Petra

When Matt sat down to plan our trip to Israel, he created a very reasonable itinerary that would have minimized time out of work and maximized time with the pre-planned tours to the Dead Sea and Jerusalem. When he unveiled these plans, rather than gushing with thanks for all his tireless work (which, in hindsight is what I probably should have done), the first thing I said was, "Any chance we can go to Petra? I'd really like to see Petra."

Petra is in Jordan. Jordan is a Muslim country. Many Muslim countries will refuse to allow you entrance simply if you have an Israeli stamp in your passport. I had just really complicated things.

But, being the incredibly patient and loving man that he is, Matt made it happen (with the help of his friend Gilon, who lives in Israel)

The crusade begins

Having encountered the hordes of Russian tourists destined for Petra the previous day, we were eager to get an early start and try to beat the crowds. Even I was more than happy for a 7:00am start to the day if it meant we were well into site-seeing by the time the tour buses rolled up.

Now why was I so eager to see Petra? The answer is simple - Indiana Jones and the last Crusade. Petra is, in the film, the final resting place of the Holy Grail. I remember seeing the movie for the first time and the scene where Indy, Brody, Indy's dad, and Sallah first see the building where the Grail is kept. It seemed simply unreal, like something that could only exist on a movie set. When I found out that it was a real place, I promised myself I would one day see it.

So off we went to Petra. Even though the only entrance to the city (or at least the main entrance) is through a siq, there is a very long and relatively open trail to the siq (about 0.5km). Early in the morning it was a pleasant stroll but the magic really began when we came to the entrance of the siq. Like Wadi Rum, the rocks were captivating. The siq was actually created by a natural split in the sandstone and their colors and shapes are amazing. Petra is known as a rose-colored city for the color the buildings take on in the color of the setting sun, but in broad daylight they have stripes and swirls of red, yellow, and blue. As if the colors and shapes of the rock weren't enough, the Nabateans (who created Petra between 1550-1292BC) dug troughs into the rock and the laid down ceramic pipe to carry water from the natural lake in the plains into the city.

Our Destination Reached

After another 0.5km of walking through the siq, we finally caught our first glance of the Treasury or, as I refer to it, Where the Holy Grail Was. It was even more awesome and awe-inspiring in person than it is in the movie. I will simply have to let the photos speak for themselves: http://gallery.me.com/matthewjarman#100044

And now for extra credit

Our Israeli guide is quite the enthusiastic hiker and everyone in our group was in fairly good shape, so, when after walking halfway through the city (which is much MUCH bigger than I expected with so many different types and styles of buildings), he asked if we want to hike the 800 stairs up to the High Altar where sacrifices occurred, everyone was quite eager. Now, I love a good climb as much as the next person and I've never been one to turn down a climb (see: Machu Picchu and climbing to the highest point in basically any city I visits) BUT I am a slow climber in the best of situations and I haven't seen the inside of a gym since August 20.

But up I went.

I have to admit, the climb was not horrible (though I'm pretty sure I slowed everyone done to about half their preferred pace) and the views from the High Altar were well worth the effort.

As a special treat, at the top of the mountain, Amit performed "The Ancient Israeli Coffee Ceremony" which basically involves making coffee with a butane stove. I am not really a coffee drinker, in fact I had my first cup of coffee ever the night before we left for Israel because at 10 pm I still hadn't started packing and was dead tired, so Matt made me a cappuccino (which was quite good). But back to the mountain. The coffee was served in a super small cup which made me a bit nervous that it would be too strong, but it was actually incredibly good and flavorful and created an amazing memory.

My make-up is a security threat

We continued our hike down the mountain, back through Petra, up the now insufferable hot path through the plains, and to the hotel to meet up with our bus and Jordanian guide (he abandoned us in Petra because he was unhappy that our Israeli guide was speaking to us. Wish I could just stop working and still get paid whenever I get a little annoyed...). We had lunch at yet another buffet (Every. Single. Restaurant we ate at in Eilat and Jordan was a buffet. With no labels on the food. It is very disorienting to think you're biting into curry chicken only to find out it's fish). and then drive back to the border.

We walked through no man's land (again) and were extremely happy to be back on Israeli soil until the border guards decided to train the newbie on my luggage. They emptied my backpack. Opened every container. Emptied every container. Filled 4 baskets with the contents of my backpack/containers and sent them all through the x-ray. Then they rearranged the baskets and sent everything through again. Then again. All the while stopping as each basked went through x-ray to point at something, ask the newbie what she saw, why it was different, etc. And, of course, they're doing this all in Hebrew. Finally, Gilon (who could understand them and was giving us the play-by-play) said enough was enough and they gave me back my stuff. But not my passport. Seems we had to play 20 questions again just to get my passport back. I think I was the victim of profiling - specifically "harmless American woman" profiling.

We also got some extra questions at airport security because we're married but don't have the same last name. I decided to spare everyone the lecture on women's lib and the power of naming in literature/history/religion and just let Matt do the talking. Seemed smarter that way.

And, being the patient, loving and smart man he is, he did a fine job of answering their question. Just like he did a fine job of making my dream of going to Petra come true.

Border crossings, Mars, and choosing wisely

It's a long trip from Boston to Tel Aviv and, intrepid travelers that we are, we refused to stop there. Only a few hours after landing in Ben Gurion airport, we hopped on an Israir flight (Israel's #2 airline. For those keeping score at home, there are only 2 state owned airlines in Israel, but let's not focus on that) to Eilat in the southern trip of Israel.

Eilat is one of only three border crossings between Israel and Jordan and is the crossing closest to Petra, our ultimate destination. But first, we needed to get into Jordan and visit Wadi Rum.

The Border Crossing

Israel and Jordan have been at peace since 1994, but I think there's some healthy skepticism about its staying power. One of the fun outcomes of this relative peace is that you get to do a border crossing that looks a lot like a scene from Exodus.

Matt's friend Gilon was kind enough to organize a tour of Jordan for us, two of his friends (Maya and Odelia), and Joe (one of Matt's coworkers). So the six of us met at the Israeli border, found our Israeli guide, Amit, paid our exit fees, got our passports stamped and got in line with several hundred Russian tourists.

After handing our exit ticket to the Israeli guard and walking around the metal detector, we began the 1km walk through no man's land. Seriously, to our backs (Israel) was a very tall chain link fence, with barbed wire at the top, security cameras, and abandoned guard towers. Ahead of us (Jordan) was pretty much the same thing, except the guards were on foot instead of towers. And in between, nothing. Just dirt. And several hundred Russians, 3 Israelis with backpacks, and 3 Americans with rollerboards. Did I mention there are people with guns ahead of and behind us and they don't really like or trust each other?

Wadi Rum and the Arabian equivalent of "George Washington slept here"

Safely on the other side of the crossing and inside Jordan, we met up with our Jordanian guide, Hassan, (we were required by law to have a Jordanian guide) and hopped into our bus for the two hour drive to Wadi Rum.

Wadi is the Arabic word for valley or dried riverbed and Wadi Rum is the largest wadi in Jordan. If you've ever seen the movies Lawrence of Arabia or Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen then you've seen Wadi Rum. It basically looks like Mars - fine red sand everywhere, mountains carved and smoothed by the wind, and sand dunes several stories tall. And I cannot stress enough how fine the red sand is - I emptied by shoes 5 times during our 2 hour tour, then again, an hour later at lunch, then several hours later when we got to the hotel, then put them in my suitcase where they deposited yet more sand, then washed my socks (by hand in the hotel sink) 5 times, and still, when we got home and I put everything in the washing machine and STILL found sand in the drier!

Up until the mid 80s, Wadi Rum was known mainly to the Bedouins who lived there and film crews. But, after being featured in a popular guidebook for trekkers, Wadi Rum has become one of Jordan's biggest tour attractions and the Bedouins have gone from farming and ranching to running "Jeep," hiking, and camping excursions for tourists.

The landscape is unlike anything we'd ever seen - the colors of the rocks were so vibrant, the shapes absolutely otherwordly, and and the sand so red and fine (perhaps I mentioned the fine sand already?). So brace yourselves for lots and lots of photos of rocks, boulders, mountains, and dunes.

As if being the closest thing to Mars that you can find on Earth wasn't enough, the Jordanian government/Bedouin residents, decided to capitalize on the fact that T.E. Lawrence may have spent time here and that Lawrence of Arabia was filmed here by naming every possible thing "Lawrence's _______." We saw Lawrence's Spring, Lawrence's Tree, Lawrence's 7 Pillars, Lawrence's Fine Red Sand (ok, I made that up, but I have mentioned how damn fine the sand is?

Choosing wisely and not inhaling

After Wadi Rum, we had a very yummy lunch at a Bedouin "camp" (more like a resort) then drove to the town just outside Petra. We settled into our 3-star hotel and emptied our shoes of the fine red sand. Soon it was dinner then time to go to the cave in the back of the dining room (not kidding. Really was a cave. Really was in the back of the dining room) to hear from Amit about the history of Petra. We were all pretty wiped at this point so to stop us from nodding off, Amit and Gilon ordered up a hookah for us. For those who have not had the pleasure, a hookah looks like the thing the Caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland smokes, that uses water to filter flavored tobacco. Unlike cigarettes, you are absolutely not supposed to inhale the smoke, just find creative ways to puff it out of your nose and mouth. After a not insignificant amount of peer pressure, Matt finally gave in and tried the apple flavored hookah. Twice. He did not inhale.

Now, very very tired, we retired to the room an our now working shower. Fresh and clean and (we thought) free of fine red sand, we snuggled into bed and flipped on the TV. And lo, what should be on the only English speaking channel? Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

It was a sign from the universe. We had chose wisely. We were destined to go to Petra in the morning.

For all our Wadi Rum photos clock here: http://gallery.me.com/matthewjarman#100019

Finally, a bit of excitement

Sorry I've been so very delinquent about updating the ol' blog. To be perfectly honest, life isn't too terribly exciting (mostly just work and home) and I figured that if I find my own life boring, there is a very good chance that other people will find it even more boring than I do. Of course, there have been some moments of excitement - Thanksgiving in Ann Arbor with Diana, Adam, and my Dad, Christmas in Vermont with Matt's family and then in Mentor with my Dad - but I guess I've just been too lazy to write about it.

But last week, something exciting finally happened - Matt and I went to Israel (and Jordan)!

Matt's good friend Yael, who he met and Sloan and who was instrumental in bringing him into American Well where he now works, was getting married and invited us to her wedding in Tel Aviv. We've always wanted to go to Israel but, given the "situation" there, it was always hard to justify the trip. However, there is no excuse better than a friend's wedding to travel, so we started planning a whirlwind vacation to the Holy Land.

It was a jam-packed week:

Sunday (March 21) - landed in Tel Aviv and then flew to Eilat in southern Israel

Monday - crossed the border into Jordan and visited Wadi Rum

Tuesday - Petra (best known as where Indiana Jones found the Holy Grail)

Wednesday - back in Israel, to Masada and the Dead Sea

Thursday - Jerusalem

Friday - Yael and Ophir's wedding

Saturday - Tel Aviv and fly back home

As you might imagine, there are thousands of photos and even more stories, so we're going to ease you into everything. Each day I'll post one day's worth of events and a link to our online album. As with the Copenhagen blog, there will be obligatory history lessons and little stories. But, given the locations, there will also be the occasional reflection on religion or politics. We'll try to keep it neutral (Matt and I are a bipartisan marriage after all - kinda like Mary Matlin and James Carville, but Matt's better looking and I'd like to think I have a better hair style), but apologies in advance if you get offended.

Stay tuned - Day 1, "Wadi Rum," will get posted later today...

We're Centerfolds!

Towards the end of the tasting for our reception (way back in May), Matt jokingly asked our amazing wedding planner, Linnea, if she could get our wedding into one of the fancy glossy wedding magazines we'd been reading.

And she did!

We just received today the 2010 issue of Southern New England weddings where we are one of the featured couples. I think it's pretty funny that we're actually in a magazine - just one more wonderful memory to add to the thousands from that day

Unacceptable: Boston weather in the last 72 hours

The concept of "seasons" was nice. It was a great way to organize activities and wardrobes and just generally feel like we're in control of things. But the time has come to admit we're not in control of nature and just chuck this whole idea of seasons.

Why?

See 72 hours of weather in Boston:

Thursday, DECEMBER 3 - 68 degrees and SUN (in Boston! In December!!!)

Friday, December 4 - 54 degrees (closer but stilly absurdly warm)

Saturday, December 5 - 29 degrees and SNOW

Three seasons in three days. Not acceptable.

(but I did enjoy the heat wave, just cruel that it's now freakin' cold!)

Venezia

It's been a bit rainy here in Boston which reminded me that I had yet to share photos from another water-logged spot from our honeymoon - Venice. Venice is always truly unique, but there was just something quite magical about it this time...

Cinque Terra

It's been 6 weeks since we visited Cinque Terra on our honeymoon. Even though it's taken forever for us to upload the photos, I'm sure it would have taken us even longer to actually hike the 5 towns (thank goodness for trains, even ones that have no discernible schedule)

Now on Blogcritics!

I'm taking another writing class at Cambridge Center for Adult Education (CCAE) and learned about a site called Blogcritics. Here's the scoop:

More than 100,000 daily visitors rely upon Blogcritics.org — the famously
"sinister cabal" of more than 2,500 writers — for the latest news, opinions, and
reviews on music, books, film, TV, popular culture, technology, and politics.
Blogcritics.org is an online magazine, filtered microcosm of the blogosphere,
and a full service news and reviews source, covering all aspects of contemporary
culture and society.

Every week, more than 250 new articles add to an
archive of over 70,000 pieces dating back to 2002. Published articles on
Blogcritics.org begin the conversation, after which commenters chime in to
create an ongoing dialogue. Overall comments to Blogcritics.org total more than
600,000.

Blogcritics.org is a new kind of online magazine, an interactive
community in which writers and readers from around the globe talk about stories,
issues, and products. If it's happening in the world – from global political
issues to obscure rock bands, from the latest best selling novel to the TV shows
that aired last night – Blogcritics.org has it covered.

I submitted a couple of writing samples, was "accepted" to be one of their writers and my first essay was just published - The Indians, the Browns, and Me - an essay about the lessons you learn as a Cleveland sports fan (you should also be able to find the article just by going to the Blogcritics front page and scrolling down to the Sports section).

Hope you enjoy the essay (would love to hear your thoughts, either on this blog or as a comment on Blogcritics) and keep checking back for more!

Wine, Naked Men, and Unbridled Power and Ambition

AKA - Brunello wine, Michaelangelo's David, and the Medici family

Gotta love Florence and Tuscany.

We did

And here's the photos to prove it

More news from Rome

To tide you over until I'm able to get the photos from Florence posted (soon, I promise), here's a story about how hard it is to truly get away from work, even if only in my own mind

Rome - The Eternal City

We're finally getting around to uploading, organizing, and captioning photos from the Italian leg of our honeymoon.





Here's the link to our photos of Rome. We hit the high points - The Vatican, Palatine Hill, Roman Forum, Coliseum, Spanish Steps, and the Trevi Fountain. Not bad for essentially 2 days.


In addition to the fun of watching Matt experience all these sites for the first time, I thoroughly enjoyed the moment in St Peter's when, 30 minutes into our 40 minute Rick Steves podcast, Matt quietly came up to me and asked if I was listening to the podcast for St. Mark's.


"Umm no, we're in St. Peter's in Rome. St. Mark's is in Venice. Like the title of the podcast says. So I'm listening to St Peter's"


"Oh, that would explain why I'm having difficulty"


He was really jetlagged

Quick update

We're wrapping up in Florence (spent today in the Tuscan countryside tasting some fantastic Brunello wines) and heading to Cinque Terra tomorrow.

The internet connection at the hotel is crazy slow (yes, we're taking lots of photos but not nearly enough to warrant 7 hours of upload time). Blogger's "Post via e-mail" function let us down so we're going to give SMS and MMS updates a try. This feels dangerously close to Twittering but I'm going to try to ignore that and focus on the band-aid solution it offers for the next week.

"I don't think 'casual' means what we think it means"

(Since we now have to pay for Internet access posts will be slightly less frequent, there will be no photos, and filled with a lot more typos since I am relying on Matt's iPhone)

When Di moved to Seattle, she lamented that her "Boston casual" was apparently "West Coast formal." Knowing that East Coasters tend to erron the formal side, Matt and I were reasonably confident that ourcasual attire would meet the "casual" requirement for our hotel'srooftop restaurant with the panoramic Views of Rome.

We were wrong

we walked in - the waiters were in coats and tails, all the malecustomers were in dark suits, and the women were in cocktail dressesand fab jewelry. In contrast, Matt was in jeans and a dress shirt andI was wearing a t-shirt capris and flip flops. Nothing but class.

Only one thing to do in a situation like that: own it.

The meal was amazing and I was able to survive with only a minor complex.
More from our next city - Florence - soon (I hope)!

Do they make Bull Bars for the VW Eos?

Matt and I concluded Phase 1 of our two-phased honeymoon this afternoon when we departed Bermuda and, after a surprisingly uneventful flight, arrived back home in Boston.

Although we had many non-fun chores ahead of us (unpacking, laundry, errands, re-packing), we were happy to be home, if only for a few hours. That happiness quickly faded once we realized what we had come home to - college move-in time

There are many many colleges in Boston and they're all on the same calendar (not literally, but it sure feels that way). This means that there are two truly horrible times of year for Boston/Cambridge residents. Graduation is one - when new graduates drink away the rest of their loans and stumble about our streets while their parents try to pack 4 years of college stuff into whatever rental vehicle they could get their hands on.

But far, far worse than graduation is move-in week(s). This is because (1) tens of thousands of people who have never driven are now driving in Boston, (2) tens of thousands of people who have never walked in Boston, let alone tried to cross a street in Boston, are now walking around and crossing streets, (3) every store that sells anything resembling necessities - grocery stores, office supply stores, Target - look like they have been ransacked by the barbarian hordes.

It is a truly truly horrible time. So while running around and navigating around the new residents of the Commonwealth, I remembered something I learned about last summer when working on my Trucks project. We spoke to a fair number of ranchers and farmers and several mentioned "bull bars." For the city-folk reading this, think of the half pyramid thing on the front of train engines and the imagine something like that (except more rectangular than pyramid shaped) attached the front of a truck and used to move stubborn bulls (or cows) out of the way without damaging the truck.

I wonder if they make something like that for people because, seriously, the new pedestrian/drivers are no smarter than the average head of cattle. I don't want to hurt them, just nudge them out of the way.

It's a good thing we leave for Italy in 12 hours. We're taking a taxi to the airport.

"Perhaps it's a good thing we bought the supplemental insurance"

Sorry kids, no photos from Friday. That's because our activity for the day was not camera friendly - we rented a jet ski and went on a tour of the eastern part of the island.

Just a short trolley ride from the hotel is Jews Bay, which is notable only for its 4-star steakhouse and the jet ski company that runs tours for hotel guests. Since we made our reservations late (i.e. the morning of the tour), Matt and I had to share a jet ski. Since we've shared a snowmobile before (see trip to Ice Hotel), I was not terribly concerned about being a passenger despite Matt's tendency to be an aggressive driver.

We set out from Jews Bay, through Little Sound, under Somerset Bridge (the smallest drawbridge in the world, when it is fully up, the opening is only wide enough to allow the mast of a small sailboat to pass through), and into Ely's Harbor. The harbor is actually named for a small outcropping of rocks that has been worn away to look like elephants drinking from the harbor (it made me think of Big Bird in China or Japan, the one with the phoenix and the monkey). It's tradition that when fishermen set out from this harbor, they throw fish to the elephants for good luck. From there it was out into the open sea and, I'm not kidding, the Bermuda Triangle. We saw a shipwreck, stingray, red snappers, and a sucker shark (they usually attach to whales but sometimes get confused and attach themselves to jet skis and go on little rides). We did not see Amelia Earhart.

We were a bit early getting back to Jews Bay so our guide said we could spend 5 minutes doing doughnuts in the open waters. He was also surprised that Matt hadn't yet bounced me off the jet ski and suggested he try to accomplish that in the final few minutes. Obviously, this guide did not know me well. Matt did a few doughnuts which only succeeded in making me a bit nauseous. However, on the last doughnut, he forgot to accelerate properly and flipped the entire jet ski, thus launching both of us into the water. Our guide quickly came to our rescue, giving us his jet ski (which I pulled myself up onto, thank you Cory for all the ab and arm workouts) and jumping into the water to right ours.

As all this was going on, one of the other people on the tour floated by and asked what happened. "He tried to bounce me off so I just decided to take him and the ski down with me." The response - "I get it. Don't get mad. Get even."

Yep. Pretty much sums it up

(p.s. we did not actually need to use the supplemental insurance, but I will no longer question Matt when he suggests that we get it)

Relaxation and Romance

Hi Everyone! This is Matt, and this is my first contribution to ever-so-witty blog that Robyn has started for us. As Robyn mentioned, I am in fact writing this post during the Bucs game - but hey, it's only preseason :) ...

Yesterday, Robyn and I enjoyed one of the most relaxing and romantic days that either of us can remember.

The day started with a couple's spa treatment called "The Ritual for Two." This treatment involved taking an hour to give each other multiple skin treatments in a private room with a warm jacuzzi, sweet aromatics, and very relaxing music (with prior coaching from the experts on Fairmont Spa staff, of course). Following this hour, we were then treated to a simply wonderful whole-body massage - this was definitely the best whole-body massage that either of us can remember.

This was a great start for any day. In fact, this start was so good that it required us to nap almost immediately, and for many hours :)

Thankfully, we recovered from our napping in time to make our "Bermuda Moon Dance" dinner. What is a "Bermuda Moon Dance" dinner you ask? Simply put, it is a very romantic, delicious, fun, and memorable dinner experience that included a five course meal with great wine on the Fairmont hotel's private beach in a beautifully decorated cabana, with table-side food preparation and two butlers to cater to our every need. What really made the evening so special was having the beach to ourselves and being able to take our time talking, laughing, and doing whatever we wanted - this included a break between courses for us to walk the beach and even do a little dancing under the moon.

The picture at the top of this post was taken as we were walking to the cabana at the beginning of the evening. The picture below gives you an idea of what the cabana looked like.

Romantic and relaxing dinners don't get much better! This dinner was the perfect end to what was a truly memorable, fun, relaxing, and romantic day!!

"Holy crap! Is that Ben Stein?"

Post about Wed activities coming soon (I'm going to try to convince Matt to write it, despite the fact that the Bucs game is on) BUT just couldn't wait to write about today's exciting event



We met Ben Stein in the hot tub.



The Fairmont has a fantastic spa (best we've been to) and, if you get a spa treatment or pay a daily membership fee, you get all day access to the private indoor pool, terraces, and hot tubs. So, after our facials (which were awesome), Matt and I decided to spend the day in these exclusive digs.



After several hours of lounging outside, I wandered into the pool area where Matt was lounging. As we were chatting, I looked up and saw across the room someone who looked very much like Ben Stein. I apparently need to work on my "inside voice" because when I uttered the words in the title of the post, the man turned and looked at me.



To avoid further embarrassment, Matt assured me that it was not Ben Stein because the hair color was all wrong and suggested we go outside and sit in the hot tub.



After a few minutes in the hot tub, the man who looked like Ben Stein (probably because he IS Ben Stein) joined us. He gave us a bit of applause for getting married, congratulated Matt, wished me good luck, and gave us the following advice: "Walk around with one eye closed" (considering he's married the same woman twice, he may know what he's talking about. Matt just thinks he's a cynic). We also chatted a bit about politics (the passing of Sen Kennedy and plans to fill his seat) and the importance of getting a hot tub for our apartment in Cambridge. Also, in a rare display of self-control, I did not ask him to say, "Bueller. Bueller" Possibly because I wanted to avoid further embarrassment or because I thought I should mention something slightly more recent than a 23 year old movie quote.

It was only a few minutes, but it was the most super awesome non-romantic things that's happened. He's very nice (especially after my outburst) and sounds EXACTLY the same in person as he does on TV.

Hamilton, Bermuda

HELLO!

I know Matt and I are supposed to be spending quality time together (and we are), but we're uploading photos each night which means I simply can't resist posting a quick note to say hi and tell you what's going on.

Yesterday was a lost day (apparently, after 11 months of working and planning a wedding and trying to have a life, my body thinks that 5 seconds of down time = time to go into a 5 hour coma), but today we were wildly productive. And by "wildly productive" I mean getting out of bed at Noon and making it to Hamilton for a 4:00 reservation for High Tea.

We've uploaded photos to Kodak Gallery. I was able to caption the photos but not rearrange them into a somewhat logical order (which is driving me nuts). Anyways, hope you enjoy them and we'll continue to post to this album while in Bermuda

Love you all!

Robyn and Matt

Cheating

Although I've been terribly remiss about updating this blog, I have found the time to post to my company's blog (which is a bit like cheating on this blog, but we have an understanding)

So, in lieu of an actual posting here, you can read my lasting posting there about our new Kindle. Yes, a blog post linking to another blog post is cheating, but I'm just a wee bit busy...

Follow-up to office excitement

The Craigslist posting that caused all that excitement happened in the morning. Then around 10:30 we decided to order Thai food for the office for lunch. The excitement of Thai food was enough to permanently distract us from the Craigslist excitement of the morning. As a result, I have no update (but I don't think anything happened)

This is probably a sad commentary on our sad and simple lives but, whatever, I'm just going with it