For the past five days we have hosted a Chinese exchange student as part of the reciprocal arrangement for Maya’s recent visit to China. Our student, Yuancheng Wu, spoke little English but was very open to new experiences. Maya’s skill at non verbal communication proved invaluable as they tackled projects including pie baking, pumpkin carving, apple picking, pizza making, and playing chess. Wu also had a chance to visit the Boston Common, Harvard University, and the New England Aquarium. To celebrate his last evening with us, Jeanine prepared a turkey dinner. We were joined by Nico’s friend Sarah and her puppy Findley. Afterwards, Findley and Nala provided entertainment for all as they frolicked in the living room.

I returned to the soccer pitch this morning after missing three games due to a badly strained calf muscle. My legs felt great although my fitness level certainly was not enhanced by the one-month hiatus. It was great to be on the field again and I played fairly well. I had two chances to score, the first on a very powerful volley from the top of the 18 after intercepting the ball that was just a few inches over the bar. The second from within the 6 after beating a defender which found the keeper rather than the back of the net. The officiating was terrible and both teams had players ejected, theirs for breaking our goalie’s nose (which he reports has corrected his deviated septum). Jeanine, Maya, and a Chinese exchange student who has been staying with our family for the past few days spent the day in Salem while I did a little kayaking on the Sudbury River.

The call of autumn color drew me into a road trip to the Berkshires today. After a brief visit to Nashua, New Hampshire it was apparent that peak color would be more prevalent further south. I traveled for hours along Route 2 and as far as Shelburne Falls before I broke out my camera. I found many great photo opportunities as I slowly made my way back to Concord with additional stops in Turners Falls, the King’s Bridge at the Connecticut River, and Millers Falls.

The colors in New England this fall have been spectacular. This morning before sunrise I set out with my camera and was rewarded for skipping breakfast with this scene of the Sudbury River which I found less than 3 minutes from our house. The light was perfect and there was a thin layer of fog on the water. I am really pleased with the photograph and feel like I am finally starting to get the hang of rendering autumnal landscapes.

In the United States, soccer does not have the same following as football or basketball. Most high school soccer matches are only attended by the parents of the players. The group pictured here has attended almost every match, home or away. This is not a fair-weather fan club. These guys are hardcore. They cheer for the team, they encourage the players, and they keep the refs in line. If the team should make it into the late rounds of the state tournament again this year you can rest assured that a large contingent from the high school will come to support them. These, however, are the true fans.

I usually grab a soup or salad from the cafeteria located in our office complex and work through lunch at my desk. Today I was compelled by a perfect fall day to go outdoors. I located this rather idyllic scene less than five minutes from the office. It never ceases to amaze me what great photos I can find in my own backyard. I need to remind myself to keep looking.

Nicolai saw lots of action today in a match against Boston Latin. The 1-0 victory brought the team’s record for the season to 10-1-1. Nico was dominant in the air and made several nice passes to set up attacks on the goal. We have learned that both People Magazine and USA Today would like to do articles about his recent exploits.

The entire company attended a retirement luncheon today to bid Joe Dyer, iRobot’s Chief Strategy Officer, farewell after nine years with the company. Joe served as a three-star Vice Admiral in the US Navy, commander of the Naval Air Systems Command, and commander of the Naval Air Warfare Center. Earlier in his career he was both a naval aviation chief engineer and the Navy’s chief test pilot. Several stories were shared by colleagues. My favorite was about a sailing voyage by the iRobot executives aboard Joe’s boat destined for Bermuda from Maryland. Apparently, as they were exiting the Chesapeake Bay they were radioed by the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier to give a wide berth (any small or large vessel failing to yield to an aircraft carrier will be shot out of the water as a matter of defensive protocol). Joe got on the radio, identified himself, and stated his destination. With no further communication, the Enterprise turned from its course to make way for Joe’s sailboat.

With the deadline for CCHS senior portrait submissions around the corner, Nico and I did a photo shoot yesterday and this morning he selected this image as his favorite. While I enjoy taking these pictures I am also left with a sense of melancholy. I miss both my little boys, GaGa and NuNu (toddler Maya-speak for the names of her brothers). Nothing left now but men.

My calf strain is finally healing. I missed my third soccer game in a row but feel confident I will be ready to play next weekend. It remains to be seen, however, what kind of shape I will be in after nearly a month on the disabled list.

Despite a strained hip flexor, Maya was in fine form this morning on the soccer pitch. With minutes remaining in a game tied at 1-1, she unleashed a right-footed rocket from the top of the box. The goalie was not able to handle it cleanly and a teammate tapped it in for the win. The air temperature was as cool as the skies were free of clouds. Jeanine and I decided to head up to Maine for some leaf peeping and to have dinner with her sister Susan who had rented a house in Kennebunkport with some friends. Our initial destination was the Sebago Lake State Park. Although there is a nice sand beach there, we cut our hiking short when it became apparent there was little fall color anywhere.

Our next stop proved much more scenic, tiny Mackworth Island, home to the Baxter School for the Deaf. A 1.25-mile trail around the perimeter of the 100-acre island offers great views of the surrounding area. We completed the trail just as the sun was setting and I found many great photographic subjects making all the driving today worth it. Our dinner with my sister-in-law Susan and her friends Jean and Lea was most enjoyable and fortified us for the return leg of our journey.

We share our breakfast nook with a small lemon tree where it is bathed in light from an east facing window for most of the day. One of three lemons currently on the tree appears ready to be picked. Jeanine’s gardens supply a reasonable volume of vegetables and herbs for our consumption. At a rate of one lemon every several months, however, our tiny citrus tree would be hard pressed to supply enough juice for a couple of glasses of lemonade. Still it is very satisfying to notice how the fruit grows and then ripens from week to week.

This autumn has been stingy with clear weather days aligned to peak fall color. Shortly after arriving at work this morning, I checked both my calendar and the weather forecast. Realizing I had a light schedule and a window of ideal weather, I decided I would take a vacation day to enjoy the fall foliage, something I increasingly look forward to with each passing year. I drove north for two hours to the Franconia Notch State Park, a favorite New Hampshire destination which never fails to provide a wealth of photographic opportunities. I revisited many of my favorite locations and several new ones. My calf muscle has healed sufficiently to allow pain free walking and benefited from all the hiking I did over the course of the day. I returned to Concord by 7:30PM with a camera full of wonderful images and a happy soul.

In 7 years of maintaining this photo journal I have never devoted a post to a topic entirely unrelated to our family. Today I would like to adopt, as my own daughter, 14-year old Malala Yousafzai from the town of Mingora in the Swat District of Pakistan. She was named after Malalai of Maiwand, a Pashtun poet and warrior woman. At the age of 11, she began blogging for the BBC under a pseudonym about the atrocities of the Taliban regime and their ban on education for girls. Malala was awarded the first National Peace Award by the Pakistani government last year and was nominated for the International Children’s Peace Prize by the international children’s advocacy group KidsRights Foundation. She remains a defiant voice against religious extremist views and an outspoken champion for children’s rights.

Yesterday she was shot in the head and neck along with two of her classmates as they were returning home from school by two masked gunmen. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack and vowed to try again after learning she had survived. She is now in stable condition after an operation to remove the bullet from her neck.

I was reduced to tears and filled with anger when I learned of this story. Perhaps it is Malala’s nearness in age and appearance to Maya that has contributed to my profound grief and rage. I am not a man who believes in a God but I found myself praying for the full recovery of this brave young girl.

Today, I embrace Malala as my own daughter. Today, let her be your daughter as well. Tomorrow, let her be the daughter of all nations and let us all vow to protect her and to punish the cowards who attack our children.

In what will likely be the last interview Nicolai grants related to his now famous soccer goal (nearly 1.5 million YouTube hits and counting), we were visited this evening by a crew from the Fuji Television Network. They are working on a segment for a TV show called Shiritagari that will air in Japan this Friday afternoon. We have also been contacted by a South Korean network interested in doing a 20-30 minute short documentary piece to be filmed over 3-4 days. Given how time consuming each one of these interviews can be, we have decided to say no to the Korean opportunity. Nicolai is in the thick of the college application process which takes top priority. He has completed applications to 6 schools and plans to add another 6 before he is done. He is also sensitive to the distraction such interviews create to his soccer team when he is filmed at practice or during games. Hopefully life will now return to what passes for normal at the Calabria household.

I have encouraged Kyle to send the occasional photo of his life at Santa Clara University so that we can share it here with our family and friends. He is pictured in the basement of his dorm, participating in a P90X fitness workout. We are happy that he has nearly returned to his pre-snowboarding accident level of strength and flexibility. He made great progress over the summer and judging from this photo (see if you can find Waldo) it appears he is really staying on the path to full recovery. From our conversations with him it sounds like he is doing well academically and thriving socially. All of us miss him enormously and are looking forward to seeing him at Thanksgiving.

The joy of being an uncle is that you can enjoy a relationship with your nieces and nephews that is unencumbered by years of established patterns that exist between parent and child. My niece Rachel is a smart and beautiful young woman who is already an accomplished ballroom dancer at the age of 15. Like her mother, she is something of a fashionista and her idea of fun leans more towards an afternoon at the shopping mall than a walk through the woods. I decided, with very little input from her (an uncle’s prerogative) that she needed to join me on a kayak outing. The fact that she liked the color of the paddling shirt I provided (hint to her mother that she would like a rain coat in this hue) and that I could offer her a selection of sun hats to choose from worked in my favor. Before she could say “boo” we were in my car headed for a nearby put in. After a brief review of basic paddling strokes, she was on the water where we spent a few minutes practicing before setting off downstream for the Old North Bridge. Rachel’s dainty little stabs at the water soon gave way to powerful strokes that propelled her with great speed. By the end of our three mile round trip she had mastered forward and reverse sweep strokes, could easily perform a 360 degree turn and was able to steer with great accuracy. We encountered several Blue Herons and a couple of turtles which we glided right up to for close viewing. Rachel was undaunted by my reports of trolls which lived under the bridges or alligators that infested the river. She did, however, seem genuinely terrified when a tiny fish jumped out of the water near her kayak. Apparently her next uncle-niece outing will need to include a fishing pole, an adventure I will leave to my brother Mark, the master angler of the family.

Cool night air made for perfect camping weather. Maya and I were quite cozy in our down sleeping bags and two person tent. We enjoyed a hearty breakfast in the nearby town of Jaffrey before embarking on a kayaking tour of the Contoocook Lake and River. Maya can be seen above just barely able to paddle underneath the Monadnock Branch Rail Trail. I had to resort to a Limbo style maneuver and had an even tighter clearance.

This is without a doubt my favorite time of year in New England. Everywhere you turn the colors of autumn cover the landscape and in our case the waterscape as well. I never take for granted the beauty which surrounds us and sharing the experience with Maya is all that a father could ask for. We covered about 4 miles on the water but a very serious headwind on our return translated to about 6 miles of paddling. Maya put ashore on what could easily be the state’s tiniest island and relaxed after a full morning on the water. From this vantage point she took a photo of me which I thought she did a very nice job of framing. We returned to Concord by mid afternoon as the perfect weather gave way to overcast skies and the threat of rain.

Twenty two years ago, on a similarly spectacular fall day, I married Jeanine at our home in Fishers, Indiana. Our ceremony was held outdoors among massive beech trees with nature as our cathedral. We celebrated our anniversary this evening in the company of Maya and my sister Alissa and her two children, Rachel and Johnnie, at the Petit Robert Bistro in Needham. An exquisite finish to an exceptional day. My only wish now is for another 22 years with the woman I love.

With kayaks atop the car and camping equipment in the back, Maya and I left on an impromptu father-and-daughter weekend adventure. When we left the house at around 6pm we turned right on Williams Road with the intent of heading north. As Maya ran down a checklist of critical gear, I realized I had forgotten my GPS unit and PLB (personal locator beacon – last resort distress signal). We turned back having traveled less than a mile. With the missing items retrieved, we struck out again and this time turned left on Williams Road heading to the west.

There is something very exciting about setting out on an adventure without a predetermined destination. When we stopped for dinner about an hour later we found ourselves in the vicinity of Ringe, Hew Hampshire at Lilly’s on the Pond, a fine restaurant familiar to us from a past outing. When we returned to the car we programmed our navigator to locate the nearest campground and were please to discover that we were minutes from the Woodmore Campground which happily had a few tent sites remaining (exquisite fall foliage brings many campers to NH at this time of year). Maya and I quickly pitched our tent and built a rather massive fire by which she did homework while I enjoyed photographing her.

Chocolate syrup, honey, and milk. Which is the most dense? Which is the least? This evening Maya conducted a science experiment to determine the answers to these questions. Her initial hypothesis was correct as confirmed by her testing and documented in this photograph that she took. Apparently, Maya is unfamiliar with the tale of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and concluded her experiment by sampling her concoction which she reported to be VERY sweet.

Nicolai’s penchant for destroying tires has extended to rims. During his very short driving career, he has managed to destroy (not talking flat tires here) four tires. Today’s incident was his first foray into rim damage. According to his account, he drove across a construction trench at the high school at a reasonable speed. The photographic evidence suggests that either he was going very fast or he had very little air in the tire. Regardless of whether it was due to excess speed or poor maintenance the bill to Nicolai for this lapse of judgment will be $550. On a positive note, reaction to his recent news coverage has led to a speaking engagement request in Pennsylvania which may help him offset the damage to his bank balance. Today he also gave an interview to a commercial website called Proving People Wrong and donated the $1000 fee he earned to the CCHS Soccer Team.

Nicolai, with engineering consultation from Maya, constructed this PVC xylophone for a school project. As part of the assignment, he had to explore the mathematical relationship between the length and diameter of the pipes to the frequency of the tone produced by each, and the relationship to the speed of sound. Apart from the questionable paint job, the construction turned out quite well and the “instrument” produces an array of tones. I appreciate the fact that this assignment has helped further Nico’s interest in building things in the shop and with each new project he is gaining new skills and mastering new tools. I particularly enjoy watching the way Maya offers her assistance. She anticipates problems but lets Nico make his own discoveries and then offers helpful suggestions and ideas.

Nico’s interview with Jim Axelrod of the CBS Evening News aired this evening. Jeanine and I sat with him on the couch, our anticipation growing with each promo. It is fair to say that he was more nervous waiting for the segment than he was during the interview. We were thrilled with the piece and pleased to see so many of his teammates included in the opening scene (they have had to put up with a lot of media attention for Nico and each is a star in his own right). Phone calls and e-mails started pouring in from all over the country and we are so happy that this story has allowed us to reconnect with so many people.

As promised, here is the Boston Globe article about Nico. If you click on the image and then click again on the larger one it should be possible to read. This is one of the more comprehensive articles to date and we liked the photographs that they took.

I celebrate my 54th birthday today blessed with more gifts than I deserve. I have shared half my life with a woman I continue to love dearly. Our three children have made us very proud, each in their own way. I have enjoyed good fortune in my career and I am still, plus or minus a pulled calf muscle, playing soccer. Some people do not know how lucky they are. I DO.

Jeanine and I started the day at Maya’s soccer game. It was an exciting match despite the 0-0 tie and Maya was in fine form. She made a very impressive run up the center of the field beating several defenders before laying off a perfect pass to a forward who almost scored. During halftime another parent shared his copy of the Boston Globe with me. There was a picture of Nicolai on the front page and an in depth article about his recent soccer exploits (I will post the entire article tomorrow). Most importantly, it included details of today’s Kicks for Cancer fundraiser which is taking place at the high school. The Kicks for Cancer event is held annually in memory of Concord resident Lois Wells, who passed away in 2007 after a courageous battle with cancer. Last year the team raised more than $28,000 for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute to support women’s cancer research. This year I was asked to photograph the event and was happy to volunteer.

Each player on the six participating teams wore a special jersey carrying the name of a loved one who had battled with cancer. Normally, when shooting a soccer match I try to capture images which include the athlete’s face. For this event, I prefer to shoot ones which capture the names on the back of jerseys.

Nicolai’s middle name is Laurent, so named for his grandfather, who he chose to honor on this occasion.

When he participated in Kicks for Cancer as a junior, Kyle, our first soccer star, dedicated his play to the memory of his grandmother, Eunice. That match produced one of my favorite photos of Kyle playing soccer.

I caught iRobot’s Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer acting suspiciously as he exited the office of one of our financial Directors who was on vacation today. This Director who will not be named is so cheap that he uses a couple of reams of printer paper to elevate his computer monitor to the correct height. Our CLO, who I can now see is something of a prankster, has been adding a ream of paper each day this week. Once I discovered what he was up to, I suggested that he start another pile underneath the telephone.

Let’s see. Improper use of company resources, an OSHA safety violation, and unauthorized access to a secured office. All this from the head of the legal department. I love working at iRobot.

Jeanine hosted a neighborhood association board meeting at our home this evening. As a result, Maya picked up a babysitting assignment for one of the parents who had a toddler in tow. It didn’t take long before Maya and the little boy returned from the basement with the wooden excavator shown above. I made this toy for Kyle when he was a small child and have not seen it for many years. I was pleased to see that it was still intact and that all of the articulated joints and functional tank treads were still working. I hope Kyle will pass it on to his children one day.

Maya was beside herself with laughter as the videographer for CBS News applied makeup to my head because it was creating a reflection on the screen. She needed no encouragement whatsoever to pick up my camera and capture the scene. I have routinely urged her not to wear makeup because her inner beauty needs no enhancement. Observing me on the receiving end of a powder puff was more than she could handle. Not enough that my lack of hair requires cosmetic attention to be properly filmed, I must endure this humiliation in front of Maya who sees this as great entertainment.

If my children wanted to learn from the mistakes of their father, the most important lesson I would offer, would be to take better care of their teeth. Better oral hygiene discipline would have saved me countless procedures and a great deal of discomfort. Today I visited the dentist for my 6 month cleaning. My hygienist is extremely skilled and our common interests makes for good conversation, even if my side is only mumbled. Not so enjoyable was the second phase of the visit with my dentist who addressed issues with two teeth. As has become my standard practice, I opted to forego Novocaine. The procedure is over much more quickly and my mouth and face don’t wind up half paralyzed for hours. Perhaps the pain is also a good reminder to brush after every meal and to wear my night guard to prevent gnashing my teeth while I sleep.

Maya, who sounds like she is coming down with a cold, opted to watch Nico play soccer rather than attending her own practice. She still had plenty of energy to engage in a little gymnastics and to help photograph and videotape the match.

CBS News National Correspondent Jim Axelrod and Producer Keith Sharman flew up from New York City this morning to interview Nicolai for a piece that is tentatively scheduled to air next Monday night (CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley) and again on Tuesday morning (CBS This Morning). They were joined by a videographer and sound man from Rhode Island. Their immediate interest is in a short (2-3 minute) segment but they gathered enough footage for a long format piece (Nico’s interview lasted an hour and a half). They also attended Nico’s game where I met them as they collected additonal footage of Nico playing and interviews with coach Pavlik and some of his teammates. Later in the evening the crew came to our home for an interview with Jeanine and I. Regrettably, neither of us were nearly as poised or articulate as Nicolai and we are hoping the bulk of the coverage will be focused on him. His soccer team rolled over Wayland and remains undefeated. Nicolai got significant playing time during which he made several nice passes, unleashed a powerful shot on goal and was poised to score off this header if not for a nice punching clear by the goalie.

I woke up to a glorious fall morning, a more perfect day for soccer than one could wish for. I arrived at the field with plenty of time to stretch and warm up. My legs felt strong and I played a rock-solid game, committing no turnovers, making several nice attacking passes, and guarding my mark like white on rice. With 20 minutes to go and a comfortable 3-1 lead in hand, I left the field because both my calve muscles were beginning to cramp up. I then watched helplessly from the sidelines as we gave up 3 goals to suffer our second loss in as many weeks. My perfect morning was perfect no more.

Later in the day, Jeanine and I returned to the high school to see a project that Nicolai had created for his Rivers & Revolutions class. He built a massive gateway to delineate the entrance to the classes study area and worked with peers to add a sign and decorate the 2×4 frame. Students in this course study the writings of Aldo Leopold and Annie Dillard, canoe the Concord River, examine the development of early civilizations along floodplains, stroll through Minuteman National Historical Park, contemplate the relationship of circles and lines, hike across glacial deposits, discuss human conceptions of time, and revel in the waters of Walden Pond. It is the first time this holistic approach to learning has been introduced anywhere in the state and Nicolai has been enjoying the course immensely.

I spent the bulk of the day working on a project for our master bathroom. Jeanine has asked me to build a frame to surround the large mirror over our vanity and to replace the existing single-lighting array with a pair of nicer fixtures. Building and painting the frame took less than an hour but the same cannot be said of the lighting project. I needed to replace a single wall box (and patch the resulting opening in the drywall) with two new wall boxes and run the associated wiring. As can generally be expected with any renovation work there are always surprises. In this case the presence of several vent pipes, three shouldered 2x4s (very hard to drill through), and a rat’s nest of wiring in exactly the locations where the new boxes needed to be installed. It will take another day or two to complete the work.

Maya invited several girl friends to spend the night and as I walked into our family room this is the scene I encountered. I am told they were doing “pencils”. I do not know what a pencil is or why teenage girls find this so entertaining. Perhaps it is some form of warm up for the game of Jailbreak which ensued with girls alternatively hiding silently and then flying through the house screaming as only girls of this age can do. Fortunately all the activity seemed to help them all get to sleep at a reasonable hour.