Just wanted to write a quick note about the fun day yesterday. Dad happened to be in town on a flight for Suntrust Bank. So I went down to his hotel by the Dulles airport and picked him up before meeting Richard at Sila Thai restaurant. Richard had a doctor appointment that morning, so he was able to take a leisurely lunch with us.
After lunch, dad and I embarked on a search for an office chair for me. (It was my Christmas gift.) Fortunately, dad suggested I look for deals online...found a $269 chair for $121 on clearance at Staples. Got to the store and the price was still marked $269, but when we had them scan it, it rang up $121. They even accepted my expired $20 Office Depot coupon. So we were happy. Dad joked that I "stole" the chair.
(Continued...)
On the way home we stopped by the Northrop Grumman office where I'll be working. Snapped a couple shots, then headed on home to show him the house and assemble my new chair.
Poor Cara-Lea had a 13 hour day in the OR, so she didn't get home until about 8:30pm. Dad and I had already given up hope and headed to eat Mexican. We were ordering our nachos when Cara-Lea called, with her request for Olive Garden. So we finished our unusual Olive Garden appetizer of nachos and drove the 2 miles home to pick up Cara-Lea before heading back out.
Had fun visiting and hearing about the craziness of Cara-Lea's day which included having a patient wake up on the table. After supper, dropped Dad off at his hotel and headed home quickly as Cara-Lea had to be at work again at 8 am.
**********
Today is a momentous day... finally get "fast" Internet installed at the house (Verizon FIOS). For the past 3 weeks, I've been using my cell phone as a modem. It's just in time as I start work on Monday...and for the first week I'll be doing an intro/orientation in Philadelphia of all places! So now Cara-Lea won't be left without Internet. You don't realize how much you rely on something until it is gone.
I'll be sure to try and write a blog post this next week to let everyone know how the first few days of work go. Overall, I'm feeling pretty "pampered" by the new job as they are buying me a new laptop for work and putting me up in the Hyatt for the week. Of course I was deflated I little bit when I talked to Richard who works for the federal government and heard he gets 26 days/year of leave plus 10 federal holidays and a bunch (13?) of sick days. Ah well, the grass is always greener, right?
Friday, January 30, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Crazy December/January -- Big Life Changes
(Cliff notes version: Cara-Lea started a new job at an orthopedic surgery practice in Winchester, VA. We moved to Leesburg, VA. I start a new job with Northrop Grumman in Herndon, VA on Feb 2.)
Well... I've finally decided I can't just wait to write the "perfect" blog post with requisite picture and interesting story line... If I do wait, it just never seems to happen. Hopefully, the more I write "imperfect" posts the more the rest of the family will be inspired to post more of their less-than-front-page-news from their day-to-day lives.
Of course, as the title suggests, I would guess that all the news we've had in the past month is probably worthy of a "front page" designation. Going back to December... (Continued)
Beginning of December sometime: Cara-Lea went to an interview at an orthopedic surgery practice in Winchester, VA. (May have been end of November.)
Sometime in between: We decide that Winchester will probably work well if we live in the middle somewhere between Winchester and the Dulles Technology corridor. So I don't remember the exact date, but at some point Cara-Lea said "yes" to a position with Winchester Bone and Joint Specialists.
12/11: I took my last exam to complete my Master's degree in Computer Science. I believe the date of the diploma says 12/13.
12/18: Cara-Lea took her national board certifying exam to become a PA. Standard waiting time for results is two weeks.
12/20: Packed for Christmas, got a hotel in Leesburg, and went to the practice's Christmas party at the Winchester Country club. VERY nice people. Enjoyed the night...highlight was Dr. Swope's poem that had a little anecdote about everyone who worked at the practice. Well I guess the real highlight was that Cara-Lea signed her official contract with the practice after the party was over.
12/21 - morning 12/23: Tried to relax a little bit in Leesburg, did some final Christmas shopping at the Dulles Town Center mall, and looked at a few places to rent.
12/23: Found out CL passed her boards!!! It was great to find out earlier than the normal 2 weeks. Made for a much happier Christmas trip. That afternoon drove down to TN--arriving about 4 am at the parent's house where we stayed this trip. (Richard, Shelly, Kaley, and Connor also stayed there.)
12/24 noon: Cara-Lea had planned a little graduation party for me at my parent's house. Enjoyed visiting with everyone. In attendance, Richard, Shelly, Kaley, Connor, the parents, Brian, his wife Monica, Mike, Cara-Lea, Jana, and Jerry Bruckner.
12/24 6 pm: Went to the Collegedale Church's Christmas eve ceremony with Uncle Wendell, Aunt Sharon, Emily, and Evan (sp?). Saw lots of people. Enjoyed chatting with the Mountz's, Meyers, and Rawsons. After the ceremony went to supper at Uncle Wendell and Aunt Sharon's along with Cara-Lea's dad and brother. Aunt Sharon made an awesome Mexican meal of tortilla soup and lots of other goodies. Great catching up with their family and the latest happenings of Emily and Evan who are both going to school at Collegedale Academy.
Christmas: Christmas was at Grandma and Grandpa Regal's new house... which is a *long* 1/10th of a mile from my parents. Lots of family made for lots of fun for me...Aunt Renee, her husband Bruce, Richie, Robby, Ryan, Aunt Ruthie, the grandparents, and all of our family. Highlight for me was the meal...all of us at one big table with nothing in the middle but mashed potatoes and all the fixings.
Christmas evening: Went over to Jennifer Walls' house for a pseudo Walls family reunion. Got to see my Grandpa Walls who I hadn't seen in far too long. Got to meet some *new* relatives also, such as Jeffrey Wickham's two kids and Vanessa's husband and new son. It was so great visiting with Aunt Karen and Uncle Steve whom we hadn't seen since they had come to visit us in TX I believe. Also great catching up with Jennifer, Uncle David, and Beth.
12/26 - 12/27: Christmas with CL's family on the 26th... played some baseball in the yard with Nathan for a while before opening presents. Then went to lunch and then a walk at Riverwalk on the 27th...followed by an evening at Provinos. Brian and Monica, and Mike and his "friend" Heather joined us.
12/28: Enjoyed a round of golf with Mike and Brian at a totally swamped with water Concord before heading over to Bruckners for Christmas. Jana, Eric, and Kate were there with of course Mary and Jerry. Got to watch a little football, enjoyed lots of food and great conversation... and some rook playing of course.
12/29: Ate lunch at Sitar Indian Cuisine with CL's brother Leonard and his wife Cara, and Leonard, Donna, and Nathan. Then stopped by Bruckner's for a short visit before heading over to Ryan Rayburn's 13th birthday party at the grandparents house. Lots of people there I hadn't seen in a while including Aunt B, Cathy, and Karen. Also got to meet some of Bruce's extended family. Hard to believe my *little* cousin Ryan was turning 13. I remember distinctly holding him when he was born. Even harder to believe that Richie is in his 20s and Robby has graduated from high school! Highlight of the evening was playing pool with Grandpa...just like old times.
12/30: Had an hour long phone interview with Northrop Grumman. Then drove back to Leesburg to look for housing now that everything was "official" with the boards passed and the contract signed. Stayed in the same hotel we stayed before... Holiday Inn at Caradoc Hall.
12/31: Had another phone interview with a different department at Northrop Grumman for over an hour. Ate out at Don Pablos, then went back to the hotel to watch the ball drop.
1/1 - 1/4: Spent all day every day (and most the nights) searching online and looking at rental houses. Considered everything from Winchester to Leesburg and in between. Housing is still pretty expensive around here despite the housing crisis, so the pickings were slim for what we wanted and what we wanted to pay. Big pre-requisite was finding a place with at least two bathrooms so we could have company over without having everyone sharing. Finally after looking at over 20 different places...came back to basically the first one we looked at.
1/5: Signed the lease... 1800 sq feet, 3 br, 2.5 baths. 1 car carage, deck, and a fireplace. All recently renovated. We were/are happy.
1/5 pm: Decided we might as well go ahead and get all our stuff from TN that we had had stored for the past 3.5 years while we lived in our *tiny* place up in Philadelphia. So we drove back down to TN.
1/6: Picked up the Uhaul and drove over to CL's parents to pick up her piano and a few other items. Mike graciously took time out of his prepping to leave for Kettering to volunteer to help with the piano. Loading went fairly smoothly, then it was off to Bruckner's to load the rest. Dad, Shelly, and Jerry helped us organize and pack. (Jana helped direct me while backing the truck in and got her Xtera stuck because of all the rain.)
1/7 am: Loaded up the last few bits of stuff, got tons of boxes courtesy of Jerry's stockpile, then drove to Walmart to meet the parents and CL's dad and brother to say goodbye and to pick up mom who thankfully volunteered to help us drive and pack for the week... we would have never made it without her. Also got to check out the parents new chariot, a Honda Odyssey minivan, they had just purchased the night before. Pretty nice!
1/7 pm: The three of us tag-teamed as we drove the Uhaul with my car in tow up to Leesburg. Stayed the night in the same Holiday Inn... now for the 3rd stay (total of about 10 days.)
1/8: Dropped off my car at our new house so we wouldn't have to tow it to Philly and back. Dropped the tow dolly at the Uhaul place... ate a late lunch at Ihop, then it was on to Philly.
1/9: Sometime in all of this the 2nd batch of Northrop Grumman people invited me back for an in-person interview. The in-person interview location was in Philadelphia! :) So I had told them I would be in town today... so Cara-Lea drove me up to my interview in Conshohocken. Spent a an hour or so interviewing with 4 managers, then another hour talking with some developers. Then back for an hour or so with the lead manager...at which point they offered me the position. No details yet, but they said they would be happy to have me. I was happy because this job involved getting a security clearance which Richard had told me would be a real good thing for my career, along with focusing on web development, which is what I enjoy.
1/9 - 1/10: Relaxed a little Sat a.m. but spent Friday pm and Sat pm packing boxes left and right. Never would have made it without mom who I think packed at least 50% of the boxes herself.
1/11: Invited some good friends Geoff and Pita over for breakfast and to help with some loading. Also asked a friend from the high school I used to teach at, Jason, to help load the heavy stuff. The chaos of the day cannot be fully described, but lets just say that even with CL staying until about 8 pm (when she had her first day of work the next morning in Winchester) it took mom and I until about 3am to get everything settled and finished. At some point several days back there was a decision about whether I should rent a 17' or 26' truck... I *almost* went with 17' but in the end went with the 26' and if it had been an inch shorter, we wouldn't have been able to fit everything. We had to push on the load to get the door to close... but it finally closed. CL drove down to Winchester that night and stayed in a hotel to prepare for her first day.
1/12: CL's first day of work. Mom and I drove the Uhaul down to Leesburg. Met the landlord and realtor at 11 am for the final walk-through of the house. Had professional movers scheduled for noon for 3 hours. Unloaded from 12:10p to 3:10p with the movers and mom. Then quickly got the truck ready to return to Uhaul by 4p. Drove to Uhaul and dropped the truck. Got out of paying a lot of damage fees by some miracle (scraped sides from trees at CL's parents, messed up rim from cutting a corner, etc.) Then immediately drove mom to the Dulles Airport for her flight that left at 6:30p. Went home and collapsed with poor Oso who had been along for this entire journey.
1/13 to 1/22: CL has been working very hard. The practice is definitely a challenging place. I have been unpacking and organizing and trying to be supportive.
1/16: Officially accepted the position at Northrop Grumman. I start Feb 2.
1/20: Watched the inauguration on TV despite being just 40 miles away... it was cold!
Right now: Looking forward to the weekend for CL's sake... she needs a break, she basically hasn't stopped since well before she took her boards back on Dec 18. Last weekend we got the kitchen in order.
Speaking of which... I better get back to work to help things along. I hope this couple hours has been time well spent to try and get everyone caught up. I know in a month or so, I would never remember half of the dates/details. :)
So now, my challenge is to the rest of the family... dad, mom, Richard, Shelly. I would wager that no one is busier than I have been, so there's no excuse. Let's see some blog posts! ;)
... or at least some Twitter updates.
Well... I've finally decided I can't just wait to write the "perfect" blog post with requisite picture and interesting story line... If I do wait, it just never seems to happen. Hopefully, the more I write "imperfect" posts the more the rest of the family will be inspired to post more of their less-than-front-page-news from their day-to-day lives.
Of course, as the title suggests, I would guess that all the news we've had in the past month is probably worthy of a "front page" designation. Going back to December... (Continued)
Beginning of December sometime: Cara-Lea went to an interview at an orthopedic surgery practice in Winchester, VA. (May have been end of November.)
Sometime in between: We decide that Winchester will probably work well if we live in the middle somewhere between Winchester and the Dulles Technology corridor. So I don't remember the exact date, but at some point Cara-Lea said "yes" to a position with Winchester Bone and Joint Specialists.
12/11: I took my last exam to complete my Master's degree in Computer Science. I believe the date of the diploma says 12/13.
12/18: Cara-Lea took her national board certifying exam to become a PA. Standard waiting time for results is two weeks.
12/20: Packed for Christmas, got a hotel in Leesburg, and went to the practice's Christmas party at the Winchester Country club. VERY nice people. Enjoyed the night...highlight was Dr. Swope's poem that had a little anecdote about everyone who worked at the practice. Well I guess the real highlight was that Cara-Lea signed her official contract with the practice after the party was over.
12/21 - morning 12/23: Tried to relax a little bit in Leesburg, did some final Christmas shopping at the Dulles Town Center mall, and looked at a few places to rent.
12/23: Found out CL passed her boards!!! It was great to find out earlier than the normal 2 weeks. Made for a much happier Christmas trip. That afternoon drove down to TN--arriving about 4 am at the parent's house where we stayed this trip. (Richard, Shelly, Kaley, and Connor also stayed there.)
12/24 noon: Cara-Lea had planned a little graduation party for me at my parent's house. Enjoyed visiting with everyone. In attendance, Richard, Shelly, Kaley, Connor, the parents, Brian, his wife Monica, Mike, Cara-Lea, Jana, and Jerry Bruckner.
12/24 6 pm: Went to the Collegedale Church's Christmas eve ceremony with Uncle Wendell, Aunt Sharon, Emily, and Evan (sp?). Saw lots of people. Enjoyed chatting with the Mountz's, Meyers, and Rawsons. After the ceremony went to supper at Uncle Wendell and Aunt Sharon's along with Cara-Lea's dad and brother. Aunt Sharon made an awesome Mexican meal of tortilla soup and lots of other goodies. Great catching up with their family and the latest happenings of Emily and Evan who are both going to school at Collegedale Academy.
Christmas: Christmas was at Grandma and Grandpa Regal's new house... which is a *long* 1/10th of a mile from my parents. Lots of family made for lots of fun for me...Aunt Renee, her husband Bruce, Richie, Robby, Ryan, Aunt Ruthie, the grandparents, and all of our family. Highlight for me was the meal...all of us at one big table with nothing in the middle but mashed potatoes and all the fixings.
Christmas evening: Went over to Jennifer Walls' house for a pseudo Walls family reunion. Got to see my Grandpa Walls who I hadn't seen in far too long. Got to meet some *new* relatives also, such as Jeffrey Wickham's two kids and Vanessa's husband and new son. It was so great visiting with Aunt Karen and Uncle Steve whom we hadn't seen since they had come to visit us in TX I believe. Also great catching up with Jennifer, Uncle David, and Beth.
12/26 - 12/27: Christmas with CL's family on the 26th... played some baseball in the yard with Nathan for a while before opening presents. Then went to lunch and then a walk at Riverwalk on the 27th...followed by an evening at Provinos. Brian and Monica, and Mike and his "friend" Heather joined us.
12/28: Enjoyed a round of golf with Mike and Brian at a totally swamped with water Concord before heading over to Bruckners for Christmas. Jana, Eric, and Kate were there with of course Mary and Jerry. Got to watch a little football, enjoyed lots of food and great conversation... and some rook playing of course.
12/29: Ate lunch at Sitar Indian Cuisine with CL's brother Leonard and his wife Cara, and Leonard, Donna, and Nathan. Then stopped by Bruckner's for a short visit before heading over to Ryan Rayburn's 13th birthday party at the grandparents house. Lots of people there I hadn't seen in a while including Aunt B, Cathy, and Karen. Also got to meet some of Bruce's extended family. Hard to believe my *little* cousin Ryan was turning 13. I remember distinctly holding him when he was born. Even harder to believe that Richie is in his 20s and Robby has graduated from high school! Highlight of the evening was playing pool with Grandpa...just like old times.
12/30: Had an hour long phone interview with Northrop Grumman. Then drove back to Leesburg to look for housing now that everything was "official" with the boards passed and the contract signed. Stayed in the same hotel we stayed before... Holiday Inn at Caradoc Hall.
12/31: Had another phone interview with a different department at Northrop Grumman for over an hour. Ate out at Don Pablos, then went back to the hotel to watch the ball drop.
1/1 - 1/4: Spent all day every day (and most the nights) searching online and looking at rental houses. Considered everything from Winchester to Leesburg and in between. Housing is still pretty expensive around here despite the housing crisis, so the pickings were slim for what we wanted and what we wanted to pay. Big pre-requisite was finding a place with at least two bathrooms so we could have company over without having everyone sharing. Finally after looking at over 20 different places...came back to basically the first one we looked at.
1/5: Signed the lease... 1800 sq feet, 3 br, 2.5 baths. 1 car carage, deck, and a fireplace. All recently renovated. We were/are happy.
1/5 pm: Decided we might as well go ahead and get all our stuff from TN that we had had stored for the past 3.5 years while we lived in our *tiny* place up in Philadelphia. So we drove back down to TN.
1/6: Picked up the Uhaul and drove over to CL's parents to pick up her piano and a few other items. Mike graciously took time out of his prepping to leave for Kettering to volunteer to help with the piano. Loading went fairly smoothly, then it was off to Bruckner's to load the rest. Dad, Shelly, and Jerry helped us organize and pack. (Jana helped direct me while backing the truck in and got her Xtera stuck because of all the rain.)
1/7 am: Loaded up the last few bits of stuff, got tons of boxes courtesy of Jerry's stockpile, then drove to Walmart to meet the parents and CL's dad and brother to say goodbye and to pick up mom who thankfully volunteered to help us drive and pack for the week... we would have never made it without her. Also got to check out the parents new chariot, a Honda Odyssey minivan, they had just purchased the night before. Pretty nice!
1/7 pm: The three of us tag-teamed as we drove the Uhaul with my car in tow up to Leesburg. Stayed the night in the same Holiday Inn... now for the 3rd stay (total of about 10 days.)
1/8: Dropped off my car at our new house so we wouldn't have to tow it to Philly and back. Dropped the tow dolly at the Uhaul place... ate a late lunch at Ihop, then it was on to Philly.
1/9: Sometime in all of this the 2nd batch of Northrop Grumman people invited me back for an in-person interview. The in-person interview location was in Philadelphia! :) So I had told them I would be in town today... so Cara-Lea drove me up to my interview in Conshohocken. Spent a an hour or so interviewing with 4 managers, then another hour talking with some developers. Then back for an hour or so with the lead manager...at which point they offered me the position. No details yet, but they said they would be happy to have me. I was happy because this job involved getting a security clearance which Richard had told me would be a real good thing for my career, along with focusing on web development, which is what I enjoy.
1/9 - 1/10: Relaxed a little Sat a.m. but spent Friday pm and Sat pm packing boxes left and right. Never would have made it without mom who I think packed at least 50% of the boxes herself.
1/11: Invited some good friends Geoff and Pita over for breakfast and to help with some loading. Also asked a friend from the high school I used to teach at, Jason, to help load the heavy stuff. The chaos of the day cannot be fully described, but lets just say that even with CL staying until about 8 pm (when she had her first day of work the next morning in Winchester) it took mom and I until about 3am to get everything settled and finished. At some point several days back there was a decision about whether I should rent a 17' or 26' truck... I *almost* went with 17' but in the end went with the 26' and if it had been an inch shorter, we wouldn't have been able to fit everything. We had to push on the load to get the door to close... but it finally closed. CL drove down to Winchester that night and stayed in a hotel to prepare for her first day.
1/12: CL's first day of work. Mom and I drove the Uhaul down to Leesburg. Met the landlord and realtor at 11 am for the final walk-through of the house. Had professional movers scheduled for noon for 3 hours. Unloaded from 12:10p to 3:10p with the movers and mom. Then quickly got the truck ready to return to Uhaul by 4p. Drove to Uhaul and dropped the truck. Got out of paying a lot of damage fees by some miracle (scraped sides from trees at CL's parents, messed up rim from cutting a corner, etc.) Then immediately drove mom to the Dulles Airport for her flight that left at 6:30p. Went home and collapsed with poor Oso who had been along for this entire journey.
1/13 to 1/22: CL has been working very hard. The practice is definitely a challenging place. I have been unpacking and organizing and trying to be supportive.
1/16: Officially accepted the position at Northrop Grumman. I start Feb 2.
1/20: Watched the inauguration on TV despite being just 40 miles away... it was cold!
Right now: Looking forward to the weekend for CL's sake... she needs a break, she basically hasn't stopped since well before she took her boards back on Dec 18. Last weekend we got the kitchen in order.
Speaking of which... I better get back to work to help things along. I hope this couple hours has been time well spent to try and get everyone caught up. I know in a month or so, I would never remember half of the dates/details. :)
So now, my challenge is to the rest of the family... dad, mom, Richard, Shelly. I would wager that no one is busier than I have been, so there's no excuse. Let's see some blog posts! ;)
... or at least some Twitter updates.
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