Yearly Archives: 2008

Saturday evening – Lunatics Labratory

Before I forget There’s a great short video on the ‘Shout it Out’ movie on WCAX’s website right now. You can see it here ...

Nice productive day.. We started by meting Homer and Mary for brunch.. Homer and I had some errands to run today for the Haunted Forest project, so we used it as a chance to get the families together.. It’s always great hanging out with them.. We made crepes with strawberries from the garden.

Gabe, ian and Trevor came down as we finished and took their turn with the crepes. Gabe even folded hos own crepe.. He is now officially a man !

And a fine creation it was !

I ran upstairs to get dressed.. and pulled on one of my favorite shirts.. It’s one that I wore in one of my favorite family pictures.. That makes me want to wear it.

Homer and I took off around 1:30. First stop was Barre.. Homer is working on a new sign for a welding shop.We had to measure and photograph it for the replacement.

The building was next to an old historic building : The meeting hall for ‘Socialist Workers Party’ which dates from 1900. When all the Italian stonecutters came to this country and settled in Barre they organized into radical socialist Unions.. It’s a pretty cool heritage for the only State in the Union with a socialist senator !

We finished our measurements and headed towards Waitsfield. On the way we went by a stone cutter and found this huge set of hands…

Homer strated to crawl up on them.. until one of the neighbors yelled at him to get off..

We got to Bills around 3:15 and said hi to his family Bill has a cool daughter named Tesla.. The name of my favorite inventor.. How cool is that..

We then spent a wonderful 3 hours crawling through all of his cool electronic
and mechanical junk .. He has the best collection of cool gizmos,
giblets and thingy of anyone on the face of the earth..

It was so cool watching two of my most respected mentors working with each other as we scrounged for motors and power supplies for Project-X.. the giant robot project we’re doing for the Haunted Forest.

We did pretty well.. we found a bunch of gear motors which will help us get the beast’s arms to move around in a scary way.. It was a successful mission.. We had one last thing to do before leaving bills, We had to help him load an old Plasma Etcher into their horse trailer for transport to his production building. I was wondering if it was the first time in history that a plasma etcher was ever transported in a horse trailer.. if not.. it was very likely it was the first plasma etcher transported in a horse trailer with a girl named Tesa wearing an orange shirt.. And that made it special.

Bill celebrated the loading by setting off fireworks.. that’s his response to most things.

By the time we loaded that big heavy thing it was after 6. Homer and I needed to be heading home. We drove up for the Appalachian gap.. which as particularly beautiful in the late afternoon..

We got to Homers right at 7.. which is when he needed to be home.. We unloaded the loot we’d found at Bills. i also got to see some of the new ‘water panels’ that Homer’s been working on. The pictures don’t do them justice.. they have the coolest depth.. many layers of colors over some patterns made by a grinder.. They look like living water… very cool

I got home around 8… long day.. 110 miles of Vermont countryside.. and a new horde of robotic motors. Not a bad day.. now I think we’re all going to watch a movie.. so I’ll sign off now.. Tlk to you all tomorrow !.. Nite all.> nite Sam
-me

Saturday night – all star

This was nearly a perfect day.. I woke late.. nothing pressing to do. Gabe had his Lacrosse state All Star game this morning. We had to be there at 10 for a noon game.. That gave the kids time to meet their teammates and practice a bit. The kids were split into North and South.. Gabe was on the North team.. There aren’t’ that many teams from the South so some Northern towns like Shelbourne were playing for the South. it’s funny to think of Shelboune as ‘south’ Diane and I took advantage of the practice time to take a nice 3 mile run .. and a visit to the Famers Market… We got back to the field and learned that everything was running about 30 minutes late. that was lucky because
Max got there in time to see the start of the game.. Here he is trying to fake the pad luck that gabe has,, we think he looks like he has an Alien inside.

While we were walking in Shelbourne we ran in to our friends Jay and Michelle. We spotted Jay becaus eof his range am shirt.

The game was absolutely amazing.. All of the kids were good.. so all passes connected. nearly all goal shots went in.. it was so exciting.. Gabe had a great game as did all the kids on both teams .

The game was fast and active.. it seemed like it flew by. The North team won soemthign like 12 to 6. Gabe had a great goal and a few good assists. he had a blast..
Both teams looked really good.

Here’s the south team

Here are the norths (Gabe’s team)

There was great sportsmanship all around

Here’s both teams.

Afterwords, the North coach gave out some awards… Gabe got the the most interesting character and best hair awards.. It was another all star shirt… which he gave to me !!!

We got home around 2L30 to find Max and friends preparing for Scott’s Bachelor party tonight.. It wasn’t the kind of bachelors party I remember.. this one involved making two full sized zombies with wooden skeletons.. packed with balloons that were filled with fake blood.

And a clay head filled with fake blood and oatmeal. Ewwwwww

The idea is to hand scott a bunch of weird weapons and let him go after the zombies as a celebration of his impending marriage… weird I know but sweet… and a little less yucky than the normal bachelor party fair..

I decided to contribute by making Scott a set of claws like I’d made for Chris.> These came out very nicely.. I sharpened them until they were really .. well.. dangerous.. A perfect wedding gift.

Max is at the bachelors party now.. Dines at a show with Gina, Gabe and his friends are upstairs and deb just walked in. I think I need to make the kids some dinner.. after all its’ nearly midnight.. 🙂 …

Talk to you tomorrow ! GNite all.. Gnite Sam
-me

Friday night – Shout it out !

Tonight was the premier of the Voices Project Movie – “Shout It Out”. The movie is the culmination of a multi-year project by our friend Bess O’Brien and hundreds of kids across Vermont. it started as the Voices Project, a play in 2005..Max tried out and got a part as Justin. a homeless drug addict. They worked through the summer of 2005 then toured the play to nealry 20 sites across the state.. last summer, Bess decided to make the play into a full feature length movie..Max got the same part. Our house became one of the dorms and a major hang-out place for the actors. We were also the the sett for 4 scenes. Diane, Gabe and I even have a short cameo. It was such a great experience for the kids.. and for us. It was only 6 months after Sam’s passing.. and the activity and energy the kids brouht was so uplifting… They filmed through most of the Summer.. since then, Bess and her crew have been editing.. tonight was the night.

We all headed down to the waterfront theater for the 7:15 start. Max drove separately because he had to haul al of his DJ stuff.

We got down to the theater right before the movie was to start. Just as we were parking, Diane spotted this beautiful rainbow.. a good omen.

They ushered us into two different theaters ..

We were in ‘theater A’

Just before the movie started, Bess came in to introduce the movie.. and she brought the Governor !

The movie was absolutely wonderful. It was really cool to see how they took the storyline from the play and gave the characters depth. The visuals were great and the musical numbers were really, really good. it was cool seeing Max up on the big screen. The movie is going to be touring about 50 cities in Vermont.. please check it out and let us know what you think.

After the movie we all flowed into teh lobby and had a party. It was great seeing the kids again.. There was a band and most of the kids were dancing. Everyone was psyched that the movie was out !

I’ll find some info on the tour schedule and post here when I get it. .. Right now.. I need to sleep ! More tomorrow.. Gnite all… Gnite Sam.

-jc

Thursday night – Juneteenth

Happy Juneteenth everyone.. It’s a day set up to commemorate the Emancipation Proclamation of June 18th, 1863 that freed all slaves in the US. I remember that we celebrated it as kids in Texas.. I don’t hear much of it up here.. Anyway.. it’s good cause to celibrate the end of that dark part of American History.

Well.. not much time to blog agai.. It’s 1 AM and I’ve ben working for several hour. I had one of those days when I got firther behind the more I worked. I finally feel caught up and now I’m beat. I’m really trying to fight the crazy business from taking over my life again.. today I didn’t win… there’s always tomorrow 🙂

Before sleep, I do have a few days of pictures I want to share..

Yesterday I stopped by my firend Chris’s stone worksop on my way to dinner.. He’d made soem new SamStoens that he’s takign on his cross country trip.. Ilove these real stone SamStones. they were the originals ..

When I got there Chris was excited to show me his ‘word garden’.. he’s ben takign all of his scrap sandblstin masks and making random word rocks.. It’ just so amazingly cool. You hve got to see it to get the total effect. I told him that if he keps this up. Snoflake Bently won’t be the only wonderful eccentric that Jericho Center is proud to call its own. Here are just a tiny fraction of the dictionary o stones in Chris’s garden

After playning witht he rocks, I went and met up with my firends at Kitchen Table.. I spoke of it last night.. here’s the picture to prove I wasn’t making it up. from lef tto right it’s Chang Suh, Aiden, Jens (our guest of honor), Sue. me and Bill.. Itwas a delicios and fun night..

At 9 PM Izoomed home, threw on different clothes and Diane, Jane, Geore, Garry, Amy and I started our hike up to the cliffs.. Again.. Idescribed that last night.. so here’s the visuals..

Stuffed looked so cool in the darkness !

Here are George and Jane at the cliffs. it’s about 300 feet straight down right in forn of where they’re sitting.. Whatchout !

Here’s Amy

.. and me asleep on the rocks

Qw got home.. then I stayed up till 2:30 working and Linux hacking just for fun (like a dummy I paid for that lack of sleep today !)

THis mornign Diane and I took a run.. then off to work for me. On the way I passed the ‘hunt’ happening across the street.. note.. no real foxes abused here

Today’s work day was very full and very frustrating.. too much to do and not enough progress.. again.. I will try for better tomorrow. After work I met Diane and Gabe and a bunch of our friends at the park in Essex to calibrate our friend David (as in Hannah and David’s ) completion of the new Essex skate park. it’s absolutely beautiful !

We helped make it complete by adding a SamStone.

I saw Nate there.. he claims that I’ve never posted a nice picture of him in my blo.. that he always has a strange face on.. Hmmm.. doesn’t look strange to me !

Here’s Adah

And Gabe… riding the bronco

And Adah and me on the jungle gym.

Here’s the gang..

I took off around 7:30 and went and met my friend Garry at the Inn at Essex Garry is visiting from New York. Norman and Miles were therefor a bit then left. I also saw Jessie ! . When they left, Garry and I took a good walk in the golf course and talked.. It was a good quiet end to a hectic day

Eek.. it’s late.. time for sleep.. Gnite all .. Gnite Sam
-me