If you could get someone in your life to start a blog, who would it be and why?
My father has always been a prolific letter writer when it comes to companies that screw him over or do him a good turn. Instead of all those letters gathering dust in someone's inbox or a drawer, they should be on a blog and contributing to the search engine karma of hundreds of deserving companies.
My dad just cracks me up whatever he writes. A random sample from some recent emails:
I hope your presentation went well and you didn't crap your pants. I have faith that you didn't. [...]
Now that I have you all cheery and everything, enjoy the climb to the top of the Tower tomorrow. You can do it!!! Take some french fries with you for a mid-climb snack.
The food was generic and tasteless as usual...It is amazing how somebody who cooks as much as [she] does can make such awful food.
After much bantering with Sears National Customer Relations (which happens to be an awful reflection of the company) and getting nowhere with our washer that stains clothes, I called the local manager in Chillicothe and he authorized us to receive a brand spanking new one. Bonnie is thrilled as you can imagine and quite proud of my persistence. I never got abusive or used profanity with the national group but they never got my washer fixed after 4 service calls and taking vacation days to be there. When the dust settles, it will all be in my report. I am sending it to the BBB, Attorney General, and the CEO of Sears. They messed with the wrong guy!!!!
But maybe I'm biased.
I shouldn't, but I just quite like this. It is a tenacious earworm, that's for sure.
What was the highlight of this past weekend?
Hmm. Probably the VRWC BBQ we attended last night. Our friend Scott Norvell, who's the European bureau chief for Fox News, invited us to his house to eat awesome food and plan our takeover of the planet. My friend Greg Gutfeld and his beautiful wife Elena showed up shortly after us, and it was such a fantastic surprise. (I had no idea that Scott and Greg knew one another, and was briefly very puzzled over how these two people could POSSIBLY know each other without having been hooked up by me.) Antoine and I were both really tired from travelling back from Paris, upon which we'd had to race to a big party, that I feared I was too wiped out to enjoy Scott's barbecue. How wrong I was!
I don't have a right to your grief
It's yours; I can't take it
And yet, here it is
Guest in the pit of my stomach
I don't have a right to your emptiness
The cost is yours; not mine
And yet, here it is
Absence as presence
I don't have a right to your anger
You've been wronged; not me
And yet, here it is
Vicarious fury
I am so sorry for your loss.
-Paris, 20 July 2006
When I was in San Francisco last month (with Adriana, who was speaking at Vloggercon on net neutrality), one of the best things that happened to me was meeting BrainJams‘ Kristie Wells and Chris Heuer. These are fiercely intelligent, open, unpretentious, generous people who are doing incredible things through the power of their own personal networks.
One such example of this is the Rent an Expert event which BrainJams is staging at CNET HQ on Wednesday in San Francisco.
The format will follow the laws of open space as the ‘how to classes*’ offered will be determined by the participants. We ask that a small fee (average is $5) be given for each ‘how to class’ you sign up for, and all the money collected during the evening will be donated to a charity that will be decided by those in the room (majority rules folks).
Check out the Rent an Expert wiki if you can attend and want to share your expertise and/or learn from the expertise of others in attendance. If you go, tell them that I sent you - and thank me sooner or later, because you won’t regret the experience or getting to know Kristie and Chris.
What did you do this weekend?
Hung out in Paris, sweated, complained, laughed, ate, slept. It was awesome. And I have five more days of it to go!
Well, we're here - and there's a Flickr photoset to prove it. It's great to be back in one of our favourite cities, even if it's hot as hell and the hotel I picked is in a neighbourhood that could be better. (Antoine just popped out of the hotel to make some phone calls and witnessed a woman going mad in front of a café, smashing a glass bottle on the ground and then physically assaulting a random person.)
We've already been to about five supermarkets, since one of my favourite things to do whenever I'm abroad is explore the grocery stores. (I'm a really cheap date.) My other favourite thing to do is check out the pharmacies. (What did I tell you?) At the one closest to our hotel, I picked up some Anthelios XL sunblock, which Amy Alkon has been telling me for ages is the best out there (the Observer Woman magazine on Sunday said the same). I've recently turned into a skin cancer obsessive - with good reason - so was very pleased with such an immediate, worthy purchase.
I really want to do a Fat Tire Bike Tour or two - the Paris at nighttime one sounds lovely (though 4.5 hours seems excessive, even if there is free wine on a Seine cruise at the end), and the one that takes in Monet's gardens at Giverny would pretty much blow my Flickr account. I don't see it on the website, but the brochure I got in our hotel reception lists a Segway tour of Paris, which sounds like a lot of fun...and a great way to make an ass of myself. Will I be able to resist the urge?
*Any poor French grammar you read here is all mine. One of the best things about being in French or German-speaking countries is being able to sit back and let Antoine talk for me. Even control freaks need a break occasionally.
Well done to the awesome Robyn for the incredible strides she's made in her fitness over the last several months. Robyn's blog is one of my very favourites, as is her husband Fred's, and it thrills me to see her making such progress.
One thing that amused me when reading Robyn's most recent entry: When I saw that she has 48 pounds to lose before she reachers her goal, I thought, "Wow, is that all? That'll be a breeze!" Then I realised that, although I don't have an exact number in mind for myself (I'll know what it looks like when I get there), 48 pounds less is definitely in the ballpark where I want to live.
That's very motivating for me. Robyn kicks her own ass five days a week, getting up at 5.30AM to work out. I...don't do that. Obviously London life is all about walking, but I definitely need to move more, move more intensely, and move first thing in the morning. (When I lost the bulk of my weight, I was exercising for 25-60 minutes first thing every day, before I ate anything at all. This is supposed to help you burn off stored fat rather than, say, the breakfast you just ate. I don't know if there's much credence in that, but it worked for me.)
Anyway, we leave for Paris tomorrow morning, and while we will definitely be walking all over the place for the week we spend there, we'll also be faced with more temptation in the realm of eating and drinking. Having recently arrived at my lowest weight since I started losing a few years ago, this makes me nervous.
My friend Amy Alkon eats a doughnut every morning and swears it helps her stay in shape (it fills her up until mid-afternoon), but I can't do that. In me, the sugar triggers cravings for more sugar. So I'm going to try to eat as much fresh fruit and vegetables as possible - buying cherry tomatoes and other easy produce and keeping it in our hotel room and in my handbag. Ditto my favourite sparkling water. I'm also going to try to stick to tomato-based sauces, grilled lean protein, and all the other obvious things. I plan to reward myself on my birthday - July 21 - by getting whatever I want from whatever patisserie calls my name. (I still remember the strawberry tartelette I had in Lésigny back in 2004, as does my ass - the calories that keep on giving!)
If it weren't for the fact that it would only encourage me to spend money, I would totally start a blog about my love of charity shops. I mean, I LOVE charity shops. Why? Well in two charity shop stops this week, I nabbed:
3 Ralph Lauren shirts (for Antoine)
1 Burberry rugby shirt (for Antoine)
1 Banana Republic shirt (for Antoine)
2 Timberland shirts (for Antoine)
1 Ralph Lauren shirt (for Antoine's mother, Claire)
1 Paul Frank monkey t-shirt (for ME!)
1 Valentino sweater (for ME!)
Here's the other thing I've discovered: Scouring charity shops for myself is fun, but doing it for other people - especially when they haven't asked you to - is even more fun! A couple of weeks ago, one of my charity shop trips yielded a nice DKNY top for me. Which was nice. But the Escada suit, Armani jacket, Laura Ashley skirt, Laura Ashley trousers, and MaxMara jacket that I got for Antoine's mother? Was awesome. And the time before that, the Ghost bias-cut dress that I got for Hillary (originally intended for Antoine's mother) gave me a huge buzz.
I could go on. Indeed, I want to go on. But it might just bankrupt me.
