From This Side of the Reflecting Pond

Reflections

2011-07-21T11:15:00.001-04:00

42 years ago, I watched the first moon landing. Today, I am sitting in my chair, in my garden, using my cell phone to write this message, so my friends and adult sons can read this. Science is a wonderful thing.

Teenage mutant ninja Coneflowers

2011-07-18T12:43:00.001-04:00

One of my coneflower plants has several mutated flower buds on it. I didn't think anything would come of them but it looks like it's gonna give blooming a shot.

Tour of my garden

2011-07-14T11:34:00.001-04:00

here is a tour of my garden.

Watch "Better video of my yard." on YouTube

Coneflowers

2011-07-09T11:48:00.001-04:00

More flowers from the garden. This time I used Photobucket's snapbucket app on my phone.

What?

2011-07-06T20:17:00.001-04:00

What is the deal with this cat? It's one of the neighborhood feral cats that often spends the hot part of the day in my garden. The past couple of days, it has been sitting on my porch staring at the door, or sitting nearby staring at me when I am outside.

Accidental decor

2011-07-06T15:56:00.001-04:00

I didn't plan this but I think Luna is the perfect finishing touch to this window scene.

Father's Day

2011-06-19T10:24:00.001-04:00

This is my family's first Father's Day without our Dad and we are missing him very much. Not a day goes by that we don't think about him and today, I wish I could have gotten the day off work so I could spend it with him in spirit. I'm thinking of you Dad.

On a lighter note, I'm remembering his last full sentence to me in the hospital just hours before he passed, he said: "aww f#ck this sh*t!"

If you are a parent and you smoke, please stop for your kids sake. Watching your father fight lung cancer is to difficult to imagine.

Flowers part 2

2011-06-18T22:21:00.001-04:00

Continuing the conversation.

Flowers

2011-06-18T10:50:00.001-04:00

I feel like having a different kind of conversation today. So I will say it with flowers. These are from my garden. As I was tending them yesterday, I was thinking about diversity. Flowers are proof that our creator loves diversity and we humans need to learn to honor and respect it. Not just in nature, but with eachother as well.

Well so much for that last post

2010-11-03T21:09:00.001-04:00

The last post on this site from me was a wish for all of us to have a happier year than last year. It hasn't been better at all. In fact, it has been far from it.

In January, my father was diagnosed with advanced small cell lung cancer. What followed were months of roller coaster rides of good news, bad news, sort of good news, hurry up and waits, hospital stays and finally surrender. My father lost the battle in the early morning of September 1st. Today, was the first day I could actually manage to go back to the cemetary. This week, for the first time, I actually managed to go one day with out crying. Damn it I miss him terribly. Some of you who follow me on facebook know all this because you have been paying attention and I wanted to say thank you for your love, support and prayers.

I am sure my twitter followers are convinced that I have abandoned them. I haven't really. I did miss you all while you were enjoying Podcamp Ohio and lots of other cool get togethers. It's just that to me, twitter isn't all that deeply personal. It's a wonderful way to connect with others but it isn't the place for me to talk about me watching my Dad die. During that whole time, I honestly didn't have the energy to go reaching out to others when what I really needed was for others to reach out to me and those of you who really cared, did. So thank you for that.

I'm not going to bother to promise to be more regular about blogging. I will only do what I can right now.

Happy New Year!

2009-12-31T19:34:00.002-05:00

Happy New Year one and all. Have you made your New Year's Resolutions yet? Here's mine:

Live, laugh and love with wild abandon
Plant more flowers
Grow vegetables
Read more books
Learn something new
Play with everything

I hope your 2010 is your best year. I for one am happy to see this year go. It's been the hardest one yet in a string of hard ones. Looking forward gives me hope for my own future and I wish the same for you. To my unemployed and underemployed cohorts, I especially wish a better year for you. Keep your chin up!

Worldwide Moment

2009-08-27T16:43:00.002-04:00

Worldwide Moment is a simultanious photography project for peace. On September 9th, at 9pm, people all over the world will take a picture of what they are doing at that moment and sending it to the website. You don't have to be a professional photographer in order to participate. You can use your cell phone if you wish. Just snap a picture of what you are doing. Please consider being a part of this amazing project! Follow them on Twitter.

You can also become a fan of Worldwide Moment on Facebook too!

A Pictures From The Yard

2009-08-10T12:03:00.005-04:00

Just a few flower Pics from the yard:

I don't know what kind of rose this is. It's one of the better rose bushes in my yard. If you know the name, feel free to drop me a line and let me know.

A recent visitor to the yard:

I love my new camera. It's a Kodak Zi6 that was given to me as a thank you for my work on PodCamp Ohio. I think it takes some really great pictures.

Updates

2009-08-09T20:13:00.005-04:00

Sorry I haven't updated in a while. We are having technical difficulties on thei side of the reflecting pond. More like, this side of Firefox. For some reason, I can't upload pictures to blogspot using Firefox right now. I think it has some thing to do with one of my plug ins. *Sigh* That means I will have to uninstall a few of them to find out which one is the culprit. I am posting these pics from my Opera Browser.

Any way, I went to the Dublin Irish Festival with my sons and daughters in law. We had a good time, got tattooed, listened to some music, ate some food, you know the drill.

Hand Stamps:

Vince on the Left, Jay on the right:

Vincent tried on a utilikilt. He likes it but they didn't have on in his size in black. We tried to get Jay to try one but he wasn't game. Laura, Theresa and I tried really hard to pressure him into it. So hard that one of the guys working the both remarked to Jay that he had the best support group ever!

Laura (far left) Theresa (middle) and me:

My mother bought the dress I am wearing and it has become my favorite. Very nice and cool in hot weather. Sorry there is no picture of the front. It has beautiful embroidery on it. The necklace I am wearing onced belonged to my friend Jean Dhayer. She passed away on July 25th of this year and I went to her memorial service the night before the festival. At the service, the family placed some of Jean's belongings on a table so any one who wanted a memento could have one. I chose the necklace and wore it to the festival. I thought she would like that.

I have other pics and videos I need to work on getting posted. I went to the Dayton Air Show and have pics from there as well as the Arthritis Foundation's Car show which I will post on my Z blog some time soon.

I also have pictures of some of the flowers in my yard and have been experimenting with rooting some cuttings of my roses, wisteria, lavender and passion flowers. This is my first attempt at it so we will see what kind of success I have.

Vincent graduates this month from OSU with a degree in english and there will be a party a few days later. So look for pictures of that to come.

I guess that's it for now. What's new with you?

The Day-Glo Brothers

2009-06-19T11:41:00.003-04:00

One of the bloggers I follow is Redneck Mother. Recently she announced on her blog that her husband, Chris Barton, wrote a children's book titled The Day-Glo Brothers. I wish my kids were still young enough to want one of these books because I think they would truly enjoy having a copy.

The book is the history of the two men who invented Day-Glo colors. I did not know how Day-Glo came about but it is a pretty big part of our every day life now. Day-Glo is pretty much the official color that attracts attention for safety, it's the chosen color from the 60's for black light posters and the color that many kids naturally gravitate to. The book is illustrated by Tony Persiani, a very talented artist with a rather impressive portfolio. Who wouldn't want a copy of that? Hmm, maybe I'll buy a copy just for me, cuz deep down inside I'm really still just a kid. A very geeky kid, but still a kid. Get a copy of the book for your kid.

Oh and add Redneck Mother to your google reader while you're at it.

Oops! Long Time No Update

2009-06-18T08:58:00.003-04:00

I've been pretty busy with PodCamp Ohio activities lately and that has kept me away from updating here. I did attend the Ohio Growth Summit last week as well as the Tweetup the night before. I had a chance to meet and talk to Chris Brogan who was one of the key note speakers for the summit. Unfortunately, I missed his talk because I had a job interview I needed to get to. Chris was thoughtful enough to let me do a brief video interview with him about PodCamp though. I will be posting it later today on the PodCamp Ohio website. I have a picture of me with Chris Brogan at the Tweetup on my phone but I am having troucle with my sync cable for my computer and will have to visit the sprint store today to see if I can get a replacement.

Speaking of phones, the new Palm Pre is out and I want one! If you are listening Palm, please send me one since I can't afford it. (See reference to job interview above to explain why)

If you follow me on Twitter, you will notice that I have changed my timezone and location to Tehran, Iran. Please don't freak out Mom. There is a reason for that. In Iran, several people are twittering about the events as they unfold. On Twitter, many of us have changed our location to help thwart the governments ability to search out the real Iranian twitters from others outside. They are risking their safety to try to get information out to us about what is happening. If you would like information about what is happening, there is a very good explanation of who the groups are and some of the details of what has been happening here. There are several groups of people setting up proxy servers to help hide the location of bloggers in Iran so that they may continue to get information out. To those tech savvy people: I salute you! What you are doing is important to the rest of the world.

I did get to spend time with my mother this past Saturday helping to weed the flower beds and again managed to get poison ivy. Right now it's just a small patch on one arm and hopefully, it will stay that way. We will see. Take care everyone. Hope to see some of you at PodCamp Ohio or at Ignite Columbus the night before!

Tell Me Thursday

2009-04-30T08:04:00.004-04:00

Welcome to Tell Me Thursday! Where I give you the story behind my Wordless Wednesday post. This picture actually has a title. It's What's That Smell?

Back in 1993, my ex and I took my two sons on vacation to Glacier National Park. While we were there, we spent a few nights back packing in the Nyack Wilderness. This trip was one of the hardest we had ever done. It rained most of the time and the trails are unmaintained so simply hiking can be a chore. Hiking with a pack on your back and keeping a watch out for grizzlies even more so. One morning when we were leaving the camp site and heading to the next one, we noticed a very large bear track in the mud. Uhh... I think that's close enough for me.

In the Nyack, you have to hang your food in bear bags on a line between two trees so bears won't get into it and become accustomed to going near humans for an easy meal. The out houses at the camp sites have no "house," they are just "outs." Meaning it's the seat part only. This is done to keep animals from moving in for the shelter. To compensate for the lack of privacy, the view is beautiful. One "out" looked out across a lake with a mountain on the far end and a water fall spilling down the side of it. Who needs a newspaper? When we finally got to the car after four nights out, all of us took off our hiking boots and wet socks and just threw them into the back of the car. We were tired and hungry and ready to be done.

The day we came out, we headed to a local resturant that also provided services to thru hikers on the Continental Divide Trail and ate our selves silly. Our waitress was also part owner of the resturant and was amazed to learn that we had just spent four nights in the Nyack. She told us their cook (who had completed the Continental Divide trail) spent one night in the Nyack and decided it was too hard core for him. Hearing that, we decided that we were tough! Really tough! Bad ass tough! It was a hard hike but I'm glad we did it. It gave my sons an opportunity to see what they were made of. I keep this picture like a trophy of our accomplishment. We still talk about it and laugh.

If you would like to read more Tell Me Thursday Stories from Wordless Wednesday participants, go Here.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-04-29T09:12:00.002-04:00

Espresso Yourself Music Cafe

2009-04-18T18:22:00.008-04:00

This past Thursday night the Taste Casting crew was invited to the Espresso Yourself Music Cafe for a tasting and a sample of some Jazz as well as smoothies and a cappuccino.

I am back at Espresso Yourself tonight as I write this. Tonight I am listening to the rock of a young band called Barefoot Laundromat. The place is packed with friends of the band as well as parents. They obviously get a lot of support and all this is taking me back to the time when my oldest son was i a band during his high school years, but that's another story for another time.

Why have I come back here to write about my Taste Casting experience? Well to be completely honest, I couldn't get those sandwiches we tried out of my mind so I gave in and came back tonight. There is another reason as well. I really like this place a lot. I have missed these types of places where you could go and get a good cup of coffee, hang out and enjoy music or read.

This isn't Starbucks and I can't tell you how glad I am it's not!. Eric Ahlteen, the owner of Espresso Yourself created a very relaxing space with an eclectic collection of art by local artists for sale on the wall. There are book for sale here as well so you can't want for much if you would like to spend the day or evening here.

This is part of a large piece on the wall

This is a close up of some of the detail

The stained glass windows add a wonderful light and feel to the place as well. I was very impressed with how comfortable I felt here on Thursday and still feel that way tonight as well.

Tonight, I ordered the Blues-y Roast Beef sandwich tonight which is not one of the sandwiches we sampled on Thursday but every bit as good as the three we sampled that night.

If you would like to test how the atmosphere here makes you feel, take a drive up to Powell Ohio and check it out for your self. Let me know before you come. I might want to meet you here. By the way, the room just exploded into high energy as the band launched into Taking Care Of Business

Here is one more picture for you as the band starts to play Free Bird! No that's ambitious!

Tell Me Thursday

2009-04-09T07:42:00.000-04:00

Yesterday's Wordless Wednesday picture day was one I took in front of a house I used to live in. I had planted marigolds on either side of the steps leading up to our front door. After the first year, I let the flowers go to seed so that I wouldn't have to replant the following year. This little plant came up in the crack in front of the steps leading up to the front porch. It was right in the middle of the walkway. I was so impressed by it's ability to grow there, that I decided to leave it as a reminder to me of how resilient we all can be. To my amazement, no one ever disturbed it, or stepped on it. Not even the letter carrier came close. Not only that, another marigold plant grew in the crack the following year.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-04-08T10:04:00.002-04:00

Crimson Cup Taste Casting

2009-03-28T15:36:00.005-04:00

This morning the Taste Casting crew met at the Headquarters for The Crimson Cup for a tour, tasting, some education on coffee and a "cupping" session. Cupping is kind of like a wine tasting only with coffee. This is a video I took of Armando Escobar the "Chief Espresso Officer" and Greg Ubert, Founder & President of Crimson Cup compare beans then, Armando and Janie Brooks "Lead Instigator" create frozen hot chocolate and strawberry smoothies for us to taste.

Sorry about the quality of the video, it's from my cell phone. :)

Here are a few pictures I took as well:

I also highly recommend the Carmel Apple Smoothie! Yum!
You can follow the Crimson Cup on Twitter too!

Taste Casting at the Suisse Shop

2009-03-27T19:26:00.005-04:00

So you probably saw the previous video from 10 TV about Taste Casters and you know that I was at the first two events. I put together a little slide show of pictures from the Suisse Shop. You can find more information and other Taste Casters blog posts non the Taste Casting web site.

Now for the show:

Taste Casting On Channel 10

2009-03-23T12:12:00.003-04:00

I am part of a new group in Columbus called Taste Casting. We are a group of social media users that get invited to local restaurants to participate in a food tasting. During the tasting, we tweet about our experience and later blog about the event.

We launched just last week with two events and WBNS 10 TV in Columbus did a story about it.

Look Ma! I'm on TV!

Tell Me Thursday

2009-03-19T08:00:00.001-04:00

Welcome to this weeks Tell Me Thursday. Where I explain yesterday's Wordless Wednesday Picture.

This picture was taken several years ago on the Great Ohio Bike Adventure (GOBA) sorry to say the raccoon was road kill. It was a particularly hot day and all of the safety staff were reminding us at every turn to drink plenty of water. Someone saw this raccoon along side the road we were riding on and though it would be funny to leave his/her water bottle in the raccoons paws.

Every one was cracking up when we rode past. Funniest part was this was at the bottom of a long steep uphill. We were all laughing so hard, we couldn't pedal ourselves up the hill. Many just gave up (me included) and walked our bikes up the hill, giggling the whole way.

To see others participating in Wordless Wednesday go HERE.
To find links to other Tell Me Thursday's go HERE.