July 29 , 2006

The biggest news these days is that I've resigned from Oracle, effective August 9. On August 28 I start a job at Intuit, managing the User Experience Design group in the healthcare financial product line. It's a relatively new group, growing, working on an exciting new product. There were many reasons for this change; it's mostly about needing to work in a culture that values employees more. While I have no regrets about spending 12 1/2 years at Oracle, learning about new technologies and working on interesting projects with smart people, it just started to not be enough to overcome by issues with the organization as a whole. There are a lot of people and other things I'll miss, but I'm excited about the new venture.

We continue to make progress on the house. We got new furniture - a new couch for the family room, two new living room chairs, and new covers for the dining room chairs. We're now about to start the drywall work in the family room, and to get some new lights installed in the family room and living room. We're shopping for tile for around the fireplace and in the front entry, and for carpeting. Exciting stuff!

Kate got glasses on March 28. Seems to be a family tradition...

We've been doing a lot of traveling in the last few months. I went to Bangalore, India on a business trip for a week in April, then Val was gone for two weeks on business/recreation, to Capetown, South Africa and London. Val and I went to Carmel Valley for a long weekend for our 5-year anniversary, then Val went for a week in Hong Kong on business, then I went to Berlin for 6 days on vacation. Whew!

Other interesting things we've done over the last few months;

Val's stepsisters Jenny and Debra lost their dad to cancer in June, and we attended his memorial celebration on June 11th.

It's been a busy, hectic, crazy, and fun few months.