Saturday, October 25, 2008

Koni with a K

It's 11PM. Do you know where your dog is? Apparently, Vladimir Putin needs a little help. He put a large a satellite-tracking collar on his dog, Koni, to track the dog's whereabouts. You can read about this and see a picture of Koni at:

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iWP4ZjvNCw4YM9GiSj1JbLPVaKHA.

I don't need such high tech devices. I know Coney's always in the right place at the right time, especially at dinner time.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

What I learned on my dog walk

I’m late. I was going to make my triumphant return to the blogosphere when the Car Guys’ Puzzler returned from summer vacation. Been having too much fun getting up to speed on being a Product Manager, camping, swimming, napping and dog walking. Better late than never for keen insight on pressing issues found on Dogma Musings. So, here goes. As we passed by the church/synagogue on our walk the other day, we saw a simple, square temporary structure made of 1-by-2’s and lattice. There were paper chains, decorated paper plates hung with colorful yarn and a hand printed sign that said, “Don’t forget to decorate the sukkah!” OK then. Coney and I went in to sniff around and admire the decorations. I later read an article in the Times that talked about the Jewish harvest festival of Sukkot that includes hanging out in sukkahs to commorate the 40 years of living in makeshift dwellings as the Jews made their way to the Holy Land. There’s one taking up prime real estate in Bryant Park for the week of the festival. It’s a place to eat and give blessings and invite your friends. Almost sounds like a bar. They had several events at the Bryant Park sukkah including Sushi at the Sukkah, Jazz at the Sukkah and, my favorite, Pizza in the Hut. What next? Perhaps Wil Shortz will show up for Sudoku in the Sukkah. Cheers or whatever.

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Blog Break

Seems like there’s a lot to do—mulching, swimming, camping, spinning up on my new job. Think I’ll take a blog break for a while. Joe’s as prolific as ever, so check out http://woodcharles.blogspot.com/ to see what we’ve been up to. Talk to you later.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Just Like Camping & Sweet Send Off

Just Like Camping: Got the camper van back, nice and clean and fixed up. We took it for a drive to Chelsea and Dexter yesterday. Got carry-out in Dexter, ate in our clean van and took a stroll over to the big gazebo. Then home for a nap after the big excitement.

Bon Chance! Got a sweet send off from some of the folks on my team as I embark on my new exciting job as a technical product manager. Got a beautiful lucky bamboo in an elegant vase

and a beautiful clock with all sorts of great “carpe diem” type sayings including my favorite rallying cry, “Never give up! Never surrender!” Thanks, guys. I’ll miss you, too.



Sunday, May 11, 2008

Camper Van Continued, Nice Try TruGreen, Happy DogMa Day

Mea Culpa: My promise to myself and my faithful reader was that I would post an entry once a week. My excuse for missing an entry last week was going to be that I was busy mulching, but I didn’t end up doing much of that, either. Spent the time I could’ve been blogging thinking up excuses.

Camper Van Saga: We spent some of our time last weekend moving the camper van project along. Put the van into the capable hands of Steve at Lloyd Bridges so that he and his crew could fix the damage inflicted by the dealership, summerize it, wash it and ............... clean the inside! Steve was great. He said he’d seen worse. Got a call that day suggesting that we drive out to see the level of damage before he put it back together. Later in the week, Steve called to say the house battery (is that like house cookie or house chocolate?) was dead and would we like that replaced. Yes, please. Then another call to say that the battery housing was so corroded that he’d need to get a RoadTrek part from a dealer. Sigh. Needless to say, we haven’t made any concrete camping plans till we get the van in our hot hands. It’ll be right as rain soon (perhaps not the best phrase to use when talking about camping).

Nice Try TruGreen: Came home to find a 22 by 5.5 inch flyer from TruGreen wedged between the door jam and handle right next to the detailed No Soliciting sign. “Want a great lawn without the work?” “Free First Application” “Call Us Today” “10% Off”. My response to them is ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! We’re just not the types.

Happy DogMa Day: Finally, I would like to wish all you doggie moms out there a Very Happy DogMa Day!

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Ooee, everything’s alright

Mulch in my driveway.


Flowers in my yard.


Dog laze in the afternoon.


Ooee, everything’s alright. Ooee, everything’s alright.

(Apologies to Country Joe McDonald).

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Camper, Innovation, Aachen

Camper Van Moving Along: We took the camper van out for a little spin yesterday. Stopped by Lloyd Bridges and Service Guy Steve said he could fix the bit of plumbing that got damaged at the dealership. No problem. We’ve got an appointment to get ‘er all ready in a coupla weeks. Took Coney for a ride around the block. Just like camping.

Innovation: Thomson and Reuters just merged into Thomson Reuters. The founder of Reuters got his start by sending stock quotes, via carrier pigeons, between Aachen and Brussels. Innovation lives on at Thomson Reuters. I pitched an idea to the company Innovation Board yesterday; however, it was decided that carrier pigeons would not be a part of any of the recommended solutions.

Aachen: Speaking of Aachen, way back in the 8th century, the pope allowed Charlemagne to take cool architectural treasures from Ravenna since his dad, Pepin, chased the bad old Lombards out of Ravenna and gave the city to the Papal states. Charlemagne, medieval king and starchitect, used the treasures to build a wonderful rustic version of Ravenna’s San Vitale. Here’s a link about Charlemagne’s chapel at Aachen:

http://faculty.cua.edu/Pennington/Religion402/Topic%20Two%20Carolingian%20Church/LectureTwo/PalaceChapelAachen.htm

and here’s a link about San Vitale in Aachen:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.sacred-destinations.com/italy/images/ravenna/san-vitale/san-vitale-center-c-paradox.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.sacred-destinations.com/italy/ravenna-san-vitale.htm&h=498&w=750&sz=75&hl=en&start=1&sig2=LjqBX1GGVTiVCNDbxyqvmQ&tbnid=rHdADL0bHKFMwM:&tbnh=94&tbnw=141&ei=F2IKSIqWEIO4iAGO9-n7Ag&prev=/images%3Fq%3DSan%2BVitale%2BRavenna%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG