Transitions

As I began my journey to the east and south --car from Ulla's sister's house to station, 10 minutes; train Vaxjo to Goteborge, 2 hours, 56 minutes; run to catch bus, 4 minutes; meeting Ulla's fiance, who had come by train from Stockholm, half a minute; bus to the ferry, 45 minutes; walk on ferry, 2 minutes; ferry to Hono, 12 minutes; walk to Ulla's car in parking lot, 3 minutes; drive to her house, 6 minutes -- my thoughts turned to Swedish reflection and anticipation of my return to the US

My senses were stimulated by the sight of the tulips in the garden that had gained their color while we were away.

Ulla and I spent a good couple of hours today documenting what we still need to do for our projects -- first completing the revision of our "paridigmatic partnership" paper for a journal, then finishing (two-thirds done) the ppt slides for a course module or single lecture on design management, then the seeds for our next conference paper on Normann's idea of value constellation (maybe Aom 2009 if we can be ready, if not EURAM or EGOS), and finally, noting that we intend to present Ulla's empirical evaluation study in English somewhere. We've set out timelines and responsibilities -- and at least half will be completed to time.

I'm pleased with what I have accomplished this month, and I'm particularly happy about all the contacts I've made. at the same time I'm not overwhelmed by our to-do list. It's a pipline, and that's what I needed to put in place during my sabbatical.

But my sabbatical's not over yet! I'm anxious to get back to see what Jack's really been up to -- click here to view his latest painting project -- the "carpet" hangs vertically as decoraticial on a 30 foot high wall and a "dinghy painter" is a special rope. I must spend a week back on campus in the Chief Nag role, but then I'll be at my desk in Stonington working at my own pace on my design management projects while picking up the pace on the others I have in the works with Diana. There are three more months to come! Did I hear groans about three more months of blogging?

Tomorrow will be my last day in my Business & Design Lab office for a while -- but that experience is still to happen!