Jeanine and I travelled to Plymouth, Vermont this afternoon, leaving the boys behind to fend for themselves for two nights. We are picking Maya up from camp this weekend and decided to go up a day early for some time to ourselves. The first photo is from a stop we made at a farmer’s market, the next two from the gardens of the River Tavern where we enjoyed a wonderful dinner, and the last of our accommodations for the evening, constructed over a stream.

Our monthly executive staff meeting at iRobot was interrupted to celebrate the upcoming wedding of our co-founder and CEO, Colin Angle. Next week he leaves for Hawaii where he will be married on the Big Island and spend a month on his honeymoon.

This photo was taken by Maya and posted after her return from camp. Pictured are two of dozens of letters she received while at camp as viewed through the mosquito netting which draped her sleeping area. Maya said that she ran out of free wall space to post all of her letters by the end of her stay.

Nico took this photo during his time on Nantucket. I love the composition, color palette, and framing. I believe Nicolai has a future in photography if he so chooses.

At 7AM this morning I found myself at Emerson hospital where I had an MRI scan of my right shoulder. I injured it several months ago while playing soccer (I was playing in net because my knee problems were preventing me from being on the field). The last time I played goalie I had the same outcome although my shoulder healed on its own after several months. This time I fear the damage may have been more permanent and will learn later this week what options I have. As the fall season approaches I am for the first time considering whether my body is healthy enough to play.

Sadly there is another death to report this weekend. Maya’s pet hamster, Twitch, was discovered lifeless this morning. Maya is still at camp for the rest of the week and neither Jeanine or I are looking forward to sharing this very sad news with her. I choose to believe that Twitch left us to join Sinead and keep her company.

We learned today that the sister, Sinead, of my brother’s wife, Marie, lost her struggle against cancer. Some people leave an indelible impression on you due to the beauty of their spirit. Sinead was such a woman and although we only met her a few times I cannot describe the deep sense of loss that Jeanine and I feel at this moment. Mark, Marie and their kids are in Ireland where they attended her funeral earlier this week and will spread her ashes at sea this weekend. Her service was attended by some 1500 people which should provide some measure of the degree to which she was cherished in this world. Our thoughts are with Marie, Mark, Mario, Rory, Sophia, Rose and the entire Kavanagh family.

Kyle left this evening for New Hampshire where he will be working over the weekend. Maya has another week to go at camp. Nico will return from Nantucket on Sunday and sent this photo he took on the beach. Jeanine and I are enjoying the peace and quite but are admittedly missing our babies. With the van sold, Jeanine is starting to get serious about a replacement vehicle and did some test drives today. We will probably spend some time over the weekend checking out different brands.

When he discovered girls, he became irresistable. He is a man now, and next year at this time, he will be getting ready to leave the nest for college. I fear that day will come all too quickly, and I want to cherish every day with him from now until then.

When he found sports he grew strong.

Then we sent him to school and he just kept getting smarter.

The more we fed him the more he grew.

18 years ago today I met a very nice little man. It was love at first sight.

Today I met with Nora Micheva, the MIT graduate student I am mentoring as part of the Gordon Engineering Leadership program. She is currently preparing her Master’s thesis while working at Analog Devices and will graduate next spring. She is an electrical engineer and has expressed an interest in possibly working at iRobot after she earns her degree. I enjoyed giving her a brief tour of the iRobot museum and comparing notes on our respective exploits over the last several months. Here she is in a recent video interview with MIT Tech TV (link).