Michael Burkhardt’s Blog

Palais du Luxembourg My daughter Eli is spending the fall semester studying at the Université Paris-Panthéon-Assas.

What did I do this week?

People are describing the new Apple Watch — specifically, Apple Audio Intelligence — as creepy and dystopic and characterizing as a privacy nightmare.

Puppy Pranks My puppy, Charlie knocked over my tiny Giant Saguaro, Scooter.

This seems to be the thing to do lately.

Back to the Gym I’ve been wanting to get back into a gym routine, especially now I’m retired.

I bought the Bose QuietComfort Ultra (2nd generation) Bluetooth Headphones ($450) based largely on several reviews that suggested they were more comfortable than similarly priced alternatives.

I try to make sure that the photos I publish to my Mastodon account always have alt-text.

South Dakota Mines Following directly on the heels of our visit with dear friends last week, on Sunday we flew from Orlando (via Denver) to Rapid City.

Trip 1: Detroit, Michigan On Tuesday morning, I left Columbus to drive to Michigan for my uncle’s wedding, which he asked me to officiate.

Miscellaneous Stuff 🏦 As an employee of a regional bank, one of the requirements was to maintain an account with them.

⚾️ Baseball I grew up watching baseball.

The rising sun is hidden by a storm on the horizon.

High temperatures in the 100’s were the norm all week.

After getting a half sleeve tattoo a few years ago, I thought I’d like to get a companion on the other arm.

A while back I wrote a post about my first tattoo.

This is a follow up to an earlier post in which I shared a few phrases that I use regularly, but that actually came from movies or television shows.

Home for the Week I spent the week back at home in Ohio, while the spousal unit was away on a business trip.

Tucson Notes I arrived in Tucson on Sunday, fresh off my retirement.

My Last Week of Full Time Office Work After years of planning and months of counting down, my retirement from full time work finally arrived!

The Haps My boss sent out an announcement about my retirement.

Goings On ⏱️ The big personal highlight is that I tendered my resignation ahead of my upcoming retirement.

Here is another late dispatch.

Charlie (left) and Teddy are both pretty chill. 🐶 Two New Canine Family Members.

In the mid-1990s, during the early years of our marriage, my wife and I accumulated a modest collection of art pieces — paintings, photographs, lithographs, linocuts, posters, ceramics, and more.

Bulgaria is this year’s winner.

This year I used a rubric to score all the entries.