Moving Day

Spent Saturday helping Jeff and Carolina move into their new house in Concord, NC.  Yes, Buster helped too.  After a day of lifting, relaxing with some football, beverages, and pizza.  Buster’s relaxing with our friend George who helped in the big day.

Fruition of Fall Crops!

The first successful harvest of our fall plants, we ate these radishes last night in a radish/cucumber salad with our friends.  Feels great to eat food you grew!  Next up: sugar snap peas pods are ready to harvest, more radishes, then carrots, then maybe some beets, lettuces and brussell sprouts (we’ll see how long we go freeze-free…we’re three weeks overdue right now, but no freeze expected in next seven days!).

A Saturday With Friends…

Shot pool this afternoon at a local bar while watching American football.  Dinner with six friends tonight with an outdoor fire on the back porch and Costa Rica vs. Uruguay via the internet inside.  A nice Saturday indeed!

Building Community

Last week I started a “First Saturday” event for my current golf team members, alumni of our program, and I’m sure it will be open to kids that are thinking about trying out for our team in the future.  Anyway, we had a nice warm morning hitting balls on the range and getting “back into the swing of things!”

On The Bus

We love being a one-car family. My day off work today, Veterans’ Day, begins with me taking the bus over to Chapel Hill to pick up our car (repairs/inspection). Getting a little wet by the non-stop rain of the dying tropical storm is but a small price to pay for the benefits of one vehicle!

My Brother’s Wedding…

At the end of the past summer, my brother got married on the shore of Lake Michigan.  A beautiful day!

First Tee Program

Last Saturday I volunteered to help with a golf clinic for high school/college students put on by the First Tee Program, a charitable arm of the PGA Tour.  This group has a great curriculum of activities that introduce students to golf while emphasizing core values that can help kids in their daily lives.  We had a good time!

Fall Crops

Ellen and I still have the gardening bug.  Here’s part of the fall garden: garlic, radishes, lettuces, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, brussell sprouts, spinach, and sugar snap peas.  Now we HAVEN’T eaten any of this yet, but with the delayed “first frost” of the season (it’s more than a week overdue), we’ve got a chance of getting some edibles out.

The Next Big Venuture…

Here is my group of students who will spend this school year inventing a green roof system for residential houses.  You can read about it here.  Thanks to the Lemelson-MIT program!!!

A Year Ago…

A year ago I was walking the streets of the military barracks at Sulur Air Force Base in Tamil Nadu, India.  These three guys were my guides (from left Brijesh, Abhishek, Shrikant).  It was great to see kids celebrating the holiday of lights in India and to learn the many versions of the Hindu epics that lead to the holiday being celebrated today.  Thank you to all of my Indian students who sent me Diwali (Dip-wali) wishes via the internet.  And thanks to my current student, Sidhartha, who shared some of his mom’s sweets with me this week!  To all of my friends in India: I hope you had a wonderful holiday!  ~Matt  (another pic below from Diwali 2008)