Saturday at Bothell Landing - 10/6/2008
Saturday started with a distinctly windy feel. It was moist, as many Seattle-Area days start, but with a thick of dark grey quick-moving clouds in the sky. Fall has come quite fully, and leaves are collecting in earnest around most everyplace. The word of the day though, was "wind." A strong inconstant wind, not quite gusty, but slower and rolling. Like someone was making tea... the wind would just steadily increase in speed until the whistle blew, when someone removed it from the fire, and it would stop abruptly. Within 15 minutes or so, the cycle began again, and the wind would resume the boil. Temperatures were in the high 50s and low 60s; certainly bearable, but given the wind, jackets seemed the order of the day.
Zoe, Lydia and I went to Bothell Landing (as has become the Daddy custom) again after a pancake breakfast. It was something of a chore to get them into coats and clothes and shoes and things, but once accomplished they seemed happy enough to be at the park. I required a coffee, as although I'd made coffee with breakfast, I forgot to actually drink any. I, with a mocha in hand, got the girls into the swings (despite warnings of "wet pants") and began our "just got to the park" ritual. Both girls have become avid "swingset" fans. In Zoe, the change is more pronounced; when she was Lydia's age, she didn't want anything to do with swings. Lydia has always enjoyed them.
Once swinging had become less interesting, they jumped out, and began climbing and jungle-gyming, only to find that the jungle-gym was entirely too wet to be enjoyed. We decided to take a small walk, to look for leaves with interesting colors. The girls didn't immediately take to the idea (moping about the wet junglegym seemed enough initially) until a lucky breeze gently blew dozens of several hundred leaves from one of the taller trees. Suddenly, eyes lit up as a miniature (yet also enlarged) snowstorm of leaves came towards them, and suddenly I was jogging after my toddlers, while they ran to catch anything still flying.
After a few leaf-storms, the girls found a tree that seemed suitable for climbing. Zoe, after achieving the third branch (a good 5 feet above ground) stated quite plainly that: 1) she had magically transformed herself into a Tree Princess, and 2) she would not be coming back home anymore with Daddy nor her sister and 3) as a Tree Princess, she was no longer bound to things such as "bedtime" or "consequences." (Consequences = "punishment for less than desirable behavior." in enlightedliberalparentese aka Heatherspeak.) As there were no further handholds above the one she had most recently reached, I acquiesced, indicating that I thought her mother might miss her.
Lydia kept trying to get to the bottom branch, but couldn't quite negotiate it after a good 15 minutes of trying. It was ~2 feet up, but wide and thick, which made getting her arms fully around it to climb it the most difficult task. I picked her up and sat her on the branch, which seemed to satisfy her enough to begin a "tight rope walk" on the thick branch. Within seconds, she slipped, planted her butt on the branch, and told me that she was quite tired of tree climbing now, and had decided that Tiger Hunting should be the order of the next 20-30 minutes or so. I pulled her down, and we began a tiger hunt. Mainly, it involved Lydia finding an appropriate tiger hunting stick, and then striking trees with it. A few minutes into the tiger-hunt, Zoe realized getting down from the tree would likely involve some acrobatics (or at minimum, a more advanced tumbling skill.) While Zoe was retrieved, she indicated that she didn't want to be a Tree Princess anymore.
The park hadn't cleaned up too much after the Tiger Hunt, so we decided to head home, and get some lunch. The wind had gotten stronger, and more frequently gusty feel, and rain started to fall. Even a few of the "I run / bike / extremesomething everyday" folks were obviously packing it in. I wondered about lunch, but mostly wondered if Heather had gotten enough sleep. As we made our way home, the clouds were rolling more violently and quickly. The wind was howling a touch, and Lydia asked "Can I have hot chocolate?"
I didn't know if we had any hot chocolate, but even if we didn't and I had to stop at the store, the answer would be yes.
Back to the business at hand - 9/29/2008
I'm sitting in the Quality Inn in Lacey right now. I have a room two doors down from the one I had last week (the view is the only difference, and it's slightly better.) I miss my kids again, but I'm happy that I got to see them this weekend. Some fathers don't get that, and that's an interesting thing to remember and know. I've been the lord of email ever since I got to the hotel. Things are all over the place at work (both in the corp office, and in the new place) and there's just a lot to do, all at once.
I'm gonna get back to it, but I've been publishing most of the photos up as I've gotten them. Here's the most recent.
Coming home today - 9/26/2008
After an interesting week in Lacey, WA, I get to come home today and see my kids again. Hopefully, Emerson hasn't started walking already (haha.)
The work in Lacey has been mostly super-duper easy stuff. Basically, stuff I did 7 years ago. It's rad. Really. Ok... so maybe there's nothing to this, but honestly, doing technically simple work isn't super interesting to me. If there is one thing difficult about my current gig, it's the same thing that's difficult about any gig. Basically, I don't know thing-one about what any of the data actually means. Learning the contextual information (or in consultese) "understanding the business" is pretty much the toughest thing about what I'm doing. Running SQL Queries is easy peasy. Writing reports... again, easy peasy. Figuring out what table to join and why? Well, that's the tough part right now. I've been fortunate not to have a whole lot of experience with the office I'm working at, so right now, it looks like just keeping the eyes / ears open will be the best way to be successful here.
One nice thing about this gig, all the people seem genuinely friendly and nice. My cubicle-mate / coworker is a nice lady in her late 50s / early 60s. She's been doing this sort of work for quite a while, and is genuinely pleasant to talk to. She's also super nice about questions (because I always have a frigging ton.) The guy who seems to be leading this effort is in a weird spot. Apparently, he works for a company contracted by my client, to represent my client. That seems odd to me, but it seems just like my client just didn't have someone in that position, so they hired a contractor to do it. The guy who initially requested me for the gig (well, not me particularly, just someone with SQL experience) is super busy, but he seems like a great guy.
Realistically, there isn't too much more to say here. It's certainly not a gig where I'll see a whole lot of real challenge technically nor really any form of architectural, which is a shame, because I've been trying to work more along that role. If it were me, I'm pretty sure a junior analyst with ~1 year of basic SQL experience would be able to do most of this stuff (and maybe the 5 things assigned over the course of a week may be actually a "weeks-worth" of work for him/her) but as long as the bills are getting paid, I don't mind too much. I'll probably write some sort of odd program in the off-hours just to pass the time. New features for the website or something, who knows.
Before I forget, I'd definitely like to wish my Mom a happy birthday today. She works super hard (she's a director of special ed in Idaho), so honestly, I doubt that if I call anytime before 8PM she'll be home, but just for everyone's sake, TECHNICALLY, I REMEMBERED. So...