Last Mocha Friday of the Year

December 29, 2023 by Adam in Family

I'm a little worn out, but fortunately it's Friday in between a couple long stretches of time off.  Hopefully I remember how to work again once things start in earnest after the New Year's break.

Christmas went well and the flight back to Chicago went well for our wayward son.  We had a great time hanging out with him and the rest of the family over the last few days.

While there have been a few rough spots in this last year, it's been reassuring to have all the kids progressively doing better.  And while my work has been bumpy, I feel like my career overall continues to do well.  My day-to-day life is pretty good - I feel like I've figured out how to keep myself entertained with podcasts even when taking out the trash, doing dishes, or cooking meals.  Each day I run at lunch and watch a show.  After dinner I get a couple hours to putter around before watching a show with Jeaux (oh - new name spelling) with a kitty on my lap.  Weekends are filled with hanging out with Emma and D&D sessions, sprinkled with hikes, library trips, gardening, and various projects.  It's a good life.

I'm curious what the next year holds.  I imagine I'll need to decide if the farm is my new hobby and how much effort I want to spend on maintaining a bit of land.  It's exciting, but potentially a lot of time.  I'm sure I'll visit our wayward son wherever he ends up.  I'm sure being a dad will continue to be a big focus and I'll keep helping this gaggle of children move closer to being responsible adults.

At least life is never boring.

Christmas Eve

December 24, 2023 by Adam in Family

It's been a fairly eventful week, heading out to the farm to look at the latest from the logging.  Big chunks of the property has been cleared, which has the people who lived there a little sad.  I think we're all trying to look forward five or ten years and make sure it doesn't get taken over by blackberries.

It's been great having our Chicago son back again.  We've had lots of hang out time, such as Jenny's lasagna bash last night.  It was packed with people and conversation and the white elephant gift exchange was weirdly amusing.

As for me, all my presents are wrapped, I'm on my fifth day off work, and I'm puttering around the house until everyone returns for a night's rest before stockings and presents.  Ben's doing midnight mass this evening, though we'll hopefully be tucked in bed with sugarplums dancing in our heads.  Jamie's doing her family Christmas shindig this afternoon, taking the older two kids with her.  Jo's working on last minute present wrapping and Duncan's doing the usual video editing projects.

Time to down some coffee and indulge myself in some video game playing while I can.

Empty Lap

December 18, 2023 by Adam in Family

At the end of the day Jo and I plonk down on the couch and watch an episode of whatever show we're watching, sipping mint tea once it has cooled down.  Data finds his way on to my lap during this ritual, expecting pets and scratches before having a nice nap.

Last night my lap was empty as he was at the emergency vet hospital out in Springfield.  He kept visiting the litter box and Jo's kitty-in-trouble senses kicked into high gear.  It looks like he has a UTI of some kind and his kidneys aren't working very well.  They took some x-rays and they started him on IV antibiotics and will retest his blood later tonight.  It's also Data's four-year birthday today, so I feel bad he's spending it mostly away.  Hopefully he's back home tonight, oblivious to the fact that we've spent $2000 so he can pee again.

Christmas was activated in earnest last weekend.  The tree is up and decorated, lights adorn our yard for the amusement of our neighbors.  Some of the presents have been wrapped, though I've got more to do yet.  Emma and I spent far too long at Hirons getting wrapping paper, coming out with $100 in stocking stuffers as well.  Hopefully they're amusing and a little practical for all the stocking openers.

I did manage some downtime here and there, playing games with Emma and chatting.  I chatted with dad for the first time in awhile, which was nice.  I'm getting excited for the return of the prodigal son in a couple days, along with taking some time off work.  I may end up in an engineering lead position over our teams despite my trepidation - hopefully it ends up being positive.

Mocha Friday

December 15, 2023 by Adam in Family

We've somehow survived the week.  Jo's got end-of-year giving stuff and it's all a bit of a madhouse.  Our team is trying to get a release ready, scrambling more than I'd like so we can do some testing with the wider team.  I only have a handful of days I'm working until January's release, so we're all trying to get done early.

We had the big farm shindig, which generally went well.  It was fun talking to all the forest management experts and I think we have a plan to make a plan with a lot more information than before.  I think we're leaning towards planting mixed conifers where the bulk of the trees were cut down, then more hardwood along the stream and pond.  Controlling blackberries is going to be the hard thing until we get a denser canopy, which might take quite a few years.  It's hard starting something that will go on past my lifetime.

The farm itself is a total wreck at the moment, with trees down everywhere and things behind schedule.  I'm trying hard to think past all that - we'll see if I'm successful.

I can't wait to see our Chicago son next week.  Ben has a friend visiting for the next few days.  School's over for everyone after today, and I think just Jo is going to be busy with work.  We've got a lot of Christmas stuff to put up this weekend and endless presents to wrap, but hopefully we'll get there.

Dungeons and Dragons and Christmas Carols

December 12, 2023 by Adam in Family

It was good to see the family D&D group on Saturday, along with rescuing Jordan from the mirror.  I got to impress everyone by whipping out a small minotaur miniature that someone disguised themselves to.  I'd just made it for fun a couple weeks ago.

We had a bit of a mixup on Sunday and Marty didn't show for Sunday D&D, but we had a nice nerd chat, lunch, and went our separate ways.  For the afternoon I got together with mom, Jamie, and Emma to go to the Hult Center for a English Christmas Carols.  It was a fun seasonal thing to do.

As for this week, I've been wading back into work and trying to get things done.  Tomorrow I'm meeting a bunch of forest management experts to come up with a plan for the farm.  I'm secretly hoping I can ply them with coffee and pastries and they'll turn it into a firm forest management plan.

Mocha Friday

December 08, 2023 by Adam in Family

I'm finally feeling mostly better after a week of this mild cold. It's been a generally good week - getting things done at work, going out for foot massages and pizza with Jo, organizing the forest restoration people in more detail, and slowly getting ready for Christmas.  It's a back-to-back D&D weekend and I'm looking forward to hanging out with everyone again.

The pile of flat pack furniture in the living room has vanished.  The desk is in Jo's office, the love seat is upstairs, and the fold-out bed is in the basement waiting to be moved out to the cabin.

Emma and Duncan are done with school, their last projects turned in.  Poor Ben continues to work away, staying late after school yesterday to hang out with her teacher and do Calculus problems.  He seems to be generally enjoying his new basement bedroom and the cats have both found their way down there.

I met my new manager yesterday, though I suspect he'll be spread too thin to be particularly present.  I'm hoping to get an old coworker working with the team again after Jess' departure.  Life moves on.

Worn out Weekend

December 05, 2023 by Adam in Family

It's actually Tuesday morning, but the sentiment is the same.  I finally came down with Emma's cold and while the symptoms aren't too bad, I do feel pretty tired all around.  I did take some time to finish Baldur's Gate 3, which was loads of fun.  Sunday afternoon I watched Emma play Unpacking while halfway finishing Jo's new desk.  Yesterday I left work a little early and spent another few hours finishing it.  After this piece of flat pack furniture, there's a love seat for the upstairs.  Jo is taking another one out to the shed.  So many boxes have arrived lately.

Work's been a little busy with a priority one ticket that came in, but I think I finally have it sorted out and hotfixed.  My two coworkers and I are doing pretty well with setting up bug testing and release planning.  As there's lots of time off in the next few weeks we're trying to get ready early.

It's finals week for Duncan and Emma, though I think Emma just had to turn in a paper on Monday and she's out.

Hopefully I perk up in the next few days - sadly there are limits as to what cafe mochas and cereal can do.

Baldur's Gate 3

December 02, 2023 by Adam in Adam's Games

I have fond memories of Sam sitting on my lap when he was a baby, playing the first of the Baldur's Gate games up in my office in the Friendly street house.  Twenty years later they came out with a sequel to those games and did an amazing job.  There was so much high-quality content, fun gameplay, good graphics, and wonderful voice acting.  It was bittersweet to finally get to the end of it all.

End Times

December 01, 2023 by Adam in Family

I downed my mocha quickly so that I might join the final work get together with our old team.  We played a game called Wavelength and chatted, which was a good time as usual.  Yesterday we learned who we reported to - I've worked with the new manager in the past and he seems like a decent choice.

Emma stopped by to visit, making sure to give Data lots of hugs.  Her cough continues to linger, likely for weeks yet, and was a little loopy on cough suppresants.

The week has generally been good and low-key.  I fixed a jammed 3D printer, dodging the cleaning robot along the way, and felt like I was living in the future.  Jo and I played video games on date night.  I keep printing and painting minis.  Mom and I had a nice chat about the farm when we went out for tea.

It's back to work for me.  My computer is demanding it be rebooted.