This year is the year of the first times….. First snow fall, first visit to Boston, first house bought, first sub zero bike ride etc. etc. Today we bought our first Christmas tree. We were not yet sure were to put it, Ana was thinking about the right side of the living room, were the speaker usually stands, I was rather thinking about the left side, replacing the floor lamp. Well as it turned out, Ana was right, the right side is nicer and the tree fit in very nicely.
Anyway, after the breakfast we went to get my warm winter boots, and after that we looked for a tree at Mahoney’s and we met Krishna with family (Dana, Isaac and ? hmm… forgot the name). They bought a big tree together with a nice large new support. We went for a somewhat smaller tree and a support which was cheaper but had the possibility to fill in some water to keep the tree fresh for longer 🙂 of course we made the better choice.
I went with Markus and Ivan to find our tree. As usual it is not easy to find the perfect tree, but finally we found a decent tree. I do not like the tip too much but it was reasonably regularly built (and cut) and would fit well into our living room.
Biking at Low Temperatures
As it is well known in boy scout circles: ‘It is never too cold, you might just be improperly dressed.’ So following this proverb I have adjusted my biking gear to reflect the sub zero temperatures. Last Friday morning it was -14 C when I rode to MIT the usual path. The Wednesday night before I had my first sub zero ride in the evening after a long squash game. I was so exhausted and had bad headwind that it took me almost 45 minutes to get home. Luckily it was not yet as cold so I survived with my simple jeans. The morning afterwards I did get a pair of nice skipants and the -14 C ride was almost pure pleasure. Today I completed the equipment with a pair of really decent winter boots (wonderful leather on the outside but fully waterproof through several more modern layers: ‘Chippewa since 1901’). One more thing…. I still need some decent gloves, mine kind of suck 🙂
ETH is Calling
Yesterday i was offered the position in Zuerich. We are all excited and will carefully evaluate the consequences of a move. When number 4 is born we will make plans and we will travel to Zuerich. This is an important new step in our life and we will make sure to make the best informed decision.
As Phillip Schieferdecker put it, ‘Im Fussball nennt man das ein Luxusproblem’.
Waiting for Number 4
Today is December 19th and our little guy has not yet seen the light of day…. Ana is putting us every night in excitement but finally everything calms down again and I wake up in the morning in Markus bed….
Today we have a long laundry list of things to do. We will start with a good family breakfast and will continue to buy a Christmas tree. A real one, a few years back we bought a small artificial tree, but now as we have a house and the kids are all over Christmas we need of course a real tree. Afterwards we will buy some good snow boots for me because we are expecting half a foot of snow tomorrow. We also need a coffee machine to make sure my mum is going to be well caffeinated while she will be here. Some cigars are of course on my wish list, but of course what we all really want is to go to the hospital.
Squash…. Moving Forward
I played some squash tonight after having done a great class on gyroscopes, the nightmare of any student (and professor). The last few weeks I have been playing, the quality has been consistently high, playing good length and tight to the wall. Today was particularly good feeling sharp and returning reliably with few mistakes. I played with the young Indian (I always forget his name) and got my shots in reasonably well. He has improved a lot but I can still make the game.
Afterwards I asked Mike and ? from the varsity team to play with me. They presently occupy place 4 and 2 on the team. I was able to beat Mike consistently at about 11:5. The number 2 from the team though, beat me to 8 while I was able to win the second set at 14:12. I had the impression I would also win the following game, but you really never know. Andre Yoon is presently the number one of the varsity club. I should play with him to see where I am standing 🙂 I think it would at least be an interesting match. All games were high speed and had some very nice rallies. Few points were really short, so we were panting….
Next on the calendar is to go up the ladder in the 4.5 team. I should be able to beat Najib and Christopher. Frans, Adrian and Jan I am not sure but it is clearly not impossible.
Classes / LHC
Last week of the semester is coming up. And first week of real data at the LHC. Good combination!
First Snow in our Garden
Okay, the weather forecast was kind of right, we got our 3 inches of snow, but a lot melted while the snow was falling overnight. This morning I tested the snow showel for the first time. Not bad at all, it is light (plastic and aluminum) and has a good width.
Our driveway was not so badly covered because of all the trees and because some of the snow must have melted. Also is was really not slippery at all, let’s hope it stays that way all through the winter.
The kids went out together with me and had a lot of fun throwing snow and each other and dive into the snow.
The kids were nicely wrapped up in good ski enabled clothes and really enjoyed the fist snow as you can see in the photo below.
First Serious Snow Prediction
The weather forecast for today foresaw the first snow for around 5pm today. In fact the precipitations were foreseen to start at 2pm as rain and then gradually go into snow (4-6 inches). We are reasonably well prepared, even if we have no snow blower yet we do have a decent snow shovel, which I bought in October when we had some scary looking strong snow falls. Of course the snow just melted right away. It is now around 8:30pm and no snow yet, even the rain did not really arrive.
I cleaned the last leaves out of the front yard and from the sidewalk, and behind the house on the patio fearing they would otherwise get completely covered by snow. I also paved the area in front of the house were I was putting the dug up ground from the terrace project. I reset the stones for the path to the front door. Now we are ready for the first snow, but no snow fell, well just a little bit, some white on the lawn, when i just checked.
I also learned that last week was the last week for leaf pickup….. So we are going to have the leaf bags around for a while. I hope not for the entire winter.
Finally a Visit to Boston
We are now here in the area since August 11, but until today we had not made it all together into the wonderful city of Boston. Today finally we succeeded, when after breakfast, spontaneously we grabbed everybody threw them into the car and off we went direction Boston. After we clarified that on the way to Boston, Markus would get his wish granted to watch ‘Ben 10’, while Ivan and Gisele were routing for ‘Lilo and Stitch’. These two would then make our way back more pleasurable.
When driving on Route 2 towards Alewife we realized that our plan with the car was not really fully worked out. We were still used to living at Central Square, where we would hop into the T and never worry about the car. Well, we quickly figured that the best way would be to drop off the car at Alewife and then take the Redline to Park Street or Government Center. The question…. how much would it cost. The alternative would have been to drop off the car at MIT (kind of in an illegal spot and hope not to get ticketed, probably a reasonable assumption on a Saturday) and take the Redline at Kendall Square/MIT. Well, we took the Alewife option and later paid 7 bucks, CASH! no credit card! I think it is not a bad option at all and we will probably stick with it.
Once arrived in Boston (Government Center), we quickly checked out City Sports, but neither their offering of court shoes nor the squash racquet sections was very convincing. And on it went to walk along the Boston Common (Park, Tremont, Boylston) until Park Plaza. The main attraction on the way were the pidgeons…..
On the corner of Park Palza and Boylston I got matches in the ‘unfriendly’ cigar store to light up my new cigar. Not a bad one at all, unfortunately, I do not remember the brand, but I will get another one and document. It is relatively short for the ring gauge, it is very loose even on Ana’s thumb :-). We followed Charles Street were Ivan showed me how his super hero Stitch could have four arms and to demonstrates he lifts his 2 arms under which the other arm pair has already appeared.
We entered the common from the opposite side from where we started to walk over to the Frog Pond, before we arrived though we enjoyed the beautiful fall day. It was windy and sunny, not really cold yet but not warm at all. The wind was whirling through the loose leaves and while this would have just delighted me earlier this year now as we are home owners I immediately thought about the last leaves I still have to clean out of our yard.
Markus brought us a whole bunch of leaves, no idea what makes the leaves in the Boston Common any different from the leaves in our garden, where Markus does not pick up any. I guess it must have been the wind playig with the leaves which stimulated him.
Finally we arrived at the Frog Pond which was already converted into a nice skating ring as usual in the late fall and winter. Took some nice photos with the enormously attractive bronze frogs right at the pond
or the other ones on the playground.
After a nice play break we walked on towards the MGH Redline station, stopping at the excellent Panificio to take a late lunch. The way back was quite eventless, well the ‘Lilo and Stitch’ DVD (Ivan and Gisele) only started to work after quite a while and the discussion why we are not rather watching ‘Ben 10’ (Markus) was a rather standard one which does not need much of a description. Overall a *wonderful family event* …..
Saturday Breakfast after Thanksgiving
Today we started the day very, very relaxed. Gisele who usually really only accepts Mumi to pick her up from bed in the morning was only mildly upset when I went to open the door and get her out of bed. She did want to go to Mumi immediately though, only to ask Mumi to clean her up because ‘Mumi KaKa’, as Ana told me.
While Ana prepared breakfast I dressed Markus and Ivan, Gisele came for breakfast, as myself in PJs. Todays favorites:
Ivan went for a Madeleine, a slice of Pound Cake and a bagel with honey
Markus went for a chocolate Madeleine, a natural Madeleine, a small pain au chocolate, a banana and another small pain au chocolate…. what a feast!
Gisele went for the all natural Maeleine and the ‘bagel con tela’ (bagel with Nutella).
I went for a bowl of cherrios and a Madeleine together with a blavck tea.
Ana had her Special K and Crispix together with a fine black tea, from London.
Finally here is a view of the author in PJs with one of his fans.
