Rhea and I were discussing the other day, given my lack of online updates, that in general when things get busy and interesting in my life I don't have the time to document much. It's always been a problem and likely not unique to me leading many blogs full of navel watching folks waiting for something interesting to appear in their lives. I guess someone could have more discipline and continue to write. I have seen that in other folks. It helps if their blog is their job which isn't my scenario. But anyways why I am so busy is quite exciting.

1. Sarah, Madeline, and I went on a trip to Oregon where I was at a conference. The conference itself was very encouraging for what I was thinking about for the business and it went well. Travelling in Oregon I spent a day with Pete Forsythe, a high school friend, who is living out there and provided a great tour of the Columbia River Gorge area. I hadn't seen Pete since high school and these days that's almost a 15 year gap. It was great to catch-up with him and the scenery with the big waterfalls and light hikes in that area was amazing.

2. The business is starting to get interesting. We have our first set of key clients and partnerships. The key clients in Massachusetts are acting like innovators in ways to help us to evangelize to the more laggard groups. The technology is a great fit for my interests in combining business, science, and social activities as we are working on software to enable the switch from the current medical structure to translational/personalized medicine. So people are excited about what we are doing on all sides - hiring, getting clients, partnerships, etc.

3. Madeline is very engaged when I spend time with her. She can speak a broad vocabulary and enjoys spending time with me doing pretend play. We have been going into the large closet in her room or under the dining room table to make our own little spaces to play in and then get lost in games with minimal toys. We recently spent two hours playing with a wire frame alien, a plastic lizard, an eyeball gimball, and a squirt gun. Madeline also is more able to enjoy reading books now since she understands the concepts in them. We enjoy reading Sea, Sand, and Me together. I like it because it rhymes and has a cute little story. She likes the concept of a beach day. But we can spend a good hour tearing through books at the end of an evening.

4. Sports in New England has gotten very good. My dad and I have been going to the Pats games on Sundays and even Sarah and I went to the Browns/Pats game last weekend. The Pats are scoring 30+ points per game. The Red Sox are moving along nicely so far in the playoffs after winning the division for the first time in 18 years. The Celtics look like they will be back in 1980's form soon. So I have been enjoying all of this by listening to WEEI while in the car and tracking Boston sports a little more closely than ever.

5. The new house is full of work to be done. We still haven't fully moved into the house. Lots of our posessions are still in boxes, pictures haven't been hung on the walls, and furniture purchased hasn't been assembled. We have already done some ambitious projects since moving in including having landscapers gut the backyard lawn, installation of central air conditioning, installation of FiOS internet, and installation of an antennae for HDTV in the attic with wires distributed to the right spots in the house. So I have been dealiing with co-ordination of vendors. I've had to learn about lawn care and watering grass seeds with sprinklers. We are still figuring out how to route our mail and where and when to send the bills to folks.

6. The pending arrival of our new baby in January has prompted many changes. We are almost complete with switching from Sarah's Passat to a used Honda Odyssey mini-van. It will better accomodate two kids. We need to do the appropriate preparatory nesting activities like painting the third bedroom, acquiring a furniture set with beds for Madeline so that the baby will have the crib, acquiring used boys clothing, working with our doula to plan the birth and worrying about what changes we need to make for work and life financially, socially, and workwise with the second kid. On top of that Sarah is pregnant so she requires some extra care and feeding.

Overall it is proving to be a very fun and fulfilling fall for me. But that means that it is very busy.