Yes, I have more work than I want to think about right now. And yes, the stress reaction is to blog. Beats smoking.

I have to get to work for my 7am call, but I'll fire this one off. (oh the joys of taking on EU reports).

Last evening, S and I went out with PA on his recently purchased boat - Craigslist provides everything. Picture a windy, slightly darkening evening with a small boat careening in S-turns across Lake Washington with a cackling Greek madman at the wheel, a thrill seeking Texan enjoying the wind, and a Kansan clutching the side wondering what the hell he was doing there, where his red slippers were, and reaffirming his views that water is for drinking, not riding on.

The floating around enjoying the sun part was pretty fun. We saw a UW sailing class looking like a school of fish swiveling around in semi-unison in the wind. With the windy conditions, Lake Union was covered in sail boats. It looked like a crowded dance floor with billowing 50's skirts.

It is remarkable how once you are on the surface of the lakes, boats appear everywhere. Driving around, I never realized that almost every meter of shoreline houses boats. The view of the highways and bridges is completely disconcerting too. Its like an underground world.


Word of the Day: soul proprietor

I experienced this truth recently in a 1:1 with CM. Luck took this one further and produced "If you don't know where you are going, the bus will take you right there." We had spent 5-10 minutes discussing where to go to lunch and his first choice was a thai restaurant that he didn't know the location of. After a bus tunnel ride and randomly choosing an exit, we arrived at his desired restaurant. There's something to be said about wanting something and not knowing where it is or how to get there.

Anyway, it has been quite some time since I blogged. I have this large list of topics accumulating guilt. In a good way though. Life has been interesting lately and that is good. I'm going to knock them out in random order, so forgive me.

1. (because having numbers makes everything better.) Anniversary weekend: Celebrating our 'paper' anniversary produced a very nice weekend. We saw 'Up' in 3D on Friday, (Highly recommended. Good job MF on the short!), spent a night at Langley in Whidbey, and hit -Mart and the mall on the way home. Excitement was nabbing Korean food and a bunch of essentials with a wedding gift card.

The visit to Whidbey was very nice. The weather was great. Langley is very small and at this point pretty familiar. S checked out yarn and quilting stores (she's quite crafty). I got into a fun conversation with an older Japanese woman who has been living on the island for 26 years. She spent time in LA, SF, and other places, but ended up on Whidbey and likes it.

2. Walking to work: This continues to rank as my everyday treat. It takes a bit of planning because the walk is 2.7 miles and takes around an hour. However, it has a real and meaningful impact on my day when I do. I get a lot more thinking in and I am aware of smells and sounds much more. In the course of a normal work day, I really don't hear or smell anything out of the ordinary. Thus, I get desensitized to it and those senses seem to face in my consciousness - especially smell. On my walk to work, I always smell different things. Seattle U has lots of flowers and plants that smell interesting (especially now). Walking by the hospitals, I always smell different types of tobacco. It was interesting a couple weeks ago when I walked by someone smoking cloves (?). They have a very distinct scent and I associate it with CZ from my freshman dorm. After smelling it, I spent half a mile or so caught in old memories. Pretty neat.

3. Legends of CS reading: My officemate MT is a brainy guy and has a pretty different background - math and english degrees, from Boston area. Recently, we started talking about the digital or all things electronic dream team. e.g. If you had to get an electronic or digital problem solved, who would you pick to solve it. He named Claude Shannon, John Von Neumann, and Alan Turing on his short list. I wasn't familiar that with the names on the list and spent a morning researching them. Claude Shannon is simply amazing. The breadth of his intellect and achievement is shocking. Von Neumann and Turing are geniuses in their own right, but I can't get over Shannon. I love that he wrote a paper on juggling, created a juggling machine, created the first learning maze solving mechanical mouse, and created a machine that solves rubik cubes. Crazy technical proficiency to go with his intellectual prowess.

Anyway, reading about this generation of genius makes one wonder why they all appeared at the same time. We discussed the time period, increase in funding, and the concentration of talent. It's possible it takes 50 years to fully realize the benefits of significant discoveries. Strangely, thinking about what conditions promoted the fathers of the digital age makes me think about my ongoing pondertopic -  what circumstances promote great culinary cultures. This is an ongoing conversation that MG and I have that still fascinates me. In a much smaller way, it makes me wonder if I'm working on sufficiently hard problems and challenges to push myself.

4. Food: Lots of noteworthy food experiences. Yesterday I tried Crawfish King - the new Vietnamese Cajun restaurant a few blocks from work. It was pretty good. Mainly noteworthy because its a rare Cajun restaurant in the middle of the ID. Much more interesting and tasty was our trip to Portland. Along with yarn and knitting, we ate our way through. The top highlight was Pine State Biscuits. In a little building away from downtown, they have rocking food. Amazing biscuit, friend chicken breast, two slices of thickcut bacon, slice of cheese, sausage gravy. Amazing. If eating there was not correlated with coronary risk, it would be worth the drive. Not faring as well, but still decent was Ten-01, Portland's Restaurant of the Year for 2008. To be honest, I'd save the calories and money for something tastier. In less gourmet, but still tasty news, JD is a good cook and I'm eating jicama right now.

5. Weight Loss: Yeah, I've been working at it. So far I've dropped around 18 lbs. Happiest benefit is my knees have been less cranky. Been plateaued recently, but that is more from loose eating habits than any real problems. Contributing to the "Biggest Loser" feel is that my co-worker has lost 40 pounds since January. 40 pounds is a freaking lot. Even I noticed he was skinnier. Anyway, my key has been using Daily Plate. I tried it a couple years ago, but it didn't take. This time, I've been more committed and its working so far. Social eating is by far the biggest challenge.

6. J&J: It's been really great having J&J around. They don't live that close, but JC works pretty close, so after work is pretty easy. Its interesting seeing them go through the wedding process like we did last year. Of course having JD around means board games. Heh. There's been lots of Dominion, BSW, and other stuff. The newest game we played (courtesy of MG) is Small World. Pretty fun and different enough from the Dominion or RFTG/SJ that its good. (Aside: heh. I just received Wrasslin' in the mail. Now I just need victims, er jobbers, er people to play with. Hurrah for Ameritrash and eBay.) MG also has Arkham Horror which sounds interesting.

7. Changes at Work: Reasonable amount of activity at work. Most recent and impactful on me has been one of my managers has left. I'm working through the team and trying to put together a vision and plan. Managing an operations team is quite different that running a development team. Also noteworthy is that FX finally launched their clean up of shoe sizes. This has improved quality considerably and really given the team a lift. After working on the project for quite a long time and not launching, the team had been suffering professional constipation. Hurrah for launching. Also worth mentioning is that I'm getting better at managing managers. I'm starting to find the right balance of controls, verification, and trust.

8. Ok, my blogging imperative is fulfilled and I should start my day. Having directs in DE and UK threw my routine into disarray for a while. I just have to leave for work even earlier. Hopefully, my next blog will reflect more thinking. I'll close with random things I'm looking forward to: Alaska (alas sans DM), India, Ken Burns' "The National Parks: America's Best Idea", PAX/Gencon.

Bonus Topic: I got a new crackberry recently. Its been a reasonably smooth adjustment. I still dislike typing on it, but enjoy the applications and bandwidth. I can see how the iPhone is awesome. I can also see the allure of location-based services like Google Latitude. Right now, my only buddy is MS - in Boston, so its not very fun. :) Bonus news is that I sold my old BB for more than I bought my new one for. It turns out that others beside me recongize the superiority of the old form factor. A VP in our company bought it for email. He swears by that form factor and is on his 3rd one.