Guest post--Bob talks about why we're moving to Italy and other stuff

Bob, eating lunch in a Garfagnana restaurant last month

A week ago, my husband Bob gave a lunchtime talk at his law firm. The talk was part of a series in which the different attorneys have been talking about their practices. Bob used the opportunity to explain how he ended up taking a job in Italy. But before that, he took a long running start which goes back to a few years before our marriage, from an educational and work point of view.

We were married twenty-four years ago yesterday, by the way. At that time, Bob was in his last year of vet school.

What follows is more like a transcript than an essay. It has a lot of "inside" references. It lacks full written polish, more than rudimentary punctuation, and of course, the je ne sais quois of Bob in a room. But it should, include, at least, some of "the rest of the story" behind the events I describe in this blog.

And although perhaps it goes without saying, Francine was the attorney who introduced Bob at the beginning of the talk:

* * * *

Thank you, Francine.

Good afternoon. Let’s start with a joke. How do you know if a patent attorney is extroverted? When he talks to you he looks at YOUR shoes.

I'd like to make this payday lunch talk very informal so please feel free to ask questions or comment on anything I say over the next few minutes during which I will briefly discuss (1) my educational background; (2) my 14 years working in New York; and (3) my plans going forward in Italy. Past, present and future, as it were. As a bit of incentive to make this talk more interactive, on my first visit back to New York from Turin, Italy in October, I’ll bring a box of famous Turin chocolate and give it to the person who asks the best question or makes the best comment as determined solely by me.

Point 1. I grew up in the South, mainly in the Atlanta, Ga. area. I speak fluent Southern. [Repeat in Southern.] I went to the University of Georgia as an undergrad, also for vet school and after deciding not to be a veterinarian, I went to the University of Georgia law school. I've occasionally thought that the University of Georgia should name a building after me given all the time and money I've spent there. Ok, we're already done with Point 1.

On to Point 2, the New York years. After graduating from law school in the spring of 1997 and dealing with some goofiness from a mysteriously vanishing first job offer, I was left scrambling to find permanent employment. I was fortunate to meet a patent attorney in Atlanta who gave me the names of 10 people at IP firms throughout the U.S. By the way, up until the meeting with this guy, I had never considered for a moment working or living outside of the southeastern U.S. or even outside of Atlanta. But I wrote to all 10 people on my list who were in places like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Oregon, Seattle, Minneapolis, Chicago, New York and Boston. I got one response. And this was from a guy named John White at a firm called Cooper & Dunham, here in New York.

John White asked me to fly up to New York later that week for an interview and so I did. This was the first time I'd ever been to New York. I was basically offered a position on the spot. As I later learned, I got the job because a senior associate at Cooper & Dunham had just given notice that he was leaving. This associate was responsible for, among other things, a portfolio of cases related to recombinant DNA technology for veterinary vaccines. My resume came across John White's desk within a couple of days of this associate giving notice and my background in veterinary medicine was a perfect fit.

By the way, the name of the associate who had just given notice at Cooper & Dunham: [pausing for effect] Mark Cohen.

(Laura's note: The pause for effect is because Mark Cohen is now a named partner in his current firm.)

So my wife, Laura, our 3 year old daughter, Sara, whom we call Sarie, and I drove a U-Haul from Athens, GA to our new home on 72^nd and 3^rd Ave. on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. We planned to live in New York for about 2 years and then return to live and work in the Atlanta area. Well 2 years somehow became 14 …. and our 3 year old somehow became 17. As Woody Allen once said: If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. Indeed.

So what have I been doing the last 14 years? I'll tell you very briefly and I'll limit my comments to work-related activities. Marathon running, bicycle racing, snow skiing and gelato eating, while certainly more interesting, are beyond the scope of this talk.

I started by suffering through 14 months at Cooper & Dunham. Anyone who knows John White understands that when you work with him, time is measured in something more akin to dog years.

So after 14 months or about 8 dog years at Cooper & Dunham, I took a position in the IP group of a big general practice firm called Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel. There my IP experience expanded greatly beyond patent prosecution for veterinary vaccine technology. Over the years at Kramer Levin I had the opportunity to work in almost every area of IP law: patents and trademarks; prosecution and litigation; opinions, transactions, counseling.

I developed somewhat of a specialty in ANDA-related matters (ANDA refers to the process by which pharmaceutical companies get approval to market generic versions of branded drugs) and I often worked with technical experts on their expert reports and taking and defending experts in depositions. A couple of these experts have actually become friends. One, a guy named Sandy Bolton, interestingly (at least to me), played Bobby Fischer to a draw in a chess match in the mid-1960’s.

Probably the most high profile matter I worked on at Kramer Levin was the fairly well-known ANDA case, Purdue v. Endo, both at the district court and for the appeal to the Federal Circuit.

As the economy started to falter in 2008 and some of my own clients started suffering, I began looking for an exit strategy from the big firm life and lifestyle such as it was. So I began seeking alternatives and was successful in getting 3 separate offers all of which were available for me to consider at the same time side by side by side. One offer was for a position with an Atlanta based firm called Troutman Sanders which was starting an IP group in their New York office. I was also offered a position in beautiful Portland, Oregon as an in-house patent attorney for the technology transfer office of Oregon Health and Sciences University, and finally, I was offered a position in a grubby little boutique firm tucked away in the southeast corner of midtown called Lucas & Mercanti. I also had the fourth option of staying at Kramer Levin.

For reasons I’m still not quite sure about, although I believe autonomy played a significant part, I chose the grubby little boutique firm. My Kramer Levin clients followed me over to Lucas & Mercanti appreciating, I’m sure, that my billing rates went from close to $700 down to about $400 per hour.

Now at this point my story should end with me working through the years at this little firm, enjoying relative autonomy and a reasonable income. So what happened to interfere with this happy if somewhat dull ending?

Last summer - summer 2010 - my daughter was signed up to participate in a music festival in northern Tuscany. She’s a very talented classical violinist by the way. We decided to make it a family vacation. Since the festival would take place over a 3 week period I agreed to visit some of Lucas & Mercanti’s Italian clients, especially some of the satellite offices of the big Italian IP firms based in Rome and Milan. Lucas & Mercanti gets a substantial amount of work from Italian law firms and people from the firm pay frequent visits to offices in Milan and sometimes Rome, but never the smaller offices in between. So my task was to spend 1 of my 3 weeks in Italy speaking with IP professionals in smaller towns like Parma, Bologna and Florence, all places relatively close to the location of the music festival. And aside from all of the parking tickets, it was actually a lot of fun. By the way, the Bolognese sauce in Bologna is excellent.

So we now arrive at the fateful day – Thursday, July 1, 2010 - 13 months ago today. I had a mid-afternoon appointment to meet with two patent attorneys in the Florence office of a firm called Notarbartolo & Gervasi. Their office is in a beautiful 18^th century building near the center of Florence. I met with the attorneys there and spoke with them about several U.S. patent issues. They told me a little about what it was like to work in Florence, including their commutes to and from work by Vespa. The following moment I recall like a dream. As our meeting was winding down one of the attorneys, Livio Breghenti, said something like the following in a typically mellifluous Tuscan accent, which I’ll not try to imitate: Wouldn’t it be great if we had a U.S. patent attorney like you working in our office all the time. While he was saying this, the other attorney, Silvia Valenza, opened the shutters of a large window revealing a framed view of Florence’s main duomo. And as I recall it a choir of angels was singing too.

Thus an idea was born.

After returning to New York and convincing myself that I hadn’t been hallucinating that afternoon in Florence, I spent a few weeks writing up and refining a business plan listing all of the benefits I could think of that a U.S. patent attorney could provide to an Italian IP studio. In October – just a little over 9 months ago – I sent my business plan to 8 IP studios in Milan, telling them that I could meet with them in November. All 8 studios contacted me stating that they would very much like to meet with me. That was the first big indication that I was on to something. 8 out of 8.

All of those meetings went very well and everyone agreed that my business plan was right on target. I narrowed the 8 firms down to the 3 largest IP groups in Milan and met with those 3 again in February – less than 6 months ago. I received offers from 2 of the 3 firms while I was still in Milan. I ended up agreeing to work at the largest IP firm in Italy – Jacobacci & Partners – in their Turin office beginning September 1st, one month from today. I chose Jacobacci for a number of reasons: One, it’s the largest IP firm in Italy. Two, and related to the first point, Jacobacci is capable of handling all technical areas and is not over-specialized in any one area to the detriment of other areas.

Besides the personal logistics of moving from New York to Italy there were a few other things to consider. One part of the business plan included selecting a single U.S. firm, preferably in New York, to develop a nice reciprocal relationship with. While I could do some U.S. work for Italian clients on-site in Italy, certain matters I would need to send to the U.S. At the same time, the firm I selected could send European work to me. So I began considering which firm might be the best fit.

On my list of people to contact was Caleb. Caleb and I had both worked at Kramer Levin in the early 2000s just prior to Caleb leaving to work in Israel. Caleb thought the idea sounded interesting and suggested that we speak with Zeev. So Caleb, Zeev and I met a few times and it seemed like this firm would be a good fit. It also made sense that I should come over here for a few months before heading off to Italy. Among other things this would allow me to meet people here and also would allow me to bring my clients to Pearl Cohen and to continue working with them to some degree as I will continue to be Of Counsel to this firm. This type of arrangement would not have been possible at Lucas & Mercanti.

Several things make Pearl Cohen particularly well-suited for this overall arrangement. First, as you all know, Pearl Cohen has offices in the U.S. and in Israel so reciprocity can work in multiple jurisdictions. Second, and related to the first point, this firm has an international outlook. Third, the U.S. office is in New York but the rates are very competitive. So you get the convenience of New York without the typical New York big firm fees. Fourth, I've come to appreciate this firm and the people here very much. From what I can tell there are no oversized egos. People here seem genuine and this is actually quite rare for a law firm, at least in my experience. And finally, it may be a bit odd, but it’s probably a good sign that the managing partner here uses smiley faces in his emails.


So I decided to cast my lot with Pearl Cohen. I walked away from Lucas & Mercanti on Friday, April 1^st and walked into Pearl Cohen on Monday, April 4^th.

As I mentioned earlier, when we first arrived in New York, we thought we would be here about 2 years before returning to the Atlanta area. As it turns out we have been here nearly 14 years and we’re not moving back to Atlanta - we're moving to Italy – and in less than 4 weeks.

So that’s the story of the last 14 years, also known as Point 2 of my 3 points. Point 3 – Italy and the future - will take much less time to discuss. In fact, we’re nearly done.

By the way the country of Italy was unified in 1861 so it’s celebrating its 150th anniversary this year. And the firm I'm going to, Jacobacci & Partners, was founded just 11 years later in 1872. And even though Jacobacci has been around for 139 years, I believe I will be the first U.S. patent attorney born in Knoxville TN to ever work there - or in any Italian IP firm for that matter. I may even be the only person born in Knoxville TN to ever visit Italy. Anyway.

Over the past year or so I’ve learned a lot about the inferiority complexes of Italian IP professionals. They seem to look at themselves as the red-headed step children of Europe. And it's somewhat understandable. For every 10 cases they send to the U.S., they may get 1 case back for filing in Europe. Think how frustrating this must be. 10 cases go west to the U.S. and they wait and wait and wait and finally one case comes back east to them and they continue to wait and wait and wait. And that's it. The other 90% of cases go instead to Germany and the U.K. even though costs there are much higher. And the Italians are so emotional - the stereotype is basically true - so this must feel like unrequited love to them.


So Jacobacci has hired me to make things right, at least for them. How will I go about doing this? They want me to do 2 main things. First, they want me to work on certain U.S. matters for their European clients directly on site in Italy. If they don't send a case out, they don't have to worry about getting one back – no unrequited love problem there. Second and most importantly they want me to use my connections in the U.S. to generate more European filings. By the way, a substantial performance bonus is tied solely to this second point – new European filings.

And now I have to apologize for sounding like a Jerry Lewis telethon, but I do need your help to make this venture successful. I can't do it without you.

I’ve brought a number of clients here from Lucas & Mercanti. I believe that number is 12 – some little, but some big. For example, Abon is a start-up pharmaceutical company in New Jersey co-founded by Sandy Bolton (the guy who played Bobby Fischer to a draw in a chess match). Dyna, is a Brazilian company that makes windshield wipers. Bracco is an Italian-based company which develops contrast agents for ultrasound, MRI and other modalities. Schott is a German company that makes different types of glass for many different products. Baumer Electric, a Swiss company that makes high tech sensors. And from Italy I will send you U.S. work whenever I can, both to the New York office and to Israel.

In return, please remember me, [plaintively] please, when you have clients interested in filing European patent applications, especially for your clients with budget concerns. Fees in Italian IP studios are about 20% less than in Germany and about 40% less than in the U.K. and the quality is very, very good. The Italian IP attorneys, at least in northern Italy, are very competent. In fact, Italian practitioners are regularly beating German and English attorneys in opposition proceedings in Munich, for example. Low price plus high quality means value, right?

But not just new European filings. Any matter – patent or trademark, prosecution or litigation, even validations.

Finally I want to let you know that Fabrizio Jacobacci (the great, great, great, great grandson of the founder) and I will be in New York on October 17^th and 18^th - I'll be here a few extra days. He and I will be happy to speak with you about the various things Jacobacci can do for you. And I will honor my commitment to bring a box of chocolate to one of you.

I have now reached the end of Point 3 which is also the end of my payday lunch talk. Grazie mille per la vostra attenzione. Thank you very much for your attention.

This and that post

I'm making this post because I'm waiting on the phone to talk with someone about COBRA coverage. This is what I do all day lately, and it's not the most interesting blogging material. But perhaps it will allow me to sneak in a quick post.

The photo above is my roof deck planter. I hastily threw in a few annuals in late May and put a net over them to keep the jays and starlings out. At the time we were having problems with the building watering system and I left for Italy in June thinking all the plants would surely be dead by the time we returned.

But when I finally got home and made it back upstairs (late July), our planters looked better than they ever had! Everything had filled in, the plants were lush (the basil has yellowed a little since), the tomato plants had become the size of a small tree (I apparently mistook Beefsteak shoots for Sweet 100s), and best of all, my mom's heirloom salad tomatoes had volunteered in the thick of the other herbs. Beefsteaks don't do so well in planter boxes (mine currently have a sort of rot), but the salad tomatoes are doing fine. Is this the law of benign neglect?

We also returned to find that a pair of Redtailed Hawks had adopted our neighborhood as their hunting territory. They may quite possibly be descendants of Pale Male, the famous Redtail who lives on Mary Tyler Moore's building on Fifth Avenue. If so, they are decidedly slumming in Morningside Heights. But either way, they get the same rich diet of New York City rats and pigeons, and I often see them at work around 6 a.m. when I wake up. (See below, and note the extended talons.)

But the photo above is the one that was the initial impetus for my post: I was cleaning out the science experiment cabinet and happened upon a mason jar that looked like the remains of an old experiment. At first I thought we'd grown some salt crystals, but then I noticed that the bottle was labeled, "Bleach." Then I remembered that I'd used a bottle of bleach to clean up after a bacteria experiment. So I poked the almost 1" crystals adhering to the bottom of the jar, and sure enough there were still bits of liquid bleach underneath the hollowed out pyramids. So I guess this experiment was a two for one!

One last anecdote: CZ recently performed in a nursing home concert for the 103rd birthday of one of the residents. When she walked back into the apartment after the concert, she announced, "Well, now I've seen everything!"

"You mean the 103-year-old man?" I replied.

"No. I was walking up Broadway at 107th and I saw a Columbia student carrying a four-foot-long, clear plastic toothbrush!"

I'll miss this city.

Something new

Bob got an iPad for his business trips and left it home today for me to figure out how it works. Here's one of the things I discovered:



I made this using a .99 app called Penultimate. You write on a notepad with your finger. I really like the way iPad and iPhone allow for you to "draw." My only problem with this app is that I can't seem to write small enough to get much on a page. (You can also buy a special stylus.) But it's pretty fun, don't you think?

I may try to blog our next trip a bit on-the-go. But I do suppose that will require me to wait until the business day is over so I can use this nifty device. Still, it's a pretty good setup, I think!

(I also wrote this post on the iPad, using a blogging app. The app is pretty much necessary if you want to post photos.)

Un guazzabuglio

Un guazzabuglio is a mishmash. It's currently one of Bob's favorite Italian words, and it also describes our life lately:

• Math and physics classes are in full swing in our home two days a week. Everyone loves Mr. Tenney! Sometimes I sit and listen in with my knitting, and I overhear geometric series word problems in which fairies shoot down space aliens. No one blinks an eye.
• We're trying to implement block scheduling. This was CZ's idea. I see her point: Who's got the time to be switching subjects every hour? She's always liked to go slowly and have plenty of time for music practice. Some subjects don't have a day of their own, though, so we have to fit them in edgewise.
• As usual, we don't even quite follow our own homeschooling plans. Ancient history seems to be sliding towards medieval, and Italian...Yikes! Our tutor Paola got really busy and hasn't been coming, so CZ and I have been sitting down to work out direct and indirect object pronouns and the confusing things they do to past participles on our own. We don't have an answer book. Oh, and CZ ordered a Finnish textbook with her own money and is studying that.
• Never, ever poke a clogged moka pot.
• We are going to Milan for Thanksgiving. Go figure!
• I am going to be with my mom next week while she has cancer surgery. They're hoping they found it early. I just want to see my mom.
• CZ is concert mistress in her orchestra again. This is its own reward, because she gets cool solos ;-). She has two competitions in November and I've-forgotten-how-many recitals and practice performances leading up to those. And she gets to play in the Redeemer orchestra this Christmas!

So, if I don't post for a while, I'm probably doing one of the above (with the exception of poking the moka pot). I'll be back as soon as I can.

Meanwhile, here are some recent illustrations of our guazzabuglio life.

We made lunch yesterday from farfalle, parsley, and the last red pepper of the season. I include it here because we decided that it looked Christmas-y!

This is trig, written in Elvish script. I think the moral of the story is: If you have nerdish tendencies, run with them!

I'm trying to finish this scarf for Knit Together, a ministry of Hope for New York. It's the third thing I've ever knit in my life, and I'm finally learning how to correct my own mistakes. I like to work on this because it gives me an excuse to listen in on math, physics, and orchestra rehearsals.

"Our" tree is turning! I look forward to this event every fall.

A recent sunset from the Svalbard webcam. Because we live in a city, we supplement our diet with vicarious nature scenes.

The little big picture

CZ, age three, very shortly after we moved to New York

I needed some perspective yesterday, so I got out my little journal of things CZ said when she was little. I know that all children say cute things when they are small, and I have my favorite things that other children have said, too. But I only have permission to post ones that CZ has said. (Yes, she got to edit the list.) I do think they show her particular personality and make me appreciate her. These are through about age six:

In the backyard: "That's toys-in-ivy. Want to get the toys out."

"Does the Holy Spirit have a stethoscope?"

"May I walk on water when I grow up?...Oh, I'll walk in water."

Saying her prayers after going to the Metropolitan Museum: "Thank you God for the paintings you made." "Well, " I explained, wanting her to understand the difference between God's creativity and man's, "Men made the paintings, and God gave them the creativity. She paused for a few minutes, folded her hands, and began again, "Thank you God for the frames. I know you made the frames!"

"I don't want this bagel anymore. It's starting to taste like puzzle pieces."

"On the holidays, Grandmommy cooks hollandaise!"

***

Under the desk, playing with the nativity scene, and narrating in a story-teller voice:

"Once there was a woman named Mary, and it was a wonderful sight..."

"Once there was Mary, Joseph, Jesus and sheep. And it was good, but their problem was the goat [donkey] couldn't fit in the barn..."

"Once upon a time, there was Mary, Joseph, Jesus, a sheep and a donkey. And it worked out really well and it was fine and alright, though Jesus just, just, crawled everywhere...to save Mary from crocodiles and stuff!"

"Once upon a time there was a barn..."

***

"Do stars have gravity?"

"I need to go to the doctor tomorrow and tell him I have hypochondria."

***

Me, reading the Bible: "As far as the East is from the West, so far I will remove your sins from you."

CZ, looking very surprised: "You mean they're all the way over on the West Side?!!"

***

Stretching her boots out in her stroller: "My boots are so yellow. They're as yellow as old cabs."

With her first 100-piece puzzle all laid out around her on the floor: "Is this a chapter puzzle?"

***

Looking rather wistfully out the window towards the street, on a cloudy day. "Every part of the world is crowded today."

Looking out same window, on another day, with growing horror: "How did it get to be Monday? Is the whole city Monday?!"

***

"A month is a long time, but you can't see it. In here is a month, and out there is a month, but you can't see it. You can see through it, like air...Can you see microwaves? They're like that."

"What is dinner time + dinner time?...Way past my bedtime!"

"I'm a happy girl, 'cause I have a little fort, and the reason I'm in here so much is...I don't know how to get out!"

"Mommy, I like the way there can be TV on TV."

After we missed the express bus because there wasn't enough room for everyone to get on and the door closed on someone's backpack: "Mommy, it's okay. We didn't want that bus...It was just full of lawyers anyway."

Standing with me while we were waiting for the elevator: "Am I imagining this?"

From the bathtub: "Mommy, the water's running out of float-ness!"

To Bob, conspiratorially, while playing Frisbee in the park: "Okay, get ready! You never know where Mommy's going to throw it next!"

"You put a puzzle piece where you think it goes, not where you hope it goes. You hope it goes everywhere."

Me, looking absently at a take-out menu: "Your hot dog comes with two sides."

CZ, puzzled: "Everything has to have at least two sides, or it wouldn't be real."

"Lotsarella, please!"

and

At Grandmommy's house in rural Georgia, sleepily describing the sound of crickets in the woods: "They sound like millions of car horns blowing, far away."

***

Sometimes we just need to look at the big picture, don't we?

Helix online

Helix, Christmas 2008

I confess a soft spot for this gift store in downtown Athens, Georgia. I'd like it even if my sister and brother-in-law weren't the owners, but it happens that they are. And now you can shop Helix online. (They have no idea I'm posting this, by the way. At least not yet.)

It's also fun that when my sister comes up to NYC twice a year to attend the Javitz retail show, I get in a visit with her and also get a preview of what's to come. One of the items we talked about when she came up last month was Clocky. I know my sister didn't invent Clocky, but I must say, it's got her sense of humor.

I'm quite fond of CZ's Charley Harper cards from Helix, too.

And the Lomography blog looks fun!

All in all, I think this store stacks up nicely against many of the artsy stores in Soho. Not that I'm biased or anything.

The downside of multitasking

The New York Times has published yet another article on how bad multitasking is for you.  It includes some tests for attention during multitasking, which I took.  Here's what the article says about the test results:

The multitaskers then did a significantly worse job than the non-multitaskers at recognizing whether read rectangles had changed position.  In other words, they had trouble filtering out the blue ones--the irrelevant information.

So, too, the multitaskers took longer than non-multitaskers to switch among talkss, like differetiating vowels from consonants and then odd from even numbers.  The multitaskers were shown to be less efficient at juggling problems.

I am a little confused about my results, however.  I did extremely well in the focusing task, but very poorly in the juggling task (though I got them all right and required no additional time for switching).  I have always, in some sense, known this about myself, and it's a big part of why I try to avoid getting too busy or socializing in a crowd.  I react slowly when pressured, like a deer in the headlights.

So, does this mean I'm a multitasker or a non-multitasker?  I'm not sure. I think I'm an easily-distracted person who much prefers to be alone and quiet so I can focus on one thing.  I'd be curious as to your results, too, and what you think it means, if anything.  As for me, I'm getting off the computer!

***

Update:  I wanted to add another couple of interesting quotes from the article:

Multitaskers tend to search for new information rather than accept a reward for putting older, more valuable information to work.

This reminds me of our obsession with the newest kinds of knowledge, and our relegation of the classics to obscurity through our preference for political correctness.  I'm glad for the new perspectives, but don't want to forget the old, either.  There's so much that's universal in them, if we'd only just see it.

Researchers say these findings point to an interesting dynamic: multitaskers seem more sensitive than non-multitaskers to incoming information.

Is this a circular argument?  Do the multitaskers multitask because they are more sensitive to begin with, or do they become that way because they multitask?  It seems like it could be both. In our family, at least with CZ and me, I suspect that we were born with a propensity for distraction that we work to keep at bay.  Compared to many people we know, we are practically Luddites.  But I discourage new technology for a good reason--I know that it will only make it harder to focus, and the ability to focus is so worth the effort!


Another update:  I think there's something poorly designed about these tests, because everyone who commented on them got the same skewed results that I did.


Also, feel free to point out my typos.  This time they were so egregious that they changed the meaning of my post!

And now, for something completely different...

Eventually I will post some sort of personal update again.  But for now, a short diversion in honor of our current five a.m. sunrise:

Houses in Longyearbyen, the capital of Svalbard

(from Wikipedia)

CZ loves all things arctic.  One of the symptoms at the moment is the Svalbard webcam widget on the dashboard of our Mac computer. She's had it there since about March and checks it more often than I want to know.

Haven't heard much about Svalbard lately?  That's because it's halfway between Norway and the North Pole.  It's so remote that it's not even on weather satellite maps.  It's so remote that it's the home of the Global Seed Vault, which I gather is the Noah's ark of agriculture.  But it has its own history, government, ethnic structure and tourism.  And most interestingly from CZ's point of view, it's a frozen land of midnight sun.  

CZ updates me daily on the Svalbardian weather forecast:  Lately it's hovering around freezing and I think there's even been a bit of snow this week.  I've found myself trying to catch glimpses of the webcam when it's 3 a.m. there, trying to see the subtle differences in the sun's angle, and imagining what it's like to try to sleep when it's never dark. We've been watching the ice melt in the fjord, and watching huge floes appear in the camera's view as they drift in from the ocean. Occasionally we see some spectacular sun and cloud halo effects during the arctic spring equivalent of morning.

But most days it's cloudy, gray, and the grass is brown.  The webcam is pointed towards three buildings, all painted red, and we never see a human.  Yesterday as I was putting on my contact lenses, CZ pounded on the bathroom door, barely suppressing a fit of slightly self-mocking glee: "News flash!  Some people in Svalbard moved their cars!"  

The expected high today in New York is 88.  Two days ago I walked outside to find a cab on the sidewalk, a smashed bus shelter, glass and emergency vehicles everywhere.  (And that's only the tip of the iceberg, so to speak.)  It's June and we're still busier with studies than we'd like to be.  Svalbard's looking pretty good, and apparently we're not the only New Yorkers who see it that way.  

Does he know about this chair?

The Chair arrived yesterday.

I don't know when Bob started asking for it. We've never had enough comfortable places to sit in our living room, and when we have visitors, someone inevitably ends up on the floor with pillows instead.

Last summer, Bob told me that if I'd just get a chair, he'd get rid of the TV. I knew this was a golden moment, so I jumped on it: I disconnected the cable, and the doorman toddled out of our apartment with our ancient Sony. So then we had a hole, like a gap tooth, awaiting the Chair.

The problem is, I don't have many opportunities to buy furniture, so I'm sort of perfectionistic about it. I took two trips to a store to look at chairs, one with Bob. Then I started looking for fabric. There was only one more color I could pull out of the rug that would look good in the room, and that was a dark, cool charcoal--no pattern. I wanted a velvety texture...just because. I went through every fabric book in the store, and started on other stores. I'd bring home the little swatches and put them on the floor, then turn them a quarter turn to see how they caught the light. I'd get busy and forget about them. The one I liked best only came in a 1" x 2" swatch, so I had to order a yard. It got backordered. My mother-in-law came up and didn't like it. My sister suggested other colors. Six months went by. Finally I ordered cool charcoal velvet anyway.

Bob, patient man that he is, didn't complain, but he would occasionally ask wistfully, "When is the chair coming?" It's the same plaintive tone he gets when I cook vegetarian too many nights in a row.

Last week I got the call: When could they deliver the chair? CZ and I looked at one another and said in unison, "Shh, don't tell Daddy!" Yesterday, the appointed day, the delivery window came and went. Finally I got a call from the delivery man: "I'm at__________. Where are you?" Someone had given him our old address on the East Side! We rescheduled for later in the afternoon. That window came and went. Our phone went out (it's been doing that lately). It was almost time for Bob to come home.

Finally, at six p.m., the buzzer rang. The delivery man, obviously happy to be at the end of his day, dropped the chair into place with a smile and whisked off the plastic. Voila! My cell phone rang. It was Bob wanting to know why he couldn't reach us on the house phone. CZ ran into the bedroom to muffle the delivery man's booming voice and disco cell phone, and made excuses for me.

Was it worth it? Less than an hour later, we watched Bob walk into the apartment, talking about something else. He turned the corner to put his backpack on the chair, saw that it was a different chair, and jumped back in exaggerated surprise. "Ah!" he gasped. "The Chair! It's here!"

So last night after dinner we all got our books and sat in our places: I in my spot on the side of the sofa next to the table, Bob in his green chair with the ottoman, and CZ in the new chair. (After all, she was the one who usually got stuck on the floor.)

And there was great rejoicing.

Homeschooling Wordles

Someone asked me how to do homeschooling paperwork the other day, so I pulled out my notebook full of quarterly reports. Quarterly reports are what New Yorkers have to turn in to the district to show that they're homeschooling all the required subjects. I have ten years worth of them now. I'm not a fan of regulation, but they really do provide a nice record of what we've done over the years.

After my friend left, I started looking at them and noticing recurring themes. Remembering an applet I'd seen recently, I went to Wordle and plugged in some of the most common words on the reports that I knew represented CZ's genuine interests. And voila, it generated the image above!

I don't know how to make a big version of the Wordle yet, but you can click on the image to enlarge it. Otherwise, it might be sort of hard to see the individual words. When you create your own Wordles, you can play around with fonts and color schemes, and make words bigger or smaller according to how many times you enter them. You can also omit words. CZ tried entering in her entire ninth grade learning journal, and that was interesting, too! (See below. I omitted a few words for confidentiality.) Maybe you'd like to do one for yourself or for your own children. Have fun!

A musical request, in good form

Yesterday I sat down at the computer to find this request from CZ. This is a very CZ thing to do, in several different ways. But even I didn't understand the full significance of it at first. Any guesses, musicians?

She got a further laugh when Bob came home, asked, "What's this?" and absent-mindedly tried to point to the sticky note with the mouse. We've really come to depend on that Mac note widget.

The concertmaster and one of the flutists in this orchestra are very supportive musical friends, by the way. I suspect that Arvo Part and the Vaughan Williams violin solo also have something to do with the urgency of the request.

Blog Award

My friend Debbie at Artful Aspirations gave me a blog award! Thanks, Debbie! I've never gotten an award!

I'm supposed to answer the following questions in one word and then pass the award on to five other bloggers. But I'm one of those people who never can resist tweaking an assignment, so I handed out the questionnaire to my husband and daughter and had them complete it, too. Then I took the answers I liked best and combined them into this super duper questionnaire! Bob's answers are in blue, mine are in coral, and CZ's are in green:

Here are the questions:
1. Where is your cell phone? Non-existent
2. Your hair? Troubled
3. Your mother? Sociable
4. Your father? Solitary
5. Your favorite food? Salmon
6. Your dream last night? Moving
7. Your favorite drink? Coffee
8. Your dream/goal? Completing this
9. What room are you in? Cold
10. Your hobby? Italian
11. Your fear? Heat
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Here
13. Where were you last night? Home, home
14. Something that you aren’t? Perfect
15. Muffins? Yes
16. Wish list item? Muffins
17. Where did you grow up? South
18. Last thing you did? This
19. What are you wearing? Running clothes
20. Your TV? Gone
21. Your Pets? Past
22. Friends? Present
23. Your life? Future (hopefully)
24. Your mood? Positive
25. Missing Someone? Grandmother
26. Vehicle? 1 train
27. Something you're not wearing? Pants
28. Your favorite store? Kitchen (everything's free!)
29. Your favorite colour? All
30. When was the last time you laughed? 1 minute, 27.936 seconds ago
31. Last time you cried? Forgot
32. Your best friend? Laura, Bob, depends
33. One place that I go to over and over? work, home
34. Facebook? Never!
35. Favorite place to eat? Home or Spiga, home, home

Now, I'm supposed to pass this award on to five other people. But I don't like doing that, for the same reason I don't list other people's blogs on my sidebar--I'm just not comfortable picking favorites. But I've read all the blogs of the people who comment here regularly, I really do like them all, and there are probably about five of you! So if you are looking for something to stir up your creative juices and feel like answering this questionnaire, consider yourselves awarded! If not, no pressure!

Riding for Hope for New York

Updated photo: Here's Bob finishing the bike ride today (Saturday the 26th). He enjoyed himself immensely and now I think he's looking forward to a nice nap and then some dinner!

As you may know, my husband Bob is just a little bit goal-oriented. This summer when he sustained a minor calf injury and took up cycling to make up for miles lost running, he really got on the band--um, bike. Now, as part of his goal of becoming more involved at Redeemer Presbyterian Church here in NYC, he's signed up for the Hope for New York (HFNY) Cycling Team for this Saturday's Escape New York bike ride.

Bob plans to do the full 100 mile route. He's created a sponsor page for himself so that anyone who’s interested can donate to HFNY through this event. To make things more interesting, an anonymous donor has agreed to make a $500 matching gift for the first 40 riders who raise $500. (We’ve made sure that the threshold amount has already been donated so that we’ll receive one of these $500 anonymous donor donations.) In addition, Bob is matching each additional dollar donated through his site, up to $1000. You can also click the logo at the top of the page for more information on the Bike-a-Thon.

Hope for New York is a Christian organization which donates time and money to the poor in New York City. If you've ever been to Redeemer, you’re undoubtedly familiar with HFNY. It's a good cause, and a good opportunity to make your donation dollar go farther. This is Bob's first time to try fundraising for a charity, so he just wants to spread the news. But please do not donate if the time or event, or the whole idea of donating through a blog, is not right for you.