This will be short, since I'm already a few days late with submission... My six year old IMac had a fried hard drive just after Marc sent out the request. I had to get repairs and restore from my backup drive, which went amazingly well.
Anyways, the last two years at the Elkins' household were little different than the previous two. I received the highest award given to FedEx employees for my work last year, mostly on Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. I thought I was close one other year, but had failed to get nominated, so I was very happy to get it last year even though the work was not technical in nature. In fact, all my work these days involve processes and intra-company coordination among our domestic and international divisions. Still no plans to move to Memphis to join the rest of my department... Greentown, Ohio is very much home to us now.
Gina still works for Timken and is still the marketing coordinator for commodity automotive bearings... No profit margin and little growth, but it allows the company to sell more profitable bearings to the same customers for more specialized applications. The company has changed quite a bit since I had joined with the MIT internship program in 1983. The automotive part of the business used to be about 50% or more... now it's less than 30%. Industrial applications and Steel have been much more profitable the last few years. At least they are more financially healthy than most of the automotive suppliers out there...
Joel (10) and Willis (8) are doing all the normal kid's stuff... Joel is still small for his age as Willis is almost the same height. It has made playing sports a challenge for him, although he does his best and enjoys it. Joel is getting ready to go into Boy Scouts next year and is intent on being an Eagle Scout some day... Willis generally follows in Joel's footsteps, so he will probably follow later. Gina and I both work with the cub scout pack... Gina will be Willis' den lead starting this year and I've been doing the pack awards for the last couple of years. I was also an MIT educational counselor this last year and will continue for the next few years... This involves interviewing students in the fall for the admissions office. As things stand today, I'm not sure that I would have been accepted into MIT if I had to apply. They've become incredible selective due to the large number of applicants. I saw a little bit of myself in all of the applicants that I interviewed, but only 1 out of 5 got accepted. I did learn something else as well... I hope my kid's grow up to want to be something more than video game programmers.
The only thing that really changes from year to year is our vacations... Last year we went to Yellowstone/Grand Tetons and Mount Rushmore. Had a good time, but it was very crowded and as Gina says "How many thermal features can you look at?" and "Those big noses on the Presidents creep me out!" The highlight was probably hiking to the top of Mount Washburn, the highest point on Yellowstone. Unfortunately, we discovered that Joel gets altitude sickness (mostly headaches) around 10000 feet. All in all, our trip the year before to Arches, Canyonlands, and Mesa Verde was more memorable. We also went to Washington, DC over Columbus Day weekend and met with our local House member. He has the second longest tenure in the House so his office was in an ideal location for a picture with him... A perfect view of the Capitol building in the window behind his desk. Our biggest adventure is yet to come... By the time you read this, we will probably be in Norway for a 2 week trip through fjord country. I've been wanting to do this for 10 years and finally put everything together. Mainly, we're just renting a car and staying in a mix of camping cabins, house rentals, farm inns, and local hotels. We'll be leaving August 9th.
Will be looking forward to all of the other submissions!
Kerry, Gina, Joel and Willis Elkins