2013 Blog Index

With links to all my blog posts in 2013 sorted by topic: (chess; distance running; family & friends; food & beverage; health care; music, movies & the arts; sports; travel).

Blog entries may be listed in more than one category to make them easier to find. Links to the index for 2012, as well as 2011 and prior, are also included below.

We started the year in Meridian, Idaho, by celebrating Tash's birthday with brunch and a movie, accompanied by my in-laws Gene & Celeste Fox. A few weeks later I took the Status (pictured) above on a journey through Wyoming, Montana and South Dakota where I acquired a celebrity passenger, former U.S. and World Open chess champion Grandmaster Alex Yermolinsky. From there, we headed to the Cardinal Open in Columbus, Ohio (with a side trip to Webster University in Webster Groves, Missouri, to have dinner with the national champion collegiate chess team) and on to Cornell University in Ithaca, NY.

Alex met with the chess team and flew home from Syracuse while Tash flew into the same airport the next day. It was time to teach our Strategic and Business Planning course at Cornell University. Continued at the bottom of the page...

BLOG INDEX FOR 2013 BY TOPIC

CHESS
South Dakota to Ohio... via Missouri January 24
Yermo comes to Cornell to meet with Chess Team January 30

With Susan Polgar and Alex Yermolinsky in January

2013 Cardinal Open held in memory of Mike Anders January 31
Games from the 2013 Cardinal Open February 7
Northwest Chess releases online color versions of magazine (with 3-month delay) February 14
September Northwest Chess online color edition released Feb. 28
October NWC online color edition March 14
2013 Roland vs. Niro Match April 4
2013 National Chess Day Announced April 11
November 2012 NWC online color edition April 18
December 2012 NWC Online Color Edition May 2
January 2013 NWC online color edition May 16
My tenure at NWC is complete! May 23
Chess Journalists appoint new President and VP May 30
An afternoon chat with Yasser - Part I June 6
An afternoon chat with Yasser - Part II June 13
An afternoon chat with Yasser - Part III - June 20 (pending final edit)
2013 North American Youth Chess Championships in Toronto July 4
Schedule of Events for Susan Polgar Foundation Girls Invitational July 18
Big 10th anniversary surprise for Girls chess! $5,000 cash prizes added! July 19
2013 SPFGI is under way July 22

Updated Coverage - 2013 SPGI July 23
Northwest Girls +3 at halfway mark of Girls' Invitational July 24
Colombian girl wins 2013 Susan Polgar Invitational August 8
Tartan Book Series August 15
NWC Features Luke-Harmon Vellotti September 26
E-town Christmas Open is tomorrow; PanAm starts at TTU in Lubbock December 27
Top teams face off in rd. 4 of PanAm Intercollegiate December 28
Webster takes big match with Texas Tech; UT-Dallas also at 4-0 December 29
PanAm update: Five teams fighting for 3 remaining spots... Dec. 30
Webster sweeps; UMBC, Illinois and Texas Tech advance Dec. 31

DISTANCE RUNNING
John Gray passes away at 88 March 28

FAMILY AND FRIENDS
Gethsemani Abbey - Happy 165th Anniversary! December 21
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year December 24

FOOD & BEVERAGE
Best Wine I've Had in a Long Time July 11

HEALTH CARE
Strategic and Business Planning for Healthcare Professionals starts today February 1

MUSIC, MOVIES & THE ARTS
Produce, the movie November 13
You Never Know Where Hope Grows November 21
Supporting the Arts in Portland, ME & Portland, OR December 15

In November, I was an extra in three different scenes for the upcoming movie, Produce. I am pictured above chatting with cast member, McKaley Miller, after the scene at Mt. Tabor Cemetery in Crestwood, KY.

SPORTS
Grapefruit League 2013 March 7

TRAVEL
Heading East January 20

Day 2; Little Big Horn January 21
Lots of snowmobiles January 22
What, no Harleys?? January 23
South Dakota to Ohio... via Missouri January 24
Sloan Case Competition team returns to UAB February 21
Lexington, KY or bust May 9
We're headed to Kentucky June 27

Index for 2012
Index for 2011 and prior

Our Year in review... (continued from the top of the page)

In between classes, Tash and I stayed at an extended stay hotel in Lexington, KY. We returned to Birmingham, AL, in Febuary with the Cornell Case Competition team and went on to Florida for a professional conference and a couple of Spring Training games. We found a place to live in March and our new landlord agreed to hold it for us until May in exchange for payment of the utility bills during the interim period.

Tash flew home from Syracuse after our last class in March and I left the Stratus in a friend's driveway in Missouri and flew home from St. Louis. In May we returned to New York for the Cornell Wagner Weekend, for the Susan Polgar Foundation fundraiser in NYC and a friend's birthday party in New Hartford, NY.

On June 26, I left Idaho in a Penske truck with Tash following in her Toyota. 2,000 miles later we arrived in Lexington, KY, where she started working towards her Ph.D. in Gerontology at the University of Kentucky.

Since school started at the end of August, we have stayed pretty close to home save a few round trips to Indiana and Ohio. I directed the Susan Polgar Girls' Invitational in St. Louis and attended the U.S. Open Chess Championship in Wisconsin while Tash attended her student orientation. Of course, we were able to watch the Red Sox during the playoffs and World Series on TV, so it didn't really matter where we were located in October. Tash spends most of her time reading and studying and I have been writing, dieting and exercising as much as possible.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog. I hope you have found a few worthwhile items. In 2014, I hope to expand my writing about health care reform and the Affordable Care Act from an unbiased (as much as possible for a former patient and hospital administrator) and non-partisan perspective.

Something new in 2013 for Tash who grew up on the Oregon coast: she got to stick her feet in the warm Atlantic ocean for the first time near Jacksonville, FL, in March (she didn't get more than a toe in at York Beach, ME, in 2012. brrr.)