Tuesday night – three dog night


I woke up feeling pretty sick this morning… bad sore throat and chills.. so I decided to lay low.. I think the only time I left the house was to take Gabe to school and pick him up. I spent most of the day working in the lab on some xmas presents.. but didn’t get very far.. I’m facing some pretty thorny tehnical challenges.. and not making much progress. I feel like an idiot.. but… at least it’s fun to putter in the lab. Theres nothing like stairing at an osciliscope all day to cheer you up

Gabe’s off for the rest of this week and next.. and in honor of that, he has his buddies over for the night. the 4 muskateers we call them.. Gabe, Jack, Austin and Will.   It’s wonderful having Max hoem now too.. Diane made a great meal…

And we lit the candles for the third night of hanukah.

GHabe took some time oout of playign to work with Diane on a home made presant project

then the guys went out and finsihed their awesome igloo sno fort.. There’s room for  5 in there !

It’ sonly 10:30 and I’m beat.. Max’s dog Reptar just jumped in bed beside  us.. We’ve got three  dogs in here.. must make it a three dog night !

OK.. gotta sleep. Homepfully I’ll shake this bug by tomorrow.. Night folks ! Nite Sam
-me

Monday night – twitter ?

Folks,
Very quiet today . Spent some of the day making present for the kids. .. spent a bit of it snowshoing with Diane.. and a bit of shopping. In classic beginning of vacation form, I’ve got some sort of respitory bug. nothign bad.. but it always seems to happen when I try to relax

One other thing I’ve done today is try to figure out a new micro-blogging tool .. It’s called Twitter. I’ve been meaning to try it for some time. Diane and I heard a mention of it on the radio on our drive this weekend.. so I figured.. now is the time. The basic idea of twitter is sort of like blogging… except you do it throughout the day. Like when you’re driving you use your phone to  send a short (<160 character) SMS post.. or a 'tweet' in twitter-speak... that says " i'm driving" .. when you're about to take a shower.. you say "I'm about to take a shower".. etc. Each time you do that, it posts your 'tweet' on a website.. The weird/cool thing is that then folks can subscribe to your twitter feed.. so... every time you say.."I'm brushing my teeth".. anyone who follows your posts knows about it.. How strange is that ?   Here’s what it looks like: ..

I just figured out why it my be interesting in a voyeuristic way.. There are  buttons on the Twitter site which allow you to follow people’s twitter that you know.. but there’s also one that allows you to follow what everyone is saying.. all at once.. It’s all nonsense.. but I think I’m hooked !

Here’s what it looked like a few secs ago…

mikiesoft @NameCheap Have a Holly Jolly Christmas less than 5 seconds ago from web in reply to NameCheap
michaelmcgee Don’t worry. The Bears will find a way to comeback. The Packers will start screwing up now. Ughhh. less than 5 seconds ago from web
Toyo_Hasa @glassknives 逸見さんは尊敬するアナウンサーのお一人なので訃報を聞いた時はショックで言葉に出なかった事をよく覚えています。… less than 5 seconds ago from Tween in reply to glassknives
hellofath @tomlovesyou I prefer digital compact. I love IXUS cameras but none of the current model attract my attention. less than 5 seconds ago from web in reply to tomlovesyou
kmeisner Milestone: J’s 1st time throwing a book across the room! b/c he was so into the story he got upset when something happened to a character. less than 5 seconds ago from web
GnZo devuelta despues de celebrar la graduación de mi hermano 😀 y comer pizza :B! less than 5 seconds ago from web
JennyRey @frandango Crockpots are killer! Get one of those huge “fix it and forget it” cookbooks and you’ll be set for life! Trust me. less than 5 seconds ago from Twinkle in reply to frandango
mark1kor 어떻게 활용해 볼 수 있을까 less than 5 seconds ago from twhirl
roguepanda Drinking 3 buck chuck with the fam less than 5 seconds ago from txt
wootibetay merwanduh, what be your number, i gunna call you! less than 5 seconds ago from web
KatieMM @ingridmusic Was pleasantly surprised to hear you guys playing live on the radio this morning. less than 5 seconds ago from web in reply to ingridmusic
joshmcconnell @chrisfromcanada good to know! I have to head out in a few minutes. Ha less than 5 seconds ago from twitterrific in reply to chrisfromcanada
wallie73 $DXO not ready yet, I will start nibbling on some later this week, but I think oil can go to the low 30’s a barrel. Extremely cheap however! less than 5 seconds ago from StockTwits
alisso Santa Clara County told to clean up its air – San Jose Mercury News: United Press InternationalSanta Clara Count.. http://is.gd/d3RL less than 5 seconds ago from twitterfeed
melina_star why don’t boyfriends ever return a freaking phone call and then they wonder why you think something totally different is happening less than 5 seconds ago from web
techbargainscom SAMSUNG SE-S084B 8X DVD+R Slim USB External DVD Burner $49.99 Free Shipping at Newegg :   Newegg Coupons http://…com/ayp2qw less than 5 seconds ago from twitterfeed
ShyahShaday @dee12345 lmao less than 5 seconds ago from TwitterBerry in reply to dee12345
mamiya_subaru @tyorori すいませんうそつきました半日寝てることが多いです　シジミエキスは年々飲みやすくなっていって今では結構おいしいです… less than 5 seconds ago from P3:PeraPeraPrv in reply to tyorori
Penguins Buffalo 3 vs. Pittsburgh 4* (NHL): http://…com/9kk7og less than 5 seconds ago from web
ljmerrell Me (to Brian): Did the chicken get more crispy? Asher: I would like to get more crispy…by watching a program! less than 5 seconds ago from web

Just took a break to decorate the xmas tree. Gabe wanted an elecrtroluminescent (EL) wire tree.. so.. here’s what we did:

..

OK… I gotta go to bed.. too sleepy and sick to stay up. though I have tons to do.
Happy 2nd night of hanukah folks..
nite Sam

-me

 
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Sunday night – Solstice/Chanukah

Happy first night of Hanukkah .. Happy Solstice !

We got on the road this morning at 7 to avoid the worst of the snow.. The drive back was slow, but uneventful.. actually it was kinda fun. We had three dogs in the car.. and the constant arraigning, fiddling. calming feeding, walking of them kept the drive interesting.. as did the audio book we were listening to .. (Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.. very good !)

We got home around 2ish… to find oVermont full of beutiful kneedeep snow.. It was pretty cold out.. but it wasn’t much warmer inside !  Our room was 48 degrees.

It was tough coming back into a cold and dark house.. sometimes I swear that coming home is the hardest thing for me to do. At the moment I came in..it was easy  feel thayt it was  the darkest day of the year..   But withing the hour we had lights and candles lit, the fire roaring and the heat on.. and things began to feel better for me..

We got settled for a bit then headed out in the snow to get our Christmas tree. we’d put it off until Max was back..and now, he’s here.   We skidded our way up Wes White Hill to Puritans.. They pointed us up back to where the bigger trees were going… We quickly homed in on a pretty 8 foot guy that stood out from the rest…   I like this picture.. it has  several of those mystery spheres in it.. I love the one over the tree. Sam.. is that you ?

Cutting the tree down was a comedy of erros. our saw broke half way and Diane had to go fetch another
..

… but in the end it came down with a gentle woosh…   and we pulled our prize back the long way to the car…

We got it home and Gabe unwrapped the thing.. It’s a beutiful treee..It’s smell makes me happier..

..
Our house was full of kids when we got back. Skanky Green and their enterage were practicing in the barn.   Gabe sat them down and taught them the finer points of playing dreidel… the 4 sided top used on Hanukkah… The stakes were high.. they were playing for real candy !

Diane was busy in the Kitchen making a huge platter of latke, the special potato pankakes of hanukah…

So I got busy pullign ou thte condiments. most people stop at apple sauce and sour cream for their latke.. We have chile and mango pickle, thai chili sauce. sambal, thre kinds of mustard, barbeque sauce katchup, island pepper sauce, enchilada sauce, cranberry chutney, vidalia onion sauce,   and humous. Yummm..

We rounded up the 11 of us and lit the first hanukah candle

Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha’o’lam asher kid’sha’nu beh’miz’vo’tav veh’tzi’va’nu leh’had’lik ner shel Chanukah.

בָּרוּךְ אַתָה יְיָ אֶלוֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הַעוֹלָם אֲשֶר קִדְשָנוּ בֵּמִצְווֹתַיו וְצִיוַונוּ לֵהַדְלִיק נֵר שֶל חֲנוּכָּה׃

Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, Who sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to kindle the Chanukah lights.”

And we lit the candle for Sam….

Then we dug in !.. Yum !

The last thing tonight was something I chose to do for solstice observance. A group of folks lead by Melissa Etheridge, Salman Ahmad and Deepak Chopra have asked everyone to ring a bell today for peace… It was to have been at noon.. but since we were driiving then. we didd it when we could.. It’s a beutifil throught.. Yyu can read about it here

And you can hear my bell ringing here.
..

I’ll end tonight with a Wiccan prayer for the earth on this longest night… 

Cold and dark, this time of year,

the earth lies dormant, awaiting the return

of the sun, and with it, life.

Far beneath the frozen surface,

a heartbeat waits,

until the moment is right,

to spring.

blessed be everyone.. you too, Sam

-me

Saturday night – 400 miles


Long day.. I left Endicott just before 9 this morning on a quick round trip to grab Max and his dog in NYC> The roads were sloppy.. but I had a good book on tape (Malcolm Gladwell’s new book ‘Outliers’.. it’s great !)

It ytook me about 4 hours to get to the city.. A completely different world. I know I’m close to Max’s when the signs turn to Yiddish..

… or chinese

It was a drag driving thoguht the city with no map, no copilaot.. and only  the GPS on my phone (We took the van).. I was really happy to get to Max’s door.

We did a pretty effiecient Evacuation.. btu before we did.. max took me up on his roof to see his metal workign final… It’s called ‘Down in flames’.. He learned to Tig weld for this.. it’s really cool !


The drive back was fun-=ish.. the first bit of getting out of the city was rough with my cr*ppy GPS… we managed to have to cross Manhattan.. and the beutiful town of Newark NJ.   Max and I talked on and off most of the way home.. which is a great pleasure. He’s so much fun for me to talk too. We’ve got so many similar interests now. I get inspired by listeing to his ideas.

It took us a little less than 4 hours on the way back.. as we pulled into the driveway, my milage for the day read 399.9 miles.. so.. I exagerated.. it was less than 400 miles..   We have another 320 tomorrow.. this will be a 1000 mile weekend.

It was nice having Max with us in Endiocott.. I love seeing the boys together..

Gabe had used his day to further perffect his candy cane welding.. he’s now the frank lloyd wright of candy cane architecture

My brother and sister in law Joe and Pat were there too.. We sat down and had a great meal.. toasteign each other.. and Sam…

Then we did a really nice gift exchange.. It was the first christmasy feelign I’v ehad this year.. It felt good to be all together with Diane’s family…

Diane’s mom had a nice suprise for us.. She’d found an old newspaper clippign of the time that Diane taight Highschool part time at Bellows Free Academy.. This is from Oct of 1986.. and she looks the same to me.. very cute !

OK.. Gotta sleep. We’re leavign early tomorrow to beat the snow..
Nite folks.. Nite Sam
-me