One year ago...

One year ago, I was living in an apartment on the second floor of a duplex by myself in Brookline a small town just outside of the city of Pittsburgh. I had just started working for Joe at Facilities Survey, I had just purchased my first Macbook Pro and I had yet to find Courey. A lot has changed and a lot has yet to change. In the interim, I have bought a house, been at my job a year now, became overly dependent on all that Apple has convinced me to buy and fallen in love with a girl named Courey.

First off, the house has been a lot of fun...no seriously. It has been a lot of work and with a new furnace in and two retaining walls rebuilt, I've been having fun. The house is also somewhat automated with the ability to turn lights on and off from anywhere in the world and also the ability to keep an eye on the driveway. I can also control the thermostat from anywhere and cut back on heating and cooling costs. This summer, I'll be doing a lot in the yard and hopefully cleaning more than once ever 3 months.

Secondly, I've been at my job for a year now. I'm getting better at SQL statements and using our software and support in general. I still don't like working with 1000's of records at a time but I guess thats growing up. I'm anxious to see what I'll be doing this year that I didn't do last year.

Thirdly, I still love my macbook a lot. It's been a work horse this year and has been treating me very well. It's just over a year old and I got Apple Care just in time. I've been sucked into almost every product that Mac has thrown out in the past year because of it. Apple TV, iPad and iPhone 4 are all on my MVP list.

Last but not least, I'm getting married. I've been dating Courey for over 7 months and last Saturday she said yes. We will get married this October in a catholic church with a traditional catholic service/wedding. Then she gets to move into my house. I can't wait! I know it won't all be peaches and candy corn but I'm very excited to embark on this journey with her. I wouldn't want to with anyone else! She has a great family and great friends and I'm anxious to become a greater part in their lives and visa versa.

Who is to say where I will be in a year from now or even a month! But needless to say I am very grateful for all that has happened, and I am excited to see where life will take me next.

What's been going on...

First things first, I met a girl named Courey...you can ask how we met, and we'll come up with a different story each time if you like. She is great and within two months of knowing her, we've been all over the place. We spent a weekend in Detroit at the Detroit Maker Faire, we spent a weekend in Central PA visiting my parents and grandparents, and finally we spent a weekend in WV at the State fair and having dinner with her parents. It's been a busy few weekends.

As far as work goes, I am about all travelled out, but when there is work to be done, ship me off! I have not been home for more than a few days straight in the past month. I've been on the road a lot for work, and I'm getting to see a lot of amazing places and meet interesting people. More so I'm getting to eat amazing food that I normally would not get to eat. Tonight was a lobster roll and fresh calamari with a view of the ocean at Jimmies of Savin Rock. Last night was the most amazing Chicken and Dumplings at the Southport Brewing Company, I will be going back for more chicken and dumplings.

Music unfortunately has taken a bit of a back seat, and I have not had time of recent to do anything crazy. I'm still playing with the the Neon Swing X-Perience and having a great time! Our summer tour had many memories that will not soon be forgotten. I currently have aspirations to start a bluegrass Jam session once a month in Pittsburgh. I have a location scoped out in Mt. Lebanon, I just need to start talking to people and see if there is enough of an interest.

The house is coming along great, as with any house, there are bunch of things that always need worked on. Being away from the house doesn't help with that, but I'm slowly chewing away at my self induced honey-do list. Once the weather cools down a little, I firmly intend to get a bunch of yard work done!

My New Job....

My new job is pretty cool. I'm writing this post to test something out...One big thing I'm looking into currently is Search Engine Optimization. So in order to get higher ratings supposedly you need have links from other sites to get to the site. I'm going to try putting some links on my blog to see if that improves the other sites search-ability.
The site that I created is Facilities Survey Inc.'s website. The company is a Facilities Management company that focuses on solutions such as...Software, Asset Inventory, Building Documentation among other services. Please feel free to browse the site.

The software portion of the site is designed to explain CMMS, or in our case our Custom Maintenance Software. This system allows facilities managers to keep track of assets and work orders and generate useful data.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changessss.....

A lot has happened in the past 4 weeks for me. I thought rather than have to explain it to a large number of people over and over again, I could alleviate some of that with this blog post, some of you might be getting here from the land of twitter, other from the town that is facebook, and others yet from google BUZZZZZ. Regardless, here are the updates.....

1) New computer - I have gone to the dark side and now have a MacBook Pro. I have to say, I'm still getting used to it but I love the adventure. I have a trusty copy of Windows 7 virtualized on it so I'm safe if I run into any WINDOWS ONLY! applications. I also got the Magic Mouse, and must say, it's pretty nice!

2) NEW JOB!!! Although I will be sad to finally leave Duquesne behind, I am happy to start a new adventure with Facilities Survey Inc. out here in Pittsburgh. I will be a "Field Engineer I". I will split my time between traveling and working at home. It will allow me to use some of the knowledge I gained here at Duquesne as a technician, and allow me to keep furthering my skills with multimedia and over all tech support. Facilities Survey Inc. is a company run by Mr. Serwinski.

3)HOUSE!?!?!?! Yup you read it right, I'm settling down for the time being and have put in an offer and had the offer accepted on a house in Churchill, Pittsburgh (more specifically Turtle Creek). It is the house pictured above. Thanks to my great realtor Kaedi Manly, I should be closing on April 30th, 2010. The house is a great little house and the people that live in it now have it done up real nice. Needless to say I am excited. I can turn my amps up to 11 now and now worry about bothering the neighbors.