Monthly Archives: February 2008

sunday night – in the car

Folks… max and I are driving to nyc. We got hung up with bad weather so we’ll driving for awhile. I”ll try to write more later… For now we gotta keep driving. Nite all..nite sam

Ps safe in nyc I dropped max of at pratt at about 1:40 making it about an 8 hour trip, given the roads I’m just happy we made it. I just got to david’s beautiful apartment that he”s so graciodsly letting me use. It”s amazing more on that and the drive tomorrow. It”s after 3 and I need some sleep ttfn
-me

Friday night – taming of the shrew

I had a really good day today… got lots done.. didn’t stress to much.. got exercise and took it pretty slow. I’m being very mindful of how I’m feeling going into my birthday tomorrow.  It’s already my brithday in much of the world..   At one level I think I’m doing pretty well.. at a another level I can feel myself being argumentative and brittle with folks at work and folks on the phone., .. a sure sign of hidden stress for me.. I’m reminding myself to observe rather than judge when I see myself doing something like this..      I did a bunch of observing today.. how am I feeling abut being another year older.. how am I feeling about Sam ?   All in all… I feel pretty ‘ok’ .. we’ll see how tomorrow goes..

   The day passed quickly with work stuff.. first a home then a few hours at Champlain.. As I said productive.. but not too much to report.    This evening we had the treat of going to Gabe’s classes;’  Shakespeare plays..  I got there at 5:30 since I was the official videographer. It was chaos in the rooms as the kids got ready


Finally it was time to start !

the kids were magnificent.. there were 5 different plays.. each about 20 minutes long. They included excerpts from Midsummer Night’s  Dream, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, Much Adu About Nothing, and Taming of the Shrew.. which Gabe was in.

Here’s Gabe waiting to go on….

Here’s Austin as Malvolio

Gabe had a great part that included him getting hit over the head with a guitar.. t was really, really cute.

Here’s Will

and Sydney…

At the end of the play everyone scattered. in a few minutes the theater had been carried away.

After the play we went to the Cider House in Waterbury to hear Marshal and Friends play some really . really excellent Irish music. Tim and our mutual friend Mark came down to join us. The place was packed..

Rusty and Rj’s mom was there and tipped them off that it was my birthday.. They sang a great ‘Happy Birthday’ Irish style to me.. it was really wonderful.. I needed it !

There were many of our friends in the bar.. Aisha, Elisabeth, Wanda, Rusty and Rj’s mom and her husband and friends, the Ferrel’s neighbors. It felt like old home week .
 At one point, Diane, Gabe and Max snuck off to play pool.. When I went to get them. Gabe was glued to this pre-video, video Machine. it was fun watching him play..

OK.. I’m falling asleep after each sentence.. time to say good nigt.. It’s one minute until my 49th birthday.. I’m going to make it a good year.. I love you All.. I love you Sam… Happy Birthday to me !

-me

ps. Our team from Mexicali is taking the  penguin plunge tomorrow at around 11 to 11:15.. If you’re still interested in sponsoring us . please let me know ASAP. Thanks !

Thursday night – more snow !

We woke to today to a thick blanket of new snow..   It had snowed through the night. but not enough to get a snow dya for the kids (darn) . Driving was pretty crazy though.. it took me over 30 minutes to drop Gabe of at school .. I worked solidly for about 2 hours. then Chai gilt tripped me into to going out for a snow shoe. It was so beautiful .

The snow was deeper than Chai’s legs.. she had to do the bunny hop to move forward.. cute and I’m sure exhausting.

The snow shoe was exactly what i needed.. I’ve been stressing mightily these last few weeks. some of it is normal end-of-project jitters about the work I’m doing with Champlain.. (it’s going well.. and I’m loving working with those guys.. it’ll just be down to the wire on delivery)… some of the stress is thinking about going back to my old job in a few weeks .. and some.. I’m sure is my birthday on Saturday.. I think I’ve always freaked a bit around my birthday. Now having a birthday without Sam is so hard . so, so hard…
    Anyway.. the exercise today was just what I needed .. I came back feeling pretty chill. I had a few more phone meetings.. then headed in to town. On the way I stopped at Road ResQ to figure out what was making the Prius’s left rear tire leak.. Grillmaster Phil was there minding the shop by heimself.. he found a very cute sheet rock screw threacec nicely through the tire.. dang… I generally use a huge magnet to clean he garage to pick up evil welding scraps.. but soemhow I must’ve missed this..

Phil showed me the shops prominatly placed SamStone.. pretty cool !

I spent the rest of the afternoon at Champlain. Ann, Ray and Lauren are back from Houston.. where they did a cool gig.. They wrote 2 video games in 3 days as part of a conference..  They were staying in downtown Houston.. which is pretty quiert at night.  I asked them how they liked my home town.. but I think they spent the whole time indoors..
 
The project is goign pretty well. the design is really coming together.. and the story is shaping up. It’s got to be good to go next Friday.. which will keep us busy till then.. but  it’s goign to be worth it..

When I got home, gabe and I took advantage of the snow to start building a ramp up to the rail. We piled on snow , sprayed it with water to help it pack then stomped it down. By the end of the hour I could actually see how soemone could board down this thing. We took turns coming down it on sleds to pack the snow.. it was a hoot !

It was beutiful out there.. there must be 18 inces of snow out there now..

Diane shwoed u about 8.. we were making dinner about 9…

I’d already eaten.. but I couldn’t resist just one raviol  (is that the singular of ravioli ? )  . I found the perfect plate..


OK.. not much more to report.. gotta sleep now. More tomorrow. ‘Nite all, ‘nite Sam.
-me

Ps. Just another reminder that  I’m going to participate in the 2008 Penguin Plunge this Saturday.  The Plunge is when a bunch of crazy people jump into Lake Champlain as part of a fund raiser for the Vermont Special Olympics.   If anyone is interested in making a tax-deductible pledge  to Special Olympics for the pleasure of seeing me freeze.. please let me know 🙂 . I’ll be sure to get pictures ! Thanks !

Wednesday night – snow

It’s snowing Sam… you’d love it.. it was so peaceful and beautiul waking up to a real snow storm. I had almost forgotten how much I loved it.. Driving Gabe to school was almost magical the way that everything  faded into white a few hundred yards from the car.

Burlington traffic was a mess.. the snow parking ban was in effect.. cars were sliding around. it was freaky and fun

There was something different about the snow.. it wasn’t flakes.. it was needles.. long straight needles that clumped together.. very different than cartoon snow.. the funny thing is that nearly all of them looked just the same.

I’m not sure what I did to pass the day.. I know I was working.. thinking hard about you. I think my birthday is making me feel you more than most times…

this evening we went up to Bolton for night riders..  All your friends were up there too..

Gabe had a good night.. he’s got great style…  He tried your bindings tonight on his new board.. but it’ll take some adjusting yet to make them feel right..   Gabe ended up getting 1st in the 12 and under boarders.. Whoo0hooo.. he picked up a sweet Burton backpack..

Matt T. picked up 2nd in the 12-18 skiers !.. Great night for him. too !

Wendy picked up the ‘name most like a ski trail’ prize.. Not sure where she found that,

After prizes we went down to the townsends.. such a beautiful and warm place. Deb.. wanted me to say hi to her cousing Megan (Hey Megan) .. 

The house and coat rack were empty when I walked into the house at 8:30… By nine the house was packed..

By nine Deb had whipped up another amazing feast.. pasta with three sauces, fish soup with home made aioli , several salads, vegetable plate, wine, beer, fruit.. She makes it look so easy..

You should have been there Sam.. you really should have been there…

I love you my son,
-me