De Lovely

This afternoon Concetta and I watched the movie De Lovely about the life of Cole Porter and came away with a whole new appreciation for Porter's work. Some of his well-known hits of the dozens he wrote in a four-decade-long career include, "Night and Day," "Paris loves lovers," "I Get A Kick Out of You," "You're the Top," "I've got you under my skin," "Begin the Beguine," and "My Heart Belongs to Daddy." I enthusiastically recommend the movie (see jacket above). And if you want to read more about Cole Porter, click here for his bio on Wikipedia.

Life moves pretty fast...

The couple in the above photo is gazing at Mt. Whitney, California, and the adjacent peaks. I climbed that mountain when I was 18 years old, spent ten days backpacking through the southern Sierra before I reached the summit. In those days everything seemed to take forever. Now here I am forty years later wondering where the time went. In the immortal words of that great philosopher, Ferris Bueller, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

New Monitors

Hey everyone, I just wanted to show you the new monitor I bought with the money you generously gave me at my retirement party. It's a Dell 19" wide screen model (one on the right). Coincidentally, my son gave me an Acer 19" wide screen as a retirement gift. So, here I am, all set up with a dual-screen display just like those I had at work -- only better. Thanks again everyone. You're the best!

Lunch together on the patio

If you want to know what finally brought retirement home to me it was lunch today. Today we enjoyed a weekday lunch together out on the patio for the first time since I retired. Concetta has been working for the Legislature lately, which means that I have been home by myself when lunch rolled around. Normally, I'd spend the time with a sandwich, a cup of coffee, and a Turner Classic Movie. Sweet. But today, we officially kicked off retirement together. No looking back now.