Q3 Update

• October 8, 2024

The past few months have flown by. Our kiddo is almost 5 months old now and I was lucky enough to spend September home with the family. We went to a wedding, a close friend’s wedding shower, the World Dairy Expo (grilled cheese and milkshakes, yes please) and snuck in a number of family visits.

I feel so fortunate to have a job that offers paid time-off. John Deere went through layoffs and I was lucky enough to be spared. It reminds me that no job is 100% secure, even at big companies. I don’t take it for granted.

Other things of note:

• My grandma and her sister made a day trip to visit us back in July.
• We visited Columbia, MO, for our niece’s birthday.
• Traveled home for my brother’s 30th birthday party.
• Took so many pictures of our kid. It’s not even funny. (Thank goodness for iCloud Shared Photo Library.)
• Listened to many hours of Roderick on the Line on our several road trips.
• Went axe throwing at a work event. Fun!
• Replaced the power lift gate on our RAV4 that was stuck shut. Not fun!

During the evenings when everyone went to bed:

• Worked on a big update to MapKeep and a few smaller updates. It was great having some spare brain power to refactor the app after a year of stumbling through re-learning app development.
• Played Zelda Twilight Princess on my newly arrived Odin 2 mini as I waited for Zelda Echoes of Wisdom to arrive.
• Finished Pokémon Crystal.
• Added a now page to this site where you can see what I’m up to outside of blog posts. I also upgraded this site to Eleventy version 3.
• Listened to new albums by Maggie Rogers, Charly Bliss, Clairo and discovered American Football after learning their house is near me.

TV shows watched:

• The Acolyte (Star Wars) had so much potential. Interesting themes but strange pacing and seemingly low-budget at times (despite having a massive budget).
• 30 Rock seasons 4 and 5.
• Penelope was slow to start but we loved it. Reminds me to savor nature. I heard about the show in an episode of The Town with Mark Duplass who self-funded the show.
• Sunny had a great hook, fantastic style, Rashida Jones, Japan… but it felt a bit all over the place like it was confused about who was doing what and why.

Started watching The Penguin, Rings of Power season 2, English Teacher (Stephanie Koenig is a treasure), and Hacks is outstanding.

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