Iberian Dinner Party

As I mentioned in the story about my car, we had a dinner party last night. It was an Iberian Themed party, so we had sardines as the main course:



which I had to clean (too bad I don't have a gut-boy to help me)


and then we pack them in salt for a couple of hours. I am not sure why, but I think that it dries them out some. Anyway, it is now a tradition.


Another dinner party tradition that we have to to bake the New York Times No Knead Bread:

which is always delicious.

As it was Sunday morning, I also baked my famous "Dannidamim" bread:


Doreen selected a couple of interesting dips to go along with dinner. One was a Reg Mojo sauce. You had to rehydrate ancho peppers, and the scrape the pulp off the skins:

It was a lot of work. Interesting sauce.


No knead, done. Isn't it beautiful? And it tastes as good as it looks.


We also made a chocolate and macadamia nut tort. This is the crust.


Toasting the macadamia nuts


And of course we had asparagus. Grilled. It is that time of year.


Kiss the chef!


Scallions, waiting to be grilled. These were dipped in to the Red Mojo Sauce.


Dressing the tort. I did not do this.


Ta da!


Iberian treats. Marcona Almonds, Manchego Cheese, Serrano Ham, and olives.


We also got andouille sausage from the Greatful Bread guy at the Eastside Farmers Market. Delicous!


Grilled sardines. Hard to beat


Most of the food. That is my sis-in-law's World Famous Three Bean Salad in there.



Looks good, eh?


It was a delightful time. We had some Cava as a starter, and then some vinho verde with the meal.

And great company to enjoy it with us!

Killer Pothole

We went back out to the location of the problem. The City of Houston has now marked it:



You can see the chunk of concrete to the right (west) of the manhole cover. I am pretty sure that is what I hit.


Close up of the concrete:


There is a little dip just this side (north) of the manhole cover


I put the camera case in the dip to try and show the relief, but it you can't really see it.


So I suppose that my right wheel was in the dip, and that brought the car just low enough to catch that chunck of concrete.

So sad to be me

So Doreen and I were at the Farmers Market this morning, picking up vegetables and such for our dinner party tomorrow night (Grilled Sardines!) and while coming home, badness happened.



I was driving west on Alabama, just at Spur 527 - a route I have taken hundreds of times before - and I straddle a man hole cover. That particular man-hole cover is not particularly high.

But as I go over it, we hear WHAM!!!

And everything just goes to hell.

we limp home (about six blocks) just as it is obvious that the oil pan has a hole it in (Yes, the lights all came on about a block from where I stopped)

The good news is that GEICO has been great (so far) as has BMW assist and Advantage Midtown.

I just hope that I dd not damage the engine.

Breaks my heart! I don't even have 5,000 miles on the car.

I went back to the site, and I would have straddled that man hole cover again. All I can see is that there was a chunk of concrete that was sitting catty-whampus on the street.


The front fairing - no apparent damage


Here you see a little scratch and the damage starting below that.

I wonder if that picked up a chunk of concrete and flipped it under the car


I wasn't even going 30 MHP


Isn't that horrible?



That looks bad.




The car is at the dealer, and they don't seem too worried. The adjuster is in Dallas, helping people with hail damage.

I am glad I don't have hail damage.

Afternoon Edition

I love newspapers.

It came from my youth, when I would read both the Appleton Post Cresent (an afternoon paper at the time) and the Chicago Tribune (delivered in the mail). I would read the Post Cresent  after I got home, and the Tribune when I would be home for lunch (oddly enough, I frequently came home for lunch from elementary, junior high, and high school)

I remember quite clearly my father reading the Post Cresent in the yard in the afternoon on temperate days. It was nice.

It probably didn't hurt that I started delivering the Post Cresent while in Junior High (in the afternoons during the week and Saturday, Mornings on Sunday) and to my sophomore year in High School. Good money for a kid!

Then when I moved to Madison I subscribed to both Madison newspapers (at the time the Capital Times - which was the morning paper, and the Wisconsin State Journal, which was the afternoon paper.) Since i was a student, I could also get the Wall Street Journal for next to nothing. So I developed that habit as well.

My first job as an engineer took me to Greenville, IL. There, I subscribed to the St Lois Post Dispatch, as that was the closest big city to Greenville. I loved the Post Dispatch. I remember one day coming home from the mine (The Coffeen Mine from Consol) and a local policeman followed me to my trailer. (Not sure why. I was sober) he asked if he could look inside my car (of course, officer!) and then looked me in the eyes. I asked him if he could use his flashlight to help me find my Post Dispatch. It was under my car.

When I was living in Kemmerer, WY, I subscribed to the Salt Lake City Tribune. That was a fine paper, but not enough funnies.

I moved to Houston in 1980 when we still had a morning paper (The Houston Post) and an afternoon paper (the Houston Chronicle). I, of course, subscribed to both. I just loved reading the Post with my coffee before I went to work and the Chron with my beer after I got home. I was very sad when first the Chron went to a morning only edition, then finally bought Post and shut it down.

I lived in Denver for a year as well. They, too, had a morning paper (the Rocky Mountain News) and an afternoon paper (the Denver Post). I did my best to keep them both in business, to no avail.

I moved to Caracas in 1993, and that was a newspaper mecca. They had an English language paper (I think it was called the Daily Journal) that has since shut down, and many, many Spanish language papers. I subscribed to El Universal. What I didn't understand I made up in my own mind.

After Caracas, I moved to Singapore. There, they had (and still have!) a pitiful excuse for a newspaper called The Straights Times. There may be a worse newspaper in the world, but I have never subscribed to it.

And so I am back in Houston. We don't have an afternoon paper, but we do subscribe to three morning papers (All delivered before 5:30 AM, thank you very much!) the New York Times, the Houston Chronicle, and the Wall Street Journal.

I can't say I don't miss my afternoon paper, but I am glad that I have these three papers to enjoy.

For now.

The Mississippi River in Flood

I was flying back from Frankfurt to Houston when I happened to open the windowshade as we passed over the Mississippi River.

It is obvious, even from 35,000 ft that the river had exceeded its banks.

I don't know exactly where we were, but it was south of Memphis.







All the brown areas are water. You can see that big field is completely flooded.





It looks like all the old oxbows are flooded


It is hard to tell, but there is a little town there in the left side of the photo. All the river front streets were under water.








That little island was also mostly flooded

Bankruptcy, and other learing experiences

In July of 1999, the Board of Directors of Bell Geospace asked me if I would be willing to take over at President and CEO. This was a hard decision. The guy I would be replacing was (and is) a friend of mine. And the Company was in a tight spot.

In spite of raising over $20 million in equity and $14 million in debt we were quickly running out of cash. We had to close several sales or an additional round of funding to make the company work.

Reluctantly, I said yes.

The Board put me into the role and I immediately had to hire a CFO. I ended up hiring a fellow who became a very close friend (battle scars). I kept telling him we had plenty of cash (well over a million dollars) but he never really asked how much we were spending. Alas, we were spending WAY too much.

So first we tried to raise more money. We had a term sheet from a young and up and coming Private Equity firm based in Lime Rock, CT. The problem was the "pre-money" valuation (that is, what share price they were willing to pay for our stock) was $12 million. Yipes! Our last "post-money" (after our last round of funding) valuation was $45 million. That was quite a "down round". None of the current investors were willing to see such dilution.

So we focused on sales. We really had a pretty spectacular growth rate - in 1998 we sold only about $200k worth of data, and in 1999 we sold over $2 million! But our burn rate (cash out minus cash in) was about $2.5 million a month. Yipes!

My CFO told me that we had to get relief from our debt obligations, or we would be in violation of our loan covenants. (you had to keep a certain amount of cash or the loan could be called. There were many of these types of rules we had to follow)

Our biggest debtor (other than the loan with Third Coast Capital) was with Lockheed Martin, the manufacturer of the instrument we were using to collect our data. We had a payment due in October, and if we paid it, all our loans would be called.

It seemed like it would be a simple thing to go to Lockheed and ask that we reschedule payments. (there is a lot of history that I am leaving out here. The instrument we had was delivered very late, which meant that we missed the oil price peak, which meant that oil companies were cutting back on exploration, which meant that nobody wanted to buy our data. For want of a nail...)

But nothing with a large government contractor is ever simple.

This division of Lockheed we were dealing with (Lockheed Martin Federal Systems - they also made submarines) had never had a private client before. They were so naive that when it was obvious that they were not going to make the contracted date for delivery of one of our instruments, they told us that the price was going up (!!). We pointed out that in the contract, if they missed delivery, they had to pay a penalty. They said it never worked that way with the government. (I guess!)

So my CFO and I showed up in Manassas, Virginia on September 30, 1999. We had a meeting arranged with the head of the division, her finance guy, and a bunch of other people who didn't talk.

The meeting did not start off too well. She started telling us how they needed our cash in order to make their yearly bonus. I explained that we would not be able to pay them, and we were looking for a payment plan where we could push the payment out into 2000. She was not eager to do that.

Every time I explained that we could not pay, she explained that they needed our cash so they could get their bonus. I then brought up the fact that we were in this predicament because of their inability to deliver the instrument on time. She apologized, and then told me that she needed our cash to make their bonus.

I said that if we did not get relief, we would have to file for bankruptcy. She said that didn't matter to her, as long as she got her cash.

This meeting lasted pretty long into the evening. I was getting frustrated, and I could tell she was also.

I finally said, if you do not give me a payment plan, I am going to file for bankruptcy in the morning. She said "Well, you have to do what you have to do, and so do I. I need that cash"

So I got up to leave and said we were filing as soon as the courts opened. She said OK, and then turned to one of her minions and asked, "What does "filing for bankruptcy" mean, anyway?"

I was sort of flabbergasted. I said:

"It means you won't be getting your bonus"

We filed in the morning.

Fast Company love Houston

O Pioneers! | Page 2 | Fast Company: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Famous people speaking famously

These past two days I have been a judge in the Rice Business Plan Competition. It is a great event, and I love participating. I may write up a little about it tomorrow, but tonight I am just going to comment about a very famous VC who gave a presentation there this afternoon.

Many people believe that his fellow is God-like in his ability to identify companies and executives. Indeed, when he was introduced by the President of Rice, he was compared to Lincoln talking to a bunch of Civil War Buffs.

Of course, since I just finished reading Tony Horwitz great book, Confederates in the Attic, I know that most "Civil War Buffs" would not be characterized as Lincoln fans. (This is what you get for having a Yankee running Rice)

But maybe he was not far off.

The man was a truly great speaker. He was holding the crowd in the palm of his hard. But all that was coming out of his mouth was platitudes.

I won't dwell on this as I think it makes me seem bitter, and I am not a bitter person, and indeed have nothing at all to feel bitter about regarding this gentleman.

But I honestly had hoped for something more insightful from a man who has been so tremendously successful.

Maybe next year.

New Birth in the Backyard

Spring came early to Houston this year. We have already seen one clutch of White Wing doves hatch, fledge, and fly:

From Doves and Monarchs

and that was quickly followed by the Monarchs finding our Milkweed (aka Butterfly Weed) plants again. This led to caterpillars:

From Spring 2011 in the yard

Chrysalis:

From Doves and Monarchs

Development:

From Doves and Monarchs

and finally, Butterfly:

From Doves and Monarchs

Ah, the circle of life!