infryq

This week at work we reviewed everyone’s goals for fall. A fixed the convex solver for the day-of-week adjustments for the doctor visits signal, but we haven’t figured out how to install it yet with M still away at her internship. One of our cases and deaths providers changed the URL of their dataset without telling us, and made it so that pandas requests got routed to 403:Forbidden, which was annoying. It did give us the chance to start archiving the raw data files though, so, silver linings. I met with a pile of folks from Amazon to start the process of seeing if Redshift will be a good choice for us. I pair programmed with G for a couple hours and together we developed the SQL syntax for some of the queries the API server will need to run on the interim system. Next is figuring out how to make the existing query builder generate that syntax, which could be tricky. I got A started writing a new indicator to track vaccination data published by the CDC. I led the all-hands meeting, which was short since we didn’t have a Big Picture talk scheduled.

In the kitchen this week the best news is that I opened the white grits I ordered from Anson Mills and, wow. The texture is irregular and amazing, creamy but gently toothsome. Fantastic in chili. Doesn’t take as long to cook as they claim, either, though that may be because I prep a container with the grits in it that also contains damp ingredients like diced nectarine and green beans and tomatillos, so it has a chance to hydrate a bit before cooking. Second best is that if you par-cook brown rice using the pasta method on the same day you make soup, you can use the drained-off starchy rice liquid in the soup, and it’s a very good idea indeed.

The new desk is excellent and lets me sit in way more different positions than before. It is commensurately less sturdy though, so my second monitor bobbles when I jog the table. I can live with that though.

I’ve been watching the new season of Wynonna Earp. There’s gore, but it’s largely avoidable and there’s plenty of comic relief. Relationship drama may cause a mild allergic reaction but it looks like a lot of it is going to resolve soon.

P has been doing better on the new meds, but still in it.

Weather hot and humid. We’ve both been spending most of our time in the AC.

Some creature ripped up a bunch of the staples holding the garden fence in place, and had a party with their whole family, so there’s not much left of the garden. The squash has one leader left so is likely to recover, but the beans and kale won’t. The cucumber vines are still small and largely escaped the carnage, some flowers but no fruits yet. Wellp. It was a good run.

Been a bit.

This past week at work was largely about reviewing progress on our summer goals, many of which are behind, but July turned out to be a wretched month for surprises. Food-wise I’ve been leaning on meal bars for snacks more often (GoMacro, coconut chocolate chip), but my weight is stable so it doesn’t seem to be doing any harm. I’ve been reading Braiding Sweetgrass and have some intense thoughts about it I’ll write up later. For now though, just a CN for suic*de; that was a surprise. Still working through Expanse. I went out to the garden while lunch cooked more often than not, to pick beans, water, move the hose around, and keep an eye on the tromboncini. We’ve started doing the bee puzzle in the crossword app as a warmup, and yesterday’s pangram was quite good. The White is fully back in its cabinet and runs acceptably enough for sewing. The sticky spot in the mechanism can cause an alarming vibration at some speeds but nothing life-threatening. We’ve ordered a desk for me to work at so I can move the cabinet back into the sewing room where it belongs.

I’ve got the coming week off, which was slightly overdue as I’ve been pretty exhausted. Looking forward to the rest and altered focus.