May 2023 – Wrigley, a work change, and distractions

Stack Overflow Meetup

Last month, Stack Overflow had a meetup in Chicago. While I had great conversations and great meals at Portillo’s and Nando’s, my best memory from this trip was finally getting to Wrigley. Had a beer and a dog, saw a home run, but unfortunately, it was so cold we didn’t make it past the 4th inning. Click for a higher res picture:

The layoff

You may have heard about a recent reduction in staff (58 people, or about 10%). I was not affected, but two of my team members were, including Andy. I can tell you that sometimes being left to regroup and move forward is arguably as painful as being the one let go.

Charlotte Checkers

We went to a couple of hockey games before the Checkers got eliminated from this year’s Calder Cup playoffs. We had a lot of fun, and it’s very close; we’re thinking about getting season tickets next year. Or, at least, a multi-game pack. You can’t really tell it’s us, but we did make the jumbo-tron before the game.

New office decor

While Nicole is in Paris, I decided to adorn my doorway with a vintage, hand-made (but not original) Boston Garden sign. I also created a circular reproduction of Orr’s retired number to put on one side (with a standard Bruins logo on the other side). It’s certainly not exact, since I did this from scratch in Photoshop, but it’ll be good enough for my webcam background.