lori is pregnant
Hah! Not really.
A couple people have complained about my lack of drama and writing lately, so I thought I'd spice it up a bit ;-).
So Thanksgiving with my parents went well.. I took home a ton of leftovers as usual. The four day weekend was especially nice. I only have twelve more days of work this year, then I have twenty days straight without work. That will be a really nice break.
Lori had her parents up from Yuma for the holiday, and I got to meet her mom (I had already met her dad). She had leftovers as well (she cooked), which I got to try last night. I like trying other people's holiday foods, and her turkey was much more juicy than I'm used to. It was really good.
Well winter is finally here. It was something like 36 this morning, a little unusually cold for us here in the valley of the sun. Our few weeks of perfection are over, but at least it's still nicer than pretty much any other part of the country.
I have all day meetings the next two days at work to plan out our projects for the next 12 months, so I am going to be awfully busy with that. It will be good to get some of this stuff hammered out though.
Oh, and last but not least, I got an A in my first class back to school. I'm taking a short break between each class, and I'll start the next one on December 27th. My work announced they're starting back up a minimal tuition reimbursement program again, which will help out with some of the costs for next year.
hell has frozen over
That's right, there are pigs flying;
I'm a manager.
Now, some of you may remember in late 1999 I was the "supervisor" of about 25 people in the technical call center we called CPRC at Frontier GlobalCenter. That was a little different though. I didn't get the title officially, and none of the people really reported to me. On top of that, we weren't really dealing with critical decisions or high tech topics. Let's face it, most of my job was making sure the phone queue didn't get too high with people on hold.
So, on Friday, they officially announced I'm the manager of the department I've been working for the last year and a half. Our boss was promoted up a step, so I still report to him, which is nice since we work really well together. Our group (Development Engineering for those that don't know what I do) is four people, including me, with an open job to be filled in England next year. I better renew my passport so I can interview people.
The hardest part about this job in the short term is going to be balancing the work I've been doing with being the manager. There aren't enough people in the department for me to off load any of my work yet. I don't plan on offloading it all (with a group this small I'll definitely be a "working manager"), but a little will be nice once we get another person.
This will be a learning experience, but I'm thoroughly convinced I'm up for the challenge. I look at every other manager in engineering, and not a single one of them was a real manager going in to their role. They all were promoted from engineer and with a few exceptions over the years have done a really good job.
So there you have it. I started going to school to get a degree in Business Management, and I got the job within three weeks of starting. Maybe I should start pre-med next week?! ;-) Don't worry though, I don't plan on stopping school. Five years experience as an engineer, a few years as an engineering manager, and a degree in business management should make for one hell of a resume in years to come. For now I don't plan on going anywhere, the company's outlook looks good as far as I can read in the press (they don't tell us any more than that internally), so there isn't a need to be jumping ship like there was 3 or so years ago.
On a side note, not only is Google opening a big office here, but this weekend eBay/Paypal announced the same. This is _VERY_ good for Phoenix's tech market. I hope the trend continues, as the Networking side of the market in Phoenix has always been a little bit weak. That obviously was very concerning when Global Crossing was on shaky ground. For those interested, I do see a Senior Network Engineer job posted on their site. I'm sure some of the people that come across this blog may be interested.
So anyways, there you have it; I'm a manager.
On other topics, school is going alright. The group project stuff isn't working well so far, but I'm not too concerned in this class, since the group work is at a level where I can do the whole project myself if needed. I imagine the further I get along, the more people will get weeded out and groups will get better. I passed the half way point of my class this week, so I'm well on my way to finishing class number one. It's a great feeling.
Lori and I are doing well, although she ditched me for a trip to see her family in Kentucky this week. I will admit I'm jealous she got to go to Churchill Downs (where the Kentucky Derby is held) since her Grandfather's house is right across the street from it. It will be good to see her when I get her and her Dad at the airport in a little bit. And yes, everyone who is going to ask, I did miss her.
So that's life in a nutshell. I have about five and a half weeks left in the year to work, and then I'm off for two and half weeks for the holidays. During the day during that time I'll be working on the house/yard and riding my bike, so if anyone wants to join in on either activity, give me a call or an email.
ellen feiss
http://live.watchmactv.com/?p=20
A cult favorite from 2002. Ellen is back.