My Christmas Letter

I'll spare you the embedded photos, but this is the Christmas letter I sent in my Christmas cards this year.

Family and Friends,

It never seems like I have anything worth telling in these letters, but as I think this out for this past year, that’s not true. There has been quite a lot going on with us.

Winnie taught a couple of Sociology classes this year as an adjunct professor at a local community college. She has also been working with her old advisor on a number of projects over time, and this fall he was able to get her hired full time as a research scientist at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (part of the College of William & Mary), where she specializes in the social effects of fishery regulations on coastal communities. She has also been asked to serve as a social scientist on the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, evaluating the effects of new regulations for them.

I am still working as a consultant to the Virginia Department of Transportation where I’m the lead business analyst and head of testing for a statewide Geographic Information Systems project. The first portion of the project went “live” in September, but it’s still almost three more years until it will be complete. So, I gather software requirements, design the application look-and-feel, explain how it’s supposed to work to the developers, and then show them why it isn’t doing what it’s supposed to. Overall, it’s wonder they haven’t mugged me and tossed me in a dumpster, but we have an incredibly cohesive team. The boss also keeps me pretty busy as a mentor on software development methodology for subjects like requirements and software configuration management.

Erin has finished her class work at the University of Minnesota for her PhD in Astronomy. She is now working on her dissertation project which involves the detection of near-Earth asteroids using data from the NASA Spitzer infra-red space telescope, and the new Large Binocular Telescope on Mt. Graham in Arizona.

Erin was fortunate enough to be the very first observer to use the LBT for scientific observations, back in January. So far she has apparently found a couple dozen new asteroids, and is preparing a series of journal articles on her results. She’s also applying for (and receiving!) grant funds to continue the research. While she is completing her dissertation, she has returned to working with the Spitzer telescope at Jet Propulsion Lab, at CalTech in Pasadena. That helps, because that’s where a lot of her data comes from anyway, and it’s nice to get paid for work you wanted to do anyway.

Last Christmas, Erin announced her engagement to another JPL staff member, Mark Lacy. Mark is an astrophysicist, and is also working with the Spitzer telescope. As I understand it, he is mainly involved in studies of large scale galaxy formation. He was formerly a lecturer at Oxford University, in his native England. Erin and Mark plan to be married next summer in California.

At Christmas this year we are going out to California for a visit of a few days with them. Previously, we’ve only spent a couple of hours with Mark, and anyone that knows Erin understands that means that he got to speak very, very little. Maybe we’ll get a chance to find out what he’s really like this time. Maybe even check out the planned site for the wedding.

We are also going to swing through Denver for a couple of days to see my parents and other family. It’s been two years since we saw Erin or them. This will be a nice break for us, as our only non-business out of town trips this past year were a few days each in North Carolina at Nags Head and up near Shenandoah National Park.

Other than that, life is pretty peaceful for us here in Virginia. Winnie is the president for, and plays flute and piccolo with, the Chesapeake Bay Wind Ensemble.

I am serving as a Board of Trustees member for a ‘colony’ of my old college fraternity (Alpha Tau Omega) at the College of William and Mary. I am going to be advising them on fraternity ritual and membership education.

And, we continue to share our lives with four big loveable collie dogs.

We hope everyone has had a good year, and we look forward to hearing from you.
Merry Christmas!