first barbie of the year...

a few burgers, some corn and some... deviled eggs?

always a good day when you're bbq'ing on your tiny little patio in nyc.

panic on the streets of, er, west philly?

earlier this month, rach and i were helping rebuild a dilapidated house in west philly as part a wharton community outreach program (a la habitat for humanity). it's been an interesting experience. on one hand it's been great to finally, after 41 years, get my hands dirty and use some tools (uh, has anyone ever heard of a circular saw? j/k). but on the other hand, it's a bit weird because the family we're helping just sits around doing nothing as all the volunteers do all the work around them.

at one point a volunteer named willy (the cousin of wally, another volunteer) and I were installing a new floor in the kitchen, and one of the family's teenage boys walked into the kitchen, turned on the gas stove, lit his cigarette, and then walked back out to the porch to hang out with his 'hood friends. willy and I looked at each other, shook our heads, and continued on with the floor. wtf?

anyway, rach just send me a news alert about a murder in west philly... yep, on the exact same block where our little dilapidated house is located.

needless to say, we shan't be going back there again.

the king's speech...

great movie. here's the actual speech VI gave... you can definitely hear the stammer.

good friday? great friday...

just spent the entire week trying to convince my dim-witted (but important) client to increase our inbound volume for his programs. and he just did! nice!

in other news, i flew in to columbus last night for easter weekend to hang with rach's fam. always fun to visit the carpenters. unfortunately it's supposed to rain tomorrow so i guess we won't be heading to the golf course in the morning. oh well, maybe we'll hit up the jack nicklaus museum instead. then easter baskets and church on sunday... and then back to nyc on sunday night.

gazelle munchin'...

good god, this story about persian gazelle hunters is the coolest thing i've read in a while...

unfortunately for the gazelle population, many were perhaps not even eaten. i wonder what the persians in this region ate once they destroyed the population.

dinner party at JC's on wednesday...

lots of good details coming out about this dinner party, that we've never known before. frankly, i think the last supper would make for a very interesting movie o' the week on the food network...

but who would they cast as JC? maybe adam richman wearing flowing robes, sandals and a fake beard?

why starbucks is better than ogilvy...

seems like the average barista gets better training than the average ad flunkie (and a fraction of the pay). after spending well over a decade in the ad world, i'm not at all surprised to learn this.

this barista vid proves my point (doesn't it?). none of my old ogilvy colleagues could do this stuff: