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. 

Mocha Friday

April 12, 2024 by Adam in Family

It's been a relatively quiet week, with the sun peeking out more and more.  Jo's off at a writing workshop for the next couple days.  I've been wearing shorts and a t-shirt, even when the weather suggests otherwise.  At work I've been playing around with Github Copilot, trying to see how useful it is as a coding assistant.  I think it's good on the whole, though it's occasionally misleading or completely incorrect.  The kitties are fine, with Data's kidney issues seemingly back to normal.

Our wayward son seems to have settled in Albuquerque, getting an apartment is a part of town he likes.  Today is his first day working on a farm.  He's made some friends and gone to various concerts.  It's cool seeing him settle in so quickly.

Jo and I had our date night at Old Nick's, with its fantasy-themed menu.  The open mic was a little loud and the food was just okay, but we went for a walk around the rose gardens and it was surprisingly beautiful.

Weekend Festivities

April 08, 2024 by Adam in Family

Saturday was the big D&D day with a new campaign kicking off.  It generally went well, though the snail racing competition had some inter-party fighting.  The open nature of things is a little stressful to run, but hopefully the carnival activities were generally fun.  Hopefully they all had a good time - breaking out minis I painted long ago was entertaining to me at least.  Seraph also got me a cool new D&D t-shirt, as clearly I need more of those.

Sunday was filled with gardening, walks to various little free libraries, and some video game playing.  I planted some sunflowers along with the more practical veggies.  The greenhouse is filling up with fun plants too - hopefully we'll have enough room in the beds for everything.

Sneaking into Spring

April 05, 2024 by Adam in Family

I spent a couple days wearing shorts and t-shirts, feeling like a better version of myself as I frolicked in the sunshine.  I snuck away from work to mow the lawn and clean the porch and patio.  It was all very lovely, though we quickly returned to cool, rainy weather.

I was handed a new wacky project at work, so I'm feeling thrown to the deep end once again.  I'm not really working with other developers, reporting directly to a director, so I'm feeling somewhat disconnected from everyone else.  We'll see how long it lasts.

I've got a new D&D campaign starting tomorrow - The Wild Beyond the Witchlight.  Our brave adventurers are returning to the magical carnival where they each lost something as a child.  I think I'm mostly prepared except for a few minor things.  Plus I've got some popcorn to make to set the carnival mood.

Three Day Weekend

April 01, 2024 by Adam in Family

It was a nice weekend all around, with Emma coming over early and filling Friday up with various fun things.  I caught up on some correspondence, setup my dad's old 3D printer, Emma and I went to the library, and then we had tea with my mom.  Dad's old printer is bigger than my current one, so I tested it out with a couple prints of an ink stamp holder I'd been wanting to try.  Tea with mom was nice, and it turns out some more logging money finally came in.  Hopefully the loggers will finish up doing what they're doing and we can get on with the business of managing things ourselves.

I read a few graphic novels, played some games, and prepped some D&D.  Emma and I took a few more cherry branches and turned them into spoons and spatulas.  Jeaux and I emptied one of the garden beds that the fig tree had grown roots into.  I think we have a plan to keep them out in the future.

Ben still wanted to do our traditional egg hunt, so we hid eggs and watched our teens scurry about finding them.  Emma abstained, though she did nibble on a chocolate bunny left on her breakfast plate.

It's the first week of the new term for Duncan and Emma.  Emma's classes are starting at 8:30 in the morning.  Duncan's taking a lighter term unless his wait list class works out.  As for me, I love that it's finally starting to feel like spring and the world is born anew.