Boston Again

In case you were wondering about the previous picture posts, I was in Boston on Monday and Tuesday. More meetings and a dinner, and of course a few cocktails at the Beantown Pub. All in all, good times. I was initially on the 6:45 shuttle flight to DCA last night but we got out of the meeting right at 5pm and I scrambled over to the airport and got on a 5:45 flight with about a minute to spare. This got me into DC at 7pm and home by 7:30, before the boys went to bed. Besides, Ted Kennedy and his secret service agents were on board, so it must have been safer.

I'm back in the office now and I don't think I have any business travel coming up in December. It will be nice to stay in one place for a little while. Kumie, Nicole, Joe, the boys and I are going on the Santa Train on Friday. Should be a hoot and give me plenty of photo opportunities.

Boston

Boston
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

More boston

Franklin street

Franklin street
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Boston star

This is some Russian guy, I mean Grandpa pointing out a boat on the East River with the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges in the backround. Grandpa and I took the boys down to South Street Seaport on Friday night while the girls were shopping. Our drive back to Virginia went well yesterday and we only ran into traffic a couple times. The boys finally fell a sleep on the trip back on the Wilson bridge, about 4 miles from home. I will probably put up a collection of Thanksgiving photos on durpenters.org in the next few days. I've got a bunch of work to do right now.  

Fire Trucks and Model Trains





So last night we saw real fire trucks and this morning we went to Citibank Center and saw the annual model train show. I got lots of great video of the trains and some more from the carriage ride we took in Central Park before lunch. The boys have been on about every kind of conveyance possible in the past few days. Subways, taxi cars, horses, and we plan on taking them down to the South Street Seaport to check out the boats when they get up from their nap.

Grandma and Momma are out shopping right now so Grandpa and I were responsible for getting them home from Mid Town, feeding them and getting them down for a nap. It all worked out well. I'm teaching them to play pac man on adams new (vintage e-bay) video game machinces. Good times.

Last night we ate a lot and took a quick trip to the fire station on Great Jones Ave. Company 33 I believe. We brought the firefigters cookies and the boys got to see some real fire engines. The company actually had a call when we were there and all the fire fighters jumped on the rigs and took off. Extra excitement for the boys and the rest of us.  

Yesterday we went to see Nicole's cousin Jason and pick up Cheese at the Bedford Cheese Shop in Brooklyn. Jason owns the cheese shop and the Verb Cafe right next door in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. We took the 6 to the L train and the boys loved it.



Adam, a friend, Nicole and I went to Spamalot last night and had dinner at John Allens. The show was funny but since Adam and I had both seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail a couple hundred times a piece, it wasn't as funny as someone who had never seen the movie. It was different and had music but the jokes were basically the same. Dinner and drinks afterwards was probably the best part of the night.

Today it was FAO Schwartz and the Central Park Zoo. I got some good video of the boys in a subway and watching penguins and sea lions. They were bushed when we got back and are still sleeping. Many pictures with my good camera as well. I'll have to load them up when we get home. More soon.

6th ave

6th ave
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Empire state

Rain

Long drive with lots of rain tonight. Good to have that done and looking forward to eating a lot. Happy Birthday Mae, we forgot to call but you're only one so you won't remember.

Mark Carpenter
General Manager
Web Strategy and Operations
www.aarp.org
--------------------------
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld (www.BlackBerry.net)

We had a nice morning today starting with the boys first ride in Papa Car in their new big boy car seats. We loaded them up and headed out to the end or the runway of National Airport. Sam sat in the nice Park Policeman's car and got to push the siren button three times. The park police was there to stop some idiot from flying a kite in the flight path for the runway. Why that seemed like a reasonable idea to the kite owner is beyond me.

They ran and ran and we stopped at a playground in old town on the way home. Good times.

The End of Wacky Dave Birthday Posts

I finally uploaded a bunch of pictures from last weekends trip to Charleston, SC to celebrate Wacky Dave turning 50.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/homerclees/sets/1399403/

Good times but I'm glad I'm home this weekend to catch up on all the stuff that needs to be done around here. I think I'm done with golf for a while. It's getting too cold and my game was only so-so last weekend. I didn't get to play as much as I wanted this season so will have to pick up the pace next year. We built our first fire in the fireplace last night and watched the Adam Sandler version of the Longest Yard. Pretty funny actually or maybe it was the wine.

More wine and fire tonight and of course the big game at 7pm ET. Go Cal again.

I forgot to point people to an article I'm quoted in a number of times from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. It turned out pretty well but I never said this "AARP, which defines seniors as anyone older than 50" I would never say that but that's what the reporter quoted me basically saying. AARP Membership age begins at 50 but I NEVER use the word "senior" when talking to reporters. I don't think I've ever seen myself quoted in print when the reporter didn't misrepresent something I said or didn't say. Arg...

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05317/605690.stm

BTW, just to clarify. I'll be pulling for Cal to win the big game on Saturday. The picture of the big game flags at Stanford was simply to illustrate the point that it's a BIG GAME to both sides.

GO BEARS!!

Publishing on the Web Course

So I was Stanford faculty for a couple days and talked at a Stanford Publishing Course. I think the whole thing went rather well and I got a good discussion going with the participants. I went out with BJ Fogg and his partner last night and got on a plane at SFO around 7:30 this morning. I have a busy couple days but next week should be pretty easy being Thanksgiving and all. I need to post some pictures of the boys soon. I'll work on that.

Oh yeah, the big game is this weekend and Adam and Gil will be there. It's at Stanford this year and the campus is getting ready for it.

Dinner at Stanford

The dinner at Stanford tonight was nice and included a student singing group pictured below. I sat at the Professors table because I’m officially a visiting faculty member because I’m speaking at a conference on campus tomorrow. Good resume builder but it doesn’t mean I will cheer for the Cardinal against Cal this weekend. I also resisted the urge to buy the boys Stanford t-shirts after dinner. I’m really tired after getting up at 4:30am this morning. Time for sleep.

Acapela group at stanford

Acapela group at stanford
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Everyday people

Well, I sent a bunch of good phone cam shots of Wacky Dave being an idiot at an Irish Bar in Charleston but non of them have posted yet. Blogspot is not making me happy right now. This is a shot of Modean getting off the plane on Friday morning. I got two rounds of golf in and got back to DC this morning at 8am. It was a fun weekend and on top of it, the Vikings beat the Giants. The boys seem to leap in verbal abilities everytime I leave for a couple days. They asked me all sorts or questions when I showed up this morning but I'm not sure they were really listening to the answers.

11-11-05_2247.jpg

11-11-05_2247.jpg
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Wacky dave

Nothing to say

Nothing to say
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Whatever

Tommy condons

Tommy condons
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Irish guys

Terry and jud

Terry and jud
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Charleston