COVID Time Again

October 04, 2024 by Adam in Family

Mom cancelled tea time this Wednesday as she was feeling under the weather.  When I called to check up on her on Thursday she was improving but still feeling badly and asked me to bring her a COVID test.  I found one under a box of masks in the pandemic corner of our shelf and brought it over, masked up and saying hello from outside her back door.  Sure enough, she tested positive, though was feeling generally okay last night.

I woke up with a bit of a cough and sniffle last night, so I'll mask up and find a COVID test for myself later this morning.  Mostly I want to wave off Emma's arrival if it turns out I'm really sick.  

It's been the first week of school for Emma and Duncan.  I think they're both generally fine with things.  Emma seems excited about her mycology class and wants to take more pictures at the farm for her thesis.  Duncan's teacher gave him a bottle of ink for his art class which exploded in his backpack.  A slightly destressed Duncan texted me and I spent awhile cleaning things up and throwing the backpack in the laundry.  It ended up cleaner than it's been in years.

I went to the dermatologist on Monday to get checked out and weird things removed.  All is well and the parts they lopped off were all benign.  Apparently they didn't dig deep enough to reach my rotten core - maybe next time.

Dad stopped by to pick up his old 3D printer and trade me for his new one, which ended up being a little too automatic and less functional than his old one.  Hopefully I can figure out how it works this weekend.

Work is coming along nicely, though I'm getting down to the last few tricky things.  I'll need to schedule a tech spec for my giant feature soon.  In the meantime I keep making little changes and fixes, all very carefully.  It's interesting being focused on minimizing risk and disruption after so much time hurrying things out the door with the expectation that it can be fixed later.

My mocha is empty - time to don a mask and go looking for a mask.

Adventuring Along

September 30, 2024 by Adam in Family

It was nice seeing Emma again Friday afternoon - we went to the library and scooped up a goodly amount of books.  The weekend itself was filled with friends, family, and D&D, which is always a good time.  I finally got to use my gelatinous cube mini I'd printed long ago, though it never got to dissolve anyone to bones despite my best efforts.  The friend group was on Sunday and involved fighting undead until making their way back home.  It was great seeing everyone after such a long delay.

It's the first day of school for Emma and Duncan.  Hopefully their scholastic adventures go just as well.

I was invited by some ex-PeaceHealth coworkers to go out to dinner tonight, so I'll be chatting away with some people I've known for close to thirty years.

Back-to-Back D&D Weekend

September 27, 2024 by Adam in Family

I continue to feel perkier every day after dragging for a couple weeks.  Whatever viral thing I got sure was annoying.  I might smell smoke occasionally but I certainly don't feel quite so tired all the time.  Hopefully I'll be ship shape and Bristol fashion soon enough.

Work is coming along nicely.  I finished up my tech spec and think I have most of it sorted out.  I had a nice chat with the wayward Albuquerque boy last night, catching up on his goings on.  Emma should be back in town today - it'll be nice to see her after she was away at the beach last weekend.

The week was generally uneventful.  Jo and I planted some garlic.  We keep getting endless tomatoes, green beans, and squash, along with the occasional zucchinni.  Duncan and Emma start school next week.  With the weather cooling down it feels like we've arrived at fall in earnest.

Both my D&D groups are arriving this weekend.  It'll be great to see everyone after a long break - I've been cranking out props and planning a bit in the meantime.  Hopfully I don't run out of silly voices.

Smokey Monday

September 23, 2024 by Adam in Family

I still randomly smell imaginary smoke, which is annoying, and my stomach hurts occasionally, but I'd like to think I'm generally getting better after my whatever illness that started a couple weeks ago. I'm not quite as tired as I have been, which translated into a long list of things being finished over the weekend.  I mowed the lawn, upgraded Duncan's computer processor, put away painting supplies, took donations to St. Vincent du Paul, moved the shed, and peeled and sliced apples to make apple chips in the dehydrator.  Whew!

We also ended up seeing The Play that Goes Wrong at OCT, which while a smaller set than when Jo and I saw it in London for the original run, was still quite good.  The set impressively fell apart and there were inumerable spit takes and prat falls.  They've extended the run in case anyone want to see it.

Work continues along at a steady pace.  Today I'm coming up with a third way of accomplishing a task, which I think will end up as my preferred method.  I'm slowly writing up a tech spec that I'll need to review with some architects and then hopefully turn it into a real thing that millions of people use.

Talk Like a Pirate Day

September 19, 2024 by Adam in Family

Yar me hearties!  'Tis Talk Like a Pirate Day, the finest day o' all the seven seas.  It also happens to be Jamie's birthday, so I wished her well with a proper pirate message.

My mild illness continues - stomach cramps, lethargy, and occasional nasal issues.  Mostly it's just annoying except for its length.  Even though I've tested negative twice, it does seem a little COVIDy - I started randomly smelling imaginary smoke from time to time, and once I smelled ammonia.  Hopefully I'll improve soon.

Work is coming along nicely.  My proof-of-concept seems to work so now it's time to write up a tech spec.  It's exactly as much fun as it sounds and I keep putting it off, but I'm sure I can drink some more coffee and get the job done.

Last weekend was generally low-key, with the most notable thing being Jo and I building a tool shed out of flat pack furniture.  They also shocked themselves off an old cuisinart, which put a damper on the rest of the day.  I had a couple library trips too, once with Emma and another time with Yvonne.  

Emma's away at the beach this weekend for a last hurrah.  I've got endless house projects I want to get to.  We've also got tickets to The Play that Goes Wrong on Sunday.  I saw it long ago in London and thought it was the funniest thing - there's also a Show that Goes Wrong that's equally amusing.

Mocha Friday

September 13, 2024 by Adam in Family

I've been a bit under the weather the last week or so, though I've managed life relatively okay.  I keep increasingly becoming competent at work, at least writing code that compiles and does something, though not yet what needs to be done.  I had a nice chat with our Albuquerque boy, who seems to be living a very social life.  I've been playing the occasional new video game in the evenings, though I keep coming back to Balatro - there's something about poker math and probability that entertains me.

I managed to end up with a flat tire after having tea with mom this week, though I couldn't figure out why.  It was an easy enough change and fix at the tire store.  More and more I think I'll spend my Microsoft bonus money next year on a new car as all the little annoying things keep adding up.

As for the weekend, I think it'll be another one of taking it easy.  I'm itching to start up D&D again, though it's a ways out still.  I keep printing and painting models for future campaigns to entertain myself, but nothing beats the real thing.

Diablo 4

September 07, 2024 by Adam in Adam's Games

Long ago in the 90's I remember fondly playing the first of the Diablo games with Jason and our other friends, battling our way through various evil minions together.  With the new and shiny XBox Game Pass that came with the Microsoft job, I decided to play Diablo 4, the latest in the series.

I picked a necromancer to play and pretty soon I had a had a horde of skeletons following me around.  The first boss fight took a bit of effort but wasn't too bad, so I moved up the difficulty a little.  The wacky thing was that occasionally I'd run across these treasure goblins and killing them gave me amazing loot, to the point where the game became way too easy.  My horde of skeletons became unstoppable and with the right equipment everything died, the corpses exploded, and the entire game became a walking simulator as I didn't have to fight anything anymore.

The only times I died, which was a surprise, was when the boss fight killed me instantly for standing on parts of the floor that were scripted to kill me.  Otherwise the most danger I was in was in the final fight when my health blipped down for a brief second.

Sure the graphics were pretty and the voice actors were doing their best, but the game itself was way too easy to be called a game.  Ah well, on to the next free game.

Mocha Friday

September 06, 2024 by Adam in Family

Everyone seems to have a touch of illness these last couple weeks.  Dad had COVID.  Jo had some stomach thing for a couple days and it seems to have passed on to me.  Otherwise we're generally staying out of the heat and doing the usual things.  Yvonne started high school yesterday, starting her Japanese class with Sam's old teacher.  Today is marine biology and a science fiction class.  The plan is to take it somewhat easier this year and look at LCC before going to the U of O.

Work keeps going well and I've been doing a mix of onboarding and coding.  I successfully fixed a bug and will start jumping through the hoops to get it deployed everywhere it needs to be.  I've also been watching the onboarding videos, which are surprisingly good considering the topics.  It's nice working somewhere with good resources and a focus on developers.

Emma's been at the beach with Jamie the last few days, staying through the weekend.  Apparently she traded some mending work for store credit at an antique store, scoring a good bit of odds and ends in the process.  Duncan started up with his side gig again and is knee-deep in Microsoft mods trying to setup intro videos for his Minecraft YouTube star.  Yvonne texted me a question about whether a particular black hole and star system were close if they were in the same constellation - I ended up using a giant space cheese wedge analogy to explain why they were so far away from each other.

D&D was cancelled this weekend, so I'll probably try and get to some of the endless house projects that await.  I'm over halfway through reupolstering chairs.  Duncan's room still has a hole in the ceiling.  The fun never stops.

Mocha Friday

August 30, 2024 by Adam in Family

I'm finally starting to feel useful at work.  I made a good comment on a PR that hopefully prevented a future bug. Later I worked with another developer to track down a different bug.  This morning I'll put together a fix for it and then it'll go out to millions of people.  It's a cool feeling.

I've still got quite a few of onboarding things to deal with, but I've signed up for insurance and set my 401K contributions.  Still waiting on my laptop, but hopefully that'll arrive one day.

As for the rest of the week, it's been relatively uneventful.  I've been enjoying the new games that came with the free XBox Game Pass from joining Microsoft.  I painted a new mini that turned out well.  Went to the dentist and said hi to dad.  Yvonne is getting ready for school starting next Thursday.  I've got to do a little prep for tomorrow's D&D game.

All is well.

Crafty Weekend

August 26, 2024 by Adam in Family

We didn't have any major events this weekend.  Jo went to a writer's retreat and Yvonne went to a local convention and dressed up as her favorite anime character.  It turns out one of Microsoft's perks is a free game pass, so Emma and I checked out the hundreds of free games we now have access to.  I played a Lovecraftian one set on an oil rig while Emma played a more whimsical one involving exploring an alien world and identifying all the cute flying species.

We also ended up being somewhat crafty.  Saturday I turned our plums and blackberries we recently picked into jams.  Sunday I fired up the band saw and made spoon blanks for Emma's carving hobby.

It's back to work today.  Hopefully I can start making baby steps towards being useful and doing real work.  The main person I'll be working with is back from vacation, so I'll need to talk to him.  I'll also be reaching out and talking to everyone on the team this week as Jonathan wants me to meet everyone.  We'll see how successful I am at getting a bunch of software developers to chat.