This morning I drove Jeanine to Logan Airport at 4:30 am for her flight to Florida where she will be spending the next two weeks kicking off her three-month sabbatical decompression tour. While chatting on the ride into Boston it occurred to me that I should give her my National Parks annual pass. After picking up her rental car she made a beeline to the Everglades and shared her close encounters with the local wildlife before continuing on to the Florida Keys. I believe her first destination is Islamorada.

Day 1 of our kitchen makeover. I removed all cabinet doors, drawer fronts, and associated hardware. I took a still photo after each door was removed and combined the sequence into a time-lapse video. I stopped after the first tier because it was taking too long. As it stands, all 44 doors and drawer fronts have been removed. By far the most tedious part of the job comes next; cleaning and sanding. I will try to do this in small batches over many days.

With Jeanine set to begin her sabbatical travel next week, I am getting ready for the kitchen makeover I will be doing while she is away. We renovated the kitchen when we moved in over 16 years ago and kitchen fashion has changed since then. In order to ready the house for sale, I will be painting much of the existing cabinetry a very light gray. In the coming weeks, you will no doubt hear about other elements of the project. Today I constructed a painting booth within my workshop. I will be using an HVLP sprayer to make quick work of the 44 doors and drawer fronts I need to paint. Doing so requires a dust-free area and some method of containing the overspray. I used 2mm polyethylene to fashion walls and leftover house wrap for the floors of my make-shift 8’x18′ paint booth. Access is by way of a flap door at the front and ventilation will be through the sliding patio doors at the back.

I apologize for the number of food shots posted this week but between work and helping Jeanine with photography for her book, I have had little time for anything else. I took this photo earlier in the week and am now wondering what came of the subject which I would very much like to sample.

Food photography for Jeanine’s book continued this evening. This was the most difficult shot yet; not because of the lighting or composition but rather the anticipation of the meal.

More food photography for Jeanine’s book this evening after a long day at work. The camera work took no more than a few minutes. Setting up the shot, however, took a very long time. I wish my mother was here. She has an eye for still life composition that neither Jeanine or I can come close to. Jeanine’s self-imposed deadline has her cranking away down the home stretch.

As has been the case in the last two presidential primary elections, Jeanine and I voted for different candidates. Even so, we are very much aligned on what we want in a president and I have no doubt we will be voting for the same person in November. We were a little disappointed that only one of our children took advantage of this opportunity to vote. I am confident that this situation will be rectified in the national election.

One of Jeanine’s first goals while on sabbatical is to complete her memoir cookbook. To that end, she has asked me to help out with the food photography which I am more than happy to do. The job pays extremely well; all the cookies you can eat!

This evening we dined with the boys at the French restaurant, Colettes to celebrate the start of Jeanine’s sabbatical. It was great to catch up with them and to discuss our respective thoughts on candidates for next week’s primary election in Massachusetts. Kyle reported on his new job and the difficulty in saying goodbye to his current colleagues. Nicolai who has not been all that thrilled with his master’s degree coursework at Lesley is now in a class with a teacher he admires and it sounds like he is having fun. We missed not sharing the meal with Maya, especially knowing that she is suffering from the flu which she contracted from her roommate.

Had I been more interested in a nice dinner than a photo of these stupid turkeys, I would have run them over when they ran across the street right in front of my car. Fortunately, I was not very hungry.

Today is Jeanine’s last day on the job as Executive Director of Open Table before her 3-month sabbatical begins. Yesterday when she was contemplating gift ideas to leave behind for her staff, I suggested a modern-day equivalent of the Magic 8 Ball. Her team can ask questions of this device and it will respond with pre-recorded answers from Jeanine. We made the recordings last night and I programmed them into the “Ask Jeanine” button. My favorite response; “That’s a very good question. Give me a few months to think about it.”

Maya continues to enjoy her term abroad in Amsterdam. Safe to say she has immersed herself in the culture (and fashion) of the Netherlands. The COVID-19 outbreak in Italy has curtailed her plans to visit there this weekend but we are sure she will find other ways to take advantage of her time in Europe.

Exciting news from Kyle today. He has accepted an offer from Touchplan, the software division of MOCA Systems as their Senior Business Intelligence Analyst/Developer. The company is located 3 blocks from Boston City Hall and an 18-minute walk from his Seaport District apartment. The company develops project planning and management software for the construction industry. It was a tough decision to leave Cengage where he has enjoyed great mentorship and camaraderie but the offer was too good to pass up and will allow him to more quickly advance his career objectives.

I am not one for jumping on viral social media trends but find myself compelled to do so this time. The tragic death of Kobe Bryant, his daughter, Gianna, and seven others last month has given rise to the #girldad movement, celebrating Kobe’s joy in being the father of girls and his desire that they enjoy the same rights, opportunities, and privileges as boys. So here is to my girl.