January 15, 2007

10 Degrees F, Feels Like 50 F

Most weather stations/sites have a little add to the daily temperatures, namely ..."feels like." The feels like temperature takes into account things like humidity, wind, etc, etc. I never really understood it. To make matters worse, temperature is always measured in the shade, that way the direct sunlight doesn't alter the temperature reading. I don't understand why they do that either. In a Colorado winter like we're having where the temperature is 10 degrees F the last thing I want to do is to be in the shade. On Saturday I was yet again snow blowing the driveway after 4" or so accumulation Friday eve. Saturday was a beautiful day, sunny, bright blue sky and I found myself sweating while maneuvering my snow blower under the sun in 10 degree weather, that is until I went around to the back yard to clear a sidewalk in the shade. I could have literally worn a t-shirt and shorts while in the sun on Saturday - or something close to that. Try to do that in 10 degree weather in Buffalo!

January 15, 2007 in Weblogs | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

March 17, 2006

The Del Coronado

The kids are on spring break starting today and all next week. We're going to take a well deserved break from teh routine and head out to the Hotel Del Coronado in sunny San Diego for a few days. Except, I just checked the weather and NOT SO SUNNY! Oh well, the kids will love going to Lego Land, Sea World and Wild Animal Park or Kingdom or whatever they call it. The "Del", as they say, is an amazing place. The hotel sits on the beach on Coronado island just off San Diego. It's 115 years old and has quite a history. It's going to be a great time to kick back and re-charge after a few grueling weeks/months of work. If you're going to be in San Diego next week (Mar 19th - 23rd) drop me a line maybe we can hook up somehow.

March 17, 2006 in Travel, Weblogs | Permalink | Comments (28) | TrackBack

February 19, 2006

Your Hub - Citizens as Journalists

Over the past several months I've been getting an insert in my Denver Post once a week titled "Your Hub". It's a section in the paper that incorporates news stories from my community (in this case Lonetree/Douglas County) giving that homespun, my town newspaper feel. The articles are those that you would typically find in some small town newspaper; you know - bake sale for the local swim team, Littleton quilting club crowned "best in class" :-). Upon further examination though, you find that it's a newspaper "by the people". Anyone can submit articles by registering at yourhub.com and blog about anything they want. The newspaper staff then culls through the articles and puts them in a printed format for distribution. Or, you can go to the site and read all the articles/posts by the community (although I'm sure some of the articles are edited. Putting the editorial control in the hands of the people - well, sort of.

February 19, 2006 in Weblogs | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 10, 2006

Mind, Body, Spirit

A couple of years ago I started doing Bikrahm Yoga which I did for 6 months or so. I was in pretty good shape from it. Believe it or not it really does strengthen your "core" and build you from the inside out. I stopped because the local studio went out of business.

Today I re-engaged with Yoga as a part of my "you better get your fat ass, you're stressed out mind and your lost spirit" back in shape before you keel over routine going (drinking Tequila in Cabo only went so far). I've always kept "semi active", running, lifting weights, swimming, etc but more on an add hoc basis - hasn't done the trick. So today was Iyengar Yoga at lunch - and now I can barely freaking move. Tomorrow is Hatha Yoga followed by an intensive of Vinyasa Yoga on Thursday. I don't know if I buy all the "this pose twists your left kidney so you will now be enlightened through your bowel movements somehow" jargon but I certainly do hurt a lot from it so something must be working. 

January 10, 2006 in Biographical, Weblogs | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

January 08, 2006

Cabo San Lucas vacation was perfect!

Every year about this time, usually a day or two after Christmas, we go down to warm, sunny Cabo San Lucas for a week or so. It's a perfect time to do it, work slows dramatically, it's usually cold or snowy in Denver, and it gives me time to reflect on the past year and get recharged for the coming year. This year was no exception. The kids are getting a bit older now so there are more things to do with them. Dscn0366 Here's Alec and I on the pacific side of the Cabo. We rented a couple of ATVs and had a blast!Rolling through a mountainous national park and descending to the beach on the Pacific side was amazing. Waves were breaking about 20' and the guide let us go wherever we wanted to up and down a 5 mile corridor. Very cool!There were 5 adults that had a child doubling up with them and Christine was solo - wild woman on an ATV!

We did the usual activities, adults out to great dinners a few of the nights (Edith's, Poncho's, LaDolce) which were all fabulous. Of course too much tequila and an overdose of fish tacos, guacamole and Queso Fundido are now being paid for through a new healthy eating regimen.Dscn0360_1  The kids always love going to MiCasa but the service is starting to wane given their new expansion. Here's the crew out one night (I think it was at MiCasas) and yup, that's a margarita in front of me. One evening we took an amazing sunset cruise around the tip of the Baja. I'd highly recommend doing that. We did New Years eve at Cabo Wabo - which was a blast. Golf was fantastic at the Desert and Ocean courses in Cabo Del Sol. The hammock at the beach under the palm tress called my name a few times allowing me the occasional nap and the opportunity to read "The Search" by John Battelle and "City of Falling Angels" by John Berendt. Both great books however I'd high recommend The Search if you're a tech guy or involved in a start up. It chronicles Googles rise to stardom along with all the twists and turns. So now it's back to life, back to reality (which I like just as much as my fantasy vacation). If you're planning to go to Cabo get a hold of me. I'd be more than happy to give you some recommendations. I've been going for the past 10 years or so now and know the landscape pretty well.

January 8, 2006 in Biographical, Travel, Weblogs | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

December 27, 2005

Pass the Phillips Head Screwdriver

arrrggg. On Christmas eve Christine and I had her parents and some good friends of ours over for dinner. It's a tradition for us to have Christmas eve dinner at our house. Once everyone leaves, the cleanup starts and then the dreaded hauling of the "Santa presents" that we were in hiding, up from the basement to put under the tree. Usually there are countless hours spent putting together toys from directions written and illustrated by someone with a 9th grade eduction - this year was no different. Except for the fact that I wound up putting Alec's "ESPN 6 Game" (that's right, 6 different sports games in one) monstrosity together on the 26th vs Christmas Eve/Day. Two and a half hours later, I had the 24 second clock working on the basketball backboard and the kids yelling and screaming to "be next" in trying to beat dads score of 73 points. ahhh Christmas!

p.s. I think they should put a sticker on toys that require assembly that indicate how many hours "on average" it should take to assemble. Like they do for food with calories, fat, carbs, etc.

December 27, 2005 in Biographical, Current Affairs, Weblogs | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 19, 2005

Hanukkah vs Christmas

This year Hanukkah and Christmas start/fall on the same day. When I was growing up there were like 2 Jewish families within 10 miles. The majority of families were Catholic, and there were some Protestants given most everyone was either Italian or Irish - so I knew nothing about Jewish holidays. I couldn't even tell you where the nearest synagogue was. Now, some of my closest and dearest friends are Jewish. This year Christmas day starts the beginning of Hanukkah. I always guessed that the start of Hanukkah had something to do with the the number of days after the solstice so I looked into it - and it does! It follows the Hebrew calendar, which follows the lunar calendar (I have no idea which came first) and is the 25th day of Kislev (apparently there was some type of re-dedication of a temple on the 25th). The Hebrew calendar follows a 19 year cycle and Hanukkah starts on the same day (25th) of every year of the Hebrew/lunar calendar. But the rest of the Christian world follows the Gregorian calendar (a solar calendar). So the Christians follow one calendar and the Muslims and the Jews follow another - I think we got started on the wrong foot. Another thing I don't get is that other Christian holidays, like Easter, follow the lunar calendar. So some Christian holidays follow the lunar calendar, others follow the solar calendar. Hmmm, weird. Anyway, I thought it was pretty cool that at least this year the Christians and the Jews can start to celebrate together. Now if we can only figure out Ramadan.

December 19, 2005 in Biographical, Religion, Weblogs | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

November 16, 2005

They Walk On The Left, Too

One of the things I've committed myself to, is to be more cognizant of the world around me. I've grown to understand, it's not about me, but rather everyone else that has their own particular reality of things.

I'm in London right now on business, I've been in the UK probably a dozen times or so over the years, some for extended periods of time, rarely taking the time to enjoy or see the sights or observe the culture. Typically I have blinders on and just get accomplished what I had intended to accomplish and get back to the states. This time isn't different except for the fact I did take some time and "notice" the environment around me. A few observations;

- They (Londoners) not only drive on the left side of the road, they walk on the left side of a sidewalk. I started cracking up as I noticed I walk on the right side of a sidewalk (as most Americans do) and pass on the right. I found myself "swimming up stream".

- They (Londoners) walk everywhere, even more than you would walk in NY. That's why they are all thin. It's either that or the food.

- The train system is amazing, no revelation there, but I did notice that you could actually understand what the automated attendant was saying when you came upon the next stop on the train or tube. Try understanding what station you're coming upon in NY. Yo!

- They (Londoners) talk a lot and it always sounds cool. Maybe it's the accent, but I noticed their command of the English language. Every word means something. Smashing!

- There aren't ANY garbage cans around for obvious reasons, BUT there isn't any garbage on the ground. hmmmm.

In the words of my brother in law Mark, of the infamous Bottini brothers,  "welcome to my world". Those words ring true when you get out of your own little world.

November 16, 2005 in Travel, Weblogs | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

November 12, 2005

Why RSS Works - St Barts

I spent some time this week with a very large on-line travel company talking about RSS. They're developing their RSS strategy and asked us to talk with them given the topic and applications are so broad within the travel industry. During the conversation, we started talking about specific use cases. I shared a recent experience I had in planning a vacation to the Caribbean, St Barts. I had heard a lot about St Barts via some friends and via Conde Naste magazine, but I'm pretty skeptical when it comes to information about travel destinations given I'm a bit particular to when it comes to vacation spots. I let them know that I went to Google and got a lot of information from web sites with "canned photos" and stories published by their PR people as to how great each hotel, restaurants, etc was. Of course most of the content was the establishments trying to sell themselves. I then went to a couple of chat rooms and bulletin boards which I found useless - again, most run by companies trying to sell you something. I then told them how I just simply set up a search feed (NewsGator Smart Feed) for the key work St Barts and was continually updated from people blogging about St Barts - people sharing their personal experiences, likes, dislikes, etc. Real information from real people, hmmmm. Through NewsGator I was able to review posts (article)from months ago as well as be updated as soon as a new post came in. Bingo, all the information I wanted, from real people, at my finger tips - the good, bad, and ugly. Pretty easy from there. Needless to say, the travel company we were talking to instantly got it. Sure, they're going to try to sell you something, but by personalizing the experience, it puts the power into your hands, not the hands of 3 star hotels trying to market themselves as something they're not. Of course this is just a small example of the power of RSS. BTW, if you're looking for a first class experience on St Barts, the Eden Rock at St Barts is the way to go!

November 12, 2005 in Business, Travel, Weblogs | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 30, 2005

Good Night and Good Luck

Went to see Good Night and Good Luck last night. Although I grew up in the post McCarthyism era I can vividly remember the terms "pinko commie" being a part of our everyday language in my earliest years. I thought the film was remarkable. It certainly shed a new light for me on the persecution of those with differing beliefs from that of our government in the 50's. Edward R. Murrow was a lighting rod for uncovering and making public the thoughts of the common man albeit slanted from his perspective. Thank god for people like Edward R Murrow and others who had the guts to stand up to the "way it is" and challenge authority. We've come a long way.

October 30, 2005 in Film, Weblogs | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack