The Doctor is in the house!

After many long years of hard work, Kirsten successfully defended her thesis in Information Sciences and Technology today, thereby completing the program and obtaining her PhD. Whoo Hoo! She doesn't walk until next June with the rest of the college, at which time she'll get a funny hat and some colorful stripes to put on her robe. Here she is preparing her presentation.

Sarah would like to add something:

GO MOMMY!!!!

Who knew the inlaws were so talented?

Actual footage taken after spending a day with them at stoudts octoberfest....good thing we had a designated driver! Click the triangle above to view the footage...

The end is near! (I hope..)

Today I gave my official, final resignation to my most recent employer. I'd done this originally last Friday, but they really pushed back hard trying to retain me, offering lots of this and lots of that, asking me to take a couple days to reconsider. Their offers were far more than generous, going what I'd say is above and beyond. As such I agreed to give it a couple of days, but at the end of the day, it's not what I want at this point in my life. I want to simplify my life, take things away from it instead of inserting things into it. Everything they offered would have been a complication multiplier, but are things that we're 'supposed to' want. What I really want, really really want - is to make enough to support my family with a little extra left over, to come home at the end of the day and really come home, and to have some sense of job security and a lot of sense of job satisfaction. Fancy titles and bling can be a big temptation, and I believe I fell for it once. Now the thought of it rather repels me. I'm scheduled to start again with my former employer on 10/22. I won't manage people, won't manage departments, and will make far, far less than I'm making now.

And I couldn't be more excited.

The past 6 months have been incredibly draining on me. But what a beneficial time it's been, looking back on it (and I do SO hope it's over...). Upon leaving the former company, a few individuals voiced their opinion of me that was very, very negative. A result of that was I lost a great deal of self confidence - it's amazing how a few words from a few people can have such a dramatic effect on you. I need to remember that. But during the last months I've come to understand what I'm capable of, what my strengths are, what my desires are, and where I find the most satisfaction. Any self confidence I'd lost is back, plus some. I've been hugely successful in implementing things here that I was told were a lost cause elsewhere, so there's a certain sense of validation and satisfaction as a result of that.

Thanks to all for your support and prayers.

It's Crush Season!

Two posts in one day. It's like Christmas, I know...

This is crush season, that is when grapes start coming in off the vines and i start cluttering the kitchen with fermentation vessels, driving my wife nuts. I'm moving onto more advanced techniques now, such as secondary fermentation. I attended a class on winemaking from grapes that was pretty basic, didn't tell me a whole lot more than i already knew, but did glean some useful nuggets. The last one i've started is a cabernet sauv from napa - i transferred it out of it's primary fermenter last night and initiated something callled malo-lactic fermentation - which is a tricky (or can be) secondary bacterial fermentation that turns malic acid (naturally present in grapes) into lactic acid and a whole bunch of flavor compounds. Basically it makes the wine age better, taste better. We'll see how it goes. I've also got a couple cases of white zin in the final stages of aging, and a chateau-nerf de pape blend that's just started aging. Am really looking forward to seeing how that one turns out. The original red zin i did a couple of years ago is really good now. I'm quite happy with it, even though i did a horrible job on the degassing and it's carbonated (i've since bought a couple of vacuum pumps that take care of this).

"Wine is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy"
-Benjamin Franklin

So ready to close this chapter of my life....

The last year has been horribly disruptive for me. I've wrestled with job choices in which I've probably put too much emphasis on the job itself instead of the reason why we work. The good part of it has been that it's given me no shortage of opportunities to critically examine my life, what i want to do, where i want to be, and take inventory of what my skills are. The conclusion - at this point in my life I don't want to be a director. Managing people is a pain in the rear. I'm tired of traveling. To that end, yesterday I gave my resignation to the company i just joined 4 months ago. I was miserable all the time, and it's just not worth it. My old company has asked me to come back, and I'll do so in a non-managerial role, which is great, and suits where i want to be at this point in my life just fine. The only thing that makes me a wee bit nervous is that when i joined the new company, they asked me to sign a non-compete. It wasn't a condition of the employment, and was sort of a surprise to me. I didn't sign it, they never asked for it and just assumed it was signed. Two legal opinions i've sought said that there's really not much there to be concerned about. Since it wasn't a pre-employment condition and nothing was signed, nor did i verbally agree to it, risks are very low that they'd be able to take any action. However, as each of them pointed out, anyone can sue for anything at any time, and just because they don't have a valid case doesn't mean i don't risk spending lots of money in court proving it. I guess worst case scenario is if they do have a chip on their shoulder and come out swinging, i take a job at walmart for a year until the non-compete runs out.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to things settling down A LOT. I'm looking forward to being at > 50% of Sarah's practices and games, reading her stories (or her reading me stories), and tucking her into bed at night. We've started jogging together, which is nice (my feet are killing me - this never used to happen, they must've changed the shoes, yeah that's it...). I want to simplify my life, and if that means i don't get fancy titles and all that comes along with it, that's just fine with me. Einstein came up with this idea that how you interpret your world depends on (is relative to) where you're viewing it from. Change your viewing location and you gain a new perspective and understanding. The last 4 months have been a good proof of relativity as the result has been I've got a much clearer understanding of what i want to do, want to be, and want out of life - at least at this point in time.

I'm REALLY looking forward to taking a vacation this winter. Somewhere warm where I don't have to do anything but eat and sleep and brush the sand off of my feet. Am currently soliciting recommendations 8-)

Now pray that i don't get sued into oblivion for a contract that doesn't exist...