very simple

About a gazillion years ago, I went with some girlfriends to Vegas. Since none of us actually gamble (other than about $20 in slot machines), we took a day and drove out to visit the Hoover Dam. I worked with electric utility companies, and one of my friends was an architect, so we had an incredibly nerdy time, and made sure to take the hard hat tour, which allowed us to actually go inside the dam and see its inner workings. For obvious reasons, post-9/11, this tour is no longer available. I also seem to be missing any actual photos from the trip, largely due to the fact that I was using my first, incredibly crappy digital camera, and I don’t think those pictures ever made it onto any sort of computer, but I did bring back one souvenir, which I’ve managed to hold onto all of this time. Periodically I wonder what the heck I’m actually going to do with a hard hat, but for now, it’s something to take a picture of.

The Lost City of Z by David Grann

a great tale of man’s unending need to keep looking for things, from Colonel Fawcett’s need to find Z, to everyone else’s need to find Fawcett once he disappears.

Fawcett was one of the greatest explorers of his age, charting vast swathes of the Amazon, an area so inhospitable to outsiders that few survived the experience. Fawcett became convinced that there had been some great society, which he dubbed “Z”, and which others have at times referred to as El Dorado, and set out on a final adventure to find it. He was never seen again. 80 years later, the author (with the help of modern technology, as well as the devastation brought to the rainforest by logging and the like) tries to find out what happened to Fawcett. He doesn’t find Fawcett, but what he does find is even more astounding.

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My brother, who just finish his Masters Degree in education, is leaving the country (again) to travel to Africa and Nepal for a year. In between climbing lots of rocks, he’s planning on visiting a variety of educational institutions during his trip in order to…well, I’ll just let him explain it himself.

I can’t believe he’s leaving again. It seems like he just got back from the Peace Corps yesterday.

(and yes, he is totally one of those do-gooder-type people who wants to make the world a better place while the rest of us obsess over the real estate market).

Last weekend I went up to the Berkshires for our Passover Seder, which we rescheduled for everyone’s convenience to Sunday night (Passover started at sundown on Monday). On Saturday, we didn’t do too much, but we did go for a walk around the neighborhood. And then I watched our dog, Oliver, spend hours attempting to fit a basketball into his mouth. You’d think after 11 years he’d have figured out that it’s just not going to work, but he keeps trying.

Oh, and apparently everyone in my family really likes orange. Not pictured is myself, wearing orange-framed sunglasses. At least we’re ready for hunting season.

another oddity bought at the tate modern back in 2001

I’ve run out of random things on my desk, so I’ve moved on to my overwhelming collection of refrigerator magnets.  This one was picked up during one of my many work-related trips to London – after a week and a half of all-nighters, we finished our deal, got about 12 hours of sleep, and then had almost an entire day to waste in London before our late-in-the-day flight back to NY.  We hit all of the big spots – we actually ended up watching a huge procession at Buckingham Palace in honor of a state visit by the Chinese government, but no one had a camera.  So I bought this magnet at Harrod’s to commemorate the trip.

shot this out the plane window on the way home from houston.

Caryn, one of my best friends from high school, married Simon on Saturday.

The Hartford airport has one of the simplest good ideas I’ve seen in some time for an airport.

For 365 group theme day “current”.  These are just the chargers and wires that I need for the cornucopia of electronic devices that I can’t seem to travel without.  assembled while packing for this weekend’s ridiculous 5 day trip that will encompass both western Massachusetts for thanksgiving and Houston, Texas for a wedding.

And to think, thanks to the iphone, this is relatively tame compared to what it used to look like when I had a separate cellphone, ipod and work blackberry.