A disappointing result this morning as my soccer team suffered its first loss in over a year. The 0-3 score did not reflect the closeness of the contest but there is no arguing with the outcome. I played poorly and their first goal came from the guy that I was marking off a nice header. He placed his hands on my shoulders and used them as a platform from which to elevate himself. Illegal for sure but a common tactic which I have admittedly used myself on occasion. My teammates were also in lack luster form and we failed to finish on several opportunities. The trick now will be to bounce back next week.

I spent the afternoon doing projects around the house. Maya assisted me with repairing a videotape for my mother. The tape had been partially eaten by the VCR and contained precious footage from my grandmother’s 90th birthday. It turned out to be quite a tricky affair and Maya was absolutely essential to the projects success both in terms of reverse engineering the assembly sequence and lending her small and dexterous hands. When we completed the hour-long task she immediately asked if I had anything else that she could take apart. I gave her an old keyboard and a screwdriver. In minutes she had it deconstructed and could largely explain the principles of operation. Another few minutes and she had it reassembled perfectly. There is little doubt in my mind that Maya would make a fine engineer should she decide to follow that path. Still not sated I found her an old four-tone doorbell to play with. She extracted a solenoid plunger which we used with a power supply to experiment with electromagnetism.