9/52 - Seeq Week in AZ

This past week was one of Seeq's week-long meetups, when we all travel from our individual work locations across North America to spend a week together. We converged on Fountain Hills, Arizona for team discussions, demos to investors and potential customers, and social activities and events.

One particular discussion topic focused on what we wanted our company and team cultures to be, and what specific things we could do to achieve them. The company has roughly doubled in size over the last 9 months and expects to continue growing, so there's no time like the present.

Software team discussion on providing feedback, with the namesake fountain in the background

We also took the opportunity to celebrate a recent milestone: our first publicly available software release, code name Orion!

Ordinarily spending a March week in Arizona would be a nice change of pace from winter in the Northwest, but this year it was actually warmer in Portland when we left than in Phoenix when we landed. It was definitely more of a respite for our East Coast coworkers, giving them a bit of an escape from the Northeast winter that doesn't want to end.

While we were in Arizona, Anders enjoyed extra time with friends and a week of sleepovers.

By the end of the week, we were all ready to relax at home. Of course, after being gone for a week it took the wood stove a full day to warm the house back up to a "normal" temperature again.

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders

18/52 - Weekend in Boston

Every few years, Corinne changes up her hairstyle a bit. But this time, she did it with a 5 year old in the house.

Anders: Mom, did you get a haircut?
Corinne: Yes. What do you think?
Anders: Well... I think it looks pretty terrible to me.

Then, later that evening:

Mom, you should get a wig that looks like your old hair and wear it forever.

Now, tell us what you really think, Anders?

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May brought our quarterly "Seeq Week" business trip. As an entirely virtual company with employees scattered around North America, we have found it useful get together in the same place every three months or so. This time around, the travel destination was Portsmouth, NH, close to our old stomping grounds in Boston. We could extend our trip on either side to visit with friends. And, we would be bringing Anders and Donna with us! Anders would be with us during the long weekends on either side of the business portion, and Donna would spend time with him while we worked during the week. Great!

Flight to Boston
Our flight to Boston wasn't on Anders's favorite airline, Southwest, but I think Alaska may become his second favorite. Why? Because Alaska also serves snacks.

The east/west airline corridor from PDX typically goes down the Gorge between Mount Adams and Mount Hood, and shortly after we departed we noticed that we were fairly close to Mt Adams. To Anders, I said (jokingly): "Hey Anders, there's Mount Adams! See if you can see our house from here." And you know what? We DID see our house. By the time Corinne got the camera out, it was hard to find again, particularly when zoomed-in. But somehow, she pulled it off. (She couldn't actually find it through the lens, but we got lucky and captured it in the frame anyway.)

Anders enjoys a rare treat on these non-stop cross-country flights: blocks of time with his favorite iPad games.

Weekend in Boston
When we landed in Boston, we only had about 2.5 days there before we had to head north to New Hampshire for our meetings. Of course that's not nearly enough time to see all of the people we wanted to!

Saturday morning, we met with Dennis and (most of) his family in the park and spent a few hours catching up and eating Union Square Donuts.

Our hosts, Becky and Gordon (and Lily and Quinn) made us feel right at home in their place in Somerville, which was actually only a few blocks from our last apartment before moving west. Quinn is roughly Anders's age, and Lily a bit older, and they all fell right in together when we arrived.

As it happened, Corinne, Anders, Becky and Lily were able to see a Red Sox game in Fenway while we were there.

Anders's T-ball experience made him a bit more connected to the game, and Corinne spent some time doing a play-by-play for him. But in the end, it may have been the MBTA subway and bus rides that were the most fun for this country boy.

Saturday night after dinner, the three kids decided to put on a show outside. Quinn and Anders alternated singing songs from Frozen (what else?) while Lily directed the spotlight and gave stage direction from atop the jungle gym.

Gordon became a sort of jungle gym himself during another moment of downtime.

We did manage to sneak in a few other short visits with folks, but pretty soon our weekend was over. Thanks for being great hosts!

MIT
Before heading north on Monday, we took a walking tour through MIT. Unsurprisingly, it mostly looked the same. Some of the staff from our time are even still here! And that was... well, it was a few years ago. We'll leave it at that.

The last time all three of us were on campus was back in 2011.

Flashback

With this year's graduation just around the corner, of course the 'Tute was in the process of putting on its best face. (Hence, the yellow tape around the newly seeded - or possibly painted - grass in Killian Court.) Of course we couldn't leave without a picture of Anders in front of the Great Dome.

Anders has a long time before he will really have any idea of what a place like MIT is. But from the looks of this photo, he's starting to feel the pressure already.

He's actually just shielding his eyes from the sun, but that isn't nearly as interesting.

And with that, we were off to Portsmouth, NH.

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders

9/52 - Arizona Biking, Gorge Police

Last week Corinne and I were in Arizona for our quarterly business meetings. Since Seeq is a virtual company, several times a year we all travel to the same location for a week. Depending on your perspective, traveling for a week every three months is either a perk or a drawback. But it's pretty hard to argue with the sun and warmth of Arizona in February.

Most of our days are packed with meetings and technical discussions, but at least one day has some sort of outdoor group activity planned to get our blood flowing and counteract all of the restaurant food associated with business travel. This trip's event was a mountain bike ride in the McDowell Mountain Regional Park. The whole company embarked on a 15-mile guided bike ride through the Sonoran Desert on a beautiful, clear and breezy morning.

Several hours of riding later, we were all ready to settle back in to our hotel conference rooms for our next meeting. Sort of.

We are grateful to have a good support network in the Gorge of friends and family who are willing to take care of Anders while we are on these trips!

While we were away, Anders's preschool had Hood River police officers come speak to the class. According to one of the other parents who was there, Anders was particularly animated during their visit. Some quotes:

On the taser gun:

Anders: I know what that little yellow gun on your vest does.

Officer: What?

Anders: It shoots out a string with a little hook on the end.

On the unmarked police car:

Anders: HEY, I know why that car doesn't look like a regular police car.

Officer: Why?

Anders (with a raised eyebrow and flash in the eye): It's so the police can be SNEAKY!

Hm... I think it's a good thing that we don't live in Hood River. I fear that our names are now on a 'list'.

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders