All posts by johncohn

Saturday night – corrections

Well… my photo site is down for a few hours.. so no new pictures for this evening.. I think I’ll do what newspapers sometimes do every once in a while.. I’ll run a few correction notices.

Corrections:

In the spirit of journalistic integrity, my vast staff has  poured over the recent content of this blog and found the following important discrepancies.
Tonight I will do my best to set the record straight. 


1) It’s been pointed out to the author by his beautiful wife that on the blog entry from May 1st, I mistakenly called a camel a dromedary and a dromedary a camel.,.. Here for the record is the camel

and here is our friend Otis the dromedary

The editors would like to apologize to both animals and hope this mix up caused them no inconvenience or crises of identity.

2) On April 24th  I reported that I had removed about 30 old bottles of wine when we cleaned our cupboard. I just checked it was actually 25 bottles..

3) On April 14th I said that I got 85% of the Sex Pistols ‘G-d Save The Queen’ correct in Guitar Hero..  with a string of 83 correct notes. I now realize I had those numbers reversed. I had 83% correct with 85 notes played correctly.

4) On April 29th I notice that the picture labeled ‘digital ICs’ , The chip showing through the front cover is actually not a digital IC at all, it’s an analog LM565 phased-locked-loop chip. I guess this isn’t a journalistic problem, it’s more of a sorting problem..

5) On March 21st I reported that it was ‘nice and kinda sad’ being in this house alone for the night . I was mistaken. it was actually ‘nice and very sad.’

And that completes the list of know corrections . Again, I apologize if any of these factual errors cased anyone distress

OK… so that was pretty random 🙂 but it gave me something to do until my photosite came up.. Here are some fresh pictures for our day.

It was such a beautiful day today.. It was a pleasure to be outside.. Diane and  each had less than 4 hours sleep. She got home from Springfield last night at about 2:30 and I was still up working.. Satori woke us both at 6.. ugh.. but she’s so cute !.. We drove up to Milton around 12:30 for Gabe’s Lacrosse games..
They had two tough opponents (i.e. they lost both games) .. but the guys played well. Gabe got 3 of the 5 goals they scored all day.. he’s really looking good.. He’s also half a head taller than most of his teammates. He’s really shooting up He’s such a great kid !

Before we left the field I went over and placed a SamStone under the old wooden skateboard halfpipe. I remember several cold, wet days standing under that thing watching Sam play lacrosse here. It was a good spot for the stone.

Our buddy Tim grabbed a skateboard and dropped in just for fun. he’s such a kid.

It was fun hanging out with Tim, Wendy, Vivian and Zion (not shown here) while Gabe and Ellis, Time and Wendy’s other son, played.. Wendy even fed us while we watched the game !

After the game, we headed home.. Gina and Matt stopped by to give Diane some mother’s day flower.. we thought they matched Gabe’s shirt !

round 7 we went up to the Jen and Tim’s for a cook out.. There were some tofu thingys in there as well. Tim’s Cousin Alcid and his wife also came buy. itwas good talkign to the. It was a really nice evening !

One startling discovery was that we realized that Gabe is now taller than Marie !

OK.. gotta get some sleep. Tomorrow is mothers day.. An advance happy mothers day to all you mothers out there.. Happy mothers day to my mom Judy and Diane’s mom Marcia .. And to my wonderful Diane.. we all love you.. I know that you do Sam !.. you show us every day.
-me

Friday night – mental floss

I woke at 8:30 this morning with he sneaky feeling that I had to do something this morning. I rolled over and squinted at my blackberry.. and EEEEK yes.. I had a dentist appointment in 30 minutes.. and the dentist’s office is 25 minutes away.. believe it or not I made it.. I’m not sure I was dressed or anything.. but at 9:05 I was in the comfy chair being jabbed with pointy dentist things.. believe it or note I love going to the dentist. It feels like your teeth are getting massaged.. the way it must feel for a crocodile to have those little birds come in and clean your teeth. I did ask for a little anesthesia.. to block the easy listening music in the office..   denied…

  P the dental hygienists lady and I talked about our kids… I gave her a samstone.. She let me take a picture of my Xrays..

I went back to IBM and worked until about 12:30.. then drove home to have lunch with Diane.. I hadn’t really seen her all week…we went for a run then had a great lunch outside. It was so nice talking to her. I’ve been getting so down and sad these last couple of weeks.. talking to Diane really helps me.. she’s very calm and wise..

The puppy got up to play with us and left a hug pile of dirt from outside where she was laying.. She’s like a little antidust mop.. I’ve never seen anything that could hold that much dirt !

I got back to work about 1:30 and worked until about 6.. Diane took off with our friend Gary to see a spiritual lecture down in Springfield MA..   Around 5:30 I dropped Gabe and Jack of at the movies.. then came back and started in again on my presentation for the ISCAS conference in a week and a half. That must have been about 7:30 .. next time I looked up.. which was basically now.. it was 2:00 AM ..  
   While I was looking for illustrations for my talk , I came across this flash picture that Max and Sam had taken of a balloon popping.. that’s Sam in the picture.. it’s a weird picture.. but one that brings back great memories..   



I’ll go dream about them now.. Seep tight everyone.. Sleep tight Sam !
-me

Friday night – Max’s home !

So happy to be home. It’s about 1:30 on Friday morning and I just got in. I’m going to upload these pictures now…including the ones I was unable to load last night…  and (maybe) add some text tomorrow when I’m more awake.

Flashback… yesterday morning I was going for a run and  ran into friends Brad and Bill.. We went for a short run through downtown LA… it was good to have folks to talk to while running..

LA reminds me of Houston with hills… ..not beautiful.. not ugly… kinda utilitarian.. but with  more plastic surgery

One spectacular aspect was that th jacaranda were in bloom.. they look like something right out of Dr. Suess…

I already wrote about yesterdays meetings..not much new to report there.. Here’s the crowd from dinner last night.. me, leon. Dr. Evil (dave) Jim, Dennis, Jerry and Bill. It was a really good dinner and a really good conversation.. I’ve been thinking about it all day..

We saw some real signs of Hollywood on the walk back.. We saw these signs.. and a car with a video camera mounted on its hood.. I think they might have just been thrown in for tourists like us to make it feel like we ere in movieland.

We took a brief stop by the hotel bar… here are leon and bill

… and Bryan and Mark P. (my cousin)

On my way up to my room I saw this great old picture of the opening ball for this hotel. It was in 1927.. it was cool seeing all these folks in the same space I was standing.

I was particularly struck by this women who seems to be holding her ears… I wonder what it was she did not want to hear ?

Ok.. now it’s today.. not much new here.. a travel day mostly.. I had calls starting right after 6… then I headed to the airport at 10. I got there only to find that my planes was delayed  to the point of missing my connection in DC. that would have meant an overnight flight.. ugh.. I worked with the travel folks to reroute me..I bought a one-way ticket on delta..  and for the trouble.. I was chosen for the extra-super-duper screening.. it took about 20 minutes.. they went through absolutely everything I was carrying.. I had to explain my blinking light headband several times… after my backpack set off the explosion sensor.. they said it’s not uncommon.. the screened it tiwce and never found out what had made the alarm go off..

I got on the plan only to find Bill and Bruce and Charles on the same plane. I ended up sitting most of the time next to bill.. We had a great time geeking out on work technical stuff,. family stuff, people stuff. I’ve known him forever.. but never had a chance to talk to him this much. He’s such a great guy.  

Later in the flight I went and hung out with Bruce.. who gave me some great tips on this upcoming education talk I’m doing.    When I went back to my seat, I pulled out a SamStone to give to Bill.. and while I was at it, I gave one to the woman seated to my right .  Her name was Francis .. and it turns out that her 45 year old daughter Ruby died 2 weeks ago after being in a diabetic coma for a year.  We talked for a while about Sam.. and about Ruby.. it was a sad moment.. but good..

We got to JFK roughly on time.. I had to run to terminal 6 to get my JetBlue flight to BTV. As I walked away from the security checkpoint.. I couldn’t help noticing how uncomfortable my shoes were.. I took off my left shoe only to find that I’d been walking around on my glasses.. I’d stuck them in there for the xray screening

I ran into my friends Sue B and Paul Z waiting for the same plane.. we had a good work talk as we waited to baord.  as We were walking on the plane, Sue found this little packet on the jetway…

It used to contain medicinal marijuana breath strips… Is that wierd or what ?

Our good friend Clint was on the plane right in front of me.. he and 4 other work buddies had taken the day off, flown down to NYC and gone to see a baseball game. together . How cool is that ?!?

We got in to Burlingotn just after midnight.. after wandering around in the parking lot for awhile.. I found the car.. and sleepily drove home..   Max was there waiting for me. It is so wonderful seeing him.. he looks great.. and seems really happy to be done with classes.. I couldn’t stop hugging him

He’s just gone to bed.. and so must I !.. More tomorrow.. Gnite all !.. Gnite Sam !
-me

Wednesday night – network problems

I’m sorry my friends. but my internet connection to photobucket and myspace is not working here in the hotel. I’ve been fiddling with it for abotu 45 minutes that I should have been using for sleeping…
   I’ll post the pictures and news from today tomorow on my way home. I’m happy to be heading back to Vermont.   Heard from Max that he’s on his way back to Vermont, too. It will be so good to see him !. .
  
Today was good… some interesting but difficult work meetings.. then some really nice socalizing with work freinds. We had a great japonese/thai dinner nearby. Being around these folks feels good to me… when I’m hanging out with them I remember why I love my job…

   OK the internet is goign up and down.. so I’ll end here.. Sorry for the tiny post.. Talk to you tomorrow.. Gnite all.. gnite Sam ..
-me

Ps. Sam.. thinking of you here in California.. Here’s Dani California for you

 

From Dani California by Red Hot Chilie Peppers
….
California rest in peace
Simultaneous release
California show your teeth
She’s my priestess, I’m your priest
YEAH, YEAH

Who knew the other side of you?
Who knew that others died to prove
Too true to say good bye to you
Too true to say say say..

Push the fader gifted animator
One for the now and eleven for the later

….