After joining me for a 6v6 soccer game this morning Nico invited a half dozen friends over to the house for a noon time brunch. Inspired, I believe, by our recent visit to the Paramount, Nico was taking individual orders and cooking all manner of eggs, bacon and pancakes with all the style (see photo of eggs being flipped) and speed of a seasoned short order cook. I was one of the beneficiaries of his efforts and could not have been more happy with my eggs over medium, bacon, and sour dough toast. Jeanine is to be credited with raising three children who all know how to and enjoy cooking.

Jeanine and I spent the night alone at my childhood home in Schenectady while Maya enjoyed a visit with her cousins. My top priority on this visit is to remove as many electrical wiring code violations as possible. A second objective is to do a room by room, wall by wall, photographic inventory of the homes contents for the benefit of my mother who continues to recuperate nicely in North Carolina where she is currently living with my sister Mayela. As we ready the home for sale she has been gifting her artwork and the other emotionally significant items to family and friends. The photographs will help her identify which items are still uncommitted and to create something of an inventory to help the rest of us track everything. We were joined by my brother-in-law Stephen who is in town for the weekend and will drive my mother’s Honda back to NC filled to the brim with items for his family. Pictured here is a portion of my father’s library from which hundreds of books have already been gifted.

Nicolai participated in a quad meet today with Acton Boxborough, the Latin School, and host Wayland. He wrestled at 106 pounds for the first time this season and looked positively dominant as he pinned all three of his opponents. For the remainder of the season there is a 2 pound growth allowance which should make this weight class just right for him. After the match Jeanine in her car and Maya with me in mine drove to Schenectady. I focused on bringing the electrical wiring up to code while the girls carefully packed a set of China that will be Maya’s one day.

iRobot recently launched a new internal website for the benefit of employees. I have been asked to create portraits for each group and department within the Home Robots divisions which will be used on the landing page for each organization. Today I photographed the smallest group within Product Development, our Systems Engineering team. This version of the photo is cropped differently from the one that will be used at iRobot because it includes a new design which we have not shown in its current form outside the company.

For only the second time this winter season we had snow this morning. On my way into work I made a 5 minute detour to Great Meadows and climbed the observatory in search of an interesting snowscape. Nothing appealed to me until I turned around to descend and decided to capture the virgin automotive and human tracks in the parking lot. After a half inch of accumulation the snow gave way to rain and our white pristine blanket has disappeared as quickly as it came.

The CCHS wrestling team faced Newton South this evening scoring a decisive victory. Nicolai pinned his opponent in the second period but not before reopening the mat burn under his right eye. Although he views it as something of a badge of honor now, such wounds can persist for the entire season if not aggressively managed. Worse yet they can become badly infected and leave lasting scars. Needless to say we are insisting Nicolai take extreme measures to protect it from further exposure by bandaging it before wrestling.

In the photo below, taken by another parent and stylized by me, you can see the shooting position I use when photographing wrestling. The low angle makes for a much more dramatic photo but also exacts a heavy toll on my neck and lower back muscles. In theory this is probably good exercise but after an hour and a half I feel like I have wrestled a couple of matches myself.

When I was in Schenectady with my mother last month I collected all the family photos I could locate as we began preparing the house for sale. It will take years before I am able to scan them all but it is said that a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. This photo is of my father (lower left), his parents (Ernesto and Rose), his uncle and namesake Frank, and his siblings Ernie and Jacqueline. I may try and add one scanned photo per week to the blog to help sustain momentum on this project.

For all the discipline and rules involved in the sport of wrestling it is, at the end of the day, a brawl in which combatants often walk away with painful reminders of their battle. Nicolai did not appear the least bit phased by a nasty abrasion above his cheekbone suffered during practice today. His parents, however, could not help wincing at the sight of it.

Our month long visit with Kyle has come to an end all too quickly. Winter break is over and he returns to Santa Clara, minus four wisdom teeth, for a new term which begins tomorrow. He spent a good deal of time with Hannah, on her break from Emory, who we have missed as well. He also spent a good bit of time working on setting up his business for the summer. During the fall term he completed the acquisition of a company called Cheap Summer Help and is using much of what he learned from its prior owner to refine his own business model. It is fun to see him applying what he is learning in college to the real world so soon and I believe his experience with Yard Dogs has increased his appreciation for the value of what he is learning. Carrying on a long family tradition, Maya, Nico and I ran after the car waving goodbye as Jeanine drove him to the airport. We are already looking forward to visiting him in February for parents weekend.

Later in the day Jeanine assisted me as I cut a larger opening in our granite kitchen island counter top to accommodate a new gas range. She tented me with a sheet to help contain the fine dust produced by the stone saw and recharged a sponge with cold water which I used repeatedly to cool the blade. The fit was perfect and the rest of the installation went quickly. The same cannot be said for the cleanup which fell largely to Jeanine and will continue for several more days as we continue to locate more dusty surfaces.

Nicolai saw his first wrestling action of the season in a tournament at Belmont High School. He won all three of his matches by pin (each pictured here) and more importantly did not suffer any stingers. He is wrestling at the 112 pounds and looks totally ripped at this weight class. I spent more than eight hours at the tournament photographing the CCHS team for a total of 82 keepers which can be found at THIS SITE which I maintain for the club. Wrestling is an extremely challenging sport to photograph. In addition to the technical challenges of shooting fast action in low light it is physically taxing as the most interesting shots are taken from a very low angle (laying flat on your belly).

I had to miss the end of the tournament and rush home to get ready for the iRobot holiday party which was held this evening at the House of Blues adjacent to Fenway Park. Jeanine and I enjoyed dancing to the live music which was exceptionally good if a bit too loud. Jeanine also had an opportunity to finally meet my boss which she has been looking forward to for some time.

For Christmas, I received this bonsai tree from Kyle and Nicolai. It now graces the window sill in my office where I photographed it this evening as the sun was setting.

Maya is creating a board game for a school project about Greek mythology. The layout is less impressive than the rules of the game which essentially help students learn by rewarding them for remembering at the end of the game key facts they heard during the beginning and middle.

When I built the media center for the living room I imagined some of the sections would eventually be filled with artwork. This copper sculpture by my mother is now featured in one of the prominent locations.

I noticed this photo in the massive pile I retrieved from my mother’s home. Although the memory of the event has long since faded, my memory of this photo of me with my brother burns strong.