Category Archives: Stuff

Once upon a time I bought a scratch-off map from Newverest. It was like a world map, lottery ticket-style. I took the time to have it mounted on foam board and framed. I joked that anywhere the framing company nicked on the map was somewhere I’d have to travel just to make sure the mapContinue reading “In lieu of travel”

My high school friends nicknamed me MacGyver. I was often found repairing broken cabinet doors with toothpicks, loose towel hangers with paper clips, and piano keyboards with rubber bands. There are only a few home improvement projects that will scare me off. I won’t re-roof a house (though I know the steps and have doneContinue reading “Weekend Projects”

Working remotely at company that has grown from 149 when I was hired to 1191 at the time of this post, has been an amazing journey in optimizing communication. As folks who work almost the entire day in text or zoom meetings, we value face-to-face downtime together where we can socialize. Tone, humor, intent, sarcasm,Continue reading “Virtual Offsites – Worth the Read”

If we ever sit together on zoom one of the things you might notice about my office is the lid of the baby grand right behind me. Poor baby. I’ve started trying to play again more, but between work and childcare or homeschooling responsibilities I’m thinking a keyboard and headphones might be an easier future.Continue reading “Pavane in Progress”

I’m trying to make do with what I have in the house during this quarantine, as well as find ways to do something slow and peaceful. I’ve been eyeing my living room wall the past few days and thinking I could finish this now that the kids don’t have activities for 3 weeks. The livingContinue reading “DIY Dictionary Print”

This year (and past ones) I’ve been putting myself last too often. I thought after buying a house this summer that I’d try to switch that habit. I was limping a lot. Walking excursions in London and Berlin turned into needing to taxi my way back and having trouble walking the next day. I knewContinue reading “Recovering”

I just bought a house and am moving to a new state. So of course, my baby has to go with me. I thought I’d document the occasion as they disassembled the piano and winched it up the hill. Even I got put to work shuffling the boards on the grass once they passed overContinue reading “Moving my baby… grand”

I’ll be at Automattic for 7 years this fall. That’s a long time to be writing correspondence in a remote workplace, on many teams, in many roles. In a past Automattic life, I did live chat for WordPress.com and trained live chat teams to be more efficient and intentional in their word choice. Once someoneContinue reading “Staying Positive”

My Achilles tendinitis has been the most frustrating injury I’ve ever incurred. Everything else has healed or is manageable. This just keeps getting re-injured and needing ice or heat for going on 7 months. I saw the weight adding on and knew I needed to do something about it. I installed MyFitnessPal by Under ArmorContinue reading “Down 15 pounds with only an app”

I didn’t come up with the name. It was something my mom coined when we lived in Germany when I was young. She’d cut up a cucumber and sausage, halve some tomatoes, lay out circle-shaped crackers and round cheese, and call it done. But when she called out “Circle lunch is ready!” it somehow hadContinue reading “Circle Lunch”