Monthly Archives: August 2014

tuesday night – Pisco

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Great day in Lima at the IBM RTE. Met so many great and smart people. Spent the whole day listening  in Spanish// whhc works pretty well until I try to speak.  . my Spanish is so rusty. I really enjoyed getting to know these folks and hope to make it back here soon !

 

Later this evening we celebrated the successful event at friend Carlos’ home with his homemade Pisco.. a strong grape brandy much like grappa.. strong as heck. \

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Then on to another absolutely amazing Peruvian fish restaurant called Pescados Capitales.. which is a clever take of of pecados capitalis.. or ‘mortal sins’ in spanish.

the food was indescribably wonderful ad varied.. raw fish sefiche, grab clasws, cheese backed scallops, shrimp soup, octopus carpachhio.. yumm

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there was crazy unrecognizable fruits for desserts..

and a samstone for after  dessert ..

great day.. now for some much needed sleep.

Nite all, nite sam

-me

Monday night – Lima being

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Great day in Lima. Began with a run along the pacific ocean. It was foggy and cool.. as it’s been all day. The run was on a cliff loaded with public art, joggers and dogs.

 

snuck a samstone into the window fo the old lighthouse overlooking the pacific

then up to the room for a quic shower before meeting Carlos for breakfast

From there we drove to Conytec , the Peruvian council for science and technology. The leader Walter is really a visionary. We had a great conversation about the power of open data. I’m hoping we can help them engage the community here..

From there we visited IBM.. then grabbed a delicious lunch at a seafood fusion place

from there, carlos and I drove to Universidad Nacional de Ingenieria for a talk to a small and appreciative crowd. I was really impressed with both he students and faculty. One of the professors told me about their recent launch of a ‘cubessat’ homebrew satellite called Chasqui I. . They gave it to a Russian cosmonaut who threw it from the russian space station into orbit. jst 3 days ago. You can read about it here . How cool is that ?

from there it was an hour long drive back to the hotel ..

after a short rest, we all gatherd together and went to a Chifa place down on the beach. Chifa is a special kind of Chinese food that th e Peruvians love..   it was good.. very much like our version of Chinese food but preuvianer

now its very late and I need to sleep.. More later..

nite all, nite sam

-me

Sunday night – Quaquaversal

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Quaquaversal mean  heading out in all directions at once.. and that’s what my family feels like today ..  Gabe’s off in NY on TREK, Max took off for burning man today in Booga the truck. Diane’s at home in vermont and I’m  Lima Peru. I’m here for the start of a mixed work/ vacation and I’m glad to be here. Diane will be joining me later this week. So far i ike the city. it’s huge !> I cna see the pacific from my hotel.. i think.. i can at least. it’s pretty dark now. Hope to explore a little more tomorrow.

Today was mostly a travel day… after a rough sleep, I woke to the realization that Diane and I and the dogs were ‘alone’ in the house. That happens pretty often these days.. but.. it was a different kind of alone.. a kid is at college alone. Not an altogether  bad alone.. just a different one.  Its the kind of lone tha llows one to wander all over the house naked while looking for a towel.. and not fearing you’ll run into kids or his friends kind of alone..

It was pouring this morning and I was thinking about Gabe and his TREK brothers and sisters out camping in the rain. Luckily its supposed to clear up.

One thing that was nice about9 hours of plane ride was the chance to catch up on email and work.. for one sparkling second, my email was completely   empty !

OK.. I’m goign to try and get some southern hemispherical sleep.

 

nite all, nite sam

-me

Saturday night – Gabe’s launch

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Well.. today was the day. Gabe is officially off at college. Well.. actually a pre-college TREK .  ..It;s a day I imagined on the day Gabe was born…. and for the first time in 26 years, we have no kids living at home.. feels.. weird.. but feels good too.

Gabe will spend a week canoeing in the Adirondack’s then return to UVM in time for classes to start the week after next. He’s really excited about TREK and about School.. and so are we..  Gabe has done a great  job getting ready for scholo.. so there was little to do today but roll out of bed and drive away in the two packed cars..

It was great moving Gabe in as part of TREK. .. there were only about 170 kids doign trek.. so  it was easy to get around campus and get to Gabes dorm room. If it hadn’t been for TREK, he’d be moving in with all the Freshmen on Friday of next week.. and it would have been pretty zooey !

check-in for trek involved gabe having to unpack and repack his stuff. he had all the right stuff.   His team was number 17.. ‘canoes team assemble’.. an homage to ron burgundy.

then it was off to unload gabes stuff to his dorm room. It’s a nice small room on the first floor of Wills . Super central.. bright and clean. We all liked it.

First order of business was to change up the bed to be up high so he could put his desk underneath.. which was hard work.

Then it was back to the Davis center for the TREK sendo -off.. we got to see the route Gabes team would take (down around long lake)

then we gathered for the send off meeting. Kevin was one of the folsk helping organize the meeting

in came the TREK counselors,. SOme were leadign hiking trips, others kayaking, others cycling and others canoing.. Nice that these kids would cvolunteer their time to hep kids like gabe have an cool experience like TREK  to start their college years.

Soon it was over.. and Gabe and the others said good bye.. .and  in an instant,  he’s a college kid. I ‘m so proud of him !.. i’m so excited for him too.. I love that kid so much !

GOOD LUCK GABE !!!!

THen Diane and I walked out pf the building and started the next phase of our lives.. just like that.. !

Diane and I spent the rest of the day getting readyfor our own version of TREK. We’re goign to Peru… We did take tiem tfor a quick walk up Libbys lookout..

ok.. gotta get soem sleep. More tomorrow from our very quiet (but still very busy) house !

nite all. nite sam

-me