Maya made a bee line to the Metzold family tree house and befriended another nine year old girl in attendance.

 
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.

 
Click the image for a closer view of this mother and child.

 
The park is also home to a number of different monkeys.

 
The gardens were exquisite featuring rich lush tropical vegetation. The park is rarely visited by tourists but heavily used by the diverse local population.

 
After work members of my team take me first to a pair of local shrines and then on to the botanical gardens.

 
Pictured here are members of the Penang office staff who we join for both lunch and dinner.

 
Penang is a tropical island. Temperatures here are quite warm and the humidity is near 100%. A one block walk is sufficient to induce a heavy sweat. View from the office conference room.

 
Our Penang office is on the 11th floor of this building and offers a spectacular view of the Indian Ocean.

 
The 30th floor of the Northam will be home for the next three days as we meet with staff members at the office.

 
Today is another travel day and we will spend ten hours getting from Changshu to Penang, Malaysia where we have an office and development team. The Shanghai airport is a work of art in itself.

 
Today we visit a much less glamorous factory which is manufacturing many of our existing products. Although it is a Saturday, the factory remains working at full production capacity. I spent a great deal of time on the production line learning every step required to fabricate our various products. It was a highly infromative and successful visit.