Summer in Seattle
Summer as expected has been non-stop craziness. cuddlyeconomist was out of town four times in the past two months on various trips so I was solo with Professor X a fair amount. Daycare kept me sane, but it was still a lot of work. How the heck do single working parent's survive? His birthday is Monday, and most of tomorrow will be spent in various celebrations.
Pumpkin has been in Seattle about a month. The house renovation planning hit a few twists and churns, so we went ahead and just did the traditional 'give up the office to give the boy his own room' thing in the meantime. We went to Ikea every day of several weekends, but the great shuffle is done. It's been good for the 10 year old to have his own space--he's clearly hitting his 'angst & moody teenager' stride early--and the two (2!) year old is enjoying having his own room as well. We've removed the gates in the living room, and reshuffled everything in there to make room for a dining table as well. Still a small house, but it's working out pretty well so far.
Hard to know what to say about the situation at Microsoft these days. I'm enjoying the work, my projects, and working with my team. It's certainly interesting times Chinese curse style. It will be months before the practical ramifications of Balmer's reorg trickle down and have any impact on day-to-day work at my level. Been doing my part contributing to Xbox One and Windows 8.1 as well as plugging away on my Codeplex projects, so that's really all an IC can do.
Two weekends back I took Pumpkin to Paizocon for some classic D&D (well, Pathfinder since D&D 3.5 is considered 'classic' these days). Good times, although being a family man means not staying to play 8 5+ hour slots and unofficial late-night slots to boot. My old roomie hackard was in town and we got to hang out a bit, which was a nice bonus.
We went camping last weekend--or should I say "kamping". The KOA does a great job of catering to the great American contradiction of both loving the out-of-doors and not wanting to suffer any real inconvenience in true wilderness. I've done the 50+ mile low-impact-camping hike thing, and with a toddler the KOA is definitely a pretty solid compromise. No TV, limited--cause you can't expect no--Internet, rustic cooking, and sleeping bag camping but with hot showers, flushing toilets, and a solid roof & walls to contain the boys. It's good to unplug for a while personally, and get the kids the heck out of the house too.
Pumpkin has been in Seattle about a month. The house renovation planning hit a few twists and churns, so we went ahead and just did the traditional 'give up the office to give the boy his own room' thing in the meantime. We went to Ikea every day of several weekends, but the great shuffle is done. It's been good for the 10 year old to have his own space--he's clearly hitting his 'angst & moody teenager' stride early--and the two (2!) year old is enjoying having his own room as well. We've removed the gates in the living room, and reshuffled everything in there to make room for a dining table as well. Still a small house, but it's working out pretty well so far.
Hard to know what to say about the situation at Microsoft these days. I'm enjoying the work, my projects, and working with my team. It's certainly interesting times Chinese curse style. It will be months before the practical ramifications of Balmer's reorg trickle down and have any impact on day-to-day work at my level. Been doing my part contributing to Xbox One and Windows 8.1 as well as plugging away on my Codeplex projects, so that's really all an IC can do.
Two weekends back I took Pumpkin to Paizocon for some classic D&D (well, Pathfinder since D&D 3.5 is considered 'classic' these days). Good times, although being a family man means not staying to play 8 5+ hour slots and unofficial late-night slots to boot. My old roomie hackard was in town and we got to hang out a bit, which was a nice bonus.
We went camping last weekend--or should I say "kamping". The KOA does a great job of catering to the great American contradiction of both loving the out-of-doors and not wanting to suffer any real inconvenience in true wilderness. I've done the 50+ mile low-impact-camping hike thing, and with a toddler the KOA is definitely a pretty solid compromise. No TV, limited--cause you can't expect no--Internet, rustic cooking, and sleeping bag camping but with hot showers, flushing toilets, and a solid roof & walls to contain the boys. It's good to unplug for a while personally, and get the kids the heck out of the house too.