Lessseeee… pretty uneventful couple of days.. Last night we all just vegged at home soaking up some needed family time.   Even Chai was feeling sleepy..

Diane and Elizabeth came hoem around 6:30… then another unplanned dinner party for 11. Gabe had brought soem friends with him from the mountian. Diane whipped up a Thai feast. it was amazing.. and we manged to chug down half a big bottle of Sambal hot sauce int he process.

The evening ended up with another   xbox / bad movie marathon…

Last night I stayed up too late fooling wiht the tools I’m hoping I eventually master for my science YouTube video project. Here’s a pretty lame sameple of what I did with the Poser figure animator..and the quarter crusher animation that Seth did for me last week. My aim is to use the animation to get some concepts across quickly… and use an animated figure  (eventually of me) to be a minuture ‘host’   Not much yet.. but with practice.. and some artistic help.. I’m hoping to make something that kids will find wierd, funny and interesting… (I just got an unsolicited art school critque that said … “don’t hold your breath” 🙂 )

We woke today to beutiful winter sunshine  and bluse skies.. still no snow.. but the temperature was back down in the 30’s.. hopefully we’ll get soem snow back this week.

We packed the car with Max’s stuff, Mason’s stuff (he’s coming down for the week) and my stuff.. .I’m goign to be in Fishkill for a few days of Academy meetings… which I’m really looking forward too.  The car was absolutely packed !

We had a goodbye family hug…

Then all crammed into the car

Max took the wheel and we were off…   It took me 20 seconds to get bored in the back seet. I’m not made to be a pasenger.. so I passed out..   

One cool sight.. we passed the aftermath of an ice storm in Barre.. the trees looked like crystal sculptures.

I took over driving in Springfield MA.. Max took over as DJ. The rest of the drive we just talked and listened to music (Lots of Keller Williams !).. it wan’t bad.. about 5.5 hours wiht traffic.

I must say the scenery goes down hill once you leave Vermont. Don’t you just love those well disguised cell towers.

We got to pratt about 5:30.   We moved all of Max’s stuff in….

Turns out Max found out a few days ago that he  is goign to have a roommate this term.. He didn’t realize that they were goign to move anyone else in.. so he hadn’t left the room in a ready-to-move-in-state. That called for a little ‘rearrainging’. Noting a few dumpsters out to the trash/recycling couldn’t fix..

And here is said roomate.. meet Adam from Statin Island.. he’s a design major and seems like a nice guy…

OK… Looks like Max is ready to load up the car with the stuff I’m taking home.. so… I’ll finish here.  Talk to you tomorrow.. Thinking of you, Sam

-me

Nice, slow day.   I woke up at 7.. figured that was too early .. so went back to sleep until 9. Diane headed out to the store…. while I hung out at home and tried to wake up. Our friend Dwayne came over for a nice visit  at around 9: 30. Dwayne’s son Jarred died on Thanksgiving  in 2001 / We sat around talking about our kids, our families and our jobs for about an hour.   He’s so easy to talk to .

Diane showed up around 10:30,. We took advantage of the warm weather and melting snow to try and finish up Gabe’s snowboarding rail. When I built it, I forgot about the part of us not having any hills in our yard.. Ooops. So.. the only thing left to do was to build a hill. Our idea was to use the giant raft that Max made last summer as a movable mountain. We had a couple of strong friends around so we went outside and pried the huge plywood raft out of the wood pile. We dragged it over and leaned it into the wood pile.

Then we all grabbed the rail out of the garage and started to walk it out into the yard. I seem to have managed to design the legs to make it impossible to carry and walk with it at the same time.

Diane had the great idea to turn the thing over.. and that made all the difference. It was so easy to carry upside down.

We shuffled the rail out tot the ramp… now.. what’s missing ? …. Oh yeah,  SNOW !… The idea is to pile the whole thing with snow, make a jump .. and pasta fazoole … It’ll be cool to try and get it  to work.   Now we just have to wait for snow !

It was a beautiful day for a barrel roll.. Mason managed to stay up there.

The day was so beautiful that we decided to go for a walk.. Deb came by so Diane, Deb, Elizabeth, Chai and I headed out to the lower gorge.

As we walked down to the river, we found that there was still  a quite a bit of  snow back int the woods.

The river was very high and runnign fast. it was really nice with the rocks still covered with snow

The running water was too much of a temptation for me.. I had to go in for a dip. Deb and Elizabeth graciously averted their eyes due to my.. errrr…. lack of porper bathing attire…

They didn’t have to look away long.. The water was quite refreshing… so refreshing that I was in and out in less than a minute.. It felt SO good. When you jump in a rushing river that’s just about freezing.. it really makes you feel alive .. that is unless it kills you. The cold water seemed to completely washed away the rummy mood I’d been in for about 3 days.

I stayed in even longer than Chai !

We had this great slanty sun as we walked home. It was nice.. ( though I still couldn’t feel my feet. )

When all my parts thawed I took Chai out for a late afternoon run.. The snow was mostly gone on the rivershore trail.. except for where it had been packed on the trail.. It was tough running on the snow.. but it felt good to run rather than snowshoe for a change.

I made it to the turn around point where I always talk to Sam.. it has a great view of Robbin’s Mountain..

I got a jump on my springtime ritual of writing Sam’s name in the snow there.

OK.. I’m going to go help cook.. or at least help eat.   Tomorrow  I take Max back to Pratt… gotta get some sleep before that. Tallk to you then.. Nite all. Nite Sam.
-me

Interesting day. I woke up thinking about work for the first time that I can remember in more than a year.  It was a strange feeling.  I generally wake up thinking about Sam every morning. It wasn’t that I wasn’t thinking about Sam..   It was just that I wasn’t only thinking about him.. I wasn’t sure how to feel. I’ve learned not to think to much about how I’m supposed to feel when something like that happens. It doesn’t help

For some reason I was able to concentrate today better than most. I got on the phone at 8AM and and really didn’t look up until just before 2. I got a ton of stuff done . I had a meeting at work at 2.. then worked until about 6:30 there.. From there I hurried over to the Inn at Essex for a board meeting of VoMIT (Vermont’s Own M. I. T. club.)  I love that acronym and I love these meetings. They are always gloriously wide ranging and disorganized, but somehow we manage to attend to all business I love the people I know from MIT. they’re all so quirky and funny.
Here is the VoMIT board: Jim. Laura, Jeff and Michelle.

We had a great meeting.. We were trying to figure out something fun and meaningful for our alumni club to do. One idea was to hold a ‘hack fest’. MIT is known for harmless high-tech pranks. Our idea is to create some sort of big high-tech prank  that somehow raises money for a Vermont charity. I know it sounds like a weird idea.. but I’m sure we can come up with something. Any ideas/.suggestions welcome.. you don’t even have to be from MIT to play.

The board meeting was over at 8.. Diane was up at the mountain teaching Yoga and Gabe was boarding (I think).. so I decided to stop and see Hannah and Daves’ new baby, Senyah, on the way home. I called Hannah and found out that she was at her folks house in Williston. I did a quick visit there to see … and hold.. new baby Senyah.. She’s so beutiful

As is her big sister Adah

I got home to find out that everyone was home.. and watchign a scary moview (Alien III) in Sam’s room . I just can’t watch anythign scarier than Bambi.. so I came in here and started blogging..

No sooner had I sat down than our good freind Claire showed up !. We hadn’t seen her in months .. It was great catching up.. We’ve known Claire from the day after she was born.. In fact, she was born so quicky that she entered the world on the floor of her parents bathroom. She’s just back from Barbados with her family. She’s a freshan now at UVM and loves it.

OK.. All for now.. gotta get some sleep.   GNite to you all. gnite Sam..

-me

ps.I just got a note that I’m in my firned Ann’s blog tonight.. so here’s a pointer to her very colorful blog.. It’s fun to see how cross linked the blogosphere is !

Home again after a quick trip down to NY… I didn’t have a download cable last night.. so here are two pictures from yesterday’s amazing head wave .. I just read that it it 63 degrees in Burlington yesterday.. 12 degrees above th previous record for this date !  Not the best snowshoeing weather….

Here’s yesterday’s sunset of Champlain College.

… and here are a few of my friends at Champlain who are helping me with the ‘Good Games’ project… Here’s Ann

.. and Laren, Bryan, Wes and Mike.. aren’t they cute ? They are amazing folks to work with. I’m learning lots from them

Ahh.. here’s Jai, a virtual member of our team..

As I said yesterday.. After I  left Champlain and drove 320 miles down to Armonk listening to NH election returns.. Yet I managed to stay awake. I got to the hotel at 12:30 AM and checked in. I just love this hotel… they have comfy bathrobes for guests…   What more can you ask for ?!

I slept great last night.. woke up early and went for a run.. came back and checked out.. before I did I hid a SamStone in the room.

Here’s a few views of the IBM Learning Center Hotel … I think it feels like a monastery..

OK.. a monastery with ping pong and pool tables.

I took my camera on my run this ironing.. I jogged over to IBM Headquarters and got these pictures in the mist.. I think the place looks like a sci-fi movie set..

I remember Sam getting sick right outside this loading dock as I was preparing to go in to do a science show several years back.

Here’s my office in Armonk.. I’m borrowing it from my friend Grace who’s out on maternity leave.

Here are a few past IBM CEO’s ..

An here’s my good freind Marylou.. She’s my ‘handler’ during my assignment to Headquarters.. She’s great.. as was the sushi at lunch today !

Headquarters is such an interesting and different place.   Even the political views are different !

OK.. that’s all for now.. I’ve driven 600 miles in the last 20 hours and need to sleep. G’nite for now all.. g’nite Sam !
-me

ps… I just found out today that my work colleague Deb is a good friend of my college suite mate Chris.. They both lived in Tucson.. very tiny world !