Because you are reading this, we can only assume that you like reading Christmas letters. I like them, but they seem to be frowned upon in some quarters, so we figured if you took the time to type in the URL, you too enjoy these missives.
A lot of stuff happened this year.
Jonathan was invited to participate in a western section conference of the American Mathematical Society to be held at the University of Hawai’i – Manoa. If Mr. Lubin is going to Hawai’i, Mr. King is too. So we spent about a week and a half there, mainly on the Big Island after the conference on Oahu. We both composed travelogues for our trip.
In early June, I left my job at MannKind Corporation after almost 10½ years. I had been on a retention package for the previous 18 months, after the last RIF – there were 12 of us left in R&D working on the oncology programs. The board of directors made a decision not to spend any more money on them, and look to partner/self-fund them. In late May, after the job dwindled to doing nothing but sitting at my desk. I did have an offer to relocate to the Danbury site and was giving it serious consideration. However, the position was a "parking spot" for a year until the position I was interested in overseeing the implementation of the Pfizer insulin technology opened up. I decided that I had been “idle” for almost 2 years professionally, and another year, even working on formulation projects, wasn't professionally wise. So after I turned down the relocation, I asked for the severance portion of the retention package, and left on June 5th with 6-months of salary and benefits to begin my job search in earnest.
Jobs in my field don’t pop up, so I figured it would take several months before finding a new one, and in the meantime, I was going to enjoy a summer off-work.
One of the first things we did was to decide to drive to Thomas Family reunion in Cadiz KY, where we partook in the annual festivities – mainly eating and visiting. A great time was had. While the drive out from Pasadena was a direct shot out I-40, our return trip was designed to be a bit more convoluted when we got west of Denver. After spending the night in Evergreen CO where we visited Alan and Mayra Delp and their daughters Samira and Jana, and enjoyed the splendid meal they prepared for us. We also got the opportunity to skype with Alan’s mother, Kaca, Jonathan’s friend of longest standing (over 60 years). The next day we got off I-70 and drove north through the Rockies to Steamboat Springs, then west into Utah and north again to Rock Springs WY. The drive north from Vernal UT to Rock Springs on US 191 was one of the highlights of the trip. If you get the chance, you should drive that route. From WY we drove through Utah, bypassing Salt Lake City, going through Provo, and then taking US 6 to Ely NV for the next nights stay. From there we continued across Utah, picking up I-80 near Fallon NV, and thence into the Bay area to visit the Michael Lubin clan.
We spent an enjoyable two weeks at the vacation house in Pine Point ME. We both wrote up travelogues for that trip also.
The August Party followed close upon our return from Maine on the 18th and was its usual rousing success – we had 97 guests in 97°F weather. The heat wasn’t that bad, as over half the guests opted for the deck and yard, even with the A/C running inside.
In late August, Mark flew out to Eagan MN to interview with a private biotech, Biothera, for a position overseeing process development. After discussions, the title of the position was changed to Director of CMC Development, and they offered him the updated job, which he accepted in September starting in mid-October. Shortly afterwards, we put the Pasadena house on the market.
About one week before we were to drive off to Minnesota to deliver Mark to the job, Jonathan had a health scare. Long story short – he fainted/collapsed, got taken to the emergency room where, hooked up to the heart monitor, his heart stopped for 40 seconds. If you can plan your cardiac arrest, doing so surrounded by all sorts of competent medical professionals is the way to do it. The nurse administered CPR and got his heart started again. Then next day, a pacemaker was implanted, and he came home the next day, less than 48 hours from when he first collapsed, with the blessing from the cardiologist to drive to Saint Paul (StP) the next week. A number of prayers of thanksgiving for our good fortune have been offered.
The trip to StP took us a little out of the way, if you call Yellowstone “out of the way”. We only drove through the park and only stopped once for some photos, but it was a most pleasant drive.
Once in StP, I took up temporary residence at my friend and coworker Dar Rosario’s apartment while we looked at houses. We found three candidates including one that I had noted while exploring the site Zillow.com. The loft we were ready to make an offer on apparently was already under contract, so after revisiting the other two candidates, we offered on the house we had spotted on Zillow. We closed on the house on November 27th.
Meanwhile, the house in Pasadena had the interesting challenge of the city not having records (permits) for the second bathroom, nor the superstructure over the deck. The buyer wanted to remodel the bathroom herself and deal with that permit, so we contacted our friends (and the original builders of the deck) Paul and Chris Richards to resolve the deck permit. Chris is an excellent project manager, and with great diligence she shepherded the permit through the process. After Paul installed the brackets recommended by our engineer/architect, it was two business days before they had the permit signed off, several days ahead of the closing date of December 7th.
We had our house packed up and loaded on the truck the first week of December, with an arrival in StP the next week. We picked up the cats at the vet Wednesday morning the 5th, and hit the road to a chorus of feline complaint.
They settled down somewhat after a couple of hours, but grumbled and muttered the rest of the day as we drove through some rather scenic landscapes - the Virgin River canyon on I-15 in Arizona is notable. We drove north, and turned east on I-70 as the sun set, and got to Grand Junction CO after 8pm. We let the hobbits have the run of the hotel room, and after a certain period of letting off energy, they settled down and slept on the beds. Tillie got the privacy of the bathroom overnight, but we let her out the following morning.
The next morning, we stuffed the cats back in the carriers and departed about 6am. The cats settled down quickly and were quiet most of the day. Along I-70, we drove through several canyons as the day was just brightening through an overcast that was spitting rain. Even in the subdued lighting, a beautiful sight. The spitting rain turned to snow as we got high into the Rockies, and through the Vail pass there was slush at the margins of the road and occasionally down the center of the lane. That was left behind as we descended into Denver where it was dry and partly cloudy.
From Denver, we took I-76 up to Nebraska and caught I-80 to Omaha. The landscape is flat and not terribly interesting until late in the day when the setting sun changes the light. The brown fields become golden against an expansive blue sky with purple clouds - very beautiful in its own right. We pulled into the hotel in Omaha after 15 hours on the road. This time we let all cats have the run of the room, with the same release of energy.
We got off a little before 6am the next morning continuing east on I-80 to Des Moines and then north on I-35. We pulled into the Four Paws Pet Resort at noon where we checked the fur faces into their accommodations where they stayed until the furniture arrived.
In the meantime, the Twin Cities got their first substantial snowfall of the season, 12 inches, on the intervening Sunday. Our new neighbors shoveled the walks for us as a house-warming present (thanks Bonnie!), and conspired with us to park in front of the house the day before the moving van arrived, so the following morning there was a big opening for them to back the truck into. Once all the sh. . .tuff was in the house, we collected the cats, and brought them home where they’ve adapted quickly.
Since then, we’ve been unpacking boxes; frequently thinking “we should’ve gotten rid of that”. The next August Party may include a yard sale and flea market.