The Idiots Tour of 2012 has come to an end. We arrived home in the wee hours of Sunday morning and used yesterday to unpack, recharge, and hunker. Apparently, there is a storm coming.

If we may back up a minute to our last day in New York, we headed out Friday morning to get some breakfast at a diner. Our options included things that were stuffed and things that were fried.

The choice was not easy.

That afternoon we were to speak at NYU. On our way through Washington Square Park, we came upon an interesting proposition.

Robbi was especially intrigued by the money-back guarantee. Alas, she lacked a dollar. So she stole one of mine.

If you ask me, Robbi listened to her joke with something less than a wholly open mind. Look at that skepticism!

Robbi did not, in fact, laugh. Apparently, the joke was filthy, and so I am not going to reproduce it here. I gave the guy an A for effort, though, and so I did not request return of my dollar. Instead, we jumped over a monument. It had been so long.

And then we walked a few more blocks to NYU.

We were speaking at the Tisch School’s ITP (Interactive Telecommunications Program), which is, according to Wikipedia, “a graduate department focused on the study and design of new media, computational media and embedded computing under the umbrella of interactivity.”

What it meant in practice is an incredible space full of smart, creative people making awesome stuff. Such as this “mirror” made out of panels of wood that change position as someone stands in front of them.

Amazing.

The whole place was a playground for creative makers. This row of monitors contained idea after idea.

My favorite was this screen showing the feed from a camera mounted above the kitchen sink. Sensors in the camera can tell whether or not the sink is full of dirty dishes. If it is, the readout makes it clear that the sink is “not clean.”

Thanks to the amazing teacher/artist/maker of pop-up books Marianne Petit for hosting us.

When we were done, we packed up our car, and left New York.

We drove to the cape where we crashed for the night at my sister Lindsay’s house, where we ate a fine breakfast the following morning. 

Then the kids stayed behind for a day with their cousin Orin while Robbi and I headed West to Providence.

One of Robbi’s life goals (seemingly attainable) is to see a cranberry bog. This truck full of cranberries was a nice substitute.

Our destination was the Chace Center, site of the RISD Museum and the RISD Entrepreneur Mindshare, a TED Talk-styled day of presentation by various folks on the subject of entrepreneurship.

This is the second year of the Mindshare, and it was a real honor to be included, considering the accomplishments of the other folks in the lineup.

Apparently, we are entrepreneurs. I guess it makes sense. We’re doing our own thing, making it up as we go along. But to me, entrepreneurs are a bit more deliberate. They have a plan. They know what they’re doing.

Us, not so much.

But the time came, and we did our thing, and we got a great reaction from the crowd. They followed us as we told our story and gave us lots of laughter in return. It was an amazing experience, a fitting capstone to a whirlwind week of taking and meeting new people.

But now we are home as the rain falls and the winds pick up. If you don’t hear from us for a few days, it’s because we’re supposed to lose power.

Be safe, everyone.