This evening Maya and I attended the surprise 50th birthday party of my high school wrestling partner and good friend Tom Metzold. I had the distinction of being the person who had known Tom the longest and I was thrilled to have shared in the celebration.

 
This weekend Jeanine is visiting her sister in Vermont, Nico is still at music camp in Maine, and Kyle is staying with friends in New Hampshire. Feels like we are playing Monopoly with hotels ready to go up all over New England. Maya and I are enjoying the time together. This evening we had a date night at the Main Street Cafe. During dinner she asked me how a fire alarm worked and followed my explanation with great interest. When we returned home we constructed an alarm bell together. We fashioned an electromagnet from some left over wire and an iron nail. We used a scrap of steel for the clapper and created an interupter switch with wire leads fastened with hot melt glue. It took about 90 minutes but we eventually got the buzzer to buzz. Maya was quite pleased with the outcome.

 
Jeanine has worked out an arrangement with several other parents to create a rotating summer camp for Maya and her friends. On every fourth day, one parent takes all the kids and plans out a camp day. On this day the kids go to a horse farm for riding lessons. Jeanine has been using her camera more often and her skills are really improving.