Diane and I are staying in a really sweet Airbnb about 5 min walk from Mx and Becky.. It’s perfect. We took it wasy today.. We spent the morning walking around this part of town.. We have learned to acclimate a few days to the altitued (7200′) before running or strenuous hiking.
Tonight we had dinner with Max at Maria’s, one of our favorite SW place.. Becky had a meeting over dinner.. we caught up with her later..
Fantastic dinner, woth google translate he.ping me decipher Maxs flaming lips shirt.
Our Uber arrived at about 5:30AM to get us to ORD for our flight toe Albuquerque. We’re on our way to see Max and Becky
Flight was smooth and made even smoother by watching the big leboskie again for the zillionth time. Ever time I watch it, I pick up more things !
Max and Becky picked us u at ABQ and we took the scenic route back to Santa Fe.. Much nicer than driving 25. We actually got to make a drop-by pilgrimage to “Bajo Bob’s” .. a company max knows well, biut has never seen/
We stopped at Madrid (rhymes with “bad kid”) for a great lunh and look around. We’ve been doing some reading on Madrid and its a very interesting place.. It used to be a booming coal town.. with more people than Albuquerque at one point in the 19th century. The place was aa company town until the 1950’s (i think).. at one point everyone who lived there had free electricity .. Employees were required to buy a christmas tree from the comany and light it u with electric lights. It was such a bog deal that folks came from far and wide to see the christmas lights.. THe airline TWA even altered their flight paths to allow passengers to see the lights of Madrid from the sky. Today its pretty much a ghost town except the small strip along the highway that bisects the town. Thats filled with art galleries and funky gift shops .The mine tunnels and machinery are still visible all around. We had lunch and the old mine resturant that we’ve been to before.. it’s supposed to be the most haunted lace in Madrid !
The other thing in town is a dispencery wheir Max and Becky and our freind Chad works. It was a fun paying a surprise visit to chad. !
From there it was a retty short ride to Max and Beckys.. The lace is looking great.. they’re working on adding a new bathroom in a part of the house that used to be storage. These two cdo it all themseleves.. .. and they can do *anything* !
We said hi to our grandog Violet and our grandchickes (?)
Max showed us a new tintype a freind had made of him in exchange for soem technical work.. I love this picture !
Afyter getting settled, we walked over to the railyard to see an exhibit of interactive art called ‘currents’. it was the last day.. so I’m glad we caught it.. Super interesting stuff. Lots of AI art.. but several simple mechanical builds too.. they were my fav’s ..
like this very cool zooetrope of candy
A synthesizer that converts geiger counter clicks into music. >The clicks are made in response oto the radioactive decay of a piece of trinitite (fused glass from the first A bomb from the manhattan project)
I liked many of the projects.. this one is a woman whos constantly changin parts were displayed on small screens
Or this that visualized physically all the moves of the famous deep blue chess programs game that defeated chess champion GaryKkasparov
And a bunch of other stuff: electronic collidescope, AI interpretation of the perfect female face – (which appears to be angry most of the time in the full width of the web ). , a cool round screen cat , a high xncept projection peice and a display of plant s whose vascular structure had been replaced with glassy silica
One of my favorite peieces was totally low tech.. it was a collection of bent threaded rods with washers on them … you were invited to spin the device and watch and listten to the washers as they fell
I also likeed this high concept peice of a boat skeleton in the sky.. it reminded me of an art proposal that several of us made to Electric Forest that didnt get selected
FRom there we took a nice long and hot walk at the dog park.. the place where max and becky got engaged .
We ended the day with a really wonderful birthday dinner for max . We had oysters, sashimi, mahi mahi, steak.. super great food.
Today was Hannah and Jotirs big day.. We had the morning to hang out and explore Chicago.. Diane and I headed out for a walk to meet our friend Jane and meet her grandson Asher.. Jane, Asher, jane’s daughter Alex and son-in-law Josh all live in VT.. and we had to come all the way to CHI to see them.. !
Diane , Jane and I set off for a walk around the city. Its full of great public art.. a
and some not so great..
Around 2 we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding.. (which for me meant a nap !) We Uber’ed out to the wedding venue which was a really nice space.. I think it was an old office/warehouse.. but it had been renovated to make it a really beautiful party venue
Amazingly, we were some of the first to arrive
they had ploroid-ish cameras around.. and were collecting photos for a book. Here’s our contribution
After some mingling and champagne, we all went outside for the wedding
The wedding was short and sweet..(with no pictures allowed) One of Jotir’s close friends officiated and did a great job.. Hannah and Jotir exchanged vows they’d written themselves.. and they were really beautiful and had the fun and playful spirit that both of them have.
And like that.. they were Mr and Mrs Short !
Afterward’s There was time for lots of family and friend pics
Then inside for a wonderful sit down meal.
Before dinner came the first dances..
Then a really warm thanks and welcome from Hannah and Jotir
The food was amazing !
All through dinner, slide shows of Hannah and Jotirs family were running.. They are both such smiley people !
Then came some nice speeches.. First was Hannahs dad Lou
Then Hannah’s mom Kathy
Then Jotir’s mom Suzette
Then Jotir’s best man
Android of honor
Then Lou pulled a great surprise. He’d found this movie of Hannah dancing as a 10 year old.. She hasn’t changed at all !
The DJ picked up the song and Hannah led everyone to the dance floor.. and we didn’t stop dancing till the party was over !
All of the VT crowd picked the same time .. about 10:30 to head home.. It was nice seeing everyone.
Today we headed out to Chicago for our good friends Hannah and Jotirs wedding. The trip got off to a nice start when we ran into our friends Kyle and Hunter in the airport !
Flights were good and we got to Chicago in early afternoon. First order of business was to try some Chicago deep dish pizza. We wound a place and it did not disappoint !
It reminded me of the John Stewart rant on Chicago vs NYC pizza
Next order of business was a sunset boat cruise with Hannah , jot and all their family and friends. We found the boat.. The welcome sign was funny.. it wasn’t a Short cruise.. Jotir’s last name is ‘Short’ 🙂
As we waited to board Hannah and Jotir greeted everyone. They looked SOOOO happy !
We caught site of Lou and Kathy , Hannahs parents and our close friends on the boat getting ready
Then we set sail (does one ‘set sail’ in a motorized river boat ?) It was a beautiful evening.. Hot.. with a nice lake breeze.. He headed out into th broad lake while we all mingled caught up with old friends and made new ones.
Here’s Hannah with her brother August.. one of Max’s best friends when they were kids.
It was great meeting Jotirs family.. They’d come in from all over. Suzette , Jotirs mom is so great.. really fun and funny. She and her close family now live in Miami (I think) . Jotirs uncles and aunts were super fun too.. some lived in Florida, some in St Croix,,
Lou made a nice welcome.. set a great tone
Here’s Tony.. Jotir’s grandfather had come in from Trinidad for the wedding. . he was the center of attention in any group because he was so nice, funny and wise.
We loved the Chicago skyline.. amazing architecture
well.. not all of it
It was great seeing all of Hannahs friends together.. amnion these women we haven’t seen since middle school or high school.
