This year started with Ray moving the team he works with from Santa Clara to a newly constructed floor in Sunnyvale. The data center portion was all brand new racks and equipment so it was fun but a lot of work.

Ray continued to support a small team of folks working on a VoIP test/report/verification product for both Cisco and Avaya. Ray likes that he has a very broad span of control relating to the infrastructure and that his boss trusts him. He’d like to be more productive and at times feels like he has to literally fight the systems to get them to do what they are supposed to do. Seems strange that even manufacturer of complex enterprise-class software pay so little attention to setting up their systems that you literally have to fight the things into submission.

Other highlights of the year:

Won double gold with our 2012 Zin. Fun! 5-guys has been making wine now for a few years and while this was a great surprise and honor, we are all very excited about the wine we just bottled which, by all accounts, is even better! (Another Zin)

So, the year had many meetings with those guys in Bill’s garage as we coaxed wine out of the grapes.

Bill got us connected to Martin Ranch Winery and Dan and Therese have been Fabulous to us. We bought our grapes from them and got bulk prices. Bill tastes the petit syrah in the picture on the right.

We decided to build an enclosure which can be temperature controlled from a small air conditioner.  It’s inside the garage.

In fact, Lynda got so excited about the project that she decided to start her own vineyard!

Then once we bottled the wine we had over 8 cases to store somewhere so we decided we needed a wine refrigerator. Unfortunately, there was some mixup and Ray ordered one that was too big. With Ricky’s help, he wrestled it into the garage.

  Of course, now that we have a huge demand for electricity we decided we needed to install Solar Panels to offset the costs!

In August, we met the Barbieri family at a family reunion hosted by my cousin Frank.  We stayed at Jay and Debbie’s house and Chuck and Audrey visited.  Then went to Jay’s cabin for a few days of real rest and relaxation.

Ray continues to play drums at church and James asked him to join a small group that does “house concerts”. Since the drum kit wouldn’t fit, Ray bought a cajon (drum box).  Also, the strong team of sound techs has dissipated so Ray is doing sound again until the Lord sends more sound techs.

We should also mention last year Alex and Ray bought motorcycles together. Sadly, Ray lost his cycle buddy when Alex moved to Seattle. Ray commutes on it when there is no rain (which was everyday until mid Nov — since he’s only ridden once!) So he got a 2nd bike so they can ride when Alex visits.

Also this year Ray went to a High School reunion/golf outing. He said it was really great to see his old friends!

At the end of the year, Riverbed (Ray’s workplace), announced they would be purchased by a private equity firm. This probably doesn’t mean much except there will certainly be some budget tightening. In any case, Ray’s just glad that he didn’t have move again (would have been 3 times in 3 years!)

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a truly blessed New Year.