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.

Maximum Nerdage

March 25, 2024 by Adam in Family

I had a very nerdy weekend with back-to-back D&D games.  It was great meeting Jordan's friend Sam and starting the new whimsical-yet-dark fairytale campaign The Wild Beyond the Witchlight.  They played as kids, sneaking into a carnival and all losing something important.  Next session they return eight years later as adults, looking for that missing something.

Sunday was the friend group, with a train heist and jail break combination.  I think it turned out well, moving quickly as they roamed between the rail cars as the train passed through various planes of existence.  After that was a "Lower Decks" style session with everyone playing crewmembers going on their own low-level adventure, starting with a game of poker and 3D printed gold, silver, and copper coins.  I think I ran out of funny voices by the end of the day and collapsed next to Emma on the couch after everyone left.

As for the rest of life, it's the start of spring break, which Jo pointed out was to give parents hope that summer vacation will one day arrive.  Jo painted their office.  Pizza was eaten.  Anime was watched.

In sad news, Jo's uncle Jay died over the weekend.  I met him and his French wife when we visited Cornwall many years ago.  Mostly I remember he was cheerful, with funny stories about the area and the Beatles recording in a little studio up the river we kayaked up.  Jo would like to attend the memorial service, though we're still sorting out the details.

Learning to Spell Albuquerque

March 22, 2024 by Adam in Family

It looks like our wayward son is settling into Albuquerque, at least for the time being.  Seraph's friends connected him with an artist hostel and he's staying in an actual camper with a very nice woman and her husband who uses welding to make art.  The thought is that our beamish boy could get a feel for the town, find some work and a more permanent place to live, then see if any of his friends want to join him on his new adventure.  He's really liking the people and the feel of the town, which warms my heart.

As for the rest of us, we enjoyed our few days of sunshine before the rains came again.  Emma's at the beach with Jamie after her final.  Duncan is done too, handing me a poster he made for a fictional movie for his final project.  I imagine it'll have to go on the fridge.  Ben's been having a harder time of it, much more tired than normal the last couple weeks.  Hopefully some doctor visits will help sort things out.  Our kitty Data got his belly shaved and an ultrasound to check out his kidneys - they look good, so hopefully this last vet visit was just a one-time thing.

Work is moving along relatively well, working with new technologies and mostly figuring it out.  I've got some nice new miniatures printed for my D&D groups this weekend, painted for the friend group.  They've got a clear coat drying at the moment - I'm excited to see the final version.

My foot is much better.  I ran four miles yesterday without any tendon pain while watching a comedy horror movie.  Maybe I just needed to switch genres.

Construction Complete!

March 18, 2024 by Adam in Family

Emma and I finished up the Little Free Library over the weekend and brought it over to Jamie's house for installation.  Emma's not quite sure where it will go, but I talked through the steps of getting a post in the ground and attaching the post to the library.  I imagine that will happen at some point.  Emma was very proud of her efforts.

It was also a warm, sunny weekend with sowing seeds in the garden and doing a bit of cleanup.  I somehow hurt one of the tendons in my foot on Friday, so I was limping around until recently.  Fortunately icing it down and taking it easy seemed to do the trick Sunday afternoon.  We also picked up a few games during the Steam sale, including dusting off the VR goggles to play the latest I Expect You To Die.  It's a great spy game where you solve puzzles and thwart villians while trying to avoid dying in entertaining ways.  Emma mostly played that while I played the cyberpunk survival-horror game Signalis.

Our wayward son continues to travel across the country, really enjoying Albuquerque and pondering hard about moving there.  He's currently in Dixon, Seraph and Robbie's stomping grounds.  Plans continue to be in flux, but he's having a great time exploring and trying to find a good place to settle down.

Next weekend is the start of some new D&D campaigns, so I'm printing out characters and getting things ready to go.  Should be exciting.

Mocha Friday

March 15, 2024 by Adam in Family

Yesterday was somewhat exciting, starting with a SpaceX rocket launch and ending with a pumpkin pie for Pi Day.  I had a long chat with my wayward son, who has left Austin and his friends there and was calling from the woods near Albuquerque.  He took a long hike through the White Sands dunes, a beetle the only animal he saw along the way.  Today he's spending the day at a hiking gym and generally checking out the town.  Next up is a couple days with friends of Seraph and then spending a week in Pheonix.  

The school term is winding down, with Emma and Duncan working on final projects.  Emma has been missing Russian Orthodox Easter, so she's convinced Seraph to team up and make it happen.  Jo and I might get away for a day or so over spring break, though we're not organized yet.  With the weather finally turning sunny and warm, I think we'll try to get some gardening done.  There's also a little free library to finish.  I'm also down to a week until the next round of D&D sessions and have some minis to print and sessions to prep for.

Little Free Libraries

March 13, 2024 by Adam in Family

It was a dreary weekend after a sunny Friday, so we mostly stayed inside.  Friday was a library trip.  Saturday and Sunday Emma and I worked on a little Free Library for her mom's house.  We rooted around the storage area under the porch and found an old window that ended up working well for the front and back.  By the end of the weekend we finished most of it, though I think this weekend we'll finish the roof and keep applying layers of paint and varnish to preserve the wood.

The rest of the week is puttering along.  Work is wacky and I feel thwarted more than I'd like.  I'm preparing for the next D&D campaign and getting excited as I go.  Evenings are relatively quiet - cooking dinner, puttering a little on the computer, and watching tv with a kitty on my lap.  It's a pretty good life.