Monthly Archives: March 2011

Tuesday night – ides

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Happy ides of march….. And I gather by reading Wikipedia that the Ides of March used to be a festive day dedicated to the god Mars which was celebrated by military parades.   It got the bad rap it has today when Shakespeare pointed out that Julius Caesar  was assassinated on this day .  So far it’s been a good Ides of March for me.. but as the seer that Cesar saw on the way to the theater of Pompeii said.. “Ay, they have come, but they are not gone.”

I should also point out that yesterday was pi day.. I set my alarm for 3.14.15 Thursday is St. patricks day. It seems like we have a run of special days..

Let’s see what tomorrow brings..

nite.all, nite sam

-me

Monday night – lapsed vegan

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OK.. so I fell off the wagon today… .and I fell hard. As of January 1st, Diane, Deb and I all decided to go vegan for a couple of months. I’ve been a vegetarian since 1976.. well.. actually a pescatarian.. somewhere in the past 30 years I started eating fish occasionally..  but for the most part I’m veggie.. Every year for the past 3 I’ve spent a month or so as a vegan.. that means no meat… no fish, no eggs, no dairy.. I love doing it because it makes me more mindful of what I’m eating.. .. i’m not militant about it.. I eat sushi in Japan because it would have been hard not to.. and I did accidentally eat a piece of mozzarella at a fancy dinner in NYC 5 weeks ago. I practice..’don’t ask don’t small’.. if I don’t know it’s not vegan.. I can assume it is.. .. Also.. I ate a piece of pizza at a meeting 2 weeks ago ..

For the most part i love eating vegan.. I feel lighter and healthy.. Diane’s a wonderful cook.. so there’s no trouble with variety.. …though I do recall eating my weight in hummus every week  ..

As Spring started to come on. though. I started to crave more portien.. I started eating soy stuff again.. but secretly.. desperately… I was craving cheese… there.. I said it.. I missed cheese. I never ate much of it.. but I mss it.. I miss feta on slads.. parmesian on pasta…

so.. today.. I decided to go back to my more relaxed veggie waves.. I shopped aroudn for a way to break my fast.. Paul. Eduardo and I stopped in Hartford on the way back to NY to have dinner with Paul’s friend Pavan..   We went to a restaurant across from pavan’s.. and there… I confess.. I ordered home made macaroni and cheese…

and it was delicious… (forgive me father for I have sinned)…

nite all.. nite sam

-me

Sunday night – smart grid

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Blissfully boring day.. did not much of anything.. cleaned up a bookshelf.. took a nice run with diane, took gabe to stowe, worked on a media sculpture project I just started.. it was wonderful doing almost nothing and hanging around the house

Around 4, ny freind Paul, a Prof at UVM, and his student Eduardo picked me up at home and we drove down to Mt. Kisco NY. Paul and Eduardo work  in the area of Smart electric Grids.. We’re going to a series of meetings tomorrow around that topic. On the way we managed to

meet up with my friend Jeff in Hartford who also does smart grid work. It was a fun, total geek-out evening… great getting to spend time wit these guys.

We did a bunch of talking about high voltage.. I asked the guys if they’d ever seen the attached video.. None had.. so I post it here for their.. and your.. viewing pleasure..

Well.. that’s all I have to report.. hope your day was peaceful too…

Please send some love to the folks in Japan that were hit in the earthquake tsunami the other day

nite all, nite sam

-me

Saturday night – spring cleaning

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Today was wet and overcast outside.. so it was a good day for spring cleaning.. at least for Diane. She bravely decided to attack my closet, the top three shelves of which have become a collection point for years of untouched photos, papers, and other stuff. Like any pile of old stuff around the house, this one is full of memories.. I have to admit, I still find doing this very hard.. but Diane is much stronger about such things..

Some of the stuff was Sam’s.. in fact, most of it was.. it was great .. and hard.. to see again..

Some was just piles of school papers .. what do do with them ? Are they precious.. or are they trash..?I guess we can’t keep this all. Diane went through and picked out some good writing and art pieces.. the rest .. I don’t know.. maybe we’ll burn ? or recycle.. I went through and looked at them for a long time last night.. I didn’t know what I felt..   In the end, it’s just lab reports and Spanish worksheets.. Sam’s not there.. it’s OK to recycle them now..  i guess

One cool find: Diane just found a $10 bill stuck in a birth congratulations letter abut Gabe’s birth..

Diane continued to plow through the stuff while I did our taxes.. Mid day we both had to get outside.. we strapped on our snowshoes and went out in the mucky melting snow.. it felt good to be outside.

Spring is coming.. time to clean.. time to renew.. time to keep moving…

night all, nite sam.. good to see your stuff

-me