Ultranormal

Category: family

  • We have internet!

    Now I can occupy you with all of the trivial details of my life. Joy!! No tv yet, which I am mostly happy about. Why bother when everything worth watching, save football, is easily available elsewhere?\
    The house is still a mess of boxes, but I am dying for some company. And, we were planning a getting-to-know-the-neighbors/coworkers/fellow church goers party, but I don’t think I am up for the work of unboxing the house in a timely manner. Oh well.

  • Update: Ga is rainy

    We’re on our second hotel room, cuz the movers got lost. Or just skipped us. I don’t know where my meds are or where my personal toiletries are. Kevin’s deodorant was not made for me.\
    The first day we were here, we explored downtown Savannah, the shopping areas, the area around our house, and the beach! The journey from our house to the beach took 18 minutes! Wheeee. I can totally go everyday if I want!!!! Kevin posted a few pics from the beach. Click the “photos” link above.\
    The second day, we waited around a bunch, went shopping a little, checked out the local library, and sought refuge from the humidity in a movie theater. We tried to see Wall-E, but ended up at the wrong theater, so we saw Get Smart. Max’s grandpa had taken him to see it earlier in the week, but Max was up for it again. I was shocked to learn it’s a pg-13 movie. Oy! Not only did Max see it, but so did Brian. He alternated between, “I love this movie” and “I hate this movie!” I think the [SPOILER WARNING] naked butt at the end won him back over.\
    I’ve been blow drying my hair lately, which is a huge deal for me, but 20 minutes later, it’s wet again. I think I will go back to air-drying. Which could mean it’ll be wet until sometime in Nov. It’s rained every afternoon we’ve been here. Is this normal?\
    Kevin gets a huge A+ for the house. It is larger than our townhouse in Va, but feels smaller because everything is just a few steps away (plus, there is actually less living space, but the kids’ bigger rooms make up for that.) We not only have a garage, but also have an attic and a shed! We don’t have anything that could go in the shed, but I am thinking about buying some stuff just to put things in it! There is also a fire pit in the backyard that I fully intend to use, as soon as it stops raining every day.\
    Last night I had a dream in which I was dreaming, but knew it, about going to Babba’s house for dinner. I knew it was a dream since it now takes 10 hours instead of 10 minutes to get to her house, but no one believed that that they were in a dream. It was sad and I felt guilty for taking the kids away from Babba. Waaaaah.\
    That’s all from here. Wish the movers luck that they will get their act together soon!!

  • Three Weeks In, A Look Back

    I know I’ve been rather quiet since leaving AOL and joining up with Music Intelligence Solutions, but as you can see from Jen’s entries, we’ve been busy. I’ve been going back and forth to Savannah, trying to both get to know the team, the vision and the plans we have for launching, and at the same time, designing architecture, doing training and helping folks get up to speed on scrum and other stuff. It’s been a lot of late night, long conversations, whiteboard sessions (note to self, get a bigger whiteboard), and late-night epiphanies while trying to get to sleep.

    I keep thinking about what I learned over thirteen years, and the people who took their time to mentor me, and the excellent managers I had who showed me how to deal with both pressure and conflict. I keep thinking about one of the first technical meetings I had way back in 1999 about AOL Search. We were just getting started with the project, and I was the front-end guy, and one of the only people involved who knew AOLserver and Tcl. So, there I was in a room with two PhD’s, with them asking me what I wanted the API to look like. Joe Dzikiewicz and Tom Donaldson sat there and asked lots of questions, we drew on the whiteboard, and I was freaked the hell out…

    There are hundreds of people I should thank for helping me over the years. I tried to count up all the people I worked with at AOL, and it’s easily over a hundred and I got close to two before I stopped. But, the person I keep coming back to is Joe. He was one of the first computer scientists who took me under his wing. I don’t have a degree – everything I know about technology is either self-taught or through experience and others helping me out. I’ll never forget an IM Joe sent me while we were working on AOL Search. It went something like:

    • Joe: Hey, things are looking good, but it seems kind of slow. Are you threading the requests?
    • Me: Am I what?
    • Joe: … I’ll call

    I think I scared him; but, he very patiently explained it to me, and then sent me off to figure out how to implement it.

    I learned so much from Joe, and from the hundreds of other people I worked with at AOL – from my first manager, Judy Winger, who “saved” me from getting fired from a really stupid e-mail I sent to the wrong manager (well, that manager was the intended target, but…), Priscilla Serling for encouraging me to take the job in Virginia, to Robin Vinopal and Mark Robinson who taught me so much about how to treat the people who work for you, and to Bert Arians and Alan Keister for giving me all the room I needed to try new things. And all the nerds, geeks and smartasses I worked with.

    It’s only now that I’m gone and have a couple weeks away that I see how lucky I was to work with all the people I did.

    I’m having a blast at MIS trying to implement all the stuff I learned over the years at AOL, and all the stuff I wanted to try but couldn’t, either because of upper management (I can only say that I learned a whole lot about what not to do from AOL’s upper management over the years) or because I wasn’t in a place to do it. It’s been a lot of fun seeing my new team embrace all the things I’m throwing at them (and I’m throwing a bunch, everything from The Cluetrain to web standards).

    It’s going to be an adventure, and before I get too far along in it, I have to say “thank you” to everyone I worked with at AOL. Without you, I wouldn’t be here, and I’ll be forever grateful.

  • Status report

    Kevin found us a house to rent in Savannah. Yay! Along with the necessities, it has a big backyard for the kids, a 2-car garage to fulfill my storage desires, and a guest room. (Only 15 minutes to the beach, people!)\
    I’ve been mourning Wegman’s, our fabulous grocery store. Maybe Savannah will have a great grocery store, but I am not holding my breath. My parents, who live in So Miss, only have two shopping options: a Super Walmart with a bad produce section and a small corner store with a bad produce section. This is why I am not expecting much in Savannah. (Anybody from there and can tell me I’m wrong?)\
    Even though we’re moving in a couple of weeks, the kids still want to eat everyday! I had to go to the grocery store for basics like milk and cereal and Popsicles. Apparently canned green beans don’t work well for breakfast or dessert.\
    I’ve done the first and second stage of packing- things we don’t use often and things we can do without. I even started on the third stage- stuff that fall under Kevin’s purview and I have no idea what it is, what it does, and whether it is actually worth keeping. I need to move on to the fourth stage now: oddly-shaped, fragile objects. Ugh. But, you know, I am kind of anti-stuff right now, so if it all breaks- oh well.\
    Brian has become a little stand-up comedian. “Why did the car drive on the airplane?” Why? “To get to the airport.” There are lots of variations of this- car, boat, airplane, motorcycle. They are all silly, but Brian’s delivery is FAB! I am really sorry Kevin is missing this.\
    That’s all folks!

  • Words!

    I labeled a box of books today, “Grown up books.” I was afraid to use the word, “Adult.” I am not sure who would be looking at my boxes, but whoever it is, I don’t want them to get the wrong idea about me.\
    After the new show Swingtown premiered, I am sort of afraid to move to the swanky, suburban house we picked. And if you don’t know why I am afraid… Well, that’s probably a good thing.

  • Brian boy

    Brian just came downstairs laughing his head off, with his nighttime pull up on his head. Apparently Max did this the other night. Oh, boys. (At least wait until Daddy comes home and can appreciate this wackiness.)

  • Last day

    Today is Kevin’s last day at AOL. He’d been there for 13 years. Can you imagine? That is the same amount of time spent in school. AOL helped him find his passion, meet like-minded people, travel the world, pay off my student debt (hey, super thanks for that), and develop into an awesome web dude. Over 100 people went to his goodbye party. Which, wow. Thanks, AOL. You’ve been awesome to us, which we’ll always appreciate. Bye now. Have a great summer. Keep in touch!\
    ETA- Oh noes! Kevin doesn’t have the internet attached to his hip anymore. I am going through withdrawal already.

  • La la la

    Amazing what a good window cleaning does to the view. Yes, the cleaners are here and totally worth every penny for doing the jobs I couldn’t/wouldn’t. Whatever house we decide on in Georgia, we must factor in the “Jen is a bad housekeeper” into the budget. Even just twice a year would be awesome, for stuff like behind the washer and dryer. Being able to afford things like this, even though I don’t work, is why I don’t mind Kevin being gone on the occasional anniversary: cuz I’m treated like a princess everyday. 🙂 (Excuse me while I go puke from my cheesiness.)\
    Speaking of which, Brian is sick again. I hope that his leaving the AWESOME AOL school means that he won’t be sick as often. I can hope, right? He got better for awhile, keeping food down and everything, while I got sick. Ugh. Kevin came home early and doctored me right on up. I was much better by the time Brian started bouts number 2, 3, and 4. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that he will be all the way better so he can go to school tomorrow, which is his last day. I want him to say goodbye to everyone, plus they are having a goodbye party for him.\
    Call me slow, but I just realized that by renting a house in Savannah, I am going to have to move again, and soon. Waaaah. Maybe I will keep some things boxed up until we get to the “real” house.\
    I still love freecycle, but having to choose which person with their “please pick me” story to give the item to is so… icky. I always thought I wanted to run a charity/foundation/scholarship thingy after we made our first several hundred million (ha), but I kind of take that back. Maybe I should just hire someone to do the picking for my future-imaginary charity, yes?

  • Kevin? Mommy? Dr A?

    Brian gave me the icky stomach bug. I just can’t cope with this type of illness. Give me a cold, a sprained ankle, a headache, something other than this, please.

  • I totally empathize with Superman

    For Intl Day of Awesomeness, I donated blood for the first time in years. They tested my blood and told me that I am negative for a common virus, which means my blood is more pure than most (I think they said 95% of the population). This means that my blood is needed for premature babies, cancer patients, and trauma victims. It has been less than a month since I have been able to donate again and I have received at least 6 calls and 3 letters asking for my blood. I really want to donate more… but, you know, I’m busy. First, a bunch of us came down with a stomach virus for 2 weeks and then I had to do the laundry that wasn’t done during those two weeks. Now I am trying to move. But I should totally be out there donating blood and saving some lives. Oy, the pressure!