The Audi was almost 12 and a half years old. It lived a tough life in the Cleveland winters. The outer body doesn’t show it as much, but 12 years of salt has taken a toll. The rear shocks were pretty much shot as was bits of the electrical.

Today she was traded in for the Subaru Outback that you see up there.

We needed a car that was more reliable and could do a better job of hauling stuff around. The Subaru fit the bill while simultaneously being a car and a hauler. It’s not an SUV; it’s a wagon.

We considered something from BMW or Audi to be the replacement of the A6, but with our present situation of not really driving around that much neither of us thought that dumping extra cash into a  car like that would be worth it for real.

We still have the leather seats and all the fun stuff… but we left the badge behind. Seeing that we might tow something in the future (something like a SylvanSport Go for instance) we got the bigger 3.6l engine.

So far, so good… I’m sure I’ll have more to say in the future.  

A year ago we were mid-move. All of our stuff — well, most of it for the most part — was on a truck en route to a warehouse.

When the furniture, among other things, was finally delivered it came with mostly covered with scratches. We got the estimate for repair. The mover’s insurance paid it.

A few months ago we enlisted Gabel’s to fix it.

Today the result arrived back at the house.

Working with wood is an art form, more so when it comes to finishing it. These guys have it down. The furniture that came today was as good or better than when we got it the first time around.

From working a bit with wood I realize how hard it can be. It’s hard to get a smooth finish. An even finish. A finish that matches the rest of the wood. Knowing how to work with the specific species of wood (mostly cherry in our case). All sorts of questions, techniques, and experience.

I’m just happy we have our storage space back!

A year ago we were getting settled in the small apartment overlooking the Sound and the train. A year ago I just came home from my third day at Amazon.

It’s amazing how time flies.

We had two new people we were adding to the team — one intern and one full time — and we were doing introductions. It was a weekly team meeting and it was my turn. I realized then that I was at Amazon for one year and one day. (Right after another co-worker Andrei walked on his hands…)

It’s been a fun year.

It’s been a big year.

It’s been a stressful year.

It’s been a good year.

I know I’m an odd bird.

I found out more about my oddness over the weekend. If someone gives me a good problem, there’s little I can do to not try to solve it. En’s uncle is the founder and CEO of Bambeck Systems, Inc. They make combustion control systems for industrial applications — they include things like refineries, paper mills and beer brewers in their portfolio.

He’s facing a couple of engineering challenges that I won’t go into great detail over. Most of these are things that I’ve never really pursued in any great depth before. But they are problems. I solve problems.

Thousands of hours of reading random crap, looking at designs and teardowns, reading wikipedia… they all come together to almost make it seem like I know what I’m talking about.

I have to say that I’ve never really thought I’d use anything read about materials science and manufacturing in real life. But I guess somehow it works.