Movin’ On Up

I had a nice talk with my boss this week. Just a little background – late last week (or the week before) he had asked us for a self-assessment for 2005. Instead of putting my usual 2 minutes of effort into it, I spent a few hours on Saturday actually sitting down and defining accomplishments, goals, and areas that I want/need to improve. Anyway, when I was happy with the wording and presentation of everything, I sent it to him.

In the middle of one of our usual design discussions, he started talking about the future and how my company is trying to make career paths solid and identifiable. It seems as though I’m at the point where I’m almost ready to pick whether I want to go down the management or technical path. After getting a sneak peek at the ‘corporate ladder,’ it looks as though there is a point where you can cross over – something that’s good if you made the wrong choice 😉

But, he has also been, slowly, loosening the reigns on me and letting me go. I like the idea of being able to ‘sink or swim’ a little bit more on my own. I feel a renewed sense of purpose and ambition here. I think it’s just what I need. It’s been a crazy week, but it ended off nicely. We got great news (can’t say too much, it’s not public yet) at work and also set up snowboarding plans for tomorrow. I’m pumped! Life is good – even if I’m broke at the moment.

Getting Pulled In a Million Different Directions

This week has been crazy – all kinds of stuff pulling at my mind, body, and patience. Here’s just a few things that have been pissing me off!

Weather
The weather has sucked, plain old sucked, this week. We had frigidly cold weather this past weekend with about 4″ of snow on Saturday (which made house hunting – see below – oh-so-much fun on this past Sunday). But, for the most part, it’s been dry and cold. Well, we finally get some precipitation roll in. It’s the middle of January, so you’d expect it to be snow right? NOPE! It’s freaking rain – and tons of it. As I type this, we’ve gotten about 4″ of rain in the last 24 hours. Now, mind you, we had an exceptionally warm January, so the slopes (most notably Mtn. Creek) haven’t exactly been dripping with snow. This storm is not helping them by any stretch of the imagination. Speaking of imagination – could you image what this storm would be like if it was snow. 40″ of snow would do wonders to the ski/snowboard economy in the area. I’m just hoping to break even on my season pass at this point.

Working Out & Diet
With the cruise we’re taking about 5 weeks away, the wife and I jumped back on the South Beach that we had so much luck with before. It’s been two days, and I’ve already dropped 6 lbs. My body totally responds to this kind of diet. I’m also trying to get back in the groove of working out. So far, so good – although I kicked my own ass yesterday. Too much, too soon – I think. I’m trying to do a combination of weights, cardio, and yoga as a way of training for my main sports – snowboarding and surfing. I’m gonna try to put some swimming into the equation around March so that I won’t be spent for surfing – although, I said that last year and it never happened.

Right now, I’m just going through a bit of carb withdrawals, so I’m sure that my mood and petulance for all things before me are partially due to that. It’ll all be worth it in the end though as I’ll look good and be healthier when it’s all said and done.

Podcasts
I’ve just started looking around and playing with these. I figured they’d be a good way of learning about what’s going on in the world while I’m at work – better than having Ozzie blasting into my ears all day long. Not that there’s ANYTHING wrong with Ozzie, but learning something here and there won’t hurt either.

Work
I can’t wait until this project is done – too much crap and not enough recognition. I don’t even way to get into it.

Home Buying
This activity is something we just got into. This past weekend our landlord upped our rent by $60/mo. Now, that’s nothing – $15/wk. Totally affordable. BUT, we’ve gotten to the point where we are sick of paying rent every month in an amount that would take up the vast majority of a mortgage payment. So, we’re looking. We attended about five or six open houses last weekend and will do so again this weekend. Long story short, we beginning to define what we do and do not want/need in a home. Unfortunately, we’re looking at spending $400k – $450k for a home and putting down, maybe, 5% down payment. That’s sad.

Oh, The Places I’ve Been..

My Baby

Wow – September 30th was the last day I posted in here, huh? Amazing. Well, a lot has happened since then and nothing has happened since then.

First off, I finally got new tires for my truck. BF Goodrich Radial All-Terrain T/A KO 31×10.5×15’s. Great tire, nice look, and a good price. Due to an insanely high electric bill (A/C, come to find out, wasn’t working correctly – i.e. always running), I had to shelve the idea of the M/T wheels for now. Soon though – very soon. I have, however, been able to do other modifications.

Baby's New Shoes

I bought clear corners for the front and also had some custom door lock pins made up. I’m in the process of refining that design and possibly even exploring the option of making a larger quantity to try selling. We’ll see how that goes.

Thanksgiving and Christmas both took place in MA this year – well, Christmas always does, but having Turkey Day with the folks was a nice addition this year. We didn’t go to the game, however, because the weather was horrendous. It looks like I’ll miss out on the game in two years because my cousin, Greg, will be a senior at Milford High and I’ll most likely go to his game. That means that I won’t have seen a KP Turkey Day game for six years by the next time I go to one! I’ve never gone that long.

The New Year has brought a ton of snowboarding! January 13th and I’ve already got 9 days in. For a weekend warrior, I can’t really complain with that. Ris and Court said they want to take a lesson, so we might do that one of these weekends. My annual WICed Fest group trip was another success with 19 of us heading up to Okemo Mountain for three days. There’s talk of a trip out west next year – Big Sky in Montana and Whistler in BC tend to be the two leading candidates right now. I’ve got to get on that.

Other than that, we’re pretty calm. I’m looking forward to a week-long vacation next month. We’ll be cruising the Caribbean. I’ve never been on a cruise before. Hopefully we’ll be buying a house by this time next year and there’s even (small, very small) talk of thinking about starting a family in the next year or two. All good things….