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Google Maps

It is wonderful! Very easy to use interface, beautiful maps, real-time updating (at least on a high-speed connection). Goodbye MapQuest!

I’m just getting better. I was s-i-c-k! It sucked. And the worst part was I actually had to take an overnight trip to Chicago in the middle of being sick. I highly advise flying while sick. Love the non-stop action in the eardrums.

The upside is that Deb did NOT get sick in the whole process, but the downside is approximately $45 in cold medicine and $150 in juice.

Hope everyone is healthy!

I don’t remember this from any of the Gospels, but we have photographic proof that there was a giant feline seated right outside the stable made famous by Mary and Joseph so many years ago. Take a look:

While not turning turning Christendom on its ear through photography, Deb and I had a great trip back to Michigan to celebrate the holidays. We did the round-robin visit where we spent several nights with my folks, and both of my brothers and their families. It was a great way to spend time with everyone in the family. It also meant we got to have Christmas three separate times!

One of the highlights—besides the big all-family Christmas gathering on Christmas Eve and “Bingo” with Uncle Norman and Aunt Mildred another night—was a visit from Spiderman. Who knew that he was real, either? The trip to Michigan revealed a lot of truths. In any case, this intrepid photographer caught the Spiderman visit on film in true Peter Parker fashion.

This trip also introduced us to Deb’s new favorite game: Munchkin. I actually really like it, too; but unlike Hand & Foot, I’d better be careful not to beat her too much so she will keep playing. Munchkin has about a thousand expansions (here and here, here, here, here, and here; here, too) so even though we just bought Munchkin 2, she still has conveniently provided you with birthday and holiday gift ideas for roughly the next decade.

Due to high demand, I have forgone all of the thousands of other things I need to be doing in order to get these pictures online.

We begin our three hour, I mean minute, tour at the street sign across the street from the infamous 17 and 19 Robin Hood Drive houses. My main memory of this sign post was that of Erik Johnson I believe being “attached” to it. I cannot recall exactly how, whether it was tape or a rope.

Moving on, I decided to take a photo of the Angelo’s old mail box because I thought it was very cool that clearly a submariner still lived at that house.

Here are the two houses, the Angelo’s on the left and the Smeigh’s on the right with the GIANT hill in between…

Can you believe all of the fun we had sledding down that HUGE hill? I remember Tara sledding down and straddling one of the trees, I guess I shouldn’t laugh about it because that’s just mean, but, well, it’s funny. And it didn’t leave any permanent damage.

But seriously, how could we have ever thought that was a steep hill worth sledding down? Mom? Dad? Help me out here, is the childhood perspective really so very different? I was amazed!!!

Next we drove on over to Ledyard and checked out the center, past Holdridge’s, Ledyard Center Elementary, which hasn’t changed one bit, the Library and then over to the school. Which as Matt mentioned has more parking where there was a field and what is apparently the new library (aka Media Center) built in front of the entrance where the auditorium is located. The old library is apparently now just additional cafeteria space.

On a very sad note, it appears as though Mr. Rockefeller died in 2000. I tried to see if I could figure out why via an internet search, but to no avail. This makes me very sad as he was great as my teacher for The Colonel, the school magazine. Here’s a little plaque commemorating his death.

Finally, and it appears most eagerly awaited, is 33 Seabury Ave.

Yes, to everyone’s amazement they have cleared out the trees that were in the front yard, even the stone wall that was in the front yard. And have added the Madonna statue.The door is still red, but I think the loss of the forest truly hurts the charm of this house. Although the Hakkinen’s do still live across the street.

Thanks for joining Matt and I down this trip called Memory Lane. I imagine there will be more to come.

I finally did it! I finally saw where Debra grew up.

Debra and I went to Connecticut this past Sunday so I could see her old stomping grounds now that we’ve moved back to the East Coast. We took a beautiful drive up I-95 from New York City to Ledyard, CT. The fall colors are in full swing and there was one picturesque bridge in particular that we went over and saw a riverbank filled with the most beautiful reds, oranges and yellows.

Ledyard and Gales Ferry were really out there in the middle of nowhere. We decided it was a bit like Eaton Rapids in that regard—right down to the 20-30 minutes you had to drive to get to a decent place to buy clothes.

It was fun driving through her childhood with her. She showed me everything. From her house on Robin Hood Drive (located right off Friar Tuck Lane in Sherwood Forest, of course) where she lived until she was in 2nd or 3rd grade (where she met one of her bridesmaids, Tara, at the ripe old age of 3 on the HUGE hill between their houses) to her high school (which has replaced a big field in the front with a big addition, more parking and several new tennis courts) to her house on Seabury Avenue (which has been denuded of trees by recent residents, though it does have a nice Madonna in the front lawn now). Deb has some pictures she’ll post for her family and friends who knew what those places looked like “back then”…

After we toured her hometowns, we went to Mystic. We drove by the Mystic Pizza of movie fame but didn’t stop. We had much more touristy stuff to do—like check out Old Mistick Village where we did a little bit of shopping. You can never have too many tchotchkes from tourist traps! Probably my favorite part, though, was eating dinner at the restaurant where Debra used to be a busboy, the Seamen’s Inne. We had some of the best Lobster Bisque we’ve ever had.

The trip was a bit ambitious for one day with the drive to and from the area each taking 2 and half hours or more. Mom, if you thought Chicago and San Francisco driving was crazy—just wait to get out here!

I thought I left the West Coast to work in New York City? So what’s up with my being on a plane headed for the Pacific timezone again? At least I’m going to Southern California for a little variety rather than heading right back where we started from.

All that to say the job is going well. I’m very much enjoying the new (old?) job with Dow Jones Integrated Solutions. There are going to be a lot of similarities to what I was doing before at Dow Jones, but it looks like it will be different in all the right ways. I spent much of my first week getting up to speed, working on one particular pitch (for which I am now flying to help present; too bad I didn’t get the one also happening tomorrow—in Detroit!) and meeting with folks from other Dow Jones properties. It is exciting, but probably a bit busier than my first 8-years at Dow Jones and certainly busier than these last several months of transition.

I’m back in New York tomorrow evening. Can’t wait.

We arrived safe and sound and only a little cranky last night in NYC. The flight was pretty good. We were very lucky and got an extra seat to ourselves. Nala completely passed out under one of them, but Tundra was very uncomfortable. She meowed a lot and could not get to sleep. We spent most of the flight with her on one of our laps with our hand in the carrier.

They both seem fine this morning, eating well and sleeping well. Tundra definitely enjoys the view from the 17th floor!

I have to work today and Matt appears to have some great leads on apartments already. The weather doesn’t look so great, grey and should be rainy, but that’s something we should get used to now.

After a week of worrying more than we should about the details, the Big Move to the Big Apple is starting to come together. (Which is a good thing since it happens in like 5 days!)

The movers are coming on September 13 to pack all of our stuff into myriad boxes and containers. It is weird to see an estimate for the weight of all your worldly possessions. In our case: 6,400 pounds. I am still trying to figure out where all that weight is coming from. Must be dishes. Anyway, they come back on the 14th to load everything onto the semi that will ship it all cross-country. They pick up our Beetle the same day to ship it across country on one of those scary trucks carrying vehicles that look as if they’re going to fall off at any moment (I checked about insurance).

We fly out the next day—Sepetember 15th—on jetBlue flight 56 from OAK to JFK which gets us into New York at around 8 o’clock that night. This will be a flight of firsts. Deb has never flown jetBlue and experienced live DirecTV while on an airplane (it’s cool! 6 hours of CNN HeadlineNews). And neither of us have flown with our kitties. Yes, that’s right, Nala and Tundra are taking to the air… (We bought sedatives.) The funny thing is, we have to get to the airport extra early to make sure the little menaces are properly screened before they can board. Those poor screeners.

Once we get to New York, we’ll be staying at the Marriott Marquis right in Times Square. Ironically it turns out to be one of the cheapest places to stay in the city on such short notice, and it is about 2 blocks from our office at 1155 Avenue of the Americas. Deb and I—and the kitties—will be staying here until October 1st or until we can find an apartment of our own. I think both of us are hoping to find the apartment sooner than that since we remember living with both cats in a hotel for 3 weeks when we first moved to San Francisco. The hotel’s high-speed Internet connection also means it will be Deb’s office until we find our apartment.

Wish us luck!