Good mornings

Dad sometimes works late, so there are nights that the kids don't see
him before they go to bed. Here is sleepyeyed Jack with dad first
thing in the morning. It's when they catch up with hugs and how
things are going. Who ever thought dad would be a morning person?

Boston Harbor Sunset

There are boring slogging business trips and then there are special
ones like summer solstice in the Russian White Nights. My current trip
to Boston at the Akamai Customer Conference is of the special kind. I
met Michael Afergan, Akamai's CTO today and talked about the future.
Now I am ok a ship cruising the Boston Harbor. It's good to be back at
an old home.

Cheers

Dad is out of town, in boston at a conference. Tonight over dinner
Matthew, Jack, and Jillian came up with a plan of what they wanted to
do after dinner. It started with the tea party that Jillian was
having in her room before dinner. She had invited the boys, and they
had made it more interesting by putting hot water into her tin toy tea
kettle.

So here's what we did after dinner. They set the coffee table with a
tablecloth, cut fresh hydrangeas from out back for a centerpiece, set
out candles (I lit them), made hot cocoa for everyone, and set a
tastycake on a plate for each person. They were so excited about
this, and they did all of the work. We even had music c/o apple tv,
and scrolling photos. The music was the kid music we used to listen
to over and over again when the boys were little. There was lots of
laughter and even some dancing. The only thing missing was dad.

Bedtime Stories

Every night over the past month Dad has been reading The Hobbit to the
kids. They love it. Dad left tonight for a conference in Boston
after reading to them. The kids miss Dad when he travels and surely
they miss hearing him read to them at the end of the day. So he set
me up with the apple tv version of The Hobbit audiobook. Mom doesn't
quite cut it as a hobbit narrator. Plus this way I have silence (!)
so I can get a few things done at the end of my day.

Some Things Never Change

But some things do. We still like tailgating at a dry hot Phillies
game on Saturday afternoon. But new for Tara and I was the concept of
PingPong adult beverage games. Looks like the popular thing is setting
up a platform table and using a PingPong ball in place of a quarter.
In the dry hot wind there was quite a rate of consumption taking place
around the lot at Citizens Bank Park. Bean Bag horseshoe seemed to
surpass PingPong on popularity.

We didn't have a plan for this afternoon and the 4pm Phillies game
against the Braves sounded good. Game was sold out so we traveled down
to city at noon to get standing room only tickets for $14. Gates open
at 1:45 and we hope to get on the field for pictures with the players.

Sand Castle Design Patterns

Before the heavy thunderstorms rolled through the Cape after lunch, it
was warm and sunny. On a previous day while out on the flats with
Matthew we found two perfect sand dollars - right next to each other.
Today we all set out at low tide and searched out a half mile onto the
flats. No sand dollars to be found. We found clam shells and many
scallop shells.

Jack issued me a design for a sand castle and we set to work. The
trick with sand castles is to start it down far enough on the beach to
develop a pool of water once you start digging. Two advantages with
this. First your castle gains a moat. Second the pool provides a
source for liquid sand that works like mortar.

Our castle lasted a couple of hours before the tide came in - and the
thunderstorms rolled in.

Arrived in Cape Cod as the Tide Was Going Out

The ride was uneventful and the only traffic we faced was on the Cross
Bronx Expressway and congestion at the Bourne Bridge. We stopped for
gas only and got to Brewster by four in the afternoon. The tide was
just starring to go out. We decided to take care of our traditional
picnic dinner at the Sesuit Harbor Cafe this evening. When we got back
to the house the tide all the way out. Quite obvious why its called
the Brewster Flats. The lightning was striking out on the horizon and
we could hear the thunder. Never saw a colorful sunset next to a
thunderstorm before.