I've found someone who wants very badly to pay me $50/hr (my usual rate, for the time being) to consult as much as I possibly can in my spare time for at least the next few months. As Christina's in England for six months, the timing couldn't be better. In the last week and a half, most of it over the last few days, I've put in 27.5 solid hours — a lot of time for a second job, but fun and generally not much effort, and the client appears very happy. I doubt I'll need to work quite so much in future weeks. If this turns out to be as good as it looks, then it'll be pretty awesome.

The work for my primary income is going well, too. We're finally creating a staff position for our Windows sysadmin at the School of Dentistry (she's been a temp for six months, just as I'd been). We finally have a replacement for the Unix sysadmin that departed in June, and he'll be starting in a week or so. And interviews for two new sysadmin spots are being conducted over the next two weeks, with the spots to be filled by early February.

On January 21, I'll celebrate my first full year of employment at Case; on February 9, my twenty-fifth full year of existence. In the interim I'll have become the full-time manager of five smart, nice, technically adept people.

I took a circuitous route to where I am now. While it worked, I wasn't sure of that when I started out, and I wouldn't recommend my approach to everyone. But I hope that everyone can find a way to experience the kind of easy success I've been enjoying for the past year. Believe you me, it is fantastic.