On January 10 I bought gas for my car right before Birdie arrived, on the assumption that having a full gas tank was one less thing to worry about when dealing with a new baby. That was six months ago today, and I still haven't refilled my gas tank. Even compared to my weird 2020, this is unprecedented territory ( Read more... )

Over the years I've enjoyed an occasional round of pub trivia, usually with some success. Selected highlights include ( Read more... )

This Monday will mark eight consecutive months of working at home due to the coronavirus pandemic. It's been a month since we were told to retrieve our possessions from the office, and with a very few exceptions we've basically been told "stay home until we tell you otherwise." I actually suspect that some of us may never go back to the office, ( Read more... )

As noted, I have been working from home due to the pandemic since March 15, 2020. This looks like it will continue for the indefinite future for my department, but twice in the past two weeks I actually went to the office for the first time since I left work on March 13 ( Read more... )

When we originally got told to work from home, we were told four weeks. That would have had us returning to the office on April 13. Then it was pushed back not once, but twice, which would have had us back in the office on May 4, for a total of seven weeks out of the office. From there, we were pushed back again, so that our next day in the office ( Read more... )

Originally, we were told we'd work from home for at least four weeks. Since then, the date has been pushed back two more times, and if it doesn't move again we'll have worked from home for seven weeks. My previous record for being out of the office was five weeks during my sabbatical, and nobody believes that we're actually going to be back in the ( Read more... )

In my nearly 18 years at my current employer, I had never worked from home for a full day. I have never had a corporate cell phone, barring only two weekends with customer go lives where I took home a loaner. My primary computer wasn't even a laptop until last year. On a handful of occasions our CTO had called me at home, all of them in late ( Read more... )

This week started the major holiday party rounds for the year, with three. Probably not coincidentally, I've put a bit of weight on this week ( Read more... )

May 20th was my 17th anniversary of the start of my job, and yes, I feel old at work regularly now that we have high school interns who are younger than my career. More interestingly, I also changed roles on the same day.

A lot has changed in the 3.5 years since I was put in charge of release management. My team effectively became project ( Read more... )

This edition has new recipes, new (to me) restaurants, an old Thanksgiving recipe returned, and concert beer. It also occurs to me that I may have already made more different recipes thus far this year than my mother would in a full year. Of course, she was cooking for kids, including me. I'm cooking for myself, M and the occasional guest, so it's ( Read more... )