Brian's Journal - April 2009
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04/02/2009
Another symphony, this time a world premiere of a trombone concerto by the Seattle Symphony's
composer in residence Samuel Jones. It was quite melodious and the trombone very expressive. The
concerto reeminded me of a tuba concerto we enjoyed a few years ago, probably by the same composer;
we read in the program notes that the Seattle Symphony premiered a tuba concerto by Samuel Jones in
2006 and it seems unlikely that they would play two tuba concertos by different composers in the
same, or even adjacent, years.
Finished taxes, owed alot less this year than last due to capital losses in the market. That must be the silver lining in the cloud that turned our 401K into a 201K (as I heard someone comment recently) over the past six months. Ran 20.6 miles at 8:45/mile. White-throated sparrow, marsh wren, yellowthroat, ruby-crowned kinglet singing. The past few days have been dry and warm, up to the mid 70's, and my hay fever has been ferocious at times. Hopefully that's the last of the worst of it now that cooler wetter air is on the way back in.
04/10/2009
I've been at work two days now and it
feels really good to be back in the game again.
I went over the business requirements with Jim, the PM, again yesterday. A couple hours later, during
supper, I suddenly realized that the data model is much simpler than I'd thought because there's no
need to model the file hierarchy. Today we reviewed a technical spec that Ryan worked up
over the past couple of days, but it focused more on the processes than on the organization of the
data. The processes and file layouts were pretty much what I envisioned but I think we need to get
the data model right first if the project is going to be successful. I finished a first draft of
the model in Visio today and could probably have the database built and loaded in another day, but
instead I'm going to take time to write up the business requirements and document the ER diagram.
By reviewing those with the group I'll be able to verify that what I'm going to build will be both
useable and useful for the business. Then we can plan the details of how the loads and extracts will
work.
(As I described in an email to Linh this evening) I was reading some documentation on SQL Server
2008 yesterday morning when I suddenly felt a thrill of anticipation at the prospect of learning a
DBMS and figuring out how to use it to organize, store and deliver data. Not that I'm not already
pretty familiar with SQL Server, but learning about and working with database software was what
excited me about computers when I first got into them 25 or so years ago, and it has been so long
since I felt that excitement that I'd forgotten it. Also in the meeting today I realized again that
I really do get data and how to organize it so a business can use it effectively - in the past few
years I'd kind of lost my confidence about doing that, or perhaps forgotten that not everyone can do
it. So I guess the combination of some extended time off along with a new environment and new
challenges has been good for me.
Not that Expedia wasn't a great place to work. Great people, good benefits, a good situation, but
somehow I got stuck and just felt stressed all the time that I wasn't being productive and couldn't
catch up technically and couldn't really get engaged in the work I had on my plate.
Being back at work again there's still some anxiety but so far I find it stimulating rather
than intimidating.
I fixed supper for Swee for her birthday this evening since we didn't go out, and we ate at the
kitchen counter surrounded by daffodils and fragrant hyacinth from the garden. Thawed out, the King
salmon I froze last July still smells just as clean and fresh as when I dressed it out on the dock
in Westport. I broiled it with a little olive oil, salt, pepper and tarragon. By contrast, the QFC
coho is starting to smell pretty fishy - I prefer to poach that in
tomato-pineapple sauce instead of broiling it.
Though Ernie invited me yesterday afternoon to help out with his class this morning (they were planning to discuss why, or even whether, Jesus had to die), I didn't get up in time to make it. Instead I spent much of the day in the garden. After determining that fixing the flat tire on the tiller was beyond me, I tackled the winter's weeds with a spading fork instead, starting along the workshop wall and working south. By afternoon I had about a quarter of the garden worked into six beds. It would go more quickly except for picking out the fat white roots of the wild morning glory which is threatening to take over the garden. I set them aside for burning; the more benign buttercups, dandelions and chickweed go into the compost pile. After lunch and a long nap I went back out to the garden, erected chickenwire for the snap peas along the northwest edge of the garden then planted a row of peas on either side of my new fence. By dark I planted the rest of the beds (and dug one more) with cilantro, parsely, lettuce, beets, fava beans and kale. The soil is somewhat dry already but rain is forecast tomorrow.
I also picked up several yard birds during the course of the day - the first turkey vultures, a small flock of Brewer's Blackbirds, Savannah Sparrows singing across the neighbor's field and a white-throated at the feeder, and a first-ever common snipe flying over making its scratchy call at dusk.
We got the forecast rain, a good soaking of almost 2". I sat at the computer all day and built four new report pages on the Maniacs site, the first reports we've had out there. Maniacs by state, by country, statistics by gender and total, and the email list for Tony. Currently only administrators can see them but with approval of the Main Maniacs, I'll open the first three up to all members soon. Unfortunately I had a slight headache all day, something exercise would have cured but I didn't get any.
04/13/2009 Ovc, Showers, 48
Productive day at work, completed the first draft of use cases and ER diagram. The commute in on 405 with
no traffic already at 9AM took only 50 minutes, as opposed to an hour five on the back way via Issaquah.
Another silver lining of the recession - traffic appears to have lightened up considerably.
In the morning outside the office window I saw the white-throated sparrow again. I thought maybe it had
headed north, having not seen it for several weeks. Last week I heard a thin song several times which
sounded like the alternate white-throated song but may just have been the golden-crowned sparrows, numerous
now as they migrate through.
For Daniel's birthday we ate pizza at Ferellis near the school and watched him open several boxes from A&F.
He was pleased.
At 9:00 this morning it was snowing outside - winter just doesn't want to quit. No accumulation though and by evening the sun falling below the clouds turned the still-frosted hills pink. These photos are the views north and west respectively from the same spot along the road while I was out running.
04/16/2009 Sunny, 70
Yesterday I completed coding and unit testing of the first load program, a SQL stored procedure which
uses bulk insert to load a text file, the pathname of which is passed into the proc as a parameter. It
took me a little longer than it otherwise might have because I used try-catch for the first time in my
error handling, and made a few other changes to my customary coding style to incorporate features new
in SQL 2005. So after a week of work I have the requirements documented and validated, the database
designed and built, the initial data loaded and the first load procedure, which will be a template for
several others, coded and tested. Time for a vacation!
How exciting to be packing up for a marathon again. I couldn't find my Maniac jacket so brought the black one instead, though if the forecast holds - 45 and partly cloudy - I won't need it. I decided on the red shorts I wore for my last 20 miler and packed both the long and short-sleeved red Maniac shirt but not the singlet. A short-sleeved shirt will be cool enough at the pace I'll be running, in the neighborhood of either 4 hours or 3:45, depending on whether or not I try for a qualifier. At the last minute I couldn't find the lightweight Axioms so brought the Adrenalines instead, perhaps a better choice anyhow since they're less likely to give me blisters. For the plane ride I wore my 2008 Boston jacket and hat. Boston on the weekend of the marathon is the only time I'm comfortable wearing them; any other time I feel too conspicuous.
I slept about four hours on the Jet Blue red-eye, Susan only an hour. We picked up our Kia Optima at Budget after almost driving the wrong car, a sporty Mitsubishi Eclipse, out of the lot. The Kia felt much more appropriate. I'd hoped to visit cousin Sally in Marblehead, having not seen her in quite a few years, but found out a day or two before we left Seattle that she'd be out of town. Not knowing where else to go we drove out to Marblehead anyhow. We ate breakfast at a little cafe on
Recalling that Linda, a friend from before high school, now lived in Marblehead, I got her number from Sarah and gave her a call. She'd love to see us but had an hour or so of painting her deck to finish up first so we walked around old town a bit then drove over to Fort Sewall where I tried to photograph birds while Susan took a nap in the sun and burned her face. We spent the afternoon with Linda and Jack, sitting on their deck overlooking a patch of woods and talking about our kids, our work, our parents and our past.
Not wanting to end our time together we invited them to join us at the Grapevine for dinner. It's been several years since we've seen Stacey I'd confirmed that she would be there when I made our reservations. At the restaurant I was surprised when Linda knew the young woman who set up our table - she's the daughter of one of Linda's close friends. When Stacey joined us part way through dinner, I was again surprised that though she and Linda hadn't met, they seemed to have a great many friends in common. Stacey was pretty busy so we arranged to meet her for breakfast before we all went our separate ways.
We stayed at the Comfort Inn along hwy 95 in Danvers, a quiet and comfortable place just 3 miles from the restaurant where we met Stacey for breakfast around lunchtime. We lingered for more than three hours, just talking. It was good to get caught up on the last few years. Stacey looks great; walking her Jack Russell terriers helps her stay in shape. Business is down at the restaurant due to the economy but they're making it. Her father is still doing well, living at their old house; had I known that I would have stopped in but it looked abandoned when we drove by. Last year Stacey took him to Turkey for five weeks, partially fulfilling a long-time dream of his. He'd hoped to be able to live there but wasn't quite up to it.
Mom and John had already arrived at the Harvard Club by the time we hugged Stacey good bye and headed into Boston. Thanks to their directions we found our way easily though the last half mile was pretty slow due to the convergence of traffic for the marathon expo and for both a Bruins and a Red Sox game. The salmon at the Harvard Club dining room was quite good.
John and I walked over to the expo in the morning so I could buy a Boston Marathon fleece sweatshirt and maybe a jacket too. We were going to get them yesterday afternoon when I picked up my packet but the line was too long. The line was even longer this morning; the half hour wait used up a good deal of our time so we didn't get to see as much of the expo as I would have liked. The only Maniacs I saw were the big 3.
We concluded our tour by walking through the new student center, which Alison told us had been described as an exploding building held together with duct tape We found its open design very appealing on a sunny day. I commented that the engineering must have been complicated. Apparently work had stopped in the middle of its construction, with cranes idling all around, while the architect and the contractor argued over whether or not the building could actually be built. Susan found the bookstore just before it closed and emerged with a T-shirt for Kim, who graduated from Wellesley.
Photos from the marathon
The marathon went even better than I expected. I finished in 3:44 and took 25 photos during the race. Significant positive split this year since I ran the first half as if that's all there was. I couldn't maintain that level of effort (HR in the high 170's, 95+% of max) in the second half but that was OK because I had plenty of time; after the fast first half I only needed 9 minute miles in the second to beat my qualifying time. I had decided to carry the camera and take photos even though it might potentially jeopardize my effort to qualify. It didn't, so I'm glad I did.
Susan and I drove up to New Hampshire in our rental car since Mom and John didn't have room this time. On the way we stopped to visit Diana in Portsmouth. Alison had given us her phone number and mentioned to her that we might be stopping by. Diana is currently living in a small and uncluttered second-floor apartment in a colonial house near downtown Portsmouth. She welcomed us in and we settled on the sofa/bed in her office/living/dining room and talked about our families, our children, our work and what we remembered of our high school friendship. As she talked, and particularly as she recounted the twists and turns of her varied career, I recalled the joy of listening to Diana spin her stories. She was always so pragmatic and optimistic no matter what troubles she faced and she still has that resilience and enthusiasm. The evening passed too quickly but we'll get together again.
I purchased a new computer for John before we left for Boston, so I spent quite a bit of our three day visit getting it set up for him. No real problems except that I must have changed the wireless password and not written it down because I couldn't connect and had to call myfairpoint technical support and have them reset the router for me. The new Dell AllinOne is a big improvement over his five year old desktop, especially the large bright screen.
I met Pat and Shirley at Saddle Mountain after work on Thursday. They'd been digging there a week earlier and had found a couple of logs, and though the easy pieces had been taken out, both logs continued down into the basalt. Pat figured we could at least get another piece of each one. I arrived at dusk and thought Pat and Shirley would have gone to bed already but they were still outside the camper. I set up my tent then we hung out and talked in their camper for a good hour or more, until I was well-chilled. I'd brought only a summer bag so I borrowed a super-warm sleeping bag from Pat and spread it over my own. Very comfy, once I finally got warm.
After we finished with my log we hiked down the hill to the spot we dug last May. Pat and the others had found some nice yellow-skinned limb casts down there last week but we didn't do as well this time. The limb casts had been in crumbly gray ash about three feet down, underneath a ledge of bog wood of mixed quality. We found plenty of the ash but only a few broken limb casts. My hands were feeling pretty beat up so I didn't do as much digging as I would have otherwise.