Nala received a full spa package treatment today courtesy of her mother. It included a full body shampoo, hair cut, blow dry and what can best be described as dethatching. When she gets wet she runs around the house like a crazed animal stopping at the back door to signal her desire to be let out. Should we comply with this wish before drying her, she would return caked in God knows what. The drying/dethatching phase results in a massive amount of shed fur.  It is fortunate for Nala that Jeanine seems to enjoy this ritual from time to time. If left to me, I would employ our washer and dryer appliances to make short work of the task. They are large enough that you could probably even do two dogs in one load.

In the evening, Jeanine and I attended a house warming party of one of my soccer teammates. Jamie and his wife Gill live on the Fort Meadow Reservoir in Marlborough. Live music and a sunset cruise around the lake made for a very relaxing and enjoyable evening.

I am constantly amazed by the beauty of the natural world. These parachute seeds are from a weed that has grown to a height of three feet in between the bricks of our back patio.  After photographing them, I pulled the plant out only to inadvertently liberate the paratroopers which will grow to fight another day.

Later in the day, I tried to convince Jeanine that we were going to Home Depot for mystery date night to shop for window shutters (a very plausible ruse given the state of ours).  I use this technique to lower expectations for the actual date, in this case, a movie (Wind River) and after movie snacks (at the Border Cafe). I also needed to pick up some parts for the tiny house and the Home Depot is on the way. I didn’t fool Jeanine for a second as she knows all my tricks.

Working in the loft of the tiny house always takes twice as long as similar work on the main floor. You have to climb the ladder for each visit and constantly walk around bent over. Today I completed the “beadboard” walls and am quite happy to have this work behind me.  Still needed is corner trim, window trim, and a wood beam down the center of the ceiling. I am not very happy with the aesthetics of the triangular loft at the back of the sleeping loft. It is far too angular for the rest of the lines in the “room.” That said, the storage area is precious and I am glad to have it.  I have a couple of thoughts on ways to address this and will post a photo when I settle on a solution.

Verrill Farm is operated as a partnership between Stephen and Joan Verrill and daughter Jennifer Verrill Faddoul. The farm consists of about 200 acres in Concord and Sudbury. One hundred acres are prime farmland and 100 acres are wildlife habitats, woodlands, and wetlands. Steve’s father and mother moved to Concord in 1918 and started a successful dairy business. In 1957, upon graduation from Cornell University, Steve assumed operation of the farm and gradually divested the dairy business to focus on farming and a retail farm stand which was built in 1995 and again in 2009 after a fire destroyed the first one. The new stand features their own produce, specialty foods, gifts and flowers. The expanded kitchen/bakery provides high quality baked goods, prepared entrées, homemade soups, and salads. Steve is known to everyone in Concord and has never been seen without his signature hat.

There were no winners in my name the local celebrity quiz and the prize will be doubled for the next installment.

I would like to challenge local followers of this blog to identify the person in this photo. He is a well known member of the Concord community and was in attendance at the Open Table Grand Opening. The first person to email me with the correct name of this individual will receive a 1-year free membership to this blog and be duly recognized herein.

The results of my routine colonoscopy this morning were totally normal but I was advised to take it easy for the rest of the day. Although instructed not to operate any power tools, I was unable to convince Jeanine that this pertained to unloading of the dish washer. I spent most of my time riveted to the TV watching coverage of hurricane Irma. Two years ago I visited many parts of Florida including the Keys. I fear that many of the places I visited will be altered forever. Pictured above is Fort Jefferson on a tiny island which comprises the Dry Tortugas National Park (located at the western most end of the archipelago) and Key West (pictured below). You can see how low lying these areas are. In addition, I stopped at many places along the way including the Turtle Hospital in Marathon and the Laura Quinn Wild Bird Sanctuary in Tavernier. I am praying for the safety of everyone in the path of the storm and hoping that these very special places will not be damaged beyond restoration.

After more than a year of planning, fundraising and construction Open Table at last has a permanent facility. Today’s grand opening was attended by several government dignitaries including Congresswoman Niki Tsongas who presented Open Table with a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition and State Senator Jamie Eldridge.

The celebration, open house, and ribbon cutting ceremony was a huge success. I am so proud of Jeanine for what she has accomplished with the support of her board and hundreds of volunteers that comprise the Open Table family. A full set of photos from the event can be found by following this link. 

This morning I started my fall soccer season on a high note, scoring a nice header in my first game with the Lexington Eagles, a division one over-56 squad that I just joined. As I will be turning 59 this month, I decided it was time to move up from the over-50 age division. It is nice to be one of the fast guys again.

Folks is an online magazine dedicated to telling the stories of remarkable people who refuse to be defined by their health issues. By sharing the experiences of these individuals, they hope to change people’s notions about what it means to be ‘normal’.  Last month they featured an article about Nicolai titled “Superleg” in the Health and Fitness section. Other than some bad typos (“box” instead of “ball” in the opening sentence) and questionable grammar, it is a nice  look at Nico and his accomplishments.

The Concord Journal published a nice article about Open Table’s new site this week. A link to the online version can be found here. Although the grand opening is not for a few more days, the new facility is operational and has been serving guests for a couple of weeks now as the team works out the kinks and gears up for the official launch.

I had occasion to visit the seaport district of Boston this afternoon for a business related meeting. I was amazed and concerned by the amount of new office development underway. Hard to imagine, in light of rising ocean levels, why you would move forward with new construction on oceanfront property that looks to be about 3 feet above the high tide mark. Equally concerning is that Seaport office development now outpaces housing development by 8:1 which means that all of the people working in those buildings will be coming in from elsewhere adding to what is an already ridiculous commute into Boston. So much for good urban planning.

Jeanine and I enjoyed a wonderful dinner with Beth and Victor Duvanenko, good friends from Indianapolis who were passing through on their way to Maine. Victor and I worked together at Truevision back in the day and it was fun to catch up with them.

A friend of mine and follower of this blog sent me this link to an article comparing Olin (where Maya is a freshman) and Stanford (where I obtained my Masters degree).

The College That Produces Founders at 5 Times the Rate of Stanford

I am clearly not the cook in the family but did rather enjoy this Caprese sandwich that I constructed.  I am nursing a back injury suffered while playing soccer on Monday and there is nothing like comfort food to help ease the pain. 

Before releasing refrigerant into the HVAC system it is necessary to remove all air and moisture from the lines.  This is done by drawing a 500-micron vacuum on the lines via a service port on the external unit. It was less expensive and more convenient to purchase a vacuum pump, digital micron gauge (the rectangular blue object), and the necessary fittings and hoses than to schedule a service call with an HVAC technician. Once the lines were evacuated, I charged them with refrigerant and proceeded to test the system. I only had time to test the cooling operation which worked perfectly and will verify the heating mode tomorrow. I am amazed at how quiet both the internal and external units are.  Whisper quiet is not an exaggeration. 

Working alone I made slow but steady progress on the inside walls today. Two more panels remain to be done on the first floor and a couple more to finish the loft. The “board seams” will be much less apparent when everything is painted white. I still have not decided how to cover the fender insulation but I am leaning towards 3/4″ MDF with all edges mitered and rounded over.