Girl Fight

Olivia playing with her BFF, Becky. This picture is actually a staged shot, it took some finagling to get them to jostle like that.

Along with Becky's owner, we've concluded that the two dogs think they are sisters because of how they act when they are together. While Olivia is the social butterfly that has to say 'hi' to everyone and wants to play with all the other dogs, there is definitely a special connection between her and Becky. Her style of play and mannerisms change compared to when she's at the park with other dogs.

Olivia is nearly 5 months younger than Becky, who'll turn 1 soon. They are slightly different breeds, Olivia being crossed with a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and Becky crossed with a Cocker Spaniel. Even though Becky has a few pounds on Olivia, they're surprisingly an even match for each other.

A new video of the two dogs playing will be uploaded to youtube soon. You can always find videos of Olivia by typing in Olivia Evilsizor into youtube's search bar.

I'm sailing! I'm sailing.

A few years ago, I booked a vacation in Utah to ski at Park City. By booking online, I was given an offer for three free magazine subscriptions. I found two with no problem, but it was kind of hard to find a third one I would be interested in. Finally, I chose Sail Magazine. Reading it over the next year got me really interested in sailing, and I started to think about what it might be like to own a boat of my own someday (I know what it's like, actually - a boat is a hole in the water in which you throw your money). This was mildly dumb in the eyes of Emily, reading Sail magazine in Frankfort, Kentucky. What's the point when you're living in a landlocked state?

Last month, however, I was invited on a sailing trip by the President of the Wharton Sailing Club. I talked to Emily, and we agreed it was one of the best opportunities to learn about the sport and see if I'd really enjoy it.

Two full days of instruction and sailing in the Chesapeake Bay, I can say it was a blast. Also, I'm halfway to my keel boat certification, where I can rent a boat (up to about 26-feet) to take out when on vacation - much cheaper than actually owning a boat. Here's some pictures from the trip:

Downtown Annapolis. Very pricey place to live, not so pricey to get ice cream. We made sure to stop here twice.

The marina. Been a few years since I spent some time at a marina.

This was our crew. Four guys who had never been on a sail boat, and an instructor from J-World.

The sailing club took out 7 yachts, all of them J/80 sailboats. Each boat has an instructor and 4 crew (us). The "80" refers to decimeters, so it's about 26 feet long.

Being a sailing club comprised mostly of business students, we had to make things competitive. So we squeezed in 3 races into a 2-day sailing trip. This picture is from one of the races. The race begins with a designated starting line that nobody can cross until a countdown timer reaches zero (if you cross early, it doesn't count so you have to circle around and cross it again). Our boat was extremely good at timing the beginning such that we crossed the start line only a second or two after the beginning of the race and often at full speed.

Our crew worked as follows: one crew member to steer the direction of the ship.

One person to work the main sail.

Finally, two people to work the jib, which soon became my favorite role. Whenever you tack, the people controlling the jib have to work in tandem to quickly capture the wind as you move through the point of no sail. We got our speed from around 20-seconds for a tack down to about 4-5 seconds, which was quite impressive. The jibe maneuver was fun as well.

At the Union League

I was privileged last month to go to the Union League for a fundraising banquet for the Spruce Hill Christian Academy. The Union League is a very nice place to be – one would be foolish to pass up the opportunity to see the inside. It’s Philadelphia’s premiere country club without a golf course. Republicans with cigars and brandy like extras in Trading Places, it’s full of swank and self-importance. I enjoyed walking down the hallway and seeing pictures of every president and dignitary since 1865 lining the walls (some so old they weren’t photos but daguerreotypes instead).


It was a wonderful night, but the highlight came when several students were on stage to accept a gift from a group of gentlemen. Every year these men give a financial gift to the school, and this year the decided to pledge a very generous gift of a million dollars to the Spruce Hill Christian Academy. When the student came to the microphone to present her thank-you on behalf of the school, she forgot who the donors were.

Student: Thank you, uh, um, thank you mister man for your gracious gift.
Man: [laughter].
[Teacher leans over to student, tells her the man’s name.]
Student: I’m so sorry, it’s nervous being up on stage.

That made my night. Here’s a picture of Emily and I in the ball room.

The Great Thing About Typos

One month ago today, I posted a clip about Slate V's story on the stupidest bike lane in America. The head editor, Andy Bowers, solicited feedback from viewers about any bike lanes more stupid than what he had encountered and posted to Slate's website. Remembering the picture I sent to the steering committee members of Walk Bike Frankfort, I forwarded it along to Andy. Realizing also that many others would send in their encounters, I typed quickly to try to beat the rush. I realized after I sent the email that I had a typo in the subject line.

This worked to my advantage when, today, Slate posted its followup to the original story.

Sure enough, at 21 seconds into the clip, my email is identifiable because it's the only typo on the screen:
The picture I sent in eventually appears at 1:36 into the video segment. Andy says it was the most sent in picture, but my speed paid off as I got a response from him (which I shared on my other post). Gotta love the web's ability to put people in touch with others from all over the world.

Olivia's first grooming

Emily took Olivia to get groomed. When she picked Olivia up, our puppy was sporting a green bow. I thought some pictures were in order so we could embarrass her later when she's all grown up.