Back To School

September 28, 2018 by Adam in Family

I wandered the halls of South Eugene last night, going to Emma's parent-teacher conference.  It was funny sitting in the French room where I used to sit thirty some years ago - the walls looked about the same.

Emma has a friend Tevi who is in every one of her classes.  I joked that I should find her parent and then follow them around so I didn't get lost.  Sure enough, a man introduced himself to me in second period "Hi, I'm Charlie, Teve's dad."  I informed him I was Emma's dad and we proceeded to become best friends forever.  It was pretty funny.

The week has generally been going well.  Joanna painted her new office in preparation for moving in next week, doing grief counseling a couple days a week.  All the kids have been chugging along.  Other than XFinity notifying me I was approaching my data limit, life has been relatively stress-free.

Joanna's working a bit over the weekend.  I'm hoping I can have some quality rest and relaxation, playing with kids and watching Young Frankenstein with Emma.  I've also got to pack for my trip to Salt Lake City on Monday.

We're scrambling to get a release of our software ready to go.  Hopefully we've found the last of the bugs.

New Job

September 26, 2018 by Adam in Sam

I was chatting with Sam, who was over at the house with mom.  She sadly said she was losing him soon.  Sam has a friend who was doing customer support for an antivirus company.  They apparently need some more people, so he's off to two weeks of training at a local office soon.  I think he's looking forward to leaving the world of manual labor and not being tired all the time.

He said he was basically going to be talking to confused old people most of the time.  He and mom shared a look and then started laughing.

Midweek Update

September 26, 2018 by Adam in Family

All is well.

Joanna taught her first grief recovery class last night and it apparently went well.  She'll have ongoing Tuesday classes for awhile, but getting the kids to bed is way easier these days.  A few reminders to pry them off the computer is all that's needed these days.

I helped Benny with math and French homework after school, and then helped Emma over the phone getting her classes sorted out.  Tomorrow is the South parent/teacher conference day, so I'm bracing for that marathon.

It's funny watching Sam drive off in his white van these days.  Last night he had dinner with Jamie.  He's often out and about.

Tonight is date night with Joanna.  Work is going well - bug fixing at the moment.

Weekend Projects

September 24, 2018 by Adam in Family

It was a pretty good weekend.  Saturday morning Joanna and I put in some serious gardening work.  I was the hole digger while Joanna planted things.  Our front yard is looking increasingly lush and pretty.  We also filled in a bed for our rasberry bushes, which are doing pretty well on the side of the house.

Sam was around and I watched him do some Isaac runs just like old times.  It was nice hanging out with him and I'm never quite sure when he'll wander off to explore the world.

Sunday morning Benny donned gloves and goggles and we applied acid to the sides of the shower to clean off the grout sealant.  Later I applied new sealant, which wore me out pretty well.  It was nice getting it done, though.

Duncan finished up a Minecraft-themed Blender animation he's been working on through a class that he won through a modding contest.  It turned out pretty well - I may have to ask him Blender questions when they come up.

Benny went to a birthday party escape room.  Duncan had a friend over.  Emma came in from Bend later in the afternoon and I helped her with homework all day.

Now I'm back at work, finishing up my feature and fixing bugs.  Next week I'm off to Salt Lake City, so I'm enjoying the routine while it lasts.

Mad Max

September 23, 2018 by Adam in Adam's Games

I haven't posted about the games I've been playing in ages.  Mostly I'm going through my backlog of Humble Bundle games.  I tried finishing Kingdom Come: Deliverance, but it turns out medieval combat is somewhat frustrating.  Lone: Far Sails ended up being a cool little indie game.  The Final Station started strong but ended somewhat disappointingly.  Now I've dug up Mad Max and started playing it today.  So far it's a brawler with driving and car upgrades with a brown, rusty color palette.  Good, though.

I had a funny moment where I punched someone so hard their head got stuck in the car.  Sorry, bro.

Mocha Friday

September 21, 2018 by Adam in Family

It's mocha Friday, my delicious beverage a distant memory.  Work is being busy, but cool.  I've spent the last few days working on a red circle with a number in it that shows up when someone has new notifications.  I have a newfound respect for all those developers who have worked on notification icons - it's a complicated problem.

Emma's off in Bend, presumably well.  Sam's insurance issues were sorted out, but he opted to stay in town.  Joanna and I went to Roosevent for parent-teacher night.  It was exhausting running from class to class, but nice to get a sense as to where our kids go to school.  The new Roosevelt is far nicer than the old, run-down school of my youth.  Lots of great views and big windows.

It's likely a quiet weekend.  We've got some gardening projects to finish up, but otherwise we're all getting into the groove.

Talk Like a Pirate Day

September 19, 2018 by Adam in Family

Yar!  It be Talk Like a Pirate Day, ye scurvy dogs.

Life continues to chug along, despite the occasional bump in the road.  Sam got a letter saying his insurance company wouldn't give him insurance.  It was weird and complicated and didn't make sense after verbally getting insurance and a temporary insurance card.  I suspect some sort of mixup - Joanna is nicely helping sort things out with her English voice of authority.  Unfortunately Sam and Skye were going to Bend for a few days in his van and now that's up in the air.

Joanna and I went out to dinner last night and walked around 5th street.  It's certainly starting to feel like fall these days with the early sunset and cooler weather.  I've been forced to don pants most days in my shed.

Emma's going to Bend with Jamie for the rest of the week and weekend, so it will likely be quiet the next few days.  Thursday is parent teacher night at Roosevelt, and Joanna and I are each taking a kid to sit in on classes.

I'm all booked up for my upcoming Salt Lake City trip.  I'm curious what zany activity we have planned.  Someone mentioned a hackathon, though I'm not quite sure what that means.

Another Weekend Come and Gone

September 17, 2018 by Adam in Family

It was a pretty low-key weekend.  Joanna and I did a fair bit of gardening Saturday morning.  The yard is looking increasingly pretty and full of flowers.  Benny and I both finished Virtual Virtual Reality, which was a short and fun comedic VR game.  Duncan had a horde of loud, game-playing boys over during the day.  Sam and Emma were over for pizza and Mythbusters.  I got Emma hooked on a monster cooking game called Battle Chef Brigade.

Life is generally doing okay.  Sam's taking his van in to get looked by a mechanic this morning.  The insurance company got back to him about the damage to the hardware store - it's more than he has in cash, but not a lot more.  Mom's trying to make sure the bill is reasonable and maybe get some of the frivilous looking things removed.  I think he's signing up for an auto repair class at LCC.  There's also a planned trip to Bend to visit Eagle Crest with Jamie.  I think it's the first long distance trip to see if the van is up for such adventures.

I've got another work trip coming up in a few weeks, so I've got to get tickets booked soon.  In general work is doing pretty well - I'm feeling like I've made decent progress and hopefully we can get things pretty and polished for another release soon.

Emma went out yesterday on another driving lesson, this time around my childhood neighborhood at Riverview and Augusta.  She successfully avoided the wheel from the scooter that crashed in front of us.  It rolled across the street in front of us as the boy and his mom looked on to see if we'd hit it.  Later we avoided a mom and baby deer.  It was good practice.

Mocha Friday

September 14, 2018 by Adam in Family

It's been a pretty typical school week.  Duncan and Benny have the routine down, doing homework after school and fiddling on their computers in the evenings.  Emma switched from Strength and Conditioning to Art.  She still doesn't know anyone in her class, but feels far more comfortable with the material.  As far as I know, Sam continues to spend his days working for mom - the white van comes and goes occasionally.

My allergies to the new cat have been pretty good.  Generally Princess Leia is mellow, except for her very vocal wanderings on occasion.  She also threw up on Benny's bed this morning.  Still, she's getting used to everyone and seems to mostly camp out on Benny's bed all the time.

Never A Dull Moment

September 11, 2018 by Adam in Family

It was a generally good weekend.  Joanna and I walked over to Friendly Street Market to eat quirky food and listen to jazz.  Summer is fading and it got a little chilly as we walked home to our abandoned children.  We decided they didn't need a babysitter anymore and they usually figure out how to bathe themselves at night.

Saturday started with a hearty breakfast.  Joanna and I did some gardening.  Sam and I went for a drive in my car to get his sea legs back, then got his license plate attached.  We wrapped up the day with pizza and Mythbusters, as is the way of our people.

I ended up buying a Humble Bundle full of Unity assets, and I started working on a little VR game that I thought up in the middle of the night.  It's mostly a learning exercise at this point - I picked a VR tool kit and got it organized, then stuck a goblin in my game that currently doesn't do much.  We'll see if it turns into something real.

Emma arrived Sunday late morning.  She had lots of homework she wanted help with - Chemistry and English and writing an essay for AP US History.  We played a little video games together and chatted about her strength and conditioning class, which she really doesn't like.  She has a meeting with her counselor today, so we'll see if she can swap it out for something else.

Mom came over for dinner Sunday night and we had a nice meal out on the patio.  Sam drove his van over to his mom's house for dinner.  She'd bought a new Prius and let us give it a try.  It's really quiet and I appreciate all the safety features.

Monday afternoon Joanna texted, saying there was a cat available at Greenhill that was one of the low allergy breeds.  After some conversation, she went and picked up Princess Leia and brought her home.  She's a little older, but pretty and friendly.  My allergies are acting up a little, I think, but I'm crossing my fingers that it'll work out.

My dad over for dinner that night, and he showed off his 3D printed PIPBoy3000 prototype.  He has cool plans and I'm excited to get my hands on a functioning version.  Let's see if I can put together an interesting little app to make it do neat things.

Finally, to top off the last few days, Duncan woke us up in the middle of the night to inform us that a bat was flying around his room.  I enlisted Duncan and Joanna in bat hearding, holding up blankets and trying to get the bat out the front door.  After a long while the bat got tuckered out and hid in the curtains, which I took off the curtain rod and walked outside.  We woke up tired, but I got to call Duncan an official bat wrangler when I got him to the breakfast table.

Mocha Friday

September 07, 2018 by Adam in Family

Life's pretty busy with the start of school.  Emma and Benny's second days were better than their first ones.  Benny has some teachers they really like, and they're excited to talk about gender and sexuality in their health class.  Emma's getting into the groove of her classes, with her old friend Kate in a couple of them.  Emma also seems more okay with her weights class than the day before.  We've been hanging out in the evenings doing homework and playing the occasional video game.

I took Sam to the DMV yesterday and got my name on the title, while Joanna worked out insurance issues.  The van's battery was dead when we tried to start it, so we hooked it up to a trickle charger over night.  Sam cleaned out the glass and a license plate holder arrives tomorrow.  Slowly making progress.

The Internet has been super flaky at home, so I ended up buying a new cable modem and will likely upgrade our download speed soon.  Both Joanna and I rely on it more and more, so speed and reliability are a must.

Joanna taught her first Internet class yesterday.  She was worried she wouldn't get enough people, but she ended up with quite the crowd.  I think it went generally pretty well.

Tonight is date night.  I look forward to some quality hang out time with my lovely wife.

First Day of School

September 05, 2018 by Adam in Family

Benny and Emma started their first day of school today.  Duncan went as well, though as a guide for the 6th graders new to Roosevelt.  He came back early and starts officially tomorrow.

Joanna reports that Benny was less than enthusiastic as she walked them to school in the morning.  Hopefully their first day of school went well.  Emma was a little nervous, a little excited, and looking forward to seeing her friends again.  Emma said she might go to a coffee shop after school - let's see where she ended up.

Sam was going to go on a camping trip with Skye, but that apparently fell through.  Not sure if they have other plans.

Three Day Weekend

September 05, 2018 by Adam in Family

It was a good weekend, all-in-all.  Joanna and I went a little crazy with gardening and I ended up sore the next day from digging and hauling buckets of dirt around.  Duncan and Benny seem to be settling back into Eugene life, with Joanna getting the kids' hair cut and dyed rainbow.  Emma returned from the coast, mostly hanging about and enjoying the last days of summer.  I hauled her off to LCC to drive around parking lots.  Sam worked a bit for mom and is heading out camping for the rest of the week.

As for me, I played a bit on my computer, including a fun little game called Far: Lone Sails, which was indie and atmospheric.  Joanna and I found a monitor with FREE taped on the front, so I set it up as Duncan's second monitor.  Benny and I chatted about D&D and splitting the party.  They've been burning through a book series and barely putting it down.

Mom's old car finally died with a cracked cylinder.  I'm hoping she gets something shiny and new and full of safety features.  We're working on getting Sam insurance and his van sorted out, hopefully within the next few weeks.  We still haven't heard anything from True Value's insurance.

Best wishes to Danica, who started her treatment today.  Hopefully things go smoothly.