
During halftime I noticed this pleasing arrangement of trees. I love fall in New England.

My team suffered a disappointing 1-0 loss this morning against a team we had beaten soundly earlier in the season. Nicolai and his friend Joe came to the game and took photos. I did not see a lot of action today but when I was in, I played very well. Towards the end of the game, I went up for a header on a great 30-yard cross. I timed my jump perfectly and had one of the highest vertical leaps of my life. I got head and shoulders above a much taller defender and put a strong shot on goal which just missed the far corner by inches.


Next on the agenda was Nico’s soccer game in Wayland. While he was warming up, I found this out of the way pond on my navigation system and hiked in for the picture. Nico had a very strong game and at one point single handedly took the ball from the kick-off to inside the goal box for a shot which deflected off the goalie’s shin.

Friday the 13th marks a big management shake up at work. My boss and his boss, both of whom I have a lot of respect for, have been moved out of the organization. I have been asked to stay on and will report to the new General Manager as VP of Engineering and will also pick up the Program Management team and an engineering team in Dallas (my total team size is now ~550). On Monday, additional senior management changes will be announced with six VPs being reassigned or moved out (I am one of two to survive in my current role). Although the changes are massive, I think they will be good for the company in the long term. My new boss has scheduled meetings for 12 hours on Monday so I don’t expect I will be posting much during the early part of next week.

Today, I took my entire management team to Newport, RI for a team sailing challenge. The weather and wind were perfect and the outing was a great success. We had six J-22 boats manned by three team members and one coach/safety officer. We learned basic sailing techniques in the morning and had the team challenge in the afternoon. The challenge required us sailing in teams of three boats through a course (set with buoys). We were rewarded for sailing in a specific boat sequence, in the least amount of time, with the tightest grouping of boats (time of slowest boat plus the delta time of the first boat to the last boat). A great deal of communication and strategy was involved. The final event required us to sail as a group of six boats against the clock. Our team produced the best time in this configuration (the ultimate goal) which was a first for the facilitators of this event.