Back in the winter woods

These dogs are happier nowhere more than at Mainstone Farm.

Birthday boy and girl

How was I not aware before this year that Bruschi and Melissa have adjacent birthdays!??

Melissa LOVED the cake Syl and I made her. We slaved over it for hours.

Lounging on the couch. Melissa's perfect birthday.

My new team

I had my new legal team in to NYC this past week for our (and their!) first ever team meeting. It is quite a different paradigm than I had at athena, where more or less the whole team were together in Watertown every day. At Sprinklr, the lawyers are spread all over the globe - in London, Paris, Indianapolis, Austin, and even Singapore! So it was a treat for me to meet all of them, and also a treat for them to meet each other!

Eagle-eyed viewers will notice a familiar face. I managed to convince the secret of my success at athena, Liz, to join me at Sprinklr. She starts next month but came for the team meeting to meet everyone.

We wrapped up our two day meeting with a really fun dinner with some more of our colleagues.

First snow!

Syl started the day jamming away on her new ukulele, which she LOVES.

Later on in the day, our Sunday walk in the woods was capped by some unexpected flurries!

No denying it: winter is here.

Belated celebration

Melissa and I picked up a pack of pre-teen girls at Wayland Middle Friday afternoon for a belated birthday celebration.

First stop: Dave and Busters, where the newness of the facility and the relatively early hour gave the girls more or less the run of the place.

This crew is a nice mix of Syl's oldest friends (from Holliston), plus a really nice group of like-minded buds she's picked up since starting Middle School.

All these girls have a few things in common: they are artsy (both music and visual), they are bright, they are very sweet, and the are incredibly witty. Several of them had me laughing out loud all evening long.

Next stop, home for a screening of a Ghibli film (Spirited Away).

Then cupcake decorating!

And it wouldn't be a Syl birthday celebration without an (indestructible) pinata!

I love this shot.

The aftermath was pretty mild, all things considered...

Proof of how much we love this kid

Meet Cat. Cat is a year and a half old, female leopard gecko. And as of yesterday, this thing is a part of our family. 

Shudder. But our girl is very happy with her new buddy.

12 years old!

It is hard for us to believe we are one year off from having a teenager!

I caught an early train home yesterday and surprised Syl by being home for her birthday dinner. She gave me a massive hug and even teared up (though I think that might have been for my benefit, if I'm honest).

Syl loved all of the gifts and cards she got.

Oh, and we're getting her a gecko this weekend. She's going to name it "Cat" to stick it to me. Apparently, it will ride Melissa.