ahhhhhhhhh .. just sitting down after about 5 hours of party + cleanup.. It was a really good party.
We had a ton of help setting up, so it was a pretty low stress prep.. Folks strted showing up just before 7 and
things were getting pretty quiet by midnight. I have no way of counting
how many people were here.. I used to try and list the folks.. but it’s
grown beyond that now.. and my memory isn’t as good as it once was.. I
do knwo that around 9 I walked through and counted more than 250 folks
between the ohouse and the barn. I don’t know what that means abotu the
total number of folks who came and went through the evening.. It’s cool sitting here in the quiet .. and nearly clean place after all those folks have gone..
This year was pretty calm too.. no mischief we saw, no lost and crying
kids.. no police.. all in all.. you can’t ask much more for a
gathering.
We decorated our room by putting spooky stuff in our bed (no making out here, please).. Talk about spooky.. that’s my Monday calendar from work.. I’m talking SPOOKY !
Just before the party Diane and I took a look around to make sure all the hatcheds were battoned down, etc.. the place looked good !
Max came in dressed in armor. a mustache.. and a gun shooting fake pot leaves.. he was ‘The War on Drugs’ … Gabe came as a banana.. both cute..
Diane had a great costume.. she came as ‘John C’s other Half’.. she got a freaky bald mad science guy mask and a fake beard and put it on the back of her head.. along with a Colony style apron.. here she is wither her back to the camera .. pretty cool, huh ? I’m just dressed as ‘John C’.. a mad scientist.. like pretty much all of the last 20 something years.. sureprise surprise !
Sue and Jim came as their sun Dylan in full slacker boarder togs.. complete with drooping pants.
Paula and on were there.. Paula was the girl from a Nightmare before Xmas’.. and Ron came as… as John C.. compelte with solar power, dirty water. dirty face, an extra fan for the inverter, a multimeter, a spark shooter and a morse code key.. And he had to dye his hair gray/ He’s so funny
Lots of folks I hadn’t seen forever.. like Sam’s friend John…
We had soem classy outfits including Classic rockers..
They call him ,,,,,, :TIM: !
Smurfs
Glowing ear plugs
sarah pailn fresh from parasailin’.. she called herself ‘caribou barbi’ !
and creepy smile guy
Seeing Jess was a wonderful surprise !
Cupcake anyone ?
They’re always after me lucky charms.. they’re tragically malicious !
I pitty the fool !
Uh…..
The singing nuns….
Lumber jacks
spooky nightmare guy..
lots of good spooky food.. but I hardly got to it..
Piles of shoes at every door…
Some folks just hanging out..
Others playing games…
Still others in the barn dancing to DJ Sumner.. he did a GREAT job.. there were over 80 folks in there while he was playing..
Here’s aaron inverting..
some hanging out by the fire..
Here’s what a quick walkabout of the party looked like at 10 PM…
And here’s a timellapse of the whole thing.. a little dark.. but cool
There were still just about 100 folks here at 11 PM.. but folks started leaving quickly.. by midnight we were down to about 30.. perfect ramp down.
We collected a good amount of food for food bank during the party…
And had plenty of help for the first cleanup.. by 1:30 the place looked pretty good.. Though we need to do a bunch more cleaning.. We’re having a cleaning party from 10 till 2 tomorrow. Please come by if you’re free.
It was a great evening.. it was wonderful seeing all our friends.. especially so many of Sams friends.. I tell you … her was there with us tonight.. you could feel him there in the spirit of all of his friends..
It was just your kind of night Sam.. just your kind of night.. We love you man ! -me
Coccinellidae – the Latin family name for lady bugs as in Succurro! Ego sum constipatus per Coccinellidae
(Help ! I’m surrounded by ladybugs)
Our entire house was covered inside and out with ladbugs today.. these cute little black spotted red beetles that were such a beautiful and rare marvel of my youth were swarming so thickly around our house that you had to run out the doors to keep from getting them in your hair (if you have hair).
We used to get fly infestations like this in the fall.. sometime a few years back, the ladybugs took over and transformed our walls into a crawling carpet of red polka dots for a couple of days each fall. Wouldn’t you know.. it’s just in time for our Halloween party on Saturday evening.. we have literally miles of fake spiderwebs throughout the house covered with live ladybugs.. you couldn’t pay for special effects like that !
See you at the party on Saturday… (or at the setup work party tomorrow night !). Night folks.. night Sam ! -me
Man… I’m in overload. It seems some how that the month of October always finds me over my head. Usually it’s a mix of work and outside projects.. Now i think it’s only work. It’s funny because this time last year I think I had even more stuff going. In addition to the fall budget stuff I do this time of year, I also was working on an ISSCC paper and the giant pumpkin project for the Haunted forest.. This year I’m letting the haunted forest guys run the pumpkin.. I went over there a few days ago and got it running for them I wont miss standing out in the rain and cold running him this year !… He was a a cool project though.. 20 feet tall when standing, 8 foot arms controlled by wiimotes .. One of my favorite builds. Go check him out at the Haunted forest this year…. tell him I said ‘Hi’ .
I seriously don’t know where my time goes someday. I was flat out all day.. the one break I took was to speak with a new friend in NY who’s daughter died this past July. I’d been meaning to call him for several months.. When we connected I wished that I had called sooner. It was hard yet good speaking with him.. I could remember so clearly how foggy everythign was to me at that point. We had a good talk abotu some of the least talked abotu parts of greiving.. the cognitive impact.. the social stigma… even the gifts that greiving soemtimes offers. It wsa a powerful conversation for me. I find that reaching out to others who are grieving has become an important source of healing to me… just like it was to many of the folks who reached out to us. Many of them had gone through soem loss of one sort or another.. and were doing the same kharmic pay it forward on helping others.
Speaking of kharmic.. I want to remind folks that we are having our Halloween party again this year.. In addition to being a fun tradition.. this party is important to us, because it would have been Sam’s senior year.. We’re looking forward to getting a bunch of his and our friends together for a party before everyone scatters for college next year.. we know he woud have liked it that way.. and so will we…
so .. once again
……..Slide 1….
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Come as you aren’t to a Family Halloween Party
..
……..Slide 1….
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Saturday, October 24, 2009
7:00 PM
Dance Party with DJ Sum1
Come in Costume !
(zombie theme always works)
Kids and Parents welcome
Please bring spooky food,
non-alcoholic drink
and food bank donation
The Mariano-Cohn Family
Old Jonesville Schoolhouse
20 Duxbury Rd, Jonesville, VT
Carpool if you can, limited parking
Info:434-3576 / diane@gmavt.net
..
.. .and again.. we’re having set up and clean up work parties… on Firday night, saturday day and Sunday. Please come to any and all !
OK.. time for me to get back to work… I’ve got a long night ahead of me.. Night folks… night Sam ! -me
Another very good day in yunzvillle. Diane and I spent the day in Pittsburgh with larry, leah and paul today. I managed to work much of the day thanks to wireless everywhere. I did give a talk today for all the folks in my old graduate department on my experience in The Colony. I love telling people about the whole experience and the lessons we learned there. I think it’s good for people to hear how fun it can be to do something completely out of your comfort zone….
It was fun giving a completely fun talk in the same room that I had to give so many technical talks nearly 20 years ago. The room was packed and they brough in Pizza.. not just pizza.. but pittsburgh specialties like steak and fries pizza (yes fries)
And a pirogi pizza…. complete with mashed potatoes..
We even managed to solve our audio-visual problems…thanks to Rob, Rich and Larry. (just how many PHd’s does it take to fix a computers sound problems ?)
The talk went pretty smoothly…. folks laughed at the right places.. recoiled at the right places.. It was fun because many of them had seen the show.. I’ve never spoken to a group that was familiar with the show..
The best part of the talk, though. was catching up with old friends . Many of the profs and staff from my time at CMU are still there.. Here’s Roxy … the uber mom of the cad center.. and Lyz (aka Betty) who used to take care of Rob and his students.
I managed to get some decent work done the rest of the day.. and got to speak with some students and profs. A really good day The car for the airport came to get us around 4:30 /./. Before we left I went up and tried to put a SamStone on the roof.. but it was locked, so I left one as close to the roof as I could get..
As we drove away towards the airport I started thinking about the early fall day in 1988 that Diane, Max and I drove here for the first time. I remember just how scared I was about leaving work., uprooting my family and coming to school here.I agonized about it for months.. both before and after making the move.. Now looking back over the comfortable distance of 21 years it seems so funny to have worried abotu it that much. It was such a fantastic decision coming to school here. It’s opened so many doors for me… made me so many good and lasting friends.. I guess the lesson here is that it generally all works out… especially when if you see it in hindsight.
Anyway.. I want to thank Larry. Leah and the folks at CMU for hosting us… it was a great trip.. you guys are the best…
OK.. enough.. we’re boarding soon. more tomorrow. Nite folks.. nite Sam -me
ps. We ran into a really nice Colony fan in the security line !
