I’ve been spending a lot of time in the backyard with my sister the last couple days. From the time I wake up until after dinner, in fact.

Many visitors come to visit so I figured I’d collect a list. I used Merlin to collect the list of birds, but most of them I’ve seen myself this week.

Birds:

• Red-breasted Nuthatch
• Song Sparrow
• American Crow
• Dark-eyed Junco
• Cedar Waxwing - I keep hearing this cute guy, but I haven’t gotten to see him.
• Golden-crowned Kinglet
• Northern Flicker
• Steller’s Jay
• Chestnut-backed Chickadee
• House Finch
• Brown Creeper
• Black-capped Chickadee
• Anna’s Hummingbird
• Spotted Towhee
• Black Phoebe (I have never seen this one in the yard and I think Merlin is just wrong.)

Squirrels:

• Douglas
• Western Gray
• American Red

Other things:

• Many spiders. Mostly small. A few not small. One quite large.
• So many ants. I found one in my hair. There’s one walking across the top of the laptop right now.
• At least one rat that must live under a big Cedar back here.

I should generally spend more time out here seeing as how it’s so lovely (even with the rat), but this week I’m specifically trying not to give my family covid. My sister came into town for the stitch retreat we went to last weekend and by the end she started feeling ill. So here we are. She canceled her flight home and I’m getting extra time with her which is nice, but so many plans for this week have had to be canceled.

I’m rather grateful, however, that the weather is lovely and we have a cozy space to stay that reduces the risk for my husband and daughter.

I don’t really want to talk about the “big news” in the US, except to say that blaming/threatening the “radical left” when the shooter hasn’t been found doesn’t seem like the best course of action. Nor do I think that would make things better (by my definition of better) at any time.

Instead I’m going to post a picture of this little project I made to give away at a stitching event I’m going to with my sister this weekend.

Many years ago, I was tasked with defining a new architecture for getting pricing data into all stores globally for a ~$50B company. As you’d imagine, they were pretty concerned about making sure this was done well so I had to get buy-in for my design from many, many teams. The first bunch of meetings I lead went well, but at some point I started feeling like I was repeating myself (I was, but not to those people!) and so I started omitting crucial details. Fortunately, one of my teammates was good about making sure any gaps in my explanations were filled.

I was reminded of this yesterday.

Last night was the final session of the latest core (woodworking) tools class I’ve been helping to run. The main tool we cover in that session is the table saw. It’s the tool that most* students are particularly worried about and the tool that most shop attendants are nervous about when it comes to newer woodworkers. The instructor I was working with for the class is usually very consistent. Usually. Last night though, he was highly focused on the final part of the process for making a rip cut on the table saw while glossing over other important details. It turns out he was recently helping a new woodworker that kept getting kickback because she wasn’t clearing the wood after the cut was finished. Fortunately, we’ve led this class together enough times that I felt quite comfortable filling the gaps.

Being consistent is hard. It’s good to have people you can trust to help.

*Last night, one of the students was having so much fun. “Wee, this cuts like butter!” I’m glad she was having fun. I reminded her (in different words) that wood isn’t the only thing those tools cut like butter. A little bit of anxiety is a good thing sometimes. (SawStops are good too.)

This happened a couple days ago.

Sixteen hundred days “studying” German. After all this time, I can often get a general sense of what people are saying in short social media posts and many articles, but my comprehension of anything spoken is quite low.

The other streak I have going is that I’ve been sewing or stitching something every single day since January 1st of either 2021 or 2022. I would need to look back at my planner to figure it out. I didn’t plan to do this, I had just worked on a sewing project every day for the first week that year, which turned into the first month, which turned into this. Two stitches done one night when I had COVID had to be ripped out the next day when I could get my eyes to focus, but I’m still counting them.

There are at least a couple other activities that I’d like to do daily. Maybe I’ll start treating them as streaks too.

Last Friday I heard from two different companies that I would most likely be getting job offers this week. There was a definite sense of relief Friday night.

Saturday though, I could barely keep my eyes open. I thought I might be getting sick, but I woke up from my fourth (!!!) nap finally feeling like myself.

By the end of the day Tuesday, I had two solid offers. Both at companies with people that greatly impressed me in the interviews, both at companies I had been referred to by people I would like to work with, both jobs I would almost certainly enjoy and continue to grow in. The titles are different, but not significantly. The pay is different, but not significantly. I am so grateful for this outcome, but also… saying no to something potentially great is really hard.

How did I choose? One of the companies had an interview process that gave me more time to ask questions of them. That led to a really great discussion about engineering culture, growth and trade-offs. It also led to having a better understanding of the people I would be leading and the struggles they are facing as a company. The other company had no red flags at all, I just didn’t get a chance to ask enough questions. Saying no to them was really painful.

Somehow it seems the emotions with accepting a new job have been more pronounced than those of being laid off 3 months ago. All that being said, I’ve accepted a new position with people I’m excited to work with! I need to celebrate!! 😊

First though, I think I’ll take a nap.

Tonight was the start of the 2025-2026 Broadway in Portland series for us with Some Like It Hot. It was a fun show. The costumes were incredible and there was a scene with doors that was really amazing.

The new(ish) collections feature on Micro.blog is a nice way to show all the program covers from the shows we’ve seen. I might play with that some more though.

On a roadtrip earlier this summer, we drove past the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility outside of Las Vegas, Nevada. Each of the three 460 ft towers has roughly 115,000 mirrors directing sunlight at them. I had heard something about this when it was being built, but I did not imagine what it would look like. You can see it for miles around; they are so bright.

Another view:

You can see the mirrors a bit in this picture:

This satellite view on Google Maps shows the mirror array.

They are shutting down the facility next year unfortunately. Hopefully it’s replaced with another renewable energy source. I’m glad I got the chance to see it though.

One of the services the local woodworking guild offers is estate sales. When a member passes away or is moving, the guild has a team of volunteers that will come in and help the member/their family sell their woodworking tools and supplies for a reasonable price.

One of our members recently moved and wasn’t going to have space at his new home for a shop. We went to the sale to acquire a floor-standing drill press. Our existing tabletop one is fine, but so tiny! When my husband backed his Chevy Bolt into the driveway to load our new drill press, the reaction from all the volunteers was pretty funny but they all jumped in to help and it worked out just fine.

One of the things in the shop that was NOT for sale, however, was this gorgeous handmade clock.

This post by @birming reminded me of this.

Having my daughter back at home has been great for many reasons, but one unexpected bit of fun is that this the first time in nearly 30 years that I’ve lived with someone else that likes coffee.

My parents both drank a lot of coffee and so did all of their children. There were fights over someone not making a fresh pot if they finished off the last of the coffee in my childhood home. My kids were never interested in coffee (and it wasn’t something I wanted to push), but college life resulted in coffee drinking!

It’s great to have someone else to sit and enjoy a nice hot drink with in the morning. It’s also nice to have someone else that understands. 😝

I have a drip coffee maker that I pull out when people (my caffeine addicted sister, mostly) stay with us. I thought I’d switch away from my AeroPress with having another person here drinking coffee every day, but I haven’t. The couple moments of joy that come with making that delicious cup of coffee every morning are too compelling. ☕ ☕ ☕

A couple weeks ago, I did an interview over Zoom with a fairly well known tech company. In the calendar invite, there was a note about how the company uses third party software to record interviews in order to allow interviewers to focus more on the candidate. The email clearly stated that I could disable the recording if I wanted to.

When I logged into Zoom, sure enough, there was a third party in the call and a note in the chat about how to disable the recording. Being recorded does make me a little more nervous, but I wasn’t too concerned about it if it’s helpful to them.

When the interviewer joined the call, she also mentioned the software and that it was there to allow her to focus on me. She then told me that if I was more comfortable turning my camera off, I was welcome to do so. She said that she would also probably turn her camera off at some point because she would be taking notes on a different monitor and thus wouldn’t be looking at me. I’d just be staring at her profile while she made notes. As she asked her first question, she turned her camera off. I don’t want to stare at myself so I went ahead and turned off my camera then too. What exactly is the point of this third party software if you’re still not going to engage with me directly? (At the start of the summer, I had an interview with a different company where Zoom wasn’t working well and we turned off our cameras after a couple minutes to be able to continue. I didn’t feel less than human in this case.)

I spent the whole interview feeling like I was staring at a wall and speaking to a robot. I didn’t do particularly well, nor did I feel compelled to work for that company. I think the primary thing that makes me good at my job is how much I care about people! The interview seemed designed to reduce me to some component parts. No humanity allowed!

The real kicker of this experience was that immediately before asking that first question she said, “We’ve been remote for 20 years at this company so we know how to do remote well.” I’m not so sure.

In contrast, over the past couple weeks I’ve had engaging, conversational interviews with several lovely humans. I can’t tell you what a difference this makes. Some of these people have LinkedIn profiles that really highlight their humanity. I’m going to follow their example and rework my own profile. I really want to work with other humans on projects that support humans. Interviews that don’t make me feel like an automaton are certainly encouraging!

It’s nice to be able to take a walk through one of my favorite places on a weekday morning.

I hadn’t wandered through the bamboo garden before today. This sculpture was a nice treat.

Our new-college-grad daughter moved back in this week while she figures out what her next steps will be. Finding space for much of the stuff from her apartment is going to be interesting, but at the moment the house feels a little chaotic. As my husband said, “There’s almost space to live in this house.”

Having her home is a real treat though so I’ll take the chaos!

I lucked out in the marriage department. Twenty one years ago I married a sweet, intelligent, adorable human that still makes me want to be a better version of myself.

Did I mention he’s adorable?!

Cleaning out the neglected corners of my office I found an old notebook with a wild variety of things. Workshops I attended, notes about jobs I haven’t had for a long time, so many to-do lists, and the complete set of notes from the online R programming class I took.

It was mostly rather mundane but November 17th, 2014 I wrote, “20 minutes of bliss sitting on a train.” That was a nice day.

Change is good

By itself at the top of a sheet of paper. Not a bad reminder at the moment.

Yesterday we took advantage of the beautiful weather to visit The Oregon Garden in Silverton, Oregon.

While the whole place is beautiful, I was particularly struck by the conifer garden.

Along little paths within the conifer garden were some quiet spaces to relax.

They are currently hosting an Art in the Garden event. When you find a piece of art you’d like, you’re encouraged to bring it back to the visitor center with you. I picked up a pretty glass piece, but these metal pieces were lovely too.

Life has been busy lately so I’m just going to post some pretty pictures. I love my yard in the spring.

My son texted to say not to watch any trailers or look up anything, just run to the theater as fast as possible to see Sinners. “The less of your life you have to live without that movie the better.”

While this is not usually my kind of movie, I’m sharing that advice too. The movie is incredible.

I’m not going to give any details away, but I’ve added a new musician to my Spotify playlist as well. I think I might just go see the movie again next weekend too.

One of my favorite things this time of year is seeing the new growth on the various plants. This is the only place I’ve lived where I noticed the color was so starkly different.

Japanese Aralia - The plant is bizarre looking - out of some fantasy world or something.

Madrone

Deodora

Rose

Apple trees

Spring in our yard is colorful. We have several rhododendron bushes that bloom at different times. One of the neighbors mentioned that she counts the white rhodie in my backyard blooming as the start of spring, regardless of what the calendar says. At the moment however, this pink one is the star. People in the neighborhood have said they plan their walking routes to include our street just to see this one plant.

The rhodies aren’t the only colorful thing though. This corner of my yard makes both me and the bees happy.

As it’s Easter, I suppose I’ll include this bunny that startled me (and then itself) earlier this week.

While I’ve had summons for jury duty in the past, until last week I had never actually made it to the courthouse for this purpose. Leading up to this, everyone I mentioned it to tried to give me their advice for how to get out of it. I didn’t want to. I want to do MORE civic engagement, not less.

Sitting in that crowded room with 300-400 (I’m guessing) other potential jurors on a typical gray Portland morning, I was rather moved by the judge’s description of how important it was for all of us to be there, regardless of whether we ended up being picked for a jury or not.

It wasn’t too long before my name was called. Once we were all settled in the courtroom, the judge explained the process and started reading the charges.

Charge 1. This person has been accused of this crime with these specific details against a person matching this description.

Oh boy.

Charge 2. This person has been accused of this crime with these specific details against a person matching this description.

OH BOY.

Charge 3… Charge 4…

OH NO.

And on and on it went. By about charge 6, I had started to feel sweaty and claustrophobic. Sometime around charge 11 I lost track and was sure I’d missed a few. About charge 13 I noticed more than one prospective juror was audibly fighting tears. And finally…

If anyone finds these charges particularly disturbing, please raise your hand.

Who WOULDN’T find these charges particularly disturbing? I didn’t raise my hand. In hindsight, I probably should have as I honestly don’t think I really heard at least half of the charges.

I wasn’t chosen for that trial and was dismissed for the day.

Day 2 I was eventually called into a second courtroom. After explaining the process and thanking us for being there, the judge explained the charges.

This person has 7 charges against them. 3 charges along these lines and 3 charges along these other lines and one charge which I’ll read directly.

The charges were still rather awful, but the quick summary reduced the emotional impact significantly. I wasn’t selected for this trial either.

Lots of things to ponder. How many prospective jurors does the Multnomah County Courthouse see in a typical week/year? How many trials? What factors into a decision to spell out all of the charges in great detail instead of the quick summary? How does that decision impact the trial, the selected jurors or the outcome of the case? Were others thinking the phrase “particularly disturbing” is too subjective? Do judges keep a list of all the silly things people say when they are trying to avoid serving on a jury? Did that woman really mean she couldn’t be unbiased against anyone of that racial background when she said couldn’t be unbiased against someone of that racial background accused of that crime? How does that lawyer being THAT attractive impact their trials? How did the person that mentioned their 50 years past charge for possession of marijuana imagine that might impact them?

While I’m grateful that I don’t have all the details of those trials rattling around in my head, I still wish I had gotten to see the whole process. I like to know how things come together.

I’ll share some photos from the courthouse in a different post. It’s a beautiful building in a stunning location.

Finished reading: Leviathan Falls by James S. A. Corey 📚

I suspect it was about a year ago (probably more) that I started this series at the recommendation of a neighbor. He suggested it one evening at trivia and then showed up at my house with the first 3 books the following day. He was pretty serious about the recommendation.

I rather hope that we, as a species, survive long enough to get to a point where it’s feasible to live in space long term and explore beyond our solar system. Beyond the thrill of imagining the possibilities and empathizing with all the struggles they face, stories that include well-intentioned people with kind hearts stumbling through life’s challenges pull me right in.

I’ll make a plan to watch the show soon. The same neighbor that dropped off the books said he may have enjoyed the show more.

I’m looking forward to reading something different though. I’m rejoining my old book club and I’m already behind on the reading for this month.

Yesterday evening, we had only our second storm this winter. This one came in the form of an atmospheric river along with some wild wind. We (the neighbors and I) anticipated losing our power and indeed we did. With above ground power lines and tall trees, the wind does that apparently.

While making dinner, something fell on the roof above me and I found myself side stepping away from the rapidly simmering sauce while my brain was screaming that I had no idea if I was safer over there and I shouldn’t be walking away from the stove. It was kind of amusing after the fact.

I went out to survey the damage this morning. While there were branches strewn all about, nothing other than the trees seemed to be damaged. I’m rather grateful this winter has been so mild. The neighbors all report some lingering signs of trauma after last winter.

Signs of spring are popping up though and our neighborhood Sunday evening happy hour this past weekend was the first that started in daylight this year. With how dark the news is these days, the extra light is certainly welcome.

Last Saturday, Matt and I went to the Portland Winter Light Festival. I hadn’t been before and didn’t know what to expect. My takeaway: A nighttime Maker Faire meant to cheer you up in the dead of winter. There are installations spread around Portland, but we went to just a couple locations. Tonight is the final night for this year.

World Trade Center

There were many fun and interactive exhibits here, both inside and out. This is just a small subset.

The dragon on the south waterfront was very cool. The fire was hot from where we were standing, I wouldn’t want to be standing right underneath it.

Pioneer Courthouse Square

This was probably my favorite installation. The lights subtly changed colors.

I love the community spirit in Portland. I didn’t take any good photos of individual costumes, but people are lovely and creative.

Another display here was a door that had a different scene behind it every time you opened it. Sometimes you were looking at a beautiful nebula and other times, there was a dinosaur running at you. My photos didn’t do it justice though.

Creativity, color, fire AND community. What’s not to love?

I filled my time this weekend with some sewing. I had been wanting to make a bag for my daughter to hold some of her art supplies for a while. I didn’t remember the pattern/steps well so I did an experiment first.

I made several mistakes on this first one, but it turned out well enough. It’s missing the tabs though.

This is the bag for my daughter. I’m happy with how it turned out. (She was excited when I sent her the pictures too. I suppose that’s what matters! Ha!)

Then I thought I’d make this tiny one with cork, which came together really quickly. I haven’t sewn with cork before. Is it usually very, VERY thin? The bag is adorable, but I think I’ll remake it with interfacing so it feels a bit more solid.

2025! Is January 8th too late to wish someone a Happy New Year? I say no. Happy New Year!

The holidays were lovely. Both kids were in town for Christmas and there’s always a lot of laughter when they are around. We watched some good movies (The Holdovers and Klaus stand out most) and some not so good movies (Red One, eek!). We also watched the series Nobody Wants This which I turned on looking for something non-serious to watch while stitching and it turned out to be so good, I restarted it and watched it all the way through more than once. Apparently my son had told us to watch it before, but I hadn’t. I’d rewatch it again today if I could, honestly.

To get out of the house, we went downtown to see the big Christmas tree in Pioneer Square and to see the Gingerbread House display at the Benson hotel. I’m planning to do this again next year, it was a good way to get into the spirit of the season.

As has become tradition, we rang in the New Year with the neighbors. I highly recommend becoming friends with the people that live all around you.

We’re in the part of the year that reminds me that I live in THE NORTH. (Relative to my own past.) While the sun is out it’s generally flooding all rooms with southern facing windows, regardless of time of day. And yet, the nightlight I finally put in the upstairs hallway hasn’t turned off once!

We purchased an older, low-mileage Subaru for the daughter. She’s graduating this year and will likely move out of the small walkable town she’s living in so it was time. She drove it up to Whidbey Island for New Years and then drove it down to her place in time for school. It should be a great car for her. The son borrowed my vehicle to head back to school early (he wanted some time without the roommates in his apartment) so I’m getting to experience life with only one vehicle between my husband and I. It turns out that it is really easy if you work from home, eat leftovers for lunch every day and the neighbors are the people you spend most of your time with. On the other hand, after 5 years of working almost exclusively from home I’m usually anxious to get out of here. Perhaps having the need to have 2 vehicles is more aspirational than current reality.

January 1, 2025 marked 3 years that I have been sewing or stitching something daily. Most days I spend just 20 minutes or so, but I’ve learned a lot and it’s often a nice way to work through any of life’s frustrations. I have fabric picked out for a few bags I’m really exciting to get started on.

I’m continuing to volunteer for the woodworking guild this year. Figuring out how to organize several classes each month with instructors and assistants through some mechanism other than email is a goal for 2025. If you have suggestions, please send them my way.

Finally, I started learning Svelte and SvelteKit over the break. Matt and I have a couple projects we’d like to collaborate on this year and I don’t know the tools he’d like to use! I’m impressed so far with Svelte and I’m really looking forward to building something with Matt.

Some exciting professional news. We’ve been working on a new product at work and while there’s still lots of work to do, today we publicly announced the waitlist.

Surf Social

Seeing posts like this make it all worth it. Ha!

This evening Yuri Kobayashi presented at the monthly Guild of Oregon Woodworkers meeting as part of a series of educational opportunities on steam bending that she’s put together for the Guild.

Her presentation was a piece of art itself, with poetry woven throughout. She wrapped up the evening with three simple demonstrations that made steam bending look so fun and easy.

Yet another item for the list of things I haven’t tried, but would like to, it seems.

Every six weeks or so, I volunteer to assist with a Core Tools class that the Guild of Oregon Woodworkers puts on. Core Tools is the final class most members need to complete in order to be certified to utilize the Guild’s machine room. We cover the miter saw, jointer, planer, band saw, drill press and table saw. It’s really rewarding to see (mostly) new woodworkers tackle their nerves and see what they are capable of. 🪚 🪵

In the most recent class session after one student successfully surfaced two sides of his board on the jointer, I asked how it felt. He said, “I’m pissed off!” I’ve never had that response before! It turns out he’s been planing boards by hand for 3 years and he had never had a board so precisely surfaced. He was still laughing about his ‘wasted time’ at the end of the afternoon. I’m curious to see where his woodwork evolves with this new knowledge, but I hope he doesn’t give up wholly on hand tools!

In my latest exploration of micro.blog, I’ve been trying to understand the federation pieces. I’m following this account from a few different Fediverse accounts of mine and the only place where I’m seeing the content I’m posting on micro.blog is the one I (sort of) least expected to work. Finding that, however, proved the content is indeed being federated out.

I’m not currently seeing my content on mastodon.social which is, unfortunately, the primary place I’d like to. Caching? Versions? Something else entirely?

My gut says caching. The testing continues.

Edit: This post immediately appeared for my https://mastodon.social account. I’m now noticing in at least one mastodon client that my image from one of my earlier posts seems to show up on others. Something to keep playing with.

I had started this Star of Wonder quilt in July, but then stopped right before finishing the top when another project became higher priority. I finally finished the top this past weekend. I quite proud of how it turned out. 🧵 🪡

It’s past the time when I should set up my own personal space. I’ve been telling others to do this for a while, so it’s a bit silly I haven’t done this myself. Micro.blog seems to have all the capabilities I was looking for, but I have yet to play with it much.

Here we go!