Cats

This is Olivia. I would show you her face, but it is often shoved inside a bag. Any bag will do, she's not particularly choosy. If you set a bag down for more than a minute she will find her way into it.

Where I'll Be Spending Time Today

I am happy to announce I finally have an afternoon to myself, with nothing to do. It is rainy, chilly, and gloomy here, and I plan on sitting in this chair with a good book, a cup of tea, and a cat or two. Yay me!

Coffee

Coffee is my lifeblood. Life is too short to drink crappy coffee. But I am 😝.

Why I Love November

Besides the obvious reason that I love November (it's my birth month), there are several other considerations in my choice to name it my favorite.

1. The weather. I absolutely love blustery days.

2. Thanksgiving. Of all the holidays we celebrate here in the states, and notwithstanding the political incorrectness of the day, this is my favorite holiday. Perhaps it is because it evokes wonderful childhood memories, and later in life, the joy to be found in a 4-day weekend. 

3. Beethoven. Yes, Beethoven. You see, Beethoven is my favorite composer. And WQXR is my favorite classical music station. And the month of November is Beethoven Awareness Month. How awesome is that?

4. Christmas is coming! But not yet.

5. Did I mention my birthday?

HAPPY NOVEMBER!

OmniFocus vs. Things...and the winner is??

Things! During the last two months, I've found myself getting frustrated with OmniFocus, primarily because I spend so much time trying to set it up juuuust right. On the other hand, with Things, it seems much more intuitive. I found that as I needed to jot down a reminder, I would have to tell myself to use OmniFocus. It always felt like a chore. That's never a good sign.

The best news? Things now is integrated with Siri if you're running iOS 6 on your device. Awesome.

My Personal GTD App Comparison

I've recently downloaded Cultured Code's Things 2.0 for my new iPad 3 (I already had the iPhone app), and have decided to do a little comparison with Omnifocus. I've been using Omnifocus off and on for several years, but have just never managed to adopt it fully, since it can be very complex. I'm going to give this comparison a month, then make a decision and delete the losing app. Let's hope I can see this through!

 

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I hate Wednesday holidays

So, what is one to do when there's a holiday in the middle of the week, and not enough time to go anywhere or do anything? Am I whining? I thought so. Happy 4th of July.

The Steins Collect

It's been far too long since my last visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. What pushed me yesterday was the desire to see the Steins Collect before it's gone. It was FANTASTIC. I'm not one to linger in any exhibit, in part because I'm a super fast reader, and in part because I process information/images by looking at them, then pondering them internally later. My companion this trip (an artist) is the opposite; she spends hours looking at the art and reading every scrap of description available in the gallery. What happened though was that I spent as much time in there as she did. It was THAT good, and interesting. 

From the Met website:

"Gertrude Stein, her brothers Leo and Michael, and Michael's wife Sarah were important patrons of modern art in Paris during the first decades of the twentieth century. This exhibition unites some two hundred works of art to demonstrate the significant impact the Steins' patronage had on the artists of their day and the way in which the family disseminated a new standard of taste for modern art. The Steins' Saturday evening salons introduced a generation of visitors to recent developments in art, particularly the work of their close friends Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, long before it was on view in museums.

Beginning with the art that Leo Stein collected when he arrived in Paris in 1903—including paintings and prints by Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Édouard Manet, and Auguste Renoir—the exhibition traces the evolution of the Steins' taste and examines the close relationships formed between individual members of the family and their artist friends. While focusing on works by Matisse and Picasso, the exhibition also includes paintings, sculpture, and works on paper by Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis, Juan Gris, Marie Laurencin, Jacques Lipchitz, Henri Manguin, André Masson, Elie Nadelman, Francis Picabia, and others."

The exhibit also touched on some of Gertrude's writings, as well as her relationship with Alice B. Toklas. If you haven't seen this yet, and are near or in NYC, go check it out before it's gone (June 3rd).

Is It Wrong To Love A Company This Much?

The Tom Bihn Aeronaut bag

I recently purchased the above Tom Bihn Aeronaut bag, and had the pleasure of using it on a recent trip to Ft. Lauderdale. Let me just say this. I. Love. This. Bag. But then again, I love EVERY bag I've ever purchased from Tom Bihn. If you are unfamiliar with this company, let me fill you in. First, there is a real person, Tom Bihn himself, behind this company. He's been making bags for over 20 years in Washington state. The company keeps a blog that's always being updated with product reviews, new products, customer feedback and pictures, and assorted fun stuff. They also host a forum on their website where Tom's multitude of fans (yes, I count myself among them) can interact and talk about everything from bag design, post pictures of their TB bags all over the world, share travel tips, and tell the company what they'd like to see next. And Tom Bihn listens - there have been several updated products that have incorporated customer suggestions. 

This company also nails it on customer service. On the few occasions when I've needed to contact them, they've been incredibly responsive. The first time, a part of the strap buckle on my Co-Pilot bag cracked, so I emailed to let them know. Two days later, I had a free replacement. Most recently, when I ordered the above Aeronaut, it arrived in the wrong color scheme (even though the packing list had the correct color on it). I'd wanted the Forest/Ultraviolet, but got the Forest/Steel instead. When I called and said I had wanted the bag for a trip 5 days later, they overnighted the correct bag, and even included a return shipping label so all I had to do was leave the wrong bag out for my UPS guy to pick up! Awesome.

So now that it's been a few weeks since I ordered my Aeronaut, I'm getting an itchy mouse finger.....Large Cafe Bag anyone?