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Friday before Easter

Today we went with the kids along the minuteman bike path starting from Mill Street. We unpacked the scooters and Blaki’s stroller and off we went along the bike path direction Lexington. It was a perfect spring day with wonderful sunshine but still a little brisk. The kids were glad to be outside, at least that is what it looked like and Ana an I hoped for, and we strolled along the really nice path. Unfortunately there are actually quite some cyclist on the path — no surprise of course — and we had to watch the kids so they would not get in the way to much. Marki tried his new scooter (he has it already since we left Geneva, but rarely used it) and as it is a little more difficult to steer we had some falling but Marki mostly took it his usual way ‘I’m okay!’.

Gisele is by now quite good at using her scooter and she kept up pretty well with our two rowdy boys. Blake meanwhile just took in the fresh air and enjoyed the stroller ride commenting at times in his peculiar way. He demanded food and at times pointed out the good stuff on the path. I was calmly working on my large ice-coffee black which we had picked up at Dunkin Donuts right around the corner. I lite my cigar and Ana and I slowly followed or trailed the kids.

After some time they got bored of the scooters and we started to play racing. Ivan would mostly win, and Markus was the coach, so he would not loose :-). Gisele just played for the interactions and was happy, most of the time. After about 30-45 minutes we arrived at the playground which we figured must be part of Arlington Heights playground.

After our long walk we thought it was a good idea to pick up the two drawers from my ‘new’ office table which I had recovered from the office from one of our retiring researchers. A very nice old simple but solid wood desk. The material is in pretty decent condition but the varnish is all dirty broken up and scratched. Anyway we got the two drawers and on our way back I figured, if I restore the desk I should start with the drawers. So we stopped by ACE hardware and got some stripper and polyurethane and some sand paper.

After we unloaded the car I got started on the drawers while Ana made a classical wok and the kids played with our neighbors kids in the garden. When it was lunch time (a typical Spanish one at 4pm) I had just finished to strip both drawer and sand the first one. The result was rather promising. After an excellent lunch (many mmmmmms!)  I sanded the second drawer and carefully put the first layer of polyurethane on. The result I though was really wonderful. The table has a rather dark color but looks so much better in its natural wood color. I really hope I can do the same with the desk.

After this is took a beer and lit a fire in the back to burn off some of the smaller and bigger branches which had fallen off the trees. A very ‘zen’ activity which I shared with Blake. Blake seems to enjoy to spent some quality time with his papi, and I do enjoy my time with him.

 

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Night Spider Watch with Ivan and Marki

Ivan and Markus did not want to go to sleep before having watched some nice spider pictures with papi. Ivan chose the following two awesome spiders.

Ivan's first spider choice. This seems to be a wolf spider.
And this is Ivan's second choice of a super special spider.

Now it was up to Markus to determine his two favorites and accidentally they turned out to be very poisonous black widow spiders. Here they come.

A Black Widow in all its beauty, seen from the top.
And this is the black widow spider from the side. Wowww!!

And now it’s time for my two little sons to go to bed.

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A (Birth)Day in Newport (RI)

Today we celebrated Ana’s birthday…. an important one but I will stick to the etiquette and only mention that it was over 28. We got up pretty early and got the kids ready. Our cleaning crew came in early and we took off to have a relaxing breakfast at the ‘newly’ discovered bakery. It is not necessarily the best one we know, but the area with the tables is really comfortable. From there we took off and drove all the way down to Newport. We just followed our usual interstate 95 and it lead us to Rhode Island. With little problems we went on to interstate 195 and crossed over Mount-Hope bridge. The bridge with quite some mist looked spectacular which Markus commented with ‘Mommy it is dusty today’.

Mount Hope bridge in Rhode Island on a 'dusty' day.

We stopped at Easton beach and walked along the beach at a temperature of about 12 C and little wind. The swell was good and we even had the pleasure to watch two surfers doing there tricks on the waves. The water was of course pretty cold which did not stop Gisele, Markus and Ivan to ask for their swim suits. After some explanation they gave in and we had a good walk along the beach collecting beautiful stones and quite large and nice shells, which reminds me that I still have to take them out of the back of the car before they develop too much of an odor.

Ivan with his infamous double shells at Easton beach (Middletown, Newport, RI)

We also visited the playground, where Ivan took care of Blake as a perfect version of the older brother. They took all the slides and Blaki enjoyed himself and did not cry once. Meanwhile Ana and myself sat on a bench and stared at the sea, the surfers and were imagining how our summer would go if we stayed in the Boston area. We have not decided yet where the summer will take us, will it be Geneva, or rather the New England area.

We drove through parts of Newport and parked the car near the long wharf and walked down what in the summer must be a bustling street, but with the weather and the time of the year it was rather quiet. At least we did not have to pay the parking meter, which is switched off until the end of April. We took an all American lunch (hotdogs, hamburgers and Belgian waffles) in the Ocean Cafe and decided that we should take the ocean drive to watch the heavily advertised mansions. I had read about Newport and the mansions, which the fine New York upper crust built in the last centuries and even expecting great houses we were very impressed with the beautiful mansions in perfect landscape. In fact many of the houses were not small but rather big palaces and we imagined together what we could afford after having won a big lottery ticket :-). We decided most of the houses were way too big and we would under these circumstances settle for quite small and modest places. For anyone who has not been there, we can recommend this trip. The places are stunning and some of them are even open for visits. As it says in Edward Rutherfurd’s Novel ‘New York’: ‘Once one belonged in Newport society, one had reached the top.’

On our way home I took interstate 495 and Ana only realized it when we had already arrived at our favourite furniture store ‘Hardware Restoration’. Again it proved that I am lucky and they just on that day had received one of the Mayflower cubes which we had eyed for our night stands. This saved my day because this night stand at a great price made a wonderful birthday present for Ana. We hurried home, setup the night stand and I did some overdue reshuffling of my office. The kids went to bed smoothly and Ana and I enjoyed the rest of the day and night in harmony….

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Squash – An Update

It has been a while that I have written anything about squash, so it is time I do that again today. Recently even with a lot of work going on I have been able to spent quite some time on the courts. My game has with the time made quite some improvements. Apart from the fact that I am in the best shape since I play squash I believe I have made substantial improvements in the swing resulting in more reliable shots and a lower rate of errors.
Another new characteristic of my game is that I have stopped to just hit the ball super hard but rather try to keep the ball in the game and using my much improved lob to create myself time to get out of trouble. I am still noting though that my instinct for the T is not yet right. I tend to follow my opponent probably attracted to him through Newton general law of relativity [Wikipedia]:

F = G * m_1 * m_2 / r^2

Just a simple demonstration of the fact that masses attract. It is more likely though, that this it is just a bad habit of mine. I will keep an eye on this feature of my game in the next weeks. Let’s see whether I can train myself to more consistently conquer the T instead of getting close to my opponent. I also note that trying to take shots with high risk is something I should avoid in particular when I am trailing. Going an additional point down when you are already down is quite hurtful and a game can easily be lost when it become tight. On the other hand when one is two or more points up such risk might be worth it.
After a while now playing with cheap randomly bought racquets I have finally bought myself a pair of really nice Black Knight racquets. I opted for the Quicksilver model, which is quite nicely looking and with its teardrop shape gives me a lot of power while at the same time sufficient control. In Geneva I still have my Head Metallix 135 racquets which I still like. I also have started to play with the Karakal BX-150 one which I initially did not like but by now have grown quite fond of it as well. Initially I found it rather heavy but I suppose as my game has moved into a slower more control oriented game this racquet fits me better.
Today I crossed racquets with Adrian, and surprisingly I took two sets quite easily with a large lead like 11:5 and 11:6 or so. In the third one though I lost 9:11 but I am quite content as I am used to loosing to Adrian. Either he had a bad day or I just have upped my game. I of course like to believe the latter. I will try to play with him more often.
My standard partner right now though is John (‘the Greek’). He is an odd but very likeable fellow. He is very competitive and he comes to the courts pretty much every day. That is of course ideal for me. In Geneva I have started to play with the usual suspects. Stephane Lechner is a true gentleman player and we have competitive but amicable matches. Most of them I win, but even if I loose I get off the court well worked out and in a good spirit. I note that my reaction to players which I feel call incorrectly is not very productive. I should make adjustments as ultimately winning is not the point but having a good game is what I really want. I also will play more with Stefan Lueders another very competitive player, a bit better than myself. I will try to get up to his level this summer. Let’s see whether I can do it. With him the key will be not to give him angles and make him run. Once he gets under physical pressure he also starts to make mistakes. I should see whether I can work this strategy with him.

So in summary, what I want to watch in the next few weeks
1. try to dominate the T (and not follow my opponent, most importantly on the serve)
2. take risky shots when you are up, but not when you are down
3. work on a rail as answer for a drop (I almost never play that variant)

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Tremolitos……

Blake is continuing vigorously his training for the tremolos. This morning we went in the car to drop Papi off at the office. Ivan went to school while everybody else had a school-free day. Blake was in good spirit, much better by the way than our number 2, who is in video land these days, and he was laughing and screaming joyfully adding the tremolo at the end. I was trying to record it but of course the moment I started recording he stopped. There should be one example on this little recording.

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Blake Speaks …. two words

My mother called on Sunday and was interested whether Blake, now almost 1 year and 3 months could already speak. To be honest it’s a bit early but well he is our son 🙂 and I thought Blake could already mumble some stuff but I was not able to remember something specifically. I thought he answered to a question to all kids whether they wanted juice something like ‘Ich’ but clearly not reproducible.

Then yesterday evening Ana told me that Blake was clearly saying and meaning ‘Hola’ to her and ‘Hello’ to Ivan. It was reproducible this morning when he greeted me back after saying ‘Hola’. He is such a bundle of joy, when he is in a good mood.