It has been a while since I’ve done an omnibus update.  Herewith some tidbits:

1. My brother leaves tomorrow morning for a 12-to-24 month stint as a contracted firefighting instructor, in Iraq.  The last month or so has been consumed with preparation, and now he’s finally about to depart.  This is a sad day for us, but he is making a solid decision for his family and I trust that all will be well in the long run.
2. Jonah, Gradey, and Kingston came home from the hospital on Fathers’ Day, but have all had to go back in for monitoring for respiratory distress.  The triplets and their mother are doing well, all things considered.
3. Ryan and Jess are in Grand Rapids, bringing Jackson, Camden, and Harper with them.  Liam and Kylee are going to be adopted by Jess’s brother Declan and his girlfriend.  I got to play a fun secret-agent thing with boxes of presents with Ryan and Jess last night — and hey, I always appreciate getting gifts. 🙂
4. I’ve been working very closely with Tony on some interesting joint business-development opportunities.  We are looking at developing an end-of-life planning session (estate planning, ethics of palliative care, etc.) and present it wide-scale to clergy across the area.  More to follow.
5. Gillikin Consulting is doing well.  In addition to the extraordinary amount of work I’ve done lately on preparing freelancing queries, I’ve provided some counsel to Bryan, a recently reconnected friend from college, about a start-up he is considering.  Biggest accomplishment:  Finishing my clips portfolio.
6. You can now follow me on Twitter.
7. And I got an awesome short URL for Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/gillikin.  Yay!
8. Stuff at the hospital has been interesting.  A recent controversy over IT policy has put the unique contributions I make to the front-end revenue cycle in sharper focus.
9. I upgraded my BlackBerry Curve 8330 from OS 4.3 to 4.5 last night.  Biggest observation:  My apparent throughput (on Sprint’s CDMA network) increased geometrically.  Jason = pleased.  Oh, and the reason for the upgrade?  With the new OS, Sprint now permits true MMS, so no more “sorry, I can’t text you that cool pic I just took” nonsense.
10. I am settling in well into my new apartment near Standale, a two-bedroom on the very quiet top floor of a building in a larger rental complex.  I overlook a lawn with trees and a garden — very lovely.  I have a temporary boarder; my mother has been with me a few weeks, and will be with me for maybe 10 days more or so, while she is temporarily homeless after selling her condo and before she can take possession of the house she just bought.  I love my mother but it will be nice getting my office back!
11. Brian’s departure means I’m taking his very manly Dodge Ram instead of incurring a massive new car payment after the inglorious destruction of my Grand Cherokee a while back.  Downside — Brian tells me something broke (perhaps a tie rod), so it’s not safely driveable until it’s repaired.
12. My uncle Mark was killed on Memorial Day in a motorcycle accident.  May he rest in peace.
13. I’ve made a few new friends lately — Tim, Aaron, Matty.  That is cool.  Becca is at Mackinaw Island for the summer.  I haven’t really heard from Emilie and Jon in a while.  Duane recently returned from Korea.  Rick and Sondra were engaged last weekend — from what I can tell, the proposal was perfect (it touched the inner nerd in both of them) and I am very happy for them both.  Charlie is doing well.  So is Stacie, it appears; she is excited about the extensive home renovation she is doing with her husband.  Corey is advertising a “brew tour” coming up; not sure yet if I’ll attend.
14. Katie’s allopecia appears to be doing better.  She has a GORGEOUS wig that was donated to her by a manufacturer.  She is a brave and strong girl and I’m proud of her.
15. I am now the editor for Kent County of Red County, a center-right political news and commentary blog community.
16. A month or so ago, I returned to participation in United States Government Simulation, and I forgot how much I missed it.
17. I think I figured out the issue with my blog database corruption, and I believe I can begin restoring (slowly, a few posts at a time) the archive back into the production domain.  A few posts will not be brought forward, and a few others may be edited for content, but over the next few weeks, I’m going to try to get the old stuff restored.
18. I haven’t been going to the gym or karate since the car accident, and I’m not pleased with this.  I don’t feel right now that I have less access to quality exercise.

All for now.