The Great April Fools’ Caper
Too many people wait for leadership from the top when it is often in their own grasp. I’d like to share a story about when desperately needed leadership came from the middle. I was working for a startup that was suffering from a layoff hangover from “right sizing” many months prior. As one of my […]
The St. Patrick’s Day Brewery Tragedy
Excessive celebration on St. Patrick’s day all too often leads to tragedy. Our family has a legend about a horrible one involving my grandfather, Dick Cavanaugh. As a young lad he worked after school in a small brewery in a little town in the shadows of Mount Rainier, sweeping and running errands. Imagine this scene one […]
The Language of Coffee
It may be hard to believe, but there was a day in the not too distant past when coffee came only in black, or with cream or sugar. Several years before an upstart coffee company from Seattle planted their first outpost in New York City, Laurie and I were living in New Jersey—a land without […]
The Flavor of Manna
Help sometimes comes from unlikely places. One friend told me about being down to crumbs in the pantry when an anonymous grocery gift card arrived in the mail. Last week I was scouting a remote area for a snow shoeing trip when I came across a fireman whose truck battery had died and was able to […]
Everyday is Valentine’s Day?
Ten months after Laurie and I started dating we had our first Valentine’s Day together. We were both freshman at the University of Washington and commuted together to the campus. During a break between classes she presented me with a card to celebrate the occasion. Like a typical clueless college boy, I had neglected to […]
Felix Navidad
If you’re curious about our tradition of “delegating” our annual Christmas letter to the family pet check out the post A Canine Christmas Card. For many years Dennis and Laurie have had a family pet pen their annual Christmas letter. But Rascal passed away at the ripe old age of 107 last February and they’ve […]
A Season for Pirates
Here in Seattle tis the season for pirates, and not just the kind that prey on Microsoft. Our big Seafair festival which ended on Sunday with hydroplane races and performances by the Blue Angels, features a group called the Seafair pirates at many events. Our office even had a pirate day at the office last Thursday. […]
2010: The Vision and Reality
Some of the greatest stories are told through movies. In 1968, when I was a kid enthralled with all things related to the space program, my Dad took me on a special outing to Seattle to see 2001: A Space Odyssey. This past New Year’s Eve Laurie and I watched the DVD, 2010: The Year […]
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