Final Day!!

Finally, my legacy at M-29 comes to an end. Its been a quiet day, but co-workers have been coming into my office every once in a while to bid farewell.  I just got back from a pretty akward lunch, where John invited the whole office to tag along, but then offered to pay for only my lunch once we reached the register. Then once the food came, our accountant, Astrid, insisted to have people go around the table telling their favorite memory of my time at M29. Keep in mind that the majority of my co-workers are web programmers, and most have the personality of a mushroom (bless their hearts). So we got through that, and now I spend the rest of my day cleaning off my desk and tidying up my computer to make sense for the next user who inherits my throne of sales king.

 Here's my legacy at M29, displayed in geographical format.

I am a little sad to see the days pranking, joking and goofing with my friend Billy fade away, but I remind myself of the equal amounts of mind numbing bordom, low pay, and frustration with management that I will also be bidding adieu to, and it all seems right again.  

I now have one full week to relax and prepare for the new job. I am planning to do some cleaning and household chores (to Mel's delight) as well as catch up with some friends like Pat and John who I rarely get to see much of these days. Once my week of rest is up I'll be heading up to San Ramon for the weekend with Mel for a little getaway, and will hopefully get a chance to go to dinner or lunch with Haley and Matt (if they are around). Then on Monday I will officially be a PG&E employee, spending the day at the orientation for all new hires. After that, we'll be driving back home, and I wake up bright and early Tuesday morning to begin my training at Diablo Canyon!! Mel and I are both SO excited for the change and I am hoping I can convince Mel to make her leave from GLOW soon, so that she can regain some of her sanity.

So, To sum it all up....

Remember this thing?

Hey why dont we use this anymore?!? It's such a cool idea...  

Heres my Update:

As you all know, I passed the PGE test!!! Dont know how well I did, but evidently it was good enough! Thye next step is to talk with a 'talent scout' who should be contacting me in the next couple of weeks. After the initial interview there will be a drug test, a physical, and a follow-up interview leading up to the decision. If all goes well I could be working there sometime early next year (maybe feb or march)... Cross your Fingers!

Other than that, Mel and I just celebrated our 1st Anniversary in Las Vegas! Woohoo! We had a lot of fun.  Mel's Dad helped us snag a suite in the Treasure Island Hotel, right in the middle of the strip. We did some shopping, played some Blackjack, some slots, saw Cirque de Soleil's  "Love", and did a LOT of walking! And of course we ate pretty well the whole time.

Here we are walking the strip, and taking in the nightlife

...And here we are, goofing around in front of the Mirage

Inside the Mirage, we saw "Love". It was an amazing

 show - Lots of great beatles songs, AWESOME tricks, acrobatics, dancing, and props, and an overall pleasure to behold. Unfortunately we have no pictures as they were forbidden (Here is us outside the theater).

After four days of relaxation and fun, we headed back home. Not a bad way to spend the first  anniversary. It has been great year - we have both learned a lot and grown a lot, and we look forward to many more years to come!

Finally, what post would be complete without some kitty pictures. Here they are enjoying their favorite beds.

Well thats all for now - Mel and I look forward to seeing everyone over the holidays... We love Christmas time!

A long lost friend

Haley & Matt's Vegas Trip

Matt and I went to Vegas this past weekend (December 15-17) for Axon's holiday party. It was a new Vegas experience - instead of the normal gambling and activities on the strip, we chose some more adventurous activities. For Saturday, we chose a Hummer tour through Red Rock Canyon and for Sunday we chose a helicopter ride to the Grand Canyon.

Saturday:

Well, as it turns out, the "Hummer" we signed up for ended up being a pink suburban...

Pictured here is Matt posing with the suburban and our friend Ryan whose chose bike riding as his activity. This is right after he made it up a pretty long grade in cold weather!

Despite our disappointment with the vehicle, the tour ended up being really fun. Our tour guide, Mark, was very knowledgeable and a lot of fun. The scenery at Red Rock Canyon was beautiful and we were glad to be in a car with a heater instead of out on a bike in the cold!

Below are some pictures of Red Rock Canyon:




Even though we didn't get to ride in a Hummer, we still got to do a little off-roading in the suburban. Mark took us up to the top of a hill where we got some good pictures...

Mark suggested we take "Mission Impossible 2" style pictures on this rock. Here's a couple pictures of Matt and I pretending to be extreme rock climbers.


















We are even climbing without any equipment - Amazing!



















After we got done with our rock climbing adventure, we really did climb to the top of this rock and looked around from the top. (This was not a "recommended" part of the tour, but we were brave and climbed the rock anyway... it wasn't really all that hard ;)












Here are some pictures of Matt and I standing on the top of the rock with the mountains of Red Rock Canyon behind us.

Sunday:

Despite rumors of rain and snow on Sunday, it turned out to be a beautiful day for a helicopter ride. It had snowed the night before in the mountains, so we were able to see the snow on the surrounding mountains, which made the scenery just that much more beautiful.

After a long wait in the lobby/giftshop area of the helicopter tour company, we finally got divided up into groups of 6 and were on our way to our designated helicopters. Ours was #39 and was the only one who had been newly painted.

This is a picture of Matt and I all ready to take off. We had to wear the headphones because the helicopter was pretty loud - but we each had a microphone attached to our headphones so we could talk to each other and the pilot.




Here's a picture of our helicopter:

It was a very cool feeling to take off in the helicopter and just be hovering above the ground. Once we got up in the air, the views were incredible. There were windows all around the sides of the helicopter so we could see out from all sides.

Here are a few pictures from inside the helicopter as we flew over the mountains and Lake Mead:

We even got a great picture of the Hoover Dam as we flew over it:

After about 45 minutes of flying, we approached our final destination - The Grand Canyon! Flying through the Grand Canyon was an incredible experience, and it was very beautiful. Here is a picture as we flew in:

Shortly after entering the Grand Canyon, we landed down on the floor and had a champagne brunch. Our pilot landed out on a ledge over the Colorado River so we had a spectacular view down the canyon: