Every year we hold Thanksgiving at our house for both my family and my wife’s. Every single year since we moved in to this house in 2010. We have an entire dining room and set of tables, chairs, and serving dishes that only come out once a year for it. Yet this year, we’re shutting the doors and shelving Thanksgiving so that everyone is actually around the table when we can hopefully do it again […]
Coming back from parental leave and getting up to speed with a new team is harder than I expected thanks to remote work. I knew before that it couldn’t be an easy situation for people trying to learn something new and onboard while there is no one around them, but it took going through the experience myself to really understand just what a challenge it is. Without the ability to walk around and ask questions, […]
Before 2020, I loved working from home. I thought I would want to do it all the time. When it was a periodic treat rather than an every day necessity, it felt fun and like a privilege. Now that I have to do it daily, it doesn’t feel so special and I’ve needed to adapt to the situation to establish a workable daily office at home so I can actually get work done. In order […]
Every single year since the first Motorola Droid came out in 2007, I’ve bought a new phone. I’m a habitual upgrader, always wanting the latest and greatest in electronics. Every year before, that’s meant grabbing the newest phone at least once a year, and even going through three last year before settling on the iPhone 11. This year, the upgrades just aren’t enough to get me to upgrade. Phones were the most exciting part of […]
This week marks the final week of my parental leave from work. Again, I know how exceptionally privileged I am to even have the option to take paid leave as a father, but I’m already saddened that it’s ending. Like my parental leave back when the twins were born, I had grand schemes of what I would accomplish while on leave. I figured with one child instead of two, I’d actually have time this time […]
While I’m on parental leave, I’ve begun an experiment to see how often I can use my iPad as my primary computer. I don’t have much need for my laptop while I’m not doing work, so I found myself reaching for the iPad to do quick tasks more often. In fact, I’m even writing this on it. By doing this, I’ve found that there are many places an iPad is just as good as a […]
I ordered my wife a Peloton Bike for her birthday and I’ve been on it pretty much every day since. I figured I would get marginal use out of it and maybe use it once or twice a week to supplement my running. However, I’ve discovered the great suite of exercise programs that come with the membership, and I’ve used it a ton already. I really didn’t think I’d buy into the religion of Peloton, […]
This year has involved a bit more running than I originally expected. I aimed to run my first ultramarathon in April, but thanks to COVID, it moved back to September. That meant training up to peak mileage with 50+ mile weeks not just once, but twice. It meant many more weekends spent out on the trails than I expected with a newborn, but it also meant I got to field test a ton of running […]
On Saturday September 12, after five and a half hours of running through the trails and roads of Sussex County Fairgrounds, the same place I first got a medal for one of my homebrewed beers, I officially became an ultramarathoner, completing my first ever 50K. While it wasn’t easy, I actually felt pretty good after, and I’m already considering how I can go longer or faster, though of course in due time so I can […]
For a family that thrives on vacations and travel around the world, one of the worst parts of the pandemic in 2020 is not being able to go anywhere safely. Airplanes are completely out for the risk-adverse like us, and we certainly aren’t heading out on a cruise ship any time soon. But a short road trip to the shore at Cape May seemed like a relatively safe way to get out of the house […]