Guy: Did you stock up on bottled water?
Me: No, why should I stock up on water?
Guy: Cuz there's gonna be a lot of salty crackers.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Mondays....
"Sounds like someone has a case of the Mondays"
This Monday, October 27th I got a call from my General Manager at Derse. After a few cordial "how ya doin's?" the remainder of the conversation was prefaced with "...this isn't a call I like to make."
AWESOME!
I was then told that "corporate blah blah blah budget yadda yadda forecasting blah yadda..." Unnecessarily long corporate-speak-monologue aside, I was told that I was going to be laid off.
This is the third time I have been laid off. And, I'm actually ok with it this time, as odd as that may sound. The first two times were a real shock to me - that being said, this one was a shock, too - but now I'm going into the situation more comfortable and confident than I have on previous occasions.
We'll see where this all leads. With every lay-off there has been a better job waiting for me. I'm hoping and praying that that will be the case this time around, too. I have connections contacted, resume polished and cover letters drafted and sent.
I'll keep ya posted on the progress...
AWESOME!
I was then told that "corporate blah blah blah budget yadda yadda forecasting blah yadda..." Unnecessarily long corporate-speak-monologue aside, I was told that I was going to be laid off.
This is the third time I have been laid off. And, I'm actually ok with it this time, as odd as that may sound. The first two times were a real shock to me - that being said, this one was a shock, too - but now I'm going into the situation more comfortable and confident than I have on previous occasions.
We'll see where this all leads. With every lay-off there has been a better job waiting for me. I'm hoping and praying that that will be the case this time around, too. I have connections contacted, resume polished and cover letters drafted and sent.
I'll keep ya posted on the progress...
Friday, October 24, 2008
summer of biking
Hi kids, today we will be having a pop quiz composed of a single multiple choice question:
A: It has been a long time since an update
B: It has not been a long time since an update
C: This blog sucks
D: This blog certainly does not suck
E: Both A & C
Yes'm, it's been a while - so here are some pictures of my main summer activity: mountain biking.
So, with the end of daylight savings time next weekend, our after-work rides will come to a screeching halt. Hopefully I'll be able to get some lunch-time rides up Chimney Gulch.
And if not, I'll daydream about the upcoming ski weekend.
A: It has been a long time since an update
B: It has not been a long time since an update
C: This blog sucks
D: This blog certainly does not suck
E: Both A & C
Yes'm, it's been a while - so here are some pictures of my main summer activity: mountain biking.
I started off the summer with a new bike - oh the places it will go....
From 'windy saddle' along Chimney Gulch...
A few shots from White Ranch open space...
Yesterday's trip up Chimney Gulch found residual snow from a few days ago...
So, with the end of daylight savings time next weekend, our after-work rides will come to a screeching halt. Hopefully I'll be able to get some lunch-time rides up Chimney Gulch.
And if not, I'll daydream about the upcoming ski weekend.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Slippery when black
From Feb. 28th to March 3rd we played host for my parents first trip here. It was my mom's first time to see Colorado and my dad's first time to ski on a real mountain. We grew up doing some skiing in the quad-city area in NW Illinois, but those 30-second runs were nothing compared to the miles-long trails in Summit County.
After arriving safely, albeit a bit late due to weather issues in St. Louis on Thursday night, Friday came quickly and we headed up to Keystone to ron-day-voo with Rene's family.
:: 5.23.08 :: OK, ... this happened nearly 3 months ago now and I'm just posting pics and updating my blog. The small details that would make the entry only mildly entertaining have since slipped my mind and you're gonna just have to do with looking at pictures.
My mom and dad stop to pose before my dad's lesson...
Noob
My bro-in-law Chris and a jackass
"He's so dreamy...."
Looking upon Golden from Lookout Mtn.
As for the title relevance, Rene and I were walking the dogs outside the condo after the sun had set. I bit it. Hard.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Having trouble breathing?
Then maybe you shouldn't fall so friggin' hard that you knock the wind out of yourself.
Rene and I accompanied Nat and a couple other buddies on a trip to Breckenridge this past Saturday for some snowboarding and....deep breathing.
The trip up to the high country was somewhat eventful this time mainly due to the constant snowfall we were experiencing from about 7000 ft and up. The roads were not necessarily bad per se, but bad enough to witness this in the east-bound lane.
Luckily it didn't seem as though anyone had been injured...and like most moderately-sane-minded individuals I slowed down the speed for the remainder of our commute.
Once we got there we were treated with fresh snow which kept falling the entire time in waves varying from light showers to full-on dumping. The brief commentary is spot-on.
After a good number of runs it was time to head back. As we made our way down the final descent I soon realized that the mountain was ready to fight me. I was tired, the light was flat due to cloud cover, and I was enjoying my crash-free day to the point where I lost concentration and caught my toe-edge on a small pile of snow. I was moving along at a quick enough pace that when the edge dug into the snow I flew, an olympic-caliber distance, down the hill head first. I got my arms tucked in just soon enough to land on my shoulder which shoved my right arm so hard into my side that it knocked the wind out of me. I sat there gasping and laughing as best as my oxygen-free lungs could allow. Rene came up behind me and asked if I was ok.. and man do I wish I had this recorded: "I...heeeeehhh, kno-uuuhhh-cked the... wheeeuuu... wind...uhhhhhffeeehh... out of....eeehhhhff...I'm ok."
On our way home we noticed some people out on Lake Dillon with power kites. These types of kites, even in 15mph winds, will develop enough pulling force to drag you across the ground. I was awesome to watch people being drug (on their feet) across the lake...
Rene and I accompanied Nat and a couple other buddies on a trip to Breckenridge this past Saturday for some snowboarding and....deep breathing.
The trip up to the high country was somewhat eventful this time mainly due to the constant snowfall we were experiencing from about 7000 ft and up. The roads were not necessarily bad per se, but bad enough to witness this in the east-bound lane.
Luckily it didn't seem as though anyone had been injured...and like most moderately-sane-minded individuals I slowed down the speed for the remainder of our commute.
Once we got there we were treated with fresh snow which kept falling the entire time in waves varying from light showers to full-on dumping. The brief commentary is spot-on.
Rene prepared to battle the elements
Rene in action
After a good number of runs it was time to head back. As we made our way down the final descent I soon realized that the mountain was ready to fight me. I was tired, the light was flat due to cloud cover, and I was enjoying my crash-free day to the point where I lost concentration and caught my toe-edge on a small pile of snow. I was moving along at a quick enough pace that when the edge dug into the snow I flew, an olympic-caliber distance, down the hill head first. I got my arms tucked in just soon enough to land on my shoulder which shoved my right arm so hard into my side that it knocked the wind out of me. I sat there gasping and laughing as best as my oxygen-free lungs could allow. Rene came up behind me and asked if I was ok.. and man do I wish I had this recorded: "I...heeeeehhh, kno-uuuhhh-cked the... wheeeuuu... wind...uhhhhhffeeehh... out of....eeehhhhff...I'm ok."
On our way home we noticed some people out on Lake Dillon with power kites. These types of kites, even in 15mph winds, will develop enough pulling force to drag you across the ground. I was awesome to watch people being drug (on their feet) across the lake...
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Black Hat
The other day I was practicing up on my dart game when I nailed three double-bulls in one throw...aka, a Black Hat. I was so stoked that I took a picture.
Monday, February 11, 2008
A'hiking we will go
Yesterday Rene and I took advantage of the sunshine and warm weather to finally hike up N. Table Mountain. We have been looking forward to it since we moved here and were excited all weekend knowing what our Sunday afternoon had in store for us.
We filled the Camelbak, grabbed the GPS and headed out the door. The trail head is just a half mile from our house so a quick walk through the neighborhood past the $600K + homes-with-no-yards and we were ready to start our fun.
Just past the parking lotWe filled the Camelbak, grabbed the GPS and headed out the door. The trail head is just a half mile from our house so a quick walk through the neighborhood past the $600K + homes-with-no-yards and we were ready to start our fun.
From the top looking down on our neighborhood
Self portrait time
A peek at downtown Denver
There were some concrete cubes on the top that looked like they may have been footings for something.. i need to do some research.
Rene heading down from the 'summit'
Standing at the top. 6, 521 feet according to my GPS.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Keystone
This past weekend Rene and I headed up to Keystone to finally do some snowboarding. This was our first trip to the mountains to ride as 'locals' and we were pretty excited about making the trip.
Nat's parents were in town and were heading to Keystone also, so they swung by the house at about 7am on Sat. morning and we headed up convoy-style. Nat has figured out that the best way to get there is up Clear Creek Canyon (hwy 6) in lieu of taking the highly congested I-70. It's a 2-lane, curvy-durvy road, but the views are amazing.
Getting closer....
When we got there we hopped out and geared up for a day of riding...
Nat's parents were in town and were heading to Keystone also, so they swung by the house at about 7am on Sat. morning and we headed up convoy-style. Nat has figured out that the best way to get there is up Clear Creek Canyon (hwy 6) in lieu of taking the highly congested I-70. It's a 2-lane, curvy-durvy road, but the views are amazing.
See the sign? Curvy-durvy indeed
One of the 6 tunnels on the way there
Getting closer....
After worming our way through Clear Creek Canyon we got to Loveland Pass which had been closed to traffic just a couple days prior. As you can see, the roads still weren't in the best of shape.
When we got there we hopped out and geared up for a day of riding...
A view from the lift
A shot from the front side of at the top of a run
A shot from the front side of at the top of a run
Looking forward to next time....
Thursday, January 24, 2008
My feet hurt...piggyback style
My co-worker Dave and I recently took a trip to Las Vegas to the Consumer Electronics Show. CES is a trade show where most of the big-hitters in the electronics industry come to flex their digital pectoral muscles for the world to ooooh and aaaah, and maybe rub a little.. slowly, gently.. that's nice.
Dave does a great job of covering the event so I'm going to piggyback his blog(s) and just post a link to them like the lazy B that I am.
Dave's Vegas Blog 1
Dave's Vegas Blog 2
Props to Dave for linking back to my blog... thanks!
Dave does a great job of covering the event so I'm going to piggyback his blog(s) and just post a link to them like the lazy B that I am.
Dave's Vegas Blog 1
Dave's Vegas Blog 2
Props to Dave for linking back to my blog... thanks!
Uphill - Part 2 - the quick, quick version
As you can see from my comments to Uphill- Part 1, I'm being harassed due to my lack of posting/finishing the blog. Here's to you, Dave.
- We found a place to live. We're renting a house in Golden just west of the North Table Mountain. The Table Mountains basically separate Golden from the rest of the suburban cityish area. It's still nice and small.. only 18K population and people in the neighborhood wave at you while driving. Actually, I wave at people. But they usually wave back! A trend setter, I am.
- The Friday before we left for Colorado to find the above-mentioned house, Rene and I turned in our respective resignations to our companies. Derse, who I never thought would, came through for me big-time. When they found out I was going to leave they offered me something I couldn't refuse: the ability to work remotely from my new house. Derse has done this in the past for some of the upper-level designers which led me to believe that they'd never consider it for a pee-on such as myself. So here I sit in my wreck-of-a-home-office (read: messy) designing with a view out the window of North Table Mountain. Dig it.
- Christmas day was spent with the Smullin's in Colleyville, TX. It was good to be able to finish out my time in Texas the same way that it started. The beginning and the end, so to speak. If it weren't for Bob and Lyn and family I would never have considered Texas as a place to call home.
When I was an intern designer at a small company in Farmers Branch I lived with the Smullins that summer. Four days of wakeboarding a week was tough to beat.
That pretty sums up the move in a quick swoop. Now I can move on to more current events that will be blogged three weeks after they happen.
- We found a place to live. We're renting a house in Golden just west of the North Table Mountain. The Table Mountains basically separate Golden from the rest of the suburban cityish area. It's still nice and small.. only 18K population and people in the neighborhood wave at you while driving. Actually, I wave at people. But they usually wave back! A trend setter, I am.
- The Friday before we left for Colorado to find the above-mentioned house, Rene and I turned in our respective resignations to our companies. Derse, who I never thought would, came through for me big-time. When they found out I was going to leave they offered me something I couldn't refuse: the ability to work remotely from my new house. Derse has done this in the past for some of the upper-level designers which led me to believe that they'd never consider it for a pee-on such as myself. So here I sit in my wreck-of-a-home-office (read: messy) designing with a view out the window of North Table Mountain. Dig it.
- Christmas day was spent with the Smullin's in Colleyville, TX. It was good to be able to finish out my time in Texas the same way that it started. The beginning and the end, so to speak. If it weren't for Bob and Lyn and family I would never have considered Texas as a place to call home.
When I was an intern designer at a small company in Farmers Branch I lived with the Smullins that summer. Four days of wakeboarding a week was tough to beat.
That pretty sums up the move in a quick swoop. Now I can move on to more current events that will be blogged three weeks after they happen.
Here are a few images of the foothills from the deck in our back yard.
Looking East to North Table Mountain
Western View 1
Western view 2
Looking East to North Table Mountain
Western View 1
Western view 2
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Uphill - Part 1
In an effort to keep my reader(s) satisfied with the verbal drippings of my chapped lips I will be posting in sections because so much has gone on since my last appearance that I don't want to make a marathon entry...
I just looked back at my last entry... Dec 7th. Like I said, a lot has gone on in the last month so I'll start where I figure I left off:
The move uphill started on November 30th when we got an offer on our house in Ft. Worth with a closing date scheduled for December 21st. THREE WEEKS!!! After Rene and I cleaned up the mess from puking at the gall of the buyers for asking only three weeks to have the house empty, we quickly put a plan together. I was to get in contact with the exhibit house I had a 'job offer' with and discuss the time line for the move and starting date. Rene was to do the same...to let the clinic owner know the official day she will arrive. We also figured that if we work till the end of the year it will give us each an extra paycheck vs. leaving our jobs mid-pay cycle.
So, where to stay post home evacuation? We had an offer from our good, long-time family friends in Colleyville, the Smullin's, that, if we needed to, we could stay with them to ease the transition...so we hit them up on the offer.
Let it be known that selling a house, moving 900 miles and starting new jobs is cause for a ridiculus amount of stress. During the inspection process the buyer took 4 days to get back to us with final fixes to be completed. Four days of a mere 21 wasted on indecisiveness. More puking.
That put us with about a week to pack our belongings (we had already started a bit, but how committed could we be to the process not knowing if anything was set in stone?) and find a place to live...
I just looked back at my last entry... Dec 7th. Like I said, a lot has gone on in the last month so I'll start where I figure I left off:
The move uphill started on November 30th when we got an offer on our house in Ft. Worth with a closing date scheduled for December 21st. THREE WEEKS!!! After Rene and I cleaned up the mess from puking at the gall of the buyers for asking only three weeks to have the house empty, we quickly put a plan together. I was to get in contact with the exhibit house I had a 'job offer' with and discuss the time line for the move and starting date. Rene was to do the same...to let the clinic owner know the official day she will arrive. We also figured that if we work till the end of the year it will give us each an extra paycheck vs. leaving our jobs mid-pay cycle.
So, where to stay post home evacuation? We had an offer from our good, long-time family friends in Colleyville, the Smullin's, that, if we needed to, we could stay with them to ease the transition...so we hit them up on the offer.
Let it be known that selling a house, moving 900 miles and starting new jobs is cause for a ridiculus amount of stress. During the inspection process the buyer took 4 days to get back to us with final fixes to be completed. Four days of a mere 21 wasted on indecisiveness. More puking.
That put us with about a week to pack our belongings (we had already started a bit, but how committed could we be to the process not knowing if anything was set in stone?) and find a place to live...
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