Another beautiful fall day dominated by rain. My soccer team faced Belmont this morning in what proved to be a very even match, resulting in a 1-1 tie. Normally, I tend to play better in foul weather, perhaps because it adds a certain amount of unpredictability to the game and I am quick to capitalize on small mistakes of the defense. Although I played well today, I was not able to capitalize on either of two scoring opportunities that I had. The first was on a fairly spectacular diving header in the first five minutes off a long cross which missed the net by a matter of inches. It is the kind of attempt that no one in my league is expected to make. Had I been a little quicker it would have been one for the history books. With minutes remaining in the game, my second opportunity was another header. I was unmarked in front of the net and received a perfect cross. I miss timed my jump and sent the ball over the cross bar on what for me should have been an easy put away. It was a long drive home replaying that attempt in my mind knowing I could have won the game with a more focused effort.

Nicolai left for Vancouver this morning where he will spend a few months working as an intern for SideStix, the manufacturer of his crutches. It is a fantastic learning opportunity in which he will participate in all aspects of the business from manufacturing and assembly to customer service and marketing. He will live in a one room cabin overlooking the Strait of Georgia on the Sunshine Coast just outside a little town called Roberts Creek. His departure was complicated by the fact that his ticket was originally booked for Friday which he only realized when the owners of SideStix, who had graciously offered to pick him up at the airport, called from Vancouver wondering where he was. Fortunately, Nico was able to explain the situation to the gate agent who was nice enough to re-book him on today’s flight without a penalty fee. The 5:30AM airport run served double duty as my brother Mark, having completed his business in Fitchburg, was headed back to Minneapolis on an early flight. With Jeanine in Vermont and Maya insistent on completing her homework, I spent much of the rest of the day hiking and photographing the fall foliage. I completed a 6 mile hike with my full Nepal pack weight (30 pounds) and had a chance to test out a new set of trekking poles. Despite the overcast skies, great fall scenes were in abundance and I returned home with hundreds of wonderful photos.

Maya’s soccer team is undefeated on the season and has yet to give up a single goal. Today they faced a very tough opponent in Westford High School which gave them a run for their money. Maya played the full game, much of it at center midfield, where she did an excellent job of ball distribution, a key responsibility of the position. The girls played hard and emerged with a 2-1 victory. I took very few photographs as much of the match was played in the rain. On the drive home I paused for a few photographs. Fall color this year is spectacular, the best I can remember in some time. Now if I could only get one sunny day before the show is over, I would be a happy man. My brother Mark arrived last night and spent the day in Fitchburg attending to a rental property that he owns there. When he returned we enjoyed a fine lamb stew that Jeanine left for us followed by an excursion to Bedford Farms for ice cream. Jeanine left early this morning for Burlington, Vermont to visit her sister Susan. There they will be celebrating the 70th birthday of close family friend Jean Cass.

Roughly once a month, iRobot employees are treated to a late afternoon beer party. A different group each time is charged with establishing a theme, dressing in costume, and distributing the beer and munchies throughout the facility using several push carts loaded with coolers. As is often the case, and of no consequence, it was not clear to me what the theme was this month. The addition of Halloween candy to the usual mix was a nice touch.

Nicolai took the Smart Car in for service today and returned with this loaner. $66 to replace one headlight and one brake light. $333 to replace both seat belt buckles (I wonder what the chances are that both failed but are not related to a design defect). $510 to replace brake pads and rotors. It would have almost been cheaper to buy a new car.

Maya’s CCHS Freshman team is doing very well this season, scoring 7 unanswered goals against Newton South in today’s game. Maya played a variety of positions including wing striker, wing midi, and outside defender, all on the left side. She follows in the family tradition of seeing the field well and making very deadly passes not to mention a penchant for headers.

I endeavor to include one of my photographs with every daily post. Today, however, I am going to depart from that tradition to include this 3 minute, YouTube video that was shared during the leadership training I attended last week. It illustrates, through an experiment with two Capuchian monkeys, the importance of equitable pay. Of all my responsibilities at work, there are none I take more seriously than ensuring equitable compensation and titles for members of my department. Against the advice of most HR professionals, I have on occasion gone as far as reducing the pay of the over compensated so that I could adequately fund raises for those who were deemed to be under compensated. When presented with my compensation philosophy, assessment model and data, I have found that most engineers favor the rather unconventional approach and extents to which I will go to ensure a fair outcome.

There is nothing I would rather do on my birthday than spend time in the great outdoors on a spectacular fall day. My morning was spent on the soccer pitch where I played well and managed not to re-injure my recovering calf muscle. Unfortunately, we lost a hard-fought battle that could have gone either way. The real treat was an afternoon hike in the Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary with the love of my life and her avian friends.

Meanwhile, Nicolai is visiting Colorado College located at the foot of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado Springs. He is visiting a friend and checking out the school as a possible alternate to the University of Miami where he is scheduled to begin his freshman year next fall.

With all of our work and evening social engagements this week, Jeanine and I have had little time to spend with my mother who is visiting us to celebrate my upcoming birthday. Today, however, we got to spend time together including a hiking excursion to the Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge. There, among other things, we discovered a frog-laden pond and this potential prince. Later, my mother joined me for a shopping run to REI where I obtained a few final items for my rapidly approaching Nepal trek. My mother turned 85 over the summer and I used this opportunity to provide her the belated gift of warmth (a down jacket, fleece mittens, cozy socks, and a pair of ear muffs). She is pictured below modeling a beautiful jacket that Jeanine gave to her for her birthday.

My 3-day leadership development program wrapped up today at noon. I decided to skip the final luncheon so that I could join my mechanical engineering team for their annual team-building event being held at the Nashoba Brook Ski Area. Good team building should provide an opportunity to build closer relationships, learn how to work more collaboratively and have fun. This year’s glider construction and flying competition hit the mark on all counts. The winning entry had a flight distance of almost 300 feet and a glide time of 10.7 seconds. Each glider was constructed from the same limited set of construction materials and had to carry a video camera payload (I can’t wait to see some nose cone footage).

The flying event concluded with a simultaneous launch of all ten gliders. Most impressive was the fact that all remained intact over the course of multiple runs, practice flights and crash landings. Debriefing of the exercise and consolidation of learning happened over beers in the ski lodge bringing a long work week to a very enjoyable conclusion.

For the second day in a row, I have been offsite participating in an executive leadership development program. Yesterday we received our 360-degree feedback, Myers-Briggs personality type test results, and participated in a disaster simulation to assess our performance as a team. Although it is difficult work, I really enjoy leadership development and have gained new insights on this go around. For those who are interested, I am an INTP type. My team did very well on the disaster scenario and my individual score was best in class. If you are ever in Australia being overrun by a forest fire apparently I would be a good partner to have.

Every year I like to express my appreciation to the spouses and significant others of my management team. I know that they often share the burden of iRobot imperatives that keep their loved ones late at the office or toiling over the weekend. We enjoyed a very memorable dinner at the Salt Box Farm where the evening started with a cooking demonstration. We retired to the intimate one-table dining room in the restored farmhouse for the main course and lively conversation. Best of all, one of my direct reports brought his 6-week-old daughter which I selfishly monopolized for much of the evening.

Jeanine was officially named as the new President of Open Table at their Annual Meeting held this evening. She will lead the 300-person volunteer organization for the next three years on their mission to provide healthy food, friendship and support to those in need. After a nice introduction from the Chairwoman of the Board, Jeanine addressed the assembly and shared some of her thoughts on the importance of the organization and its work. She spoke eloquently and from the heart about the fuzzy line between being a giver and being a receiver. Heads were nodding their approval throughout her presentation. Although it means that I will no longer be the primary focus of her culinary attention, I could not be more proud of her and am confident she will do great things for the organization.

Early in my career I was often in the spotlight, either promoting the products I designed or as a spokesman for Truevision, the company I co-founded. I have long since been happy to make my contributions to the places I work from behind the scenes. Today I was back in front of the camera, filming footage which will be used to create online marketing materials for two of iRobot’s soon to be introduced new products. I arrived on set at the appointed hour and was directed first to the “hair and makeup” artist. There was not much for her to work with. Maya would have been rolling on the floor to watch as makeup was applied to my head, face and lips and my eyebrows were glued into submission. I have encouraged her to shun makeup in favor of her natural beauty. Filming was done in our boardroom using a two camera setup, one head on and the other on a sliding track from a profile angle. I read my script from a teleprompter which was paced by the woman pictured here and did my best to respond to the Director’s request for more “excitement” in my delivery. Eventually the expression of the Producer who was monitoring the live video feeds changed from dire concern to mild satisfaction. It is very likely that much or all of my footage will wind up on the cutting room floor. I think it is highly probable, however, that several outtakes will be used to embarrass me at some point in the future.