Freinds..
   DIane and I have just coem back from the big dinner party that ends the IBM Corporate Technical Recognition Event.. It’s been a wonderful and relaxing day.. lots of things happened.. but I’m way too sleepy to capture them now.. I’ll do the best I can until I konk out..

The day started at 6:30 with a breakfast of all the IBM fellows. It’s a funny group.  I’ve never met a more intelligent, diverse or pleasantly quirky group of people..  Today was a particularly poient meeting since our group guru, Nick had announced that he’ll be retiring in October. All of us.. and I believe there are 70 of us now.. look to Nick as the g-dfather of technical people in IBM. hes’ helped all of us so much in our work and careers. it’s hard to imagine IBM without him.. It was tough to say goodbye.

Areound 8 I met up with Diane and we went in to the main ballroom for the beginning od the meeting. Before the show started, I went up and met ‘Mole’ .. the husband of my good friend Marylou. I’ve heard so much about Mole.. he’s an ex rock and role sound guy.. now doing freelance work for shows like CTRE. He’s a really nice and funny guy. Here he is on the right with his freind.. who’s name I’m spacing on.

He placed a samstone up on the mixer board ..

When the main session started, they played some video clips of coupls together.. the IBM award person was thanking his/her spouse for their support. We were one of the first ones.. There I was up on the screen telling folks how much I love Diane.. pretty cool !

They had some great speakers today.. including Dr. Hawass. the director of Antiquities at the Cairo museum.. He gave us a whirlwind tour of the state of tomb exploration. mummy identification preservation, etc. It was fascinating.

We then heard form Angelique Kidjo.. a wonderful world music singer from benin.. and a crusader for kids and girls in emerging africa. She was incredibly inspiring..

We then listened to a number of additional IBm awards.. including the class of 70 new IBM Distinguished engineers.

After the session, we ate a quick lunch then met back at the busses for our river trip. We drove about 45 minutes to the Salt River.

It was a nice bus with a bathroom… which had a very descriptive sign inside….

We got a boat with Brynn and Carl..

Here’s Gerog and his wife Heidi.. Georg co-won the 1987 Nobel Prize in Physics for high temperature superconducting material.. He’s a very nice and modest guy.. you’d never know he’d won the award unless you asked him.

Here’s our river guide Tim

We came upon a small group of with houses on the Native American reservation side…

Paul and Heidi were in the bow ..

It was a beautiful 7 mile float. great scenery.. lots of cool facts.. I tossed a SamStone into the water near a cluster of islands.

We passed a bald eagles nest.. See the Eagle ?   He’s in the mid right of this picture.

Here’s an old abandoned eagle’s  nest.

After the boat ride.. we came back to the hotel. I had a few work meetings.. then we went up to Lisle and Glenn’s to meet their baby Sam  short for .. Samantha.. She’s named in part after our Sam. It was wonderful holding her.

At that point I realized I had 20 minutes to get back to my room. showered and dress before I needed to be back for a reception.. I managed to make it !.

I went down to the lobby and saw my friend Kerry with his beautiful wife and Ginny R.

After soing a bit more movie clips for the fellow interviews.. I went back out into the reception and grabbed Diane.. then we made our way over to dinner.   Diane and I were hosting a table… here wre our table mates.

Dinner was fun.. I managed to find a guy wearing the exact Garcia tie that I was !

The big name performer of the evening was Leann Rhymes. I’d bever heard her music.. but I really liked it. We hug out for a good while.. then decided we had to sleep..  And we do !  I

It’s been a wonder 3 days out here with Diane.. I miss the kids and doge.. I’m glad were’ going back tomorrow !

OK.. that all for now.. .. gnite all.. gnite Sam !
-me

What a full day… It’s only 10:30 and both Diane and I are trying to stay awake.. me to write.. her to read.   We woke around 5:30 due to the time change.. then we went for a wonderful longish run down a gravel track along one of the river canals.. It was cool running through the neighborhoods around Phoenix. Many folks have cactus gardens instead of lawns.. work for me !

Around 7:30 we wandered over to breakfast and from there into the kick-off section of the CTRE conference. As always the conference stuff was superb.. Great speakers and good fun. This year the conference has about 1000 folks and is being emceed by my friend Doug. He and his team made a cool IBM video that described the reach of the company and all the countries we work in… He managed to hide an image of a SamStone in the movie. It as so cool !!1!!!  I’ll get a copy of it and post it when I do !  It was so nice of him that I really got choked up.

There was a great speaker(Franz Johansen_ as well as a bunch of awards given out. Near the end of the session. Sam P.. our CEO came out and gave a short. great talk about the state of the company. He was in a really great mood… and did a wonderful job of outlining the companies good health.

After his speach. Sam introduced the new crop of IBM fellows.. There were 9 this year.. more than any other year in the companies history.. After accounting for retirements.. I think this now makes it 67 active IBM fllows. 

I was asked to do a quick video interview with each of them in the spirit of an academy awards paparazzi. We even had our own red bathmat to act as a red carpet.

After the session and a brief lunch, we all broke up into a bunch of different recreation activities. Diane and I had signed up for ‘vigorous hiking’ .. We got on a bus with a bunch of friends and drove only 15 minutes t the base of a range of hills.  The hike was rugged.. but not particularly steep or fast. We had a good time looking around and talking to your friends. .

We saw some great flora of the sonoran dessert. Take a look at the top of this flowering saguaro.

And this retired watermelon

Here’s the nasty jumping churros.. The common churrs had detachable seed pods that propagate when an animal get son in his/her skin n and cant get it  out.

Kerrie got one of the little creatures in his leg…

I’m getting too tired to stay awake again !

We put a few SamStones in the desert with  full guides permission…

We eventually wound ourselves back to the staring place.   The ride back was quick. We took advantage of our early return to sneak a peek of Glen and Liesel’s new baby ‘Sam’.. sh is so adorable.. and named.. albeit indirectly… after our Sam.. It was just wonderful to meet her.

We then went back tot he quiet zone and had a up of tea.. I ran into Georg.. the Nobel Prize winner for his creation of atomic force microscopy.

Here’s Glehhhhhn..

Here’s wonderful Joan C. the boss of this whole event. . she’s retiring at the end of this event.. not sure how we’re fill her shoes !

Later that evening Glenn, Leisel , Diane and I were picked up at our hotel  and dropped off at a good Indian restaurant. I was sitting there talkign to them about Ruchir’s pratha-making skills when he came in the front door. We pulled up another table and all ate together.It was truly lovely !

Here’s aanika

And here’s isha

Well folks time to sleep.. I’ve fallen asleep 5 times as I’ve tried to write.
I will do some more to flesh in details of tomorrows event… if I can stay awake !

OK.. that’s it for now.. more tomorrow.. We love you Sam !
– me

We woke at at 4Am to catch our 6AM plane this morning. I say ‘woke up’.. bu I cant really recall having been asleep. we showered quickly and left the house by 4:30.. It was cool being up that early.. it was pitch black when we walked out the door.

The flight out here was uneventful.. I know I slept some because the 5 hour flight from JFK to Phoenix hardly felt like anything.   Another plane was landing on a parallel runway as we came in…

Phoynexp Sky Harbor airport is know for it’s hospitality and friendliness. But I wonder how they were able to ascertain that it was indeed the friendliest.  .

We caught the shuttle over to the Biultmore.. It’s a large rambling building of art neuvue.. with lots of western themes woven into it.

The grounds of the hotel are like a tropical garden.Flowers and oranges everywhere…

Even the pool had some cool looking outbuildings !

Around 7 we shuffled back out to the central court for the CTRE welcome dinner. In the distance we could see this cool lone maintain. I understand that we’ll be climbing it tomorrow morning..

After dinner we went into the quiet zone.. They asked me to tape a short video segment where I thanked Diane for help They were asking lots of folks to .make similar segments. It’ll be interesting to see what they get…

Speaking of quiet zone.. I can no longer keep my eyes open. Tomorrow will be an early session.. so I’ll need to sleep now.. much more tomorrow.. gnite Sam. goodnight everyone..!

love -me

Then  gave Diane her Mother’s day presents.. we always give her stuff for the garden. the boys picked everything out this year. She got white clematis, perennial daisy’s, bleeding hearts, petunias, impatiens, globe flowers, and bluebells.

W also got her something from Sam.. i asked the gy at the nursery if they had any plants that began with ‘s-a-m-…’.. He thought fro a bit then told me that the genus for  Elderberry’s is ‘Sambuccus’ .. So we got her a Black Beauty Elderberry

In the the early afternoon we all took a picnic hike in the woods up in Honey Hollow. . It was a great day for a hike..

We did a nice loop up the logging roads, then settled in a nice spot for our picnic.. I had brought a ton of food.. since it was easier than deciding what we wanted to eat !  We toasted Diane.. and toasted Sam with the chocolates we’d brought

Gabe took advantage of some of the spare foil to make a hat to keep the aliens from reading his thoughts.. good thinking !

Diane put one of the  SamStones in a nearby tree.

Gabe wanted to put one way up in a tree. We couldn’t find a good climbing tree, so we wrapped one of the SamStones in foil, bent down a tall sapling and wrapped the foil around it..

Then gabe goutned to 3 and let go.. tthe tree snapped up again with the samstone now about 20 feet in the air !

Chai and Satori had a great day up there two.. they were playing in the mud !.. ewwww

We came home finished packing for the trip Diane and I are taking..  We spoke to our Moms. and sent them our love..  I know mother’s day will have a mix of happiness and sadness for both of them, too..

Later in the evening we all went out for a great dinner at Mexicali..

It was a great day.. Diane is such a wonderful mother.. it was nice to spend the day thinking of that.. It’s … well.. it’s different being a mother.. or a dad.. now since Sam’s passing. Yet he’s so much here with us on days like today…. He’s here with us always..

Happy mothers day Diane.. All your guys love you so much.. We know oyu do, Sam

-me