Be Prepared.

Save the date - Strike Action. 

The Belgians are striking. Apparently they love Monday strikes because they are having them for the next three Mondays.

Tomorrow's strike will impact rail routes going to Germany. If you have a meeting in Hamburg, I highly recommend rescheduling. If you are planning to get to London, you are golden. If you want to get to the airport, I suggest booking a car service or cab. Nothing like getting all sweaty walking to the station to find out that the trains are also out of service and then having to fight someone for a cab.

Strikes can take a crap on your travel plans.

The next two strikes are predicted to be more severe. Eurostar services are cancelled, as are local and international services and the airport transportation will be shut down.  If you are planning on leaving on Brussels on the 15th, think again.

I appreciate getting the notice of these strikes.  The Italian railways announce strikes months ahead of time.  I feel like each strike needs a save the date card sent out with the information because you are likely to forget it. I recommend special ordering fridge magnets striking workers of the world for each action or in the case of the Belgians a set of three. They are really cute and handy.

Joking aside, I understand the need to strike and the consideration by those striking to allow others to make alternate arrangements, but does this lessen the impact of your strike?

What if you had a strike action that closed the airport and no one came?

Not always. Be prepared. Carry a good book, your charger, know your rights and always use the bathroom before you board your flight.  

On that note, always check with your transportation carrier ahead of time for strikes, flight cancellations, ticket cancellations (me,twice in this trip) and be a savvy traveler. No one is going to do you favors, even if you are super zirconium status. Your concierge may have taken the weekend off and you may be SOL.

Happy Trails my friends.

Backing up is hard to do - not

At the Quai aux briques, it is all about the Fish. 

Hello from the land of the waffle.

I was going to wax poetically about my feelings about Christmas markets, but I'll spare you right now.

I take a lot of pictures, some of them are awesome even without Instagram filters, some of them not so much, but I get to make that decision after I look at my pictures on a screen that is bigger than phone. That requires actually getting my photos from off my phone and somewhere secure.

I have a few hard drives that have thousands of photo and music backups, but to be honest, I never use them any more. I do check them on occasion and they seem stable. I do worry about the discs failing as they are getting old. I've experienced the heartbreak of losing physical SD cards and while I can't ever recover those pictures, they memories of the places are still so vivid in my mind.

Backing up these days is not hard to do.

My iPhone photos get backed up to my hard drive, but that isn't fail safe.  Laptops get stolen, hard disks crash and photos get deleted.  I still love Flickr, but I have all but abandoned it because the interface can be clunky.  I never took to other photo sharing sites, other that Instagram.  I love the fact that Instagram integrates with other apps as well.

I'm using Dropbox/Carousel now to upload my camera uploads automatically when I'm connected to wifi.  You can love or hate Dropbox or the cloud,  but now I have the peace of mind that my photos are getting uploaded while I'm traveling.

There are a million places you can store your photos - Evernote, Flickr, Dropbox, Smugmug, Google Drive - some cost and some are free. The important thing is to back them up somewhere. It's not hard and having photos sit on your phone or on a memory card moldering a drawer is just ridiculous these days. View them, share them, critique them and your photography will improve and you'll get to relive the awesome things you've seen on your travels.

What exactly are you waiting for?

Happy Friday from Bruges

Mine was spent thinking about how someone named Eclair could be so disparaging about cupcakes and enjoying multimodal transport to finally arrive in Bruges.

Will I love Walloonlandia more than Brussels is yet to be seen. 

Happy Friday

Being Thankful

Leave Freely.

Love fiercely.

Breath freely. 

Speak Freely.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

On Ferguson a guest post by TH

I usually don't use this blog to discuss anything other than my mundane life, but watching the protests all over the country and in some cases, the looting that takes place because clearly we need more beer and Red-bull to sustain our marches breaks my heart and TH's.

These are her words, but they are my sentiments as well.

TH  grew up going to Old Oakland every Saturday with her father to do their weekly shopping - deli meats and olive oil at Ratto's, coffee at Peerless and visiting the wholesale produce market well before it was gentrified and hip. Many of these businesses stuck it out in Oakland when others fled for the safer enclaves. They survive today thanks to an influx of new people living and working in downtown Oakland and maybe kids or grandkids of others who grew up shopping downtown.

Just a reminder that spray paint, broken windows, and trash fires, while messy, will not destroy Oakland's social fabric
— Susie Cagle (@susie_c) November 26, 2014

Alas, Susie, this is not true.  Among the businesses looted in the past two days are Genova Delicatessen, Smart and Final, and a Walgreen's drugstore.  Nearby and in danger are food icons such as Ratto's, Cafe 817, and Bakesale Betty.  These are the places that are truly a part of the fabric of Oakland.  Genova has created amazing sandwiches and ravioli for generations.  Smart and Final provides wholesale and retail restaurant supplies for small restaurants in Oakland's Chinatown and for many other nearby restaurants.  The also sell quart bottles of vanilla extract to us overeager bakers.  Walgreen's brings a drug store to a a very underserved neighborhood.

While it is easy to say "oh insurance will cover their damage", these are institutions that have provided food and pharmacy services to a center city that many institutions abandoned.  They remained and worked to rejuvenate old Oakland and Telegraph Avenue and helped sustain the city's revival.  Their insurance may cover the damage, but insurance is not free.  Their rates go up every time there is such wanton looting.  And even if they are not looted they have to board windows, and lose sales and patronage, time and time again.  Eventually they may well say "enough is enough" and close or leave.  And other small businesses may be less inclined to take the risk of investing in Oakland.  These kinds of small losses truly destroy Oakland's social fabric.

Yup. Small losses grow big.  Save Oakland.

Is it Thursday yet?

Because it feels like it should be.

What a day.

Get me off your #$IO# mailing list

 http://www.iflscience.com/technology/journal-accepts-paper-reading-get-me-your-fucking-mailing-list

There is a story going around the interwebs about an article that was "published" in an on-line science journal that basically repeats the same thing in the abstract, introduction, material and methods, results, discussion et al which is "Take me off your effing mailing list".  While the article points out that these new online science journals will take anything for a buck and should be considered disreputable, the premise of the article is solid.

Let me go.  Don't make it hard for me to unsubscribe from your content.

The internet is really a give and take thing - I give you some awesome content you think you need and in return, I demand your email address so that I can send you marketing materials.  Just giving someone your email address is really low currency when you compare it sites that basically demand to know everything about you and your business before allowing you to download their content.  I can't imagine that everyone fills out the information the same way every time, nor do they do so truthfully.

Ask me too many questions and I may end up stretching the truth.

As a marketer, you really don't want that.

As a marketer to B2B you may want a little more information about me so you can have your sales person suss me out, I respect that.

As a person, I ask that you limit the number of questions you ask about my occupation and my goals.

As a busy person, I ask that you make it easy for me to opt-out of any related marketing schlub.

As a busy marketing person, I ask that you don't consider my name and information as a lead until I engage you again. I hate for you to be disappointed.

As a busy marketing person who hates waiting in line and trying to remember why I am getting information from you, I ask that you remind me why you are sending me something.

As a potential lead, I ask that your content be engaging, concise and sincere enough that I'll consider reading past the first paragraph and perhaps click on the link and read further.

Try harder and check your work.

As a person, I ask that if you eff-up when you send me email, that you admit to your mistake and apologize.

Me and Sylvester Stallone. 

As a person I ask that you consider that my gender may not match my name and to spend a little time making sure your marketing automation tools are filling in the blanks.

As both a marketer and a consumer, I demand that you make it easy and clear how to unsubscribe from your literature.  Please don't ask me why I'm leaving, because if you have to ask..... Please do not send me a follow up email to confirm my removal from your list.  Please do not have me sign onto the website to update my preferences.  Just set me free.

My opinion of you and your product may not just be based on your quality or content, it is also based on my ability to decide to leave at will.

Keep Calm and Panic Later

Hoxton Station, way out there. 

Update - Hyatt has honored our reservation at their other property without any intervention on my part. I love the AndaZ and will talk about why in a new post. 


What to do when the hotel you have reservations at suffers an unfortunate kitchen explosion and has evacuated all guests until they can determine if it is safe or not.

1.  Be happy that they didn't just say, oops and laugh it off and blame it on a pot of beans 
2. Be relieved they have moved all guests into neighboring hotels and will not allow for occupancy until the hotel checks out to be safe 
3.   Be relieved that while one person was seriously hurt, very few suffered injuries 
4. Realize that your stay is two weeks away and a lot of things can happen in two weeks, so you should chill
5.  Make alternative plans because even though you know they'll take care of you, you want to take care of yourself 
6.  Not call the Customer Service line to bitch and moan because you applied an upgrade to your reservation and you will not accept a downgrade 
7.  Read the frequent flyer thread on the incident with some amusement and realize everyone thinks their crisis is more important than their fellow travelers 
8. Keep abreast of changes through the hotel's social media streams 
9.  All of the above I

I'm going with all of the above.


There is too much other drama in my life and I can wait a little longer to make sure my stay details are going to change. Follow @hyattconcierge and @hyattchurchill on twitter to track the status of the Hyatt Regency Churchill reopening.

Let them eat cake, the Saturday edition

Today I baked two cakes in loaf pans so they could be considered breads, but let's not.

Savory Salami cake and Pain d'epices, to be blogged, for realz.

Then we all sat down and ate them.

My friends are really talented. Top right  - Pain d'epices, Bottom right -Pavlova, Bottom left - Cauliflower Cake, Top left, Victoria Sponge with strawberries, Middle -Carrot Cake with Caramel. Not pictured the Broccoli Cake and the Salami Cake and myriads of jellies and jams.

We ate Pain d'epices, Pavlova, Broccoli Cake, Cauliflower Cake, Salami, Pistachio and Sun Dried Tomato Cake, Victoria Sponge, Carrot cake and all sorts other of good things. All those vegetables count as dinner right? I took a three hour nap after all that cake.

I made this pie a year ago, but it looks nearly the same - that is my friend Leslie Seaton's home made apple brandy and I'm not sharing.  Recipe to be blogged, really, it is so good.

And then spent the next two hours making pie.

All in all a good day.

The Single Payer System

Le Crillon, Dec. 2013. We are so fancy.

I love travel, loyalty programs and  I love eating. These are the three truths. I also love to plan. I would have made a terrible hostel goer or backpacker back in the day.  I am not a seat of the pants traveller either, I like to have a decent idea of where I'm going and what I'm going to see.

I also hate waiting in lines, all of them.

I'm a big fan of online reservation systems that ensure that I don't have to wait in line for food, museum exhibitions and ticket machines that only take exact change. For dining, I use OpenTable as much as possible to make restaurant bookings. I have even been known to fire up the app on the way to a restaurant just to ensure I'm not going to be hanging out in the parking lot with one of those ugly pagers.

Restaurants sometimes run promotions through OpenTable to get people to dine during off hours. Typically a diner earns 100 points for booking through OpenTable, but sometimes that bumps up to 1000 points.  Points start to add up fast when you book them at these odd hours and for those who love their points, it can mean convincing your loved one eating dinner at 545 is really a very late lunch.

What does this have to do with the Single Payer System?  Most of these promos require a party of two to get the 1000 points.  The solo traveller is just as likely to eat either earlier or late, but they don't qualify for the promotion.  Shouldn't we be getting at least 500 points?

I know that the restaurants pay to be part of the OpenTable program and it costs them x number of dollars to give out these points, but who is to say the solo traveller is not going to order a more expensive entree, a better glass of wine and perhaps linger over a cappuccino before heading back to their room to watch Dog the Bounty Hunter?

The same thing goes for restaurants that will not book tables for one. I use the French and UK equivalents of OpenTable to book restaurants and often times they will not take a solo diner.  I end up booking for two and bring my bear to lunch (Kidding, sort of) . Instead I'll sheepishly say that my companion was not going to make it and hope they don't put me next to the bussing station.

I think it is time for the single payer/diner to be recognized.  We can easily just order room service and sit in our pjs, but we choose to adventure out and try the newest kombucha on tap hotspot, so rejoice and give us our damn points for trying.

Throw back Thursday, the very tired and must go to bed edition

I bought a slide scanner earlier this summer and I am completely driven to scan all that I have to lessen my photo footprint. There will be more on that soon. These are a few of my memories of Rome, shot on film.

Finding beauty in all the right places, Rome 2000.

Passegiata, Rome 1997.

Not to scale, Ghetto, Rome 1997,

How to feed a startup

Pecan shortbread dipped in bittersweet chocolate, likely never to be blogged. 

I bake a lot.

This is not a secret.

Every week I bake a few quick breads or a batch of cookies and take them into work. We're not huge (yet), so it is not an onerous task.  It is something I enjoy doing. It gives me a chance to try some new things out to a very appreciative audience who is happy to give me feedback on this week's treat. 

Getting feedback is a great thing. It makes me a better baker and if I make the same batch of cookies again, you get to experience the improved product. If you are lucky, I'll tell you about it the recipe and why I chose to bake it. I may even share the recipe with you and you'll take the cookies to your next potluck. You might decide to share the same recipe with friends via your blog, Instagram or Pinterest that might get spread further through social media and continue this cycle of sharing.  As a cookie baker, you may want to make some changes to make it even better and hopefully you'll include me in the loop and I'll make some of those tweaks to the recipe over time.

Friends, this is how you feed a startup.

Eat, tell, share, rave.

Our product is in beta and I would love for you to try it.   We've developed a web app, ClipCard that connects to Dropbox, Google Drive, Box.net and other apps and let's you see across all of them at the same time from one place.  ClipCard helps me connect the dots and see the relationships between my files and contacts and get things done without spending a lot of time and falling down a rabbit hole of irrelevant searching.

Join at www.clipcard.com

If you sign up, post a comment and I'll be sure to send you an sweet acknowledgement for your help.

nazila

The festive lunch

                                      Getting festive. St. John, Spitalfields, Dec. 2010. 

Today  I Googled "date night restaurants in London" and read through various and sundry lists of places to have a romantic or quiet dinner with decent food.  On the lists are places that I have dined and had a great time. For the most part they were great places to eat, but definitely not places for date night. Date night to me means that you can actually hear and interact with your object of affection.

Having to scream or lip read because the restaurant is so loud does not for a great date make.  

Perhaps the issue is that we really only go to London during the festive period - the first weekend to the third weekend of December. This is the time when colleagues celebrate their good fortunes at work by booking lovely long luxurious dinners and lunches at places sought out by foodies and have a jolly time. Unfortunately, it is usually at the expense of anyone else who has had the misfortune of booking at the same time.  I'm talking about being seated next to 18 tops at St. John and six tops at Nopi.  We've seen it all at both dinner and lunch - no time is immune from festive bookings these days.

I have two dinners next month free in London. I'm hoping I don't hit the party circuit and get to actually enjoy the company of my date and friends without a megaphone. 

Accidents will happen

They say that most accidents happen in the house or near your house. I'm living proof of this.  Accidents happen to me because I cannot leave well alone or better yet, just SLOW THE HECK DOWN.

Most of my accidents involve gravity and stairs. I'm pinching myself, throwing salt behind my back and knocking wood as we speak.  Today I took an awesome tumble down the stairs to the basement because I looked up instead of down.

It could have really sucked, instead I am just wincing when I sit down and trying to figure out how to start slowing things down so these things don't  happen. Each "accident" or setback, whether it be falling down a flight of stairs or having to redo a bunch of calculations because you didn't check your work and think things through are big wastes of time.

They are also sometimes caused by our need to say "Yes" and "No problem" and try to complete a task without thinking all the steps through. Friends, we need to start saying "yes, no problem, but give me a few minutes to come up with a way to do this right". Most of us are not brain surgeons, bomb detonators or sharpshooters.  We're folks trying to make sure we fill out the form correctly to get that bomb squad person hired.

You think the bomb squad person rushes? Nope.

So, a few advil from now I may no longer wince when I sit down, but hopefully I'll still be reminded of the need to slow down to get something done correctly and safely.

Where is that inflatable donut?

The week that was or wasn't

I came down with some kind of flu on Friday. I'm delighted to say I managed to hold it together and manage public transport, a walk home and to change my clothes before I fell to pieces.  Lots of crap happened here while I was out and I thank the gods daily for TH and her ability to get things done while I was sleeping off this thing.

I have lots of awesome things I was going to write about, but honestly, if I can manage to get a load of laundry into wash, write this post, pack my work bag and clear out my mail from the weekend, I'm high-fiving myself to bits.

High Five.

Getting through those mails.

Yeah.

Right.

I read most of my mail on my phone. This is not unusual. The average wage slave consumes mail and work information from a mobile device. In fact, they may own more than one, maybe even three and a half.  Hell, I have possession of four right now.

Well, no matter what, I still let things fall through the crack because it is pretty darn hard to keep track of the 100 to 140 mail messages I get a day over five or six accounts.

This is also not an unusual thing. Most of us (wage slaves or not) have more than one mail account. We may read them from one place, but mail comes from a million places and it is getting harder to manage.

Not only do we have mail now, most of use instant message (iMessage, jabber, yammer) or collaboration tools (Slack, HipChat, Lync) within our work groups to communication internally to minimize the interruptions that caused by email threads.

How can we keep track of all this?

I'm not sure we can.  Lots of tools allow you to get organized with all this information - you can set alerts and notifications, defer answering mail, archive messages, set rules within your mail and other good things.

For me, I'm trying to read my mail quickly from my phone, but when I get to my office, I'll triage what I can from my laptop.  I try really hard to keep email at bay by not answering it as it comes in, but in one bulk slug. I pick either push notifications or emails when dealing with collaborative tools - I refuse to double the amount of attention that software commands of my resources. 

When I get home from work, I let it pile up and read it after dinner.

As for the fun email from my other five accounts - that gets read the same way. Triage, bulk and a decent purge through once a week and a lot of unsubscribing.

Unsubscribing is your friend. You will never miss what you didn't know existed.  Trust me.

How do you handle all this information to keep yourself productive and on top of your game?

Happy Saturday

Hope you had a great day.

Converting the Customer - Airbnb - you rock.

Note - This post was written a few months ago for a marketing class. I thought it was worth sharing with a larger audience.  Thanks a million @airbnb and @FourSeasons for making me love you even more and making my colleagues really happy.


I'm not slouch when it comes to social media. I understand the power of the voice of the consumer and how marketing is used to make me want something now or change my behavior for the long run. Sometimes I think social media marketing and outreach is a little like dating - or stalking.  There is a little flirting, then some digging and then a call to action - a proposition.  You are at the mercy of your target.  She may spurn you if you don't get your act together.

June 2013, we went to Hawaii for a few days.  On the way through Honolulu,  I started a conversation with the resort's social media person (we follow each other on Twitter) about National Donut Day.  We bantered back and forth about the lack of donut shops on the island and how sad it would be not to celebrate this event.  Fast forward, three hours and we're sitting by the pool, waiting for lunch and and what should appear with my wrap - a plate of donuts.

The resort's social media manager arranged to make my Donut day.  Yes, I did tweet about it.

Later that month, I engaged in an hour long travel chat on Twitter.  Airbnb asked me what would get me to leave a resort to stay in an Airbnb property. I  replied (jokingly) that until they offered me donut delivery at the pool, it wasn't going to happen.

The following week, I was summoned to our reception area. Two dozen donuts had been delivered to me by @airbnb with a note to the effect - "We can't offer you pool side donuts, but we can bring deliver them to you at your desk" -  Regards,  your friends at Airbnb

Airbnb identified me as someone to convert from a resort going travel savvy consumer to someone who might be willing to try out their service.  They had someone from their Marketing department seek me out on LinkedIn, find out where I was working and to arrange to have two boxes of donuts delivered to my office. Did it impress? Certainly. Did they convert me? Well, not quite.  I downloaded the app and searched for apartments for a few stays I had planned overseas, but have yet to pull the trigger on booking a reservation.  Do I think that if I had a problem with a Airbnb property, I would feel like they are listening? Sure. They went the extra step.

In both cases, the resort and Airbnb, they both went out of their way to flirt (engage), dig a little deeper (look at my profile, my habits, my position), and act in an attempt to win me over with a call to action that took some effort and creativity. Social marketing seems easy to some, but in other cases, it really is about going that extra mile.

Sarah Morris for Longchamp - A pop of color

When I returned from Paris, my colleague asked me how many bags I picked up.

Yup, he knows me well.

Two.

I have a thing for bags - clutches, totes, purses, messenger bags - you name it, I love it.

The latest Longchamp collaboration with Sarah Morris is divine and I highly recommend you go pick one up before they disappear.

Sarah Morris has reimagined the eponymous, yet useful and practical les Pliages range into something new and edgy.  I fell in love when I saw them on the Longchamp site and was delighted to find the range at the rue St. Honoré branch.

I love all the colors and the black handles on the purse and travel bag are a nice change for the tan. The white leather used for the long handled shopping totes looked nice, but given the grubby nature of bus commuting I decided to stay with the black.  

The signature pieces modeled after her painting - "The Eclipse"  would go with everything, but the white background would stain easily. I know others have had luck washing their les Pliages bags and removing stains, so you may want to try that one out.  

Now on to the bags I bought - a handbag and a travel bag which look very similar.

The handbag feels more like a luggage tote - it's exceedingly roomy, maybe a little too roomy.  I could see over filling it and lugging more than you needed around for the day.  The travel bag is your standard "I bought too much on vacation and I need to check my bag" extra bag. 

The only drawback I see to these bags - or the ones I looked at is the white interior of the bags. White is great for finding things, but not so great for keeping clean. 

The hardest thing was picking a color. I loved the green, gray, blue and black.  I finally decided on the royal blue because it coordinates well with my current wardrobe and is vastly different from the tan, black, orange and olive pieces I already own and might brighten up a dull Seattle day.

The boring bits

Pain aux raisins at the Park Hyatt Vendome. These could be my most favorite things in the world. 

In October, I went on a modified Elimination diet. It wasn't easy, but it wasn't the bellyaching bitch fest that most folks seem to discuss on the social networks. Like most things in my life these days, it had a start and stop date. For four weeks, I stopped eating oats, wheat and wheat like products, some fruits and vegetables, sugar, eggs, almonds and dairy from my diet. I did not remove coffee and chocolate from my life because that was going too far, but didn't seek them out either. I felt great for those weeks. I had more energy and not as hungry as I had feared. I tried really hard not to bore people with my elimination diet. I travelled twice during the time and managed okay both times. Sashimi was my friend and I was glad rice and potatoes did not make the hit list.

 I learned that I could live without goat cheese and hemp milk wasn't as crappy tasting as I had feared.

 I added bunch of stuff back to "challenge" my system while I was in France. I felt okay, nothing really awful happened. It wasn't like a sat down and ate an Emmenthal and ham sandwich dipped in beet juice followed by an almond milk chaser. I tried a little of this (bread) with a little of that (grand mariner souffle) and some of this (cheese). The world did not end, I did not start raising funds for my elimination diet video channel and meal planning kit kickstarter. I listened to my body, gauged how I felt after each item was introduced and moved on.

 What I did realize was that I love my boring and predictable food choices and I'm happy to abide by them the 280 days a year I'm at home. I'll try some things when I'm out of my comfort zone, but really I would be much happier in my comfort zone. I could have walked 10 minutes from my hotel and gotten a juice bar experience or I could crossed the Avenue de l'Opera to visit Starbucks and get a soy latte. Instead I decided that my choice would be to skip the smoothie and have fruit instead. I drank more cafes than cappucinos and as TH has pointed out, the tisanes are a far superior to their coffee.

 I'm easing back into my home routine for the next two weeks. I look forward to cooking this weekend and my 3 pm hummus and carrots. It may be boring, but sometimes that is all it takes.

Home again

Now where did I put my orca card?

Expect the expected

Tomorrow is the first time in nearly  20 years I am flying British Airways westbound in Economy.  I'm not complaining, it was of my own choosing.  I wanted to get home fast. I have equipped myself with a good book, earplugs and a chocolate eclair from La Marquis de Laduree. I hope this and a decent cup of coffee at the airport will see me through.

I've flown American Airlines many times in the same class and with long layovers and survived. I've grown accustomed to the declining service, lack of edible food, vastly long layovers and non-personalized attention from my airline of choice. I think that is part of the problem - I have no expectations, I just expect meh service and to be exhausted when I get to Seattle.

I'm moving into new ground here with British Airways, wish me luck.

Plats du Jour

Many small boxes (not of take out), November 2014. 

Sunday is a big day for eating out in Paris.  Families gather to have a lovely lunch out and catch up and tourists look at menus with great hesitation trying to decide whether to venture inside a bistro to get something to eat. Others may wander in to get out the cold or hot or just take a load off.  In all cases, it is nice to take a break and spend the next hour - erm, staring at a screen.

Face it, most of us are guilty of doing this.  You have been pretty darn good all day long.  You may have used your phone to take a few pictures or look up directions, but once you sit down, you are lost.  We are guilty of catching up with Instagram comments, answering work emails from six thousand miles away, or waiting to take a picture of your soup.

The important things is we're sitting down to eat a meal someone else has prepared and more than likely,we're sitting with someone we like/love/respect and we're not paying giving them or the food the attention it or they deserve.

Today I witnessed many tables where both parties were eating and typing at the same time. They weren't sitting at a fast food establishment wolfing down a burger to rush back to their desks.  These were people who were dropping close to 80 bucks per person to eat lunch and they barely spent it interacting with each other or their food.

Why even bother?

I am just as guilty as others, but I am trying really hard to be mindful about this. We have a no phones the table unless the world is ending or the World Series is on. Is it okay to tune in instead of tuning out by shutting out the real world?

Is it okay to just thank the waitstaff who has seated you and brought you food? Is it okay to chew each mouthful of food and be humbled that someone went to the trouble to feed you? 

Watching other's today made me even more determined to stop looking at my phone for entertainment and start paying attention to what is going on around me.

How about you?  Do you have a no-phone/device policy while eating? 

Tuileries, Nov. 2013.

It is lovely to spend the day with the person you love in your favorite city.

Happy Saturday from the City of Lights

See something, Say something

I have learned a lot about myself in the last few years. One thing is that I am much better off confronting a situation that stewing for hours . It is better to face whatever is nagging or bothering me instead of losing sleep or involving others in my web of crankiness.

There is nothing like remembering a trip because of the one shitty thing that happened to you instead of the 300 awesome things which occurred at same time.

"I loved x, but all I can remember was the rude waiter, crappy valet, lack of turn down service or smelly seat opponent." 

Trying to turn this around to - "Greenland was amazing, I even enjoyed the surprise overnight visit to Disko Island thanks to the ferry running aground.  We got to meet some folks we would have never of met and saw way more icebergs because of it".  

So, not everyone has had  the joy of being stranded in Greenland, but I'm thinking all six of you who have read this blog post have gotten a sub-par room in a hotel and have either shut up and unpacked your suitcase or have bitched about the room to someone other than the Front Desk Manager.

Now, I just confront whatever it is that is bothering me - hotel rooms, inadequate service or ferries that run aground. If I get resolution, great. If I don't, I tried and can move on. Moving on is hard, but sometimes it is all you can do.

What about you?

Guilty Pleasures

I'm sitting in the Skyteam Lounge at LAX waiting to board my flight to Paris. It is a really nice lounge, light and airy and spacious.  It is also very quiet, which is very unusual in this day and age.

It is also place with free wifi. I'm working but I'm also doing something else  - I'm catching up on my vapid television watching. I do a lot of that these days.  I have become somewhat of a tv watcher. I'm not proud of it, but instead of reading tattered copies of Redbook at the gym, I'm catching up on British shows and U.S. popular culture in 45 minute chunks.

What is my guilty pleasure? Picking a series and downloading a full season to watch on the trip.  The rest, I'll pick up on netflix or hulu, but spending that 19 bucks for 19 hours of entertainment is my guilty pleasure.

What is yours?

There is nothing more exhausting on than being "on". I have great admiration for folks in sales. 

That is me on stage. 

 

Nm

Please hold questions until the end 

Woo Woo What? and missing your target

Klout, WTF? 

I spend my days wondering if anyone will ever read what I write.

Truthfully, I spend about six minutes wondering if I should hit the share buttons and even posting to Google Plus to see if I can increase my reach. I don't always execute on my intentions because the people I follow or care about are usually on more than one of my networks and I hate bombarding people with the same content or whines.

There are a million places, apps and opportunities for people to share content, but picking the right one is critical to building your audience. Are the folks you engage with the most  on Twitter? Do you love to curate collections and have a million followers on Pinterest? Are your photos envied and emoticoned by more than your best three friends?

Should you pick just one?

I recommend that you and I should spend some time testing hypotheses, measuring reach, and trying different approaches before developing your outreach mix.   I crack up every time I see this ad for Adobe Marketing Cloud.  It is a great example of brands and maybe you, jumping on the latest thing without thinking things through.

Jumping on a bandwagon - Cashing in the Q4 budget and buying some followers. 


Until next time, WOO WOO on or until you mama joins up.

How to dress for success or how to dress yourself successfully

A room with a view, Hyatt Etoile, July 2014.

My life has taken some turns - mostly good.

I have started to dress like a grown-up. Maybe its that I finally feel like I can buy clothes that suit me. It might just be that I work right next to the Nordstrom shoe buyers and I feel like I have to up my game.
Whatever it is, it takes a little more effort that it did before to get out the door and that takes some planning.

I'm going on an eight day trip soon that involves air travel and a bit of driving. I have a short work presentation to a bunch of friendly colleagues who are more casual and then to Paris where I want to look nice and be comfortable. I'm not into wardrobe changes per se, but I could definitely get out of my rut and try a few things.

In my new found love of retail I have learned a few things that I would love to share with you. Here they are.

Always shop for clothes on an empty stomach - you'll look better.

If you can't take someone you trust with you when you go shopping  make sure you model what you bought for them before you rip off the tags.

Try and sit down and cross your legs, bend over, stretch your arms up in your new garments on a full stomach before you rip off any tags.

Cut those tags off, do not rip them.

Always save the receipt and the buttons that come with whatever you bought. You'll need them one day.

Oh, I hate Pinterest, but here is a board that shows you just what I'm thinking of taking.

Do tell me what you think.

nm

First Sunday

                                 515 PM - still light out, embrace it or go south. 

I love the first morning after Daylight Savings Time ends. I love getting up and having an extra hour of the day to do things.

When did we start doing things on Sunday?

Isn't Sunday the day our Protestant forefathers (yes, fathers) decided we needed to rest after a week of toiling? Come to think of it I did toil a little in the garden yesterday. 

Isn't Sunday supposed to be out relaxing, spending time away from devices, and reflecting on the week behind and thinking about the week ahead?

I'm tired of overachieving on Sunday.  I want my Sunday back. 

Maybe next Sunday.  

nm

What's the frequency Kenneth?

                                           Startup Hall - U of Wa. Go there. 

Yup. I'm back.

Life has been pretty decent around here - we're busy with work, family, dogs, gardens and travel.  I miss writing terribly. I start a hundred blog posts in my mind and then I just walk away without scribbling anything down.

I think once I learned about page views, impressions, SEO, SEM, trackbacks and how blogging really worked, I got turned off.

I'm not sure Twitter is my medium, either.

Photography is great. I like the instant gratification of posting an image and getting instant feedback. Who wouldn't? However, there is something lovely about writing out your thoughts and something even better when someone takes the 45 seconds in their day to read what you wrote.

I'm going to try this again.

We'll see how it goes.
nm

The journey can be half the fun

What I did this week

My first ever lightning talk - so much fun

Playing the Lottery

I lost.

I am now stuck going to Paris via Detroit.

Wish me luck.

At least I am getting another 1000 miles for my return flight from Southern California and I get to dump all my work paperwork from this trip.

One day I'll have to tell you all about it.

How I spent the last six weeks

I need a drink.

The best use of instagram to date

Today I feel like I am a terrible traveler. Partially its because I refuse to check a bag, and thus feel I must be a minimalist in what I bring.  Partially because no matter how many times I leave, it always seems that I have packed too much or not packed the one thing I need.

Typically I am found somewhere in the first world. I have a credit card. I usually have command of a language that is spoken by someone around me. I can cope.  

So tonight I am packing for two trips that are back to back.  There is a planned touch and go in the middle, but on the off chance I do not have fly back home to leave again, I am packed for both trips. The temperature range is approximately 30 degrees and the occasions requires some semblance of natty dressing. 

What does this have to do with Instagram?

A few months ago, a friend of mine, Kristy embarked on a thirteen day trip to the Eastern US and the Maritimes.  She was spending a few days in Boston and NY and then the rest of the time was cruising. Before she left, she figured out her outfits and then instavideoed her wardrobe.  I could not stop watching it,  it was brilliant.  

I wish I had time this trip to be this creative.  Instead, I'm going with one extra pair of jeans (mailed home from California, a pair of boots that I may regret, a pair of ballet flats that I am mailing home after my meeting) and a crap ton of grey t-shirts. No one messes with a girl wearing a grey t-shirt and a black cashmere sweater and jack purcells.

last light

Hey! Did you see the blue sky today?

The sadness of the last few hours of light today was hard to take.  I hate Standard Time. I hate coming home in the dark.  I am resolved to get out at lunch and catch some sunlight.  I'm lucky enough to take Ernest on two to three walks a day, but this time of year, they are all in the dark. TH does his lunchtime walk.

Light is important.  I live for flights above the clouds. I pine for Hawaii in December, but always end up in London.

I'm just waiting for Dec. 21.

Let the light shine in.

Happy Nov 1

Rabbit.

Postcard from the Edge (or the Peripherique)

Room with a view.

I am in Paris.

This is not unusual.

In fact, it is a little boring.

From this trip I have learned a few things (in no particular order).

I am no longer self-amusing, that is I can not rely on myself and my imagination to keep myself occupied for any time.

I have become the person I hate - the one who craves validation.

I can't leave well enough alone.

I really don't like macarons all that well.

That one should still brush one's hair and be presentable when you are video skyping with colleagues 5000 miles away.

That one should not video skype while on vacation.

I will be glad to be back in my own bed tomorrow.

Tout a l'heure.

Done

Hi!

It is 525 am here and after a rabble rousing night here, I slept fitfully. That one iced tea at 7 pm killed me.  Sad isn't it?

Looking back at my to do list, I realize I have not accomplished much, but I am trying.


8. Revisit the Spiral Jetty.

That and starting on my iTunes library (#10)  is all I have done.  The weather is prone to be vile next week (upper 80s) so that should be reason enough to learn how to grill (#3 and #4).  The idea of turning on the oven has no appeal.

In other good news, I shall dip my toes in the lake after work. Yup, work.

That alone, is good news.

To do

 Post no thrills, taken in Mid-Mahattan, February 25, 2012

Instead of focusing on what I am trying to not do this year, here is a list of things that I would love to do/try/learn this year.

1. Learn how to properly snorkel.  I spend enough time in the warm waters of Hawaii, you would think that I enjoy floating with my face in the water and a tube shoved into my maw to get oxygen to my lungs.  I really don't. I need to chill and learn that you can see a lot in 6' of water and that maybe fish can be cute and entertaining if you relax and learn to breathe.

2.  Learn how to sea kayak.  Insert cold  water, San Juan Islands, eskimo roll and terrible currents into the previous thing to learn to do and realize that North Pacific fish are not entertaining enough to pay much attention to them unless they become dinner.

3. Learn how to light a barbeque and learn how to grill. 

4. After I master that, move on to indirect heat grilling.

5.  Pressure can tuna.

6.  Run faster, longer and without stopping. 

7. Finally go to Marfa, TX and see all that great art work.

8. Revisit the Spiral Jetty.

9.  Go to Argentina in our fall when the weather is more to my liking.

10.  Listen to all the music I have in my iTunes library, make a few play lists and start culling things I do not care for any more.

I think that is a pretty good start, don't you.

What do you want to do this year, or next year or ever?

No pants allowed

  
Welcome to the Boulangerie at Casa Beagle.  Dogs welcome.

Let me set something straight, I love pants. I love skorts even more, but that is fodder for a series of fashion related posts. This post isn't really about clothing, but about creating a weekend that is filled with nothing more than being yourself.  It is about giving yourself permission to let the week slip away behind you.  No errands, no dinner commitments, no plans are made on these weekends.  I look forward to my no-pant weekend (yoga pant weekend just doesn't sound that exciting, nor drives blog traffic) which usually starts with the mad drive to the ferry and taking the happy dogs for a walk on the beach before the boat ride up to Orcas. 

The weekend stretches ahead with all sorts of possibilities  - long dog walks, trying new recipes, beating back the garden, long conversations after dinner, napping with assorted hounds in sunbeams and catching up on reading. There is no need to impress anyone, here we are all ourselves.  A nice dinner in town can even be pulled off if your yoga pants are clean and neat (note to self: buy smart yoga pants).  No one really cares what you look like and sometimes this is the best part. Reality bites soon enough as you merge into the line of traffic heading towards the freeway.  You'll soon put your big girl pants again to face real life at home with a head full of memories, a few tired dogs and new hope to help you make it through the week ahead.

Happy New Year

Taken early morning on January 1, 2013 from Orcas, looking towards Lopez. 

The first year and month of 2013 is over. There is no need to resolve anything in 2013 if you are still on the fence.  I have decided it is easier to plow on and do the right thing, especially if you have no real vices to resolve ending.  It is just better this way.

All I want is for 2013 is that it be better than the last.  I want my parents remain healthy and independent; Ernest's visits to the vet be be few and far between; and my new niece or nephew be born healthy. My wish is that TH keeps on striving ahead and thinking of ways to move science information into the new territory and build new collaborations. I want the federal government stay solvent and keep on functioning. I demand that my friends stay insured and employed, and that I find a great job as well.

Yup. I am still looking.

I am trying to challenge myself to write more. I spend a long time thinking as I walk the dog about things that I would like to write about, but am afraid to bore you and maybe me to death.  I have great respect for those who can write and most likely carve out time every day to write. 

You go girls.

Given how things could be, I am doing just dandy and for this I am grateful.

Happy 2013.

3 November 2012

Today I am grateful for my wings, rain hat and favorite traveling partner.

11.2.2012

Gone fishing.