Cough syrup Mocha Friday

February 03, 2023 by Adam in Family

I had enough of a cough last night that I woke up every time I tried to get back to sleep.  Eventually I bit the bullet, downed some cough syrup, got some solid sleep, and now I'm paying the price of being extra spacey the next day.  I'll eventually feel normal again and fortunately all the code I write gets reviewed by hopefully competent coworkers.

Last night we celebrated Candlemas and/or Imbalc, depending on where you land on the Catholic/Pagan scale.  Ben learned about it in his French class but couldn't eat the crepes as they weren't gluten-free.  He put in a request to celebrate at home, so I made a big batch of crepes and whip cream for dinner last night.  Needless to say, it was well received.  We're pretty good at covering all the food-related holidays throughout the year.

Nerdy Weekend

January 30, 2023 by Adam in Family

We had back-to-back roleplaying games over the weekend.  Saturday was getting together with Seraph, Robbie, Francis, Jordan, and Emma for our jungle adventure.  They finally made it to the lost city of Omu and found their first shrine, battling a giant Froghemoth and generally strutting around like mighty heros.  Sunday was with the farm people, our "escape the ancient ruins" game turning more into a murder mystery.  It's interesting seeing where the game is going as it's much more improvised and fun to experience as a player instead of a DM.

When I wasn't playing roleplaying games I tried to get some quality time with Emma.  We broke out some new humble bundle games - the new favorite being a skate game called Ollie Ollie.  It's really tough, Emma testing her skater reflexes in order to unlock the fresh skater outfits.  These things are important.

Mocha Friday

January 27, 2023 by Adam in Family

I'm feeling chipper this fine Mocha Friday.  Perhaps it's the chickens cheerfully clucking away as I walk to my shed, eager to see if I brought any scraps for them to eat.  With the price of eggs being what they are these days, their output is quite valuable.  Emma came up with the phrase "Corn Again Christian" during a phone call the other day.  I apparently thought it was so funny that I dreamt about telling Jerry Seinfeld about it and he thought it was hysterical too.

I feel like I was productive at work this week.  I'm still reading my computer science books and listening to podcasts about it.  It's funny learning about some of the underlying parts of what I've been doing professionally for decades.

I've also been frantically preparing for D&D this weekend, slapping together maps and getting miniatures ready.  It's one of those wide-open areas where the players could end up lots of different places doing lots of different things.  Very exciting!

A Week Has Passed!

January 26, 2023 by Adam in Family

Life must be generally okay these days as I keep forgetting to post anything.  Life continues - meals are made, laundry done, I go to work, run at lunch, and so on.  The weekend was filled with roleplaying games and Joanna's birthday.  Presents were opened and delicious cake was eaten.

Our heat pump was icing up and we spent $200 to have someone show up to move a sensor into place.  There's more D&D this weekend and I'm furiously planning.  Joanna's been getting the new robot to clean various parts of the house, so they've been putting up robot barricades from boxes, recycle bins, and laundry baskets.  I'll come in to the house and find RoboVac pushing pointlessly against the cardboard in hopes of escaping to freedom.

Mocha Friday

January 20, 2023 by Adam in Family

It's a pleasant day so far, my tasty mocha slowly being sipped beside me.  NPR has a story about Chat GPT and the end of homework.  I got breakfast and coffee ready this morning while listening to a podcast about software engineering.  I snuck in a few minutes to start painting one of my D&D miniatures, though I'm still not sure when it will actually appear.  Pretty soon I'll start reviewing PRs and writing software to start the day in earnest.

It's been a generally good week, though with moments of being overly busy.  I managed to see dad last night for dinner, finally handing over his Christmas present.  I drove kids to various appointments, upgraded my PC to Windows 11, and kept up my usual lunchtime runs.  When I've had a few moments to focus on writing code it's been very satisfying.

As for the weekend, Joanna's birthday is this Sunday.  I've got some presents to wrap and a cake to pick up.  I think we'll see the farm people for gaming tomorrow.  Life's okay.

Long Weekend

January 17, 2023 by Adam in Family

Joanna was off in the woods for much of the weekend, so it was just the three kids and I, doing our usual things.  Saturday had the farm people coming over with loads of baked goods from Metropol to hang out and play roleplaying games.  The evening wrapped up with pizza and a robotic engineering video, which Ben enjoyed and Duncan slipped away.

Sunday was our friend D&D game.  I picked up Jason who is doing amazingly well - he's back to doing so many things from watching t.v., playing video games, and reading long blocks of text.  Seeing Marty and Cory again was equally fun.  As for the game itself, they spent an incredibly long period of time figuring out how to get through the front door.  Fortunately Jason's bard instinct for hijinx is still intact and he managed to talk his way in.  Emma's character broke out a well-placed Cloudkill against the big group that had assembled and things went well after that.  I'm just glad I painted four boxes of miniatures in the last few months as they're all coming in handy.

Yesterday was low-key.  I helped Emma update her laptop.  I took the younger kids to an appointment.  Video games were played.  Cats were petted.  I keep burning through coding books, feeling increasingly competent about fancy-pants terminology that real programmers use.  Life continues.

Mocha Friday

January 13, 2023 by Adam in Family

It somehow became Friday when I wasn't looking.  The week has been a bit of a blur.  I go to work, run at lunch, make dinner, and do a little miniature painting or game playing until it's time to watch a show with Joanna.  I'm almost done with Pentiment, which has been one of the more compelling games I've played lately - who thought medival murder point-and-click adventures would be so much fun.  Jo and I continue working through our murder mystery subscription box during our date nights, closing in on the killer.  I'm starting to prep for the next phase of the jungle D&D adventure, moving on to painting tons of new miniatures.  I've also been reading and listening to computer books, filling in gaps in my professional knowledge.

The weekend should be somewhat exciting.  Tomorrow Joanna goes off to a forestry thing for a couple days.  The farm people are coming to hang out.  Sunday my D&D friend group is getting together - everyone's excited to spend some time with Jason who continues to report improvement.  Plus we have Monday off work for a little extra day of downtime.

Life Continues

January 10, 2023 by Adam in Family

I had a good time playing D&D with the fam over the weekend.  We've shifted to a new phase of the game so I'm frantically reading up and getting miniatures ready.  Now it's back to the work week.  Emma started school.  I'm back to writing code and hopefully being useful again.  Life is full of laundry, chores, dishes, and the like, though I manage to play some games or watch a show from time to time.  Life's okay.

2023!

January 03, 2023 by Adam in Family

I suppose I should be thankful that I only write a check once in a blue moon as it was always a struggle to remember to update the year.  So far the new year has been treating us well.  It's Duncan and Ben's last day of school.  Emma's been hanging out here this week - yesterday we went to the library and Oregon Art Supply.  I've got D&D the next couple weekends, so I've got a little preparation to do.  I'm also on a learning kick, studying design patterns, algorithmic complexity, and other computer science things.  It's been interesting learning some theory and terminology as I've always felt myself a practical software engineer.

Work begins again for me in a couple days, though I've made myself a lengthy to do list.  Jo and I got a bunch of organizing and cleaning done over the weekend.  Christmas is mostly put away.  The basement is less chaotic.  Hopefully it's a good start to the new year.

Mocha Friday

December 30, 2022 by Adam in Family

I'm finishing the last of my mocha, feeling pretty good after the last few weeks of seasonal madness.  Work is relatively quiet for the time being - hopefully things stay that way as I just started my on call rotation.  I'm getting a chance to write code again, though I wish it were something I did the majority of the time.  It's nice to be back in my little shed, occasionally going inside to check on a print of a D&D miniature or go for a run.  I do realize that school will start up again and everyone will return to work, but the lull is nice and I have a few more days off work next week too.