Family Update...and thoughts for Thanksgiving '08

I realize that I've not blogged in a bit - one could surmise that I didn't have anything to say, but those that know me well would tell you that's not possible. As they say at work, here is my 1 pager (because at work, summaries are one page with 3 main topics...)

1. Owen had his first trip to the Emergency Room on Halloween night. He was screaming for 4 hours before we gave in only to find that it was a really bad cold. He of course was quick to recover and passed it on to Tom & I which took us twice as long to recover. We have all recovered, and at his 15 month check up on Friday, he is 'developing well' as the doctor puts it. Owen gained 10 oz (20lbs 10oz) and 3 inches (31") since his 12 mo. visit. The only thing we need to do is stop the bottle and so we have begun the process. Going cold turkey is not jiving well with him yet - it's only day 2.

2. Work is hectic, nothing new, and I've been leading recruiting efforts so it makes my full plate runneth over on some days. I forget that I'm an engineer on most days. The neat thing about recruiting was that I had a mini-reunion with my ChE peeps. During my college years, Kurt, Jason, and I were joined at the hips. We even traveled together to Europe for our summer lab - Kurt was my shopping buddy and Jason cried...over a very spicy taco. Sadly, since college I only loosely kept in touch with Kurt. Just recently I found Jason and to top it off, both boys recently quit their respective jobs and took new ones in Madison. Last week, I had to fly into Madison to do a recruiting presentation and grabbed dinner with the both of them - it was like those 7 years hadn't passed by - it was great! and Allison...yes, Kurt is still single...hint, hint.

3. I realized my little brother is growing up! He just bought a house, after 6 months of looking. He closes sometime mid- December. I don't think I've seen him this excited over much of anything. We've actually talked a couple times every week over the past couple weeks as he found the one to bid on and then looked for advice on the process.

Lastly, just so the whole Riker family has the heads up. Owen was asked to be in a wedding, which I said yes to before knowing the date. We just found out it will be Thanksgiving weekend 2008. So, we'll have to see when we'll be able to get together as a whole family! I think we'll be in Sodus in August for Tom's 15 year reunion, which that just sounds old but I'm sure will be fun. Those are the big dates we know of for 2008, we are still planning on a trip to Europe if Tom can finally settle on a country he'd like to visit.

Tomorrow we head to Wisconsin to spend this Thanksgiving with the Gong household - Cross your fingers that Bottle-Withdrawl will subside enough for a semi-peaceful ride up north!