Thursday, March 31, 2016

On stage


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Wednesday, March 30, 2016

My work item on the big screen.


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Mostly full


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Slowly filling


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Empty room for rehearsal


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Presenter stage for my talk at //build/


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Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Coming together


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Prepping the stage


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The room the day before


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A Beautiful Day in Frisco

An early morning for me. Up at 5, to a dark house, struggling to get going and out the door. I managed to get in the car and driving by 5:25 and made it to the airport at 6. Fortunately security was quick and I had time to buy a muffin and coffee, arriving at my gate just as Group 2 was finishing.

Usually flights to SFO are packed, but this one was empty. In fact, I managed to get the whole front row to myself. Not sure that’s ever happened.

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The trip was uneventful, with me watching a movie and lightly dozing. Good because as soon as we landed I had to find a spot and log onto a webinar in the airport. I thought I had a good one, but about 5 minutes into the webinar, someone started a circular saw in the background as construction was happening in a new shop.

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Fortunately I didn’t have to speak much.

Then it was a train into the city, drop off luggage, and go find a power adapter. Once again, I forgot to pack my laptop power cord. I’d been using it at my desk and grabbed the laptop last night to print something.

I trip to Office Depot, then lunch, then a few minutes to sit and mentally review my presentation for tomorrow. It’s quick, 3 minutes, but I’m part of a Microsoft talk, so I need to be sure I can get my part done smoothly. Lucky I found a nice spot to mentally review things.

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Yerba Buena Gardens, on a beautiful sunny, SF day. A rarity from my visits, but nice enough to sit outside in a t-shirt.

Now working in Starbucks before rehearsal, about to do it all again.

Some days


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Morning office


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Monday, March 28, 2016

Ready to run


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Tough Yoga

A good, hard yoga class this morning. All classes were cancelled for Easter, but my favorite instructor, John, had the morning class today. After getting work settled, and leaving a few things for others to do, I headed to the gym.

As usual, I was late, but the class wasn’t full and I managed a nice spot by the wall. I prefer having a wall somewhere around me, with less of a need to manage my reach around others.

This was a good class, different, with more twists and movements than I usually see with John. We also had some shorter, more rapid flows, two moves in a breath. The long flow was good, with a nice standing split in the middle, which I like. I was impressed I could go from a twisted lunge, to a one legged mountain to a standing split a few times with good balance.

Add in a long Eagle arms series and some mixed boat, and I was nice and worn out, and fully sweaty. I felt OK after, but only managed a 1.1mi run after.

Now I hope I can get to another class Friday after my travels.

Sunday, March 27, 2016

The great fry hunt is complete


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Retaliation


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@volleyball_heart26 throwing at the brothers


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Cleaning this mess


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One wants to go and one doesn't


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Ready to go


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Friday, March 25, 2016

Generator check


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Getting by ready for Tia's trip


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Sunday, March 20, 2016

Pacific Northwest Qualifier

It’s been a long weekend. In Spokane for the Pacific Northwest Qualifier tournament. We arrived a day early due to flight schedules and I spent all day Thursday working, and part of Friday, before the tournament begin Friday Night.

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The pictures are in somewhat reverse order, but I’m too tired to mess around. Friday was interesting. We played a weak team, easily beating them, before being tested by another team. It was tough and Kendall only played a little in the matches, but I thought she did well.

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The team struggled. A win, then a close loss with a protest and a yellow card for our coach. Tensions high, but we ended up 1-1, and went for a late crossover game around 8.

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The crossover was tough. The team lost and somewhat gave up, so most of the starters were pulled in the second set. Kendall and some of the non-starters did well, getting the game close, before some starters came in to win it and close the day 2-1.

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That meant a late start Saturday, which was fine with all of us. We got there, starting off against the #1 ranked team.

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Kendall’s team played well. They won the first set, close, 26-24, with again, some contested calls. We had the head ref even come to our game. The second set was a loss, and then a close, but lost third set. Still, some of the best volleyball by these girls.

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We had some long breaks before our second match, where we beat the team ranked ahead of us. It looked like we’d be in the gold bracket for today.

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However, the team kind of messed around, mistakes made, and they lost to the team below us in the pool that we should have beaten. Ugh.

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Girls cranky, parents cranky, and a late night crossover playoff to resolve seeding. Parents ended up going to a bar to have a drink while the girls waited, which was good. I needed that.

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The late game was late, starting at nearly 10. We played close, but just couldn’t get going. Kendall didn’t play much, and starters made lots of mistakes. We ended up losing a close one to go into the Silver bracket today.

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This morning was early, heading to play at 9. We got there and had an easy first match.

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Too easy. We killed them in the first, and starters went through the second, letting the team get close because they slacked off.

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However Kendall didn’t play (nor did 2 other girls), which is annoying with a weak opponent.

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She was disappointed, but she said something to the coach, which we liked.

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She didn’t make the first set of the second match, but she started the second and did well. She saved a few balls.

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Her serving was perfect, 6 or 7 in across a few attempts, but again, too many mistakes from starters that cost the game.

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We ended up 15th, and of course, when I got close, no pictures allowed.

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A long, somewhat frustrating weekend, but I did talk to the coach and made an argument for more chances for Kendall, so we’ll see in the next few weeks.

Now to get her motivated to work hard at practice.

Stuffed


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@volleyball_heart26 stretching to save the ball


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Thursday, March 17, 2016

Morning Work

Last night we flew to Spokane for Kendall’s volleyball tournament. We came a day early as Tia wanted to see a friend and there weren’t good flights today. We got in late, 11:30, and then had to drive to Coeur d’Alene, just across the Idaho border.

On a side note, a new state for me. My first time in Idaho.

Today I’m working, and this my desk this morning.

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Tia and Kendall were asleep and I had a morning call with the UK, so I came down to work.

This morning's workspace I had a call while @atiehjones and @volleyball_heart26 were sleeping in the room


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Wednesday, March 16, 2016

The upgrade for @hilde_the_sql911


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Home

Kyle left in January for an adventure: yoga training and travel in India. It was exciting and we looked forward to hearing about it. Connectivity was sparse, so we’d get roughly weekly updates, mostly on how hard yoga was.

However he finished the class and passed, being certified as an instructor. An exciting day for us.

Afterwards, he went off traveling with a friend. They went to the Himalayas and saw the Taj Majal. It seemed like quite the adventure.

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Money ran tight, his friend got an illness, and they decided to come home early. This week Tia spent some time finding them a cheap flight back, and we heard they landed at O’Hare this morning. They have an afternoon flight scheduled, and we should see Kyle for a few minutes  before Tia, Kendall and I head off to Spokane.

A crazy traveling life for us.

Monday, March 14, 2016

Ugh.

So I'm slowing as I come to an intersection. There's a large truck, a one ton stopped, waiting to turn left in front of me. He's got a large tractor on a trailer, and I can't see much past him.

I'm slowing, almost stopped as I see a white truck coming towards us down the hill. As the white truck goes through the intersection, a blue car shoots out from right to left. The car was hidden from me be the truck in front. The young girl must have nailed the accelerator as she managed to impact the middle of the flat bed trailer the white truck was towing.

The whole scene was surreal and moved in slow motion. I saw the trailer jump and slide away from me. The blue car jumped and then stuttered across the road. As the white truck continued towards me, the trailer slid into the ditch on the north side. It's a deep ditch, dropping 7 or 8 feet down to a field. I was sure the trailer would go down and maybe pull the pickup over.

However , that didn't happen. The white truck managed to straighten out and pull the trailer back on the road. However the trailer didn't straighten out. Without a left tire, the trailer continued to slide across the road. It missed the vehicle in front of me and just crossed the yellow line to bump the front of my car.

It was a slight impact. No airbags. Barely a jolt to my truck. However decent damage to the front end as well as clipping a coolant hose, straining the coolant under pressure.

So, no one hurt, two cars towed and one trailer towed. And a list couple hours for me.

Now I get to figure out how to get my car repaired, get the insurance stuff handled, and deal with the hassles. Hopefully they’ll get it fixed in a week as I’m gone this weekend for volleyball.

Sad face


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Hey @drh.58 , remember this place? We had a good time.


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Going this way


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Road less traveled


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