Emerson is doing better. - 11/16/2008
All...
Just a quick update. Emerson has "turned the corner." He's looking a ton healthier, and even is waking up from time to time.
Thanks to everyone for all the prayers, well wishes, and well, just about everything else.
Thursday Through Monday... - 11/3/2008
Thursday Night
Thursday night was exactly as I expected it to be. I had a bad feeling about preschool that evening, mainly because I was in it for a few days, and then out for the rest of the time. Part of the Woodenville family experience seems to be a sense of involvement with your kids, and the kids around you, and realistically, my new schedule doesn't allow for that. So when I went to preschool, it was like I was a new person again. I'd forgotten most all of the specifics about what you're supposed to do where, and really hadn't kept up with any of the reading for any of the parent education. And when the instructor asks "what's going on with Lydia this week," it's hard to want to admit that, in reality, I had no idea. Basically, I have what Heather tells me. Lydia's not sleeping well, and it seems like she's not sleeping because she is upset about the baby and my recent absence. Also, I had to do snack, but forgot that it was my evening, so had to use the "emergency" stuff the preschool had. All told, evening went poorly.
Friday - Day
Friday day I went into my office in Kirkland, for a nice respite from the humdrum. I have a few projects which are haunting me a bit (rather fitting, given the day), and I thought I'd get some headway that direction.
However, Murphy's law being exactly what it is, I got damn near NOTHING done that I'd intended to do. I have one project which has some bug that's super easy to fix, except I can't really test the fix without an environment to drop the code into, and the environment I have is garbage and on and on and on until whoops, it's 4:30.
Friday - Evening
Apparently the boogieman was out on the 405 as well. One thing that is REALLY nice about the Lacey gig.. it takes 6 minutes at the very most to get from the office I work in to the hotel. Kirkland to Bothell during rush hour is usually about 45 minutes to an hour. I got to Bothell, late, and Zoe and Lydia were darn near done trick-or-treating. We hit a few spots, and then went into the big haunted house display, which was more than enough, as the girls had completely loaded their candy bags. Funny note: Zoe in a haunted house. I swear, it's evil to say this, but it's so much fun watching her get scared of a plastic halloween skull.
Saturday
Saturday was pretty much a "Daddy takes the kids" day. Heather needed some no-kids time... and she went and got a massage and the like. We went to the park for an hour or so, but overall, a non-newsworthy day.
Sunday
Sunday had a pretty large "day at the park" aspect to it, but overall, it was a "cleanup day" for the house. I took the kids to the park, so Heather could get upstairs for a bit and clean the playrooms. The girls loved jumping around in puddles, climbing trees, and all the other stuff we do.
Today
I'm back in Lacey, doing the same ole' same ole.' Did a few report updates, and had to raise a little bit of hell because the backup/restore process which re-populates my database was screwed up (again.) But all told, it's been a normal day.
That's all the news for now. I got a copy of all the October pictures we have, so will be publishing a new set of photos tonight. Also, I broke out the video camera on Saturday (while Heather was gone.) We should have a few new videos coming to the website soon!
Saying less and less in October. - 10/30/2008
I don't mean to say so little, but there really isn't that much particularly to talk about right now.
Last weekend we did the Pumpkin Prowl at the zoo, and then did the trick-or-treating on the waterfront in Seattle, but um... most of the people who read this blog were probably there with us anyway.
Weeks are dragging a bit from a work perspective. Right now, I'd say I'm doing about 12 hours a week of actual work-work. The rest, well... I read a lot, fiddle with systems, and try to tweak queries to be a little faster. I wish I could be more helpful on the project, but the project is written in Java, and I'm not a huge Java guy. The production database has already been designed, and has a dedicated team of folks working it. However, right now I couldn't realistically see anyone else doing the work. The old system is like 20 years old, and most of the stuff I'm querying comes from that old system. The SQL (the language you use to write database queries) itself isn't hard at all (no query I've written requires more than a few months experience with SQL), but all the damned tribal knowledge required to write the simplest thing makes the whole process ridiculously overcomplicated.
Business Analyst: "You need to make sure you filter out the 'H' records."
Me: "OK, what's an 'H' record?"
BA: "It's a temporary ADP Record we modified in 1994."
Me: "But ADP records were the 'U' codes."
BA: "Not for Region 2."
Me: "..."
BA: "They used the 'G' code."
Me: "..."
BA: "Can I get the icon in cornflower-blue?"
Me: (dies a little inside) "Sure"
I'm going home on Thursday this week, so I hope to have enough time to publish up some new photos. Heather used to send them to be daily, but having a whole week without me does seem to be causing her some difficulties (especially as our children are so young.) Hopefully, the extra day will help Heather get a little breathing time, and get the kids back into a state of something that seems normal.
Tomorrow night is Halloween, where we'll likely be trick-or-treating in downtown Bothell again. Bothell is great for kids, and the trick-or-treating downtown is a lot of fun for them. Also, it's done fairly early, so we can get the kids all dressed up in costumes and whatever, yet still down to bed at a reasonable hour.
That's all for now...