Later in the day, the rain turned to our first snowfall of the year. It may be necessary to click on the photo to see the snowflakes. Meanwhile, our burning bushes are in their full fall glory.

My mother sent me this cartoon in the mail. She follows this blog and has been keeping track of my various soccer injuries. Ironically, I sustained no new injuries in my game today even though I played then entire 90 minutes. Temperature was below 40F and it rained for the entire game. You need to be a die hard fan of the sport to play in these conditions. I decided to stay in for the remainder of the day and did a little woodworking and crutch maintenance for Nicolai.

This evening we were joined for dinner by Rob and Kyle Shurtleff who are visiting from Seattle. Rob’s daughter Katie is competing in the Head of the Charles Regatta tomorrow and Kyle has been visiting colleges in the area. Rob’s wife, Cindy, is a friend from my Stanford days and was unable to join her family here because she is competing in a squash tournament in California. If my soccer match is not delayed tomorrow, I will have just enough time to make it to the finish line in time to see Katie’s boat finish.

After work I went to watch Maya play soccer in Newton. It was freezing cold and the game ended in near total darkness. Fortunately she played for nearly the entire match and stayed warm in so doing. I on the other hand froze my a$$ off. She has less than twelve hours before she plays again tomorrow.

On the drive into work today, I stopped briefly to say hello to this fellow. As concerned as I was about his horns, you would think I’d have framed them in the shot.

 
Spotted a little cherub this morning and although she was being shy I managed to come away with a nice image. Maya has been thriving at school and has developed some very good work habits. She is quite organized, very neat and is showing a lot of pride in her work.

Autumn is my favorite time of year. Soccer season is in full swing and fall foliage abounds. I have been experimenting with my commute trying to find a shorter and/or more scenic route into Cambridge. I have now found at least one option that gets me off the main roads without adding any time and takes me past some beautiful farms and fields.

I have admired this painting, which has hung in the cafe at work for more than a year now. It reminds me of the farm in France that belonged to Jeanine’s relatives there.

Why would a high school boy play soccer while injured? A close examination of the spectators might offer some clue. CCHS defeated Boston Latin by a score of 5 to 0 and Kyle’s game looked strong with some nice moves and creative passing.

 
Maya is going to be a cupcake for Halloween. We worked together to fashion the skeleton over the weekend. Today she requisitioned one of my speaker stands as a modelling platform and is applying sprinkles to the frosting with hot melt glue. Of our children Maya has emerged as the most construction project oriented and I am still holding out some hope for one engineer in the family.

Jeanine spent the afternoon picking apples with Maya and her friends, Isabel and Kelan. The harvest was great, and I am sure there will be a photo of an apple pie in this journal’s future.

More often than not, obtaining a leaf required climbing high into the tree. Why Nico would choose to do this without a shoe only reinforces my belief that the teenage brain is still missing some critical executive thinking functions.

I am thrilled that my calf has recovered sufficiently to allow me to play soccer. Even though I could only go at about 70% effort it was great to be out on the pitch this morning. We have a make up game on Thursday and I hope to be in even better shape by then. Back to the leaf hunt. Nicolai uses a field guy to verify that he has the correct specimen.

I spent a good part of the afternoon with Nicolai hunting for leaves. He has a science project which involves collecting leaf and needle specimens from a list of 50 trees. He can earn extra credit for having 20 photographs showing him in the act of collecting. This project took us all over the town of Concord guided by a Google Earth map showing us where each tree type could be found.

Nico was in his element hanging out with a bunch of soccer players. He would rather take part in a juggling circle than spending five minutes to eat dinner. The game itself was a bit of a let down but it was still well worth the time spent with the boys. I posted photos from the event on the CCHS Men’s Varsity photo sharing website (link can be found in the panel to the right).

Kyle is nursing a turned ankle and pulled groin muscle. I am encouraging him to sit out a few games and practices so that he can fully recover.

This evening, the boys and I attended a Revolution soccer game in Foxboro, which was attended by most of the other soccer athletes from the high school. Before the game, the team enjoyed a first-rate tailgate party.

Another great day for aerial photography on my return flight to Boston. One of the more gruelling weeks of my professional career, with a long weekend on the horizon as well.

Too busy with work (fourth 18-hour day) for photography. A quick self-portrait conveying the pace of my life right now.

Another killer work day in the office. Third 18 hour work day in a row. I am exhausted but my team made a nice breakthrough on the design issue we have been chasing. The major IT transition is largely completed and has gone fairly smoothly. No time for photography so I am posting an image I took of Kyle last weekend. He and Nico were kicking the ball around in the backyard. These days they travel in such different circles it is rare when they get to hang out with each other and it gave me great joy to watch them playing together as they did when they were younger.

On the boat ride to the island, the team was treated to a dolphin escort. I am disappointed to have missed the opportunity to share this day with my staff, but I have decided to repeat the adventure with Jeanine when I one day ask her to join me on a business trip to California.

Although I could not join them, I sent my camera out with their guide, and she captured some nice images of them.

Today my staff enjoyed a team building kayak adventure that had them exploring water caves near the Scorpion anchorage off Santa Cruz Island in the Channel Islands National Park. Regrettably it was necessary for me to remain back at the office to deal with urgent matters. I had to revamp the team building exercises at the last minute since I would not be present to facilitate. I often do my most creative thinking under the gun and came up with a good back up assignment. The weather and tide conditions were perfect and the team returned from their 10 hour adventure both exhausted and thrilled. We enjoyed dinner together as they recounted the exploits of the day and compared wounds (minor cuts and abrassions from close encounters with mussel cover sea cave walls).

I will be working in Santa Barbara this week and enjoyed a window seat with a clean window on my flight from Boston to Los Angeles. It is important to relax now because I am in for a high stress work week the second I touch down. Over the weekend, Sonos transitioned our e-mail system from a local server to one managed by an external IT services provider. About a million things can go wrong and since this initiative was the result of my direction there is a lot at stake for me. Couple this with an unresolved design issue on a product we are about to launch and you have the ingredients for the perfect storm. It will be a 21 hour work day before all is said and done.

This shot took a little more patience and a bit of luck to capture the tiny flying creature on the right. Patience is something I could use more of. My right calf muscle is still too tender to play soccer and the frustration is almost unbearable. I had breakfast with the boys and afterwards we went over to watch the tail end on my team’s game. We were leading the first place team in the division 2-1 late in the game but had to settle for a tie when they equalized.

I decided to do a little macro photography today and found some interesting subjects within a few feet of the back door.

This evening, we attended a mixer for CCHS freshman parents. It was very fattening.

Jeanine and I had dinner this evening at Bullfinch’s in Sudbury with my high school wrestling partner Tom and his wife Karen. Every year the Metzolds host a Fourth of July extravaganza which we enjoy immensely but rarely does that give us an occasion to spend one on one time with them. Karen and I share the same birthday (I am one year older) and Jeanine arranged for this intimate celebration. It was a delightful evening of fine dining and great conversation. Outside of my family I have known Tom for longer than anyone else in my life and feel fortunate that we live in such close proximity. The Metzold’s son Evan is in his first year at the NYU film school and son Eddie attends Concord Academy. Tragically, one of Evan’s close high school friends died earlier this week of swine flu serving as a painful reminder that life is short and must be lived fully each day.

The CCHS Men’s Varsity team had to settle for a tie today against Weston due to some very questionable officiating at the end of the game. Kyle played with great intensity and had a nice breakaway for a good attempt on goal. He is still being played on the front line and I continue to hope he will get a chance to play midfield where I feel his game is even stronger.

Nicolai had a great game today, assisting on three goals and threatening the goal on this cross. Concord-Carlisle beat Weston 5-0. Nico’s distribution was really strong, and once again, he was dominant in the air.