Today’s photo is courtesy of Jeanine who captured Maya during her riding lesson. Does this look like a girl who broke her collarbone the last time she was riding?

 
Today was a very sad one for Concord. Our beloved Verril Farms store was badly damaged by fire. The famiy owned 200 acre farm has been a fixture in the community for decades and the source of much of the food we eat every day. The Verril family has been very generous in their support of our community and I have no doubt that Concord will rally to their aid.

 
Nicolai just misses an aptly named kick called the scorpion in his game today. The maneuver involves playing the ball blind behind your back off your heel hooking the ball over your head.

 
Nico has become quite the voracious reader. As the boys get older I see more of their mother’s gifts in them.

 
Nala keeps watch over her domain. Heaven help the wayward deer that ventures within the boundaries of her invisible fence. This week Nala caught a squirrel on one of her patrols necessitating the creation of a small cemetary in the woods at the back of our property.

 
Yesterday we measured Maya and she has grown 1 inch in the last three months. My little girl is slowly dissapearing and a very nice young lady is taking her place. All my efforts to delay this transformation have been in vain.

 
Next week I leave on a solo coming of age adventure. I will turn 50 on the 29th and have decided to spend the last 4 days of my first half century camping in the back woods of Yellowstone National Park. This evening I practiced setting up my tent, shown here without the rain fly, in our bedroom. The first time it took me five minutes, the second was down to four minutes. With a little more practice I think I can hit three minutes (valuable if you are pitching in driving rain or snow).

 
I finally got some time today to build a storage system for the kayaks. I fashioned a harness and set of pulleys for each kayak allowing me to store them near the ceiling of the garage and lower them onto the car when ready to transport. It is a rather elegant solution and I am pleased with the results. Earlier in the day I was in action on the soccer pitch. After playing the entire first half I had to pull myself out when my previously injured groin muscle began to give out. After building up a 2-0 advantage it was very difficult to watch from the sidelines as we gave up two goals and had to settle for a tie.

 
Next I took Nico to his game. His team fought to a 0-0 tie. Nico played the entire match at center-mid. Almost every significant scoring opportunity for Concord came off a distribution pass from Nico. He was a beast on the field and is seen here unleashing a rocket. His combination of strength and grace is a joy to watch.

 
Later in the day Jeanine and I watched Maya’s soccer game. Her team lost to a much stronger opponent but Maya had a tremendous game. She played sweeper and center-mid doing a great job at both positions. Her brothers would have been very proud to see how good she has become.

 
Jeanine asked me to sharpen about a dozen of her cooking knives this morning. Maya offered to help and I taught her how to use the wet grinder. She sharpened two of the smaller knives entirely by herself and assisted with the final honing on all the knives. She did an outstanding job and continues to amaze me with her ability to tackle work requiring such finesse.

 
Kyle’s high school soccer team was in action this evening. They played Arlington High School which is very close to my office and I was able to drive over after work to see the match. Unfortunately I did not have a long lens with me so I settled for this art shot of two parents. The boys played very well and came away with a 1-0 victory.

 
I never know what I am going to see out of my office window. Today the ten story building across the street got a new air conditioning unit. Something very enjoyable about watching a crane in operation. Probably a little overkill but I couldn’t help thinking it would be handy to have my own for putting the kayaks on top of the van.

 
The boys have decided to sell their Foosball table which they received as a Christmas gift when they were younger. With Maya’s help they cleaned off all the dust and polished the wood. I helped with the photography and it is now listed on Craig’s List.