We are renting an oceanfront home on Sullivan Bay with a stunning view of the mountains of Acadia National Park. With my brother’s family, we number 10 (my sister-in-law, Marie, is in Ireland visiting with her sister, who is battling cancer and could not join us). The place is enormous, and everyone has plenty of room to spread out.
Within an hour of Nico’s liberation from the hospital we were on our way to Maine to join up with the rest of our clan. We made several pit stops along the way and completed the journey in six hours. I took this photo while driving which explains the bow of a kayak in the frame. The sky started out unusually beautiful but eventually turned dark and we spent the last hour driving through a torrential rain storm which ended as quickly as it started when we reached our destination.
This morning Nico was cleared to eat solid food and promptly orders and devours a pathetic excuse for French Toast. It disappeared in record time as did we when he was subsequently released from the hospital. Although he received excellent care while at Emerson his stay felt more akin to a prison sentence and our departure had the feeling of an escape. We were in the car headed for home less than 15 minutes after they removed his IV catheter and we were looking over our shoulders the entire time.
I spent last night at the hospital with Nicolai and had little time today for new photos so I am posting a picture of my niece, Rose, taken in the backyard over the weekend. Nico is recovering nicely and there have been no complications from his surgery thus far. He was visited by all his cousins and siblings today before they departed for Maine with my brother. Jeanine has spent the bulk of the day with him and we are hoping he will be released tomorrow. He is positively starving but his doctor still wants to delay introducing solid foods until the morning. Jeanine prepared a special broth to which I added a few noodles and he was thrilled when this was smuggled into him. He pleaded for more noodles and threatened to walk home from the hospital to get them. We see this as a good sign.
Nicolai was feeling well enough to receive visitors this evening and was joined by Maya, Kyle, and cousins Mario and Rory. My brother Mark is holding down the home front and either Jeanine or I will spend the evening at the hospital with Nico.
Nicolai emerged from surgery a little groggy but was fairly coherent about an hour later. It has now been 24 hours since he last ate or drank and he is VERY hungry (a good sign). Regrettably he will not be allowed to eat until tomorrow sometime depending on how quickly his system recovers. With some luck he will be able to make the trip to Maine on Tuesday or Wednesday. Unfortunately he will not be able to attend his summer wrestling camp which is scheduled to start in two weeks. Full recovery will take from 3-5 weeks according to his surgeon.
It would be safe to say that today did not go as planned. Had it, our family would be enjoying the view of Sullivan Bay (just outside Acadia National Park in Maine) with my brother and his kids. Instead it was spent at Emerson Hospital where Nicolai had an emergency appendectomy. Last night he went to bed complaining of abdominal pain. This morning Kyle checked in on him and thought his symptoms sounded like appendicitis and encouraged him to check on the Internet. We decided it would be best to take him to the hospital before starting the 5 hour drive. After an ultrasound and a cat scan his condition was confirmed and he was in the operating room an hour later. The surgery was successful and there were no complications.
Maya won many carnival game prizes but was not able to dunk our CEO who was a great sport and seemed to enjoy the picnic as much as the kids. It was a great event with something for each member of the family. I received an iRobot jersey with my name on the back which will no doubt be featured in a future posting.
Kyle and Nico teamed up for a 2V2 match of volleyball and demonstrated great control and excellent passing. I really enjoyed watching them work as a team and the resulting elegance of play.
We traveled to Milton Academy this afternoon where we all enjoyed the iRobot family picnic. Jeanine and I both enjoyed meeting Madeline Chu, a friendly and adorable one-year-old. Maya connected with her sister Olivia, and the two were hard to separate. The boys made a beeline for the food before starting a game of volleyball.
The boys have acquired a taste for poker and routinely host games on the sun porch. Tonight’s pot is $75 and the trash talk was in high gear before the first hand was finished. I had planned to take advantage of iRobot’s half day Friday summer hours to get an early start on our up coming week long vacation. One thing led to another and by the time I returned home I had logged an actual half day (12 hours) which is not really how this benefit is supposed to work.
A farewell celebration for a departing employee did little to help my efforts to eat healthfully today. Between such events and my lack of exercise while my knees recover from the soccer season I am starting to feel rounder than desired.
As I looked through my pictures for the day, nothing came close to this portrait Kyle took during our Father’s Day photo outing. I love the concept, composition and execution, not to mention the subject. As we enter the summer months, Kyle is demonstrating a new level of maturity. He is taking his landscaping business very seriously, his hard work at the end of the school year paid off with an improved GPA, and he is making solid plans for college preparation over the break. Kyle needs to buy a truck for his business and he requested we make him an interest bearing loan for that purpose. Jeanine and I decided, to his utter surprise, to gift him our Honda Odyssey instead, our way of recognizing his hard work and supporting his entrepreneurial venture. He should be able to trade it in on a rather decent truck.
Complications at work prevented me from joining Jeanine and Maya for her end-of-the-year soccer party this evening. Each member of the team received a trophy for winning sectionals. The soccer ball on the trophy spins and has been a great hit with the family.
Maya celebrated her birthday with friends this afternoon after officially “graduating” from Willard School this morning. Jeanine and a few parents took the girls to Wingaersheek Beach for the party. Although I missed the festivities, I arrived home just in time to capture the group in pig pile formation.
Here are my favorites from each family member in the same order as the last post. Is it possible to inherit talent from your children and spouse?
My final treat was the best gift I have ever received for Father’s Day. I armed each member of the family with a camera and asked them to take a photograph of me (since I am almost always on the other side of the lens). Second, I requested an artistic photo from each one. We agreed on the Minute Man National Historic Park as our photo safari destination. Above are the results of their portraiture. Now just make a guess as to who took each photo? (Hint: The order is the same as in which their first initial appears in the prior question.)
Plan B: My first treat shall remain undisclosed. My second treat was breakfast prepared by the kids and served to me on the couch where we gathered to watch home videos of the children when they were very young. My third treat was a visit to the National Heritage Museum in Lexington with Jeanine where we enjoyed a photo exhibit by Quang–Tuan Luong composed of a single exquisite photograph of each of the 58 US National Parks. My fourth treat was watching the Brazil versus Ivory Coast World Cup Match in the home theater with Maya. My fifth treat was a delicious dinner that was half indulgent and half healthy.
This is the first birthday celebration I can remember where the parents had as much fun as the child. Maya enjoyed herself, having reached the age where she appreciated the full mix of activities we enjoyed today. I hope we can do this again.
After another fountain cool down we reached our Faneuil Hall our final destination for the day. Here we enjoyed various street artists, birthday gift shopping, visiting with the local horses, and Maya’s all time favorite dinner, Mac & Cheese.
Georges Island is dominated by historic Fort Warren, a Civil War-era fort known for its graceful granite archways and reputed ghost, the Lady in Black. Maya led us on a random walk tour and we eventually joined the end of a ranger led tour which took us through the very scary Dark Tunnel.
We arrive on Georges Island just in time to enjoy a wonderful performance of Brazilian music by graduating students of the Berkeley School of Music.
We boarded the Island Discovery ferry for the 30 minute voyage to Georges Island, part of Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area.
As the day was rather warm, Maya stopped to cool down at the leaping waters fountain on the green way. She was careful to study the timing pattern and was only partially drenched when it was time for us to leave for our scheduled ferry.
For her birthday Jeanine and I treat Maya to a day in Boston. Our first destination is the Long Wharf. When Maya realized this sculpture was alive she paused for a photo opportunity.
In preparation for an all-day adventure in Boston with her parents, Maya spends some time with Nala playing bubbles (worth enlarging the photo for a better view).
Maya is now 11 years old. Her day stated with French crepes filled with fruit, whipped cream, Nutela and topped with powdered sugar. Nico and Jeanine did the crepe making while Kyle and I assisted Maya with crepe consumption.
In this event, teams of student seek to suspend a bucket of balls using only their feet for as long as possible.
I was able to join the afternoon Fun Day activities courtesy of iRobot summer hours which allow for half day Fridays. In this event, one student is wrapped about the middle in double sided tape as their partner guides them, wheelbarrow style, over a course strewn with plastic balls. The goal is to pick up a many balls as possible using the tape. Still photos cannot convey the hilarity of this event.
It seems like only yesterday that Maya was in Kindergarten, and today, she is celebrating her last day of elementary school. During the morning, Jeanine was on hand to watch as Maya delivered a graduation speech to parents and students, the text of which is included here.
Hi, my name is Maya Calabria and I’ve been a student at Willard School since I was five.
I’ve enjoyed 6 years, 6 last days, 6 teachers, 6 carnivals, and unfortunately only 4 ice cream socials.
This year has been the hardest transition I have ever had to make. I’ve really had to step up and take responsibility for my learning by being organized and managing my time well. I learned how to be independent and to persevere.
In past years my work ethic has been to ask my parents for help. Now I can be patient and problem solve on my own.
I have learned more than in any other year and I had my first “ah ha” moment when one detail helped me link two pieces of history together. I will miss Willard but I am looking forward to the new challenges of Middle School and to making new friends.
I’d like to thank all of my teachers for being so understanding, for helping me to prepare for the future, and for choosing to devote their time to educating students. I’d also like to thank my parents for encouraging me and teaching me to value my education.There aren’t enough ways to say thank you.
Nothing like a “thermal event” in one of my test labs at work to spice up the day. A shorted motor in a test fixture induced a failure in the circuit board that was controlling it producing enough heat to melt everything in the vicinity resulting in a plume of acrid smoke. Before releasing a product we conduct a battery of stress tests to ensure the quality of our designs. These tests run 24/7 in unoccupied labs. In this case we were testing a wheel assembly and after 2000 hours of operation the brushes in the motor wore out and the springs which support them shorted together. Far better that we discover this failure mode in our labs rather than in a customer’s home and the incident will result in design improvements and a new smoke detection/power interruption system for all our test labs.