2011 - Year in Review

Dear friends and family,

It is hard to believe that another year has come and gone. But what a great 2011 it has been. It's hard to imagine a life without e-mail, blogs, and Facebook. It's hard to imagine putting a pen to paper (and paying for postage); hence, this electronic version of 2011 in review. Yay for technology and down with grumpy mailmen over the holidays.

They say the three most stressful things in life are moving into a new house, getting married, and changing jobs. For 2011, I was batting over 600.

1) Tessa and I got engaged! Tessa was thinking this should have been included in the 2010 year in review blog but seeing as how I didn't propose until October 2011, it had to wait for this year. In all honesty, I had been looking in to rings for a while and was fortunate enough to have a stone that was in my great grandfathers ring, placed into a new setting. She loves it and I'm happy to keep the stone in the family.

I know everyone is looking for a story where I climbed a mountain to propose. My story was less crafty. The weather was crap and rather than risk having a girlfriend in a mood equal to that of the weather, I actually proposed while she was playing angry birds in the car, sitting in our driveway, on our way to grab lunch. We were headed to the same PHO restaurant we have frequented over the last three years. Every time we would be seated, the first question our waiter would ask is, "Are you married yet"? When the answer was no, the waiter kept telling her to leave me and find a good man at church. I was going to show him. Before we went this time, I wanted her to be sporting the new hardware when we went, so that's how it went down. Both of us are excited for our wedding in Denver.


2) After several years of government control and under intense external political jockeying as to what to do with the GSEs, I was done with worrying about promotions and merit increases and I changed jobs. This was my first big boy change and I left my management job at Freddie Mac to accept a job with Primatics Financial which is less than two city blocks from my old job. I miss the people I used to work with but am excited about the challenges and growth opportunity ahead.


To drastically simplify what my new company does: We develop and sell software used for Loan Accounting (think Turbo Tax) for banks that acquire other banks. Very different from the fixed income valuation that I did with Freddie Mac, but change is always good.

3) For those of you who don't know, Tessa and I celebrate our annual Valentines Day June 14th. She likes the warmer weather and I like the less commercial aspect of picking our own day. I highly recommend this route as it makes flower delivery and restaurant reservations much easier. We got to try Bryan Voltaggio's place thanks to a good friend of ours who had so graciously given us a gift certificate. The food was excellent.


4) I took two boys trips this year, one to the boundary waters in Northern Minnesota (this is such a great trip I keep doing it) and the second to hike the Lost Coast in Northern California.

Out of Ely, MN a group of college buddies departed and spent several days in July's heatwave fishing Wood Lake, Hula Lake, and Good Lake. We were fortunate enough to have the lake mostly to ourselves (aside from a number of tail smacking beavers). On the trip we caught some nice sized largemouth bass, pike, and one lonely walleye, in addition to the numerous pan fish. We ate like kings, occasionally swallowed mosquitoes, and managed to avoid bears. (Be warned, the link to fishing pictures isn't for faint hearted due to leaches)

A buddy who used to work with me at Freddie Mac had a father who was in the Forrest Service and spent time lobbying Congress to protect national wilderness. My buddy had asked me to help him plan a trip to hike an area his father had protected, "The Lost Coast". This area is remote and rugged which prevented highway 1 from being built over this stretch of the coast. I was super excited to help him plan and then as a reward was invited to hike the 40 mile journey with him. Pictures don't do this place justice. If you ever want help in planning it, I would love to assist. I can also give tips on how to not get bitten during close encounters with rattlesnakes (see the full set of pictures in the link above but be warned, they contain snakes and graphic lost toenails).

5) My longtime best friend Blair invited us to attend the Kentucky Derby with he and his wife, Anne, in 2011. My last memory of this place was visiting the infield with Blair when we were in college. This time around it was entirely different with the same access to alcohol and betting booths. We had a great time visiting a distillery, eating a road-stop cafe in horse country, and sitting close to the track. We didn't come home with any winnings but we did come back with some great memories and maybe a slight hangover.

See...you love an electronic Christmas card because it has a meaty contents and interactive format, right?

We are so grateful for our friends and family and how each one of you has touched our lives. If you are ever in Fairfax, VA, please stop by. We would love to meet up, catch up, or hang out whichever may apply.

Cheers and well wishes in the new year,


Matt White & Tessa Lopez (soon to be White)