Go Cougars!

Rise and Shout!

BYU in miniature...featuring the musical stylings of The Imagine Dragons.  This makes me miss this place!

24

I used to love the show "24" starring Kiefer Sutherland.  The premise of the show was that each season was one 24-hour period in the life of anti-terrorist agent Jack Bauer (Sutherland).  Each episode showed one hour in this day and through various cliffhangers and improbably (if not impossible) plot twists, his day just seemed to get worse and worse until--by the end of the day--truth and justice had prevailed.

24 hours ago, I was hating it.  I had two briefs to draft and file by today, I felt like I was coming down with some sort of cold (most likely) due to stress and lack of sleep, and I really wasn't sure how I was going to get everything done.  Labor Day weekend?  Was I really even going to make it that far?

Newport Harbor...the view from our table at lunch...

Fast forward 24 hours (minus the plot twists and turns) and things seem to be falling into place.

• I caught a flash of inspiration on one of my briefs.  The client loved my idea and I saved us all several hours (at least) of tedious work.
• I found just the research that I needed on the other brief and sent it off for the client's comments. He/she loved it too.  Not too shabby since I had been told that we had no chance in Hades of winning on this on, but somehow, I felt like I was able to craft a winning argument.
• The court ruled in my favor on a third brief that I had filed last week.  I was going to have to drive down to San Diego to argue this one this morning, but the other side agreed to accept the judge's ruling which requires them to pay my client over $3,000.00.  Not a lot of money, I know, but it's better than a kick in the pants.  And it's always nice to win.  ;-)
• I got a good decent night's rest.  (A rarity for those who know me.)
• Both briefs got filed this morning.  On time.
• My sore throat disappeared after I took my mom's advice to gargle salt water.  (#motherknowsbest)  (There might have been a Jamba involved in there too somewhere...)
• My boss took me to lunch at his favorite restaurant in Newport Beach.  The above picture shows my lunchtime view.
• At lunch, we laughed hard and out loud about "Triple Threat" associates.  We also laughed about "Bad Form."  They are a couple of inside jokes that I think will make me laugh for a long time.  (If you see me sometime, ask me about it...)  Laughter really can be great medicine.
• I got an invite from a friend on FB to play some game called Dragon Crush(?).  (Just kidding about that last one...even though it really did happen!)
• And finally, I got back to my desk after lunch, only to get a call from one of our legal vendors apologizing that they had overbilled me personally for some services and would be refunding me the difference--nearly $200!  Yay!

Yes, things are not perfect.  For example, Summer is almost over (where did it go?) and in college football, Utah State lost last night to the Utes....  Tomorrow or the next day or next week, I will undoubtedly have more challenges and struggles.  But what's important is not that we have trials and challenges, but rather how we respond to them.

Happy Labor Day!

Throwback Thursday - Take Me Out to the Ballgame Edition

Go Padres - August 29, 2007

Six years ago today (as near as I can tell), we took this picture at the Padres game together.  As you can tell, the seats were up in the nose bleeds, but we still had a lot of fun.  My two youngest brothers have both gone on missions (to Argentina and Florida) and come home.  Another brother got married and had his second kid just recently.

I think that B.S. and I still have those Padres shirts laying around somewhere.  Even though it looks huge on me, I'll always love it--mostly because B.S. gave it to me and it reminds me of him.  He is so generous about stuff like that and seems to have a knack for giving me cool gifts that I would never get myself (and wouldn't even think of asking someone else to give me).

This picture also reminds me of how important family is.  In the intervening years, we five brothers haven't always been together at the same time.  At times, we've been separated by oceans and continents.  Most recently, we got together for the Camp Pendleton Mud Run...good times!

World Famous Camp Pendleton Mud Run 2013

A mis hermanos queridos, les quiero mucho.  Gracias por ser tan buen ejemplos para mis hijos y para mi.  Estoy muy agradecido por ser parte de esta familia.  Un abrazo!

Shocker!

Bachelorette News Flash

I was walking through Walmart this evening, minding my own business, when I happened to look up as I whizzed past the checkout stands and this magazine cover caught my eye.  Is anyone really that surprised?  What may be surprising is that it's only been what? About 3 weeks since the season finale?

I feel bad for Des especially because she seemed so likable and I think she really gave her heart to What's-His-Face, only to have him casually toss it away.  Unfortunately, while the show can be entertaining (and some would doubt that there was much entertainment value in this past season due to the crop of duds bachelors dredged up by ABC's casting department), its track record for producing lasting relationships is abysmal.

Let's hope that Juan Pablo has better luck...  :-/

Driven Into The Ground...

A recent pic of the Saturn

My car is getting a little long in the tooth.  I recently documented its demise on this blog as well as its near miraculous rejuvenation.  It now has more than 250,000 miles on it, but I'm proud that it has held up as well as it has.  In fact, my car has even outlasted the company that built it (Saturn--a victim of the GM bankruptcy restructuring).

Yesterday, I notice (all of a sudden) a terrible grinding noise every time I had to apply the brakes.  I was actually worried about the safety of driving it any more than necessary, so this morning--after a quick trip to the courthouse--I dropped it off with my local mechanic.

You know your car is old when the mechanic looks at you funny and asks questions like: "Does it really have 250,000 miles on it?"  And you know in the back of his head he's thinking: "Are you really going to dump more money into this car?"

Well, yes, in fact, I am.  As crappy as it is to keep the car maintained (and pay for the maintenance), it's cheaper than making car payments every single month on a depreciating asset.  My car is very cheap to drive and I love that I don't have to worry about putting too many miles on it.  Someday, I will buy a new car, but it won't be until this one has been driven into the ground.  Literally.

Anyway, just got word from the mechanic.  As I suspected the brakes are shot.  The serpentine belt is cracked.  And (apparently) the air filter is dirty.  I can change the air filter myself and save $20 bucks.  When  a repair costs as much as this one does, it seems like the least I can do to mute the budgetary impact.

The other good news is that the last time that I had to have a complete brake job on this car was nearly 3 years (and about 85,000 miles) ago.  The rear brake drums lasted me even longer--150,000 miles and 5+ years.  My mechanic said that I can't really expect much more life out of them than that.

Que va...I'm just glad to have a reliable car that gets me where I need to go; doesn't look its age; and is (or at least should be) good as new in good working order.  I suspect that I'll be able to squeeze a few tens of thousands of miles out of this one before we have to part ways...Hope your cars are holding up a little better than mine is at the moment!

Tuesday's To-Do List

Post Project Pic

I go through phases with my house and with projects.  Sometimes, I become obsessed with the idea of doing a certain project and I can't really focus on anything else.  Other times, I will go for months without doing anything.  Last night, I came home from our meeting with the Scouts (where I volunteer as a Scoutmaster for the 11 year old kids) and I felt like I needed to do something useful.  I don't know why I felt that way all of a sudden, but I couldn't rest, couldn't hardly eat until I had finished the following four projects.

In my mind, I thought that I could do all four simultaneously and that it would take about an hour total.  It took longer--all night in fact and two separate trips to Lowe's--but I got it all done.  And I went to bed feeling like I had actually accomplished something.

The License Plate Project:

Before...

I have this really license plate holder that I like because it reminds me of the community where I grew up.  Unfortunately, it broke a while back and it was bugging me.

I figured that with a little epoxy and the right part from the hardware store, I could fix it right up.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get the exact size that I wanted for the part, but I decided to try and perform the "surgery" anyway.  I'm kind of curious to see how the epoxy holds and whether it breaks again.  If it does, I guess I can always go buy a new one.  :-/

...After

The worst part of the project was that I left the two screws on the car bumper when I removed the license plate.  I figured it was a great place to keep them safe until the project was done.  It was...until I had to run to Lowe's for a second trip because I needed to exchange the part.   I forgot to pick up the screws and then I couldn't find them in the dark!  Luckily, I went to look first thing this morning and found them--safe and sound--in the middle of the street.  Phew!

If you look closely, you can see the mending plate at the top right corner (it was a little bit wider than I wanted) and some of the epoxy.  What's the verdict?  Is it too ghetto?  Should I just dump it and buy a new license plate holder?

The Cook Dinner for a Week Project:

Since my family is gone, it's a bit of a challenge to eat healthy.  I decided to cook up some brown rice and add it to some Summer Squash soup that I froze and brought home from our family reunion at Bear Lake.  I'll eat pretty much anything if I'm hungry and I figured that this would be both tasty and nutritious.  It didn't look like much, but it was good.  And it cooked while I finished up my remaining projects.

The Wireless Garage Door Opener Project:

Tools of the trade...

When we moved into our house, I bought a wireless garage door opener.  You probably have one at your house. It allows you to punch in the code and it opens your garage door, without having a key or a separate garage door opener.

I bought this little unit over 2.5 years ago!  I hadn't put it in, because--to do it right--I knew that I would need special screws that are made to anchor into the stucco securely and solidly.

I finally bought my stucco anchors last night at Lowe's and tackled the project.  It went off without a hitch and I'm excited that I don't have to worry about carrying a key if I go for a late night run.  

In addition, when friends and family come visit, I can just give them the code and I won't have to worry about giving them a key or giving them our spare garage door opener.  I'm hopeful that we are going to have some visitors soon, so this could prove fairly useful.  It was also one of the reasons that I felt like it was time to finally install this gadget that had been sitting on the shelf in my garage for so long!

All done!

The Keep S. Happy by Fixing the iPad Project:

Remember my fiasco with getting the iPad fixed?  S. asks me every single day if the iPad is back yet.  And every day, I had to answer "No."

I even ordered an iPad mini for the kids--but S. wanted nothing to do with it.  I don't think they've even set it up yet.  S. wants his iPad and he wants it the exact. same. way. it. was. before.

Well, the replacement iPad showed up at my office this week and I managed to get it all set up last night, thanks to iTunes and Apple's ingenious customer-friendly software.  I think that S. is going to be very happy when he sees it.  :-)

Once the projects were finished, I had to get everything cleaned back up.  As much as I liked doing the projects, I maybe felt the best about the way the kitchen looked (Ground Zero for all four projects) when I had finished.   (See above.)  I think that my mom would have been proud of my cleaning skills!  ;-)

The Backup (Or The Time I Subbed For the Primary Chorister)

A few years back, I served for a few months in our church as the backup, substitute, third string, second rate Primary chorister.  J. was pregnant and sick and needed some help, so I volunteered to do her calling for her.  Why I did this, I have no idea.  I'm not musical and I'm not really super outgoing.  Plus, I really don't have a [good singing] voice at all.

When asked to participate in "Special Musical Numbers" at Church, I'm quick to point out that while I'm capable of "making a joyful noise to the Lord" (see Psalms 100), even if my "noises" were considered musical, they would not be considered "special."  That's usually enough to do the trick and get me out of the assignment.

But my love language is probably Acts of Service, so I decided to enthusiastically help J. with her calling.  Over the 3 or 4 months that I did the calling, I grew to love it.  It finally dawned on me that J. was not getting better and was getting closer and closer to giving birth, so I realized I needed to "up my game."  I decided to dive in and teach the kids the ASL signs for their main song in the Primary program.

But first, I had to learn them myself!  Thank goodness for YouTube and the internet!  I figured out the signs and practice.  As Sunday approached, I was excited to teach the kids the song and the signs for the song.  Then, we got a call.  The Bishop had decided to release J. from her calling due to the pregnancy and a new Primary chorister had been assigned--effective immediately.  I never did get the chance to teach the kids the signs or the song.  :-/

Fast forward to this week.  I made the mistake of telling K.M. that I had loved serving as the Primary chorister.  As luck would have it, K.M. had just been called as the Primary chorister and was going to be out of town this week.  She had no substitute lined up.  She wanted me to help and K.M. is not the type of person that really takes "no" for an answer.  (As I have learned through experience...)

My "PDR"

I practiced the songs this week, but I knew from experience that the three most important things to remember as Primary chorister are (in no particular order):

• Have a fun game for the kids;
• Be energetic because the kids don't care if you know how to actually direct the music; and
• Have a fun game for the kids!  (Did I already mention this?)

For the game, I grabbed my mini hoop from my office and decorated it with an official BYU football helmet sticker.  Then I grabbed one of Baby M.'s toy BYU basketballs.  The kids would shoot a shot.  If they made it, they got to pick one of the three mystery songs to sing.  I worried that it would be too simple and whether the girls would like the game.  (#itsnevertooearlytoconvertthemintoBYUfans!)

I was a little nervous, but I felt like since I was doing a good turn, I'd be entitled to some inspiration and help.  I can honestly say that I did feel like I had some flashes of inspiration, including the idea to have the kids hold up the signs with the words to the song that they were learning.  (Previously, I had thought I would tape them up on the white board.)

I have to say that I felt like it went really well.  The kids seemed to love the game.  I had kids lined up after church because they wanted to shoot the ball.  The girls seemed to like it as much as the boys.  I moved around during the singing and tried to get all the kids involved in singing--even the older boys that like to pretend like they're "too cool for school."  I also encouraged them to sing louder (because we didn't need to hear me doing any solos!).  In the end, we had good participation and the kids seemed to have fun.  (And I'm pretty sure that the kids didn't notice when I fumbled a few of the lyrics in the chorus to "Called to Serve"--but I'm pretty sure that a few of the adults did!).  :-/

The Primary Presidency and my pianist were also so supportive and nice to me that I felt very welcome there.  Plus, I really felt like the Sharing Time lesson was so good.  I pulled some spiritual insights out of a very simple--but profound--lesson on prayer.

I may not be the world's best backup Primary chorister, but I can honestly say that I had a good experience doing it. And I would do it again if asked.  

One Night In Bangkok

Let's Get Ready to Rumble!

I recently helped a client through a tricky legal issue.  What I didn't know was that the client is a Hollywood producer and is in the movie "biz."  My client was helping to promote an MMA event at the Commerce Casino in Commerce, California on Friday night and he invited me to come as his VIP guest.

I could get used to the VIP treatment...

Now, I know that Commerce is a long way from Bangkok, Thailand, but MMA (or mixed martial arts) fighters practice a variety of fighting disciplines, including Brazilian jiu-jitsu, American wrestling, boxing, kickboxing, taekwondo (from Korea), and Muay Thai fighting (from Bangkok, Thailand).

Truth be told, I really never watch this stuff on television (despite having a lot of friends in my church ward/congregation who gather to watch on pay-per-view), and I'd never actually been to a live fight.  This was my first.

As a VIP guest, I got a personal escort to my seat and access to the free bar.  Of course, the bar wasn't much of a perk since the only thing I ended up drinking was Coke--but at least that was free!

The event was BadBeat 10 and I had great seats on the front row.  I made friends with a young guy sitting next to me on the front row of the roped off VIP section.  He was super helpful and showed me things to watch for in the fighters.  Only later did I learn that he was "in the biz" and was a successful actor as well.  The fact that he didn't trade on his celebrity only made me like him more.

"A Witness to the Ultimate Test of Cerebral Fitness"

Ace Marrero of Body of Proof and General Hospital

He was Ace Marrero and he provided some "ace" commentary on the finer points of MMA strategies and techniques.  Thanks to Ace, I know that there is more involved to the sport than just beating the crap out of another fighter.

The final fight was pretty intense--the challenger beat the champ, but neither fighter left the cage unscathed.  I'm glad that my natural sports are limited to basketball and litigation.  I wouldn't want to have to make my living in the cage.

Here's a photo essay of some of the remaining pics from my One Night in Bangkok (which is a great song, by the way--see the video here):

"One Night in Bangkok and the Tough Guys Tumble"

First match of the night...the fighter on the left is praying after KO'ing the fighter on the right

"You See One Crowded Polluted Stinking [Casino]..."

Checking in at the VIP table

"I Get My Kicks Above The Waistline, Sunshine"

You really can't get much closer than this
#nozoom

"The Creme de la Creme of the [MMA] World"

Celebrity Lineup...many of these are soap actors that only someone like @TheMostess would know!  ;-)
If you look closely, you can see the villain from Karate Kid 3 (Sean Kanan)--he too was really nice in real life

"One Night In Bangkok and the World's Your Oyster"

Can't believe they let me hold the title belt #ihavenodesiretotryandwinit

I'm a little bummed that the cage was locked...

"One Night in Bangkok Makes a Hard Man Humble"

One of the best parts was meeting actor Danny Trejo.  He was so nice and was willing to pose for several pictures.  I have since learned a couple of things about him.

• He apparently starred for a couple of seasons in "Breaking Bad" as a character named "Tortuga" (Tortuga means "Turtle" in Spanish).  He must have been a bad guy--and he didn't make it.  But he apparently went out in a very memorable way.  I haven't seen a single show in the series, but I know some people swear by the show.

• He spent time in some of California's worst prisons before he got into acting (in and out of jail for 11 years).  On his first acting job, he was cast as a prison convict.  The director was trying to give him some direction and here is how Danny describes the conversation: 
• "It was the funniest thing I'd ever heard. I'd been in Soledad, San Quentin, Folsom, Vacaville, Susanville, Sierra--and here's a guy asking, "Can you act like a convict?" I remember I said. "I'll give it a shot".

• Danny doesn't drink and neither does anyone in his entourage.  That was kind of cool.

The Entourage (and I look like a giant standing next to all these Hollywood types!)

Danny Trejo and Me
#moneyshot

Camp Pendleton Tri 2013

Last Year's Competitors

As you have probably noticed, one of the things that I like to post on my blog are race recaps from the races that I've done.  It's fun for me to do the races with family and then to put up some fun pictures, etc.

The first real triathlon I ever did was the Camp Pendleton Sprint Triathlon in 2010.  It's become a fun tradition because the race is practically in my backyard.  Not only do I do it every year, but every year we've had more and more people (both friends and family) doing it.  (See pic above.).  Last year's race was the biggest yet with 7 members of Team Skil!

Maybe because of our family reunion this year or maybe for other reasons, the silence this year was deafening.  I pleaded with my brother to do it and I think he would have, but ultimately Team Skil was unrepresented this year.  So I can't give a race recap.

Instead, I felt like I needed to go out to Arizona to visit my kids and family out there.  So even though I didn't do the Camp Pendleton Tri this year, I felt like I got a "triathlon-ish" experience during my whirlwind trip to Arizona.

Swim

Rather than fight through the breakers for a 500 yard ocean swim, I settled for some time in the pool with the kids.  We worked on some very technical dive techniques:

It looked pretty much like this..."Ladies and gentlemen, may I please have your attention...."

Bike

Are you crazy?  I don't think that anyone bikes in the summer in Arizona.  The temp is 110+ and the heat index is off the charts.  Instead, I satisfied my need to heed the call of the open road by driving over 800 miles roundtrip in a 36 hour period.

It's a lot easier to handle the heat when you have the AC cranked up to full and a cooler full of ice cold water and soft drinks.

Still, an 800 mile roadtrip is about 7x as long as an Ironman bike course and requires a certain amount of endurance and stamina in its own right.  Unfortunately, I don't think it's the type of training that's going to help me in Florida!  :-/

T2

I managed to find a great job to transition from driving to the "run."  Getting a shaded spot is just half the battle.  You need to try and make sure that you have shade when you leave church as well--not just when you get there.  These spots are worth the extra walk!

Run

I got to chase after Baby M. all through church.  It was actually a lot of fun and I'm realizing that he's not such a baby anymore.  He's getting big and I feel like I can't really hug him enough.  Here's some more gratuitous pics (even if I'm the only one that wants to look at them!--well, okay and the grandmas too)  :-)

Summary
Even though this year's Camp Pendleton Race didn't happen, I still feel like the weekend was a success.  And don't count Team Skil out quite yet.  I have a feeling we'll back back in even bigger numbers next year!

Happy 101st!

It was my grandma's birthday yesterday. She would have been 101. The picture above is of her and my grandpa. 

My mom was her youngest child and we grew up only a few miles from grandma's house. It was always fun to go visit her and on special occasions my mom would  let us spend the night at grandma's. 

Grandma had her share of adversity in life, but she successfully overcame it. She never had a lot in terms of material possessions, but she was generous with us anyway.  

She had to work hard her entire life. For a while she worked as a cool at a restaurant. I'm sure the patrons loved her dishes because I know I always did. My two favorites were her homemade chicken noodle soup (with hand rolled noodles) and her chili which she always served at her New Year's Day parties. 

She had a small garden that she loved and would send us home with oranges, tomatoes, figs, and pineapple guavas. I never did care for the figs  (#idontgiveafig), but the pineapple guavas  have become the stuff of legends in our home. 

Grandma loved to tell the story of how one year an apple tree in her yard bore a prize apple. I think she planned to enter this apple in the County Fair. That is until a certain 3 or 4 year old boy took a bite out of it as it was sitting on her kitchen table!  I like to think she forgave me for that so quickly because I was such a cute little kid. ;-)

There are so many things I love about my grandma and so many happy memories, like the Avon soaps she would give us as kids since she was the Avon lady in her neighborhood or sitting next to her on the pew at church. 

But I think most importantly, I saw her kindness and compassion for others. She was constantly worrying about us--in a good way. I learned how to be kind and compassionate and tender, in part, by watching her. 

Grandma, we love you and miss you!  Happy 101st birthday!

Surprised and Delighted!

In college, I took a marketing class from Professor Geurts.  The very first day he showed up with homemade cookies for the entire class.  It was a very pleasant surprise and a nice start!  He brought the cookies as a sort of object lesson that great marketing efforts are focused on "surprising and delighting" the consumer.  I will forever think about making customers "surprised and delighted" when I think about how companies ought to market their products and services.

So often, companies spend gazillions of dollars to make ads designed to get the customer in the door, but then spend little effort or attention on making sure that the customer is happy once they arrive.  I have grown to appreciate great customer service (and posted about it on this blog).  This week, I've had three examples of interactions with companies that left me surprised and delighted!

The Ink Spot - Orem, Utah

This is a great Utah company

A few years ago, my sister got me a Christmas present that I loved.  It was a BYU basketball practice jersey similar (but better) to the one above.  I think it looks really cool and I've been using it for this weekly basketball league that I've been playing in.

Unfortunately, some of the numbers and lettering have started peeling off.  I mailed it to The Ink Spot earlier this week to see if they could salvage it.  When I called today, they told me that they had fixed it and that they weren't going to charge me anything!  They said it should be better than new.  (Apparently, the numbers hadn't been heat pressed properly in the first place).  They are mailing it back to me today!  I can't wait to wear it!

I have literally bought dozens of jerseys from the Ink Spot through the years for church basketball teams, city league basketball teams, and office basketball teams.  You can be sure that with this type of customer service they will continue to get my business.  And I'll refer them any chance I get!

Southwest Airlines

About a month ago, I had to buy airline tix for a little race in Florida.  I had planned to fly out and back with my brother.  By the time I went to buy my tix though, the flight back (after the race) that my brother was taking was $500 one way!  Yikes!

I settled by buying a ticket the very next day for only $200.  I would have to miss an extra day of work and wouldn't be able to hang with my brother, but I figured it the best I could do.

Earlier this week, my brother called to let me know that Southwest had dropped prices.  I was able to go online and change my reservation to take advantage of price cuts on both the outgoing and homebound flights!  It only took about 5 minutes on the internet and Southwest didn't charge me a dime to do it!  Yay for convenience!  Panama City, here we come!

Apple

Last month, on our trip to the family reunion, my kids informed me that our Ipad was broken.  I took it to the Genius Bar only to find out that because it had been "mishandled" (i.e., thrown to the ground by Baby M.), our extended warranty didn't fully apply and we would need to pay a $49 deductible.

I didn't have the iPad replaced right then and there only because the iPad had been a gift from Santa to the kids and I wanted to keep the inscription on the back.

I mailed my iPad back and waited and waited and waited.  After two weeks (and my kids asking every day when it would be fixed), the iPad showed up!  Yay!

I eagerly opened it up to discover that...it hadn't been fixed!  What the heck???  I got on the horn to Apple's Customer Care.  When the CSR asked how I was doing, I pounced!  I let her know how unhappy I was that I had wasted two weeks and been sent back my non-working unit.  I asked her what Apple would be doing to rectify the situation.  She initially told me that I hadn't bought the "right" warranty and so my "accidental" damage was not covered.  The cost to replace my iPad was not going to be $49--it was going to be $249!

Our Family iPad

I told her that that was not going to work for me and asked to speak to her supervisor.  After about an hour of hold time and a good discussion with the supervisor, I got my answer.  Apple would be sending me a replacement unit free of charge.  No $249 replacement fee.  No $49 deductible.  Free.  Yay!

I was so impressed that I'm giving some serious thought into getting an iPad mini.  I'll justify that decision by telling myself I'll use it to Facetime with my kids when we're apart.  (Now if somebody could just tell me what exactly Facetime is and teach me how to use it!)

Taylor Swift - Superman

I Declare Bankruptcy!

It's interesting the thoughts that run through your head at 3:00 a.m. in the morning.  Tonight, I have been thinking about this clip from "The Office:"

Michael Scott officially "declares" bankruptcy.  Little does he know that he can't just say the word "bankruptcy" and expect things to happen.

Michael responds that he didn't just "say" it--he "declared" it.  Legally speaking, however, his declaration is meaningless and has no effect.  But that doesn't mean it's not funny.  Hope you enjoyed the clip whether you've seen it before or it's brand new to you....