2000-what?

It’s 2008 already?!  Man!

So many things happened:

• January: Drilled a well in Nicaragua, visited the Eastman School of Music for Julie’s interview.
• February: Visited Michigan State University and the head of the Music Education department.
• March: Julie got accepted to MSU.  I interviewed for my job in Lansing.
• April: Travelled to Germany and Austria.  I moved to Lansing while Julie stayed in Virginia to finish teaching the school year.
• June: We bought our first house and moved in.
• August: Julie began her first year of graduate school and teaching at MSU. I started going to the Grand Rapids Ruby Users Group.
• September: Julie’s dad passed away.
• October: Lots of trips to Illinois.
• November: Thanksgiving in Illinois.  Geared up for the neighborhood progressive dinner party.  Started refinishing the kitchen door.  Installed a new chandelier in the dining room and a new light in the living room.  I started going to the Lansing Web Design Meetup.
• December: Christmas in Illinois.  New Years in Chicago.

That was one busy year!

This year is shaping up to be no less busier.  On tap so far:

• Trip home to Virginia on MLK weekend (whoah, that’s THIS weekend!)
• Ruby hackfest in Grand Rapids.
• Possibly a trip to Florida in March.
• Ashkenazy in Detroit.
• Some sort of big home improvement project.  Right now, it’s looking like new kitchen tile and counters or a house painting bonanza.

Some other projects that need to be worked on:

• Finish refinishing the kitchen door.
• Watch the Arrested Development DVDs lent to me.
• Clean out the basement and garage.
• Finish reading Virginia: The New Dominion and Frontier Illinois.
• Cobble together a super-wide frame for our sweet panorama poster of Salzburg.

Another recent development is that oil has appeared in our Pontiac Grand Am’s coolant reservoir.  At only 81,000 miles, this doesn’t bode well for continued reliability, and it’s a bummer that the car gets -3mpg.  We’re seriously considering a new car.