year in review 2008

As is tradition, my year in review. Delayed this year. Been busy. Hang tight, this'll get long.

January

Weird mid-60s weather in the beginning of January. Then wind advisories. Cool but strange.

Stressed to hell and gone at work, added to by the course I was taking one night a week (which turned into a few nights a week due to group work): Usability Engineering. On the up side, the course was totally worth it.

Hauled out to Palmyra, near Hershey, mid-month to help Shellie renovate the salon for the January BPAL East Coast Will Call. I painted the ceiling. See also: ow. That uses muscles that most people just don't. use. ever. A week and a half later or so, attended the event we were prepping for.

Big changes at the club job: a renovation and new name, which included renovations to my equipment. Serious upgrades and video capabilities. Very cool, though required learning the new system. After being one of the only people that could handle the old system, this was both good and bad.

Placed a third shot in Schmap, an online travel guide (first two were Seattle, this one from New Orleans). Discovered I'd taken over 50 gigs of photos in the year before.

Finally went to an allergist to see what the heck was up. They did the tests: I'm officially allergic to cats. Which is, of course, the first pet I'd consider owning. Then they sent me for a CAT scan. Verdict: long-running sinus infection.

February

Took a last-minute trip to Pittsburgh to see the Chihuly exhibition at the Conservatory, which was very neat. I haven't touched most of the photographs I took there, but I really, truly should. There's some stellar material in there.

On the way there, made an Amazon order in the car on my iPhone. Got en email later that day saying it had shipped. We truly live in the future.

Re-discovered live Rickrolling and song charting and was generally amused.

Cut six inches off my hair.

Again swore that on my next move, I'd move somewhere more moderate in temperature extremes. You see how that went.

Meanwhile, back in class, I was the only female other than the two TAs. Weird.

Went to BPAL East Coast Will Call, as per normal.

Late in the month, my maternal uncle passed away. I dropped everything and went to Minnesota. It was strange, as most funerals are. Not a joyous occasion, but still good to see relatives I hadn't for years.

Came back and was totally slammed at work.

Sinus infection continued unabated, despite antibiotics. Allergist started talking surgery if we couldn't whip it with two other courses of antibiotics.

March

Started prepping early for the move in May by selling some media and scents/b&b stuff I could shed on Amazon Marketplace and through BPAL venues. Oh, and by packing books.

The new antibiotics made me feel atrocious off and on. No fun. Voice started cutting out on me.

Gary Gygax passed away. Sad day. Excellent NY Times obituary here, with a fantastic chart describing virtually anyone exposed to D&D during their lifetime.

Started to get back to reading. Definitely a good thing. Though leads to oddness at the club job: "Reading Canticle for Liebowitz at the club job is surreal: 'We bury you. We are the centuries.' Then shiny happy gay boys make requests." Another choice quote: "Me, I've been lucky enough to be quicksilver; I spatter, but I run back together somehow." - Canticle, p. 233.

New guy at the club job. A CD-based DJ, which struck me as retro. Hilarity.

First draft of the user interface I'd created for our group project went over swimmingly with our main tester. It's nice getting good feedback. Which, I might add, was backed by the professor: was selected to be the only one demo'ed to the class at that stage.

Attended BPAL East Coast Will Call (hereafter referred to as ECWC) as usual.

A pseudo-work-related event happened here (TLT Symposium) and was awesome. Found new and reconnected with old colleagues, some of whom have become friends. Still chat with many of them even though I'm no longer with Penn State. Great keynote, too, by Lawrence Lessig. The hilarity? Lessig as keynote (creator of Creative Commons, which introduced new forms of copyright), yet my photos from last year's Symposium were used in the Symposium program without attribution, which was required by the Creative Commons copyright on my photos. There's irony in there somewhere.

Obama visited Penn State later this month. I only got to see the aftermath.

April

More with the Usability Engineering and some necessary pixel-pushing for our prototype. "Lesson learned from iterative prototyping: do it right the first time, or it's going to drive you crazy for the rest of the project."

ECWC, as per usual.

Tried to charge through my pasta so as not to have to pack it when moving. Got really sick of pasta.

Also, sick again. Sinus infection still/again? Allergist waffled on it. "Me: I'm getting sick a lot this year. What's going on? Doc: Lots of things make you sick. How's your stress level? Me: You're funny, doc." And later: "Antibiotics, round three. Go!" (this was my last chance before talking surgery again)

Finished the virtual tour project at work. "My kingdom for a day without meetings."

With the class group-work: a pivotal member of our group late-dropped due to a medical emergency--and took all his prototypes with him. Nuclear strike. Half our project gone. Yeah.

Walking tour podcast project got approved.

May

Showcased our prototype for IBM. Seemed to go well.

Headed back to Wisconsin in early May to see the first outing of the boats my dad captains. On the way: "Going thru Chicago @ 5:30 on a Fri w/no I-Pass may go on my life list of least brilliant moves." Took some pictures.

Also nailed down a new place about a month early, which made moving way less stressful.

Penn State professionals Tweet Meet occurred. Good stuff. Also started attending the BS breakfasts more regularly: definitely enjoyed that.

Went to an in-house but off-campus conference (for Penn State staff, but between other campuses). Presented between 3 to 5 times, depending on how you count it.

First book finished at the new place ("The Gold"): Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse. Also: "People in this neighborhood say hi, exchange pleasantries, and are genuinely friendly, as far as I can tell. It's so bizarre."

"What self-respecting mall closes at 6 during Memorial Day weekend? Wait, I think I answered my own question." Spent Memorial Day bouncing between events.

Started taking photowalks around my neighborhood.

Launched IntelliResponse on the site at work. Huge project over, thankfully.

June

The cicadas at the new place were super-loud, even louder than on campus. Started being annoyed by the lack of drawers in the new kitchen (had exactly one).

Penn State Web Conference happened in here. Had some interesting chats with the central Director of Web Services from a university in Buffalo.

Hit up ECWC, as usual.

Dax's birthday happened in here. Good times.

Yet another conference later in the month: PACAC. Had my first piece of shoofly pie, despite living in Pennsylvania for years and years. "Won a copy of Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want at the TargetX session." Hung out with colleagues and boss after sessions.

Irritation with new RAM install going sour on my desktop.

July

4th of July fun and games.

Solved the RAM issue with a new batch. "I've cracked my case open and removed drives so often it's almost second nature now. Sad."

Got our work presence in Teen Second Life up and running and linked from the homepage. Whee. Seriously, though, it was fun, mostly. People are just astonished by it, especially older staffers.

Increasing stress at work.

Arts Fest happened mid-July, over a timespan that included my birthday, as it usually does, yearly. Also hit up People's Choice.

July's ECWC.

A few more TweetMeets happened in here somewhere. I also virtually attended EduWeb, via people who were livestreaming sessions and liveblogging. Next best thing to being there. Seriously.

Started MCing a lot more at the club job. Found that I liked it and was good at it. Oh, and the new new guy was much better than the old new guy (the one that used CDs. yeah).

Cut my hair to chin-length, donated my hair. Work colleagues loved the new hairstyle.

Wandered through Jazz Fest in Bellefonte.

Spend a Summer Day open houses started at work. They're bloody exhausting. Plus the "new" application for admission went up midnight of July 31st. Stayed in late testing. "Had door closed, music on, staff assistant running interference ('She'll get back to you!'), & I still got interrupted a zillion times."

August

As if to forcibly greet me with fine August weather, the sunroof of my car got stuck open on the 1st. Pulled into Saturn right before they closed for them to at least get it shut. Which they did. And it was still under warranty, so I got whatever $1,000 thing that needed to be replaced covered.

Another amusing in-house conference-style event.

At the club job, had intermittent irritation with stupid requests. "Realizing that people making requests may object to my academic tone: 'Could you play something awesome?' 'Can you define that, please?'"

Got a new next-door neighbor who became a good friend.

ECWC.

Threat level at work continues to rise. "Everything's an emergency around here. I wish I could say 'today,' but it's been like this since Spend a Summer Day." And later this month: "Manager of our web programmers to me just now: 'I'm getting the hell out of here before anything else happens.' Yep, been that sorta week."

Trip to HersheyPark with Dax and S. Desperately needed fun.

Club job: "All-staff mtg @ club. Owner of half downtown S.C. picked me out of crowd to shake my hand & ask my name after. I was smiling during speech." Which was accurate. He quoted an author I really liked.

Anticipated Hurricane Gustav by keeping tabs on Rev, a friend in New Orleans. Less serious than anticipated.

September

L announced a big move in terms of job and geography. I was happy for him but sad for me.

Started doing some Wikipedia editing on small towns in Denmark that I knew well when I lived there.

A Victorian stone mansion burns down two blocks away: I sleep through it. Colleagues were concerned about me. I totally missed out on the whole thing.

Another ECWC. More TweetMeets.

Work-related Tweets:

• Running comedy of the day when testing a marketing email that looks different on-screen than printed. Quote: 'But who prints their email?'


• Just got funding to do usability testing on the application for admission to Penn State in Philly as well as UP. Now to schedule.


• Alpha-testing our new app for displaying admissions decisions online via MyPennState. How many test cases can we come up with? Ha.


• Had to repeat a sentence I've heard out of my mouth too much this week: "Let me run the numbers and get back to you."


• I ask for a list of 25 email addresses, & get them old-school. Hard copy. Hand written. Wow.


• So nice to be able to close a ticket with "finished that the day before it was announced."


• Sometimes I <3 my boss. "Tell them to go jump in a lake" re: people pestering me about a problem he wanted to handle.


• VP's son says he only got 1 brochure from PSU, but that's okay because we've "got a great website." #EMA08

Near the end of the month, had another in-house conference, this time on our campus (which is what that last one's from). Presented a lot again, though some were just demos of new tools we'd created.

October

Hosted another, bit more famous DJ at the club job.

Finished one conference, on to another. HighEdWeb, this year in Missouri. This year was . . . notable. Twitter was invaluable here for meetups and coordinating the all-important socializing.

Got back okay, but my luggage had been lost between my three flights.

And then headed to Philly for the usability testing. Hit up Penn State Abington (home of a dear colleague, who invited me to dinner with his family when I arrived in town, which was lovely) in the process.

Stayed an extra day or so, and totally enjoyed myself by exploring Philly and getting into Eastern State Penitentiary, which is an awesome, awesome place to shoot pictures. Listened to the City of Industry soundtrack virtually the whole time. "Shot more than 6 gigs of photos in the last 3 days, between 2 cameras & 3 cards. And I'm shooting .jpg, not .raw (which I should)."

"Getting really tired of '______ never happens' happening. It breaks our (new!) systems. A lot."

ECWC was fun as usual.

Halloween was an amusement at the club job, as always. Pictures from Halloween, and pictures from the costumes from my night.

Did definitely miss Dax's usual costume antics, though.

November

Voted. "My 'Peppermints we can believe in: Mints for Obama' tin is getting comments at every meeting I bring it to."

Got another sinus infection. Whee.

Yet another ECWC.

Applied for a job in Chicago that I had no connection to, but was a perfect fit in terms of qualifications for (though not sure if this was October or November). And, after a phone interview in mid-November, they brought me in for the in-person. And by the end of the month, got the job.

While in the area for the interview, stopped in on my dad. Good visit. Also stopped in at the Shedd Aquarium for the heck of it on my way out.

Started doing more photoshoots for my DJing manager and other DJs from our company. "My place is a sty that hasn't been cleaned since the first of my fall trips; just booked a shoot this weekend and one more in December. . ."

Made gløgg for Thanksgiving hosted by a couple Penn State tweetpeeps. "Also: that orange has been officially zested. TO DEATH. Or at least until it was white with rind. Then I ate it." Yes, real gløgg does require orange zest, in my humble opinion.

Everything with the job and a new place and the whole bit just fell into place, as if by magic, though some of it somewhat last-minute.

December

Announced I was leaving at work, prompting these sorts of conversations:

T: "How could you?"
Me: "What do you mean?"
T: "You're really good!"
Me: "I think you may have just answered your own question."
(this said jokingly, of course.)

When I announced it on Twitter, I was completely overwhelmed with messages of congratulations and we'll miss you-type things. Supremely flattering.

Eventually, similarly: "Wow. Just got a round of applause from the huge Admissions college & campus reps meeting when it was announced that I'm leaving. . . . Good applause! The 'you've done a lot for the office, sorry to see you go' type."

Pulled a 12-hour Saturday in order to finish the usability report. Then shared the results of testing, which was way more info than they probably thought they'd get. I hope they use it.

"Usability: 4,000+ words, 11 solid pages. 15 when formatted for each case to begin on a new page. I'm exhausted. And I'm going home. /grump"

The aforementioned "new new DJ" quit the week after I left. Left me with the "hmm"s.

Got to attend the company's holiday party, though, which is always a good time, surprisingly enough. Which again, surprisingly, led to some actually decent shots of me by the bar's manager. They're on Facebook if you're over there.

"This week is an oncoming train, and I seem to be tied to the tracks."

"Never a good sign when you have to decide between finishing work or documenting it for your successor. Only a few days left here."

Got sick, with stupendous timing. Another sinus infection. Fun times.

Last steady ECWC. Sad to be missing them now. No one else is taking photos as exhaustively or as well as I did. ;)

And notes from the very end: "There are so many times when I really want to interrupt people saying they're amazed at my work with: 'but it's what I do.'"

Stupidly lucky to find a subletter for my apartment: first guy I showed it to. Also stupidly lucky that my neighbor-friend decided to come with me for Christmas to see Chicago, hang out at my family Christmas celebration, and to help me move.

The Facebook Class of 2013 debacle occurred. I was finished working by that point, so had a bit of a unique view on the whole thing. Got pinged by a journalist from Inside Higher Ed, and thereafter quoted. Terribly.

Though I was later quoted well about something else: Penn State's use of Twitter, in University Business. Made me feel a bit better.

Packing, packing. Packing burnout. Running out of boxes. Taking down my curtains, which was what was making my place so toasty. Froze without them.

Underestimated my belongings: truck was too small. Ended up making two runs: one with a truck, one with a van. Which was fine, since I needed to bring my neighbor back and wrap some things up anyway. Had help hauling stuff in from an old college friend and his girlfriend, which was immensely helpful.

There was a Christmas. I was mostly distracted with the moving. And then, in the payback for my neighbor-friend's help, played tour guide as much as possible. We hit the Shedd Aquarium, the Art Institute, Yerkes Observatory in Wisconsin, Woodstock (where Groundhog Day was filmed), the Sears Tower, the Chicago Board of Trade, Chinatown (where he was an immense help since he knew some Mandarin), various other street/Loop photo ops, and a lot of restaurants. "I'm resigning myself to feeling like a tourist for the first year or so I live here."

Setting up utilities was a kick. "Unbelievable. Got an automated informational call from my new gas company at 8:08 Christmas morning. Guess computers don't observe holidays."

Comcast technician: "'Are you a designer?' looking at my desktop. 'What's it mean?' indicating the picture of the Experience Music Project in Seattle." It's abstract, I understand. But man.

Landlord so far has been stellar: offered to, and then did, leave a matching couch (fold-out, even) for me to use. And some decor, and a rug, which was appreciated. Perfect in terms of timing, and immensely flexible, even when it came to rent. "I now have an actual couch. It is comfortable. Let's see if I can pry myself out of it."

My uncle got a new TV and passed me his old one. Got that into my place as well as the stuff from the van (at different times) with the help of H.

Last van stuff was brought in on New Year's Day. And that concludes 2008's year in review.

year in review 2007

As is tradition, my year in review. Hang tight, this'll get long. I'm also doing this really quickly, so it's not terribly edited, just to warn you.

January

Started off with a bang since I worked New Year's Eve at the club job. Fell on a Sunday, after all. Took a few photos.

Pink had crept back into my wardrobe by this point. That's notable for some reason, trust me.

At work, we started planning and eventually got permission to do the site redesign, which was desperately needed. Despite that project, I still had days entirely booked with meetings.

It was a month of busy, as per normal, and enjoying squash, and appreciating that I knew how to drive in snow. Also started yoga twice a week rather than once during this semester. Oh, and there was a birthday and associated celebration.

February

Thankful for my warm down coat. Got a ton of songs (that I seriously dislike) from the club job stuck in my head throughout the month. I eventually made a mix CD of those I could tolerate and those I couldn't, hoping to rid them all from my brain-pan. It worked, eventually.

This month at work we got the weirdest inquiry letter I've ever seen, which became a short running joke: short because the source was so bloody uncomfortable. Obviously a mentally disturbed individual reaching out, but it was so uncomfortable you couldn't help but laugh about it. My grandboss brought it to me while I was in the office of another colleague who has since left the office.

Some choice lines we would spout at each other as we passed in the hallways:
"Conditions are not good."
"I will need fed because I eat and am active."
"I have a felony but it should be removed."
"I do not like female/male integration."
Or our summary, which boiled down to: "I need food."

We also had a call asking if the football coach had any sway in admissions decisions, who was very insistent and kept calling back to try different angles. It seemed to be the month for weird at work.

Developments in yoga: starting to love inverted poses, appreciating Pigeon pose.

March

Grandboss left the office. Sad, sad day. This caused a ton of upset at work, and with me in general. He was absolutely the person I most looked forward to seeing every day.

As a horrible up side, I got a promotion possibly/probably in part due to his leaving. His brother (who also works in the office), also a bit of a cut-up, asked if he needed to address me as Assistant Director all the time now. I told him nothing had changed except actually getting recognition of the things I was doing already. :P

Before my grandboss actually left the office but after the position was posted (because I went for a position, it wasn't just an automatic promotion-type-thing), I went into his office and asked him "do you think I'm qualified for this?" and he laughed at me. Made me feel oddly better.

Found one of the houses I lived in when I lived in Denmark via the satellite view of Google Maps. Also found the church Dad was baptized in. Signed up for Twitter. Ha.

April

80 degrees to snow. Inches of it on Easter, which I took pictures of coming down. Weird weather this month.

Moved offices and had incredible trouble with the new office's desk (which was eventually replaced, thankfully). Had to trot out suits even more often due to even more important meetings: scored a subtle coral-pinstriped one that looks pretty cool, if I do say so myself. Meetings and more meetings and training.

Experimented with beet casseroles. Played with a new hairdo: a French twist kind of thing.

Got the scanned version of my aunt's album from L (thank you!) and uploaded it to flickr.

Attended the Teaching and Learning with Technology Symposium, which was generally excellent.

Events at Virginia Tech caused a bunch of conversation at work.

Kept having to take days off at work or lose them, having bumped into the limit of stored vacation days.

My cell phone battery life continued to die, which caused some problems (though much of that was in February).

May

I think this month could best be summed up as OMG WTF BBQ WORK. The last cram of work on the redesign was just overwhelming. I had a ton of codewrangling this month for the redesign and launch of one of our mini-sites: the one for Spend a Summer Day (SASD, as I more commonly refer to it).

The Big Ten Admissions Conference that we hosted happened this month. A few photos here. Quickly thereafter, our Penn State Admissions conference: a few photos of that here.

Listened to a lot of jazz this month as we wrapped up the launch of the redesign, which happened the morning of the second day of the latter conference.

Got new glasses: from pretty severe black secretary glasses to a pair that are a bit more cat eye-shaped, with filigree-type stuff on the edges. I've gotten a ton of compliments on them. :)

Still doing decant circles for the scent community I'm part of this month: I do quit that somewhere along the way, though, and regain the time I dedicated to it, thankfully.

Stormed a lot at the end of this month and the beginning of the next.

June

Penn State Web Conference was excellent this month: some pictures.

There were also a ton of caterpillars out, which of course I took pictures of. Oh, and there was a birthday party in here somewhere.

Started reading a bit more, which was a nice return. Experimented with cooking wilted greens, which ended up really well.

The big event was the visit to Seattle. The conference was incredible there: easily the best I've attended. I'll be looking for it again this coming year, though I don't think it will be in Seattle again (nor could I attend it there again, I don't think, just given how tight budgets are becoming).

Once that was over, hit vacation, staying with college friends in Seattle. Very easy to slip back into old rhythms, though of course things were different: a pair of them had a little girl, for one thing. Played tourist throughout Seattle both alone and with said friends, though easily started eyeing it from the point of view of moving there someday. Both the Ballard and Fremont neighborhoods started looking extremely appealing, though it's far more likely I'd be in the suburbs somewhere, depending on where I got a job, of course. If I eventually moved there, which is still obviously extremely theoretical.

The other big event was the first Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab East Coast Will-Call (this is the scent/perfume community I may have mentioned once or twice) in Hershey. I had also met up with a couple of folks from that community (I say community in the broadest sense of the word, really) in Seattle, who were awesome. But the ECWC at the end of this month was a fantastic event, with people dressing up in the theme and all. These started monthly after this point and I've only missed one so far.

July

Got some awesome shots of the 4th of the July fireworks.

Took a couple days off in July for my birthday and Arts Fest/People's Choice. Good times, though mildly sunburnt. Got a new lens for my DSLR, which I'm still adoring (and using more frequently than the kit lens, I might add).

Got contacted about a company that wanted to use a picture of mine in a documentary.

I think this is the month the replacement for me (writer/editor position) started, and she came on board really quickly. Not a whole lot of training time needed there: she picked things up quickly, and blew through projects quickly, which was awesome and very much needed. The balance of having to manage two people started becoming a bit precarious in here somewhere, though, given that I had my own projects as well.

Concluded the month with another BPAL ECWC, where again, I took some pictures. Oh, and Spend a Summer Day (SASD) started, which were just exhausting.

August

SASD continued. Just no time to do anything in here: too wiped out. Also did a bunch of web application revisions for the College of Arts and Architecture.

Stardust came out, and I went to see it far too many times, which still wasn't enough.

Went to Hersheypark mid-month with a couple friends: definitely an enjoyable time.

Finished the month with yet another awesome ECWC.

September

Kicked off with a great Labor Day eve Sunday night crowd. Got totally backlogged on photo-taking--not all I took that night are up since I've just had more important photos (to me) to crunch and upload than that.

Fall Conference for us, Student Aid, and the Registrar. I took some pictures, but haven't messed with them yet. Had to do double work somewhere in here when revising visit emails. Irritating, but welcome to work. Then again, made headway on various very cool projects as well, so I shouldn't complain.

"Talk Like a Pirate Day" passed again with little fanfare, unfortunately. Though the Libraries did a pirate-themed open house, which was cool.

Finally gave in to the iPhone temptation after the price dropped and my old phone just wouldn't hold a charge.

Ended the month, once again, with a great ECWC, one during which I dragged along S to get our nails done beforehand.

October

Started with Cirque du Soleil with L, which was an excellent performance/experience.

Had a touch of asthma problems this month: a rarity. Resolved in the next month somewhere.

Finally figured out that the noise made during rainstorms right near my head was because the roof hadn't been entirely sealed. They got it fixed, finally.

The HighEdWebDev conference happened this month. Good sessions, good people.

One more very cool ECWC: pirate-themed this time. Dax and S both came with, which was very neat.

Wrapped up with Halloween at the club job, which I only have one shot up of as of yet. Started getting stressed about finishing things before the Hawaii trip in November.

November

Cut my hair back by about seven inches in preparation for being in the water a lot in Hawaii (which didn't really happen, but that's beside the point).

Completely undid a corner of my room so they could fix the water damage while I was away. And by fix, I mean paint over, but whatever.

The Hawaii trip was a mixed bag: mom is doing far worse than I'd thought, but then again, I was in Hawaii. What right did I have to complain? And it was a great experience: I learned to surf, went on a bus tour on one island and a helicopter tour on the other, etc, etc. But seeing mom liked that made me keenly aware of my own health and future. And, of course, concern for her, some of which I'm working on, but we'll see how that plays out.

Still working on the photos from that trip. I'm only about halfway through, but had enough to take with me to show people during the holidays.

When I got back, had to re-do that corner of my room, including taking my bed out of the bathroom, where I'd wedged it for the interim. Changed my comforter cover in the process, from a green to a deep red. I like it; might be changing the sheets and pillow cover to match in the near future.

The rest of November was a scramble to catch up again, pretty much. My maternal uncle was put in the hospital near the end of it, which was another big concern for awhile. Thankfully, all turned out all right. Oh, and yet another ECWC, as per normal.

December

Ended the CSA experience, unfortunately. Still trying to figure out how to replace it.

Divided up my Twitter presences into personal and professional: a necessity after awhile, really. I kind of regret leaving some personal stuff on the supposedly professional version, but not much to be done about it.

Underwent a few all-day meetings of one stripe or another. Again. Major work drama happened this month, drama that I'd rather forget about, frankly. One outcome, though, is the new great staff member leaving--not because of drama. Drama just ensued. There may be major changes on the horizon, and I'm not entirely convinced this is a good thing for me. But it should be an improvement for the office as a whole, and I did volunteer it. We'll see.

Started trying to figure out how to afford a class next semester. Still in that process, to some extent, though I'm signed up and ready to go.

Got a couple pictures from Seattle published in a travel guide. Got a Wii. Left for Wisconsin.

Long visit in the Midwest: saw Dad, B, my paternal uncle (not the one who was in the hospital), and a few friends: H and H, actually. One from my sorority and one from college (yes, those are different. it's complicated). Missed C, though, which I was sad about.

Dad and I sat down and went through my aunt's album to fill in the details, inasmuch as he could remember.

Had a great French-themed Christmas dinner with B's family, as well as our usual Danish-tinged Christmas Eve dinner. I still love fliskesteg. I should really learn how to do it myself.

Did some tech help with Dad's new laptop and GPS unit. Hopefully, got him set up for the marine maps he wanted. (Let me know if you have problems, okay Dad?)

Got some fantastic presents, including new shoes and suits, many of which were very much needed. I felt very much spoiled once I got home and started unloading the car, which was pretty well packed. True, some of it was my own purchases since they've got better shopping out there, but still.

And now, back and trying to catch up again, as well as trying to integrate everything. Space is very much at a premium and I need to get things out of the hallway. To do that, though, I need to make some space. It's a Tetris challenge: I used to be very good at this, back when I worked for the Symphony, but I haven't needed to do so for a decently long time. I'll make it work, though, somehow.

My only regret for December is missing this month's ECWC, but it just couldn't be managed. Can't be two places at once yet, unfortunately. Hopefully they'll invent that soon. Ha.

culture

If I haven't mentioned it (and I haven't), I caught Cirque du Soleil last week when they performed locally. And when I say locally, I mean across-the-street-from-my-office locally.

I'm only now getting a chance to listen to the CD version, which is mostly awesome, though it drops into easy listening territory every once in awhile. The show was similarly good-with-one-caveat: fantastic show, few quibbles there, but the venue really wasn't a good one for them. Seating arrangements were weird, with whole fields of seats left empty, seemingly on purpose, and those seated on the floor itself I hear didn't even get a good view because they were below the stage.

I went with L, and we both thoroughly enjoyed it, despite L forgetting his glasses and me my inhaler when I was having asthma troubles. Just a seasonal deal, kicked in by my allergies: nothing to worry about, but still annoying. Happens every two or three years, but I just up the dosage on my maintenance meds and it usually goes away.

On our way out, a man walking in front of us said to the woman he was walking next to: "There's our culture for the month." L and I were rather aghast.

In a couple weeks I'm heading to a conference in Rochester, and the night I return I'm planning to try to catch Elie Wiesel, hopefully with S. This is all dependent upon getting tickets, which I'll find out early next week. If you're not familiar, I'll quote Wikipedia's first few sentences: Wiesel is a "American-Jewish novelist, political activist, Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor. He is the author of over 40 books, the best known of which is Night, a memoir that describes his experiences during the Holocaust and his imprisonment in several concentration camps."

I enjoy being in a place with access to educational/cultural events.

And with that, I've got to run. I need to finish putting together some CDs and folded paper cases (I love those things) and possibly run to the store before we get on our way to our game tonight, and we need to beat the release of football traffic after the Iowa game around 5:30 (thanks for the heads-up, L).