CaseyAndKelly.Com

Friday night we went to Casey’s company’s holiday party at the new Air & Space Museum. We were under the impression that it would be just his office not the entire North American headquarters party of 4,500 people. Not to mention we were a “tad” under dress – it wasn’t black tie optional – it was black tie. Now that we got a little break this weekend it’s back to work for Casey and back to cramming for me.

Yes I’m still alive. I haven’t posted for months now but I really do have a good excuse. So let me try to catch the one reader that we have left up with what has been going on.

Listen to this while reading

We completed our Windows 2003 installation at the TAX division here in DC, and as that was ramping down my boss asked me if I was interested in managing a group of engineers. I responded with a “yes” thinking that sure, thinking that hanging around in a lab all day with computer geeks would be cool. Well guess again. Now I’m the Manager of Network Systems managing about 12 people for the Antitrust Divsion (yes the ones that busted Microsoft). Well it sucks from the moment I walked in the door I have been so busy. They had a failing NAS installation that I have had to take over and keep afloat, plus getting all the other people trained on how to use the new hardware. They recently migrated from Veritas Backup Exec to NetBackup and NOBODY knows how to use it. Once again I’m responsible for making sure things are working. Basically what it comes down to is I’m going to step in front of a train before to much longer, this job is driving me crazy.

Lets move on to our house. We bought our house back in Sept/Oct or whatever it was, and we made tons of improvements, new carpet, new tile, new appliances… you get the picture. Well our excitement to get a house blinded us from the fact that it’s in the middle of Egypt (might as well be). I commute no less than 2 hours each way now. On some days it can be 3 hours. When I get up in the morning, I get ready to go to work. Wake Kelly up and she drives me to the VRE (Virginia Railway EXPRESS…laugh) which takes about 15-20 min. I then climb abroad the train and ride that into the city that takes about an 1hr 20 min at a minimum then I have to walk to the Metro and take the Metro (subway) to the stop near my office, this probably takes 10 min. Then I walk to my office from the Metro (about 5min). I do this ritual twice a day. So as of late I leave my house at 6-6:30 in the morning. I then get home about 7:30 or so in the evening. Then its up again at 5:30 or so the next morning to start it all over again. Its taking its toll to say the least.

On a lighter note I think I’m going to purchase an iPod w/ video for my morning commutes, watching Family Guy or Lost on the train will make the ride go by faster…probably. I have already downloaded Handbrake and began ripping DVDs in anticipation of purchasing one in the near future. Also I think I may purchase an XBox, not an XBox 360 just an original XBox. Ever since our was stolen I have been anxious to replace it. Not for playing games but for XBox Media Center. That application alone makes owning an XBox worthwhile.

I’m sure I have more to say since its been so long since I have posted anything but I can’t take any more time out of my day… I really need to get back to work, I have a conference call with NetApp in 15 minutes that I need to prepare for.

Pictures from Panama City are posted in the gallery.

Sorry for the lack of posts – it’s been a rather hectic few weeks. My grandma (biological dad’s mom) died and so my mom and I drove down to Panama City to be there for that and then my other Grandma had her knee replaced the next day. The highlight was I was able to see and recconect with a lot of my family that I haven’t seen in awhile and now we’re all vowing to keep in touch more often. Needless to say it was a really emotionally draining trip and it was good to be home. Stoli went “swimming” in the Gulf while we were down there, although her reaction was too be expected. We have to carry her out in the rain and she steps around puddles, imagine a huge puddle. But she does know how to swim, I had to wade out and stand on a sand bar to get her out there but she swam. I’ll post pics of the trip soon.

I finally managed to register for my classes – 8 more credits after this semester. This semester is just kicking my butt. I have papers in every class now. One was just assigned a couple of days ago with only 3 weeks left of the semester. We’re off this coming week for Thanksgiving (and so is Casey) but I have so much stuff that I have to get done before the end of the semester I won’t really have any days off between that, cleaning, cooking for Thanksgiving, and decorating for Christmas.

We went and bought a tree tonight – a 7.5 foot, pre-lit tree and looks really good fro being fake. I’m all in the holiday spirit now and can’t wait to decorate the first tree of our own!

Like Justin said on his site, it’s open enrollment time again. Unfortunately BAE decided to revamp their insurance companies/benefits so the same coverage we had before has increased by about $40/month. After reading through the paperwork, comparing specifics online, and more research I decided on Empire Blue Cross & Blue Shield for health. BCBS ranked 51 while Cigna ranked 89. Our options this year were pretty slim. I just knew I wanted to keep a PPO for the flexibility since we’re pretty mobile. We went with the high option again, cause ya never know what’s gonna happen.

As requested (and as Alison pointed out we hadn’t followed through on yet) I have finally posted the last of the house pictures. They’re of the ‘red room’ aka the basement or where we spend most of our time. I also threw some new ones of Stoli and pictures off the deck. Check them out when you get a chance!

That was the story of our summer until yesterday. Now it’s been raining for 2 days straight and was overcast for 3 days before that. So as much as I tell myself I wouldn’t mind living in Seattle, I just don’t think it would work out. Casey and I would have an excuse to never go anywhere because it was always raining and would end up becoming hermits with an addiction to online shopping. Oh wait… Plus Stoli would explode with bodily fluids at some point. She HATES the rain and refuses to go out in it. Casey and I have had to carry her outside several times since it’s been raining because as soon as she sees that she’s gonna get wet or the ground is still wet she backs herself inside. This kind of weather makes me sleepy, unproductive, and eventually depressed. Like today I got up at noon and it’s now 11 pm and just woke up from a 1.5 hour nap. Time for Ashlee Simpson’s redeeming moment on SNL.

As of this past weekend we actually have pictures, posters, and mirrors up on the walls and it actually looks like people live here…for now. Although now it looks as if we’ll be here for almost 3 years total when it’s already said and done (note: already 10 months served.) Sigh. We need a beach! That’s all for now.

I had a pretty friggin’ productive day today. I managed to make our first dentist appointments since LA (the dentist in Fairfax lost our records TWICE when they were sent from LA) and our doctors’ appointments. Plus all of the calls associated with making the appointments (coordinating schedules with Casey, insurance companies, etc) and a ton of schoolwork got done. I seem to have 3 huge papers due for my classes this semester which should (suck) be interesting. I’ve been up since 6:30 time for bed.

Today was a good day for mail! I filled out some survey a couple of months ago for Shop Etc. magazine (I have a subscription) and today I got a super cute pair of aviator sunglasses (brand new, still with tags)! I never win anything from all the surveys I fill out. Yesterday my Grandma sent me my birthday card and today she sent me a really cute sterling silver necklace. On top of that we also got our security deposit refunded from the apartment in Fairfax as well as two new magazines. Not a bad day for mail AND no bills!