My baby sister Alissa turned 60 today! Jeanine, Maya, and I were thrilled to join her for the celebration at her home in Slingerlands, New York. The food was fantastic, the ambiance festive, and my other sister Mayela and her husband Stephen were among the guests. The highlight of the evening for me, however, was reconnecting with a close friend, Debbie McGuinness, who I have not seen in close to 40 years. We joined Bell Labs at the same time and were participants in the OYOC (One Year on Campus) program. She did her Master’s degree at Berkeley and I did mine at nearby Stanford. We were part of a cohort that spent many weekends together and also did a small group trip to Hawaii to hike the Kalalau Trail on the Napali coast of Kauai. Debbie is a member of the cancer survivors group started by my sister and at some point she became aware of Alissa’s maiden name and made the connection. Talk about a stroll down memory lane, or rather, a drunken stumble during which I was reminded of events and stories I have long since forgotten.

The pictures below are from our Hawaii adventure. Debbie is on the left, I am flanked by my girlfriend at the time and my graduate school roommate, Ken Zabriskie. Resting on the boulder is John Modla, the fifth member of our motley crew. With limited vacation time, we chartered a helicopter to fly us to the far end of the trail and hiked back out.

Pictured here is the rough opening for the largest window in the house. It measures 13 feet wide and offers a nice view of the Sudbury River from the living area. The window assembly includes a sliding section which will provide access to stairs down to a future patio area. The entire back wall of the house, which has yet to be framed, will be two-thirds glass offering views across the river. Mounted on the tree with the ladder leaning on it is the “bird house” which shelters the camera I use to make the time-lapse videos that often appear on this blog. Every night retrieve the camera to transfer the footage to my computer and recharge the battery.