The first week or so after moving to Astoria, I met a fellow Kansas alum. He advised me that I’d want to get out of town, away from the weather, sometime in February. So we did, and headed down to Disneyland earlier this week. The weather there wasn’t great, but it was twenty degrees warmer than the northwest Oregon coast. And hey, Disneyland.

I was particularly taken with Cars Land. If you’re planning a trip, and you haven’t watched Cars in awhile (or like me, ever before a month or so ago), refresh your memory before heading out. It’s so neat. I’ve already said this elsewhere, but the overall scale of it, and the little details that tie it all together, are a testament to what Disney’s Imagineers can pull off. It makes me want to get back after the new Star Wars-themed park, Galaxy’s Edge, opens.

Unfortunately, our trip was sandwiched between a couple of losses. First, my dear little buddy Maggie the cat, who’d given us scares but rebounded many times before, finally reached the end of her long line (almost 18 years, which I realized meant she was alive for 9/11). Then, the night after we got back from our trip, our old black lab Joe (you may also have known him as JoJo), collapsed and had trouble getting himself back up. We wound up having him put to sleep yesterday morning. He had a good run, too–he would’ve been 14 this year. And he accomplished way more than most shelter dogs from Kansas would ever dream.

Anyway.

Last month I mentioned some writing I’d been doing. It’s stalled out some, particularly when I got to the point where I had to write about actual code and not theories about code. I’m planning to pull out some pieces for blog posts on Everyday Rails in the coming weeks, so watch for that.