2015 in Review

Monthly Summary

January

  • Started work on a solo project at work that pretty much gave me lots of experience building something from end to end.
  • Working from home 2/3rds of the time to work out any kinks for a possible move to Florida.
  • Thank yous going out to people who helped fund Emily’s medical mission to Kenya.

February

  • Emily is gone for 10 days on a trip to Africa.
  • I have to dress the kids by myself exactly one day of her absence.
  • …because the kids were off school due to snow the entire following week.

March

  • The small solo project goes into “User Experience auditing” mode and I get help actually meeting the demands.
  • The kids were off school due to snow (for entire week?) again.

April

  • Painting, final prep for selling the house.
  • Spent a week with mostly no cell signal in St George Island

May

  • Broke news to parents officially that we were moving.
  • Sold the house then listed it. (At least that was the order the offer versus official listing happened in.)

June

  • Packed up the house, closed on the house, vacated the house, and flew off for the Philippines in a span of 5 days (with our 12th wedding anniversary in between.)
  • Last times accompanying at various churches in Louisville.
  • Went to the Daluyon resort on the island of Palawan in The Philippines.

July

  • Celebrated my grandmother’s 100th birthday with the rest of the family in The Philippines.
  • Realized the madness that is flying to/from and traveling in a foreign country with very picky eaters as kids.
  • Flew back to the US, tried to adjust to jetlag in 2 days, drove our belongings not packed in a trailer to Florida in two cars (one with a broken A/C).
  • Scrambled to find a rental house that accepted a big dog in the school district we wanted, signed a lease, moved in (in a week from arriving in Florida)
  • Officially began my 100% remote work life.

August

  • Sister-in-law brought our dogs down.
  • Kids started at their new school.
  • I wilted on runs in the Florida sun and heat.
  • Transferred our licenses and cars to Florida officially.
  • Went to beaches

September

  • Emily waited around on callbacks from job applications.
  • Joined in with the Cathedral music program.
  • Went to beaches

October

  • Actually saw a decent amount of the area on foot–running.
  • Not so much with the beaches.
  • Emily started a new job!
  • Olivia made All County Chorus

November

  • Failed at Monkey (intentionally bailed at 11.5 miles, may have missed my bail out point a couple times.)
  • Drove back to Louisville, had good times, but way more hectic than expected.

December

  • Apparently the A/C can mostly not run in December in Florida.
  • Went back to Louisville for Christmas.

Media

Music

  • Quite a bit of Hamilton the Musical.
  • Surprisingly less music listened to at home office than on site. Strange.

Books

  • 72 Books. Getting into Hamilton the Musical led me Chernow’s biography of Hamilton. Excellent book, very dense read.
  • Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke and the Space Odyssey series were also exceptional (though I was a bit disappointed in 3001).
  • In following the post-apocalyptic/YA-ish series reads of past years, I got into the Extinction Point series by Paul Antony Jones
  • …less impressive was the Defiance trilogy (CJ Redwine), probably due to the believability of an alien race doing astounding things versus ordinary humans accomplishing futuristic feats in a world thrown back to the Dark Ages.