Bubble Gum and Duct Tape

October 14, 2025 by Adam in Family

I'm trying to figure out all the things that seem to have failed with this web site.  The big one is that the domain expired, but instead of saying that I ended up with an annoying SSL error that made no sense.  I'm up and running again, but I've switched back to an older version of the web site since parts of the newer code seem to have failed.

I bought a new web server that I want to switch to, but I need to jump through some hoopes to get it up and running.  In the meantime, this is what you get.

Saturday I took Emma and Yvonne thrifting and Emma picked up her Canadian passport.  Eventually we made it to the library and watched Tombstone after dinner.

Sunday was the big birthday party for Hanni.  It was great seeing everyone and we stayed for quite a long while.

Now it's back to work, cursing a bit of security software that's a pain to use.  I haven't heard from Emma who started on the chocolate making machinery today.  She's probably so tuckered out she went straight to bed.

Mocha Friday

October 10, 2025 by Adam in Family

It feels like Oregon again, the rainy season upon us.  I do like the wet and green, though I miss the carefree days of shorts and t-shirts.

The big news of the week is that Emma got a job.  She's a chocolatier at Euphoria Chocolate Company, doing a lot of packing and shipping, along with helping make assorted chocolate goodies on occasion.  I think she enjoys it - she reports nice coworkers and the 90s alt rock station they listen to hasn't driven her crazy yet.

I signed up for Audible since they had a great deal, and I've been listening to Dungeon Crawler Carl.  It's definately a guilty pleasure, with a ridiculous premise and silly characters, but it makes dishes, laundry, and cooking dinner far more entertaining.  I'm a little sad that the first book is almost over.

I've also been working on 3d printing "cartridges" for my retro computer.  Basically it wraps a big bulky cartridge around a USB key, but they look way cooler and are harder to loose.  I'm a little sad that I have to wait another week for Delta Green.  I've been prepping for the next module, which looks suitably creepy.

Work continues to go well.  People sometimes ask if I worry about AI taking over my job and the reality is that I don't spend much of my time writing code.  I'm constantly dealing with change and learning new things - coordinating with a bunch of people to mostly paddle in the right direction as we move this giant ship that's constantly being remodeled.  Hopefully we sail it where it's supposed to go.

Chill Weekend

October 06, 2025 by Adam in Family

It was a generally uneventful weekend.  Emma and I finished Strange Antiquities, stopping the eldritch abomination by carefully identifying various magical curious.  We started in on Cult of the Lamb, a cute game where we cooperatively lead a cult to help free an eldritch abomination by defeating monsters and keeping our followers happy.  I've been slowly playing Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, trying to keep my young lord out of trouble, not very successfully.

We went to the library and a thrift store, with Emma picking up a midcentury lamp that she liked.  I fixed a broken casette tape my mom handed me, made in the 1970s where my grandmother and great grandmother sent tapes back and forth in the mail.  I had to crack it open and transfer the guts to a blank tape I could disassemble, but the end result was me tearing up as I heard my granny's voice for the first time in years.  I'll see if I can digitize it next.

In the absence of playing any RPGs with friends and family, I keep puttering around making AI generated pictures of scenes and looking into fun props I can make.  I've been looking at newer versions of Traveller, which would be fun to play again.  I guess I need to get some steady groups to play with first.

In other news, Jo's bites appeared again, though not mine.  At this point we think it's not bedbugs but probably something from the garden.  I suppose the upside of cold winter months is killing off those sort of pests.

Spooky Season Mocha Friday

October 03, 2025 by Adam in Family

It somehow become October, along with longer nights, dreary days, pants, long sleeve shirts, and hiking boots.  I'm always a little sad to see the sunshine go away, so I'm trying to transition into being cozy.  The mocha is helping.

It's been a fairly uneventful week.  Delta Green was postponed for a couple weeks due to player schedule changes.  I'm loving the current mission, so I'm a little bummed.  I managed to hook up a Raspberry Pi to the black and white security monitor Emma found in a thrift store.  It was remarkably difficult to get the video working, and the Raspberry Pi 2 is a little slow, but I think I got my Delta Green prop setup the way I wanted.  I mailed off the paper props from my first two Delta Green games to a coworker for their upcoming game, so I'm happy my old props going to a good home.

Otherwise I've been doing the normal things - tea with mom, chatting with Emma on the phone, playing Balatro and Kingdom Come Deliverance, and various tv shows each night.  Jo and I played video games for date night - we'll probably take a year to get through Split Fiction, but it's been a good time.  I took advantage of an Audible deal and am currently listening to Dungeon Crawler Carl, which hopefully ends up being a fun romp, if not too serious.

I'm glad it's Friday.  After my taste of vacation it's been a little bit of a slog these last few days.  I'm excited for the weekend and going on little adventures.  I'll probably drag Emma to the comic book festival at 5th Street tomorrow.  We've also got Strange Antiquities to finish.

First Day of School

September 29, 2025 by Adam in Family

Duncan's heading back to school and Yvonne starts today at LCC.  She's got a biology class and is hopping on the bus at noon.  Hopefully all goes well.

Emma had an interview at Euphoria as a chocolateir of some sort - she should hear more today.  Unfortunately the car we gave her had the power steering fluid leak out and she's having to fork over $700 to get it fixed.  Hopefully that's the last for awhile.

Jo and I had a great time at McKenzie river and took our kayaks up to Clear Lake to paddle around for the day.  As advertised, the water was strikingly clear and the day was beautiful.  I'm glad we got to get away for a little while.

The rest of the weekend was a mix of projects and play.  Emma and I went to the library and started to play a fun little puzzle game called Strange Antiquities.  I made crepes for everyone Sunday morning.  Later Emma and I worked on finishing the compost shelter, just in time for the rains this morning.

Now I'm back at work, having just finished wading through my email messages.  I'll try and gird my loins and figure out what I should be working on next.

McKenzie Bridge Vacation

September 26, 2025 by Adam in Family

We've abandoned our children and headed for McKenzie Bridge for a couple nights, hopefully making it up to Clear Lake to paddle around later today.  It's the end of a very pleasant vacation.  I accomplished vast amounts of things the last few days, some practical and others less so.  I cleaned the patio, basement, and garage.  I've got a tattoo consult scheduled.  I'm donating my old car to KLCC on Tuesday.  I've got another heat pump estimate setup for Monday.  All my vaccinations made my arms sore for a few days, but I'm feeling normal again. Emma found an old Radio Shack black and white security monitor that I'm getting prepped to sneak into my Delta Green game, hooking it up to a Raspberry Pi I had laying around.  Plus I managed to play a no-Flush game in Balatro and unlock a new Joker.

Emma had some bad car news - the power steering fluid was punctured and leaked out - with a $700 bill.  That's real money to her, so she's a little bummed out but forking over the cash.

School starts for Duncan and Yvone next week.  Work starts for me.  In the meantime I'll enjoy being out in the woods by the river and puttering around as long as I can.

Tuesday Update

September 23, 2025 by Adam in Family

What is time on vacation, exactly.  The days blur away as every morning has a mocha and blueberry pancakes, one of my favorite ways to start the day.  I've been getting a ton of things done, which is satisfying.  I got my passport application mailed, the air in my tires filled up, emailed about a new tattoo, cleared out the yard debris from the backyard and loaded up the trailer.  The list goes on and on.

I've managed a bit of time to play - rediscovering Balatro, listening to audio books, and reading The Ophiuchi Hotline found at St. Vinnies.  Saturday Delta Green was awesome fun - fighting monsters with fire and UV light, along with running into it with an FBI vehicle.  Now we've started on a new mission with a UFO-crazed southern town.  Sunday D&D was cancelled, but Jason invited me and I played The Dead of Winter with his family. 

Jo and I's bedbug bites or whatever they were seem to be clearing up.  I got pumped full of vaccinations today and went out to the farm with my mom to get the latest update.  It's cool seeing it all come together.

Mocha Thursday

September 18, 2025 by Adam in Family

It's technically Thursday, but as it's the last day in my work week it seemed like a good excuse to make myself a mocha.  It's hackathon week at work and I'm pretty happy with the way my proof-of-concept turned out.  Since I'm out on vacation for the report out I'm putting together a little movie talking about it, complete with clips of cats typing on keyboards.  I also did a presentation yesterday that generally went well.  Today I might take it somewhat easier and work on updating some documentation.

It's back-to-back Delta Green and D&D this weekend, so I'm busy doing some last minute prepping.  That's half the fun for me, though I'm excited to see everyone again.  D&D in particular has had a long summer hiatus and I'm going to suggest we start wrapping up the current campaign.  I'm trying hard to avoid things fizzling out and give everyone a satisfying ending.

The crisis of the week seems to be that we have bedbugs in the house, likely brought back from Jo's trip to Corvallis last week.  Waking up with new bites is super annoying and I think I'll give up and sleep out in my shed until things get resolved.  Traps arrive today and we'll figure out next steps after we confirm them.

At least I have my mochas.

Processing Apples

September 15, 2025 by Adam in Family

It was a fairly quiet weekend.  Emma was over on Saturday and we did our usual library run followed by a trip to a couple thrift stores.  Emma got a cute babushka style top and I found a relatively new science fiction book.  One of these days I'll get around to reading my giant pile of books.

Sunday morning Emma went off to Orcus island with Jamie for the week.  I did a mix of video games, D&D prep, apple peeling and slicing for dehydration, folding clothes, and doing a bit of deep cleaning and tidying up.  It's been a long while, but I got around to printing and painting some minis while listening to a new audiobook.  I'd forgotten how fun that can be.

Now it's hackathon week at work and I've unfortunately gotten an enthusiastic thumbs up on my idea from one of the architects.  It's something I know how to do pretty well, so I'll spend some time throwing my idea together.  I'm also doing a presentation and need to polish up the presentation a little more and figure out how to schedule the thing.  I also have a bunch of continuing work I should moving along.  We'll see how much I accomplish this week as it sounds like it'll be a little wacky.

Starbucks Mocha Friday

September 12, 2025 by Adam in Family

We typically get our groceries delivered, which is great except occasionally they don't quite get our order right.  I went to grab another bag of preground coffee, only to find that they gave us whole beans.  While this is very much in the category of first world problems, I remembered that Yayoe got me a Starbucks gift certificate so I zipped over, got a couple bags of coffee beans ground to my specifications along with a latte for my troubles. 

Now I'm in my office, trying to get a test working that my coworker Andrew left me as a present before he left on vacation.  Hopefully the combined latte and mocha give me the mental fortitude to get it done.

Other than these small crises it's been a decent week.  I'm almost done with the scifi book I started weeks ago, switching between audio and physical book depending on what I'm doing.  I continue to enjoy Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, running around 15th century Europe and getting up to mischief.  The weekend after this has back-to-back Delta Green and D&D.  My D&D game hasn't happened in months so I'm going to suggest we wrap up the campaign, though I've got to put together an epic ending to our years-long adventures.

Emma leaves this Sunday to go on a vacation with her mom and big brother, so she wants to stock up at the library.  Sunday might be a house project and yard work day for me, depending on the weather and my enthusiasm.