We really made the most of our free day in California.   First stop was a visit to Menlo Park to see our friends Shannon. Aaron , their great dane Franklin and their new baby  Zoe.. !  So great to see everyone and get some  baby time !

we walked out for a nice lunch. beautiful weather, beautiful town, beautiful people.   140 pound Franklin always draws lots of attention !

We said goodbye there and headed to Palo Alto to see one  my oldest friends Rafe and his family. Rafe and I were suite mates at MIT in 1978.. and one one of my dearest freinds.  He’s a math prof at Stanfords. Hs wife Laurance (lolo) is also a mathematician .. they have two lovely daughters Sopie and Sabine . So great to catch up !

We said good bye and headed back to san rafael to meet our collaborators for the project and get a great dinner at a local puerto rican restaurant.. I really like this team.. it was nice to hang out together !

Looking forward to tomorrow !
nite all nite sam

-me

Diane and I headed out to San Rafael California today to help with a friends music project. I am  really excited about this  project….. and.. alas.. cant really talk about it.. since its his project not mine.. 

As we waited for our plane this morning we saw a big spider on the window.. Just as aI took the picture I noticed a beautiful  white plane landing.. it was Alia SN2.. It was so fun seeing it come in for a landing.. 

Such a treat !

the flight out was uneventful.. We landed at SFO, picked up our car and drove to San Rafael. We checked into our hotel and then walked 1 1/2 miles to a Salvadoran restaurant that we had found on yelp… It was amazingly delicious. Super friendly people and food that we had never really tasted. Four kinds of pupusa  (beans, cheese, squash flower and jalepenos) served with hot sauce and hot relish. wonderful drinks of exotic fruits and horchata made with nutmeg and allspice and a  wonderful hot drink called Atole made with pineapple and spices..     It was the best meal I had eaten in quite some time at a restaurant (… food at home is always good 🙂 

 

We walked back to the hotel through a new age fair that was going on.. Nice California hippy vibe.. and some exotic talks advertised

I like this place (but I couldn’t live here)

nite all, nite sam

-me

Crazy heat wave today. Weather in the mid 80’s after being in the 40s-50s.. and heading back cool next week. Took advantage of the nice weather to have a meeting with Waldorf students (very interesting)  and  eat lunch outside at work.. 

Check out the temp !

I like warm weather.. but not quite ready for summer !

nite all, nite sam

-me

Started the day with a fun and productive workshop at the Clarks. I love hanging out with all of these folks. 

Lunch was making our own pizzas and only mine didn’t work ! D-oh

From there headed back into Burlington for a meetup at AO glass.. Rich and Anders gave us  a really nice close up demo of glass blowing.. as The final part rich made a  “prince rupert drop” by blowing a small bubble in a blob of glass then letting it fall. into a pail of water. The sudden cooling makes the glass extra strong by freezing in stress tl the outside. You can hammer on the bulb and it wont shatter.. but if you as much as nick the tail.. it explodes like crazy.. I helped build an impromptu polarascope with a polarizing camera filter and a computer screen. It allowed us to see the frozen in stresses as rainbows…

Rich put it on the table in a glass jar and nipped the tail with a wire cutter.. check out what happened !

From there we walked over to see my friend Brian’s shop. he just got a very cool new 130 watt laser.. He’s such an awesome craftsman !

Fun day !
nite all, nite sam

-me