The Blogger Awakens

Dateline June 11, 2010: Hello again. A year and a half since I last wrote you. Still doing the same old wonderful things. Been in my job as a technical product manager for 2 years now and it's still an exciting challenge. It pushes me to get good at the things I want to get good at like communicating, collaborating to get things done, writing requirements and other things, speaking, strategic planning. Could public office be far off? Yes, it could. Very far off. I'm happy right where I am thank-you very much. But, I've enjoyed reading the following books about political types lately: Teddy Kennedy's memoir "True Compass", Ted Sorensen's memoir "Counselor", particularly the section about his eleven years with JFK, and now, Sorensen's 1965 book called "Kennedy". Wow, Kennedy's certainly an inspiration. The other important things are the same important things. Spending time with Joe and Coney, particularly on camping trips. We're doing that right now. Coney and I are sitting under the awning of the camper van at Wilderness State Park looking out at the lake and the rain. May join Joe inside the van soon. Got two glorious lake swims in yesterday and this morning, though. The sand is white and ripply, the water is green-blue from below, and it's exhilarating without being heart-stopping if you wear head-to-toe neoprene. I swim for 30 minutes tops; might turn into a selkie and swim away otherwise. Napping and dog walking also feature in our camping trips. Napping is going on right now. The dog walks are very exciting. There are ground squirrels galore; one lives right under our fire ring. Coney keeps a close eye on that entrance and scours the beach for more. On the home front, I'm happy to say that we are thoroughly mulched. For the last couple of years, we've been throwing money at the problem of throwing mulch around. Joe and I are responsible for requirements and procurement and Chris' Lawn Care does the throwing. Other wonderful things have happened in the last couple of years, most notably bodacious get-togethers with family and friends. I'll tell you about those later. See you.

Ode to Cornbread

Joe makes the best cornbread in the world. It's especially wonderful now that it's cold and dark out. A mountain of golden sunshine, even more glorious now that it's made with huge, fresh farmers' market eggs. Bliss. Coney thinks so, too.

Bark Obama

All the dogs were BARacKing in the park on Wednesday and deserve tee-shirts like Fluffy and Mr. Fluffy's Stella has (Bark Obama 08). Well, the Dogs for Obama have it and Bush's Barney is cheesed off. He bit a reporter, a colleague no less. Laura says he's fed up with papparatzi. Well, he won't have long to wait before nobody's asking his opinion and we don't have to listen to his whiney owner. Here's an article that includes Barney's bad-dog-no-biscuit behaviour, wonders who the next presidential doggie will be and looks at presidential doggies throughout history:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96736708

Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof! = January 20, 2009, the end of an error and a dog biscuit in every pot.

The Choice Is Clear

Who's Coney Dog voting for? No doubt about it. Obama rocks in dog circles. Obama has an official Dogs for Obama site http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/DogsforObama. The Humane Society Legislative Fund endorses Obama (Sarah likes to shoot at wolves out of airplanes!). The Obamas plan to get a pound puppy after the election. Coney found an Obama pin in the schoolyard. And, perhaps most importantly, the first two letters in Obama's name are the first two letters in the important word BONE. Obama for President for two Big Biscuits in every bowl!

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.

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.

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.