Maya made this drawing of our family when she was in elementary school. Kyle and Nicolai appear to be larger than life, looking quite handsome and muscular. Maya is as cute as ever. Jeanine is rather small, although very fetching with her cocked head and big hair. Then we have the father who appears to have no arms of consequence, is smaller than Nico’s leg, lacks ears, and is the only member of the family, including the guinea pigs, that is not labeled with his proper name. My father, who was a psychologist and psychotherapist, would have had a field day analyzing this drawing. It is one of the dozens of drawing made by the children that I am systematically digitizing for posterity.

Jeanine and I decided to check out the Somerville Winter Farmers Market this afternoon. It is open on Saturdays from December to mid-April. There, we enjoyed live jazz while eating a very healthy lunch before setting about to check out all the vendors. The music alone was worth the trip.

On the drive home, we spotted a large group of young people all dressed up as Santas. I had to stop for a photo and to inquire about the motivation. I learned that they were on their way to attend SantaCon, a free pub crawl and mass gathering where people dress in Santa Claus costumes or as other Christmas / holiday characters and parade throughout Boston and several cities around the world. Last year, over 3,000 Santa’s participated in the Boston event which this year includes one route through Boston and one through Cambridge, both culminating in Fenway.

After another set of very productive meetings with the folks from Lincoln Electric’s Welding Automation team, we enjoyed lunch together. On the left is their representative to our Board of Directors and on the right their CTO. I was a little groggy today having spent several hours in the middle of last night documenting ideas I had from our meetings yesterday. We spent the remainder of the afternoon getting a tour of the Lincoln Electric Welding School, the first of its kind, set up in 1917 and of the factory floor. It is amazing how much I learned during the course of our visit. I am also now looking for the slightest excuse to buy a welder.

Headquartered in Euclid, Ohio, Lincoln Electric has 44 manufacturing locations, including operations and joint ventures in 19 countries and a worldwide network of distributors and sales offices covering more than 160 countries. The company was founded in 1895 by John C. Lincoln with a capital investment of $200 to make electric motors he had designed. Today, revenues are in the billions and the company business model was listed as one of the most studied by the Harvard Business School. The company, recognized as the leader in the industry, manufactures welding products, consumables, and robotic welding systems. Our meetings with their CTO and his team proved to be unbelievably productive. It is clear to me that the project we are working on with them is going to lead to a very positive outcome.

This evening I flew to Cleveland, Ohio with several colleagues for meetings over the next two days with folks from Lincoln Electric, known primarily for their welding products. They are an early strategic investor in Digital Alloys and have offered to share their knowledge of high current power supplies with us. Pictured above is the interior of the Cleveland Airport where we spent much longer than necessary waiting to obtain a rental car. By the time we arrived at our hotel, I decided to skip dinner with my team and went directly to bed.

As if yesterday’s snow was insufficient, we were treated to an additional 8 inches today. Another work out with the snowblower and quick run into work. The weather was of little consequence to me today as I spent close to 14 hours in the office absorbing as much new knowledge as I could. I will apologize in advance for the reduced quality of the blog as I come up to speed in my new job. Only so many hours in the day.

I was hoping to get a very early start on my first official day of work at Digital Alloys. Mother nature had other plans. I woke up to the first snowfall of the season, a respectable 6-8 inches. If not for two broken shear pins and extremely wet snow, I would have been done snow blowing in an hour. Instead, the task took closer to two hours. On the positive side, very few cars were out when I did set out for the office making the commute extra short despite very slick roads.

We have really enjoyed having Maya back for the Thanksgiving holiday. Tomorrow she returns to Seattle for two weeks to complete her internship with Blue Origin and is scheduled on an early morning flight. In anticipation of a major snowstorm that started this evening we decided it would be best to have her spend the night with Kyle in his Seaport District apartment. There she will be within a stone’s throw of the airport which should greatly help with travel logistics and safety.

Yesterday, I spent a good bit of time online taking advantage of Black Friday sales on all manner of tools and photo gear. Whenever I purchase a new tool as an upgrade to one I already own, it immediately goes to Craig’s List for sale. This morning, I did a bunch of product photography needed for the the various listings. Depending on their condition, I can generally recoup from 60% to 80% of my original investment. This evening Jeanine and I dined with old friends and made some new ones, a great way to spend part of our Thanksgiving weekend.

This evening Jeanine and I joined Kyle for a ten year reunion party of his high school varsity soccer team, winners of the state championship in his senior year. It was amazing to me both how much everyone had changed and how much they had remained the same over the last decade. It was just as much of a reunion for the parents and a thoroughly enjoyable evening. Anticipating the desire for a team photo, I should have thought to bring a flash with me which would have made for a better image than the dim lighting permitted.

Anytime we can gather the entire family is a day to give thanks. Maya flew in this morning on a red-eye from Seattle. Jeanine and I picked her up at the airport and got a full debrief on her exploits as an intern at Blue Origin. Nicolai drove to the Seaport District to retrieve Kyle who is sporting a new hair style. I spent the earlier part of the day taking care of some lingering chores and taking a headshot of myself that matches the one already being used on the Digital Alloys website by other members of the management team.

Formlabs is a company of brilliant and often quirky people. One came up with the idea of creating trading cards for each employee. Cards include two “actions” with optional “flavor text” and other information including team affiliation (ELT=Engineering Leadership Team), start date (Nov 2018), location and other interesting symbols and information. Apparently these cards can be used to play some sort of game in which the cards change hands. Mine arrived today, coincident with my last day in the office and made for a wonderful keepsake. Next Monday, will be my first official day with Digital Alloys and I am now ready to start gearing up for the new challenge.

On my way into the office this morning I paused to take this photo. The sun had just come up and was bathing these cattails (I believe) in golden light. I parked on the shoulder of 117 and climbed on top of a guard rail to get the angle I wanted. At this time of year it is harder to find really photogenic outdoor scenes and I was thankful for this unexpected find.

Voted the best Irish pub in New Hampshire for the past 10 years, the The Holy Grail was the venue for my soccer team’s celebration party yesterday after winning the OTHSL D1 championship. Located in Epping, NH in the same basic structure as the former St. Joseph’s Church built in 1895 it has been transformed into a true Irish pub. The proprietors are David and Maureen Kennedy whose families are from County Tipperary and County Galway, Ireland respectively. We dined in the “Choir Loft” which overlooks the main bar, Irish village mural on the altar wall and offers views of the building’s original stained glass windows. Pictured above is the life-size statue of a monk which greats you as you enter the pub.