The Loot

BEST PRESENT - EVER!

So - it's that time of year. The time of peace, love, and the season of giving. I got very spoiled this year. Hubby and my boo gave me loads of lovely gifts. In no particular order:

• Peek email device (geek gift of the season and it's MINE!)


• Art of Spirited Away


• Art of Howl's Moving Castle


• Howl's Moving Castle & Castle in the Air (the actual books the movie was based on)


• Moon Phase season 1 & 2


• A "world's best mom" cup


• Parallel Computing - Principles and Practice (to help understand my new job)


• Stephen King - Just After Sunset


• Watchmen

and the BEST PRESENT EVER: The above pictured Fruity Oaty Bar lunch box and if you have to ask, well, we can talk later about your lack of pop culture knowledge... ;)

New Adventures

My life as an organizational development analyst is OVAH! My life as a Research Information Specialist is set to begin 5 Jan. I'm really really looking forward to this new opportunity. While the time off will be good, I can't wait to get in there and start some real work. I will continue working with Alan Lessoff on the journal, but wow - working with the Parallel Computing group is going to be fantastic!

Outside of what I think are the cool aspects of the job (the team seems really nice, the work is going to be fascinating) there are other things that make this a great opportunity:

• An office of my own, with an outside window.
• Working from home when appropriate.
• Having a career instead of a job.
  
• Being part of the team, not just an expense.
• Traveling the 85 miles one way with hubby - he already has a parking space!
• Campus life as opposed to corporate cube farm.
• Group is more open to open source technology.
• I can stream soma fm at work, in my office. :)

So, I have two weeks to enjoy before heading back to work. I plan to try and get things done around the house, we'll see how that goes...

One of the greats

We went to church today, in Lombard. Calvary Episcopal Church. Where hubby grew up, was loved, and had a wonderful childhood experience. As opposed to my childhood which was devoid of real spiritual teaching, just mostly religiosity. Not the point. The point is, we went to honor Fr. Donald Castle. Probably the most honest, caring, spiritually pure man I've ever had the privilege to know. God decided he needed Father more than we did and now he's only with us in our heart. Suck.

So, this is my pathetic attempt at saying until we meet again. Thank you Father for everything you did for me, everything you did for my husband, and all the wisdom you gave him. You will never know how much you mean to us.

For more information on this humble, wonderful, funny, etc. et al, man, the Trib published a wonderful obit.