Company Picnic

Insitu holds several company-wide social events each year, and this summer's picnic was held in the community park in Bingen. The event is catered by a local restaurant, and there is an entire section of the park filled with activities for kids: a baby-sitting area (complete with staff), several inflatable bounce-houses, and a face painting station. We opted to keep Anders with us during the party; he was perfectly happy just wandering around the park.

Once he saw the bounce-house, though, it was a different story. Anders had been in one of these just a few weeks earlier at the Trout Lake Fair, so he knew what it was. But this time the house was bigger; it included stairs and a slide inside. And there was a larger flow of older kids cycling through the house. Apparently neither of those were enough of a deterrent, so Anders got in line and made his way into the house. Since he has a generally cautious approach to new experiences, he didn't move very quickly through the house. He was moving, but it was an order of magnitude slower than most of the other kids around him. We were a little concerned that someone might just run over him (not intentionally, of course) when an older boy who was in the house came up to him and started helping him along the path. He held his hand, guided him around turns, and even helped him all the way up the stairs that led to the slide in the middle. It was at this point that Anders decided that he didn't want to go down that slide and began to scream. Corinne stuck her head in and pulled Anders out, and he calmed down when he saw us. We thanked the boy who had helped him along. We got his first name - Nathan - but neglected to find out his last name so that we could relay thanks and appreciation to his parents.

Anders didn't get his face painted, but another member of our party did.

"Cow jumping over the moon."

- Mike, Corinne, Donna Mae, and Anders Rocket

Date: August 18, 2010

Full Time Grandma

Well, we have finally gotten another family member to move to the Gorge! After following the Insitu job postings over the last several years, Donna is now the Executive Assistant for Insitu's VP of Sales and Marketing. It all happened pretty fast, too. She noticed the posting on a Tuesday and submitted her resume; HR responded on Wednesday and scheduled an on-site interview for Thursday. By the middle of the following week, she had her accepted offer in hand and would start just two weeks later.

With a total count now at three, we may have retaken the lead on "largest family representation" at Insitu. We held that same count from 2004 to early 2007 when Leif was still at Insitu as well, but we dropped to two when he left to pursue his artistic dreams. (Of course now we don't represent the almost 10% of the company that we did when we first started.)

Donna is staying in our guest room until she can find a place of her own, which is just fine with us and more than fine for Anders. He now has a full-time, live-in grandma! It actually works out great for us to have another person around the house to help out with Anders.

One of Anders's favorite things to do lately is "make blocks," which is to build something out of his Mega-Bloks. He isn't using modern building practices yet, but three out of four times the construction stays intact - that is, until the "elves" dismantle it overnight and put it back into the bin.

Another recent activity involved bringing out grandma's "jewels" from her jewelry box. Anders really enjoyed going through the box and pulling out each one.

- Mike, Corinne, Grandma Donna and Anders Rocket

12 August 2010

Company Picnic

Insitu recently held its annual employee picnic. One nice perk this year is that they hired photographer Michael Peterson to wander around and take pictures of the event. (They claim that it was not to "take attendance".)

The "newbie" shirt was a gift from our nerd friends Evan and Erin, and we thought it would be appropriate attire for the day. The shirt received quite a few chuckles from many engineers at the picnic.

- Corinne, Mike, and Anders Rocket

Date: September 18, 2009

Bowling for BBBS

Insitu recently participated in a benefit for the local Big Brothers / Big Sisters organization in the Gorge. The company formed a total of 5 teams, including two from software on which Corinne and I played. Since the lane times for our two teams coincided, Anders of course came along with us. He became the official "mascot" of both teams, and even received his own T-shirt onesie.

Pledges were not performance-based; individuals were asked to pledge a fixed amount to a given team, rather than an amount per pin. This was definitely to the benefit of BBBS. At least on our teams, any score that broke 100 was considered good. ;) Through corporate and individual sponsorships from a variety of local businesses, the event raised over $40,000!

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

5 Months Old

Rocket has turned 5 months old!

On the day of his 5-month birthday, all three of us attended Insitu's Holiday Party (rescheduled for February due to December winter weather). Anders was not a big fan of the party. He found the band to be too loud. And he didn't like all the new people admiring him, squeezing his cheeks, and wiggling their fingers in his face. Everyone was so excited to see him but it was all just a bit too much. (And it certainly didn't help that I had to wake him from a nap to leave for the party.)

Our friend Eric captured some nice candid photos from the party.

Insitu did a nice job making sure that there were activities for the kids, but of course he's still too young to appreciate any of that. One fun aspect of the party was that they also had a professional photographer on hand taking portraits.

Ever since Draper's holiday party was rescheduled for February due to a similar weather situation back in 2004, we've been lobbying for the company party to be moved to February every year! There's already enough happening in December.

- Corinne, Mike, and Anders Rocket

Recruiting in Boston

Corinne and I lived in Boston for quite a long time - 12 and 14 years, respectively. Since we've moved West, somehow we've still managed to make it back for a visit more often than we would have thought. This is our fourth trip since we moved in 2004! (2005, 2007, 2008) Despite the frequency, we know so many people in Boston that we still find it difficult to fit in visits with as many people as we would like. This trip was no exception, so if you didn't see us don't be offended! We do the best we can. ;) (Come visit us!)

Our flight went well, but things didn't go as well once we landed - but it had absolutely nothing to do with Rocket. In the process of getting the rental car and trying to make my way back to the terminal to pickup Corinne and Anders, I was reminded of how much of a pain in the *ss it can be to do simple things in Boston. As I said to Corinne when I picked them up, "I've only been in Boston for an hour and I'm already pissed off." Thankfully, the frustration passed quickly and the rest of the trip went smoothly.

We stayed with Becky and Gordon and their daughter Lily, who is now a little over 2 years old. Apparently Lily was very concerned that Anders was going to take her toys and eat her food. By the end of our visit, though, I think she had really warmed up to him. Becky and Gordon are due to have their second in May, so I think having Anders around was a good reminder of what they have to look forward to! Lily also gave us a small taste of what we have to look forward to as well.

We arrived in Boston Thursday evening and spent that night and most of the following day just relaxing around the house. On Friday night we met up with our friend Erin and her daughter Ava at one of their favorite dinner spots, Za in Arlington. Ava had even picked out some of her old toys to give to Anders! After a delicious dinner of interesting pizza and salads, we stopped by their apartment for some more conversation and "Anders-time" before calling it a night. We definitely tend toward the earlier evenings now that Anders is around. We find that no matter what time he goes to bed at night, he's always up bright and early!

Saturday morning, Corinne and Anders were able to join Becky and Lily at a kids music class. I'm not sure Anders really understood what was going on, but it never hurts to expose them to music (and art, books, puzzles, etc.) early - you just never know how much they absorb! Corinne certainly couldn't get that music class song out of her head for weeks, so hopefully some of it stuck with Anders as well. (Trot old Joe, Trot old Joe, You trot better than any horse I know...)

That same day Becky and Gordon hosted a brunch with our old MIT Aero/Astro group. The last time we got together they held a mini- baby shower for us, so it was only fitting that they meet Anders in person.

Every time we get together with this group, there are more little kids running around. But it was pretty interesting to see Anders interacting with some of the older ones. Dennis and Sara's two kids, Abigail and Caroline, were particularly interested in helping to take care of Anders.

Judy had fun entertaining Anders, and he clearly enjoyed it as well.

Watch this video on YouTube
or in the original blog post

Sunday morning we went out to brunch with Amory, Brian, and Mike. This was our first time meeting Amory and Brian's daughter Elizabeth, and she was delightful. She and her dad had just come back a day earlier from an extended trip to his home country of Australia. She (or more accurately, her father) brought one of the "travel toys" to brunch: these stringy, waxy things that you would stick on paper to make patterns. But of course, they can go on the face, too.

After brunch we continued north to our next stop in New Hampshire. We have a long tradition of spending the Superbowl with our friends Serg & Stef, and our trip just happened to coincide with this year's event. The last time we saw them was about two and a half years ago, so we were long overdue for a visit.

Anders and Diego took turns as the center of attention. Diego showed us several of his Christmas and birthday presents, including a LEGO electric train set. We also spent some time playing an online "puzzle" game that he particularly liked called Bloxors. We all had fun playing that one; it was a particularly challenging game for a 4 year old! No visit would be complete without some sort of computer-related activity.

Diego even took the time to read a story to Anders. You really can't get much cuter than that.

Watching the actual game was never high on any of our lists (due to a "mutual lack of interest"), although in a "Patriots" year we were a bit more engaged. We eventually got around to watching this year's Superbowl in the way we usually do - on the DVR, fast-forwarding through most of the game and only playing the commercials at normal speed. Ah, technology.

The recruiting event at MIT that had precipitated the trip started on Tuesday, so on Monday we drove back to Boston to make sure the babysitters had arrived safely. But let me back up a little bit first...

When the idea of the Boston trip first came up we figured we would check with Becky to see if her daycare could take Anders for the two days that we would be busy interviewing. A few days later we were talking to Corinne's mom on the phone about the trip and she asked if my parents were going to drive up from NJ. "Oh no, I don't think so. It's a 4.5 hour drive, and it's only two days." The thought hadn't even occurred to us beforehand, and even when it was mentioned we discarded it out of hand. Not long after that we were telling my parents about our trip when they volunteered to drive up to watch him! I guess grand kids really do change things.

We arrived back in Boston at about the same time that my parents had finished checking-in to a B&B near where we were staying. Hooray, free and enthusiastic babysitters!

On one evening we even discovered a new game to worry Corinne:

Watch this video on YouTube
or in the original blog post

Oh yeah, I almost forgot: there was the Job Fair at MIT that Insitu sent us there for in the first place! The turnout was a bit light, but I guess that is to be expected for a spring job fair. However, I think we made up for that with the quality of the people that we saw. On Wednesday we interviewed 8 or so people that we met on the previous day, with some followup interviews in WA likely.

The Insitu booth even ended up right next to the Infinera booth with our friend Sheila! (No, it wasn't in alphabetical order.) We were a bit hurried to get to our other appointments, but we did manage to spend an hour with her at Anna's Tacqueria to catch up. She'll just have to meet Anders another time.

We were hoping to go to dinner with her and some other friends that we haven't seen in a while, but we were feeling a bit under the weather and decided not to push our luck. At the beginning of the trip we'd had three night of pretty bad sleep. The first two nights were part of the Crazy 24 Hours and First Flight of the Rocket posts (respectively) leading up to our arrival in Boston. And during our first night in Boston, the air mattress on which we slept leaked pretty badly and left us lying on the floor in the middle of the night. Lack of sleep has a way of catching up with you, especially with a baby.

On our final evening in town, we had dinner on campus with Paul and Robin, Corinne's undergraduate adviser and his wife. It would seem that campus life has as much drama as ever.

In our last few hours before heading to the airport, we stopped by Draper Labs to check in on all of Corinne's old colleagues and show off the current state of the Rocket project. They are a fun and talented group, and I know that Corinne misses working with them. She must do good work, too, since some of the "toys" that she designed are still being used there 5+ years later.

To finish, I thought I'd leave you with a list of some of the Pros/Cons of being back in Boston:

• PRO: Christina's Ice Cream. Maple walnut, Black licorice, Peppermint. Nothing beats New England for homemade ice cream!
  
• CON: Snow in the city is ugly and makes the roads 30% narrower.
  
• CON: Everyone on the road should be considered a hazard.
  
• PRO: Public transit. (See above.)
  
• CON: Falling down an escalator in an MBTA station hurts. Unfortunately, this is one that I learned firsthand on this trip. Doh.
  
• PRO: Getting to see our friends again!
  
• CON: Having too many friends and not being able to see them all.

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

Crazy 24 Hours

Here's our story of the craziest 24 hours we've had in quite a while...

It started off fairly mundane. Tuesday morning Anders required three diaper changes in order to get out of the house (thankfully, only a single outfit). We dropped him off with Debbie and spent a normal morning at work.

At around 1pm Corinne and I picked up Anders and started toward Portland. We had agreed to represent Insitu's software department at a special hiring event there on the condition that we could take our little guy with us. The company rented out a large meeting room at a hotel and set up tables staffed by each of the areas of the company that have openings (which is basically all of them). On our way there I-84 was starting to get messy from a combination rain and sleet, so the going was slow and we arrived just in time for the beginning of the event. Initially I had thought that the bad weather might deter people, but I had forgotten about the state of the economy...

HR estimated that over 1,000 people showed up at this Insitu-only job fair! During the first three hours of the four hour event, the Software/Avionics table alone had a line of between 30-50 people waiting to speak to one of us. As a result the event became less one-on-one interviewing and more speed dating. I wish I had taken some pictures, particularly of Corinne talking to potential candidates in the middle of a crowded room, with Anders on her shoulder.

When the event was over, we packed Anders back into the car and started the drive back to the Gorge. The weather had cleared by now, and the roads were relatively quiet. Corinne sat in the back seat with Anders, and for a while both were asleep. But it was when we arrived in Hood River that the real "excitement" of the evening occurred.

Since Anders had been asleep for some time, Corinne decided that she would move to the front passenger seat to keep me company. So when we stopped at the stop sign at the bottom of our exit, Corinne hopped out of the car to change seats. As soon as she closed the back door she heard skidding from behind us and saw another car coming down the exit ramp, and it clearly wasn't going to stop in time. She ran from our car and watched as Anders and I were rear-ended! The impact pushed us a car length or so into the intersection, which thankfully was empty. Once our car stopped moving, Corinne hopped back in the car and we pulled off to the side of the road.

Anders - who had been sleeping in the back seat - awoke and started crying. Our initial concerns, of course, were whether he was okay. After a minute or so, though, he stopped crying and then smiled at Corinne. After I had exchanged information with the other driver and contacted our insurance company, I had to keep my calm so that I could drive us all home.

It all happened so fast. It's only when we think back on it that we realize what could have happened and how much worse it could have been. I mean, Corinne wasn't even in the car! The other vehicle was actively trying to stop, so by the time he hit us he wasn't going terribly fast, and both our bumpers did what they are designed to do. The next day I wasn't even sore, and a quick call to our pediatrician allayed any remaining fears we had about Anders.

But Tuesday night wasn't done yet. Since we were leaving for a trip to Boston the following day, we stayed up late that night to finish packing. At around 1am, in the middle of doing laundry, the power went out. Dang wind storms! So we went to bed. Corinne woke up around 2:30am to lights on all over the house; the power had come back. So she got up, restarted the laundry and then headed back to bed, exhausted.

The car repairs would have to wait until we returned from our trip. The damage doesn't look that bad at first glance, but we suspect that the repairs will be fairly extensive; there is damage to at least one of the side panels, the back door will need to be replaced, and the hitch looks bent as well. The accident was clearly the other drivers' fault; unfortunately, he had let his insurance lapse just a few months earlier. Thank goodness for "uninsured motorist" insurance.

I hope it is a long time before we have another day like that!

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

Back To Work

January 6th was my first day back to work. I can't say that I was very excited to go but it wasn't so bad after all. Since I didn't have to deal with any work politics on that first day it actually was fairly pleasant. I'm only working part time so I just have to make it through three days before I get to enjoy "Anders Days" again.

For childcare, we found a stay-at-home mom, Debbie, to watch Anders. She lives close to work so I can easily walk over at lunch time to nurse Anders. The cutest thing is that Debbie's 3 1/2 year old son Zachary had this Christmas request: "I want a baby for Christmas... a REAL one."

Anders did really well on his first day in "daycare", but he did cry when I handed him over to Debbie. I honestly didn't think he'd care or notice but I guess he does! Good to know Mom is number #1 even if I don't get the most smiles.

When I stopped by at lunch, Zachary was on the floor right next to Anders making up stories about his duck to tell Anders. So adorable! I think Zachary and Anders will both enjoy each other.

In honor of work, here is my management team head shot, taken when I was about 7.5 months pregnant. The photographer cropped it such that you can't tell that my jacket doesn't fit around my then very pregnant belly. (Well, now that you know the secret, you probably can tell!)

- Corinne, Mike, and Anders Rocket

Boeing Buys Insitu

Here is that rarest of things: a post related to work. As many of you have likely already heard, Boeing has agreed to buy our company, Insitu. This is no big surprise to us; we've had a partnership with Boeing for a number of years. We've also known for some time that our investors saw this as a good time for an "equity event".

Our management did a good job of negotiating with Boeing. Some quick details:

• Insitu will be operated as an independent subsidiary with our own management team and board, our own benefits, etc.
• Insitu will remain in its current location in the Gorge.
• We will remain employees of Insitu, not Boeing.

You can read more about the details on Insitu.com. In the short term we don't see anything changing; hopefully we'll be able to say the same thing in 2-3 years. It's been an interesting trip to this point, watching the company grow from an independent company of ~45 people when we started to a 350+ Boeing subsidiary.

- Mike (& Corinne)

P.S. Before you ask: no, we're not millionaires and will not be retiring next week. ;)

A La Friends

Insitu hired a photographer for its Holiday Party.  While most people used the opportunity to have their family portraits taken, we decided we'd rather have a group shot with some of our friends from work.  This picture came out unbelievably well.  Stay tuned for episodes of our own new TV show à la Friends.

More Wetlands Restoration Work

We spent part of another Saturday working with the Columbia Gorge Ecology Institute (CGEI) to restore a wetland sight in Snowden. This time the event was a joint effort between Insitu's Green Committee focused on environmental sustainability and Insitu's newly founded Volunteerism Committee focused on educational and community efforts.

This really is the perfect event for both. Restoring this wetland will improve the watershed that provides water for the communities of White Salmon and Bingen as well as improve wildlife habitat. The CGEI is hoping to establish a nesting site for one of Washington's endangered cranes. The CGEI also has great educational programs that they take into the schools teaching the kids about ecology as part of their science program. These kids will hopefully teach their families what they learn and grow up to be better stewards of the land. Since our last visit to this site, the landowner has begun setting up a conservation trust that will allow the CGEI to use this site for educational purposes (such as overnight field trips for their 6th grade program) while at the same time preserving it from development.

On this visit, we took out a fence, pulled more invasive thistle and blackberry, and planted native grass seed. It was cold and rainy but the work and chili lunch kept us warm.

- Corinne (& Mike)

Wetland Restoration

As co-chairs of Insitu's Green Committee, Corinne and I are on the lookout for ways that Insitu can give back to the community in which we live. This weekend the Columbia Gorge Ecology Institute organized an event specifically for us.

A wetland in nearby Snowden was in need of some restoration. There's a long story behind this particular property, but the short version is that the previous owner was attempting to dry it out so that he could build on it - violating the Critical Areas Ordinance that is designed to protect areas just like this. A neighbor whose property includes part of this wetland went through hell and back trying to stop him, and eventually was able to buy the property and enlisted CGEI to help repair the damage.

A small group from Insitu (smaller than we would have liked) volunteered part of their Saturday to help plant new trees, fill in the gully that was used to drain the area, and pull thistle (2 pickup trucks full!) to help the wetland recover. We hope to return next year to see how it's doing.

- Mike (& Corinne)

The Triumvirate Falls

You won't find too many posts about work on this blog; it's much more fun to pretend that we don't have to work. This post, however, is the exception.

There aren't many opportunities in life to work at the same company as your spouse and brother (in-law), so we were all pretty excited when Corinne, Leif and myself were all hired by Insitu back in 2004. At the time we were hired, between the three of us we comprised almost 10% of the company! (Presently we only make up 1.5% - one of the downsides of growth).

But alas, that triumvirate is coming to an end. For a variety of reasons, Leif has decided to move on from Insitu at the end of this month. He has, however, decided that he likes this area so much that he's not going to move. So in the end, we may end up seeing him more than we did when we worked at the same company. Funny how that goes.

Wish him luck!

- Mike (& Corinne (& Leif))

Ships passing in the night

Why do the holidays always get so crazy? Since Thanksgiving, we've had lots of long hours and two business trips between the two of us. And of course, the end of my trip overlapped just enough with the beginning of hers - 6 hours - that we missed each other at the airport. Ah well.

Corinne was in Orlando for an AIAA conference and committee meeting, while I was sent to Slidell, Louisiana for a flight exercise. Not as an operator, but just to ensure that the results of those late night coding sessions didn't do bad things to the aircraft. :)

Thought you might enjoy a few photos from my trip.


Inside the Winnebago that acted as our ground control station. Pretty sweet setup.


The outside of "the Winnie". We spent some long hours here. (Luckily, nobody slept here)


The plane, ~1 second before capture. (That's the Skyhook it's about to fly into)

- Mike (& Corinne)

Fly me to the moon

You probably all know that both Corinne and I work for The Insitu Group, developers of UAVs. While I won't say too much about the company or what we're currently doing (you can read our website to get the publicly available info), I did want to share a very cool photo take on a recent flight.