GrillSgt's Firepit

Long Time Coming

Hey everyone,

Yes, yes, I know it’s been more than three weeks since the last post, but we’ve been busy with new jobs, moving in, unpacking and getting settled in. So here’s what’s been going on for the last three weeks…

Home Life
As I mentioned in a previous post, the house we selected to rent isn’t perfect. It didn’t scream to us “THIS IS THE ONE!” As such, we’re dealing with some compromises. Our living room furniture wouldn’t fit in the living room without everything being crammed in, so we decided to put the sofa, entertainment center and big screen TV in the “family room.” That room is quite large and also has room for both of our office desks and my guitars and music equipment. I hung my guitars on the walls to save some floor space. So as soon as Stephanie’s new desk arrives, the family room will be pretty much done except for putting a few things in cabinets or shelves. The master bedroom is pretty much complete as well, although we are waiting on a vanity for Stephanie. It’s necessary because both bathrooms are tiny as is the master bedroom closet. But a new dresser helped with clothes storage. We were able to match the color to our existing bedroom furniture and nearly matched the style. The kitchen is also very small, but Stephanie was able to find room for the essentials and still have room for foodstuffs. Not a lot, so we’ll have to go to the market more often, but it’s literally just down the street… less than a mile. The living room is nearly complete. We put our two red chairs, the TV stand from the entertainment center, a TV and a couple of lamps in there. Since the dining room is small, especially with the china cabinet, we also put a couple of the dining room chairs in the living room too. The diinng room is too small for our dining room table and the china cabinet, so we decided to push the dining room table against the wall; that’s why we put two of the dining room table chairs in the living room. The dining room is between the family room and the rest of the house. It was too narrow for walking before we pushed the table against the wall. The two spare bedrooms, nicknamed Red Room and White Room because of carpet color, are still disorganized. Those rooms still have boxes that we need to go through and repack. All in good time. Once the Red Room is clear, we’ll get a bed and two nightstands for guests. In the backyard, we replaced the fence for the landlord. I asked if he’d provide partial compensation for the money we spent improving his property, either cash or some other form of compensation. He said he’d think about it, but I haven’t heard back from him yet. Hopefully, he’ll compensate us in some manner. But the new fence makes the backyard safe for the puppies. I also set up an automatic water fountain for them this weekend so that they have water when they are outside.

Work
Work is great. I really like all of the people at my new job. The company culture is really great too. Very laid back… jeans and t-shirts are more often than not the uniform of the day. I’ve even seen people come to work in shorts and flip flops. They cater lunch every day and soft drinks and juices are available for no cost to employees. The work is great too. I get paid more than at my last position with less responsibility. Basically, I’m doing what I did about four years ago, testing slot machine software, and getting paid way more than I was then to do it. Stephanie’s a contractor at the same place: documentation specialist. She really likes it there too. There’s talk of her getting hired as a permanent employee, but it’ll probably be a little while before it happens. There’s also a push by a couple of people in QA to get me promoted to the night QA manager. But like I keep telling everyone, “Whatever happens, happens.” I’m not concerned. I like what I’m doing for now. Testing SAS over and over will probably get boring after a while, but for now, I’m enjoying it. The office is out in the middle of nowhere in a rural setting. It’s really peaceful. I’ll take some pictures soon and post them.

Charlottesville
We haven’t really had much tome to explore Charlottesville and the surrounding area much yet. But we will. Locally, there is Jefferson’s home, Monticello, Madison’s home, Montpelier, and Monroe’s home, Ash Lawn, go visit. There are a few fall festivals going on the next few weeks that we might check out. There are also Revolutionary and Civil war battlefields we can go visit if we want. The Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenandoah National Park are less than an hour drive too. Of course, DC is only 90 miles or so away and there’s a lot to do and see there, national monuments, museums, sporting events and more.

Weather
It was rather warm, upper 80s and low 90s, when we first got here, but it’s become more seasonable with temps in the 70s. Still, the weather reports tell me that 70s are warmer than normal. But that’s ok with me. It rained on Friday, which was good. The lawn needed it (no sprinklers). The leaves are just starting to turn colors and fall off the trees. Before long, I expect to see an explosion of reds, yellows, oranges and browns all around.

So, we’re pretty much settled in, with a few things to do before we can really say we’re moved im, but the major stuff is done. It’s really peaceful here. We sit on the deck in back and can hear the hoots of owls, thocks of woodpeckers and songs of many different birds. We see squirrels run around occasionally and butterflies flitting around the neighbor’s flowers. A far cry from the hustle and bustle of Vegas. We don’t miss much about Vegas: friends, jacuzzi and good rock radio. Guess I’ll have to find a good site on the internet to keep aprised of the new rock and metal music. Guess I could listen to KOMP online. Maybe Xtreme radio has Internet broadcasts too. [UPDATE: KNAC! Now this is ROCK!]

Well, that’s it for today. I promise to update a little more often than every three weeks!