This Christmas my Secret Santa gave me a 7-foot-wide umbrella. It is big enough to keep an entire soccer team dry, but my use for it will be in the realm of photography as a giant reflector to be mounted on one of my strobes. The shaft of the first umbrella I received was incompatible with my strobes despite highly misleading advertising claims to the contrary. It was returned for the one I received today. Unfortunately, this one has a serious design flaw which caused it to come apart during my first use. An hour and a half later, I was able to put things back together. A trip to the hardware store for a replacement screw a quarter of an inch longer than the one supplied should prevent future problems. I am looking forward to my first photos illuminated by this bad boy.

Maya spent several hours in my shop this evening working on her electrical engineering class amplifier project. All attempts to assist her were rejected but she did tolerate being photographed. I have a tiny bench devoted to electronics set up with a soldering station and test equipment. I am delighted to see it being used by someone other than me. Earlier in the day I spent an hour at the same bench repairing a brand new studio light that was DOA (dead on arrival). Two solder joints had fractured during what was no doubt a traumatic shipping journey.

When making a fine piece of wood furniture, I generally avoid the use of all hardware, fabricating necessary joints from wood and glue. When I need to build something really fast, there is no more useful method of joining two pieces of wood than a pocket hole screw. Fifteen years ago, I fashioned a pneumatically clamped pocket hole jig with components from the Kreg company. It is one of my most often used tools. Today I rebuilt the fixture incorporating new design features that further expands its versatility and the speed with which it can be used. Rather than clamping the jig in my table vise, I have added switchable magnets so that it can be secured directly to the top of my table saw. This allows me to angle the fixture so that I can use it with even the longest pieces of wood and reduces setup and breakdown time. Next, I made provisions to allow the clamp to work with wood stock up to a 4 inches (previously I was limited to 2 inches). Finally, I added left and right stops so to ensure symmetrical and repeatable joint location. The heart of the new fixture is a right-angle, 3D printed bracket for the pneumatic cylinder which incorporates features that enable it to be repositioned easily. I also printed two knobs which are used to fix the bracket in place.

What better way to start the New Year than with Belgian waffles? Jeanine prepared a huge batch of batter last night which fed our 9 house guests and 4 family members this morning. Pictured here is Maddie, one of Maya’s friends and one of my first customers (I was in charge of cooking the waffles).

A busy New Year’s Eve on the Calabria home front. Nicolai hosted a party for twenty or so of his close friends. Maya returned after midnight from a party with her friends for a sleep over. Jeanine and I attended a party with our friends but returned at about 10:30 to make sure nothing got out of hand. Jeanine has prepared the makings for a waffle breakfast and only then will we learn how many guests elected to spend the night.

I underwent six hours of First Aid and CPR training at work today. Several employees participated in the class which bodes well for anyone at the company who finds themselves in need of medical attention. In the photo above, I had to immobilize an impaled hand, something I have personal experience with. In my case, it was a framing nail through the flesh rather than a magic marker tucked between fingers.

The family plus Karuna celebrated Kyle’s college graduation at the Beehive in Boston where we enjoyed live jazz and brunch. Kyle has accepted a job with Decker & Co., a small financial brokerage startup, that will take him to Thailand for at least three months starting mid-January. He will then have the option to remain in Southeast Asia or return to California. We are all very excited for him and proud of his accomplishments.

Is it just me or do you think that Maya is getting more beautiful all the time? Although I miss my “little girl,” it is a joy watching her turn into such a wonderful young woman. I am planning to spend some time in the workshop fashioning a large wooden club which I suspect I am going to need if this trend continues.

Possibly the most inappropriately named place in all of Massachusetts, Mount Misery is anything but. Reaching a height of 284 feet, it would be more accurately described as a hill. Located in the Lincoln Township Conservation Area it was one of our stops on a vigorous walk this afternoon intended to offset some of the caloric damage sustained over the last few days.

Jeanine makes pop-overs but once a year on Christmas Day.  Amazingly, they seem to get better with every passing year as affirmed by our resident quality control tester/musical entertainer/reindeer.

When Kyle is in town, even a simple portrait with Aunt Susan can veer towards mayhem.

Possibly confusing Halloween with Christmas this year, my children really seemed to enjoy seeing me put on some of the gifts I received in my stocking.

I always try to get portraits of the kids when they are home for the holidays.  I found Kyle in the dining room working on his computer and Nicolai in the living room grooming his beard.  Oddly, I was unable to locate Maya.

As has been our tradition for 13 years, we dined at Chang An, our local Chinese restaurant. We were joined by the Budris family and for the first time the Franck family.  It is a nice way to give Jeanine a break from cooking and to catch up with our friends. Later we attended church service where Jeanine and Susan were on duty as ushers.

Upon returning home, the kids set about making a favorite holiday treat, Zeppole balls.  Kyle decided to change things up a little and created the first ever Cougar Gold Sharp Cheddar Cheese filled dough ball.  He named it the Cougar Ball.

Twas the night before the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring not even Maya asleep on the couch.  Jeanine’s sister, Susan, will be visiting with us for Christmas and we spent the evening trimming the tree and listening to various obscure bands (Too Many Zooz, Black Violin).

At work we are trying to identify the best material to use for our printing nozzles. They need to have good thermal conductivity and stand up to constant movement over carbon fiber, an extremely abrasive material.  Last night I made a crude but highly effective accelerated life test fixture from an inexpensive drill, timer and scraps of old counter tops.  Even the short testing I completed to verify the test fixture yielded considerable insight and I will gather more data today.

An even more impressive engineering project was Maya’s audio amplifier circuit which she demonstrated for me this morning in exchange for a 9V battery from my stash of rechargeables.

This evening we celebrated a combination holiday party and new facility open house at Markforged. It was a great opportunity to meet the spouses, partners, family, and significant others of our employees while taking stock of how far the company has come from its humble beginnings. I was joined by Nico, Kyle, Johnny and Jeanine. Maya had cross country practice and opted to stay home to tackle a mountain of homework. We had to leave a little early so I could build a nozzle tip abrasion testing fixture that we urgently need. Expect to see it featured here tomorrow.