Jonathan Field - Maker of Random Stuff

When several out-of-the-ordinary things happen in one week, I guess I have trouble keeping up. Perhaps the most out-of-the-ordinary thing that happened last week I totally forgot to mention: between our French Laundry dinner and the Google guy’s place we went to a Guiness World Record event where one of Sophie’s photography clients attempted to perform the most squats in one hour.

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Soon after surviving the Rhode Island traffic disaster, I wrapped up things with my family and headed back to San Francisco. The idea is to settle down a bit and restart some semblance of a normal life. However we skipped normality for the first couple days…

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First off, you have to understand that my sister and I grew up in Massachusetts, and have driven plenty of times in the snow. It’s no big deal. Sure, your car swerves around a bit, but anyone who’s driven in New England for a few years knows how to manage it. You keep moving, no sudden changes in speed or direction.

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It was 25 degrees the other day as my Dad and I drove from New Salem to Shirley Massachusetts to visit the old Field farm house. It was much as I remembered it, crooked and full of character. Nobody lives there at the moment, but my Dad and I took a walk down the snowy hill to say “hi” to the place.

I just got a neat picture of Zenzo dressed in traditional Zulu garb. This is from last May, at the party for his sister that I missed. Donna sent me the pictures just now, after we caught up with each other over some excellent Thai food with Alan and my Dad.

I’ve been staying at my sister’s for the past couple days. Having lunch or dinner with various family members.

My sister’s pregnancy is coming along. It’s going to be a girl (if the doctors are right), and they’re having a hard time picking a name. “Willow” is in the running, and as a certified oddball I’m rooting for that.

I played the Wii for the first time. It’s pretty neat. Zelda seems like it would be a lot of fun if I had a few weeks to devote to it. But I don’t.

I’m back in San Francisco this weekend!

It’s Thanksgiving here in Florida. Maybe it is where you are too.

Sophie’s here and this afternoon we’re going with to visit with a lot of the family (some twenty people… yet only a fraction of the whole!) and have a nice dinner together.

May you have a moment to think about how fortunate you are, and without pride or pity appreciate your short and beautiful life.

I think this graph might actually represent everything that is wrong with mankind.

No no, it’s not a Bush bashing thing at all. It doesn’t matter who the chart is about. It could be about me or your mother. What bugs me is how the presidential approval rating shoots up on 9/11. I mean, why would anyone’s opinion of a president change at all (least of all go up) from an unexpected attack? I can certainly see rallying behind the president as he moves forward, and I can see approval rising as he took actions, but how could the attack itself make you feel he was doing a better job the day after than the day before?

Yeah, this is old news, but I came across the chart the other day when looking to see exactly how disliked our current president is, and that spike at 9/11 jumped out at me again.

What weird, weird, creatures we are.

Sophie’s last day in Las Vegas — we decided to treat it as a celbration of selling the house, since the money actually went through on Halloween day. We woke up wondering where to get a killer French style breakfast in Vegas. Something like “Cafe de la Presse” in San Francisco, but you know, in Vegas. We weren’t hopeful to match that, but after a bit of online searching we eventually we decided to hit Bouchon at the Venetian, which seemed to be the ticket.

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It all started when I left Zappos and emailed our wonderful Benefits Coordinator Michelle asking about COBRA. Being a geek I addressed my request to “COBRA Commander” and phrased things with a bit of G.I. Joe style urgency.

She immediately responded and upped the ante by referring to me as “Destro” and herself as “Baroness”. We proceeded to work out my continuing health coverage as a matter of national security. I had known she was a little weird, but I was pretty impressed that her responses had me looking up G.I. Joe trivia to refresh my memory.

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There’s a lot gone on in the past week, but first I just want to say: I’ve sold my house!.

That’s right: in the worst housing market in recent history I managed to unload our place here in Las Vegas. All I had to do was take over the real estate responsibilities myself and cut the price until it hurt. But it’s all good: one mortgage less to worry about and I even recovered a minor portion of the down payment.

Escrow has closed as of yesterday and that’s it.

Next!

The days following the Mt. Charleston expedition included more than a little pain and suffering. This was mainly from my calfs, which felt as hard as a pair of juggling pins and ached like a Charlie’s Horse whenever I flexed them more than a few degrees out of their relaxed position. I swear: walking on level ground makes you a wimp.

But the pain didn’t stop me: Sunday night Sophie flew into town. On Monday morning Sophie and I hit the title company to close our house. Then we drove up to Bryce Canyon in Utah.

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