2011 Year in Review

What did 2011 hold for me? It feels like it went by too fast. Every year goes faster which must mean I’m getting old. I’ll probably skip over the part that in 2011 I entered my 30’s. . . what happened to my 20’s?

The winter of 2011 Jan-March was truly the “winter of Brandon”. I went to more Jazz games last season and went snowboarding more than ever before. Indirectly all of it was due to working at Backcountry. The snowboarding was more “directly” related to working there as I was able to visit multiple ski resorts for free. I hit the Canyons a few times and they have really expanded their resort since my previous visits in high school. The bubble lift is pretty sweet. Nothing like sitting on a heated lift with a windshield as you head up the mountain. The Jazz games were two-fold: 1) getting tickets through Backcountry either as a client of KPMG or through the company’s tickets, which of course was awesome; and 2) friends inviting me to games because they knew I was available to go, unlike in previous years where they knew the answer would be “sorry I’m working late, again”. So pretty much my move to Backcountry worked out pretty sweet in the “perks” department early 2011.

The downer that occurred in that stretch was that Jerry Sloan abruptly retired (already covered in previuos post) and DWill was traded all within a couple weeks in early February. I did get to see 2 of the last 3 Jerry Sloan coached games so that was pretty great, even though both were losses. Funny thing is, the night of that last game versus the Bulls, my buddies and I played ball down in Lehi. At the Maverik after, Thurl Bailey walks in on his way home from his Jazz coverage. We chatted with him for a while and he told us Sloan would be stepping down the next day. All of us, “Nah!” I will never doubt Big T again! :)

Early May I had to head down to Costa Rica for work. It was kind of weird being in another country. I found myself a little in fear that if something happened to me I now had a wife and children back home. Much different feeling than when I was on the mission. All in all Costa Rica was fun to speak in Spanish and be back in the Latin culture again but all I really did was work all week so we didn’t do anything special besides eat a lot, which is what I usually do anyway.

Two weeks later I got news I needed to head to Little Rock, Arkansas for work. We flew into Memphis and drove down to Little Rock. I crossed the Mississippi River for the first time. It was much bigger than I had envisioned. Pretty majestic to cross. Little Rock had a small time feel that I really enjoyed. The Clinton Presidential Library was also pretty impressive. I didn’t know that all Presidents had Libraries. You could spend a few days at least in any given Library since so much history happened during any President’s term. Clinton’s was pretty fun since it was right during my growing up years of the ‘90s.

In June the travel continued. For my CPA training I went to Bar Harbor, Maine, but in a round about way. We took the red-eye from SLC to Vegas, then to JFK in New York, then to Boston. From Boston we drove up to Bar Harbor. Maine is beautiful, Acadia National Park was fabulous and the little Harbor town I did my conference in was fun. The only unusual thing was my boss decided to book us a Bread & Breakfast instead of a normal hotel. It was nice and cozy but we felt a little weird checking in. The owner of the B&B is a CPA so he liked that we picked his B&B for our conference stay.

On the final day in Boston after the week in I got to tour Fenway Park. It was pretty cool to tour such an old park with all the history of the Red Sox. The scene in “Moneyball” where Billy Beane gets the Red Sox GM offer was pretty cool to me because I knew I was sitting right there in that press box just a couple months earlier.

From Boston I got home to SLC, only to fly the next morning to Vegas to meet up with my family who were already driving to Disneyland! Coast to coast in 2 days! We enjoyed a 4-day Disneyland vacation. Cannon was so good and loved all of the rides; well, except one. He kept asking every day to ride the Tower of Terror. He would grab a map as soon as we entered the park and point to Tower of Terror and say “I want to ride THAT one!”. Finally on the last day I decided he needed to get what he wished for. He knew as soon as we went into the little prep room it was a bad idea. But we had waited an hour to ride and I wasn’t letting him out of it that easy. Needless to say he cried pretty hard. His grandma Christine rode with us and she took a picture of him as soon as the ride was over, pure tears. I overheard people whispering “He is too young for that dad to take on this ride” so I announced to our crowd that he had been begging all week for his punishment of a ride. (I’m writing this from another Disneyland trip this week here in January. Cannon specifically said right away he did NOT want to ride Tower of Terror this time).

In August Rachel and I ran a pretty sweet “Rivalry Relay” with some of our neighborhood friends. It was a relay race from the U down to BYU. It took all day but we did pretty good I think. It was husbands against wives. The wives had around a ½ hour head start but we caught up with them by leg 5 (around Little Cottonwood Canyon) and never looked back. I ran the opening leg, a middle leg, and our final leg. I ran the opening leg as hard as I could. I honestly thought before the race I would have to run the final leg as hard as I could as well, figuring we’d be neck and neck with the wives. I took my sweet time on the final leg since we had such a monster lead J.

September. I turned 30. Rachel threw me a surprise birthday party. Very thoughtful of her. Once again I say to myself “What happened to my 20’s?”.

October- I make one last trip to Arkansas. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that in Little Rock there is a restaurant called the Whole Hog Café that is the best barbecue I have ever had. Literally the best ribs I have ever had (and I’ve had a lot of ribs). I’m not sure I can express how impressive this place is. It is a simple restaurant in a strip mall with a modest sign. But walk in and you will immediately notice that the entire walls are lined with trophies from all the barbecue competitions they have won. The night we went there was some Corvette convention there or something because there were about 30 Corvettes in the parking lot. Pretty cool stuff. I also remember that while I was spending that second stint in Arkansas I read on twitter that Steve Jobs passed away. So I was riding in a rental car (as a passenger not a driver :) ) when I found out Steve Jobs had died. I feel like that is one of the big events of 2011 and commented on it when it happened.

November- Thanksgiving at my mom’s the Sunday before, at Rachel’s mom’s on Thanksgiving day. I would like to make a permanent note that I had multiple TD’s in the Turkey Bowl that day which is the most important thing after all J.

Also in November Rachel and I got to stay at the Stein Erickson Lodge at the Deer Valley Resort for a night thanks to her Dad & Stepmom Diana. We drove up in my crappy Civic into the valet-only parking lot. The bellhop tried to open my rear drivers side door to get my bags but it doesn’t open from the outside anymore so I had to open it from the inside. We had spent the night shopping for Christmas gifts at the Park City Outlets so really my whole backseat was filled with shopping bags, not bags for our overnighters. I pulled out a tiny little backpack and showed the bellhop, “This is all”. I felt really out of place with all the service and plush resort. It was fun to stay there but a funny night for Rachel and I as we realized we’re probably more comfortable at a Fairfield Inn.

It’s always amazing how fast the year flies. Time seems to pass faster, especially when you’re not paying attention. From writing my brother Casey every week I’m reminded of how it felt on the mission; you had a specific “end date” in your mind whether you wanted to admit it or not, and that end date made time pass slow in a sense. But in “normal life” you have no fixated end date, and when you’re not paying attention suddenly lots of time has passed. I do, however, feel that I’ve learned to appreciate events that happen during my time even at a relatively early age. Probably because my dad was gone so young, but I frequently sit back and think about how great my various experiences are.

December- Flies by as usual. A few Christmas parties, all great. I even through a “Ball Family Christmas Party Featuring Little Caesar’s Pizza” for the extended Ball family like Grandma and Grandpa Ball used to do. It worked out pretty well for year one of the re-launch. Hopefully we can keep it growing in the future. Santa visited our house and left Cannon a Batman Cave, Brooky a Kitchen, and Rachel some boots and a pea coat. Then right after Christmas was over we headed out on a two-week vacation to Southern California thanks to the invitation from our friends the Brewers! (and my boss :) ). So here I am, ringing in 2012 on the road in sunny California.

I frequently end meetings at work noting that whatever particular meeting that just ended was the “best meeting ever.” I say that mostly as an optimistic view of the results that will come from having the meeting. If you buy into the theory that you continually build and progress as a person and as a team/family/whatever unit, then each day at least has the potential to be the best day ever. And so will begin 2012, the best year ever. I have a great wife, 2 great kids, great job, great home, great everything. And that is the BASE, so it will build from here.

OUT.

A Christmas Story

Other than it being the title of the best Christmas movie ever I thought I'd drop a little Christmas story today as I reminisce on my favorite Christmas's growing up. I was telling my wife a story last night and realized I couldn't remember exactly what year it related to. Exactly what age I was when I had my Christmas experience isn't all-important but it's sad to realize I can't remember the specific years of each Christmas.

It first started last night talking to Rachel about the year I wanted a Nintendo game system. I had a Commodore 64 computer that had lots of games on it and my dad kept threatening that if Santa brought me a Nintendo I'd have to give up my computer. He also emphasized that I would only have the Nintendo with the 1 free game (Mario Bros. & Duck Hunt) or I could keep my computer and it's many games. From the perspective of an adult now I realize he was just trying to stave off the inevitable purchase of a Nintendo and the expense of the games that come with it. Shrewd move of him trying to threaten my computer games, which I loved dearly as well. I held strong in the end and kept requesting the Nintendo, hopeful that I would someday be able to secure another game or two. I honestly did have doubt waking up that morning as to whether or not a Nintendo would be waiting for me, but there it was sitting on the couch as I came out to the tree. I had already played Mario Bros. at friend's houses so many times that I pretty much immediately wanted another game. :)

Now here's where it gets fuzzy for me. I'll have to go back and check my scrapbooks because I can't remember if some of these gifts fell on the same Christmas or each were individual years, but if I rank the top Christmas's in the annals of my history, the top gifts include the Nintendo, the Sega Genesis (obviously a progression on the Nintendo, I even remember I must've been 12 on that one since it was the last Christmas in the Sandy house), the electronic racetrack, and the grand-daddy of them all, the basketball hoop. I believe I got the Nintendo or the racetrack the same Christmas as the basketball hoop, and here's why:

I had been asking for a basketball hoop for a long time but felt resigned to the fact that it was not meant to be. How could Santa even fit a huge backboard down the chimney? (Which we had at the Sandy house). I came out and opened my presents and was pretty satisfied with the haul. I had expected if a hoop had indeed been delivered from Santa's sleight it would be in a giant box with the backboard and rim. Since no box was present, it was obviously for naught. Oh well, maybe next year. As we were cleaning up the boxes and wrapping paper my dad asked me to head outside and shovel the driveway. Usually I would probably be prone to complain about such an assignment, but since I had just received a boatload of presents from Santa for being good i figured I better respond in kind. I peaked out the window to see how much snow had fallen the night before. . . sitting in the driveway, all setup in the concrete ready to play with a bow on the rim, was my brand new basketball hoop. Now that was Christmas magic!

Anybody that lived on Borg drive during those few years will remember the games on that hoop. Pretty much daily in the summertime we would play at least for a while. I don't think I have ever used a Christmas present more before or since. Cannon and Brooklyn are still too young for this year to be in the running for "Best Christmas Ever" but it's just a couple years away before Cannon enters that window where Santa will have to step up and provide a gift that will become his all-time favorite. I hope he likes basketball :)

Steve Jobs

So I'm here in Arkansas on a business trip, riding in a car after work, checking my iPhone to see what Twitter has to offer. CNN tweets that Steve Jobs has passed away. "No way that's real" I think, even if it did come from CNN's twitter feed. Then I see it is indeed legit as every news source feed I follow confirms it. Truly a passing of an icon.

Back in my Comcast days I applied for a promotion of Call Center Supervisor. My boss at the time Steve Finch encouraged me to apply. When we discussed interview strategy he told me I had to find someone who was a good example of leadership. Finch's person was Walt Disney. He was always raving about Disney, Disneyland, the service, the magic, the whole experience. He told me that once in an interview he heard a guy use Hitler as a great example of a leader because he got so many people to follow him (Kind of makes sense, but i definitely wasn't going that route).

I chose Steve Jobs. I knew he was the leader of Apple and he was responsible for the ipod, one of the coolest inventions ever. I tried to do some research on him before my interview but looking back I know I butchered him in my interview. I kept referring to him but didn't really have any substance to back it up. Even today I don't have a ton of substance other than when you say his name you know his leadership is what has made Apple what it is. iEverything.

I didn't get the job that time around but I still remember thinking of Steve Jobs as my top example of leadership, something I would still think of today. Apple is a company that has taken risks, been creative, and hasn't been afraid to be the lead dog in many technological areas. I'm pretty much the antithesis of all those things since I'm so risk averse but I can appreciate how hard it is to stick your neck out there and hope it flies. In so many cases the products Jobs was responsible for bringing to market flew well and were copied the world over.

I may have written something similar to this before but all the time I think about how if I could go back to 1992 just before my dad died and visit him, I'd want to show him all the technological advances of today. When I have that vision in my head of what I would show him to represent all the advances from 1992 to now, I basically have in my hand an iPhone and an iPad and that pretty much covers everything I would want to show (the internet, the incredible advances in cell phones, computers, HD cameras, mp3's, touch screens, video phone/face time, apps, the works). So basically all the advances in the past 20 years that I would want to take back in time with me can be directly linked to products of Steve Jobs' mind. I felt like that was worth writing about. RIP

Jerry Sloan

It is 19 years ago this month that my dad passed away (on the 6th). He definitely wasn't as in to sports as I am now, but he would occasionally watch a Jazz game with me when I was young. The game I remember most was the Jazz vs. Bulls triple-overtime game. By the end of the third overtime Pippen had fouled out and Jordan got ejected. It was a thriller.

The game was on February 3rd, 1992. My dad died 3 days later. I always have this memory in my mind of him coming home from work and coming in the door at 6:30. I would be on the couch usually watching "Cheers" reruns when he walked in. My memory is that I would always half-heartedly glance over with a "hey dad" and turn back to my show. Why put any importance on his arrival? He comes home every day. . .

Last night I had setup a recording of the Jazz-Bulls game (ironic it's the Bulls again) because I wanted to see how Carlos Boozer played in his return to Salt Lake City. I saw the first quarter or so and thought, "I don't need to record the rest I probably won't come back and watch it anyway. Just another game." And I left to go play basketball with my friends like I always do on Wednesday nights.

It's funny to think back how you would react differently if you knew something big was going to happen. If I had known it was going to be Jerry Sloan's last game, I would have bailed on ball with my friends and watched every last second. I'm sure most of Utah feels the same. Maybe it's better to have just a quick, cut-it-off ending instead of some type of retirement tour.

I can't pinpoint the time when I became so emotionally invested in the Jazz, but I know it's been a long time. Watching a game, I still feel like I'm 11 years old watching it on Channel 13 KSTU, before even the days of KJZZ or FSN. I loved hearing Hot Rod call the games and of course watching Stockton and Malone. Through it all, Jerry Sloan has been the coach. I was seven years old when he started coaching. I remember at the end of '88 when Reagan's term was ending and my dad commented to me how he was the only President I had ever known. Well, here I am much later in life and Jerry Sloan is the only coach I've ever known, at least as far as my basketball memory takes me.

The first game I ever went to was against the 76ers at the Salt Palace. I don't remember the year but it had to be after Sloan was already the coach. I do remember seeing Barkley and his bald head. The Jazz won, and for some reason I remember the 76ers coach got ejected in the second half. That was just another game in the books then, but I still remember it today.

I've actually had the Jazz season of my life so far as far as attending games is concerned. I've been to seven games already this year with an 8th scheduled (so far), including both the Rockets and Thunder games last week (both losses, unfortunately). But somehow I got to see 2 of Sloan's final 3 games at home. Interesting that they were all losses, but that's just been the trend this season; losing at home for whatever reason.

I wish it could have gone on forever; just one of those things that is a big part of your life, but not something that is consciously on your mind because it's so routine.

During a news clip today they showed highlights from the early '90s. We've had some great teams over the years. Some of the highlights were showing Stockton making some absolutely ridiculous passes to Malone. Just watching the 30-seconds of highlights was a reminder as to how great those players were. The 2007 series over the Rockets, Game 7 in Houston, was also an incredible run. I'll never forget Andrei Kirilenko's ill-advised 3 pointer to tie the game 88-all. My friends and I are all screaming, "No, no, no!!!!! YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

It's funny how things work out. I've discussed future coaching candidates with friends for the past two years at least, always with the assumption that Sloan's departure was so far off that anybody we discussed wouldn't even be an option by the time the real decision came down. My favorite candidate was always Tyrone Corbin. Knows the Jazz: played for us, coached with us, part of the family so to speak. I can't help but wonder if part of Sloan's move was to help ensure Corbin was named the new head coach. While the details of why he really left today so suddenly are cloudy, if part of it was to segway Corbin into the new job, it was just one last sly coaching move from Sloan.

Thanks for 23 years. I love the Jazz!

2010 Year in Review

2010 was truly an integral year in the life of Brandon Ball; looking back, I can’t believe I’m sitting where I am today and would have never believed at the start of the year that I would go through so much in one year. Here it is, the balltrain’s super-awesome 2010 year in review.

January- You know how every kid hates the first few days back at school, but then after a couple weeks you’re in the routine of school and you’re used to it so it’s not really that bad? I’ve decided that is the perfect analogy for busy season in public accounting. The first few nights of working til 8-9-10 ish are quite the grind, but after a week or so you get into the routine of it and suddenly you find yourself saying in your head, “It’s not so bad. I can deal with working late into the night every day for the foreseeable future.” I also indirectly experienced a key moment in January and I even posted on it earlier this year. I was working on the BMW audit and one of the accountants there had told me about how in late 2009 he had run a marathon in Greece. I thought that was one of the coolest things I had ever heard. A big accomplishment that he would remember forever and in Greece to boot. Pretty cool if you ask me and it turned out to be an inspiration for me just a short time later.

February/March- Really late January I get onto my main audit IHC. I had previously agreed with a coworker that we were going to lose weight starting January 1^st, but I had done nothing up to that point in any effort to lose any weight. We decide as a team that during the audit we are going to have a weight loss competition. Everybody joins in, records their personal goals, and we decide to eat healthy (read: Subway every day) as much as possible. At the time I weigh in at 260, my all-time high.

So one night I’m sitting at home (it must have been a Saturday or Sunday) and my sister Jackie is over visiting. I tell her about my supposed weight loss goal but how I’m not sure how to start. She picks up my laptop and immediately goes to the signup page for the Salt Lake City Half Marathon in April. For some reason I decide to sign up, and my fate of 2010 being the year of the run is sealed. I start running a few times a week, usually around midnight in the freezing February cold, just a few miles each time around my neighborhood. I also start spending Saturday mornings on “long” runs, which on the first Saturday meant a healthy 3 miles, which felt like forever at the time.

I hurt my foot a couple weeks before the big half marathon and wanted to just bail completely, but I’m convinced by Jackie and my sweet wife to just go for it anyway. I finish if I remember correctly at 2:48. Not a great time but I was at mile 11 when the full marathon winner passed me by so I thought that was pretty good for me.

May- So after the marathon I tell Jackie, “You know, if I kept running for a couple more years I might be ready to run a marathon in a couple years”. So since the St. George Marathon has a 3^rd year guaranteed entry in the lottery, I tell her to sign us up for it, assuming of course this is year one of getting rejected from the lottery. So when the email came titled “Good News from St. George Marathon” I knew I was in trouble! Problem was, Jackie did something wrong on the registration so somehow she was rejected while I got in alone! But I set off to start running and basically every Saturday the entire summer I was out running a “long” run in preparation.

June- We were positive that our daughter would come the same way as Cannon, so we scheduled an inducement a few days after the due date. Thursday June 17^th was the due date, but we went to bed as usual. Next thing I know I’m waking up just after midnight and Rachel is packing a bag. “What are you doing?” “I think my water just broke we need to go to the hospital.” I was totally shocked that she was coming on her own! We had to wake up Cannon and drop him off at my mom’s on the way to the hospital. He was NOT pleased and we could hear his screaming even outside. Lesson: try to not wake your kids up at 1 am and drop them off while they are still not fully awake and disoriented.

So we get to the hospital, and a few short hours later Brooklyn Ball is born! It actually worked out perfectly, just Rachel and I alone for a few hours waiting for our baby, and she’s born before the world wakes up and even knew what was happening. It was a fun experience and went way smoother than the inducement so we were happy all around.

So I took two weeks off after Brooklyn was born. It was supposed to be to relax with my children, but in reality it was to finish our basement. I painted our entire basement in those two weeks and I basically hated the basement by the time I was done. I still feel a little bitterness everytime I walk down there. Lesson- if you are finishing your basement, just pay somebody to paint when you’re that close to the end. We did do some fun things like head to Lagoon and the pool a few times.

On the last day of my time off I got a call that would change my life so to speak. My old friend Simon called me and offered me a job at Backcountry.com. He had worked with me at KPMG and needed somebody to fill a new position opening up. We discussed it a bit and I agreed to meet with him to discuss it more, but I really didn’t feel like I’d end up taking it as I had my mind set on making the big “Manager” level at KPMG. I had even fielded a few other offers previously but had always stayed loyal to KPMG and my original goal out of college. But I did feel good about this job after hearing more so I went down the path of applying and seeing what happened.

July- Once back to the grind, I had this offer in the back of my mind, but it was a slow-developing process and plus, if it didn’t work out, I wasn’t looking to leave KPMG so I wanted to keep doing a good job. Up to Washington I went just like the previous two years. I actually grew to love the Tri-Cities area and even could live there. Beautiful Columbia River, all the stuff you need, good people. The weeks up there were the same as always; eating out at the same restaurants on the same routine every week and working all day. I even snuck in a couple drives up there which I always enjoyed. It’s nice once in a while to pop in some books on tape and go on a long drive. Oregon was the most scenic by far, but I always loved finally seeing the lights of Tremonton on the way back, meaning I was coming back into my familiar territory.

August- I spend a week in Orlando in training and even run into a couple old friends down there that worked in other offices. On the last night there, I get the call with an official offer from Backcountry. I talk it over with Rachel, it feels right, and I accept the next day. What a whirlwind and one of the biggest paradigm shifts I’ve ever experienced. Where coming out of college I was locked in to public accounting for life, suddenly I’m off to work for an outdoor gear company in Park City of all places.

September- I turn 29. I have always loved the movie “City Slickers” and especially the scene where he tells the school kids about growing old “Your 20’s are a blur. You get to your 30’s and you think, ‘What happened to my 20’s?’” Well I’m just about finished with the blur.

October- Marathon day. Truly one of the highlight achievements of the year and my life. Reaching that goal opened my eyes that even things you think you couldn’t do you really can do if you just try and dedicate yourself. I’m hoping I can hone in that dedication on other goals I have for 2011.

November- BYU loses to Utah 17-16 in the final November Holy War for the foreseeable future. Jake Heaps played like a stud and I was pissed the coaches played to settle for a 40+ yard field goal. Weird year for BYU football. Lots of coaching blunders all over the place. Here’s hoping Bronco puts his head on straight and makes better decisions going into Independence.

December- My favorite thing this year was that we went to the Christmas Sing Along downtown at the Energy Solutions Arena. They had an orchestra play the music for everyone to sing along to and Jon Schmidt came out and performed a few songs as well. Really a fun event that I hope we keep going to from here on out.

“Santa” got Cannon a “motor” as he likes to call it. It’s a power-wheels Jeep! I know both Rachel and I ALWAYS had wanted one when we were young. It’s probably more of a summertime gift but he’s rode it a few times so far and loved it, and on the plus side Brooklyn loves going for rides with him too!

So here I am a year later with a new job, a big accomplishment under my belt, and a second kid. Lots of changes, but all good. Instead of toiling away working until past 10 pm every night these next few months, I’ll spend a couple hours in the evening with the kids and on good nights have both them and myself in bed by 10.

Marathon

The Yoga workout on P90X is one of the hardest workouts in my opinion. 90 minutes of trying to contort your body in ways that I absolutely can't do. However, you try your best and make it through. The first 45 minutes are the true grind going from downward dog to the warrior positions over and over. After the first 45 minutes there is a one minute transition before the final 45 minutes of easier poses. During that 1 minute rest period Tony Horton looks at the camera and tells you "Take in the fact that you just did that." Since crossing the finish line of the St. George Marathon yesterday around 1 pm, that's pretty much the only thing I can think.

Rachel and I went on a cruise last year in August with some of our friends. I gained about 10-15 pounds during that week from eating nonstop and carried that through the end of the year being in the absolute worst physical condition of my life. I look at the pictures from our cruise and I am absolutely disgusting. While I've only lost about 20 lbs in actual weight since then, my body composition is obviously much better, and yet there is still about 50-75 lbs worth of improvement I can make. Anyway, I bring it up to help myself realize what a crazy year it's been. Definitely the year of the run for me. With my first half marathon in April and now this, I've been running consistently since February and culminate with the St. George Marathon. I'm hopeful that I keep up the habit to some extent, but I will look to start doing some other types of exercises as well since I've avoided everything but running due to the training "focus" all year.

My time certainly wasn't spectacular: 6:02.39 was the official time posted in the paper today in St. George, but my entire goal was to simply finish and I did just that. In fact, even though it was a slow pace, which I planned on, it was probably the best run I've ever had. I plowed all the way to mile 22 on a good system right to plan before I ran out of gas and had to walk/shuffle the final 4 miles. Even when walking I was still shuffling pretty quick, kind of a imitation run I guess. I used a book called "The Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer" by David Whitsett, Forrest Dolgener, and Tanjala Kole, which I highly recommend to any first timers. The key focus is to train for and finish a marathon. They emphasize not setting a time goal since the accomplishment itself is the goal. Time goals can be set for future marathons once you "know" what you're getting into. There are also a lot of mental trainings they like you to do to help your focus and positive outlook on finishing the race. I feel these things are all important for sure. I never doubted from start to finish whether I was going to finish. I knew the entire way. People asked when did I hit "the wall". I'm not sure if I did or not. My understanding of "the wall" was the feeling of exhaustion and a mental thought of "I absolutely can't go any farther". I can definitely say I truly started to slow down and walk more than I planned on around mile 22, but I never doubted finishing at all. In fact, at mile 18 I was right on pace for where I thought I would be and it pumped me up to know I was entering uncharted territory and I was definitely going to finish. My mental timeframe from the beginning was 6 hours since that is the rough time frame of the race, and I was within 2 1/2 minutes of that time, pretty good pace throughout if you ask me.

Coming around the corner for the last quarter mile was an incredible feeling. My buddy Jeff Davis made his wife and son wait three hours after seeing his dad finish just to see me come around the corner. When you've been all alone on the journey, it's awesome to see a friendly face give you the final push. My mother-in-law was on the side just a short bit later with a "go b-ball" poster and Rachel, Kamille, and Cannon were right at the finish line with posters for me too (Grant was taking care of Brooklyn for all of us). What a feeling.

Thanks to my sweet sister Jackie for trying to challenge me back in February to run with her. It got me off my butt and doing something to get active again. The St. George Marathon is a lottery and if you don't get in the first 2 times you are guaranteed in the third year. I told her after the half marathon in April, "You know, if I could keep running relatively consistently for the next couple years I think in three years I'd be ready for a marathon. Go ahead and sign us up for St. George. I'm sure we won't get in this year so we can just start the process of the three year wait." Well, she did something funny when she registered us because I got in and she didn't, but in any case I was able to accomplish this year what I originally thought would take three years to build up to. It's amazing what your body can do when you push it. Maybe in three years we'll just actually run one together. . . with the Rache Train too!

Farewell to KPMG

So after 2 years, 8 months of pure grind, I accepted a new job offer and am leaving KPMG. Words can’t express the joy my wife feels, but I can certainly express some “greatest hits” if you will, in no particular order. Warning-this will take a while:
Copies- After returning from my new hire training and filling in for a few days on a job, my first “real” job was to be shipped up to Seattle for two weeks. My first day? I was lead to a 3 foot stack of paper and told to make copies of all of it. “Think of it as a rite of passage” my senior said. I had to unstaple, copy, re-staple the originals, collate and staple and punch the copies, and do it again. . . for 10 hours. My legs were killing me from standing all day long at the copy machine (I can’t think of a time before or since that I’ve stood in one place for so long). I was thinking all day long “I can’t believe I went to school for five years to do THIS!” True, in a way of sorts it was a good rite of passage, but it still sucked.
Woo’s Teriyaki- So my first year up in Washington I keep ordering the hot at my favorite Mongolian restaurant, Three Flames. So my manager Dan Rinehart tells me about the famous Woo’s Teriyaki, a small Chinese restaurant in Richland famous for it’s hot food. I tell him I’m up to the heat so we should go try it. We go to dinner one night, the waitress comes over to take our order.
“I want the teriyaki chicken, hot.” I say. She pauses, looks me up and down, and responds, “Have you had our hot?” Me-“No, why? Is it really that hot?” Her-“Where else have you eaten around here?” I respond the Mongolian restaurant up the street and I handle the hot there just fine. Her response: “See my friend the waitress over there? When she goes to the Mongolian she gets seven scoops of the hot. She can only handle the medium here.”
I sit back and try to take in what she has just told me; clearly a warning for any novice spicy-food eater. “I’ll take the hot”.
As soon as the chicken touched my lips I knew it was a bad call. Easily, and I mean by a wide margin, the hottest food I have ever had in my life (or will ever have for that matter). I put down about ½ of my order but couldn’t actually eat the entire thing. The waitress offered to take it to the back and rinse the chicken in some water to dull the heat. Clearly defeated, I denied the offer and just left the remaining chicken to waste and paid my bill. That was the first and last time I ate at Woo’s.
Speeding Ticket- I drove up to Washington once in a while during my summers of traveling every week. Being a 10 hour or so drive, you would assume you would want to make as good as time as possible. So one time I leave home around 3, get up to Brigham City/Tremonton area and hit a massive, unexpected storm that closes down the freeway for over an hour. So I’m sitting there parked on the freeway fuming mad at how much time I’m losing. So what do I do? Of course I try to “make up” time by speeding furiously the rest of the way up; well, furiously the rest of the way until I pass a black police car in the dead of night in Oregon. I had basically passed right in front of him before I saw him, and I immediately pulled over to the right lane and prepared to be pulled over because I was flying. Turns out he let me off extremely easy because I thought the speed limit was 75 since it was rural Oregon and the speed limit is actually 65 max throughout all of Oregon. When I called in to the county to pay the ticket the lady knocked the fee down another $100 so the pain wasn’t too brutal. Every time I drive through Oregon since that experience the speedometer hasn’t topped 65, not even your standard 5 miles over.
Triceraballs- So I’ve been with the firm like 3 months, all through busy season, and all I want to do is go play basketball with my friends on Wednesday night like we always do. I tell my Senior, “My wife gives me crap about playing ball every week and now you want to give me crap! Look, I don’t care what I have to do all I want to do is play basketball on Wednesday night I don’t care what the consequences!” He relents and allows me to go; I subsequently fill the rest of the day talking up about what a great baller I am. I actually for the only time in my life have a great night playing basketball, hitting a number of 3-point shots. So I come in the next morning to the audit room and the rest of the team is already there. “Call me 3-ball!” I announce with pride, referring of course to my great night of shooting 3-pointers; however, it was not understood as such. “3-ball? What is that supposed to mean?” The conversation quickly turns toward the gutter and heavy inquisition takes place regarding their way of understanding my “announcement”. They quickly modify the nickname through various revisions, settling on “triceraballs”. I receive a nice picture in my email later that day with a triceratops that has punctured 3 basketballs, which of course, triceratops had punctured in his self-defense against 3-ballasaurus Rex. I tried to watch what I said the rest of the engagement but I always found myself in compromising positions.
Dork Mormon from Utah- visiting the national trainings is quite the experience if you live in the bubble, which we obviously all do. My favorite example is the training I went to last year in Dallas. On Friday during the final class, we were organized into new groups for some reason. So the instructor decided to go around the room and have everybody introduce themselves, what office they are from, and “tell us what you did last night”. There were about 50-55 people in the room. Person after person stood up to tell about the insane experience last night of going to the biggest bar in Dallas and how they “rode the bull”. It was a wild party and everybody could nod in agreement as each person shared their sweet night of riding the mechanical bull. It comes to be my turn, I stand up and relate “I’m Brandon Ball from the Salt Lake City office, and last night I stayed in my hotel room and watched the NBA Draft.” I’m pretty sure the crowd knew something semi-lame was coming out of my mouth when they heard “Salt Lake City”. While I am who I am, it makes me laugh. For what it’s worth, we drafted Eric Maynor and traded him like 3 months later.
All-nighter­- I only pulled one official “all-nighter” during my time at KPMG, and even then it ended for me at about 4:30 in the morning, at which time I went home and slept for a couple hours before going back to work. I do remember from about 1-3 a.m. playing Rage Against the Machine on my computer for a couple hours. The Senior, who requested I play Rage, says after, “Well, now I remember why it’s been so long since I’ve listened to Rage”, of course referring to not liking the heavy screaming, etc. My response, “Funny, I was just thinking to myself about what a shame it is that I haven’t listened to Rage in so long” of course referring to how awesome Rage is. In case you’re wondering, that was the last time I listened to Rage.
Waterfast- So last busy season instead of having a “get fat” competition my team had a weight loss competition. Somehow, someway I started running at like midnight, outside in the cold, a few times a week. I also basically stopped eating dinner, thereby dropping my calorie count for the day drastically. We also had healthy snacks instead of complete sugar crap (with the exception of a large tub of jelly-belly’s). I had quite a few “blow days”, pretty much anytime a good lunch was offered or some other treat was offered, but I got to the final couple days within 5 pounds of my 20 pound weight loss goal. The due date was Wednesday, but on Monday I had a good lunch offer and decided I was giving up on the goal (worth $100 to me, but I was giving it up for a lunch, awesome). So I eat my lunch, which I don’t even remember what it was but I’m sure it was good, and I regret it in the afternoon, thinking “I could’ve made the goal if I just had some discipline!” I decide at that point that I’m going on a water-fast for the next 36 hours and dropping down 3-5 lbs to make my weight. I can tell you every temptation in the book was thrown at me over the next 36 hours, but I had nothing but water (and a lot of trips to the restroom) and woke up Wednesday morning at my goal. I still have the picture of the official weigh-in on my phone. I took the $100 and promptly gained back my 5 lbs. I am happy to say I’ve stayed at that weight though and haven’t put back on the remaining 15, for now.
Wings- Jackson’s sports bar up in Washington has all-you-can-eat wings on Wednesday nights. The first time I heard about it, I knew it would become a staple. For the rest of the travel year last year we hit up Jackson’s at least every other week (when you’re eating all you can eat wings and realize how much chicken you just ate after the fact, it usually takes longer than one week to get over it). On one of our final visits for the year in October, the waitress initiated our visit by pointing me out and saying “I know you love the golden garlic wings I’ll get an order ready for you”. While she was correct in noting my favorite flavor, I took due note that we had officially eaten there too many times that summer, considering she had never been our waitress before. At 25 wings I feel like you “made your money” since that was essentially the same price on other nights as the cost on the all-you-can-eat night. My personal record was 45 wings but a couple other guys tied and/or beat me in the overall standings. Their hottest sauce, “Atomic” isn’t quite the burner of Woo’s teriyaki but definitely leaves you reaching for the water. I would usually have just one Atomic wing last to say I did it, but other than that, stick with the Golden Garlic.
“Emily”- So my office always sends out a “farewell” email to let the rest of the office know who’s leaving to what new job, etc. So mine comes out this week and the final paragraph says “We wish Brandon, Emily, and their two children the best of luck. . . “ So I’m not sure who Emily is, but Rachel sure had a great response, typical of wives of public accountants, “I KNEW YOU HAD A MISTRESS!”

I’m out!