It was bitterly cold today with windchill dropping the 24F air temperature into the low teens.  This was less of an issue for Maya during her second cross country ski race of the season than her parents who froze various body parts off while watching her compete. Her form has improved from last season and she looked strong throughout the race.  Her Girls Varsity team finished in first place with 462 points ahead of Acton Boxboro (450), Lincoln Sudbury (438),  Westford (397), Wayland (339), Nashoba (324) and Winchester (321).

We received about three inches of snow last night, the first of the season which warranted a workout with the snowblower. It was a light fluffy snow which makes for easy clearing but not so great photos.  By the time I paused to make this image, much of the snow accenting the trees had blown off.  Wet snow clings to the trees and makes for the best photographs.

All but one of my bonsai trees perished when I moved them out of my office at iRobot almost a year ago.  On that day we were experiencing an arctic blast and it only took a few minutes of exposure to prove deadly.  I have since nursed the one survivor back to health and today purchased a companion for it which I will take to work tomorrow.  Kyle gifted me this tree by way of a gift certificate to our local bonsai nursery the Christmas before last.  I thought today would be a special day for the purchase as it is his first full day in Thailand.  I will think of him every time I admire this miniature jade tree.

I am accustomed to doing root-cause failure analysis at work. I enjoy the forensic challenge of identifying new failure modes.  It is essential to work to improve quality and reliability.  When it comes to products I purchase, however, I like to think someone else has made the effort to do this. I recently purchased new studio lights and one of three did not operate properly.  Pictured above is the source of the problem (two fractured solder joints on the high-voltage capacitor).  This failure was obviously caused by mechanical trauma sustained during shipping. I sent the photo to the manufacturer and hope they will endeavor to improve their packaging or reduce the mechanical stress these joints are exposed to.  I re-soldered the connections and my light is as good as new and I did not have to wait for weeks while it shipped back and forth to the service center.

As promised, here is a video of Maya’s infinity stairs.  Watch the marble as it climbs the stairs and then descends through a rotary gate before repeating the cycle.

This Rube Goldberg contraption was the creation of Maya and two classmates for their engineering class automaton project.  Although it was completed months ago the teacher has been holding on to it as an example for other classes. The same teacher requested to hang on to Maya’s recent amplifier project. She agreed on the condition she could get back her infinity stairs.  A photograph does not do justice to this machine and you can expect a forthcoming video.

I was the beneficiary of another fine culinary invention by Jeanine this evening.  When asked to identify the ingredients of our dinner, I correctly recognized the grapefruit sections before reaching the limit of my knowledge of healthy cooking components. I can say with some expertise, however, that the finished meal was delicious. I am genuinely a lucky man.

Thus far this winter there has been little snow to speak of.  During my evening commute, it looked like we were in for a pretty good storm but a few hours later the snowfall had completely fizzled out.

It is not every day you drive by a house being demolished.  I stopped briefly on the side of the road as this old house, located on the grounds of the Concord Country Club, succombed to the power of a giant excavator.  I am very curious to know why it had to come down and what will replace it.  No doubt you will find the answers to these questions in a future post as this site is one I pass every day on my way into work.

Jeanine hosted a volunteer appreciation brunch for the leadership team of Open Table today. Needless to say, the food was wonderful as was the sense of community in the room. It takes very special people to give so generously of their time in support of those less fortunate. This is the third such event but the first my schedule has allowed me to attend.  Here is a link to the team.

Nicolai heads back to Colorado College tomorrow with his friend Oliver. They will share driving on the 2000-mile journey which will take them three or four days to complete.  Since they plan to get an early start we decided to have a farewell brunch today at Nancy’s Airfield Cafe, one of our favorite breakfast spots.

Standard issue desks at Markforged are IKEA plain white tops on a pedestal.  Today we received a large shipment of rolling filing cabinets/drawers that will afford people some local storage space. These units feature an upholstered top allowing them to do double duty as a chair or as a perfectly acceptable office sled as demonstrated in the video above.

While on my lunchtime walk around Fresh Pond I noticed several very interesting ice sculptures formed upon the branches dipping into the water. Regrettably, I had only my iPhone to capture the images which do not do justice to their beauty.

Nala cornered this opossum on the front walk to our home. When threatened or harmed, they will “play possum”, mimicking the appearance and smell of a sick or dead animal. This physiological response is involuntary (like fainting), rather than a conscious act. I can now say from first hand experience that this survival mechanism is 100% believable. Moments after we cleared the area, the possum made a miraculous recovery and scampered off into the brush.