I hope the older of my two sisters is keeping up with this blog and taking note of the fine cook her son Johnny has become.  Each week his Sunday dinners just seem to be getting better and better. Jeanine provides a modicum of advice but it will not be too long before the roles will be reversed.

Jeanine and I spent a good part of the day finalizing our travel plans for our upcoming trip to southeast Asia.  We leave Wednesday for Thailand where we will connect with Kyle through the weekend. Our next stop will be Cambodia and then on to Vietnam before returning to the southern part of Thailand.  It speeds things up if you bring passport type photos with you for the various visas that are prepared as you enter each country.  Here are the shots we will be using.

Jeanine and I will be traveling out of the country during the Primary Elections in Massachusetts.  We generally support the same candidates but this year our votes will only serve to cancel each other out.  Had neither one of us voted we could have saved the postage.  Still, there is something about participating in the democratic process that feels empowering and uplifting.

I think we can agree that this cake looks extremely yummy.  Being asked to photograph it by your wife before she takes it away for other people to eat, therefore, would be seen by many as cruel and unusual punishment. Such was the case this evening as Jeanine prepared another recipe from her memoir cookbook for external beta testing. The things I endure for love.

Full disclosure: Jeanine returned from her party hours later having saved a small piece for her photographer.

Timed perfectly for a break in the arctic cold we have been experiencing, Maya and a pair of her friends climbed 3,166 ft. Mount Monadnock today. I still remember, as though it were yesterday, when Maya and I climbed this mountain and camped overnight at its base some five years ago.  I cannot express with words how happy it makes me that all three of our children share their parents love of the great outdoors.

Kyle’s diploma from Santa Clara University arrived in the mail today. We will safeguard it for him until he returns from Thailand where he is having what can only be described as a grand adventure and unique learning experience.  Jeanine and I are very proud of Kyle and can’t wait to see him next week when we travel there to visit with him.

Confident, smart, and beautiful, Maya is the best Valentine’s Day present Jeanine has ever given me. The pair left for upstate New York this morning where Maya will tour Union College, my undergraduate alma mater on Monday.

This shot may or may not be used at work but it is what I envisioned when building the black printer pedestal.  I spent the morning doing more photography for work while Jeanine and Maya had the cracked windshield on the Audi replaced.

I left work a little early to photograph our new Mark Two printer.  The project proved quite challenging because I had to avoid reflections in the plexiglass visor and deal with specular highlights all over the place.  It took several hours but I finally got an image that I liked.

Nicolai was the subject of a post on A Woman’s View, a blog by Lenore Buth, titled Are heroes born or made?

It is a wonderfully written piece and it brings us joy to see that Nico continues to be an inspiration to so many.

The post makes reference to an interview that Nico did with Impressive Magazine.  I was not aware of that article but was able to locate it with a quick search; The Amazing Story of Nico Calabria.

I left work early to buy paint and lay down a first coat on the printer pedestal I am building.  I am starting with a matte black finish but may change to grey or white once I see how it looks with a printer on top.  It is shown here lying on its back.

Later this week I will be taking a “hero” shot of our recently announced Mark Two printer.  I have decided I would like to place it on a slightly undersized pedestal so that it really stands out from its environment.  The pedestal will also be useful at work if it is not commandeered as a base for a permanent display in our lobby. I began construction this evening and it should be ready for painting tomorrow.

Joseph Smedley was a childhood friend of Nicolai’s.  This weekend we learned that he died late last year. A student at Indiana University, his body was discovered floating in Griffy Lake near the Bloomington campus.  The police have ruled his death a suicide but after reviewing the details of the case with his sister and brother-in-law this weekend, I am 100% certain that this was not the case.  A note (image below) was found in the apartment he shared with brothers of the Sigma Pi fraternity. According to his sister, this is not Joseph’s handwriting.  To my way of thinking it reads like an attempt to discourage a search for a missing person rather than a suicide note. Furthermore, Joseph did not have a passport or the financial means to leave the country.  This blog entry would grow quite lengthy if I conveyed all the additional information suggesting that Joseph did not take his own life.  Given the note was likely a forgery and was placed in his apartment it seems obvious to me that his roommates were involved in his disappearance.  Jeanine has introduced Joseph’s sister to several of our contacts in Indianapolis who should be of help in reopening the investigation and solving the mystery of his death.

With no assistance from her mother, Maya did a little baking this afternoon. She prepared galette des rois as part of a french class assignment. My offers to conduct quality control testing were rejected. Instead I got a good workout with my chainsaw. I had to fell a rather large pine tree which had been badly damaged by our recent snow storm. The weight of the wet snow brought down many large limbs and left the trunk of the tree badly compromised.