Place to visit -- Ardeche France

We already have a travel wish list a mile long, but we're always on the lookout for new possibilities. My friend Marc just returned from a visit to The Ardeche in the south of France near Avignon. It looks fabulous!

http://www.avignon-et-provence.com/ardeche-holidays/ardeche/index.html

Quote of the day -- Albert Einstein

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.

--Albert Einstein

Trivia for the day

Let the retirement countdown begin! T-30

I've known my retirement date (July 30, 2010) for about a month. So have my family, a few close friends, and my boss (of course). But today, we "went public." My boss sent out an e-mail. Then I sent out a somewhat more expansive e-mail and posted to my Facebook status. It has been fun and exciting (and a bit sad) to receive so many responses already. I'll miss the work a little, and I'll miss the people a lot!
Blogging has been on my "to do" list for quite awhile. I was all set to blog professionally awhile back, but I'd reached a stage in my career where I just didn't feel that I wanted to strongly align my identity with my job and my "products." (Perhaps my hesitancy about doing that should have been a clue that the retirement glimmer was glowing brighter than I realized.) So here I am on the brink of retirement, ready to start blogging.
So why blog now? Because I think writing is a good way to capture ideas and clarify thought. But then why not just write a personal journal? Because I've enjoyed reading blogs of people who do a good job of discovering things that I might not have found myself. Or who start a conversation about interesting topics. Now that I'll have more leisure to "find stuff," I hope that I can eventually start to provide that same service for my busier, still employed friends near and far.
Enough for day one. Soon it will be T-29!