Some folks reading this who have been keeping in touch with me more regularly may already know much of what I will mention here, but things are now official, and so I can now discuss and announce things more widely…

At the beginning of November my position at Merrill Lynch was eliminated as it became clear that the type of role I filled was no longer desired or valued by the department I was part of. I had found out about the inevetibility of that development in mid-September. I spent October actively job hunting, but during the course of November, one by one my initial leads went dark. Then it was December and with the holidays, there was not much progress. I spent some time talking to folks about possibilities, but there was no real forward momentum.

Until the last week of December or so, when Matt at Merrill pointed a vendor he was working with at my website and my resume. The vendor called me a couple days later. Over the course of the next two months I talked to them quite a few times about possibilities and how I might fit in their organization, then I visited their location, then it was just a matter of logisitics. It seemed to take forever, but…

Yesterday morning I received their formal offer, and yesterday afternoon I sent off my formal acceptance. I will start there on March 22nd. So four months and three weeks after leaving Merrill, I will once again be fully employed. And I managed to do it before completely running down the cash reserves. It has been an interesting few months, but I certainly find no need to repeat this sort of thing often.

Now the details, which will involve some major life changes for me.

I will be the Product Manager for Presentation Librarian, the flagship product of Accent Technologies. The product is one that allows companies to manage, control, access and utilize their presentation assets subject to usage rules defined by policy or regulatory requirements. The position will be right up my alley, involving a lot of high level strategic thinking about content management, and specifically how this specific product should evolve over time to best serve clients and compete in the marketplace. I will be interacting extensively with the internal technical and sales teams as well as with clients to determine goals and directions, and then work toward implementation. I have been very excited about the possibilities in this position since my first conversations with Accent. It should be a spot that challanges and stretches me, while also directly utilizing the areas in which I am strongest, something which I’d been missing more and more of the last couple years at Merrill. I am excited and anxious to get started.

As always though, there are wrinkles. While I just bought a home and moved to Yardley, PA in August, Accent is not located within easy commuting distance of my new house. No, Accent is in Melbourne, FL. Not anywhere near here. Not anywhere near anywhere I have ever lived. So relocation is in order. I will be moving from Pennsylvania to Florida.

In the mean time, over the last year there have been personal developments. Since Feb 2003 I had been regularly seeing Brandy as a “friend” but over time that developed into more. In November I stopped being stubborn and admitted we were a couple and started acting like it, even though the reality was that we really had been developing that relationship for months before that. Since then things continued to develop and get stronger. Once the possibility of me relocating came up, the possibility of Brandy and her daughter Amy following me came up almost immediately. At first it was just a question and a possibility. Things were early yet in the relationship. But by the time the possibility had become real a couple months later, there was no longer any question. Brandy, Amy and I had bonded into a family, and whatever we are going to do, we will do together. So Brandy and Amy will be going with me to Florida. (Probably after Amy’s school year is over.)

So, starting next week I will begin the process of moving. I will be selling my home in Yardley, PA. (So if anybody out there is interested in a 2 bedroom, 2 bath townhome in Yardley with a big basement… let me know!) I will be shopping for a similarly priced house in the Melbourne, FL area. Since housing prices are less there, the same price should let me get a bit larger place, which is needed anyway since there will now be three of us instead of one. Related to that move will be all sorts of logistics and packing and all sorts of fun things. It will be a very busy time.

At the same time, I will start at the new job. My first day will be Monday March 22nd. The first two months I will be alternating between Florida and Pennsylvania week by week to ease my transition and also to be able to work with some of Accent’s clients in the Northeast. But I aim to be fully moved to Florida by the end of June at the latest.

Sometime before I vacate the house in Yardley, I *will* be having a house warming / house cooling party. People have been saying I should have a house warming party since I moved in back in August, but I kept procrastinating. I figure I should actually have one before I move out and leave the state. That will be some weekend between now and the end of April. If anybody reading this wants to come, but has a strong preference on dates based on when they could or could not make it, please let me know. Sometime in the next week or so, we’ll finalize the date and invite folks.

In any case, that is the big news. Sam has a job again. Sam is starting in a couple weeks. Sam is moving to Florida. Sam’s girlfriend Brandy and her daughter Amy will be joining Sam in Florida.

While of course a bit nervous about all the changes, I am also very excited about all of them. This will open a new chapter for me, one that while it has its risks (doesn’t everything?) also has great possibilities. This will be good.

Thanks for all of your support.

Wish me luck!