busy work day.. then two very interesting meetings in late afternoon. First was the Annual Vermont Academy of Science and Engineering (VASE) spring meeting. We held this one at the Statehouse. 

We’d invited quite a few of the groups that we’d funded with our VASE equipment grants and our new HOST hands on science grants. The kids were such a great group to bring into the state house. \

wer got to mill around giving and talk to the  teams. It felt SO GOOD to know that we’d helped them all with their projects. At this point, VASE is giggling away about 17K$ / year to help get kids get involved with science .. That’s a big deal in a state where every bit of spending must be confirmed by the voters. 

note the guys in orange on the left..t there was  a big anti gun control rally at the statehouse at the same time. 

aroudn 6 I had to leave. I had a talk to give at UVM. 

the UVM talk was to the student brance of the IEEEE.. it was a nuce sizwe crowd. 

talk went pretty well..   .. I got to take Gabe and his house mate Justin out for a beer. THere we rean into Will S and Savanah..

it’s a wonderfully dsmall town !

ok.. fallign asleep while writing again. Time to sleep.

more tomorrow

nite all, nite sam

Just woke up on the floor at 1AM with my head on one of our dogs . I must have fallen asleep after dinner . Now The house is quiet and I’m wide awake mulling over my day

One noteworthy thing that happened today was that I chose wallpaper for the very first time. Not wallpaper for the house.. but wallpaper for my phone . Believe it or not, I’ve always kept the default backgrounds for my phew and tablets . It’s a little like keeping the sample picture in a picture frame when you buy it.

I thought a while about what picture I might want ? A picture of my house? No .. as much as I love my house, I love my family more .. a picture of my family brings up a choice .. before or after Sam died ? Any recent picture would just have the four of us… Any picture with Sam would be 11 years ago… I couldn’t bring myself to leave him off… So I walked around the house looking for a picture of all of us. Here’s the one I found.

Here’s what it looks like with apps

I know it’s dated… But I can remember what I was thinking when that picture was taken.

Same thing as now…

I really love my family

Nite all, nite sam
-me

“the woods are lovely dark and deep.. and I have promises to keep: .. one of my favorite Robert Frost poems.. but today it was lovely bright and deep. We took the girls for a strenuous tromp throguh the preston pond loop. We wore crampons thinking that the snow would have been either gone or packed down. we were wrong. there were parts that we’re still more than kneww deep. It was slow going.. but so beautiful. The spring sun was so bright that it almost hurt to see. the snow was still soft and sparkly .. and so , so much of it !

Spring has to be coming sometime.!

nite all, nite sam

-me

If you are reading this, you probably know about SamStones. we make the to help spread our son Sam’s wonderful spirit. 

Diane has been finishing production on a new batch of SamStones. It’s a cool process to watch. First  the stones are hand shaped from clay .. then hand stamped on the front with  Sam’s name and on back with the http://Samstones.org website.

after that they’re air dried for a few days . Then Diane hand inks Sam’s name using an iron oxide glaze.   Thtss the part of the process Diane is doing the last couple of days. 

then we take them over to Jen’s to be fired

we make about 300 per batch (I think).. and  they go quickly 

If you want us to send you some.. please go here and give us your address and we’ll send some right out to you. 

Want SamStones ?

ok. more tomorrow..

nite all, nite sam

-me