by Late as this missive is, perhaps I should title it the New Year’s Eve letter. 🙂
Almost a year ago, Monica and I rang in 2019 in style by trying – and failing – to keep up with the (Doug and Lisa) Joneses!
After that, the new year unfolded more or less as we’d hoped and expected.
Work-wise, we continued our jobs at the A&M System, me at the System Offices in IT and she at the Engineering Extension Service (TEEX). No major surprises on this front, which I appreciate! I’ll add that 2020 looks to be an interesting year as my team will spend most of our time moving a very large financial system from the IBM mainframe to Windows, as God and nature intended. That should be fun!
I finished my last class in Georgia Tech’s OMSCS program by taking their Machine Learning class: This one was interesting, but a killer time-wise. It seemed I had no life outside of work and school until May 1st! Monica was a “machine learning widow”, in fact.
Of course, that was not completely true: I found time to play a little disc golf, the official Moore Dynasty family sport, and banged in two aces early in the semester before things got too crazy.
How crazy? Working our day jobs, with me locked in a death bout with Machine Learning, we decided to buy a house in Bryan and move “to town” at the first of March.
We’ve been very happy with the move so far. After the initial pain of moving, we’ve settled into city life again and are enjoying the shorter commute times and easy access to stores, restaurants, and cocktail bars. The biggest adjustment was made by Tucker and Dagny, who, now that I’ve made them a dog door, patrol the back yard with ease. They demand daily walks/runs around the block in return for guarding the house.
We took two quick trips to North Carolina in the spring. The first was to welcome Ryker into Mitchell’s growing family at the end of March.
The second visit came after my graduation from Georgia Tech in Atlanta. Georgia Tech has a very nice campus and is an oasis in the middle of downtown Atlanta.
Now things could settle down to the new normal. Whew!
David moved back in with us in August and it’s been nice having him around to shoot pool with and to take care of the dogs when we want to get away for a bit.
Jake and Amberly live pretty close and while we don’t see as much of them as we’d like, we have found time to celebrate birthdays and other events with them.
Jake’s job keeps him very busy. Between the night shift, special duties, and overtime, he puts in a lot of hours trying to keep this town livable. He’s also written his own Christmas Letter for the year.
One short getaway we were able to take in August led us back to Galveston. Whenever I am at the beach, I think that I would like to retire somewhere with an ocean view. So don’t be surprised if that happens a decade (or more) hence.
On this trip, we discovered the modern miracle that is the Frozen Mojito, an amazing adult beverage served at the Rum Shack on the sea wall. Suddenly I am ready for summer and another trip to the beach!
In September we celebrated our 30th anniversary with a trip to Kyle Field to see the Aggies play Auburn.
And burn I did: That big ol’ forehead was peeling as bad as my old Ford pickup’s paint job a couple of days later.
Since then I’ve been practicing diligently on the Epiphone Monica got me as a gift. I now regret some life choices made in my youth: Failing to take my dad’s advice to learn to play as a teenager, not participating in band, etc. It’s been fun learning to play and is quite a challenge. Also, it is very painful for someone with tender IT-guy fingertips.
Unfortunately, soon after this Monica’s close friend Paula Mallett passed away too soon. They had worked side-by-side for 11 years and become close friends and Paula and Danny’s son Will is Dave’s best friend.
Fall flew by in a blur. Some fun events we don’t have any pictures of:
- Our trip to Austin for my cousin Erin’s baby shower and a tour of their new house with Andy, Vera, Kristen, and Brucek
- Our first Halloween with trick-or-treaters in almost 15 years. I dressed up in my scary monk outfit, Disappointingly, no one seemed properly terrified
- Thanksgiving at our “new” house in Bryan with Dad, Sharon, Jake, Amberly, and David
In December, we celebrated Monica’s birthday with trips to Burger House for the best hamburger in Bryan/College Station and to the Bryan Police Department to report the porch pirate who stole Monica’s 2020 calendars right off of our front porch! Jerks.
That weekend we took in a quick basketball game and went to see Die Hard, the best Christmas movie ever, at the Queen Theatre, our favorite old-time theater.
For Christmas, we flew to North Carolina to visit Oren and Ryker (and Mitch and BethAnne, too). I promptly either caught a cold or had a massive allergy attack that laid me low and is the reason why this letter didn’t get written on time!
Despite my sinuses, Mitch and I were able to find time to play a couple of rounds of disc golf in the nice weather, pollen be damned!
With that, you are up-to-date with regard to the happenings of this branch of the Moore Dynasty.
Next up, ringing in the New Year with Dad and Sharon – assuming any of us actually stay awake until midnight! in some fashion, TDB…
God bless and a Happy 2020 to you,
Marc and Monica
