Late winter early spring 2023

 

In February we visited Grandma Joan and Grampa Ed because Heather's first 2023 BPO concert was at Carnegie Hall. Tessie learned how to play Yahtzee.

The orchestra's conductor has studied Beethoven, who was an early adopter of the metronome and marked pieces with tempos. Apparently the Ninth has been slowed down over the years and the Boston Phil restored the original rapid pace.

Tessie didn't appreciate how special it was for her Mom to play Carnegie

She was in a better mood for her end of year championship swim meet

Caroline's Sci Oly team competed in the state tournament. I drove her and one of her friends, who said that she hoped the final score didn't come down to her event, Write-It-Do-It. Sadly, Lexington came in 2nd by 9 pts and lost 11 pts in one event, WIDI. Caroline took home 2 first place medals for Disease Detectives and Forestry. While some states get to send two teams to Nationals, Massachusetts is not one of them and there will be no trip to Wichita in May. Acton-Boxborough has won states for over 10 years running but Lexington has been closing the gap recently. Maybe next year will be their year.

Our bedroom renovation job finished. Here is the before pic of the windowless closet wall

and the after of the windowful desk area

The alcove dead space became a

the bathroom with a new window

and the handicap accessible big bathroom became

the walk-in closet. 

The cats quickly took possession of the new accommodations

Aunt Katy and kids came up to visit in early March and brought our only dose of winter, which enabled downhill skiing for the kids and 

cross-country for me and Katy

We visited Boda Borg of course

Later in March I took my first work trip to Europe. This is Cambridge UK and their "mathematical bridge", first built in the 1700s out of straight timbers, which is apparently mathematically challenging. To me, much of Cambridge looked and felt like this bridge, old and in decay.

This Lego model is of the mitochondrial ATP synthase that keeps you and me alive by producing about 60 kg of ATP per day. The prof that we visited is in the same institute as John Walker, who received the Nobel Prize for work elucidating the molecular mechanism of ATP synthase. At a reception, I met Prof. Walker, who is a scientific advisor for Pretzel.

From Cambridge we went to Gothenburg, Sweden, which coincidentally was featured in the Boston Globe travel section.

I can attest to the sustainability of the city, with plentiful recycling

compostable candy wrappers

and food and drinks delivered in reusable glass containers

Back home Tessie helped me pick up non-recycled paper, plastic candy wrappers, and food containers along the roadside

For Easter we had our outdoor egg hunt

and an indoor quest. This year's theme was Top Gun, and the girls had to earn their call signs by first doing household chores like swabbing the porch.

Caroline was Evergreen, Erin was Duster, and Tessie was Ponygirl. For some wrong answers the punishment was push-ups.

One task required selfies with the kitties

On April 13th we hit our first 80+ degree day, actually 88, and got ice cream

Tessie wanted us to get rid of fanged Elmo, but in the spirit of sustainability, we found a resting place for him that perhaps future generations will discover.