Catching Up

# Catching Up

Wow, turns out I might not write very often. A lot has happened since I fired this up and I'm overdue for brain dumping which makes this the perfect storm of disjointed thoughts.

1. My wife and I took an amazing vacation to Hawaii (The Big Island) late last year with my brother and his significant other. We stayed near Holoholokai Beach, ate Grocery store poke, relaxed on Hapuna Beach, explored the Kaumana Caves and took in Rainbow Falls on our way to Hilo, ate some phenomenal Thai food (3x), visited the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden, hit Tex Drive-In for Malasadas, hiked to Papakōlea (green sands beach), and other things that I'm surely forgetting now as it has been close to six months. Oops.

2. One of my brothers had a fantastic wedding which rounds out the group; all four of us are either married or in domestic partnerships (with no plans to marry) which is a cool thing. Two of the four, including myself, have kids now and everyone is proving to be a fantastic uncle to the little ones. Life comes at you fast, and I'm lucky to have these guys and their significant others in my life.

3. Speaking of family, the holidays were a treat this year with a little one that was old enough to appreciate what was happening around him and unwrap some of his own presents, while simultaneously not having expectations of receiving presents. That season, as with many things in life, is made even more magical when viewed through the eyes of a young one.

4. I got a lot of reading in last year and so far this, and I expect to post more significant thoughts on at least some of these books sometime in the future (re: probably never, though I did keep notes in Google Keep!). Presented in no particular order:

   • Lay the Favorite
   • The Soul of A New Machine
   • Scorecasting
   • The 4-Hour Workweek
   • The New Father
   • Thinking, Fast and Slow

5. Here's the list I'm currently in the middle of and/or have plans to read next:

   • The Great Game of Business
   • The Manager's Path
   • Accelerate
   • An Elegant Puzzle
   • Measure What Matters
   • The New Father: A Dad's Guide to the Toddler Years, 12-36 Months
   • The Martian

6. My wife continues to crush it at work, and professionally on the whole. She's been accepted as an Adjunct Faculty member at Arizona State which is insanely cool, and we're currently in Philadelphia while she attends a major conference as the lone representative from PCH. Somehow she still finds time to be an amazing mom to Z and partner in crime to yours truly and I am in constant awe of her.

7. Philly has been fun with the little man and the travel wasn't as bad as we expected given how mobile and antsy he is. Would definitely recommend taking a layover across the country to split things up, and we begrudgingly propped him up in front of a tablet for the second leg so that he could watch Sesame Street. Much to our chagrin, he promptly fell asleep to the soothing sounds of Abby and Elmo, which did well to ease our concerns that he'd just get hooked on the tech. We spent the day yesterday at the zoo which was amazing, and had the good fortune of seeing lions, tigers and more up close and personal. He absolutely ate it up which was a delight.

8. Z is almost 20 months now and he continues to grow up too fast. He loves riding his balance bike, riding in the seat on my bike, running around outside, playing with any type of ball (basket, base, foot, soccer), and being a stereotypical boy. He's somehow fascinated with trucks and dinosaurs and it rules. I love the amount of quality family time we get together and a favorite pasttime, now that he has become so vocal, is teaching him to say funny things like "Riiiiiiiicooooooola", "WHAZZUP", and "WHAT/YEAH/OKAY" like Lil Jon.

9. Work has been going well for me too. In January, I accepted a promotion to Director of Technology and now oversee three different groups. It's something I have a comfort level in given my previous job, but it's not something I expected to happen anywhere near this fast. Things are going well though and I've mired myself in company-wide process improvement efforts, plus we're putting the finishing touches on open sourcing our docs which has been really cool. Travel has ramped up as a result but nothing that we've not been able to manage as a family, which is great (again, kudos go to my wife for enabling this).

I live a charmed life, what can I say?-