Rob's Blog

A weekday in New York City

Now that I'm retired I can actually hang out during the week! Although the city traffic does not make for a pleasant experience. Other than that, I had a great afternoon in with my cousin Suzanne Laberge Great find for lunch, "Delicatessen" on Prince and Lafayette. Then I saw her "hotel", which basically looked (and sounded, according to Suzanne) like a flophouse. In fact it pretty much IS a flophouse! The rooms were the size of a spacious bathroom with latticed ceilings which made for a lot of unwanted verbal intimacy with fellow guests. Finally found Yonah Schimmel on Houston and 2nd Ave. http://www.knishery.com/main.htm, the best and, probably oldest, Knish place in the city. Hadn't been there in years. What a treat!

 

What a great vacation!

Got back last week from a terrific vacation in the Seattle area. We spent a few days in Seattle, which is a nice city, very laid back, though that belies the fact that you can't walk a block without running into a Starbucks or some other coffee place. Very caffeinated. We then went to a spa at Snowqualmie, which was nice, though we've been to better. The highligts of the trips came later. We visited Orcas Island, part of the San Juan Islands off of Seattle. It was amazing. We stayed at Turtleback Farm Inn, near Eastsound. It was set overlooking acres of land which was home to a small herd of sheep, one of whom was very friendly, particularly if you had food!

The view from our room at Turtleback Farm Inn

 

Feeding "Chompers"!

We took hikes, walked around town, went to a Farmer's market, ate great food, and I even jumped off a bridge into a lake. Fun! (You'll have to take my word for it, Linda thought I was crazy and didn't take a picture.)

  Click below to read about Mount Rainier National Park!

Rosie's first birthday party!

Rosie just had her first birthday last week. She's a wonderful, happy and healthy Portuguese Water Dog and loves retrieving, playing with her big sister, Beauty, and vocalizing. Having 2 dogs is great.

ROSIE

 

BEAUTY

 

It's a Dog's Life....

Speaking of dogs, I read an interesting book, "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle". It was an Oprah book, so predictably a little sappy, but it was impossible to put down, and there were some really great sections on dogs, fictional though they might have been. Then of course, there's Philip Roth's book,"The Humbling", yet another treatise on sex and death with which he's been obsessed in his last several books, as opposed to some of his earlier books where he was only obsessed by the former. Another good read, "What The Dog Saw", by Malcom Gladwell. Probably my favorite of all three.

I've got a bone to pick with you....

Our new puppy, Rosie, and dog, Beauty, spar over a chew stick.

Portuguese Water Dog Puppy Tug of War!

Yes, we have the now famous breed in our home, a 9-week old puppy, Rosie. Our "house" dog, a Boxer-Great Dane(?) mix has been extremely tolerant, and in fact enjoys exasperating her younger sibling.

Dog Days

It's a miserable, cold, rainy day here in New Jersey. And my back hurts. Dogs must have Buddha in them, because they always seem to demonstrate the path to enlightenment, or at least being comfortable in the moment. They're also good at finding food.

When Communism meets Capitalism

The East German Ampelmännchen, or "little traffic light man"

Ampelmännchen and more conventional form

There has been almost a comic controversy going on between two businessmen, one from East Germany and one from West Germany about the use of the Ampelmännchen, or "little traffic light man" (Ampelmannchen), an iconic symbol, orginating in the East. So what used to be idealogical differences transformed itself into patent litigation about who has the commercial rights to the symbol. It's no small matter, as related memorabilia sales generated almost $3 million in annual revenue as of 2005. I couldn't find any udates on sales figures or the status of the litigation. Actually, the use of the Ampelmännchen represents the cultural and political divide that obviously still exists between the two, now united, Germany's. Whereas the West used a skinnier, more traditional version traffic symbol, or the typical red light/green light, East Germany utilized the more prosaic one. There was actually quite an uproar upon reunification when the West Germans wanted to impose their version. A committee was formed, protesting the decision and now you see traffic lights with either the West German version, the East German version, or both. Those wacky Germans!

A brief encounter!

Going on the assumption (maybe wrong?) that people never tire of pictures of dogs, here are a few that I thought were pretty good. Beauty with "accessories", and Casey, just being cute.

The talking Chimp Video

Watch the video

The "talking" chimp from Sharper Image. My older brother collects these strange things which are a treat for the kids. I'm not sure what my 62 year-old brother gets out of it, but each to his own!