A busy day entertaining on the Calabria home front. Maya is the Vice President of her National Charity League class which held a planning meeting at the house this afternoon. It was fun to see how ably Maya handled her leadership responsibilities with the group of twenty girls. Later the family dined with SideStix founders Sarah and Kerith, Jeanine’s sister, Susan, and my mother. SideStix was in town for a conference in downtown Boston where Nico spent part of the day working the booth. New for the show were T-shirts featuring a graphical interpretation of a photo I took of Nico volleying a soccer ball. It is outstanding and we were thrilled to receive a shirt for each member of the family. My soccer team nudged into third place with a 3-1 win this morning. I played very well in the first half but re-injured my calf muscle early into the second half and had to watch from the sidelines for the remainder of the game.

My mother arrived from Schenectady this afternoon, still driving long distances at age 85 despite the concerns of her offspring. It took little time before she and Nicolai were engaged in a Latin conga drum along to some of her favorite dance music which she is never without. Meanwhile, I put the finishing touches on the deck project just in time for a large gathering of the National Charity League volunteers scheduled to meet here tomorrow.

Maya and her friends gathered at the house before leaving for a home CCHS football game. The fact that Maya does not really care for football was not discussed. I took comfort in her choice of warm clothing given the dip in temperature that was expected. Jeanine’s sister, Susan, arrived from Burlington Vermont and this seemed reason enough for an excursion to our local ice cream parlor.

The Double Tree Hotel was the site of an after work send off for an esteemed colleague who has been an innovator at iRobot for more than 15 years. Well wishers gathered to thank him for his enormous contributions to the company but it did not take long for the roast to begin. Unfortunately, I had to leave just as the stories were starting to get good (something about a hot tub in Las Vegas) for a dinner gathering at home with the 6 person film crew here to shoot a TV commercial featuring Nicolai. His contract contains a non-disclosure clause preventing me from identifying the product he is endorsing. If everything goes to plan the commercial will air during next year’s World Cup. Earnings from his work today will fund nearly half of his share of first year college tuition.

Kyle sent this picture from California of the used car that he purchased today. He has taken a second job as a private chess tutor to help pay for his college tuition (we pay only half to ensure that the kids have skin in the game). The job requires that he travel to his students and therefore provide his own transportation. The gig pays close to $50/hour and there seems to be very high demand in the area for this service. Kyle, always with an entrepreneurial eye to the future, has concluded that parents who can afford these lessons and think them important are probably the shakers and movers of silicon valley. In addition to the excellent pay, he feels he will make extremely valuable networking connections through this job. After consultation with his uncle John, a car enthusiast and expert, Kyle decided to purchase the historically reliable Toyota Camry, a wise choice I believe.

On the home front, I tested a new lens which was waiting for me when I returned from work. It is an extremely light weight 85-400mm telephoto zoom that completes the camera gear that I plan to carry while trekking in Nepal. The 4.5 pound kit will include two DSLR bodies, the aforementioned lens, a 16-35mm wide angle zoom and a 65mm low light prime. A carbon fiber tripod will bring the total weight to 7 pounds, half of what I have typically allocated for photo gear on past treks, a welcome concession to my aging knees.

My commute is 11 miles each way and when cyclists at work organized a Bike to Work Day I was tempted to participate. I have made the ride before which took close to an hour but found myself way too busy this week to even remotely consider the idea. I am working feverishly to log video of Nicolai’s youth for the producer of a television commercial in which he will be featured. They need footage of him participating in sports from an early age to augment the material they are planning to shoot later this week. As part of the deal, the agency in charge of the project paid to have all (close to a hundred hours) of our home videos digitized to disk. It would have been virtually impossible to sift through all the footage any other way.

I have learned to run for my camera when alerted to a beautiful sunrise. The most dramatic colors can be gone in a matter of seconds. When we watch with our eyes we rarely notice the subtle variations as they unfold before us, too engrossed in the overall beauty. A series of photographs, however, reveals how quickly the colors evolve and change. This morning I was fortunate to quickly find a camera fitted with a wide-angle lens before the fleeting scene had passed.

I prefer playing soccer on a turf (artificial) field but playing on grass does have a few advantages. Most importantly, you can slide on the ground without losing as much skin. It also results in grass and dirt stains on your uniform which provide a form of documentation of the match. This morning we played one of the top teams in the league and I sensed I was going to have a good game. Fifteen minutes into the first half, a midfielder crossed the ball from the end line. I rushed to the far post marked by a single defender. He jumped late and tried to undercut me. I soared above him, pushing down on his shoulders. I felt like I was way above the crossbar when I headed the ball down and over the keeper to put us in the lead. This was one of those goals you dream about and live for. I enjoyed the feeling for about a millisecond before gravity imposed a rather awkward return to terra firma which did not involve landing on my feet. My jersey accurately documents the landing zone I used. Fortunately, I rolled through the contact and walked away with nothing but a smile. I played nearly the entire first half until my right calf muscle tightened up and I knew I was done for the day. Regrettably, I had to sit on the sidelines and watch as our opponent scored twice in the second half to deprive us of the win. After the match, the team enjoyed a pool and barbecue party at the home of our goal keeper, where we drowned our sorrows in catsup.

From time to time, I get in the mood to address small home maintenance issues in need of attention. Today that list included fixing the door latch to the closet where we store our luggage and camping gear, installing a vented hood to the exterior exhaust from our cooktop downdraft ventilator, fixing two toilet valves that didn’t seal fully, finished the door trim around the sun porch door to the deck, and refitted my home built kayak carriers with better protective foam. I also attempted, unsuccessfully, to locate a leak in Maya’s shower which is causing damage to the ceiling on the first floor below it. To reward my efforts, I treating myself to some raspberries from our garden where I noticed this adult Locust Borer Beetle (Megacyllene robiniae) resting on one the leaves. He was still there when I returned with my camera and I was able to get this shot before Jeanine scared him off in her fevered pursuit of ripe raspberries. Nico hosted a small group of friends who played several rounds of a strategy game called The Settlers of Catan while Jeanine and I slipped out for a quick ice cream date at Bedford Farms.

I purchased a used light-weight, wide angle zoom lens for my upcoming Nepal trek. It arrived today and I did a couple of test shots in the front yard to verify image quality. I was very pleased with the results. It is only 3 ounces less than my current lens but allows me to get the same angle of view on my lightest DSLR body yielding an additional 19 ounce savings. In total the new package is 1.4 pounds lighter than my current kit. This particular image is a composite of three different exposures combined to improve dynamic range.

Kyle left this afternoon for Santa Clara University where he will start his junior year later this month. He has taken a job as a private chess tutor to help offset his college tuition and now needs to purchase a car to get to his clients. It has been very nice having him home for the summer except for the fact that Jeanine no longer wants to cook for me since I do not appreciate her food as much as Kyle does.

Jeanine, Kyle, and I were all in attendance for Maya’s first high school soccer game. Nico had to work. She is one of the co-captains of the freshman girl’s team and plays at wing, midfield, and back all on the left side (she is right-handed and left-footed). The match was against perennially strong Wayland High School. The girls looked sharp as they secured a 2-0 victory to start the season on a positive note. Maya played very well offering up several nice crosses and passes. Like her older brothers, she really sees the field well and is always looking to deliver a dangerous ball. It was nice to watch as Kyle congratulated her after the game and offered her a few pointers.

The only positive thing I can say about having a colonoscopy is that it is a quick way to lose five pounds. Having endured the procedure once before (when I turned 50) I knew what to expect. The sedative you receive pretty much knocks you out so the procedure itself is not something you remember. The cocktail you need to drink the night before, on the other hand, is something you will never forget. I was very groggy when the doctor shared my results but I don’t remember hearing anything scary and I will check in again to make sure. I was back at work and reasonably coherent two hours later.

I have always practiced a form of team development that features time-constrained construction projects. Favorite building materials include Popsicle sticks, cardboard, newspaper, tape and such. It gave me great pleasure when I walked into the office yesterday to discover several water balloon launchers proudly on display in our huddle area. Critical meetings last Friday prevented me from joining our Electrical Engineering department for their annual team building offsite. I was thrilled to see how that team had continued the tradition with such an outstanding concept. I can’t wait to see the pictures from the event when they get posted.

I have always found it difficult to buy sunglasses. Most merchandising displays offer a pathetic excuse for a mirror, positioned so you are looking at a bizarre angle into something the size of a rearview mirror. You do this, of course, while looking through a polarized and tinted lens designed to reduce the amount of light passing through them. My solution is to photograph myself with several candidates and select my favorite from the camera’s display. The pair pictured here will replace my current ones which I found broken on my car’s passenger seat this morning. No one has yet confessed to sitting on them. I refuse to pay the exorbitant prices for prescription sunglasses (my regular ones cost more than $800). Instead, I buy a cheap pair that I wear over my regular ones and don’t fret when they get lost or damaged.