Monday, August 20, 2007

Gainfully Employed


Rosetta Inpharmatics


For the past two years I've been working as a contractor because I haven't found a permanent position I wanted. I was hoping my current contract position at Rosetta Inpharmatics would become that. A few weeks ago a position opened up in my group, it was offered to me, and after a couple of weeks of negotiation I accepted that position this morning.

I had another offer in hand for more money elsewhere, but when it looked like it wasn't going to work out at Rosetta I found myself feeling very sad. I was pleasantly surprised when the situation changed and I was able to stay. I love the science at Rosetta and the dedication of the people at Merck to making life better for patients. I'd had my eye on this company for many years but had never seen a suitable position advertised here. It feels like a place I could be happy for a long time.

Carol and I had a couple of long, deep conversations about our priorities and options. One of the many things I love about Carol is how wonderful she is to talk to about important life matters. Thanks, Carol.

The new job has plenty of great benefits including an anachronistic retirement plan (most companies have been doing away with those). But my favorite benefit is that it starts with plenty of annual vacation. Having not had any paid time off in almost two years that will be very welcome. In fact, I think I'll take a day off next week to work on finishing that garage.

Monday, August 13, 2007

I'm a Drywaller!



I've been trying to find a drywall contractor to finish the garage and studio but not having much luck. They are all busy, and the one that came and gave a bid wanted $4300. That was about twice what I was expecting to pay. So Friday I bought a "how to" book and read it that night. Saturday morning I bought drywall and rented the Home Depot flatbed truck and Javier to help me unload it and then I got to work.

I rented a brilliant invention called a "panel lifter" that allows a single person to drywall ceilings and upper walls. I was able to hang the drywall in the entire studio pretty much by myself. Ken and Britt and family fortuitously came by for pizza Saturday evening and Ken helped me with the awkward gable pieces and the first ceiling panel. Carol helped me today with the two 12' panels I used. The most value from the book was in laying out the project for minimum linear feet of joints to tape. I think I did pretty well. For example, I used 12' panels to cover an 11' span of wall with no butted joints.

Hanging is pretty much the easy part. The real test is taping and mudding. You don't really know how well you've done that job until you paint the walls. So we'll see. We're reminding ourselves that it's only a studio so we don't care if it's perfect. But obviously I'd like it to look nice.

I just have the skylight left to do in the studio. I'll probably start taping evenings this week and then tackle hanging the garage next weekend. But tonight the studio looks like a real room and I'm very satisfied with what I accomplished in one weekend with no experience.

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Carol's 20-year Reunion



We spent last weekend in Richland attending various events for Carol's 20-year high school reunion. There was a cocktail party Friday night, a tour of her old school Saturday afternoon, a formal dinner Saturday night and a family picnic Sunday afternoon. We had fun at all the events. Carol has much clearer memories of her classmates than I do! We got to spend time with Carol's best friend (and classmate) Kim, in town from Fort Collins with her husband Dan and kids Rachel, Mark and Natalie.

Carol's old school is nearing the end of a 2-year "renovation" (replacement, really, but without ever closing). The cramped, dark old building she went to school in is the last part to be demolished - a few weeks from now. Good timing! The new building is gorgeous: huge roomy science labs; video projectors in every room; wireless networking throughout; very cool photo, video and stagecraft facilities; and a beautiful 20-foot-wide falcon that a local artist painted on the center of the basketball court in the gym.

Charlotte is saying more words all of a sudden. Now she'll say "mama", "ouch" (in two syllables, like E.T.) and "uh oh". She still has the pterodactyl rendition of "mine".

The girls see me in bike clothes every day when I leave for work and when I return home. Fairly often Carol and the girls meet me for lunch at a park near my office. On Friday, when they got to my office and Audrey saw me in street clothes, she said "Daddy's not wearing his work clothes." At the park on the swings (both girls are recently very fond of swings), Audrey indicated she wanted to go higher. Carol confirmed, "You want to go a little bit faster?" Audrey replied, "I want to go a lotta faster so I can see the whole world." We didn't know she was aware of "the whole world".

Last fall someone asked Audrey what she thought her daddy did all day while he was gone at work. She said, "He builds garages with his friends." Which is a good seque into my latest project: drywalling. I've been having trouble finding a drywaller who can do the garage and studio as soon as I'd like, and the one bid I got was at least double what I'd hoped. So yesterday I started doing it myself. It's going well so far. I'll put up some photos in a separate post.

There's news on the work front. A coworker at my job left a couple of weeks ago so Rosetta (Merck) has offerred me that position (I've been contracting, this would be "permanent"). Unfortunately it doesn't look we'll be able to agree on salary, but we'll see. I love the work and the environment, but I can only sacrifice so much financially for that enjoyment: we've got college and retirement to save for. I have a standing offer for another job with less enjoyment but almost 30% more money than the current Rosetta offer, plus another opportunity I'd like to explore. Stay tuned.

Even if I leave Rosetta, I hope to still finish the Bioinformatics certificate course I started in May. I was pretty unsatisfied with the quality of the course materials (it's all online). But then I got a 4.0 GPA for the first semester so somehow I feel better about it now. There are two more semesters to go.

Thursday, August 2, 2007

Charlotte Speaks!



After much anticipation (at least for me), Charlotte is beginning to speak fairly regularly. A month or so ago she said "doggie". Then a couple of weeks ago "tickle". But the last few nights she has repeated the same words while reading Dora the Explorer stories at bedtime (the stories often ask the reader to repeat words or phrases, in both English and Spanish). Now Charlotte will reliably say "map" and "abre" during her favorite Dora story ("Dora's Backpack"). She gets very excited. She also has her own pterodactyl sound for "mine", which is her favorite thing to "say". Charlotte is very territorial.

Audrey's drawing ability is taking off. She draws very creative and recognizable pictures and then makes up stories about them. The photo album with this post contains a great drawing of two princesses. Carol, artist that she is, provides ample opportunities for artistic expression. She often tapes a big piece of butcher paper to the floor, wall or kitchen island and the girls go to town on it. Carol is trying to remember to take photos of the best artworks the girls produce. They also love to draw on the Magna Doodles.

A group of friends that met mountain climbing in 1999 call themselves Team Mango. All single at the time, most of us are married now and many of us have kids. Erik and Kim invited the gang over for brunch last Sunday. They live in a 1922 brick apartment building that was converted to condos a few years back. Erik is the principal in the Urban Wedge architecture firm. They have executed beautiful renovations in their top-floor unit and it has been featured in a couple of design magazine. Go to the Urban Wedge web site, click on "Projects" and then "Baldwin Condominium Remodel" to see some gorgeous photos of Kim and Erik's home. They also have produced a handsome son named Samuel, now 15 months old. In addition to admiring their son and their home, we had a great time seeing friends.

The excuse for the brunch was to see another Team Mango member, Jeremy, and his wife Jill and 5-month-old daughter Iza. They've been living in Warsaw for the past two years; Jill teaches at the American School there and Jeremy teaches English as a freelancer. They come back to the US each summer. Last summer it was to get married. This summer it was to show off Iza. We got a couple of photos of Iza but forgot to get one of the whole family! Maybe next week before they head back to Poland.

We're headed to Richland tomorrow. It is Carol's 20-year high school reunion and there are events all weekend. I'll come back to work on Monday and Carol and the girls will stay with Carol's parents all week for a little vacation.