My sister-in-law Marie heads off to UMass to review clinical trials of the stent her startup medical company is seeking to bring to market. Little doubt where her children acquired their good looks and brains. My brother Mark may have had something to do with it as well.

While Kyle and Nico were in school and I was at work, everyone else went to the beach where Maya and Mario found this decapitated head, which bore a strong resemblance to Rory.

Maya is delighted to take on the role of big sister/mother in training. She has been extraordinarily helpful and seems to be enjoying every moment with her younger cousins.

Both girls are drawn to Nala who has been very accommodating of their attention.

This is older sister, Sophia. She has the most beautiful eyes and a bright personality to match. We engage in long conversations on topics of great importance such as the correct color of a banana. The more softly I speak to her the more exaggerated her facial expressions become. A future in acting will be one of many options she has in front of her.

Yesterday I focused on the boys. Today we turn our attention to the girls. This is the youngest cousin, Rose. She is an adorable little force to be reckoned with. Her parents describe her as willful. Her teachers describe her as smart but lacking a single ladylike bone in her body. She has decided I am similar enough to my brother in appearance and sound to warrant calling me papa. I am obliged to follow all orders I receive from her.

Rory, Mario, and I watched as Nicolai’s soccer team closed their season with a 1-1 tie. We had many opportunities to secure the win, but each slipped away. After the game, the team posed for photos.

If you can imagine a cross between Sumo wrestling and platform diving, then you will immediately recognize the game of King of the Dock. Kyle was dominant but not invincible as each boy in turn was dispatched into the cool water only to come back for another attempt on the King.

 
Nico arguably has the best volleyball technique of the bunch and made many nice spikes, digs, and blocks throughout the match. He and cousin Rory worked together for several nice bump, set, spike combinations.

 
Air Mario leaps into the sky for a spike during a competitive game of sand volleyball. The party was held at a local pond which has been the subject of many photos I have taken over the years. One of my teammates has a house here with exclusive rights to use the beach area for parties.

This muscle flexing among the cousins is not a new phenomenon. Here is a photo taken a decade ago featuring the same group plus my sister’s son John. It scares me to think what this group will be up to in another decade. Some may even have little muscle men of their own.

The boys did not require much encouragement to flex for the camera and fortunately for followers of this blog, I was not drawn into this particular activity. A closer inspection of the six packs will require you to enlarge the photo by clicking on it.,

My brother’s family is visiting for the next week although he, unfortunately, is unable to join them. Pictured here are my two sons on the left and my two nephews on the right (nieces and their mother are spending the day with Maya and Jeanine at the Willard Carnival). We are attending an end of the season soccer party for my team. This morning we had our last home game and finished in style with a 4-2 victory. My knee is still not 100% but I was able to provide two nice assists.

The guilty party was this coyote who was hunting in our newly mowed field. Nala’s electric containment fence is the only thing that spared this fellow a skirt with death. What Nala’s breed lacks in social skills it makes up for with raw speed and agility.

Nala alerted us to the presence of an intruder on our property as dusk arrived.

The perspective is highly distorted and it has been marred by careless footprints but it is easy to still appreciate the work of the skilled artist who probably worked for days on hands and knees to create this image.

After spending 14 hours in the office I raced over to the Santa Barbara Mission before the sun had set. I was surprised to find the courtyard transformed into a canvas for 100s of chaulk masterpieces. The quality of some of the paintings rivaled works I have seen in fine museums. Without a higher vantage point, none of my photos did justice to the art.

The Sonos Santa Barbara facility bathed in pre dawn light. The building is more expansive than it appears and does not lend itself to a wider angle photo.

 
I leave for Santa Barbara this afternoon but not without a photo of my favorite daughter. I have been asked to pick up responsibility for our Information Technology Services group in addition to Product Development and am travelling on short notice to meet all the new members of our team.

My cousin Heather and her husband Burton celebrate the gradation of their daughter Toni from Wesleyan University. Toni is now off to dance for 6 weeks at the American Dance Festival in Durham, NC. She plans to dance and choreograph as much as she can during the next few years and then go on to graduate studies.

Maya has become quite proficient and fearless about extracting her own teeth when the time comes. We spent some time examining her molar and it appears that she clenches her teeth at night (like her father) so a night guard is probably in her future.

This evening, I worked late and had dinner in Harvard Square, where I took this photo. Jeanine returned from Indianapolis near midnight, so I opted to stay downtown rather than make the trip twice in one day.

 
While we hold down the fort in Concord, Jeanine attends a celebration for her nephew Luke to commemorate his graduation from North Central High School in Indianapolis. Luke plans to attend the Heron Art School in the fall and his girlfriend Audrey will go on to the Pratt School of Design in New York City.

 
Playing soccer on crutches can’t be easy but then again, Nico is able to make shots others cannot. Here he rises up to make a perfect pass over the defense and onto the foot of a waiting forward. For what he lacks in speed he more than makes up for with deadly accuracy and thoughtful distribution. After his game we checked in with Maya who was on her way to soccer practice and then left for Lancaster to watch Kyle play in his second match of the day in the State Cup tournament. Twenty five minutes into the trip it was raining so hard that we decided to return to Concord. We were both in the mood for cow (as Nicolai describes his carnivorous craving) and satisfied that craving with a nice dinner at a local pub.

 
Today the family had a mere 4 soccer games and one soccer practice. Although Nico’s team lost he had a very nice assist and won several headers. I was back on the pitch for the first time in several weeks having nursed my injured knee back into service. I was only able to play at about 85% intensity and am still unable to take a shot with my right leg. Still, I was able to contribute to the team. Even though we lost, I was happy to be back in the game and to have emerged without a relapse.

Kyle played in the first round of the Massachusetts State Cup Soccer Tournament and his team came away with a decisive 6-0 win. Kyle spent several hours doing landscape work before the game so I think it was fortunate the competition was relatively weak. Tomorrow he has two more games to finish the first round and the opponents are some of the top teams in the state.

 
Nico refereeed two games today. Fortuanately, one of them was Maya’s which allowed me to combine one trip. During halftime he entertains himself at center field.

 
Maya fends off a larger defender as she carries the ball down the field. Maya made several forceful attacking runs and helped her team to an exciting 2-1 victory. Jeanine left for Indianapolis yesterday where she is celebrating with her sisters the high school graduation of her nephew Luke. I am left alone to run the Calabria taxi service.

 
Although I miss the natural beauty of my commute route to Avid, my Sonos commute is not without interest. This sculpture, titled On The Bri-n-ck, was designed by students in Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. It was constructed robotically from uniform 2×4 pine wood blocks and glue. The setting does not lend itself to photography but I will return again with an ultra-wide angle lens and see if I can capture an image which better portrays the unique work of art.

Occasionally Jeanine will wake up before I do and can either be found at her computer writing or on the sun porch recovering from writing.

Yesterday I received a call from the father of Kyle’s (pictured on the left at age 8) childhood best friend. Tucker, now a strapping 180 pound, six foot tall, multi-sport athlete (but not wrestling) recently took on the heavy weight wrestler from his school’s team and pinned him three times in as many minutes. He told his father that I would be proud of him given I shared some of my techniques with him when he was a youngster. His dad called me to pass along the message and it reminded me of this sumo wrestling photo I took of the boys when we lived in Indianapolis.