See the post a few entries down. After way too much travel in 2008, we spent the entire holidays staying close to home, playing tourist in our own town. Several friends came through as well – always a good excuse to hit the aquarium. We hung out at the High. We brought our kids together with friends as much as we could. We attended more Hannukah parties than I can recall – and ate far too many latkes. It was a rejuvenating experience to not push ourselves to get on the road. I think we’ll do it again soon!
Gelman’s Goodbye
My old friend and co-worker Mitch Gelman, Executive Editor and chief muckety-muck for CNN.com for the last several years was feted before the new year as he left CNN, Turner and Atlanta for greener pastures out in Colorado where his wife is in veterinary school. Mitch and I started within a few weeks of one another back at CNN/SI, he taking the path into the editorial world while I moved more and more into technology. He’s one of the smartest guys I know, with tremendous instincts as a journalist and manager. He will be missed around these parts. In this image above, Simit (on the plasma screen above Mitch) does his best impersonation of Mitch being pissed off, if I recall correctly.
A long year of travel
According to my trip log on Dopplr.com (a great site, check it out if you haven’t seen it), I took 26 trips for a total of over 45,000 miles – or about 20% of the way to the Moon. The photos from this, my last business trip of the year, were taken in the Seattle area in late December. I really like this image of the very first de-icing I can ever remember undergoing, even all my years in Boston. Maybe I’m just suffering from short term memory loss – or jetlag from too much flying in 2008. Anyway, check out Dopplr, or my new fave travel site – tripit.com. They have a spiffy feature where you forward your itinerary you get form the airline, hotel, rental car company etc – and they automatically import the details of your trips into the system. Giving dopplr a run for their money.
What’s a Jew to do on 12/24?
Get together with friends and eat Chinese, of course! Hosted by the Simons, with food fetched by Joel Silverman from what Sam calls ‘that Chinese pancake place,’ otherwise known as Cafe 101 on Buford Highway, it was a fun time to get all the kids together and eat too much.