GrillSgt's Firepit

2007 Retrospective: The Year That Was

As we prepare to kick ol’ man 2007 out and turn the page of life to 2008, I thought I’d take a look back at 2007. Enjoy.

In retrospect, not much really happened during the first half of the year other than a couple of job changes for Stephanie, first CHSI, then Wynn Las Vegas. I continued to plug along as QA Manager at Bally Technologies.

In July, the year kind of kicked us in the ass! I was let go from Bally Technologies in the middle of July. It was quite a surprise considering my annual performance evaluations had always been stellar. Nevada is a right to work state (meaning the employer can let you go without explanation), so I wasn’t given any explanation for my dismissal. I have my suspicions as to why I was dismissed, but really have no way to determine their validity since the few people who know the real reason won’t or can’t talk about it. In reality, I had been exploring options before I was unceremoniously dismissed as there had recently been a change in my management chain that made me a little nervous. Well, nervous isn’t really the right word, apprehensive might be a better description.

After being unemployed for a few weeks, I landed a job with MGM Mirage. I had actually interviewed over the phone while still employed at Bally, but it took several weeks to get the on-site interview, offer and start date. I think it would have been a good job, but I didn’t stay long enough to find out. While waiting for MGM Mirage, I was contacted for a second time by a company in Virginia. The company flew me out for an on-site interview and I got an offer about a week and a half later. It wasn’t the offer I was expecting, which was disappointing, but it was still a good offer. After some deliberation, we decided to go for it. So, after only two weeks at MGM Mirage, I left.

September was a whirlwind: entertaining quotes from movers, talking with real estate agents, rental property managers, going through virtually everything in the house and garage and getting rid of everything we didn’t need or want, another trip to Central Virginia to find a suitable rental house, setting up the movers, getting utilities set up in Virginia and probably some other stuff I forgot. Stephanie left Wynn. The packers came on September 20, boxing everything up and the truck was loaded on September 21. While the packers were doing their thing, Stephanie secured a contracting gig for technical documentation at the same company I was going to be working at. Talk about a stroke of luck and great timing. So now we were moving across country and didn’t have to worry about jobs!

We hit the road for 5 days on September 22, stopping in Santa Fe, New Mexico; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Memphis, Tennessee; Bristol, Tennessee; and finally Charlottesville, Virginia. We had a day and a half to rest up before the truck arrived on September 28.

I started my new job on October 1 and Stephanie started her contract position a week later. Weekends in October and early November were spent shopping for things we got rid of or found we needed in our new place and unpacking. We still have a little of that to go; it’ll get done when we get motivated to finish it. It turns out that the company we both work for is absolutely terrific. There are a lot of great people here and the senior management, all the way up to ownership, really seems to care about their employees. And I have yet to see any real corporate politics like you find at larger corporations; you know, where everyone is so busy covering their asses to keep from getting fired, not taking responsibility for their actions and always trying to blame someone else, and all that other crap. It’s a refreshing work environment.

My Mom and Dad visited for a weekend in late October, which was a really nice visit. We spent Thanksgiving in South Florida with Stephanie’s Dad and his wife, Judy. We had a really nice time, for the most part.

Things have quieted down a bit for us since Thanksgiving. Our house rented out just before Thanksgiving (on my birthday) and our tenants moved in December 1. Thanks to the wonderful invention of online shopping, most, if not all, of our Christmas shopping was done quickly online without crowds, lines or waiting until the last minute; although we found that the Fashion Square Mall in north Charlottesville wasn’t super crowded on the Saturday before Christmas (except for the GameStop… it was pretty packed). Target and Best Buy weren’t either on the Sunday before Christmas.

We had a nice quiet Christmas… just Stephanie, Juneau, Cinnamon and I. We opened our few gifts in the morning and gave the puppies theirs (some toys they’ll never play with and some treats). We had a traditional Christmas dinner. I did the turkey and sweet potatoes on the barbeque and also made a pecan pie with pecans from Mom & Dad’s pecan trees. Stephanie made the mashed potatoes, stuffing (probably her best ever!), green bean casserole and orange jello salad. Everything was delicious as usual.

Today it’s back to work, although there isn’t much to do this week really since probably three-quarters of the company took vacation. New Year’s Eve isn’t a day off and since I work the evening shift, we probably won’t do anything for New Years. We’ve been invited to a friend’s home for the evening. If I get off work early, then we might try to go.

So, that’s a quick look at the year that was. We took a calculated risk in coming to Central Virginia. We left behind some family, good friends, an empty house, a comfortable (albeit sometimes quite hectic) life in Las Vegas and exchanged it for new jobs, new surroundings and a big dose of uncertainty and not knowing what to expect when we got here. But, everything has been great here so far. Our household possessions arrived virtually unscathed and we moved into our rental house without a hitch. The company we work for is absolutely fantastic and appears to genuinely care about its employees and their families. We love the area, which is rural, but there is a small city just 10 miles away. We’ve met some really great people in the short time we’ve been here. We’re really glad we took the opportunity given to us. Our house in Las Vegas got rented pretty quickly and we’re both as healthy as ever. So far, so good.

Finally, we both hope everyone had a very Happy Holiday season and wish you all health, happiness and the best of everything in 2008. Each year is a new adventure. Who knows what 2008 will bring. Maybe we’ll win the Virginia lottery!

Autumn Photos

One of my co-workers took some pictures of the autumn foliage around work a few weeks ago and shared them with us. Unfortunately, he turned out to be a real creep, so I had to remove the link to his photos. Next year, I’ll take some of my own.

1st Snow

Today, we’re getting our first snow of the winter. It’s really pretty. As I write this at about 11:45 PM EST, we’ve gotten about a half an inch. The weather report calls for one to two inches of accumulation. Here’s a few pictures I took around the house. If I can, I’ll take a few around work later.

South Florida

As mentioned in a previous post, Stephanie and I travelled to South Florida for a Tropical Turkey Day with Stephanie’s Dad, Ed, his wife, Judy, one of Judy’s sons, David, Stephanie’s sister, Stacey, and Stacey’s husband, Michael. It was a very enjoyable Thanksgiving; the details are at this post: Tropical Turkey Day.

Friday

On Friday, Stephanie and I drove over to Ed and Judy’s house in Boynton Beach. It was only about a 15 minute drive from our hotel in Boca RatAs mentioned in a previous post, Stephanie and I travelled to South Florida for a Tropical Turkey Day with Stephanie’s Dad, Ed, his wifeon. We got there about 11:00 AM EST or so, had a bagel and talked for a bit. Then we all piled into a Jeep Commander that Stacey and Michael rented for the weekend. They got it because it had third row seating, but let me tell you, the third row was not made for adults! It would be comfortable for small children, up to the age of 10 or so, but for two adults it was quite uncomfortable. Stephanie and I made the best of it.

Billie Swamp Safari

We drove about 60 to 90 minutes southwest to one of the Seminole reservations and a place called Billie Swamp Safari. It’s in the Everglades, though not actually inside the National Park. Most of South Florida is swamps, or would be if man hadn’t drained parts of it for habitation and other water and land uses. Everglades National Park is just a small part of South Florida’s wetlands. Ed and Judy treated the lot of us to a snake and alligator show, airboat tour and a swamp buggy tour. We looked around the gift shop a bit, and then wandered over to the little restaurant for a late lunch.

After lunch, we went over to the snake show. Sorry, no pictures of the show. But it was very interesting. On display were a coral snake, a pygmy rattlesnake, a water moccasin (also known as a cottonmouth) and an Eastern Diamondback rattlesnake. We learned a few things, such as these snakes are not poisonous snakes, they are venomous snakes. There are no poisonous snakes. Venom, such as that from a snake, has to enter the body through an opening such as a cut, an open sore, or through the eyes (which is why spitting cobras can envenom prey without a bite). According to the guide, you could swallow snake venom and not be envenomed (provided you have no open sores or cuts in your mouth and no ulcerations in the digestive and renal systems). However, I don’t think I want to try that. The water moccasin is the meanest and most unpredictable of the venomous snakes at the show. While rattlesnakes have a bad reputation, we witnessed that as long as you go about your business, leave them alone and keep your distance, they will go about their business and leave you alone. Water moccasins on the other hand, while like all snakes just want to be left alone, will take an interest in you if you come too close and will not hesitate to strike. We had to leave toward the end of the snake presentation to catch our airboat tour, but I think the show was just about over when we had to leave.

The airboat dock was just a short walk from the snake show. We stood around for a few minutes, waiting for the airboats to return from their previous runs. We climbed aboard. Before shoving off, Ed had the airboat pilot snap a picture of all of us. You can see all of Ed’s Billie Swamp Safari photos at Kodak Online Gallery. The airboat tour was actually pretty short. We were taken along some airboat trails through some somewhat open water. We saw some deer, water buffalo and other wildlife. We also went through a small wooded area, which I think were cypress trees. After exiting the Cypress forest, we travelled a little further until we came upon some wild hogs and alligators. The airboat pilot started throwing some food pellets at the hogs at the edge of the water. They went right in after the feed despite the presence of the alligators. The alligators ate some of the feed as well, but no wild hogs got in the way of gator jaws and everyone survived, even the little baby piglet. The rest of the airboat tour was rather uneventful, as it was but a short ride back to the dock. But I really enjoyed the ride; even though airboats are extremely noisy (earplugs are strongly encouraged!).

View my airboat tour photos online, or feel free to download the entire Billie Swamp Safari photo archive at their original size [they are in a zip archive, which you will need to unpack prior to viewing]. The archive is rather large so it will take some time to download.

We had a little time between the airboat tour and the swamp buggy tour so we walked around the little zoo they have. You can see alligators, large and small, lizards, monitors, turtles, tortoises and a Gila monster in the zoo. I took a few photos of the reptiles in the zoo. After wandering around the zoo for a few minutes, we made our way back to the gift shop. I bought a suede wide brimmed hat and Stephanie got a necklace and keychain as souvenirs.

The swamp buggy tour was quite interesting. A swamp buggy is a bus on a raised suspension with very large tires so that it can traverse the swampy areas as well as the dry areas. It’s about an hour long tour and goes through the dry hammocks as well as swamp lands. Our tour guide and driver was Shea. He seemed very knowledgeable about the area, pointing out various flora and fauna. We stopped a couple of times, once at a mockup of a Seminole village. The fire pit served a couple of purposes. The obvious one is to cook food and provide warmth, but it also served as a compass. If the men were out hunting or engaging the enemy and the women and children had to flee, they would place a fifth log in the fire pit to point to the direction in which they were travelling so that the men could find them. If there was no fifth log, it told the men that the women and children were captured. We also stopped for a short discussion on a particular plant (I forgot the name) that is a natural mosquito repellant. Later on the tour, we saw some deer, including an impressive stag, some cows that were fighting, and a curious ostrich. The ostrich tried to steal Michael’s camera! Shea had informed us at the beginning of the tour that since it was nearing dusk, there was a chance of seeing a Florida panther since they are normally nocturnal. Unfortunately, we weren’t so lucky.

View my swamp buggy tour photos online, or feel free to download the entire Billie Swamp Safari photo archive at their original size [they are in a zip archive, which you will need to unpack prior to viewing]. The archive is rather large so it will take some time to download. Also note that this is the same archive as above.

After the swamp buggy tour, we returned back to Ed and Judy’s house for leftover Thanksgiving dinner, plus grilled and fried chicken. We left their house around 11:00 PM EST and headed back to the hotel to get some sleep and get ready for Saturday.

Stephanie and I really enjoyed our afternoon at the Seminole reservation and Billie Swamp Safari.

View the rest of my Billie Swamp Safari photos online, or feel free to download the entire Billie Swamp Safari photo archive at their original size [they are in a zip archive, which you will need to unpack prior to viewing]. The archive is rather large so it will take some time to download. Also note that this is the same archive as above.

Saturday

On Saturday, after a quick stop at Starbucks and the ATM, Stephanie and I arrived at Ed and Judy’s house about 11:00 AM. After a bagel and cream cheese and conversation, everyone crammed back into the Jeep Commander for more sightseeing. Everyone except David. He had to fly back to New York on Saturday morning.

Green Cay Wetlands and Nature Center

Our first stop was Green Cay Wetlands and Nature Center, which is a collaborative effort between the Palm Beach County Water Utilities Department and the Palm Beach County Parks and Recreation Department. Green Cay Wetlands and Nature Center is a water reclamation facility that also teaches people about the importance of Wetlands in South Florida. From what I could tell there are two boardwalk loops and we strolled the shorter of the two. The scenery was very beautiful. We saw several different kinds of wading birds, ducks, moorhens and a few spiders. All in all, it’s a quite interesting place. Too bad we had other things to do that afternoon. I would have liked to stay longer and walk the second loop and spend more time in the Nature Center where they have a few exhibits and stuff to look at. Maybe on our next trip to South Florida.

View my Green Cay Wetlands and Nature Center photos online, or feel free to download them at their original size [they are in a zip archive, which you will need to unpack prior to viewing]. The archive is rather large so it will take some time to download.

West Palm Beach and Palm Beach

After spending an hour or two at Green Cay Wetlands and Nature Center, we (again) crammed back into the Jeep Commander. With Ed providing directions, we got a tour of Delray Beach, Palm Beach and West Palm Beach. Because the third row in the Jeep Commander isn’t made for adults, it was difficult for me to see out the window, and there wasn’t enough room to scooch down in the seat to put the windows at eye level. So I didn’t get to see much on Ed’s improvised tour. So, I ended up taking a short nap. I’m sure everyone heard me as I did snore a bit. Sorry.

After Ed’s improvised tour, we pulled into a parking garage in West Palm Beach, unfolded ourselves and took a short walk to a shopping plaza. We had a little while to wait before our last sightseeing tour, so we walked around the shopping plaza, used the restrooms and window shopped. About 4:00 PM we climbed aboard the Diva Duck Amphibious Tour Bus. It’s a bus on a raised suspension. It also can navigate calm bodies of water as it has the workings of a boat: rudder, propeller, etc. It only goes 6 knots in the water, but that makes for a leisurely ride. The tour took us through West Palm Beach for a bit, with our tour guide pointing out various things and cracking dumb jokes and puns. Music was pretty good though. After a short ride through West Palm Beach, we entered the intercoastal waterway between West Palm Beach and Palm Beach. We went straight across to the Palm Beach side and turned north. Along the west side of Palm Beach are some very expensive homes owned by famous people. I think our tour guide told us that one of the homes is owned by the Kennedy’s. Another one is owned by Celine Dion. The last one we saw is owned by author James Patterson, who, unlike most of the residents of the houses we were shown, lives there year round. After passing by the exclusive Palm Beach Country Club… you don’t even want to know how much it costs to join (megabucks!), we turned west for our return to West Palm Beach. On the return we saw some very large yachts moored at one of the many marinas and a tugboat that was used to tow the Queen Mary and will soon be placed in a maritime museum. Not long after that we were back where we started.

We were all hungry by this time and Ed wanted pizza, so we walked over to City Pizza and had a nice dinner. After dinner, we walked back to the shopping plaza. Stephanie picked up a zip up hoodie with Palm Beach on it. There was a live band playing cover tunes on the stage, so we went near the stage to listen to the music and talk a bit. A little while later, we decided to call it a night; Stephanie and I had to be up fairly early on Sunday morning to catch our flight back to Virginia.

View my Palm Beach photos online, or feel free to download them at their original size [they are in a zip archive, which you will need to unpack prior to viewing]. The archive is rather large so it will take some time to download.

Sunday

Sunday morning, Stephanie and I were up bright and early. We drove to Fort Lauderdale International Airport, turned in our rental car and made our way to the check in counter where we got a nice little surprise. The ticketing agent was able to put us on an earlier flight to Charlotte, North Carolina, so we didn’t have to sit and wait in Fort Lauderdale. On top of that, she put us on standby for an earlier flight from Charlotte, NC to Charlottesville, Virginia. We still had our tickets for our original flight, so it was worth a shot. We were able to get on the earlier flight to Charlottesville so we ended up getting home about an hour earlier than planned. It was a nice way to finish the holiday.

All in all, it was a really enjoyable holiday and Stephanie and I had a really good time.

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