Nice slow day. I needed that. I stayed up most of the night working on a talk for next week.. so I only got a few hours sleep. We just hung out around the house this morning enjoying the sun.   My folks and I took the dogs for a walk along the rivershore..  the ferns are now up to my waist.. .. amazing because the ground was bare just a few weeks back.

Around 1 I drove my folks to South Burlington to watch Gabe’s Lacrosse games.. They played well again. and it was wonderful just hanging out in the beautiful weather..

Gabe came over during a break between the games.. he was quite fragrant as we took this three generation shot with my dad.

The team was looking a little green.. since Iforgot to turn off the color filter in Gabe’s camera.

The games were in the field behind the South Burlington ice rink… so I went and stuck my feet in the scraped snow to cool off.

We got back to the house around 5 and have stuck here since.. My folks are here and are behaving nicely.. Aren’t they cute ?

We were sitting inside talking when we heard Satori start barking like crazy. I went out to find that she’d climbed into the old climber thing and gotten her leash completely tanlged in it. She couldn’t get out… It was cute and sad.. I felt like a jerk running in to get my camera before letting her go.. Am I a bad dad ?

Max and his friends had decided to rehabilitate the old big raft. It had been serving as a snowboard rap for the winter. The guys took it down and strapped the 4 barrels back on and hoisted the monster down to the river.. It must weigh 350 pounds. It took them 3 and a half hours for the six of them (Max, Alex, Mason. Abbott, Nate and Justin) to make it down to the green from here.. They got beached several times.. and the raft started to break apart.. but they made it !
My mom and I happened to drive by just as they were pulling the raft out of the water.

I helped them hoist the waterlogged beast up on to the van.. It took all 6 of us to lift the thing up.

I got home around 6:30 tonight after a super busy day. My folks were already at our house.. they’d driven up from Boston this afternoon. the house was also full of kids. Tonight was the surprise party that Morgan had put together for Matt and Hannah T.  The house was all decorated, the cars were hidden.

.. then around 7:30. Deb’ drove up to the house with the kids. We all ran up the fornt staircase and hid..

As they came in the front door we doused them with silly string and confetti. You could tell that they were completely surprised !

The party was really nice.. I think there were about 30-40 kids.. I found out that today was also Brit’s 18th birthday.  (I was using gabe’s camera without a flash.. sorry for the blur !)

It was a beautiful sunset outside as the kids went out to the tramp.. and messed around the campfire

We even had a pinata !

We do love fire here…

Then folks came in for icecream and cake. The kids had made a double cake for the twins.. it had two photographs  of the guys made into the icing.. very cool

Things started to quiet down around 11.. we started to clean.. but Hannah decided to lie down in the mess

Dad and Mom enjoyed the chaos too. They fit right in !…

It is really nice having all the family together

Dad and I fell asleep upstairs.. Mom caught this picture.

While the kids played sketchy songs in Sam’s room..

A really nice night ! Sam.. I sure felt you here in spirit.. you belonged OK.. Gotta go work some now..  Love you all.. Love you Sam..
-me

Ahhhh.. home again !.   Diane and I just came back form our 3 day trip to CTRE. It was a really nice trip. It was really good having some quiet time together with just the two of us.. It was also nice being out there with all my IBM friends. I really do love those folks.
   Note much to report for the day.. we spent it all on a plane getting back . It was so wonderful waling back into the house and seeing Max and  Gabe.  the dogs and . a beautifully clean house… To top it off, Max had made us a welcome home snack of pizza, spinach pie and cake. around a candle. Now that’s a homecoming !     I love my family.. I love my home…    I love you sam…

-me

Freinds..
   DIane and I have just coem back from the big dinner party that ends the IBM Corporate Technical Recognition Event.. It’s been a wonderful and relaxing day.. lots of things happened.. but I’m way too sleepy to capture them now.. I’ll do the best I can until I konk out..

The day started at 6:30 with a breakfast of all the IBM fellows. It’s a funny group.  I’ve never met a more intelligent, diverse or pleasantly quirky group of people..  Today was a particularly poient meeting since our group guru, Nick had announced that he’ll be retiring in October. All of us.. and I believe there are 70 of us now.. look to Nick as the g-dfather of technical people in IBM. hes’ helped all of us so much in our work and careers. it’s hard to imagine IBM without him.. It was tough to say goodbye.

Areound 8 I met up with Diane and we went in to the main ballroom for the beginning od the meeting. Before the show started, I went up and met ‘Mole’ .. the husband of my good friend Marylou. I’ve heard so much about Mole.. he’s an ex rock and role sound guy.. now doing freelance work for shows like CTRE. He’s a really nice and funny guy. Here he is on the right with his freind.. who’s name I’m spacing on.

He placed a samstone up on the mixer board ..

When the main session started, they played some video clips of coupls together.. the IBM award person was thanking his/her spouse for their support. We were one of the first ones.. There I was up on the screen telling folks how much I love Diane.. pretty cool !

They had some great speakers today.. including Dr. Hawass. the director of Antiquities at the Cairo museum.. He gave us a whirlwind tour of the state of tomb exploration. mummy identification preservation, etc. It was fascinating.

We then heard form Angelique Kidjo.. a wonderful world music singer from benin.. and a crusader for kids and girls in emerging africa. She was incredibly inspiring..

We then listened to a number of additional IBm awards.. including the class of 70 new IBM Distinguished engineers.

After the session, we ate a quick lunch then met back at the busses for our river trip. We drove about 45 minutes to the Salt River.

It was a nice bus with a bathroom… which had a very descriptive sign inside….

We got a boat with Brynn and Carl..

Here’s Gerog and his wife Heidi.. Georg co-won the 1987 Nobel Prize in Physics for high temperature superconducting material.. He’s a very nice and modest guy.. you’d never know he’d won the award unless you asked him.

Here’s our river guide Tim

We came upon a small group of with houses on the Native American reservation side…

Paul and Heidi were in the bow ..

It was a beautiful 7 mile float. great scenery.. lots of cool facts.. I tossed a SamStone into the water near a cluster of islands.

We passed a bald eagles nest.. See the Eagle ?   He’s in the mid right of this picture.

Here’s an old abandoned eagle’s  nest.

After the boat ride.. we came back to the hotel. I had a few work meetings.. then we went up to Lisle and Glenn’s to meet their baby Sam  short for .. Samantha.. She’s named in part after our Sam. It was wonderful holding her.

At that point I realized I had 20 minutes to get back to my room. showered and dress before I needed to be back for a reception.. I managed to make it !.

I went down to the lobby and saw my friend Kerry with his beautiful wife and Ginny R.

After soing a bit more movie clips for the fellow interviews.. I went back out into the reception and grabbed Diane.. then we made our way over to dinner.   Diane and I were hosting a table… here wre our table mates.

Dinner was fun.. I managed to find a guy wearing the exact Garcia tie that I was !

The big name performer of the evening was Leann Rhymes. I’d bever heard her music.. but I really liked it. We hug out for a good while.. then decided we had to sleep..  And we do !  I

It’s been a wonder 3 days out here with Diane.. I miss the kids and doge.. I’m glad were’ going back tomorrow !

OK.. that all for now.. .. gnite all.. gnite Sam !
-me