Home is where the slippers are.

 

I received these slippers in 2007 from Santa and wear them every night when I get home from work and all day on the weekends. They are comfortable, warm and seem to be holding up quite well. I even wear them in the summer and they are not too hot. From time to time I put leather conditioner on them. Santa had provided me with a similar pair the year before from Cabela's. That pair was moosehide, but did not make the year before Mr. Big Toe wore his way to freedom. My current pair from LL Bean are made from bison leather; I also have a pair of Chippewa harness boots of bison leather. I like the slightly wrinkled finish and the color. I also like the taste

of Bison meat. The harness boots have a comfortable inner sole, are leather lined and were made in the USA. The heel is a western heel which I like, otherwise I sound like Frankensteen's monster when I walk.

Whenever I put my slippers on, I feel like I'm home and relaxed. If I come home and just leave my shoes on, I just don't feel settled. I wonder if the slippers would work elsewhere. I worked with a guy who on occasion, wore slippers at work.

It's great to be home, slippered feet up in front of the fireplace, reading a good book with a glass of port by one's side. OK, so I'd be snoring in minutes.

Author's B sides

Looking at my nightstand last night, I noticed 3 books each by a famous author, none of which too many people are familiar with.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote two historical novels about knights and chivalry and a man named Nigel Loring. The 2 books are "Sir Nigel" and "The White Company". Sir Nigel is the first book chronologically, but the White Company was written first and published in 1891. The books are set in the mid 1300s, take place in Southern England and Normandy and include swordplay, drinking, battles, dying, plundering and some blunders by our hero Nigel. He's a bit of a hot head in the novel Sir Nigel, but tries to do right and in the end things work out for him. Both of the books I have include maps so that's a plus right there. I would recommend reading Sir Nigel first.

Michael Bond is well known for writing the Paddington Bear series, but has also written a series for adults about a french ex-detective named Monsieur Pamplemousse. Mr P. is now working as an inspector for a Michelin guide type organization called Le Guide. He has a bloodhound named Pommes Frites who goes with him everywhere and usually gets Mr. P out of sticky situations. Monsieur Pamplemousse finds himself in plenty of sticky situations and if it wasn't for Pommes Frites, his goose would have been cooked years ago. Pommes Frites also helps Mr. P. with food and hotel inspections and investigating the unusual circumstances that they somehow always find themselves involved in. Pommes Frites, like Monsieur Pamplemousse is ex-police and quite the gourmand as well. The books are a quick read and get quite risquè in spots.

There is also Ian Flemming, the Bond series author who also wrote Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I haven't read the book, but watched the movie many times with the kids. It is a long movie. A really, really long movie. There are plenty of high points and you can always blow past the parts you don't like. I think I have read all the Bond books and they are definitely worth a read.

I know there are other authors with B (I am not equating B side with Bad) side works, but these three were just there on the floor.

The result of a good deed

While hiking with my friend Mike, we arrived at a lean-to near Mount Marcy in northern New York State. The lean-to was built upon piers of rocks and one pier seemed to have been knocked out of place. We decided to repair it so the platform would be stable for our stay that night. Mike then decided he would lift the lean-to and I would stick my hands under it and wedge in some of the fallen rocks. First thing I touch, after the rattler was the Swiss army knife below. The one that's an inch thick with the saw blade. I know you can't tell from the picture, but it's an inch thick. An inch thick.

The 2 knives below Chubby (don't you name all your knives?) are my weekday/weekend knives. The larger of the pair is the weekend knife because it had a bit missing from the plastic on the reverse and it is missing the tweezer and the toothpick. I used them as a pair for over a year before I noticed that they were different sizes. I had bought them both in Switzerland in 2001 to replace Ed* (the knife on the left) and purchased them in different cities. I used Trois first for a year or two and then started using Vier after Trois became un peu usé. Untill they became a weekday/weekend pair I never had them out at the same time. They are the Tinker model, I bought that model because it has a phillips screw driver in place of the cork screw, which I rarely use at work. Ed on the left, shows what happens when you try to use a blade as a phillips screwdriver.

The two knives to the right are from my dad, the red one was his workaday knife and the other I found in his dresser. I think it was his dress knife, though I didn't see him carry it much. The family owned a large wholesale florist and around Easter we would have thousands of Hyacinths and Lillys in the sheds and the barn. The smell was intoxicating. I would find excuses to go into the barn just for a sniff. We also had greenhouses full of Cinnerarias for Easter, they didn't smell as good, but the range of colors was amazing. My dad had some pictures, I should find/scan/post them.

Happy Easter.

Hyacinth

*Ed was named after his namesake, who I had worked with for a few years. Ed L. was the first person I remember using a swiss army knife in an office environment.

My Gainful Employment Scheme

In Britain, a scheme is not always a bad thing. My daughter was able to work for a year in London via the International Graduates Scheme. Lucky her, how jealous was I. I’m used to hearing scheme used in the negative sense.

Little Venice, London

My scheme for finding gainful employment is:

1. Contact peers regarding openings (done)
2. Review my job requirements (Industry, Responsibility Level, Location)
3. Brush up on current trends based upon the requirements
4. Search, apply and follow up
5. Have a celebratory/consolatory beer
6. Go back to the start

I like Samuel Smith beers, I usually buy the Nut Brown ale and the Oatmeal Stout, but I pretty much like them all. Here is the Taddy porter, a bit sweet, but not overly sweet like Mackeson XXX Stout. I had one of the Sam Smiths on tap while in the Angel in the Fields, London. The food was not great, but the beer and the décor made up for it. The pub is located near the Wallace Collection, another nice place to visit. (www.wallacecollection.org)

A New Start

I've just become redundant and not in the good, "redundant controller card" sort of way. In the past, I have kept a journal (diaries are for girls and 17th Century dudes with bladder stones) and the last time I was between gigs I kept a log of my daily activities in a word file. Thought I'd try something new.

If I had focus, this blog would be about something in particular, but I don't so it willn't. I have varied interests and I expect them all to show up here eventually. As well as the boring every day stuff that I don't want to forget.

One of my other ideas for a title was "Same Day, Different Year" and I was going to include scanned pages from journal entries from past years. I kept a journal from 1998 to 2005. The entries documented things that I did or that happened and less about how I felt about things. I’m not a touchy-feely kind of guy. Below is an entry from 1998; I don’t go back to read them often, but when I do I realize that they are somewhat incomplete and vague.

The name of the blog comes from the shop I wanted to open. Why I wanted to run a shop I don’t know, I’m not Mr. Social and imagine I would be like Bernard Black.