Vacation Day

My current view, at a house in Massanutten.

Vacation Day

Breakfast time at the cabin.

Vacation Day

Sitting on a rock over Stony Run by Painter's Pond, listening to a chorus of toads.

Vacation Day

Palpable excitement on Maia's first sunrise hike to Kaylor's Knob. She was so excited that she woke up an hour early for the hike (at 5:30 AM).

I was at the cabin sleeping in as long as possible, which was 7 AM in Ian hours.

Vacation Day

Enjoying the petting zoo, following a brief pony ride.

Birth Day

Happy Birthday to my mom, who has reached the impressive age of 82!

Chad Darnell's 12 of 12

12 pictures of your day on the 12th of every month

5:58 AM: Showered and ready for the day.

6:18 AM: Bagel for breakfast.

6:50 AM: Off to the bus stop!

7:26 AM: In the Herndon office.

11:30 AM: Working lunch of buffalo chicken.

3:51 PM: Everyone gets a hook!

4:07 PM: Porch tales.

4:07 PM: Maia's lemonade stand.

4:40 PM: Mini golf in the backyard.

5:34 PM: Pizza for dinner.

6:24 PM: Bath time.

7:15 PM: Goodnight hugs.

Vacation Wrap-up Day

Last week was Spring Break for Loudoun County Public Schools, our first official spring break as parents. We opened the week with a treat for ourselves, a trip to Jammin' Java to see Elizabeth and the Catapult on Sunday, while our babysitter, Laura, put the kids to bed. Elizabeth opened for Mark Erelli, whose music was fine but not really my preferred style. I spent most of that part of the concert distracted by the fact that Walton Goggins will probably play Mark in his future biopic.

We drove down to Massanutten Resort on Monday afternoon, making good time on the non-annoying part of I-81 before the drowsy's set in after Harrisonburg. Massanutten Resort is not the "all-inclusive" type of resort -- it's just a jumble of different vacation homes (mainly for ski season) with many activities and restaurants close enough so you don't have to go far. We stayed at a cabin called "Massanutten for Kids" which boasted a huge playroom full of toys and books in the basement.

On Tuesday, we explored the campus, walking the Arboretum Trail and hitting playground #2 of 3. We had smoked barbeque sandwiches for lunch and then everyone returned to the cabin so Rebecca and Ian could take epic-length naps. After dinner, we drove up to the overlook for a brief hike, then had ice cream bars at the local store.

On Wednesday, Rebecca got up early to hike then we spent most of the day around the cabin. We walked around Painter Pond in the afternoon then had dinner at the Campfire Grill. I had a game steak, which was essentially a burger patty served on a skillet.

Thursday was our busiest day. Rebecca and Maia got up early for a sunrise hike. Maia was so excited that she woke up at 5:30 AM. After breakfast, we went to the petting zoo to feed goats and sheep.

We did afternoon naps in the cabin, although Maia was so excited for the next activity that she spent the whole time in front of her mirror wearing her swimsuit and goggles and chanting "Water Park!"

The Indoor Water Park was the favourite activity of both kids. Maia got to float on the lazy river several times and watch the waveboarders (though she's not quite 42" to be able to do it herself). Ian loved the 1-foot-deep pool which was shallow enough that he could propel around like a baby tadpole. Afterwards, "Water Park!" and a made-up song called "Lazy River" became staples of his vocabulary.

We came home on Friday and had our first "travel throw-up" incident. We all handled it well and Maia was running around the Chickfila playground without a care just an hour later.

On Saturday, Grandpa Tom came by to do some egg dying. On Sunday, Rebecca and the kids went church at Riverside, then to Maryland to see some of her mom's family. I missed these events, having caught an awful cough from Maia over the course of the week!

Easy Photos Day

Learning about Origami.

Working lunch while making parking lots.

Abbott's Frozen Custard at Cascades Overlook.

On the Metro to the Air & Space Museum and the Arboretum.

Kotlin Day

I finished the odyssey I began in January -- to re-solve every Advent of Code puzzle in a new programming language (Kotlin). I'm now an elite member of the 800 star club.

Kotlin is a very pleasant language to work with, especially when paired with IntelliJ IDEA which pushes you towards writing idiomatic Kotlin code instead of just porting Java styles into Kotlin. My Kotlin solutions generally ran a little faster than my Java solutions (although I tried to solve each puzzle from scratch so my approach was different many times). Conversely, compiling felt a little slower than in Java, which won't be good for competing in my company on the tiny puzzles earlier in the month. Either way, I'm able to write much more concise, readable code which is worth everything when it was debugging time.

Apart from with, I never really found a good use for Kotlin scope functions. They just seem like an overlapping set of ways to write cool-looking code that will confuse future maintainers.

Next up on my project list is to learn Spanish!

Review Day

There are no major spoilers in these reviews.

Ali Wong: Don Wong:
Ali Wong's third comedy special is both excessively vulgar and excessively funny. On Netflix.

Final Grade: B+

Luther: Fallen Sun:
After five great seasons, Luther goes out with a whimper in this movie conclusion. The plotline flows more like a typical procedural. Among the questionable story decisions: The movie opens with Luther going to jail, only to have him break out within the first 15 minutes because the plot demands that he be on the run. Idris Elba seems to be phoning it in for most of the movie, which can absolutely be forgiven because the writers didn't really give him much acting to do. On Netflix.

Final Grade: C-

Man Seeking Woman, Season One:
This comedy show starring Jay Baruchel takes typical dating tropes and leans into their most fantastical extremes. From thinking that your ex is dating someone so awful he's literally Hitler (guest star: Bill Hader) to being the single guy at a couples potluck dinner, each episode feels like an SNL skit played absolutely seriously. There's no real overarching plot progression, but it's fun and very different.

Final Grade: B

Party Down, Season One:
This aughts-era comedy about failed actors working in a party catering company features familiar actors in their early years, including several of the cast of Veronica Mars. The show has a good balance of funny one-off scenarios (with guest stars) and plot progression. On Hulu.

Final Grade: B+

Ian Year 2 Battle Report

Ian turns 2 on Tuesday! He currently is about 34" tall and weighs about 25 pounds, which is 3 pounds more than Maia at the same age.

Ian can be very tempestuous -- either super happy or super upset that his opinions aren't being followed. Things likely to make him happy: catchphrases from truck books, songs about poop (© 2023 by Brian Uri!), Amber the cat, pouches. Things likely to trigger a tantrum: coming inside when outside, going outside when inside, end of dessert, and lack of pouches.

Ian is an avid reader, especially Elephant and Piggie books and any book with vehicles in it. His favourite activity is to bring books to you for reading consectively until there his a huge stack of just-read books next to your chair. He also likes doing whatever Maia is doing, and he's getting better about "playing within the rules" rather than accidentally messing up her imagination games. Every night ends with a hug in Maia's bed.

Just this past week, his afternoon naps have lengthened, and each wake up period is buffered with quiet time in the crib for books or trucks. We still try to get him in bed by 7 PM because he starts getting cranky right around 5:30 dinner time. He loves fruits and dessert and hates drinking water out of any of the 100 sippy cups we've tried on him.

He can count to 10 consistently, but then skips up to 18 (he always ends on 18). He knows colors and shapes and the difference between his left and right feet. He likes watching 2 episodes of Bluey before bedtime with Maia, but we haven't done that in awhile because of tantrums when we don't watch a 3rd one.

We had the grandparents over for his birthday party on Saturday and he loved it, especially singing Happy Birthday, blowing out candles, and driving new vehicles around. He's a super-cool boy!

Maia's Art Day

Notable artwork from April 2023

L: The bunny has five colorful eggs. R: She is helping the Earth by recycling.

One day, Maia experimented with different art styles based on an art book she received from her grandparents.

L: Bunnies buying cats and dogs. R: Some of Maia's school art that we ended up purchasing on a placemat, magnets, coffe cups, and stickers.

L: Maia invents math homework for herself (The operations goes from bottom to top for some reason). R: I see a cat.

On Potato Day, Maia labeled everything in her room with a "POTATOS" tag and gave a presentation on the noble potato. She then did one on pufferfish for good measure.

This is the Potato Day mascot.

End-of-the-Month Highlights Day

New photos have been added to the Life, 2023 album.

• Events
  • Went to a birthday party / egg hunt in the rain at Algonkian Park on S 4/1. Had the cousins, Sammy and Renae, over to babysit and eat burgers afterwards.
  
  
  • Went to see Elizabeth and the Catapult open for Mark Erelli at Jammin Java on S 4/2.
  
  
  • Went to Massanutten for Spring Break on M 4/3.
  
  
  • Had tasty barbeque for lunch at Virginia BBQ on T 4/4 in between trips to playgrounds and ponds. Went to the Massanutten Overlook in the evening for a short hike.
  
  
  • Caught Maia's violently sore throat on W 4/5. Had dinner at Campfire Grill (game burger steaks).
  
  
  • Rebecca and Maia went on a sunrise hike on H 4/6. Went to the petting zoo, had Campfire Grill for lunch, and then hit the Massanutten Indoor Water Park in the afternoon.
  
  
  • Headed home from Massanutten on F 4/7 with a brief lunch stop at Chick-fila.
  
  
  • Egg-dying with Grandpa Tom on S 4/8.
  
  
  • Easter visit with the Links in Brookville, MD on S 4/9, which I missed because I was sick.
  
  
  • Surprise visit for my Mom's 82nd birthday on M 4/10.
  
  
  • Went to the dentist on F 4/14.
  
  
  • Maia went to my parent's house for the weekend, F 4/14 - S 4/16.
  
  
  • Dinner with Ian at Burton's on S 4/15.
  
  
  • Had the grandparents over for Ian's 2nd Birthday Party on S 4/22.
  
  
  • Ian turned 2 on T 4/25.
  
  
  • Family dinner at Chuy's on W 4/26.
  
  
  • Rebecca and Maia went to a middle school play (Little Mermaid) on S 4/29.


• Projects
  • Improved the Lillard Road sidewalk area on F 4/14.
  
  
  • Finished redoing all 400 Advent of Code puzzles in Kotlin on T 4/18.
  
  
  • Started learning Spanish on Duolingo in spite of all of the ads.
  
  
  • Went to the HOA meeting on W 4/19.
  
  
  • Finished doing series reviews of The Wars of Light and Shadow on /r/fantasy on Reddit.


• Consumerism
  • Enjoyed watching the final season of Better Call Saul and BEEF on Netflix.
  
  
  • Still playing Overwatch 2.
  
  
  • No amazing new music this month.

April's Final Grade: B, Sick in the beginning, but lots of good memories and fun outdoor time.