Kimberly KG

It’s been five years since my best friend passed away. I think she would hate for her digital legacy to be stuck on Facebook at this point, but that’s where it is. I can’t bring myself to log in over there to see if anyone else noted this anniversary so I hate that it’s there too.

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.

This afternoon, my son and I went to watch the Hamilton recording that’s in movie theaters for a limited time. There were some scenes I hadn’t noticed, before which was surprising.

After all this time, the talent involved is still awe-inspiring.

Going to the movies on a Tuesday afternoon is a rare treat I don’t know that I’ve ever gotten to experience either.

My son sent a text saying that his new apartment has reached “the pile stage of organization” and asked for some help moving beyond that. 🥰 I’m looking forward to spending the day with him.

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 night I was thinking about Joseph, Oregon which made me think of fresh tomatoes which made me think of BLTs which reminded me that this is the perfect time to get a BLT from my favorite local bakery. This may be all I want to eat between now and October 1st. Heaven!

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.

Late summer in Portland translates to spiders. Lots of them! Orbweavers specifically, I think.

This wouldn’t bother me so much, except for the fact that I keep running into spider webs every time I walk outside. I’m fairly confident last week I had a huge spider dangling from my hair after walking through a web with my forehead and today I had a web stretch across my eyeballs. My eyeballs!!!

I didn’t know there was a Guinness World Record for walking on Lego bricks and I’m also not planning to attempt it. I was reminded how painful it is just yesterday! Bringing visibility to the struggles veterans face is a worthwhile goal, however.

Besides the obvious struggle of being laid off, the most difficult part of this is missing people. I’ve had 4 years to get to know and care about these people, many of them I spoke to just about every weekday. It’s weird to suddenly not have that!

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. ☕ ☕ ☕

Heather Cox Richardson’s short history of the Nineteenth Amendment is just as good as you’d expect.

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.

This past Friday marked a decade since we moved to Portland Oregon and this house. While it was obviously nice to be able to walk down the hill and put my feet in the Pacific Ocean before, the whole family has really thrived in Oregon. It was a good decision.

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?!

I just used my slide rule in my physics final.

My youngest is thriving in school and in life. :)

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.

While certainly not unexpected, it’s still disappointing. Just shy of 4 years in, I was laid off this week. This is the only time in my adult life that I’m leaving a job without something else already lined up. There are obviously various administrative tasks to complete, but that list is nearly complete.

So, now what?

Based on the experience of many excellent software engineers and engineering leaders that have recently found themselves in this position, it’s likely going to take a while to find that next role.

I need a new job and while I may end up happy just to find any position at all, I think it’s worth thinking about what that next role would ideally look like. The one thing I know would be on that list is some form of community. I like people. :) Collaborating with people working on projects that make life better for more people seems pretty great, doesn’t it? That’s not really a job description though, so I guess I have more thinking to do. Ha!

The other thing I’m wondering is how to make the most of this time. I mean that both in terms of finding that next role and also in terms of having never had time off like this before and wanting to enjoy a little sunshine. I’m grateful this happened at the start of summer. I’ve offered suggestions related to this to friends and family in the past so I suppose I’ll start with those ideas and see how well they work for me. Scheduling relaxation time is the one thing that I suspect may be the hardest to actually do.