I sure hope I spelled "miscellaneous" right... that's one of those words I frequently get wrong. Man, what a month it's been! (June that is) I don't know about you, but I'm feeling pretty optimisitic about Rochester, the economy, and even that damn fast ferry.
I live probably 5 minutes from the boat, and was up at the pier with Julie a couple days ago. Got ice cream over at Abbots and then walked to the end of the pier. It's a damn shame that of the millions of dollars spent at the port, they haven't fixed up that walkway. There were thousands of people up there that night, and while the quality of the pier probably didn't really detract from everyone's experiences up there, it would have been really nice to show off a brand new pier and boardwalk - especially for the out-of-towners who are using the ferry. Now, I'll give the city its props - they did do a beautiful job with the port itself, and the park and the boardwalk along the beach is really nice. But that darn pier could just use a makeover! Even if they just ran a new layer of asphalt over the thing, that would make it a nicer walk.
Julie and I ended up going the next night up to Schaller's on the lake, and I have to say, I was disappointed. I seem to have better memories of Schaller's, but the food was too greasy and the ice cream couldn't compete with Abbot's, Don's Original, Tom Wahl's, or even Corkey's! Oh well, guess it was a learning experience. I just hope Julie and I can spend some time on the Irondequoit side too up at Don's et al, and even go to Marge's. I haven't been there many times, but just to be able to have a drink and sit on the beach is really nice. Hopefully we might even be able to do that before she leaves with her friend Don to go to Arizona.
While I'm talking about "miscellaneous" stuff here, has anyone else noticed all the good economic news in Rochester lately? Just a quick recap: Bausch & Lomb building a $35 million R&D center in the city, and adding 200 jobs. UNYSIS is relocating about 200 to Monroe County and adding another couple hundred. CooperVision is building a new distribution center and adding a couple hundred jobs. Xerox is building a $25 million manufacturing plant and adding about 50 jobs. And Kodak hasn't concurrently made an anouncement that they're laying off, oh, say, 5000 local employees. I just keep waiting for that hat to fall and rain on our economic-prosperity-parade.
It's a damn shame that Kodak isn't reinventing itself in a way to make it a more widely sought after consumer brand. They sold off remote sensing to ITT which has really paid off (this should have been listed above- ITT is transferring between 200 and 400 temporary people to Rochester for at least one-year assignments). ITT has retained about 1700 former Kodakers and added a couple hundred since then. Hopefully Kodak's move into commercial printing will pay off. Also, it's good to see that Kodak is the number one digital camera sold in the US. But it's still not enough to make up for the huge margins associated with film! I don't know what the answer is (which, if I did, would mean I should be running Kodak), but I would hope someone over there is reading Brand Hijack by Alex Wipperfurth. I think it's an EXCELLENT marketing book with a message Kodak should embrace.
Last miscellaneous thing to mention here? Well, Javelin is doing well - with our training program, our contract with Infotonics, and our other various activities. We had a great story in the paper on an MOU we facilitated getting between Infotonics and Brookhaven National Lab. And there's some other good press we should be getting in the near future.
Other than that, wedding plans are nearly complete. Anyone have any suggestions on an officiant?! That's kindof an important piece of this whole wedding that neither of us has been able to resolve! I wonder if Gap Mangione could do it after he plays piano at the cocktail hour?
