Markus always comes out well on the photo, if he is in good spirits.
Why?
Why are British power plugs different from eu standard?
Spiro
Spiro has appeared, a sign that Christmas must be close.
The Athletic Season coming to an End
Life is good in the outfield when the sun shines.
Weird but fitting picture for Ivan’s last baseball game
of the season on Halloween weekend.
In the last few weeks we have been going to the weekend athletic activities with jackets and it was starting to feel a little cold and with the leaves collecting on the grass in the yard it has become most obvious that fall is in full bloom. This is the time when the athletic activities of the kids also come to an end, which I take as a good opportunity to collect some of the nicest pictures taken and describe some highlights.
Ivan’s First Home Run: The second to last game of the season Ivan hit is first quite unlikely home run. I am quite sad I did not record it, I was about to, but kind of thought it was not going to be interesting. It turned out to be the most memorable play of this season. So, here is how it all happened. Ivan was up to bat and he had been able to connect with the ball a number of times before so he was clearly in good spirits. He missed the first but on the second try he hit the ball not very hard in the direction of the pitcher which should have caught it but did not so Ivan’s run to first base made sense but the pitcher picked up the ball and threw it towards first base and I thought he was going to catch it but he did not. I was happy and thought Ivan was taking this as an opportunity to stay at the first base. Ivan though had a different reading on the situation and sprinted towards second base, the first basement gained control of the ball quickly and threw the ball towards second base and the ball arrived certainly quite ahead of Ivan but, the second basement missed the catch and Ivan made it and I was glad and thought that was it, but Ivan kept on the run as the ball was missed and people scrambling. By now there were first shouts of team mates and coaches to stay on safe grounds but Ivan was going. He would have been caught on third base again but it happened again the ball was not thrown very well and the catcher missed. By now the recommendations to Ivan were very audible to just play it safe but Ivan had other plans, he was seeing the home base and was going for it full blast. I was sure he had pushed it too far as the catcher actually was one of the older kids who would not miss a catch. I was already feeling sorry for him that he would loose this nice run and even mildly upset how you could be so irresponsible to just not play it safe but magic was in the air and the catcher missed the catch and Ivan brought it home. At this point everybody was cheering and he got a roaring applause in the bull pen…. He took a big risk, but the turn out was awesome. The home run, not sure but maybe even the only one of the season for the entire team put quite a swagger into our oldest step.
Flying to Geneva, again
It is going towards Thanksgiving and the semester lies in its last stretch. Students are dropping their least liked classes and professors are lookoing forward to the end of the term. At the same time temperatures are approaching real cold, the afternoons become very short and leaves are piling up in the yard. Rakink seems useless but it is not as this one year showed when I waited for the last leave to drop and was barely able to make it for the towns last pickup….. Ana had chipped in quite a bit which did not seem fair. Anyway I am on my way to Geneva to one of those meeting that seem useless when you do not go but turn out to be very useful once you go.
One of the invariably useful features of CERN trips are that there is nothing else but work to do and magically lots on the todo list gets done and the inbox clears up. Looking forward to be back tough.
Update…. it seems my luck is running out. I lost my flight in Charlotte and l am just barely making it back to Boston. Is that what you call poetic justice, as I left Ana home to deal with the new car purchase? Maybe it is just fate to make sure the, two of us are available to buy the new car 🙂 I think that must be it. So, bottom line: My luck is not running out but just continuing even in a bigger picture.
Let’s see how this plays out tomorrow…. at least there is never a dull moment in our lifes.
It turns out missing the flight was a blessing as we did buy the new used car in the morning of the next day — would not have happened with Ana by herself — I had a much better 1 stop flight to Geneva and I even had a good talk at the C&O week. I also did not miss the important dinner of this working week so to summarize, my luck has not run out on the contrary it is intensifying its streak it seems. Hang in there!
Blake
Nice combination of costumes….
Obligatory visit to Salem witch town.
Fall reception 2013
Last weekend’s visit to the Endicott house. Physics department fall reception.
Home Match – Oct 23 – Union Boat Club
The season opener is going to be an interesting match. All of our highest rank players are not available and it is up to Tim (Apratim) to play our number 1. The exact matching is as follows
1 - Alex McFerran / Apratim Sahay 2 - Mike McElroy / Frans Kaashoek 3 - Hunter Nadler / Christoph Paus 4 - Jeff Carter / Vijaya Kolachalama
If I remember correctly we did win last year against the Union Boat Club. In fact last year we had an excellent start but Justin was more available in the beginning of the season. Let’s see how it goes, at least we should give them a run for their money 😉
Game 1: Alex / Apratim - L(3:0) - 9:7 9:5 9:8 Game 2: Mike / Frans - L(3:0) - 9:4 9:5 9:6 Game 3: Hunter / Christoph - L(3:2) - 9:10 9:6 9:6 3:9 9:2 Game 4: Jeff / Vijaya - L(3:1) - 9:5 5:9 9:4 9:5
The games started with Christoph taking on Hunter. As we thought we only had one court the game had a large number of spectators. After a slow start Christoph pulled through in the first and
Captain of the team (4.5)
Finally the unthankful honor of being the captain of the team has caught up with me….. nobody usually wants to do it and the last years I had such a good excuse with my travel schedule, that finally this year it is on me to organize the matches. Already this week I do not have courts at seven and some improv will be needed to make it work.
Tomorrow we will play against Union Boat Club. I have 4 players but the top players have all pulled out. We should maybe merge the 5.5 and 4.5 teams…..
On my way to Philly….. another colloquium
4:00am my alarm went off less than four hours after Peyton Manning’s defeat in his first game hosted by his ex team the Colts. As usual the cab to the airport is pleasantly punctual and off it goes to Logan with a very chatty cabby. High point of the conversation is his observation that if they predict a tough winter it is going to be mild and vice versa 🙂
The flight was uneventful and the airport is still well oganized and I found my way quickly to the cabs. I got in and a young man picked me up already initially troubled with my directions…. corner North Broad Street and Polett Walk at Temple University. When we arrived at Temple he wanted to know the address and I gave it to him again and he did not understand and got very upset with me and started to scream but we continued along Broad Street and while we were arguing we just hit Polett Walk…. apologies followed and I was out to my Hotel the Conwell Inn, which my cabby of course did not know either. Amazing!
In the Conwell Inn people were very friendly and let me use the room when I arrived well before 8am. I went through my talk once and thought it was fine and then took care of some email and my squash courts before Bernd came and picked me up. I spent a very enjoyable day with peoe from Temple and the colloquium went very well. Dinner was in Brauhaus Schmitz with a Nuernberger Bratwurst, Schwarzwaelder Kirschtorte und einem Kirschwaesserchen. Ausgezeichnet!
Going back to my hotel room later that night I found that all of my luggage (a pyjama and some fresh underwear) had been cleaned from the room, but it was right at the reception. They probably thought it was from the person before and prepared the room after I had already been in there. The night was uneventful until my alarm woke me up at 4:30am. The cab at 4:40am took me to the airport not without the driver claiming his credit card machine was broken and I had to pay cash. Jamba juice at the airport not to wake up too much :-). Slept like a baby on the flight and got back to the office around 8am.