Heading Home

At 7:57 (hopefully) I will hop on a flight to go to Philly for the weekend. I am really excited to spend time with my girls and go to the annual Halloween party. This year hosted by my buddies Drew and Maggie.











This will be a quick trip but a great chance for me to recharge my batteries.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Here she comes....

Chip and I have braved our first Hurricane. The wind and rain started about 7:00 last night and as of 9:27 this morning it is about to end. We were very lucky, all this area got was wind and rain, but nothing compared to the people south of us. Both of our offices closed today so this was our first official Hurricane Day. We plan on staying in a watching movies.

Here are some pictures we took on the beach yesterday. Normally the gulf is very calm.

(1) 12:30 pm

(2)These guys were showing off

(3) Sandbagged beachfront houses

(4)This was taken at about 1:30 - definitely getting stronger.

(5)This last picture was at about 5:00 pm.

Wilma Update

We think we have dodged a bullet. It looks like Wilma will make landfall much further south than originally predicted, so our area will not bear the brunt of the storm. We are still under a Tropical Storm Warning, but we will take that any day over a hurricane. Hopefully things won't be too bad for the people directly in her path. Pinellas County has issued a state of emergency but that seems to be normal protocol. We have made all of our preparations, we have lots of water, batteries, non-perishables and ice packs for our coolers ready to go in the event that we lose power. We also have emergency candles and games to play. I am not as worried as I was the past few days, we are happy that this should all be over in about 36 hours.

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/storm_graphics/AT24/refresh/AL2405W5+gif/150811W_sm.gif

In other news, my Boilers lost again yesterday. It was a crusher, many interceptions and bad plays. Hopefully the EAGLES will beat the Chargers today so the whole weekend won't be lost :)

Wilma is on the way....

We are getting ready for Wilma. Hopefully we won't lose power and I can keep everyone up to date.

Weather is changing....

Well the beautiful Florida weather that I have been promised has finally arrived. We got our first taste last weekend and it was great!!

Chip's great friend Ed Gresko came into town on Friday night. Chip chefed up a feast from our local fishmonger at Ward's Seafood of marlin, mussels, she-crab soup (AMAZING) and a big steak for Eddie. It was awesome!!

On Saturday the boys watched football while I had a hair appointment (I'm going blonder :)) and ran errands. I found a beat up end table for my bedroom for $3.99 at a local thrift shop. It was pretty beat up but nothing that coat of paint could not fix.

On Saturday night we went to Coachman Park in Clearwater for the Annual Clearwater Jazz Holiday. Its a free 4 day event. Saturday night is a big deal as they have a headliner, Boney James and then Fireworks over the water. The weather was perfect, the music was great. We had a blast.

My new friend Gaby came and I got to meet her boyfriend Keith.

Sunday was another nice day, I finished my end table project.

Its Periwinkle, it doesn't really match anything, but I like it :)
With the help of my mom on the phone every hour I made a big pot of gravy, that is spaghetti sauce for you non-Italians :) and my first baked ziti.

It came out pretty good if I do say so myself.

Chip and Eddie went crabbin' that day at Seminole Lake and came home with about 17. Not a bad haul.

So, its been fun as the weather gets better. This weekend we are looking for a Stone Crab Fest as the season started last week and many places along the beach take this opportunity to celebrate.

Of course we may be weathering WILMA...more on that to come....

A New Job

I didn't write to much about this as it was happening, but I left my position at Stellar Partners a few weeks ago. It was a very negative environment and I decided to cut my losses. (I can give you all the sordid details if you want, but its exhausting.)
Things have worked out so well for me though. I can't help but go back and think about how everything really does happen for a reason.
A position came up the morning I decided that it was time for me to leave Stellar. If I had not called the recruiter I worked with at the EXACT moment I did, none of this would have fallen into place. In less than 72 hours, I was able to be presented to the employer, interview and then offered the position.
This is a Gov't job, which means the pay is not great but the benefits are AMAZING. I have 6 weeks of paid time off my FIRST year, and that is only the beginning.
My new position is with the National Forensic Science Technology Center. I am working in the Science Operations group. My main job functions are to coordinate Trade Shows and on site Training for members of the 425 Crime Labs across the U.S. Its interesting stuff and there is ALOT for me to learn.
I once again have to learn the lesson that I might not always get things exactly the way I want them, but eventually I get what I need.

Weekend at Purdue

Chip and I headed to West Lafayette for the annual reunion tailgate and football game. This was Chip's first trip to the midwest. This year was a smaller crew than we normally have but it was still so much fun and so great to see everyone. Here are some of my favorite pics:

9:00 am - It's Chilly


The gang


This picture was not set up at all - Ava just walked right up and grabbed herself a beer. Stacy and Scott are raising her right, despite that IU education :)


His mother is VERY proud


At the game - we didn't win but we still had a GREAT day.

For those of you who like to plan, the reunion weekend is tentatively slated for the weekend of September 23 next year. This is the Minnesota game and also Homecoming. We will purchase tickets as soon as we can next summer. Just thought it would be easy on everyone's schedule to pick a date now. Hopefully we can get the whole crew back together next year. As our families grow, please bring the little ones too :)

In other news, I am now unemployed, things at Stellar didn't work out as I had planned. I have this thing about not working for people who treat their employees like garbage. But don't fret, I already have an offer from what I hope is a better company with a much better opportunity...more details to follow.