Nana Baba Continued

Nana Baba continued racking up quality time with Ernie.

We ran out of books and had to make a trip to the library.

Nana Helen didn't say anything but I could see the wheels turning. Should she open up her own Asian kitchen?

The Belly of the Beast

Today I went to a workshop at one of the Amazon headquarter buildings in Seattle. I took the bus, which I think might be a first for me in the Seattle area?

There were lots of black sheep statues. Who knows.

The workshop was hosted by Weaviate which makes a vector database product. Wikipedia has a beautiful description of what that is which will surely make any person react as if they've been hit by a taser:

"A vector database, vector store or vector search engine is a database that stores and retrieves embeddings of data in vector space. Vector databases typically implement approximate nearest neighbor algorithms so users can search for records semantically similar to a given input, unlike traditional databases which primarily look up records by exact match. Use-cases for vector databases include similarity search, semantic search, multi-modal search, recommendations engines, object detection, and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG)."

The Amazon offices are pretty swanky.

Lunch was provided.

I used Slack at Disney quite extensively. It's funny when you work at such a large and famous company that every screwup becomes front page news.

We spent some more quality time with Nana Baba.

We may have the happiest relationship of all time.

Nana Baba Brewskies

Nana Baba came all the way to Kirkland to visit.

On my recent trip to St. Louis whilst collecting pumpkin beers I didn't have time to go to 4Hands Brewing. Nana Baba were kind enough to stop by and pick up a few cans for me on their way to the airport. This is going to be the best October evarrr!

"4 Hands Brewing Co. is a seasonal limited-release imperial pumpkin stout brewed in St. Louis, Missouri, featuring an ABV of 8.5%. It is brewed with pumpkin, vanilla, and spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger, often created in collaboration with Schnucks Markets."

Cocoa Beetles with Buds

I was worried I’d lost Ernie but he was just blending in with these other big white pumpkins.

Zoe was over so we popped open our very expensive box of Fran's Coraline cocoa beetles.

"Fran's Chocolates released limited-edition "Cocoa Beetles" in August 2024 to celebrate the 15th anniversary of LAIKA Studios' film Coraline. Inspired by the "Cocoa Beetles from Zanzibar" offered by the Other Mother in the movie, the 16-piece box featured hand-decorated dark chocolate beetles filled with a crunchy Sicilian pistachio ganache."

I was impressed with the detail and the "paint job" on the beetles.

3in1 Tree House

I scored this Duplo playset thing for Ern, for free, and set it up one day before he got home from school for the big reveal. He was excited.

Little adventurers aged 3 and up discover countless ways to have fun while exploring the LEGO® DUPLO® 3in1 Tree House (10933) toy. This set is packed with features to discover and rebuilds in 3 different ways for truly creative building.

Play-based learning grows imaginations
First kids build the ultimate adventure play area with 3 levels, a super-long slide and a wobbly bridge to cross. If rain clouds gather, the model reconfigures as a cozy treehouse. The third model consists of 2 tree houses, each with a slide, and a garden where kids help collect the fruit and haul it up to the tree house using the cute pulley.

Toddlers learn through play
This set comes with a diverse range of toy characters including a grandma figure, 4 kids, a bird, cat and a squirrel, so parents can play together with their toddler and teach them about social skills and group play. With a range of creative accessories, little builders explore self-expression as they invent limitless, imaginative stories.

• Fun tree house toy for little learners – Toddlers aged 3+ explore the treetops, develop self-expression and hone their motor skills with the LEGO® DUPLO® 3in1 Tree House (10993)
• Diverse range of characters – Figures include a grandma, 4 kids and 3 animals, plus lots of accessories for teaching self-expression, group-play skills and social role play
• Countless play possibilities – Preschoolers and parents build and rebuild to enjoy 3 different scenes: a 3-story treetop play area with a slide, a cozy tree house and a pretty garden scene
• Packed with accessories – The tree house comes with toy picnic elements, an umbrella, skateboard and helmet, plus a toy wheelbarrow and pumpkin for toddlers to play out fun gardening stories
• Gift for kids who love imagination play – This educational toy makes a creative first LEGO® set or special occasion gift idea for preschoolers aged 3 and up
• Room to play – With the main model measuring over 16.5 in. (43 cm) high, 21 in. (54 cm) wide and 8.5 in. (22 cm) deep, the 3-story tree house toy has lots of space for little fingers to explore
• Digital instructions for creative building – The LEGO® Builder app features a digital version of the building instructions included with this set
• Learning through play – All LEGO® DUPLO® educational toys are expertly designed to engage preschoolers and help develop their social, motor and creative skills
• Quality assured – LEGO® DUPLO® toy playsets satisfy rigorous industry quality standards to ensure they are easy for little fingers to pick up, place and pull apart: it’s been that way since 1969
• A safe experience – LEGO® DUPLO® bricks and pieces are dropped, heated, crushed, twisted and analyzed to make sure they fulfill demanding child safety standards

It makes sense that the Dad of the Century would knock it out the park with the Toy of the Year.

Luckily when I get tired of the bitter pinecone beers these people drink I can reach for an imported from Louisiana, delicious Purple Haze from Abita Brewing.