A few months ago, we spent an afternoon with Jamie Friddle, a writer for Seattle Magazine, who was putting together a story on Common Craft. We were so excited. A few weeks later a photographer came to take pictures.

As Sachi will tell you, the process added a layer of anxiety to her day over the next few months. What would the article say? What photos would they use? I'm happy to report that the anxiety was all for naught. The 4 page feature appears in the May 2009 issue of Seattle Magazine and we love it. Jamie's writing captured, in a compelling and interesting way, what we're all about.

Read the article.

Living in Seattle, a test-market for Amazon Fresh, we signed up and never looked back. Ordering groceries online and having them delivered within hours makes going to the grocery store seem like such a pain.  With Amazon Fresh, Amazon proved to us they could replace the grocery store experience with home delivered goodness.

Just today, Sachi noticed something new and very interesting on the Amazon Fresh website - a new tab appeared pointing us to "Amazon Now." 

On the same page is a small graphic that sums up the idea:

Amazon Now means that you can have the charming Amazon Fresh trucks deliver a Canon HD video camera and a bicycle seat along with your normal milk and eggs. No UPS, no FedEx - just an Amazon supply system that delivers  electronics, books, toys, kitchen supplies, etc. along with your groceries.

We thought Amazon Fresh was amazing, but the idea of everything else arriving in those reusable boxes has my mind sufficiently blown. Once you get used to the idea that you don't have to go to the grocery store anymore, making the jump to other shopping experiences is an easy one.

By including non-grocery products of all sorts to Amazon Fresh customers, the company is testing a new system to deliver warehouses of products to the doorsteps of urban dwellers. Amazon Fresh is currently delivering to limited parts of Seattle, but I imagine the service will be expanded soon if it works here.  We don't want to see another WebVan or Kozmo.

Read the Amazon Fresh FAQ for more info. I will report back soon on the Amazon Now experience.

He's 13, his breath smells really bad, he's deaf, he walks like a retired football player, begs with renewed vigor and is increasingly obstinate. 

Indeed, the old dog experience is so different than the young dog experience. He's still the same sweet dog, but with new quirks that keep things new, even in old age. He is not the Frisbee catching dog of yesteryear. He is more like Jabba the Hut. A deaf Jabba the Hut with with a better disposition.

His deafness is sad and amusing at the same time.  When he was younger - he would greet us at the door. A good guard dog, it was impossible to sneak up on him. These days he doesn't hear us come home.  Often, we have to walk all the way to his bed and wake him up to say "we're home!"  You can't help but think his inner dog voice is saying "Ooops. That's not supposed to happen."

There are also the times when we arrive to hear him howling this terribly lonesome howl.  It sounds so sad. "Poor meeeeee", "All  aloooone".  Once we come into the room he gets so excited. We muse that, in his mind, he thinks "It worked!  The howling worked! Again!"

Speaking of howling - we love to convince him to howl on command.  You'd laugh at us - we both throw our heads back in a chorus of human howling to set the example for him. It works.  What we discovered last night is that the actual howling is now optional.  All we have to do is throw our heads back and he gets it.  Dog sign language is now his best way of listening to us.

He commands a little more of us too.  As Sachi would tell you, when she met him 8 years ago, he didn't beg at all.  These days, he's a professional beggar and it's impossible to say no to an old dog.  (Side note: don't you think it's interesting that he's begun begging since meeting Sachi?  Hmmm.)  Anyway, he'll now go so far as to bark at us to say "I want your FOOD!" We don't look kindly upon this, but it's hard to say no.  I dole out leftovers to him in bits, just to spend some quality time interacting.

But don't feel sorry for this dog.  Working from home means we're with him all the time and we know he's sore with arthritis.  Sachi makes sure that he's never cold and keeps him covered with a blanket. Of course, he now expects the blanket and will wait by the bed for it.  Can you believe that? He expects a blanket over him? Anything for Amos.

We've talked about saving some DNA in case cloning was possible in the future - I would take another Amos in a second.  I think everyone should have one, young and old.  We know our time with him is growing shorter by the day and do everything we can to make his old age comfortable for us both, even if that means old dog breath in your face while watching a movie on the couch.  Somehow, it's really, really nice.

Even though the Web makes us all feel like citizens of the world, what matters is often local.  Our neighborhoods and neighbors have a huge impact.  There is a brand-new platform, created by Instivate, a company run by one of our long-time friends and neighbors, that aims to give every neighborhood a site for sharing local news. It's called Instant Journalist.

Here's the scenario:  You sign up for Instant Journalist - it has a monthly fee that's linked to the size of the site.  Right off the shelf, the site is ready for you and your neighbors to start sharing stories, photos and videos, complete with map integration.

Instant Journalist also has a bunch of cool features that make the site easy to customize.  Here's my favorite:

You can right-click on almost any text on the site and change the copy.  If you don't like the tab that says "Your Neighborhood", you can change it in two clicks - no geekiness required.

You can see a demo of Instant Journalist here or a screencast on the posting process here.  It's new, so if you have feedback or thoughts the folks at Instivate would love to hear it. Congrats to Scott and Instivate for getting it out the door.