My day started and ended in French Park.  Alerted to the presence of radiation fog by Marie while dropping off the girls for school, Mark and I drove down only to find it had already dissipated. At the end of the day, I returned with my nieces for a dinner picnic (peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, cheese and crackers, salami, baby carrots, gorp, tootsie rolls, snickerdoodles, candy corn, and lemonade). After dinner, we played several different games (gerbil hunting, tiger stalking, tag, jumping through the open window of a moving car). The middle of the day was filled with a range of honey-do projects which Mark took the lead on demonstrating much-improved stamina now that he is completely off his pain meds.

Maya helped to create a video designed to encourage other high school students to join the Anti Defamation League. We are very proud of her involvement in the organization and the leadership she has demonstrated.

I returned to Minneapolis today to help out my brother and his family as he continues to recover from the heart attack he suffered two weeks ago.  Realizing I had failed to take any portraits of my nieces on my last visit I quickly rectified that oversight.

On the home front, Maya’s soccer team advanced to the Division 2 North State quarterfinals with a decisive 8-0 victory over the Snowden School.  Maya played for almost the entire game and I am looking forward to reviewing video footage of the match.

Motorized boats on the Sudbury River are very uncommon and generally unwelcome by the much larger community of paddlers of which I count myself a member.  The one pictured above, however, was very much appreciated, arriving at just the right moment to provide an interesting foreground for my photo.  A kayak would not have left a wake mirroring the path of the river which I feel adds to the interest of the image.   My soccer team accepted a forfeit this morning and we opted to have an intra-squad scrimmage rather than miss an opportunity to play.  Depending on other results within our division we still have a slim chance of making the playoffs, otherwise our outdoor season has come to an end.

Much of our lawn succumbed to this summer’s severe drought and our observance of the watering ban. Fortunately, our shrubs and ornamental trees survived offering a nice distraction from the bald patches which can be seen all over our front and back yards.  I missed peak color but was pleased I caught the last vestiges of a lovely fall sunset.

Their win last week against undefeated Newton South earned the CCHS Women’s Varsity team a berth in the post-season divisional championship tournament.  With 2 minutes left to play in the second 10-minute sudden-death overtime period, Concord scored to defeat Reading High School and advance to the next round where they will face the number two seed.  Maya played during the first half and displayed the fine form that helped her team win last week’s crucial match.  I will be in Minnesota helping my brother and his family next week and will miss the next two matches if the team continues to advance.

For the second year, the folks at the Emerson Umbrella have organized an Empty Bowls fundraiser for the benefit of Open Table. Adult and student artists collaborate to create beautiful ceramic bowls to be offered at the event. Patrons make a donation which entitles them to the bowl of their choice. They then proceed to the dining area where their bowl is filled with food donated by Comella’s, Crosby’s Markets, and the Nashoba Brook Bakery.  Of all the fundraisers that support Open Tables’ mission to help those dealing with food insecurity, I find this one the most poignant.

Although I threatened to take a sledgehammer to my recently failed hard disk drive, I decided to dissect it instead.  This unit was fitted with three magnetic platters each storing 8 trillion bits of information and six flying heads, one for each side of each platter. When I was born, IBM was selling the 350 Disk File, a drive with fifty 24-inch platters and a total capacity of 30 million bits.  It was the size of two refrigerators with only 1/800,000 of the capacity.  As sophisticated as this technology has become, we will soon look back and scoff at the idea of storage based on spinning magnetic disks.

While I was returning from New York City last month there was a severe thunderstorm in Concord.  Our house experienced either a power surge or lightning hit which damaged our flat screen TV, cable box/DVR, BluRay Player, Sonos, and AppleTV boxes beyond repair. Comcast replaced the cable box at no cost and I found a spare Sonos unit that was not in use.  I replaced the 5-year old, 60in HDTV with a 65in 4K UHDTV which was delivered this morning. Thanks to a thinner bezel, the larger screen just fit into the media center I built for the smaller one. The new TV has an operating system that largely duplicates the AppleTV functionality and we rarely used the BluRay player so I have opted not to replace those devices.  Upgrading the TV software and programming all the new devices took the better part of the afternoon. Despite the financial hit (loss not covered by insurance due to high deductible), I am pleased to have a 4K display which will serve as a large picture frame for my photos when not being used as a TV.

When I returned from grocery shopping with pancake mix and a hankering for a flapjack dinner, Maya and her friend Fiona seized upon the opportunity to create chocolate chip Halloween-cakes. I was too busy enjoying the ones pictured here to document the subsequent works of culinary art.

Jeanine spent the weekend in Indiana where she celebrated her Lebanon High School 35-year reunion. Pictured here with life long best friend Kris Earle (above) and high school beau Jake (below) it is clear she is enjoying herself thoroughly.

Today she spent the day with sister Lauren and brother-in-law Bob Basile getting out for a hike on the Monon Trail.  It has been more than a week since we have seen each other and I am looking forward to her return tomorrow.

I flew back from Minnesota this morning so that I could attend Maya’s soccer match this evening.  The team needed a win to advance into post season competition and Maya provided a pivotal contribution to their 1-0 victory over undefeated and highly regarded Newton South. Midway through the first half Maya intercepted a loose ball, dribbled to about midfield where she made a perfectly weighted pass into open space, splitting the defense. A teammate ran onto the ball, took it to the flag and crossed for the goal.

It was arguably the most important goal of the season and a great way for Maya to close out her high school soccer career. The team was euphoric over the goal and I am sure this is a game Maya will remember for the rest of her life.

A complete set of photos from the match can be found here.

When I first spoke to my mother after learning of my brother’s heart attack, I assured her he would be back in his kitchen cooking pasta by the end of the week.  I was wrong.  He chose to make popcorn.  He arrived home late this evening after making the seven-hour drive from Marquette with his wife Marie and cousin Heather.  He is still quite sore from a cracked sternum and ribs sustained during his 19 minutes of CPR. He has also been fitted with an implanted defibrillator which will shock him back to life should his heart decide to take another siesta.  Mark really dodged a bullet and we are all very thankful this story has a happy ending.

While my nieces were in school today I visited the Minnesota Zoo which resulted in a huge collection of photographs, some of my favorites are included below.

There are many things I do well.  Cooking is not one of them. My first attempt at baking waffle fries for my nieces resulted in loud and enthusiastic acknowledgement from the kitchen smoke detector. Not one to give up at anything, I made a second attempt this evening with a highly satisfying golden-brown outcome.  Please understand that these potatoes came frozen in a bag and the only skill necessary to prepare them is to sit around doing nothing for the appropriate amount of time. I confess that sitting around doing nothing has never been one of my strong suits either.

In addition to maintaining high nutritional standards for my nieces, today’s after-school activities included a visit to Clifton French Regional Park and a game of “chase the gerbils” (I am referred to as the Gerbil Master), driving lessons in the parking lot and gymnastic class for Sophia.