Our local deer have figured out that humans are not really a threat.  This guy is one of a small herd that frequents the field behind our house.  Today I ran into him, or rather, I did not run into him as he crossed ORNAC (Old Road to Nine Acre Corner) on his way down to the Sudbury River.  They always cross the road in the same place so I have learned to slow down and remain very alert at that location.  After crossing in front of me he lingered long enough for me to gather my camera and take a few photos from inside my car.

Between work and finishing my taxes, there was little time today for anything else. I did manage to watch the elite women’s finish of the Boston Marathon during my lunch break at a local pizzeria. Even though I was only a mile and a half from the finish line, I had little desire to be out in the pouring rain, frigid temperatures, and strong winds after enduring much of the same in my soccer match yesterday.  Congratulations to Des Linden, the first American woman to win the event in 33 years.

Jeanine has a special knack for stretching her birthday out for several days. This year’s festivities concluded with dinner at Alta Strada, a fine Italian restaurant in Wellesley.  It is close to Olin College where we collected Maya to enjoy a four-fifths family dinner.  We will see Nicolai in a few weeks when we all travel to Colorado for his college graduation.

The weather today has been a wintery mix of freezing rain and sleet. The temperature was 33 degrees when my soccer match kicked off at 9am.  Our opponents from Nashua, NH had to endure both the frigid conditions and a 0-8 drubbing.  The win placed my team squarely in first place and on a good path to earning promotion this season.9 am

Each spring, I obtain an open burning permit from the Town of Concord.  With all the trees on our property, there is invariably a sizable collection of downed branches that must be cleared. Typically, I only need to activate the permit for a single day. With the unusually fierce storms we had this winter, however, it took three days worth of burning to deal with all the dead wood.  Jeanine and Kyle both joined in today to help complete the project. As we knocked off for the day, the small pile above was all that remained and should be nothing but ash by tomorrow morning.

Jeanine turned 55 years old yesterday and remains the beauty I met 33 years ago. Last night she celebrated with her book group friends and this evening she was all mine.  We dined at Tango, an Argentinian restaurant in Arlington, and then saw Cooking with the Calamari Sisters, perhaps the funniest stage show I have ever seen in my life.  When I purchased front-row tickets, I did not realize (a) that several “volunteers” from the audience would be part of the show and (b) that the Calamari “sisters” were drag queens.  Despite these nontrivial oversights (fortunately neither of us was recruited to the stage), this may go down in history as one of my best birthday gifts for Jeanine.  The show was positively hilarious, even more so for those with some insights into Italian life in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, home of the Calamari sisters and where my father grew up.

Today I managed to wrangle my boss into a portrait session for a new headshot to go on the updated Superpedestrian website. He has been super busy lately so I had to work quickly.  Although I could have dialed the concept in a little better, I am pleased with the results. Now I need some help from his wife and my colleagues to convince him that the picture above is the best in the series.  He favors a version with a more serious expression. Anyone who knows him, however, will tell you this is the guy we work for.

Today at work we had a celebration for one of our colleagues who is beginning a phase of semi-retirement.  An early employee and key contributor to the company, we have convinced him to continue with us on a half-time basis before fully retiring. We toasted him with Champagne and regaled him with stories from the early days. A nicer man and smarter engineer you will not meet.

The mating ritual of wild turkeys is an interesting dance. It begins with the gobbler displaying for hens. Out of the mix, a receptive hen will parade close to her suitor. She will circle him, get his attention and once he becomes interested the two become locked in a beautiful ballet. It is the hen that initiates the actual breeding act. She will seductively wiggle her tail in front of the old boy and then lay down on her tummy. That’s when the gobbler approaches from the back, climbs on her, and begins breeding. On my drive into work this morning, I noticed a rafter of turkeys just off the road and pulled over for a few quick photographs. Unfortunately, the turkeys did not appreciate this invasion of their privacy and quickly moved off to the nearby woods.

The amount of effort necessary to get me involved with a photography project at work is next to zero.  Today I fashioned a makeshift studio in the hallway outside my office where I took headshots of a number of Superpedestrian employees.  They will be used to update the TEAM page of our corporate website. Our CEO has one of the least flattering portraits of all and I have set myself the goal of rectifying that situation.  The second least attractive portrait is my own, something that will be more difficult to address.

Last season I played my first season in the over-56 division for the Lexington Eagles because my former team, Concord United, had not yet formed an over-56 squad. That situation has been rectified and this season I will be playing for the Concord United Veterans. Two-thirds of my teammates are former Concord United players with whom I have played for the past 14 years. New teams are automatically placed in Division 2 which means our objective for the season is to secure promotion by finishing in first place. We got off to a good start with a 4-0 win over Sudbury. I had one shot on goal, a rocket from distance, but it was just wide of the net. More impressive, I managed to survive the match without sustaining any injuries, a goal not achieved by four of my teammates who all went down with various muscle pulls. Sad to say but soccer at my age is as much about survival as it is skill.

Jeanine and I decided to do a little house hunting today. We looked primarily in Belmont, Arlington, Lexington, and Lincoln. The current plan does not have us selling our home until next year provided we find someplace that suits our needs. We are looking for a small footprint, premium quality home situated in a natural setting. This is proving rather hard to find but such outings help us refine what we are looking for and where we might find it. During our excursion we happened upon what appeared to be a sailing regatta on Upper Mystic Lake.

With the first decent weather, since he arrived in Massachusetts, my nephew Rory got his first chance to try a Copenhagen Wheel.  It is very satisfying to work on a product that invariably produces smiles on the faces of those who sample it. With spring around the corner, it is time to have my CW transferred to a more sporty frame.  The one that was given to me by Superpedestrian is far too pedestrian for my style.

Famed cyclist Tim Johnson was in the office today reviewing data from his Copenhagen Wheel with members of our staff.  He had with him a sweet Cannondale racing bike bearing his name. Tim’s bio and major career accomplishments can be found here.

Although difficult to do it justice in photographs, at least for me, fog can be exceptionally beautiful.  Such was the case this morning on my commute to work. I stopped briefly to capture this scene of the highly swollen Sudbury River.  In another few weeks, there will be no water whatsoever in this scene.