Why I Oughta...

This is the first season that I've taken a high degree of interest in our lawn.  This is also the first time that I'm cutting the grass (in the front) by myself.  For the past few seasons, we've used a service to cut the front (while Go-Go - our Automower - cuts the back) and I wasn't ever really pleased with how they worked our lawn.  They came every week, no matter what and that, I think, made for a less-than-ideal lawn for us.  There were some ruts that I fixed this Spring with seed and I think generally, they were cutting it too short and coming EVERY WEEK just to put in the billings.  I get that.  They're running a business.  But, when the price increases came this Spring, I just decided to buy a lawnmower.  My FIRST lawn mower and cut it myself.  The front itself isn't very big (including the parkways and the side strip on the other side of the driveway, we're talking less than 2,500 square feet), so it doesn't take long.  And, once I started t

I didn't get to see a lot of Singapore, but one thing I was struck by was all the shipping traffic in/around the coast.  Here's a shot I saw on departure as we took off out of the airport on a morning flight.  Quite an armada of container ships, right?  This was the view off the coast, too.  We see ships on the horizon when we're on vacation - in California or Florida - but they're just occasional blips on floating on the sea far out there.  Not quite the same thing going on here - which I assume is for a variety of reasons including the size of the passages and the restrictions/regulations placed on the voyages.  But, all that stuff we buy has to come from somewhere, right? 

Another post in the series.  Pepsi J-Cola post here .  These are, from top to bottom, Singapore Hotel Lounge, JAL in-flight service and Marriott Courtyard Lounge.  Two skinny Red Bull-shaped cans.  One normal, 12 ounce can in the middle. 

I spent the day in the office and after opening the blinds, this was the view from our conference room.  That's Singapore National Stadium on the left and there was some sort of event going on inside during the workday. This is the latest in the [ View from my office ] series.

I walked through a food hall kind-of-place in Singapore and saw these birds hanging in the front of one of the places.  I'm sure it is delicious.  But....All I could think about was this scene that runs at the end 1 of A Christmas Story : 1. [I say *end* of the movie, but like a lot of you, I watch this movie in constant repeat format on Christmas Day and the end blurs with the beginning - you know how TBS rolls the credits in a tiny format in the corner???] ↩

With multiple visits to Tokyo now under my belt, I have come to realize that there are plenty of things that I am drawn to during my stays including the hospitality, the crazy products, work (of course) and maybe most significantly:  their horticulture.  Mostly their trees. I've posted a bunch about the trees of Tokyo starting with my first visit where I saw the Cherry trees in full blossom in 2017 .  Earlier this year, I posted some photos from a Spring visit where I saw some workers pruning street trees into a columnar shape and had the good fortune of seeing the deciduous trees without their leaves.  I also posted this photo of a carefully crafted pine tree outside of the Peninsula Hotel close to the office I was visiting.   The pruning they do starts young as I found a few very thin pine trees close to a building that have begun their pruning/training.   And...where I saw the most interesting collection of trees (mostly White and Black Pines) was in the outer gardens of

I stayed at the Tokyo Marriott on a recent trip for just one night, but this was the second time I stayed there.  However, this was the first time I had time for breakfast.  The previous trip, I had an early departure time and had to run out before breakfast.    At this Marriott - which has some terrific gardens that I'll post about another day here on the blog - is a converted hotel, so it wasn't built as a Marriott .  So, the layout isn't traditional, or at least traditional in my mind when it comes to a hotel layout.  The check-in desk is buried about half-way "back" in the hotel and is small and cramped with a low ceiling.  In "front" of that check-in desk area is a giant atrium.  In the center of the atrium is the restaurant where they serve breakfast.  It is free for certain Marriott  Rewards Bonvoy Members, so when I showed up, there were plenty of folks eating there.  The breakfast offerings are pretty robust and they have quite a few West