Greetings from a car going very slowly down an icy freeway in Vermont. 5 of us are coming back from Montreal after a really fun birthday trip with out friend Jen

First stop was a really nice open market for a quick breakfast

The we went ton’imagine Van Gogh ‘ a multimedia celebration of Van Goghs art . It took place on the giant arsenal hall. The paintings were projected on giant 3 story fabric screens while classical music played . There were hundreds of folks in the room. Some walking, some lying on the ground (like us)

It was really beautiful !

Next stop was time out .. a realllllly upscale food court . We had conch fritters and martinis !

It was right across from the now defunct ‘club super sex’ .. a legend around here

The. Yet another bar ; called ‘darling’ right across from Leonard Cohens old house .. which i had to see

The. Finally to Hannah and Olivier’s for a birthday celebration for Jen with butter cake

I managed to help get Hannah and Oliver’s internet set up while we were there which was fun

Now we’re on our way home .. a 3 hour trip with the icy roads for one that can usually take less than 2

We appreciate Deb doing the driving .. it’s been a hard drive .. but we’re all enjoying the company

Happy birthday Jen ! You are wonderful !

Nite all, nite Sam

-me

Nice quiet day around the house.… We both needed that. We did get the dogs out for a longer walk… Then we put on our skis because we knew the rain was going to take away the snow. We went to the YCCT explore some of the trails in the back.… It’s really beautiful up there… And it’s fun to be looking back towards our house from a place so close to our home thatwe’ve never seen before.

One thing we saw while we were skiing was that the snow fleas were out. When I first discovered these things a couple years ago I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. There are millions of these tiny black bugs that come out of the snow and hop around… They tend to congregate in animal tracks… I think it’s because they come from the ground and the animals foot prints make a path to the soil… They’re kind of cool and somehow they kind of freak me out

We spent the rest of the day working on one thing or another… I did it tonight our friends Ellen Will and Uboe came over and fix dinner for us. It was really really delicious. Our friend Savanah joined us too.

We were all heading to another warm dog show this time at Zenbarn. I decided to try my hat trick there again.… It’s not really well suited for a dark place like that… But people still liked it. I now have a bunch of different eyeball patterns on it. I really appreciate the people at adafruit who came up with the basic design

We got to the show just as the warm dogs were starting… I just absolutely love this band. All the folks in it are friends of ours. But I think I would love the band even if they weren’t

It was fun watching people’s reaction to my hat… Several folks tried it on

OK… Time for bed. We have an early morning tomorrow.

More from then

Nite all, nite sam

-me

hmmmm Not much to share today… I spent nearly the entire day working on the couch… I think I first did up at 2:30 o’clock because I had a meeting In town… Somehow it was much more exciting than it sounds.

The only picture I have for the day was one that my friend Gilles Sent of me trying to fix my glasses without wearing my glasses. I had to borrow three different pair of reading glasses in order to see well enough to fix my glasses. I know I’ve already shared a picture of that… But his is better

I noticed I’ve been publishing a lot of things about eyes this year… Must be because it’s 2020

Nite all , Note Sam

-me

. According to my new arrangement with IBM I can now spend up to 25% of my time doing out reach with kids. Most of that will be through a new appointment I have at the University of Vermont. As part of that today I got a real parking pass!… And a small shared office… That I can actually leave stuff in. It may not sound like much… But I haven’t had my own office since 2013. Every job I’ve had since then whether it was Armonk, Munich or Cambridge are all these open office settings… I don’t mind that because I’m always moving Around… But it is kind of nice to have a real place at UVM where I can leave books and equipment and stuff overnight…

The office is tiny and on the third floor of an older Building… But it’s a cozy attic like place.… I went in there and push some of the furniture around and put a Sam’s down in it to make it mine. It felt good

Nite all, nite Sam

-me