Adam Miller and Family

I'm back at work again, a quiet Friday after ...

December 27, 2002 by Adam in Adam

I'm back at work again, a quiet Friday after Christmas. It feels strangely good to get back into the routine of things. After wading through a pile of e-mail, it has become somewhat quiet again. It's both Monday and Friday in a sense, as I have the weekend tomorrow. I think we're going to try hard to take it easy, and perhaps take Sam to karate.

I've had a string of bad luck at work

December 18, 2002 by Adam in Adam

I've had a string of bad luck at work. Yesterday I managed to have three seperate critical server issues, two of which were my fault. This morning, I was upgrading an application and ended up having to reboot the server to fix the problem. When I went to go tell the Help Desk, they offered me a cookie. Now I have this urge to reboot some more servers and see if I get additional cookies.

It was pouring down rain as I rode my bike in...

December 04, 2002 by Adam in Adam

It was pouring down rain as I rode my bike in to work today. We haven't picked up a new battery for the car yet, so I was stuck with my bike. My rain pants still don't quite cut it, so I'm pretty damp in vagulely embarrasing places. Fortunately, this isn't high school, so no one's saying that I peed my pants. The hospital setting is much more mature, and here they make jokes about how my catheter has come loose.

It was not my intent to be environmentally fr...

November 27, 2002 by Adam in Adam

It was not my intent to be environmentally friendly today. I had grabbed my leather jacket, headed out to my car, turned the key, and nothing happened. So, I got all my warm bike gear, grabbed my bike, and went to work. It was really cold - around 26 degrees, I heard. There was ice on the hill down to Willamette, and I slipped around a bit even though I was careful.

So, it looks like it's time to charge up the car and put the bike away for the winter. It's just too darn' cold.

It was way too cold this morning, well below ...

November 26, 2002 by Adam in Adam

It was way too cold this morning, well below freezing. I think my toes and fingers became completely numb somewhere past Willamette street. This may spell the end of my bike commuting for the Winter, as the value of inflicting icy pain on my body is becoming lost on me somehow.

Ahh - a fine Mocha Friday

November 22, 2002 by Adam in Adam

Ahh - a fine Mocha Friday. We had our gaming session last night with a couple of the work people. It went well. The module seemed really bug free and everything basically ran itself. I mostly watched and folded clothes while they ran around.

I'm looking forward to the weekend, though we don't have anything in particular planned. A friend of Sam's has a birthday, so we may go up there for that one. We're still all recovering from being sick, so we may just take it easy still.

We're having quite the show here at work this...

November 05, 2002 by Adam in Adam

We're having quite the show here at work this morning. About a half hour ago, they began to tear down the building right next to my window. It's quite interesting, watching the big yellow claw rip into flimsy wood siding. I bet the guy driving that thing has to pay to do it. Too cool.

It was so cold riding my bike to work this mo...

November 01, 2002 by Adam in Adam

It was so cold riding my bike to work this morning that my hair gel crystalized. These last few days have been well below zero and it's forced me to decide if I'm really serious about this biking to work thing. So far, so good. I put on my windbreaker pants and a couple layers of shirts. A wool hat would have helped a bunch, but I didn't have one handy.

I'm glad this whole webserver/e-mail thing has worked out. I think I actually like having the server at home, as I have more control over the thing. I'd like to set up some image management stuff so that people can upload pictures to their postings and possibly the photo album.

It's a fine Mocha Friday

October 25, 2002 by Adam in Adam

It's a fine Mocha Friday. A light mist was in the air this morning. For some reason, I think of Fall when I think of Eugene - overcast and crisp air. We've got the fireplace going most nights, giving our home a cozy feeling. It's a bit of a struggle getting Sam out for exercise, though fortunately our house has a few big rooms for playing.

This weekend will probably be fairly quiet. Never knowing if Jamie's going to be sick or not makes any plans tentative. Tonight is my Neverwinter Nights game night with my coworkers, which should be fun. Josh is coming over Saturday. We might make Halloween cookies with the neighbors too. We'll see.

I ran across a funny Doonesbury today: Som...

October 21, 2002 by Adam in Adam

I ran across a funny Doonesbury today:

Sometimes, it just seems too true.

It was a Tuesday

September 24, 2002 by Adam in Adam

It was a Tuesday. Nothing special about today, other than Jamie stealing me away for a morning tea. I rode my bike to work as the sun came up, worked on my computer all day with a visit to the gym at lunch, and now it's time to ride back home. In some ways, my life is pretty simple.

The rains started again

September 17, 2002 by Adam in Adam

The rains started again. I walked to work today, after riding my bike for a couple weeks. There was a funny moment when rain was pouring down and I walked by a row of sprinklers, spraying in futility. It's quiet today at work - I rebooted an unruly server a few minutes and will soon delve into writing code. I find I like the quiet.

I picked up an old laptop from work. It was one that was several years old, so it's close to free. Though it's not powerful enough to play movies, the idea is for Sam and I to play old adventure games in the car on long trips. So far I loaded up Sam & Max Hit The Road. I think that Sam was duly impressed, especially the part where the robot mad scientist's head was really a bomb.

It's Friday here at work, and a fine Friday it is

August 30, 2002 by Adam in Adam

It's Friday here at work, and a fine Friday it is. I may end up taking Monday off as well, which would make it a second three-day weekend in a row. I don't think we have any particular plans for the weekend, other than the goal of getting Sam to wear pants. It's been quite the challenge after his surgery - no one told us about the "no pants" issue.

I'm hoping to get my old buddy Jason and his fiancee Bridget over for dinner next weekend. I haven't seen them for quite some time, and I'd like to catch up. Tonight is also the big Friday Night Fights computer gaming night, which should be entertaining. I fully expect to get little sleep tonight.

It feels a bit like the calm before the storm...

August 23, 2002 by Adam in Adam

It feels a bit like the calm before the storm, though not a necessarily unwelcome storm. Like any good parent, I've been worrying about Sam's upcoming surgery. I'll probably load up Sunday with rented DVDs to aid the recovery process. I'm hoping we can find some time to just hang out as a family, even though there are many exciting things happening this weekend.

Work goes relatively well. I impressed myself with actually figuring out some tricky programming problems. I spent some time today doing things that I though was somewhat unneccesary, but that's not unusual.

I'm heading home in just a few minutes. Lots of Sam play time, and a hearty breakfast awaits me in the morning.

It's going to be a busy day today

August 14, 2002 by Adam in Adam

It's going to be a busy day today. Big project at work, that I'm slowly sloshing through. After reading mom's posting, I'm fretting about Sadie. Also, Sam and I head over to Jenny's house for Jordan's first birthday. Busy, busy.

Another Mocha Friday here at work

August 09, 2002 by Adam in Adam

Another Mocha Friday here at work. My team has finally returned from their various vacations, and things have quieted down again. There are the endless huge projects looming on the horizion, but I've learned to put such things in the back of my mind.

I'm looking forward to the weekend, whether we go to the beach or not. No one else would be at the coast with us this weekend, and the house isn't really furnished yet, so we may decide to just hang out here. It's nice that these decisions are the hardest we have to make.

For some reason, getting a firm grasp on the ...

July 25, 2002 by Adam in Adam

For some reason, getting a firm grasp on the day somehow eluded me. There were endless meetings, work to catch up on, and emergencies popping up. I had another headache this morning, like I did the day before, but I fended off the desire for coffee to fix it and instead took some Advil. Not that it was a bad day - I just never felt that sense of resolution like I do other days. Maybe it's knowing that with most of my team out next week, I'm going to be deluged with calls.

I just got an e-mail from my old friend Colin

July 15, 2002 by Adam in Adam

I just got an e-mail from my old friend Colin. He's living in Germany with his girlfriend, working as a carpenter and enjoying Europe. I also heard that Jason proposed to Bridget, two other names from my past. I gotta get on the phone and see what that man's up to.

I went over to my mom's house today, and was surrounded by all my nieces and nephews. With my 33rd birthday coming up, I'm continually reminded that time passes and everyone's getting older. Pretty amazing.

Well, the results of my echocardiogram came back

June 27, 2002 by Adam in Adam

Well, the results of my echocardiogram came back. Everything's normal. So, I'm evidently as healthy as a horse. Must be all that time in front of the computer - the radiation from the monitor must do me good.

Sam visited me a few weeks back, and my cowor...

June 17, 2002 by Adam in Adam

Sam visited me a few weeks back, and my coworker Dave snapped this picture of Sam and I. Sam's favorite thing to do at work is to accost my coworkers for whatever interesting things they have in their cubicles. I think he's under the impression that we sit around and play with toys all day.

I got an echocardiogram today. It was pretty cool, watching those valves pump away. I once did the math and it turns out my heart has beat many millions of times since I was born. It's amazing to think about. Although the results haven't been reviewed by a cardiologist yet, the technician let me know that I seemed to be just fine.

For a four day week, it's been a little on th...

May 31, 2002 by Adam in Adam

For a four day week, it's been a little on the long side. I think it's my cold/allergy that I've had for a few days now, coupled with Sam being equally wacky. Fortunately the cafe mocha + Advil + Afrin is a winning combination.

Some new computer parts should be arriving shortly. Hopefully I can get it up and running soon afterwards. I'd like to resurrect tinboy.com, which is a distinct possibility. Could be fun.

A friend of mine at work, Ben Amacher, had hi...

May 16, 2002 by Adam in Adam

A friend of mine at work, Ben Amacher, had his baby yesterday. He was over here at lunch, right after his wife had an epidural, and the baby came out a couple hours after that. Well, the interesting part is that he has tickets to Star Wars this morning. And, well, he's going.

Not for any movie in the world could I imagine leaving my wife right after she gave birth. It's interesting how different other marriages are. The phrase, "my wife would kill me" kept coming up during the discussions around the office.

It's a beautiful Friday, and I'm mocha'ed up

May 03, 2002 by Adam in Adam

It's a beautiful Friday, and I'm mocha'ed up. Since I did 25 minutes of stair stepping at 5:30 am, I don't feel guilty about the scone I munched down with my coffee. Tonight's a chick movie night for Jamie and whatever womenfolk she finds, so Sam and I plan on playing Morrowind (if we can get it) and hanging out in the nerd cave.

I'm slowly getting all the anniversary plans together. It's not really a secret this year, as I took Jamie's advice and we're heading to Seattle. Judy's coming along to babysit, which is wonderful. Should be fun for everyone.

Work has been exhausing today

April 18, 2002 by Adam in Adam

Work has been exhausing today. I've been in all-day meetings the last few days, and work has been piling up steadily. This morning, I started work on some of them, but our main Intranet server died right before eight in the morning. It took two hours before I figured out what was going on and could fix it. It was pretty stressfull, especially with everyone calling to see how it was coming along.

The rest of the day has gone well, and I've actually cleaned up a number of the smaller projects. This weekend should be productive at home, though I'll miss Jamie and Sam. Tonight's my last time to visit before the weekend, so I better make it count.

Jamie cleaned my room yesterday, which was ve...

April 16, 2002 by Adam in Adam

Jamie cleaned my room yesterday, which was very nice. The one additional thing that I noticed was that my cute picture of Sam had been replaced by Reese Witherspoon. Now, I can appreciate a curvy blonde as much as the next guy, but I did wonder where the picture of Sam had gone. I sent off an e-mail to Jamie asking her to please replace the picture with one of my family. She replied simply, "Good boy."

Allergy season has started

April 04, 2002 by Adam in Adam

Allergy season has started. I awoke with a bad headache earlier in the week, then started popping Claritin soon afterwards. I'm feeling fairly normal now, and I'm hoping that the online prescription refill application works. I wrote the damn thing, so the irony of it not working wouldn't be lost on me. In theory, I can pick up my refill tomorrow.

It's been freakishly busy at work. They're making a big change to the directory that stores all our users and computers. Unfortunately, all the automated setup tools I wrote need to be fiddled with again. Should be fun.

I'll probably quaff some coffee again today. I get the serious pick-me-up, then I usually get exhausted around three in the afternoon. Such is the price I pay.

Sam woke up early again this morning

March 19, 2002 by Adam in Adam

Sam woke up early again this morning. I came up to visit the two of them before I headed off to work. Jamie and Sam were discussing their dreams. Sam had one where there was a nice boy and a mean boy, and he was hiding from the mean one.

In my dream, I was tasked with blowing up a building. I planted the explosive, activated the timer, and ran off. It blew up the building, and I went to my car to make my getaway. Just then, I realized I'd left my keys in the building I blew up.

I'm back at work after a three-day vacation

March 18, 2002 by Adam in Adam

I'm back at work after a three-day vacation. More importantly, I'm not sniffling, coughing, or otherwise feeling bad. It makes all the difference in the world.

Here at work, our team went through a major move. My manager is actually next to me (hope he's not peeking), and the rest of my team in this region is close by. It's very strange, as we've been widely separated across the floor.

I so desparately want to be normal again

March 12, 2002 by Adam in Adam

I so desparately want to be normal again.

I had a bloody nose for most of last evening, probably from dry sinuses. Jamie was out and I did the evening routine with Sam. I kept falling asleep while Sam watched Dexter's Laboratory, so I knew it was time for bed. I conked out while putting him to bed, not waking up for well over an hour. I tried to go to sleep next to Jamie, but I kept coughing and ended up in the guest bed again. I'm getting to know it quite well.

Jamie and Sam seem mostly healthy, so I'm hoping that's a preview of things to come. It's been hard being sick this last month. Well, at least I can justify this morning's Cafe Mocha. Mmm . . . coffee . . .

Frazzled today

February 26, 2002 by Adam in Adam

Frazzled today.

I've been relying on cough syrup to let me sleep, otherwise I'll wake myself up with coughing. No fun at all. The abdominal pain that Sam and I had for a few days is mostly gone. Even my sinuses are slowly drying out. This has been a particularly bad illness this time around.

At least the weather is turning, with beautiful blue sky outside my window. I'm looking forward to garden plans at our house. It's approach time for planting blue berry bushes, some honeysuckle, and perhaps budlia as well. Ah, the joys of growing new things.

It's been tough this last week being so sick

February 23, 2002 by Adam in Adam

It's been tough this last week being so sick. Jamie was home last night, so I snuck away for a hot bath. There was this "anti-stress" bubble bath that I decided to use. It was supposedly champagne scented, and came in this small, bottle-shaped container.

Well, I peel off the foil (just like a champagne bottle), open the top, and prepare to pour, when I realize that the thick soap is never going to make it out of the top. The hole is so tiny, that the laws of physics dictate that it would take a few hundred years before it would begin to pour. So, cursing the marketing people who came up with such a brilliant idea, I tried squeezing it out. Well, the plastic is so hard that I have to practically crush it, teeth bared and grunting.

I finally got the soap to pour into the bath, much more stressed than I was before. It didn't even make very good bubbles.

I sometimes have strange dreams when I'm sick

February 19, 2002 by Adam in Adam

I sometimes have strange dreams when I'm sick. Last night, I dreamt of some evil woman who was vaguely gelatinous and her henchmen. She was coming after my family, and I kept using increasingly bigger guns to fend her off. Finally, I came up with the idea of burning, which seemed to scare her off. Putting on my Doctor FreudÖ hat, I appear to personify the viruses replicating through my body as some sort of hideous mother of evil. Either that, or I was running a bit of a fever.

I'm back at work on this very cold Monday morning

February 04, 2002 by Adam in Adam

I'm back at work on this very cold Monday morning. I left Sam and Jamie sleeping in our bed, as Sam wandered in sometime in the night and I got bumped to the guest bedroom. My last act as a father for the next few days was giving Sam a glass of water. I suspect the house will be a little too quiet for the next few days while they're out.

I've got big plans for tonight. I'll probably swing by Radio Shack on the way home and pick up some network cable. Now that the Lego computer is in the living room, it should be easier to hook it into the basement network. I also want to sand and start painting the banister posts today. My guess is that it'll take longer than I think to do them all. Wish me luck!

Still sniffly today

January 28, 2002 by Adam in Adam

Still sniffly today. I'm also feeling amazingly tired. No coffee today, so I'm going on all self-produced chemicals. It's not working all that well so far, as I find myself having a hard time working through problems.

Got my new work computer. It's all black, so it's gotta be better, right?

Massive headache last night

January 22, 2002 by Adam in Adam

Massive headache last night. I kept upping the dosage of Advil until I had well exceeded the recommended amount. This morning, I'm doing my usual cocktail of Advil and coffee to keep me going. Not bad so far.

My time seems to be disappearing again these days. Tonight is Isabell's birthday party, which I'm going to try to get to. I think I'm meeting with mom and my siblings tomorrow night, though I'm not sure about the topic exactly. Maybe I'll have time again this weekend. Work is following a similar trend, with meetings all afternoon and Thursday and Friday completely booked. Sigh.

I had a dream last night that I was a god

January 14, 2002 by Adam in Adam

I had a dream last night that I was a god. Evidently, it wasn't such a big deal, because I was at a big convention center where all the other gods turned out. They had seating according to how good or evil you were, putting those that were really good on one side of the room, the evil on the other, and those that were neutral in the middle. I was somewhere between the good and neutral side, which probably reflects my true personality.

There was more, but I don't really remember much. I think I had some cool godly powers, but they unfortunately didn't carry forward to my typical workday. Sigh.

I've been sick the last couple days

January 03, 2002 by Adam in Adam

I've been sick the last couple days. Last night, I came home from work and started in on the Advil. By the time I got Sam to bed at 8pm, I fell asleep on the couch. I think I slept nearly ten hours straight.

Work has been crazy busy the last couple weeks. I'm hoping today quiets down a bit. My head still hurts a little. I'm holding off on the coffee, as I partook far too much over the holidays. It feels good to get back to the normal exercise routine.

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