Solo Mocha Friday

December 31, 2021 by Adam in Family

I checked in with work this morning and it seems like everyone decided to take the day off.  Why I continue to slog through building forms, I'm not quite sure.  We'll see how long I last today before throwing in the towel.

The big family get together last night was the most eventful thing this week.  It was great seeing everyone briefly in the same room, though our combined volume level was remarkable as well.  It was sad saying farewell to Greg, Simon, and Sadie who head out today.  Hopefully their flights are uneventful.  Kevin's were delayed and now it looks like he'll only have a couple days to visit with Ben and Duncan this weekend.

Tonight is our traditional Japanese boy band New Year's Eve, watching the ball drop with  Piña Coladas in our hands.  According to our Japanese exchange student, we should also be eating KFC, but we'll probably end up with something for the vegetarians.

Emma returns today as well, hoping to help me spend some gift certificate money at bookstores and perhaps visit the library.  She also assembled and painted her 3D printed box, which I'm hoping to see.

I've printed out a couple things and hope to do more soon.  I made a little tool used to make soil cubes for seed starts and need to finish up a AA battery holder.  I'm itching to organize the garage a little more, and someone made some great holders for our brand of tools.  We'll see if I can muster the enthusiasm despite the garage being so cold.

Post Christmas Playing

December 28, 2021 by Adam in Family

I'm kinda sorta working today, but the last few days have been spent hanging out with family, playing with our new toys, and dealing with the huge volumes of snow that have piled up.

Sunday was a mix of cleaning things up and starting to get our new things organized.  Emma and I put together my new 3D printer, which fortunately came with gummy bears to eat as a reward after particularly complicated steps.  It was strangely entertaining and we ended up with a 3D sheep that Emma picked and promptly painted to go in her room.  Ben's friends ended up with VR goggles, so he hung out with them quite a bit in VR Chat.

Joanna made an amazing Boxing Day dinner, full of all the usual English Christmas treats like Yorkshire pudding and a Christmas pudding that's been soaking for days.  For the occasion Joanna roasted a chicken, though it was only Joanna and Emma eating it as the non-vegetarians.

Yesterday was Lego Day, though Greg, Sadie, and Simon were delayed a few hours due to the snow.  Simon's Lego set was assembled and he discovered the giant exercise ball piled in the pillows that he played with endlessly.  Eventually they returned to the farm just as dad arrived.  He brought new filament for the 3D printer, passed along some stl files, and gave Emma a quick tutorial on how the slicer software works.  Soon enough we were printing a Tutor rose puzzle box, half of which finished printing this morning.

Snow!

December 26, 2021 by Adam in Family

We had a hearty breakfast of waffles, eggs, bacon, hash browns, and mochas, all the while snow was billowing from the sky. Data had eviscerated the stuffing from his new toy and looked proud of himself. Emma immediately put on her snow suit and went outside to play.

Merry Christmas

December 25, 2021 by Adam in Family

It was an occasionally overwhelming Christmas, full of dealing with broken monitors, sorting through hdmi cables, dishes, recycling boxes and the rest, but there were also high points of opening presents, visiting with family, and hanging out at home.  I haven't really had time to play with my new presents, but hopefully tomorrow I can play a board game or two out of the tremendous pile that accumulated.  Ben's got a murder mystery game he wants to solve with us.  Duncan and Joanna need to return a new monitor to Costco which developed a red line down the side.  Dad promised he'd offer advice setting up my new 3D printer.

Dinner at mom's went well, and it was a treat to see Greg, Simon, and Sadie.  We eventually left and fed Duncan and Ben, though the rest of us were jammy packed with food and tasty dessert.  I plopped down on the couch and we all watched The Nightmare Before Christmas to wind down the day.

Solstice

December 22, 2021 by Adam in Family

Joanna and I celebrated winter solstice yesterday morning, watching the gray sky grow slightly brighter at 7:58 in the morning.  One of our many traditions is to light a candle through the longest night, so we picked up some beehive candles from our neighborhood honey-and-candle box the day before.  I look forward to the brightening days towards spring.

Ben got his wisdom teeth taken out this morning, with Joanna picking up lots of soft foods in preparation.  Hopefully he's feeling relatively normal by Christmas.

Emma comes over today, hopefully helping with last minute Christmas tasks.  Packages arrived in Texas as expected.  I've got a few digital things to somehow wrap.  I've got some food to cook for Christmas dinner. 

We'll see how far I get with work today.  I've got a really hard problem I keep changing my mind how to do.  It's effectively the last day of our project manager before he goes to another team.  Hopefully next year is a little less bumpy.

Joanna's been doing a great job for our date nights lately, trying out a ton of date night subscription boxes.  We had three to choose from last night, so we picked the one where we make macaroons and solve puzzles for an escape room.  We did great, though the website to enter codes in was confusing.

Plumbing Hubris

December 20, 2021 by Adam in Family

Apparently our recent success with the sewage ejector pump offended the plumbing gods and the sump pump in our basement failed.  The garage water alarm went off and we went through the usual suspects of problems.  I cracked open the always-dry basement hatch, only to find it completely full of water.

Joanna and I bonded over our mutual suffering, heading to True Value to pick up a sump pump and connectors, returning home to realize the sump pump wanted 1 1/2" diameter hoses and everything we had was 1 1/4" diameter.  We treated ourselves to lunch and a trip to the Lego store to get a Simon present, off to Home Depot, and then back again to put it all together.  There was some harsh cursing due to the tight spaces, but soon the water was pumped away and disaster averted again.

Kitty Birthday

December 19, 2021 by Adam in Family

Lt. Commander Data had his birthday yesterday, well into his kitty teen years.  He got some bacon sprinkles on yoghurt, along with a new kitty toy present followed by sitting on laps and getting pets.  I think it was a good day for him.

We've all been exceptionally lazy so far this weekend.  I played way too much Guardians of the Galaxy, stopping to take back the slide scanner to the library.  Ben scanned in some of them himself, I think to get 70's Poland pictures for his SCP story somehow.  He was excited to see his story featured on the main SCP page, which was cool as he worked so hard on it these last months.

I've got a bit of a sinus thing, which always makes me nervous in this pandemic era.  I try and remind myself that COVID rates in Oregon are the second lowest in the country. Still, I've been going around smelling everything.  So far so good.

Mocha Friday

December 17, 2021 by Adam in Family

It's a funny work day - theoretically the afternoon is our all team meeting followed by everyone going to see the latest Spiderman movie.  We're doing the pandemic math on the last one.  I remember when I'd check the weather report before heading out of the house and now I look at the current COVID rates.

It's been a relatively uneventful week.  Emma's hanging out with her mom at the coast this weekend.  We've got some last-minute Christmas presents to wrap.  I need to return the slide scanner I borrowed from the library.  It would be nice to have a little game playing in between all the chores.

Sewage Ejector Pump Fixed!

December 16, 2021 by Adam in Family

It was a busy day yesterday, visiting Emma in the morning, mom for tea, and dinner with dad.  Even more importantly, Joanna and I got the new sewage ejector pump and installed it without too much trouble.  If we were really dilligent we'd find a way to pump out water that came down the back stairs, but that may be a little more exciting than we're up for at the moment.

All is generally well.  I made the mistake at work of joking that we should add achievements to our visualization application while we were waiting for a new project manager.  Now we're somehow talking about actually doing it.  Achievement Unlocked: Joke Feature Made Real!

Revenge of the Sewage Ejector Pump

December 13, 2021 by Adam in Family

I awoke this morning to the sound of the water alarm in the basement.  Once again we had flooding issues - this time with the sewage ejector pump.  The float switch seems fine and the motor hums, but it doesn't actually move water around.  I think the fix is to take it out and clean it well, then replace it if that fails.  Joanna fortunately offered to help, so the plan is to carve out time this afternoon to do so.  My coworkers were amused and empathetic when I told them at standup, perhaps with a touch of schadenfreude.

As for the weekend, it was pretty low-key and pleasant.  Emma had lunch with Yayoe.  Ben, Joanna, and I went to the Holiday Market and picked up a few locally made things for Christmas.  We put together a package of presents for our Texan people and wrapped more things to go under the tree.  So far the cats haven't eaten them.

Otherwise there was lots of hang out time, along with dishes, laundry, and cooking.  I worked a little more on my hexed-based browser game.  More grades came in - Ben got great grades of mostly A+ and Duncan did better than expected.  Ben stole the computer to play around in VR.  I think he's got some friends getting VR goggles from Oculus/Meta this Christmas and he wants to hang out with them.  Emma and Ben put together our gingerbread houses, one being a gluten-free ranch style home.

Mocha Friday

December 10, 2021 by Adam in Family

Joanna was up in Portland for an appointment overnight, so I got the cats and kids fed and cared for.  I ended up watching Scott Manley talk about space telescopes and folded laundry, followed by working on a browser-based game to get my little hexes to show up properly.  I forget sometimes how making games is real work.

Emma's done with all her finals, finishing up her bio final before anyone else.  Hopefully that's a good sign.  Sadly Ben and Duncan have school practically until Christmas and seem a little skeptical about their new classes.  Hopefully everyone settles in.

I'm hoping to get Christmas a little more finalized, picking up a last few presents and getting things shipped that have to get out the door.  I'm halfway through wrapping the giant pile of boxes, though I'm afraid to put them out under the tree.  Our kitty Data has been a little naughty lately, though fortunately he's also very cute.

Date Night

December 08, 2021 by Adam in Family

The week is half over and generally pretty eventful. Emma had her first final Monday night, feeling like she did well on her calculus exam. Today is the big bio test.  Duncan and Ben had the first two days off. Ben and I drove to Portland for a doctor appointment and sushi for lunch.

Last night Joanna and I had our date night, which included a mystery art box. It had metal stamps and some test blanks. Getting it right was tricky but entertaining. Eventually we declared success and played coop video games.

Christmas Activated

December 06, 2021 by Adam in Family

We tromped out into the woods to cut down some trees on a property owned by some friends of Joanna.  It was 30 miles away, so a bit of a drive, but it was a nice day and it felt good to be out in nature for a time.  We ended up with a somewhat sparse, natural-looking tree which we brought home and decorated.  Joanna had assembled a kitty tower out of two kitty towers we had around, so we tucked the tree next to that.

The advent calendars have begun again, which means I occasionally eat too many chocolate covered espresso beans.  I indulged a little too much this weekend, mostly making myself grumpy in the process.  I did manage to wrap some of the presents for Christmas, and Joanna put up the lights outside, including the seasonal favorite drunk Santa.  Plus Ben found the Christmas hats for the kitties, which Data begrudgingly allowed.

Mocha Friday

December 03, 2021 by Adam in Family

It's been a quiet week at work with Jonathan on vacation.  I've been putting together a fun little "create dashboard from measure" feature that should speed things up.  I love getting in the flow and turning something from idea to a functioning feature in a day or two.

It's the start of December, which means it's advent calendar time.  I've been getting chocolate covered espresso beans and the occasional sweet Joanna note.  Between the two of them it should get me through the dark days ahead.

Life is otherwise generally uneventful.  Kids and kitties are doing okay.  I have a corner of the bedroom overflowing with packages that need to be opened and wrapped.  There's a week or so of school before winter break, which should make the kitties happy as there will be more people around to pet them.