Thursday night – skunked !

Oh man am I exhausted.. I just drove 7 hours home .. got int the drive way  ands was greeted by chai and satori.. I turned around 1 second.. and chai came back foaming at the mouth and gagging.. she’d been sprayed full in the face by a skunk.. maybe 10 feet from me..   poor girl.. poor us !

The house still smells like a musk factory, but chai is reasonably ok smelling after a thorough scrubbing with every household remedy we could fined..

Never a dull moment..

night folks.. nite sam
–me

Tuesday night -nobody told me !

Didja ever have on of those days when you just felt completely out of the loop ? Today was like that.. I seemed to be about 4 steps behind everyone else.. we’d been reorganized at work.. I was the last to know..  The project dates had slipped.. again..by a month  no one told me. I went to meet my l8unch meting… wrong day.. Then, after  I returned to work to eat my lunch.. I ran into my friend M… I asked her about our mutal friend G.. how was he ? I heard he was retiring.. We talked   for about 10 minutes until M looked at me blankly and said.. “I married G almost 2 years ago”…  man .. am I am just the last to know ! (but.. i gotta say this news just made me SO happy.. they were made for one another !)

I just heard that man landed on the moon 41 years ago today…

nobody told me !

nite folks.. nite sam

Sunday night – brain salon

Nice slow day.. spent the morning working on a talk I’m giving in Belgium in a few weeks to a group of grad students from all over the world. Diane helped me edit the talk.. she’s such a huge help in getting the message right in my talks !..

I also spent a few hours figuring out how to get some of my equipment oversees afordably  and safely .. It’s no longer very easy to fly with it on a plane. It just looks too dangerous..   I also had to figure out how to get the stuff to run on 220 volts instead of our 110. That was fun and a bit nail biting.. as I didn’t ‘t want to blow anything up.

Mid day we took a nice break as three friends converged on the house.

 Paul,

 Bob a

and Herb

 all showed up to help on pauls; upcoming ‘Beekman on the Brain’ show. Pauls a wonderful guy.. he’s a puppeteer and a performance artist. He used to lead the Bread and Puppet pageants in Glover.. in the 80’s and 90’s he had a show called ‘Beekman’s world’ that turned oHe lives in LA.. but comes back here to visit hois daughetr and granddaughter. n many kids to science.. he’s one of my inspirations in my current work.. anyway.. Paul’s doing this stage show on the brain..Since I know next to nothing about the brain, d my job is  to introduce Paul to folks who do. Boob is a neurosychologist from down in Cape Cod.. he’s up here frequently to visit friends like Herb..   Bob’s specializes in neuropathology  and neuro pharmacology..

Herb I know from the haunted forest.. he was the sponsor of our 20 foot talk robotic pumpkin.. aka ‘projectX’. He works in criminal justice…

The five of us (Diane hung out with us fro a while too !) talked for several hours about what kides need to kow about the brain.. and how to get that info across in a fun and interesting way fro kids 8-12.   It was so much fun listening to Bob and Paul go back and forth on how the brain worked and how to show it.  

I felt like I was running an 19th century intellectual salon in my house..

We broke for a delicious lunch Diane had made.. then dove back in for a couple of more hours of  brain talk..


This is really a fun project.. stuff anyone out there know any good stuff to include in a presentation on the brain for kids ? Got any good demonstration ideas ? We’re all ears.. and medula oblongati, and hypocanthi and preforntal cortices..

ok.. well.. this brain is tired.. so

nite all.. nite Sam
-me

saturday night – Samstones and sunset

Busy day running errands. not much to report. spent a good part of it trying to figure out a way to mail one of my tesla coils to Belgium for a talk I’m giving there in a couple of weeks. It’s no fun taking it on the plane with me anymore.. too many uestions about it. I always have to use the excuse “if I were goign to make something reallyu dangerous.. I wouldn’t makie it look really dangerous, now would I”.. works on US TSA folks.. not going to test that taking it internationally…

Around six folks started showing up for a SamStones potluck. We were getting low on stones with all the travel folks do over the summer.. so Jen brought over clay. Before we started with the clay we ate.. kids inside…

Adults banished to outside..

Wendy and Tim showed up. This was the first time we got a close look at Wendy’s new foreshortened fingers.. She los the ends of three fingers on her left had in mishap with an electric lawn mower a few weeks back. She’s handling it with characteristic grace and humor..   We’re discussing making some sort of cool prosthesis for her middle finger.. What cool powers can we give her ?

We were rewarded  with or outside dining with a really glorious sunset… we’ve been having them nearly every day now.. wonder what’s causing them ?

THen inside to begin th emaking..

It’s a nice process… shape the ball in your hand, press it between the website mold and the ‘Sam’ mold… then voila !

they then air dry a few days then Jen and Diane ink in the Sam imprint with Iron oxide glaze.. then they’re fired. We generally make about 300 per batch.. i think tonight we made fewer as it wasn’t a full batch of clay.. A whole lot of love goes into making every one.. It’s  a wonderful sweet and sad tradition…

nite all.. nite sam.. we were all thinking of you tonight

-me