Sayonara 2009

2009 was the year when Facebook took off or maybe it was earlier than that but I was late to the party. Anyway, although FB comes with head scratching frustrations it's a great way to reconnect with family and friends I haven't seen nor spoken to in years.

It's also a nice way to maintain a snapshot reminder of what transpired in my life over the past year (memory isn't what it used to be). Thus, this entry in my personal time capsule in cyberspace.

2009, a year filled with change, many tears, and much excitement...

Your Facebook statuses for the year are listed below.

January

• brought in the New year at 35000 feet now i get to celebrate again in oakland
• is off to Sonoma for a little vino
• is autolysing a sweet potato pugliese
• is exhausted and is hitting the sack
• is hoping it warms up by Tuesday
• is going to the concert at the Lincoln Memorial. If you're there call me.
• just got home from the Inauguration concert. It was fantastic and very inspiring!
• coincidentally passed Obama's motorcade.
• just got 2 tickets to the Inauguration. OMG!
• Is out and about walking toward the Capitol
• Is tired and cold but ecstatic about seeing the Inauguration
• Is watching Michelle and Barack at the Neighborhood Ball. They look great!
• just posted some Inauguration photos at http://randomwalkway.blogspot.com/
• Just slumdogged
• is updating my Facebook update
• is looking for a good and reasonable plumber who works in DC. If you know of one pls send me his name and # asap.
• wonders what all my DC FB friends do when they need a plumber.
• is heading to the most southern point in the US..and its raining :(
• is chillin' in margaritaville.
• miscalculated

February

• is throwing out lots of old stuff and occasionally finding an old photo that's a true gem.
• thinks someone defriended me but is not sure who
• is watching the Ben Carson story on TNT
• is loving life and my wife
• is about to embark on a gnocchi adventure
• thinks dim sum good food
• forgot what a witch Anita Bryant was.
• wants equal rights for EVERYONE
• is thinking "This is the best President's Day I've ever had."
• has played about 72 holes today...on Wii
• is about to be Dark Knighted
• "Blue Bottle in the morning, smells like victory!"
• Let le bon temps roll.
• is loving the tribute for Stevie Wonder at the WH on PBS right now
• is getting a workout scraping a ceiling

March

• is off to Santiago and Buenos Aires on Fri. Any recommendations are very welcome.
• is chilling after a long day exploring Santiago
• Is swallowing his ethics and going for the Chilean Seabass...oh no!
• Is celebrating the anniversary of meeting M
• is bracing for a day filled with tough questions
• Thumper was delicious.
• "If you visit Santiago go to Liguria for drinks and a bite to eat"
• just touched down in Buenos Aires.
• now has a tremendous appreciation of the tango.
• played pimentos de padron roulette with M...she lost.
• is enjoying the breeze in el Tigre
• just watched a guy play the harp on the subway...strange but enjoyable.
• is in carnivore's heaven
• is having one of the best meals of my life!
• "George is happy"
• is in the Big Apple
• is looking forward to getting back to DC.
• luvs a good snail...so tasty
• is headed to the birthplace of California cuisine about to enjoy a pre-birthday gustatory delight for M.
• just finished making a lime/avocado pie with a macadamia/walnut/coconut/date crust. The jury has begun its deliberations on whether it gets thumbs up or thumbs down.
• Earthquake, what earthquake?
• Bottarga as a birthday gift..how odd is that?

April

• is listening to the Prince channel on Pandora and making hamburger buns...what a combo!
• Overheard at Eastern Market, "Oh look, it's a Michelle Obama bobblehead." Only in DC!
• has taken the day off and is enjoying warm SF weather.
• is enjoying the Russian River but it's not rushin'

May

• is off to Paris.
• Work is over now the real fun begins...off to the Loire Valley and Burgundy
• Sleeping in a castle isn't so bad.
• OGD! My new favorite fowl is...pigeon..sorry duck. It's so delicious.
• had a wonderful day with M.

June

• is stuck at a conference at Haahvard on a gorgeous day.
• escaped...time to find a lobster roll.
• The lobster roll was execllent but the dinner conversation even better...we shared a table with Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck. Very nice folks.
• is off to work in dreary rainy Chicago.
• My reservoir of tears is dry. Please say a prayer for my mother.

July

• The most beautiful and caring person I've ever known, my mom, peacefully left this earth yesterday.
• Thank you everyone for the beautiful and warm thoughts and prayers. I'm so fortunate to have had such a wonderful mother but I'm also very fortunate to have so many wonderful friends and family.
• It's a new day!
• Take a deep breath and...chill
• is about to go UP in 3D
• is cranking up the grill again...next stop salmon
• Stern Grove...good music, good peeps, good sunshine...good times
• Me vs. Zee Grill. Round three:duck
• KO! The duck didn't duck.
• The carnivore returns. Tonight, carnitas!
• is bourbon tasting with wonderful friends.

August

• is nibbling on the Big Apple
• is experiencing iPhone envy. M has one, I don't :(
• Mmmm dinner...watermelon salad, pork chops & fried green tomatoes. I'm so spoiled.
• ahhh, sunny (and chilly) California.
• One of the nice things about drinking beer and playing pool in a lesbian bar...no lines for the men's room
• Blue Bottle in the morning, smells like victory.
• Who turned up the heat...jeez!
• It's Basil time...Hayden, not the herb
• is scotch tasting...hmmmm
• A delayed redeye, deferred discomfort

September

• is off to India on a 18 hour journey
• Finally...Mumbai! 1:30am here.
• Trying to get to New Delhi but running up against a pilots strike...arrgh!
• Found a flying carpet!
• Is wondering if there's a deli in Delhi
• is loving the Taj with the love of my life.
• Is searching for a stronger word than traffic jam because whatever this is it's definitely something more than a jam.
• The cost of trinkets being aggressively hawked by Indian street vendors = $2. The benefit of being mistaken for an Indian in India = Priceless
• A few meetings, a nice lunch, and a workout in the gym, followed by a ayurvedic massage, cocktails and an awesome dinner with a beautiful woman...what an incredible last day in India. Now at 3am a 20 hour journey back to DC begins.
• is ready for the day.
• It's 4:30am...where is everyone?
• has got the flu. I hope it's not the piggly wiggly type.
• Off to AC
• My money's on M

October

• Off to Cali (fornia not Colombia)
• Round 3 tonight...Tequila tasting. Esta loco!
• Just de-friended a guy who I thought was an open-minded Republican. I was wrong. I don't need that narrow minded crap in my life...the de-friending felt good!
• is wondering when the uproar will begin over Elinor Ostrom winning the Nobel Prize for Economics. She's a political scientist! : )
• Heading back to DC for a few days
• Double feature day...haven't done that in about 30 years
• First feature...Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love. Excellent movie. Go c it. For the DC folks it's playing at the Avalon Theater.
• Second feature: "Teza" which is about post-Haile Selassie Ethiopia. Long and depressing but an eye=opener about Ethiopia. The after-film talk by the filmaker was very interesting.
• Took the 6am shuttle to NYC this AM for a quick mtg...brutal! Bob Woodward was on the flight. Was eavesdropping on his conversation about Cheney and he jokingly said "he'll be the subject of my last book which will be titled 'Dick'"
• Still trying to figure out the difference between Live Feed and News Feed. If anyone knows let me know. FB is starting to get old.
• Hello Chicago! Today begins almost a 2 week stint in the Windy City. I'd love to get together with all my friends while we're in town. For now, Chicagoans I need your assistance. Let me know the one or two "must do's" in Chi-town....restaurants, sights, music, dive joints, whatever you think makes Chicago a great place to live. Gracias and see you soon!
• Took my wife to Chicago and she fell in love...with a knife!
• Not the best U2 concert I've seen BUT I wasn't there in person so that probably makes a difference.
• 12 games of pool and almost as many Makers Marks. A nice Friday night with my wife

November

• Is sipping Death's Door White Whiskey. A local whiskey from Wisconsin. Not my favorite but it's not bad.
• Pheasant, bison tartare and rabbit for dinner last night...yummm
• Pitstopping in DC for 86 hours....arghh.
• Off to lima, the country not the bean although I do like the bean.
• is off to Lima, the city not the bean although I do like the bean.
• Wonders if everyone will be as bored with my speech tomorrow as they have been with all the speeches today. The probability is high.
• Coca tea...hmmm I hope I don't have any tests coming soon.
• Leaving Lima, off to Tokyo. Ahhh the joys of a 25 hour flight.
• Why do they sell the same crap in every single airport in the world?
• Immigration hell! Why I need to clear US immigration even though I'm not staying in the US is beyond me. What ever happened to direct access to connecting flights?
• Uncle!
• 33.5 hours door to door. I think that sets some kind of personal record for me.
• Just saw a Japanese bartender do the fabled "hard shake". Impressive.
• Sayanora Tokyo, it's been nice. Hello Oakland, it'll be nicer!
• Thanks to my mother-in-law I'm now discovering what I ate in Japan and there are some surprises, fish sperm sac and sea slug guts top the list. Sometimes I guess it's best not to know what you're eating but both were tastey!
• Foraging the chanterelle motherlode.
• Just finished baking a spaghetti squash carrot bread. Turned out better than I imagined.
• I'm looking for a good structural engineer in the DC area. If anyone has a recommendation please let me know. Thanks.
• is ready to pop!
• Friday was supposed to be easy and quite then Dubai went off the ranch and ruined my day.
• East coast style rain in Oakland...it's fantastic. Let it pour!
• Plunging a live crab in boiling water always seems so brutal but boy do I know it's gonna be good.

December

• I always feel like a kid when the first snow of the season falls. It's falling now...yeah!
• Off to New Delhi, again. A "quick" 14 hour flight from Newark and I'm there...arggh.
• Current weather in New Delhi at 7:30am according to Accuweather: 50F and Smoky. Smoky..what is that? I guess I shouldn't go for a run.
• Mistake #1: not having coffee at the hotel. Mistake #2: letting my driver know then spending the next hour looking for a cup of coffee in a tea drinking country.
• For some reason seeing an elephant walking down the street wasn't as startling as I thought it would be.
• has mentally checked out but it looks like I'm not the only one.
• I will never complain about US airport security again. After one immigration check, two x-ray scans, three ticket reviews, and a partridge in a pear tree I finally made it to my seat.
• If anyone needs a United systemwide (possibly 4) or regional (1) upgrade gratis let me know. I have some that are expiring in Dec and Jan.
• Shoveling snow, a natural workout. Maker's Mark afterwards, a substitute fire.
• Yah...no school today! Oops, I mean work.
• Just got home from a nice tour of the White House. They sure know how to do Christmas decorations!
• Just watched the one and only Redskins play I've seen all season....a 70 yard gain by Dallas...that's enough for me.
• is shelling black eye peas
• Have started my New Years resolution b4 the New Year.
• A blue moon on New Years Eve happens once in a blue moon
• Lost the soba battle. Defeated but not broken.
• Sayonora 2009. Hello 2010.