Sasha in the Pool

It has not been easy since Sasha is very timid when it comes to water. It took as a while for him to be comfortable going into Lake Michigan and towards the end he would go in no hesitation. Not very deep but he would do it. So now I was determined to teach him how to swim so when his Mom arrives we could suprise her. I figured I would get him comfortable with the first step of the pool so I let him play there for a bit.

He is enjoying it but not sure why I got out?

Brought him the ball he lovs playing with it in water, I am convinced he is doing some sort of experiment with the ball. (He was a Russian physicist in his past life)

Ok so now it was time to see if he would go to step # 2 I made him drop the ball


But he just watched it float away he tried to paw at it a few times but he would not do it, so I tried to grab him under his belly to see if he would swin and he just started flailing his legs around and was scared even though I had him tightly. I think I will have to wait till mom gets here to see if she can help :)

More to come...

Our Stuff Has Arrived!!!!!

So I got a call this morning around 9:40 am saying they were here! I had been waiting at home since 9am since they said between 9-10am so I went outside to look for them and nothing...so I asked "where are you?" it was clear they were lost because they were not in front. I tried to explain to him how to get here but I could tell he had no idea what I was saying so the closest main street I could tell him was glennwood, I told him to go there. He said ok and hung up??? after 10 minutes went by I called back and said where are you again he said I am at your place....I said no you are not, he said I am on glennwood! I told him again how to get here but he clearly did not understadn me he said he was at a gated community. I knew exactly where he was so I got in my car and drove and sure enough I saw the big blue truck! I told them to follow me and they finally made it :)

It was strange opening the boxes and seeing all this stuff again, way too much stuff I might add, makes you realize how much one collects! I think I might have to leave this all behind not in the mood to pack it up ever again :)

Trying to think back to packing day in July it was hot then too and the workers and I were sweating! Not complaining just funny. Bulls logo, I thought hmmm so much for the NBA this season :) who will be moving out next? I found some hidden gems I left in some boxes including my IPod connection for my car!!! now I can play my tunes as I drive, love it :)
Also Sasha has some of his toys now and he was looking at them with interest...

In reality we did not bring a whole lot over so the place may still look empty but I am ok with that minamalist look :) Do not want to do too much since Steph will be here next week and she may want to re-arrange.


This is the best part! The BED!!! My back was starting to give out on me using the inflateable bed and well it will be nice to have this plus the other items we shipped over, did I mention the Wii ! Game on for sure :)

All in all a good day even if I still have a lot of unpacking it will be nice to see these things in a different place and it will for sure bring back great memories of home....more to come once the house is in order....

We also brought an extra bed for all those visitors that said they would come ;)

Videos from Gala Night!

This is what I heard as we approached the hotel via the "Liquid Lounge". The singing and dancing was spectacular!

Here is a close up view although it was dark and hard to see you can get a glimpse of the talent they had...again it was a great night!

GALA Night!

On the last night of the conference as is usual there was a Gala night! Part of it was a boat ride down the Vaal river on the "Liquid Lounge" others took a game ride to a park...

It was an amazing sunset and the temparture was perfect....

There was some amazing sites, and houses that were located just on the banks!

I even saw someone that had made a make shift home out of a tarp and some garbage cans!

While traveling down the river it was brought to my attention that at one point in history this river separatedwo nations, the british and the Boers! Hard to imagine all the battles that must of occured along these river banks.

We stopped at the game park/casino to pick up the others and headed back for the hotel. they did not see much, a few Booke but that was about it!

As the sun started to come down the colors that appeared were simply amazing, not sure if this picture does it justice!
As we pulled up there was this huge bonfire in the backdrop and chorus singing some traditional songs!


Obviously I ran to the fire first as I had never seen anything this big in my life! The heat it generated was unreal....I wanted to cook over it :)


Then I made my way back to the singers & dancers!! They were having a blast!

Not sure what they were singing about but it was very festive and with the dance moves you see I assume it to be a rather interesting topic!

There sure could move....


I wanted to get close but was fearful of being pulled in and having to display my old school dance moves...luckily I was not picked :)

They wrapped up with this other dance again not sure what it was but it sounded great!

Overall the night was fun and enjoyed the conference and meeting a bunch of talented people!

Workshop at the conference

So the conference is called RAPDASA (Rapid Product Developmenet Association of South Africa)

and it has been going since 2000 (more at rapdasa.org). This was by far the best attended and had a wide range of topics from biomedical to hybrid manufacturing. We hosted a workshop on our LENS system which we will get early next year, it is an additive manufacturing system that can make 3-D parts out of powder (i.e. metallic, ceramic) and we wanted to be able to engage both industry and academia to see how best this system could be utilize as it will be the first of its kind in South Africa.

Dr. Martin Hedges gave an introduction to the LENS system and its capabilities!

people looking on as Dr. Hedges talks about a component that was built for aerospace in a matter of hours when traditional methods took over 3 weeks!

Afterwards I gave a talk on our vision of research and attempted to engage the audience, while there were some questions I was hoping for more, it was a start and we will have similar sessions like this once the system is here and we can showcase its capabilities!

Little Eden Guest House

In order to attend the RAPDASA conference last week in Vanderbijlpark I had to stay at a guest house that allowed dogs! This place was very beautiful and the staff was excellent!

From the parking lot I walked into this courtyard and was amazed at how beautiful it was. On the left there was the dining area, they served a great breakfast each morning, I hadn't eat that much in such a long time. Just behind that was our room #12 the dog friendly one since there is no carpeting :)

In fact it was like a little house (bungalow), and it was so good to finally sleep on a bed!!! (got the air bed still) I had cable and wirless internet, it felt great! As you can see the decoration was very nice too

Bathroom was nice just to the left was the shower, no door not my favorite but it worked!

Even Sasha had his own space to hang out! he got to chill with the staff while I was gone at the conference. We would go for long walks and that is where we found the park you saw in the earlier blog! It was a great conference and a nice time!

Vanderbijlpark

So we went to Phoneix park and walked around to see the cool things....

At the entrance to the park!

Never had seen something like this before, very cool!

Sasha the TANK!

There was this gun here as well it is a huge park and Sasha enjoyed sniffing around!

Filming at Work

So last week we were visited by SABC (it is the public broadcating network for South Africa)! They have 3 channels SABC1 - 3. This program called Technorati wanted to film an episode at our facilities! We were excited at the chance as it is a very popular science show for kids!

The stage is set and they worked well into the night!

Getting a crash course on how to operate our laser cutter! The challange was to cut out of steel the year 2012!

Cant wait to see it air I am sure it will be a great program!

Parea

So a few weekends ago I went to this Greek restaurant called Parea (the menu says it means a gathering of people).

I was invited by someone I met through work that also does dancing on the weekend. So after I ate dinner there with my friend we stuck around to watch the dancing...

First some traditional dancing, with the owners son wrapping it up as he stood (on one foot) on his uzo glass ...he then threw it down and lit it up!

Then they were breaking plates and it was getting rowdy!

It was a lot of fun! There was a birthday party (someone celebrating his 21st, although legal drinking age is 18) and the young man ended up cutting his hand as he got involved in the plate breaking.... It was down hill from there.