WordPress, better cities, and everything else
Where I'm headed over the next month and a half:
Do our paths overlap? Let's hang out!
Enjoyed India last week, both at rtParty (rtCamp's annual company bash) in Goa and hanging out at the Pune office earlier in the week.
Our good friends Shane and Angela are moving to Boston this summer, where Angela’s been accepted into Harvard’s planning and public policy program. To celebrate the occasion, we took a fun vacation down in sunny San Diego. Highlights included:
Flying down to SF for the day to attend WONTFIX Cabal, an unconference on open source project maintenance. The topics I’m struggling with most right now are: support burden (where to draw the line helping end users), and new feature development (how to decide what gets built). Even though open source has been around a while, it still feels very much like the early days.
Off to Pressnomics in sunny Phoenix for my first time ever. Looking forward to a couple days packed with thoughtful conversations about doing business with WordPress.
Woke up at 4 am. Worked on my presentation for a few hours. Went to Stafford Hills for a 45 minute swim and quick hot tub. Got feedback on my presentation from Joe. Took a call on prospective consulting project. Ate lunch — leftovers from an amazing Indian meal Leah made last night. Kissed my wife and kids goodbye for the week. Hacking at the airport now. Flight to Seattle, and then on to London, later.
See you soon, WP REST API crew!
A bit of travel coming up over the next 11 days:
If our paths intersect, say hello!
On the gear front, I recently picked up a Patagonia Refugio 28L backpack. It passed the test with flying colors on an overnight to SF. One pocket for my laptop, another for clothing, and a third for cables, etc. I can’t underscore how exceedingly awesome it is. Clothing volume-wise, I think it’s going to max out at three night trips unless I pack my reusable undies.
Today was a very special occasion — Ava’s first birthday. To celebrate, we: ate homemade crepes with banana and nutella for breakfast, took a walk to the Bloemenmarkt, dozed peacefully with a two hour nap, played in ball pit and slide at TunFun, and had delicious takeaway Vietnamese from The Taste of Vietnam for dinner.
The flight over wasn’t awful. I can’t think of any highlights from flying nine hours with an almost one year old, but we survived and we’re here.
We had a failed plan (proposed by me) where I would sleep 3-4 hours on Unisom, then take over and Leah would sleep 3-4 hours. I took my pill, then attempted to sleep for a couple of hours while Leah dealt with an often-screaming Ava. She hadn’t taken her morning nap, so she was already a wreck by the time we were on the plane. Not much sleep for me. Then, later, Leah took half of a pill, got an hour and change of downtime while Ava napped in the Ergo, and then had to groggily help me take care of Ava. But, on a positive note, we all slept roughly an hour at the very end of the flight.
Yesterday, we landed at about 9 am, then took the train to our accommodations. It’s a lovely flat in the Jordaan district we found on Airbnb. The owner is the Dutch ambassador to Sudan, and their place is filled with trinkets and pictures of their travels — the perfect place for us.
After a quick two and a half hour nap, we took off for a walk, some lunch, and grocery shopping.
Our lunch was at Pane & Olio, a welcome departure from all of the tourist cafes nearby. Ava had quiche, Leah a prosciutto sandwich, and I a slice of salami pizza. The lunch special, some sort of macaroni dish, looked quite good.
For dinner, I cooked up chicken with sweet potatoes, onions and brussel sprouts. What I love most about Airbnb is that travel accommodation can easily become a home away from home. For us, home-cooked meals are a key ingredient.
Last night wasn’t too bad. We all woke up for a couple of hours around midnight. Ava got to sleep in our bed because we didn’t want her crying to wake up the neighbors. Ava and I woke up around 6:30 am, and Leah slept in until 8 or so.
Leah’s time for the laptop!
Today we: walked to the Van Gogh museum in the morning, came home for naps (me one hour, Leah an hour and a half, and Ava two hours), and went on a canal tour in the afternoon. Dinner was SushiMe — not quite as good as Ichiban ?
Braving a nine hour flight and eight timezones to spend spring break 2015 in Amsterdam. Now that Ava is just about one, we can’t wait to see what it’s like to explore a European city with her. Her sense of curiosity encourages us to see the world in a new light.