Category: General News

Nov. 17: Andrew is taking an extra-long nap this afternoon, which is good, because I think the little guy’s cold has gone from mild to more severe.  He woke up crying several times with a bad cough.  I wish there was something I could do for him.
Bryan’s out of town this weekend at a conference for work, so Andrew and I have been spending our time enjoying some productive time at home.  Michael and Lisa came over this morning, and while Michael watched Andrew, Lisa and I did a big shopping trip for all the items we’ll need for our Thanksgiving dinner.

We’re having about 15 people over to Terry’s house on Thursday.  Lisa is making spanakopita, and I’m going to work on the other elements with the help of Michael and Joe on Wednesday.  This year we’ve ordered a smoked turkey from Texas.  Something new.  Other than that, the menu is pretty traditional.  It’s possible that both our grandmas will join us for the day.

Last weekend, Bryan, Andrew, and I drove down to Janesville to see Mum (my mom’s mom) for lunch.  Mum moved to a new assisted living home last month, so we got to see her nice new place and enjoy a meal together.  Pictures of Mum’s new digs are in the gallery.  Last weekend, we also planted most of the bulbs that my good friends gave me when Mom died.  I’m hoping for a big display of tulips and daffodils next spring.

On Monday last week, we went to a baby celebration for one of my old co-workers who is expecting a baby in January.  Clara, Alex, and Andrew had fun playing together, and it was fun to be one of the mamas-with-bellies at the event.

I’ve been spending some of my evenings typing up Mom’s recipes for a cook-book that I’m hoping to have ready by Christmas.  I’ve also been working on pulling together Christmas cards from the Babler family and from myself.  And I have this silly idea that we should finish up with sanding, priming, and painting the bathroom at some point.  So these days, I feel like my evenings have been full but productive.  I’ve been working on a sweater for Andrew, and it’s slowly coming along.  I think I have a finished-by-Christmas goal for that one too.

That’s the news for now!  Happy Thanksgiving preparations:)

Nov. 6: I just got a phone message from my friend Jessica, and she told me that her sweet baby girl was born this morning.  Celia Corrina-Jane Klabough was born
today at 10:45 AM.  Celia was 8 lbs 8
oz, 20 inches long and has a full head of black hair. What wonderful news!  Eli is a big brother:)

Oct. 28: I just got back home from a wonderful weekend in Austin with some of my good friends from graduate school.  Kathy, Jennifer, Lara, Grace, and I met in Austin (approximately equidistant from our homes in Washington DC, California, and Wisconsin) on Friday.  We ate lots of good food, enjoyed exploring some of the great places that Austin has to offer, and generally relaxed and enjoyed spending time with good friends.  Pictures of our weekend are in the gallery.  Many thanks to Bryan for encouraging me to go and for taking such good care of Andrew while I was off having fun!

We started our weekend on Friday.  The five of us met at the airport and headed for a late lunch at Cheuy’s on Barton Springs Road.  From there, we drove around Zilker Park and had a really nice walk around the Zilker Botanical Gardens.  I especially liked the oriental garden section with all the beautiful water features.  We headed up to our hotel up at the arboretum where we found ourselves all changed (mostly unintentionally) into black shirts and jeans before heading out to dinner.  Our plan was to eat at Guero’s Taco Bar on South Congress, but there was a two-hour wait (it was the weekend of the Nebraska/Texas football game).  After realizing that none of us were really all that hungry, we decided to have ice cream instead of dinner.  MMMmmm Amy’s ice cream!  We all went to the flagship Whole Foods Market in downtown Austin where we were amazed and overwhelmed by the array of products and food they had to offer.  Fortified with water and snacks, we drove up to Highland Mall where we waited for a long time to scare ourselves silly at the House of Torment.  Kathy was the bravest amongst us.  She went first, then me, then Jennifer, Grace, and Lara.  I was scared silly most of the way.  In fact, there’s no way I would have made it through had I not had Kathy and Jennifer to hang on to.  It was the first haunted house I’ve been through in a loooong time, and it was a lot of fun.  My throat hurt from screaming:)

On Saturday, we started the day by going out to breakfast at Magnolia Cafe on Lake Austin Blvd.  Then we spent several hours shopping near the Whole Foods store, exploring a book store, some artsy boutiques, and found some good tunes to buy at Waterloo Records.  Needing a break from shopping, we drove back down to Zilker Park and got in our swim suits for a dip in Barton Springs Pool, a spring-fed, natural-bottom, chilly pool.  Kathy, Jennifer, and Lara swam the whole length, and afterwards, we warmed up in the sunny afternoon and had a picnic under the trees.
We spent the late afternoon exploring 6th Street including the historic Driskill Hotel. We all found some earrings to buy at one of the cool shops downtown.  While we had plans to watch the bats emerge from beneath the Congress Street Bridge, we heard that they had mostly already migrated down to Mexico.  So instead we headed out of town to the Salt Lick BBQ.  Our drive through hill country with the sun setting (and then on the way back with a nearly-full moon) was just lovely.  And the dinner was amazing!
After getting a bit lost, we found our way to Mount Barnell, where we could see the river and some of the lights of Austin.  Back at the hotel, we stayed up late talking and looking at Bride’s magazines for Jennifer.

Lara and Jennifer had to leave early on Sunday, so we took them to the airport at 8, then went to breakfast (pumpkin pancakes…mmm) and window shopped before heading back to the airport ourselves.  So that’s our weekend in a nutshell.  It was so fun to fly to a fun city and see good friends.  I really had a great time.  And then it was so lovely to come home to my two boys. Andrew told me that “I’m a little bit sad.  And a little bit happy.”  And now, I’m off to bed!

Oct. 23: It’s a chilly, sunny, hopefully gorgeous October morning.  Bryan’s been in Kansas for the last four days.  He’s returning home this afternoon.  Andrew and I have had a great time together.  I pulled out the wooden train set from my parent’s basement, and Andrew had an absolute blast playing with it last night and this morning.  Made it very difficult to leave the house in fact.
These days when I pull Andrew out of his crib, he says, “In the big bed.”  So we get back in my bed and cuddle under the covers for a few minutes.  Then Andrew plays with my alarm clock/CD player.  It has the James Gallway CD in it, and Andrew likes saying, “I hear a flute.  I hear a vliolin.”
Terry came over for supper last night, and Andrew dressed up in his lion Halloween costume for him.  Andrew was having a good time putting on the mane and roaring.  Terry would grab the tail, and Andrew would quickly get away.  Such a cutie.
My sweet husband is bringing our laptop home with him, so I’ll look forward to getting re-plugged in in the evenings.  I did some knitting while watching Anne of Green Gables last night, and I found I didn’t miss my late night computer time at all.
Dandy’s funeral was yesterday.  Sounds like it was a very full day, but the times I spoke to Bryan, he sounded up-beat.  I think they did a good job of sending Dandy off.
That’s the update for now!

Oct. 7: I’m excited to share the news that Michael and Lisa have decided to get engaged.  Lisa just posted the news on her blog.  Michael stopped by to share the news earlier this week.  He and Lisa have been dating for (I think) about four years.  Michael said that they are looking at a fall 2009 wedding.
Lisa, Michael, and their roommate, Alice, co-own a home together in Fitchburg.  For those of you who don’t know, Michael is a computer guy at Excel Inns, and Lisa works for American Family Insurance.
We’re really excited and happy for the two of them.

Oct. 7: It’s Sunday night, and Bryan and I are relaxing after a great weekend with Granny Lu and Grandad.  Photos of the weekend are in the gallery.  Bryan’s mom came into town on Wednesday.  I took the afternoon off, and the two of us had a fun time visiting and doing some shopping for the little baby-on-the-way.  She stayed home with Andrew on Thursday and Friday.  Bryan’s dad was giving a speech in Minneapolis at the Certified Commercial Investment Members real estate symposium, and he drove down to Madison on Friday.  We all enjoyed a lovely time together.  I started working on a sweater for Andrew, and everyone else watched Andrew enough to let me make the whole back of the sweater over the weekend.
Our times together are pretty low-key.  We went to the zoo and to playgrounds, but in general, we stuck pretty close to home, just enjoying each other’s company.

Oct. 7: It feels like our schedule has been really full these last weeks.  Pictures are in the gallery.
Last weekend (Sept. 28-30), I was in Northfield and St. Paul for a Carleton Alumni Council meeting.  It was so wonderful to be back on campus.  I really love Carleton.  I find just being in the liberal arts environment to be very invigorating.  Bryan and Andrew had a nice time here at home.  They got out of the house a lot.  At one point, I got a text message from Bryan (we now have cell phones:) with an urgent question, “Been at library for 2hrs.  How do I get him to leave??”
Andrew does indeed love spending time at the library.  He bounces from reading books to putting puzzles together to playing with the wooden toys to climbing on the furniture to looking at the animal mural, and then he starts the cycle again!
Bryan’s been taking a classical guitar class on Monday nights, so I’ve been inviting Terry over for dinner that night.  It’s a fun chance to see him and to have company/extra help with Andrew on what otherwise would be a quiet evening.

We’re going to be heading back to Northfield for the Carleton Alumni Adventures committee meeting.  Bryan and Andrew are going to hang out on campus while I’m in meetings.  I’m sure they’ll enjoy some Hogan Bros. hoagies.  I’m hoping that we have the chance to pick apples at Fireside orchard.  And then we’re planning to spend some time with Maretta (and maybe Kyle) in St. Paul.  Assuming that Andrew handles the drive alright, it should be a fun time:)

Sept. 22: It’s been a pretty good week.  Bryan started his new job at OpGen on Monday.  He’s been sometimes overwhelmed, but in general, as the week progressed, I think he was feeling increasingly comfortable…feeling like he’ll be able to do a good job working there.  The past week, Bryan’s been posting to a blog about his new job.  Check it out!
I really enjoyed being back at work this week.  Monday and Tuesday, I felt like my brain was doing a lot of catch-up to remember how to do things like read and process information, but by Wednesday, I felt like things were clicking more.  Gathering Waters’ land conservation awards celebration was on Thursday, and it went really well.  It was nice to get dressed up (making a run to the Macy’s MAC counter to get my eyes done 🙂 and see many of our great colleagues.
I am traveling to Carleton on Thursday next week, but other than that, it should be a relatively normal, calm week in the office.  I’m looking forward to it!

Sept. 15: It’s been a really nice week.  With Bryan and myself having the full week off and Andrew in daycare at Karen’s, the days were quiet and full of whatever we wanted to do.  Sitting here now on the weekend, I’m feeling really glad that I was able to take this whole week to recuperate.  I’m also a little shocked at how little I’ve gotten done.  I pretty much divorced myself from computer this week, so not only did I not reply to the hundreds of loving notes I received throughout the month, but I am now behind on another 40 or so.  Oh well!
I did get some productive things done.  I paid Mom’s bills, did some clean-up of material from the funeral events, and at least now have a rather complete list of the thank-you notes that need to be written.  I’m so grateful to so many people.  In retrospect, this past week would have been an ideal time to write a lot of those thank you notes.  It was, however, more fun and more restorative to be a slug:)
With life moving at a slightly slower pace, Andrew was in a much better mood this week.  We had some lovely evenings together.  Pictures from the last week including a nice apple-picking trip we took last weekend are in the gallery.

Sept. 9: Bryan speaking, here… I wanted to share a piece of exciting news:  I’m going to be starting a new job next week.  For some time I’ve known that my job at Widen hadn’t been the most fulfilling thing I could have been doing with my career and that I’d like to be doing something a little more meaningful to me.  I was very pleased to find a job opening that appealed to me and even more pleased that they called me back and, after a couple of interviews, decided that I would be a good person to join their team.

The new company is called OpGen, which is a small, startup bio-tech company located on Madison’s west side.  I’m very excited about this opportunity for many reasons. First, the company is looking to create a diagnostic devices and software that could be used to make significant improvements in the detection of diseases in patients,  This is precisely the “more meaningful” type of work that I’ve been looking for.  Second, I will get to be a part of a small, core team that helps
build this company.  Currently there are approximately 8 people in the company and I will be the second person in the Software Development group.  Finally, I get to be invested in the company through some stock options.

In summary, I’m going to start working as a core member
of a new project, developing biomedical software that will improve peoples lives and, if successful, stand to make some good money out of it too.  In all, this is about the ideal situation for a software developer.  I’m very excited about the potential that I see in this new job and I hope that it pans out to be as good as I hope will be.