Hiking Advice?

Sarah and I are talking about leaving Asher with her parents over the July 4 four-day weekend, and going hiking somewhere. Can anyone recommend a stretch of the Appalachian Trail? More importantly, would anyone like to hazard a guess as to how many miles we should be able to hike in a day with fully-loaded packs? I think ten would be a safe bet, but I really have no idea.

Yeah!

I am not kidding.

Reach for those stonewashed jeans and black t-shirts, because the Lep is back with the best record they've done since 1987's Hysteria.

Yeah! is a collection of classic rawk covers, Def Leppard's homage to the bands that made them pick up guitars in the first place. You really have to set aside all music pretentions to enjoy this one, but it's worth the sacrifice.

The album kicks off with twenty seconds of guitars - layers and layers and layers of guitars. And a fist-pumping "Yeah!" scream backed by a ton of reverb. And then there's the hand-clap percussion...

They cover tunes by T-Rex, Badfinger, Thin Lizzy, and the Faces.

They cover that CHEESY song "Rock On" from that '80s movie with the Coreys, Dream a Little Dream.

On a semi-related note, I saw Def Leppard when they landed in Springfield the summer after 8th grade. 1987. The Hysteria tour. A bunch of us guys went with some young ladies from the local Catholic junior high. That's right, nasty parochial school girls. One of 'em sat on my shoulders for "Pour Some Sugar on Me" and threw her bra on the stage. Yep, that was Springfield Illinois in the 80s.

Usually, I walk in the door from work with a hearty "Hello!" Asher comes running up to me with a huge grin, arms stretched wide in the universal symbol for "Pick me up!"

Last night, everything was proceeding as usual - the hello, the grin, the outstretched arms... but then he ran right past me to the guitar, started strumming it and looking at me expectantly.

Should I be happy about this?

Best Out-Of-Office Message I've Seen In A While:

(From a friend who is a Kelloggs account manager at an ad agency)

If you need immediate assistance with Pop-Tarts please contact [name removed to protect the innocent] at ext. 5892. I'll return your message as soon as I get back.

Thanks,
Bob

During a break in the rain yesterday, Asher and I went out to stomp in puddles. He noticed me trying to take a picture, and tore off down the block.

I'm halfway into the first of my five Fridays With Asher. He's got another dose of Coxsackie, which means no hanging out in public. And it's supposed to rain all day, which means no aimless walks.

Not exactly what I had in mind when I jumped at the chance to spend Fridays with the kid, but hey, I'll take it.

He's napping now, and I just checked work email. Someone wants me to fly to Florida for a meeting. Someone else wants me to fly to Texas. My two favorite states. Gee.

Best. Image. Ever

Very Quick Record Review

The Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldiers: Features Jack White, Brendan Benson and others. Best supergroup release since the days of Golden Smog, though doesn't hold a candle to Tweedy/Louris and company.

I love airports with free wireless.

Yes, Grand Rapids may not have much going for it as a city, but good old Gerald R. Ford Airport sports a nifty business center, complete with a solid wireless connection. And I've got just enough time to check email, check the news, and check in with y'all.

With any luck, I'll be done with my meeting at 5pm, back to the airport at 6pm, and on the flight home by 7. All in a day's... something.

Guys - All partisan politicking aside, this is pretty damn terrifying:

ABC News reported today that the Bush Administration is using the NSA wiretaps to track phone conversations that members of the press are having. The goal is to uncover and squash anonymous sources that exposed things like the secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe, the memos okaying torture, and the wiretaps themselves.

Not that I need to draw a picture, but this is pretty much the definition of a totalitarian response to freedom of the press. It's also a move that - if allowed to stand - will pretty much guarantee that our government really can do whatever they want without any checks or balances.

My parents are in town for the weekend, and they watched Asher yesterday while I went to orientation for the Master's program at NYU. What a waste of five hours!

Half of it was spent emphasizing that graduate level work required the ability to synthesize information - not just spit back out what you've read. A good forty minutes was wiled away on the positively irrelevant topic of industry internship opportunities for those not planning to pursue a career in academia. My only related thought there was, “I wonder if I could get one of these guys to intern with me next fall? They get course credit. I get (presumably) intelligent, free labor.”

I did go out to lunch with six of the other incoming Master’s students, which was fun. One guy was older than me – a former investment banker who was on graduate degree number three and in search of career number two – because he could. The rest were either fresh from undergrad or only a few years out in the world. All seemed whip smart – which was encouraging.

On the agenda for today: Give back the ball that I took from Alyssa because I thought Alyssa accidentally took from us when her baby Gideon was playing with it one day at the playground but it turns out it’s not Asher’s so I in effect stole a toy from her baby. (Sometimes a run-on sentence is a beautiful thing) Go to Oliver’s second birthday party. Head into Manhattan to see Lea, Mike and the kids who are in town to visit Lea’s grandmother. Drop Asher off at Sarah’s parents. Return to Manhattan for Micah’s 30th birthday party. Oh, and deal with co-op finances. Did I mention that I’m now treasurer of this place?

Dammit!
Radiohead still is not available on Rhapsody. I really want to listen to OK Computer right now, but forgot my iPod at home.

Does anyone remember MP3.com's BeamIt service from March, 2000? Once you owned the physical CD you could listen to the music online, anywhere, anytime. Now that's a product for ya.

This just in: I may be taking a day trip to Grand Rapids next week.

Seems like it'd be better than last week's Seattle day trip, but it's not. The layover in Detroit is gonna suck up a ton of time, and I'm going to have to phone into to a couple of important NYC meetings from my cell phone in the client's lobby.

Raise your hand if you want to chuck it all start a cafe with me.

Peripatetic In Park Slope

In 7th grade, my social life revolved around the mall.

For hours on weekends, we would wander, occasionally stopping into one of the two record stores, the pizza place, or a joke shop/soft porn store called Spencer's that had boob-shaped soap and edible underwear. But the stores weren't the real destination, of course; it was the mall itself - a weigh station for junior high school socialites - that kept us coming back. Show up with one friend, and be guaranteed to run into others from your direct peer group, more casual acquaintances, and crushes.

Some twenty years later, I've drifted back into this mall mentality. Since Sarah and I no longer have a proactive social life, we rely on the serendipity of Park Slope for our social interactions. And we're in luck, since no other neighborhood has such a high concentration of parks, playgrounds, roomy cafes, and socially-inclined thirtysomethings with dogs or small children who keep them close to home, but drive them outdoors at the first glimpse of sunshine.

This past Saturday, Sarah, Asher and I hit Cousin John's Bakery around 9am in what's fast becoming a weekend ritual. The sun was just coming over the buildings, and we sat on their outdoor benches, munching on muffins. Sure enough, the second couple-with-child showed up after five minutes, and all three of us made new friends.

After an hour of hanging out at the bakery, we continued up the block a bit, and ran into Fred who was watering his flowers while his 13-year-old dog Nomi dozed on the sidewalk. Fred is a reporter for New York City's NPR affiliate WNYC where Sarah got her start in media producing shows for Leonart Lopate. Fred was more than happy to be distracted from gardening duties. Asher was delighted to see Nomi, and we all decided to head to Prospect Park where we sat under a tree and talked. Asher chased other kids' balls and Nomi chased squirrels. Everyone was happy.

That afternoon, I wanted to go for a run, so we headed back up to the Park where Sarah ran into her sister Debbie and a friend. They chatted while I started my truncated version of the 3.5 mile loop. After about half a mile, I caught up with Mike and Alyssa - a couple of Upper West Side transplants with a one-year-old named Gideon. Mike and Alyssa originally entered our social sphere through Sarah's group of friends, and now live a few blocks away from us. We stuck together for about a mile, gossiping about mutual friends, jobs, and whatnot.

Sarah was waiting for me at the main Park entrance when I finished my run. Asher was devouring a banana, and we lingered for a bit while I cooled down. Seconds before we were going to head back home, Penelope and Theo showed up with their girl Beatrix, and the six of us decided to go to the playground. We've known Penelope and Theo since the kids were born - she's part of Sarah's moms group. They live about a ten minute walk from us, and run their own industrial design business.

And then we all went to Spencer's to oogle the edible underwear until the clerk kicked us out of the 18+ section.

This one goes out to all of you who have experience with those fabulous counting books that toddlers love so much

In the past few hours, I have talked to one member of the press, dealt with two Operations mishaps, attended a three-hour client meeting, negotiated four contracts, helped colleagues on five presentations, and had the same discussion six times about a custom research project (people don't talk to each other).

And now I feel like ripping someone's head off. Maybe mine.

Should I stick with my cable modem, or should I switch to DSL?

- The cable modem goes through weeks at a time where it's out, leaving me with zero internet access. That happens about once every six months, usually at a critical time where I end up frantically running around the neighborhood trying to borrow a wireless signal at 11:30pm.

- The cable modem is $15 more expensive.

- The cable modem signal also provides limited cable tv, at no additional charge. I get all the networks, plus TBS, C-SPAN and Cinemax.

- Word has it that DSL service is just as intermittent.

It Says Here

I'm listening to Brewing Up With Billy Bragg, watching my colleagues trickle into work, and gulping down my second cup of coffee. Yep, I'm back on the caffeine.

My first choice this morning was the new Neil Young protest record, but it seemed kinda stupid after three songs, so I cut over to the real thing. It's been a while, Billy. Sorry that you're relevant again.

I flew Song Airlines out to Seattle yesterday, and caught some of the Fox News coverage of the immigrant protests on my little in-seat television. Choice banners across the bottom of the screen included, "Day Without Immigrants - Economic Terrorism?" and "Immigrants Choose Communist Holiday (May Day) To Make Their Stand."

Communists and Terrorists. And Bears Oh My!

On a semi-related note, I just watched an abbreviated version of Colbert's White House Press Dinner speech. All I can say is WOW! You can be assured that whomever booked him for that gig had no idea. Things like that happen once in a lifetime.

The Seattle trip was in a word, weird. I was given the impression by my sales guy that we were going to talk to a prospective client who was far enough along that they were just deciding which level of subscription to take. Turns out that wasn't the case, and I ended up having to make what amounted to a raw sales pitch to a good friend of mine on the other side of the table. To date, I'd avoided discussing business with this friend because, well, I hate doing that with friends. And to make an already ugly situation worse, it sounds like I'll have to engage another good friend at that company if I want this thing to move forward.

It's times like these that I wish I could go back to writing full-time, or disappear into academia.

I'm off to Seattle for a day trip - back on the red-eye tomorrow morning. See you all then.