Finished reading: The Notebook by Roland Allen 📚 This was fascinating, and so close to home and descriptive of my own life as a notebooker, so I’ll write a longer blog post in the week ahead.
Working from 5 Points Cafe in Cleveland’s West Park neighborhood. Stepped over this sign to get inside.
More live music, this time a new venue: Globe Iron, big brick former foundry in Cleveland’s Flats. We’re seeing The Beths, band from New Zealand.
Working from Icon Coworking in Lakewood, Ohio. Walked to lunch past a fire station. Must always send a photo of fire stations to my brother, an Austin firefighter.
What a way to celebrate our uncle Dennis but with a cousins happy hour and then the CU Buffs Stampede on Boulder’s Pearl Street.
Up early in Louisville, Colorado. Walked over to Paul’s Coffee and Tea, a coffeeshop with great vibe and character. Menu even has a ‘true cappuccino’ of only 6 oz.
Obituary for Dennis Zuiker, my uncle. Erin and I will be flying to Colorado to attend the service and spend time with the family.
I recently upgraded my Micro.blog subscription so I can upload larger videos. Here’s my first try, a short narration of autumn in Chapel Hill.
I’m happy to say that the 4 CDs in my island jukebox are still in heavy rotation. On my errands today, the windows of the van down, I played Hapa, one of the best albums for cruisin' in the sunshine (even if I’m thousands of miles away from Hawai’i).
Another beautiful autumn day in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Sunny, and windy, so I’m watching oak leaves rain down while the American beech trees hold their golden leaves. A doe just walked past, soon to be chased by the bucks I saw as I came in from pick-up soccer in Durham.
Food and song last night, dance and music tonight. My daughter and I went to Duke to see Is It Thursday Yet?, a powerful and enlightening performance by dancer Jenn Freeman about her Autism Spectrum Disorder diagnosis at age 33. I was floored. Great voice by Holland Andrews, too. #appreciation
When I post to Micro.blog, I almost always stay below the 300 character limit so I chose my words carefully, but in all my years here, I never realized that ‘&’ results in more characters than ‘and’.
Table talk
Erin and I attended the Snap Pea pop-up dinner inside Durham’s Northstar Church of the Arts. Chef Jacob Boehm and pastry chef Danielle Snow prepared a delicious locally sourced vegetarian meal and soprano Ginger Jones-Robinson, accompanied by pianist Matthew Ganong, filled the space with moving music. Snap Pea called this event ‘For the Whole Round World to Hear.’
I’d been intrigued to learn about Snap Pea because the images on its website show grand long-table meals in outdoor settings. Last night’s event was similar, with two long rows of tables, clothed in white, down the nave of the church. Erin and I sat across from each other and struck up conversations with the other couples next to us.
Yesterday, as it happened, I spent the day in Pittsboro at Perch Coworking and used the time to look back on this past year and also plan for the year ahead. In the next months, I’ll be focusing on my own Long Table project and seeking out collaborators to explore ways we can facilitate good conversations over good food.
One next step is to spin up a new blog for the Long Table; I’ll most likely use my account on Micro.blog to do that.
I am inspired by Snap Pea, and all the long history of mankind coming together over a meal to find common ground.
I’m in Pittsboro, NC, on a day pass at Perch Coworking, sitting at the long counter for a personal retreat. I’m reviewing the past year and progress on my “vivid vision” goals, defining my positions and roles and responsibilities at work for the year ahead, and sketching two new projects.
Just learned about the annual NC wildlife photo contest. 2025 winners here. I suspect @amerpie could be in the running with his great photography.
For dinner tonight, I made lablabi, a Tunisian harissa and chickpea soup, and it was delicious. I followed the recipe from Milk Street Magazine; see story here.
I had fun writing this blog post about a book I’m currently reading (The Notebook by Roland Allen) and how it connects to my grandfather, Frank the Beachcomber, and my own lifelong use of notebooks 📚
Watched this in 1985, four days in a row, at the movie theater on Third Street in DeKalb, Illinois: Back to the Future 🍿
Another beautiful and warm Sunday morning, with 40+ guys on the pitch for pick-up soccer games. Oliver joined me today. No goals from either of us but we had fun. Now home with coffee, watching the leaves rain down in the forest around our house.
Bottled the orange bitters. My buddy Andrew made a batch, too. We started the first step—orange peels, gentian root, and more in high-proof Boyd & Blair vodka—together here then followed the next steps in Brad Parsons’s Bitters book at our respective homes. Time to test this.
