Oh man.. It’s 12:30 and I have got to sleep. I only had about 4 hours last night. I’m sitting here listening to Nicholas playing some great songs he’s written and trying to blog at the same time.

We got back an hour ago from a show I did for the Governor’s institute of engineering. I do this show every year for my good friends Tom and Beth.

I think they had about 130 kids.. from all corners of the earth.

Right before the show Tom invited this guy Andreas to say a few words. Andreas is from Vilnius Lithuania.. the home of my great grandparents. He’s on town for a three week mathematics camp at UVM with Steven Wolfram, the founder of Mathmatica. Andreas is running a virtual think tank out of Vilnius. He was there to pitch some of the thinktank ideas to the GiV students. He is one cool dude. I gave him a SamStoen to take back to Vilinus

I had a great show tonight. It’s a more geeky crowd than I normally get to pitch to. It’s fun to have a group that you don’ thave to win over to science. They’re already there.

It was a very appreciative crowd.

One great bonus out of tonight’s show was the following ‘I dropped my pen in the mash potatoes’ in engleish.. then in Lithuaninan .

It took me a while to pack up because many of the kids stuck around to talk .. It was about 10 by the time we go out of there. Nick an I had the best talk about life and loss on the way home . Nic;s Dad died about 4 years ago . We talked some about how kids and perents project their own egos on their parents and kids. Nick is a good thoughtful kid,, I’m glad he’s staying with us..

OK.. I can’t stay awake anymore.. gotta sleep.. Gnite all.. gnite Sam
-me

So.. today was fairly peaceful and very productive. Lots of folks are off work this week, which makes it a good time to get things done. I took an hour off in the middle of the day to take a friend to lunch. It was good catching up we hadn’t had a chance to talk in some time. We were were having a pretty heavy discussion about work.. and what wasn’t going well there when a friend of both of ours walked in to the restaurant. We hadn’t seen each other since Sam died.. I was very saddened to learn that her 40 year old daughter was in the final stages of a terminal disease. She told me how sorry she was about Sam.. then we talked for about 15 minutes about life, death, surviving, grief, endurance, love, knowing and not knowing and all the stuff around a major loss.. or impending loss. We mostly listened. She was quiet and peaceful as she talked.. In the end o gave her a SamStone and a promise that I would check in on her over the next few months. She got up, said good bye and left…

As soon as she was gone, my friend and I went back to our conversation about the frustrations at work.. and I could tell.. it wasn’t bothering either of us so much now. Our mutual friend’s visit had given us one of those reality reminders about the real priorities in our lives. I can’t help thinking that the timing of her visit hadn’t been accidental…

Anyway… not much else to report for the day.. I have a big batch of SamStone placements I nede to post.. so I think I’ll start working on that.. One cool thing before i go.: My firend Joanne just sent me these pictures from her last visit to England. She took these around DIane and my old neghborhood in Winchester in Hampshire

This is the river canal down by Winchester College at the end of our street.

Aother view, looking back towards our street..

A bit closer into town.. We used to watch huge trout swimming here..

Our old flat. the one with the white door. 75 Canon St

,, and again from the other side. it looks just the way it did 22 years ago.. but then again.. it’s probabl lloked liek that for the last 200 years.

Brings back very good memories.. Like the time the older sisters across the street wondered by to ask why we cooked with so much garlic. They asked whether my wife was talian.. I replied that es, she was italian.. but not (yet) my wife.. From that day on the refered to Diane as my ‘consort’…

Well.. gotta sleep now.. happy almost July.. nite all.. nite Sam
-me