Theo Schwinke

As I write this, Theo fell asleep in the easy-chair across from me, his dog Basket in his lap. He has a reason to be tired. Last night he and I cooked a big Christmas Eve dinner and today he went for a walk in deep snow. It's good that he's here, because not having Theo around feels like missing an essential part of my landscape.

Theo is another case of Aquarius with perfect communication skills and endless supply of wit. An excellent writer, he uses his skills mostly in journalism. For several years, he was the Chief Editor of the Prague Post (and it was only under his perfectionist "rule", when this paper was really worth reading). Currently, he's the brain behind Prague Daily Monitor, a free subsription service for Czech news translated into English.

Theo is a really close friend, he was the Master of Ceremony during our wedding and did a great job. He's also my skiing buddy, weeds my garden when I'm too busy, chops wood with Jim and knows his way around my kitchen. With Jim, they play joke battles and constantly kid each other. Everyone, including Jim, looses those games with Theo, because he comes up with a funny remark faster than you can finish your sentence. I'm no good in word games, but in the evenings, we play big canasta battles and I tend to win those.

I love Theo, Jim loves Theo, Barkley loves him too, especially because unlike me and Jim, Theo takes him for really long walks.