Massachusetts Senator, Scott Brown, visited iRobot today to meet with executives of the company. Afterward, he addressed the staff and responded to questions from employees.

No where else would you find a Northern Indian dinner which included adding raw pureed kale and collard greens to the Chipatis and quinoa flour to the Parathas. “This is my unique touch”, says Prerena Mital, the lead cook for Jeanine’s Collaborative Cooking evening. “I wanted to start eating more greens and less gluten. This is a simple way.” Simple? Most of the participants were shaking their heads as they stared in amazement at all the homemade ingredients Prerena had brought for the evening: homemade yogurt and ghee, ground and toasted fresh cumin seeds and chilis, mint grown in her back yard. The menu: Toor Daal, Carrots with Edame and Potatoes, Cucmber Raita, Chipatis and Parathas-absolutely delectable. As the group gathered, everyone was handed an apron, knife, cutting board and rolling pin. Learning how to heat the chipatis just right over the flame was trickier than it looked. Prerena has had years of experience and as the youngest participant marveled, “your chipatis are perfect circles every time, mine are sort of morphed”. Next Wednesday there will be a repeat performance from 11:30-1:30 if you’d like to join. Recipes for the evening can be found at Cookandcleanse.com

Nicolai and his girlfriend Holly celebrate her birthday this afternoon while Jeanine prepares the house for a major cooking party and dinner. I took advantage of the iRobot holiday to shop for a car. Nico will have his license by January and will be anxious to have unfettered access to the SmartCar.

Maya photographed my injured ankle this morning and I used PhotoShop to adjust the hue and saturation in such a way as to reveal where blood has pooled. This is NOT what my foot looks like but it does give a pretty good indication of what it feels like. Now that the soccer season is over I am going to give my various joints some time to heal and then challenge Kyle to a workout regime designed to get us both back in prime shape.

All work stopped briefly today as the Home Robots Division gathered to receive the iRobot Cup, enjoy a slide show of our paintball exploits, and bask in the glory of our weekend tournament victory. The trophy will be mounted prominently in our “town hall” for all to admire. During a Board of Director’s meeting later in the day our President and GM rubbed salt in the wound as he opened his presentation with a photo of our winning team. To understand all the fuss one must know that historically our division has been the smaller and underperforming division within our company. Recently, however, we have been knocking the cover off the ball and are now the larger and more profitable. Despite this accomplishment, however, winning the iRobot Cup was the one remaining challenge needed to earn the full respect of the rest of the organization.

The book group to which Jeanine belongs has been invited to appear on the Oprah Winfrey Show later this month. I was enlisted to take a group portrait for use in the local media and the show. It took some time to get everyone situated in a pleasing arrangement but once we got the right grouping it was easy to capture a great shot of these dynamic and beautiful women.

I have not played soccer since my dad died. As I was driving to the field for our last match of the season , I decided to dedicate this game to his memory. I rolled my ankle badly in the opening minutes of play but decided after icing it into total numbness that I would continue even though lateral motion on that foot was all but impossible. With 10 minutes remaining in the game, I scored our only goal equalizing the score at 1-1 and earning a jar of Number 9 Salsa (awarded by our manager for each goal). Settling for a tie was not what I had hoped for but I think my father was smiling down on us as the boys and I devoured the entire jar.

Mission Accomplished: Each year iRobot sponsors a paintball competition. Divisions compete against each other and corporate. As I understand the history, my division (Home Robots) has never won. This year, my boss assigned a colleague and I the task of putting together a winning team and delivering the iRobot Cup to our division. Through good planning, preparation, and gutsy execution that goal was achieved this day on the field of battle. From the top:

My boss, in our mobile Command & Control Center (I rented a U-Haul truck for $40 bucks).

The Blue Team, composed of our first time and less experienced players.

iRobot CEO congratulating, our Red Team captain for an undefeated 5-0 winning record.

The victorious Red Team, composed of our most experienced warriors.

Later this month, I have been invited by the Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) Academy to give a presentation at Concord Carlisle High School. I will be presenting my career journey to students with the hope of inspiring them to consider a future in the field of science and technology. This poster, created by one of the students, was placed around the school to publicize the event today. Both boys reminded me how embarrassing I am to them and how stupid my chosen title was. I must be doing something right.

A beautiful gift from a beautiful friend in celebration of my father’s life. I shall cherish it.

Halloween may have passed but apparently Nico and Maya felt that Nala should be given an opportunity to get in on dressing up.  I never know what to expect when I walk in the door after returning from work.

I spent several hours today sorting through nearly two thousand photos I took over the weekend. My goal is to get the number under 500 before I send them to Erica and Nick. Here are a few of my favorites of Maya. She is starting to look so grown up.

My company, iRobot (NASDAQ: IRBT), has been named to Forbes magazine’s just released list of “Best Small Companies in America.” Ranked number 16 on the list, we were selected for our significant sales and earnings growth in a challenging economic environment. My previous company, Sonos, also continues to do well also and I continue to stay connected with many folks there.

We joined relatives for breakfast and I was able to relax for the first time since the wedding. I think I was more nervous about the wedding than Erica, feeling an awesome responsibility to capture all of the key moments. I spent a little time wandering around Louisville before we had to pack up for the airport.