So, “Mama” might have been her first word, but “Hi” is her favorite. She says “Hi” to animals, hi to stuffed animals, hi to mommy, hi to daddy, hi to the wall. She just says hi and waves at everything… it is A-FREAKING-DORABLE.

Note the excellent choice of apparel.   Also, this is how cute she is when she has been running a fever and coughing all day.  Imagine a NORMAL day.

For the last 4 years, at several different jobs, I’ve worn a Hawaiian Shirt nearly every Friday to work for “Hawaiian Shirt Friday.” I can count on one hand how many times someone OTHER than myself has worn a Hawaiian shirt, so I’m pretty used to going it alone. After a while it simply becomes something funny/quirky. Everyone has come to expect that I’ll be wearing some Hawaiian shirt or another because that’s what happens on Fridays. When I accidentally miss, I get comments ALL day long about it.

Well, today several of my coworkers wore Hawaiian shirts and brought me donuts that included a note: “Thank you, Mark, for all your work! You’ve made Red Zone¹ Awesome!” I can’t tell you how much that meant. It’s not often that you get thanked in any job, but that is especially true when you are a knowledge worker of any kind. When something is broken you hear about it, but usually the best compliment you get is not hearing anything for a while.

I don’t think I’ll see any more Hawaiian Shirts for a while now, but it is good to know that a few people appreciated work I was paid to do enough to thank me personally and participate in my little quirks.

Here’s to more oversized, ugly shirts

¹Red Zone is our internal tool used to help automate business processes.

We had snow today!  It was incredible to get to play in the most snow I’ve seen in Austin since I moved here.  The kids ran around all day.  We made a little bit of a snowman–but he melted quickly.  Hot chocolate, snow ice cream, muddy paws and daddy working from home… is there a better mid-winter day in Texas than “Snow Day?”

My daughter is supersupersupercute now. This morning she was trying to say “wow” with me.

You have to admit that is just so precious.   And so neat to see how we learn.

Gotta love watching the big game with some guy friends.  Something nice about hanging out and bonding without your spouses.  What’s funny is that even though I don’t care one bit about the game, I still find myself screaming at the screen.   Why is that?  Go Colts!  Ouch that looked like it hurt!   Holy crap!

Anyway… Pizza + Oreos + Dr. Pepper + guys + football = a good friggin time.   Don’t underestimate the value of that.

As a side note… the commercials suck, but are better than last year’s from what I remember.

A friend of mine who owns his own business says “Two can do more than three times what one can do.”

Read it again.   Two people can do more than three times the amount of work that one person can do in the same amount of time. It doesn’t make sense, but it does.

At the beginning of January, I pair programmed at a professional level for the first time in my life.   We got done in a week what would have taken me the whole month.  The code had a full test suite, was solid, had a great API, was relatively clean, and we had complete confidence behind it.

Why were we able to do with two people in a week what would have taken one person 4? I think it is ultimately a biblical principle, applied to business: We spurred one another on.

• Instead of getting distracted by the latest Google search, Facebook update or Blog entry (like I am at the moment), we kept programming.
• Instead of allowing ourselves to make bad coding choices and hope nobody was looking, we called each other on the carpet and said “that feels gross… let’s do it right.”
• Instead of skipping the tests, we took it upon ourselves to write hard tests that would be difficult to make pass, but ultimately got us closer to our goal.  As a result, we had better tests *and* better code.

All that to say, pair programming isn’t something you can do 40 hours a week.   I think it makes whatever hours you’re able to do it MUCH more productive, but it is draining and intense.  You certainly have to limit how much you pair program if you’re an introvert.   Do it 4 days a week in the mornings… getting things rolling… then move on and keep the momentum going on your own in the afternoons.   You’ll see your personal productivity go up then too, and you won’t feel like you’re ready to climb into a hole when you get home because you need some “alone” time.

That’s not a slam against my programming parter (the ever awesome Chris Johnson)–just a quality I noticed in myself.   Having quiet, code-free downtime is important for me to stay sane in the rest of my life, but going without pair-programming would reduce my productivity to levels that are way too low.   There simply has to be a balance.

The power of two is not to be underestimated.  Used properly, it will make a world of difference.

I was doing some math today and it is just weird how our our family is spacing out. Andrea and I are a little over 15 months apart. Timothy and Bethany are nearly 15 months apart. Rachel and the next baby will be right at 15 months apart. What is it about 15 months? Maybe we were meant to have these pairs of kids. The coincidence is humorous to me.