The First Day of Spring has arrived!

View from our window yesterday, March 20. Oops! Yesterday wasn't the first day of spring. It was March 19 this year. This is the earliest the Vernal (Spring) Equinox has occurred in 124 years.






It's back this afternoon:

Dead Sea - Luckily we returned from our vacation before the travel restrictions

We're glad we are still not at the Dead Sea or we might be stuck there with the coronavirus threat! We're pleased that we're back with our Teddi!

Although you might not be able to read it, the sign behind us says that we're at the Lowest Point on Earth - 430 meters below sea level. And, of course, there is shopping even here:

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Good Start to 2019

We started 2019 with a hike on the Mapleton Preserve in Kingston NJ. The Mapleton Preserve consists of land and buildings that were a part of Princeton Nurseries which was the largest tree farm in the USA.

Joe & Val standing in front of the bamboo patch.

Our First Cruise Ship Experience

View from ship as we cruised past Paradise Island.

This March we flew to Ft Lauderdale, boarded one of the largest Cruise ships in the world, Allure of the Seas, and cruised the Carribean. The ship's like a city with many restaurant choices, shows and other activities. I was very impressed by the efficient, compact bathroom design. The design was more practical than many hotel bathrooms that are more than twice the size!

View from a High Point on St. Thomas

Square on St. Kitts 

Teddi at The Animal Hospital of Blawenburg Christmas Party

Tai Chi Workshop near New Paltz NY

Just attended a challenging Tai Chi workshop in the Hudson Valley near New Paltz & Woodstock NY.

View from the Lifebridge Sanctuary room where we spent a day on intensive Tai Chi training.

Annual Telecommunications Summit provides Training on New Technologies

I spent most of this week in Deer Valley, Utah, at the annual Telarus Partner Summit learning about the newest options for such thing as SD-WAN, UCaaS, diverse circuits, hosted voice, circuit monitoring, and many more. This was the 6th and final year that the summit has been held at the Stein Eriksen Resort, an awesome, very beautiful location.

View from my room balcony

We have outgrown the capacity of the Stein Eriksen location; next year the summit will be held at the Boca Raton Resort in Florida.

Krisina chosen for Forbes 30 Under 30 in Media!

It's awesome that Kristina, as president and cofounder of KitSplit was chosen by Forbes for inclusion in its Forbes 30 UNDER 30 MEDIA.

Thanksgiving and Christmas

For Thanksgiving, Val, Kristina and myself flew down to Paradise Island where we enjoyed some warmer weather, great food, and daily yoga practice at the Yoga Retreat. We have visited the Paradise Island Yoga Retreat a number of times beginning about 27 years ago. The Atlantis Resort on the island has grown unbelievably during that time. The Beach tower and the Coral tower were there then. Now the Atlantis includes 5 towers with 3 being about twice as many stories as the Beach and Coral towers. There was an airport on the island back then - now it's a golf course! At any rate, we enjoyed the break and are hoping that the Island will not disappear with the sea level rise associated with Global Warming!

We enjoyed a very pleasant Christmas at home with Kristina, Jake, and Oliver visiting. Oliver is spending the week with us while Kristina and Jake vacation in LA. Christmas Day, we took Teddi on a good long walk during which she showed off her new space outfit:

Water Meetings

It's been a couple days of meetings on the water. Tuesday, the Technology Innovation Meeting was at the Adventure Aquarium auditorium on the Delaware river in Camden.

You can see reflections of the auditorium in the glass.

Then, Wednesday, after a Nice presentation on the Intrepid in the Hudson River at NYC, there was a networking reception on the flight deck.

View from Kristina's 40th Floor KitSplit Office

Kristina's startup business, KitSplit, has received an investment and office space from The Hearst Corporation. Thursday night KitSplit co-sponsored an event showing some awesome film shorts. Afterwards, we visited Kristina's office and saw this view of Manhattan.

You also see reflections in the window glass including our shadows.

New Whitney Museum

The Whitney Museum has moved into a new building at a new location by Chelsea Market. Here we are yesterday in an out door gallery space:

Relaxation in Costa Rica

In December, we enjoyed a relaxing stay on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica: beautiful vistas, great food (lobster, chicken dishes, tropical fruit, desserts, and so much more) and drinks, lots of swimming, and pleasant weather.

View of the beach from the Riu Palace of Costa Rica

Google Cloud Platform NYC Meeting

I attended the Google Cloud Platform NEXT meeting in NYC today to keep up with cloud service industry developments. Just so that you know that Google Cloud Services isn't all serious business, see my 180 spin:

First Day of Spring in NJ! Or, is it still Winter?

View of the first day of Spring 2015 in Princeton NJ

Philadelphia Flower Show - Rated Best Show in the World!

This year we made it to the Philadelphia Flower Show which  received 17 International Festival & Events Association awards for the 2014 show, “ARTiculture” including the top prize, the Grand Pinnacle Gold Award. The Philadelphia Flower Show awards included five Gold, five Silver, and seven Bronze.

KitSplit is receiving a Lot of Attention

KitSplit, the creative artists rental network, founded by our daughter Kristina and Lisabeth Kaufman, is receiving a lot of attention. This week two articles were published on this startup. Forbes presents "Rent-a-Drone: Creatives Can Rent Oculus Rift, Google Glass And More Through KitSplit". While Fast Company writes "This 'Airbnb For Creative Equipment' Will Rent You Drones, Oculus Rifts, Google Glass, More".

Kristina has cofounded a business - KitSplit

Kristina has co-founded a business named KitSplit which is currently in operation in a beta state. KitSplit is meant to help photographers, video artists, and other creative types who have to rent expensive equipment to reduce their costs. It does so using a web site whereby they can rent to and from others in the KitSplit network. This peer-to-peer network is similar to Airbnb in which people rent their living space to others. KitSplit has started with many of Kristina's friends and associates in the NY Metro area signing up at KitSpit's new web site.

Teddi wrapped in a towel

Toy Yorkie joins us in Princeton

After a lot of research on the web and the third trip to Brooklyn to choose a female Toy Yorkie, we finally came home with Teddi: