Thanksgiving Break

We've had a nice Thanksgiving break. Eric cooked his signature massive turkey, stuffing and gravy and served it up to a cround in Andover-- rave reviews. Now we're out in western Mass visiting his folks. All in all it's been a lot of sitting around, TV and general relaxing. I find it's always a little tough to go from the rush rush of normal life to the dramatic halt of vacation. But I know that I need the rest, so I'm trying to appreciate it. Mica loves seeing all the aunties and cousins and everyone loves to see her.
Two weeks left of school! Final project here I come. I'm aiming for simplicity since I know these things get out of hand. I'll be making a cork frisbee that will light up in some interesting way. In contrast, my class mates will likely cure cancer.... or at least attempt to.
Oh, and my cousin plays soccer for Harvard and told us at Thanksgiving about this news story. Girl needs a bit more than a yellow card in my opinion...

Some Pictures

Here are some pictures of some of the things I've been doing at school this semester. This is really just a random snapshot, though. There's been a lot more.

This is a mold that I laser cut with the intention of casting our cork mixture into it and making cork lace. Unfortunately I couldn't cut it deep enough because it was taking too long on the laser cutter (this took 1.5 hrs as is!) It's pretty though!

This is a fishing rod holder I made on the machine below, called a ShopBot. It's a CNC (computer controlled) router. Lots of fun to work with. Like the project above, the holder looks cool but the rods aren't quite stable enough. A lot of my projects in the class have had the quality-- look cool, but not really functional : /

Here's a video of a circuit I made. It has a temperature sensor on it so in the video I breath on it and the lights light up. Amazing...took a ridiculous amount of time to make.


This is a planter I made that was originally intended to be a step stool for Mica, but didn't end up being strong enough. It's made from Hemp Linen soaked in Polyester Resin --horribly nasty stuff that I never want to lay eyes on again-- and then molded over a small trash can.

We all know who this is!

Beautiful Weekend

We had a nice weekend at home-- hanging out with our gorgeous new windows. Our landlord got us 6 Huge new windows on Friday and we are infinitely grateful--changed the whole place. Mica had her first swim lesson at the Y around the corner from us on Saturday morning. Had to have been one of the cutest things I have ever seen. I thought I would be going in with her, like when she was a baby, but, to my embarrassment, when we walked down to the pool none of the other moms were in bathing suits! Luckily I brought my clothes down with us. Apparently I had fudged a little and when I signed her up I told them she was three (she'll be in a month) so they put her in the 3-6 yr. old class. She was the tiniest of the group but did awesome! She let the teacher lift her right in with a little floaty tied around her waist and she hung onto the side of the pool and kicked happily. By the end of the class she was swimming on her own holding onto a kick board (with the floaty still, of course)! I was amazed! She was laughing with the other kids and had the "this is the funnest thing I have ever done" look on her face the entire 30 min. So glad I signed her up.

Start of a new commitment to this blog

So, I have a friend here at school that has a great little blog that he posts to at least a couple times a week. A picture here, a quote there. Little stuff. I want to do that too. So I'm going to try.
Our big news these days is that we're pregnant! Again! I'm about 6 weeks along which, by my own count, puts us due in about early to mid July. Just around my birthday (July 9th). We've told various friends and family, but we're kind of just letting the word get out "organically." I don't get morning sickness, but I am feeling pretty tired and I seem to have a near permanent sinus infection. We told Mica and she seems excited, although I think it's still pretty abstract for her. She first asked if we could name the baby Cappy, which is her name for every toy. She's been asking more questions as time goes on-- like on the bus the other day when she asked how the baby was going to come out!
We're all very excited for Thanksgiving!

FAll

Well the pressure has been on to make a new entry and put some photos of the Mica Monster. I am now bowing. We have busy this summer and fall. Sarah chugs along at MIT, Mica continues to be a brilliant exciting and loving little girl, and i am still working to make the photography biz work for me. I have made my biz licenced and now am the Owner, President, Accountant, and Janitor of Eric Reed Photography. I have been shooting Weddings all summer and have learned alot. I look forward to next Season. I have also become the North East Sales Rep. for Beulah Fly Rods. Alot to things to juggle but I wouldn't have it any otherwise. Well thats enough words lets look at the photos. Love you all and See you soon.
Eric