Mocha Friday

April 25, 2025 by Adam in Family

Whatever illness that hit me hard seems to have faded.  Work has settled down a bit, which certainly helps too.  It's fun watching the stuff I built cheerfully compressing data and making life a little better each day.

Jo's off in Yachats for a writer's event, so the kids and kitties are stuck with me for the next few days.  It's been pretty mundane so far - tacos for dinner, video games and folding laundry  I continue to have way too much fun getting AI to make pictures for my various roleplaying games.

As for the weekend, it might be fun to do some construction projects and build a little shelter for the compost bins.  We'll see how much enthusiasm I have.

Mid-Week Update

April 23, 2025 by Adam in Family

I somehow missed my Monday update in the shuffle, then Tuesday, and it's 1 am on Wednesday at the moment.  I ended up getting really sick with a horrible headache and just shut down after dinner.  I'm feeling better after sleeping for a long while, though my sleep schedule is clearly going to be a little wonky for a bit.

As for the weekend, it was very nice.  I got to hang out with my eldest son and Emma, going out for Provisions for pizza.  It was as tasty as he remembered, and I recalled the many years of picking up pizza every Friday for Mythbusters night.  It was mostly pepperoni with a bit of cheese, to the point where they made up a "pacman pizza" order for me and they knew what I wanted.

He also worked on some of the giant piles of wood out at the farm with Dez, staying up past midnight until the fires went out.  There's so much work to do out there, but it's nice to see him get some of it done.

Emma and I also snuck in our usual library trip on Sunday, returning with vast treasures.  She helped me prep a corner of our yard for a greenhouse, clearing out the remnants of a sandbox-turned-strawberry bed.

I won a couple Minecraft movie tickets from work, which I handed over to Duncan.  He rode his trike over the bridge to Valley River to meet up with a friend from school.  Jo's got a work event starting tomorrow and going through the weekend, so it'll be a little quiet around here.

The work week has been less fun, with being on call being busier than expected.  We also had one of our usual plumbing issues, with the plumber coming this morning to fix it as Jo and I's attempts at wet-dry vac plumbing failed.  I think we're just going to buy a professional auger to deal with it ourselves in the future.

On the plus side, my work feature seems to be rolling out okay.  I think I'll quietly save the day and move on to other things.

Mocha Friday

April 18, 2025 by Adam in Family

I love the beautiful weather we've had this week.  The sun is out.  I'm wearing shorts and t-shirts.  Tulips are out and the garden is full of cheerful little peas, onion, and assorted greens.

On the downside, I'm feeling under the weather with the cold that's been going around.  Advil and mochas are keeping the worst at bay, but I'm hoping it clears up by the weekend.  Work continues to be a lot, but I think I have the most serious issues fixed and we're ready to go into "real" environments in a couple days.  It'll be nice to have things finally wrapped up.

I went to the dentist yesterday, returning to Dr. Cantrell after over a decade.  The view out the window was nice and my fresh-out-of-LCC dental hygenist was nice.  My teeth seem to generally being doing well, though a little worn down presumably from raising four teenagers.

I took Yvonne to the Yamada Vending Company place yesterday, where vending machines full of Japanese food and goodies lined the walls.  She returned with assorted goodies and seemed to enjoy the whole process of putting cash into machines and getting something popping out.  Very retro.

Otherwise the week has been pretty quiet.  Jo's off to a work event in Southern Oregon tonight.  Emma's getting closer to having her thesis ready to be defended.  Yvonne's going back to school more and feeling good about her classes.  I'm continually impressed with the latest AI image generation and how it can take a short description of a D&D area and make something magical from it.

As for the weekend, it's likely going to involve library trips, hanging out, and hopefully doing a little construction work.  We'll see how it goes.

Birthday Monday

April 14, 2025 by Adam in Family

Our youngest kid turns 18 today.  It's one of those milestones that will take a long time to finally settle in, especially as nothing changes from a practical standpoint for a long while.  Still, I can see the kids slowly figuring out how to be more and more independent and strike out on their own.

As for the weekend, it was surprisingly busy.  Emma and I went to the used book sale at the fairgrounds, returning with a present for Yvonne and a small booklet about historic Eugene homes, including our own.  Apparently it cost $4,000 to build back in 1927.  It's almost time for its 100-year birthday party.  We also ran into Robbie, who had been there for 5 hours and was carrying a big box of old looking books.  It was entirely expected.

We ran a bunch of other errands - supplies to finish the ceiling patch jobs, bank deposits, and the like.  Yayoe stopped by to pass along some birthday presents and we chatted for awhile.  For our Saturday dinner-and-a-show we watched Duncan's latest Minecraft video, which was surprisingly funny and had his usual high quality editing.

Sunday was a single giant D&D fight, with a battlefield of miniatures strewn about.  I think it went relatively well despite being so long.  It's starting to get harder to get together with that group - I think we'll skip next month entirely.  Eventually Emma drove off to go to her big bro's house for a visit.  Yvonne wanted us to all watch a TF2 fan video after dinner.  I didn't quite get around to reviewing our taxes like I'd planned - maybe sometime today.

Work's busy and frustrating, but I'm somehow making progress.

Mocha Friday

April 11, 2025 by Adam in Family

I'm very glad it's Friday - work has been getting pretty stressful lately.  I found another issue yesterday and spent the day troubleshooting and trying to come up with a fix.  Hopefully I survive.

Life outside of work is going well.  The prodigal son worked on patching the hole in Duncan's ceiling.  It's been there for years, from back when the upstairs shower was leaking.  Sadly it looks like he's getting snatched up by a real general contractor, so our days of cheap construction projects is slowing down.  Maybe I'll pay Emma to help with some of the more arduous house projects.

I was feeling unprepared for the D&D session this weekend, but threw together some zany hijinx, so it hopefully is at least amusing.  I also need to start seriously organizing a Delta Green session as otherwise I'll keep making weird props to hand out.  Last night was playing with my new laminator, making fake IDs for the players to find.  Now to get them a good murder board to assemble.

All the kids seem to be doing okay.  Duncan's not super happy about going to classes early in the morning, plus lugging a giant bag of camera equipment, but I think he'll survive.  Emma's in "whatever" mode for her last term.  Yvonne turns 18 next week, a milestone for both her and us.

As for me, I'll spend the day investigating bugs and listening to sea shanties, wishing for the freedom of the sea and endless horizons.

Busy Weekend

April 07, 2025 by Adam in Family

It's been a packed weekend, with D&D with the family on Saturday and a farm and library trip on Sunday. 

D&D was interesting - Francis found the quest item I was going to have them find on in their inventory.  I forgot they'd picked it up months ago and could just hand it over.  Fortunately they puttered around and did some heisty things so I didn't run out of planned things for them to do.  Everyone stuck around to see our no-longer-wayward boy come over to say hello to everyone.  He and I hung out and took a tour of the updated house while Seraph, Emma, and Francis went to Joanna's to pick up clearance fabric before their store closes.

Sunday had Emma, her brother, and I head out to the farm to tromp around.  We tried to come up with a list of high-priority projects and decided dealing with the giant slash piles was probably first on the list.  All the trees I planted are generally doing okay, which was nice.  The well was in rough shape, disassembled in the rain.  He seemed enthusiastic about spending some time working on the place, though his time is already getting gobbled up.

Now it's back to work - my feature broke horribly over the weekend and I need to get it fixed.  It's all a little more stressful than I'd like it to be - maybe I can take a long vacation after this thing is done.

Busy Week

April 04, 2025 by Adam in Family

I'm out in my cozy shed, the morning light creeping into the backyard.  I'm sipping on my mocha, avoiding the news by listening to music, and waiting for the background job I'm developing to fire so I can watch it not work yet again.

It's been a busy week. Wednesday for tea I met up with mom, Emma, and our wayward boy for tea.  It was great catching up and he was looking cheerful with a touch of culture shock being back in town.  He's already getting inundated with work from mom and I, and has a couple other potential jobs lined up.  He's getting settled in with Dez and Kenzie, has some friend hangout time with a couple old friends, and he and Emma are having a good time eating pizza at Roaring Rapids and playing video games.

Wednesday night I went out with a bunch of ex-PeaceHealth and ex-HealthCatalyst people, including my old manager Glen Campbell.  We ate at the newly renovated Sweetwaters which had a nice view of the river.  We're all getting older and talking about illnesses and taking care of parents, but it was nice catching up and hearing about everyone's lives.  

Thursday afternoon had Jo, Yvonne, Duncan and myself go to the new Minecraft movie.  Duncan loved it, which was the important thing.  I wasn't really the target demographic, but there were some funny bits and I mostly stayed awake.

For some reason I've really gotten into making props for Delta Green, which I haven't even played yet.  There's something about making fake documents from fake government conspiracies that's somehow cathartic.  Last night was putting together a video that I'm hoping to transfer to video tape.  I'm such a weirdo.

It's D&D with family tomorrow, so I've got to switch back to high fantasy.  My eldest son is stopping by for a visit and we've got some work and financial things to go through.  Not sure what's going on Sunday - he wants to see the farm and I'm curious how the trees are getting along, so maybe that'll be in the cards. 

The Prodigal Son Returns

March 31, 2025 by Adam in Family

Our wayward son has packed up his apartment, said his farewells and is heading home today.  Hopefully his journey goes well and he settles in with Dez and Kenzie late Tuesday.  It'll be nice having him around again.

As for the home front, it was relatively uneventful.  I got into prepping for a Delta Green game I want to play at some point - it's an rpg about secret government agencies and unnatural threats in the style of X-Files.  It's weirdly satisfying putting together handouts and maps - my hope is to get the players to make a murder board with push pins and red yarn.  Emma and I went out to St. Vinnies to look for props and I returned home with an old leather briefcase from Scotland somehow.

Otherwise it was more of our usual routine.  I started playing the new God of War game, which you play as an old god with a sassy teenage son.  It felt like real life but with more fighting.  Jo and I managed some gardening.  We started taxes.  I paid Emma's last college tuition payment.  Emma and Duncan start their new terms today.

Now it's back to work, trying to get my PR finished up.  I missed a few things before I left for vacation, so it's a bit of cleanup this morning.  I think I'm still on track.

Mochaless Friday

March 28, 2025 by Adam in Family

We're back from our coast adventure, which was occasionally a little more adventurous than I'd like it to be.  Driftwood Shores was fine in most ways - the view was nice and close to the ocean - but apparently their fire alarm system was struck by lightning a couple weeks ago and wasn't quite right since then.  It went off several times, usually shutting off right away, but then we were awoken at 2 a.m. and it didn't shut off for several minutes.  The security guard was yelling it was a false alarm, but several frustrated people just left in the middle of the night and it wasn't my favorite thing.

The next day was more chill, if rainy and windy.  I finished reading Orbital, which made me feel accomplished.  We headed into Florence to visit the book store, do some touristy shopping, and hang out in the coffee shop for awhile. The afternoon was spent back in our room playing video games, making dinner, and watching Apple+ shows.  Fortunately the night was blissfully uninterrupted.

This morning was slow, with Jo doing a little remote work while I played assorted video games.  Eventually we checked out and went to a nice trail through the woods along a stream.  The wet, green path was lovely and very relaxing.

Now I've got a couple days to recover from my vacation.  I don't think there are any big plans.  I'm sure Emma has a library trip in mind.  Jo and I have gardening we could do.  We'll see how it goes.

Finished Avowed

March 26, 2025 by Adam in Adam's Games

I finished Avowed this morning, getting to a generally good ending and saving the day.  There was a surprising amount of running and jumping in the game, to the point where Emma and I would shout "parkour!" periodically when we played.  The main story was interesting and the writing and voice acting for the big blue guy - Kai - was excellent.  He was my ride-or-die by the end of the game and it was satisfying helping him find his own personal peace by the end.