So long 2010...

It's been a rough'n'tumble, crazy, whirlwind of a year. We're ending the year in a new apartment, new ward, and--soon to be--new roles. If we can make some time to do our traditional E.R.B. Annual Report, we'll make sure to send it out.

In the meantime, here's a recap of the year, based on my blog posts. For the more personal side of our lives, check out Jill's blog. As you can see by my posts, I'm kind of all over the place...

January 2010

• From all of us, to all of you. The E.R.B. Annual Report 2009.
• Here She Comes! Some notes from our travel to Utah to attend Grandma Erb's funeral. The post title is a line from a poem my dad shared at the service.
• FAIT An announcement for the FBI Future Agents in Training program.

February 2010

• S.N.O.W. We had a huge snowstorm here in Virginia. Shared some photos.
• More S.N.O.W. Some AP and WTOP pictures from our big snow storm.
• Gear Getting ready to remove some more snow.
• DC Snow Removal? Alternate Title: Traffic According to Jeremy. The snow removal aftermath, a week after it stopped.

March 2010

• My wife is so crafty. Jill made us an FHE assignment chart.
• Fast Sunday, Slow Cooker A yummy meal awaited us today after church!
• Yesterday's Tip, Today From HBR about retaining talent.
• Happy Engage-a-versary We got engaged 4 years ago =)
• On Sale Today We bought a huge thing of matzos!

April 2010

• The Rule of Three Interesting advice from HBR about when to confront someone and creating personal rules for dealing with different situations.

May 2010

• Sometimes life throws a curveball. Our numbers doubled, after not doubling the week before!
• Just some of the things I've been reviewing for my final...

June 2010

• Interesting thought of the day A cool quote from Elder John A. Widtsoe.
• OBE Overcome By Events; or how we ended up spending our anniversary.
• It's not your parent's Cold War anymore Presidents Obama and Medvedev grabbed a burger at Ray's Hell Burgers - and shared an order of fries.
  

July 2010 August 2010 September 2010

• More Good News We had been going over our budget, trying to get some things to work out, and looking for a new place to leave (going to be needing that second bedroom now) -- and I get a raise at work!
• Stocking Up My mom sends baby stuff to start stocking up on. She just knew it was going to be a little girl before we told anyone and had been buying up pink stuff =)
• A Life Update via Photos (and some text)
  
• Bonus Points I awarded points for the first person to comment correctly with the explanation for a custom license plate we saw. (And the hobby begins...)

August 2010

September 2010

October 2010

• Performance Review happening at work. But received the results of a different performance review today.
• Birthday, Round 1
• Birthday, Round 2
• Birthday, Round 3
• Birthday, Round 4
• Birthday, Round 5
• Chomp! Goes the shark. Watched Disney's Earth movie in HD.
• License Plates
• We've been ghosted! Someone brought spooky treats to our house
• And so it begins. Off to birthing class
• Ward Halloween Party Under Construction
• Design is cool Saw this poster on campus today and was impressed.

November 2010

• HBR Morning Email How to be more productive
• HBR Morning Email, Part Deux Three Tips for Handling Surprise Criticism
• HBR Handle Distractions by Doing Nothing More advice for how to get things done during the day.

December 2010

• More License Plates
• Yet More License Plates
• Even More License Plates
• Depressing WTIO News
• Still More License Plates
• There's More License Plates
• I Can't Believe There's More License Plates
• Yes, More License Plates
• Wait for it.... More License Plates
• Yep, More License Plates
• We Interrupt This Broadcast
• Seriously. More. License. Plates.
• How About a Pic-i-nic Basket? Nah, More License Plates.
• Más placas
• Aún Más Placas
• Hay Más Placas
• No puedo creer que hay más Placas

We've been busy!

We had a great trip to California -- a big thanks to everyone who made out trip fun, tasty, memorable, and possible.

We were able to get some good (quick) visits in with both grandparents and the extended families. For some of the cousins, it was the first time in 10 years we had seen each other! Too long, if you ask me.

We felt like we took a lot of photos, but apparently not so much... but here are the shots from our camera:


Thankfully, others took pictures as well.
Photos courtesy of our "family photographer":
Thanksgiving at the Goldstein's

We had a blast.

(I'm hoping Jill is going to post more on her blog about all the fun things we did. If she doesn't, I'll come back here and fill in.)

We flew back on Saturday, had a quick detour at a nearby Wal-Mart when our poor, tired battery -- on its very last legs -- had enough juice to turn over (after several attempts to crank and multiple bad clicking noises) and get us to the store. Thankfully, the Auto Center was still open, and we were able to get the battery tested (yes, it was bad) and a new one installed.

Got back in time to review some things for Jill's Sunday School lesson, then went to bed. Jill taught a great lesson in gospel doctrine, and we had another great lesson from the Bangerters in a combined priesthood/relief society meeting.

Monday came and it was back to the grind. It was a pretty quiet day at work -- except for all of the technical support I provided pretty much everyone in the office (ok, so maybe 2 or 3 people; but it felt like everyone).

And now it's Tuesday. With today being the first day of December and all, we decided to get out some of our Christmas decorations that we have with us. (Most of our decorations are sitting in the Walker basement back in Rexburg...).
(I forgot to get a picture of the yummy cinnamon smelling pine cones that Jill got for me.)

Now I sit here writing this all up while I back-up some of our photos to my SkyDrive and listen to the Vince Guaraldi Trio rendition of O Tannenbaum, streaming on my laptop from AccuHolidays: Holiday Jazz channel. Ah, technology. Wonderful.

Stuff I was going to blog about...

When I find something online that I like, I'll put a link to it in a draft email and type up some initial thoughts. That way, I can go back later and cut-and-paste from there to Blogger, or just hit "send" and send it to my Blogger address(es) to post automatically. However, I've been behind lately and I have nearly 30 drafts saved. I tried to post a few each day for the last few days, but I realized I keep finding new stuff and the thought of going back to write up all those seems daunting. Plus, some of it is old(er) news, and--in my mind--won't quite have the zzzziiinnggg that I was hoping for when I first saw it and thought I'd write about it.

That being said, I figured I'd post the links and my one-sentence summary and clear out my draft folder. (Yes, I like things neat and organized). Now you can scroll through and pick out what you think is interesting. I happened to think they were all interesting (at the time) - and figure there's something of worth/interest/distraction here for everyone. Enjoy!

In no particular order:

1) US News: A Slim Majority Favors Obama's Order to Close Guantánamo Bay (01/26/2009)

2) New York Times: John Thain resigns BofA (01/23/2009)

3) Clay Christensen's Disrupting Class Blog

4) The NCAA, the BCS, and the US Congress

5) Where's Waldo? - Inaugural Style

6) Governor Romney's Remarks to the House Republican Conference Retreat

7) President Obama: Too tall for the chopper? And here. And President Bush got flack for a closed door...

8) Panic, Sully, and Washington

9) Disappointment:
You can thank Senators Susan Collins (R-ME), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), and Arlen Specter (R-PA) for throwing any semblance of fiscal discipline to the wind as they voted in favor of the [controversial] $838 billion, providing the 60 votes needed to end debate on the bill and pass in the Senate, and Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) came back from convalescence to make the vote 61.

Republicans claim they were prevented from offering amendments. Surely you have heard by now about some of the earlier controversial items (such as prophylactics and new grass, among others) - and perhaps you have heard President Obama "blast 'tired old theories.'"

One problem- [BHO campaign rhetoric- pay increase with spending cut] [continuing gov't spend to stimulate economy that Pres. Bush was trying. $200B didn't work- so $800B will?]

Besides the long list of things that don't affect the nation's infrastructure [see Heritage Foundation's list], there's something else you should be aware of:

An amendment was added that will significantly affect your health care, and create another bureaucratic organization.

opinion article re. health care amendment on Bloomberg

the gov't telling doctors what they should and shouldn't be doing to treat you; ie, the rationing plan

5 most misleading BHO statements

10) Obama Lobbyists: making lots of money post-campaign on K St -OR- over a dozen exceptions made to let them work for the Administration

11) NOVA show re. FISA, NSA, etc.

12) The Internet, the First Amendment, and You. Could bloggers be sued for telling the truth?

13) Minnesota Senate Race / Recount Update

14) A Manual for the White House.

15) Local News: Streetcars for Alexandria? Expanding the public transit in the Arlington/Alexandria area.

16) Another note or two re. the USS Port Royal (remember, the Navy ship that got stuck out by Hawaii?)

17) Local News: New NOVA political blog that I found

And more to come!