Yearly Archives: 2010

Wednesday night – snow and flooding

Another long day. I feel I’ve been dragged into a near impossible task at work.. bu I’m masochistically enjoying it somehow.   I stood at the counter and worked form 8 thill about 7.. with only one break for a run midday.. Everything had been covered with snow last night.. and the river was still at flood. It was a cool combo.   Wait.. make that two breaks, I did have a 30 minute conversation with a precocious 10 year old girl from Virginia (i think) named Kaleela. Kaleela is an expert on monarch butterflies.. she wants to design a system to track their migration> Her mom wrote the chairman of ibm for help.. and his office asked me. We’ve spoken three times now.. and i tell you.. this kid is amazing. She knows everythign about butterflies.. and has been researching chip technology for the tracking. Things like this make my job fun..
   Gabe’s home now .. we’re both kinda moping around the house because we have too much work.. but at least its fun to complain .   I’m goign to go bug him now..

That’s it for now.. more tomorrow
nite all, nite sam
-me

Tuesday night – under water

Oy. today was tough.. long work day, difficult meetings until 7pm. Worked until 10.. Not at all what I want to be doing while Gabe and I are here alone. We did break for a couple of  hours and go out to eat.. I don’t know how we usually figure out what to cook.. but somehow Diane alwyas has an idea. I don’t need her to go away  for us to realize how wonderful she is.. but it certainly reminds me how much she does to keep things goign around here.

One interesting neighborhood thing is that the rain over the last two days has the Winooski well over it’s banks. There’s a lake in the field across from us. It’s no where near the house, but it’s higher than I’ve seen it in a couple of years. We’ll keep an eye on it for the next day or so..

Diane called again today and talked to Gab.She sounds like she’s doing great !.. The program she’s on sounds fun. One great thing we got to relay to her today is thta our nephew Michael and his Mate had a baby boy last night , Austin Micheal. Mom, Kid and dad are doing great .. . Welcome baby Austin !

Anything else ? Hmmm. Oh.. Nick S just published this entry in a contest to get Google to bring Fiber Optic to the House in Vermont. .Good job, Nick  It’s cute.. and it’s nice to find an issue that the Governor and I agree on (just kidding  🙂

Monday night – my peeps

Insanely busy day.. and it looks like it’s going to be that way for the next 3 weeks.. ugh.. I was on the phone or texting folks for work from 8am till about midnight.

Crazy start to the day, too. I set my alarm to 6L30 PM . instead of AM.. luckily Chai came in and scratched on the door at 7 askign for her food.. good dig !

I did take off   the evening to cook dinner wiht Gabe and Kristin.. we had a hard time firgureing out what to cook.. but we decided to go with a theme.. and tonights’ theme was ‘weird’

Gabe and I randomly bought a box of FuFu mix.. it’s some sort of African potato glop.. and thats exactly what it tasted like.. ..

On the back was a recipe for peanut butter soup.. so we made that too (it was delicious) .   We also made paninis which were great.

It was wonderful sitting ddown to eat like a human..

After dinner we decided to do a ritual sacrifice of an Easter peep.. If you haven’t tried this, you mist !

First put one peep on a plate..

Put it in the microwave and set the timer for 2 min or so..

turn the sucker on .. and watch !

It’s the incredible hulk peep !

But take it out.. and it’s hge ego deflates leaving a gooey slimy blob.. a cute one at least.

I feel like that peep right now.. so I’m going to bed..

Oh.. I had a great talk with Diane.. she’s really enjoying her program.. here’s anotehr dispatch from down south ..

Hi Everyone…

The program called “inner quest” started last night.  There are 32 participants from all walks of life….all yoga teachers although some may not be teaching at this time.  It is such an honor to be in Don & Amba Stapleton’s prescence again.  They are great human beings and totally compliment each other.  Don is this deep fun loving yogi who truly believes in finding the yoga within ourselves.  Amba is a kick ass yoga flow teacher who speaks her  mind (and swears!) and just the right moments.  The seem ageless to me however they are are probably in their 60’s.  Amba puts everyone to task when it comes to push ups.  Outstanding experience thus far.

 We begin with a 6-8 am class.  Starting tomorrow there is an optional meditation at 5:15.  We have break from 8-11.  Today we walked to town (10 minutes ) and got fruit and veggies from the veggie truck.  They come twice a week.  I have just finished breakfast of half a papaya with yogurt banana and mango on top.  Yum.

Our more active leaning session then is 11-2.  That happens next.  Another break from 2-6:30 then back to an evening session of 6:30-9:00.

I am happily into the heat.  It did take time to get accustomed.  Thank you Beckett for getting me here earlier.  I normally would not have done that.  Last night was warm and I moved me bed right under the fan.  Usually it is cooler and breezier after midnight.

Gary…called Garunda by Sho…is the animal/reptile repositioner.  Another roommate Lori arrived late last night.  She was greeted by a scorpion in her shower.  Gary did the honors of moving it.  Exciting.

Well…I am off to cool off in the pool before we return to class.  Kathy, I hope you get this email.  I did not have your email before.

Love to all!   …diane

that’s it for now..
Nite folks.. nite Sam
-me

ps. Johnny V from the colony sent me this JibJab made video of the colony cast.. note that I wast chosen for this vid.. I guess I’m not with the cool kids…

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Sunday night – Spring !

Happy first day of spring (and happy birthday to J.S. Bach and my good friend Rafe).. It was a coolish rainy snowy day.. I woke early to get gabe and dylan up to Stowe..None of us are morning people.. so it was a pretty funny scene.. not much talking.. just grunts from all three of us..

I think they had 5 snowboards between them.. Pipes, slope.. and a spare ? These kids and their gear !
Driving them there and back meant about 120 miles in the car today.. but I didn’t mind.. it was peaceful

I picked them up around 2L30.. and we took the free lunch root home, stopping at cabot cheese for free samples, then lake Champlain chocolates for dessert.

Gabe and I decided to work on getting the trampoine ready to wuse. The main barrier were two badly bent poles in the sfty net.. We decided to try and fiz them.. We lit our home made forge… (it’s SO fun to use !)

THen heated the steel pipes to red heat..

Then beat them back straight. Then quenched them in water to rebuild their strength..

They came out pretty well given the homemade nature of our setup.. Gabe’s really good at thi stuff. it’s funn working with him.

Since the forge was hot. I devded to help Gabe  learn about annealing and quenching.. We took a shot trampoline pring and annealled it soft then pulled it out to about 10 feet in legth.. A great way to celibrate the first day of ‘spring’  🙂

Diane called a little bit ago and is dong great donw there.. it sounds like she’s adaptign to the heat.. She’s got soem great ousemates.. and a nice locaion. Her program starts tonight. I think she’s really going to like it !

ok.. that’s it for tonight.. more tomorrow.

nite folks. nite Sam
-me