A big day at work today. I announced that I would be leaving Avid to join a much smaller company called Sonos where I will head up their engineering team. Sonos, headquartered in Santa Barbara, designs and manufactures a wireless digital music delivery system for the home. I will be based in their Cambridge, MA office which is growing rapidly as the company expands its product portfolio. The company reminds me of Truevision, the company I co-founded in my twenties, and I am very excited about returning to such a high voltage environment, now with 25 years of experience to draw on. Leaving Avid, however, will not be easy. It is a great company and I have been priviledged to work with many wonderful people. I offered a three month notice when I resigned earlier this month and will start at Sonos in early June. Pictured here is the Sonos controller from which I can access any song in the world and play it in any room in the house. I purchased the system before my first interview to evaluate the company. Many will recall that it was immediately usurped by the kids and turned into their Christmas present. 

 
After the game, as I was putting my tripod away, Maya took a moment to photograph her father.

 
Maya endured three hours of travel to watch her brother play. During his one hour pre-game practice we had a lunch date at Applebees. On the way to the restaurant I stopped to photograph this cute little house.

 
Kyle played in three soccer games this weekend at the Seacoast Soccer Tournament in Epping, NH. Jeanine made the three hour round trip yesterday and I did the honors today. The boys won their first two matches and tied the last which was good enough to finish in first place. Kyle, still recovering from mono, was in fine form. Here he lifts the ball over a defender’s slide tackle and continues on his way as if he had stepped over a puddle. And yes, that is snow in the background. Conditions yesterday were terrible but could not have been nicer today.

 
I completed the deck of my kayak today (twice). The first time I wired it together, I was not satisfied with the bevel angles between deck plates. To make the refinements, I had to remove them all and then redo about four hours of work. Despite the enormous frustration this caused, I was quite pleased with the outcome and am extremely happy with the shape and lines of the kayak. Once again, Maya provided significant assistance. I have decided on the name Calypso when the time comes to christen her.

 
Maya and her friends perform a dance to the Nutcracker at the Willard Talent Show this evening. Maya has not grown dramatically since yesterday. She has, however, developed a very big vertical leap.

Kyle is jammin’ on his new Les Paul. He and Nico were working on a new song when I got home from work. They really sound pretty good together. 

Maya helps out with the kayak this evening. She is wearing the dress she has selected for the Willard talent show that is coming up later this week. 

Today I had a chance to photograph the work I completed this weekend on my kayak. I made very good progress considering I spent most of Saturday at Kyle’s soccer game and most of Sunday occupied with the Easter gathering. Nicolai assisted with scarfing the plates together, cutting wire ties, and building of the cradle, Maya was in charge of sponging and hammer holding, Rachel was in charge of glue and dry wipes, and Kyle helped out with stitching the panels together. This is my first wood working project where the assistance of the kids actually made the project go faster. The hull is now in pretty good shape and I will move onto the deck next weekend. 

 
Among the guests at our home was my sister’s new dog, Harpo. Nala was banished from the house lest she confuse this tiny fellow for a snack. When a wind up toy from one of the Easter Eggs was released, Harpo started batting at it with those little legs and it was one of the funniest things I have ever seen.

 
Nicolai was in charge of hiding Easter eggs, a job he cherishes. Among them was the golden egg with a $20 gift certificate inside. After a half hour of searching Kyle was convinced that Nico had placed it high in one of our trees. In fact, the coveted egg was hidden under the newel post of our deck railing.

 
A highlight for the kids was this chocolate fountain. Despite the available array of fruits and cakes available for chocolate coating the kids seemed determined to try using every imaginable substrate for the liquid confectionery. I stopped keeping track when experimentation led them to potato chips.

 
In celebration of Easter this year we invited several families over for an Easter Egg hunt and Sunday dinner. The women seemed to gather around the food (no comment), while the men seemed to prefer the dining room. The kids claimed the sun porch and breakfast area. In total I think we had 28 guests and enough food to feed 50.

 
Nephew, John William, 7 months younger than Kyle is now taller than both of us. He went to watch Kyle play soccer this afternoon and got roped into being a linesman. Although he initially turned down my winter coat, by half time he was more than happy to slip it on.

My sister Alissa and her family are here to celebrate Easter with us this weekend. Pictured here with Maya is cousin Rachel. They spent the morning in pajamas rehearsing a music video dance routine. 

I needed to wait till morning for the photograph but I was able to finish the strong back in a little over two hours. I am very pleased with the result. The H beam design I used proved to be very strong. I also took the time to protect the floor under the assembly area which is likely to get covered in epoxy and varnish before the project is done. 

This evening I started construction of a wooden kayak. The first step is construction of a strong back (a 14 foot, twelve inch wide table that is ultra flat and very stable). It is the platform on which construction of the kayak takes place. I came up with a design that can be easily broken down into two seven foot sections for later storage. If this project goes well I plan to build another for kayak for Jeanine. 

Kyle hanging out with some of his buddies this evening. Seth shaved his head for a big swim meet and now understands why I am always wearing my Nanook of the North hat. Harrison grew a foot since I last saw him. 

 
This evening I finished building a set of sports crutches for Nicolai. I used a conduit bender to form the angle in the aluminum tubes I obtained from eBay. I recycled the handles and cuffs from Nico’s collection of broken crutches (a typical pair lasts him 6 months). My design is custom made for his height and does not require adjustability allowing me to use a single tube rather than three. This allowed me to shave 2 ounces off the weight and eliminate all the adjustment holes which invariably are the failure points. These crutches are also totally quiet compared to the clicking of his current crutches. I may have to add a cow bell to the new ones so we can continue to keep track of Nico. Total cost of materials was $10 compared to $100 for a new set.

 
I finally had a chance to photograph the award Nico received from Shane’s Inspiration.

I told Maya she was my second favorite date. She was quite thrilled with that standing. 

Maya is so light weight that it was no problem to pick her up and dance check-to-cheek for the slow songs. Photo courtesy of my friend Mike Krupa. 

 
This evening I attended the Shamrock Ball with Maya. This very popular father-daughter dance sells out in 24-hours and this year I secured tickets in person rather than risk the mail delay. We had a dinner date prior to the ball and danced until both of us were tuckered out. Maya was beautiful in her Christmas dress and I wore matching colors. It was a very special evening for me and I cherished it knowing that in a couple more years she will be opting to attend dances with her friends. Maya has become quite the little dancer and also led several conga lines.

 
Both of Jeanine’s sisters are here for the weekend and the whole family went out to watch Nico’s indoor game this evening. Nico had a nice solo goal and two assists to help his team to an 8-6 win.

 
There must be a wild turkey convention underway because I encountered several different groups along my commute.

 
This evening I enjoyed a wonderful dinner with a new colleague at the Kendall Hotel in Cambridge. The hotel was converted from an old fire house and is very charming.

 
Nicolai and Dakota posing together after the ceremony. I had a chance to speak briefly with her and her mother. Fame has done nothing to change this family and it was very nice to meet such genuine and caring people. I dare say this is an evening Nicolai will never forget.

 
In addition to the beautiful glass award (a picture is sure to follow), Nicolai received a special gift from Alex Van Halen. Knowing that Nicolai was a drummer he provided an inscribed cymbal and drum sticks. It is being shipped to us and I will post a photo as soon as it arrives.

 
The evening culminates when Dakota Fanning (14 year old veteran of more than 30 film and TV roles) presents the Inspiration Award to Nicolai for his climb of Kilimanjaro to raise funds for the Free Wheelchair Mission. Nicolai accepts the award and delivers a brief but poignant speech (I will try and post video shortly). After his remarks a guest at the Gala donates enough money to take Nicolai over his $100,000 dollar goal. Mother and father were quite proud.

 
The choir performance was very uplifting and it was clear the kids were having a great time.

Master of Ceremony for the evening was Steve Valentine (plays Nigel on Crossing Jordan). In addition to being quite funny he is a very competent magician and was very entertaining.