Mocha Friday

June 23, 2017 by Adam in Family

It's going to be a hot weekend.  We put up the hammock last night, with Berry, Emma, and I trying it out.  Emma went through all the books that Sam took out of his room during the purge, scooping up the ones that looked cool or had some nostalgia attached.  I may have plucked a few as well.  The plan is to finish cleaning his room while he's gone so we can have the carpet cleaners steam clean the basement.

Work goes well.  I took a break from custom fields to make a nifty splash screen for our application.  It'll likely be changed somewhat by our design team, but I like my proof-of-concept.

We're officially in summer mode these days.  Sam presumably is in Hawaii by now, sleeping away with the time difference.  Joanna's going to try to work while I hide from everyone in the back shed.  Hopefully the younger kids won't be on their computers all day.  Summer camps start soon, keeping Berry occupied in particular.  I'm taking off quite a bit of time, hopefully not abusing work's unlimited PTO policy too badly.  My coworkers seem supportive.

No big weekend plans.  I'd like to do some projects and finally see the Wonder Woman movie.  I bet I could convince kids to play some of the old board games Sam had in his room which are now piled by my desk.

Future Night Raider

June 22, 2017 by Adam in Emma

Emma graduated Spencer Butte last night.  When they told us to welcome our "future ninth graders" Sam misheard and thought they said "night raiders."  While he thought it was kinda cool, he was somewhat confused by everyone's seeming acceptance and clapping of the declaration.

It was a pretty good affair, kids being a mix of silly and formal.  Endless clapping.  Quirky songs and funny quotes from the kids displayed on a projector.  Sam decided he wanted to come along and give Emma a Fallout 3 art book he found in his room.  Emma got into Fallout, so it was a welcome gift.

Today is Emma's last day of school - they're off to Orchard Point park at the reservoir for the day.  I think she's a little nervous about high school in the fall, but hopefully excited in equal measure.

Off to Hawaii

June 22, 2017 by Adam in Sam

Yesterday Sam and Isa cleaned out Sam's room, huge volumes of clothes, books, and weird things arrayed outside his door in large bags.  A combination of the upcoming carpet cleaning and Isa's prodding helped make it happen, but I think he was generally fine with it.

I drove the two of them to the airport, getting up at 4:40 a.m.  They're off to LAX with a 9 hour layover, and then off to Hawaii to see Isa's dad.  I think they'll have a great time.

Five Years of Bliss

June 20, 2017 by Adam in Adam

It's our anniversary today, five years of raising children, fixing leaky plumbing, and occasionally getting a chance for adventures.  I fondly remember asking Joanna to marry me, timing it precisely for the winter solstace in San Francisco so many years ago.  I'm glad she didn't want to go out for ice cream that night, as then I'd have to propose in front of everyone in the store.

Though our lives are rarely boring, having Joanna with me makes the hard parts better and the good parts even more wonderful.

Father's Day Weekend

June 19, 2017 by Adam in Family

I had a pleasant weekend, all-in-all.  Friday night Joanna and I went out to our go-to gluten free restaraunt.  Saturday morning Sam and I played a bunch of Apex Protocol cooperatively, fighting mysterious forces on a jungle island.  Eventually we went to his graduation party, returning with Isa for pizza and science.

Father's Day started with a tasty breakfast and lots of loot - from unicorn astronaut pins from Duncan, to a more practical game controller, coffee mug, and coupons for helpful tasks.  The rest of the day involved video games being played, a haircut, and generally hanging out.  Joanna whipped up a tasty dinner, joined by mom, and a pleasant evening all around.

We got news that Sam and Isa could make it to Sunriver, which is cool.  The plane tickets were a little last minute, but it's all working out fine.  Summer is looking busy so far, but busy with fun things.

Graduation Party

June 19, 2017 by Adam in Sam

We went to Sam's graduation party on Saturday afternoon.  It was a pretty good shindig.  Joanna made sushi and gluten free muffins.  Yayoe brought more sushi.  Other people had quiches and pies and doughnuts.

Mostly I chatted with Sam's high school friends and my immediate family.  Eventually Berry retreated to a quiet room to read, joined shortly by Joanna.  We eventually snuck home after a pleasant afternoon.

Sam's generally cheerful these days.  He's been working for my mom, with Jamie and myself wanting his somewhat intelligent labor for other tasks around our respective houses.  On Thursday he and Isa go to Hawaii, followed by a trip to Sunriver with the rest of the family.  Not sure how much work he'll get in this summer.

Endless Diapers

June 17, 2017 by Adam in Family

Joanna, Berry, and I went to Family First and our first task was to move endless diapers from one storeroom to another.  We were first quite enthusiastic, but the two flights of stairs and unrelenting boxes of diapers wore us out.  Eventually we declared success and went outside to watch elementary kids for a couple hours.  We brought some activities, which they cheerfully went through, and tried to keep the chaos to a minimum.  We returned home tired and famished.

I hung out with Sam where we played the co-op campaign in Arma 3.  It was loads of fun - basically walking through pretty jungle with moments of chaos and frantic excitement.

Today we're getting ready for Sam and Isa's graduation party.  Tomorrow is Father's Day.  Happy Father's Day in advance to all you dads out there.

Day of Service

June 16, 2017 by Adam in Family

Health Catalyst has these periodic "no work" days.  Today we're supposed to spend our mornings in a Day of Service and take the family to Cars 3 this afternoon.  No one seems interested in the movie, but Joanna, Berry, and I are going to help entertain kids and clean out shoe closets at the Family First center.

The week's moving along at a steady pace.  We did a second client install that went well, after frantically updating the software to fix an untested bug.  The installer continues to get high praise: "this was the easiest Health Catalyst install ever."  Funny how the little things count.  

I picked up Sam's Outstanding Japanese Student certificate yesterday and chatted with his teacher.  Last night I helped Emma with her student film, doing some editing and adding music and sound effects.  It ended up pretty well, especially with Sam's digital effects.

Moving Into Summer

June 14, 2017 by Adam in Family

High school graduation was yesterday.  Sam spent the day working for my mom, returning tired, hungry, and with blisters on his hands.  I think he enjoyed himself.  Later we watched the latest John Wick movie and fetched Isa after her graduation was over.  Tonight we're inviting Isa's dad and stepmom over for dinner.  The plan is that Sam and Isa visit them in Hawaii later this month.

We had a minor kerfuffle at work where our beautiful program had a bug.  Cory and I frantically worked on the problem, with Wade making some further changes.  It's not quite ready, but hopefully we can get it done soon.  We've got another client install today.

Emma had her science test yesterday.  If she does well, she skips 9th grade physical science and moves into biology.  Hope it goes well.  She's also making a movie with her group and Sam made some naval ship battle scenes for her over the weekend.  Hopefully it was well received.

Joanna's been working at a million things, as usual.  She's got a second book halfway finished and is reworking covers for her various books.  Busy, busy.

Installer

June 13, 2017 by Adam in Adam

One of the things I've done in my new job is to make an installer for our software.  It started off simple enough, but quickly took up a week or two of my time as I tweaked and added features.  I have the greatest respect for people who make installers these days, as it's pretty challenging work.

Today we did our first install at a client of our product we've been working on.  It worked beautifully.  My favorite quotes were that it was "spooky how easy this was" and "so far this has seemed too fast to believe it's really going to work". 

Glad I spent the time making an installer.