It is not every day you drive by a house being demolished.  I stopped briefly on the side of the road as this old house, located on the grounds of the Concord Country Club, succombed to the power of a giant excavator.  I am very curious to know why it had to come down and what will replace it.  No doubt you will find the answers to these questions in a future post as this site is one I pass every day on my way into work.

Jeanine hosted a volunteer appreciation brunch for the leadership team of Open Table today. Needless to say, the food was wonderful as was the sense of community in the room. It takes very special people to give so generously of their time in support of those less fortunate. This is the third such event but the first my schedule has allowed me to attend.  Here is a link to the team.

Nicolai heads back to Colorado College tomorrow with his friend Oliver. They will share driving on the 2000-mile journey which will take them three or four days to complete.  Since they plan to get an early start we decided to have a farewell brunch today at Nancy’s Airfield Cafe, one of our favorite breakfast spots.

Standard issue desks at Markforged are IKEA plain white tops on a pedestal.  Today we received a large shipment of rolling filing cabinets/drawers that will afford people some local storage space. These units feature an upholstered top allowing them to do double duty as a chair or as a perfectly acceptable office sled as demonstrated in the video above.

While on my lunchtime walk around Fresh Pond I noticed several very interesting ice sculptures formed upon the branches dipping into the water. Regrettably, I had only my iPhone to capture the images which do not do justice to their beauty.

Nala cornered this opossum on the front walk to our home. When threatened or harmed, they will “play possum”, mimicking the appearance and smell of a sick or dead animal. This physiological response is involuntary (like fainting), rather than a conscious act. I can now say from first hand experience that this survival mechanism is 100% believable. Moments after we cleared the area, the possum made a miraculous recovery and scampered off into the brush.

For the second time this week I completed a three mile (2.9 to be exact) circuit around Fresh Pond during my lunch hour. The walk takes 45 minutes and I stop at Chipotle to pick up lunch which I bring back to the office. It is the perfect distance for a noon time stroll and I hope to make a routine of it. I am even considering converting my weekly staff meeting to a walking meeting. Perhaps that should wait until temperatures get above the freezing mark, however.

This Christmas my Secret Santa gave me a 7-foot-wide umbrella. It is big enough to keep an entire soccer team dry, but my use for it will be in the realm of photography as a giant reflector to be mounted on one of my strobes. The shaft of the first umbrella I received was incompatible with my strobes despite highly misleading advertising claims to the contrary. It was returned for the one I received today. Unfortunately, this one has a serious design flaw which caused it to come apart during my first use. An hour and a half later, I was able to put things back together. A trip to the hardware store for a replacement screw a quarter of an inch longer than the one supplied should prevent future problems. I am looking forward to my first photos illuminated by this bad boy.

Maya spent several hours in my shop this evening working on her electrical engineering class amplifier project. All attempts to assist her were rejected but she did tolerate being photographed. I have a tiny bench devoted to electronics set up with a soldering station and test equipment. I am delighted to see it being used by someone other than me. Earlier in the day I spent an hour at the same bench repairing a brand new studio light that was DOA (dead on arrival). Two solder joints had fractured during what was no doubt a traumatic shipping journey.

When making a fine piece of wood furniture, I generally avoid the use of all hardware, fabricating necessary joints from wood and glue. When I need to build something really fast, there is no more useful method of joining two pieces of wood than a pocket hole screw. Fifteen years ago, I fashioned a pneumatically clamped pocket hole jig with components from the Kreg company. It is one of my most often used tools. Today I rebuilt the fixture incorporating new design features that further expands its versatility and the speed with which it can be used. Rather than clamping the jig in my table vise, I have added switchable magnets so that it can be secured directly to the top of my table saw. This allows me to angle the fixture so that I can use it with even the longest pieces of wood and reduces setup and breakdown time. Next, I made provisions to allow the clamp to work with wood stock up to a 4 inches (previously I was limited to 2 inches). Finally, I added left and right stops so to ensure symmetrical and repeatable joint location. The heart of the new fixture is a right-angle, 3D printed bracket for the pneumatic cylinder which incorporates features that enable it to be repositioned easily. I also printed two knobs which are used to fix the bracket in place.

What better way to start the New Year than with Belgian waffles? Jeanine prepared a huge batch of batter last night which fed our 9 house guests and 4 family members this morning. Pictured here is Maddie, one of Maya’s friends and one of my first customers (I was in charge of cooking the waffles).

A busy New Year’s Eve on the Calabria home front. Nicolai hosted a party for twenty or so of his close friends. Maya returned after midnight from a party with her friends for a sleep over. Jeanine and I attended a party with our friends but returned at about 10:30 to make sure nothing got out of hand. Jeanine has prepared the makings for a waffle breakfast and only then will we learn how many guests elected to spend the night.

I underwent six hours of First Aid and CPR training at work today. Several employees participated in the class which bodes well for anyone at the company who finds themselves in need of medical attention. In the photo above, I had to immobilize an impaled hand, something I have personal experience with. In my case, it was a framing nail through the flesh rather than a magic marker tucked between fingers.

The family plus Karuna celebrated Kyle’s college graduation at the Beehive in Boston where we enjoyed live jazz and brunch. Kyle has accepted a job with Decker & Co., a small financial brokerage startup, that will take him to Thailand for at least three months starting mid-January. He will then have the option to remain in Southeast Asia or return to California. We are all very excited for him and proud of his accomplishments.