Individual and Community

Gare and Erin spent much of 2009 working and travelling and playing.  The rest of the time was spent sleeping.

Erin continues teaching Sociology at Cornell College,  Department of Sociology & Anthropology.

Gare continues to settle in at his job as a senior web applications developer at the University of Iowa in the Office of Information Management . He also continues to try to resolve his interest in open source software with his love of all things Google.

And of course we continue to play lots of board games, eat out, and travel as much as possible.

Spring

• Spring was a wonderful blur of work and thaw.
• Erin got an academic article published in the spring edition of GLQ.
• Nice Visit from Buddy & Rhetta to Mount Vernon.  Buddy found a great restaurant in Dubuque, IA on the Mississippi River where we ate lunch and then went to the Mississippi River museum.

Summer

• Lee and Jacque volunteered as Camp Hosts at Bellevue State Park in Iowa during July and August.  We spent July 4 watching fireworks being shot over the Mississippi River in Bellevue.  Had great time hanging out at their campground this summer and discussing politics.
• Erin was granted tenure at Cornell College and promoted to Associate Professor of Sociology.
• Gare gets a promotion or two at work.
• We grew lots & lots of tomatoes this year in our garden.
• Erin went to Japan in late July & August to make preparations to bring a class of students over in Spring 2010.
• Bellah the cat breaks her tooth, so she has her prominent fangs removed.  Power dynamics change in the house as Emily the cat reasserts her position as supreme leader of the Davis / Calhoun household.

Fall

• After spending the summer building up his cities in the online game Evony, Gare accidentally gets locked out of the game over the weekend and returns to find his entire empire attacked and destroyed.  He then turns his energies to a new game, Immortal Cities:  Nile Online, for the rest of the year.  He also continues with regular team games of Battle for Wesnoth.
• Erin & Gare visit Germany to visit Ryan and Sonia and then travel with Ryan to Eastern Europe and Turkey.  More details of this fun trip at: http://www.individualandcommunity.org/wordpress/tag/europe/

Winter

• Our first blizzard of the season occurred early December 2009.  We got about 15 inches of snow in 24 hours.Thank goodness for telecommuting!
• In order to get out of the house during the winter months, Erin and Gare take a few dance classes in Iowa City.
• Erin and Gare visit Buddy and Rhetta and the rest of the Clio clan in South Carolina for Christmas.

We wish you all a great 2010!