Since the initial LIGO observatories were decommissioned in 2010 for an upgrade, 
gravitational-wave astronomers have been promising unprecedented
gravitational-wave observation abilities that were only "a few years away".
This talk is different. It is finally 2014 and we expect advanced LIGO
operations to begin just next year!  We have been using this time off to
prepare for the observations to come.  Focusing specifically on searches for
compact binary coalescence, I will talk about what we have been up to in the
gravitational-wave-detector interim and provide a glimpse of what we expect for
the future.