Author Archives: JJD
Rage Break
I am about to HAVE AN ANEURYSM at the document support staff at my firm. They persecute me with their incompetence. Why — WHY!! — is it so hard for people to do their jobs? This firm rakes in something like $600 million every year and we have some of the top legal minds and most cutting-edge legal work in the […]
Conversation at the gym
Okay, so. Picture me. Not huge. You might even call me “slight of build.” Now picture a guy — let’s call him Jim — who’s probably 6’2″ and around 275 lbs. He’s a big guy (a nice guy, too) and strong. Not particularly toned, but not fat either. Kind of what you would imagine a college or high school football player might […]
We’re having a heat wave, a tropical heat wave . . .
. . . the temperature’s rising, it isn’t surprising, she certainly can can-can. Okay, so there’s no can-can as far as I can see, but we certainly are having a heat wave. In the news it’s being declared the “longest, strongest heat wave of the summer“, the temperature maps for the area are all screaming red, […]
Water Lilly
Little miracles daily in the garden. I awoke early this morning with the intention of going for a long bike ride before the heat of the day set in. As I ate breakfast on the balcony, something new caught my eye. Something that hadn’t been there before. Delighted, I put cycling plans on hold and […]
As if it knew I was missing Vietnam
My jasmine plant bloomed! Two blossoms this morning and a slew of buds getting ready to open. This makes me all sorts of happy. (And I give all credit to James and Chip, whose excellent watering skills kept my plants alive while I was galavanting through Southeast Asia.) With the possible exception of gardenias, there […]
Home again
Well, I’m back. Tucked safely away in my little apartment in Arlington, VA, enjoying powerful air conditioning and Mexican food. It feels about as far from Cambodia as possibe. Except for the humidity. That is exactly the same. Maybe even worse. Way to go, Founding Fathers, way to build the nation’s capitol in a semi-tropical […]
Temples of Angkor
Like Machu Picchu, the Ayah Sofia, and Tikal, the temples of Angkor more than live up to their reputation. It’s one of those places where you get there and look around and have a hard time believing it’s real. The temple complex, which is the largest in the world (way bigger than Tikal), […]
Siem Reap – Silk farm of Les Chantiers Ecoles and Artisans d’Angkor
On the afternoon of our first day in Siem Reap Vanessa and I went to visit Les Chantiers Ecoles, an establishment that teaches traditional Khmer artisanship to local youth. The goal is to help them develop skills that will help them support themselves in the region, thereby reducing both poverty and the flight of young […]
Siem Reap
This isn’t really a post. I mean, it’s a post because it shows up in the blog, but I’m not really going to do proper justice to anything that I write about. I’ll mention some things that I don’t have photos for (yet), and other things that I have tons of photos for but which merit […]
Mekong River Delta – The yin and the yang
Today was an exercise in appreciating the principle that there must be opposition in all things. And by “appreciating”, I mean “feeling really annoyed by” (for the most part, anyway; by the end of the day things sort of balanced out). Having seen the major sights in Saigon yesterday, we set aside today for a […]
A More Gentlemanlike Manner 