At iRobot we give departing employees a royalsend-offf and in this case a proper roasting. Gerry, our VP of Product Management, joined the company almost exactly when I did and I have really enjoyed working with him over the years. He is headed to Fort Collins, CO and I hope to see him again one day while visiting Nicolai at Colorado College.
Nico travels to NYC on Thursday to attend the Kicking & Screening Film Festival held at the Tribeca Cinemas. He will be present for Q&A and media interviews after the screening of Nico, a two-minute documentary about his life on the soccer pitch, filmed almost exclusively by his dear old dad. Jeanine will accompany him and I will be sending her with a nice camera to capture the event. An interview with him about his participation can be found on the K&S Blog.
Winter snows have given way to spring rains and it is nice to get out forlunchtimee walks again. I find that my post soccer game muscle soreness dissipates more quickly when I exercise the day after a match.
At eighty-five, my mother shows no signs of slowing down and is as beautiful as the day my father married her. I hope I age as well as she has although my soccer performance this morning did little to suggest that would be the case. I need to shed at least 15 pounds and build back my cardio fitness at the very least. Our season opener match was against our arch rival Acton-Boxborough. In the ten years I have played for Concord United we have never beaten them. Today we broke that pattern with a well earned 2-0 win suggesting we might have a shot at the Division 1 title this year.
Few things are more photogenic than ballerinas. Today I spent 7 hours photographing Maya and her fellow students during their tech rehearsal, dress rehearsal, and spring performance. I was completely exhausted after capturing 1500 images without a break for food or water. Eighty percent of my photographs wound up in the trash. The remaining ones can be seen at this link. I am very pleased with the results and hope they will bring joy to many families.
My mother arrived today and will be visiting us for a few days. We had occasion to look through the collection of old family photos I have digitized over the years. In this one, my dad is front and center, I am to his right, and my brother is seated on my mother’s lap. As we studied the photo, my mother pointed out an interesting fact. Nearly 50 years after it was taken, two of the pictured people got married to each other. Also in this photo is the mother of the bride and the brother of the groom and they are married to each other adding further to the improbability of this image. Difficult to wrap your head around these relationships and further complicated if I tell you that the newlyweds are not blood relatives.
The big day has arrived. Powerade launched their new marketing campaign featuring Nico and world famous soccer player Andrés Iniesta of FC Barcelona. The video posted above is the anthem TV ad (60 second version) which will run internationally during the 2014 World Cup games (check out Nico’s sweet diving header not seen in the 30 second version posted previously). If you click on the video it will take you through a playlist that also includes a 2 minute documentary exclusively about Nicolai, a piece called Powering Through which is a narrative by Iniesta with footage of Nico playing soccer, and a funny “unguarded” reel that may be the most entertaining of the bunch. You call follow the media campaign on Twitter at #powerthrough.
Later this month Nicolai will travel to Barcelona where he will meet Iniesta on the soccer pitch. Can’t wait to see who has the better moves and to report on that. Working with the folks at Coca Cola on this Powerade campaign has been wonderful and we are looking forward to seeing the first ads on TV.
Nicolai’s girlfriend Karuna joined us for dinner this evening. She arrived bearing delicious brownies but we let her stay anyway. Her habit of showing up with home made treats is having a negative impact on my spring soccer weight loss plan. Later, I decided it was time for a formal portrait and this is one of my favorites.
Crosby’s Marketplace in Concord is a a great corporate citizen. Today they presented a check for $1,042 to Open Table. Read the full Patch article describing their donation HERE.
Hoping to catch a glimpse of the filming for Tumbledown, I returned to Concord from work during my lunch hour. As I approached the Main Street Cafe from the downtown parking area, I first came upon Olivia Wilde. She played “Thirteen,” one of the doctors in the television series House. Only later did I learn that she is engaged to Jason Sudeikis, who is pictured below in one of the scenes being filmed.
As I was driving through downtown Concord on the way home from work, I noticed a film crew setting up lighting. I pulled over briefly to get this photo but did not have enough time to inquire about the project. From the look of things, it appears to be a big project and based on signs directing “extras” to the town’s large parking area, I am guessing that tomorrow will be even more interesting. Perhaps I can gather more background for tomorrow’s post.
UPDATE:
The film being made is called Tumbledown, a romantic comedy that stars Jason Sudeikis and Rebecca Hall. Sean Mewshaw directs from Desi Van Til’s original screenplay, which follows a woman (Hall) who is unable to move on after the death of her husband, an acclaimed musician and the subject of a biography she’s struggling to write. She meets a brash New York academic (Sudeikis) who has a different take on her husband’s life and death, and the pair must collaborate to craft the famous singer’s story and begin to write the next chapter in their lives together.
My brother is a pilot for Endeavor Air, a regional carrier for Delta Airlines. As such, members of his family can fly free in network. This is a tremendous benefit and the reason my nephew Rory decided to hopon a flight from Minneapolis to hang out with us for a few days. We are always delighted to have one or more of the cousins drop in. A junior in high school, Rory is beginning to narrow down his college choices. He scarcely dodged a severe beating when he revealed that no Boston schools were on his list, a situation I plan to rectify before he departs.
Nicolai launched a Go Fund Me campaign today to support his run for the 2014 Amputee Soccer World Cup. See his appeal below.
My dream to play World Cup soccer is getting closer. As a member of the USA National Amputee Soccer Team, I am preparing for the 2014 games to be held in Culiacan, Mexico November 30 through December 8, 2014. Members of the US team are scattered across the country. Practicing together requires significant travel expenses and I am looking for your help to offset those costs. Some of you supported my appeal for the all volunteer American Amputee Soccer Association prior to the 2012 games. Regretably, the US was unable to send a team to the 2012 World Cup but the funds have served to help the AASA build momentum for the 2014 games. Thank you for your support.
To say that Nico is hard on his crutches would be the understatement of the year. This evening during an indoor soccer match he managed to fracture the carbon fiber tube just below the grip. The folks at SideStix have refined their design numerous times to “Nico Proof” their product and I imagine they will be studying this failure with an eye to further improvements. When he was born, I would never have guessed that Nico would be so good at breaking things.
In preparation for an upcoming performance, Maya invited her ballet troop for a costume preparationsleepoverr party. I was summoned to the basement ballerina enclave twice. First to provide a hot-melt glue gun and then to hook up their music to the home theater sound system. Completing these tasks earned me the right to take a picture of the gathered beauties.
The Cafe Escadrille was the venue for a farewell party for our esteemed Human Resources business partner, Christa. Although her departure has been much lamented she is only moving across the street. I have little doubt that our paths will continue to cross and look forward to staying in touch. Christa has been an integral part of my team and we are all going to miss her tremendously.