I left my soccer match this morning late in the second half with a strained hamstring muscle which will keep me sidelined for two or three weeks. We managed a 1-1 tie against arch rival Acton Boxborough and preserved our third place position in the league rankings.

Nicolai is headed for Milan, Italy today and I dropped him at the airport shortly after noon. He has been hired by the Western Union Company to speak at an event they are hosting in conjunction with the Europa League finals. They are covering the cost of his travel, 3 days of meals and accommodation at a luxury lake side resort, a premium seat for the finals and a 5-figure speaking fee. Not bad work if you can get it!

On the way back from the airport, I stopped in Boston’s North End for lunch where I literally ran into Jay Leno as I was leaving Regina Pizzeria. I never know what to do when I run into a celebrity.  I start by playing it cool and treating them like anyone else.  Then I kick myself and decide I am not going to miss the photo opportunity.

Later in the day Jeanine and I enjoyed the perfect weather with a stroll at the Old North Bridge before collecting Maya for a soccer game in Wellesley.  The tenacity and skill of her play is approaching that of her brothers and she had a very solid match.

Later we celebrated Mother’s Day at the Farmstead Table restaurant in Newton which serves only locally sourced and exquisitely prepared foods. We dined outdoors and made a few portraits while waiting for our food.

It has been almost four years since I purchased my Audi Q5. At that time, I was very interested in purchasing an all-electric vehicle but there was nothing on the market that I could get excited about. Last week, BMW introduced its all-electric i3 model.  I test-drove one last night and purchased one this morning.  It should be delivered towards the end of July. It is rated for 134 MPGe in the city and has a range of 80-100 miles.  My round-trip commute is 22 miles and iRobot offers free charging stations at work.  I have owned two Mercedes (320SL, ML320) , two Porsches (944 red, 944 black), two Audi’s (A3, Q5) and the BMW makes my seventh German car.  Prior to that, I owned two British (Triumph Spitfire and GT6), two Italian (Alpha Romeo Spyder and GTV), and two Japanese (Nissan 300ZX Turbo, Lexus SC300) cars.  If Tesla follows through with their Model X it may become my first American car (I have a deposit holding a place for one that is probably 18 months from production).

Even a five-minute stop at Great Meadows before work helps me get centered.  With the lengthening days of summer upon us, I have many more opportunities, both before and after work, to spend time in nature, and am grateful we live in a place with so much to enjoy.

It is painful when we lose one of our employees to another company but we always make sure to thank them for all their contributions to iRobot. Today we bid one of our top Program Managers farewell as he prepares to move his family to California where he has taken a job with Google. For every two engineers that leave the company, I would estimate that one eventually returns or wishes they could.

Nicolai will grace the cover of this month’s edition of inMotion Magazine.  This makes my second cover photo for a nationally distributed magazine; not too shabby for an amateur. Of course, the real attraction here is Nicolai, who has become the poster child for amputee soccer.  He also secured another high-profile speaking engagement with Adidas and will be traveling to Phoenix for that event in early June.

There are few trees that produce a lovelier bloom than the pear. The driveway into the iRobot parking lot is lined with them producing a white petal-lined corridor for a few special days each year.

Local CBS affiliate WBZ carried an interview with Nicolai on their evening news today about his involvement with the Powerade #powerthrough campaign for the World Cup.  Jeanine was heavily featured and it is no wonder to me where Nico got his great public speaking poise.

My soccer game this morning is in Fall River and the 8 am start time required that I leave by 6 am.  The long drive gave way to a long match.  I played most of the first half and all of the second half. My recovering ankle held up well but my conditioning was not where it needed to be. Nonetheless, I made good contributions on the field and helped my team secure an important 4-3 win.

Kyle recently got me hooked on a TV series called House of Cards and I used a good portion of the afternoon to finish watching season two before heading out in search of some nice spring scenes.

It takes a bit of coercion but occasionally we can obtain a college-life photo from Kyle.  Jeanine and I are planning to visit with him over the Memorial Day weekend.

I spent several hours this afternoon taking down the treehouse I built for the children some 6 years ago.  The kids have outgrown it and it was beginning to show signs of dilapidation.  It was a more challenging project than I anticipated. Removing the roof released a colony of termites onto my head and even though gravity was in my favor, I had to be very careful not to get crushed when I dropped the main platform.

It’s that time of year when the Blue Heron prepares its nest for the arrival of chicks. After work, I dragged my long lens out to the rookery where I photographed many families last year. I did not see a single heron but I did capture a nice Pileated Woodpecker and European Starling.

It has been raining on and off for several days now. This evening on the way home from work I paused for a photo of the Sudbury River. The sun was out and low in the sky creating beautiful light on the cloud filled scene.

A long-time favorite lens of mine will go up on Craig’s List for sale later today.  I am replacing it with an updated version which was just released.  Pictured below is a favorite photo made with this lens featuring Kyle and two of his friends from high school.

Signed by Andres Iniesta, this is the invitation Nico received to attend the World Cup in Brazil. We will plan a vacation day on either side of the quarter-final match, scheduled for July 4th, to enjoy the city of Rio de Janeiro.

Nico has also secured a corporate speaking engagement for Western Union. They are flying him to Italy for the conference and have invited him to join them for the Europa League Finals in Turin.

Maya got a bit of a sunburn on our last day in Barcelona.  She and Jeanine spent most of the day on an open-air tour bus seeing the sights while Nico and I were occupied with his Powerade media event.  Both Maya and Kyle produced exceptional grades this semester and we are very proud of their academic accomplishments. Meanwhile, Nico has accepted an interview with the BBC for their Outlook show which will be taped at their local studio in Boston next week.