Nicolai suggested the entire family go out for an afternoon of wall climbing.  We packed up the crew and headed down to Brooklyn Boulders, an excellent climbing facility very close to my office.  Nico has the most experience and coached his siblings who demonstrated remarkably good innate skills.  Jeanine did a cardio workout while I handled the photography.  I have a slight case of carpal tunnel syndrome and thought it best to give my wrists a break. Everyone had a great time and I am hoping this becomes a holiday tradition.

Karuna, Nico’s girlfriend, has been creating some amazing images which combine her athleticism and photographic flare into what I am calling Karunart.  These are truly amazing self-portraits and I think she has a future both as a model and a photographer.

Cengage, the company Kyle works for will be moving to a new office in May of 2019.  It is located across the street from his apartment, literally. He and his colleagues had a chance to tour the 14th-floor offices with a commanding view of Boston Harbor. Photo courtesy of Kyle.

When I worked near Central Square, street art could be found everywhere.  Somerville does not have as much, but this recently completed wall mural is quite interesting and can be found along my commute less than a half mile from the office.

Maya returned home from Olin for the holiday break.  She promptly fell asleep on the couch to begin recuperating from the demands of her sophomore fall semester.  Maya has been thriving at school and we love to hear about her many projects.  She will be joined by Nico tomorrow and Kyle at the end of the week.  Jeanine and I are looking forward to having a full house again.

Roughly once a month, Formlabs has a Town Hall meeting during which the entire company (close to 500 employees now) assembles in person and by video conference for an update on varying topics of general interest. Today the meeting focused on our 2018 financial performance and a new printing material for the dentistry market. I was also introduced and spoke briefly about my background and objectives. One of my slides included a collection of the logos of the companies I have worked for (not including Formlabs). This is my 38th year working in high tech and my 32nd managing engineering teams. I started my career wearing a lab coat over a suit, using a slide ruler for calculations. Today I am dressed ready to climb a mountain, wearing a watch that will answer any question I ask of it including what is a slide ruler. When I pause to think about all the technical and cultural changes that have occurred during my working life it is almost incomprehensible. I feel fortunate to have lived at this time in history and am proud of my journey.

I found this Concord Journal clipping today on the kitchen counter. I must have missed it when first published.

After being posted for 4 months on Craig’s List, our grand piano finally sold today.  The market for large pianos has really collapsed in recent years. Even so, we got one-third of the price we paid nearly 25 years ago.  Not bad.  The buyers drove up from Mystic, CT, and were joined here by a piano technician they hired.  He did a thorough inspection before declaring the piano “as good as new”.  Pictured above is the entire keyboard assembly removed from the piano for closer scrutiny.  Jeanine and I were very sad it will not be here for Nico to play, something we look forward to every time he visits.  Professional piano movers will arrive next week to pack it up and ship it to its new home.

Nearly 25 years ago, Jeanine and I commissioned this bed, designed by her sister and built by an Indianapolis woodworker.  I was too busy with work at the time to do it myself although I later constructed the canopy section.  As part of our year-long preparation for downsizing, I have been selling off items that don’t make sense in a more compact footprint.  With the kids out of the house, we are looking forward to finding a smaller home located nearer to Boston to shorten my commute. This evening I shot the photos that will accompany the listing on Craig’s List.

Nicolai and Karuna have taken up rock climbing, a very popular activity where they live in Colorado.  I believe she was responsible for capturing this video recording that was posted to his Instagram account.  Karuna’s strength-to-weight ratio is probably higher than any human I know and Nico’s upper body strength makes them both naturals for the sport.  

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I reached my one-month anniversary at Formlabs today.  I have been working an average of 14 hours a day plus another 90 minutes of commuting.  As is always the case with a new job, there are a million things to learn and hundreds of people to meet.  This initial push has allowed me to come up to speed fairly quickly and I believe I am now in a position to begin scaling back to a more sustainable work rate.  What has suffered the most is my fitness.  Starting today, my plan is to get an hour of exercise every morning.  If I leave at 6 am I can beat the traffic into the city, get my workout in, and arrive at the office before 8 am.  This morning, despite the sub-zero temperature, I enjoyed being out in the sun during an easy 3-mile walk that took me to the Lynch Family Skatepark where I photographed one of the swimming pool-like features with a “Tee” train and the Boston Sand & Gravel Company in the background.

This year’s Calabria holiday card features both boys on the front side.  Maya, Jeanine, and I can be found on the back.  Past cards have more often than not featured Maya on the front and it was time to balance the scales.  The card should be reaching many of you shortly.  I like posting a copy on the blog as well so that we can look back upon it years from now when the physical cards have long since been recycled.

I am often amazed by the patterns I find in nature. Something very interesting must have been happening as this water turned to ice. Find the feather in the photo for a sense of scale.

It is often said that teachers do not join the profession for the money.  After hearing what her colleagues and students had to say about my sister-in-law during her retirement party from UVM, it is easy to understand what motivates them.  Susan has enriched the lives of all she has touched and the gratitude in the room was overwhelming.  Speaker after speaker, young and old, had nothing but the most amazing things to say about her and the impact she has had on their lives.  I took hundreds of photos at the event (celebrated as a “graduation party”) which can be found here.