The Omicron Variant

November 30, 2021 by Adam in Family

Life seems a little too much like the old sci-fi books I read as a kid, complete with goofy-sounding names for everything.  In any case, I'm getting my booster shot tomorrow and it sounds like vaccines still work against this latest covid variant.

It was a nice four-day weekend, with lots of hanging out with kids and slowly getting ready for Christmas.  Emma's gotten really good at Atomicrops, beating year 7 amidst shrieks and high-fives from me.  It's the week before finals, so she's wrapping up projects and getting ready for her math and biology tests.  Ben's doing similar things in his biology class too - it's fun listening to the two of them talk about cell structures and DNA.

I've mostly recovered from my annoying cold.  I've been playing with some of the new games I picked up, including a new card battler called Inscription, which is really well done.  Continuing the good news, it's date night tonight - maybe we'll break open the new art supplies and try and draw something.

Post-Thanksgiving Virus

November 27, 2021 by Adam in Family

Thanksgiving night I suddenly got some weird sinus pain which was really bad, but cleared up by the morning.  I'm always nervous about such things in this pandemic era, but it cleared up to a mild sensation which I don't really notice much.  Hopefully it's just the various strains of colds being passed around.

As for the last couple days, they've been really lovely.  Joanna and I had a great kissaversary, exchanging presents and hanging out.  Joanna got me a canvas of pictures of us.  I got them fancy art supplies and a two-player game called Mandala which was fun to play.

I've also finally sorted out the children and made sure they picked a gift for each person.  There are a few more things I need to sort out in terms of buying gifts, but I'm feeling pretty good getting most of it early.  Suck it, supply chain issues.

Happy Thanksgiving

November 25, 2021 by Adam in Family

Joanna and I are back home, playing video games and chilling with the cats as we digest our delicious Thanksgiving meal. Seraph made the main dishes and got mom's house ready while the rest of us brought side dishes. The food was great and we chatted away the afternoon. Sadie called as well and talked to everyone, despite Simon's attacks with a slap bracelet.

It's also our kissaversary, so Joanna and I have a bunch of presents to exchange this evening. The amazing sweater Joanna's Ben knitting for me finally finished today as well, so I've been showing it off to everyone.  It's been a good day.

Wandering the Farm

November 22, 2021 by Adam in Family

It was another quiet weekend, like so many these days.  Saturday morning Emma and I did our usual library run, picking up a nautical book for her at the used bookstore there.  She worked on homework off and on and we both played too much Atomicrops.  Ben played a bunch of Terraria, though I've yet to set up the new computer as a permanent Terraria server.

Sunday Joanna and I managed some yardwork, mulching leaves and throwing them in the compost.  We also went out to the farm to visit the chickens and look for mushrooms.  I though the writer's shack was coming along nicely, though there's always lots to do.

Head cold mocha Friday

November 19, 2021 by Adam in Family

I've got a touch of something or another, probably the same thing Joanna had this last week.  It's not too bad, just some annoying sinus pain that I'm keeping at bay with the power of Advil and mocha.  We have some tricky work problems to sort out today, but hopefully I'm still up to the task.

Life's generally been good, if busy.  I had tea with mom.  We had a good meeting with Duncan's IEP team and he's feeling a little less overwhelmed.  I picked up Emma from school yesterday after her last chem lab and second to last bio lab.  Joanna's been working on insulating the cabin in the woods, getting about half the walls done.  Ben's been playing a lot of Terraria lately and I keep trying to setup a server to run it all the time for he and his friends to play on.

I decided that I was playing too much Atomicrops and needed to play something story-focused, so I picked up True Colors.  I really enjoyed Life is Strange with all the teenage angst and this has a similar feel.  Joanna crashes out on the couch with the cats and a Switch, playing Stardew Valley and we game in the same room together.  Ah, the joys of marriage.

Quiet Weekend

November 15, 2021 by Adam in Family

It was a fairly quiet weekend, full of laundry, dishes, and raking the yard.  I got a little organized and sent off a package for the upcoming birthday boy.  I also helped Joanna put up a new light fixture in Ben's room.  Old houses make for weird issues when attaching to new things.

Emma signed up for her new classes which are basically the same other than an honors class focused on the ocean and unusual events.  I'm hoping she can somehow leverage her nautical skills to wow the professor.

Work's moving along.  I nervously put out a copy-and-paste thingie that I came up with on my own.  It's one of those basic things that you can't live without once you discover it exists.  Next up is one of those "Adam - figure it out" tasks involving security.  Hopefully I'm somewhat competent.

We did all take a moment to look at Ancestry's latest ethnicity breakdown.  Emma's calling it "the Scottish update" as we all became much more Scottish.

Data Driven Mocha Friday

November 12, 2021 by Adam in Family

We've been in meetings all week, so I took some time while people were talking to go out to healthdata.gov and download various data sets and load them up in the application I spend my days working on.  I graphed COVID-19 cases, deaths, and vaccinations along with anxiety and other causes of death.  It was depressing at times, but really told a story.  As COVID-19 deaths went up, so did reported anxiety, and as vaccinations and deaths went down, anxiety rates did too.  There were also surges in other causes of death like Alzheimers and heart disease, either due to undetected COVID or due to lack of care.  Interesting stuff, though clearly pretty bleak.  It's always useful to use our application like a customer would as I ended up logging a bunch of bugs along the way.

As for the rest of the week, all has generally been well.  Emma's final went well.  We had a little basement flooding due to heavy rains, causing Joanna to clean out the leaves in the back stairwell really well.  Ben and Duncan are out of school for a couple days.  Data welcomes me each morning with head bonks and hopes of belly rubs.  It's not a bad life.

Date Night Activity

November 10, 2021 by Adam in Family

We've been trying to do an activity of one sort or another with our date nights - last week was lock picking and making ice cream.  Last night was learning how to draw.  We broke out the pastels and a YouTube video of someone drawing an apple, following along as we went.  The end result isn't abhorrent, though perhaps I have a ways to go.

Earlier in the day we went for a hike in the woods up Ridgeline Trail.  The trees were lovely and we were only briefly rained on.  It was nice to get out in nature.

A Whole Week!

November 08, 2021 by Adam in Family

It's apparently been an entire week since I've posted anything.  I don't have much excuse besides "I was busy" and "Nothing much has been happening."  Last week we bid farewell to Danica after a very nice visit.  Joanna took off to Milwaukee to take a test.  I was briefly a single parent, with the most challenging part being getting the cat to take her pills.  My thumb still hurts after that one.

The weekend was pleasant and low-key.  Emma and I played way too much Atomicrops.  I managed to get my new phone setup for the most part, turning off the fancy new gesture stuff in favor of good ol' buttons.  I put away all the Halloween decorations except for a bat which started Emma on her way up the stairs.  Laundry and dishes were done.  Cats were played with.  All is well.

Day of the Dead

November 01, 2021 by Adam in Family

It's Día de los Muertos today - the older I get, the more people are added to my remembrance.  I've been feeling under the weather since Saturday morning, taking a nap in the middle of the day and generally feeling tired.  Ben had something a week ago, so it's likely that.  As he's tested weekly for COVID, it's probably just one of those typical colds that's spreading around now that school's back in session.  Duncan's staying home today.  I'm slowly working away, keeping the coffee flowing as needed.

It was a generally good weekend.  Emma and I went to the library Saturday after breakfast and I helped her with calculus, at least in the sense that I talked through problems with her.  Between calculus and biochem, she's getting beyond me in knowledge.  I helped Duncan get his firewall rules tweaked so his friends could connect to his Minecraft server.  We all piled into the living room for pizza and anime Saturday evening, as is our way.

Halloween was thrown together at the last minute by Joanna, buying pumpkins and putting up decorations, along with making the route to our door hazard-free.  A couple of the pumpkins were incredibly tough, requiring power tools to carve adequately.  We didn't quite get to the saws-all, but it was tempting.

I kept getting more tired as the day went on, taking a long nap, sadly skipping the family gathering, and watching the Truman Show while trick-or-treaters came up to our house.  Hopefully today I start perking up again.