In addition to his teaching job at CCHS, Nicolai is also the assistant wrestling coach at Concord Academy. He invited Jeanine and I to attend a home match this evening where we got to see his team in action for the first time. They did well against one of the strongest teams in the league and it was fun to observe Nicolai in his coaching capacity.
Digital Alloys held its annual holiday party in the event room at Cafe Escadrille this evening. Jeanine and I had a wonderful evening getting to know my colleagues better and meeting two new ones who will start next week. I am not at all happy with the group photo I took. There was not much to be done about the extremely dim lighting, but there is no excuse for cropping one of our employees out of the photo. My camera was on a tripod on top of a table so I composed on the rear screen rather than through the viewfinder as is my preference. I need to brush up on my photoshop skills so I can attempt to rectify my mistake.
I attended my first Board of Directors meeting at Digital Alloys today. I was well prepared and in a position to share positive news on the development front which made for a very warm welcome. Although I worked directly for the CEO at my last three jobs, I was never invited to attend board meetings, something I enjoyed doing earlier in my career.
Having almost fully recovered from her wisdom teeth extraction, Maya is off to Boca Raton, FL to enjoy a week with her boyfriend and college classmates. Jeanine dropped her off at the Alewife station where she is seen above modeling the purse I gave her for Christmas. I also gave her a digital multi-meter, but I doubt that is among the things she is bringing with her. She arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare only to find her flight delayed and eventually canceled. Kyle offered to put her up for the night at his place in the Seaport District while she waited for the first flight out the next morning.
Digital Alloys is distinguished among other startups I have worked for by the fact that it invests in quality tools needed to support the work being done at the company. Today, we accepted delivery of a very nice Okuma CNC Lathe which was moved into our machine shop by the very beefy forklift pictured on the right. On the left, you can see one of our prototype printers. It is contained inside a glovebox which allows us to print in an inert atmosphere, needed to prevent oxidation during printing. Once the lathe is fully installed, I will share a photo of it as well.
I worked on a number of projects around the house today. Pictured above is a large frame that will be installed around the mirror in our guest bathroom. I made a similar frame for the mirror in our master bathroom several years ago which improved its appearance significantly.
The boys both came home today to help care for Maya as she recovers from the surgery to extract her wisdom teeth. They are seen here providing lateral support to ensure that she does not tip over while sitting on the couch.
I was Jeanine’s plus one at the Open Table Holiday Staff Party this evening. The event was held in the event room at the Azucar Tapas Bar, just a few steps from Open Table’s Maynard site. Jeanine presented each member of her staff with a small candy gift, picked to highlight a particular strength of that individual (licorice for flexibility, dots for structured an orderly, etc.) It was an extremely nice way to talk about the superpowers of the team and was much appreciated by everyone. Between tapas courses, we played several games including a Yankee Gift Swap. At the end of the evening, a member of the team spoke on behalf of the group, showering Jeanine with admiration for her work as the leader of the organization.
It has taken more than a year to find a buyer for this desk/cabinet but I finally sold it this evening. Even though my new job has taken the pressure off moving, we are still committed to downsizing in the next few years. Patience is the best strategy for selling items on Craig’s List. Eventually, you will find someone looking for exactly what you are selling. What I did not bargain on was how heavy this piece was. I was not present when it was initially delivered and have not had occasion to move it since. Fortunately, the buyer was a strong young guy and I had an appliance dolly with a strap long enough to go all the way around. Even so, I found myself bearing the entire weight of this monstrosity when the buyer slipped on some ice while we were descending the stairs from our front door. Thankfully, neither of us were injured. Much as when I finally sold our grand piano, I was happy to see this desk out of the house.
Maya had all four of her wisdom teeth extracted today. I left work early (7 PM) to check in on her. In the self-made video below she has some choice things to say about her dentist.
As predicted in an earlier post, I was able to break the 20-minute mark with a new record for my morning commute of 16 minutes. I do not believe I will be able to better this mark without running a significant risk of arrest. I am still working 14 to 16 hours a day but feel I can start getting back to normal now that I am largely up to speed with my new job.
I am not at liberty to say much about this photo I took at work today other than the fact that it represents a major milestone for the company. My time at Formlabs was largely devoted to the people side of the engineering organization which I enjoyed immensely. It must be said, however, that I have been really having fun being in the technical trenches again. This is the kind of work that has me up at 4 AM with new ideas in my head and ready to race to the office.
For the last several weeks I have been slowly replacing all of the polished brass faucets, drains, towel bars, toilet paper holders, and knobs with updated brushed nickel replacements in all four of our bathrooms. Today I removed the sliding glass doors from one of the showers and replaced it with a set of shower curtains on a brushed nickel curved rod. I posted the shower doors on Craig’s List and they were out of the house by late afternoon.
