I had a nice start to today.. my friend Ruchir invited me down for breakfast…even though he was 1800 miles away in Texas. I left Armonk around 6:40 and drove 20 miles in a deep fog.

 

I showed up at Ruchir and Rashi’s house at about 7:15 because Rashi’s mom had offered to make me fresh pratha’s and pickle for breakfast (my mouth is watering just in thinking about it).. I had the most wonderful visit with Rashi and her parents who are visiting from India. Rashi’s dad is a most interesting guy.. He’s very interested in the healthful properties of certain foods.. He seems to like using me as a test subject for some of his food experiments.. Last time he had me try Noni juice (yuck) and pickled turmeric (yum).. this time he was easy on me.. The most extreme thing I ate was mango pickle with my breakfast. It was so wonderful. The girls were still asleep, though  Isha, the smallest one. Woke just before I left. .. Great way to start the day..

 

I got back to Armonk by 8:45 in time for my first meeting.. My day was an a very exciting  mix of meetings with different types of folks in Armonk. . I had several day job phone meetings mixed in with meeting on technical vitality, division strategy  and education outreach.. I love walking around Armonk and seeing all the shiny smart people.  I also love all of the historical IBM equipment they have on display

 

 I had lunch with my friend Willow and IBM”s ‘corporate comedian’.. yes. It’s true.. IBM has a comedian on the payroll… what a cool job that must be !    Around 4 I wandered back to the learning center for more day job discussions. On the way back, I planted a SamStone on the rock ledge where I once built three snowmen at 3AM on a very cold morning because I couldn’t sleep.

 

Three snowmen…. Three… While I was on a call today.,  I took  an online survey from  a magazine I get (Make) .. One of the questions was  how many kids do you have ?… I still need to answer three… there’s no space under the question to explain

 

This evening I had a nice dinner with new friend Will (sorry.. I didn’t get your picture !)  and old friend  Gunter.

 

 We got together over Japanese food to talk about a possible joint project. It would be fun to work together with them..  I came back to the Learning center and met up with my friends Dennis and Ed

 

All in all.. a good day.. lots to think about on the car ride home tomorrow morning.. See you all at home.. Samdrive with me.

 -mc