As expected, it’s been a great weekend. Last night, Jessica and I went out for a date night in Seattle while my sister Dana and her best friend Michelle stayed at our house with the girls. We had dinner at El Gaucho, which was excellent, and after filling ourselves to the point of barely being able to walk out, we headed to a movie theater to see ‘The Drop’, which we both enjoyed very much. Just getting out for a night on the town is a special occasion for us these days so we’re very appreciative of Dana and Michelle for allowing us to do so. I specifically didn’t eat all day in anticipation of the fancy meal that was awaiting us, and it certainly didn’t disappoint. Wicked Shrimp, Oysters Rockefeller, salads, filet mignon, mushrooms, spinach, hash browns, and bread pudding were all on the docket and we loved every bite.
As much fun as light night was, however, today was even more special. We were paid a visit by my Uncle Jim, Aunt Brenda, their daughter Kristy, and Kristy’s daughter Madi. Getting to spend time with them is always a nice treat. They were so kind to bring us new toys for the girls to play with, and fresh corn from the farmer’s market that I’m looking forward to preparing. I’ve always been really close with Jim, Brenda, and Kristy throughout my life, so getting to see all of our little ones playing together is the best.
We knew Madi would be looking forward to playing with the girls, so seeing them all have so much fun together is great. Madi loves to hold Elise, and even though Elise is eager to show off her newfound walking skills, she’s still quite content to be held at just about any time. We hung out talking, watching the girls play, watching football, and eating lunch. After about 3 hours of visiting the girls were getting tired and cranky so we had to call it a day and put them down for a nap, but it really was a great time the we hope to have again sometime soon. Next time we’ll be more than happy to drive down south to visit them, and I’m especially excited to see Kristy’s new house, which is less than a minute’s drive from her parent’s place.
As soon as they left the girls both went down for a nap, leaving Jessica and I a little time to relax ourselves and enjoy the remainder of the weekend. As mentioned in my last post, I’ll be traveling to Dallas for work this week, and even though I’ll only be gone one night, I still never like being away from Jessica and the girls. That said I’m lucky that this is the first (and probably only) time this year that I’ve had to do any traveling for work. The same can’t be said for most of the other members of my team, but my manager completely understands my family situation and therefore has gone out of his way to allow me to stay home as much as possible.
Tomorrow I’m going to make a pitch at work for an idea I have about writing a JavaScript library to accomplish various tasks like localization, hotkey registration, metrics collecting, and more, that various teams throughout our organization are all handling differently on their own. One of the key differences between a WDE 1 (my current role) and a WDE 2 (the role I’m trying to get promoted to) is that a WDE 1 has a positive impact on their own team, while a WDE 2 has a positive impact on teams other than their own. By creating this library that I have in mind, and getting other teams to adopt it, I will be impacting many teams and promoting standardization throughout the organization. This is exactly the type of leadership my manager wants to see so I don’t expect anyone to prevent me from executing my plan.
No plans for next weekend as of yet, just looking forward to getting through a busy couple of days in Texas and getting back home to my girls. Jessica is now 22 weeks into her pregnancy with Enzo, meaning she has crossed the half-way point. His due date has moved up from February 5th to February 1st, so we’ll see how that turns out. Ava was born nearly two weeks early and Elise was born on her actual due date. Only time will tell. Below are a few photos from today’s visit with Jim, Brenda, Kristy, and Madi. Thanks again to each of them for such a nice day, it was certainly a pleasure on our end.
Madi and Ava
Madi and Elise
The girls stacking up
Elise playing with Uncle Jim
