What's up?

[pumpkinpi]

Buster has a sore throat today so I'm staying home with him. (He's fully vaxxed so I'm not too worried about covid, but I know strep is going around.)
What a different world it is, though, that this doesn't interfere with my workday. 2 of my meetings were already online, and I can switch the other two to zoom. In fact looking at my calendar, the only reason I really *have* to be in the office at all this week is for a shift in the planetarium Thursday morning. (And if I or someone at home get sick, someone else can cover for me.)

I have been going in daily since Labor Day, and it really makes a difference to have in-person time with coworkers that isn't scheduled over zoom. But many of us are still partially remote so it's quiet most days.

[Rommie]

My thoughts on this are it's definitely doable to do everything we are online, but I'll be damned if it's not just a helluva lot more efficient to do things in person. And I'm not just talking about "show someone your screen instead of having to share it" type stuff- we humans are really just better wired to read social cues and if someone is understanding something via being in person with them.

Granted, it definitely is still more efficient than "in person only meeting and thus you miss out because your kid is sick."

[Rommie]

Every once in awhile if I'm working from home, F comes up to me and gets all "is that a PHP forum?!" when he sees I'm on here. The funny thing is we've had this conversation multiple times, and I keep being like "yes, some of my geek friends and I enjoy nostalgia in an Internet that has no place for old forums but complains that it was better years ago."

Anyway, cheers to nostalgia and a few random emoticons for sparking just that!

[pumpkinpi]

Every once in awhile if I'm working from home, F comes up to me and gets all "is that a PHP forum?!" when he sees I'm on here. The funny thing is we've had this conversation multiple times, and I keep being like "yes, some of my geek friends and I enjoy nostalgia in an Internet that has no place for old forums but complains that it was better years ago."

Anyway, cheers to nostalgia and a few random emoticons for sparking just that!

There are so many emoticons here that I which I could use elsewhere!
Especially MrGreen. For some reason I always think of SFC when I see that one!

[pumpkinpi]

Buster tested double negative for covid and strep. He's feeling better today.

[Rommie]

Glad to hear it! Funny how we almost forget how much we used to get sick.

And yes, I think she used to use that one a lot as a personal marker so it's an understandable association!

[Rommie]

Had a nice chat with swift on Friday during my visit to Cleveland over iced tea. Doing well, just got back from a West Virginia trip.

It was really surreal to be back in my old stomping grounds after so many years away- I wasn't expecting the sheer number of memories to pop up that I hadn't thought of in years, just from walking around my old college campus. Got emotional for a sec at the start of my talk- it was in the same room where I took my first college physics class!- and everyone kept telling me said talk was really good to the point of embarrassment almost. (My favorite was one of the profs said his 18 year old daughter who isn't into space stopped to watch for 10min, so hey, win!)

Nice visit. Surreal, but nice.

[Thumper]

Sounds real nice. And I had a good visit with Swift as well a few years back.

[pumpkinpi]

Ahhh.....lazy Monday. The kids are off school for a teacher workshop day. I have no meetings and we have no activities scheduled tonight. So yes, I'm doing my work from my comfortable living room chair, and I may not change out of my pjs. I can actually get a lot of work done without interruption.

(Kids are distance learning and I'm working from home anyway, so for the rest of the week I have tons of zooms and I have to make sure the kids get on all of theirs between 8-2).

[Thumper]

Getting a bunch of chores done around the house today. Driving down to my friend's tonight, flying to Ecuador tomorrow. Not like I don't disappear from here for long periods, but I'll certainly be missing until the second week of Feb.
-5F here this morning, high of 68 in Quito tomorrow.

[pumpkinpi]

Travel safe! Take and share pics!

[Thumper]

Thanks!

[pumpkinpi]

In one week I get to take a trip to Portland OR to see my college bestie! Last summer she saw that our favorite band is playing in Portland on her birthday, so she bought the concert tickets and I bought the plane tickets. Unfortunately the band's tour was cancelled, but I'm going anyway! I'm excited to be doing something for leisure, and for me. I've traveled with family and to see family, but not any friends. I'm so excited.

[Thumper]

I'm so excited.

Yay!
(Going to share the name of the band? )

[SciFiFisher]

Portland is close to Mr. Mono. You should give him(er) a holler if you get the chance.

[Thumper]

Geo is a couple hours southeast, Code Monkey is less than an hour south of Portland.

[pumpkinpi]

I've got such a tight window--I'll be there for about 48 hours. So I'm giving all my time to my friend and her family! Her girls are 10 and 7, and I haven't even met them.

The band is more of an electronic duo--Erasure.

[Thumper]

I know that band! Shame on them for canceling. But it will get you more time with your friend.

[pumpkinpi]

I had a dream that I met up with Thumper and he was teaching me to downhill ski.

Sounds relatively normal, right?

Well Thumper was very old and haggard. He kind of looked like Will Steger, but with a bandanna, sunglasses, a beard, and a surgical mask.
I know, how can you even see his face with all that on? But in my dream I could.

And various scenes around it were strange, like the fact that I'd never skied before (true) so first he had me go down on one knee.

And in another scene I was in a race that had me climbing up very steep plush carpet walls with a bunch of dogs.

[SciFiFisher]

I am sure that Thumper is a good ski instructor.

[Thumper]

Yes, gravity is your friend when downhill skiing.

[pumpkinpi]

These are the days of posting 1st and last day of school pictures. Buster doesn't want me to post him on social media, so I'll do it there. He also doesn't like to post for pictures in general.

1st day; Last day. (When you learn your dad has covid just before the kids get on the bus, and you're in the middle of meetings when they get home, this is the best you can get.)

[SciFiFisher]

Nice pics. And whoa! they are growing.

[Thumper]

They are certainly a little bigger than the last time I saw them.

[pumpkinpi]

I can blame my social anxiety on covid anxiety, right?

I'm in Hampton VA for a NASA conference on STEM education. The conference hasn't actually started yet but I'm at the conference hotel the night before and there's a lot of conference folks at happy hour. (2 free drinks, what hotel does that?)

Problem is, I don't actually *know* any of them. I know that if I go up to them and say hi I'm Pi I'm here for the conference, I'd be very much welcomed. I just can't bring myself to do it. I went down for the free drinks but went off to a table on my own.

Then as I'm hearing the raucous laughter, I realize, hey, everyone's drinking and nobody has their masks on. So I'm better off alone in my hotel room anyway. I'll have plenty of time to get to know them, masks on, over the next couple days. So I brought my wine back to my room.

(Ok, I know, I could go down and talk with folks without drinking and wear my mask. But yeah, that's not gonna happen.)


In other news, NASA had really poor communication and made it seem like the conference actually starts today (Monday) so I flew in Sunday. But really I have nothing scheduled until Tuesday afternoon. So I drove to Virginia Beach and went on a Dolphin tour boat. It was so much fun!! I'm glad I had this extra day to do something touristy, on my own.