Saturday night – Ach-Orch-Dich

Really great day in Pittsburgh, seeing friends and visiting our old stomping ground.   First port of call was mike and Laura’s. We got there around 9 which was a perfect time for a bloody mary.

 

 

Mike and laura and their daugter molly were in the baby group that was our main social network when i was in grad school. Mike and i used to take the kids to the zoo then go hang  out in a bar wiht the kids in tow. good memories. It was so good catching up !

 

Mike is a painter and laura teaches Italian.. We got to see some of mikes recent art.. which I really liked !   This is a portrait mike did of laura recently..  pretty geometric !

and here’s some of mikes art recently prinited in a catalog form a show he did in Berlin last year.

 

From there we went to a lovely reception for engineering alumns and faculty. lots of folks to catch up with .. and wonderful food and drink. The big event was the mounting of a beam that everyone had signed as part of the new Scott Hall which will house the new bioengineering program as well as several other cross disciplinary programs.  Both Dean Garret and President Suresh gave some short remarks.. Both gave a shout out to me for the award  which was very nice of them

on our way out of CMU, we stopped back into Hammerschlag to go and visit my old office on the third floor..   and to go up and see the roof.

Here’s roughly where I worked. I say roughly, because the layout has changed..

and here’s the beautiful view form the roof.. Don’t tell anyone we went up there.. you’re not supposed to be up there ;-).. same as it was 25 years ago when I used to take max up there as a baby.

One time I took a bunch of pictures of him up there as a mothers day picture for Diane.. We did a little reenactment

We left,, then took a quick visit to phipps conservatory.. again.. a frequent place we took max there was a nexibit of soem wonderful glass peices in among the plants.. We left a few sam stones..

of the

from there we headed over o tou our old house 2331 pittock street. Such great memories from there. We parked our car and walked up to frick park just like we did most every day when max was a baby

as we walked up.. we walked by alderdice high school . Here I could look back a tthe window of my study where I worked on and wrote my thesis.

it was so great visiting Frick park.. The famous blue slide was still there.. Max used to go up and down that for hours, He and I both took a quick turn for old times sake !

Next stop was to walk tot he convienince store that I used to take max after the park for ‘Ach-Orch-Dich’.. or 2 year old for ‘ice cream on a stick”

the place was unchanged and we hung out on the same school steps across from the store to eat our treats !

from there we looped back to murray drive and headed back to the car.  on the way  happened to see the place I used to get my hair cut (yes.. i used ot have hair !). my old friend and barber Safi was ther eand he recognized me immediately. He remembered a story I used to tell him of the King that was so afraid of getting his throat cut that he had his beard cut with fire… it was great seeing Safi !

on the way back to the car, we also saw another ‘schoolhouse yoga’.. just like dianes.. how cool is that ?!

from ther ewe headed to the airport.. max was on the same flight with us to Detroit.. ther ehe wenthis way and we went ours. It was great having him there with us..

it was a very good trip.. thank you CMU  !.

now were’ back home and happy to be here..

nite all, nite sam

-me

gota sleep now.. more tomorrow

Friday night – Cèilidh Weekend

Great day. Diane Max and I were at Carnegie Mellon Universtiy ,, my graduate school alma mater, for an event called Cèilidh Weekend.  It’s a a weekend of talks, demonstrations, panels and events  designed for both current and previous alum. It was a full day event with lots of hand shaking wiht interesting an fun people

 

The alumni relations folks took such good care of us.. I knew where I had to be and what i had to do at every point in the day. They even had a parking place for me !

 

first stop was an awardi lunch.. where I got to met a bunch of really nice folks who were also gettign awards.   Then i had to ggo get prepared for my talk..

n the way there, i ran into David Souter, the former supreme coaurt justice in the bathroom.. how cool is that ?

 

the hall for my tlak was a comfortable size.. as folks filtered in, i got to reunite with many old  friends.. Here’s Dave G catching up with larry. Dave an I collaborated on our phd research and wrote a book together back in the day.

 

Shilo and beck  f old friends  from vermont showed up too..

 

 

my talk went pretty well.. too long, but audience seemed to like it. I enjoyed speaking to them..

Friend ben even arraigned to have ice cream there for everyone .. that was so awesome..

 

after my talk.. we walked over to hamershlag  with larry and lea to see our old stomping grounds. Here’s my old office..

 

Around 5 i headed over to green room. where all the folks getting awards got together. It was great to meet them all.. here’s the gang

 

CMU President Sureash welcomed us all

 

 

then it was time to get  bagpiped into the hall. away we go !

 

 

there were 18 awardeees.. I was last.. which allowed me to listen to all the other folks.. which was cool

i was really, really  homered to get the distinguished achievement award..

one by one we got called up on stage, they played a nice  video.. we got our award then made a short talk. I loved the short video they’d made me.

 

 

and then it was over !.. We got bagpiped back into the hall for a really nice reception.   I met so many folks and shook so many hands that my head was spinning.. .. in a good way. it was inspiring meeting all of those good folks.. I also got to meet the families of the other awardies.

 

Diane and Max there..were super patient with me as i Shmoozed..

 

 

then ut was done..

 

we headed bakc to the hotel changed clothes a.. and the 3 of us headed out for beer at Primantis.. a famous place.. where the serve french fires on their sandwiches.. It was only beer for us tonight though .  I don[t think id been in primantis since the early 90’s.. it hadn’t changed all that much 

 

 

 

now .. grateful after this long and fun day to be lying in bed..

time for me to go to sleep !

 

More stuff tomorrow. Nite all, nite sam

-ne

 

 

Thursday night – old friends

Greetings from pittsburgh.. One of my favorite cities in the world. Diane, max and i lived here from 1988-91 while i was in grad school at cmu. We had a really fun time considering i was working soemthing like 20 hours a day.

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Im back here to give a tlak tomorroow…and to see freinds…im both nervous and lookign forward to it..hope it goes well

Our freinds larry and leah invited us over for sushi tonight which was really wonderful..

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Our friends shawn and angela also showed up.. It was like a cmu homecoming.. I didnt get a picture of shawn and angela.. But got the rest of us

Ok.. Tomorrows a big day..gotta sleep now

More tomorrow

Nite all, note sam

-me

 

Wednesday night – Foorish vid

Got a nice surprise from Max today.. He created this great demo movie of the Floorish piece that he worked on along with john. colin, ken. tim and me last year.. I love the way it looks.. The finny thing is.. I needed exactly that kind of movie for the talk I’m giving on Friday.. and he had no way of knowing that.. A very cool and welcome coincidence .

Thanks you Max !

nite all, nite sam
-me