Nothing laborious about today.. we had a really fun and laid back day. Diane got up early and took Chai for a walk with Jen and Martha. I slept in for a bit. When I got up, my Dad and I went in to On The Rise and got some yummy breakfast food.  It was a good call because there were at least 4 kids sleeping in various parts of the house. After breakfast,   my folks, Diane, Chai and I headed out for a short hike along the Rivershore trail. 

Dad limbering up for the hike (note the house moving)

As we started down the trail, we were amazed to find the hot air balloon we launched at last night’s party lying right next to the trail in the woods. It was the almost a miracle that the balloon would have blown that far from our house and managed to land, unhurt , through the thick trees and land neatly by our trail. It was in perfect shape and ready to fly again.. Sometimes the word coincidence just doesn’t seem adequate.

After that hike, we had a quick bite and my folks packed up and headed back to Boston. It was really nice having them up here for my Mom’s birthday.. It’s nice having both sets of parents in driving distance.

Jen and Coco even brought my Mom by some birthday presents !

 After my folks took off, Diane and I got on our bikes (first time this year.. believe it or not) and headed down Duxbury Rd a ways.. It’s clearly different muscles than running or Yoga.  When we got back.  The  very cool snowboarder whirligig that Homer made for us was spinning I’d put it up yesterday. … It’s an amazing feat of art and engineering. If you haven’t seen it yet.. come by.

By that point, Gabe had headed over to Triple Buckets swimming hole on the Huntington with Dylan, Stave and families.. so Diane Chai and I jogged  up there and joined them…in the water. Chai was swimming up and down the river the whole time we were there .

We walked back in time for Diane’s 6PM yoga class… Followed by about a half an hour of jumping on the trampoline.. What an active day..  I’m BEAT !!.. (And so is Chai).

We closed the day out with some recreational spray painting (Gabe got my foot),

a round of Uno and a game of Blokus.. a game for 4 people. We played with 3…   Another reminder of our very different lives now..  Oh Sam…

Hope everyone had a good long weekend.. now back to work/school for all of us…  Have a great week

-me

Another beautiful day. It was nice having my folks up here with us… especially because today is my Mom (and my Brother’s ) birthday.. Gabe was having fun with spray paint this morning and did a cool decorating job on his skateboard helmet.

I spent the morning wrestling with a bad computer virus on our upstairs computer. (I think I won.. but I won’t be sure  for a few days) Around midday my folks, Diane, Chai and I drove up to Honey Hollow for a hike. The same one as yesterday, but this time in reverse. It was nice being outside with my folks.  We had a nice picnic up there overlooking Preston brook. 

We got back mid afternoon and kinda laid low until folks started showing up for the pot luck. We had a good crowd tonight. The food theme was ‘end of summer harvest’ so we had lots of, good veggie dishes.

There were lots of kids on the tramp and playing guitar. It was very nice seeing everyone even though I’d been feeling pretty low and not all that social. I think my parents enjoyed seeing/meeting  everyone too. After dinner we had a birthday cake for my Mom….

After cake we all started making SamStones. With all the hands we were able to go through another 2 bags of clay which is several hundred stones.   We’ve given out more than 2000 at this point.

I’m starting to get more reports of people finding them.. nearly one a day. Today someone found one in Netherlands.. probably from my friend Leon. Maybe this week I’ll share  some of the stories of found SamStones.

 Right now.. I’m off to sleep. Happy birthday Mom and Billy.. I love you both.. gnite everyone. Gnite Sam

-me

Friends…
   Remember: end of summer pot-luck at our house tonight  (Sunday 9/2) at 6PM. We’ll be making SamStones as well.  The food theme is ‘Garden Harvest’ so use some of that end of season produce you still have growing. Don’t worry if you need to bend the theme… any thing you bring will be fine. We’ll have a grill or two going.  Please pass the winvite around. The more the merrier.  Questions/RSVP at 434-3576 . Hope to see you then

-jc

Friends…
    Just a quick announcement that we’ll be having an end of summer pot-luck at our house tomorrow night (Sunday 9/2) at 6PM. We’ll be making SamStones as well.  The food theme is ‘Garden Harvest’ so use some of that end of season produce you still have growing. Don’t worry if you need to bend the theme… any thing you bring will be fine. We’ll have a grill or two going.  Please pass the winvite around. The more the merrier.  Questions/RSVP at 434-3576 . Hope to see you then

-jc

ps. My folks will be in town so come meet them !

Pss.. The rest of the day was low-key and fun. I spent most of it trying to de-virus one of our computers and trying to find a recently expired mouse that had gotten trapped in our bedroom wall. Neither fun unto itself.. but both requiring the kind of mindless concentration that I find I enjoy now. Around 2 Lou and Kathy came buy and got us out for a hike with the dogs. We went up Honey Hollow and did the high loop. It was absolutely gorgeous up there.. not many berries, though.

My folks showed up around 6. My Dad got out of the car drinking a Red Bull.. Must run in the family.

It is good to see those guys. We all went out to dinner at the Cider House in Waterbury. My Dad spent time in New Orrleans as a kid so we figured he’d enjoy all the Cajon stuff on their menu. it was a really nice meal. I really recommend the place.

We’re now home and all pretty sleepy. So everyone’s off to bed…. Lookign forward to the pot-luck here tomorrow night. please pass the invite around !

One other thing that happened today is that Deb broght aus a really nice prinnt that Hannah and Briteney had made for us… The picture took our breath away… Good night my beautiful  boy…

-me