Surprise 1: Jeanine spent the morning and most of the afternoon with her sisters visiting the JFK Memorial Library. Believing that we would be celebrating her 60th birthday at a restaurant later that evening she was upset with me when I called her at 2pm and let her know that we had to meet our flooring contractor at 4pm. When she arrived at the River House she entered the living room to find me speaking with Rob, the “flooring contractor” who had his back to her. When I proceeded to introduce him, he turned around and she was shocked to discover that it was Rob Earle, the husband of Kris, her closest friend since childhood. Kris then emerged from hiding to complete the surprise. The couple flew up from Florida to join us for Jeanine’s 60th.

Surprise 2: Under the impression that we would be meeting the kids for dinner in Boston, Jeanine was again surprised when she walked into Seaport’s Action Kitchen only to be greeted by a gathering of her close friends. Everyone participated in cooking the feast that we later enjoyed and the evening, planned entirely by the kids, was a great success. We also had a chance to meet Maya’s new boyfriend for the first time. He seems to be a very nice young man who passed the very challenging brother’s gauntlet with flying colors.

Today is Jeanine’s birthday. Earlier this week she shared some of her wishes for her 30th birthday celebration with me. When I reminded her that she was actually turning 60 we had a good laugh. Since then, I have begun referring to this milestone as the 2nd anniversary of her 30th birthday. Her sisters arrive tomorrow and we will join the kids for a fancy dinner celebration on Friday. This morning, she informed me that she wanted an authentic almond croissant. After concluding a pair of work-related meetings in Boston, and several failed attempts to find a French bakery, I located the Praliné French Patisserie where I was able to obtain a freshly baked almond croissant (plus one chocolate almond croissant for good measure).

Pictured above are the two electrical panels that will be located in my shop and a power transfer gateway located on the left. The gateway serves several functions. It will (1) automatically connect battery power to the house in the event of a power failure, (2) allow us to charge the batteries during off-peak hours and run the house from the batteries during peak hours, (3) charge the batteries from future solar panels, and (4) return excess solar capacity to the grid.

Perhaps the most complex element of my new shop is the dust collection system. This includes the dust collector with removable waste bin, the in-ceiling ducting which connects it from the mechanical room to my shop, the individual machine drops which include a pneumatically controlled blast gate (my design for this illustrated above), and the electrical components to automatically sense when to turn on the dust collector and which blast gate to open. Today I installed the contactor that will be used to energize the dust collector anytime a wood chip-producing machine is turned on. A current sensor in the electrical panel will determine when any machine on the dedicated circuit is operating and will activate the contactor. A current sensor on each machine’s power supply will cause the associated blast gate to open. I hope to have my shop operational within the next 2 months and look forward to starting cabinet construction for the kitchen.

We missed Maya at our Easter gathering this afternoon but were happy to be joined by Fallon, Nico’s girlfriend, Marisa, Kyle’s roommate, and her dog Bailey. Jeanine prepared a fabulous lamb shawarma with saffron rice and a broccoli salad. Maya is flying back from the UK where she has been on vacation for the last 9 days. My soccer team suffered a major drubbing this morning losing 0-3 to the top team in our league. All that can be said about my play was that I did not get injured.

Given all the trees which surround our River House, I have been struggling with whether or not to put solar panels on the roof. An invaluable tool to help with the analysis is a sun path calculator which I finally figured out how to load with a model of our house. My conclusion is that we will break even on the cost of panels over a period of twenty years but that it is still probably the right thing to do.

Rough wiring for the River House is approaching completion. Pictured above is where the automatic transfer switch and main breaker panel will reside within my shop. In total the house will have one main and 4 sub-panels; one in the primary mechanical room, one in the secondary mechanical room, one in the laundry, and one in the garage. The cost for multiple panels is far outweighed by the savings for shorter copper runs within the house. The automatic transfer switch will allow our battery backup system to kick in during a loss of power to the house and to time shift our use of electricity. During off-peak hours the batteries will charge and during peak hours will be used to power the house. Concord is switching to time-of-use metering so this capability should allow us to significantly reduce our electrical energy costs.

My sister and brother-in-law just moved into a new home that features a teppanyaki grill in the kitchen. Apparently, Stephen was very excited about his first cooking experience in the new kitchen or was attempting to channel the energy of a traditional Japanese chef. Either way, here is what I am expecting to see when we go for our first visit.

Fifteen years in the making, Jeanine’s memoir cookbook is now going to print. Available for pre-order from Barnes & Noble and Amazon, it is expected to ship next week on her 60th birthday. I am very proud to be married to such a wonderful writer and creative cook. Having only heard small snippets of the text over the years I am looking forward to reading it from cover to cover. Now that she is on the verge of fame, salacious gossip has already surfaced about her private life. Apparently, she had a torrid affair with the book’s photographer the entire time she was writing it.

Pictured here is the dust collector that will service my new shop. I have located it in the mechanical room across the hall so that I will not be assaulted by the din generated by such machines while I am working. It appears to be standalone but is actually suspended on the wall. The bin at the bottom is actually an inch off the floor and is lowered onto its casters when it is time to be emptied. Unlike my previous dust collector, this unit is based on a high-pressure three-fan air mover and is about half the size with ducting that is half the diameter. I spent a good portion of the day assembling and installing it. I had to remove the magnetic motor starter and rewire it to start when I turn on any piece of equipment in the shop connected to the system. Keen observers will note the absence of floor molding and a rather unusual construction detail at the base of the walls. Living so close to the river, it only seemed wise to anticipate that one day we could potentially have a flooded basement. With this in mind, the base of the walls and molding are constructed of a product made from rice hulls which is totally impervious to water and could sit in it for months with no ill effect. The molding has yet to be installed in the mechanical room and hence the 6 inch gap between the plywood walls and concrete floor. Today, little was left of the fire that we built yesterday to get rid of the fallen tree limbs from over the winter.

“Today we did a big hike and met some sheep.” Details are sparse but Maya shared this photo of her exploits in Scotland. I will squeeze more information out of her when she returns.

Two Calabria’s returned to the soccer pitch this morning. Nico played in a regional game pitting the NY Metro team against his New England Revolution team. Reporting on the match from Jeanine was light on game details but I am informed that Nico’s team won and that he scored at least one goal. I was unable to attend because the match time conflicted with my spring season opener against Nashoba. We dominated the game winning 5-0. One of the goals was mine scored off a really pretty header from just outside the 6-yard box. The cross from the touchline did not have much on it so I had to really generate a lot of power with my neck to snap it past the keeper.

The videos above were recently published and cover some of the recent activities of the American Amputee Soccer Association.

Jeanine and I enjoyed a stroll down memory lane while dancing non-stop to the music of Booty Vortex at the Sanctuary in Maynard. The funk and disco band played all the hits from the 70s transporting us right back to our youth. We will have to do this again.