A Fork in the Road

Back on October 21 I got some big news at work. Merck is closing the Rosetta Inpharmatics site by the end of 2009 as part of a global reorganization. There was a week of shock and confusion, after which we knew that of the 300 people at Rosetta 50 (including myself) would be offered transfers to the Merck Research Labs facility in Boston.

Carol and I were really depressed at first. I often comment on this blog about how content we have been. We love so much about our life in Seattle. And we loved my job situation, which is fulfilling but doesn't demand extra time so I get plenty of time with my family.

Our first reaction to a Boston relocation was "Hell No!" But we've kept an open mind and talked to our families about it and Carol and I have played a lot of "what if" games. We took a trip to Boston last week for four days to check it out. We had researched real estate online and were able to confirm that neighborhoods we identified as affordable for us are indeed places we could envision living. We've talked to our parents about the logistics of the girls seeing their grandparents as much as possible and it seems like that could work.

If I don't accept the transfer, I will be laid off sometime in 2009 with a fairly generous severance package. The actual date I'd be laid off is completely unknown, which makes it very difficult to either look for a job immediately (and give up the severance) or predict what the job market might look like when I do get laid off. The relocation package is very generous. It would be very hard for us to find a way to lose money on the move. The company will even buy our house if we can't sell it in 60 days.

We have until December 15 to decide whether to accept the transfer offer. There are so many things to consider. Here are a few:

Pros:

• The "bird in the hand" aspect. This is not a cost-cutting move on Merck's part – it is an effort to streamline drug research and put my group closer to the scientists we support. They will spend a small fortune to relocate us to Boston and I doubt they would invest that amount only to lay me off within the next 12-18 months. The job market in Seattle is already bad and getting worse. If I were to find a new job here, I'd be the newest employee and first to go if the economy continues to worsen.
• I actually like my job. I've been in the software business for 25 years now. I've burned out a few times. The last few job changes I was happy to find a job I could tolerate, but in this job I came across work I actually love. That is completely because of the science I am surrounded by at work. I have to work 20 more years, and it sure would be nice to do that in a job and field that stimulates me. I'm looking around, but I think I'm very unlikely to find a similar job in Seattle.
• The group I am part of is essentially being promoted en masse. We thought we'd be safe in the reorganization because we are a core part of the strategy. It turns out that's exactly why they want to move us to a central research location. Our group will grow substantially after the move and there is huge opportunity for me to take on more responsibility.
• I'm approaching the end of my Masters degree in Bioinformatics (expected next August). Staying in this group gives me a transition path toward contributing more from a scientific point of view than a software one. Other companies aren't going to hire me for that new skill set because I don't have any real experience in it yet.
• The adventure of living in a different place. Carol and I have had a dream of living in a European city for a couple of years sometime while the girls are growing up. This isn't quite Europe but has the same effect of exposing them to a slightly different culture and environment.
• Along those lines, Boston is very convenient to the rest of the East Coast. We can easily take vacations to Maine and eastern Canada (Montreal, for example), New York, Philadelphia, Washington D.C. etc.

Cons:

• Family. All of our girls' grandparents, aunts, and uncles are here in Seattle. We love the fact that our kids get to see their extended family frequently.
• Carol's support network. Carol has a good network of friends here that help her keep her sanity being a stay-at-home mom.
• Our house. We love it, and we love the garage and studio we built and the back yard we finally assembled this year.
• Seattle! All of you who live here know what we mean. It's such a wonderful place to live.
• All of our friends, of course.
• Even though I think a job in Boston would be secure for a while, no job is secure in the long term any more. We could end up going through another transition in a year or two – and considering moving back to Seattle at our expense.

As you can see, most of the pros have to do with me and my job and the cons involve ripping up some pretty deep roots in Seattle. Is it worth it to do that for a job? In our parents' generation that was routine and unquestioned. These days it seems like a strange thing to even consider. But considering it we are. It occupies our thoughts most of the time, including many midnight hours when we wake up and can't go back to sleep because we're turning it over in our minds. It's one of those very big decisions one has to make in life.

Wish us luck!

Catching Up

It's been more than a month. Lots has happened! Time to catch up with photos and stories.

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Album | Slideshow

Album | Slideshow

October was very pleasant in Seattle. It was dry and relatively warm for the season.

In the middle of October I took a few days off work and we had a long weekend in Richland visiting Carol's parents. That's always relaxing. Audrey and Charlotte had a great time at the playgrounds and in the back yard. Of course, we all enjoyed getting to hang out with Mary and Dennis.

I scheduled the trip to be after my two midterm exams. Unfortunately they both got moved to that weekend. So I spent three of the four days studying and sitting at the library taking exams. At least I did well. After the two courses I'm taking this semester, I only have three courses left. I expect to finish my Masters Degree (in Engineering, specializing in Bioinformatics) at the end of summer semester 2009.

Halloween was a lot of fun. Both girls were dressed as princesses. Charlotte was Sleeping Beauty and Audrey was Ariel in her wedding dress (generously loaned to her by her friend Harper).

Last year Charlotte was still a little too young to appreciate it. Halloween night last year was also quite cold, so Audrey and I went out but only to about seven or eight houses before she wanted to come home. This year it was pretty warm and pleasant out. Both girls had a blast. I did both sides of our block and the next block with them, then Carol drove them to two of her friends' neighborhoods and they trick or treated a little there too. Of course they now have big bags of candy. It takes a while to work through it when we only let them have two pieces a day! Carol and I are helping it to disappear, too.

The next day our friends Scott and Heidi, who have 3-year-old Logan and 6-month-old twin girls Fina and Emma, invited us to join them for a hike. Having been very active in the mountains before we had kids, we're a little embarrassed to say that we have done very little hiking since we had them. But we went along and had a great time. Our kids are old enough now to walk most of the way by themselves, which makes it a lot more fun for us. We both vowed to get out hiking more.

I got spoiled on my bike commute with the dry October. November began with the time change and the arrival of the Fall rains. So all this week I got to ride home in the dark and rain. Don't worry, I have flashing lights and reflectors galore. And as I remind you every year, if you're concerned for my safety you can honor that concern by respecting the safety of every cyclist you encounter.

Pumpkin Hurl & Corn Maze

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Yesterday we had a delightful family outing to a couple of Fall-related events.

First we attended the Pumpkin Hurl. Teams build trebuchets (medieval catapults) and use them to fling pumpkins up to 1/3 mile. The event was previously held in Skagit County but the machines outgrew the location and were threatening to launch the pumpkins off the property. This year they moved to a dairy farm in Snohomish with a range longer than 1/2 mile.

The machines were cool. The largest was a traditional design named "TreBarbaric" that is 78' tall. We got there a couple of hours after the start so we only saw it fire twice. The first time it flung the pumpkin over the crowd and the event village, but it flung the thing so damn far that it didn't matter. It traveled well past the village *and* the parking lot beyond. The second throw we saw was in the range but the pumpkin traveled so fast it was difficult to track it.

There were also several less gargantuan machines of more modern design. "Gourdinator" was built by loggers and used V8 engine blocks for weight - a play on the nickname for trebuchets: engines of war.

I shot some video of the event that you can see on YouTube.

Next we drove a few miles away to the corn maze at Bob's Corn. We'd never been to a corn maze before. There are several associated with the same festival as the Hurl. The mother of the owner was manning the maze entrance and warned us that young kids can have trouble with patience, but we decided to go for it. The girls had a great time. It took us about 35 minutes to get through the first half. We decided to quit while we were ahead and rode the hay cart back to the main farm. There, the girls got to ride tricycles and bikes around a little track. We confirmed that the bike we have for Audrey at home is too big for her, because on a smaller bike she jumped right on and went nuts. Audrey and I raced a bunch of laps and had a blast.

The weather was blustery all day. We got lucky since it only rained when we were in the car. I expected to be home mid-afternoon but we didn't get home until 6. It was a very successful and fun family day. We'll definitely go back to both events next year.

Friday Night Pizza (Sep '08)

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Friday I sneaked out of work a little early and we performed our ritual of pizza at Pegasus followed by a walk on the seawall and beach at Alki. It was drizzly and misty out, but the temperature was in the high 60s and it was comfortable out. The girls took their shoes off to walk in the wet sand and splash in the puddles. We were going straight home, five minutes away, so we didn't care if they got wet and a little cold. We had the beach pretty much to ourselves.

On these evenings at the beach Carol and I always look at each other and express our appreciation for each other and the life we have.

Carol's 40th Birthday

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Carol attained the Big Four-Oh in mid-September. I was not completely mentally present after my crash and didn't think about a big celebration until her birthday was getting really close, but she had her own ideas for a party anyway. We wanted to have a garden party as a first celebration in our new back yard.

Carol invited her entire family to dinner on Saturday evening. Of course, it poured rain. But we had a very pleasant gathering. Carol's niece and nephews are getting old enough that we can all sit around the table and talk and we really enjoyed their company, as well as that of Carol's brothers and parents of course. Audrey and Charlotte love having their cousins over.

The main gift Carol wanted from me was a garden consultation from a local nursery. The gardener came over for 90 minutes Saturday morning and Carol got a lot of the kind of information she needed: how to organize the garden and which types of plants would go in which areas. Looks like we'll have some huckleberries and blueberries as well as vegetables.

We didn't get our vegetable planters built until mid-July but Carol and the girls threw in some seeds for fun. We got a couple of heads of lettuce, some miniature carrots and now we have three or four small zucchinis.

On Friday night of Carol's birthday weekend my parents took the girls overnight and we had a real date. We had a nice dinner and a movie and, the best part of all, no one waking us up in the morning.