The Warm Fuzzies

*Safe drive down to SC.  The drive was quick and traffic was light which was quite unexpected.

 

*Candlelight service.  The annual candlelight service

 

*Having all family members present for Christmas, including Rebekah : )

 

*Smooth ride to Ohio to visit my grandma.  I hadn’t seen her in a year so it was nice to lounge around her house and eat.

 

*Playing games.  Rebekah got Sean a new game for Christmas and the whole family had fun playing it quite a few times at Grandma’s house.

 

*Getting some nice presents for Christmas : )

 

*Giving out a few well liked Christmas presents : )

 

*Safe trip back to SC from Ohio

Almost Christmas Time....Heading to SC

*End of the year bonus

 

*Free pizza for lunch

 

*Being all ready to go to my parents’ house including a clean apartment and car

Yum

*2 busy(not overly busy) and fast days at work

*Fresh baked cookies! Mmmmmm chocolate :)

*Small gift bag from a co-workers wife with some homemade snack/dessert items :)

Leftovers

*Unexpected Christmas party leftovers. My boss dropped by my cube (next to his) to point out that they had put out the leftovers from yesterday’s party in the kitchen and that I should get there quickly before other people find out. I managed to snag a pretty awesome plate full of stuff including a chocolate raspberry cheesecake slice! It was awesome, and much better than what I had packed for lunch.

*Leftovers for dinner today, making the 5^th day of leftovers. It has certainly been nice having a variety of leftovers to eat this week and not having to worry about cooking after work. If I make it a habit to make plenty on Sat and Sun, I can do this more often.

*Being efficient in getting things done at work. I almost started to run out of pending tasks :)

*Getting home while it was still daylight and going out for a short run around the complex. I even surprised myself by making it all the way around the complex without significantly slowing down once! (we’ll ignore that I felt like I was going to die afterwards, and take the positives one at a time)

Christmas time's a comin

*Directorate Christmas party.  The directorate I work in at NASA had a Christmas party/lunch during work and it was a whole lot of fun.  While I didn’t really do much besides take a break from work to eat really good food (and a ton of desserts), they played a game and did some raffles.  Did I mention the food was good?

 

*Having a productive week at work and managing to get a lot of programming done.  Programming makes the time fly by and is like a giant puzzle to me at times, and I actually enjoy it.

 

*Getting some of my Christmas shopping done.  Now I just need to think of things for a couple more people…

 

*Sale day at the NASA exchange shop.  I finally bothered to find the exchange (gift) shop at Langley and got a NASA polo for myself.  Somehow it is really cool to be able to buy one and say I work there.

Rest

*Dreaming.  Remembering even the existence of a dream after waking up is unusual for me, and having one with people I actually know in it as themselves is even more rare, so it was nice to have a fun dream with people I know.

 

*Sleeping in.  Deciding every day this week that I didn't feel like getting up when my alarm when off and instead getting up around 7:50am.  Flex hours are awesome

 

*Getting an email notifying us that Dec 24 is now a holiday for the government.  It is still up in the air as to whether AMA will let us have a holiday, liberal leave day, or make us use vacation, but since I was planning to use vacation, it has to be a neutral or positive thing.  Rumor has it that the same could possibly happen to Dec 31.  This happens nearly every time that they fall on a Monday or Friday.

Weekend

*AMA Holiday Social.  The holiday social was Saturday at the Virginia Air and Space Center, and was really nice.  The dinner was catered and I got to talk to some of my co-workers that are my age and meet their significant others.  We got along really well (better than I expected) and I even went over to one of their houses to see it before they headed out for a night on the town.  The area was really nice and it was cool to spend a Saturday evening with friendly people.

 

*Ultimate Frisbee Game.  We got to play a full 2 games of Frisbee on Sunday with some people who normally play Sundays.  It was a lot of exercise and a lot of fun.  I’m really glad the weather cooperated that afternoon before becoming very windy.

 

*Successfully Reformatting.  It was about time to reformat since I hadn’t done it in a while and it all went relatively smoothly.  My computer is now running faster than it had been J

Work Advancements

*Getting my annual review done and getting all Very Good and Excellent!  Apparently I'm doing a lot better than average, and picking things up a lot faster than they expected, which leads to:

 

*Being considered for a lead position on the next large review.  I can't say what review, or when, but they need a lot of teams, so I will possibly be a one person team.  They would have someone help me for the first couple weeks and are assuming I would pick it up very quickly.  They mentioned that they have no doubts I could do it even without really being trained to...Such power.

 

*Getting 5 crazy voicemails all at once.  I realize it isn't related to the above 2, but it was quite humorous and made me laugh as I tried to figure out what was going on in them.  That's what friends are for :)

Thanksgiving!

*Smooth and safe drive to Pittsburgh to see my Grandpa and Parents and Bro. The drive was fast, traffic was flowing faster than I wanted to go at times, and there really weren't many people on the roads when I was, so I was fortunate.

*Amazing turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, etc, and I didn't have to cook most of it! Thanksgiving was everything I wanted it to be :) yum yum

*Seeing my cousins and Aunt & Uncle for a couple hours. They came over yesterday evening and I got to see them for the first time since going to TX for school. They were quite peppy as always, and really fun.

*Many other things which I thought of at the time but have since forgotten!

From Fall To Winter In <24 Hrs

*Great fall foliage in Virginia during my drive up & back from Pittsburgh!
*Seeing an extremely bright red tree at my grandpa's house in his front yard. I loved how bright it was and was going to take a picture of it the next morning, but like the title of this entry says, it went from Fall to Winter in <24 Hrs. It was nice and warm the day I arrived. Overnight the wind knocked all but 5% of the leaves off and the next night:

*Snow! Waking up to see some snow falling and a thin layer on the fallen leaves and on my car and on the roof. It snowed off and on (large flakes, but not sticking to the actual ground) for most of the day :) I found it amusing that the transition day was Thanksgiving of all days.

Tuesday

*Done with work for the week and it is only Tuesday

 

*Being able to start driving whenever I feel like it in the morning

 

*Still having enough people around this evening to play Frisbee.  Not everyone has disappeared yet...

Thanksgiving

Tis the time to be thankful, and this holiday seems to align itself perfectly with this blog style...

 

*Family

 

*Friends

 

*Fun

 

*Being able to take time off work (without actually even getting into vacation time) to go to visit family in Pittsburgh.  I haven't seen some of these relatives since I went to TX.

 

*Not having much to worry about at all

 

*Fall colors

 

*Stable job with as many hours as I want

 

*Frisbee

 

*Food:

    *Turkey

    *Mashed Potatoes

    *Cranberry Sauce

 

*Too many more items to list

Pumpkin

*Pumpkin bread!  I made pumpkin bread just simply because I saw the mix in the store when I was grabbing butter for the next positive.  The bread was easy and tastes amazing.  I'm going to take half of the bunt cake/bread to Pittsburgh with me :)

 

*Pumpkin Cheesecake!   I just made the cheesecake and won't find out how it tastes until at least Wednesday evening.  I really hope it turned out well since I couldn't find my recipe that I made last year which did turn out amazing.  It was fun to make regardless

 

*Milkshakes...They looked pumpkin colored, but they were peanut butter, so that's close enough for this pumpkin theme.  I had forgotten how much I liked to make them and made a couple a few days in a row.  yum..  I am also noticing how much my positives are food related....hmmmm :-P

Accomplishments

*Making bread from scratch...And correctly this time too. I retried the bread recipe I had tried about a week ago and got it to work perfectly this time! Now I will have sandwiches this week on nice homemade bread :)
*"We are pleased to confirm successful completion of your introductory period at AMA. We expect your work, combined with the efforts of other committed employees, will help us continue to achieve excellence in our work and making AMA an outstanding place to work." :) (not that I was worried about keeping my job, but confirmations are nice)

*Relaxing on a day off of work for Veterans Day! It was nice to get a 3 day weekend even if I did little more than lounge around, cook, bake, and eat, eat, eat.

*Going to my car Sunday morning to leave for church and seeing a tiny, 1 in^2 bit of frost on the top of my car! There had probably been more before the sun came up, but this means winter is really on its way. It was cool to see the ice now, even though I know I'll dread having to start the car a few min before I want to leave in the real winter, so I'll enjoy it for now.

College Station Trip Official!

*Playing Frisbee in the dark.  Now that the sun goes down at 5, we play Frisbee in the dark.  I have a light up LED Frisbee which flies remarkably well and so we can see it at night.  The cold hasn't even stopped us yet (40 deg today)

 

*Purchasing a plane ticket for College Station!!!  It is now official that I am going to College Station for MLK weekend!  It is going to be a blast and I'm very excited that I got to get the ticket and finalize things

 

*Winter.  Winter is nearly here, freeze warnings and all.  The air has been quite chilly in the mornings and cool at night (low 40s) and now it should be hitting mid 30s.

The weekend

*Finding another nice church.  Even though the average age was probably 50 and the median closer to 60 or 65, the church was nice and the people were quite friendly even if they couldn't hear me half the time.

 

*Getting a lot done.  I managed to knock off a lot of my to do list Saturday and Sunday, some of which was weeks old and driving me crazy.  I was very glad to be motivated and productive

 

*Clean apartment!

Aroma Therapy

*Fresh Baked Bread....I made some bread completely from scratch, and even though it turned out a bit more dense than it should have, it was still quite yummy, especially warm right out of the oven!  It also filled the apartment with a nice aroma

 

*Curry.  I hadn't done any curry dishes in a while because my last one didn't turn out so well (Indian recipe).  I took Adam's advice and used the recipe (Thai) that comes with the curry I had and it turned out pretty well.  At a minimum it managed to make the whole apartment smell like curry, which is a good thing :-P

 

*Wet leaves.  Fall and winter both decided to show up in the past few days.  First was the signature fall smell of wet leaves, then a little later came the crisp cool air smell that an oncoming winter brings!  I love both of them!

Fall Colors

*Hiking in Shenandoah National Park on Saturday with Adam. We got to go about 5 miles and got a really really nice view at our main stop along the route. In the first picture, our parking lot is somewhere way down in the valley. The pictures are showing the orange colored leaves as more yellow, in fact they looked quite Hokie colored (burnt orange and chicago maroon) in real life, proving that God is a Hokie :-P


*Staying at Adam's house overnight to keep out of the rain

*Perfect weather for the hike: partly cloudy and 65 deg for a high!

Weather and iPod!!!

*Beautiful Days.  There have been a few days in a row recently that have been absolutely perfect.  Some complete with a little rain and all.  The temperature and breezes have been great.

 

*Unexpected Coupon.  While looking at a new cereal in the grocery store, I noticed someone had left a coupon right in front of them.  The coupon was for that cereal and expired the day I was shopping.  Someone had been nice enough to leave the coupon for someone else (me!) who they didn't even know because they knew that they wouldn't use it before it expired.  It wasn't a big coupon but it was nice to see that people do things like that for people they will never meet.

 

*iPod!  I got my iPod!!!! It is amazing and holds a ton of stuff.  I've got all my non-techno songs as well as all my photos on it now and about 100 of my techno songs.  Its pretty cool and I love having it at work to pass the time.  I even installed (part way) the device that hooks it up to my car so that I can listen to it on trips.  The device doesn't work properly with my iPod but works well enough that I am proud of myself for self-installing and will hold onto it until after my camping trip and then return it and wait for a new version to be released.

 

Just as a note, I cannot change any blogs for the time being, just email in updates because Google updated their IP forwarding and decided that I live in Japan so Google.com and blogger.com show up in all "?"'s since my computer doesn't show Japanese.  They assure me they have now correct it for my IP and it should take effect in "about a month".

Music and Friends

*Ordering an Ipod!!!  I finally got to order my ipod and it comes with free laser engraving so I could get my name on it too.  80GB of space :)  I can't wait til it gets here and will probably be tracking it a few times a day

 

*Ordering a device to hook my ipod to my car stereo.  This way it will charge the ipod and use my steering wheel controls to switch between songs or 5 preselected playlists or everything on the ipod.  Its going to be pretty awesome.

 

*Finishing off a half gallon of milk before it goes bad...I realize this doesn't go with the previous 2 but its still cool

 

*Planning a camping trip with Adam!!  We are going to go backpacking and camp one night next weekend in Shenandoah National Park in the mountains.  We'll probably only have time to hike in 2 miles or so and set up camp before dark but it will be fun.  Then Saturday we can do a long day hike.  This trip coincides with peak fall foliage days for the region so I should get quite a few nice pictures.

 

*More frisbee.  I got to play frisbee again with a total of 4 people this time with 2 discs so it was a lot more exercise.  We eventually had to quit because it was just too dark.  I hope daylight savings time stays here.

Back to VA

*Seeing Katherine!  Since Salisbury is right on the interstate I arranged to meet Katherine at Starbucks for about 40 minutes for a stop on my way.  It was good to see her again and catch up on life’s happenings.  I’ve seen her once before since graduation and that was in May and she’s looking even better!  If she ever reads this I’m sure she’ll comment on how hot she is now ;-P

 

*Smooth, Safe drive back to VA.  The trip back took a total of 8 hours due to the previously mentioned stop and dinner and went quite smoothly with only one slowdown for a couple miles at the very end of the interstate driving for the trip.

 

*Getting enough done before a meeting I had this morning.  I managed to get myself into work early enough to cram in what I needed to get done.  Turns out we didn’t even talk about it, but I’m still glad I have it completed.  Now I have new assignments…

Columbus Day

*Columbus day. Being a federal holiday I am now on a 3 day weekend.

*Going to my parents' house. I took the time to drive ~7hrs on Friday and will travel back again tomorrow. I got to pick up a ton of stuff here to take back with me, though I will still be leaving behind quite a few loads of stuff like Legos, etc. I will now have my TV, bike, tent, camping gear, and much much much more.

*Having a car that I didn't have to worry about breaking down during the trip down to SC.

*Making it to SC on one tank of gas. I got better gas mileage than they had listed and could have made it all the way home without stopping, but I stopped at the last minute so I won't have to necessarily stop for gas on the way back to VA.

Washington DC!

*Getting to Washington DC without much traffic at all!  We made really good time and I even had stuff to talk about with my boss the whole way here.

 

*Going to an amazing pizza place for dinner.  My boss had a magazine that listed the best pizza places in town and we went to one of the original 2 which is still ranked at the top.  The pizza was simply amazing and we both really enjoyed what we got.  On the way there we made a number of wrong turns because roads kept turning or not turning and we simply couldn't keep up, but I had the map out the whole time and we kept making it closer until we finally got there.

 

*Flying through DC on the way back from the pizza place.  We didn't literally fly but we made it all the way across the town, past embassy row and the mall to our hotel in about 15 minutes without a single wrong turn.  Quite frequently lanes would disappear into parking lanes and people cut people off everywhere due to things like that, and we even had to do it a couple times ourselves but it was a whole lot of fun to ride around oddly enough.

From Food to Weather

*Apples w/ caramel dip!  I convinced myself to grocery shop a little healthier than normal and get some fruits and veggies and fruit/veggie juice.  To help balance out the good healthy idea, I got caramel apple dip which is quite yummy.  The advantage of getting it, since it isn't exactly healthy, is that it has already lead to me eating 2 apples today which is 2 more fruits today than normal!

 

*Respect.  I have apparently gained enough respect from my bosses to lead to me being taken along on a business trip for a meeting with a guy whose boss' boss is the head of NASA...This guy is so far above me that it is probably quite unusual for him to be in a meeting with someone as new as myself.  They are taking me along because I know the most about some of the things they want to discuss...

 

*Cleaning kick.  I got on a cleaning kick and completely organized and vacuumed and wiped down (where appropriate) everything in the main room, dining area, and kitchen.  I started out only attempting to do something small but knowing I needed to do more, and ended up feeling motivated to do it all.  Always a good thing to have a clean place.

 

*I went to the Virginia Air and Space Center today for free since I am a NASA contractor and it is "NASA Days" at the center.  It was cool to wander around and look at what they had and realize at times that I knew more about some of the things than they had written down, but most of it I didn't know.  Most of all it was good to get out of the apartment and just drive somewhere with the windows down when the weather is so good....

 

*Great weather.  Today the high was probably in the low 70s and slightly breezy, making it comfortably cool in the shade and warm in the sunlight.  Perfect day to get out and drive with the windows/sunroof open!  I love days like this.

Command & Conquer

*Getting Command & Conquer 3!  I just got the newest in my favorite line of games!  This should keep me entertained for quite a while :)  The graphics are cool, the units are new, and the acting in the videos is a whoooooole lot better.

 

*Clean windshield.  It doesn't sound like much, but when you can barely see out the windshield when facing the sun, and try to clean it and make it a bit better, but streaky (which makes the sun glare all over), getting some specialized cleaning supplies and getting a perfectly clean window is amazing.

 

*Busy days.  Work has been busy, but not overly busy which has made the time at work begin to pass faster than ever.

Soccer Channel

*Discovering the Fox Soccer Channel!  I love watching the game (in Spanish or English) as I personally think it is the sport that takes the most endurance and probably skill as well.  I discovered the channel on Saturday and happened to catch one of the USL (United Soccer League) semi-final playoff games on Sunday which ended after 2 overtimes and penalty kick shootout.  Exciting game!

 

*Finishing up my 6th week of work.

 

*Busy work week ahead.  After sometimes having too little to do during the week, I will have a full week which will make time fly faster, since it isn't too full to get it all done in time.

 

*Getting outside and jogging.  Even though it was over 80 I still got out for the first time and jogged around the circle.  If I can manage to do that a few times a week I may get my endurance back up, but this is a good start to the routine, and hopefully I can keep it up.

Telecon, Turkey, Trance & Talking

What do Telecons, Turkey, Trance & Talking have in common?

 

*Kickoff Telecon.  I took part in a kickoff telecon for work, though I can't really say what for here, but it was a welcome break from the reading I had been doing, and oddly enough kept me awake since it was all new information to me.

 

*Turkey sandwich.  I finally got to eat after the long long telecon and the turkey filled me up right, like the commercials would say.  Woulda fallen asleep starving in the afternoon without it.

 

*Trance.  No, not a hypnotic sort of trance, or stare off into space half awake, half asleep kind of trance but quite the opposite.  That's right, trance as in techno.  It not only kept me awake during work reading and enabled me to completely block out my surroundings and get reading done (though required rearranging my monitor location so people can't sneak up on me when I can't hear them).  Luckily there are a couple good trance free internet radio stations to listen to at work.  It also inspired me to get some trance on my computer for keeping me awake driving on long trips.  I must say it is pretty awesome music (listening to it now).

 

*Coming home after a day of work and talking to Adam on the phone.  We got caught up (he went to Alaska to hunt!) and he decided he would crash here next Tuesday!  It will be good to see him again, even if just for an evening because my apartment is closer than his to his work location tues & wed.

 

You guessed it (probably unless you are asleep which would be ironic), they keep me awake!

Organized & Social Interactions

*Organization.  I organized all of my stuff in the office, preparing a cycling color code setup for the tasks.  Each task (project) has a color of hanging file folders, regular file folders, binder label, and outlook calendar label so that they will all match.  There are 4 different colors and will cycle through with tasks to keep it organized.  Being someone who likes organization means this makes the work environment a lot more relaxing.

 

*Catching up with Tara on the phone.  It had been about a week and a half since I talked to her last, and it felt like a much needed catch up.

 

*Frisbee.  I got out and threw a Frisbee around with Kevin and Mark.  It had been a few weeks since I got any exercise at all, and I really needed the physical and social activity.  It was a welcome break from the normal evening routine.

Change of Pace & Surprise Rebate

*Getting the initial calendar schedule for a new task at work that may start Friday.  With all the reading I've been doing, it will be a nice change to work on a new fast paced review task for a couple of weeks.  We might not get the task contract in place in time for the kickoff, but as soon as we do, I'll have something else to occupy most of my time at work.

 

*Making brownies.  I started with a recipe I knew worked fine and modified it a little bit and it came out great.  I got to eat a warm brownie with ice cream for a late dessert. yum :)

 

*Unexpected rebates.  I got 2 substantial rebates in the mail that I was not expecting.  I was counting the number I was still waiting on and had gotten the last of them a couple weeks go.  These say they are for what I was expecting, but now I don't know what the last ones were for.  Can't complain at all though!

 

*Remembering to a post before someone bugged me about it :-P

Lazy Sunday

*Sitting around lazily and watching an action movie with special effects so bad its hard to figure out what is actually supposed to be going on at times (and it was made in 2002!).  I guess they couldn't actually afford to show a real moving train or pay good model makers.  Its funny to watch ordinary model trains crash into each other.

 

*Fries, chicken tenders, and tacos, all in one day!  Yum...

 

*Tropical storm turned away from the potential path near us.  We might get a little rain, but not much.

Airplanes, Airplanes Everywhere!

*Driving to work and seeing raptors and F-117's (stealth) frequently. If you pay attention in the building you can hear them outside, but otherwise they are easy to ignore and you don't notice them when working, but it is cool to look up in the sky and see such high tech planes

*Airshow. I went to the Oceana Air Show on Saturday and it was pretty awesome. The air show started Friday afternoon and runs though Sunday around 10pm, opening Saturday from 8am-10pm. The only other air show that I have been to was in Cleveland which I thought was pretty awesome since the blue angels were there and performed for 10-20 min. HOWEVER, the blue angels at the Oceana show performed for just over an HOUR! There were all sorts of planes and stunts and it was cool to see them all, even if they couldn't do supersonic for fear of breaking windows. What do you get when you cross an aerospace engineer, a digital camera, and a huge air show? 450MB of pictures and videos (~300 pics/vids). The guys near me at the show made that seem like a tiny number as they clicked off 10-20 per pass of an airplane with their huge cameras (though one guy had a press badge for an unknown airplane press type thing)*Having a camera with such a fast shutter speed (1/2000 sec), non-software stabilization, and zoom that I could take a picture of a plane flying by quickly with its bomb doors open and see clear details!

*Driving down to Virginia Beach for the air show expecting it to take an hour (or worse since it was Saturday) only to discover I made it there in just over 35 minutes. I'll keep that in mind when I don't feel like going to the beach because I think it is too far....

Great Weather and Nearly Finished Moving In

*Perfect Weather.  Upper 70s to low 80s and partly cloudy with a slight breeze made driving with the windows open really nice, and I opened up my sliding door and put a fan in the bedroom window pointing out to create a fresh breeze in the apartment!  Weather like this makes me want to just stay outside, but I don't have anything to sit on outside to read outside.

 

*Talking to a bunch of UCMers on the phone right before bible study, and then some on Saturday.  I got to talk to Heather, Stephen, Shelley, Kyle, and Andrew all before bible study and Angela, Tara, and Andrew on Saturday during the VT football game.  Its good to talk to everyone, and I now know what its like to be on the other end of the phone when it gets passed around to a bunch of UCMers which happed a few times while I was there.

 

*Unpacking the last box of stuff from the move!

 

*Putting away most (not quite all) of the stuff that still was laying around and hadn't found a home yet!  The apartment is fairly clean and already more organized than my old one ever was, at least with respect to papers and files, etc.

Eclipse

*Lunar Eclipse. Tuesday morning revealed a total lunar eclipse. I don't think I've seen a full one since I was much younger looking out the window of my parents house in Ohio and checking the status every few minutes until it fully eclipsed. As I recall, it may have been pretty cold outside and that is why we were inside. I could see the eclipse quite clearly from the other side of the parking area in front of my building. From that point, the moon was across the apartment lake so there was nothing blocking it. I was able to get a few pictures of the moon during different parts of the eclipse with my camera which was cool, and I think I may try to venture out to the river next time up in the park near Yorktown at one of the many many pull off locations if I ever get the chance again (and it isn't at 5am).

*Reading a book. I finished Harry potter right after my last update, and I finally went back to the library to turn it in and borrow some more books. After wandering around for a while I decided to pick up a couple Clancy books even though I figured I may not be in the mood to read those, I also stumbled on another author whom I like and had found before by accident. I think I originally intended to get a Dan Brown (Davinci Code author) book, and ended up with a Dale Brown book, but it was really good, so I got 2 more of his as well. Then I noticed some books by Ray Bradbury and picked up one called "The Martian Chronicles" about people going to mars in 1999-2007(ish) which was written in 1950. It was interesting to see how he thought technology and society would be in our day, and they did not have computers (in the book) but had rockets that could seemingly fly anywhere as much as they wanted, and racism was still very present in the form of near slavery like behavior. I read the book in one evening and enjoyed it. I could tell partway through that he had written Fahrenheit 451 (though I found out later that 451 was written later) as well, as there were some strong references to book burning (though I've never read 451). (The Martian Chronicles turns out to be his first novel, followed by 451, another, and then Something Wicked This Way Comes)

*Three weeks of work complete. Three weeks have been completed and I am still enjoying it. Oddly enough I was very glad when my boss got back from his trip on Friday around lunchtime because I was running out of things to do and tired of reading. He quickly gave me plenty to do and that actually made the time fly by. Next week is a big presentation so we have a lot of work to do.

*Three day weekend. With labor day on Monday, I have 3 days of nothing to do, and its awesome. I went to the DMV to change over my license and become officially a VA resident, and that took most of the morning, but since it isn't a positive, I won't say more.

*Quick post office trip. After the DMV I was dreading going to the post office and when I got there the line seemed moderately long compared to the other times I went, but not compared to the CS PO. I looked around and saw the automatic package center but didn't know if I could use it for what I was mailing, but there was a lady from the PO there to help people! I walked right up and she said it was fine and helped me mail it very quickly. I was in and out in just a couple of minutes and never had to stand in the long line!

*Chili. I made a ton of chili earlier in the week and ate it for leftovers a lot. yummy yummy.

*Fajitas at Kevin's. Kevin made fajitas and we chatted a lot since nobody else could come and stay. It was good, and next Wednesday may be my turn.

1-1/2 Weeks of Work

*Finishing up 1 and a half weeks of work!  The time has just flown by since I've been busy for the most part.  The first whole week was filled with meetings, but this week has been pretty open so far.  I've been deciding what to work on and asking people what needs to be done since my boss is out of town, though he finally emailed me to give me the task list priorities.

 

*Already having pretty much completed tasks 1 and 2 on the priority list from my boss before he even sent it to me.

 

*Half price drinks at sonic.  I was driving around town and remembered the half price drinks and made it to sonic just in time.

 

*Hanging out at Kevin's for dinner.  We decided along with another guy (Mark...see I remembered a name) to meet for dinner at each others places every Wednesday since we are each on our own (their "better halves" are out of town for the weekdays), and that way we can cook for multiple people and hang out and play games or something.  I will really enjoy hanging out without eating out.

 

*Slowly learning people's names and figuring out what they are working on.

 

*Reading Harry Potter 7.  I haven't finished it yet since I've only had 2 evenings after work to read it, but I'm far enough along that I will be able to finish in one more evening without staying up any of these nights.

 

*Flex hours.  If I don't feel like getting out of bed when my alarm goes off like today, no problem.  I got to work at 8:30 but still left around 4:50 because I was actually productive during lunch time.  I could have even left earlier.  They don't care when you get there or when you leave as long as you do 40 hrs per week and are there from 9:30am-2pm (core hours).

New Car!!!!

*Getting my new car!!! I picked up my 2007 Accord EX (sedan) on Saturday, and it is quite impressive.

*BLUE

*Getting a pretty good deal on the new car!

*Being able to roll the windows down, plus the added benefit of being able to open a sunroof!

*Being able to roll all the windows down with the remote from a distance. Just a cool fun feature to air out the car on warm days.

*Not having to worry about sticking my badge out my rear window for security because of my window!

*6 cd changers - lots of music can be taken with me easily now. Sure beats my tape player/radio.

*Cruising around listening to lots of good radio stations and cds.

First Days of Work

*Starting a new job. It always has anxious yet great feelings.

*Getting a badge that lets me into NASA...I finally did it!

*Getting in on a new project from the beginning. Since I am the primary full time person on the task and it is brand new, I have less catching up to do and very little juggling of multiple tasks.

*Actually being able to give input. I got assigned specific things to do and can actually do them or ask real questions in my brainstorm meetings and mention how I would expect things to look.

*Meeting with the Director of the branch. I got to meet with the director, which some people don't get to do in their first 2 years, and I did it on the first day! It is very interesting to see your boss' boss reporting to his boss. A very different situation.

*Getting my car. I got my car on Wednesday evening, and is nice to not have to get rides to work all the time, even if the car isn't doing so well.

*Hearing that the moving company should be here early Saturday morning!

*Making friends with some of the people in the branch. A lot of them are near my age (<6 yrs older) so we get along pretty well. This definitely helps.

*Enjoying the first 4 days. Lots of meetings and some work, and tons of paperwork, but actually enjoying it and looking forward to more years of ever changing projects.

*Sitting on my couch. This is still quite pleasant, and not taken fore granted! Comfy Comfy

Williamsburg, Kevin's, and First Church

*Going to colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown with Adam.  We walked pretty quickly through the areas and saw both colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown.  We didn't make it out to the Jamestown island, but maybe some other day.  It was good to see Adam again and I think we both enjoyed it.  The weather turned out to be perfect, with a high of probably about 80 compared to the 100+ we had been hitting this week.  It was also cloudy which made it better.

 

*Evening at Kevin's.  After I got back from Williamsburg I headed over to Kevin's for the late afternoon/evening.  He had been out of town from Tues until early Sat morning so we hadn't gotten to hang out at all.  We played boggle and ate Chinese food and played another game that I have forgotten the name of.  It was fun and I learned a little more about what I might be doing come Monday at work.

 

*Checking out the closest Presby chuch in the area (Kirkwood Pres).  The people were really nice and joked around a lot.  Attendance wasn't too high (~70 from what I counted) but I think most people are on vacation since the bulletin attendance history showed 110-120 only a few weeks ago for a couple weeks.  I now also have a mug, which makes it the first actual cup, plate, or bowl in my apartment.

Comfort: Couch, Completion, and Consumables

*Couch!!! After sitting sitting on the floor all week, my couch has arrived, and it is amazing, pillow topped cushions and all! I love it, now I just need to add some color to the room, probably blue. I'd get curtains if I could afford them, but alas, they will wait.

*Cinnamon butter and bread, yum yum

*Cheese spread and crackers. Even if I actually have to dip the crackers because I have no silverware, its still awesome.

*Library having 3 copies of Harry Potter 6 on the shelf so I took one. I felt a little weird walking into the entirely separate juvenile section (not to be confused with young-adult) but once I got Harry Potter they didn't look at me weird anymore. :-P

*Taking care of almost all of the remaining tasks before I start work.

*Making final arrangements to meet Adam in the morning!!! I haven't seen him in over 2 years!

Pleasant Time Passers

*Borrowing internet from my neighbors most of the time...only a little unreliable

 

*Hours and hours of Whose line I happened to have handy so I didn't get bored without internet or TV for a while.

 

*A good book.  I finished up my book I started in the airports on the way.  It gave me a good productive set of evenings.

 

*A nearby library.  I stopped at the library to check it out and get a card.  It is only a couple blocks from my apartment, quite convenient and should help keep me busy in the evenings.

 

*Plenty of stores to browse, even though I often wasn't actually getting anything.

Virginia

*Safe flights to Virginia.  They were mostly on time.  The Atlanta arrival made us circle and almost divert to another airport but we waited a while and finally landed pretty close to the original scheduled time because we were previously early.  The Newport News landing was very slow in the pouring rain and for a minute I thought we might not stop in time but after a few extremely noise full reverse engine maneuvers, we turned right before the end of the runway

 

*Staying with Kevin Earle.  I got in pretty late (11pm) and spent the night with Kevin Earle at his new townhouse.  I was grateful to not have to stay in a hotel or my car, and it was good to see him again.

 

*Driving a mustang.  I got a red mustang from the rental company and drove it for a day then made a reservation for a cheaper economy car and took it in to trade it, only to find out that the mustang is the cheapest they have so they gave me a new BLUE mustang as my new economy car!  It is an awesome car and fun to drive.

 

*Making arrangements with Adam to meet him in Williamsburg on Saturday to see the colonial parts of town!  I haven't seen Adam since I moved out of VT, and I also wanted to be a tourist in Williamsburg with someone sometime so this will be fun and exciting.

 

*Getting my new apartment keys without a glitch.  Everything was in order and it was all taken care of quickly, and I got to see my new apartment.  It is really nice with a vaulted ceiling and nice balcony.  I took a lot of pictures and will make a website from it sometime.

 

*Shopping.  I've been doing a lot of shopping for all sorts of things I need, from trash cans to lamps and a couch and loveseat.  I just picked out the couch and loveseat and it will be here in a few days!  I'm excited about being able to afford some of these things even if I am getting the cheapest ones I can find.  I have managed to finish most of my shopping in a little over 36 hours of "moving in".

 

*Chic-fil-a.  Eating at a Chic-fil-a for the second time in many many years since it wasn't ever convenient.  The first time was when I was staying with either Tara or Andrew, and now I've also eaten there 3 times (Mon and Tues) since moving to VA.  I discovered that they have buffalo sauce and it is excellent!

Technically Homeless But Never Without A Home

*Everything going smoothly with the moving company who came to get all my stuff.  They luckily started earlier in the day than originally planned so I didn't have to worry as much about them finishing in time.

 

*Staying at Tara's.  After I became homeless and carless Tara came to pick me up and I stayed at her apartment in the spare bedroom for 2 nights.  It was extremely relieving to not be moving out and flying out on the same day.  I had been so busy getting ready for the movers I hadn't really had any time to hang out with friends, but staying with Tara provided a lot of that precious time.  I may have technically been homeless, but it never felt like it, and I know I always have a "home" with some UCMers whenever I need it.  Thanks Tara!!!!

 

*Staying at Andrew's.  After Tara's parents came into town, I switched over to Andrew's apartment for the remaining nights.  I excited Zeke too much a couple of the mornings, but it was a lot of fun to spend pretty much all the time Andrew wasn't in class with him and Zeke, and with Zeke while Andrew was in class.

 

*Tara's bday celebration.  Tara's dad cooked burgers that were quite yummy, just like last year.  And a bunch of us hung out, and then went to see....

 

*The Bourne Ultimatum.  We saw it on opening Friday in the evening.  The movie was really good, and very exciting.  Even though we were sitting practically in the front row, it was a great movie, regardless of how different it was from the books.  I definitely want to buy the box set of 3 Bourne movies!

 

*Andrew's Wii.  Andrew got a Wii while I was staying with him, and we had fun playing it most of one of the days.  I didn't think I would like it as much as I did, and I made a Mii character to leave on his Wii long after I'm gone.

 

*Tara and Andrew both taking me to the airport on Tara's Bday.  I was glad they both were there to say bye at the airport and I will miss them both a lot!!!

Apartment selection

*Selecting a moving company.  I will be going with Mayflower and things are arranged, so I now have one less big thing to worry about.

 

*Starting and completing the apartment hunt in less than 24 hours.  After making 10's of phone calls to apartment complexes for availability and other information, I selected one, and checked with Kevin to make sure it was in a good area, and it was.  I mailed off the application and deposit and faxed them a copy as well to get the apartment held.  They called me later in the afternoon to let me know that my credit check had gone through, etc, and that they were going to mail me a welcome packet!  I am now all set to go.

 

*Being able to stay with friends.  I don't know exactly where I will be staying for my homeless days in College Station, but I can stay with either Tara (except the weekend when her parents come) or Andrew, so I'm not worried about it.

 

*Relaxing on a Friday evening and catching a new episode of Psych.  It is one of my favorite shows and I didn't think that there was going to be an episode on until it started to come on.  I guess that is because I didn't think it was Friday, but it was.

Fridays

*Getting a lot done towards arranging the move.  I managed to get a hold of a number of companies to at least get the number of estimates I needed, and start investigating apartments.

 

*Eating dinner at Fridays with Tara, Andrew, and Elliott.  It had been a while since we had been there and we all got something we really enjoyed.  It is the simple get togethers that will be missed the most.  Its going to be rough, but I am enjoying it while I still can.

 

*Doughnut run.  After seeing doughnuts in the Fridays menu, we made a doughnut run to Albertsons then Wally world.  A little spontaneous but very yummy.

 

*Not feeling the pressure to go into the office.  It was my first day of no office pressure since I don't actually have anything there that I have to do.  It let me concentrate on other things that had to be done.

Passed Oral Exam and Job Offer!!!!!!!!

*Passing my Oral Exam!!!! I now semi-officially have completed my M.S. degree!!!!!!!!!  The presentation went really well and I kicked butt on the Q&A portion.  The profs did not have to deliberate much before letting me know I had passed

 

*Large turnout for my presentation.  I don't think they have had as many people turn out for a non-thesis oral exam before.  I know of 1 or 2 that have only had the student and profs, and that was all, but I had at least 15 people total

 

*Getting a job offer!!!!!!  I checked my email right after the oral exam and found out I had just gotten a job offer at AMA!!!!!!  This makes the 2nd huge huge thing to happen in one day.  There is a lot of planning to do and arrangements to be made, but at least I know where I'm going.

Almost there...

*Finishing up my report (minus edits) and sending it to my committee with a reminder about my mini-defense time.  Almost done....

 

*Getting my presentation done early enough to go over it a few times and make small changes until it looked how I would want it to look.  That takes a lot of pressure off of tomorrow, and that is always good!

 

*Getting a continually longer list of people to contact when I get a response from AMA.  Its good to see how many people are interested, even if it means I'll be on the phone forever :-P

Sunday

*Eating at Canes for the first time with Tara and Andrew.  The chicken was pretty good and the sauce was good as well, maybe I'll learn to try new places before I'm about to leave an area...

 

*Finishing up all the non picture/video content of my presentation.  Now I just need to add some pictures/videos and figure out what to talk about for 35 min!

 

*Kyle's sermon at Covenant was really good.  It had been a long time since I heard him preach and he did a great job.

Freedom, Fun, and Fanticipation

*Being able to decide that I didn't want to go out in the rain, so I stayed at home and did my work.

 

*Discovering (after being told by Tara) that there is a laser tag place not too far from here toward Houston.  Simply put; laser tag is awesome!  We may have discovered it one weekend too late for me to go, but we're going to see what we can do.

 

*Calling the HR lady at AMA to ask a question and verify that I had not missed an email.  I haven't missed one yet, and they are going to get everyone together Monday morning for final inputs before they send me an email.  That sounds promising.

 

*Feeling on schedule for my mini-defense on Tuesday.  It will be complete mayhem from this point until I am settled who knows where, but I think I can handle it.

 

*Playing clue with Alison (who came back into town temporarily to go to Houston), Tara, and Elliott.  It had been a long time since I had played, and it was the first time Alison played with the actual rules, and it was a lot of fun.  I might have to get that game sometime.

Work, Food, and Distractions

*Completing the sections of my report that I set out to complete.  Now I only have 2 more sections (though big ones) to complete.

 

*Baked potatoes w/ chicken.  I made baked potatoes and  baja chipotle chicken pieces to put together and it turned out really well.

 

*Woot-off.  I was entertained a large portion of the day by the current woot-off.  It was just distracting enough to make the time go by while I worked, but not too distracting to keep me from getting my work done.

Post Interview

*Getting a decent amount of work done on my final report

 

*Hanging out at Andrew's with Tara and Zeke for a bit in the evening.  I hadn't seen them in a few days due to the interview, and Zeke was really active so it was fun.

 

*Sleeping in as long as I wanted.

 

*Hearing from my advisor that the company called him afterwards for a reference and it seems I left a good "imprint" on the company

 

*Hearing from someone who won't be named that my chances are very good.

Interview

*All flights on, or near on time on the way to Hampton, VA.

 

*Meeting up with Kevin Earle (and his wife) for the first time since his wedding right after we graduated.  We discussed AMA and some other things to catch up.

 

*Going to bed really early and sleeping really well the night before the interview

 

*Waking up 2 hours before my alarm, and then 1 hour before, and then again when it went off, well rested.

 

*Being ready for the interview early and heading over 30 min early.

 

*Quite pleasant interview.  I talked with 5 people in all, including the president of the company (who's cell number I now have too)  all of whom seemed to really like what I had to say, though they did most of the talking. 

 

*Discovering that the company president really knows my current advisor (Dr. Hurtado) and that one of the interviewers is currently a distance masters student under Dr. Schaub!  It really is a small world.

 

*Free lunch!

 

*Finding out my dinner the previous night was also free!

 

*Sitting in the same row as a kid (~7-9) who was on their first plane flight ever.  The amazement and awe of a child's first plane flight is always cool to see, especially on the 6th flight in 1.5 days.

 

*Having my laptop to keep me entertained during my many hour delay in Houston (and so I could type this here at IAH), and giving me the opportunity to start the thank-you for the interviews (though I wouldn't dare send it without rereading it when less tired)

 

*Having the last flight attendant flirt with me because I had moved all the way to the front for more legroom (the plane was sparse and I was assigned second row).  She kept messing up things, probably because it was later than she was supposed to be working, and she thought I noticed and got giggly/flustered which was amusing, so I laughed, which perpetuated it.  It made the 7th time hearing all the flight instructions interesting.

 

*Finally getting home

Completions

*Completed interview travel arrangements.  The arrangements are complete and better than what I had suggested to them.  It will still be 7 flights and 18-20 hrs of travel in 2 days, but I'm kinda looking forward to it.

 

*Finishing my circuit board layout.  It should be ready to be sent to a company to be printed.  Then my electronics will look all fancy on a circuit board instead of on a bread board.

 

*Studying John Calvin.  This weeks UCM person to study was John Calvin and both Mark and Kyle were quite excited about it.  They did a good job with the discussion as usual!

 

*Tacos...mmmm tacos.  I actually hadn't made them in a while (contrary to popular belief!) so it was good to make them again.

 

*Working hard, late into the night.  I found some motivation somewhere that I didn't know existed in the evening and worked until 1:30am both Tues. and Wed. It helped me get a lot done towards finishing this whole thing up.