Catching up

I'm sure my loyal readers have been wondering where I've disappeared to, but frankly, I just haven't had much exciting news to report. So here are some random musings on the details of my life:

Since I moved to San Diego, I've been methodically logging all of my bike rides to and from work. For anyone who has never partaken in the bike commute, I highly recommend it as a way to ensure your day gets off on the right foot and also as a way to ensure you get your exercise in. I usually do so once or twice a week, and have managed to amass 1200 miles between April and the end of the year (average speed for the year: 14.55 mph). Adding in a few hundred additional pleasure miles, I'm happy to say that I've biked about one mile for every five miles I've driven. Hopefully 2008 will be even better...

My job continues to go very well. Admittedly, after a few weeks, I started looking for alternative jobs, figuring this one was not a good fit. But since then, I've been working hard and receiving regular praise, and getting much satisfaction from it all. I've also gotten to experience the most job responsibility I've ever had, as management skills are playing as much, if not more, of a role as technical skills. Lots of people wonder what it is that I actually do. Basically, I spend most of my time working on a web application that helps the U.S. Navy manage and plan the modernization of their fleet of subs, ships, and shore sites. After all, the rise of internet and communications technologies are just as important there as they are in civilian life...

I am frequently asked about wedding planning and how all that is going. As many of you know, save-the-dates were sent out last week, and we've moved on to filling out a registry and trying to find hotels for our guests. Nothing really big will probably happen before Tracy's trip to Seattle in April, where she will presumably meet with our caterers, band, and photographer to hash out some details. We've also been working on the invitations on the side, as well as the details of our honeymoon, which will be in Peru...

The other thing I am frequently asked about is Tracy. She's doing very well, enjoying wedding planning and about to enter interview season for her fellowship (which starts in July, 2009 but which has a match day of June, 2008). She is in Portland for an interview as I write this, in fact (where I will be joining her tomorrow evening). At this point, it looks like our top three choices for destination will be Seattle, Portland, and Denver. Unfortunately for me, it looks very likely that San Diego will be low on her list, since the fellowship program is currently going through hard times. After a rough start to my stay here, in which I was literally counting the months till I moved somewhere else, the place has really grown on me, primarily due to the perfect storm of amazing fall and winter weather and increasing happiness in my job. Admittedly, I'm still kind of dreading another hot summer...

That's about all from here. As always, our home is always open to visitors if you want to get away from the winter blues. It really is nice here this time of year.