Avocado Band-Aid

We traveled back to the lake a few weeks ago:

To celebrate Boris and Irena’s 50 year anniversary!

The woman folk dressed up in beautiful brightly colored clothing:

And the men folk didn’t get a picture, as they were not so clever and only had bland attire, so instead I took a picture of a nicely dressed frog:

This summer I got my old 8 mm video camera back from Nick, with the intention of converting Boris’s family videos to DVD, but the camera didn’t work.   I glared at it for a month, and just before I was about to order another from the CraigList, I kicked it one more time and is started working!    So I transferred a box full of tapes onto a bunch of dvds and a one thumbdrive.   They were happy to see old videos they didn’t remember taking, like this one of little Aya and Noah playing a concert:

I got a new camera!  Nikon 8100.  It has fun modes, like this one which will mix a flash photo for crisp faces, but mix in natural but blurrier lighting for the background:

On the way back we stopped for a minute at one of those roadside historical signs that you pass 100 times thinking one day you will stop.   That day finally came.  This is an old rock only bridge, no cement or mortar.

Work is interesting.   Lots conference calls to try to keep up with the intricacies of a complex and challenging project.  I sometimes resort to two simultaneous calls with two headsets (not recommended, as a single threaded brain gets scrambled with multi-threaded conversations):

A few more random photos.  We found this on a sidewalk on a walk to the campus a few days ago:

Our best guess, without tasting it, was dog poo.   It smelled about right.   Our next guess was it was this was a college Psyc experiment, testing the value of the dollar.   We declined, waved randomly in all directions for what we expected were the chuckling experimenters, then circled back to take this picture.   Before we got there, a flock of 4 college girls found it, eagerly picked it up, moved it about 4 feet, then eagerly dropped it with a shriek, probably after doing the taste test to determine its origin.    I would have scrapped and bagged it if it were a $5.  Helen says it would take a $50.

Helen’s computer monitor wears a Kipah (one of those Jewish skull caps).   I gave it some drumming lessons: 

And you know the drill on this next photo.    It might be a little longer than usual before the next bag photo, as judging from Helen’s sheepish behavior, I think this one cost more than usual:

And finally, I share what I think is the cure to a prematurely cut Avocado,  the Avocado Band-Aid:

We will find out in a few more days if it actually works.

Bruce

Providence RI

Last weekend Helen attended a child Neurology conference in Providence RI.   Not-so-coincidentally this is where Aya lives!  We had a nice visit with her, was impressed by her tidy apartment:

We split our time between Aya’s place and our friend Olga’s 300 year old ‘saltbox’ house nearby in Somerset:

Built in the 1720s, before George Washington was born (1732), it was just about to be demolished when Olga bought it 2 years ago.  Olga is an architect who specializes in old structures, so it was a perfect match.   We woke up to beautiful views like this:

It was fun an amazing to see how things were built back then.  Olga exposed much of the original structure, including these candle burn marks on the fireplace mantel:

Olga waded into the bay to get some oysters and clams for dinner:

 

Speaking of wading into uncharted waters … it was a year ago that Helen and I started visiting places we were thinking of moving to.    After 8 trips and much deliberation we have decided to move to Salt Lake City in Feb, with Helen starting at the University Hospital there on 3/1. 

I’ve started watching apartment and house rentals on Craig's list and will see if I can pick one sometime in December.  Her Syracuse co-workers were sad to hear we were leaving, but we are excited.   Almost as excited as Nick and George were when they got to play with their new Trailmaster knife:

 http://egreogsplace.blogspot.com/2010/10/knifin-around.html

Bruce

NYC

A mystery photo:

Hint:  NYC.   Answer, end of post. 

Nick and Chloe joined us for our last weekend at the lake on Labor Day:

We had lots of fun, taming wild animals:

Climbing the highest mountain we could find (Lovewell Mountain, towering 1000 feet above the lake at 2500 feet! … that is an satirical ! for those of you familiar with the Rocky Mountains):

And the more crazy ones amongst us wandered did this all barefoot:

And didn’t loose too much blood:

 

Despite the loss of blood, Nick was in great shape.   For fun and exercise, he would often grab Chloe and do one legged squats, or carry her up and down the trails.   Just after I took this photo, a passing car stopped and asked if the everyone was ok:

This was the last picture taken by my 3 year old camera.  It fell off a lakeside table and went for a swim.  Time for an upgrade :)

 

Last weekend we visited NYC with some friends (I borrowed their camera for these pictures):

We saw a big metallic man with a well polished penis:

  

And walked all around midtown, including Times Square:

We are in that webcam display somewhere:

NYC is really is an impressively vibrant and diverse city.  These Turkish Whirling Dervish dancers had Helen mesmerized:   

This is 5th Avenue … mostly yellow cabs:

And Central Park was popular and beautiful:

That mystery photo?  It is looking up the glass stairs at the amazing throng of people lined up at Apple’s flagship store on 5th avenue:

 

A parting mystery photo can be found on this link:

http://lifehacker.com/5645943/exercise-balls-might-not-be-the-best-posture-fixers

The mystery is to name the legs in that photo. 

Hint:  You have seen them earlier in this post

Answer: http://www.flickr.com/photos/etherealdawn/4588301244/

Bruce

The Lake 2010

Greetings from Mars:

Actually, we are not on Mars, but rather at the lake.  But sometimes it is so beautiful, it is like we are on another planet:

The lake is hidden here, in central NH: 

I had 2 different projects to work on, both in difficult stages that required attention, so I moved my workstation setup from Syracuse to the porch with a forest view:

So during the day I work, but weather permitting, I get out to swim before lunch and dinner.  This is me attempting to attract the attention of a passing mermaid:

Sunset is the best time to swim:

We have had lots of visitors.   Here is a quad of Russian friends, mesmerized by a spinning thing that makes you feel like you are on drugs:

We have had a variety of weather, including fog:

and more a than average number of warm sunny days:

We hiked a trail up the local mountain.  A view from the top:

 

That is the lake in the background:

I found a pair of French acorns making out in the forest:

This is from Irena’s flower garden:

We have had some amazing clear and calm moonless nights, perfect for stargazing from the boat on the lake:

I even got Helen to put on her glasses.   Judging from her reaction (something like “Wow …. sooooo many!”), I’m not sure she has ever seen the stars in focus before.  

We are looking forward to a weekend visit from Nick and Chloe tomorrow.   Then we all leave on Monday.   At least that is the theory.   I think I’m goanna have a hard time getting this one to leave:

 

Bruce