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.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009