This morning Jeanine’s sister, Susan, joined us for a visit to the Burlington Farmer’s Market where we met up with my sister, Mayela, and her husband Stephen.

Stephen is currently doing a stint as a traveling cardiovascular access nurse. Mayela has joined him from North Carolina for the summer. They have rented a quaint water front cottage on Lake Champlain in the town of North Hero. There we spent the night after a day full of exploring, fine food, and a wonderful fire on the beach.

After work, Jeanine and I drove to Burlington, VT to visit with her sister Susan and our friend Jean. We arrived shortly after 10pm and promptly retired. It has been a very long week for both of us and we were happy to be getting away for the extended weekend holiday.

I am attending an in-house Six Sigma Green Belt training class which meets every other Thursday for the entire day. Today we covered process capability and learned about Cp and Cpk indexes. We were asked to create a data set to work from. The instructions were to build a paper plane and to launch it towards a target six feet away. The target was calibrated in distance from the floor in inches. The objective was to hit the 60 inch mark as consistently as our plane would allow, recording 30 attempts to use for our analysis. We were told there were no rules so I opted to make a pneumatically launched space capsule (a blow dart gun by another name). For the Six Sigma folks out there our “aircraft” and launcher produced a Cpk of 1.75 which is an extremely good result. Of course the purpose of the exercise was to gather and crunch the numbers, but it was fun applying a creative solution to the underlying design challenge as well.

Most Formlabs employees (~500+) generally attend our regular Town Hall meetings, either in person at our Twin City facility or by videoconference form around the world. Today’s presentation was more entertaining than usual when my colleague’s dog joined him on stage in an attempt to coax him into a game of fetch.

I am selling one of my camera lenses and a prospective buyer asked to see sample photos from it at each end of the zoom range. It was rather fun selecting my favorite shots to make good on the request. Above is the telephoto example, taken in Cuba. Below is the wide angle example taken on a winter hike to “the Wave” in Arizona.

It is bad enough that I have to avoid no less than three construction zones that are on the most direct path from home to work. Now, I need to take a detour just to pull into the parking lot at work as well. Combined with the back-to-school traffic increase that happens every fall, my commute times are reaching new records. The new Audi has made things a little more tolerable . It is a joy to drive and I look forward each day to the massage function built into the front seats.

I was up with the sun and decided to get an aerial photo of Camp Taconic. Pictured here is the lower portion of the camp which extends two fold to the right where the athletic fields, dining hall, tent city, and remaining camp buildings are located. Jeanine and I opted to sleep in our tent rather than in the cabins. We both had a great night’s sleep after a full day of activities. Our only regret was that we did not bring the kids who would have seriously enjoyed the weekend. On the way back to Concord we stopped to look at a number of properties for sale. At a minimum we need to find a parcel of land for Maya’s tiny house. In the limit, we might consider building a retirement home in the Berkshires.

A Formlabs tradition since inception is Summer Camp. Held this year at Camp Taconic in the Berkshires, it is a weekend family retreat that is filled with activities for everyone. Included here are a few sample photographs with a complete collection to be found here.

I was invited to the home of a colleague last night to enjoy a lamb kabob barbecue and dine with fellow Formlings (official name for Formlabs employees) visiting from our office in Budapest. I met his delightful family including their pet hedgehog. As should be clear from the photo, dad was really the main proponent for adding this little fellow to the family.

This is Nicolai’s first day on the job as Concord Carlisle High School’s Junior Varsity soccer coach. He will be running tryouts for the fall season today. Nine years ago he was on the other side of the whistle hoping to make the JV squad. Below is my post from that day.

Nicolai spent the weekend in tryouts for his high school junior varsity soccer team. There are many kids vying for a small number of remaining openings. For the first time, Nico’s skill and determination may not be enough to compensate for his inability to run as fast as others. Of two things I am sure, however. First, Nico is putting every ounce of his strength into these tryouts. Second, that the decision of his coach will look past his disability and only consider his effectiveness on the field. For many years we struggled to work past small minded officials who could not imagine that Nicolai would be able to play or contribute to the beautiful game. He has since proven to the entire local soccer community that he has game and the question now is no longer one of discrimination or exclusion. Our fingers will remain crossed for him.

Nico did make the squad and went on to demonstrate that he could hold his own and be a real asset to the team.

My boss requested some photos of our engineers at work building a set of new prototypes for an upcoming product. I was more than happy to oblige.

I purchased a camera lens on Craig’s List today and met the seller at MIT over the lunch hour to consummate our transaction. We met in the Electrical Engineering building where the SCR-615B Radar Antenna pictured above is displayed. The MIT Radiation Lab played an instrumental role in the development of radar during WWII.

I do not believe I have ever seen someone cross their legs quite like the woman pictured above. I was having breakfast at the Clover Food Lab when she walked in and took a stool at the counter. I don’t make a habit of photographing body parts of strangers but I found the angles and seeming impossibility of this pose worth a shot. Should I encounter her again, I will inquire if she studies ballet which is the only explanation for this kind of flexibility that I can imagine.

It took some time to coordinate schedules but we finally managed to coral all three kids and their Aunt Susan for a dinner out to celebrate Kyle and Nico’s birthdays (August 5th and July 8th respectively). Unfortunately I had to settle for a cell phone photograph having forgotten my camera in the car. After dinner, we sat around for quite a while reminiscing about all three kids when they were babies. Somehow we got onto the subject of our wedding and all three were 100% convinced that I was making up a story about having a small ponytail at that time. None were willing to make a small wager on the question, a choice that saved them some money.

Jeanine and I waiting in the cell phone lot at Logan Airport for Maya’s return from Europe. Her flight from Amsterdam was slightly delayed so we got out to stretch our legs a little. My sister-in-law, Susan, was the photographer. She drove down from Burlington, VT to celebrate the boy’s combined birthday which we are celebrating tomorrow. After collecting Maya who was ripe with stories of her travel adventures, we connected with Kyle for a late lunch and then were treated of a tour of his new office. Cengage recently moved into a new building on the waterfront with commanding views of the Boston Harbor. It takes poor Kyle about 90 seconds to walk from his apartment to his new digs which includes first rate amenities from top to bottom. Pictured below is the vertical garden on the 14th floor roof deck and view of the harbor.

The beauty of solid wood floors is that they can be restored to like new condition in a matter of hours. We have lived in Concord for 15 years and it was time to refinish the hardwood floors in our dining room and music room. We will not move the furniture back in until the second coat of polyurethane varnish is fully cured.

Today we had the wood floors in our living room and music room refinished. The polyurethane that was used to finish the newly sanded wood produces some powerful fumes as it dries. I believe that this dragonfly was overcome by these fumes and came to rest on the floor in the foyer where it expired. I was sad for the dragonfly and paused for a moment to capture its beauty before returning it to the outdoors.

I finally got around to downloading some photos I took on the Bridge of Flowers last Sunday. The beauty of flowers never ceases to amaze me.

Although the Audi e-tron has an EPA rated range of 204 miles, I was please to see a new record range prediction of 244 miles. This no doubt the result of a very leisurely drive to and from Schenectady, NY over the weekend. I was able to average 3.0 miles/kWh on the return trip, a far cry from the 1.8 miles/kWh I started off with this morning. Most of my commutes average out to 2.6.

This morning I finalized a lighting formula for photographing factory test prints from the new Formlabs Form 3 printer. The goal was to reveal surface finish in a consistent and repeatable way so that we can image parts in China and study them in the US. The next step will be to specify/design a standard camera/jig which we can use at the factory.

As we returned to Concord from Schenectady, Jeanine and I stopped for a brief visit to Shelburne Falls. There we visited the Bridge of Flowers which was as pretty as we have ever seen it with virtually everything in full bloom. It made for a very nice stopover and opportunity to stretch our legs.

I took advantage of the drone for aerial photographs of the bridge and the falls for which the village is named.

I am the executor of the estate which owns the home I grew up in. In light of her recent health issues, my mother has asked me to sell it. This weekend, Jeanine and I drove to Schenectady to ready the house for sale and to take photos for the real estate listing. Both my sisters are helping with the project while my brother continues to care for my mother in Minnesota. The house is located in the historic GE plot and while it needs some modernization, it was built in an era where craftsmanship ruled the day. The back yard features a Japanese style garden created by my mother and despite her absence remains in very good shape.

Earlier this week, Jeanine and I visited the Old North Bridge at sunset for a very tranquil stroll. It is also possible that we ended our outing with a visit to Kimball Farm for ice cream.

Maya seems to be enjoying her European travel holiday, pictured here in Lisbon for a second day. Four years ago, Jeanine and I spent a lovely vacation in the Azores, an archipelago located in the Atlantic Ocean some 1,000 miles to the west, thus far our only visit to Portugal.

My soccer teams is currently planning our next international friendly against Portugal and I am increasingly looking forward to making that trip.

Maya is traveling with friends in Europe and sent this photo from Lisbon. Her parents look forward to every message and photo we receive. Meanwhile, her brother Nico has extended his visit to Colorado and has sent zero photos thus far (yes, this is a hint).

A month ago my mother elected to forego all further medical intervention after a botched surgical procedure left her with a dismal prognosis. She was prepared to die on her own terms and said her goodbyes to family and friends. Today she celebrated her 91st birthday and is showing every indication that she is on a road to recovery. She still needs to gain some weight and rehabilitate her atrophied muscles but I predict I will be posting a photo of her dancing at her 92nd birthday party a year from now.

Kyle, our first born child, turned 27 years old today. It seems like only yesterday that Jeanine and I were starting our journey as new parents. We could not be more proud of the person he has become.

Kyle lives in the Seaport District of Boston where he works as a Data Analyst for Cengage, a digital textbook company which just merged with McGraw Hill. I have always admired him for his brains and athleticism but more recently have come to appreciate how genuinely empathetic and kind he is (no doubt gifts from his mother). Happy Birthday Son!

I finally had some free time today to work on our lawn irrigation system. The first order of business was removing the yellow jackets nest that had been constructed around the underground valves for the sprinkler heads. A few week ago, I sprayed the nest and it appears that all of the residents departed for greener pastures or are now part of the pasture helping to make it greener. Nests of this type are engineering marvels; structured to maximize enclosed volume with a minimum of supporting wall material. Even more amazing is the fact that construction is done by multiple members of the colony in parallel. Imagine if 100 humans were each tasked with building one room of a 100 room hotel. What do you think the chances are that it would all just fit together perfectly? Regrettably, once I was able to access the valves, I could only isolate one of two that is stuck in the open position. Without a map to the location of other underground control valve boxes, my chances of finding the right one are pretty slim. I rarely outsource home maintenance work of this type but lacking the equipment needed to trace the control wires and locate the other boxes it is time to call in the pros.

Meet Noah. He is the 6 week old son of a Formlabs colleague and I was very happy to snatch him up for some baby time. It has been far too long since my last baby fix. He was being heavily guarded but I managed to grab him when attentions were diverted. If not for his ever vigilant grandmother, I might have successfully kidnapped him for the afternoon.

Maya joined us on our journey into Cambridge for the baby party so we could drop her off at the airport afterwards. She is headed to Portugal where she will connect with her best friends, Sarinnagh and Fiona for further travel to Spain and Amsterdam. Although she is a veteran traveller we still worry about our kids when they head out on adventures.

After saying goodbye to Maya we drove into the Seaport District to drop off Kyle’s golf clubs and then on to Lexington for a mystery date. I chose a nice Italian restaurant where we dined before Jeanine revealed our mystery date. She had tickets to see Lori McKenna in concert. McKenna was raised in a Boston family of six children. She met her husband Gene in third grade. They have five kids. And over the last three decades, as she became a wife and mother, she has also emerged as one of the most respected, prolific singer-songwriters in popular music. Her 2016 release The Bird and the Rifle netted three Grammy nominations. Then, she made history: In 2016, she became the first woman ever to win the Country Music Association’s Song of the Year two years in a row thanks to co-writing Little Big Town’s “Girl Crush” and penning Tim McGraw’s no. 1 “Humble and Kind” solo. Both songs also clinched back-to-back Grammy wins for Best Country Song. In 2017, she became the Academy of Country Music’s first female Songwriter of the Year.

There are upwards of 350,000 species of beetles worldwide, the largest order of the animal kingdom. My best efforts to identify this one, found in our garden, have proven fruitless. If there are any entomologists among this blog’s followers who can identify this little fellow, please drop me a line.

Sadly, Nicolai did not win the $25,000 grand prize for the benefit of the American Amputee Soccer Association in the Major League Soccer MVP contest. He was on hand at the MLS All-Star game in Orlando, courtesy of the NE Revolution for the announcement of the winner. As a regional winner, he did earn $1,000 for the organization and built a number of important connections with the MLS organization with which we are hoping to partner with in the future. He will fly from Florida to Colorado for some vacation time in the mountains.