Winter in Vermont

Here's something to ponder (courtesy of Bon Appetit)..."How come you never see turkey on the menus of any high-end restaurants?"

This year the O'Brien's enjoyed Thanksgiving in Vermont at the Rose's.  Thanksgiving dinner was excellent (isn't it always?), but Friday's Jim Rose Italian feast was even better!  The Italian relatives know how to make meatballs, sausage and gravy!  Yesterday's left over lunch wasn't turkey, but rather meatball sandwiches.

I thought I'd post some video of Nick and Mitch sliding down a ridge up off of Smuggler's Notch. Winter has certainly come to Northern Vermont.  There was easily a foot of new snow in the Notch, so Mitch, Nick, the dogs and I went for a hike through the notch.  We had planned to summit up at Sterling Pond but we had more fun playing in the snow and hiding behind the caves made by icicle formations and sliding down the ridges.  I thought about skiing one day, but the trails and sloped looked scratchy. 

The Turkey Trot

Today Mitch, Tess, Tracy and I got up to run the annual Mamaroneck Turkey Trot.  Today, however the race temperature was unusually frosty...probably in the high 20's at the start.

Mitch ran the kids one-mile run and did great and finished with an 8:30.  I ran the 5-miler (as a bandit) in a near PR at 34:40. Amazingly, it was exactly 4 minutes faster than the Rye Derby!! That's a big difference for a short race!  It was the first race that I've run since Reach the Beach and today reminded my why I love running races. This is a great course through Orienta and back along BPR and the crowd is decent, but quickly thins out so runners can run their races.

I think I'll run another race in December up in Ward Pound Ridge which is  usually a wet and damp race that DB and Stanton ran last year in a blizzard.

Also running today were the Alter boys and Timmy Kelley (who came in 6th at 6:30) and in the big run Dave Burgess and Matt Lewis.

BTW--this picture is not from the race, but I had to post something.

The bitter Irony

Follow this link to see how "poorly" I was doing this year....

#1 in overall page growth...kinda sucks huh?

www.minonline.com/features/9108.html

LAID OFF, Permanent Vacation, early retirement, victim of the recession.

So the bastards, aka "The Man" got to me on Friday.  I was humming along as the Publisher of The History Channel Magazine delivering 67% growth over last year and 22% growth over my 2008 budget only to fall victim to the CEO's spreadsheet scalpel.  

I was told that my job elimination had nothing to do with performance or conduct, and that I was simply a salary that the company could no longer afford.  Private equity assholes and McKinsey goons that manage via data analysis.  Too bad life isn't that black and white. They'll flame out in the end. Whatever the case, I'm pissed and now unemployed.   

Friday was surreal and the weekend was the weekend, but today I'm realizing that the job search is going to really suck.  Time Inc is laying off 600-1000, Conde has cut 5% of salary budgets, T&E and has a hiring freeze and the others are no better.  

I will take this time to enjoy Mitch and Tess' company and help them with everything they need during the week.  Mitch and I have been locking horns lately so this will be good for us (or maybe not?) and Tess needs all the attention she can get.  

More importantly, I don't have any bullshit to worry about for the present time.  Maybe some stress will go away and I'll get back to running more regularly and will be a more likeable person again.  Maybe I'll look and feel more like the person in the picture above.

Wish me luck and if you have any job leads, anywhere in the country...you know where to find me.

Thanks.