Miscellany

Sometimes we do things that don't involve an eight-hour flight! Like the time I met Oprah.

First things first — meet my dog Truffle.

www.flickr.com

The pre-blog
Before I got around to starting a blog, this is where I randomly posted items of possible interest or Signficant Events.

August 22 2006 > Someone stole my tree. Seriously. What kind of a low human being sees a tree firmly planted in my lawn, and has the thought processes that lead to coming in the dead of night (I suppose) and digging it out of the earth? That is very creepy to think of some guy with a shovel in my front yard. I miss my tree. I won't replace it though. Why bother tempting the next thug?

August 8 2006> I submitted a course propsal to the local university a little while back to teach a class on Europe trip-planning. For several weeks I had no response so I sent it in the the school system's adult learning program. Now today I find out they *both* want me to teach it in the spring! You can download my proposal and class outline here in PDF format.

July 20 2006> The 10-year anniversary of the date Brian and I met is July 22. He's in Chicago, so I'm flying out to see him, and we're celebrating with dinner at Charlie Trotters. This will be hands-down the most posh place we'll have ever eaten. " Five Stars from the Mobil Travel Guide (one of only two Five Star restaurants in Chicago ), Five Diamonds by AAA and seven James Beard Foundation awards, including 'Outstanding Restaurant' (2000) and 'Outstanding Chef' (1999). Wine Spectator named the restaurant 'The Best Restaurant in the World for Wine & Food' (1998) and ' America 's Best Restaurant' (2000)."

July 15 2006> We threw a surprise 50th birthday party for my dad in July. We had a great turnout, he was very surprised, and everyone had fun.

www.flickr.com

July 9 2006 > We took our first trip not involving phrase books or currency exchange in a long time in July 2006. We visited friends in Florida and spent two days in Savannah.

Check out the photos:

www.flickr.com