Toadfrogs and Elephants

Kendall and James are a couple from our church that live in Greenville. We see them every week at either church or bible study, but we haven’t spent social time with them in ages. We all agreed that a dinner out together would be fun. There is a restaurant in downtown Anderson called Sullivan’s that is very good, but we don’t often go. James had been before and wanted to introduce Kendall to it. We decided on Thursday night. Then it turned out I had to go to dinner with some folks in from Milwaukee for work. Kendall said Tuesday would work so we moved our dinner up a few nights. Then James had to work late. We tried Wednesday, but I had too much work to do that night. Finally – on Friday night we all got together. Dinner was excellent, but the best part about Sullivan’s is the dessert. They have a case full of scrumptious desserts. Between the four of us we had – key lime pie, oreo cheesecake, lemon blueberry cheesecake, and ice cream (Wade of course). Before dinner was over, Wade had gotten Kendall involved in our bathroom redesign. It was a fun evening for all and I am still full!

I posted some pictures of our dogwood trees earlier, but now our azaleas are in full bloom. I love the people who put so much time and effort into this yard. It would never have looked like this if it were up to us.

I know I used to have lots of free time. In fact, I remember days when I was bored. At least, I think I remember those days. Now I don’t seem to have an extra minute in the day. Most of this story is about my job so I’ll start at the beginning – February 2006.

When we were moving from Atlanta to Anderson, Wade’s new boss was very interested in me as a patent agent. I interviewed and he offered me a job with TTI (Wade’s company). In the end, I didn’t take the job because Scientific-Atlanta offered to let me work from home. About October, I knew working from home for Scientific-Atlanta wasn’t going to work. Scientific-Atlanta had only given me one small project since August. I contacted Wade’s company and they were still interested in hiring me. They even flew Wade and me up to Milwaukee so I could meet with the IP department there. However, TTI was getting a new CEO and making some organizational changes so everything was moving very slowly.

In the meantime, I found a job with a Chicago based law firm working from home. The law firm does contract work for the PTO so I was once again searching and writing PCT opinions. This company doesn’t care how much or how little I do. They pay per application, but they have benefits and handle all the taxes. I’m actually really enjoying this work. They are truly set up for contract employees to work from home.

To make a long story, longer. I finally got a call from Wade’s company. They asked me to come in and meet with the head of their HR department and their general counsel. Later that day they called and offered me a job, which I accepted. Now I am back to a full time job and very little time at home. I am really enjoying the job. The company is doing fun things with their IP department.