So after a month of unemployment, job searching, interviewing and negotiating, I finally accepted an offer at Applied Signal Technology. I'm excited to get back to work. I must say, paychecks are really nice to have.
I'm really excited about this position. I'll be moving back into software development. I've been in QA (testing) for the last two years and I've realized that it's just not for me. I was rather bored with my job. Prior to my layoff, I had even told Mary that I was bored and that I wanted to start looking around. The big problem, however, is that searching for a new job is often times a full time job. It takes a lot of time. And since I was working and doing grad school, I didn't really get too far.
So with the adequate time to devote to job searching, I was able to find a better job. I have several friends who work at AST who have said nothing but great stuff about it. So I'm way excited to move onward and upward.
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Black Friday the Howell way....
Although we love shopping (by we I mean I) we chose to avoid the insane crowds this black Friday buy going to one of the greatest places on earth, no not Disney Land, Southern Utah. We took a day trip to Arches National Park, about 3 hours south of provo, with Andy, Shawn and Evan. We hiked about 5 miles worth of very short trails, one of which was the picturesque delicate arch Utah is famous for. The trip was well worth missing the black friday sales.
Rusty's Little Red Head
No Rusty does not have a mistress..... just an adventurous wife. The day before Thanksgiving I finally did it, I died my hair red, cinaberry to be exact. This is something I have wanted to do for a long time but never had the guts to do. Even as I sat with box in hand at the store and at home I was still slightly hesitant. When I mixed it up and put the first few lines of color in and saw them get more and more purple I got kinda worried. Rusty reminded me that it was too late to go back now so I finished the job and voila, red hair. It is a little lighter than I expected and yes it is a drastic change but I love it!
I am thankful for a supportive husband who also likes change, he loves it too. But most of all I am grateful it washes out in 28 washes ;)
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving was awesome this year! We joined Rusty's family at Andy & Shawn's beautiful home for a very yummy assortment of traditional dishes. Everyone brought something to contribute, the turkey, made by Shawn, was fabulous! The house was decorated perfectly with hand made decor, also made by Shawn.
She is a very talented woman! The seven of us spent seven hours celebrating each others company and the bounty Heavenly Father has blessed us with. It truly was a perfect Thanksgiving!
I'm an author!
Or at least an official blogger.... Rusty added me to his blog! Hopefully it will get updated more frequently now.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Saturday, June 13, 2009
My cat is a flirt
Really, she is. She prances around and visits all the neighbors. They all love her. They all love petting her and playing with her. Sammy's even been known to wander in a open doors just say hi. One neighbor across the street left her door open one day and later found Sammy just chillin' on her bed. I think we actually make more friends through our cat than by our own means.
So the other day, that same neighbor was hosting a yard sale for her father. We went over there to see what they had. We looked around and we found few things. But we did not have any cash on hand. So I ask the father if he would accept a check. He looked very hesitant.
Him: "Are you from around here?"
Me (pointing at our apartment): "Oh yeah. We live right there. We're Sammy's owners."
Him: "Oh you're Sammy's owners! Oh she's a sweet cat. We just love her to death."
Me(smiling): "Yeah, she's ours."
With that connection made, we made small talk a bit longer. Needless to say, he had no problem accepting my check. That's probably the first time in history an animal has been accepted as a credit reference.
So the other day, that same neighbor was hosting a yard sale for her father. We went over there to see what they had. We looked around and we found few things. But we did not have any cash on hand. So I ask the father if he would accept a check. He looked very hesitant.
Him: "Are you from around here?"
Me (pointing at our apartment): "Oh yeah. We live right there. We're Sammy's owners."
Him: "Oh you're Sammy's owners! Oh she's a sweet cat. We just love her to death."
Me(smiling): "Yeah, she's ours."
With that connection made, we made small talk a bit longer. Needless to say, he had no problem accepting my check. That's probably the first time in history an animal has been accepted as a credit reference.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Home improvement
For the last few months, Mary and I have been doing some major renovations on our duplex. We've done a lot to the duplex, both upstairs and down, and it's taken us quite a long time to do it. It seems like practically every evening we've been over there working on something. Danny has been harassing me for a while about updating my blog. I'm going to blame my lack of blogger-tivity (copyright me) to this project.
The main improvement on the upstairs apartment was the bathroom. It started with a layer of linoleum. Beneath that was an older layer of linoleum. Beneath that was some rotted sub-flooring in the form of particle board, that had some serious water damage. I was hesitant to dig any deeper, but I decided to risk it. And what did I find? Perfectly good original wood flooring! I was very shocked, cause it seems like whenever I go poking around in this house, I open up a can o' worms that adds to my plate of things to do.
Mary had a great time painting, or we may have been delusional. I think this picture was taken in the wee hours of Sunday morning. We were trying to finish painting the bathroom before we went home, which happened to be at 3 am :) You can kinda see the good-condition hard wood flooring, too.
We enlisted a lot of slave labor over the past few months.
Katie was excited to come help Aunt Mary and Uncle Rusty. Or she was just excited to get away from her brothers for a few hours :) She helped us do lots of sanding and painting in the bathroom. Not pictured is Jaden, Katie's brother, and my Mom. Jaden came to help us a different day, and honestly probably got the more fun job of demolition when we were tearing up the bathroom floor and the walls. After all the painting and whatnot in the bathroom, Mom did a superb job in putting in ceramic tile.
No, I'm not spelunking. I'm playing with pipes in the attic. There was this one rogue pipe that came through the bathroom ceiling and hung down about two feet and then was capped! It had no purpose whatsoever. I crawled up in the attic and looked around. I found a second water pipe that (sort of) ran along side the first one but was capped in the attic. So I got a cut-off saw from Andy, the Power Tool Sugar Daddy, and hacked that thing up in the ceiling and put a new cap on it. So now I don't have this utterly ridiculous pipe hanging down in the bathroom.
This was a lovely task. The floor in this bedroom was a nightmare. It was squishy and sagging in the middle by a good three inches. Placing a level on the floor was a joke. We decided it was time to replace it. We tore up the carpet and and carpet padding. Beneath the carpet was a layer of plywood, two layers of linoleum, particle board, 1940's linoleum, and then the original (and completely rotted) wood flooring. In the picture above, you can see the flooring is a joke. The wood flooring was supported by 2x4s, which were also rotted.
Dad helped me clear out the old flooring, which wasn't hard to do, just a lot of work.
The end result: dirt. No kidding. The basement floor is not cement, at least not in the front half. The back two bedrooms have cement floors.
So this is what that bedroom looked like after we were done ripping the old flooring out. It kind of reminds of this cabin up in the mountains that had a door to a non-existent porch (anyone in the family knows what cabin I'm talking about). We decided the best long term solution was to pour cement in that room and give it a proper floor.
So we did. Andy, Dad, and Hans came down for the morning and helped me get the cement poured. Andy and his quick thinking devised a make shift chute to assist in getting the cement through the window. The chute on the cement trailer didn't quite have the angle.
If you can see, it was a very tight fit getting that cement trailer in between the house and the bushes. But we got it done.
Once that bedroom floor was finished and the framing/sheet rock was done, we had tons and tons of painting to do. We found two more slaves in the forms of Katie (above right) and Chris (below).
Chris and Katie came over and helped us a couple of times with the painting the basement apartment.
Papa Bear has been a huge huge help throughout this entire process. He's been there nearly every day I was and helped me with some of the most ugly and tedious tasks we've encountered. He even showed up a couple of times unannounced and worked on stuff alone while I was at work.
So the end product?
Yes this is the same bedroom. It looks livable doesn't it! After the cement, we redid the sheet rock on the walls and got new carpet, and of course, painted.
Another shot of the bedroom. It's hard to imagine that we were pouring cement through that little window a few weeks ago.
We are so thrilled that this project is over. We really want to thank all the people who helped us with this project. Hans, Jaden, Katie (the younger), Chris, Katie (the elder). A big thanks to Andy, my aforementioned Power Tool Sugar Daddy. Andy went through all of this (though on a much much larger scale) a year ago. Also a super big thanks to Dad, who offered a ton of help and sacrificed a number of weeks his golden years to help out a son. And also a big thanks to Mom, for lending Dad to me for so many hours.
The main improvement on the upstairs apartment was the bathroom. It started with a layer of linoleum. Beneath that was an older layer of linoleum. Beneath that was some rotted sub-flooring in the form of particle board, that had some serious water damage. I was hesitant to dig any deeper, but I decided to risk it. And what did I find? Perfectly good original wood flooring! I was very shocked, cause it seems like whenever I go poking around in this house, I open up a can o' worms that adds to my plate of things to do.
Mary had a great time painting, or we may have been delusional. I think this picture was taken in the wee hours of Sunday morning. We were trying to finish painting the bathroom before we went home, which happened to be at 3 am :) You can kinda see the good-condition hard wood flooring, too.
We enlisted a lot of slave labor over the past few months.
Katie was excited to come help Aunt Mary and Uncle Rusty. Or she was just excited to get away from her brothers for a few hours :) She helped us do lots of sanding and painting in the bathroom. Not pictured is Jaden, Katie's brother, and my Mom. Jaden came to help us a different day, and honestly probably got the more fun job of demolition when we were tearing up the bathroom floor and the walls. After all the painting and whatnot in the bathroom, Mom did a superb job in putting in ceramic tile.
No, I'm not spelunking. I'm playing with pipes in the attic. There was this one rogue pipe that came through the bathroom ceiling and hung down about two feet and then was capped! It had no purpose whatsoever. I crawled up in the attic and looked around. I found a second water pipe that (sort of) ran along side the first one but was capped in the attic. So I got a cut-off saw from Andy, the Power Tool Sugar Daddy, and hacked that thing up in the ceiling and put a new cap on it. So now I don't have this utterly ridiculous pipe hanging down in the bathroom.
This was a lovely task. The floor in this bedroom was a nightmare. It was squishy and sagging in the middle by a good three inches. Placing a level on the floor was a joke. We decided it was time to replace it. We tore up the carpet and and carpet padding. Beneath the carpet was a layer of plywood, two layers of linoleum, particle board, 1940's linoleum, and then the original (and completely rotted) wood flooring. In the picture above, you can see the flooring is a joke. The wood flooring was supported by 2x4s, which were also rotted.
Dad helped me clear out the old flooring, which wasn't hard to do, just a lot of work.
The end result: dirt. No kidding. The basement floor is not cement, at least not in the front half. The back two bedrooms have cement floors.
So this is what that bedroom looked like after we were done ripping the old flooring out. It kind of reminds of this cabin up in the mountains that had a door to a non-existent porch (anyone in the family knows what cabin I'm talking about). We decided the best long term solution was to pour cement in that room and give it a proper floor.
So we did. Andy, Dad, and Hans came down for the morning and helped me get the cement poured. Andy and his quick thinking devised a make shift chute to assist in getting the cement through the window. The chute on the cement trailer didn't quite have the angle.
If you can see, it was a very tight fit getting that cement trailer in between the house and the bushes. But we got it done.
Once that bedroom floor was finished and the framing/sheet rock was done, we had tons and tons of painting to do. We found two more slaves in the forms of Katie (above right) and Chris (below).
Chris and Katie came over and helped us a couple of times with the painting the basement apartment.
Papa Bear has been a huge huge help throughout this entire process. He's been there nearly every day I was and helped me with some of the most ugly and tedious tasks we've encountered. He even showed up a couple of times unannounced and worked on stuff alone while I was at work.
So the end product?
Yes this is the same bedroom. It looks livable doesn't it! After the cement, we redid the sheet rock on the walls and got new carpet, and of course, painted.
Another shot of the bedroom. It's hard to imagine that we were pouring cement through that little window a few weeks ago.We are so thrilled that this project is over. We really want to thank all the people who helped us with this project. Hans, Jaden, Katie (the younger), Chris, Katie (the elder). A big thanks to Andy, my aforementioned Power Tool Sugar Daddy. Andy went through all of this (though on a much much larger scale) a year ago. Also a super big thanks to Dad, who offered a ton of help and sacrificed a number of weeks his golden years to help out a son. And also a big thanks to Mom, for lending Dad to me for so many hours.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you April 15th
Keep in mind that two days ago, Mary did her homework outside on the lawn beneath the warm spring sun.Something is not right with this picture...
Monday, January 19, 2009
My first speeding ticket
It's true. I got my first speeding ticket last week. And there are witnesses (Mary, Andy, Shawn) that are more than willing to tell the tale.
Maybe I should ask Danny how traffic school works :)
Maybe I should ask Danny how traffic school works :)
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Ye olde married couple
So I've seriously neglected my blog much to Danny's disappointment. He chastised me about it a month ago, and I still haven't done anything about it since. So here is this hasty post :)
Mary and I are living happily, albeit crammed, in our little apartment. We have a lot of stuff and no where to put it all. Two adults, an iguana with a very large terrarium and a kitty all crammed in to this little two bedroom apartment is wearing on us. We're very much looking forward to getting our first house sometime soon where we can finally stretch out and feel at home. But until then, we're happy where we are.
Mary has started school again full time at UVU. She hopes to get into the nursing program there and be able to work again in medicine in a few years.
In the mean time, Mary worked extra hard at work last year which qualified her (and me) for a trip to Mexico next month! President's Club is Novell's annual retreat for its top sales people and executives. This year its in Mexico and Mary was invited to go. We're super excited about it. We hope to have lots of time for the beach, scuba diving, and seeing the sites of Playa del Carmen. We are also looking forward to seeing Chichen Itza or some other Mayan ruins.
Ahh... Mexico in February, we can't wait. :)
Mary and I are living happily, albeit crammed, in our little apartment. We have a lot of stuff and no where to put it all. Two adults, an iguana with a very large terrarium and a kitty all crammed in to this little two bedroom apartment is wearing on us. We're very much looking forward to getting our first house sometime soon where we can finally stretch out and feel at home. But until then, we're happy where we are.
Mary has started school again full time at UVU. She hopes to get into the nursing program there and be able to work again in medicine in a few years.
In the mean time, Mary worked extra hard at work last year which qualified her (and me) for a trip to Mexico next month! President's Club is Novell's annual retreat for its top sales people and executives. This year its in Mexico and Mary was invited to go. We're super excited about it. We hope to have lots of time for the beach, scuba diving, and seeing the sites of Playa del Carmen. We are also looking forward to seeing Chichen Itza or some other Mayan ruins.
Ahh... Mexico in February, we can't wait. :)
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