Category Archives: Blog Posts

Life has been really busy, and I have not had a lot of time to post to my blog as I had hoped/intended. So here’s a dump of life updates!

We have an adult & high school graduate in the house! Noah turned 18, got a tattoo, and graduated high school. We don’t say p-words in our house, but we are really ROUD of him.

This is a bit older but I haven’t posted on the blog about this, we have 5 chickens! We got them when they were about a week old and tiny (so this pic with the cat is old) and they are probably about 10 weeks old now and beginning to really look like adult chickens.

We sadly had to say goodbye to our cat Lokie. I adopted him in 2004 and they guessed he was about a year and a half old, which would have put his birthday sometime around August 2002. 2002-2022, almost 20 years old. Lots of 2s. We had just celebrated 18 years together.

I knew his time would eventually come, and that’s quite old for a cat, but it is still hard when it does come. And I thought it would be rough, but honestly it was even harder to say goodbye than I expected. I think there are a few reasons for that. I was 17 when I got him, so I’ve had him my entire adult life, and more than half of my whole life. And I think there’s something intimate about a pet. He was there for all my highs and all my lows. No matter how my day went, I could always count on coming home and him greeting me at the door, and sitting on me when I sat down, and laying on or next to me when I went to bed. It’s jarring not to have that anymore.

He needed me when we adopted him. From his fearful behaviors with belts and brooms, he had been mistreated by his previous family. In 18 years, we never hit him with a broom, but he was always afraid when we brought it out and he never forgot.

And I needed him, too. My previous cat had just died and I had a hole in my heart and love to give. And he gave so much love in the years I got to spend with him.

It is hard to say goodbye and we have so much love to give and hated the sound of a quiet house without some furry creature in it.

So we got a dog. Found him at the same humane society I adopted Lokie from all those years ago.

We don’t know what kind of dog he is. His coloring is very Red Heeler, but he is the size of a Corgi or Dachshund. Maybe one day we will get a genetic test to see what he has.

His name at the Humane Society was Red, and it turns out they got 3 dogs together, and they named them Red, Solo and Cup. Poor dog named Cup!

We named him Stanley because that seems like a distinguished name (way more distinguished than Cup) and Stanley seems like a distinguished pup. He’s 2 years old and super well behaved. He has been a great addition to the family and has helped us grieve Lokie.

Other miscellaneous updates: I quit a job I loved and started a new job. The new job is a career pivot for me, in helping a bunch of companies adopt DevOps practices and helping coach engineering teams on how to improve and adopt both the cloud and DevOps. It was a really unique opportunity and it was really hard to decide to quit a job I loved (and had not been at for all that long) but an opportunity like this does not come around often, and I would have regretted not trying it. So far it has been really good!

We “ran” the BolderBoulder this Memorial Day. It was so nice to have this bit of normalcy come back after 2 years of pandemic. I have been going to physical therapy for a hamstring/leg pain, so I did not run it and walked instead. Turns out I enjoy walking WAY more than I enjoy running and worrying about my times. This is probably why I like hiking. I think I’m open to doing additional 10ks but only fun ones that are walkable. I just don’t like running, and the stress/worry about time just sucks all the joy out of it.

For June I’ve decided to go off social media again. At least on my phone. Tired of scrolling away my life. Tired of seeing how horrible people are, and how this makes me feel horrible about people, too. I did this earlier this year in March, and I am just not so sure social media was ever a good idea. I will try to spend more of my downtime working on projects I want to get done, and posting here. So if you care at all about what is happening in my life (it’s ok if you don’t! it’s fairly boring!), follow along here for the month of June. (for info on how to follow blogs, check out this post)

I checked our electric bill the other day, and after so many sunny days and warm but not hot temperatures, our solar has generated a lot of excess power. We’re not running A/C yet, so we aren’t using that much power, either.

Well it’s an exciting milestone as we now have a negative electric bill:

These negative amounts get rolled over into a “solar bank” which we can withdraw from in future months when we draw more energy from the grid than we put on it.

Right now our meter is sitting at something like 210 kwh, and every day it goes down. Looking forward to seeing what the meter does when it goes negative. 😆

Shawn Blanc sets a 5 minute timer to defeat procrastination. I have used this strategy a number of times to get through tasks I have been procrastinating on (tidying up my office, doing the dishes, anything I have been dreading/delaying) and highly recommend it.

It’s frankly embarrassing how many times I’m completely done with the task before the 5-minute timer even goes off.

One of my stranger hobbies is thinking of what to name different groups of things. You know how people say that a group of owls is a parliament of owls? Or how a group of baboons is a congress of baboons? (which, supposedly, isn’t even true) Anyway, this is what I have come up with so far…

• A group of young boys is a mess of boys.
• A group of older boys is a trouble of boys.
• A group of girls is a drama of girls.
• A group of influencers is an entitlement of influencers.

What’s fun is that sometimes I will see a group of tween boys and sometimes ponder to myself, “Is that a mess or trouble?” Or we’ll see a group of boys and go, “There’s a trouble of boys.”

But my proudest moment was waiting in line at the local pumpkin patch when, I kid you not, an entire charter bus of Instagram influencers showed up. Picture 60 sorority girls with their sun hats, trendy boots and clothes, ready to do it for the ‘Gram.

That was a real entitlement of influencers.

I wanted to focus on five happy things from the past week:

1. Noah’s birthday. It is hard to believe we have an 18-year old in the house. He went skydiving and had a total blast. I will probably never do it, but watching the video was so much fun.
2. Bees! We got a box of bees. Literally a box of bees. And it’s been so fun to watch them explore their new home and fly around.
3. Spring is here. As I sit at my desk and work, I can see the beautiful pink blooms on our crabapple tree. Spring is such a wonderful season.
4. 7 days ago on my last day of funemployment, Alissa and I spent a couple hours at the Denver Botanic Gardens. It is so beautiful there, especially over spring. I think we are going to make this a tradition. I’ll bring my laptop and work for a few hours surrounded by nature.
5. After a minor set back a few days ago, my hamstring is healing and feeling better. Today it has not hurt at all, even after a walk. Praise be.

For Christmas last year, I got Alissa a starter beekeeping kit. Today her first set of bees arrived.

When she ordered the bees, I was expecting a queen and a few bees. When we arrived to pick up the box of bees, it was literally a box of bees. They buzzed together.

Literally you pour the bees into their hive. Fascinating. So exciting. And so looking forward to our own honey!

Last week for our middle school youth group, we looked at Psalm 23. A slightly famous passage that can easily look outdated or irrelevant if you have read it too often.

But last week was a hard week for several different reasons, and as I read it last week, it felt fresh. Relevant. Needed. Revitalizing.

I also read last week a blog post about how Christians just can’t stand seeing anyone enjoy their life. And while I think that charge is warranted and completely justified, I think it’s incongruent with the picture that Psalm 23 paints.

Meadows and streams. Tables and feasts. Peace and stillness.

What a balm for the soul this passage is. No matter what good or bad thing you’re going through in life right now, God’s nearness refreshes us, revitalizes us, renews us. And it’s not because of our religious duty (did I have my morning quiet time, did I read enough or pray enough, am I enough) but because God is enough. I hope no matter what we all are dealing with right now that we can take some time and enjoy the nearness of God and rest in God’s enough-ness.

A day in the life with Noah. These are all the questions Noah has asked us tonight, just since dinner. (dinner was about an hour ago)

Noah: What would happen if you pickled a person? What would they taste like?

Noah: Guys, do you want to meet Nicki Minaj?

Noah: How many nights until Kwanzaa?

Noah: Does air have a soul?

Noah: Guys, do you want to hear more things happening inside my head?

The weather in Colorado lately has been nothing short of spectacular. I got the mountain bike down and replaced the seat. Also got the road bike/acoustic bike out and took it for a quick 30 minute ride.

Being outside when the weather is gorgeous is really great for the soul. Get out there and ride, whether you’re riding an ebike, an acoustic bike, or a mountain bike.

We saw Tristan last year wandering around the neighborhood, in our yard and neighbors’ yards. I didn’t know the neighborhood had named him, and we haven’t seen him since last fall. Good to see he’s back! Alissa saw him on a walk this morning, at someone’s front porch.

“I’ve been trying to reach you about your car’s extended warranty.”