I went on a trek in Chile last year. One of my guides doesn’t have an Aunt because she was one of the vanished during Pinochet’s regime. And if you are wondering why I’m telling this store today now would be a very good time to read up on the US involvement in South America and the consequences.

Drum roll please… my ADHD self is at inbox 0 on my personal email. (Well technically inbox 12 but they all have a purpose and an action needed to clear them.)

Since I’m sick in bed with the flu.. but can’t seem to nap I’m finally digging out my overflowing email inbox. Some serious unsubscribe happening. Just over 1000 emails left to go. I may actually start 2026 with functioning email!

If you are in Boise Tamales Nelly is closing 😭 but there are a few days left to place a take out order. The Tamales freeze well and are the best I’ve ever had.

I wonder how many people all got paged at once thanks to Cloudflare!

Before and after slow roasted garlic

Tech friends who work in e-commerce and cloud providers who support us. Have a great week and may the final exam be full of nothing but climbing sales. (Final exam = Black Friday / Cyber Monday weekend.)

My kids: Mom did you learn about the Cold War in school? Me: I lived the Cold War while in school

The Cloudflare outage is a good reminder that: - Configuration is Code. - There will always be bugs but companies who publish good post mortems help make the entire industry better.

Favorite positive comment from my 6 month review: “Willing to ask ‘dumb’ questions.” Part of the staff+ role is being comfortable asking the question everyone is thinking but is afraid to say because it might sound dumb. Or the question that challenges some basic idea everyone assumes is correct.

Teen: Are you and dad fighting? Me: No, that’s the noise I make when your dad tells me his friend who was staying elsewhere will be sleeping at our house tonight but not to worry because he will not care if the sheets are fresh and the house is tidy and he’s known this for days but forgot to tell me

There is a shrieking baby waiting for a flight. And one passanger turned to another and said, “We were all once babies other people had to hear shriek.” So parents traveling with babies… most of your fellow passengers get it. You are doing great!

Once again I have made roasted pumpkin seeds that taste like I pressed salt into a seed shape. 😂😭🤦🏼‍♀️ Some day I will get this right.

Teen: Mom what’s your Halloween costume? Me: Overworked Software Engineer Teen: You said that last year! And that’s not a costume! Me: No, last year I dressed as overworked working mom. Teen: ….

Work from home buddy is helping me break a big technical problem into little technical problems. She recommends focusing on the minimal tasks needed to get something working in production… and checking the current state… of her food bowl.

Some photos from today’s Boise Pride parade.

Parenting teens with ADHD in a nutshell. Teen offered to pick up dinner for everyone from the local grocery store deli. Without being prompted, she found my favorite drink and bought that for me…. But she forgot to actually buy my dinner.

Me: Our router keeps needing a reboot. Do we need to replace it? Husband Thinking: Well it’s a Dell computer I installed when we moved into this house… so it’s about 15 years old…

The cure for imposter syndrome is helping people and answering questions. Me: I don’t know that much about this. Me several paragraph explanation later: Hmm… maybe I do know something. 😄

When a kid needs help at night: Babies: Cry Toddlers: Scream Elementary: Shake you awake Teenagers: Quietly stare at your sleeping form until some innate survival instinct wakes you up positive you are about to be murdered by a serial killer.

Morning hike was more exciting than expected. Guy on dirt bike: Just so you know there’s a fire up a head off the trail. Don’t worry. It’s been called in. Us: How far ahead? Guy: From here? Oh, maybe 200 feet or so….

Having driven on 2 of the 10 most dangerous roads in the world I feel like the actual most dangerous roads in the world aren’t on any news site’s list. Because none of the official ones come close to a road I once drove on in the White Cloud Mountains in Idaho.

Dear AI coding helper, Sometimes a tab is just a tab and not a request to rewrite the line of code.

If you give a programmer a short task they are going to check test coverage. When they check test coverage they will probably notice some tests are missing. When they add the tests they will decide the method could be simpler and refactor it.

Now this is the type of AI feature I can get behind. Me in desperation in the mall parking lot: Hey Siri, do you know where I parked my car??? And she did and pulled up maps with directions to my car!

16: You don’t need to worry about this group doing drugs or alcohol. Me: Are you sure? 16: Mom, we are a group of dedicated cosplayers. We spend every last penny on fabric and supplies. We’re broke. We couldn’t afford it even if we wanted it.

A window salesman rang my doorbell. I politely said I’m not interested and went back inside as he tried to keep selling. Which lead to him super aggressively yelling: “Excuse me!” So if you have a door to door window salesman in Boise know they are destroying your brand when turned down.

The last time tech had a downturn I said to myself “Well at least I won’t see this again in my lifetime.“ Once again establishing that software engineers are really bad at schedule estimates.

About to see @joshjohnsoncomedy.bsky.social ‘s show in Boise! 🎉

Hey Idahoans, In this low-turnout election, your vote could decide whether or not your local schools get funding. In Meridian, Library supporters are running against candidates who tried to abolish their library district. Go to VoteIdaho.gov for info. & to request your absentee ballot. #idpol

Uber support doesn’t have an option for “Uber operates illegally in Chile so my driver was stopped by the police as we were about to load our bags.” But luckily “Other” still got my money refunded. “Thank you” Uber for skipping over this fact and leaving it to the nice officer to explain instead.

First rule of international travel, check the expiration dates on your planned form of payment before arriving at the airport. Thankfully I’m traveling with family where the cost of a loan is only hearing about it for the rest of my life.

I finished my last training hike today. In 2 days I fly to Chile to hike the W Trek in Torres del Paine. 😱 4 months ago I would have thought this was impossible. www.s2mountainadventures.com/expeditions/...

Part of being a parent is getting to mess with your kids. Loud military sounding helicopters fly over head during breakfast. Me to my 16 year old: They finally found me. Sadly at 16 this just gets an eye roll.

WhatsApp needs to up its game. Signal now offers random national security secrets.

I really hate to say it… but the Girl Scout Peanut Butter Patties do not taste as good this year. Maybe my taste is still dulled but this is the first year where I don’t crave more boxes.

Me: No, I don’t need a rescue ride. I can do the last 3 miles. Me: Darn it! It’s almost pitch black. I’ll call for a ride after I walk around this car. Husband: Sitting in that car waiting for me to notice I’m walking around my own car so he can ask if I still want to walk 2 miles in the dark.

My helper

10 mile hike yesterday… a bit snowier than I realized! (For local to Boise folks the trails are still to wet but 8th st works well and doesn’t have snow before the gate.

Because you TOTALLY asked for this… and MapQuest has NOTHING better to do… We’ve granted you exclusive access to a place very dear to our heart: gulfof.mapquest.com Think of it as the Upside Down but more... minimalist. Pls share so we can behold your genius (or judge you, lovingly) 😘

Husband: I don’t think that’s a vase. It’s an ice tea pitcher. Me: I’m a ruby programmer. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck then it is a duck.

We ordered dinner tonight. I added a side of greens to get more vegetables… and then I noticed one option is a side of boba. I’m waiting to see if it shows up in a separate container or on my dinner.

At this point @theonion.com should just start posting reasonable and normal sounding new headlines. Things like “Bipartisan efforts speed aid to fire ravaged California towns.”

Guess whatttttt I'm hiring engineers for my team (accessibility engineering) and one of my immediate peers is also hiring for Primer, our design system! We are looking for earlier-in-career folks as Software Engineer IIs, to best complement and round out our teams. githubinc.jibeapply.com/jobs/3987

Coach: So what would you say if I said you should be eating 30-50g of protein with breakfast. Me That I should get better at eating breakfast. Coach: ….

Milton Friedman is spinning in his grave right now.

1. Programming gives you the joy of hacking. 2. Testing raises confidence in its correctness. 3. Documenting helps users understand it all. In the case of public software, like OSS, to me, a complete programmer commits to the three of them.

I have written a new piece for @mcsweeneys.net EVER HEARD OF IT www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/rea...

If you are looking for a technical leader I recommend reading Tim’s post and having a chat with him. He brings both experience and empathy to the table.

Tech track leaders (senior staff, principal, etc) I highly recommend adding office hour times to your calendar and advertising it such that everyone in your org knows they are for everyone. I started a few weeks ago and have had the best conversations.