around here . . . each year the Louisville fans and Kentucky fans go back and forth on whether their respective schools are basketball or football schools bsed on which team seems to be having a better season. For example, Louisville is now "officially" a basketball school since the football program is sucking wind. UK is . . . well, UK, or I guess now a volleyball school.

Decision 2008

World Series? Cards? Cats? The Election?

So what to do . . . the Series Game 5 is on right now and we are not even watching (give me a few minutes). I've been sitting here with Mark going through his favorite songs on my iPod. He likes the Plain White T's song called "Figure It Out". I'm not really sure how he ever stumbled upon this song but I think it may have been in one of his shows on Disney. Anyway, he likes it. He also likes "Bad Day Bobby" the song about Bobby Petrino leaving Louisville, and "Cheeseburger in Paradise" and really anything Buffett. I think he likes the beach music like his mother. The last one he picked was Akon's "Don't Matter" which I remember I had to download specifically for him a year or two ago.

I also remember him singing this song most of the way home from Florida when we drove the trip. It was too funny because he had headphones in and all we could hear was his singing without the music. Pretty cute. He had this serious look on his face and was belting it out.

Well, the Cards were back on track this weekend beating #14 ranked South Florida 24-20. This was a big win for the team and for Koach Krag. In fact, this was his second win against a Top 20 team in 2 years if I'm not mistaken. It's hard to believe our record in now 5-2. I'm impressed. (Let's say my expectations have been lowered after last season.) I'm cautiously optimistic about Koach. I hope that he's a success. He seems like a good guy and I really do want him to succeed here but he certainly got started off on the wrong foot. Keep it going!

The Cats, well, hmmm, the cats. I'm not sure what to say . . . they're injured. The good thing seems to be that even Coach Brooks was extremely upset with the beat down Florida gave them. I figure if he's that mad then they did actually perform even worse than he expected. Okay, I'm not really sure how that's the "good thing" but anyway. They'll get better. They can't get worse, right? Right?!!

Nine days - but who's counting!? NINE DAYS. N I N E D A Y S. At this point I wish them both well. I seriously wish them both well. I certainly don't want Palin as my President and certainly became concerned again about today's news about a possible assassination plot against Sen. Obama. Come on people. Grow up and get educated. Apparently two "skin heads" were plotting to kill Senator Obama according to a report on MSN.com tonight. The scary thing is these two morons were caught, how many others are out there?


P.S. iPhone update - At the game this Saturday sitting in our seats at the top of Papa Johns Cardinal Stadium, a song comes on over the sound system and we are wondering what song it is and who sings it. So . . . I remember that I have the app Shazam on my phone and decide to try it out. I "tag it" there from my seat and SHAZAM . . . it comes up with "Shake It" by Metro Station. This is the song they play sometimes no during the "Boogie Cam" when they're scanning the crowd for people - well - shaking it!

iPhone 3G

When we were in California visiting my sister, Lori and her family in early August, Terri and I became exposed to the new iPhone 3G. Yes, I make it sound like a disease and that's intentional. This phone is a disease. I can't get rid of it.

First, I played with Lori's phone several times while we were there whenever I could actually pry it from her hands (she had already succumbed to the iPhone disease). She had such excitement about this phone, and it was quickly spreading to both Terri and me. The phone is incredible and basically works like a handheld computer with internet access. Programmers are going nuts developing applications for the devices making them even more amazing every day.

Here's a not-so-brief summary of how I'm using it so far. Calendar, contacts, email, phone, internet, iPod, GPS Navigation, camera, watch, alarm clock, texting, weather update, photos, entertainment, blogging, remote control, flashlight and the list goes on and on and on.

The "Maps" application that came pre-loaded on the phone actually gives traffic indications based on other iPhones GPS traveling along the routes being shown. If traffic is moving fine, the road is green, if slow - yellow, if really slow or stopped - red. I mentioned flashlight, there is an app that simply turns the screen white, I loaded the app the other day (it was free) thinking you never know and sure enough, we were at dinner with friends the other night at BJ's at Oxmoor and the lighting was so dim we actually used it to read our menus.

"Sportacular" is a free app I loaded and have used to track my "favorite" teams very easily as well as all the sports scores and stats. "Pandora" is a cool free app that takes a song you like and builds a playlist that complements that song. These songs don't even have to be in your library.

"Shazam" is another free app that will actually "listen" to a song that is playing in the room, the car, on TV, in a movie, etc. and identify the song for you, the artist and send you to iTunes if you'd like to buy it. Today we were driving in the car and I seriously couldn't think what song was playing on the car stereo and used Shazam to ID it. It worked!! The boys were so impressed, so was I.

This phone is seriously incredible. Everyday we find new things that it is capable of doing. My sister calls it her "Jesus phone". That may sound sacreligious but I'd like to think if Jesus were using a cell phone, this is the one he'd have, this phone is nearly a miracle worker.

St. Michael Football

Matt had a nice play in his football game today. Matt (#15) rolls off his block from the tight end position to the right side of the end zone to catch a pass from Mitch for a successful 2-point conversion. Note the jump at the end with another player. Too funny. Here's the link to the video of Matt's catch.

Now if you think that is a nice play for such a young group of athletes, check this out. This is a play that St. Michael ran in Mark's 1st and 2nd grade flag football game last Sunday. Notice how long this pass is and the fact that the QB is rolling out. Not only does he make a great pass but the receiver also makes a great catch. They're in 1st and 2nd grade!

Here is video of one of Mark's plays during the game last week. Mark is #1 in the video and is working as the quarterback in this play. Mark's scramble.

Finally, here is video of Mark's breakaway run from the quarterback position for a touchdown. If you watch the right sideline, you see two boys jump up in celebration. The one on the right in the light shirt and dark baseball hat is his proud big brother, Matt. Here is the link to Mark's run for a touchdown.

The boys are really enjoying football this season and so are we.

"The world revolves around credit and confidence."

I missed President Bush's primetime speech tonight in which he attempted to sell the American public and lawmakers on the "bailout plan". I'm curious to see how it was received by everyone. It has certainly been alarming the past couple days with some of the comments being made by Bush and Paulson. They have been alarmingly candid in my opinion. Such as, "Our entire economy is in danger."

I came across this article on CNBC.com and Jim Cramer's website tonight. Cramer thinks the "bailout/investment in America" must occur and that Paulson needs to sell the idea to the public in a better way.

Warren Buffet invested $5 billion of his money into the struggling Goldman Sachs. That's Billion with a "B".

They're back!!! Well, at least they were last night.

I have been thrilled all day with the thoughts of last night's UofL game versus Kansas St. It seemed our team had returned to the days of old when it was almost a given that we would win at home, that every time we took our offense onto the field we would score and that our defense would play solid.

Hunter Cantwell had a great game and threw many passes that were remarkable. Several passes went into tight coverage but his arm strength and accuracy allowed only the UofL receivers to get their hands on the ball.

Our running game came back last night too. We smacked them in the mouth with runs by Brock Bolen and then dazzled them with the speed and athleticism of Victor Anderson. Victor Anderson. Victor Anderson. Wow, Victor Anderson.

(AP Photo/Garry Jones)

First of all Victor Anderson is an alum of St. X, my alma mater. Second, he is a redshirt Freshman. Third, he brought it last night. The guy can flat out run. He has speed, agility, the ability to make cuts and make defenders miss, the ability to be slick and get away from poeple who actually do touch him, and finally and probably most surprising given his size, he can get extra yardage by moving the pile and scampering for more.

Bolen and Anderson combined for 280 yards rushing with Anderson having 176 yards on 18 carries for an avg. yards per carry of 9.8 and 3 touchdowns. Doug Beaumont, another Louisville native was the leading receiver with 9 receptions for 119 yards.


Hunter passed for 274 yards and went 22/33 and 2 TDs.

Great game Cards!


(AP Photo/Garry Jones)

Interest Rate Cuts Anyone?

First of all . . . has it really been since August 30th that I last posted? Wow. Well, knowing what my past month has been like, I can believe it, I guess.

My last post about the beginning of college football might be enough explanation in itself. Louisville appears to be ready for another lackluster season having started off the season with a loss to a less than stellar University of Kentucky football team (that, by the way, almost lost last night to Middle Tennessee State. This is the same Middle TN that has given UofL a run for their money the past two seasons and appears to be a decent football team this year.) Louisville has to play them soon and I am hopeful they fair as well as UK did.

Matt and Mark are both playing football for St. Michael's and we literally have practice or a game EVERY day of the week. It's been fun though. We are getting to know the kids and their parents as the season progresses so it's been fun for all of us.

Hurricane Ike has moved to shore and gas prices on Friday began jumping as much as $1 at the local pumps. Kentucky's Governor, Steve Beshear, declared a State of Emergency invoking the state's anti-price gouging law.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were "bailed out" last week. This is a good thing for all of us as it helps to ease the worry of what would happen if either of these two collapsed. They are so interwoven in the the overall economy that this had to be done. Speaking of bailouts, I was just reading an article in the Wall Street Journal about talks taking place this weekend to deal with the Lehman Brothers issue. Barclay's and Bank of America appear to be positioning themselves as suitors to buy the troubled investment bank but are seeking U.S. Government assistance should they decide to bailout/buyout the troubled firm.

So what about those interest rate cuts I mentioned above? Well, there's an article posted by Tom Brennan on Jim Kramer's Mad Money saying Kramer wants a 1% rate cut at this Tuesday's fed meeting but at least a minimum of 50 basis points (1/2% for you basis point novices) to try to help banks "get back on their feet" again.

I keep telling people that the really unusual thing going right now is you have these major banks paying 5% on their deposits because the are so desperate for funding and capital right now. This is causing all the banks to pay more they would typically pay on deposits just to prevent run off of their maturing CDs or liquid deposits to these desperate institutions. The average depositor doesn't know what is going on and is not concerned about these desperate institutions so they are moving their money to the banks paying 5% if their bank isn't paying a comparable rate.

On the flipside, the Prime Interest Rate, which is typically used as the index for lending rates on commercial lines of credit and short-term interest rates is also 5%. So banks are paying 5% to depositors and charging 5% to borrowers . . . where is the bank going to make money? Granted we all know banks charge fees, etc. but the banks have typically been able to count on this spread between deposits and loans as income and this margin has been shrinking and is now almost non-existent.

The really interesting thing to watch this week will be if the Fed does cut the Fed Funds Rate being charged to the banks, will the Banks pass along this cut to the Borrowers by lowering the Prime Rates. See, the banks individually choose to set what their published "Prime Rate" will be. Most banks match their Prime Rate to the published Wall Street Journal Prime Rate. However, their are smaler niche banks that will often keep their Prime Rate at a higher rate than that published in the WSJ. Larger banks tend to follow the WSJ Prime Rate in order to be competitive with one another.

With deposit rates being what they are and talks of a Fed Funds Rate cut this week, I could see the banks taking the Fed Funds Rate cut for themselves and pocketing this savings by keeping their published Prime Rates the same. Either that or the deposit rates will have to fall to match the lower Prime Rates. We'll see. Have a great week!

It's Official . . . College Football begins!! GO CARDS!

RU READY??!! I am.

Hunter Cantwell with Matt & Mark. They'll be sporting their #14 Hunter jerseys tomorrow.

It is finally here. I am so pumped and ready for kickoff. Louisville begins their redemption season against their little sister, Kentucky, this Sunday with kickoff at 3:30. Most of the city seems unsure who will end up the winner as Louisville was a major disappointment last season under new head coach, Steve Kragthorpe and Kentucky has lost several of its star players from last season.

Kentucky seems to be very confident with their defense and unsure of their offense. I am getting more and more confident this week with UofL as I talk to people and am reminded of the talent we still have on the team.

With names like Cantwell, Wood, Guy, VA, LT, Beaumont, Spencer, Bolen, Powell, Buchanan, Heyman, Gnat, Bussey, Heath, Woodny and the like, it seems like we should be able to compete with anyone. I looking forward to a decent season. I think Coach Krag has made some good hiring/firing decisions after last season and Coach Brohm and Coach English should put together a decent team.

I think we plan to start out early tomorrow around 10:00 am to hang out with friends and kick-off our tailgating festivities. Tomorrow we have the added benefit of Brian's band, Radio Radio playing in the Green Lot before the game. I think they begin at noon.

Louisville Skyline is Changing!

I noticed tonight that my picture above of the Louisville skyline is now noticeably out-dated after this weekend. Note the building in the bottom left near the bridge. It has a white sign lit up reading, "HUMANA" on it. After Saturday at approximately 7:00 am, this building no longer exists.

It was IMPLODED and the video is pretty cool. You might also note that this is literally right next door to our Central Bank office downtown at the corner of Third and Main. The building was imploded to make way for the construction of the new Louisville Arena, which ultimately should have some other "official name" after some company steps up and pays millions of dollars for the naming rights.

Here is a link to the Lambert & Lindsay blog which has the Courier-Journal's video of the implosion: http://themaxfm.com/Saturday-07-19-08---SPECIAL-BLOG/2627840

Scroll down the blog to see what the new skyline is supposed to look like eventually.

Football

My "Countdown to Cardinal Football" below is now down to 46 days. I've gotten back to checking the louisville.scout.com football blog almost daily to see if there are any major updates, etc. Football excitement is in the air.

I have two sons who have older friends in the neighborhood and this year, my sons were dragged into forming Fantasy Football teams in ESPN.com leagues created by the neighborhood kids. So I have been dragged into the league as well as they needed so many teams.

I have never done a Fantasy league before so I am a total newbie. I have to admit, ESPN's site is pretty cool. We did the LIVE Draft and I was amazed at how neat it really is. I remember co-workers in the past running these leagues and calculating everything manually using Excel and checking the paper for stats and I always thought they were crazy.

But with ESPN's site and I'm sure others', Fantasy leagues have become so easy. I look forward to seeing how the season goes. We stuck to the NFL and I don't plan to do college at this point.

Tonight I learned my starting QB, Peyton Manning, had surgery and his status is "Probable". Could be a long season already.

It's Been a While, Since I . . .

last blogged. Okay, that was my shameless play on the lyrics from Staind's song, "It's Been a While". You know the one. Here, I'll try to add it to my playlist below. I love that song.

Well, a lot has been going on lately. Terri and the boys went to Florida for a week with my in-laws while I stayed home and brought home the bacon (aka worked). My Mom had some health issues causing several late nights in the ER and at their house. (She seems to be okay now. Thanks for asking.)

My sister, Lori and her son, Nick, flew in from Rancho Cucamonga, California. My brother-in-law, Dan, joined them for the weekend and poor Austin, my nephew was left to work at his job in the research library at UCLA where he is a student. So, we've been hanging out with family all week which has been fantastic.

Lori is my oldest sister (10 years my elder) and is one of those people that is just "cool" to be with. She and her husband, my brother, Dan, are just great people with magnetic personalities that you just like and like to be with.

In the meantime, we have been home very little and have had little time for anything else. One thing that we did have time for was to teach Mark to ride a bike and go on several bike rides.

Here's a pic of Mark on his bike.

And here is a pic of his proud brother, Matt. His smile was great when he saw his little brother riding his bike for the first time.

CABO WABO with RADIO RADIO

Last night we went to CABO WABO to hear Brian Hall's band, RADIO RADIO, play. CABO WABO is a charity event that raises money for various local charities. Last night they were supporting an organization called "Supporting Heroes".

Kathi and Al Jaggers and Terri and I went to dinner at Old Chicago (which was excellent) and then on to Bowman Field where the event was held in an airplane hangar. Brian's band, RADIO RADIO rocked the house. My ears are still ringing this morning.

The place was packed with people. It's funny, Louisville has some beautiful people in it. It also has some strange looking people in it. We "people watched" the entire night and had a great time.

If you get a chance to go see RADIO RADIO, do it. I know you will be impressed. The lead singer is a guy that was formerly the lead with Thumper & the Plaid Rabbits, a band most locals know. Brian and the others were formerly playing as "The Milks". They stopped for a while and restarted as RADIO RADIO and added Jeff Duncan to their group.

Brian is all the way to the left playing lead guitar in the picture. They have a website on MySpace that posts their upcoming gigs. http://www.myspace.com/radioradiorocks

Check them out.

HOLE IN ONE!!!

Today I took Matt (9) and Mark (7) golfing at a nearby Par 3 course, English Springs. Matt has had clubs for a couple years and Mark just got his starter set a few weeks ago. We've been hitting balls in the backyard, etc., and this was Mark's first time to go out on a course.

As we headed out the door, Terri suggested I take our camera to get some pics of the boys since it was Mark's first true golf outing. So we get to the second hole and Mark tees off, Matt tees off, then I tee off. As I "skull" my ball, I think I said something like, "Ohh, I skulled it."

The three of us watch the worm-burner scorch up the fairway and land just before the green. The ball then begins its roll across the green right in line with where you would want it to be, heading toward the pin, gradually turning an ever-so-slight left on the slope of the green.

Matt says, "Dad, I think you might hit the pin!" from my left and Mark is on my right watching with BIG EYES. Suddenly, just as it is going to hit the pin, the ball dropped from sight. Matt yelled, "Dad, it went in!". Mark yelled, "Dad, you got a hole in one!"

I reacted differently than I would have thought. There was no Tiger fist pump or extreme celebration. I think I was too shocked that it went in. The boys gave me high fives and we were all happy and excited. Most of all, I was excited that if I was ever going to hit a hole-in-one in my lifetime, it happened on an outing with my two boys.

There was a single playing behind us so we let him play through and asked him to take our picture and explained it was Mark's first outing and my first hole-in-one. He was excited for us and said he'd been playing 35 years and never hit a hole in one.

Here's the pic. I thought it was funny when I got home a realized my eyes were closed. I wish it had been a better pic but that's probably how my eyes were when I hit that ball! So maybe it's appropriate.

Coldplay - Viva la Vida Album Released

It's been a busy week. The Coldplay album released 2 days ago and was waiting in my inbox for me to download and I didn't even realize it until tonight. Ugghh. In fact, I hadn't looked at email at home since Saturday.



I'm listening to the new songs I hadn't already heard on the new album and so far I really like the album. It's definitely Coldplay. Same sound. Several songs already sound like favorites even after a first listen.



If you're a fan of Coldplay, get the album, you'll like it.

So, I was glued to the TV last weekend watching probably one of the greatest US Open's of all time. Could you believe Tiger? This guy truly amazes me. I'm a huge fan and always have been. I think it's funny that so many people pull against him. I was telling my son, Matt, that I look at it as an honor to be able to watch this guy play the game of golf. I think he is the greatest player to ever play the game. I used to wonder if he really was and wondered how he compared to Jack in his prime, etc.

My Dad and I were discussing it and when my Dad said he thinks Tiger is the greatest he's ever seen, it confirmed it for me. His game is great from every aspect, putting, chipping, driving, approach, mental, etc.



It's even more amazing when you think he played the tournament with an ACL tear and broken bones. I hope he recovers fully and enjoys his break. Speaking of breaks, I just read Stevie (his caddie) is also taking the time off. Good for him, too.

Tim Russert 1950 - 2008

I was shocked to learn of Tim Russert's death last night when I arrived home from work. I'm not a huge fan of politics but try to stay knowledgeable about what is going on as an educated professional. Basically, my knowledge of politics comes from what I get from the Today show and the evening news.

With that said, Tim Russert has been the biggest source of my knowledge of politics in my adult life as I almost exclusively watch NBC news and Tim Russert was their Washington Bureau Chief. I really liked this guy, as I think most people did. Tim Russert had the ability to talk with a smile on his face, even when discussing serious subject matter. It seemed like you could see right into his big heart through the smile he always carried on his face.

I also experienced again how we connect to the people we watch on television. I always laugh when I think about Terri running into Dawne Gee from Wave 3 in the mall one day. She said they were walking toward one another and Terri spotted her and immediately raised her hand to waive as if greeting a friend she'd know for years. It was at the moment her hand was in the air greeting Dawne that Terri realized Dawne had no idea who Terri was or why she would be greeting her.

We tease her about it but I have to admit, I nearly did the same thing a few weeks ago when I saw David McArthur of Wave 3 at the J-Town Business Expo. We invite these people into our homes nearly every day and get to know their personalities, their quirks, their humor, etc. When they pass, we are saddened.

I will miss Tim Russert and his take on politics and the world. I always trusted his interpretation and thought he presented politics on my level. But most importantly, he always seem to love life and had a smile on his face.

YUM Center Tour of UofL Basketball's Practice Facility

Today I had the opportunity to tour the YUM Center with Coach Pitino and his staff including Walter McCarty, Richard Pitino and others.

It was AWESOME! We arrived around 2:00 pm and set up some items. Started greeting clients and prospects of the bank around 2:30 and began touring the facility around 3:00 pm. The coaches and staff could not have been more welcoming and interesting. I think we actually toured for about 2 hours meaning they really took their time with us. We saw the film room, the locker room & showers, the editing room, visited the Assistant Coaches' offices individually and talked with them individually about their days, recruiting, etc. We also visited the gym and weight room, the training room and Coach Pitino's office.

Coach Pitino hung out with the various groups we had touring the entire time spending time with each group and hanging out afterwards at the reception that was held. I think he stayed their until 6:00 just talking with various people.

The entire day was great. Thanks to UofL, Coach Pitino and his staff for hosting a terrific entertainment event for our clients and prospects!

Got Cicadas?

We do! I know we get cicadas every few years but I can not recall ever having them like we have them this year. Apparently this is the 17 year variety, meaning they have been living underground for 17 years and now have surfaced into the adult cicadas that we are currently witnessing.

Everyone seems to be talking about them. How could you not? They are everywhere. Look out the windows and they are all over flying around in the air, on the windows, in the trees. Walk across the lawn and you will notice them lying all over the grass and drive. Today I cut the grass and trimmed. They were all over me.

They fly pretty slowly and are very big, like a big moth. They will land right on you. Today I heard a clicking really close to me while trimming and felt a little vibration between my shoulders. To my unpleasant surprise, a cicada had found its way into my shirt and was sitting on my back between my shoulder blades. Ugghh.

Did I mention how loud they are? One guy states he measured their call at 90 decibals, more than an airplane fying overhead. I went out on the deck this afternoon and my ears were nearly ringing when I came back inside. Seriously, they're LOUD!

If you are out of town or aren't sure what they sound like, here is a link to a site that has audio and video of the cicadas. This sound goes on ALLLLLL DAAAAYYYY and is as loud as it seems. http://www.cicadamania.com/video/

Here's a picture I found of a cicada posted on Flickr by "Fleur-de-louis" who is in Kentucky.

Here is an article in the Courier-Journal about them. http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080531/NEWS01/805310509/1008

Power of Positive Thinking, Determination and Confidence

Well, you may have noticed that I haven't really mentioned my baseball team lately. Tonight we had our 8th loss in a row. It has been an abysmal season. We have extremely talented players and a few works in progress.

However, all season we seem to have battled negative attitudes and lack of confidence. In practice the guys seem to hit well and play well. In games, it has been a game of roulette for nearly every player at one time or another.

At this point, I think we have lost so much, that we may actually begin winning because they simply don't care anymore and may actually begin putting less pressure on themselves. We lost our last game 28-5. I have to give the other team credit, they simply hit the ball. We really didn't make errors, they just hit the ball extremely well. They put on a hitting exhibition.

We have not hit very well all season. Some hit one game, don't hit the next. Some haven't hit all season.

Tonight I came across this video and was inspired and reminded of the power of positive thinking, determination and confidence. It is from the Lexington Herald and can be found on Kentucky.com.

Here is a link and I really encourage you to watch it. You will be amazed. I promise.

http://videos.kentucky.com/vmix_hosted_apps/p/media?id=1907390&genre_id=00001159

Banker Bell = Nostradamus?

Well, maybe not, but if you read my very last post from Thursday, I blogged about some articles I read that indicated interest rates could be rising again. Would you believe I received updated rates Friday afternoon that showed about a 1/2% increase in long term rates? Treasuries began advancing after more dismal economic news.

Okay if this hasn't convinced you on the Nostradamus talents of Banker Bell, then search my posts on financials, financial sector, bank stocks, etc. Today's bank news is just bad. S&P cut the credit ratings of Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, and Morgan Stanley and said the overall outlook on investment banks is mostly negative.

Wachovia may be added to the list next after firing their CEO. And speaking of being fired, Washington Mutual has taken back its title of Chairman from their Chief Executive. Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase and Citigroup were also thrown into the fire as S&P changed their outlook to negative on these companies as well.

Here's the Reuter's article posted on CNBC.com: http://www.cnbc.com/id/24936376 and here's an article about the Treasuries beginning to climb: http://www.cnbc.com/id/5990199/for/cnbc/.

Does anyone recall me blogging about your mutual funds being laden with financial sector stocks? Here's one of the posts: http://bankerbellsblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/so-whats-up-with-this-economy.html

Have you checked your investment funds lately? While the idea is they diversify your portfolio, they can still have industry exposure and open you up to some serious losses in the event of industry issues like we're witnessing in the financial sector.

What's your banker reading? Are they staying on top of this ever-changing economy and bringing you the latest info?

Interest Rate Forecast & Oil Update

Yesterday's article from Reuters indicates two voting members of the Federal Open Market Committee warned that interest rate increases may be needed to curb inflationary concerns "even in the face of an anemic economic scenario" in the words of Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher.

So, if you love these low rates you're getting on your line of credit or hate these low rates you're getting on your savings and CD's, get ready for things to possibly change.

The article goes on to say "Central bank officials have expressed concern recently that the United States faces a hint of stagflation, the damaging combination of weak growth and wage-price spiral that hit the economy in the late 1970s and early 1980s, also at a time of rapidly rising oil prices."

"Some forecasters fear that the United States faces a "double-dip" slowdown, with growth likely to pick up in the next few quarters on the back of the stimulus package, before fading again in late 2008 or early 2009."

If you'd like to read the article, here is the link to CNBC's copy: http://www.cnbc.com/id/24864641

GOOD NEWS!!: Okay, here's your dose of good news for the day. . . Crude oil dropped about $4.49 to $126.54 and seemed to hold steady at this price range today.

Is Bigger Really Better?

I was actually reading one of the headlines under the Forbes.com widget to the right of this blog page (scroll down a little) and the headline is "When Bigger Isn't Better" by Melanie Lindner. Ms. Lindner writes about Russ Hamm's Rainbow Broadband which he planned to take national with credit cards and angel capital. "But then something happened that every entrepreneur would be wise to take note: When it came to making money, Hamm and company realized that bigger wasn't necessarily better."

In my fourteen years of banking, this is one thing that I have certainly learned . . . bigger isn't necessarily better. I have seen very successful businesses turn into unsuccessful businesses as a result of growth. Stop. I know you're thinking, "Well, it must have been poorly managed growth." In some cases you are right, in some, the growth put the company into a different arena than it had been in and the companies began to lose their identity, the employees weren't sure who the company was anymore, etc. You're still thinking - poorly managed - aren't you?

I've had the opportunity to work with several entrepreneurs who were smart enough to realize the growth (in their case) was a mistake and they and the Company did better at the lower sales volumes with higher profit margins. Profits were better, there were fewer headaches, fewer employees to deal with, etc. Life was just better. These entrepreneurs altered their plans and began scaling the company back to the more profitable times and reduced staffing through attrition, etc., and returned the companies to the levels of earlier days.

This is not say growth is bad. My point is simply that growth for some people is not as glorious as you might think. By the way, this is coming from a guy who grew to be 5'4" with shoes on. So take it for what it is worth.

How do you handle employee transition?

This past week I ran into an old client at the GLI Small Business Expo and he immediately seemed excited to see me and ready to bash my old employer. It was very disappointing for me as I truly admire my old employer and its employees.

However, one thing I have learned since I decided to leave after 14 years was that we never really mastered how to handle client relationships when an employee left the Company. It seems so simple, but we really did this bad. People didn't leave that often so maybe that could be used as their excuse.

When a person announced their resignation, it was kept very hush-hush, even within the department. Typically, if they were going to a competitor, they were escorted out. (This is common as they don't want client information walking out the door.)

But then, this is where the ball always was dropped. They would then begin analyzing the client portfolio assigned to the person leaving and decide if it should be split up, hire a new person to replace, which accounts should go where, etc. This would take days, weeks, months. I'm not exaggerating. Not only would this take too much time, they would almost try to hide the fact that the person left the Company. No one would call and say, "John, I'm sorry to say that Joe Banker has decided to pursue other opportunities and has left the Company. I wanted to call you personally and assure you that I will work with you directly during this transition and will begin introducing you to the new person handling your account as soon as this is possible. In the meantime, consider me to be your main contact and call me directly if I can be of assistance."

This simple phone call and message would eliminate the pain the clients experience when they call and learn their contact left the Company months ago and no one there felt their relationship was important enough to even make a simple phone call with the message above. Then they get even more mad when they ask, "Well where did Bob go?", and their told they can't disclose that.

I have always believed that open, honest dialogue is the best thing in all interactions with clients, even if the message is not exactly easy.

What is your Company doing during these times of transition?

BREAKING NEWS!

This just in from the Associated Press: "The Federal Reserve on Wednesday sharply lowered its projection for U.S. economic growth this year, citing blows from the housing and credit debacles along with zooming energy prices. It also expects higher unemployment and inflation."

Okay, maybe I was a little dramatic like Fox News, but, is anyone shocked by this? Has no one been reading my blog for the last few months? (I know the answer to that so don't bother answering.)

I was at the GLI Small Business Expo and 9 out of 10 businesses are saying the same thing, it is slow. Gas prices are killing business.

The Fed is indicating rates will likely not be cut anymore as inflation is a concern. The projected inflation rate was increased 1% to an expected range of 3.1 - 3.4% and the projected unemployment rate was also increased to 5.5 to 5.7% from last year's 4.3% average.

So what do we do? I say we all take a lesson from Tony Dungy's book outlined in my previous post and "keep doing what we do". Obviously we need to prepare our businesses for possible continued slowness and watch any frivolous expenses, etc. But I think we keep doing what we do. Keep winning the small battles, keep providing excellent client service, keep coming up with new ideas, keep in front of your clients, keep in front of your employees, vendors, suppliers, etc. Buy wisely and be sure to manage margins. Sales are no good to anyone if they don't make financial sense for your business. Don't manage the top line, manage the margins. These are the only numbers that really mean anything.

Call me and let's discuss the challenges your facing. Maybe a fresh set of ears can help with some fresh ideas.

Need a Good Read?

I am nearly finished reading "Quiet Strength" by Tony Dungy with Nathan Whitaker. It is written as a Memoir and is also available in an abridged version on audio CD and actually spoken by Tony Dungy.

It's a great story and there are definitely things to take away from the book as life lessons. I had always heard that Coach Dungy was a very religious man but was surprised at how deeply religious he is. He truly is an inspiration on many fronts.

He basically sums it up that life is about "touching lives, building a legacy not just on the field but in those places that most people will never see. Trying to be faithful in the position God has given me. My purpose in life is to glorify God. Be careful not to let the pursuit of life's goals, no matter how important they may seem, to lose sight of our purpose."

I also like Coach Dungy's perspective that we are basically living out God's plan. I have always believed this personally feeling like God basically has a blueprint and set of plans for my life and I was basically living out his plan. Coach Dungy explained when he was fired by Tampa Bay, he believed that God was ready to place him somewhere else, he didn't know where yet, but he knew God would soon tell him. He was soon "placed" with the Colts.

Ninja Warrior - Bell Style

Okay. If you have young boys in your house, you'll know what I'm talking about. If not, who knows, maybe you channel surf and have stopped here before. There is a show on the G4 network (Channel 61 on Insight Cable) called Ninja Warrior. I had heard my boys talking about the show before and was concerned it was similar to wrestling though I imagined it being more real with "ninjas" beating each other up on TV. This past week or so, I discovered it was not that at all but rather a fairly entertaining show where individuals try to complete very rigorous obstacle courses. It's a little like American Gladiators without the Gladiators as opposition. It's basically the competitor against the course.

Most of the show is announced in Japanese with English subtitles. Today happened to be an all day airing of episodes of Ninja Warrior so we have seen a couple episodes. As we're watching, I make the mistake of talking out loud in front of my wife how difficult I think some of the obstacles are and explaining that I think I could complete some of them but certainly not all of them. She starts laughing out loud at me. I know she is thinking I'd be lucky to complete any of them.

So I start explaining that as a kid, we would do this type of stuff in our house or around the neighborhood. She again laughs out loud and says something like, "Yeah, when you were a kid."

I, being a competitive person, decide I will show her how I used to walk up door frames in the house and drive my mother crazy. Terri thinks I'm nuts as I start to position myself between the door frame, but is astonished, when I actually walk up the frame with my hands and feet to the ceiling. (Okay, maybe astonished is a little strong.)

Well, the second mistake I made this evening was allowing Matt and Mark to witness my incredible talents as now they are "flying spiders" all over the house walking all the door frames and timing one another as they do it. We have created monsters, err, "spiders" in the house who are convinced they could compete on Ninja Warrior.

Dear Diary.

Okay. Today is going to be random thought. I have been sitting here for the past couple hours going through a 6 inch stack of bills, envelopes, etc. trying to make sure we were paying all our bills on time. Ugghh. Does anyone else have this trouble? We started throwing our mail in a plastic bin each day and now seem to find that you can only get to it every once in a while. Fortunately, the bills were in decent shape. But it is scary. I am convinced that auto debit is the way to go for about everything. I use Quicken and online banking to try to make life easier and it still is cumbersome.

The news is on and there are speculations that GE is going to auction Appliance Park. That's sad news for Louisville. GE has been a part of my life since birth. My Dad retired a few years ago as a Manufacturer's Representative that sold for companies to GE along with his brother. I worked as a co-op at GE Appliance Park during college. It has been a Louisville institution for so long that everyone in town probably knows someone who works there or is involved with a company that does business with them. Hopefully, if it sells, the buyer will see value in keeping the plant in operation here in Louisville.

Are you sick of hearing about and talking about gas? I am too but here I go. I bought gas yesterday, the lowest octane and it costs $3.95 per gallon. The premium was $4.15 per gallon. I spoke with a lady today that said her husband's F-150 truck costs $100 to fill. Where does it end? Will gas really reach $5 per gallon as some reports are indicating?

Mary Ann Simms - Rest in Peace

Yesterday I learned that my lifelong friend, Tom Simms, lost his mother to an eight week battle after a stroke she suffered. I have been friends with Tom since we were in the 1st or 2nd grade. My real first memory of our relationship is from second grade when Tom sat in the desk directly in front of me. Tom was always one of those really good guys and still would do anything to help out a friend.

Mr. and Mrs. Simms are the epitomy of good parents. I grew up with Tom as we would ride our bikes over to one another's house every day. Mr. Simms worked 6 days a week to provide for his family which included Tom and his older brother, Steve, and little sister Monica. Mrs. Simms worked tirelessly at home to provide the best home for her children and husband. They lived a very modest lifestyle while sending their 3 children to Catholic grade school.

Even though I'm sure money was tight, as kids, it seemed the Simms' had everything. Tom and Steve always had the coolest toys, the latest game systems (back then, I think this basically meant they had atari), etc. Tom was taught to work hard by his parents, he was taught respect and discipline.

Mrs. Simms had not changed a bit in the past 30 years that I've known her. She always seemed to be the same. I was fortunate to be able to see her in recent years when she attended her grandson, John's baseball games. John plays in the same league as my son.

Mrs. Simms' passing makes me realize what an impact the parents of my friends have had on me. I had never really considered this before but not only did they impact my friends' lives, they impacted my life.

Thank you for everything Mrs. Simms and especially for making Tommy the man that he has become. May you rest in eternal peace.

Is it May Already?

Man, it must have been busy these past few weeks. I have not looked at or posted to this blog since March. Terri and I have been busy with many things and just wrapped up our annual festivities centered around the Kentucky Derby, the greatest two minutes in sports.

We have an annual Derby Bash that has about 100 people traipsing through our house and lawn. We had family in from California and many friends and family over. We always have a blast with it but of course it is a lot of work and planning. Terri thankfully takes care of 99% of the pre-work.

This weekend we celebrated mine and Terri's 17 year "Dating anniversary". Yes, we do recognize our dating anniversary, the first time I bought her lunch at Subway. I think the only reason we really know the date is because it was 2 days before her birthday.

Speaking of her birthday, yesterday was Terri's birthday and today is Mother's day. Busy weekend for Hallmark at the Bell household. I spent $16 dollars on greeting cards at Kroger and that didn't include my Mom's card or my Mother-in-Laws card. Did you know greeting cards cost over $4 now? I swear I'm going to start sending e-cards to everyone.

While I'm up here on my soapbox, did you pay attention to the price of gas or a barrel of oil this week? We hit $126 per barrel on Friday and gas at Swifty (the cheaper place that lines up every week) was $3.75 tonight. According to the Tehran Times, "the U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs forecast an oil price of more than $200 a barrel within two years." I recently read where the 5 year oil futures were trading in excess of $100 which would indicate these prices are here to stay.

I think I have mentioned before on here that I am a big fan of Jeffrey Gitomer's. He's the sales guru whose articles you often read in Business First. I think this is where I first started reading Gitomer's articles on sales. He has a quirky sense of humor that I like. His ideas are sometimes over the top but the thing that strikes me most is he is going to have FUN.

I already have read many of his books with probably my favorite being "The Sales Bible". Well, he just released an updated version of The Sales Bible and as much as I enjoyed the first version, I couldn't pass on the updated version. While I was visiting the Amazon.com site, I also picked up copies of "SPIN Selling" and "The SPIN Selling Fieldbook" by Neil Rackham. I went through SPIN training a couple years ago with people from Huthwaite and figured I would study up on the old training to see what I had actually implemented from the training and what I could continue to work on in the future.

I like the idea of walking the client through their daily processes and leading them down their own road to what they are needing. If I can help with their needs then great, if I can't, that's great too. At least we've identified the needs and whether or not I can help.

I will try to post some of my thoughts on these reads once I have received them and read through them. I am anxious to receive them.

So What's Up With This Economy?

Everything I'm hearing this week is that we are basically in a Recession and Inflation is running rampant. Warren Buffet is saying its a recession, Jim Kramer is saying its a recession, Chris Bell is saying its a recession. Gas at the pumps in California are $4-5 dollars a gallon. A barrel of oil reached $106 this week. Bank stocks are in the tank.

Speeking of bank stocks, have you looked at your Mutual Funds lately? I keep watching mine slide and as I look into them, they all seem to have a significant percentage of Financials in them. Financial Sector stocks have been stable for so long that it seems all the mutual funds are loaded up with them.

The jobs report released today says 63,000 jobs were cut this past month. This is not a typo. 63,000 jobs in a MONTH. Investors had been expecting a 25,000 gain for the month.

Gone in 60 Seconds . . . or 3 practices.

Okay my last post was about the glow of coaching youth sports. Last night was the 3rd night of practice and it was brutal. First, it was COLD. Second, my son was in a foul mood. Third, it was COLD. Fourth, I took a shot directly in the back from a hard throw. Just a bruise, but a really nice bruise.

Anyway, for those of you who have coached your own children, you probably know what I am going through. Your own child never seems to want to go with the flow, take any coaching ideas from his/her own parent, or play the position that you ask him/her to play.

It was one of those nights.

Coaching Youth Sports

Yesterday was the first day of practice for Hikes Point Optimist and Matt's team, the Padres, had their first practice. I have the pleasure of once again helping to coach the team with Scott Warner, who was Matt's Head Coach last Summer.

This year we have a whole group of kids that I have never coached before with the exception of Matt and Scott's son, Jake. We did the usual introduction of teammates and coaches and got on with the practice. I can't express how much fun I have interacting with these guys each year. It seems like we all get caught up in the daily routines of work, school, homework, dinner, baths and bedtime that we hardly ever get to just PLAY.

Each season, this is my chance to play outdoors with the kids. This year the big difference seems to be their development and maturity. I immediately noticed walking up to the guys that they were much taller than last season. Warming up, I noticed the POP of the gloves and the heat on the balls.

I also noticed during practice how they seem to know the basic fundamentals that we've been coaching for years. Most of the kids have played 4-5 years now and have a good sense of the basics. It should be a fun season and I look forward to PLAYING in the sunshine with "the boys of summer".

Bell's Take on the Economy Today

There is certainly enough out on the web and in the daily news to read about the current economy. The trouble is, who do you believe, how much of it is just the doom and gloom spin created by the media, and how much of it is true.

I'll try to give you my personal perspective on the economy with one disclaimer. This is my personal opinion and not the opinion of my employer or anyone else that matters from a legal perspective.

I recently attended a real estate seminar put on by a local well-respected Appraisal firm, Integra Realty. They presented all sorts of good data in this half day seminar and included some Q&A panels that included some of the local heavy-hitters in the local real estate industry. (Darryl Isaacs was not there so excuse the heavy-hitter phrase.)

The main thing I took out of the seminar was the tremendous amount of inventory that exists in Jefferson, Oldham, Shelby, Bullitt and Spencer counties. The good news is it seems most homebuilders have stopped building the spec homes they had been building and are really only starting contract homes. The bad news is, they still have many of their spec inventory that they built last year.

Oil prices reached a record high this week at $103 per barrel. This converts to higher prices at the gas pump, higher commodities prices, etc. At some point this does and will affect consumer spending. We're back to paying over $50 to fill up our SUVs. For those of us who drive quite a bit, this adds up.

One interesting thing that was brought up at the Integra seminar that ties the fuel to the housing: It was noted that Bullitt and Shelby are being hit particularly hard in this housing crunch with a tremendous amount of inventory. Some speculate that because the fuel prices have climbed so high, more people are deciding to move in closer to the places they work instead of having the longer commutes.

Last but certainly not least, the financial sector continues to disappoint with the whole sub-prime stuff that's going on. I continue to hear that we have not yet witnessed all the issues that are out there for some of these institutions. There is still more fallout to come from this mess. I suspect that we are in for some very interesting times with the real estate market even in this area. Louisville has historically been sheltered from most real estate corrections but I think we will see corrections occur right here in our hometown.

I was reading an article this past week describing how various banks are reviewing their portfolios and beginning to make market adjustments writing down the estimated value of homes in their portfolios and then beginning conversations with their clients about sending in checks to pay down their loan balances to get the Loan-to-Value ratios back within acceptable terms. How widespread this becomes remains to be seen.

I basically think we have too many things going on negative to think this will end anytime soon. I think we are in a 2 year slump. I think rates will drop again in an effort to provide stimulus to economy but they can only go so low and I don't think Bernanke is likely to take the rates as low as Greenspan did. We'll see.

In the meantime, take a look at your line of credit rate, take a look at your term debt rates, meet with a great banker (I might know someone!), and review your debt structure. Also, don't forget to have me check on what you're paying your bank for depositing money in their bank. I am shocked by what I am seeing charged in analysis charges on commercial accounts.

Give me a call. I look forward to showing you the way!

Who is Chris Bell?

Chris Bell was born in 1972 in Louisville, Kentucky to Jim and Joan Bell who have now been married for 46 years. I was their fourth child and first son. Yes, I was born into a family with 3 older sisters. Oh yeah, you're saying, "Well, that explains some things about Chris." Six short years later, I was the upset older brother of another SISTER! Now you're saying, "Wow, THAT REALLY EXPLAINS some things about Chris." All kidding aside, I did grow up with FOUR sisters who I dearly love. I would not change a thing.

We range in age from 45 to 29 years old. Sixteen years difference between my oldest sister, Lori and my youngest sister, Stephanie. Talk about a house that always had something going on! Can you imagine the drama I witnessed?

We all went through St. Edward Grade School, the 3 older sisters followed in my Mom's footsteps and went to Mercy, I went to St. X and Stephanie went to Assumption.

I was always the kid who wanted to do the right thing, follow the rules, be the best I could be, etc. To this day I have never even taken a draw off a cigarette, and never will. Boring, probably to some degree, but I never saw it that way. I have always gotten my enjoyment out of soaking in the environment around me.

After St. X, I decided to stay at home and go to Bellarmine. It ended up being one of the best decisions of my life. I think within the first week or two of school, I met my wife, Terri. We were both dating other people at the time but we were in a small group of friends at school. Eventually near the end of our Freshman year, we were both single and had our eyes on each other. I truly believe that I am one the lucky ones who actually found their "soulmate".

We are both pretty laid back and don't sweat the small stuff but rather look for solutions. We are also hard drivers and goal oriented in our careers and hobbies. If you read the prior two sentences, they almost seem like opposites but somehow we are able to find the laid back side in our personal "at home" life and the goal oriented hard driver side in our professional lives. Terri is a CPA and I earned my MBA shortly before our first son Matt was born. A couple years later we were blessed with the birth of our son, Mark. (There are no plans for a Luke or John for those of you going there!)

However, we did recently complete our application for an International Adoption from Thailand. We hope to be blessed with a little girl. This is always something we hoped to do, God willing. When we were in college and getting engaged, talking wedding, kids, etc., we always said we wanted to have 2 children and if we ever decided to have 3, we would adopt the 3rd.

Wow, I have told you a lot about me personally. If you are still there and not asleep, I guess I'll try to tell you a little about me professionally.

I started with National City in June 1994 fresh out of college in the Officer Training Program. I credit National City and my awesome mentors, Linda Schaber, Bill Shepard, David Fennell and Chuck Denny with helping me become the professional that I've become. There are others who I have not mentioned but I don't think I could have been blessed with better people to work with over the years.

I managed the largest Middle Market portfolio for several years and enjoyed every minute of my time at National City (okay, well almost every moment). In my last year or so, I travelled some back and forth to Owensboro handling a portfolio of accounts there in addition to my portfolio in Louisville. This was a great experience as I was going into a market that had historically been covered in market and had to tell clients that I would be taking care of them out of Louisville. You can imagine the initial reception.

However, I think this experience gave me the added confidence that I was very good at building relationships with my clients as I didn't lose a single account in Owensboro. I have always tried live my life by the saying, "Attitudes are Contagious . . . Is Yours Worth Catching?" I actually first saw this in a Successories picture of matchsticks side by side with the first one or two on fire. I'll try to post a pic of it at some point.

Well, it's late and who knows how this reads at this point. I'll stop for now.

If I can be of assistance, please feel free to call me.

Why Central Bank?

Hi and welcome to my Blog. This is a first for me . . . the whole Blog thing. I have never created a blog but thought I'd give it a shot and see where I could go with this.



I've been a Corporate Banker my entire career (about 14 years now) and spent most of my career at the largest Commercial Bank in the State of Kentucky for the past 13.5 years until I recently departed to pursue what I believe is a "chance of a lifetime opportunity" with Central Bank.



Central Bank is the dominant bank in the market they started in (Central Kentucky/Lexington area) as rated by Greenwich Associates. The bank has been around for about 65 years and takes great pride in the fact that it is a locally owned bank having the size that allows it to compete and actually have lead market share in its original market even against the superregional banks of National City, PNC, Fifth Third, BB&T, etc.



In the past couple years, Central Bank has expanded its markets into Northern Kentucky and Louisville. My goal is take all the great things I've learned and experienced and couple these with all the positives of our Lexington based bank, and create a dynamic, client-centric commercial bank for the Greater Louisville Business Community. I am confident that the Louisville Business Community desperately wants a Bank that is focused on them and their business rather than on what products and services can be sold to improve the Bank's bottom line.



So many of the local banks have shareholders they must report to that it seems their only focus is to grow the top line while cutting out as many expenses (aka service) as they can to ultimately improve the bottom line. I have witnessed banks making cut after cut after cut to the point you think they can cut no more until you realize that instead of cutting one or two more people from each department, they move on to cut entire departments.



This is going on in every market and it seems to be in every bank. One of the most refreshing things I heard when I came to Central was that the Kincaid sisters (who own the majority of the shares of Central Bank) treat the employees and clients of Central Bank like family. (YES, I did say "employees and CLIENTS".) I also was told that while the Bank obviously is in business to make profits (and does), the Kincaids also manage the Bank (or advise the Bank management) in a way that benefits the Bank for the long term while benefiting both the clients and employees of Central Bank.



I remember sitting through a Product Knowledge training class shortly after I started with Central and saying, "You've got to be kidding me." over and over as we reviewed the pricing on various products and services. The prices were so much cheaper than what I have been accustomed to. I think this is demonstrative of my comments above.



I believe if we can get our message out to as many Businesses in the area as we can and continue to deliver the Central Bank service that our current clients have become so appreciative of, we can build the Louisville market into market who predominantly chooses to do their business with Central Bank.

Have I peeked your interest in learning more about Central Bank service?