Saturday night – pond skimming

Much needed break last night today.. turned work off (mostly) for nearly 8 hours and recharged  some.   Last night Gabe, Dylan and I went out for sushi… Gylan ate a plum sized wad of wasabi.  I know I  mentioned it last night.. but.. here’s proof.

He won’t forget that.. I’m pretty sure..

This morning we woke late and headed to Stowe. Today was a photoshoot for Gabe’s MMSC team..for some bizzarre reason that meant jumping over a Mercedes .  I don’t know how they have the guts to do stuff like that.. Gabe loked good.

Hey dylan  ?

I had some down time there..  so I did a little snow art.

After Stowe…. we headed up to Bolton for pond skimming.. It’s an annual thing.. folks come down on snowboards and skiis and try to get across a 33 degree pond without getting wet… or not.. depends.   We’ve done it every year since Sam’s passing. I always toss in a Sam stone at the end.

we weren’t planning on skimming.. but I had my union suite.. (actually max’s union suit)  on just in case..

We ran into Ivy !

There goes Jack,,

Krisitnm Sydney and crew were going down on sleds.. but at the last minute they said ‘no sleds’.. so they ran..

I ran right after them !  (Thanks so much to friend Joanne for her great pictures !)

I remembered to toss the sam stones.. this time.. 2 years ago.. I got out and realized I still had them.. tossed them in afterwords.

It was a great scence afterwards. lots of wet cold happy people..

Then back home.. Kristin, Gabe and I cooked a feat.. now we’re watching a movie.. This is the day I needed..

Gnite all.. gnite sam
-jc

ps. My friend Joe C. wrote me to tell me that the Essex high robotics club cane in 3rd place in the region first competition in Feb.. they also came in 1st in ‘community connection’ because  of their fund raising.. which I helped with !  Look.. they had a samstone on their robot !!!

Friday nigth – writing with light.

I din’t think friday would ever come. This has been an excruciatingly busy week.. just when Diane was gone. I finished my last call around 6:30,.I literally was too tired to ove.. but..  knew I had to switch to dad mode . Gabe and I took the dogs for a run. I love running wiht him.. it reminds me of running with my dad when I was a kid.

Aft wards, we went and piced up Gabes friend dylan and we all went out for sushi. THe hilight there was that dylan ate a walnut size chunk of wasabi just to see what would happen…

It was bad….

Now home and its almost midnight.. I’m experimenting with a piece of code I found on youtube from a guy named Johnny Lee at CMU. the code allows you to use a Wiimote game device to make a very cool projection video screen. you hook the wiimote to your computer with blutooth, hook oyur computer to a projector, poitn the wiimote at the projection, then use an infrared led with a swittch to egnage the camera in the wiimote..
Very cool ideas

I’m not very good with it yet.. I need to create a mount for the wiimote so it can see the whole screen. at this point I can only scrawl.. but it’s still very cool

TThis is fun…   
gotta sleep now, tho-
 more tomorrow…

Good night everyone. good night sam
-me

Thursda night – news from costa rica

Friends,
    not much noteworthy in my day..  I’m working too hard while Diane is away.. I want to make sure I make time to have enough fun with Gabe.. I don’t think I did today. I love that kid so much..  We’ve had soem great time talking since it’s just the two of us here now.  I sometimes wonder what it’s like to be him..

This evening I gave   my “Lessons from the Colony” talk at the University of Vermont Computer Science Student Association.. It was a good time ! A big group of them hung around long after my talk brainstorming on cool projects we could build.. Talking to students is one of the thing I like doing most in the world. Sometimes I wish it was my only job.

DIane wrote from Costa Rica today.. with some intense news. Their house was broken into 🙁 ..Still she sounds like she’s having fun. Here’s her report

Hola Everyone,,,

It has been a few days since I wrote.  Thank you for your emails to me.  My time is limited so I will just write this one general email.

Last night our house, Casa Rebecca, was broken in to while we were at the evening session.  The door to the main house was left open because the last one out did not have a key.  That is not uncommon since it is s fluid house.  Upon arriving home a critter…raccoon type animal with a long tail (I think Aguti) was enjoying my 2 avocados and three bananas.  He/she scooted out (with full belly) and we sat down to our usual watermelon eating session (hot time!).  Sister Cecelia mentioned to me that her bathroom bag was moved.  I noticed cupboard doors were opened in my room.  Then she noticed a slat had been taken out and someone had slipped their hand in.  In the end nothing was taken…I had important items with me and Sister locked her suitcase. 

Gary & Sho went up to their place and the door was jammed open at the lock and their laptops and one ipod were stolen.  Gary had a MacBook Pro with many photos on it.  Sho just had a borrowed junker.  Sho went and put in a report.  Two officers came to look & fill out the report.  Sho made everyone banana smoothies.  They are simply frozen bananas with a little water.  Yum.

That was the excitement for the evening.  All is well and the police said this has not happened in a while.  All is quiet now.

We keep losing power.  The winds at night must have taken down some limbs.  It is quite dark here when all the lights are out.

Training is very good.  It is not about the physical practice.  It is about self inquiry for ourselves and for our students.  Many psychological elements and more about yoga at a deeper level.  Thought provoking.

Did I mention that it is hot here?  Yep…like 93 degrees in the house now and high 80s tto low 90s at night.  We usually get a breeze however most of the time sweat runs down your face and we take like 2 showers a day.  I am loving the fresh veggies and fruit that we buy off of the farmers truck.  I eat a half of a papaya everyday, 1-2 mangoes, avocados…and of course bananas and watermelon.  I feel like I am on a raw foods diet…occasionally I eat an egg on my salad. 

Oh…yesterday I saw a tree with 5 mommy monkeys and their babies.  So sweet.  The howlers talk though out the night and we have a huge iguana that lives in the roof that I am listening to now. 

That’s about all for now.  I miss Vermont’s cool air and all of you.  love…diane    

Man, we miss her around here..

OK.. That’s it for now.
Nite everyone.. nite to you sam (and thanks)
-me

Wednesday night – snow and flooding

Another long day. I feel I’ve been dragged into a near impossible task at work.. bu I’m masochistically enjoying it somehow.   I stood at the counter and worked form 8 thill about 7.. with only one break for a run midday.. Everything had been covered with snow last night.. and the river was still at flood. It was a cool combo.   Wait.. make that two breaks, I did have a 30 minute conversation with a precocious 10 year old girl from Virginia (i think) named Kaleela. Kaleela is an expert on monarch butterflies.. she wants to design a system to track their migration> Her mom wrote the chairman of ibm for help.. and his office asked me. We’ve spoken three times now.. and i tell you.. this kid is amazing. She knows everythign about butterflies.. and has been researching chip technology for the tracking. Things like this make my job fun..
   Gabe’s home now .. we’re both kinda moping around the house because we have too much work.. but at least its fun to complain .   I’m goign to go bug him now..

That’s it for now.. more tomorrow
nite all, nite sam
-me