Today started with a visit to the dentist for purposes other than routine cleaning. Of my last 12 fillings (the cost of a poor brushing regime as a teenager – are you paying attention children) I had 6 done without and 6 with Novacane. Today I tried a new type of Novacane that wears off almost instantly (delivered via the syringe pictured here) and think this is probably the best compromise. When I arrived at work my day was immediately brightened when I received news that a local engineering legend had decided to accept an offer to join my team. He starts on Monday and I am really looking forward to the collaboration.

With spring like temperatures, the Concord River has swollen to near flood stage due to all of the snow melt. Frequent visitors to this blog will recognize this view. Enough snow remained on the ground to prevent me from finding a more original angle without falling into the river which I decided would not be a worthwhile risk (could it be that I AM gaining wisdom with age?)

Jeanine, armed with a flashlight and tick removal tools, performs an under carriage inspection of Nala who spent most of the day outdoors enjoying the fine weather we are having. I finally persuaded her that it would be easier to invert the canine rather than the human and thus oriented she quickly located and removed a deer tick.

I spent the better part of the weekend upgrading our computers to Windows 7 and setting up a new laptop for Jeanine with Microsoft office. It is amazing to me how difficult this is and I cannot imagine how anyone without serious technical chops can overcome the numerous challenges and incompatibilities I encountered. Fortunately, all of the problems I encountered were known issues and with the help of Google I was able to locate the needed fixes. Hopefully, this effort will pay dividends now that I have all PCs in the house synchronized with the same configuration of operating systems and applications. Next weekend I will tackle the kids computers (all Macs) which in my prior experiences do not play nicely on PC networks.

This evening Maya and I attended the annual St. Patrick’s Day Father-Daughter Ball for the last time. Regrettably, she will be too old next year to attend. We dined in elegance at Serafina’s before hand and agreed that we should establish a routine father-daughter dinner and that we should schedule a weekend camping excursion this spring. Maya has developed into a wonderful little dancer and we made quite a show of her talent at the ball.

Rivers and creeks are swollen everywhere as the massive amount of snow we received this season begins to melt. I discovered this little stream today which is 1 block off my regular commute.

Jeanine and I attended Nicolai’s end of the season wrestling banquet at the Nashawtuc Country Club this evening. Although he missed the tail end of the season with a shoulder injury the team finished the season placing first in the D2C MIAA Sectionals and with head coach Eric Rivera winning Coach of the Year honors.

We have really enjoyed the company of Jeanine’s sister, Susan, who has been visiting us since Sunday. I learn something new about my own kids every time she comes because she asks them questions designed to elicit more than the typical “fine”, “OK, and “good” responses I often receive. She departs today for her home in Burlington, VT.

Today we received an e-mail from the co-founder of SideStix, the manufacturer of Nico’s favorite crutches. She attached this photo of a poster being used by the Mountainfilm organization to promote their Moving Mountain’s Symposium. One of her customers noticed the crutches and thought she would be interested in seeing the photo. I love the tag line: Celebrating the Indomitable Spirit. Because of Nico my photography has been featured on the cover of two magazines, numerous newspapers and blogs, and now on a poster. Nico had to perform this one arm hand stand several times for me to capture him in a perfectly vertical posture. I am really glad we both put in the effort to get this very special image.

This evening Jeanine prepared a grand Sunday dinner for a number of guests including her sister, Susan, who drove down from Vermont earlier this morning, Hannah, and Maya’s friend Annabel. Afterwards we had a family debate over the relative virtues of the Apple versus PC (basically, kids versus adults). Little do they know that I was one of the earliest adopters of the Macintosh and owned several generations before switching to the PC. I captured this cute sequence of Kyle and Hannah as he reacts to comments on Nico’s Facebook page in response to something that he has nefariously posted under his brothers name.

Maya and her friend Annabelle worked together to create a lemon poppyseed pound cake. Their work of art was devoured in minutes during Sunday dinner.

Meet AVA (on the right), a concept robot created by our Advanced Development group. This mobility platform for a pad based head has a full suite of sensors and can autonomously navigate between arbitrary locations at speeds of 2m per second. The holonomic drive used allows it to move in any direction without having to turn its body and it is able to extend its torso to match the height of a short adult. A major departure from our usual floor care products this is a very exciting project for the team.

My attempts to photograph Maya this morning were met with the Hand. Although her beauty is increasing with each passing day her desire to be photographed is moving in the opposite direction.

My visit to the dentist early this morning took me past some serene waterscapes. My sense of calm and well being was quickly erased when I learned I would need to return to have work done on 4 teeth. Apparently I grind my teeth together while sleeping with such force that I am literally breaking them apart. I have a night guard but hate to use it and now it is clear that the alternative is far worse. On a positive note, I produced three goals and an assist during my indoor soccer game this evening.