Back on the volleyball courts last night. I say 'courts' because I played both grass and macadam and 3-on-3 and 6-on-6 games. It was fun and frustrating because I am not that good and if people embrace that great; if not... less great.
At home, gearing up for a weekend of camping at exploring more of the middle of the state. Sports opportunities have shortened my evenings but Jenelle's been going wild during the day and there's always something excitingly different or organized or clean when I walk in at the end of the day.
I always forget stuff.... like Friday night's trip up the hill to BCMR for a round and an appetizer, like frisbee toe/nail/not, like asparagus and asiago linguine, like Gram's travels way south around San Blas, like great wedding photos from spring nuptials, like Sunday night fireworks in Macungie and Kutztown from the window seat. So it goes when posts dwindle.
Last two nights have actually been pretty relaxed around the house. We played frisbee and made burgers last night and tonight looks like library and salad night. I'm digging summer evenings and somehow feeling a calm (eye of the storm?) that hasn't happened in a few weeks.
Happy belated birthday, America. As I suspect the Founding Fathers may have, we slept in on July 5th. They were probably tired from writing one of the great revolutionary documents in all antiquity, we were tired from staying out late in Philadelphia watching the big fireworks.
Philadelphia makes a big hoo-ha about their Independence Day celebration, street fair, etc, etc. We thought that sounded historic and nice... it wasn't. Everything that wasn't a national fast-food/convenience chain was closed, the street fair was mostly just bad singers screeching loudly at the Ford karaoke stand, and the fireworks - despite a pretty monumental grand finale - were likely not the nation's best. It wasn't something we'd tackle a million people to do again, but now we know.
We had a whopper of a deck bbq on Thursday night to ring in the holiday... and summer to a certain extent. People turned out in droves but didn't really hang out on the deck or eat the bbq, which was unexpected but a sign that we're the Midwesterners without kids and our friends aren't. Anyway, I had ribs and dessert and grown-up Arnold Palmer and enjoyed it and I think Jenelle did, too.
Mom was off Friday morning and we were not far behind, joining the neighborhood gang for a picnic day at Lake Nockamixon State Park. In the evening we found/discovered/went to a new (for us) indie theater in Allentown and watched "Away We Go." It was great and a break-through for both of its previously-small screen stars. Today we went for a bike ride through the fields west, over a chipmunk's tail, past the new DC by Quarry Park, and home. Now it's afternoon, we're wishing we had a canoe, and tomorrow is back to the grind.
Knoll Inc has its corporate headquarters in New York City at the Port Authority Building in the Meatpacking District. Just after the last post I got on a bus and went there to 'watch some chairs' and participate in a swanky A+D launch party. The next day I came home and commenced to start gearing up for our weekend adventure: meeting Mom at the Grand Canyon (of PA) for some camping.
We arrived late Friday night but were up early for the hike down the (not kidding) Turkey Path to the bottom of the Grand Canyon (of PA). It was a pretty hike - three waterfalls - and the Pine Creek Gorge was as impressive from the bottom as it was from the top. We walked along the river on the rail trail, then back up the Turkey path for a day in and around Wellsboro. The little downtown was a real treat. Indie stores in big storefronts, a great ice cream place called the Frog Hut, a central green with a cool canoeing-themed fountain, the works.
Sunday was time to break camp and head south. Knoebel's was pretty much on the way and there's nothing like a free amusement park in the middle of a summer day, so we stopped for four essential Knoebel's things: 1. wooden coaster 2. french fries 3. pickle on a stick 4. grabbing the brass ring. None of us got the brass ring and it started to rain, so back to Macungie via Centralia. Jenelle and Mom hit Kutztown Fair during the day Monday and we all went to Rodale in the evening before french onion soup and salad on the deck. Today Mom's in Ithaca and we're kicking it here, replacing a few appliances whose weak/cheap transformers were fried in an apparent lightning storm.
I've never had allergies before but the good doctor at MMG says that I just might have some now. Come on! Post nasal drip and useless coughing are my new favorite things.
It was a pretty good weekend, apart from the bits that involved plumbing. A local shop installed our new counter Friday afternoon and it took most of Saturday and part of Sunday to get the backsplash repaired enough to tolerate and the plumbing plumbed enough to not leak. Jenelle painted yesterday and all looks fabulous and functional.
Sunday afternoon was beautiful - a rarity of late - and we went up to Tuscarora for a bbq picnic. The roadside Texas guy on 309 provided pork and brisket, CVS provided tea and white bread, and Van Morrison provided tunes. The sun shone brightly and the wind held just long enough for the longest day of the year to stay warm until the last piece of pork was in my belly and the slaw was gone. It's kinda far for a picnic spot but Tuscarora is our favorite PA nature place.
Our house smells like a boat show. I spent most of the morning in almost-New Jersey watching a corrugator run the HSC for the chair. It was sunny after work and we met our new neighbors: Matt, April, and Logan. They are nice. I mowed the lawn then yanked some weeds. We stepped out for Old Monterrey and then stepped back in for a movie.
posted at 11:23 PM - comments
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Every year the furniture industry gets together in Chicago for its unfortunately-named trade fair, Neocon. All the big players - and everyone else - fill the Merchandise Mart and launch new product. Knoll launched the killer ap of office seating with a marketing tour de force that put users in the ads. Thus:
Lots to see and learn over two slammed days in the windy city. By the time Ron, Adam, and I were standing across from OHD F2a giving travel advice my feet were spent, I'd met the Chairman, the CEO had posed in a group photo with the PD gang, and the chair had completed a kind of product design Triple Crown; expert designers, engineers, and manufacturers have all weighed in and approved with highest honors. Big time.
Other than all that it was pretty quiet around town. I played ultimate with Ryan Sunday and ruined my left foot after my 5-year old $10 cleats failed and I went barefoot. Saturday was Hershey Park for Knoll picnic then home to have some 'ritas on neighbor's deck. It was a summer weekend and that was perfect.
So long, hockey. So long, Lord Stanley. It was the first unhappy ending to Stanley Cup Final play since I was away at Aviation Challenge and Constable's Devils swept 'Wings. That was 1994 and there's been a whole lot to celebrate since then. Thanks for another great spring, fellas.
Had to leave work early today for an appointment at home, which meant that I found myself behind the lawnmower before I am usually even home. We worked the lawn over pretty well, mounted some sporting-good-storage racks in the garage, and settled in for last hockey.
Today was a big day because the microsite for Generation by KnollTM launched. Check it out @ Sit How You Want(.com). It's funny to watch 10 months' worth of work, to date, condensed into one compendium of marketing-invented terms and a serious display of how awesome this product is. Jenelle used the configurator on the site and picked our chairs - light finish, lemongrass skin, pebble seat, aluminum base. July 15th, baby! July 15th!
I remembered the other thing that I was going to post: Kid Rock's "All Summer Long" remix/plagiarism of "Sweet Home Alabama" is now the official Michigan wedding anthem... "Catching walleye from the dock/Watching waves roll off the rocks" is to this wave of weddings what "Born and raised in SOUTH DETROOIIT!" was to those who came before.
The reason I forgot to post this tidbit is that Jenelle made a really authentic and delicious french onion soup for dinner Monday night and we have been enjoying pear, walnut, and Gorgonzola salads every night this week. Really good food makes it hard to concentrate. Other than that, a hockey game and R&R after the weekend, skating at Rodale tonight, re-opening Countryside, and reading my book about math illiteracy.
A few other items of note from the weekend:
-We ran into Fancy Aunt Nancy at DTW on our way north Friday. It was a surreptitious way to sneak 2.5 hours of re-acquainting with somebody who lives far away. She had great stories from Bolivia and Ecuador and it was a pretty nice treat to start the weekend.
-The Dairy Flo has added a dessert called The Rocket which is a kind of greatest-hits frostbite. You must have one.
-Happy Birthday (Saturday) to Robin!
-The upper midwest is light crazy late in the day; that was a real setback after getting up at 3am. This is basically jetlag in one time zone.
"To have & to hold and to keep your beer cold" said the coozies at the door to Bre and Greg's reception. At the Swallow afterwards somebody put on Bruce's "My Hometown" and I countered with "Thunder Road." Everyone really wanted to hear "Friends in Low Places" but it was (in a cruel and ironic turn of fate) not available on the jukebox no matter how much the assembled alums wanted to belt it out for each other.
It was a wonderful celebration weekend and an informal reunion thanks to the Gendron's wedding. Present were people we wanted to see, doctors and lawyers and best old friends, a DJ who spun dance music, and almost comically affordable drinks. The happy couple got serious when it mattered and relaxed when it didn't and that attitude carried the days.
Jenelle and I often discuss the shared history that we, um, share from adolescent days in Delta County. After two bridal party introductions Sharon wondered "what would your Webb friends think?" and I could only guess that it would explain a whole lot. In fact a whole lot was explained this weekend: how BreAnne became a Gendron, which fruit makes the best jello salad, why friendships ebb and flow, and where a small town adolescence can take people.
So long, infinitives! We'll miss you. The pace in PD has picked up enough to justify the removal of "to be" from our lingo: 'The test chairs need to be checked" is now 'the test chairs need checked' and so on. I'm wondering if this neologism will spread or if we are not as leading-edge as I perceive; regardless it's an interesting turn of events that makes me want to hit the non-fiction stacks at the library and sit in the lanai with a cuba libre and four hours of a Sunday afternoon. But I digress...
A busy weekend, this, but not for any particular reason. We worked on several major little projects around the house which seemed to advance the level of finish in two rooms. I watched two hockey games and kept wondering what Zetterberg was doing in there. We Rodale-d and walked around the big block, then on Sunday afternoon got cones from The Cup and walked up the hill to some fancy Lehigh U Adirondack chairs and looked out over the valley and reminisced about higher ed.
It's Friday night. We rolled south to pick up a few things and now we're back; Jenelle's watching her haunted places show and I'm doing internet catchup and trying to read all the P&R details I didn't get to after Wednesday's meeting.
Oh yeah, I'm also browsing pictures and finally posting proof of life.
Someday there will be pictures and probably a better description of what happened, but for now suffice it to say that Friday to Monday was Robin & Jake's wedding and Memorial Day Weekend 2009. We celebrated with the happy couple and a (figurative) boatload of family and friends, hitting the Delta County highlights: waterfront, H&H/CJ's, waterfront, HofL, deer, park, waterfront, parade, and, Dairy Flo. It was a busy weekend as weddings and trips to the UP tend to be.
Congrats Robin & Jake! Thanks for everything - we had so much fun.
Blog update blog. Steps forward at work. Steps back at work. Bedside tables. Frisbee rained out. Hockey Night in Macungie with wings and fries and chips/queso. Trip south for routine maintenance then further south for West Chester. Found a restaurant (not hard) but not much else. Thought about retail:dining ratios of various cool towns; too low there. Found a table (harder) and had a nice meal...hadn't had steak in awhile. Gram departed aboard Visions as reported by blog; sail safe/fair winds/etc. Hair cuts, discount veggie stand, cool shopping in Emmaus. Made friend at Cottage. Retail:dining ratio closer but maybe too high? Worked on outside stuff. Mowed lawn, cleaned grill, grilled on grill. BBQ chicken with brownies a la mode for dessert. Hockey afternoon in Macungie. Errands. Lightning fast days at work, faster evenings. Talked on the phone. Ate salad and bread, painted a project. Covered plants.
posted at 5:52 PM - comments
Monday, May 11, 2009
Last Thursday was the end of basketball; I celebrated by playing poorly but hitting the walk-off three that ended the season. See you in the fall, T/Th men's rec league hoops.
Friday was a whirlwind - last week was a whirlwind week at Knoll - made even more so by an early departure to get to PHL and, after a long drive through a major electrical storm, Dover TN.
There will eventually be picture(s) up to document our visit to Grandma Gray's farm in the northwestern corner of Tennessee, but for now some words: we surprised Grandma but spent the weekend in a pretty low-key way. Bad weather lent itself to a tour of family histories by car; blue bird weather was great for visiting Fort Donelson, watching giant fish in the pond, and blue birds flitting around the yard. There was time to share Mother's Day cards, a box of old photos, and three meals around the dining room table but that is about all you can squeeze into a weekend that includes traveling almost to the Mississippi.
The HBS first-years who descended upon Newport this weekend had this goal: to eat a sandwich. Our goal was different: we were in town to wish Gram bon voyage ahead of his trip around the earth. We drove east Saturday morning in the rain, which let up just as we stepped aboard Visions of Johanna and the sun broke through for a great afternoon about town. We ran into the afore-mentioned MBAs at Black Pearl and then found some more at Perro Salado at dinner time. We spent the night aboard and were off in the morning to let Gram get back to the daunting task of loading one's family and life into a 62' sloop for a sail to New Zealand.
Before and after the weekend details.... we played frisbee in the park on Thursday. Jenelle played really well and impressed all comers with her wicked diving catches. I played hoops twice and discovered that my still-sore calf isn't great for shooting but is a fine back foot for full court outlet passes to streaking guards.
Summer arrived in three blazing hot days. They were this weekend. We rang in the season with plenty o' work around the house with some fun-ness mixed in. Sunday that meant walking around Trexler Park with Stacie and Eric and Kaelyn. Friday that meant Pippin, as described previously. Saturday that meant our first visit to local movie house Emmaus Theater. I loved it. It's a mainstream second-run place, so it lacks the art house zest of Burns Court (see 8-02 thru 8-04) or the political punchiness of the Michigan or State (see 9-04 thru 7-07) but it has all the small-town flair you could ever want. The concession stand is in the theater so the popcorn smell is nothing short of enchanting, it's about 5 times deeper than it is wide so the seats in the back are truly not good, and the front door is not more than 50 feet from a major freight corridor. When the first train rolled past and the movie got a little fuzzy as the nearly century-old building shook the projector I was hooked.
posted at 10:01 PM - comments
Friday, April 24, 2009
RRHS drama club presentations were probably a bit painful for audience members not closely related to one of the players. This background is important because it sets the mood for our trip to WAHS for 'Pippin.' At a high school with 3800 students, though, the possibilities are endless and the show was extraordinary. There must have been close to 30 flawless musical numbers and two hours of impeccable choreography. It was fantastic.
Before the play, a week in five acts. I worked - hard - and that filled most of the time. Jenelle had a dress fitting. I played hoops with my calf wrapped on Thursday and it didn't go that badly. Now it's the weekend and 'they want the mid 80s' as Valley natives are likely to say about the forecast. Should be a good one...fire up the bike, the garden, and the grill.
Finally, thanks to Nick and Bonnie, picture time of Jenelle and I just south of the tram at JHMR over a month ago:
We had never been to an all-inclusive resort and really weren't sure what to expect, but there was a compelling reason to give it a shot and so we were off. At one point on Saturday Jenelle assured me that she was a big girl, mature enough to know when to just get off her barstool and swim away. I knew we were having fun.
Doug and Johanna and their families and friends were on hand for a beautiful wedding in a beautiful church and a wonderful celebration that was about as much fun as you can have in one day. We made a bunch of new friends and reveled into the wee morning hours. Outside of that it was a whirlwind of beach and pool and food and drinks.
Thursday, July 09, 2009
