Myles, Kim, and I ushered in the new year in a dramatic booze-induced haze. It all started with a festive display on my kitchen table of various forms of liquor, wine, pizza, and snacks. There was beer in the fridge, too. Without going into gory detail, lets just say that we all got very “festive” each time the word “goram” was said in whatever episode of Firefly we happened to be watching. We had a grand ol’ time.

I have no resolutions for this year. I have some want-to-dos: 1) get healthier and 2) buy a house. Hopefully 2007 will also bring me a companion of my very own.

As most of you now know, I became single again after nearly two(!) years with Sarah. Those two years weren’t without difficulty however – we trampled over the mountain of a long distance relationship, overcame divergent interests, and she had the honor and pleasure (kidding!) of my occasional less-than-agreeable moods. We parted amicably and in a way that was mutually respectful and without (too much) hurt.

So, to you Sarah, I say thank you for nearly 2 years of growth, self-discovery, and your company. I love and shall always love you – and I wish you the best in everything.

Breakups are tumultuous for both involved, regardless of how it was conducted. On my end, I extend my most sincere appreciation to my good friends Myles, Kim, and David for taking my mind off of Sarah (or lack thereof!) and letting me vent and heal in your most welcome company. Hats/glasses off to you, all. You all are the very definition of the word ‘friend.’ Thank you.

Where do I go from here? Onwards.

With my friends (and my cats).

Work is good – and enjoyable most of the time. I’m doing some J2EE stuff now, which is kind of a drag, but that’s combined with some Linux work and some RoR work – so life isn’t too bad. I’ve also been scaling back my hours to a more reasonable amount (45-50 a week rather than 50-60) – this cuts into my OT pay, but oh well.

“OT Pay?”, you might ask, “aren’t you salaried?” The answer is, of course, yes. It’s really more of a payment floor, minimum wage if you will. I get OT above and beyond my salary, which rules.

Other notable events lately:

• Myles and Kim (Mybo and Fortress) moved to Fresno.
• Sarah moved some of her stuff in.
• I got a couch.
• I paid off one of my credit cards.
• I am going to be walking at the Engineering commencement on the 10th.

That’s it.

Which brings me to a little bit of news for those of you not in regular contact with me… I took the job at Pelco. I’m starting there in April, and Sarah and I started looking for apartments in Clovis. We found a pretty sweet place where I’ll be starting the application and lease process this weekend when I’m in town (again). I think at the rate I’m visiting Fresno, Sarah might owe me a trip over here on her next free weekend…

Anyhoo, about the apartment and stuff – it’s sweet. I hope everything works out and I get it.

I returned to San Luis Obispo on Thursday (extremely limited Sarah access while she did CBDA stuff and I have no other friends in Fresno to speak of) night, went out to beer with the dudes and the honorary dude E, slept, and went to Riverside the next morning. Got to see Riverside, play in a junk yard, play lots of pool, admire the cool McFadyen residence, get to know Merry Bear a bit better (though she did try to goad me into a political scuffle), and put back a few beers. The McFadyen’s were awesome hosts… major points to them.

And here we are… I’m going to sort some papers now then head out to a study session hosted by Dr. Zammit for my physics midterm on Friday. T-minus a little over 3 weeks till I’m done!

I’m on my way back to San Luis Obispo, but I have been delayed due to heavy fog in San Francisco. I had a good day at Microsoft yesterday, with 6 interviews of ~1 hour each starting at 9:30 and ending at 17:30. 1 interview was non-technical (with the recruiter), and the remaining 5 were highly stimulating. I interviewed with developers and the development manager of the Mac Business Unit (responsible for Office on the Mac, VirtualPC, and utilities like RDC).

I think I have a reasonably good shot at a job offer from them. My interviewers seemed generally pleased with my performance, although I came up with solutions to their “whiteboard” problems that I generally felt were under-amazing. My solution for converting a number to a character array in C was, in one word, ugly. In two words, very ugly. I think I was able to successfully think through their whiteboard problems in a way they thought was acceptable. They said they liked how I broke down problems and tried multiple angles.

They graciously put me up at the Fairfield Marriott in Bellevue (about a 7 minute drive away on city streets) where there was free but highly unreliable Wifi. There was a delightful server at the restaurant the first night – from Oa’hu she was. Very funny lil’ ol’ lady.

I might write more later. I think I could be compatible with Seattle, just need to figure out a way to get Sarah up here with me…

The Pelco interview went well. I was floored by the fact they do all their manufacturing onsite, in Clovis. They have a full factory for pressing and milling metal, bending it, and do all the fabrication for their stuff. Their computer products use some off-the-shelf components, but who wants to make mainboards when you buy good ones pretty inexpensively? I think the interview might turn into a job offer – and one that I would consider very seriously.

This week I’ll be flying up to Seattle to interview with Microsoft for a Software Design Engineer position in the Mac Business Unit. I am interested in the position, but I am not so sure if I really want to move up to Redmond.

The lab is setting up an interview for me for a position in the Computing Applications Research department. I would then be matrixed back to my old position to work on a public health application. I think this would be very cool, but it also could also somewhat like stagnating. Who knows.

Sarah came over this weekend. Was a sort of slow weekend – we didn’t do too much. Not a bad weekend though. Would have liked it to be longer – and I would have liked an opportunity to climb Bishop’s Peak and explore Poly Canyon a bit. There are bunch more weekends though before I’m out.

Traveled to Fresno to an awesome dinner, thanks to Sarah. So far, so good. Wish me luck tomorrow!

The Rees House at Carmichael were invited as a whole to Thanksgiving celebrations at The Rees House of Palos Verdes, an invitation we politely declined. We preferred to keep it small and to ourselves as we are apt to do. Sarah was gracious enough to join us in our celebrations, and even provided sound culinary advice and assistance. Her thoughtfulness and skill with a whisk livened up the whole house.

…

Ugh. Way too verbose…

So, Sarah joined us for Thanksgiving at my parents’ house. Dad prepared a lovely turkey (cooked to the right temperature) stuffed with a stuffing that Sarah and I made. We used Alton’s recipe with our own modifications (proportions of ingredients and choice of spices, primarily) and stuffed the whole shebang into a stuffing bag. Stuffing bags are great! They allow for relatively easy insertion and extraction from a turkey, which is important, especially if the turkey is done before the stuffing is. In our case, the turkey came up to temperature a few minutes ahead of the stuffing, so we pulled out the stuffing, bag and all, and parked it right back in the hot box. Both turkey and stuffing were highly excellent.

Sarah and I also put together some lovely mashed potatoes and gravy. The gravy was cool since we used the turkey drippings with generous portions of red wine. Sarah whipped up a roux with the turkey fat and flour to thicken the sauce. We added sauteed giblets and onions to the gravy which Sarah insists made it unflatteringly chunky. I didn’t catch any chunkies in my gravy, so I can’t really attest to that.

Dad whipped up a delicious persimmon pudding for dessert to pair with a chocolate fudge cake in celebration of my brother’s recent 21st birthday. Happy Birthday bro. The persimmon pudding was highly delicious and its remnants are cooled in my fridge waiting for consumption.

This thanksgiving hopefully represents the final high-gear cookery in that kitchen as we know it. Mom and Dad are about to undertake a long and expensive process of remodeling the house. The kitchen will be completely redeveloped with new appliances and features. Hopefully next year will see the first big dinner in the new house.

…

Sarah and I proceeded from Carmichael back to Fresno to drop off the kittens and for her to practice. We then went up to Coarsegold for Thanksgiving #2 at Sarah’s parents’ (can someone tell me what the rules are for double possessives like this as it relates to apostrophe usage, please? ) house. It was a major bash with 14 someodd people showing up, eating, and being familylike. Emily (Sarah’s sister) brought a few Thanksgivingly underprivileged friends to the festivities. All in all, it made for a nice night out with the girlfriend and her family.

…

I have since consumed all the leftovers from my parents’ house, except the small portion of Persimmon pudding. That will be gone soon, too.

Happy Halloween, all!

(Image taken with a Motorola V551 Camera Phone. Not bad, huh?)

It all started in the early part of August. The gang (sans Paul) and plus Sarah (w00t) packed the hell out of #82 and proceeded to convey our belongings to our new destinations. For Paul and I, that was #48. For Myles and Fortress, that was Templeton.

Move #1 encompassed left-over house gear like couches and tables and desks and “big” stuff. Among the smaller items included in this move were a few computers, monitors, dishes, kitchenware, etc.

Over labor day weekend, move #2 occurred. This was principally a Sean effort, with much help from Sarah on the unpacking end. This stuff was the “I can live withouts for a week” stuff: G5 and displays, clothes, files, papers, and various knicknacks. One (very full) car load.

Move #3 occurred this day. Thjs was the culminating move from Livermore: regular clothes, tv (heavy mofo), and other knicknackkery.

I am way tired.

I am back in SLO.

Good night.