Spring Break Wrap-up: Bethany Beach

Tuesday

• Made the trip to Bethany Beach from Sterling in about 3.5 hours with 1 stop (at Wawa) and minimal traffic. Took a quick, cold walk to the beach access and dug in the sand for a few minutes before Ian's nap time. Got groceries and then made tacos with our travel buddies, the Smiths, in the evening.

Wednesday

• Went back out to the cold, empty beach to dig in the sand in the morning. Had crepes for lunch and then poked around the boardwalk shops (especially the bookstore). Went to Bethany Beach BBQ for dinner (I had deliciously moist baby back ribs). Ended the day with a game of Splendor.

Thursday

• Inside for most of the day because of the heavy rains. Played "Sardines" in the house and let the Smith kids try out my VR Quest headset (which I'd brought along for daily exercise). Ordered pizza in from Pomodoro and then ended the night with board games on Board Game Arena.

Friday

• The quiet town sprang to life on this warmer sunny day, although the crowds were still more pleasant than high season. Dug on the beach again, watched kite flyers do their thing, then had lunch sandwiches at the Turtle Cafe (Maia had one with Nutella and peanut butter). After post-lunch ice cream, Rebecca and Maia went to the arcade and won 155 tickets afterwards. Had a loud dinner at Mango's, then Becky from FSU and her husband stopped by to visit in the evening.

Saturday

• Packed up and hit the road by 10 AM. Made it all the way back by 2 with another stop at Wawa. Returned home and Amber immediately snuggled up on the couch with Maia.

Memory Day: Snapshots

This picture was taken 10 years ago today, on April 3, 2014.

I received a $1000 gift certificate to the Greenbrier Resort for my 10th work anniversary and we finally used it 9 months later. This picture was taken in our room, while I was trying to blend in with the scenery.

We did not fit in at all at this place, which had an air of "used to be fancy but isn't so much anymore". I wore my 14-year-old pair of khakis and a button-up shirt whenever I was outside of our hotel room.

Review Day

There are no major spoilers in these reviews.

Key & Peele, Season One:
We gave this ancient sketch comedy show a try after rewatching the first season of Fargo that included Key and Peele as bumbling FBI agents. It's aged surprisingly well and has a few great laughs. It felt more experimental than SNL and less so than Tim Robinson.

Final Grade: B

Maybe Man by AJR:
While I like the songs on this album, there are too many songs with obvious swearing that prevent me from playing the album with the kids around. I have no problem with swearing on tracks (as evinced by the fact that I play Australian hip-hop music on car rides all the time), but the swearing here adds nothing to the songs, occurs on clear, repetitive beats, and can't be hand-waved away as misheard lyrics. It's like listening to Mika, which is all fun and games until you get to the one song that's just "Who gives a shit about tomorrow?" repeated ad nauseum -- the difference is that Mika swears in only 1 of his 100 songs while AJR does it 3 times in a 40 minute album.

Final Grade: B-

Samsung Galaxy S23:
My Galaxy S8 from 2019 went through a complete washing machine cycle and survived with a spider web of cracks and slightly dimmer screen. Since everything I do these days requires two-factor authentication, I figured it would be a good time to upgrade. (I was also tired of my potato-looking selfie shots in 12 of 12 posts). Like all Samsung phones, this one is crammed with bloatware but most of it is easy to hide or put out of sight. The cameras are great, the UI is responsive and logical, and I have no complaints so far. I once would have balked at the price ($800) but with phones so much more integrated into daily life now, it feels only slightly expensive.

Final Grade: B+

Formentera II by Metric:
This album feels like a bunch of B-sides that didn't make the original Formentera album. All are pleasant, lo-fi tunes but none are super memorable.

Final Grade: B

Weekend Wrap-up

On Friday (a day off of school), we took the kids over to my parent's house to celebrate Grandma's 83rd birthday.

On Saturday, we went to Riverbend Park to view the bluebells, arriving in the perfect early sweet spot: trails had been flooded and closed the day before, and a $12 "Bluebell Viewing" festival started 2 hours after we parked.

Here is a zero-effort, no-post-edit picture of bluebells taken with the camera on my new Samsung Galaxy S23.

There was also a raptor demonstration occurring in the nature center with two owls and a loud kestral.

Afterwards, we stayed in the park for a bit so Ian could play in the sandbox, then had IHOP for brunch. Dinner in the evening was baked chicken thighs.

On Sunday, Rebecca took the kids to church while I cleaned the house. In the afternoon, we weeded the garden then Maia and I played Princess Peach: Showtime! while the rest of the house napped. We went to Cascades Overlook for a dinner at Fire Works Pizza, where Maia earned a free dessert from the manager for proclaiming unsolicited, "This is the best Tartufo pizza I've ever had!"

How was your weekend?

Stuff in My Drawers Day

A poem I wrote for my mom's birthday, 32 years ago today.

Chad Darnell's 12 of 12

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

6:16 AM: Showered and ready for the day, after a 5:30 round of Beat Saber.

6:30 AM: Bagel for breakfast.

6:59 AM: Getting ready to go to the bus stop.

8:33 AM: Working on my 20th work anniversary.

9:59 AM: Prototyping different visualizations for a training module.

11:37 AM: Unhealthy lunch, also known as the "Tallahassee Friday Night".

2:41 PM: Home from school and making a dandelion bouquet.

3:10 PM: Clearly not napping, while Maia plays Pokemon on the Switch.

3:37 PM: Expanding our under-sink storage potential.

5:22 PM: Playing basketball.

5:45 PM: BBQ spare ribs for dinner.

7:22 PM: A game of 5-Minute Dungeon before bedtime.

20th Work Anniversary Day

Last Friday was my 20th work anniversary. I've worked at one company (through renamings and acquisitions) for my entire career apart from a brief experiment at a commercial startup followed by some stay-at-home-dadding back in 2017.

Career highlights include:

• 2000: As an intern, optimized a database load process by over 200% by creating a SQL-to-Java conversion language.
• 2008: Accidentally deleted all the rows in a production table but figured out a way to regenerate the data from other tables before anyone noticed or was affected.
• 2011: Convinced two diametrically-opposed ontologists to compromise on the definition of "Physical Entity" by inserting six extra words.
• 2015: Conceived, developed, and taught a six-session training designed to help our engineers earn the AWS Solutions Architect and Developer associate certs simultaneously.
• 2019: Was the sole proposal writer for a 30-page past performance volume that led to a win on a $950M IDIQ.

Memory Day: Snapshots

This picture was taken 25 years ago today, on April 17, 1999.

I was at Busch Gardens with my band friends: Rosie & Jason (not pictured), Doug & Becky, Jen, and myself. This picture was taken with one of the very first Canon Powershot digital cameras, which my dad had given me the day before.

1999 was the final year in my 20th century style: 1/4" buzzcut, glasses too big for my face, a Members Only jacket, and a Casio wristwatch.

Review Day

There are no major spoilers in these reviews.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith:
This limited series remake is a misfire that's barely worth watching. The spy aspects of the show are just a throwaway canvas for the lead actors to argue and be miserable in their marriage (it sometimes reminded me of Fleishman is in Trouble in that regard). There are some sparks of creativity in the last few episodes, but it takes way too long to get there. This might have been better with a different title -- the one selected misleads you into thinking you'll be getting something completely different. On Amazon Video.

Final Grade: C

Untitled Goose Game (Switch):
A pleasant, indie game where you play a goose and you have to be as annoying as possible in an English village. Think scaring children, stealing food, tricking the gardener into getting soaked in the sprinkler. It has a novel concept and slightly offputting repetitive controls, especially when you fail at a task and have to start all over again. Good for a brief distraction.

Final Grade: B-

5-Minute Dungeon:
This cooperative card game combines the frantic chaos of multiplayer solitaire with a fun dungeon romp. Each game lasts 5 minutes although it takes slightly longer than that to sort all the cards for the next round. Very easy to pick up (Maia plays it flawlessly) and very fun. We haven't delved deeply into the dungeon yet, but we've gotten pretty good at beating the first boss in round one. The difficulty increases in each 5-minute round (similar to the way you can raise the starting tide level in Forbidden Island).

Final Grade: B+

Petition by Delilah Waan:
This debut fantasy novel is a solid foundation with a few rough edges. The author effectively depicts a sympathetic, determined protagonist clawing her way out of poverty and an interesting magic system. The secondary characters and setting both feel fairly shallow, as if they only exist to support the main character. Where this book shines is in its pacing -- the steady build towards successively more intense situations blended with moments of introspection and catharsis worked really well for me and kept me reading to the end.

Final Grade: B-

List Day: Labelled Years

The value of labels is twofold:

1. They provide a temporal anchor for organizing my memories, especially in the recent years where the skeleton of school grades is unavailable and everything blurs together.
2. They act as episode titles when my life is picked up as a Netflix Original (1 year per 22 minute episode) although this means that they will likely cancel me after Season 3.

Time-lapsed Blogography Day: Thirty-Four Years Ago Today

Thirty-four years ago today, on April 24, 1990, I was a 10-year-old sixth grader on my first overnight field trip.

Since our city had a junior high school instead of a middle school, sixth grade was the highest grade in elementary school. Someone at Polk School decided it would be a good idea to trust the sixth grade class with a stay at Hemlock Overlook Regional Park. A surprising number of students from the 3 classes attended, although I believe there were still few enough people to fit in a large whitewashed double-roomed cabin (boys and girls separated).

We did the usual assortment of nature activities, like 300 reminders about what poison ivy looked like and what kind of tracks were on the trails (hint: most of them were trail dogs). Of course, we were really only interested in riding the zipline over and over again.

There were no overnight shenanigans in the cabin that night, although I have to give props to whichever brave parents volunteered to chaperone and sleep in the same rooms as the students!

Interview Day: Ian Edition

wisdom at age 3

What is your favourite color?

"Purple."

What is your favourite DVD?

"John Deere."

What is your favourite food?

"Waffles."

What is your favourite drink?

"Water."

Who is your favourite cat?

"Amber."

What do you like to play?

"Trucks."

What is your favourite book?

"Trucks."

What is your favourite planet in the solar system?

"The Moon."

What is your favourite holiday?

"Christmas - 'cause I like it. There are Christmas trees."

What is your favourite outside activity?

"Wash the car."

Is there anything else you'd like to share?

"Like what? Tell me."

End-of-the-Month Highlights Day

New photos have been added to the Life, 2024 album.

• Events
  • Belated Easter dinner with Char on T 4/2.
  
  
  • Solo dad dinner at Local Provisions on W 4/3.
  
  
  • Visited my mom for an early birthday celebration on F 4/5.
  
  
  • Went to Riverbend Park to see the bluebells, saw a kestral and owls at the Nature Center, and had brunch at IHOP on S 4/6.
  
  
  • Dinner at Fire Works Pizza on S 4/7.
  
  
  • Went to the optometrist on Eclipse Day, M 4/8. Discovered that my current glasses were actually 1 prescription behind in history which is why my eyesight was so poor. Saw the eclipse from home in the afternoon.
  
  
  • 20th work anniversary on F 4/12.
  
  
  • Family trip to Meadowlark Gardens on S 4/13.
  
  
  • Sick day for me on W 4/17 that led to 2 weeks of sinus congestion.
  
  
  • Family dinner at Bungalow Lakehouse on H 4/18. Maia lost her 5th baby tooth (top incisor).
  
  
  • Went to the Loudoun Earth Day event with Laura and George on S 4/20. Dinner (steak frites) with Tammy and Patrick on our back porch.
  
  
  • Solo dad dinner at Local Provisions on W 4/24.
  
  
  • Rebecca chaperoned Maia's National Zoo field trip on H 4/25 while Ian and I hung out for his birthday.
  
  
  • Went to Ian's preschool art show on F 4/26.
  
  
  • Hosted Ian's 2nd birthday party on S 4/27.
  
  
  • New recipe for dinner (grilled salmon with mango-mint salsa) on S 4/28.


• Projects
  • Gently remodeled and shuffled bathroom assignments in the house on S 4/13. I now have the basement bathroom, Rebecca has taken over my single bathroom, and the hall bathroom has become the domain of just the kids.
  
  
  • Family project to map all the breakers in the house on M 4/15.
  
  
  • Started learning the state of web development in 2024 to overhaul the URI! Zone.
  
  
  • Still doing daily Spanish lessons in Duolingo (386 day streak).


• Consumerism
  • Really enjoyed watching Fallout this month.
  
  
  • No amazing new music, books, or games this month.
  
  
  • Not playing any games at the moment.

April's Final Grade: B, Great, other than getting sick.