Recently we had a joint celebration of both the Easter Holiday along with Amy and Janelle's B-day. As is obvious the girls had a good time opening some fun gifts from the whole family crew. Amy sure does love candy!! This was followed by a couple of good weeks of the usual athletic events and associated fun. I subbed in a few times for the coed 6's team in Renton that my friends the Naps play for. We went 8-1 during my 3 weeks there which felt great and had quite a good time playing with all of them. A silly bunch, we spent much of the time on the court laughing it up at each other's antics during the play. We started the coed 6's league in North Seattle and have my brother back from the knee injury to play a little ball. We have started the first 3 weeks with 2-1 wins in each of the matches to date. I think we stand at 1st or second in the league at this early point. In the men's 6's league we are now into a new season and started with a 4-0 sweep in our first week. We have a bye this week and continue next Sunday. The soccer has wound down with a few tough games but a nice 12-8 win in the finale. There is a final game this coming week for 2 other teams that will decide our fate. A loss or tie by one of the teams puts us in the top 2 of the league a places us in the finale versus the number 1 team in the league for the right to play the champion from the Eastside league. It would be a nice rematch as previously we are 1-1-1 versus the top team in some great games. I am signed up for next season as well and look forward to more fun with some old friends on the team. The men's USAV volleyball season is also winding down. With our recent 3rd place finish once again in Portland we now have a regional event this weekend in Issaquah. We do not have available most of our big guns so it will be interesting to see how we do on the whole, should be a fun one either way. My bro plans to play and it will be great to have him there for the day, we always have a good time. We have then been invited to the Oregon men's regionals on May 5th. We plan to attend that and see if we can get over the hump versus those Oregon punks. It felt great to be asked and to have performed so well on our last 3 travel tournaments. Then at the end of May we have Nationals in Austin, TX to finish the season, it has been a great one. Check out all the updates for my team at: www.madmanvolleyball.com. Recently my friend at work got me a GREAT pair of tickets for a Mariner's game at Safeco Field. Jesse Paulson and I were able to go and enjoy some great sunny Seattle weather and had a really nice time. This weekend I look forward to seeing friend Ryan Nickols as we celebrate his upcoming nuptials this summer at his parent's house which should be quite fun. I also have the volleyball tournament and then next week is Janelle's birthday on April 25th. Fun for all!! The work front has also been going well. I have accelerated my application output and feel confident I will have some options. In the meantime my current projects have been running quite well as I just found out I have a new paper accepted and hope to put out another one in a few weeks. Additionally there is now an option to extend my time here with a slight raise into the next year which might well be a great fit for my current goals of house-hunting in the Seattle area by the end of the year. More to come as all of this develops!!

Another few busy weeks have flown by here in the Northwest as the sun has continued to make some extended visits to the Seattle skies and the flowers/trees are coming into full bloom. It sure has made the walks to work spectacular with all of the color and fresh smells which I have been able to enjoy. Nature is good for the soul my friends!! I do feel like there are times when I run on solar power and really become energized by having a little more exposure to that big halogen flame in the sky once in awhile. The job continues at a good clip as I eagerly await the results of my current manuscript submission, I am hoping for an acceptance on this one which will allow me to focus on the final paper planned before I leave the lab. It also appears that in the meantime I might get some authorship credit in a couple of journal papers that are being done with reagents from our lab that I was crucial in the development of. In addition I have been able to provide technical help to the producing lab. All of this would of course help in beefing up the old resume for the continued job search here in the Emerald City. This last weekend I had a very nice time as Janelle and I were able to host my brother John and his fiancee Amy for our first event in our new condo for a dinner followed some traditional egg dying. Silly fun to be sure but fun nonetheless. We had a great time and produced some pretty good eggs in my estimation. I have posted some pics here so that you can judge our products for yourself. The volleyball has just started up again for the next round of my coed 6's and Sunday night men's 6's for the region. We had a great night of fun with coed last Thursday as we ended 2-1 versus the team that beat us in the final last tournament round. Looks to be another fun round of play with some good buddies. We won the men's league and now seek to defend the title once again as we start those matches this coming Sunday. The indoor soccer is also winding down as we played last Wednesday to a great 11-4 victory and have 2 games remaining. We are still in the hunt to be one of the top 2 teams in the league but will most likely need some help to move up past our current 3rd place position. In any event I had another great attitude experience and almost feel like I have turned another big corner in being okay at sports events with my temper and attitude, only time will tell of course but it is nice to see improvement even in myself. This month we have a final trip for V-ball in Portland to look forward to as well as a tournament near us to finish the month. In addition I hope to visit Trish and Craig in Issaquah, celebrate Amy's birthday on the 14th/Janelle's Birthday on the 25th, and continue to get manuscripts and resumes out the door. Looking forward to the summer months, nationals in Austin, and a trip to Denver to see all the Weaver crew along with my adorable nieces!! More to come!!