New Year - a little late!

2012!?  The years just keep rolling by, don't they?  This is my much-delayed new year's eve reminiscing.  Actually I'm only half a month late so I suppose it could be a lot worse.  This will be a short post though because I'm not really in the mood to be deeply philosophical.  Still I've looked back every year, so I'll look back at least briefly today. 

Let's see.  Overall I'd have to say 2011 was pretty good to me.  I'm actively involved in work and everything is going well there. I'm actively involved in my national professional organization and everything is going well there.  I got my promotion to professor, with a raise, and in December we got a good bonus which paid for Christmas and then some.  My life and work seem to be on a pretty nice even-keel for a change. 

So personally, things are going well, but there are also a LOT of changes going on at my work.  The department has a new Chair, and with a new Chair come changes, so that's one aspect of it.  Add to that, our interim Division head has decided she doesn't want the position and is leaving, so we'll have a new Division Head in another month.  And add to that our lab administrative director left in December.  Whenever there is this much change, people are nervous and unsettled.  I've ridden so many changes at this place that I'm sure I can ride these too, but it is a pretty excessive amount of change in a fairly short period of time this time.  It'll be interesting to see how the department grows.    

Family-wise things are going well, too.  I have a new niece-in-law, with my oldest nephew getting married in November.  My nieces and nephews all make me so proud.  What a great group of kids.  Plus I have four grand-nieces now.  Maybe my newly married nephew and his wife will add a boy to that mix along the way.  So far I'd have to say that my nephews have excellent taste in women.  All my nieces-in-law are good-looking girls.  So of course my grand-nieces are perfect.  *laughing*  Which is not to say that my nieces and nephews aren't good-looking.  As I mentioned, I have nephews ands nieces to be proud of.

So what about the new year?  I think this year I may buy a new house.  I like my little house, but the commute is getting really old.  I'm seriously considering moving to somewhere close to the rail lines.  That will be my big project for the year, probably.  At work I have lots of projects to work on to keep me busy.  Maybe I'll consider losing some weight and getting back into better shape.  And of course I always have lots of around-the-house projects that I never seem to get to. The cat-kids and I are fat and happy.  It should be a good year, I think.