Rabbit-rabitt-rabitt.. cant beleive its November already.. Its a tough month for us.. better to start and get it over with.
Diane and I took an interesting new twist on a hike which didnt require a drive. We started up towards Duck Brook shelter on the old long trail.. but veered off to follow an old woods road (almost) down to old Stage Road. .. It was a beutiful walk.. we saw a big group of wild turkeys.. and watched them for a good long wild
Later in the afternoon, we all joined the Kenneys and townsends for a walk down to see the new Dam.. it’s filling up fast.. One cool thinkg is that they coated the damn wiht anti graffitti paint.. makes it suuuuuper slippery !
Tonight is halloween. Its always been one of our favorite holidays. now its a bit bittersweet .. no kids in teh house to trick or treat with, etc. We combat the ‘blah’ by dressing up and goign trick or treating ourselves.. I mean.. how else am I goign to get peanutbutter cups >?!?!
As in most eyars diane slaved away at our costums for at least 10 minutes :-).. THis year we had soem matching lights !. FIrsts top was meating up with the townsends at Stones throow pizza… then a walk up Richmond Main Street. with our longest stop on Pleasant St to say hi to Gretchen and Marshal.. and get some of their fresh cider donuts.
The craziest thing about tonight was the weather it as 73 degrees at 8PM at night.. thats about 40 degrees (!) warmer than it usually is this time of year. !!!
Super fun night after all !
nite all, nite sam -me
ps.. I got a picture from a freind today showing how a Samstone is now part of one of our bui;lldings at work.. It means so much to me that they did this !
Day started with an early fast hike up to Duxbury window (3.2 miles up and down . great way to start a day. )
Spent a good portion of the day workign to finish up a BETA project.. Lots of wires !
After work, DIane and I drove over to Bens for dinner with him. Rebar and Shosh. We had a yummy dinner.. Ben and Shosh had braugth exotic cheese, DIane ahad made roast veggies.. We sat outside until dinner. After dinner, Ben used a torch to scorch the top of a pumpkin pie.. never seen that !
After dinner ,, we all moved down tot he barn to brainstorm aroudn Bens project. . I hadnt been in that boar forr a while.. Ben had a very cool bowling pinball machine and a very loooooong skittles table .
Afterwards, we wnet downstairs to brainstorm about the project. Its not my project.. so I cant go into what it will be.. but its sure fun to think about !
Whatch this space.. I’ll tell you more about the project when its ok to do so
TOnight was a good time. It was the Fall meetign of the Vermont Academy of Sceince and Engineering (VASE). I’m a board member of VASE .
The meeting tonight began with a really great talk by my friend Prof Lesley-Ann L. Dupigny-Giroux, the Climatologist for the State of VT. She gave a fun and inspiring talk about the evolution of climate here in our state I was glad to see the lecture hall was packed for her talk
VASE members then all moved down the road to the Koch SPorts center for the rest of the meeting. Iw was really fun.. Board members were asked to mingle and sit at tables that had new members and other non board memebers. Diane and I sat down ar a dubn table.. Our freind Michael and Denise were at that same table. . After dinner, we began the offficial part of the program. Our Pres. Prof Grace introduced the board.. then my freind Micahel gave a really great talk on the state of VASE.. he did a a very nice job outlining what we’ve been doing in Outreach.. in particualr our VASE Small Equipment Grants, Hands on Science Grants and Mentoring grants.. Its an inspiring story that I’d never seen described.. and I’ve been running the program for nearly 9 years.s. I’m stepping down from that role in line with reducing the amount of Board work I’ve signed myself up for.. Luckily I’ve found a great successor in my good friend Silvie !
After Michael, we began the induction ceremony. This year we welcomed 8 new members, including our first set of brothers !
We then had a great talk by our VASE Teacher of the year.. which is one of our other big awards. THis years recipient was Mark Pendergrass of Mater Christi.. He talked about his teachign philosophy .. and things he did to kindle a love of sceince in his students. One thing he talked about was giving a talk on amino protiens totally in the style of Julia CHilds. If you dont know what that would look like.. CHeck this out !
I was eager to meet Mark and congratulate him.. it turns out that he was eager to meet me as well.. he’d been using some of my videos in his class for a couple of years.. I goota find a way to work with this guy !
