Double-D&D Weekend

May 17, 2024 by Adam in Family

It's back-to-back D&D days this weekend after a fairly long delay.  Hopefully I'm prepared enough and if not I'll just keep breaking out funny voices and show off some more minis.  Continuing the nerdy news, my new DM screen with a monitor built-in continues to be constructed.  The gluing steps are slow-going and trying to get everything nicely lined up and perfect is a little tricky.  Hopefully the end result is cool.

Work continues to be weird and wacky, pulled away to a secret project again.  It's fun, as I get to do a lot of different things, but the whiplash is occasionally exhausting.

The rest of the fam seems to be doing well.  Ben had two days of IB economy tests, which he weirdly enjoyed even though it was a bit of a slog.  Duncan is winding down his first year of school, earning a bit of cash with his side gigs at school and making intro videos for other YouTubers.  Emma's also winding things down - she signed up for her driver's test, though the first available slot was in July.  Jo's getting ready for their MFA program, feeling too busy at work, and getting our seedlings moved from the greenhouse to the new garden beds.

I'm loving the warm weather, well into the shorts-and-t-shirt phase of the year.  I took down the air conditioner from my shed storage area, but have yet to set it up.  Looking forward to getting in some hiking or kayaking in the weeks ahead.

Mother's Day and Aurora Borealis

May 13, 2024 by Adam in Family

Having never seen the northern lights, I was bummed out I missed them on Friday.  I think I caught a glimmer Saturday night, mostly just a greenish purple tint to the north, but my camera seemed to pick it up on a long exposure.

It was a generally quiet weekend.  Emma and I did a library run on Saturday and worked on various projects throughout the day.  I'm working on a new DM screen with a monitor built in and cut out most of the pieces.  Now it's on to the tedious gluing and making sure things fit phase.  Hopefully I didn't mess up the measurements too badly.

Jo put in a bunch of work on the garden.  We had a post-breakfast team assembled to lift the garden bed into place on top of the blocks.  I shoved a bunch of soil.  Ben helped plant flowers and clean up the new part of the garden.  It was nice having such great weather after the dreary months.

Sunday was the mother's day tour, visiting with my mom and Yayoe and delivering little presents.  It was nice to catch up.

Sunny Days Are Here Again

May 10, 2024 by Adam in Family

It looks like we have a week of sunny, warm weather.  The garden is growing enthusiastically, one of the beds being taken over by greens.  Already my lunchtime salads are getting tasty radishes and greens that we grew.

Work is moving along.  Though the thing I'm building feels overly complicated, it's been educational and I'm slowly figuring it out.

I decided on a whim to treat myself to a new DM screen for my D&D games.  Someone made one with a built-in monitor, so that may be my weekend project.  Emma said she'd give me a hand.

Mothers' Day is around the corner.  Hopefully I can find a way to say hello to all the various moms in my life.

Easter Weekend

May 08, 2024 by Adam in Family

It's a belated posting of the weekend festivities.  Perhaps it was that annual shot of vodka that caused the delay.

Easter was fun - the company was good and the food was delicious.  Kudos to Seraph for making it happen, along with all her helpers.  I went over early in the day but mostly stood around looking pretty.  My reward was my own potato chocolate cake that I've been slowly eating as snacks all week.  I'm reminded once again why it's my favorite cake ever.

Sunday was very low-key, rainy with Emma in a very worn-out state.  We had a nice call with the wayward boy in Albuquerque.  He's gainfully employed doing residential construction, checking out local music shows, climbing with his gym buddies and looking to buy some plants for his apartment.

As for the week so far, it's been slogging away.  Some of the work weirdness has faded a bit.  The rain has eased up and it's bright and sunny at the moment.  The new D&D campaign book is out and I'm frantically printing miniatures in hopes to get things ready.  Emma found a cozy fantasy book at the school - I picked up the audiobook awhile back, so we're doing an accidental book club.

Wacky Work Time

May 03, 2024 by Adam in Family

I seem to be riling people up at work lately.  Hopefully I can find some sort of Buddist-like detachment from outcomes.  At least it's been educational.  And today is a mocha day, which is always nice.

Tomorrow is Russian Orthodox Easter.  When I stopped by to get mom for tea this week, I ran into Seraph and Emma working away.  Seraph forced me to eat some delicious potato chocolate cake, promising me more to take home after Easter.  I'm excited to see everyone, especially Jenny who I haven't seen in far too long.

Emma got herself a thesis advisor yesterday.  She'd been nervous about imposing on anyone and has put it off for awhile.  Fortunately she has a good forest biology professor and after chatting with him about the farm for a long while, popped the question and he said yes.

Otherwise the week has been pretty low-key, a little dreary with occasional bursts of sunshine.  Hopefully the loggers will finally be done at the farm sometime this month.  D&D starts up in a couple weeks - I've been printing minis in preparation for future games.  Jo and I had fun playing Cat Quest 2 after returning from our date night.  I'm sure Emma and I will hit up the library later today.

Lazy Rainy Weekend

April 29, 2024 by Adam in Family

Other than feeding kids and kitties and keeping the house generally intact, I'm not sure I did much beyond some gardening on Saturday.  Jo was out at a writer's conference with their friend Jennifer, so it was a kid hangout weekend.  I did manage to add some edging pavers to the garden and it did involve a little bit of chainsawing to remove roots, but that's about it for being terribly productive.  Emma was feeling under the weather, with her most exciting thing being some adventure preparation for a game she wants to run.

We did "fix" the light to the basement, which involved changing the light then realizing the second switch was just stick in between the on and off states.  I also "fixed" my dad's old 3D printer by realizing it kept trying to calibrate the z-index because the magnetic bed got stuck on the pegs and wasn't flat.  It was that sort of weekend.  At least I made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies at the end of it.

I'm taking Duncan to the bank this afternoon so that he can setup direct deposit for his new LCC job.  He was asked to help tutor other students, presumably because he's really good with the various tools they use.  It's really cool and I'm proud of him.  It's deeply satisfying watching kids grow up and slowly become self sufficient.

Mocha Friday

April 26, 2024 by Adam in Family

A warm mocha on a rainy day is one of my absolute favorite things.

It's been a generally okay week.  I hung out with my friend Jason last night and helped him setup some software for his upcoming D&D session.  It was fun to geek out about props for his upcoming game and talk about the challenges of being a dungeon master.  Plus we chatted about his job, which involves a bunch of travel and waiting around to be called to the witness stand.  I also helped my other old friend Colin test one of his new puzzle word games.  Who would have thought that the two guys I played Car Wars and Cyberpunk with would grow up to become real professional people.

Work's been a little topsy-turvy, though maybe in a good direction for a change.  My doomed project was dismissed and I was thanked for my service.  A previous proof-of-concept I put together has been declared the preferred direction and the team has dropped this lengthly refactor to turn it into something production ready.

Jo and I managed to get one of the newly raised garden beds ready and a heavier duty trellis setup.  The beds had been invaded by tree roots, despite the gap, and the previous trellis collapsed under the weight of peas and squash.  Hopefully this newer setup works better.

Gardening and D&D

April 22, 2024 by Adam in Family

It was a fun weekend.  On Friday Emma drove us to the library to return with our weekly treasures.  Saturday was pretty low-key, with neighborhood walks, cleaning the patio, and playing video games.

Sunday was one of the most fun I've had playing D&D, with a classic heist that went off the rails and had considerable hijinks.  They didn't quite finish their theft, but they got some of the key tools to pull it off.  Next session they'll have to work in a jail break too as one of the group caused a massive distraction and was caught by the guards.  I also had a great time breaking out all the props I've been working on - it's like a mini Christmas in the middle of a game.

My wayward son called on his drive back from Pheonix where he was visiting friends.  He's got an interview with a wind farm that he's hoping works out.  It involves welding and climbing huge structures, which apparently is what he wants to do.  He's still excited about Alburquerque, making good friends and enjoying the scene.

Work continues onward, with weird obstacles popping up unexpectedly.  I may need to switch to working on something else for awhile as the vendor just threw a "it's not possible" block my way.

Mocha Friday

April 19, 2024 by Adam in Family

I'm loving the warm sunny weather, along with wearing shorts and t-shirts.  It's been a quiet week - tea with mom, chats with Emma, making dinner and asking Ben and Duncan about their day, petting Data while watching t.v. at the end of the day.  Having everything be okay is pretty darn good.

My noon runs have been fun while watching the new Fallout show.  Work's still weird as I work away with little instructions on this special project.  It's been educational, i suppose, though everyone I talk with agrees that it's not the approach we'll ultimately go with.  I get paid the same no matter what I do, I suppose.

D&D with friends starts up this weekend and I've got way too many props to hand out.  I'm also transitioning to a new high-level campaign that's coming out in a month, so getting the story to smoothly transition is a little tricky.  It's fun thinking about and I keep puttering around with getting maps and music and handouts ready to go.

Birthday Weekend

April 15, 2024 by Adam in Family

It was a relatively quiet weekend.  Emma and I did our usual library trip on Friday. Ben had his friend Charlie over, and the two of them suckered Emma into playing Hotshot Racing for awhile.

Saturday I took Ben and Emma to the Dark Arts Market at Old Nick's.  It was pouring rain, but they both picked up a few witchy knick-nacks.  Next up was Oregon Art Supply since we clearly didn't have enough art supplies in the house.

Sunday was Ben's birthday, starting with the usual hearty breakfast.  Emma wanted to make a candleholder for her new Dark Arts Market candles, so we headed down to the shop for some impromptu woodworking.  I gave our wayward son a call - the farm job wasn't for him, so he was going to visit friends in Pheonix before settling down at a construction job.  He bought a bass guitar and is settling into his apartment.  He seems cheerful.

Duncan spent the weekend working on a photography homework assignment.  The end result was dozens of pictures of our cat Leiah, which I think he enjoyed immensely.

As the day wore down, Emma drove us to Sweet Life and Sushi Seoul to get Ben's lemon meringue pie and sushi for the birthday festivities.  I think he enjoyed it, along with his horde of presents.