I got sick shortly after sending the newsletter last week. A really nasty stomach bug, which I interpreted as food poisoning, but after Audrey came down with same thing on Thursday, I'm not so sure.

It was bad. Real bad. I seriously thought I was dying Tuesday night.

I am all better now, but damn. Damn. Damn. It took out my entire week, and while I did manage to get in some bike rides, a trip to the transit museum, and end the week with another trip to the Farmers market. The week was mostly a loss.

My dreams were whack all week. Wednesday night I woke up in some liminal space where I knew who I was, knew I was sick, but couldn't remember what I was sick from. It was like some sort of protection space. My body new I couldn't handle it anymore. It was weird.

When I ride my two loops around Central park each day, and roll past Sheep Meadow, I always hear the pedicab drives telling their passengers that "This is Sheep's Meadow, where they used to actually graze the Sheep". I always parrot what they are saying to Poppy. She looks at me like I am an idiot. Anyways, it left me writing about Sheep Mead being where we must sacrifice at least 34 tourists a day this week.

I love former New Yorker artist Saul Steinberg's cartoons a lot, and one this week reminds me of sitting in my chair most days.

Audrey took me to the Transit Museum in Brooklyn for my birthday this week. We've been meaning to go for some time, but Brooklyn is a long way away. Most of the stories and photos of building the NYC transit system are familiar to me, because I've already purchased almost every book on the subject. But being able to walk through the actual train cars from over the years--priceless.

I absolutely love the NYC transit system. It's messy, old, and complex. It also moves millions of people around the city successfully every day. I love transit systems in general because of the way my brain latches on to thinking about big complex systems. It was great to finally make it there, despite being sick.

Thursday morning I was still feeling pretty bad, but it was totally worth heading out there for the walk around the special subway stop. I made sure to sleep most of the morning before heading out to Brooklyn, to which my friend Tony has some thoughts.

After the Transit Museum excursion I began feeling better. It took into the weekend to get back to 100%, but I was able to work on API Evangelist. I am making good progress updating the website to support my core competencies: 1) API Discovery, 2) API Governance, 3) API Evangelism. These are the services I am offering, and I have begun refining my content and approach. This includes writing six "e-books" which I will self-publish over the summer on the history, technology, business, politics. governance, and evangelism of APIs—reflecting 16 years of my work and experience.

Beginning Friday night I completely overhauled my API search engine APIs.io. Over the last six months I've grown the website into a robust collection of almost 10K API providers and 30K individual APIs, supported by a wide mix of API artifacts. It was time for the website to graduate from a static website into an API-driven web application with a new MCP server to boot. I took things up a notch in preparation for the increasing traffic, but also to begin generating revenue from what I have built, and using the rich content and data I've been producing to publish paid research white papers on API Evangelist, augmenting the core material I've already published with fresh insights.

It is really good to be back 100% on my own projects. I've already begun sharing research with potential customers who I have already worked with in the past. I am writing again each day, while still "clauding" on the core profiling and research across APIs.io and API Evangelist. I have a shit ton of work to be done over the summer to get where I need to be generating income this fall. But it is mine. And I have a clear path forward.

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were all three just amazing rides around Central Park. And Saturday Audrey joined us!! <3 <3 What a treat. I love getting to roll around the park with my girls. It was a beautiful day for two loops around the park, making for 15 miles, including making our way through midtown on the way in and out.

On Sunday, we had an encounter with an unfortunate squirrel who had a concussion, and he kept tilting his head and walking towards us, eventually coming right up to Poppy asking for her help. Being the very good girl she is, just just sat there looking at him with that stiff neck thing she does. I felt bad for the little guy, and hope he feels better.

We ended the week with another trip to the Farmer's Market on the Upper West Side. This is our second time, and the excursion is becoming a routine. The trip extends Poppy's off leash time in the park from Columbus Circle (59th) up the Bridle Path to 81st. Where we then sit on the benches on the north side of the Natural History Museum and drink coffee until the market opens.

Once the market opens we make our way through the vegetable, fruit, cheese, flower, pie, bread, meat, and other stands. With numerous scores for the week, including pig ears for Poppy, we head over to the West Side Parkway, and make our way back home. We are out for about 3 hours, and it is one of the most magical times of our week, where we get to be out as a family in the amazing community we are fortunate to call home.

Even with being sick I still managed to pull the week out of the ditch. I feel pretty good heading into the week. It is so nice to be back working within my domains. It is an amazingly beautiful summer in NYC.

"Life isn't about finding yourself; it's about creating yourself. So live the life you imagined." - Henry David Thoreau