Leaving Vermont!

It's almost been a year since my last post. I can't believe we are close to leaving this area. It's with a heavy heart that I recall the last four years. We will miss this place in ways we could not have imagined. What we once scoffed as small is now seen as uniquely intimate. The tempo we once perceived as slow and monotonous is now endearingly thought of as peaceful and acadian. We will miss you, Upper Valley, and all the lovely people that inhabit your space. We hope we gave enough and did our best while we were here. You are a special place.

Happy Photo

Photo at Elixir in White River

Saturday in Maine

Roger and I had a very eventful Saturday. First, we woke up relatively early for us, around 9am, and drove out to Nashua to replace the roundel on the trunk of Roger's BMW. (Someone had stolen it when we visited Boston a few months back.)

We left the dealership with the intention to go to Ogunquit just to walk along the beach. But then we realized, you don't just walk along the beach, you gotta be able to go into the water. Alas, we didn't have our bathing suits with us, so, taking the opportunity to be impulsive, something we almost rarely do, we decided to swing by the Nashua mall to pick up bathing suits and a large towel. (Roger, obviously taken by this impulsive kick, also purchased a jaunty little Boston Celtics baseball cap.)

An hour and a half later, we were back on the road to Maine, only to run into some fierce traffic. We finally got to Maine around 4pm. It was actually a good time to go. The beach was not as crowded, the sun not too hot, and the tide high. We had our books with us (Roger: Richard Ford's The Lay of the Land, me: The United States of Argula) and soaked up some sun. We did go into the water, about 30 minutes each, although it was freezing at first -- that's the Atlantic for you. But the waves were a lot of fun.

We ended up driving away from downtown Ogunquit for dinner (too crowded!) and found our way to Wells Beach. We pulled up at the Forbes Restaurant & Take-out, a nice low-key joint along the beach, and enjoyed some very tasty lobster rolls (with toasted buns, yum!) and a side of clam strips. A great way to end a Maine day.

Ichiro-isms

Ichiro Suzuki, explaining why he missed catching a fly ball: "The ball became the same color as the sky. So, I wasn't able to see it ... I was sending mental signals for the ball not to come my way, because during that time of day it's impossible for me to see the ball so I lacked mental signals. I lacked in that area. Usually, I don't send mental signals. So, because this is the first time, I thought, please don't come my way."

More here ... and here.

Red Sox Weekend!

Why is this man happy?


Oh, that's why!


Josh, Jennifer, and Genevieve

Last weekend, we had an all-Red Sox, all-Boston extravaganza! Roger and I got tickets to not one, but two Red Sox-White Sox games, including the Sunday, designated "Vermont Day" game. We invited our friends to come down to Boston for the weekend and luckily scored a really low price, via Priceline, for one-night accomodations at the new Boston Hotel Intercontinental, right along the harbor.

The festivities actually began in New Hampshire, where we had lunch at the famous KC's Ribshack in Manchester. Very good BBQ, very good onion rings, and very, very good hush puppies.

When we got to Boston, we pretty much headed straight to the park for the first game, rookie Kason Gabbard was pitching. It was a very sunny, very hot day! So sunny that Jennifer and I ended up buying baseball caps for some relief. We also discovered the bargain of the park: freshly squeezed lemonade! Tall plastic 16 oz cup of ice, juice of a 1-1/2 lemons, sugar, and water. Yum! And as the ice melted, it was like you got a free refill. The Red Sox won 11-2.

After the game ended, we checked out our rooms in the hotel: really cool! Very nicely designed, with latest flat screen tvs, deluxe bath with a separate tub and a shower, and a well-appointed vanity. The hotel also had a gorgeous esplanade in the back, looking onto the water and the Children's Museum. For dinner, we headed up to Cambridge to eat at the Border Cafe, and then came back into the city for dessert at Mike's Pastry.


Roger, Genevieve, Josh, and Hank

The next day, Jennifer had to go back up to New Hampshire, but our friend Hank joined us for some more baseball and dim sum at Hei-La Moon.

We lucked out on both fronts -- very fast service at the Moon and with Wakefield starting for the Red Sox and Papelbon closing it out, we secured our second win in two days! We definitely were sated by the time we drove home!

A House Divided

It's official, when it comes to tennis, Roger and I stand on opposite sides of the court (net?).

He roots for Roger Federer, the stoic Swiss, and I root for Rafael Nadal, the savvy Spaniard.

Sunday, as I was watching the Wimbledon Men's Final, I was really hoping that Rafa could pull out a win, not just to take one away from Mr. Federer, but just to make the rivalry just a little more interesting. Oh, but the knee worked up and Rafa fell behind in the fifth set. He definitely needs to work on his serve -- his first serve percentage numbers aren't bad, but he just doesn't have that power serve that can produce ace after ace that Roger has.

Here's hoping the two meet again in the U.S. Open.

(TIP: If you want to make Roger (our Roger, not Federer) cringe, just start quoting Joe Starkey, his last call of the 1982 Big Game ... "the most amazing, sensational, traumatic, heart-rending, exciting thrilling ... ")

Genevieve 2.0

I just came back from a three-day conference on Enterprise 2.0, which was held in Boston.

Don't call me an evangelist, but my head is spinning from the event. New words, new names, new tools.

I'll have to try and write a longer post to fully explain myself. Yes, there was a lot of hype and posturing during the three days, but there was also some truthful insights and glimpses into what is now close to possible (a lot!). Studying human behavior and collaborative tendencies have never been more important.

Some buzz words that I took away: social software, social bookmarking, SocialText, Thinkfree, SuiteTwo, Kapow, Ma.gnolia, 9rules, on and on ...

I came back home determined to re-open my anemic del.i.cio.us account and feed it links and tags right away. It's like a tamagotchi, I swear. You want your tag cloud to grow and give back to the Web 2.0 world.