Container Ship Queue

Having the Ever Given, a massive container ship, stuck in the Suez Canal and halting all normal activity through the canal is a familiar problem to any technologist that has dealt with queue problems. Look at the real-time vessel map and all the ships stuck waiting. 🚢

They normally pass 50 ships a day through the canal. With so many backed up, it will be a few days before things get back to normal. 😬

These pictures tell the story well.

From today’s Economist Espresso:

Coinbase, America’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, was valued at $68bn ahead of its planned stockmarket listing. Its previous round of fundraising in 2018 put a value of $8bn on the company. It has surged thanks to this year’s bitcoin rally. A successful public listing would be an important moment for the cryptocurrency sector, which regulators have viewed with scepticism.

$60 billion in market value in 3 years. An IPO for Coinbase would be a huge additional validator for the crypto markets.

The Boy Who Would Be King

Tyler and I read The Boy Who Would Be King together tonight. It is a good book, and the story and points are made well. The illustrations are also well done.

From today’s Economist Espresso:

The valuation of Stripe reached $95bn in its latest funding round, the highest of any privately held startup in America, and more than either Facebook or Uber before they went public. The online payments processor raised $600m of new equity from investors including Allianz, AXA, Baillie Gifford, Fidelity and Sequoia Capital.

I think Stripe is a great company and one I would love to invest in. Rather than getting into the public markets, the upside potential here will be locked in even longer to only those limited VC’s and those with access. 🤨

Final day of driving today with the home stretch to Minnesota! 🙌

2:00a Daylight savings time takes an hour.
6:31a Left Liberty, MO.
7:58a Entered Iowa!
11:09a In Minnesota!
12:34p Home! 🏡

Today is the longest segment on our drive back home.

Over an hour driving through extremely dense fog.

5:31a MT Left Moriarty, New Mexico as of on Central Time.
5:55a Wagon Wheel by Old Crow Medicine Show. 🎶
8:55a CT Entered Texas.
9:58a Gas stop at Loves with crazy wind.
11:49a Enter Oklahoma.
4:19p Enter Kansas.
8:10p Drive-thru at Culver’s in Liberty, MO.
8:15p Check-in at Home2 Suites in Liberty.

Long day! One final jaunt tomorrow to home!

I can’t wait to sing Wonderwall with my fellow MN United fans soon! ⚽️🎉

Today we end our Arizona Escapades and start the long trip back home to Minnesota! We have had a great time here. 🤩 445 miles today.

Honda Pilot is packed!

9:48a Left Scottsdale.
Kids doing classes on Google Meet while driving.
1:55p Entered New Mexico.
2:30p Stop for gas in Gallup, NM.
5:00p Dinner at Green Jeans with Amore Neapolitan Pizza and Nitro Fog ice cream. 🍕🍦
6:30p Check into Best Western in Moriarty, NM.

Vecina

For our final dinner in Phoenix we went to Vecina and had an incredible meal. The food was so flavorful and incredibly presented. We shared everything and did a tasting dinner. We started with the SalsaTrio which had an incredible Habanero salsa. We also had the Karaage which tasted amazing. For a salad we had the Shaved Brussel which tasted amazing and was super finely sliced. We also tried the Mesquite Grilled Cauliflower which was packed with flavor and a little kick. For mains we had the Skirt Steak Tacos, Carnitas Empanada, and the Tylauda. We were honestly expecting the portions to be smaller. We simply had too much food but it was all so delicious. Challenged with stomach capacity we still wanted to try the famous Banana Bread which is served warm with a sauce and a peanut butter ganache. Wow. 🤤

Nemesis Club: Evil Robots

For our final day in Arizona we decided add an Escape Room to the agenda. Tammy researched this and she wasn’t planning on doing one, but the Evil Robot room at the Nemesis Club seemed too good to pass up. She was totally right! 🤩

The Nemesis Club was the most well done escape room experience we have ever done. Everything was extremely well done, even the entrance and how they welcomed you was special. The room itself was so intricate and immersive that you really felt like you were there. The electronics were flawless. There were a lot of screens and videos and everything was exceptional. We also loved that the puzzles were not the same run of the mill digits to a lock but were more creative, yet solvable.

We solved the room with 31 seconds to spare! This is a “must do” experience! 👏 Room 34!