Goodbyes :-(

Posted on June 8th, 2008 in Events, OurNews, photos by Andy

Saturday was sad as we had to say goodbye to the Velez’s who were going back to Oregon.  We caught up with them for breakfast in Panera.  Kristen gave Josiah a toy cellphone - almost identical to Tracey’s, which was a big hit. Hopefully the  noises it makes doesn’t drive them batty on the long drive.  We took several photos (start on flickr) which came out well. I was hoping my gorillapod would work, but the camera is too heavy for the lightweight gorillapod (it was the cheap $10 one - free at buy.com with the google checkout discount) so I had to use the pod’s legs to prop the lens up and hope that it was pointed in roughly the right direction.
The Velez's are leaving (by absoblogginlutely)

My final (for now) Microsoft exam passed!

Posted on May 30th, 2008 in OurNews, work by Andy

I took my final (of 7) Microsoft exam this afternoon. It’s a lot different and a lot harder than the other tests due to the amount of information that you need to digest and analyze (and in some cases assume).  The good news is that I have now obtained the next level in Microsoft accreditations - I am now a Microsoft Certified System Engineer, a Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator, Small Business Specialist and a Certified Professional!  This month has been very busy trying to study most nights for these tests - this was my third exam this month and so for the next week or so I’m not going to be doing any overtimefor work  - I’m looking forward to being able to relax, watch some films and play rockband. Hopefully I’ll also be able to post some more stuff to the blogs - including some photos of the laminate flooring that I installed last weekend.

3 years.

Posted on April 20th, 2008 in OurNews by Andy

Today we’re celebrating the 3rd year anniversary of moving to the USA. The past three years have flown by and so many things have changed since we’ve been here. I’m not sure that celebrating is the correct word to use, but we’re marking the occasion.  We plan to go to a really nice chinese restaurant tonight and have roast duck for dinner - yum!

The funny thing is that often people ask me if I miss the UK (it’s normally the next question after “Are you from Australia?”) and most of the things that I miss are food. We still haven’t found a recipe for cornish pasties and I think we worked out what went wrong with the Yorkshire Puddings last week - the wrong kind of flour apparently.  I keep in touch with family via skype and email so hear from Mum and Dad most weekends.

This week we’re going to sign to get our basement waterproofed. I got fed up with mopping out the basement every time it rained so we’re having some guys come in and put some proper drainage in - hopefully this will allow us to use the basement for an office or home theatre or something other than storage - it’s an expensive process and likely to be pretty messy - I know that the cats are not going to enjoy the noise!

Speaking of cats you have got to watch this engineers guide to cats - very funny.

In other news, there hasn’t really been much change in Kristen’s eyes - she still has some trouble seeing but it doesn’t stop her knitting!