The boys both came home today to help care for Maya as she recovers from the surgery to extract her wisdom teeth. They are seen here providing lateral support to ensure that she does not tip over while sitting on the couch.

I was Jeanine’s plus one at the Open Table Holiday Staff Party this evening. The event was held in the event room at the Azucar Tapas Bar, just a few steps from Open Table’s Maynard site. Jeanine presented each member of her staff with a small candy gift, picked to highlight a particular strength of that individual (licorice for flexibility, dots for structured an orderly, etc.) It was an extremely nice way to talk about the superpowers of the team and was much appreciated by everyone. Between tapas courses, we played several games including a Yankee Gift Swap. At the end of the evening, a member of the team spoke on behalf of the group, showering Jeanine with admiration for her work as the leader of the organization.

It has taken more than a year to find a buyer for this desk/cabinet but I finally sold it this evening. Even though my new job has taken the pressure off moving, we are still committed to downsizing in the next few years. Patience is the best strategy for selling items on Craig’s List. Eventually, you will find someone looking for exactly what you are selling. What I did not bargain on was how heavy this piece was. I was not present when it was initially delivered and have not had occasion to move it since. Fortunately, the buyer was a strong young guy and I had an appliance dolly with a strap long enough to go all the way around. Even so, I found myself bearing the entire weight of this monstrosity when the buyer slipped on some ice while we were descending the stairs from our front door. Thankfully, neither of us were injured. Much as when I finally sold our grand piano, I was happy to see this desk out of the house.

Maya had all four of her wisdom teeth extracted today. I left work early (7 PM) to check in on her. In the self-made video below she has some choice things to say about her dentist.

As predicted in an earlier post, I was able to break the 20-minute mark with a new record for my morning commute of 16 minutes. I do not believe I will be able to better this mark without running a significant risk of arrest. I am still working 14 to 16 hours a day but feel I can start getting back to normal now that I am largely up to speed with my new job.

I am not at liberty to say much about this photo I took at work today other than the fact that it represents a major milestone for the company. My time at Formlabs was largely devoted to the people side of the engineering organization which I enjoyed immensely. It must be said, however, that I have been really having fun being in the technical trenches again. This is the kind of work that has me up at 4 AM with new ideas in my head and ready to race to the office.

For the last several weeks I have been slowly replacing all of the polished brass faucets, drains, towel bars, toilet paper holders, and knobs with updated brushed nickel replacements in all four of our bathrooms. Today I removed the sliding glass doors from one of the showers and replaced it with a set of shower curtains on a brushed nickel curved rod. I posted the shower doors on Craig’s List and they were out of the house by late afternoon.

While out doing errands this afternoon, I decided to photograph Warners Pond from the air. I have done this in the past but never from the backside. Had I arrived a few minutes earlier the sun would have been illuminating the foreground as well as the island; a project for a future date. I used the earlier part of the day to replace all the towel racks, robe hooks, and toilet paper holders in the house with ones matching the new faucets I installed a few weeks ago. This transition from brass to brushed nickel finishes certainly makes the house feel more up to date.

With the kids all living on their own now, I had surprisingly few photos of them to select among for my favorites of the year.

Today I am looking back at my favorite landscape photos of 2019. May 2020 be as bountiful.

Two days ago a three million dollar home in our community burned to the ground. Located on 13 acres overlooking the Sudbury River, the 120-year-old home was built by descendants of presidents John and John Quincy Adams. Located in an old part of Concord with no fire hydrants, firefighters quickly exhausted the 30,000-gallon cistern supply and had to truck water in from over a mile away allowing the fire to engulf the entire structure. Ironically the Sudbury River is less than 1000 feet away but down a very steep hill. The swimming pool could have provided another 30,000 gallons but was not used for some reason. This afternoon, I flew my drone over to survey the damage. An excavator was already on the scene to begin the cleanup.