Jeanine celebrates her (actual) 50th birthday today. At her request, we have postponed the official family party for a few days so that we could attend a casual gathering with friends this evening. I experimented with a little macro photography. Can you guess what the subject is? Timing these shots is something of a hit-or-miss affair and I am not entirely pleased with the lighting but I don’t think the final image is too bad for a first attempt.
I have finally located a pair of nesting Great Blue Herons and they are not too far from the house. At this time of year, the male is responsible for gathering sticks with which the female carefully constructs their nest. She can be very selective about the size and shape of the stick. When he returns with a particularly good choice he is rewarded with sex (or at least this is my take on the apparent quid pro quo). Herons can be very naughty, shamelessly stealing sticks from unoccupied adjacent nests. I will be very interested to see what happens when a returning heron discovers a neighbor pilfering from his nest. Stay tuned.
I have obtained some pretty great deals on Craig’s List over the years but today I got more than I bargained for. I picked up two studio strobes with soft boxes which are virtually new, a pair of light stands, and a 10’x12′ backdrop with stands. The items were in pristine condition and I got a phenomenal price. This, however, is not the story. The seller lives in Medfield and I made arrangements to meet for the transaction at 8AM. To avoid traffic and because I thought I might do a little photography en route, I left at 6AM. As I was passing through Westwood I saw something that I simply had to stop and videotape. As you watch the very short clip embedded below please keep your eyes glued to the house in the background.
There is no video trickery here. The house really did move. If not for the fact that it got stuck, you would have seen this house move 25 feet across the frame. Had that happened the video would have surely gone viral. Unfortunately, I did not have time to wait around while workers addressed the problem. This building is the Colburn School and is being relocated within the High Street historic district as part of the construction project for Westwood’s new library. When I drove past the scene I realized that workers were all set to initiate the move. I determined that if I positioned my camera in such a way as to obscure the machines and tracks that I could make a very interesting video. Click on the thumbnail to the right to reveal the mechanics involved.
It is not often that Maya asks me to photograph her. Needless to say, when she made that request this evening I was all too happy to oblige. Together with her friend Maddie we did a nice ballet themed series.
I was up and out early this morning for a little photography before work. I am not really a birder but I find they make fascinating photographic subjects. I am always excited when I capture a new species for the first time and that was the case today. Pictured above are a male and female Ring Necked Duck. It is not at all clear to me why they have this name but I checked my ornithology references twice to make sure I made the correct identification. Below you will find a Tree Swallow. They are very common but notoriously difficult to photograph in flight. To get the shot, I set up on this bird house and waited until one came by to visit.
My spring outdoor soccer season began this morning and the team is sporting a new, mostly white uniform. We traveled an hour and a half to Ludlow, MA where we secured a well-earned 4-0 win over a very strong Portuguese team. My game was unremarkable. I did my job and made few if any mistakes but did little to assist with our scoring or forcing turnovers by the defense. For the moment, I have retained a starting position and played on the front line today where we were missing a few players.
The day of Jeanine’s 50th birthday party (for friends) has arrived (additional celebrations will be held with family in the future). I spent the bulk of the day decorating (for future reference, when hanging braided crepe paper, it is easier to twist the paper by hand than using a power drill), hanging new artwork from India, and doing the last bits of cleaning/organizing (my office has never looked so good). I was feeling so relaxed about our state of readiness that I nearly forgot about picking up the food and had to make a high speed run to the Royal India Bistro, returning just as our first guests were arriving. I will leave it for Jeanine to say, but I think the party was a great success. Of our 30 guests (all women), several were still here 5 hours into the event. The evening featured a quiz show about Jeanine. Contestants used their cell phones to register answers as all viewed real time results on our TV screen in the living room (thanks to Joe at work for the link to polleverywhere.com). The first question is shown here with only 5% of respondents able to correctly identify Lebanon, Indiana as Jeanine’s place of birth. Friends from her writer’s group knew many answers that stumped others but missed some of the most basic questions. We had just the right amount of wine and way too much food.
The party occupied the better part of our first floor. The kitchen was the hub of interaction and dining, the living room had a 750 slide show of Jeanine’s life running on the TV, the dining room was laid out with all the food and desserts, and the breakfast nook is where beverages could be found as well as a second slide show featuring photos by Maya and Jeanine from their adventure in India. I did a pretty good job of restocking the bar, photographing the event, and cleaning up throughout the evening. The result was one happy wife.
In preparation for her 50th birthday party celebration tomorrow, I completed this photo montage of Jeanine featuring photos from various stages of her life. I thought this would be a nice way to celebrate the passage of time and to give her friends a glimpse of her they have never seen before.
It has been almost a year since iRobot reorganized from divisions with dedicated engineering into three business units with shared engineering. Last month we hired a new General Manager to run our Home Business unit thereby completing our senior management team. He has lived and worked all over the world and is currently relocating here from Stevensville, MI. He is looking for a home in Concord and this evening we had him and his family over for dinner. Pictured here are his children, ages 11, 9, and 6 who I managed to quickly (and secretly) photograph so that I could make a gift for their portrait.
As did both of her brothers before her, Maya will be traveling to Washington, D.C. with her 8th grade class later this month. Concord middle schoolers have been making this bus trip for the last 22 years and it is a highlight of their last year. This evening Maya and I attended the information session during which parents and students learned all about the trip logistics. This is my third time attending this session and I practically have the content memorized. I relegated all responsibility for taking notes and filling out forms to Maya who was more than up for the task. She was amused as the chaperones discussed safety when crossing streets in our nation’s capitol. After crossing 6 lanes of traffic in Mumbai, D.C. is going to be a piece of cake she quipped. I took this photo of the Lincoln Memorial in 2004 when I escorted Kyle and his friend Seth to a soccer tournament being held in Maryland.
I always find it very educational to visit the factories in which my team’s designs are produced. I gain a great appreciation for the time and hence cost involved with various design choices. Pictured here are one component of the wheels used on our PackBots (primarily used for ordinance disposal by bomb squads). They are machined out of slabs of exotic plastic, deburred, and dyed black. You would have to work hard to design a more expensive wheel for a robot without using precious metals.I plan to challenge my team with identifying a much more cost effective alternative when I return to Boston. On the home front, Nicolai and Jeanine worked with our college advisers to narrow the half dozen schools where he has been accepted down to a short list including only Carleton and the University of Miami. Nicolai will visit both, Carleton for the second time, over the next two weeks before making his final selection. Regardless of the choice, Nico seems settled on deferring admission and taking a gap year before entering college, a choice which we support.
After a busy morning in the office, I flew to Dayton, Ohio where I will be touring one of our two US factories tomorrow. I was joined by two iRobot colleagues for dinner with the CEO of GEMCITY and his Director of Operations. On the way to our hotel, I captured this image out the window of our rental car. It reminded me of the Midwest.
The morning started with my first outdoor scrimmage of the season. I played at wing midfield for a good 60 minutes but had to leave early so that I could shower and make it to church in time to see Jeanine and Maya speaking briefly about their Coming of Age adventure to India and lighting the Social Action candle. Afterwards I was able to take a few portraits of Maya with Jeanine and Nicolai.
Maya’s Message to the congregation:
My mom and I are happy to light this candle today for all the 243 girls who attend the school where we spent 3 weeks in Western rural, India. They are: Sonu, Runda, Devida, Jesshiree; girls from the Worli and Katkari tribes, who have a wonderful opportunity to go to school in a “racist free” environment because of the Unitarian church and Holdeen Program. Like so many service experiences, we received more love, attention, education, and friendship than we could possibly reciprocate with our teaching. To slow down and admire the beauty of a chameleon, to take time every night to talk to each other about all we had experienced and to laugh at ourselves with humility….. This is what it means to have a shared coming of age experience together. Allowing ourselves these life changing moments to be completely vulnerable so that we could learn about courage and learn a new way to relate to each other. May more mothers and daughters know how to have this together, to step out of their roles as wise and young and step into a shared experience of the unknown, both completely vulnerable and both equally curious so that they may know each other and life in a completely new way.
For Easter dinner we were joined by my nephew John William Quinn and two classmates from Babson, Radhika and Roy.
I spent the bulk of the day preparing for Jeanine’s 50th birthday party(s). We will celebrate with her local friends on April 6th, with just the family on April 12th (her actual birthday) and with extended family in June combined with Nico’s high school graduation party. Among other things, I am preparing a slide show which will run throughout the events. I have selected 700 photos from the 3500 I have of her which will advance every 5 seconds resulting in a one hour sequence. Included here are two of my favorite images of my sweetheart.
