It feels like only 364 days ago that it was 2010

Well, it's the end of another year. It's been anything but a stagnant year for me. I think I'll summarize in a few categories of thought.

Food:

My culinary world continues to slowly expand. I had a great food adventure in New Orleans in January. I think that those meals were probably the heartiest and tastiest foods I ate for the entire year. I still need to learn how to make red beans and rice. Then I tried making plated dinners for a party the first time for my birthday. That was both interesting and challenging in a brand new way. I had never really tried putting my food "on display" like that before. I don't quite know how to explain the distinction. Usually, making food for potlucks and bringing snacks to small group and holiday dinners is about providing something to support fellowship and general hanging-out-time. But that experience was... different.

I also participated in my second turducken with my cousin. This one was for the Wong family Christmas on December 26. It was much better than the previous one (Thanksgiving 2009). The stuffing choices were better, and the entire process was much more relaxed and felt more natural. I've been contemplating the flabby duck skin problem, and I think that for the next turducken I do, I'd completely remove the skin of the inner birds and try to just stack the breasts and legs instead of trying to roll it. I think the layers will stay put, and it would just come out better.

Travel:

I have done more traveling this year than any other year in my life. Most of that travel has come within the last couple months. Of course, there was the New Orleans trip in January to the joint meetings, a trip home over the summer, for Thanksgiving, and for Christmas, and then a trip out to San Diego and Catalina island over the summer. That's the "normal" travel for me. But this year there was also the one day Chicago trip, the one day Reno trip, the three day Duke trip, all of which happened in the last few months of the year. I would never have really thought of myself as someone who does a lot of traveling, but it looks like reality is telling me that I am.

Religion:

I don't like that word as a category, but it's probably the right word to use. And putting it third makes it seem like it's somehow less important than food and travel. But that's the order in which things have come out.

Things at church are in a place where I'd rather it not be, but it's where it is. We're without a senior pastor, the financial situation is not very encouraging, and there's just a general lack of vision and leadership. Looking back, it's kind of hard to believe that the church has gone for as long as it has in this state. However, there are still positives to report. There is a process of leadership development that is taking place despite the absence of a senior pastor. We're taking the time to build leaders who are able to study the Bible carefully and thoughtfully, which is something that has been absent in the past. Along with this, there is a renewed focus on developing small groups, which has included shifting the worship pastor to discipleship. So there's a foundation that's being laid, and maybe there will be something healthy that will built upon that in 2012.

Small group continues to go well. Couples have become families, which has changed the dynamics of the group a little bit. But it's been a good transition. I hope that our studies start to transition into something that gives the new parents in the group some space to talk about how they can raise children in a way that honors God. I have no idea how such conversations might look, but that's okay. Friendships in general feel like they've deepened, and I'm glad to be in such a good community of people.

I've started reading "Morning and Evening" by Charles Spurgeon using YouVersion. Will I actually make it through the whole year? I won't know for quite a while.

School:

So much has happened on campus this year. I've launched the remedial math program that I've been working on for a couple years, and that has worked out very well. It's exciting to see it coming around after all of the investment, and I even got some money to continue supporting those efforts. My responsibilities in this have also put me into new places, such as ending up at Duke for three days at the NGA STEM conference. These are new opportunities that I would not have imagined even existed a couple years ago. I'm also doing new things like recording lectures and introducing problem sessions into my classes. Those are interesting innovations that I think will lead to other new things in the next couple years as well.

Of course, this has all meant an increase in the amount of work that I'm doing. I'm very near to being completely maxed out, which is why I'm glad that there is a new math hire on the way. Unlike last year's search that got frozen, this year's has a clear sense of moving forward with confidence, and there's no sense that anything bad will happen this time around. I think the administration knows how thin everyone has been stretched over the last couple years, and it's good to be at a place that recognizes this and is fully supportive of bringing us back down to a better workload.

I've had a good bunch of students this year, which has made the teaching very enjoyable. I even got some gifts from students (for the first time ever)! They certainly keep the classes interesting, and for the cluster that will graduate this year, it's been good to watch them progress over the last couple years. I think this will be the first batch of students that I've seen all the way through their studies.

Life:

I had some health issues this year (neck problems requiring chiropractic work, shingles, a jump in cholesterol), but my overall health is good. I've put on some weight in the last couple years (which at this point doesn't mean much -- being 143 pounds still allows me to be classified as "skinny").

I'm an uncle. Not only that, but I've been deemed the eccentric uncle. Horray! At least I have friends here who have children that are approximately the same age (a few months older), so that I'll have at least some sense of the progression as he gets older. But it will be interesting to get the "snapshot" view of him growing up (seeing him every 6 months or so).

I don't really know what else to say. Even though there are only a couple short paragraphs under "life" there's that whole wall of text above. Life has been full and exciting (and very busy), and I'm looking forward to what next year will bring.

Happy New Year!

It's raining at Duke University. How do I know? Because I'm there.

I'm glad that I got out last night to check out the campus a bit. The weather was very pleasant. I had a couple nostalgia moments when I walked through the University center, not because I've been here before, but because there were students wandering around in slippers and things like that... stuff that you see on a residential campus and never on a commuter campus. I thought about trying to crash the InterVarsity group here, but they meet on Friday evenings, and I'll be gone by then.

But now, I'm sitting in my room at the Washington Duke Inn, watching Duke play Colorado State on TV (because there's no way I was going to be able to get tickets to this game). I'm here because I'm part of the National Governors Association Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (NGA STEM) Summit. It's going well, and I'm having a lot of interesting conversations, but it's going to cause an increase in the amount of work I'm going to have to do when I get back because I'm going to have to have a bunch of other conversations with other people. The day started at 8 AM and went until about 7:30 PM (which for me is 5 AM to 4:30 PM), and I've got another full day tomorrow, then a half day on Friday, and then a long flight home. Saturday, I go to campus to grade exams, and review some more applications. Pretty soon, the semester will be over so I can... ummmmm... keep right on working.

I'm missing finals week right now. This is a new one. I'd actually rather be there than here, but here isn't really that bad. It's really cold in Las Vegas right now, with temperatures in the low 30s. The room here is nice, the bed is comfortable, and I have free and mostly reliable internet. This trip is the second of my run of trips. The first one was going home for Thanksgiving. I got to meet my nephew in person for the first time, which was nice. He's cute, but if you want to see pictures you'll have to be friends with Corwin or Mandy. They've got plenty of pictures and I anticipate they will have plenty more.

I had turkeys three ways this year. The fried turkey still wins. And it's not really that close. It's tough to beat fried turkey. I still need to work on the smoked turkey. The flavor wasn't as sweet as what I remembered from the first time I did it for GCF a long time ago. Now *THAT* turkey could have competed with the fried turkey. I don't know if I'll ever get that one back, though. I may have to try smoking some chickens over the next year to work out what brine/smoke combinations work well.

Church things are rolling along. Where we're rolling to, I'm not sure. We still don't have an interim pastor or a senior pastor, which is making it hard for staff to really set out a direction for anything. We had a Christmas musical ("Word on the Street") which was entertaining. It was one of the many Christmas story re-tellings that are out there, this one in an urban setting. I'm not quite sure what else to say about it. On the kid's end, it looks like we're creating a children's worship service and pulling them back out of the adult service. It seems like the right move, since we've now reduced the children's participation to a single song before sending them off in prayer.

I guess that's all I've got right now. I'll be back in Vegas on Friday night, and then back in Livermore on December 22, Vegas on the 27th, Boston on January 4th, and back to Vegas on January 7th.