Kyle turned 24 earlier this month but we celebrated as a family today.  It is the first time we have had all three kids (plus Johnny) under our roof at the same time in quite a while.  We are very proud of Kyle who is our first bird to leave the nest.  He is working for a financial startup in Menlo Park, CA where he shares an apartment with two roommates and owns his own car.  Since graduating from Santa Clara University with a degree in Finance and a minor in Computer Science he has completed his Series 7 and Series 24 financial certifications and is now working independently towards a CFA credential. Naturally, Jeanine prepared a small feast for the occasion including a very yummy cake that did not last very long.

Maya wrapped up her 6 week internship at the Brookhaven National Labs today.  Students are required to prepare a poster describing the work they completed over the summer and to present to colleagues, peers, and visiting family members.  Kyle and Nico traveled to Long Island to support their sister and I flew in from Minnesota last night.

I believe Maya found the internship to be extremely worthwhile but was also thrilled to be heading back home and familiar surroundings. Click on the poster below to learn more about the quark gluon plasma that was the subject of Maya’s work.

This week’s Concord Journal featured stories about three Calabria’s.  Nico was covered for his soccer exploits in Costa Rica and Jeanine for her new position as Executive Director of Open Table.  I was included in a story about my soccer team’s visit to Iceland.

The bulk of my time in Minnesota was spent doing projects around the house (installing sliding shelves in the cabinets which line the family den, helping to finish building a window frame, assisting Sophia as she hung a shelf in her bedroom, and putting up a curtain rod to section off the second floor office from the family area).  I did find time between projects to hang out with my nieces and nephews and to enjoy the wonderful food that is part of any Calabria family gathering.  Mark prepared the best steak I have ever tasted.  If he is unable to regain certification as a commercial airline pilot he has a bright future ahead as a chef in a 5-star restaurant.

Mark had a speech therapy appointment this morning and I decided to tag along even as a fire alarm forced us outside for a portion of the session. Mark has trouble with longer or complex words often transposing the middle and beginning syllables.  Over the course of my three day visit it was clear he was making progress.  He often comes up with translations that are absolutely hysterical as evidenced below when he tried to say Osama Bin Laden (Obin Salad Men).  Immediately after his stroke his transpositions were even more extreme; mosquitos = pisculators. Difficulty with many words aside, I had no problem understanding or communicating with Mark.

Today I traveled to Minnesota to visit with my younger brother, Mark, and his family.  Mark recently suffered from a stroke which has left him with some speech, reading and memory deficits. I am hoping to help him out with some home projects and clear him for use of his woodworking equipment.

I took the commuter rail to Porter Square where I was treated to dinner by a former colleague seeking some career guidance. I then grabbed the Red Line to South Station and the Silver Line to Logan. Mark picked me up in Minneapolis and I was pleased to see that his driving skills had not diminished one iota.

Despite a heat advisory for Eastern Massachusetts, my soccer team had two more matches today in the NESO New England Open Soccer Tournament.  We made our way to the finals where the score was 1-1 after regulation time.  Overtime was scoreless and the match went to penalty kicks where we lost and had to settle for a second-place finish.  I was happy to survive the weekend without injury and was pleased with most of my play.  I had two opportunities to score in the finals but was not able to find the back of the net. Fatigue and exhaustion take their toll on accuracy and this was also the case for many of my teammates.

Jeanine and I joined Tom and Karen Metzold for dinner this evening at the Mexican Table in Waltham.  Tom was my high school wrestling partner and we have remained close friends since.  It has been a bit over a year since we last got together and it was great to catch up with each other.  Earlier in the day, I played a pair of soccer matches at the NESO New England Soccer Open.  We won our first match 5-0 and our second 3-1 which put us in great shape for the remainder of the tournament.

Although I am still mourning the loss of the images that were lost when my camera kit was stolen in Costa Rica, I now have replaced all the gear that was taken.  I carry a camera rider on my homeowners’ insurance policy which covered replacement cost for everything.  Keeping all of my receipts and good records helped to speed the process and I have been very pleased by the responsiveness and service I have received from Safety Insurance.  In the future, I will back up my images every night when traveling and be extremely suspicious of anyone offering to “help” me.

I attended Open Table with Jeanine this evening to capture various photos for their website and newsletter.  Pictured here are members of the board of directors in attendance this evening.  Jeanine is now serving as the organization’s Executive Director.

Jeanine worked the Open Table booth at the Maynard Farmer’s Market. A careful examination of this photo taken by one of her cohorts will be worth the effort.

It has been over a month since Maya left for her internship at the Brookhaven National Labs on Long Island.  We have been missing our girl and I suspect she has been missing her dog. Here is a photo from the archives intended to cheer us all up.

Today begins the long process of downloading, culling, post-processing, sorting, and tagging the 4000 pictures I took over the last three weeks (the goal is to get under 1000).  I suspect it will take me about a week to do so while I also try and catch up on my blog postings. Iceland has an abundance of rivers carrying glacier melt to the ocean and most include several waterfalls along the way.  Each also has at least one bridge to enable car travel.  I would say that 90% of these are one-lane affairs of questionable robustness. Not so for this example which is typical of the newer bridges being built around the country to accommodate the massive increase in tourism that Iceland has experienced over the last few years.

Few things could be more relaxing after back-to-back soccer matches than a visit to the Blue Lagoon.  Here our entire team enjoyed the restorative waters and silica mud masks before flying back to Boston.