Some random posts from 2014:

another snow day expected

the beanery

in which i will not make any reference to zacky or zacky-related news

For the first time in two years or so, it snowed. Snow is still a novelty for me.  I like the initial snowfall, not the later stage of hard, icy, dirty snow.  In retrospect it's too bad we didn't have a big snowstorm during the pandemic since we were already stuck inside.  Z got the day off since the whole school system is closed as well as the ( Read more... )

One of my colleagues welcomed my physical presence in the office with a $5 creme brulee donut from a local gourmet place.  It was delish but quite frankly I don't think I could tell the difference between the gourmet donut and Dunkin' Donuts.  But it was a nice gesture that I appreciate a lot. I'm so lucky that for the majority of my working life I ( Read more... )

Santa Claus (i.e. Mo) brought a new-to-me refurbished laptop so hopefully I'll post more often.  My Chromebook was really getting cranky and while the keyboard + iPad combo was useful, I think I'll be more efficient with a traditional laptop ( Read more... )

This week was somewhat unusual in that three days were spent in our first annual staff retreat.  Half of my colleagues are outside of Washington DC so it was great to see everyone in person.  One of the main activities we did was a DiSC assessment.  It turns out that I am a very middle C (conscientious) and apparently I need to improve my teamwork ( Read more... )

My work laptop's USB ports don't work anymore and since we're supposed to be getting new laptops the IT guy just shrugged.  So now I am coping with the annoying mousepad ( Read more... )

Z told me recently that he doesn't want to take a photo with Santa Claus anymore.  *sob* But he is still dressing up for Halloween.  I guess that's one tradition that many people take into adulthood.  This year he is dressing up as a soldier but thankfully without any weapons.  He is basically wearing camouflage pajamas with a matching baseball cap ( Read more... )

I realized that when I reflect on formative experiences I tend to concentrate on Peace Corps, since it was so long (two years) at a vulnerable age (right after college).  I don't think I talk very much about my year in Australia at the Australian National University in Canberra as an undergrad, during the second half of my junior year and first ( Read more... )

After a month of disorder, the building-wide repairs are finally done and Mo is back so we're sort of back to normalcy.  We decided to take advantage of all the things that were moved around to finally tackle the list of upgrades that has been simmering for...ten years.  Z's room now looks like a tween's space rather than a preschooler's.  He chose ( Read more... )

Z was accepted into the youth orchestra but their rehearsals often conflicted with soccer (the matches vary every weekend) so he declined his place.  I hope he will be able to do it next year.  There are additional fees on top of his weekly violin lesson, and we still don't have the French situation sorted out ( Read more... )