Maya’s ankle is still not back to full strength but felt good enough to play on this morning. Her technique continued to improve and she made many fine plays including a powerful shot on net that was just wide to the right. Her team trailed by one goal for most of the game but managed to equalize with about 3 minutes left to play. The tie felt like a win and made for a nice start to what turned into a marvelous day. Jeanine and I took an evening stroll around the neighborhood while Maya Rose was out having dinner with her friend Maia Rose at Walden Kitchen.

I am a huge proponent of developing staff through organized challenges designed to surface opportunities for creating exceptional teams. At work I lead our program management, systems, mechanical, software and electrical engineering departments. Today the later conducted a team building event in which participants were asked to design and construct a car from cardboard, duct tape, a pair of axles, and four tires. Once built these vehicles were raced down the Nashoba Ski Area “bunny” hill in heats of three to determine the winning team. The primary goals are to not kill anyone and to have fun. Learning about the importance of a winning strategy, the value of good planning and communication and the efficient utilization of resources; priceless.

Yesterday I walked into work to find this scale on a table marked “free stuff”. There has been a good bit of housekeeping going on in recent weeks as a large number of folks have relocated their offices and cubes to be closer to their respective program teams. I remembered that Jeanine has long wished for a kitchen scale of this size (0-5 pounds) and immediately laid claim to it. I forgot to bring it home yesterday and was asked about it repeatedly as it sat at the center of my conference table, clearly not to be confused with a piece of artwork. It was well received on the home front and will be put into service after it receives a thorough cleaning. While I tried to take this photograph Maya kept piling on various fruits and vegetables. I decided that a single apple would be the most photogenic.

Nicolai got his first minutes today against Waltham. The team fell behind 0-1 despite dominating play on the field. Two goals during the second half, however, secured the win. Nicolai looked very comfortable on the pitch and had a powerful shot on frame from just outside the box but is was also directly at the keeper who was able to handle it. While shooting from the sidelines, I noticed a professional sports photographer (gear tells the story). He eventually moved near my shooting position and I could tell from the sound of his shutter that he was shooting Nico exclusively. I inquired if he was from the Boston Herald and my guess was correct. We spent the rest of the game shooting and chatting and I agreed to send him some early soccer photos of Nico for the piece that they are planning to run.

Nicolai was interviewed today by the Boston Herald. He may well be the world’s first one-legged high school athlete to make a varsity soccer team. I am not entirely sure that he appreciated the attention. Nicolai has never craved the limelight unless it has been in support of a worthy cause (Free Wheelchair Mission, American Amputee Soccer Association). He is not one of the starting players and did not get any minutes in the team’s opening match which no doubt dampened his enthusiasm for the interview. Nicolai went in with realistic expectations about how much playing time he would get but I can only imagine how hard it was for him to watch from the sidelines. First and foremost, Nicolai is a fierce competitor and wants to earn recognition for his accomplishments on the pitch and not his anatomy. The team’s coach is highly motivated to take this team to the state finals and will put the players on the field needed to win every game. I am confident that will include Nicolai in some matches and will do my best to attend every game as I did for Kyle who also played varsity soccer for CCHS.

Pictured above is his player profile from the school’s website (either a very poor photographer or Nico’s attempt to look really intimidating).

I rather like this portrait of Maya that I literally shot from the hip. These days it takes a certain amount of creativity to obtain her photo. She has settled back into school nicely and we are thrilled to see that her commitment to school and her homework remains as strong as ever. Her ankle is still tender from the injury she sustained yesterday but it is clear that it is minor and she will not be sidelined for too long.

After having last weekend off I returned to the pitch for my team’s second match of the season. We faced Acton-Boxborough in a hard fought 0-0 tie, our second of the season. On the bright side we remain undefeated 🙂 Looking at it another way we have yet to win a game. Before leaving the house I did not bother to check my e-mail because the weather had cleared up and it was evident our game would not be cancelled. Had I done so, I would have learned that there had been a last minute field change. I wanted a really good warmup so I left early and was first to the field. With 30 minutes till kickoff I was the only one there which was not a good sign. As I was set to leave, a member of the opposing team arrived so I returned to stretching. As the minutes ticked away, I asked repeatedly if he was sure that we had the right field. He insisted we did. When we were down to 15 minutes, I told him I was leaving and called Kyle from a nearby Dunkin Donuts. Kyle checked my e-mail and gave me the new field address. I arrived ten minutes after kick-off and went straight into the game on the very next substitution. Despite having zero touches on the ball before starting, I played very well. I didn’t have any shots on net but did a good job of pressuring the defense, winning balls in the air and passing smartly.

Maya started her fall soccer season this morning in fine form. Although she left the game with a turned ankle she played very well to that point assisting her team as they won 2-0. Although I had to carry her from the field to the car, a bit of ice and rest had her up and about by the end of the day. During the afternoon I went on a 3.5 mile hike with Kyle in the Wright Woods. We climbed up the Devil’s Staircase for a nice view of the surrounding area and then down to Fairhaven Bay before making a somewhat circuitous return to our car.

As parents, there are few activities we enjoy more than when our kids choose to make music. This evening Nicolai invited Jeremy and Raz over for a jam session. I recorded over an hour of their music from which I extracted a 60 second sound bite which you can access by clicking on the JamSession link below which downloads the file. I am still trying to figure out how to embed an audio clip directly into the blog.

JamSession

This mobile chicken farm is a recent addition to the neighborhood. Less than a mile from our home, these chickens are slowly moved across a field, fertilizing as they go. Their eggs are harvested daily and sold at the Verrill Farm stand. We are increasingly eating food that is grown locally, and it is fun to see the “factories” from which it comes.

Jeanine seems to think these are grapes, I haven’t a clue. Grapes come in bunches that are all the same color, right? I came across these in the Alley Pond Park while in NYC last weekend while walking their with Maya and Kyle.

Today was a long day at work. I attended a 12-hour offsite meeting, the first of a two-day strategy planning session being held by the new General Manager of our Defense and Security business unit. Despite the long hours I enjoyed the meeting and thought we did some really good work (not always the case for these types of meetings).

It has been a memorable summer for the kids but all great things must come to an end. Today is the first day back to school for Maya (entering 8th grade) and Nicolai (now a high school senior). Meanwhile, Kyle has another two weeks or so before he returns to Santa Clara which starts much later than most other colleges. It has been a great summer for me as well but I always look forward to the fall, my favorite season, which I can now feel in the air.

After a wonderful sourdough French toast breakfast prepared by Maya we returned to Concord. These portraits, taken yesterday, include my mother, the 2-year-old daughter of Edward’s girlfriend, and my Uncle Bob.

City Island, made famous by the movie of the same name, is approximately 1.5 mi long by a half mile wide and has a population of 4,400. Vinny took Jeanine, Kyle, Bob and I on a tour of the island after we made the transit across Long Island Sound in his motor boat. Jeanine, not a fan of adrenaline producing activities, will long remember the ride. Pictured above is the Harlem Yacht Club one of the oldest in the United States, relocated here from Harlem in 1899.

During the afternoon I took the kids on a little outing. We hiked the nature trails of the Alley Pond Park encountering a Great Egret and a massive windmill relocated here from Douglaston under the supervision of my uncle. We then stopped at the historic Saddle Rock Grist Mill which was in continuous operation from 1700 until 1940 producing flour made from corn. Our final destination was the United States Merchant Marine Academy (also know as King’s Point) where Kyle and I toured the grounds while Maya decided to sleep in the car.

During the evening we were joined by my cousins Anita, Jackie and Edward and their spouses/significant others for a family reunion. Bob cooked salmon steaks on the grill. Yummy!

The 9/11 Memorial at ground zero was opened to the public a year ago and we were privileged to be given a tour of the beautiful pools and park by a close friend of the family, Vinny, a former firefighter who escaped with his life on that fateful day some eleven years ago. It was a very moving experience, greatly amplified by the perspective of someone who grew up with and worked alongside many of the victims, who witnessed people jumping to their deaths to escape the inferno, who narrowly escaped the collapsing towers himself, who toiled through unimaginable conditions to search for survivors in the days that followed and who played Taps on the bugle at many of the funerals of his fallen brothers. This is a day I will not soon forget and am so thankful to Vinny for sharing his story with us. His account of the day and details of the tragedy are now burned into my consciousness as vividly as the images I witnessed on the day of the attack.

Our group which included my mother, Maruja, Bob, Kyle, Maya, Jenaine, Vinny and I next toured the Trinity Church and Churchyard, located at Wall Street and Broadway where Elizabeth Coddington, a relative of Bob’s is entombed. She shares her resting place with many historical figures including Alexander Hamilton (a founding father), William Bradford (Plymouth governor), Franklin Wharton (third Commandant of the United States Marine Corps), Robert Fulton (inventor of the steamboat), Captain James Lawrence (commander of the USS Chesapeake during the War of 1812) and Albert Gallatin (the longest-serving United States Secretary of the Treasury).

After enjoying lunch at a phenomenal Indian restaurant (thanks to Jeanine’s keen sense for good food) our family hopped the subway for Times Square while the older folks returned to Douglaston. It was the first time visiting for Kyle and we all enjoyed taking in the chaos at the heart of NYC.

Bob treated us to dinner at the historic Douglaston Club of which he is a member and former Commodore of the Douglaston Yacht Squadron which is headquartered there. The meal was outstanding and capped a day steeped in history and fine dining.