Reflections on a busy season

Wow, 11 days since the last blog entry. Fear not, I’m still on the wagon of regular blogging!! Of course, with the holidays, it’s been quite busy, but I do have time for a few brief reflections:
Christmas was a little different this year, especially with Rachel’s brother Ryan in the hospital recovering from his injuries. Check out Rachel's blog for more details on that. But, we still ate good food, opened presents, and enjoyed the company of family. On Christmas Eve evening, I went over to my mom’s house for dinner. My cousins Amy, Louis, and Lauren were here in Indiana for Christmas, which was an absolute joy. We had a nice dinner that consisted of an assortment of homemade hors d'oeuvres, including chicken salad sandwiches, meatballs, and an excellent cheese ball. Then, Amy, Lauren, Louis, and I enjoyed three rousing games of Wits and Wagers, which they loved. I seem to be playing that game a lot these days! Then I returned home to where Rachel and the kids were enjoying the evening with Rachel’s family. I got home just in time to participate in the present opening. Ethan really liked the “Leapster” video game machine that we bought him, and Erin seemed to love the toy pots and pans set that Rachel’s parents gave her. She kept walking around with a pot and spoon in her hands, stirring, giving everyone bites of her imaginary culinary creations. I got a nice new shirt from Rachel and the kids, as well as the board game 1960: The Making of the President (FANTASTIC game). Rachel’s parents bought me a couple of nice board games as well.

On Christmas Day, we headed to my mom’s house for breakfast and more presents. I had assembled Erin’s play kitchen at Mom’s house a few days earlier, so that was the first thing we brought out. She loved it, and seemed to know exactly what to do with the oven/stove/etc. Ethan got a big bucket of Play-Doh tools and accessories, as well as some cool bath toys with a pirate theme.

But, even more than the presents, it was nice to celebrate Christ’s birth with family. The afternoon was spent resting, playing, and preparing for a wonderful Christmas dinner, cooked to perfection by Amy. Despite the fact that Louis beat me in my first game of “1960”, it was a really nice day.

So, now I sit in my office on Friday, December 28th. Only 2 more hours of work at Covance. It’s been a strange day, packing up my cardboard box of pictures and other trinkets. I had a nice farewell lunch at On the Border, and this afternoon I have 2 mass spec injections to set up before I leave. After that, I’ll walk out the door for the last time as a Covance employee. It’s been a very good 7 years, and I will miss many of the people. My only hope is that I accomplished at least some of what God wanted me to do here, both vocationally and spiritually. Onward to a new adventure!

Snowy weekend

It was an interesting weekend. A nice winter storm filled up Saturday, which caused Shane to move up the start time for the Freedom Church Christmas party by about 3 hours so that no one would get stuck in a blizzard on the way home. Fortunately, it wasn’t as severe as it could have been. We ended up getting ~6 inches of snow, with a good bit of freezing rain and sleet mixed in. Needless to say, I did my fair share of shoveling yesterday afternoon. And, strangely enough, they canceled church service on Sunday due to the snow, which I think is the first time I’ve ever seen that happen. It worked out for the best, because Rachel wasn’t feeling well, so I spent most of Sunday taking care of the children and trying to get some housework done. I also got all of our Christmas presents wrapped, which is one of my favorite holiday traditions. Just for fun, I popped in a DVD that I hadn’t watched in a while, The Terminal with Tom Hanks. I had forgotten how much I like this movie - I highly recommend it! Not exactly Christmas fare, but it’s a fantastic story with a great score by John Williams (the band geek in me will never die!!)

I just discovered The Dice Tower has a regular podcast on board gaming, hosted by Tom Vasel and Sam Healey (thanks for the tip, Cody!). It’s full of game reviews and commentary on a variety of board gaming topics. Very enjoyable to listen to. I listened online last night while wrapping presents, but I may have to subscribe to this one on iTunes so I can download it easily to my iPod. Good stuff.

Tick tock tick tock....

The clock continues to wind down at Covance. It’s been a whole month now since I submitted my resignation letter, and I’m pretty much ready to go. I’m actually working on a pretty challenging project right now, and I hope I’m able to get everything wrapped up before I leave on the 28th. The reality of this change in my life hasn’t fully set in yet, and it probably won’t until I walk in the door at Lilly on January 7th. All of the ramifications of a new job are just huge: new environment, new job tasks, and all new people. At Covance, people have seen me at my best and worst. They know the good work that I’ve done, as well as the times when I’ve totally screwed up. But, at a new job, the slate is clean, and I’ll have the opportunity to make a first impression on everyone. A little scary! I just hope that I’m able to learn the new job quickly – I intend to be a sponge and soak up all the information I can get.

We had Jeff and Caitlin over for dinner last night. Jeff’s going to be the worship leader for Freedom Church, a really nice guy with a lot of energy and quite a bit of musical talent. I’ve been sensing that he’s really starting to feel the stress of the church planting process, and Rachel and I thought it would be a good idea to connect with him and give him some encouragement. Jeff’s girlfriend Caitlin goes to Purdue and will be leading our childrens’ ministry team. They’re a great couple, and we really enjoyed talking with them. We all ended up playing Wits and Wagers and Redneck Life and had a great time. It was good to get to know them a little better, and I hope they’ll want to hang out with us again sometime soon.

I just completed my second Math Trade on BoardGameGeek, and I think it was pretty successful. I traded my copy of Saga for Frag:Deadlands. Hopefully it’ll be a good game. I’m really enjoying the math trade concept – paying $5-10 for shipping is much better than laying down $50 for a game!

An uncommon ending to the year

This is shaping up to be one of the strangest holiday seasons that I’ve ever experienced. As of today, I only have 16 working days left at Covance. I still have plenty to do, but it just feels different knowing that by this time next month, I won’t be there anymore. At nearly 7 years, this is by far the longest job I’ve ever had. Starting over somewhere new is exciting, but it’ll take time to get to know the people at my new job, and I’ll inevitably make a few bumbling errors. But, I’m so excited about this new adventure. It does, however, make for a strange December. I’ve never felt so much like things were “winding down” as I do this year.

Then there’s the launch of Freedom Church on January 13, 2008. Rachel and I have been a part of Shane’s launch team for well over a year now, and we’re finally coming upon the start date. Lots of work to be done in the next month, to be sure! Tonight we have our first worship band rehearsal, and it’ll be the first time that I’ll get to set up the sound board and see how things work. My friend Josh, who is a professional sound engineer (and fellow RC car enthusiast), is helping us with our sound equipment, making sure that the used stuff that we have actually works. It looks like we have almost everything that we need – now I just need to get some practice setting it all up!! It’s an unbelievable blessing to have Josh’s help. I just hope that we can get through the first service without me setting anything on fire!

Oh, and Gen Con is only 252 days away. Just thought I’d throw that in there. :-)

Mike Huckabee in '08?

I've started paying a little more attention to the presidential candidates lately, and I had the opportunity to watch a good portion of the Republican debate on CNN last Wednesday while playing a rousing game of Fury of Dracula with Cody, Kalen, Spicer, and Max (aka Spicer Jr.). Primarily based upon my views on the economy, I tend to fall more on the Republican side of the political spectrum, although I would consider myself a moderate overall. At first, I was pretty interested in Ron Paul, mainly because everything he's been saying is so different from anything else I've heard. But, my attention has shifted recently to Mike Huckabee, former governer of Arkansas. I've watched a lot of online video of his interviews and debates, and I'm very impressed with how articulate he is. He has some very intriguing ideas, especially about getting rid of the IRS and implementing the FairTax. As a Christian, I've been very impressed with his responses to questions about his faith (he's apparently a former Baptist minister). But, I think that this is probably what pushed me over the edge into giving him my support: ;-)



I mean, come on, it's CHUCK NORRIS!!