Want a fun reminder of the impact of tariffs… take a teenager prom dress shopping!

In other news, I just got promoted from Senior Staff to Principal Software Engineer! 🎉

I’ve been a developer who uses Ruby on Rails for many years… but today I shipped my first change to Ruby on Rails! A small bug fix to prevent an unnecessary query in ActiveRecord when using composite database keys.

(Hugs) for waiting and the news.

Ugh! I’m sorry you are sick. I had it right before Christmas and it took out a lot of my Winter time off. I hope you recover quickly!

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!

I’m glad you are feeling better! Do your sources discount dairy products where the animals have been fed the allergens? Depending on sensitivity that could do it since at least the corn can pass through the milk.

Wow! Beautiful but wrong time little flowers!

Same! I have a planter with petunias growing in it! There are no flowers but it’s green and getting bigger… in December???

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!

White Baking dish full of raw garlic cloves and olive oil

White Baking dish full of brown roasted garlic cloves and olive oil

White plate with olive oil, roasted garlic, and bread

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.

Oh my goodness!!! 😀😀😀 I totally want to do this but I suspect no one around me would get it!

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: ….

A grey cat with a white chest setting on someone’s lap at a wooden desk. The person is wearing a gray hoodie and their arms are reaching out on each side of the cat. You cannot see their face.

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.

A colorful parade float features a white pickup truck decorated with large painted paper faces, bright streamers, and oversized sunflower designs. A giant sun and other artistic elements rise from the truck bed. People dressed in costumes with big sunflower headpieces and rainbow skirts walk alongside, holding connected fabric streamers. Trees and spectators line the street in the background.

A lively Pride parade with participants walking down a sunny street, wearing rainbow-themed clothing, hats, and accessories. Large clusters of rainbow balloons and gold balloons spell out the word “PRIDE.” People wave rainbow flags, smile, and celebrate together, with trees and greenery lining the background. Faces are blurred for privacy.

Note AI was used to blur faces in this thread

A parade float decorated as a wooden Volkswagen-style bus covered in rainbow-colored balloons shaped like flowers. The float is being towed by a black truck with a rainbow pride flag featuring a white Albertsons logo.

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. 😄