Long Time, No ‘See’

Once again I find myself being more than delinquent in my frequencies of updating this page. So much has happened in the last few months. Let see if I can get a quick update…

Work
I moved to a start-up nanotech company (we’re still trying to keep our anonymity – although it gets harder by the day). I’m absolutely, 100% loving it. We’re really starting to spread our wings and could have a break-out moment any minute now. I’m not stuck in the same, coddled rut that I was before. Right now, I’m the primary design engineer on our tools (we’ll be hiring a more senior guy eventually) and I’m also highly involved with the Motion Team and the CAD/PLM Implementation Team. My hands are in many pots and it’s keeping me busy, but I honestly couldn’t be happier.

The people I’m working with are just awesome too. I can honestly say that I wake up every morning looking forward to going to work. Hopefully it stays that way – I don’t see why it wouldn’t.

Personal
WOW! Where do I start. Well, back on my birthday (March 16^th), I got the coolest present of all – a black labrador! We adopted him from the North Shore Animal League on Long Island. I wanted to name him Bruschi after the most kick-ass Patriot on the current roster, Tedi Bruschi. My wife didn’t like the beer double entendre, so we went with naming him after my favorite Red Sox, Jason Varitek. This dog is the shiz-nit! He knew all his commands and he is really, really smart (sometimes too smart for his own good). He loves playing catch, is great with kids (Marissa’s cousins had a blast with him at a family barbeque), and is absolutely enthralled with being in the water. I couldn’t have asked for a better pet.

My workout schedule has gotten much better since I started at my new gig (almost wrote the name of the company there). We have a Gold’s Gym right down the road from us (walking distance) and at least two of us – sometimes three – get in there about 3-4 times a week. It’s great. I’m really starting to get back into shape, although tightening up my diet would really help that. Once October rolls around, I’m gonna start a 5×5 workout and see if I can kick it up a notch. I don’t think I’m gonna be playing flag football this season as I’m busy with other stuff. I’ve been surfing as much as possible too…this current flat spell is driving me batty!

The wife and I are doing good. We’re seriously starting the house hunting process – basically getting our finances in order right now. We can’t get real serious until after my sister’s wedding in September due to all the craziness that we’re involved with in that. Other than that, we’re just cruising.

I’m sure there’s a lot I left out here, but these tidbits have been the basis of what’s been up with my life lately…hopefully I’ll be a bit more consistent than doing quarterly updates here.

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.

Unkown Desires

Have you ever wanted something, but not known what exactly is the object of your desires? I had that problem last night. I was in a piss-poor mood and I knew I wanted something, but couldn’t figure out what it was. Might be that I’m kind of upset with my career at the moment. Don’t get me wrong, I love what I do, but I feel like I’m never going to be more than a wheel in the cog for the rest of my life. I want to be somebody, do something with my life. It might be this diet I’m on. The wife and I are following the South Beach diet. No carbs (other than veggies) for the first two weeks. I’m getting near my breaking point. I’ve done this all before with my BB’ing dieting, but the cravings have never been as bad as they are now. I don’t even want to think about what I’d do for a cookie or a sandwich.

Regardless, it’s probably just stress about my upcoming surgery. Tomorrow!!!! I can’t wait to get it done so I can be normal (will I ever be totally normal?) again, but I’m also dreading it. Something about being put under and dealing with the rehab just isn’t sounding all that pleasant to me. Not much more going on here. I’ll try and come up with a quick entry post-surgery to give an account of it.