Merry Xmas

Well it's only been 12 days, so not too bad.

It's kind of amazing/sad how my updating this past year has drastically fallen since 2008 when I started this little online journal. Granted, 3 months without an update probably contributed to that, but still. I'm not sure if I'm just getting lazier with it or my life has become much less
interesting, even to myself. Possibly a mixture of the two, but I probably shouldn't dwell on it.

On to updating!

On Sunday the 18th (after my last post) I received an email from a recruiter asking if she could send my resume to a company. I replied with an affirmative after reading the very vague job description and thought nothing of it. On Monday she contacted me again, stating the company was very interested in me and wanted to set up an interview on Tuesday. I agreed (of course) and on Tuesday had a good interview with the people there (at WuXi AppTec). They told me during the interview that the job I was applying for was basic

ally staring at slides for 6-8 hours a day (painful) but they had another job opening doing more lab related things. They ended saying that they were interviewing into early the following week and so I should hear back by the end of that week (this week so ~29th). On Wednesday, the recruiter called me during my dentist appointment (no cavities! woohoo!), so I called her back, played phone tag for a bit, but finally got the news via email that they wanted to hire me!

Long paragraph for a short story, but overall exciting news! So I gave the VA my notice and I'm starting at WuXi on January 9th. Technically I'll be a contractor working through the recruitment place (Lab Staffing), but I'll be getting a paycheck so that's a relief.

I also took my physics final exam on Wednesday. We started late, but I ended up finishing in about 2 hours (3 hours were allotted for the exam) and I think it went well. No scores posted yet, but hopefully I'll find out soonish. Oh I just checked, I got a 93% on the exam and an A in the course! Hooray!

The rest of the week I attempted to finish knitting my sisters' Christmas presents (finished Sara's, did Megan's wrong and had to start over), gave my coworker her Christmas present (see pic below), and drove down to Rochester on Friday.

All the grandparents and sisters (and parents of course) and Kory and I went to dinner on Friday at Buffalo Wild Wings (Sara was working, so she didn't eat with us but she did provide excellent service :P).

On Saturday we had the Kehoe family Christmas, but it was much reduced because Travis and his new wife couldn't make it and Ben had to work. Lynn, uncle Kevin, Tyler, and the 2 dogs were there though (the little dogs and Addy did not get along). We all ate Mr. Pizza (delicious), watched the Vikings win (shock!), then opened presents (pots and pans! I can cook things now!), then the girls played cards while the boys watched more football until the Koenigs headed home and the rest of us went to church. Headed home and got settled in for our annual tradition of watching White Christmas and then headed to bed.

Sunday was Christmas! Opening some great presents, eating quiche and cinnamon rolls, and lounging in our pj's far longer than normal. Eventually, Megan, Sara, and Kory headed to Eau Claire to go to significant others' Christmases (no idea why Sara, who started seeing someone this past summer, was already going to family Christmas, but whatever).

Monday was mom's birthday but there wasn't much celebrating for it (sorry mom!). She ended up going to Panera with her friends for lunch at the same time that I went to lunch at the other Panera in town with Jackie. It was great catching up with her.

After our long lunch, headed back to an empty house. The rest of the family had to drive down to Iowa for a funeral (my dad's uncle Buzz died over the holidays). So I packed up my stuff and headed up to the cities.

Stopped home very briefly and then drove over to Nathan's. He had spent the week before Christmas in Cozumel, Mexico and then Christmas Eve night in Chicago. So we had our Christmas and exchanged gifts. I got him these painted pint glasses and he got me a cool butterfly thing in a jar that flutters when you tap it (Addy loves it) and the second book in a series. He also got me a souvenir from Mexico - a gorgeous silver necklace with a mystic topaz pendant.

Rest of the week has been slow, no one else at work until today, and even then there's not much to do. But at least the year is getting better from the last post!