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2008 Year in Review

Greetings Friends, Family, Casual Visitors,

This post is my first attempt at a holiday year-in-review for myself and Vero, and generally a way to get in touch with everyone and share what's up with our lives.

First off, welcome to PNN! This is where I've been working as their front-end engineer/ css-dude for the past 2 1/2 years. This means that I've written most of the code that displays the different elements of this site in your browser correctly. I've also done some design here, both in site and element design, as well as themes. I made the current theme you see now over the summer (it's called Sunny Day). Another design (space-themed) I'm quite proud of can be seen at my website jonmadden.info.

So, 2008. First up, Vero (BS Physics) and I (BA Sociology) graduated from UCSC in June. College ended incredibly fast. We had a lovely graduation dinner at a secluded and fern-covered Capitola restaurant called Shadowbrooke.

After graduation came a hasty house-hunting in SF, which ended with our current apartment in Park Merced. We're living on the top (12th) story of a tower here, and have a lovely view of the lake, golf courses, and the ocean. For more, see the "New Apartment" tab above.

After we moved in early July, we drove down to LA to see Eddit Izzard perform at the Kodak Theatre (which I'm told is where the Oscars are). The performance was pretty awesome, though the sweltering drive in my little car (without A/C) and dodging LA truckers was... intense to say the least. I am more or less resolved to never drive to or in LA again.

Starting in August Vero started going to Golden Gate University to get an MBA with an emphasis in marketing. Meanwhile I picked up a second tele-commute job with extension media, which has been an opportunity to learn more serious web and database programming.

In October we watched the Blue Angels from mid-span on the Golden Gate Bridge, and it was pretty awesome. Multiple times the jets flew right over the bridge, felt like you could touch them.

In leisure life, we've starting playing Dungeons and Dragons with two of Vero's high school friends who are now living in Oakland. I've been the Dungeon Master, and having a lot of fun making adventures and plot, as well as making table-top sets of cut-out monsters. Who knew dice could be so fun?

Puppy Gate '08

Sometime in early Fall I starting pining to get a dog. Shortly after Thanksgiving I made up my mind and impetuously we drove to Merced, CA, to adopt James Bond (seen gratuitously to the right). We found him in a pretty sad state - the shelter was very over-crowded, the animals received no individual care, and due to these problems and lack of funding, lots of their animals are regularly put down. When we first met Bond, he had no interest other than running around outside. He was surprisingly good in the car ride home, and after a bath was a real dog.

We're still not quite sure what breed he is. Merced labelled him as Basenji, but he clearly has a lot of something else as well. I suspect Border Collie. His bark is a normal dog's bark, though he is the most quiet dog I've ever met. He's a surprisngly strong dog for just 26lbs, but also very calm for looking to be a Collie. For the record, the Vet thought him as Border-Collie/Terrier.

After a few hours of being home, he wanted nothing than to be cuddled and loved. After a few days, he started to play more actively and could almost keep up with me on runs.

Unfortunately after four days it became clear that Vero was very allergic and shortly we ultimately surrendered him to the San Francisco city shelter, which is a nice place with large kennels and a running yard. The net result of the puppy fiasco is sadness, but also the knowledge that we helped Bond be a happy dog, and moved him to a good no-kill shelter where he'll ultimately have a better life than we found him.

Vero News

In other news, Vero received as a graduation present a very lovely digital Camera, which has been used to take most of the photos seen here. She's become quite good with. The jelly fish are from a recent post-xmas trip to the monterey bay aqaurium, and the flowers are one of her favorites.

Vero has also picked the knitting habit, and by picked up I mean she has been consumed like some zombie knitting plague that spreads over the internet. She's making hats, sweaters, many scarves, baby socks. My main xmas gift to her was a yarn-spree in Monterey.

Holiday Time

For the Holidays, we spent four days up to Xmas eve in Petaluma. My Dad, Sabrina and Kippling came over for xmas dinner, along with the Morgenthaller extended family and we had quite a lovely time. Xmas morning we drove down to Monterey to spend a few days with her family, and even got to go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Cheers to a Happy New Year,

Best Wishes to All, and Happy Holidays!

- Jon + Vero

(p.s. Please comment below to say 'hi', or even make your own PNN account!)

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