Dickieville, May and June 2007

It's a dog's life... Tasha and Patric let Kate and I know who boss as they take over the bedroom.
Kate, Brie and I attended the Topsfield gem and mineral show.

 I took a day off to be a parent volunteer for the annual 8th grade "find your way to the top of Wachussetts Mountain" hike. 

Cool orange salamanders were all over the place... "Oh, uggg, stepped on another one."  The view at the top was, unfortunately, mostly a view of the inside of a cloud.  But it was a fun hike.

 
Brie's high school tennis team made it all the way to semi-finals for the Sectionals (there are 4 Sections in Mass).  Brie played singles and doubles at different matches.  I took the day off to go see the semi-finals, where they played the Andover team, or as Brie's coach referred to them, "the Amazon Women," because their players towered over the Acton team players by a foot or more. 

Brie at the semi-final

The awards ceremony (Brie in the blue dress)
And will finds a game the dogs like to play... chew up the frisbee! 

Kate and the kids went out to visit her Dad in Las Vegas when he renewed his vows to Elizabeth.  It's a good thing the hotel had a pool since the temperature was getting close to 110 degrees.  Nick and Anne Krall (Kate's sister) visited as well, and everyone had the pleasure of hearing Nick and Elizabeth's brother Harry doing a jam session.  Kate and the kids went to a magic show as well.

Hap and Elizabeth renew vows with Pastor Dave and Pastor Marta

I did a rocket launch with "CMASS," a Massachusetts based model rocketry club, sadly, with no children participating.  But I did get to launch the Hawk on a Aerotech E15-4W composite fuel engine, which was spectacular and left the Hawk at an insane altitude; it was still hundreds of feet in the air when it crossed the tree line.  One of the guys told me "you can probably get it back... just past the trees, there is a swamp, and then a corn field... look out for the farmer... and then some scrub brush.  I brought waders for the swamp... damn leeches... and some tick repellent for the scrub brush."

Dave:  "I think I'll just call it lost." 

At least my rocket was lost due to extreme over-power.  This guy just had plain bad luck.  The number one cause of deaths in model rocketry is trying to get a rocket down from a power line, by the way.
And here is the last weekend in June... dropping Brie off for 3 weeks of "Explo" at Yale University in Connecticut, where she gets to find out what it's like to be a college student two years before she actually is one.  Brie's comment after two days:  "The food here is terrible.  Send money so I can eat out every night."  Ahhhh, the memories...

And this was kind of cool... Steven Spielberg is filming the fourth "Indiana Jones" movie next to the Yale campus.  Lots of props, like old fashion cars, an entire street of businesses converted to look like something from the forties, and those little touches, like pulling all the "walk" equipment off the street corners.
And last and probably least, my new Computer game, Proving Grounds, which is about to go "alpha" for playtesting.