Chicago!

Going to Chicago tomorrow for work and fun.

Ahhh

The sun came out just long enough to add a little
color to the calm waters.

Gimme Your Stuff

This looks like fun!

This is a link to a cultural exchange blog. Check it out.
I live in upstate New York and here's what I can offer for swap from this area:

Dinosaur BBQ sauces (mmm, mmm good)
Different kinds of cooking sauces, oils, etc.
Grandma Brown Baked Beans
REAL maple syrup
Syracuse University stuff
(hats, mugs, pins, school mascot, etc - or something from the School of Art and Design)
Older design magazines
1000 Islands dressing, 1000 Island souvenirs
River Rat cheese
Locally made honey- honey sticks, honey butter
New York state wines (Finger Lakes region)
State Fair Spedie Sauce (for beef or chicken)
Chocolate Covered Potato Chips
Crafting supplies
Magazines, books

Anything else you want? I'll do my best to get it!

R & R at Camp Ryan

Heading to camp later today for my first weekend of the season.
The weather forecast is cooperating.
We could see sunshine and 80's.

This is what I'm looking forward to:
No t.v.
Limited computer time.
Games (Parchesi, Scrabble, Yahtzee, Pitch)
Boating
Swimming? brrrrr
Uninterupted time with the boys
Napping in the hammock
Reading
Gardening
Projects

Anybody want to come? You're all welcome.

Email Hoax

I have great friends who are loving and caring and will do anything to help a friend or stranger in need. This week I received 4 emails about a 13 year old girl named Ashley Flores missing from Philadelphia. This, fortunately, is not a true story.

Before you send emails on, do yourself a favor and click on snopes.com and find out if the story, safety tip, or information is true or false. Snopes updates daily on internet hoaxes and they do great quantities of research to find out if a story is true. They have a search button so you can type in a few keywords about the story you're looking for and it comes up.

You'll find some are true, many are false, and some undetermined. Many of these "urban legends" have elements of truth in them or touch our hearts so they are believable.

These are a few others received in the last few months that have been determined to be false:

Heating plastic in the microwave causes cancer.
Not drinking 8 glasses of water a day leaves you "chronically dehydrated"
Robbers in shopping mall parking lots are using ether-filled perfume bottles to render their victims unconscious.
A patron dining at a Wendy's fast food outlet found a human finger in her bowl of chili

Here is one that is TRUE (for all you cell phone users who get charged for dialing 411 information)
The phone number 1-800-FREE-411 (1-800-373-3411) offers free directory assistance service.

Check out the top 25 legends here

Don't try this at home

Art or flirting with danger?










Both!

This was an exhibit at the Design Museum in London
that drew me in like a moth - it was illuminating.

Michael Cross and Julie Mathias approach a new design project
by “taking an object we know and beginning again”.
Their objective is: “the radical re-evaluation of objects,
rather than a refinement of what they already are.
The question is not how to make them slightly better,
but how they might be entirely something else.”

For this flood lighting installation, Cross and Mathias
plunged dozens of electric light bulbs and coils of
brightly coloured wire under water. The result is an eerie piece that,
by defying the taboos about mixing electricity and water,
encourages us to question our notions of safety
while allowing us to flirt a little with danger.

How to host a Jr. Prom pre party

When your child asks, the day before prom,
"Mom, can we do pictures here before the prom"?
Answer "Ummm sure honey, how many will be coming"?
You will then be "lowballed" and told
"maybe 5 or 6 couples and a few parents".

In preparation for the pre prom event:
Clean the house and pick up some snacks.
Make sure you have fresh batteries for your camera.
Plant some flowers (in the rain) to make a lovely backdrop
for the photos that will be taken outside (should it stop raining).
Mow the lawn in the rain.
Weed the gardens in the rain.
Pray it stops raining.

At the event:
Welcome the kids and the parents you know into your home.
Oooh and aaaah over the handsome young men in
their tuxedos and big shiny black shoes.
Ooooh and aaaaah over the beautiful girls in
their dresses, jewelry, updos and flowers.
Try not to act surprised as parents you don't know start arriving.
Catch up with people you haven't seen in years and
who you never even knew had a child who knows your child.
Graciously welcome the siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles,
and friends of the family who came with mom and dad to
send off Jr and Sweetie B to the prom.
Close your mouth as the house fills with not 5 or 6 couples
and a few parents but 13 prom couples and their entourage.
Supply extra batteries to parents in distress with dead cameras.
Supply safety pins for young ladies whose trains are too long.
Give up on pouring wine or soda for guests.
Try to move 100 pairs of shoes out of the way for picture taking.
Organize photo opps on the stairs, in the basement,
in front of the fireplace, or on the porch (as it did not stop raining).
Herd children to said photo spot.
Explain to children "this will take as long as it takes
for 26 sets of parents and grandparents to take photos
so be quiet stand still and you may still
make it to prom tonight"
Cry a little because they all look so beautiful
and you cannot believe these are the 17 year olds
who were just starting Kindergarten together yesterday.

Window Shopping

It doesn't matter where I travel to, finding
cool shops to meander through is a highlight.
Purchases do not have to be made.
Just experiencing the color and textures,
new and unique items, and ideas that can be taken away
is enough. Of course, if a bargain or a gift
for someone is found, that is a bonus!

These are just a couple of the shops in London and
Amsterdam that drew me in
by their window dressing or store fronts.

Lunch Anyone?

This is where lunch was being served at Mattmo on the day we visited.















These are the windows that shine in on where lunch
was being served at KesselsKramer on the day we visited.



















This is the courtyard where lunch is served at BSUR
(and where the employees were now
enjoying happy hour on the day we visited.)

The English and the Dutch know how to enjoy their lunch time.
No eating on the run.
No eating at their desks.
No skipping lunch to work straight through.

They relax and eat lunch. Sometimes prepared by the in house chef. Or they take turns preparing meals. Or the meal is brought in and then served to everyone together family style. They eat and talk together while sharing the meal.
It is called a lunch break.

I am adopting this novel idea of taking a lunch break.

(Now I'd like to travel to far away lands
to learn first hand about siestas.)

Amsterdam

I loved the trip to Amsterdam this year.
Didn't get to do much sightseeing but the
weather was beautiful, the company good,
and work didn't feel like work.

In addition to the unique coffee shops and the red
light district, Amsterdam has an abundance of flowers,
beautiful canals, bicycles, and friendly people.

Gorillaz

While in London we went to the Design Museum.
The Designer of the Year competition was taking place.
Four very cool designers.
You can check them out here.
Although not the one I voted for, I loved Jamie Hewlett's exhibition.






















Jamie Hewlett, cult comic artist and co-creator of
Gorillaz produced a fiction-as-fact illusion
of the band through printed and onscreen presentations.
The virtual band members are Murdoc, 2D, Russel, and Noodle.
The debut album sold six million copies worldwide,
making gorillaz the most successful album ever by a virtual group.
For the 2005 launch of the 2nd album, Demon Days, the groups' live
performances were upgraded from 2D projections
into complex quasi-holographic performances in 3D.
Have a listen:

Spring in London

It was nice to see the flowers blooming in London.
In a city full of brick, concrete, and very few lawns to speak of,
Londoners find great ways to dress their homes with color and blooms.

Sometimes...

You don't have to say it
or hear it
to know it.















P.S. Love you

It's across the pond we go

When a man is tired of London he is tired of life,
for there is in London all that life can afford
Samuel Johnson




























It rains less in Rome,
but Amsterdam has more cafés














London and Amsterdam
For business and pleasure
Be back after May 11th.