Goodbye, Archstone...Hello, Delaney Court

Well, it's official. I'm all moved out of my apartment. I just handed in the keys at lunch today. I worked all day yesterday to make the place spotless. It was a little sad when I turned off all the lights and locked the door for the last time. But change is good. I've got another nice apartment with a lot of potential and about 150 more square footage. If I haven't already sent you my new address, send me an email and I'll get it to you.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween, folks. Here's a picture from our work party on the roof last friday. I could never have gotten away with this costume back home. I can recall several a Halloween nights when I would have to wear a winter coat over my costume. The party was fun. It started around 3 with our State of the Company meeting. We had our best month ever and met our Quarter goal. You know what that means. Bonus...bonus...bonus...say it with me now. OK, so it wasn't a huge check, but I'll still take it. We had food, drinks, and music to entertain us. Hope everyone has a wonderful Halloween. If you get bored today, click HERE for a fun game

Come & Gone

Hurricane Wilma was in and out of here in a a matter of hours. It started raining late last night. I woke up this morning to dark skies, pouring rain, and howling wind. Needless to say, I did NOT want to get out of bed and go to work. But I never received the call saying that the office was closed, so I had to go. The 5 minute commute wasn't too bad since there was barely any traffic. I did have to dodge some debris here and there, mostly dead tree limbs and leaves. Winds were about 30 mph with gusts of about 50 mph. The worst part, though is that this storm collided with an unseasonal cold front. Usually when it rains, the actual rain is somewhat warm. But today, the rain was cold. Add in the wind, and it was quite unpleasant. The temperatures continued to drop through out the day. They dipped down to 59 degrees. About one o'clock this afternoon, the rain stopped and the sun came out (and raised the temp up to 68!). With this cold front, though, it's still supposed to get down into the 40s during the overnight hours! BBRRRR!!! But we'll be back up in the 80s by the weekend.

In other news...
I moved into my new apartment this weekend. It was a little sad to see my old place so empty. I think I may have shed a tear. But I am looking forward to living in my new place.

CANstruction 2005

Last night was the awards ceremony for CANstruction. I was in shock to hear Cuhaci & Peterson's "Carrying Away Hunger" named Honorable Mention. This is a national award, meaning that pictures of our design will be submitted to the national competion. I almost felt a little ashamed to take the award home with me for the night after I had been displaying such a pessimistic attitude toward the quality of our design. I thought that there would be no way that we would win a national award (even though with 6 national awards and 12 teams, the odds are pretty favorable). I thought we'd only walk away with the Best Sign Award (which we did also win). Those who did win the Structural Integrety and Juror's Favorite Awards (the top awards) definitely deserved to win and I'm not at all surprised at their outcome. I still can't believe that Honorable Mention went to our little ant who was actually quite large at 8' in length. I wquldn't want to be stung by THIS fire ant.

"WILMA!!!!!!!"

"What is it, Fred?"

Hurrican Wilma is swirling about in the Carribbean as a strong Cat 5 hurricane. The most intense on record with a central pressure of 882mb. This is extremely rare especially for this time of year as the season is winding down (although it doesn't officially end until Nov 30). No one is quite sure where it will go, but the latest forcasts have it heading to the South Florida Peninsula, just like Charley. The good news is that it is expected to weaken before it makes landfall this weekend. The bad news is that I'm supposed to move this weekend. So, I'll be keeping a close eye on the storm this week. The farther south it goes, the less impact it will have on me. It still might mess up my moving plans though.

This is the most storms on record and the season isn't over yet. But, Wilma is the last name on the list. If another storm forms, they will start to use the Greek alphabet (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, etc.). This has NEVER happened.

The Great Cool-Down

Hallelujah, it's started to cool down here in Florida. The past few mornings I have woken up to temperatures in the upper 60s/low 70s. Fall is coming! We've had a really HOT and record-breaking summer (over 50 straight days of 90+ temperatures). I hope these cooler temperature stick around next weekend while I move.

Interview

I went on a job interview today. It's not like I was really looking for a new job. But a friend of a friend requested my resume. So the interview went alright. It's for a small design firm that specializes in high-end residential, but also does some condo and office projects. They want me to come back next week and show them some of my work and they so they can see what I can do. So, we'll see.

I'm Moving

Yes, as my mom mentioned in her blog, I will be moving to a new apartment at the end of this month. I really didn't want to leave, but the raise in rent was more than I could afford. After weeks of research, driving around, and sleepless nights from all the stress, an apartment opened up in the complex where several of my friends also live. It's a much older place and it doesn't have all the amenities that my current place has (there is a pool). But it is downtown (more downtown than I was before), close to work and church, the rent is cheaper, and like I mentioned before, several of my friends also live there. While I am a little sad to leave my nice apartment, I am also looking forward to my new place. I've already started to plan how I will decorate it. When it gets closer to the move, I will send out notices of my change of address and such. I will be getting rid of my land-line phone service (to save some more $$ and since the only people who call me on it are telemarketers) and just using my cell phone. I have about two weeks between when I can move in to the new place and when I have to be out of my old place. So, I'll be taking my time moving.