Day 1 at the new job went very well! I met a LOT of new people, was told a lot of useful information, and will probably forget half of the names and info when I walk in the door this morning. I do have a good grasp on what my roles and responsibilities will be, and have even been assigned to some programs already. They're wasting no time getting me up and running, and that's exactly what I expected.

Today will include a few more meetings with people I will be working with in my new role, as well as move-in to my office. Not a cubicle, but an actual office with a door and key. It even has windows so the plants can have actual sunlight! I'll ignore the rumors that we may be moving to a different building in the near-future and will just enjoy the space for as long as I can.

Today marks day 1 of my new job and new commute. Lots of paperwork to sign today, but I'll finally be on the inside! Let's see how it goes!

I decided to take two weeks off between jobs in order to take a break and work on the house. The past week was anything but a vacation, but at least it was productive.

- Installed a storm door on the front door.
- Graded my yard and added 66 square yards of dirt with a rented tractor. Waiting for massive storms to subside before putting compost and grass seed down.
- Buried the rain gutters underground.
- Wired the garage for more power!
- Wired the living room for 7.1 surround sound!
- Requested quotes for an asphalt driveway approach for us and 6 of our neighbors.
- Went to Home Depot and Menard's an average of once per day.
- Bought the lot next door to use as greenspace (We'll soon own 0.7 acres... we're land barrons, baby!)

I'm not quite done yet with the list of things I want to get done, but I think I'll need a vacation from my vacation pretty soon!

I need to jump back on to the blog-o-sphere. So, here we go.

Janine and I recently sold our old house in Grayslake and have now moved up to Racine, WI. We did this move because of the benefits that SCJ provides (health care, day care, etc.) and the fact that the two of us commuting 45+ minutes to/from work each day was not conducive to a good family life. One of us needed the shorter commute (even if mine became 1.5-2 hours each way).

Then this happened...

As of May 30th, I resigned from my old job at Continental (formerly Motorola) after 6 years. I accepted a position with SCJ and their electrical devices group. SCJ is a great place to work, and I've definitely seen how well they treat Janine. I've also been impressed with the direction of their innovation and development and how they pursue those ideas. Leaving my old job was not an easy decision - especially how much and how quickly I grew in my position - but the move will be good for me, Janine, and our future family plans.

Those are the major news stories from the past weeks. I know I haven't been around here for a while, but this was too juicy to not post about.