Almost another year gone by....

After almost another year since the last post, there has been one big change...I'm married, well there have been a few changes.

Courey now lives me with full time, as a good permanent girlfriend should :). Laura and Justin also got married and have had their lovely daughter, my god-daughter, Lucy Leer. And Charlie and Tiffany have set a date and will be married by the middle of this year.

Dad and Mom have had Laura, Justin and Lucy living with them and they are more than grateful for all of that. I am grateful for all of that. It has been a lot of fun recently seeing all of them together on our weekly FaceTime chats. For right now Lucy is cute and funny, soon she will start doing neat stuff too.

As for me, I'm doing okay. Work and travel have run it's toll on me and my body....I often find myself eating thing out and about that I later regret. The travel itself is fun. Always meeting new people has definitely made me come out of my extroverted shell. Work is challenging in that I'm constantly trying to be a step ahead to prevent any catastrophes.

Courey and I have been getting along just peachy. We are having fun getting used to each other more so now that we live together, even though with travel for work, it sometimes seems as though we still live on opposite end of the city. She's getting really good at trying new dishes and I try to cook from time to time.

The house has been good. I'm always standing on pins and needles waiting for the next thing to break or need replaced but so far most of the big things have already been taken care of. Just waiting for the roof to cave in.

The band has also been having fun, with advent of a new album we've been hard at work on some new originals and live recordings which we know that the fans will love. We keep trying to improve our shows and our overall musicianship.

I hope to keep posting more so that this doesn't become a yearly blog. Let's see what happens!

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.