December 27, 2009

I was supposed to write this on Christmas day but didn't get around to it. We had a white Christmas courtesy of last Sunday's snowfall. We started the day with a run which was very peaceful since it was cool and crisp but not bitter cold and there was very little traffic on the roads. Then after a shower it was time to see what Santa had brought. As you can see from the photo (isn't she cute!), we both did quite well and received some great new clothes along with a few other items we each needed. One highlight was the gift of a new two canvas paintings from my Mom - can't wait to get them here and hung (probably in a way that my Mom never anticipated, it's a habit I have). Jo spent the rest of Christmas cooking while I tackled starting to clean out accumulated junk in my study. It was amazing how much stuff I managed to clear out and I'm not even the pack rat of the family. I'm thinking now of starting to tackle the rest of the house but am meeting some resistance from the other house member. When you got momentum you should just keep it going.

The short update on the rest of the week - Jo and I had a pretty light week at work. Jo was in town and managed to take work from home a couple of the days. My big highlight was starting the process to replace my two front capped teeth. My current caps were in almost 35 years and were starting to show their age. I thought this would be a pretty simple thing - pop off the old covers, put on some temporaries while the new ones are being made, and then install the new ones. After 5 hours in a dentist chair and 6 Novocaine injections (I'll admit it, I'm a wimp when it comes to tooth pain) it hit me this was going to hurt more than just financially. But I managed to live through the drilling and now have my temps going. The rest of the week was pretty calm at work as everyone was either gone or going on vacation.

We started our vacation formally on Thursday at noon with an invite to our neighbor's - Bob and Judy - family celebration. It was nice to meet up with all their family again and get updated on the latest news. Then it was over to Sheri and Bruno's to help them install a granite counter top in their bathroom and an excellent dinner - roasted chicken with mashed potatoes (can never go wrong with mashed potatoes). Yesterday, after a morning run we headed to Best Buy to replace our DVD player that we managed to fry via a static shock to the unit. I would have thought they would ground and protect the machines from that - but apparently not ours. Apparently, Best Buy didn't get the message that the economy stinks and they should put everything on an incredible sale. Although at $70 it is hard to complain when a DVD player costs about the same as a pair of jeans. Then we hit the malls briefly to pick up some Christmas cards for next year at half-price and then home for the day. Spent the rest of the day doing a few home repair and cleaning chores (starting to see the theme for this week).

Today, after a run and yoga I'm hoping to put in some serious time on getting re-started on doing pottery on a regular basis. I need to have a hobby besides work and exercising. Later in the day we are going to see Emmet Otter's Christmas with Sheri and Bruno at a local theater.

December 20, 2009

Almost time for Santa to visit - the stockings are hung by the chimney with care. We are done shopping, the house is decorated, and have consumed several batches of Christmas cookies already (that's what all that running is for) so we are ready and waiting for the big, jolly guy. Work is finally slowing down and we are looking forward to catching up with some items around the house and each other.

The good news is mother nature finally cooperated and gave us our first snow accumulation which allowed me to fire up the snow blower - Yipee. Of course, you might want to check back in around March where the thrill of another snow plummets. We had a really impressive snowfall of 18-24 inches which made for some serious snowblowing. Between doing our driveway and helping our neighbor with theirs Jo and I managed 6 hours of snowblowing/shoveling today. Lots of fun to be outside in the cold, crisp air with getting some exercise. We'll probably regret it later tonight and tomorrow, but for now it is all fun. Before the snow came I got out in the yard and cut up a tree we had taken down last year to let more light into the garden - for all the good that did in our crop yields this year.

Last night we waded through the snow to see our last play of the season with Sheri and Bruno - the ever popular "Christmas Carol". During dinner we reviewed our annual predictions for 2009 - Sheri won with 9 right predictions (in case you were curious, here are the winning 9 - 1) Pittsburgh Steelers winning the Superbowl, 2) her boss having a new job, 3) Sheri and Bruno rented their house in Westerly, 4) Pfizer closes either the New London or Groton site - it was New London, 5) Sheri doesn't lose her camera - trust me on this one, that is a major accomplishment, 6) One of us goes to India - that was Jo, although only for 24 hours, 7) a colleague is no longer at Pfizer, 8) Gitmo is still open, and 9) Sheri and Bruno put in a hardwood floor on their second floor). Of course, this out of around 25 to 30 total predictions so we aren't exactly clairvoyant. We always enjoy doing this and the quality and number of predictions correlate significantly to the amount of alcohol consumed (in terms of quality it is an inverse correlation). Like any good bunch of scientists we have laid out an effective set of guidelines - for instance, any prediction that you have control over the outcome you only get half credit. What is more amazing is this was started back with my first boss twenty years ago - we used to predict what organizational changes were going to happen the next year. We will be making our 2010 set of predictions next Sunday and given my recent history, I need to work hard on improving my ability to see the future.

My next post will be during the post-Christmas high so - MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL and TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!

One side note for the season: It would be great if every playwright on the planet was required to write a Christmas play - one that had nothing to do with Ebenezer Scrooge or Dickens - and every playhouse was prohibited from running "Christmas Carol" until they had put on all the other plays. Don't get me wrong, Christmas Carol is a wonderfully heartwarming story and well written (and Ebenezer always reminds me a bit of my Dad, especially when it comes to buying something) - but a little variety year to year would be nice. While I'm on this theme, maybe all the ballet writers (or whomever writes ballets) should have to do the same with the Nutcracker.

December 12, 2009

Only 2 weeks left of shopping for Christmas. Be sure to get out there and help the economy. We were both in town for the entire week which was a nice change. Of course, I'm almost always in town so not a big switch for me, but it was nice for Jo to actually see the inside of her office and her house. Work is busy with the usual year end rush on getting projects complete along with performance review time. But there is always the week off just in front of you to keep you focused and refreshed. We continue our integration and reorganization efforts within Jo's and my group although no new exciting announcements this week. It appears that it will probably be somewhere in late January before the next step of decisions come out.

We have had an interesting weather week as it was relatively warm at the beginning and then with each advancing day a trend to lower and lower temperatures. We fortunately missed having any really bad snow from the storm that covered the Midwest in the middle of the week, although just north of us got 3-7 inches (depending on how far north you went). We just had rain at our house, so no need to power up the snowblower yet this year (too bad!!!). We have a quiet weekend planned, we want to tackle getting our Christmas cards in the mail, get massages, and there is a tree out by the garden that needs some chopping up - if you can't fire up the snowblower might as well be the chain saw. That along with some cooking, baking, and the usual weekend chores should fill out the time nicely. Finally, I need to finish the last of my Christmas shopping so I'm doing my bit as stated at the beginning of this blog.

The upcoming work week starts the wind down for the end of the year as it is the last week that the majority of everyone will be at work. Then it is a slow week followed by 5 days off - yeah.

Have fun and think snow!

December 6, 2009

Only 19 days until Christmas. Most importantly - only 14 more days of work this year. The best way to describe our past week for both of us, is work, work, work, and more work. Jo was in New York all week with days full of meetings and evenings full of dinners and meetings. She was very busy and came home tired and ready for some rest. Unfortunately, she pulled a muscle in her back during her Saturday work out so there hasn't been the rest she was hoping for.

The more fun portion of the week has been decorating the house for Christmas. The weather cooperated yesterday as it was raining or drizzling all day so it made it the perfect day to stay inside, put on some Christmas songs, and trim the tree. So first we had to get the tree. We decided this year to try something new and use a tree on our property. As you might imagine we didn't have a perfectly shaped and sized pine tree, but we figured out we could cut down a bigger tree and only use the top. It is the one in the middle in the top photo. So out came the chain saw and off we went. The first part started out fun with the tree falling the wrong way - despite my planful cuts - and landing up on top of me. No harm, but having a 20 feet tree on top of you isn't the best way to start the day. Naturally, it meant that Jo needed to strain her back some more to help me get out. We then lopped off the top and brought it inside (middle photo). This is where we discovered the advantages of trees raised at a Christmas tree farm. The tend to more compact, denser branches, and perfectly trimmed. After trimming and moving the tree around we managed to get it to fit in the space we had and then it was off to the official tree trimming. Most of the ornament hanging consists of us reminiscing about where we had purchased the various ornaments. A great time to reflect back on family, friends, and trips we had taken. We got to enjoy our first CT snowfall during the evening to make the tree trimming even more special - although no accumulation at all. Needless to say, we both went to bed tired but happy with our homegrown tree.

Sunday dawned bright but cold. After a morning run and yoga we finished the last bit of decorating the tree and made a batch of Christmas cookies. The rest of the day has some naps and reading on tap. Also, need to do a little bit of planning for Christmas gifts.

November 30, 2009

Last day before December and the start of the Christmas season. Time to be singing carols and trimming the tree and baking cookies. Speaking of cookies, I spent Sunday morning making my favorite Christmas cookie to enjoy for the next few weeks. Check out the photo

We spent the week of Thanksgiving in Madison, WI with Jo's sister, Kathy. Her other sister - Mary - and brother-in-law joined everyone for the beginning of the week and it was great for Jo to have the chance to catch up on all the family news. Plus I didn't have to talk that much since the three sisters were doing enough for everyone - at least that was my observation. Her brother Bill also came up on the Sunday before Thanksgiving so that most of the clan was together (just missing her brother John from Colorado). The photo is everyone - minus Kathy who was the designated photographer. Going clockwise from the bottom left - Jo, yours truly, Mike, Mary, Sean (Mary and Mike's eldest son who lives in Madison), and Bill.

I had a very relaxing time during our stay, as always, since I spent my week playing computer games, reading books, and napping. Almost in even portions of each. As always, I decided that I could really handle that pace full time and was ready to call up Pfizer and tell them where to send my final check. I did manage a few constructive efforts during the week helping install some new lights for Kathy.

Jo and I met with our architects and got excited about renovating our house in Madison again. We came up with some new ideas to try and get to the laundry room out of the basement as well as some modifications for the third floor guest suite. Had a great time and the architect was incredibly encouraging about being able to get everything we wanted planned out and through the zoning approval process. We walked out very charged about the house and ready to do it now. Which won't happen, but it was nice to get excited about it again.

Thanksgiving dinner consisted of turkey with all the trimmings and was delicious. It is a shame that cleaning up a turkey afterwards is such a pain otherwise I could really see making it more often. Very tasty and there are few things better than stuffing with gravy all over it. Our last day in Madison, Kathy and Jo hit the stores to take advantage of the Black Friday sales while I installed some landscape lighting for Kathy to light up her walkway steps a bit better for visitors. Then it was back home to the realities of work. Our flight home went smoothly which is always nice and we managed to sort through the mail and get unpacked quickly.

Jo then had to turn around and pack for a week on the road in New York. Although with the Christmas windows on display this is one of her favorite times to be in New York - makes her morning runs more enjoyable as she tries to wind her way past all the best windows. I'm in town with a full calendar of meetings to catch up for relaxing last week. This Friday is my group's holiday party. Then, we are planning to put up our Christmas tree this coming weekend and hopefully will get the whole house decorated in the two days we have. Stay tuned for the photo montage.

November 22, 2009

No pictures again this week since I don't have any way to connect my camera to the computer I'm using. Busy travels for Joann this last week as she spent the majority of the week in New Jersey meeting with her leadership team from around the globe - Brazil, Germany, Australia, and the US were all represented. She had quite the adventure traveling to New Jersey since she managed to not get off Amtrak at the right station. Landed up having to go to the next station and get a taxi to her final destination - and if case you were wondering - it wasn't Amtrak's fault, except for closing the door to move on. Jo apparently was dawdling.

I spent the week at home with a full schedule of meetings. Nothing too exciting meeting wise, but many of them were in preparation for our annual year-end reviews. Always a fun time for all. Friday we packed up and headed off for some vacation time with Kathy in Madison, WI. We had smooth flights all the way out and have already been enjoying the down time that vacation brings. I spent almost all day yesterday playing computer games which is something I would never do at home. Joann did some baking with her sisters - Mary and Mike have joined from Nebraska.

Not too much planned for the rest of the week except for a meeting with the architect on our house plans to check out a few new ideas we had and update the firm on our construction (or lack thereof) plans. Hope everyone has a wonderful turkey day and remember the point of Thanksgiving is to eat too much.

November 14, 2009

Since the weather outside is all windy and rainy it seemed like a good time to update the happenings of the week. Many folks have requested a photo of Joann's new bobby haircut and that should be coming. Unfortunately, I can't apparently just take any ole picture of her hair - it must be properly styled and looking good before a photo is allowed to posted. Needless to say and as the absence of a picture this week shows - all those events haven't come together this week. Stay tuned.

We both were in town for the week. I was supposed to be in sunny and warm LA to attend a conference (AAPS - American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists in case you wanted to check into it). But was asked late last week to be in the office as the research division of Pfizer made several key announcements this week. As you can tell from the news, we are closing several research sites around the globe following the merger with Wyeth. The local impact is our New London, CT facility will close and we will move folks over to our Groton buildings. As I'm already in Groton - not much change there. Joann however will no longer enjoy her views of the Long Island sound, submarines going out from the submarine base, and will certainly miss the seals she gets to watch every winter.

On a more cheery note, Jo crossed a major milestone and one she is sooooo excited about. She became a platinum executive flyer on one of the major airlines. As this is tantamount to free stuff and anyone who knows Jo realizes how much she loves a bargain this has caused her to practically walk on air due to the excitement. Of course this has required flying over 100,000 miles since January - this is even more impressive (or depressing depending on your love of travel) is that this is equivalent of flying around the earth 4 times (circumference of the earth is ~25,000 miles) or almost halfway to the moon (~240,000 miles). Wonder how much extra radiation she picked up being in the air that much - no wonder her hair is turning white (although she swears it is just more blond).

My thrill for the week was to discuss with my dentist replacing my capped front teeth. As the rest of my teeth have aged and moved off the brilliant white of my youth - my capped teeth have stayed their original color. Therefore, I'm a bit mis-matched. That along with some degradation in one of the caps has moved this to the probably should do list. In the process of discussing this with my dentist it became clear that what was acceptable practice 30 years ago might make it difficult - and in the case of my teeth, read painful - to remove the existing caps. I'll still probably go through with it, but it isn't easy to knowingly decide to cause yourself a bunch of pain to have matching teeth again.

That is all the exciting news for the week. Today is a haircut for me - although nothing as interesting as Jo's, along with some shopping for a new bird bath (or old concrete finally cracked) and some books. Tonight we are doing dinner and a show in Westerly with Bruno and Sheri. We don't have anything major planned for Sunday so will probably catch some naps and reading.

November 7, 2009

As promised last week, the photo for the week is our sweet potato crop. We didn't get any really large potatoes but we did manage to get a larger number of roots that we thought given the weather. We have found that this size sweet potato works really great in soups since they are usually to small for much else.

Joann had a fun week in Paris as it is her favorite city on the planet and she gets to practice her french. While she had serious work to do while there in explaining the new HR model to the European country managers for Pfizer she did get to enjoy the exquisite use the French make of chocolate in desserts. Also she had a little free time one afternoon that allowed her time to come home with a brand new haircut - sort of a bob - and savor a crepe nutella made on the street. I could go on for pages on the shear joy of a well made crepe nutella but I'll leave it at - if you are ever in Paris buy one. The best we have found are made right on the street, you don't have to find a creperie.

My week by comparison was fairly lame. Besides going to work and doing my usual work stuff. My free time consisted of exercising, eating dinner, ironing my shirts, and doing the crossword puzzle. Not too hard to figure out who is leading the more cosmopolitan lifestyle between us. The coming week will probably consist of more integration activities as Pfizer continues to bring together the people and processes of the two companies.

Other than that we are both looking forward to Thanksgiving, a little time off, and naturally the turkey dinner.

November 1, 2009

Welcome to November and apparently the start of the Christmas shopping season since most of the stores seem to have started decorating and selling Christmas items two weeks ago. We were both busy traveling for work this week so not to much exciting news on the home front from the week.

But we did manage an exciting weekend. Friday night we joined Sheri and Bruno, and Gene and Kathy for dinner then it was off to the Providence zoo to see the pumpkin extravaganza - see Providence Zoo Pumpkin. They had over 5,000 carved pumpkins displayed. Everything from very fancy faces carved onto the pumpkins to the more standard three triangles and a mouth. It was an enjoyable evening as the temperatures were warm as we wandered through the pumpkin displays. One interesting item was they had several carved 1,000 lb pumpkins. When you have something that big there is a lot you can do. It certainly gave you ideas for our next pumpkin carving event.

Saturday brought another warm day so we tackled the leaves and garden after our morning chores. We collected the leaves for garden mulch and then removed the last of our crops for this year - the sweet potatoes. While we didn't get any monsters we were pleasantly surprised as we didn't expect much due to the wet and cool weather we had this year - photos will be posted next week. Then it was in for a meal of pasta and fresh homemade bread with a fresh apple crisp (with vanilla ice cream naturally) for dessert before heading out to see Avenue Q at the Garde Theater in New London. Great show and we enjoyed seeing it again - we had seen it before on Broadway - and certainly worth going to if it is nearby.

Today we enjoyed the extra hour of sleep before our morning exercises. Then Jo packed up as she is headed to Paris for four days. She is certainly looking forward to getting some warm crepe nutellas from the street vendors and of course, she might have to a little work in between her crepe's. I tackled some indoor chores and hope to bury myself in a book later this afternoon.

We have been enjoying watching the World Series and are cheering for the Phillies due to our years in Philadelphia. Although, both teams looking really strong this year, so it could be either side at the end.

October 28, 2009

Almost time for the ghosts and goblins to roam the streets. Not much in the way of pictures this week since we didn't take the camera anywhere with us. But we will steal an idea from Sheri and Bruno and use a face from our vegetable harvest.

Not sure why I didn't get a post up this past weekend. The time just slipped on by. Jo and I were both up very early on Saturday. Jo jumped on the computer to do some initial planning for our 2010 trip to New Orleans and as a result I got busy doing other things. The weather was raining on Saturday so after our usual lifting and shopping chores we came home and mostly puttered. Jo read a little, napped, did some work for Pfizer - things are beginning to heat up now that the merger is finalized - and napped some more. I mostly read and napped (I think there was more napping than reading since reading kept making me sleepy). Not sure where the whole day went, but before I knew it, it was gone. We went out into the wet weather to enjoy dinner at the Old Lyme Inn with Deb and Rich, and Mary and Dave. Everyone had something to celebrate which was nice - Deb got a new job post-merger, and Mary and Jo were celebrating October birthdays. For those tracking shifts in cultural norms - which is probably all of us really - the three girls sat around dinner discussing work most of the evening while the three guys discussed just about anything but work. What a great change, since I'm fully behind being a stay-at-home house keeper whenever I finally get Jo to sign off on that.

Sunday dawned bright and non-rainy which allowed us to get out for a run before yoga. Then it was into the yard to tackle the built up chores that we aren't getting around to. We worked on our path up to our garden and then moved one of the pathways in our garden to try and maximize the growing space that actually gets sunlight. Also started a little planning for our 2010 garden - since the perfect growing season is always just around the corner. Trying to decide if we need to remove a few more trees to increase the available sunlight. I'm sure it would help, but I hate removing trees from our forest. In the afternoon, it was grass mowing and removing the built up leaves. We then had to call it quits early as I needed to travel to our new Princeton facility for a week of meetings with our new Pfizer/legacy Wyeth colleagues. Meanwhile, Jo packed up for a whirlwind visit of the Pfizer sites in four states - Collegeville, PA on Monday, Peapack, NJ on Tuesday, the home office in New York on Wednesday, and then back home to CT on Thursday. I'm not sure how she keeps up the energy to travel like she does every week. I was only gone Sunday to today at one location and I'm exhausted.

We are looking forward to watching the Phillies/Yankees baseball games but we'll have to root for the Phillies due to our long time in the Philadelphia area (plus I'm a National League fan - comes from rooting for the Cubs as a child).

October 18, 2009

What can you say about this week but, Brrrrrr. Like much of the nation, Connecticut decided to see if we could enjoy a little winter in October. The temperatures plummeted and certain parts of northern CT enjoyed their first snowfall of the season. Down here on the coast we got the precipitation as a cold rain. Made you want to bundle up and stay indoors. Still better than the temperatures and snowfall my brother and his family were experiencing in Wyoming. Yesterday and today we are enjoying more rainfall as a nor'easter hits us - yesterday with clouds and cool weather, today with the rain..

Big news this week was Joann entering her next decade - appropriate modesty and a desire to be able sleep peacefully at night prohibit me from describing which decade. But since I decided to insert a picture of the chocolate birthday cake I made for her - you can do the math. And yes, that is made from scratch, no chocolate cake mix or pre-made frosting. Jo enjoyed her day as she got flowers from several co-workers and we went out for Mexican food with friends, Sheri and Bruno. Then it was home to open her birthday gifts - a Coach bag to use as a briefcase was my main gift to her. In case you keeping husband points - one for going to a purse store and actually having to look around, second point for knowing she wanted a Coach bag for her briefcase (ok, she has been saying that for about a year), and third point for making her a birthday cake from scratch. That gets me up to about 5 points for the year - I always like to bloom late in the calendar year.

The other big excitement on Jo's birthday was the news that Pfizer was finally approved to acquire Wyeth. Or as Jo likes to say, Jeff Kindler (Pfizer CEO in case you don't faithfully track Pfizer) bought her a company for her birthday. This has meant a flurry of announcements, meetings, and coming in the next couple of weeks travel for both of us. Where we are going continues to fluctuate - New York, New Jersey, and overseas have all been discussed. You'll just have to wait to read it here on where we actually land up.

As I mentioned last week, Joann was at the University of Illinois last weekend for a football game and fun-filled memories. She had a great time, even though Illinois lost the game, and remarked on how much the campus has changed in the almost 30 years since we were there. But the chemistry building is still present and the main quad remains pretty much unchanged. I at least got some pizza to enjoy - Jo bought two Papa Del pizzas, froze them, and then carried them home in her luggage. Worked great and now we have two pizzas in the freezer - yeah!

I'll close there, going to do some baking/cooking today. I'm planning to make granola bars and a vegetable soup for dinner. We had a nice surprise when we went to harvest our carrot crop - we actually had some. So decided dinner tonight would be a soup using only the bounty of our garden (carrots, potatoes, and beans).

October 10, 2009

What a quiet week, we were all thinking that our big news from the FTC would be coming through and Pfizer could finally get on with the merger of Wyeth. Well that didn't happen, so here's hoping it is next week. As you might imagine, everyone at Pfizer (and probably Wyeth) is eagerly waiting for clearance so we can begin finishing the process that started at the beginning of the year. We have certainly trained us all to be good at waiting.

Last weekend we finally did get a sunny day on Sunday (see how that works - sun on SUNday) so Jo and I spent the morning mortaring in the several of the loose bluestones on our patio. This is a yearly chore as there always several of the joints that loosen over the winter. Was good to be out in the sun and we had a good chat while doing it since mortaring leaves a lot of time for a talking. That afternoon, I got to play lumberjack as I took down our dead elm tree in our side yard. If certainly convinced me that lumberjacks are way underpaid (no matter what they currently earn) as it is a lot of hard work to cut down a tree - even with a chain saw. Of course, it didn't help the task that my chain saw is about 16 inches long and the tree was 30 inches wide. Jo did a good job of staying out of the way and capturing the tree felling in action. As I was doing this it did make me wonder how the heck our fore-fathers cleared the land after landing from Europe. It was tough enough to do with a chain saw - I couldn't imagine tackling it with an axe and handsaw. Especially since, getting the tree down is only 10% of the work - you then have to chop it into small enough pieces to move. All I can say, they must have been tougher, stronger, and have more endurance back then. Of course, they probably didn't spend their days sitting in meetings deciding on the next enabled formulation.

After we got the tree down the next step is to get into smaller pieces, which is my chore for this weekend. The rest of week was fairly quiet. Jo went to Madison, WI where she presented at an HR conference - that just happened to conveniently be in Madison. She also had the opportunity to meet with some of the HR students at UW in the Business school. It was an open question and answer session where Jo got to share her experiences on working in HR in a global company. She said she had a blast (imagine Joann having fun just talking about her experiences) and she is hoping to come back next year and do it again. This weekend, she and her sister are going down to University of Illinois for a football game - so she will have hit both her Alma Mater's in one week. I'm of course very jealous, but as Jo is supposed to be bringing home Papa Dels pizza I'll get over it. Papa Del's in case you aren't in the know - is the best thick crust pizza on the planet. I lived on it as my Sunday meal as a freshman/sophomore since we didn't have cafeteria service that day. Which might, of course, be coloring my opinions.

That's pretty much the week and weekend except for me doing some shopping for someone's major decade birthday coming up (I'm not allowed to say which one or who, but I'm married to her and she is a year younger than I am). And I need to watch the Illinois game in case Jo gets on TV.

October 3, 2009

The photo for the week, as I always like to have a photo to break up reading all this text, is of Trish's cat. This cat is the only cat that I have personally ever seen that will purposefully let running water hit it. The cat has learned to drink from the tap by letting the water hit its back and then drinking from the run-off on its side. Strange cat!!

Well fall is certainly showing its arrival this week with rainy weather and much, much cooler temperatures. In fact, we (as in I) had to break-down and turn the heat on in the house as the temperature had slipped to 60 degrees with no warm-up in sight. This was in the best interest of household bliss and happiness.

Jo actually got to enjoy an entire week in her home location for once with no travel anywhere. I had a couple business dinners this week - wouldn't want both of us home at the same time - as we had a leadership team meeting in Groton this week. We are hibernating this weekend as we had no plans and needed to catch up on some work items (Joann) and home repair items (that would be me). Need a sunny day tomorrow to tackle some mortaring of our bluestone patio and there is a tree waiting to be removed - yes it is the Osprey tree and Jo has already made all the required impassioned pleas for its safe keeping (my retort in case you were wondering - we have enough other dead trees in the forest for the Osprey to enjoy sitting on top of).

We are still waiting on the FTC announcement on the Pfizer/Wyeth merger but that is expected soon. Hopefully it is a yes since most of the rest of the world has already agreed. Other than that, not too much planned. Enjoy the change in the season - especially the leaves for those where trees grow.

September 27, 2009

Well September begins to draw to a close, the days are getting shorter, the leaves on the tree are beginning to turn colors, and the weather is starting to cool. We got up yesterday to run and it was only 45. Pretty chilly in our shorts and short-sleeved shirts. Not too much to report since my last posting as I'm trying to get back on a weekly schedule.

We were actually home for once this weekend which was a nice change of pace. On Friday we spent the late afternoon in our garden harvesting some of our last crops for the year. We got in the potatoes which while we had a plentiful amount, none of them was particularly large. Seems to be a theme with our garden - root crops are always pretty small. Might spend the winter trying to figure that one out. We also brought in another good crop of green and yellow beans. We now have about 25 frozen packs ready for winter eating. The only crop left is sweet potatoes. But with the cool, wet weather we had for most of the year we aren't holding out a lot of hope for seeing large potatoes.

Saturday dawned beautiful, although as mentioned above, cool. After our morning exercise we finished up harvesting the potatoes and then spent the afternoon preparing Shepherd's Pie for dinner. Dinner was over at Sheri and Bruno's and Shepherd's Pie travels really well. On the way over we stopped for our favorite apple cider and cider donuts at a local apple orchard/cider mill. Will be enjoying those donuts in just a bit this morning. We finished the evening with tickets to the Granite Theater in Westerly. Today is raining so will be doing some catching up on indoors chores and reading.

The pictorial for the week is a couple of shots of downtown NY that Jo took from the helicopter
during one of her trips to NY. She also took a few of the Waterford/New London area that I might use next week. Just a warning in case vista shots leave you queasy.

September 24, 2009

It's the day after my younger brother's birthday (his 47th in case anyone is tracking that and I only have the one brother on the off chance you are secretly plotting the family tree) and so I wanted to give a shout out to him - HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRO.

Jo and I had a wonderful week of work between getting back from New York and before we headed out to Philadelphia. Jo's job is getting very busy as we ready to merge with Wyeth. We are all just waiting for the FTC to do its thing and then it is off to the races. My job on the other hand is in a quiet spot as my boss is busy - like Jo - getting ready for the merger but not able to disclose anything yet. All this meant another couple of days for Joann in New York and New Jersey and me at home keeping the home running. Our big plans for the weekend was our annual trip to Philadelphia to see old friends and run the Philadelphia Distance Run. So after a very eventful drive down I-95 in which we got to see an auto accident of the two cars right in front of us - a wonderful confirmation of the physic principle that two objects can't occupy the same space unless you are at the quantum level which as of yet auto makers haven't figured out how to do for an entire car - we arrived in Doylestown, PA around 5 PM. We spent the evening with our good friend, Trish, who like Joann started out at Rohm and Haas as a chemist, turned into a quality consultant for a while and then moved into HR. Trish and Jo both then ended up as the head of HR for the research division of a major pharmaceutical company. What are the odds. It was an enjoyable evening as we caught up on Trish's life, the happenings of mutual friends from our old Rohm and Haas days, and enjoyed our stomping grounds in Doylestown. Saturday morning dawned bright and beautiful and after a short run to get our legs set for the following day, we were joined by Holly. As you can see in the accompany photo which is Holly, Jo, and Trish trying to imitate a Verizon commercial on Trish's porch. Or as I liked to term it, three old ladies with tea. Had lunch with Holly and caught up with all the recent events happening to her and the hubby. Then it is was on to downtown Philadelphia for a last night of carbo loading (doesn't really help, you really need to carbo load two weeks before, but it feels good) and a good nights rest.

For the race on Sunday we had perfect weather although maybe a little too sunny. Temperatures were in the high 50's with low humidity. We did the before and after shots of the race - you can tell the after shots by our prominently displayed race medals and the fact that the only thing keeping us upright is our leaning on each other. We managed to complete the 13.1 miles in about the same time as last year - and as might be befitting former nerds (or current, your call on that one) we keep a Excel spreadsheet of our times over the last 8-10 years. Then it was into the car for the four hour, leg stiffening ride home. We did stop for our usual post race treat which is a McDonald's milkshake at the first rest stop in CT. Got home tired, but glad for the chance to catch up with friends and feeling the glow of achieving the run again (21 times for me and 20 for Jo).

It was back to a week of work and fortunately a stay at home weekend coming up as many chores have slipped behind. Jo was in NY, with Obama and all the heads of state, on Tuesday-Wednesday. She was glad to escape as getting around NY with all the security and limos was a nightmare. Fall is starting to show in the changing leaves and the shorter days. It won't be too much longer before we are running again in the dark for several months.

September 16, 2009

Last weekend, Jo and I traveled to New York as we had tickets to the NY Yankees for Saturday and decided we should just enjoy the entire weekend in the big apple. We took the train into the city from New Haven, CT and after checking into the Pfizer condo (Pfizer folks use it when staying in the city for extended times or are tired of the hotel life and then Pfizer lets employees stay there at reasonable rates for the weekends) we headed over to Broadway to see what shows had available tickets. We settled on "39 Steps" which is a comedic rendition of the Alfred Hitchcock movie.

Poor Al is probably a bit steamy in his heavenly spot as while the show is a absolute stitch, it does tend to mangle a fine film's plot. The cast did a great job and I was laughing so hard it hurt at times. As there are only 4 cast members (well 5 if you count some person's arm late in the second act) and 30-40 roles (could be more, but I stopped counting) it was a riot to see the transitions between roles. Additionally, they did several clever scenes using minimal props that were very eye-opening - the use of picture frames for windows and the train scene come to mind. After the show, while many New Yorkers would hit the bars for a night cap, we headed back to our room for a well deserved night of sleep.

Saturday morning dawned gray and overcast which was actually an improvement from the raining weather on Friday. We donned our running gear and headed out for our last big training run for the half-marathon. We covered from 38th street all the way to the top of Central Park and back. It was fun to run in Central Park with all the other New York athletes and fortunately the weather held out the entire time. After a shower and a quick bite to eat it was off to Yankee Stadium for the game. We took the subway to the ballpark which was great as it left you off practically right at the gate. We had gotten the tickets through Pfizer (ok, Jo got the tickets - has to be some advantage to all those hours she travels) and had great seats about 20 rows up just up from the Yankee dugout - seats even came with food service (which consisted of paying someone 20% of the food price to have the food magically show up at your seat). For those that haven't made it to the Yankees new stadium - it was very nice with well padded seats and more than comfortable leg room. However, for the price that was stamped on the ticket it should be. Food was on the pricey side (I mean $4 for a hot dog and $5 for a glass of lemonade - not counting the 20% if you used the food service) and it certainly made me long for the days of my youth at Wrigley Field where hot dogs were 25 cents (at least that is my memory). We had great weather, as it didn't start raining again until we in the subway headed back, and a wonderful day enjoying some professional baseball. Unfortunately, the Yankees didn't win - but we did great to see the Baltimore Orioles hit a grand slam.

We hit a diner for dinner as this is one of my favorite restaurant types to eat in when in New York. I went with the classic turkey dinner - roast turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry, and veggie. Quite tasty and very filling. We were pretty tired by that point and after a bit of search for a soft, chewy chocolate cookie we headed back to the room. Jo needed to get packed up as she left on Sunday for a business trip to the UK and we enjoyed watching some college football. So with an early start on Sunday (up at 5), I headed back on the train to CT and Jo got a car to JFK. Uneventful week at work. Jo made it to London and back successfully although she had several late nights while there and needs some beauty sleep. I did my thing in CT with a day's worth of work in NY (yes I had to go back down after being there all weekend).

That brings everything up to date - 'til next time.

September 13, 2009

I didn't get online last week to post an update on our Labor Day trip to the Adirondack's so I'll try to do two this week - that way each one won't be too long.

We took a little time off over Labor Day to enjoy a long weekend (Friday to Tuesday) hiking some of the peaks in the Adirondacks (for those out West, I get that fact that you would probably class them as small hills, but when all you got is 3,000-4,000 foot summits, you call them mountains). We went with our friends Sheri and Bruno who are much more serious hikers/campers than we are and were responsible for the majority of the organization. We started off with a stay Thursday night in Lennox, MA at a bed and breakfast on our way up - that's us enjoying an evening beverage and snacks on the deck - and no, Bruno isn't channeling his inner cheerleader or that excited about what he is reading in the paper. Then Friday it was up early for a small hike in Lennox to start and warm up the legs. Then it was off to Elk Lake Lodge where we spent the remainder of the trip. The lodge sits in the middle of several peaks with good hiking trails all around along with the signature Elk lake to enjoy some canoeing. We decided to tackle our toughest hike the first day and then proceeded out to hike for 11 hours. We managed to hit four summits (Macomb, South Dix, Hough, and Dix) although it required some very strenuous rapid hiking to get back to the lodge in time for dinner and before it got dark. Needless to say, the peaks provided spectacular views over the Adirondack hills and valleys of which only a few photos are provided. We were extremely tired but had many good stories to tell as we scrambled up a slide. did some rock climbing, and were all bit bumped, scratched, and bruised (Jo is still sporting quite a lovely bruise on her leg from sliding down a steep part on her hands and knees). The rest of the time at Elk Lake consisted of less strenuous endeavors as we tackled a hike a day. For those keeping inventory, we hiked to the top of Lightening Hill, went up the Fall's trail (which first consisted of canoeing across the lake and then hiking and finished at the claimed Fall's), and finished up our trip with a walk around Clear Pond and up to the top of Grandpa Pete mountain.

All in all a great weekend with perfect weather - sunny and in the low 70's each day - and we were sad to be coming home to work and house chores. Wednesday found Jo heading off to New York for two days while I tramped back into the office for a couple day's of work. Nothing particularly noteworthy to report on work as most of Pfizer is awaiting, hopefully, the upcoming merger with Wyeth.

Friday we packed up again and headed to New York for a weekend with the Yankees. But that is a story for my next entry.

August 30, 2009

Photo this week are of some of the cut flowers from the front gardens. The black eyed Susan's are finally coming together in a really large bed and it only took 7 years to get there.

Jo traveled to New York and New Jersey on Wednesday/Thursday enjoying the Garden state and the steamy weather we were enjoying early this week. I used the time to get in a long weekday run to bolster the training for the distance run later in September - see below. We haven't been up to the garden for several weeks due to the disappointing wet weather at the beginning of the year leading to poor crop yields, and the fact it was a bit wet last weekend - again see below. So we aren't holding out a lot of hope for the few remaining crops.

This weekend, we enjoyed a day of rain on Saturday compliments of tropical storm Danny. No real wind associated with it, but lots of rain 2-4 inches. This made for a great indoor day for both of us as I caught up on a few indoor chores - planing down a door so it would close and sharpening the mower blades as a few - and Jo completed some computer tasks that had piled up for her. We then spent the remainder of the day either buried in a book - me - or working on an upcoming presentation in Wisconsin - Jo. For the evening we went to dinner with Stuart and Tiffany in Stonington and then back to their house for several rousing games of ping pong where Tiffany and I came the closest ever to beating Stuart and Jo (yes in over 15 to 20 games, we have never managed to beat Stuart and Jo). The evening was a great compromise since we had originally planned to take their boat to Abbott's for lobster rolls - but Danny's rain but a damper on that plan.

Today, we got up and managed to get in 2 hours of running to continue to ready ourselves for the distance run. We both felt pretty good although the rest of the day has been spent with us hobbling around a bit as our legs are sore. If we can maintain our current training level we should be fine come the 13.1 miles. Then it was off to do a few more chores - put away the power washer for the year, caulk a few cracks in the house, and other odds and ends. Looking forward to another exciting week of work and then Labor Day arrives with a few days off - Yipee!

August 25, 2009

A little late this week since I just wasn't inspired on Sunday to write my blog. So let's catch up with the weekend which wasn't really all that exciting, unless you are really into pressurized jets of water. I spent Friday and Saturday on an all out blitz to finally finish up powerwashing the house. This meant about 10 solid hours with a powerwasher in hand cleaning the forest dust from the house. The good news is that it is all done and the house looks all nice and shiny again - for about 12 months, when I'll have to decide if I want to start all over. Jo tackled filling mortaring in some of the bluestones on the patio while I was awashing and got about half done before she ran out of Wheaties.


Work was fairly typical last week with both of us in town for once. Jo is heading off to New York and New Jersey this week on Wednesday and Thursday, but her travel has calmed down quite a lot recently although it will pick up again in the fall.


We did take a little time to enjoy ourselves this weekend with our usual morning runs and exercising at the gym along with a enjoyable dinner with Sheri and Bruno in Stonington at Skipper's Dock. We were treated to a rare double rainbow - and a few sprinkles - courtesy of Hurricane Bill while we were eating. Then we took in a show at the Granite Theater, "Don't Dress for Dinner" which was written by an English playwright and apparently belongs to a English genre of Country House farces (that information was provided by the English person sitting in the seat next to me). Was an very enjoyable performance and certainly a lot of plot twists. It was then home to collapse, pretty much until Monday. Sunday we lazed around reading and napping and I then had a business dinner with a visiting colleague that evening.


The garden is pretty much finished for this year with the only crops left to harvest being the potatoes and garlic - and possibly some sweet potatoes although with the really cool weather we had for most of the summer we aren't too hopeful. The picture for the week is our attempt to take a photo of the osprey that has been roosting in the dead tree right next to the house for the last four weeks. He comes late at night and leaves by 6 in the morning. That coupled with him/her (not sure how you tell if your osprey is a boy osprey or a girl one) is very skittish so we haven't been able to capture a really good photo. It is neat seeing him there almost every night.


The other piece of good news is that we managed to find a renter so we have that covered for another year. Hopefully with someone that actually likes paying the agreed upon rent.

August 16, 2009

We'll start with the work week and then move on to the much more interesting weekend. Joann headed out last Sunday for a trip to Bogota, Columbia to meet with her team in the southern hemisphere. Not my favorite place for her to visit, especially after she informs me the hotel has a big sign in the lobby stating that firearms are not allowed. But everything went fine and she had a good visit. The only downside is she did the red-eye home to New York Tuesday night and then had to work all day in NY. This left her a tired puppy when she finally arrived home. Nothing too exciting for me at work this last week, the usual mix of meetings, managing, etc. A large number of people are on vacation the last couple of weeks, including my boss, meaning the stream of emails has tipped a bit lower.

I tripped over another birthday, but since I was all alone it was a fairly quiet affair. I enjoyed a roast beef and potato dinner, always a perennial favorite, and topped if off with a very large - as in really large - homemade vanilla milkshake. Great way to welcome in another year, add a little more insulation to the waistline. Joann's sister and her son came for a visit starting this Thursday which led to a very busy weekend. We started off right with lobster rolls for Thursday dinner and catching up on the happenings in Wisconsin and college. After everyone, minus me of course, did some shopping Friday morning we hit the beach to enjoy the sun. Then caught some dinner at home before heading to the Mohegan Sun casino for a show by ventriloquist, Jeff Dunham. His show was absolutely hilarious, although a bit politically incorrect, that left all of sore from laughing afterwards. Saturday we got up early, which was tough given that we got in late from the comedy show, to head to Boston for the day. We started off with a tour of Fenway park (that is Drew, Kathy and yours truly out in right field - fun fact hot dogs are now $5 and a beer is almost $9, all I can say is WOW). The tour of Fenway was really enjoyable, although consistent with the theme above a wee pricey, as we got to visit the press-box, stand on top of the green monster, and had a wonderful guide - who really reminded Jo and I of our current Pfizer CEO Jeff Kindler (nice to know what he does on Saturday's). The next stop was a tour of Harvard and then finally the Boston Freedom Trail. Although the weather was a mite steamy (high 80's/low 90's with high humidity) it wasn't too bad when in the shade. One of other ten nephews - Chris of the Colorado wing of Jo's family - joined us as he is working/volunteering in New Hampshire as an educational aide. Was great to catch up with the news in his life along with what has happened to the rest of the Colorado side of Jo's family. After visiting every stop on the Freedom Trail (that is Chris, Kathy, and Drew in front of Boston's Faneuil Hall taking a much needed break), except for Bunker Hill and the USS Constitution which were just too far to walk in the heat, we dined in Boston's North End enjoying the Italian cuisine. Then it was back to the car and the long drive home. Then it was up early again so that Jo could drive Kathy and Drew to the airport for their trip home. So all in all a very busy weekend especially as all the usual chores are now being crammed into today.

This week looks to be another calm one, with both of us actually in town for the entire week. Not sure I know what I'll do with Jo always around and underfoot. Guess I'll have to talk to her more than the usual five to ten minutes a day. Oh, one other piece of good news we may have a potential tenant for the rental property which would be nice to have that stress gone. Anyway, enjoy the dog days of summer as the temperatures and, at least for those of us east of the Mississippi, the humidity finally hit summer-like

August 9, 2009

It is amazing how much quieter the summer tends to be compared to the rest of the year, I suppose it is because many people go for their summer vacations, but it is kind of nice to have warmer weather and less stress to go with it. Our week was pretty typical, except Joann was home the entire week - a miracle in itself - while I hit the road for a quick trip in and out of our St Louis Research site. I enjoyed my usual good luck with traveling for business. I was supposed to fly from Hartford to Chicago to St Louis and to start the trip off right, the flight from Hartford was cancelled due to maintenance. Amazingly, American rebooked me for a direct flight to St Louis out of LaGuardia and paid for a cab ride down to the NY airport. To continue the amazement, the traffic wasn't particularly bad and I made it with time to spare. Landed up only landing 30 minutes later than originally scheduled and didn't have to go through a connection. As the trip was only really for one day in St Louis, if I hadn't made it on Monday it wasn't going to be worth going. Had a good trip and got to connect with the St Louis team that performs the same work as my group here in Groton.

Jo had her usual mix of meetings throughout the week and is preparing for some travel this week - wouldn't want to have two weeks at home. For the weekend, we did a bit of pre-birthday celebrations to make up for Jo being absent on my big day next week. Friday we had dinner with Sheri and Bruno at a Waterford Italian restaurant and then went to Ocean beach for some mini-golf (Bruno won with a blistering 47 on a par 42 course - yes, we aren't particularly skilled at putt-putt as a group) and then enjoyed the band and firework display. Saturday it was up early for a long training run for our September half-marathon, then the gym, grocery store, and library. The rest of the day consisted of powerwashing the house. I have now completed half of the house, although the other half has a lot of brick work that doesn't need as much cleaning. You get to enjoy me powerwashing (I'm quite the fashion statement aren't I!) as the only other choice was a picture of the 3 blueberries we got out of the garden. Between the rain and cool temperatures the garden has been pretty much a bust this year, so don't expect too many other vegetable photos (yes I know you are so disappointed). The flower garden has faired a bit better and we have hydrangeas and daisies in bloom. Saturday night after a birthday dinner of roast beef and mashed potatoes (yeah!) we hit Dairy Queen for blizzards (aren't birthday's just a great reason to through caution to the wind) and finished up with a movie. Today, I'm planning to read and relax all day to celebrate my big day tomorrow (since Pfizer apparently doesn't recognize my birthday as being worthy of taking the day off).

Well that's it for another week. Next time I write, I will be firmly in my 50's.

August 2, 20009

By comparison to last weekend, we have much less news to report. The week at work consisted of Joann being in Delaware for most of it. She had an HR leadership team meeting offsite - her boss has a house in Delaware and apparently that moved DE up to the top of the list of possible places for an offsite. A busy week for her with meetings all day and work in the evening with various members of her leadership team on projects. She came home a very tired puppy. I kept the home fires burning with the usual mix of work, exercise, and evening festivities (which is usually some household chore). We continue to have loads of rain and we officially had the wettest July on record something like 7-8 inches or so.

As the weather has finally warmed up a bit and the humidity moved in we finally used our air conditioner for the first time. Which, of course, meant having the service folks out on Friday to charge the Freon into the downstairs unit. The unit has a tiny leak somewhere - not big enough that they have been able to find, but big enough that over the course of the year to lose enough Freon to impair the efficiency. As they have been trying to find the leak for 3 years, I've pretty much resigned myself to recharging it every year. After that fun on Friday, Jo caught up on some sleep and amused myself with reading and some computer work. Saturday it was up for a 10 mile run to continue the efforts in getting ready for the Philly distance run. Then off to the gym for some lifting, the grocery store, and bank. We then hit the garden for - wait for it - actually picking some beans (YEAH) and weeding. As you can see over the last two weeks we have enjoyed a pretty good bean harvest - it seems to be the only thing we can actually grow. Although we did manage to pick a few onions and a garlic head as well. Jo spent the afternoon freezing packets of beans for the winter months, while I tackled powerwashing the house. I purchased an extender for my powerwasher so I don't have to use a ladder any more, but as I found out - while the extender makes it safer to clean the siding, it doesn't make it any easier. This is a big house that seems to get really dirty and moldy. I guess that is the fun of living in the woods and torrential rain every 2 days. Anyway, after a couple of hours of washing and coupled with my run in the morning I was beat.

For the evening we watched the movie "Australia" and enjoyed a homemade pasta dish with our freshly picked beans. After that day, I was asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow. Today we were planning on going to the beach after our yoga class, but the clouds are not cooperating, so we'll probably head home and get ready for next week by getting in some reading and napping. Although, I will probably try to get in another couple of hours of powerwashing, woo-hoo.

July 27, 2009

I'm a little late this week as we had a very busy weekend and by the time Sunday evening rolled around and I had some free time the thought of pounding away on the keyboard just didn't seem like what I wanted to do. Last week at work was pretty calm without too much drama. Jo did a bit of traveling to her favorite destination - New York - and I made sure that the house felt loved and cherished by staying here. We continue to march ever closer to the Pfizer merger with Wyeth especially now that both the European Union and the Wyeth shareholders have given their blessing. Next big step is for the US to say it's ok - stay tuned. Friday afternoon we tackled the dismal garden as we continue to have torrential rain and cool weather which are combining to give us a bumper crop of slugs - but since we were actually trying to grow vegetables we aren't have a successful year. However, we did harvest our first crop of yellow and green beans which will figure prominently in the photos next week.

From a weekend standpoint our big event was a visit by the daughter of my college roommate. Alyssa is a chemical engineering student on a co-op program and was doing a semester at Air Products in Allentown, PA. To reinforce the "It's a small world" theorem, she is living in Kutztown, PA where my grandparents were from. Alyssa joined us Saturday morning for a whirlwind tour of southeastern CT as we attempted to show all the sites to her in about 36 hours. Remember, this isn't New York city so cramming all the sites into 36 hours isn't really as difficult as it sounds. We started with a stop at our favorite local lobster shack to enjoy a lobster roll and a photo op. This is mostly to torment those in the Midwest and West that can't stop and grab a lobster roll at the drop of a hat (but then we can't get a thick crust pizza or sopapillas - so there is some balance to the universe). Next up was a visit to the Submarine Museum associated with the submarine naval base in Groton. Then onto the Mystic seaport to see what it was like when whaling ships sailed the high seas. Learned a lot and got to see everything from the only remaining wooden whaling ship out of water being refurbished, how rope is made, and how they made ships watertight before fiberglass and steel (that is us practicing the fine art of stuffing hemp into cracks - just in case you didn't want to come all the way to CT to find out the secret watertight recipe). Then it was off to Westerly, RI to enjoy Shakespeare in the park (Two Gentlemen from Verona in case you are keeping a list of the culture we have been exposed to over the years). It was a great production, but lets be honest, Shakespearean prose leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to understanding what the heck is going on. Really felt sub-titles would have helped in modern English (American?). We figured out the plot although it is clear that Proteus gets off way too easy in the end (don't know what I'm talking about? Get out your Shakespeare and do some reading it will be good for you - oh yeah, no fair Googling it). We enjoyed pizza and homemade chocolate chip cookies for our dinner while sitting in the park waiting for the play to start. We then traipsed home thoroughly tired but feeling content on the amount of the area we had crammed in. One fun fact, we did point out to Alyssa was that she covered 5 states in 12 hours - not too many other places in the country that you can achieve that.

Sunday we woke to rainy weather - there's a leap this year - which worked fine as we enjoyed homemade blueberry pancakes (no the blueberries didn't come from the garden, we only managed three blueberries at all this year and we ate them right in the garden after picking). Alyssa had brought shoo fly pie from PA and while we considered cutting in we saved it since we had enough other tasty treats. Then we loaded into the car for day 2 of our tour. First up was walking the beach in New London and snapping a shot of Alyssa wading into the Long Island Sound. Then it was off to tour New London's Revolutionary war fort - Fort Trumbull. After a quick bite to eat, Alyssa had to pack up and head back to PA. We really enjoyed seeing Alyssa and it was nice to pick up information on what was happening with her family as we hadn't had a chance to visit them in a few years.

Afterwards, besides collapsing and catching our breath - we are getting a wee bit old to be running all over town like that - we got the laundry done, dinner made, bills paid, and ourselves ready for another work week. Jo is off to Delaware this week to work with the HR leadership team at a house her boss owns in Delaware. Me - you guessed it - keeping the home fires burning.

July 19, 2009

A fairly quiet week with little too write about. Our gooseneck flowers are blooming so they make up the photo montage this week. It is great to see all their necks pointing towards the sun. We spent the weekend weeding the garden and harvesting some fresh herbs and a few new potatoes. This coupled with the usual chores of mowing and tending the front flower bed made up the outdoor chores. We had Sheri over for dinner on Friday with the intention of going to Ocean Beach for fireworks, but about 30 minutes before we were going to leave it started to rain. Not an unexpected event for us this year, but it did wash out our evening plans. Saturday dawned overcast, in the 70's and very humid. We headed out for a long run to keep our training for the Philadelphia Distance run on track and struggled through the 8 mile course we had planned. It was the first hot/humid weather we have had and it usually takes about 2 weeks to get your body used to running in it (just a geriatric point - it used to only take 3-4 days). We followed that up with massages which always is relaxing way to deal with sore legs. Today, we are thinking of going to the beach after our yoga session and then home to prepare for the week ahead.

Work was also quiet since many people are out on their summer holiday - which is great since it allowed me to get caught up a bit with email and a few tasks that needed to be completed. Jo was in New York for two days working with the HR leadership team. In the evening, I got caught up with our budget which was behind due to vacation and business travel and paying off the Morocco trip. Throw in our usual exercise mix and that's our week. This coming week is more of the same for both of us. Jo is off to New York for three days and I'll hold down the fort at home.

July 12, 2009

We were pleasantly surprised to receive our Moroccan rugs this week. As you can see in the photos for the week we have found locations for all three. Unfortunately, neither Joann nor I were lucky enough to get a interior decorating gene so we are left wondering whether these are a good addition to the decor or not. But with what these cost us to purchase, we figured we should be using them. The one upside is the one under the kitchen table feels nice on the feet in the morning. With the arrival of the rugs our trip is now pretty much complete except for the bills that should be coming via Visa in a week or two.

Work wise this week, Jo was home all week long and had her usual mix of meetings and teleconferences to keep her busy. When your team is scattered across the entire globe many of those meetings need to happen in the evening hours on the East coast so she had a late night or two this week. I was in the southeastern portion of England at Pfizer's Sandwich research center. The travel there and back went as smoothly as it ever has and I was barely settling on my flight before they were announcing the landing. I caught up on some movies during the flight there and back although nothing that I would recommend - that is what Jo and I love about travel with movies, you can watch all the lame ones that you wouldn't want to pay money for. I ran each day I was there and managed on one day to run to the English Channel (ever wonder why it isn't called the French Channel?) and put my hand in it. Another day I ran past an old Roman fort (first fort the Roman's built when they landed in England in something like 43 AD), I couldn't get in but saw a bit of the ruins and a nice site map. My trip was about interfacing with the Sandwich team that does the same work as my team here in the states. It was very productive so I'm declaring my trip a whopping success. The only downer was I struggled to sleep each night as the hotel was a bit hot with no air conditioning which combined with the time zone differences made sleep a bit hard to get.

Came home on Friday and we promptly headed off to the North Stonington Agricultural fair (the link takes you to all the fair has to offer) to enjoy the tractor pull, dog show, and reviewing the cows and chickens (just to note, Jo gets unusually happy when she gets the chance to pet the cows - don't ask me why, I think it is a flashback to her childhood thing). We enjoyed the fair food and the wonderful weather so besides me struggling to stay awake it was a lot of fun. On Saturday, after getting our chimney inspected and cleaned and a few chores, I got caught up on my missing sleep for the week with a 3 hour nap - yes, you read right, 3 hours, I was really behind. Then, last night we headed into Westerly, RI to enjoy a nice dinner with Sheri and Bruno (it is their blog to the right, check it out) and then on to the Granite Theater for an excellent performance - for the Granite Theater - of "The Love List" by Norman Foster (I'm into links this week - no real clear reason why, just am). Today we have yoga after our morning run and then the vegetable garden needs a bit of weeding and I must spray the flowers to encourage the deer to eat elsewhere. Then it is getting mentally prepped for heading to work.