Friday Preparations

March 31, 2017 by Adam in Family

We're getting ready for Russian Orthodox Easter tomorrow, scheduled slightly differently than the official date.  Sam and I headed over to my mom's, meeting up with Emma to help clean up her patio.  It was a fun, cheerful experience, and it was nice to see the kids be helpful and entertaining.  Sam and I came back home to take it easy for a little while.  The plan is to later set up a repository for his code and get his quirky game working properly again. Right now his little simulated people build a house and then sit in it until they starve to death.

I took yesterday off work as well, spending some time with Seraph, Robbie, and Izzie.  I also managed to do various errands, such as filling up on 20 gallons of kerosine in case power fails again, and replacing my ancient car battery.

I strangely miss work a little bit.  My code made it to the master branch and I have some ideas for the security system I want to try out.  Fun, fun.

Visitors

March 29, 2017 by Adam in Family

It's been a somewhat eventful last few days.  Monday night Honoka came to dinner - she's visiting the US and staying with her friend Megan.  Honoka got pretty teary-eyed seeing us all again and visiting her old bedroom that I've since turned into an office.  She seems to be well, going to junior college and learning about nutrition, while teaching English to middle school kids on the side.  It was nice to see her, and Berry was especially sad to have her go.

Yesterday I had breakfast with mom and dinner with dad, which was a nice treat. I think they're all generally doing okay, though dad has surgery in a couple weeks.  Theoretically he should recover in a week or so.  They both seem excited to see Seraph and her crew, who landed in Eugene last night.

Work has gotten a little busy, which is a good thing I suppose.  Jonathan is asking me to put my security hat on and build a security-related application as a demo project.  I'm also trying hard to get my source code reviewed and checked into the master branch.  It's one of those milestones that means I'm actually contributing.

I have the next couple days off.  Hopefully I can hang out with the kids and Seraph, Robbie, and Isa as much as possible.

Rainy Weekend

March 27, 2017 by Adam in Family

It was a good weekend, hanging out with kids excited for spring break.  The weather was pretty rainy, though we managed to take the whole family down to Alton Baker Park to walk around and play with a couple Frisbees.  Other than that, it was the usual pizza, big breakfasts, and playing around.  Berry and Joanna aren't feeling great for whatever reason, with Berry having a nasty cold.  Hopefully they improve soon.

I'm working three days this week while the kids are out of school.  Thursday and Friday I'm hanging out with Seraph and crew.

Sam's working on a new game that involves little creatures finding food, mating, and fighting.  I had him restructure his code and we spent a few frustrating hours getting it working again.  It's surprisingly funny - with the little creatures standing around until they die because their needs are fulfilled, or various morally questionable mating practices.

Emma and I played more Divinity.  Joanna worked.  Duncan and Berry played on their computers.  I set up a new security camera and got them all working the way I wanted.  Life moves on.

Mocha Friday

March 24, 2017 by Adam in Family

My mocha is long gone.  It's weird making it myself these days, though admittedly Wednesday afternoon I stopped by Full City to use up the last of my gift certificate.  

I managed to screw up this web site when setting up my work office.  Good ol' IP address conflicts with the router.  Silly me.  Should be fixed now.

Work is going along really well.  I got two big monitors shipped to me which make life a lot easier.  I'm also getting the hang of our code base and feeling like I'm making valid contributions.  There's a lot to learn still, but at least I'm getting into the code base and doing useful stuff.

The family is generally doing okay, though I'm regularly reminded that being a teenager is hard.  Hopefully everyone makes it through to adulthood in one piece.  Joanna's been working really hard lately - while we sometimes work at home at the same time, we only briefly cross paths.

I'm looking forward to the weekend and hanging out with kids.  Next week should be pretty fun.  Honoka comes for dinner Monday night.  Seraph, Robbie, and Isa arrive Tuesday sometime.  I'm taking Thursday and Friday off.

Wednesday

March 22, 2017 by Adam in Family

My current goal in my job is to feel slightly less incompetent with every day that passes.  I've been flailing around in the code, slowly starting to understand how it works.  I think I'm making progress though, and it is only my first week after training.

I heard from Kate about her sister.  Kai and her family are in Turkey helping the Syrian refugees.  I know mom and Seraph always fret about her, as they often find themselves in far-flung places.

Emma finished her presentation on her mentorship with Joanna - supposedly it went mostly okay.  Sam was more critical of his presentation in his scifi class.  Berry's foot injury continues to heal.  The crutches are gone and she's limping around with a brace.  Duncan is Duncan, sometimes mature and charming, sometimes goofy and crazy.  Ah, the joys of tweens.

I'm generally enjoying working from home, especially with the extra 40 minutes from my commute.  Yesterday I mowed the lawn.  Other times of started pruning or hung out with Sam.  It makes my schedule seem far less crazy.

Sunny Sunday

March 19, 2017 by Adam in Family

It's late Sunday and the weather is pretty amazing.  I've tried hard to spend a lot of time outside today, riding bikes and puttering about in the garden.  It raises the spirits considerably.

It's been a generally good weekend.  Friday night Joanna and I had a hot date at the gluten free place, stopping by Sundance to pick up tea for Joanna's jun.  We also made peanut butter through a crushing device so Sam wouldn't be peanut butter free for a few days.

Saturday morning I played the "figure out a technical problem to make my new coworker happy" game before breakfast.  Cory will hopefully be happy and I'll be accepted as one of their own.

We managed a library run in the afternoon.  Isa came over and we watched a throwback Mythbusters with our pizza.  I'm slowly working through the new Torment game, which continues to be quirky and fascinating.

Today I took Sam and Emma on a bike ride.  Emma crashed into a parked car on her way down 19th.  She wasn't particularly happy, but she biked a little more, Sam and I did a quick ride as she rested, and we ended up at Humble Bagel for lunch.  Hopefully it was one of those character building moments.

Mocha Friday

March 17, 2017 by Adam in Family

I'm still figuring out how to work from home these days.  I made myself a mocha, did my last session with the Bootcamp at Health Catalyst, and generally felt pretty good about my onboarding process.  I have a ton to learn still, and haven't got all my software configured.  I did manage to get the application I'll be working on to run on my laptop, which was a good first step.

They're doing this funky thing at work whey they have a pine derby and this afternoon rent out a theater to watch Beauty and the Beast.  It's a little different for us remote workers - I was trying to find a time to go to the movie, but life is a challenging series of scheduling problems.  Not sure when we'll make it.

I managed to screw up the network and take this web site offline.  I moved it to a more reliable network connection, but I need to think through this stuff a little more carefully.  I think I'm up to 4-5 hubs and switches in the house at this point.  I should probably make a wiring diagram or at least label all these wires.

Berry hurt her leg falling off her bike a few days ago.  There doesn't seem to be any serious bruising or swelling, but she seems reticent to put any weight on it.  She's been using crutches for a couple days and scooting around on the floor, which is vaguely comical and sad.  Joanna's planning on taking her to urgent care this afternoon.

I think we're all generally okay.  Emma read her presentation on her work study with Joanna to me this morning and I think she'll do fine.  Duncan's having problems with one of his French classes.  Sam's got finals and then one more term of high school - still not quite sure what his plan is.  Joanna seems to be liking her new office - she occasionally wanders home and we chat briefly at lunch.

Date night tonight.  I need to make a library run tomorrow.  Really enjoying the somewhat nicer weather - did a little gardening the other day and it felt great.

Happy (Day After) Pi Day

March 15, 2017 by Adam in Family

Joanna made us tasty pies to celebrate Pi day yesterday - pumpkin and apple.  They were pretty amazing, both in presentation and taste.  Apparently they were celebrating Pi day at work yesterday, as people took a break from our training to go get pie.  I didn't envy them too much, as I knew what was coming.

The week has been relatively uneventful.  I got my office space in back sorted out and have been doing training sessions in the quiet of the back shed.  Onboarding is going well - I'm enjoying the training and slowly sorting out all the other little pieces.  I'm itching at the prospect for writing code soon.

Settling In

March 13, 2017 by Adam in Family

I'm slowly settling into my new job.  After some grumbling I managed to get my network connection in the shed working well enough.  It's actually pretty cozy out here - I was watching training videos on the couch, sprawled out and learning about analytics adoption roadmaps.  Fun stuff.

I still have a lot to do in order to get my computer setup, I have four days of bootcamp coming up, and lots of looking over the shoulder of coworkers before I can start being really productive.  Still, I see the light at the end of the tunnel and I'm excited to start being useful.

The weekend was generally pretty good.  There was a fair amount of technical support that had built up while I was away.  I installed Joanna's new hard drive and helped her transfer data over to her laptop so she'll be more mobile.  Duncan had a green screen sitting under his bed since Christmas - I helped getting the software together and Joanna helped string it up as a background.  Soon enough he was making goofy test videos.  Sam posted his climbing game and has moved on to a dialog-heavy adventure game.  It looks pretty nice, and he managed to set up a Twine import into Unity which works well.

In between tech support and the usual activities like pizza and science, Emma and I played a lot of Divinity.  Somehow I missed a bunch of things on my first play through, so it's been fun going through again to see what I missed.

Last night we went over to Jenny's to celebrate my dad's 74th birthday with most of the usual crowd.  It was nice to see everyone, as always.

Friday at Home

March 10, 2017 by Adam in Family

I'm back home, having had a pretty good flight though the wait at the airport was a little long.  The week was good - lots of nice, smart people.  The work is interesting.  I have a lot to learn.

I'm going through online training today, hoping to get through it all.  I've also got to do expense reports and some other odds and ends.  In general, though, I'm feel pretty good about the move and excited to start doing actual work.

It was great seeing everyone this morning.  I do miss everyone when I'm away.

Health Catalyst Employee

March 09, 2017 by Adam in Family

I finished my second day of onboarding - all is going well and I'm meeting a lot of great people.  There were a couple meetings that were fascinating, talking about some of the cool things Health Catalyst is doing.  I also got a chance to look at the code I'll be working on and breathed a sigh of relief.  It all looks familiar and I think I'll actually be useful.  Lots to learn, from their time tracking software to connecting to the local network.  I have a ton of software to install on my new laptop.

I miss all the Eugene folks, video chatting and texting helps some.  It's been nice having familiar people to hang out with - Jonathan and Andy have been keeping me company.  I'm off to dinner soon.

I'll be nice to be home tomorrow.

Salt Lake City

March 07, 2017 by Adam in Family

I landed about an hour ago, waiting for Jonathan and Andy to arrive. The flight was fine and the only hitch being Glen's absence as his father-in-law died recently and he had to cancel. 

It was a generally good weekend otherwise. Sam continued polishing his game. Emma worked on homework and caught up from her two sick days. Duncan discovered a nearby friend and hung out with him. Berry and I caught the cold that's going around, her far worse than I.

We did our usual pizza and science. Emma helped setting up the shed.  I started playing and immensely enjoying the new Torment game. 

I strangely have little anxiety about my new job. Mostly I want to hit the ground running and get settled in my new life.

Transitions

March 05, 2017 by Adam in Adam

Dave and I throw a great party.

Well, it wasn't just us - a bunch of people contributed beverages, planning, and presents.  People came from out of town, folks retired from PeaceHealth showed up, and we ate and chatted until it was time to go.  It felt like the end of an era, one of the biggest farewells I've seen at PeaceHealth.  It meant a lot to Dave and I that so many people showed up - a fitting end to over two decades, most of which we spent working next to each other.

Glen and Summer bought us unicorn themed gifts, and we received several cards packed with farewells.  I've vowed to return occasionally, if only to pick up Pam's eggs.  Sam repeatedly declares the inadequacy of store bought eggs.

Joanna took out the last of her things and Emma helped me put together my office in the back yard.  Health Catalyst will pay for office furniture for remote workers, so I'll likely get a new desk and chair.  It's nice to have so many familiar things around me - it'll make it easier to be out there.  I'm excited to start work in earnest.

Shutting Things Down

March 03, 2017 by Adam in Adam

I'm turning things off and shutting things down today, my PC soon to be remaged and used for something new.  My trusty Optiplex 9020 has seen a lot of development over the years.  I shut down my SharePoint development virtual machine for the last time today.  Soon everything on my hard drive will be a series of 0's, waiting to be reborn into something new.

Farewell PeaceHealth

March 03, 2017 by Adam in Family

It's my last day at PeaceHealth, my mocha slowly disappearing beside me.  Dave Mehl, my old friend and coworker, is retiring today too.  There should be a pretty good crowd at the party we're throwing ourselves.

Summer came over for dinner last night and charmed all the girls.  She was gushing over Emma's artwork and bought signed copies of Joanna's books.  Now Berry has decided she wants to go stay with her in Seattle this summer.  It was nice to chat - hopefully we can stay in touch and I can get some working-from-home pointers.

I picked up cake this morning and have spent my day so far chatting with people and answering last minute questions that only I know the answer to.  Hopefully this place doesn't collapse after I leave.

Joanna and I are off on our date night today.  This weekend I want to get my new office ready, especially when it comes to the plants being okay.  I've also got a few things to get ready for my Salt Lake City trip, though I generally feel pretty prepared.

Exciting times ahead!

Three More Days

March 01, 2017 by Adam in Family

The week is moving along, with only occasional bumps here and there.  The party planning is done and now Dave and I are just waiting for the big bash this Friday.  It may end up being a pretty big "to do" as people are coming in from out of town and ex-PeaceHealth people are showing up.  It may end up being an informal reunion of sorts.

The police showed up and we dutifully handed over the phone we found in our driveway.  Hopefully we hear the explaination as to why they were wandering around our house at 2 a.m.  I think the general consensus was that they weren't trying to break in, but we're all very curious as to what was going on.

I helped sort out some last minute issues with Sam's application to the U of O.  I think he's on track and should hear by the end of the month whether or not he got accepted.  Now we just need to sort out his senior project and we should be ready for whatever he decides to do next.

Joanna's sorting through all the new office stuff, from insurance to signing paperwork.  Hopefully the new place works well for her.  As I move back home, she moves out.  I'm trying hard not to take it personally.

Duncan's worries over his new haircut and dye job seem to have dissipated once his friends declared it cool.  Other than a mixup where I took her to the wrong school for basketball practice, I think Berry's doing fine.

Joanna made crepes for dinner last night, as is the way of her people for Fat Tuesday.  The little kids were super excited, especially as there were leftovers for breakfast this morning.  It's amazing how much whip cream and Nutella they can cram into a single crepe.