Fragments

The day started with yesterday ... that is, with unpacking Saturday's carful of stuff brought from Fairfield. The condo doesn't look like ours any more -- it's completely depersonalized. And I can't remember when I last slept there -- before Labor Day I think.

Then a sunny morning became late afternoon dusk when I Skyped with Ulla and had a tour of her emerging kitchen. We talked about so many new ideas and projects that my head is still spinning. How can I display a postcard-montage for each of them? What a wicked problem!

And today's purchase of a new camera will really take effect later because charging the battery takes 330 minutes. But I got a better camera than yesterday because the sale had changed. I spent more though - the camera that was on sale yesterday was back to list price which is the same as today's sale price for the more expensive version (12 vs. 10 megapix). Is your head spinning yet?

Here's my very first picture.

One part of my head is clearing. I've been thinking a lot about how I, as a management person, can understand design. As a design thinker I need to be what Tim Brown calls a T-shaped person: the vertical piece of my T is depth in management theory and practice, while the cross-piece is designerly. I realized that my experience working with Ron in the designing of this house was primarily a design process. When Ron came with his first drawings and I tentatively said "yes, ... but could we ..." and Ron overlaid the original with tracing paper and with great enthusiasm started sketching something different - I was dumbfounded. He'd spent a long time making the plan and sketch "just right", and now he was willing to change it -- and keep changing it to meet new challenges -- or should I say constraints, for example, my famous, "Can you do the same thing for half the price?" (and of course he could.) I hadn't conceptualized my own experience in this way until today. It gives me a whole new identity. And with that I'll wait to take it up again tomorrow!

But there is progress. I bought a Swedish-English phrase book, so now I should be able to answer the emails to my U Gothenburg e-dress. (The messages are in English, but all the email commands are in Swedish!) I'm also ready to ask, "Far jag smaka?" which will be good to know at fika time.