As we prepare to move back east, I've been thinking a lot about all the things that have happened during our time in California over the last 10 years.

There turn out to be quite a few significant events, most of them good, but not all. We've seen and done quite a bit as a direct result of living out here (mostly because of meeting people), yet other things have come to pass and come to affect us that would have been the case no matter our location.

1) Most obvious: Kelley; 9/11; Y2K; Shelley's father passing.

2) Lord of the Rings movies; DVDs; TiVo; MP3s; digital cameras; cell phones (some of these already existed, but not in our little world like they do now, and all to much greater extent than in 1997).

3) We had never made a stock transaction. We had never experienced an earthquake.

4) Trips to new places: Peru, Iceland, Egypt, Italy, Hawai'i, Death Valley, Idaho, Catalina Island. (And some trips to familiar places: England three times.)

5) New pets: Sparky, Earl Grey, Nimitz.

6) New activities: kayaking; much cycling; violin; panoramas; World of Warcraft; many new boardgames.

7) And of course the people we met (or re-met) out here. Not so many for me; quite a few for Shelley.



And speaking of heading back east, it seems that the folks at Cornell have decided against a video interview and instead are flying me out to Ithaca for a face-to-face grilling on the 23rd.

(I suspect they looked at the charges for the Kinko's video conferencing services and decided it made more sense to skip that and just go for the on-site visit.)

If time allows, I'll hook up with a real estate agent and visit some potential new homes.