Wow…2006 went by in a hurry…so fast, in fact, that it’s already 2007 and I’m just now writing something. If you were on our Christmas letter list, some of this probably isn’t news to you. If not, read on…
I’ve spent the last 18 months working on the Tassimo coffee system. Specifically, I’ve been working on the liquid milk concentrate that we use for cappuccino and latte. Late last year, we started to set up a line to make the product in the US. So, I went into full-blown road warrior mode, making 32 trips to scenic Allentown, PA in 2006 to support the project. Along the way, I accumulated a lot of frequent flyer miles, hotel points, rental car points, etc, and my butt has been forcibly shaped to pair with a coach seat on United. Fortunately, it wasn’t “all work and no play”. Had a lot of fun with my team outside the plant. Had my first flaming Sambuca shot. My liver works better now than it did in college. Still made it into the 7am team meeting every day.
Back home, Marcie and I did a lot of work on the house. The kitchen renovation we started last fall got done in early 2006. Then, we built a cedar fence in the backyard (from scratch, no less!) over Memorial Day weekend. If you need any cedar planks for smoking food on, just let me know…I’ve got about 400 1-foot pieces of cedar in the shed. Toward the end of the summer, we started on renovation of our 2nd bathroom. We tore everything down to the studs, expanded the shower (which included building a custom shower pan), redid everything in porcelain tile, new fixtures, the works. Unfortunately, my 4-5 days/week on the road made it slow going, so we wrapped that one up in November finally. I also managed to slice off part of the tip of my thumb – knife accident while scoring cement backerboard. Fortunately, the only lasting result was that the tip of my thumb is now slightly asymmetric.
Now, 2007 is a blank slate. Around the house, I don’t have any major projects on my plate. At work, my part of Tassimo is wrapping up, so I’ll probably be getting into something new. We’ll see what this year brings…