Now that I will be working from home for at least 2 weeks, I decided to optimize my home office for telecommuting. I normally work on my large iMac but the built-in video conferencing camera has very poor image quality. Instead, I use my laptop for that purpose. I set up proper lighting and a green screen using gear from my photo studio to enhance my telepresence. The later allows me to use my own photographs as virtual backgrounds when using the Zoom application favored by my company.
With help from Maya and her boyfriend Bryce, we completed the first finish coat on the kitchen cabinet doors and drawer fronts in less than two hours, significantly faster than the primer coat we did yesterday. To improve speed, I increased the bore diameter of the spray gun tip to allow the very viscous paint to flow with less resistance. I also built a mobility base for the pressure pot that feeds my spray gun saving me the effort and time of picking it up and putting it down hundreds of times.
Jeanine continues to enjoy Florida getting out of the house every day. I believe this picture was taken in the Everglades, where she encountered many birds and the occasional alligator on her kayak excursion.
In an effort to protect my family from the coronavirus, I have fitted each member with full-body hazmat suits and high-performance air filtration face masks. I then spray them down with a mixture of bleach and water to ensure they are disinfected. We do all of this inside a hermetically sealed area of the house we have provisioned as a virus-free zone.
Alternatively, it is possible that this is what I look like when spray painting kitchen cabinet doors in my shop. With invaluable assistance from Maya, we managed to prime all 44 components in under three hours. I think the finish coats will go on faster with some modifications to my HVLP spray gun that I am planning to make.
Like suits at the cleaners, I have fashioned a system for hanging the various cabinet doors and drawer fronts I plan to paint this weekend (this is only about 30 of the 44). Two open end teacup hooks on the non-visible edge of each piece suspend it from a wooden hanger. This will allow me to spray all surfaces in one pass and provide a convenient way to store them for drying.
Maya and her boyfriend, Bryce, are now subject to the CDC 14-day quarantine for travelers returning from Europe. They will spend that time with me on the home front. For that reason, I began working from home today so as not to risk carrying the virus into work should they have been exposed. After talking with Maya about the severe illness she experienced at the beginning of March (fever, chills, headache, body ache), I am convinced she already contracted and recovered from COVID-19. If that is the case, it is most likely that she is no longer contagious, a theory supported by the fact that Bryce, who only recently joined her in Amsterdam, has not become ill. Even so, and out of an abundance of caution, staying home seems like the most prudent course of action. I spent the bulk of the day in my home office and only crossed paths with the incarcerated couple when they came down for dinner. I have been maintaining a 6-foot distance from them for good measure and also out of fear of the strange things growing under their eyes.
Jeanine is now staying with friends in Delray Beach and sent this photo taken yesterday while she was out for a walk (on the beach). The image did not come with an explanation but I am going to guess that it is a coconut (water-soaked and sun-bleached) covered in mussels. The mussels could easily pass for butterflies on a quick inspection. She sounds like she is having a lovely time but I am guessing that I had the better day. I got to pick up Maya from the airport after her exhausting journey home from Europe. Accompanied by her boyfriend, the pair looked very relieved to be back in the US and ready for a good night’s sleep.
Although I am doing the spray painting of cabinet doors and drawer fronts for our kitchen makeover project, I have hired someone to do the painting of the cabinet face frames, kitchen trim, and walls. When I returned from work today, I found that everything had been primed and it looks like the final coats of paint could be finished by the end of the week.
Jeanine visited Dry Tortuga National Park today almost 5 years to the day since I was there. As did I, she opted to fly in on a seaplane rather than take the ferry which was fully booked by the time she went to sign up. I rather like her aerial photograph of the island and Fort Jefferson better than the ones I took while there. Allowed to learn at her own pace in calm seas, she reports a newfound interest in snorkeling, an activity which we can both share in the future.
Before painting all the cabinet doors and drawer fronts from the kitchen, they need to be degreased and deglossed. This dreaded process takes about 10 minutes for each panel and took me the better part of the day for all 44. I split it up into three shifts and did a little shopping and food preparation (microwaving a frozen dinner) in between. I am very glad to have this task behind me.
Jeanine made it to Key West today where she rented a bike and toured the city. Next, she heads back to the mainland where she will be staying with close friends in Del Ray Beach. I had a productive day working on the kitchen getting all the base cabinetry ready for painting. Tomorrow I hope to get started on priming all the doors and drawer fronts.
Jeanine is enjoying her time in the Florida keys. Today she shared this photo of the pelicans which seem to have taken over this dock. I worked rather late at the office and was so exhausted when I got home, I decided to give myself a break from the kitchen make-over and just relaxed before turning in early.
In order to save money, the builders of our house did not put hardwood flooring under our kitchen cabinets. The result is that they sit 3/4″ lower than normal, a big problem for proper fit of our dishwasher and trash compactor. Making matters worse, the floor in the kitchen is not level. Its height changes by 7/8″ over the counter’s 21-foot run. To correct both of these problems, I had to remove all the base cabinets, install a proper height base and reinstall them.
This evening the focus of our kitchen make-over project was the backsplash. It is composed of tiny tiles that had to be removed one at a time. I used a hammer to coax them out without hitting them so hard as to cause damage to the underlying wall. I completed the task by midnight and got a great upper body workout for my trouble.
Maya shared this very lovely photo from the Netherlands. For the moment her study abroad program has not been canceled although that seems to be the trend in other European countries. We hope her semester abroad experience will not be diminished by the coronavirus pandemic. She had to cancel her plans to visit Italy but we are hoping she may find her way to Belgium or Sweeden where we have friends and relatives.
This morning I drove Jeanine to Logan Airport at 4:30 am for her flight to Florida where she will be spending the next two weeks kicking off her three-month sabbatical decompression tour. While chatting on the ride into Boston it occurred to me that I should give her my National Parks annual pass. After picking up her rental car she made a beeline to the Everglades and shared her close encounters with the local wildlife before continuing on to the Florida Keys. I believe her first destination is Islamorada.
Day 1 of our kitchen makeover. I removed all cabinet doors, drawer fronts, and associated hardware. I took a still photo after each door was removed and combined the sequence into a time-lapse video. I stopped after the first tier because it was taking too long. As it stands, all 44 doors and drawer fronts have been removed. By far the most tedious part of the job comes next; cleaning and sanding. I will try to do this in small batches over many days.
With Jeanine set to begin her sabbatical travel next week, I am getting ready for the kitchen makeover I will be doing while she is away. We renovated the kitchen when we moved in over 16 years ago and kitchen fashion has changed since then. In order to ready the house for sale, I will be painting much of the existing cabinetry a very light gray. In the coming weeks, you will no doubt hear about other elements of the project. Today I constructed a painting booth within my workshop. I will be using an HVLP sprayer to make quick work of the 44 doors and drawer fronts I need to paint. Doing so requires a dust-free area and some method of containing the overspray. I used 2mm polyethylene to fashion walls and leftover house wrap for the floors of my make-shift 8’x18′ paint booth. Access is by way of a flap door at the front and ventilation will be through the sliding patio doors at the back.
I apologize for the number of food shots posted this week but between work and helping Jeanine with photography for her book, I have had little time for anything else. I took this photo earlier in the week and am now wondering what came of the subject which I would very much like to sample.
Food photography for Jeanine’s book continued this evening. This was the most difficult shot yet; not because of the lighting or composition but rather the anticipation of the meal.
More food photography for Jeanine’s book this evening after a long day at work. The camera work took no more than a few minutes. Setting up the shot, however, took a very long time. I wish my mother was here. She has an eye for still life composition that neither Jeanine or I can come close to. Jeanine’s self-imposed deadline has her cranking away down the home stretch.
As has been the case in the last two presidential primary elections, Jeanine and I voted for different candidates. Even so, we are very much aligned on what we want in a president and I have no doubt we will be voting for the same person in November. We were a little disappointed that only one of our children took advantage of this opportunity to vote. I am confident that this situation will be rectified in the national election.
One of Jeanine’s first goals while on sabbatical is to complete her memoir cookbook. To that end, she has asked me to help out with the food photography which I am more than happy to do. The job pays extremely well; all the cookies you can eat!
This evening we dined with the boys at the French restaurant, Colettes to celebrate the start of Jeanine’s sabbatical. It was great to catch up with them and to discuss our respective thoughts on candidates for next week’s primary election in Massachusetts. Kyle reported on his new job and the difficulty in saying goodbye to his current colleagues. Nicolai who has not been all that thrilled with his master’s degree coursework at Lesley is now in a class with a teacher he admires and it sounds like he is having fun. We missed not sharing the meal with Maya, especially knowing that she is suffering from the flu which she contracted from her roommate.
Had I been more interested in a nice dinner than a photo of these stupid turkeys, I would have run them over when they ran across the street right in front of my car. Fortunately, I was not very hungry.
Today is Jeanine’s last day on the job as Executive Director of Open Table before her 3-month sabbatical begins. Yesterday when she was contemplating gift ideas to leave behind for her staff, I suggested a modern-day equivalent of the Magic 8 Ball. Her team can ask questions of this device and it will respond with pre-recorded answers from Jeanine. We made the recordings last night and I programmed them into the “Ask Jeanine” button. My favorite response; “That’s a very good question. Give me a few months to think about it.”
Maya continues to enjoy her term abroad in Amsterdam. Safe to say she has immersed herself in the culture (and fashion) of the Netherlands. The COVID-19 outbreak in Italy has curtailed her plans to visit there this weekend but we are sure she will find other ways to take advantage of her time in Europe.
Exciting news from Kyle today. He has accepted an offer from Touchplan, the software division of MOCA Systems as their Senior Business Intelligence Analyst/Developer. The company is located 3 blocks from Boston City Hall and an 18-minute walk from his Seaport District apartment. The company develops project planning and management software for the construction industry. It was a tough decision to leave Cengage where he has enjoyed great mentorship and camaraderie but the offer was too good to pass up and will allow him to more quickly advance his career objectives.
I am not one for jumping on viral social media trends but find myself compelled to do so this time. The tragic death of Kobe Bryant, his daughter, Gianna, and seven others last month has given rise to the #girldad movement, celebrating Kobe’s joy in being the father of girls and his desire that they enjoy the same rights, opportunities, and privileges as boys. So here is to my girl.
Nicolai returned last night from a week-long vacation in Colorado Springs where he was reunited with Karuna and Kubo. We have received very few details of the visit beyond this photo and can’t wait to hear more.
Jeanine and I enjoyed the afternoon outdoors taking advantage of unseasonably warm weather. We were motivated by news of river otters sightings at the Needham Reservoir. A half-mile hike around the reservoir yielded no encounters so we drove to nearby Cutler Park Reservation where we completed a 4-mile hike down to the Charles River, pictured above. Although we never spotted any otters, we did come across many swans, ducks, geese, and several water dogs.
Jeanine and I drove into Boston today to have lunch with Kyle. He is looking terrific and we used the occasion to discuss some exciting new options on his professional horizon. Jeanine spent the balance of the afternoon making plans for her three-month sabbatical which starts next Friday. Later we went to see The Call of the Wild, the release of which we have both been eagerly awaiting.