One of the two new products my team developed was chosen by Switched as one of the top ten gadgets for 2011.

Nico looked sharp this evening building a commanding lead before pinning his opponent late in the second period. Mother and brother were on hand to cheer for him. The squad secured a team victory over Weston in their first competition on a brand-new mat, courtesy of the booster club.

Maya and I took this photo of the night sky this evening. She is studying the constellations and asked if I would make a photo of star trails for her. First, Maya escorted me to the golf course across the street and showed me how to find the North Star (by following a line created by two stars in the Big Dipper). She had me frame the photo with the North Star at the center. I then did some calculations and set up an automatic 36-minute exposure at f/11 and ISO 100. We went back inside and waited for the exposure to complete and then another 36 minutes for the camera to do a black frame subtraction (to reduce noise). Before it finished the battery ran out and all was lost. After Maya went to bed, I went back out with a fresh battery and repeated the exercise with this result.

Pressure is high as my team and I work to resolve last minute issues before starting production on a couple of new products. Here, an assembly error has left an unacceptably large gap which translates to a negative impact on performance. Our new products were announced earlier this week and will be publicly unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas later this week. I will be at liberty to post images of the new robots shortly thereafter.

The holiday season came to an official close as the children took the decorations off the Christmas tree and packed them up. Kyle selected what may have been our finest tree ever this year and with college acceptance letters rolling in, we are all sadly aware that this will be the last time we celebrate this holiday as a family living under one roof. My New Year’s resolution is to enjoy this final year with him as much as possible and to share what remaining wisdom I have to offer as he prepares to spread his wings and fly.

Breakfast service for 9 hungry teenage boys is a fitting way to start the new year chez Calabria. Jeanine is rarely happier than when she is serving up a big meal for people who really appreciate her cooking. She prepared a baked version of French Toast that was a big hit and did a little short order cook work for those that wanted eggs. All in all a very healthy way to start off 2011.