Daniel J Isom

  This post marks two years of posting these monthly wrap-ups. I look forward to coming up with content for each of the segments and trying out new ones (including one this month!). As I've written previously, this blog has taken over for my social media as the place where I share what is going on in my life. I'm still on Facebook, X, and Bluesky, but I use them all for very different purposes. This October was just as busy as last year's, which I stated was one of the busiest month's I've had in years. Work was very busy doing a lot of outreach events, including two all day Saturday events and two late night events in Kent and Sussex County that we added this year. I also moved buildings from Dover to Smyrna into the new Delaware Public Health Lab building. I'm enjoying my new space, even if it's lonely without any of my team here. I'll be hiring for two positions that will join me in our new location over the next couple of months. On the family side, ...

The school year has begun and we have returned to our normal routines. September tends to be an incredibly busy month because of the return to work and school for everyone else in the house, but also because of appointments and other events that we find to do. Just last week four of us had dentist appointments and the other four had eye doctor appointments. The week before that, there were four open houses to attend and work. Earlier in the month, there was also a possible broken finger that turned out to just be a jam or sprain, but that kept one of the kids out of gymnastics and took multiple appointments to settle.  Aside from all of that, I did manage to squeeze in an 18 hole round of disc golf at the course at Killens Pond State Park, while attending the DPH employee appreciation day event being held there. I'd really like to get out to play more, it was just too busy a month. I even had to scale back my in person gaming meetups, so now we only meet every other Sunday. I'm...

August always flies by because the school year is about to begin and we spent another week in North Carolina for the second straight summer. The boys and I played a 18 hole disc golf course while in NC. It was the first time we went out together and we had a blast. Of course it wasn't without some drama as they both threw a disc directly into water on one hole, thankfully we were able to retrieve them. There was a slow down on the amount of board games I played, but as you'll see in that segment that I'm still crushing it for the year. Right now I'm debating on pulling back from in person gaming some as work is about to get really busy for me. I'll probably have more to say about that in the coming months. All in all it was a good month, but I'm happy to get back into our routine this month.  Blah Blog Log Just the one post for August. July 2025 Wrap-Up  - A trip to NY, back to Rockville, MD for work, and a lot of gaming. Bored  Board Games In August, I played 2...

July didn't feel as busy as June, but it still flew by as most summer months tend to do. We started the month with a trip back to NY for the 4th of July and had a nice time visiting family and friends. In between that trip and my yearly work trip to Rockville, MD for the Annual PCO Conference, I invested in some disc golf gear including discs, a bag, and a basket for putting practice at home. I played for the first time during my guys weekend to the Castle House in Pennsylvania and decided it's something I'd like to start doing more often. I've since played 4 courses between Delaware and Maryland and look forward to playing more in the future. Blah Blog Log I almost wrote a post about disc golf and how much I've been enjoying it, but I never got around to it so it was just the one post for July. June 2025 Wrap-Up  - A kid-free weekend in Lancaster, a family trip to the beach, and a lot of good food was had throughout the month. Bored  Board Games In July, I played 2...

June was by far the busiest month in years. We had something going on every single weekend, the school year ended, and there was so much going on at work. The end of my guys' weekend at  the Castle House  started the month, proceeded by a solo trip back to Syracuse for a friend's wedding, then Christine and I spent a nice weekend in Lancaster, PA, we went to Captain Kidd's Pirate Day at the Kalmar Nyckel Museum, then spent a week at the beach in Rehoboth, and finished the month at the Old-Fashioned Ice Cream Festival with the kids, my mom, my brother, and his girlfriend. I'm only back to work three days this week before going to NY for the 4th, but we'll save that for next month's post. There were multiple work conferences in June, one being our Rural Health Conference that saw a record number of attendees. Summer is supposed to be a little bit slower all around but this one is shaping up to be the busiest yet. Blah Blog Log Just the single wrap-up post in June,...

May was over in the blink of an eye, fueled by a very busy work schedule and the kids having a lot of year end events at school. It seemed like we had something going on almost every night and weekend day throughout the month. Two birthdays (Grace and Christine) and Mother's Day, had us out and about doing some really fun things like going to the Philadelphia Zoo, a cat cafe, and a trip to the movies. Ben and Grace had performances for chorus, band, a drama club play, and Spanish Immersion Night. I also participated in a guy's weekend with three of my friends at a Castle House in the Poconos . Aside from that, I played a lot of games both online and in person while continuing to read issues of Simplicity Magazine for my New Year's Resolution. I'm very much looking forward to the end of the school year and all of the travel plans we have this summer. Blah Blog Log Just the single wrap-up post in May, but I hope to have at least one additional post this month. April 2025 ...

April absolutely flew by but here are the cliff notes: I turned 40, the federal government is doing every it can to fucking ruin the things I care about, and we had a nice trip back to Syracuse for Easter. You'd think turning 40 would be a much bigger deal, but if you read my post about it (link below) you'll understand why it's not. Both my work and favorite hobby are being greatly affected by the decisions of the current administration. Whole federal departments are being downsized and/or cut which means funding for the work we do is just evaporating before our very eyes. With the release of a leaked HHS budget proposal, our office specifically could see a massive change.  The board game hobby that I adore is seeing similar issues with many publishers and retailers either closing or drastically changing their business models because of the tariffs on China. The people producing/selling the games are losing their livelihoods and homes in some cases, while consumers are not...