Category: Uncategorized

Well, this is it. The last one.

For well over a decade, I’ve been buying this brand of orange juice from Costco. They’ve recently discontinued it, and don’t plan to re-stock it. This is my last can from the freezer.

I love orange juice, This is a blow to my habit, because now I’ll have to buy it at “regular” grocery stores (much more expensive than Costco) and in smaller sizes.

Hmm. Maybe I should plant some orange trees in my orchard…

It’s been a long time coming, but I finally feel like I’m “back in the saddle” of technical work. For many months I’ve been thinking about how to un-retire and do some meaningful software development. Fortunately I have a long-time client (and friend!) who’s willing to engage me in some projects. It isn’t full-time work– far from it– but it’s enough to keep me busy for a few hours here and there. I’m updating and upgrading their web application, using technologies I’ve been immersed in for 25 years while exploring new technologies to make things better, faster, and easier.

Ahh, editing PHP in Vim…

While much of what I’m doing feels so familiar, there are a few twists. First, I have a triple monitor setup with massive 32-inch 2K screens: plenty of real estate for all of my editor windows, test pages, log files, research tabs, and so on. More pixels are almost always better!

Second, I have an amazing lake view out the window as I work, which beats the basement window well view of my old home office. And third, the pace is much more relaxed: no more 50-hour weeks, constantly checking email, or feeling like I always need to be available for clients. I work a few hours a day, taking pizza and gaming breaks or shifting gears for a personal project for a bit.

It feels good to be back in this groove. I always enjoyed my job, and my clients… it was having to work those long hours that became a drag. Now that I can do it more on my terms, I think it’s going to be a Good Thing.

When Kari came out to visit a few weeks ago, she forgot to bring some homemade candy. To my surprise and delight, a little box showed up in the mail today… she’d packaged up some turtles and bon bons, and sent them to me!

I love these things. Thanks, Kari!

Alex and Kaitlyn recently bought a townhome, and they were very excited to finally be able to host Christmas. It’s one of those rites of passage as an adult: finally having a place with enough room to invite your family over, rather than having to go to Mom and Dad’s place to celebrate the holiday season. It was great to have everyone together (again!) and we enjoyed a few days relaxing and playing.

William is about a month old now, but he’s still so small. Zack– who’s not really a baby person– spent a surprising amount of time with the little guy on his chest. There’s something about holding a sleeping baby.

We swung by Tara and Trent’s place for an exciting game night. It included Secret Hitler and Catch Phrase, both of which involve a lot of yelling. With this crowd it was a lot of fun.

On Christmas Eve Kaitlyn prepared her family’s traditional “Bethlehem Dinner”, which is a cool reminder of what it might have been like two millennia ago. We ate flatbread, chicken, cheeses, and grapes by candlelight.

Later that evening, it was time for The Presentations. This was Hannah’s idea: a few weeks earlier, she’d proposed that all of us make short 5-10 minute presentations about anything, and then have someone else present them. I thought it should be something educational, so I put together a handful of slides about the Great Emu War. Kyra drew the lucky straw and presented it. She did a great job, remaining serious and professional even though she had no idea what slide would come up next.

After that, Alex was able to present “The Science of Eye Contact”, which Kyra had written. It was actually quite informative, discussing how humans react to eye contact. However, her slides all featured gigantic horrific AI-generated eyeballs.

Things took a turn when Zack presented Alex’s topic, “The Art of Sacred Pooping”. It claimed to be “An Exhaustively Researched Report” but not surprisingly it was full of inside jokes (like the title itself) and plenty of scatological humor.

We finished with me presenting Zack’s deck, “Understanding Jeff: Meeting the Real Me” which turned out to be a scathing (but frankly hilarious) mockery of me. Where’s the respect in kids these days?

It was a riot, and will probably become a weird family tradition.

It will shock no one to learn that we played a lot of board games together. We even had a round of Wingspan with the highest scores I’ve ever seen.

The weather was freakishly warm, and we went on long walks every day in the 65-degree weather. Oliver loved riding his bike along the sidewalks in their little neighborhood.

When Christmas Day dawned, Oliver was naturally the most excited. He did an admirable job of holding back from tearing into his presents, waiting over two hours for everyone to be up and ready. It’s fun seeing how excited kids are about gifts. I don’t think he was prepared for the custom shower curtain I made for him, though:

I took a photo of him in a car at a carnival, added an outdoor background, and printed it in six-by-six-foot glory. It’s hanging in his bathroom now.

Oliver adores his Uncle Zack, probably because he’s like the crazy funny uncle who does things like make weird gang signs in photos.

Yeah, it was a hoot to be together. Merry Christmas to all.

We have a Party House, so we figure we should host plenty of parties. It’s been tradition to have a white elephant party every December (dating back a couple of decades to Colorado, although we didn’t host those). The beauty of it: the party is actually very easy to host. Invite a bunch of people and ask them to bring food and a couple of odd gifts. All we have to provide is the venue.

We missed last year because we were in shorts in the desert, and many of our friends have been asking for months (I’m not kidding) whether we’ll bring back our white elephant party. Of course we will. It turned out to be a smashing success, with over forty people– a new record!– in attendance.

As usual, there were plenty of gag gifts and a lot of horse trading. The “good” gifts– the ones you’d actually be able to use or at least put in your home without complete embarrassment– were frequently stolen. After Tom lost the famous lobster serving bowl, he grabbed a “snacklebox” of treats:

Here comes Jamie in an attempt to grab a head massager from Tom (who’s quite bald). Tom had a lot of things stolen from him tonight.

It’s always an adventure to open one of these gifts, not knowing if it’ll be something useful or something completely useless. Cam ended up with some sort of necklace (that was actually quite nice, and quickly given to his wife):

My favorite item of the evening was a shrunken braying donkey head. It was special in a way that only white-elephant gifts can be:

Much to Pepper’s chagrin, I stole it on my turn, but had it stolen later. Bummer.

This was Brian’s first time at our party (his family moved here a few months ago) and he wasn’t prepared for the return of the Cosmo Shower Curtain.

Jon had taken this gem home two years ago, and told me he’d literally been saving it on a shelf for these two years just so he could bring it back and get rid of it.

I loved that Kim and Kelly showed up dressed to the nines. He was in a full tuxedo, and she was in a glamorous cocktail dress.

They’d been at the annual black-tie Governor’s Ball, hosted by none other than the governor of Montana, and they left early to come to our party. Yeah, that’s how good it is. Take that, Governor Gianforte!

It was only a few weeks ago when we were in Missouri enjoying time with Mom, Dad, and Kari. As it happened, Kari had already planned a December trip to Kalispell to hang out with her good friend, so naturally she dropped in for a few days. It was awesome to just have some time together. We talked, played games, enjoyed Rosa’s pizza (of course), and went on a few outdoor excursions. After our recent snowfall, everything was cold and icy… and pretty.

We showed her Yellow Bay, which is one of our favorite summer hangouts. Of course Yellow Bay looks very different in December!

The only other time she’s visited was also winter (two years ago), so one of these days we hope she can make it up in the summer to enjoy the real beauty of Montana. Regardless, it’s great to have her with us.

Our annual Christmas cards are the stuff of legend, and as always the clock was ticking as we cruised into late November. Pepper and I bantered around a few ideas but couldn’t come up with something that stuck. Finally she suggested we put together some sort of joke about a current event or cultural phenomenon. Aha!

With an idea in mind, we embarked on a photoshoot. I needed a neutral background that would be easy to remove, and it turned out the garage was a perfect place. With a work lamp enclosed in a white garbage bag as a light source (yeah, classy), the background was just what I needed.

After a handful of image searches and a lot of work on my trusty graphics tablet, our card was ready.

A brief explanation of this: we were, of course, poking fun at the jewelry heist at the Louvre a little over a month ago. So we needed a shot of the Louvre. To make sure it’s very clear that’s where we are, I added the Mona Lisa to a frame on the left. Everyone knows that painting is actually quite small, and not displayed at all like that. And while I was editing paintings, I added Ollie on the right.

Frankly, I think I did a pretty good job editing the jewelry. It was tricky finding shots of the crowns and necklace-earring set at the right angle, but I managed to keep it from looking too fake.

To hammer the point home, the back of the card included a blueprint of the Louvre– complete with red markup indicating the crime (and date!)– as well as a couple of Polaroids of the window the thieves entered, and the lift they used. Oh, and for good measure I added a little line about stealing.

Clever? I think so. Funny? Absolutely.

But then, as we started hearing from people who’d received our card, I was amazed how many had no idea what the joke was. “Oh,” they’d say, “we loved how you look like a king and queen!” Uhh…

Those who got the joke thought it was hilarious. Those who didn’t probably just think we’re weird. C’est la vie.

After a year in California without winter, I’ve been excited for some snow and, yes, cold temperatures. Up here at the northern edge of our country it’s been unseasonably warm. I was thrilled to finally see some snow this morning!

Yesterday we had about eight inches of powder, and today we gained another eight of wetter, heavier snow. It was beautiful.

Of course that meant our driveway was troublesome… much too heavy to shovel, with a generous layer of ice beneath the white. We appreciate Todd and his work to keep it clear for us. While he worked to push the snow, I sat inside and enjoyed the view.

It’s always interesting having in-laws: one side effect is the need to juggle holidays every year. This year happens to be the year Alex and Kaitlyn will be spending time with her family in southern Utah. We love her parents– they’re great people and we make efforts to visit them when we can. So, knowing we’d only be with Kyra and Zack this year, we made plans to head south and hang out at the Villa. Hannah is living there as well, which makes it even more of a party.

We had a few days and enjoyed time together. Zack introduced us to his clay. Let me explain: on a date a few weeks ago, he and his friend bought some modeling clay and made little figurines. Afterward he ordered a whole set of multi-colored clay, and broke it out when we were there. We spent hours making little things, joking and laughing and admiring each others’ work. Here’s Kyra working on her teeny pumpkin:

She later made Shaun the Sheep from the Wallace and Gromit series, which inspired Hannah to make Feathers McGraw. Both were outstanding.

In other news, Kaitlyn had given birth to our second grandchild, William, a few days earlier. We figured she’d want to rest, and so did she, so she and Alex had made plans to basically stay home during Thanksgiving. But the urge to be with family triumphed, and she headed down to visit her parents and siblings for a few days. On her way through town, she dropped in with little William. Here he is, watching his grandma.

Pepper kept exclaiming “Isn’t he the cutest thing ever?”

To our surprise and delight, Alex decided to hang out with us while Kaitlyn continued south to be with her family. That meant we were all together after all. And of course that meant plenty of board games and card games. Hannah even agreed to learn Sheephead:

I’m pretty sure she wanted to cry afterward. That’s just how Sheephead is. Strangely, my kids absolutely love the game, which continues the Schroeder family tradition and makes their grandparents very proud.

Kyra and Hannah planned and prepared the big feast (with help from the rest of us) and we really enjoyed the opportunity to be together and reflect on all our blessings. A Happy Thanksgiving indeed.

Things became a bit too busy this fall, and Thom and I didn’t have an opportunity to meet up for our annual fall backpacking trip. One of the big factors was his new job, which actually requires him to– gasp!— be in an office five days a week. Instead of a trip, we agreed it would be fun to get our families together over a weekend. Pepper and I loaded up the car and headed west.

We haven’t seen the kids in a couple of years and at their young ages, it always feels like a lifetime has elapsed. Hadley is almost a grown-up now– or at least she talks like one. She was a hoot, and talked a lot about her favorite subject: unicorns. She even showed us how to draw a proper unicorn, and when Pepper started following her instructions she grabbed the marker because Pepper was doing it all wrong.

We went on a hike through the hills during a beautiful day. It was several miles, and Hadley managed to charm each of us into taking turns carrying her.

The view at the top was amazing, of course. It’s obvious why Thom and Katie love living here.

We had a grand time playing games (ahh, Candyland), watching movies (oh, that Garfield), learning about hydroelectric power (I didn’t know using a dishwasher was so evil), and having a delicious dinner at the same restaurant where the happy couple had their wedding reception many years ago.

At one point Sefton got a hold of my camera. This sort of sums up our weekend with him.

Yep, they’re an awesome family and a ton of fun.