Good news (well mostly). As many of you know, I was hired for a computational training and support manager position in the Department of Chemistry at Boston University. I have been working there since February and it has been great. My work is a combination of providing IT support and support for application of scientific software. It has been interesting learning my way around a new place and working with so many new people. The only downside is that I am living in Boston during the week while Suzanne and Kyle are still in NJ as we get the house ready to put on the market. (We have a lot of stuff to go through.) I travel to NJ every weekend, but it’s not the same as being there all the time.

Suzanne has to be in RI this week for work, so she and Kyle are coming up to Boston for the long weekend. This should be nice as we’ll get to spend a couple of extra days together and I won’t have to travel home to NJ. We’re going to hit the Children’s Museum on Friday. (I can get a pass for deeply discounted admissions from our library.) I remember this as being great while growing up and we think Kyle will love it.

I have added a few new photos of Kyle since the last update, but those have been up for a bit. I plan to get a few more up this week and will likely get a bunch up next week.

I added some photos of Kyle.

• Jan & Feb 2009
• Mar & Apr 2009 (only 1 photo to date).

— Enjoy!

As you should notice, if you’re reading this, I have changed the look of our site around quite a bit. Really what I did is to move to the WordPress blogging platform, not so much for the blogging capabilities but for the nice layout tools. All the old information is still here, though I only copied over the last few updates. Some new features include the ability to add comments and the ability to “subscribe” to new posts via an RSS newsfeed. Hope you enjoy.

It’s been quite some time since the last update. Quite a bit has changed, not all of it good. In the fall, we spent Labor Day weekend at Paul’s dad and stepmom in NH. We had very nice weekend, including spending a few hours at the Friendly Farm, where Paul and his brother used to go once in a while when growing up. (Photos are at in the New Hampshire – Labor Day 2008 album.) Suzanne had a business trip to Atlanta in September, so she took Kyle with her and visited with her parents. We also took a couple of trips to the Bronx Zoo, one for their Halloween events, and spent a day apple picking. Here are some photos from Kyle from the end of Aug and from Sep & Oct.

Unfortunately, in the middle of October, I got a call informing me that my company was laying a few people off due to the financial situation. (Keep in mind that this company is only around a hundred people, so letting 6-7 go is actually a measurable percentage.) They gave me a decent severance package, so we’re not out anything yet, but will be starting to dip into our savings in not too long. I have had some good interest recently, which is very promising. Unfortunately, most of it is not for positions in the area, which is worrisome given the current housing market. (The interview was in Boston. I’m pretty sure I’ll be offered this position as the interview went very well, but I don’t know if the money will be enough.) If you happen to know anyone interested in an experienced molecular modeler/computational chemist (or anyone in a pharmaceutical company), feel free to pass along my Resume/CV.

Once December came, we started getting ready for Christmas, which was a bit more subdued this year due to our circumstances. Beth and Doug came up early on and we had a nice weekend with them, including a cold day in the city. Suzanne had to travel to Bristol, RI for business, so we all went along. I was hoping to take Kyle to the Providence Children’s Museum, but it turned out they were closed on Monday. Instead, we visited the Audubon Center in Bristol, which was a very nice way to spend a bit of time. We also got to see Paul’s aunt, uncle, and cousins, including seeing Jenn perform (she plays flute) at a Christmas concert in Newport. Christmas Day was just us as Jack and Mary Lou came up Dec 26. We had a nice week with them, including heading to Ossining to see Suzanne’s aunt, uncle, and cousins. Of course we have Photos from Nov & Dec.

During the first weekend of January, we had a very nice birthday party for Kyle’s third birthday. It’s hard to believe he’s already three. He had a few friends from school, swimming, and the neighborhood. After celebrating his actual birthday, we were a bit worried that Kyle was going to think the presents would keep coming forever given that he had been opening present every few days between various Christmas and birthday celebrations. Here are some Photos from Jan.

We don’t have any big plans for the future currently. It basically has to do with my job situation. Hopefully something will happen soon and we can at least get moving on where we’ll be in the future. We’ll likely take a day to visit the aquarium (we’re members of the group that runs the Bronx Zoo and the New York Aquarium) as we have been planning to for a while now. We hope all is well with all of our friends and relatives.

Hey, not too bad this time. Not even a month between updates. We have been back from Michigan for a couple of weeks now. It was a wonderful trip and very relaxing. As much as I love traveling overseas, there always an element of stress involved. For this trip, we were basically visiting some friends and seeing some places that we had been several times before, so there wasn’t a real big push to “do it all”.

We spent the first night with Leslie (Paul’s graduate advisor). It was great to see her again (after 6 years) and she really enjoyed meeting Kyle. On Sunday, we headed up north to Paul Murphy’s house. He lives in south Florida now, but we coordinated our summer vacations to meet at his “summer” home. (It was his home before he moved and has been in his family for several generations.) Kyle finally got to go to his first beach. He loved making sand castles, but wasn’t all that excited about the waves. After Paul’s, we spent a couple of nights on Mackinac Island. For those of you who don’t know, Mackinac Island is in the strait between Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. It’s unique in that it doesn’t allow cars and has a Victorian feel. It’s a bit touristy, but is still nice, especially at night. We seemed to have lucked out as it wasn’t all that busy. Then we headed to Ann Arbor, after stopping for a night in Birch Run to break up the trip. It was neat to see that not much had changed. We were able to hit the farmer’s market which is one of the nicest I’ve been to in the US. We also ate at couple of places we liked from our time there and did a “Meijer’s run”. Aside from having a defective gas gauge in the car (it would go to half and then stop there), we had a wonderful trip.

As for the rest of the summer, we still plan to head to shore and see a ballgame. We’re also planning a trip to city (tomorrow, actually). We going to be heading to NH to visit Paul’s Dad & Step-mom for Labor Day. That should be fun (except for the drive as Kyle thought the 3-hour trip from Paul Murphy’s to Mackinac and the 4-hour trip from Mackinac to Birch Run were too long). Then it’s on to fall stuff.

I know it’s been a while since the last update. We have done a few things in the past few months, mostly in May and June. In May, Kyle’s daycare had their Family Fun Day picnic. It was a great time. In early June, we took a day and headed off to Sesame Place (about 2 hours away). We really enjoyed it. The park is geared towards younger kids,so it was great for Kyle. Also, about half the park is a water park,and Kyle loves playing in the water. A great moment was when Kyle ran up to hug Cookie Monster. At the end of that week, Kyle and I headed to Florida to visit my Mom and Grandparents for a few days. I was a bit nervous about taking Kyle down there on his own without Suzanne,but everything went very well and we had a great time. Kyle was very well behaved. At the end of June (through July 4th), Suzanne’s parents came for a week to visit. We had a nice time. We even went to see fireworks on July 4th,which Kyle enjoyed. (The rest of us would have enjoyed it more if it wasn’t for the rain. At least I got some good photos.)

Updated photos of Kyle are at:
Mar & Apr
May & Jun
Jul & Aug

A camera club friend of mine recently opened a new studio. For the opening, he had a small open house, during which he took some photos of Kyle. He used one of these for an online photo competition site (where I also periodically submit). The photo did okay in the competition, but you can find it here. if you want to take a look. (Peggy, this is the one I mentioned.)

Our plans for the rest of the summer include our trip to Michigan for a week. We’re looking forward to this to visit some old friends and some places we like. Later, we’re hoping to spend a day at the shore and take in a baseball game (minor league about 20 minute from us).