Sea Shanty Friday

December 20, 2024 by Adam in Family

I've been playing around with AI music generation with Suno, making songs for my D&D campaign.  After some fiddling around I managed to get Copilot to write the lyrics which I moved into Suno and told it to make a sea shanty.  The result is an absolute banger that nicely touches on the campaign's themes and is quickly getting stuck in my head.  It's wild how much things feel like they've started to change in technology.  I never would have predicted that the future is populated with AI generated sea shanties.

The last of the boxes in the kitchen has gone and we now have a dishwasher that doesn't require complex button pushes to bypass the safety checks.  All of our appliances are now the apparently popular black and chrome and all but the refrigerator talk to the Internet.  Now Jo occasionally lets me know when the dishes are done or the oven is done heating up.  The next grand project is replacing our old electrical box, which is more expensive than expected but hopefully prepares us better for future projects.

The rest of the week is going along well.  Emma stopped by for a visit yesterday and a trip to the library.  Jo and I went out for burgers at Plank Town in Springfield then off to a Christmas musical at the nearby Wildish theater.  It's nice having older kids when stepping away for a couple hours is relatively easy.

As for the weekend, tomorrow we've got to decorate the tree and I've got presents to wrap.  Sunday is D&D with friends.  Best of all it's the start of two weeks off work, the first long vacation since August.  I'm really excited.

The Kitchen Tower Shrinks

December 17, 2024 by Adam in Family

The once immense tower of appliances in the kitchen shrunk slightly on Sunday as Jo and I installed the new microwave.  It was the usual somewhat frustrating affair, dealing with weird cabinets and having to drill some of the holes a couple of times.  Still, we got it setup in the end and declared success, somewhat exhausted.

I'm still getting used to the new microwave - for example, it doesn't rotate the tray when you open the door like our weird old one did.  The first time I heated up tea I moved my hand to where I predicted it would be, then had to adjust to the now stationary tea.  It also plays a jaunty tune when finished heating, which may get old.  Maybe the microwave has ringtones like the 1990's cell phones.

Duncan's sweetie returns to Florida today.  Emma comes back from the beach.  Yvonne still has school.  Jo has an event tonight.  We've yet to put up a Christmas tree or wrap our remaining presents.  Jo and I are seeing a play at the Wildish Theater on Thursday after dinner somewhere in Springfield.  It's fun feeling fancy and going out on the town.

Rainy Mocha Friday

December 13, 2024 by Adam in Family

We've entered the dreary season  - not particularly cold but quite soggy and gloomy.  I continue to break out the bright lights, cozy fireplace and warm beverages in response.  The kitties lead by example.

Getting the microwave and dishwasher installed was unsuccessful - they'd only install a microwave on a dedicated circuit and the dishwasher didn't have the required plug. One day our kitchen won't have a tower of boxes, but not this week.

It's been a generally pleasant week - Duncan and Emma are off of school, Duncan's been hanging out with his sweetie who's visiting, Emma's off to the beach with her mom, Jo's busy with end-of-year things at work, and I'm wrapping up my big work project and hopefully moving on to the next one soon.  After next week I have two weeks off, which I'm very much looking forward to.

I've got a long to-do list for this weekend - moving a cabinet door over an inch to better fit the new oven, finishing reapolstering the last of the chairs, wrapping christmas presents, putting up lights, and a bunch of other little things.  I suspect I'll manage some fun in there too - I'm enjoying the new Indiana Jones game, currently looting the secrets of the Vatican and punching nazis.  Good times.

Dungeons and Dragons and Colds

December 09, 2024 by Adam in Family

Saturday was the great witch fight with the family group.  It's hard calling the party's action a success - they saved most of the children and heisted the painting they were sent to steal, but two of the party were knocked unconscious and Emma's character came the closest to death I've seen.  Fortunately a lucky roll turned the tide and they lived to fight again another day.  Hopefully next session goes a little more smoothly.

Duncan's sweetie arrived from the airport and he's been in an understandably cheerful mood.  Yvonne, Emma and I went to the library and returned with a good haul.  Jo arranged for the rest of the appliances to be installed this Wednesday, so I'm off the hook there.

Saturday afternoon I started feeling under the weather and I was pretty wiped out on Sunday.  I mostly hung out on the couch while Emma entertained me.  Advil and coffee helped, as did a brief nap, and fortunately I'm feeling much better today.

I've got some bugs to fix at work and a long list of cleanup tasks, but things are generally coming along nicely.  I started the new Indiana Jones video game, which is nostalgic and entertaining so far.  Christmas is sneaking up on all of us - we'll probably get a tree soon and Emma helped me wrap some of the presents this weekend.  Having some time off work and hanging out with the family seems really nice.

Boxes, Boxes, Boxes

December 06, 2024 by Adam in Family

It was the week where four appliances were replaced - dryer, stove, microwave and dishwasher.  They installed the dryer and stove, if incompletely, but the other two are stacked in the kitchen waiting to be installed.  I suspect that duty will fall to me, perhaps with Emma's assistance for the dishwasher. 

The stove is an induction stove, using magnetic fields to heat up ferrous metal pans.  I used it for the first time last night and think I generally like it.  Things heat up really fast, which is different.  I had water boiling incredibly quickly and had to readjust my cooking schedule.  Since I'd never used one before I started reading the warnings.  It turns out we're not supposed to dry our pets in the oven, nor have children crawl in there.  Scratch that off my list.

The other boxes filling the house are the steady stream of Christmas presents.  I guess I need to actually wrap them one of these days. Hopefully that makes me feel like less of a horder as I've filled my closet and overflowed into my bedroom.

Some of the weeks' stressors are clearing up.  My work projects are getting sorted out nicely.  The internet seems to be behaving better after days of intermittent failures which kicked me out of work meetings.  Best of all it's Friday with my mocha half-full beside me.  Maybe I'll survive until spring.

Chill(y) Weekend

December 02, 2024 by Adam in Family

It was a generally pleasant weekend of trying to stay cozy as the weather cools.  I'm not sure I did anything too important on Saturday - read some graphic novels from the library, play some games, and paint some minis.  It was so nice to have four days off of work and do nothing too important.

Sunday was D&D with the friend group.  The ship they had since the beginning was upgraded to fly through space, so they ended up exploring part of their solar system.  Plus I got to break out some new minis to show off.  It was also one of those downtime sessions where they shopped and defended their little seaside town against the dangers of the world, which I think was a fun change from the usual pace.

Now I'm back at work, shepherding code through stages of approval and release.  A few pipelines are misbehaving still, but I think I'm generally making progress.  It looks like my coworkers are taking a couple weeks off in December, so I'll probably follow suit, making it the longest I've had off in ages.  Should be nice!