Friends & Family

It’s been four months since my last post so I figure it’s time to break the silence, so to speak. Life threw some changes my way and it’s taken me several months to adapt. The two biggest changes were the birth of my son, Zachary, on March 6th and starting a new job with Wolverine World Wide on April 5th. Both were full of what can only be described as a nervous excitement but reflecting back on them now, I’m very happy with how things have turned out.

Zach was born via cesarean after roughly 28 hours of labor in which he would not drop down for a normal delivery. We brought him home and every day since has been a learning experience – how much he eats, sleeps, and plays has constantly changes as he matures. Now at nearly 11 weeks, Zach continues to grow in a multitude of ways and increasingly brings joy to my days while losing some of the neediness of a newborn. We’ve even started traveling with him: We took a trip up to Traverse City for a long weekend a few days ago and things went better than I had expected!

On the job front, I’m settling in well to my new role doing similar work to what I was doing at Steelcase: enterprise data warehousing and analysis (SAP BW). I was looking for a better work/life balance (i.e. not working 50+ hour weeks and always being on call), better benefits (401k matching, bonus, pension, etc), and better pay. I found it all at Wolverine with only one down side: a longer commute. I’m now 18 miles one way versus 5 miles. Oh well, can’t win them all.

I hope to get back into a regular habit of posting things I find interesting now that things have calmed down a bit. Time will tell if I’m successful!

Kellie and I hosted a birthday party for Kellie’s sister, Allison, last Friday night. We made some tasty white chicken chili paired with a white table wine from Menage a Trois – very good. After stuffing ourselves with dinner, the ladies played cards while the guys played video games. I hadn’t played Smash Bros on the Wii in ages.

On Saturday, I undertook a project that I’ve been both dreading and looking forward to: a brake upgrade on the Audi TT. Back in July, I was informed by the dealership that my brakes were nearly expired… and they wanted $1400 to fix them. I sourced some better parts on the aftermarket for a fraction of that and they’ve been sitting in the garage ever since. I spent five hours on Saturday (including a trip to Autozone for a 7mm hex 3/8 socket and Sears for a new jack – it started leaking oil on the first lift and died halfway up the second lift) and three hours on Sunday (including another trip to Autozone for a 8mm hex 3/8 socket). Even if I valued my time at $125 an hour, I still came out ahead. They look so much better and work perfectly so far.

Before

During

After

It’s been a little while since I’ve updated so here’s what I’ve been up to. The weekend of the 10th, I attended Hope’s Homecoming activities and my class’ five year reunion. It was a full day packed with fun things to do and catching up with several old friends. We had brunch in the morning followed by our class picture. After some exploring of campus, we headed to the football game and tailgating/picnic’ing. Some warm hot chocolate was in order afterward so we patronized JPs before attending the class party at New Holland Brewery. Here are some photos!

http://picasaweb.google.com/chad.kettner/HopeHomecoming5YearReunion

Last week went by in a blur. I had two quick days in the office and spent Wednesday and Thursday working out of the High Point, North Carolina office. I caught the corporate jet down and back so it was a breeze but still very busy… I even made it to class Thursday night. Friday morning we left for Traverse City on our annual wine and color tour. It was a beautiful weekend full of wining and dining, shopping, visiting friends, and of course, relaxing. For photos, check the following link.

http://picasaweb.google.com/chad.kettner/WineColorTour2009

Sorry to keep it short but I’m writing this between running jobs at work. Yes, still working at 10 PM!

Kellie and I just returned from a fantastic weekend in North Carolina with her extended family. Her cousin Trista was a gorgeous bride and all the festivities were magnificent. My personal highlight of the trip was creating a dance routine to Thriller with two other guys, teaching it to 20 of the family, and then dancing for the bride and groom in wolfpack masks. It was a blast!

http://picasaweb.google.com/chad.kettner/HesterTellierWedding

It’s been a busy week: last Thursday and Friday I worked in Waterloo, Canada and flew on the corporate jet for the first time. I was home Saturday but spent the whole day drywalling the garage with some dedicated friends. Sunday and Monday were spent gone on vacation to Frankenmuth and Tuesday through Thursday I was gone working in High Point, North Carolina. I enjoy the busyness of go-go-go weeks for the most part but it’s always nice when you get back home and have plans to stay a while.

While in High Point, I had dinner with Bryan and Hayley Williams (cousins of my wife) at their new home in Thomasville – about ten minutes away from my hotel. We had grilled chicken and pineapple, beans, and potatoes – a nice meal and a welcome reprieve from the usual on-the-go food typical of business trips. I also had dinner with a coworker of mine (Suzanna) and her husband and son. One conversation that I enjoyed was about geocaching – using a GPS device to find hidden treasures planted by other geocachers. It sounded interesting and I’d heard about it before but never met someone who was involved. Mark convinced me to give it a try so I checked out the website when I got back to the hotel room and was surprised to see that a cache was planted near the Fairfield Inn where I was staying! This couldn’t be just coincidence, right? Using the Nuvi and doing some searching, I found the cache. All in all a neat experience and I’m sure this won’t be the last one I find.

http://picasaweb.google.com/chad.kettner/NorthCarolinaJuly2009

I’m finishing up a great weekend as I type this. Friday night we held a cookout at our condo and had about 16 people show up for hamburgers and snacks. We had great weather for it and the only thing that could have made the evening better would have been a win in game 7 by the Wings. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be.

Saturday morning was the Brian Diemer 5k race in Cutlerville. Having went sub 20 on this course last year, I didn’t have any specific goal in mind. Instead, I decided to see if a friend of mine would be interested in a pacer on her way to going sub 25. She agreed and we came in at 24:51! Congrats again Jen! Phil also had a great run and came in a few minutes after us.

Saturday evening was the Local First Street party downtown. Featuring Founder’s beer and food from several local Grand Rapids eateries, the street party was hopping with the addition of live music on a stage set up at one end. Ran into a lot of people from work and had a great time chatting with some friends.

Sunday morning Kellie and I had breakfast with my parents at a new (for us) restaurant in East Town called Brandywine. The food was good and there’s something neat about trying out new places – and enjoying good company and conversation at the same time.

I spent the afternoon on condo projects and made some headway on the garage. I’ve got 8 batts in the ceiling, half the garage door covered, and some of the top edges of the garage done too.

I’m hoping to do the other half of the garage door myself but will need Kellie’s help to finish the ceiling… so it’ll have to be a time we both have available.

I also finished the electrical today with the installation of a switched outlet on the front of the garage. I bought a jigsaw from Lowes and love it! It made easy work of cutting the whole for the box. I hung a wreath and plugged it in for testing purposes tonight (I know – a wreath out in June is crazy!).

Lastly, I dug out the dirt and mulch covering the siding on the side of the garage and am planning to put in a walkway with the ground level below the siding. I have no idea why dirt was ever allowed to cover the siding but it’s now fixed. There’s a lot of damage done to the siding from this (as is evidenced in the picture) – but it shouldn’t get any worse.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

I’m happy to be home today.. back from what feels like a month of traveling. I’ve had two or three week long business trips plus a week long vacation in Alabama all sandwiched together and it feels like I’m flying from here to there every third day. I’m back home for this week and fly out again next week for Dallas. No trips for several months after that please. I’m worn out! I’m only looking forward to Dallas because I’ll get to see John and Jenni down there!

http://picasaweb.google.com/chad.kettner/NewOrleansOrangeBeachSpringBreak2009

Decked out in pirate garb we picked up at a discount this afternoon, Kellie and I headed to a Halloween party at Bailey’s Grove. Check us out!

Arrrhhhh! Scuuurvy.

After wrapping up the conference on Wednesday, I took the rest of the day to visit Epcot with my parents (who flew down Tuesday night). We hit all the major rides and enjoyed the wine and food event going on at all of the countries. Thursday, we visited Hollywood Studios and stayed for the fantastic show Fantasmic. Friday, we wrapped up with Animal Kingdom. It was an awesome trip!

http://picasaweb.google.com/chad.kettner/DisneyWorld2008

This evening I discovered that playing chef is deeply satisfying. Kellie and I invited Katie and her husband Bryan over for dinner at our condo and I seized the opportunity to prepare a delicious and appealing four-course meal (at least in my opinion!). I chose an Italian theme for the evening and sourced most of my ingredients from Fresh Market this afternoon. That store has some of the freshest and most organic ingredients compared to the traditional grocery stores in the area. I’m a fan now. For an appetizer, I mixed together ten seasonings and spices with olive oil for dipping with some warm Italian bread. Next was a pear and walnut spring salad with added chicken for those of us who aren’t vegetarian. Any guess as to the dressing used? If you said Italian… well, you’d be right. The main course was Quinoa Risotto with Parmesan (substituted by necessity to Colby Jack) cheese, another excellent dish from my favorite boot-shaped country. After playing some Wii and enjoying some wine, I finished with Zabaglione drizzled over vanilla ice cream flanked by raspberries. It was my masterpiece and if I never cook another meal, I’ll still die a happy man.

It was great to catch up with the VanDorn’s too. Tonight renews my desire to reconnect and maintain friendships with those I’ve lost touch with due to busyness and distance.