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    • quiet day in lyon, croissants w/ nath. 4 days ago
    • merhaba from istanbul! hanging out w/ the sleepy greiners 1 week ago
    • in granada. i actually gave someone directions and they were right! 1 month ago
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  • Last Books Read

    Born to Run by Christopher McDougall - (K) Humorous and thorough history and science behind ultrarunners and long-distance running
    *****
    Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela - (K) An autobiography covering his childhood, years as a freedom fighter and incarceration. Inspiring and informative
    *****
    The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón - (K&T) A mystery set in Barcelona involving an old book, a failed writer and murder
    *****
    Lush Life by Richard Price - A Lower East Side tale of cops, drugs and drinking
    ***
    The Chinese by Jesper Becker - (K&T) Modern history of my peeps, from the cultural revolution to the many failed economic and social attempts to move the country forward
    ***
    Setting the Table by Danny Meyer - A "how-to" on hospitality and business acumen by the restaurateur behind such NY institutions as the Shake Shack and Union Square Grill
    ***
    The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama - Obama lays out what is wrong with the current government and how, vaguely, to change it.
    **

Tim visits

My friends Tim and Dacia have been traveling through South America since this summer.  I miss them, but have been reading about their big adventure on their blogs:  stadtplanet.blogspot.com and daciachristin.blogspot.com.  Tim’s family is in Long Island, so he decided to come home for the holidays, and he came into the city yesterday.
The Tims
 

Our first Seattle Guests!

Over the holidays, we had our first 2 sets of Seattle guests came to NY. Only, we were not here to receive them, as we went to Arizona for Christmas. However, our apartment was here, so we were happy to have Lori and her mom as well as Heidi and Phil here…even if [...]

Christmas with the Sales: On Risk and World Domination

For Christmas, Diesel got Drew the game Risk. I had never played it before, because growing up, the game always seemed too complicated to me. But it’s not. In fact, it now tops my list as one of the best games ever.
Diesel, Drew, David (his brother) and I decided to play it [...]

Christmas with the Sales

As Diesel mentioned below, we left last Thursday for Mesa, AZ, where we would be spending Christmas with his family. His brother and sister-in-law were there as well with their two little girls, so having them and Drew around was fun. We spent a lot of family time just sitting around the [...]

Clinton Street Baking Company

After a red-eye flight from Phoenix aided by some Ambien and a short nap after arriving at home, Kelly and I made our way to the Clinton Street Baking Company. The CSBC has garnered a ton of great reviews and everyone tends to rave about it. One bite of the thick and fluffy banana walnut [...]

The Cut

Another story begins with a text message and after the response and a call, I decided it was too far and too much. Having grown up in a military family, it was hard to get to $35 in Seattle, much less $57 here in NY. I went for a walk in the chilly, afternoon air. [...]

Little Old Ladies Magnet

My friend Anna from Barcelona once told me about the several occasions she has brought friends from all over the world to meet her mom. Upon meeting the new visitors, Anna’s mom, in all her naive friendliness, tries to strike up a conversation with the strangers, all in Catalan. Confusion sets in [...]

A Brave New World, or “v” is for Victory

Despite my recent altercations with the MTA (subway system), I felt familiarized enough with the train lines to embark in yet another new adventure, and by that, I mean venturing into the boroughs.
The whole thing didn’t really spring from a sense of adventure, but instead, from the need to print out our Xmas cards. [...]

Explosion

Apparently there was a big explosion just a few blocks up the street (on 46th – I’m on 42nd) at News Corp.. Unfortunately, Fox News continues to broadcast without interruption. I didn’t hear anything butI looked out the window to see a giant cloud of black smoke rising. Turns out that was from just another [...]

The Eloquent

When I read Tim and Dacia’s blog as they travel around Latin America, I’m constantly reminded of the difference between writers and bloggers. In a time when anybody can put their thoughts in front of the rest of us, misspellings and grammatical errors intact, Tim & Dacia both excel at using the language. Check out [...]