Growing...

It's amazing watching anything grow. Even planting seeds and waiting for them to sprout is really cool to me. Watching someone that has an a-ha moment is also really neat. So, watching a little puppy grow up in front of me is pretty darn cool.

Visiting the grand(puppy)parents in Hazleton and making it down the stairs for Lady's bone

Cade visited the other set of grandparents this weekend in Hazleton. Jonathan's parents' dog was not happy to share the house with Cade. Once Cade is older, Lady might like her a little better. Right now, she's the annoying little sister.

Jonathan is teaching her how to sit (among other things). She sometimes comes when she's called. She likes eating the million acorns on the ground and chasing us around the yard. Cade has already lost the "slow stalk" of last week. She would fall over herself trying to sneak up on a toy. Now, she just charges it (when she moves for it). She actually follows the toy with her eyes now. She didn't do that before. I'll stop gushing about the puppy now, but it's really cool to watch her learn. I won't see her for 2 weeks while I'm in London, and she'll probably be twice the size and even smarter.

London Calling

It's official: Work is sending me to London for 2 weeks!

The team of the project I'm working on as part of my final rotation is based in London, so I will be going to get a more in-depth understanding. I really like the project; it's fairly sensitive, so I won't into detail here. I'm leaving Friday night, and coming home on the 17th. After I'm done with work, I'm taking the final Friday off and heading for Paris for the weekend. Right now, it looks like I'm traveling solo, but I might be able to wrangle up some British co-workers to join me as tour guide or travel buddy.

Needless to say, I'm super excited about this. This is my first time leaving the U.S., and I love traveling to new places. The office is right near the Thames in the central business district, and I'll be a 5-min walk from the hotel. If you want a postcard, you better send me your address!

I plan on updating here periodically during the trip. So stay tuned!

Meet Cade

On Saturday, Jonathan and I added a new member to the household. Meet Cade!

We adopted Cade from Purrs 'n Pups at the Rockaway PetSmart last weekend. She came from a shelter in Georgia with her brothers and sisters to Purrs 'n Pups, which operates as a rescue league as a network of foster families. She was the last female available of the bunch, and she had a given name of Cleopatra. We didn't like the name, so we chose Cade after 2 days of name deliberations. Her namesake, Cades Cove, is located in the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee. It's a place that Jonathan and I have visited together, but Cades Cove doesn't have any particular significance to us. We thought Cade was a cool name, especially after I found out that a (male) character in Gone with the Wind (set in Georgia) also had the name.

Cade met my mom and Molly, and my grandma, dad, and Scyler. She also met my grandma's neighbor-dog, Amber.

Cade's been scampering around the house, escaping from the barriers we've set up for her. The only damage done so far has been pieces of a plant, and my camera cord. Obviously, I won't be uploading new photos till I get a new one. Hopefully she won't escape from the crate that Jonathan's parents bought for her!

California Love

Wait, why am I in New Jersey again? I spent 5 days in California last week (12th-17th) for work. A whole bunch of my co-workers and I flew out to San Francisco 2 Saturdays ago. I spent Saturday walking along the north shore of San Francisco toward the Golden Gate Bridge with 2 of my co-workers.

Sunday, another group of us drove north of SF toward Point Reyes National Seashore. We stopped at Muir Beach along the way. It was absolutely beautiful there. We were lucky...it had just stopped raining the weekend we came, so the weather was upper 50s and sunny most of the trip.

On the way up to Point Reyes, we drove through at least 4 different microclimates. That was one of the coolest parts of the trip (but I'm a nerdy meteo kid).

That, my friend, is a big ass rock

Monday-Wednesday we spent in "Boot Camp" sessions at a hotel near our Newark, CA office. They sent all new hires (within the last year) to Newark to get some nitty-gritty info about the company. It was interesting...I learned a bit more about the company, and got to meet a bunch of colleagues from other offices.

Monday night we went to a bar in Palo Alto, and my friend John from PSU gave me a tour of the Stanford campus, where he's going for his PhD, and he showed me his department's brand new green building.

Tuesday night a bunch of us went to a place in Fremont called CityBeach, which is basically an indoor fun facility. I climbed my first rock wall and sang some karaoke and played Rock Band.

Boot camp ended at 3 PM on Wednesday, so a group of us headed out to Half Moon Bay to catch the sunset on the beach. It wasn't super windy so we could just hang out on the beach and toss the frisbee around and watch the sun set.

We flew back into the snow on Thursday. I'll miss California...don't be surprised if I end up out there in the future :)

Come and knock on our door...

We ushered in 2008 with four days/nights of guests. On New Year's Eve, I worked until 1:30 and came back to the house to ring in the new year with Renee and Sara. They came down from PJ and we watched fireworks at midnight (in a random parking lot in Morristown...) after playing the Wii and board games earlier in the evening.

Molly and her roommate Rachel from Rockaway came on Thursday to visit. They also played some Wii and hung out for a while.

Friday Jonathan and I hosted a party for a bunch of my co-workers. A set of them will so be permanently based in California after going back and forth between NJ and CA for the past couple months, so I wanted to have them over so the could enjoy the hot tub. It was a fun, slightly raucous party. I can't wait till the summer so we can host a barbeque.

Yesterday, both Molly and my mom had the day off, so they came down to visit. We walked around the neighborhood and went to 2 open houses around the block. We saw this one, which, yes is as tiny and as overpriced as it looks. We also looked at a $600k house that was only 2 years old and already pretty beaten up, plus the basement and garage were unfinished. We're obviously not looking for a house right now for real...it's just fun to look and laugh. I can't believe the prices around here.

It was 60 degrees today, and it will be a few degrees warmer tomorrow. Where the heck is winter? I want more snow!!!

I probably won't write in here until I get back from RMS Boot Camp at the main office in California, so I want to wish Julie well on her trip up to Alaska. I will miss my best buddy, but I'm working on my spaceship to take a visit up there!

Me pretending I'm in Alaska with Julie