Change

You have to love it when the perfect thing falls in your lap. Several weeks ago, my partner in epidemiologic crime called me and said, "hey, we've got this job, we've got this money; it screams for your brain---are you in?" After nailing down the details, it looks like about 15 hours per week of developing reporting criteria based on the results of the disease surveillance system that I invested my heart and soul in for many years. The impetus is the Inaugural and we'll be aggregating data across the entire DC-metropolitan area and passing it to the federales to support their "situational awareness" of potentially malicious activity. Oh yeah. I'm in. First meeting next week.

All appearances are that the work could extend beyond early 2009 so I'm scurrying about collecting information on bona fide self-employment, start-up costs, whether or not I need to be concerned with establishing an LLC just now, and my favorite of all: I'm going to need a much more mobile laptop than the one I'm flying just now. How much do I love new gadgets?---totally, totally. Have you guys spied the micro-laptops? I'm loving the Dell Mini Inspiron 9 . Weighing in at just a teeny bit over 2 pounds, it sports a 16 gig hard drive, 1 gig of RAM, a decent speed processor and will be perfect for taking to workgroups. The heavy analytical work will still be done at home with my serious pc but at just under $500---it would be hard to go wrong.

Its the right gig for me: small obligation, good pay, mostly all the work to be done independently in my home (read: hair and makeup optional) and via conference call. It is, actually, the only job I would really want. Its something I know and love with people I understand (some of whom I adore). Yay me!

In other news:
Knitting club is going well. We've added a second day each week and this group of students is really picking things up quickly. Good times.

I picked my guitar back up, determined this time to learn what I need to know. So far, so good.

Haley is killing the fifth grade. Wow. A and L seem to be taking their time about displaying their academic talents but that's OK, too.