Finally, time and energy to do something more than linkblogging.

At work, we’re crunching away at release 2.0 of the beast, which is a major deal. On top of that, I’ve been working to bring new staff up to speed, and getting all of our documentation written and in good shape, since we’re committing to moving to writing the specs BEFORE we code, not after — but the sync-up is meaning a lot of time and energy. the joy of making up for previously cut corners…. But things are going pretty well, at least so far, so that’s good. But ti’s been mentally tiring, which means I just haven’t felt like spending a lot of time blogging as well.

I’m frankly used to doing smaller projects than the Beast has become — where I’m primary designer, coder, and (usually) the operations crew. Now, I’m learning how to design and lead a team of coders — where my coding contribution is minor, if it exists at all. It’s a much different mindset, and one I’ve been having to find a comfort zone on. Trying to figure this out has been fun, in a way, but stressful in a positive way, and using a lot of mental and physical energy. And I hopefully haven’t been driving my crew too crazy figuring out how to translate from my virtual whiteboard to one they can see. I think once the transition is done we’ll have a much better product, too, but we grew so quickly and so much we’re now having to go back and rebuild parts of the foundation, places we made conscious decisions to build to throw away to make the system happen when it had to. We’re still under the gun, but it’s a good time to start that work on a few key components. But between now and July? We’re gonna be busy. I think it’ll be worth it…

It’s been seriously busy on the home front, also. The weather finally cooperated, and 3 weeks later than planned, they came and ripped out the old patio and poured a new one. Early results are quite positive (pictures soon) — a much nicer, and more usable space, plus improved access to the hot tub, and the side yard is finally usable for storage, cleaning up the clutter. And new patio begat new furniture, all in teak, and friday, I had a landscaping crew come in and tear out all of the weeds and the old raised beds and all of the old garden stuff, so it doesn’t look like there was a war in the yard, and while there’s a lot of planting and work left to do, 90% of the spring weeding and demolition are done. Out front, the lillies and the first of the dahliahs have woken up, the roses are in their first massive bloom, and the irises are starting their spring display, so all looks good (and the weeds are mostly under control). Next weekend, construction starts on the new raised veggie beds, and working towards the new beds and plantings and paths, and the flagstone patio under the arbor, and the arbor, and… oh, god, a busy summer. At least I won’t spend a summer digging weeds….

One thing that’s been frustrating me are the number of home projects in various stages of not-done, so I spent this weekend trying to finish them. The two doors I wanted replaced got replaced, and we changed the swing of the door to the main bathroom so the door opens into the hall — one place the folks who build the Eichler houses didn’t waste space was the bathrooms (they’re both 5×10′, with bathtubs) — so having the door open into the bathroom made a small space cramped. Opening out makes it feel larger, and gives us a wall for towels that was previously blocked.

The other bathroom, which has been laughing at me for months, finally got plumbed (and I *think* the vanity drain has stopped seeping), and I got the new shower curtain up, and the rest of the shelves and towel holders and the lick. It finally looks, and acts, like a bathroom again. Assuming the leak really IS fixed, all I have left is moulding (door and cove), and recaulking the tub, and then fixing holes in the plaster and sanding, and it’s ready for paint. the other bathroom is in about the same shape, so they can both be ready for paint in May. The living room got ignored this week, although I did box up some books in the areas where the movable shelves are leaving in favor of the builts-ins I’m going to build. Now that the bathroom is done (really!) I can focus on it some more… Oh, once I replace the water line to the ice maker. It’s spring, and ice would be a good thing.

and sometime this week, laurie’s taking me down to buy the new Barbeque — god help you if you decide to upgrade your patio folks, you’re going to replace everything on it, too. trust me. The cement is the easy part… (giggle). And then, who knows? maybe a party to break it all in.

The teak patio set is awesome, by the way. I found a place that sells primarily to hotels and businesses when they were having a sale to the public. it’s all Indonesian plantation teak, top quality, all built like a tank with high quality wood using mortise and tenon, and it won’t require oiling and sanding like lower quality teak — and it cost less than some “screw together” teak sets I saw, although it wasn’t remotely cheap. But it should last for a long time, and it’s quite pretty.

And the state of the server migration? oh, grumble moan. Ask me again in a week. I think it’s the next priority (then the ice maker)…. And that’s why there’s no photos: I’ve taken down the old photo stuff, and odn’t have the new one up yet. Stay tuned…..

Since I’m in crunch mode through July, Laurie and I are talking about vacation in August for a couple of weeks — going north (gee, what a surprise). Right now, the tentative itinerary is to take two weeks and drive, hitting Seattle going north for a couple of days and an Aquasox game, then Vancouver, and then driving up the sunshine coast, probably to Powell River and taking the ferry across to Comox, then up to Campbell River for a couple of days, to allow us to explore the north island. Then down to Victoria, and then we’ll hit Portland on the way south again.

Between now and then, I’m going to try to find a couple of days for a long weekend down in SoCal with the family, and perhaps take in disneyland once the 50th celebration begins… we’ll see. We’re also going to head up to Fremont peak in May to play with the 30″ scope, which means I need to get my ETX up and running again — but not until the server migration is complete, or I’ll never finish it. And I need to find time to play with my new Digital Rebel XT…

Maybe I’ll take pictures of the new barbeque….