Highly Recommended

Just wanted to give you two recommendations:

1. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell – This is the first book I have read by Gladwell and was thoroughly impressed!  Outliers examines our underlying assumptions about success.  We often think that people are successful because of hard work and/or talent. Gladwell would agree that is certainly part of it but far from a complete picture of what makes certain people successful.  In a book that examines everything from 19th century tycoons, Canadian hockey, and even his own personal story, he argues that success has as much to do with lucky breaks, cultural heritage, and even what generation an individual is born as it does with natural ability.  I read this book in a week and cannot wait to pick up Gladwell’s first book, The Tipping Point.
2. Slumdog Millionaire – Incredible!!!  100% deserving of the Academy Award for Best Picture!  I am really excited about this new wave of foreign films coming into the US.  SM does a great job of displaying the gap between the wealthy and poor and the lack of human rights in different areas of the world (in this case India).  Excellent film!

Chattanooga II

We have had a great time the past couple of days!  On Wednesday we spent the morning driving around the outside of Chatty and went to an enormous used book store.  In the afternoon we went to Rock City, which was a lot more fun that I had imagined.  The trails were fun and the views were spectacular!  For anyone going, however, I would suggest avoiding Fantastic Caverns, I looks like an inverse Disney universe created by and for people tripping on drugs!  It was full of painted gnomes being lit up by blacklights.

Anyways we spent more of the afternoon at Coolidge Park on the river.  It was a beautiful evening and they had some event going on so there were a lot of people hanging out and throwing discs.  That night we ate at a great little pub called the Pickle Barrel.  We loved it and now refer to it as the Seitz bar because I am pretty sure my friend Chris would have loved the place!  The fried pickles are amazing!

Yesterday we had breakfast at the only restaraunt in downtown that served breakfast, Blue Plate.  When we arrived we were the only ones in the house and I am pretty sure we were served by the owner.  So we had a nice quiet breakfast, first class service, and an excellent view of the river!  Oh yeah, and the food was great!  I had an omelet with cheese, avacado, and Maytag blue cheese (which was much stronger than I had imagined!).

Today is our last day in Chatty.  We plan on going to another coffee shop and a few more book stores we haven’t visited yet.  Then we are going to visit the Hunter Museum of Art and play the afternoon by ear.

Chattanooga!

Amber and I are in Chattanooga this week for vacation and we are so excited!  We arrived this morning and it was snowing so I had to pull the car over so my wonderful wife could get out and play in it!  So far we have walked up and down Market St., explored the northshore a little bit, and have checked into our hotel.  We plan on just driving around the city for the rest of the day to explore and then we are going to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner (I know, why go to a chain, its kinda cheesy but its cheap! I think wings are like 39 cents each!).

Here are a couple of phots so far of us freezing our butts off!