A busy New Year’s Eve on the Calabria home front. Nicolai hosted a party for twenty or so of his close friends. Maya returned after midnight from a party with her friends for a sleep over. Jeanine and I attended a party with our friends but returned at about 10:30 to make sure nothing got out of hand. Jeanine has prepared the makings for a waffle breakfast and only then will we learn how many guests elected to spend the night.
I underwent six hours of First Aid and CPR training at work today. Several employees participated in the class which bodes well for anyone at the company who finds themselves in need of medical attention. In the photo above, I had to immobilize an impaled hand, something I have personal experience with. In my case, it was a framing nail through the flesh rather than a magic marker tucked between fingers.
The family plus Karuna celebrated Kyle’s college graduation at the Beehive in Boston where we enjoyed live jazz and brunch. Kyle has accepted a job with Decker & Co., a small financial brokerage startup, that will take him to Thailand for at least three months starting mid-January. He will then have the option to remain in Southeast Asia or return to California. We are all very excited for him and proud of his accomplishments.
Is it just me or do you think that Maya is getting more beautiful all the time? Although I miss my “little girl,” it is a joy watching her turn into such a wonderful young woman. I am planning to spend some time in the workshop fashioning a large wooden club which I suspect I am going to need if this trend continues.
Possibly the most inappropriately named place in all of Massachusetts, Mount Misery is anything but. Reaching a height of 284 feet, it would be more accurately described as a hill. Located in the Lincoln Township Conservation Area it was one of our stops on a vigorous walk this afternoon intended to offset some of the caloric damage sustained over the last few days.
Jeanine makes pop-overs but once a year on Christmas Day. Amazingly, they seem to get better with every passing year as affirmed by our resident quality control tester/musical entertainer/reindeer.
When Kyle is in town, even a simple portrait with Aunt Susan can veer towards mayhem.
Possibly confusing Halloween with Christmas this year, my children really seemed to enjoy seeing me put on some of the gifts I received in my stocking.
I always try to get portraits of the kids when they are home for the holidays. I found Kyle in the dining room working on his computer and Nicolai in the living room grooming his beard. Oddly, I was unable to locate Maya.
As has been our tradition for 13 years, we dined at Chang An, our local Chinese restaurant. We were joined by the Budris family and for the first time the Franck family. It is a nice way to give Jeanine a break from cooking and to catch up with our friends. Later we attended church service where Jeanine and Susan were on duty as ushers.
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Twas the night before the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring not even Maya asleep on the couch. Jeanine’s sister, Susan, will be visiting with us for Christmas and we spent the evening trimming the tree and listening to various obscure bands (Too Many Zooz, Black Violin).
At work we are trying to identify the best material to use for our printing nozzles. They need to have good thermal conductivity and stand up to constant movement over carbon fiber, an extremely abrasive material. Last night I made a crude but highly effective accelerated life test fixture from an inexpensive drill, timer and scraps of old counter tops. Even the short testing I completed to verify the test fixture yielded considerable insight and I will gather more data today.
An even more impressive engineering project was Maya’s audio amplifier circuit which she demonstrated for me this morning in exchange for a 9V battery from my stash of rechargeables.
This evening we celebrated a combination holiday party and new facility open house at Markforged. It was a great opportunity to meet the spouses, partners, family, and significant others of our employees while taking stock of how far the company has come from its humble beginnings. I was joined by Nico, Kyle, Johnny and Jeanine. Maya had cross country practice and opted to stay home to tackle a mountain of homework. We had to leave a little early so I could build a nozzle tip abrasion testing fixture that we urgently need. Expect to see it featured here tomorrow.
Misha (our name for her) is a 6-week-old Siberian cat. Her brother, Dmitry (same), is mostly black with white boots, just as cute, and the most athletic kitten I have ever seen. After Jeanine, Maya, Nico, and I made the 90-minute drive to New Hampshire to visit the breeder we all fell in love with these siblings. We told the owner that we needed to think our decision over as we left. Five minutes into our drive home we texted her to say we would take both as soon as they got all their shots and medical checks taken care of. The euphoria of the moment began to evaporate as Jeanine started to show signs of an allergic reaction. This breed is one of the most hypoallergenic but regrettably, not enough for Jeanine to tolerate. As sad as we all were, it was still a wonderful day playing with these amazing felines.
Which do you think would be a better month to change the oil in ones backup generator, June or December. This is not a trick question. Only a moron, or the author of this blog, would choose to do this on a bitterly cold and windy day. Still, better to take care of this basic maintenance task than to be left without electricity in an emergency situation. I also ordered a thermostatically controlled battery heater from China which should arrive in a couple of weeks at which time I will pose the question; January or July.
Kyle called today to say that he had satisfied all the requirements for and has earned a bachelor’s degree from Santa Clara University. The additional semester he completed allowed him to major in Finance with a minor in Computer Science, a decision which should enhance his employment options in the future. We will celebrate with him when he returns next week and again in June when he participates in the graduation ceremony on campus. He has two job offers on the table now. Depending on which he chooses, he will either be heading back to California in 2 weeks or over to Thailand for an initial period of three months. More details to follow.
It has been more than a year since I placed a deposit with Tesla to reserve their just announced Model X electric SUV. This week I received an e-mail informing me that I could now place an order for one. Delivery is quoted as mid-2016 and it would not surprise me if I have to wait another year before receiving the red model 90D which I ordered. I love my BMW i3 but its range is limited to 81 miles compared to the Tesla’s 257 miles and a zero to 60mph time of 7 seconds compared to the neck snapping 4.8 seconds of the all-wheel drive Model X. Talk about an exercise in patience. Some times you have to wait a long time to go fast.
Maya, wearing her Elmo PJs, lavishes Nala with love. Soon there may be a cat in this picture. Jeanine and Maya are working in tandem to wear me down using the one tactic for which I have no defense. They are employing the doe-eyed, baby-talk “I wanna kitty” offense. Stay tuned to see if I can resist their charms.
I took a moment this morning to test my most recent tripod design. If not for the challenge of balancing the dumbbells one atop the other, I am fairly certain this tiny tripod could support 100 pounds.
Over the weekend I purchased a good bit of new photography gear. Whenever I do so, I take a harsh look at my existing equipment and sell anything that is not getting consistent use. As a result, I have put a number of items up for sale on Craigslist including this remote flash trigger for my Canon Speedlites. I enjoy keeping my photography equipment current without increasing my total investment in gear. At the same time, I have been shopping on Craigslist to set up a rudimentary photo studio at work where there is a constant need for product and sample shots. So far I have acquired a camera, lighting strobes, a macro lens, and a normal zoom lens. Expect to see a photo of the new studio here once the final items have been added.
Maya returned from a shopping outing with her mother very pleased with the outfit they had created based on a jacket that was a gift from her grandmother. When asked to take a picture by one of my children (normally I have to fight them for the opportunity) I am quick to drag them into my studio and setup my lighting. Maya was very patient with me as I tried some new arrangements and together we produced twenty or so images that will be among my favorites of her at this age. I think she was very pleased with the results as well.
It is possible to do serious damage to one’s waistline during the holiday season. The challenge is even greater while attending a Christmas Dessert party, as was the case this evening. Jeanine prepared a lime mousse which disappeared faster than anything else and a chocolate slab over Kahlua custard. The extent of my culinary contribution was to place the pomegranate garnish on the mousse.
It is hard to believe we are in the middle of December. The weather has been unusually warm and it feels more like autumn than winter. Please note, this should not be construed as a complaint. A very productive and exhausting week in the office, I am looking forward to relaxing over the weekend and this scene puts me in the right frame of mind.
Maya pauses briefly from her studies to check her phone for messages. She held still for the entire duration of this ten second exposure, not because I asked her to or told her it was a long exposure. She simply understood the mechanics of a DSLR and was listening for the shutter to close before moving. Only the child of a photographer and future engineer would be so aware and thoughtful. Thank you, Miss Maya.
A totally unexpected and most appreciated gift arrived today from my former colleagues at iRobot. The Roomba 980 is the company’s new flagship floor care robot and was one of the major projects being worked on by my team when I left the company. It features a sophisticated visual navigation system that allows it to systematically cover an entire floor of your home, a major advancement from the pseudo-random algorithm that was used in previous generations. I am very thankful for the present, but even more so for being remembered by a wonderful group of people that I had the great pleasure to work with for five years. I hope my iRobot followers will convey my deep appreciation for this thoughtful and generous gesture to all my friends that remain at the company.
Former President of Open Table, Peter Hilton, told Jeanine that I would enjoy this cartoon from the Concord Journal. He was right!
A 2 minute walk from the office, Fresh Pond Park offers a wonderful 2.25 mile loop trail which took me 40 minutes to complete over my lunch hour today. As long as the weather remains nice, I will try to walk this trail as often as possible. Not sure what the stone structure is all about and this will be worthy of future investigation.
I had some business that took me into the office today. There was very little traffic and I seemed to catch every green light. The 15-mile journey took exactly 15 minutes, a record which I suspect will stand for some time. In moderate traffic, I can make the trip in 25-30 minutes. My old commute was just two miles longer but averaged about 55 minutes and often took up to 70 minutes. Imagine getting an hour back every day.
I have set myself the goal of 3D printing an entire working tripod and head. Today I worked out the final details for the swivel head and quick release which I added to the tripod legs I designed a few weeks ago. I will print these parts at work tomorrow in Nylon before making final refinements and committing to a carbon fiber print.
One of the recently hired engineers at Markforged 3D printed an entire quadcopter for the inaugural Part of the Week (POTW) party at our new office. It is amazing how quickly we have settled into our new surroundings and equally amazing how much more productive everyone feels. The move has been a great success and marks a real milestone for the company.
Tis the season of tool upgrades and organization. My new job has me spending a lot more time in the shop than I have at recent gigs. Prone to look for the most efficient way to do a thing, I am constantly refining my tools and how they are organized so that I can quickly accomplish the task at hand. Pictured here is a Markforged printed bit caddy that hosts my power drive bit collection. Generous spacing and logical layout make it easy to find the exact tool I need in no time flat.
With the move to our new facility, I once again have a window to enjoy (beats the hell out of sitting next to a CNC milling machine). It overlooks Fresh Pond Park and more importantly, allows me to bring my bonsai tree into work. This tree has kept me company at work for almost a decade. Unfortunately, the depth of the window sill did not really offer a good place for it to rest. Last night I built a sill extension, sized perfectly to the application, from scraps I have been saving from various past kitchen projects. It fits perfectly and most people at work have just assumed it was part of the building.
Last Christmas Kyle gave me a gift certificate to a bonsai store which I plan to redeem in the coming days so that my lone friend will have a new companion.
I returned from work this evening to find my recent order for a new set of Wiha pliers and cutters had arrived. They fit perfectly into the caddy I fabricated a few weeks ago and they make a colorful statement in the shop. My Craftsman set has served me well for over two decades but it was time for an upgrade.