Gale International

Tom and I attended the monthly Executive Breakfast Club meeting at the UMASS club in Boston this morning. Bob Maloney of Gale International gave a presentation regarding the status of commercial development in downtown Boston. His company is presently building 2.5m square feet in Boston, and have a huge development in South Korea as well.
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He said that over the past 30 years, downtown Boston has absorbed an increase of 1 million SF of office space on average every year, and that there has been no new large scale corporations migrated to Boston during that period. The space has been assumed by organic growth of companies, particularly in the financial and venture capital industries, as well as some law firms. This has been achieved despite major banks leaving the core downtown during that period.
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He says that the vacancy rate is around 10% which is the equilibrium point.... over 10% rents begin to go down, under 10%, they go up. Rents are now in the $45 per square foot range and he expects them to trend up to $70.
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Bob says that it costs $600/sf to develop first class office space in Boston, and that you need rents of $75 per sf to justify the expense.
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He was completely in command of the Boston Market, understanding all of the development prospects of his competitors, and what their impact would be on the overall market. A very impressive presentation.
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BTW, I didn't ask any stupid questions, nor did I offer ridiculous comments, although I had to fight the temptation.

More Marblehead

Disclosure

OK. I'm going to admit something to you. Something from my vulnerable side. Something requiring a little bit of trust and understanding.
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I really like watching "Dancing with the Stars."
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Does that lessen me in your eyes???
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If it does.... Kiss my Royal Irish Ass.
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I'm sure you all have your freaking weaknesses.

Impatience

I've received quite a few emails lately, asking about the progress on the basement.
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What do you think I am? A Freaking Octopus?
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I only have two hands and the weather has been so nice that it would be foolish not to take advantage of it in the driveway. And I'm no Fool.
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Even with the need to finish the basement by Thanksgiving, I'm better off spending time on the Dory. Plus I'm writing the book on the Dory project... not tiling the basement. Who would ever be interested in that???? The Dory is where the money is.

Little Persuading

Mondays can be so tiring.
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Three nights of Dark and Stormies can take their toll. I wish that I hadn't been the spokesperson for that cocktail. Everybody who comes over now brings a big supply of Black Seal and Barritts.
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It would be rude to turn down their considerate gesture to join them with two or three D&S's.
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And I pride myself on my manners.
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So today, my ass is dragging.
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Luckily, there was nothing hot on tap at Nanepashemet Telecom.
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I did get a half hour on the Cybex and glued up one of the Dory Stems using a mix of oak and mahogany 5' strips. I thought that I would have to steam the strips, but they bent in the mold using the pipe clamps and epoxy easy enough.
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There is actually an inner and outer stem in the clamps, separated by cellophane so that the epoxy doesn't weld them together.
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Chock up another 2 hours for this operation and the cumulative today is 12 hours.

Stem Work

Laid out the Stem mold patterns which will be identical for the bow and stern.
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I use 1/4 luan for the patterns and always seem to find a piece of a sheet in the garage that meets the required dimensions.
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The curved stems will be formed from strips of oak that are 5' long, 1 1/2" wide and 1/4" thick. I bandsawed the strips from a 3/4" oak board, and will epoxy glue them, and then clamp in the patterns that I cut from a piece of 2x10 construction lumber.
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Add another 3 hours on this project for a current total of 10 hours.

Fit the Bills

Pats play the Bills today at 1:00 PM.
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Until that time, I'm going to use the beautiful sunny day to lay out the Dory frames in the driveway. Somehow a couple more courses of basement tile have to be laid and a workout has to factored in.

Skunked Again

Waiting for Dog and Lec to show for the fishing trip, I put in two hours on the dory, sanding the bottom and laying out the frame templates. Cumulative now is 7 hours.
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Dog showed up to fish with a bottle of Lagavulin. You know what that means???? An Automatic POTW selection. I love it. He also was very considerate in bringing an ample amount of Guinness to last for the three of us during our sporting event.
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Btw, we didn't see any blitzes, and had no strikes. That's right... we were skunked. Live with it.

Fishing Dilemma

Lots of stuff to do today. Lec and Dog want to go fishing, which to them is drinking beers and smoking cigars. Dog likes to insult me by saying that I don't go fishing, I go boating. Lucky for him that I have enormous self control and rarely fly off the handle, or he could be in store for a knuckle face massage.
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Before I take these irreverent pagans out in the WhaleEye at 1:00 PM, I need to get some tiling done in the basement.
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They don't deserve a Bluefish blitz, but I do, and I'll be in the same boat. So let's see how the Universe sorts out this conumdrum.

Time to Reset the Clock

I'm toying with the idea of getting into shape.... just getting sick and tired of being a fat POS.
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When I was in college, a skillion years ago, I was in unbelieveable shape, both endurance wise and upper body strength. But then you tend to put business, career and social obligatons in front of fitness and you slide.
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A big mistake.
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It's really a function of priority adjustment and the realization that getting fit again will be beneficial for business. It's time to make the time.
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I figure to get more Tender rowing in, keep cycling on the Cybex, and start running again - maybe set the Boston Marathon in April as a goal. Start slow and make it a habit. The problem is that every time I've been motivated to get in shape in the past, I've hurt myself by overdoing it.... pulled a calf muscle or threw out my back.
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You have to get in shape in order to get in shape.
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My plan is to intensify the low impact rowing and cycling for a week or so before hitting the road. If this really works out, I expect to see a lot of Peeps at the end of the Marathon route in Copley Square next April.

10 1/2 Kilometers

This loop is 6.7 Mi around Marblehead... a nice training loop for 10k runners
View Larger Map

New Way to Blog

I have a copy of Microsoft Word 2007 which allows you to post blogs from directly within the program. I think it's cool, but then again, I am a nerd.