I had a birthday. That was pretty good. I think of myself as a person with not many friends, but the ones I do have are pretty top notch. Jake came to town, and brought me 21 cans of Heinz Baked Beans from London, for one, and I was given some really lovely cards (including a handmade bird one from Monica) and various odd objects including my first pitcher plant from Dana. I'm really very lucky.

On the flip side, I also did my first work meeting cry. Frustration is frustrating and I mention it in the same vein as Alice's weaknote mentions of crying in that it's kind of normal and just happens sometimes.

While we had visitors, we finally got around to visiting Flora Grubb Gardens which is basically my dream garden and I got a weird coral-looking plant. Adding the general vibe to my "when I retire" list of things to do. It's a combi-nursery and coffee shop and twee as anything and if it wasn't in a particularly shitty area of San Francisco, it would be perma-mobbed.

Japanese class continues to be quite challenging, but I'm powering through. Last week I learned to say where things are in relation to other things and this week I did a really bad job at deconstructing provided answers to derive the probable question asked. Japanese counters can also jump off a cliff.

Some additional random things:

• I got a new quantified-self-type toy. An Oura ring. Giving it a couple of weeks before I declare it naff or not, but it is a bit chunky and generous with its step counts.
• Finally listened to the podcast Alex recorded about PWAs. It's good but I had to laugh that it had to be split into two parts. Very on brand.
• Talking of podcasts, The Dream is pretty thorough if you've ever wondered about MLMs and Dirty John for the more personal con. I love a good scam story. For the more visual experience, the Ted Bundy series on Netflix is unsurprisingly great.

Couple days late, but I'm just now somewhere I can do my weeknotes. The week before I was taken out by a particularly viscious/viscous cold and spent a majority of my time in bed.

This week was our company all-hands and had us all down in Santa Cruz for a couple nights and doing stuff back in SF for the rest.

It was really good fun and actually a really good way to start the working year off. I ate a lot, drank, and stayed up too many nights so I'm very grateful that tomorrow (Monday, MLK) is a day off for us.

I got to meet a lot of my product team face to face for the first time, as well, so that was pretty rad.

I also started Japanese lessons this week. I'm taking Beginning 2 at the Japan Society and needless to say I am RUSTY (I last took a Japanese class in 2004) and the first class was brutal (it was a review class to see what we knew and blimey...). I've got homework for next week and I think I'll be OK. Ikebana classes have started back up so I'll have somewhere to practice.

Things I've learned this week:

• It's important to clarify with your boss who is giving the company roadmap talk multiple times before the scheduled session.
• I'm capable of making a slide deck in 10 minutes and giving an ad-libbed roadmap talk.

One of my more bourgeois week notes this time, but I'm currently sat in the Cathay Pacific first lounge in Hong Kong waiting for our flight home.

We just finished up a really lovely Christmas trip to HK. My first time here and Alex's second. We ate a lot of good food, saw a very big Buddha and did a lot of uphill wandering.

I walked about 50 miles total over the last 7 days.

Happy 2018. See you next year!

I'm in the kitchen at work mourning the loss of my intern. She's not dead or anything, but today is her last day and we're all very sad about this fact.

I also just got back from a trip to London to visit the family for an early Christmas-ish type trip. London is good for sparkly lights, mince pies, fancy dinners and having breakfast at the next table over from George Lucas!

Just before I left, I was gifted a copy of Public Digital's new little bright yellow magazine, Signals (thank you, Ben!). Still working through it. It's a collection of short pieces of writing by various people about working the public sector.

On Wednesday, I had possibly the most wholesome holiday party, ever - a semi-competitive flower-arranging game and sake with my ikebana class. I forgot to take a picture, but needless to say everyone was a winner.

This last two weeks felt long. I don't remember why I missed week notes last week, but I am betting it was something to do with being asleep.

Notable events:

• Chrome Dev Summit was both good (PWA book!) and bad (yay, sexism, again!). It was a particularly excellent week for seeing people I like a lot because they all had to come to the event for work, though. We forced many of them to visit our home for brunch.
• California caught fire, again. It's really extremely sad, so I don't even think I should be allowed to complain that the ashes of people's lives, homes and businesses raining down on San Francisco were a reason I had to stay inside for 5 days straight.
• Our friends from England working on Poplar came to visit and we had a really fun and interesting evening talking about their work over at Stamen HQ.
• Two thirds of Poplar went on a jaunt with Alex and I to Stinson beach.
• It's Thanksgiving and this year I am thankful for not having to go anywhere or see anyone and being allowed to play Fallout 76.