A stable year. That is okay. This afforded me to focus a lot on myself – what makes me happy, what makes me unhappy, how I parent, how I partner, what I value, what is worth my time. Still lots of work to do here, but I feel I’ve framed things for success or at least know how to 🙃

Family

Mia is now in kindergarten and a real proper person. We’re finding that her happy place is physical activity – indoors that means tumbling or dancing, outdoors that means skiing or biking. Of note, she was the first ever Wizard of the Month (outstanding student) of her kindergarten class. She’s started reading, loves science/chemistry and K-Pop Demon Hunters despite having never watched it.

Mia is now (well, not now, but annually) attending a summer-long daycamp that’s about 30 minutes from our house – lots of driving, but it is effectively daycare and it is really perfect for her needs (outside, us not around, social experience). Her and one other friend were the only five year olds who attended the entire summer so that’s pretty awesome of her. The plan is for her to attend until she’s old enough to be a counselor, which she really wants to be 😊

Bryn is still her ridiculous self. Loves cuddles, stuffies, and can instantly put a smile on your face. Despite almost being four, she feels like a toddler for some reason – such a kid. Like many second children, she is forcing herself to learn alongside her sister and is an absolute whiz with letters, numbers, is spelling above her weight, dabbles in some math although most of the time it is just getting lucky. She’s happy doing just about anything, but has a real sweet tooth and can never get enough biking. Due to some daycare stuff, she is now in pre-k at a different school than Mia (hoping to move her if a spot opens!) and being cared for by “the village” (Grandma or Mom, sometimes Dad) in the afternoons. Never boring!

Rebecca had a good year as far as I can tell or as far as she tells me. She’s still working in risk management at the local hospital, gets up far too early to get her morning strength in, and possibly rode more than I did this year? She strong.

Extended family is all well. Some age-related things going on with the older generation, but nothing life-threatening. One niece went off to college and the other started driving – bonkers.

I’m going to throw one of our cats, Halle, in here. At 11, she’s getting up there in age, and needed her first relatively serious/expensive doctor visit. For the past year she’s had some sort of oozing from her cheek that came and went, which came back negative for anything after biopsy. Yay, but $$! She of course pulled out her stitches after a few days so that was fun… While under, she also had some oral surgery for gun disease and to remove a few problematic teeth. She’s still the same lethargic, sweet lap cat she’s always been, just moving a bit slower.

While I’ve thrown Halle in, Kitt ought to get a mention. He is huge and has really chilled out over the past year or two. Dude absolutely loves touching a human at all times, but dang, so heavy.

Travel

Mia and I started the year in NC to visit the family. Girl loves the beach.

In March I went on my sometimes annual ski trip with “the guys” (my college / lifetime crew) to Big Sky in Montana. Was a great time and some solid snow/slopes.

In April we went back down to NC as a family and got our own beach house on Wrightsville Beach. My sister can’t accommodate all of us and it was nice to do something different and be more on our own for a visit. Felt like a proper vacation because, well, I guess it was.

In early May I had a work trip out to Los Gatos. Per a coworker’s recommendation I rented a poolside cottage on AirBnB. It ended up being way cheaper than a hotel, private, and nestled right in the hills I like to climb via rental bike each morning. This is now the way to travel for work.

Mid-May we shared an AirBnB in the Northeast Kingdom with friends. It was supposed to center around Rebecca doing a bike race with her friend, but friend broke her leg or some-such and the weather wasn’t perfect so Rebecca bailed. Was still a pretty fun time discovering a relatively local, but different place.

Later in May we made another of our seemingly annual trips up to Montreal. We no longer had friends living there, but we did plan the trip with two families from home – we all stayed at the same hotel, which had an OUTDOOR HEATED SWIMMING POOL that we couldn’t extricate the kids from. Will definitely be doing that trip again.

In early June I again had a trip out to work. This time I didn’t rent a bike (I think I was injured or something or had planned a rest block?) and instead hiked a few hours each morning. Again I did an AirBnB, but one closer to the office so I could walk in (about a mile) each morning rather than drive.

Mid-June was our annual trip to the Adirondacks with grandma and grandpa. We stayed at The Hedges for the third (fourth? I’m too lazy to look it up) year in a row. This was much earlier than previous years because we follow the school year now (we previously went during the school year so nobody would be there). I can’t recall how it went – I think the weather was good? Anyway, always such a great, special time.

In July I made my way to Greenville, ME for the annual canoe trip with Chris and Danny. My memory is hazy (hehe), but the idea was we’d be dropped at a lake (actually a pond, but it was huge – I can tell you when a pond becomes a lake if you’re curious), paddle out to any remote island to stay, the next morning paddle back, get driven up the river to paddle down and spend the night again. The weather said no. Upon getting there the wind was so strong we couldn’t leave the parking lot. The next morning we got shuttled up the river, chilled on some mostly flat water, and I think opted to not spend another night in the parking lot and found a hotel instead? Tough trip.

We again did a pair of camping trips. This year we got two new tents (first one had a defect, but did help me learn what I did and didn’t want from a new tent), which was a really smart move – part of my disdain for camping over the years has been wrangling a too large, old tent, but I digress.

The first camping trip was to Ricker State Park with a pair of families. It was pretty great. The second was to Button Bay State Park, which was borderline magical – had a lean-to to store stuff, good weather, an awesome bay for swimming, and a pool! If you go here be sure to be in the lean-to campground because the trailer/camper campground, like at many places is effectively a giant parking lot.

In early August I had a race scheduled just outside of Portland, ME. It was a city we’d always wanted to check out and I’m glad we did. It wasn’t quite as magical as I expected, but we still enjoyed it thoroughly and if the “move back to a city” bug bit me hard, it could be a destination. I did, however, learn of myself that I don’t want to make family vacation weekends bookending a bike race.

In early September I had another work trip, but this time it was team-based, which means we can choose the location. Fortunately, we chose New York City! Still a painfully long day of travel to get there when we’re RIGHT THERE ON THE MAP, but way easier than the west coast. Added bonus? The family decided to meet me there at the tail end, overlapping half a day of work and then spending the weekend based out of Times Square. We traveled around quite a bit via the subway and the kids had a blast. Three nights in the heart of NYC with kids is not for the faint of heart – I might limit it to two next time.

In mid-November I made another trip out to work (yes, I have mileage plans). This time I stayed in a place that was basically in a redwood rainforest. The thinking here was that if I stayed up in the hills I wouldn’t have to travel to the hills or start each morning with a climb. Well, November at elevation in those hills apparently isn’t a great time to ride. 45-degree rain every morning. I ended up only getting out once. Next time I will not be renting a bike for “winter” visits.

Woof, four work trips. That feels like too many. I may end up attending an offsite virtually in the coming year because it really takes a lot out of me/us.

We again hosted a few families and friends for 1-3 night stays. If you ever get that Vermont itch, let us know and we’re happy to accommodate and see you!

Work

A great year with change on paper, but not much in reality. I don’t know the exact details, but I changed managers due to reorgs once or twice this year. Possibly only once, but regardless, I’ve had three in my 18 months at the company. As is typical, my role doesn’t fit into one particular team very well so I tend to get bounced around while continuing to do the same thing.

I still absolutely love the company. The feedback culture is to die for. People tell you when you’re doing well and just about as often, when you’re not. As such, communication is wide open, we’re all very clearly on the same team, and there are never any surprises.

On the actual work front, I spent most of the year building out a new framework with a couple of peers, we finished migrating all our tests to a new language, I built out a lot of developer productivity tooling, and positioned myself as an accessibility and AI leader (more detail available if you’d like), the latter of which is consuming most of my time right now. I’ll probably write about my AI work here or possibly even on the Netflix development blog if warranted!

The highlight of the year actually turned out to be a 60-second thing… I’m not one for speaking in larger groups, but volunteered to present an idea/tool at a recent onsite in front of a few hundred really smart people. Absolutely sweaty moment, but it went off with a hitch and had to be good for me. I’m hoping to do this more – it led to a lot of great new connections as folks followed up afterward. If you’re on the fence about doing something like this, jump.

House

We may have sunk less than five figures into her this year!? Maybe.

We finally had our painting job from last year finished, I touched up all our interior trim (thinking this will be an annual job), had our dishwasher repaired, had a few pipes replaced, had some exterior carpentry done (porch boards and a trim piece), painted the gym (hate it), reglazed our bathtub, hung a bunch of curtains, installed some new lights, and probably biggest of all, had our 100+ year old 120′ red oak removed from the backyard. It was apparently not as unhealthy as expected (had “sonar” done), which hurts, but it was certainly nearing end of life and not worrying about it dropping random limbs right above our heads feels kind of good.

It feels like we did a heck of a lot more because maintaining a place this big and old is an endless job, but that’s all that’s coming to mind.

We did get bids for a deck or porch on the back, but holy cow that might be a few years off. Had someone build us a badass picnic table instead 😂

The coolest house thing of the year is two separate people who used to live here showed up on our doorstep on back to back days. Pretty bizarre, but awesome. Gave them full tours, listened to their memories, shared my “house bio” doc with them, and they recently peppered me with a bunch of their own old photos which I need to sift through (been daddy daycare here – email piling up).

Next year we’re eying fixing/replace garage doors (they don’t work in the cold for some reason – old wood?), taking on driveway paving bids, and maybe finally getting a wood stove put in.

Oh and look! I made our new Street View image! I think I was loading us up for a camp trip.

Reading

Read 20? 24 is the goal I’ve hit for a decade or more. WTF? I blame this on Goodreads royally messing something up. My Reading Challenge page is telling me I read 25 books, but if I look at my list of books and sort by date read, I get 20. I would have read more had the data been right because goals. Alas, there is a reason I read less this year and we’ll get to that.

The year was mostly spent getting through two series, The Extinction Cycle and The Murderbot Diaries. I’ve yet to complete the latter, but soon. I didn’t particularly love anything I read this year, but Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right was probably the most important.

Wellness

A mixed year. I continue to pack on pounds despite my best efforts (eating addiction/coping), but my strength outpaced it. This leads me to believe I need to be more of a solid build than what I previously always thought or comfortably settled at? Added weight does no favors considering how hilly we are here, but it is hard to argue with a better power to weight ratio, no?

I did not get outside nearly as much as I’d like and to be honest, it is kind of a problem. Work keeps me incredibly busy and I’ll often find myself barely standing between the hours of eight and five. I really need to build in more time for myself for both physical and mental health.

Riding went pretty well with the New England Gravel Triple Crown being my primary focus. Virtually, it was a slow year as I found myself upgraded to the bottom of the A-category (unlimited) so I’m often racing against semi-pros that are so far out of my league it is stupid. Podium count and sheer race count (lower population at this level) are both way down.

Running started off well with a real life (not treadmill / cheating) sub-20 5k on a tough local dirt course, but quickly came to a halt when the girls (undiagnosed, but pretty certain) broke one of my ribs, leaving me unable to run for several months. Once I was off the train I really let it go and didn’t pick it back up until the winter. The idea of a marathon has been entering my head again. I doubt my knees or body could handle it, but I’m pretty sure I’m in overall better condition than when I ran them 15+ years ago so I might as well give it a try? Boston has never left my mind and the qualifying times as I’ve aged have only gotten “easier.” Maybe…

I did begin my dunk challenge, which I continue to plan to really put effort into, but I’m pretty sure my knees aren’t up to the challenge. We’ll see this off-season. If anything, it’ll get me doing more strength, which I really need to build a routine for, but I’ve been saying that for 10+ years.

In mental wellness, it was a pretty good year. I’m bad about managing time for myself and continue to work on that. I did see a therapist a few times to help better manage frustration with children and so far that seems to have helped – came away with a few tools. Very lucky to continue to have jobs that provide these services for free.

The data (note: numbers in parenthesis are year over year change, which I honestly don’t care about; unlike the national debt, time is finite so they can’t all always go up):

  • Burned 302,272 calories versus sitting on my butt (+9,000)
  • Rode 5,864 miles (-180). I mostly don’t care about this number anymore because I live in the hills and speeds are low so time is a better measure.
  • Rode 336 hours (+7)
  • Virtually, 15 wins (-15), 16 2nds (-15), 7 3rds (same) in 134 races (-34)
  • Ran 82 miles (+32) with a 17:44 best 5k on treadmill, 19:50 best (only attempt) 5k in real life
  • Hiked 14 hours (-13)
  • Walked 288 miles (+29)
  • 12 hours of weight training (-5)
  • 21 hours of snowboarding (+17)

Video Games

The reason my reading has taken a hit. I got really back into gaming this year, mostly due to the purchase of a Steam Deck from a coworker, which is effectively a PC in my hands. It has been a… game changer… It plays pretty much all games ever, can stream anything more heavyweight from my Xbox, just works, can emulate older systems, and can be picked up and put down with ease thanks to its sleep function. The ultimate dad gaming rig.

I’ve started tracking games on Backloggd, which really helps keep my wandering mind focused. 28 finished!

Favorite of the year? Cult of the Lamb. Could not put it down. Arc Raiders was a close second.

In the coming year I hope to get into more former game of the year type stuff and some legendary retro titles I skipped.

Hobby Development

With AI becoming so much better, it has become infinitely easier to put my ideas to code. It is hugely valuable that I know how to code and develop applications because these tools are literally just tools right now and you need to know how to wield them to be effective. Time has always been my limiting factor as opposed to ability so this has been a boon. I’m currently working on two things:

LE Viewer

I continue to maintain this private app for a single user with Angelman syndrome in Norway.

I didn’t do much in terms of features, but did rewrite the core engine, which has reduced crashes by 75%. He is seemingly happy with it, clocking in ~8 launches per day.

The coolest part of this project is the connection I’ve fostered with this random family halfway across the world – I do hope to meet them some day.

The reason for the app being private is that Apple said it lacks features, WHICH IS THE POINT. It is meant to be a media viewer that the user is locked into with no ability to affect the actual media library.

I do suppose there is some cleanup I can do of the instructions – there are some system hoops to jump through to really lock things down and I hacked them together. That might be enough to get their approval? That way I wouldn’t have to ship a new private version every three months (they expire them) and more users could benefit from the product.

StoryPath

A new project that I may monetize. A choose your own adventure fairy tale app. It is still early, but I have one story created and the girls are loving it.

The going has been pretty slow here because developing a real feature-rich app and consistent AI artwork is not easy. Before I go public I need to add a few more stories and a library/front-end to drive them. Just… need… more… time that I want to spend in front of my computer.

Open to name suggestions too – really just a placeholder for now.

2025 Goal Review

  • ❌ Continue PT and core work routines – hip was healthy, but back could use it. Took this for granted and also couldn’t do a lot with the busted rib.
  • ✅ Keep on loving and kicking ass at work.
  • ✅ Do a little bit more wellness than last year.
  • ✅ Race more in real life.
  • ✅ Get another major (but less so) project done on the house. Wood stove or deck – giving ourselves a pass because we got a ton of small things done.

2026 Goals and Plans

  • Loads more strength work.
  • Ship StoryPath as a fully featured product.
  • Get back to 24 books read.
  • Beat a small collection of games I’ve targeted (Clair Obscur, Hollow Knight, Hades, Blue Prince, Elden Ring, Mario Galaxy, Cyberpunk, maybe one of the bigger Zeldas – I probably have too many large titles here…).
  • Increase percentage of riding outdoors.
  • Take a couple of days off for serious hiking.
  • Take a couple of days off for a serious bike ride.

Noteworthy Posts/Links

I didn’t write much!

Past Years

This was my 20th Year In Review in a row. See 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, and 2006 (I can’t seem to find this).