we are moving

I'm off....40 minute delay!!!

well here we go....14 hours to go!

Etihad Premium Lounge

I am on my third scotch....two filets and one truffle....who could possibly complain? I love this place!

Yas Island at nght

I am almost at the Abu Dhabi airport on my way home from Dubai.

CBT Reverse Interview

This is a video done by my friend (and coworker) Haril Pandya for our firm CBT Architects in Boston.



These are the bloopers from the same effort - It was a lot of fun to do!

Keep the Door Closed.....

...for your comfort of course! this is on the door in my room onto the balcony. It is hot here but it is a nice dry heat with a good wind - but not always!

The day started with not much to do (so we thought). We called into the local architects' office to see if we were needed today or if they wanted to meet with us and guess what - they didn't call back. We assumed that they were too busy playing catch up looking at our drawings. While that may have been true to some degree this all came as a shock to their boss.

So Eric and I sat at the Columbia Cafe and worked out an alternate drawing for the Marina design and drew it up in CAD and rendered it in Illustrator. Pretty chill.

This is a view into the main lobby of the Rotana Beach Hotel from the table I was working at..

and this is a view back into the Columbia Cafe. I drank a few coffees and when we were done we went over to the pool and had a salad for lunch. I had a tuna Nicoise salad, but not nearly as good as the Ahi Tuna one I had at "The Cottage" the other day with Geddo.

After that I went and got my suit on and went to the pool to swim a few laps - i didn't have much time so after a few I made my way back to the room to get dressed for dinner. Arsany from EHAF - nice Alexandrian architect Anaghonostos deacon was meeting us of dinner to go to Bu Tafish for dinner.

In the lobby I ran into Aziz who seemed most displeased as he yelled down the phone at CRJA's local guy about needing time with us to coordinate.

Most strange.

I told him we had been available all day and that his guys knew it...I told him I would get dressed, get Eric and come back down to talk to him.

Well we did that and it got a bit testy there as we got into a little "he said-she said" but in the end we are going to have a very busy day tomorrow as we agreed to meet with their engineers to coordinate the project after a full day of client meetings "until it gets done."

Anyway we walked to Bu Tafish and had an amazing meal like we did the last time we were in town. Grilled Shrimp that taste like REAL shrimp - Barboni - which is a small red fish that is soooo succulent I ate three of them and Eric four!

We then walked to an Egyptian Cafe for tea - it was a long walk there to the restaurant and an even longer walk to the cafe but all well worth it. I sweat out at least two litres of water but made up for it.

Cool ADCB building on our evening stroll....(1.25 litres by this point!)

Abu Dhabi is pretty green but this is what it looks like before you plant it - dirt and hoses. (1.5 litres by this point)

This is the cafe - the real deal. NOT the Rotana lobby by ANY stretch but I replenished those lost litres of sweat! (and watched some cool and some corny Arabic music videos!)

Hello Abu Dhabi!

Here is the central hall in the Abu Dhabi terminal. VERY elaborate mosaic tilework - pretty impressive.
Outside the airport waiting for our car to the hotel you can see the main Comm tower. It is hot - mid to high 90's I think - very hazy and windy. It is actually really comfortable with fairly low humidity compared to the summer or fall.
This is a view of the atrium inside the "old" side of the Rotana Beach hotel where my room is. The buffet is located here and has really good food. Eric and I had breakfast while we waited for our rooms. I had makanesh with labneh cheese and a couple slices of air cured beef. I also had an oatmeal and washed it down with carrot juice and tons of coffee.

This is the view from my room towards Reem Island - major construction going on over there!

This is Hamdan Street where we went to EHAF's (our local architect) pretty typical Abu Dhabi streetscape. The meeting was fairly uneventful. We met with the cost estimator who reported that our project increased 40% from concept design to schematic design. Our local architect claimed this was "normal" considering the labor rates and costs of steel, concrete, copper and aluminum are all through the roof. Apparently contractors can now write in a "Fluctuation Clause" in their contracts to counteract market fluctuations...unreal!

Ahhhh.....Etihad Business Class

Is truly nice!

Daddy Leaves for Abu Dhabi

Saarinen's TWA Terminal at JFK

JFK Comm Tower

I left for Abu Dhabi this morning. Starts with Jet Blue to JFK followed by 14 hours on Etihad airlines to the UAE. This is the header to future installments on a week in the UAE for our Marasy project (see image below.) We are presenting our draft 100% Schematic Design.

Hopefully this will go well....it has been a mixed bag to date. I worked really hard, particularly the last two weeks to get this set to a point that will keep our local architect, EHAF, happy.

View from the Business Lounge

Hey Xander and Max - check out this cool little truck!

there's my plane!

It's a Bird, It's a Plane...Its....XANDERMAN!

We were amazed and quite stupified by Xander's most recent request to give the trapeze a go. For those of you who know him - Xander is not a daredevil, does not take chances and since the Yeti ride at Disneyworld; not the kid you would expect to actually seek out a thrill.

But he did.

First they put the harness on him - and the deal is he has to go up the three flights of stairs by himself.

Here is the podium Xander climbed by himself where at the top a guy connected him to the guy wires, instructed him to hold on until told not to, picked him up and launched him into the air.

A Day With Geddo

Today we had brunch with Geddo at The Cottage followed by playtime at the Wellesley Park! Good times...

Mindless Trappings

We have been wandering aimlesslessly now for two days. It is odd when one is faced with circumstances beyond their control that alter the lives of those closest to you. Everything you see or do, you do through new eyes. "So as His pinions wound you" they make you see the beauty in everything around you. I walk and look at peoples faces; and expressions. Kids with their big innocent open eyes.

if only we all could look through those eyes again.....

Prayer Request (We Love you Jess!)

Dear Friends,

Some of you may have known about my friend Jessica. She had been fighting breast cancer for the past 4 ½ years now. She just lost her battle today at only 34 years young. Although we were all prepared for this, it’s still so hard to imagine life without her. She was such an inspiration to me and I’m sure to others who knew her. I love her and I’m going to miss her so, so much.

Please pray for her husband Vinny and their 4 year old daughter Alessandra and for everyone whose lives she touched. Jessica was such a wonderful mother, wife, daughter, daughter-in-law and friend.

Please keep her in your prayers.
Thank you,
Poe

Hardly Suffering

I may be tired working past midnight everyday....but Poe brought me Loc Lac beef for dinner (thank you Poe!) and my cousin Jaylane, or Igig as I call her aka "the best cousin in the world" who works for Al Ahram Beverage Co. in Egypt sent me a case each of Stella and Sakara Gold 500ml (16 fl. oz.) beer! THANK YOU IG!!

Not all bad huh?

Hurricane Katrina???

This is a project I am currently designing. Our client didn't like the wood screen wall and thought it looked like a building "post Katrina". This a picture I took of that rendering displayed proudly on an A1 glossy print in our conference room for the AIA convention.

WTF?!?!?! I still don't believe it.....this is cool.

Max gets a serious Do!

Max was getting a haircut, as he normally does, at home with our clipper. Well Poe was cutting away and looking at the cutting attachements Xander told her "Daddy always the red one."

For the record - this just simply isn't true! Daddy never uses the red one.

Then Xander went to undress and get ready for a cut. When he came back into the room and saw Max's head he said "well...maybe I will wait a bit."

In the end though - Max is sporting Daddy's haircut

Nice Do Max!

This is cbt at midnight

Close anyway. You can see shadows of Richard Bertman's "Wings of Leonardo" sculpture on a picture of SquashBusters.

Charette in Progress

This is my desk...late at night...in the studio. Alone.
too much to do.

Xander and Max Become Epsaltos Deacons

This is Xander and Max getting ready to be ordained Deacons in the Coptic Orthodox Church. It is a big deal and only a Bishop can do it. We were fortunate to have His Grace Bishop Anba Bola in town so we arranged to have the boys ordained. This is preferably done when the kids are 6-7 years old but we couldn't wait.

They both were quite interested in "becoming one of the boys in church with the white robes...."

You can watch the actual ordination on YouTube here. So what happens is this; Bishop Anba Bola says "Alexander/Maximus Epsaltos of St. Mark's Church." Then His Grace signs with the cross on their head three times saying on the first sign "Blessed is the Holy Father....(Khen Efran...) on the second sign "Blessed is His only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ and then the Third Sign "Blessed is the Holy Spirit the Paraclete.

The Tunias (tunics) are presented which he signs three times and then they are dressed by the priests or elder deacons.

Abouna Antonios and Sherif Sidhom dress Xander and Max in their tunias.

Xander was really excited! This is the same face he made when we took pictures of him with Disney characters (post to come later). This is his "happy but nervous" face.

I think he thought he was being made a priest!

Even Max was shockingly comfortable and happy. When I asked the boys if they wanted to become deacons they said "yes!" of course. When we first talked about it with Xander's Godfather Mark Hanna he thought it was a good idea but looked at me and said "you are going to do it with them." I told him that I doubted it and he told me I was being a hypocrite. I suppose in many ways I had always wished I had been a deacon but doing it at even 14 made more sense to me then 41. I remained unsure as to whether I would actually go through with it. This is until I reminded the boys before the big day what they were going to do tomorrow. "Are you ready to become a deacon tomorrow?!" Xander of course gave me a big smile, his eyes lit up with a resounding "YES!" Then I looked to Max - "how about you Max?" He sat quietly thinking..."No." he said. NO!?!? whaddya mean no? you just said yes the other day. Was this what I had to look forward to - a son who renegs on the deal? An Indian giver? a quitter? So I told him "you know, you get to take communion first - before all of the other kids and people at church...." I thought I had him.... "No....daddy....I want to take communion with you." he told me. It was at this point that I gave in to myself and my fears of being a older non experienced deacon. "What about if Daddy does it with you?" I asked him. It was then, and only then that little Max's face lit up with a big smile like his brother moments earlier with a big "YES!"

The deal was done.

Max's 4th Birthday (but not his party yet!)

May 8 was Max's birthday - he turned 4! It is hard to believe that our little baby (not so little) is already 4. In what seems to becoming a tradition a candle in breakfast and dinner at Bertucci's pizza. We were in New York City the night before for an NMH function after which Sherif caught a flight back to Boston so he didn't miss a day at work (deadline looming...) Poe, Esther and the boys had a leisurely breakfast in Queens and drove back to Boston where we went to Bertucci's for pizza and tiramisu.

Max is really coming into his own personality these days. He clowns around A LOT and copies just about everything his older brother does or says - unless he doesn't feel like it. When Max doesn't feel like it then just forget it - he has more personality than most people who have been around the block.