Christmas In Virginia

Having snow on the ground made the week before Christmas challenging. People in Richmond don’t deal well with snow. Those who could get out had a hard time getting into and out of parking lots at the stores, due to the huge piles of snow. Susan’s parents were unable to get their car out of the driveway. This is why I will always own an all wheel drive car!

One day, we met our friend Gina and her mother at Red Robin for lunch. We also drove around looking for good sledding hills.

One evening, we drove to downtown Richmond to see the lights. This is a tradition that I feel the need to continue every year. This year was different and maybe event better, thanks to all the snow.

Today, we went to Christmas service. Andrew looked fantastic in his little tie and vest.

Drive To Virginia, Snow

According to the plan, the trip to Virginia was supposed to start at 3:00AM on December 19. We were supposed to pack the car and go to bed early Friday night so we could get an early start Saturday. Things didn’t go as planned.

While packing the car, Andrew climbed in and strapped himself in. This was at 9:00PM. We were still 6 hours from our planned time of departure. He said he was ready to go now. We told him we weren’t ready to go yet. He said he wanted to stay in the car. He also said he was getting tired, and soon afterwards was asleep.

We finished packing and thought about our plan. We decided that it didn’t make sense to wake up Andrew while getting him out of the car, so we scrapped the plan. Instead, we decided to leave early – really early.

The trip up went well, even though half of it was in the dark. Before we left, we heard that there was a winter storm heading for Virginia and perhaps North Carolina. During the drive, Susan’s Mom kept us informed as to the current conditions and even suggested that we might want to stop and come later. Apparently, the predictions were coming true and snow was falling heavily in Richmond. Our curiosity was piqued; it’s rare to see snow in Richmond and I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Andrew was very excited about the idea of playing in the snow.

In northern North Carolina, we started seeing our first traces of snow in patches in the grass along the interstate. Crossing into Virginia, the grass was covered with snow. By Petersburg, snow was covering the road and our drive was beginning to be affected. When we turned off the interstate to bypass downtown Richmond, only one lane of the the road had been touched by plows and the snow was about four inches deep on the other lane. As we neared the west end of Richmond, we nearly came to a stop due to a line of plows that crossed the entire highway. We decided to get off the highway and take the back roads the remaining distance.

Our first back road choice almost got us into trouble. The road had not been plowed and there were only deep tire tracks in the snow. We drove this for about a half mile before we came to a stop. There was a large tow truck blocking our progress. Eventually we started again and as we crested a hill, we saw a semi truck jackknifed ahead blocking the road - that explained the large tow truck. We turned around in the steadily deepening snow and returned to route 250. We tried a different route and, this time, had no issues to deal with. Thanks to all the snow, we missed setting a new personal best time-to-drive record to Virginia. ;)

When we got up this morning, the world was blanketed in white. Needless to say, Andrew was beside himself with excitement. We put on our warmest clothes – we did have warning, so we had our coats, boots, and gloves.

Job Offer From DRS Technologies

With just a few days remaining before our trip up north, I decided to make a follow up call to one of the companies that I’d interviewed with in November. After the initial interview, I called back once to talk to an engineer who was not available the day of the interview. Then I called back again to see how things were going and mentioned that I hadn’t talked to the Engineering Manager yet, so they arranged this and I talked with him for a while. I called again and was told that they were considering making me an offer.

When I called today, the Human Resources contact was not available, so I left a message. For some reason, I lost focus on what I wanted to say and left a rambling, stuttering, incomprehensible message. After interviewing successfully with four engineers, I felt I’d blown it with this message.

A little later, HR called me back. The first thing I heard was, “I’m sorry…”. My heart sank. My fear that I had blown it had been realized. But this was followed by, “… for not getting back to you earlier. We’d like to offer you the position.”

She emailed me an acceptance letter, which I immediately signed and returned. What a fantastic Christmas present for me and my family.

Christmas Card 2009

It’s that time of year again. Time to find a good backdrop for our family Christmas card photograph. So far, we haven’t had any luck finding a nice poinsettia tree. We were hoping to find something nice at the Grand Floridian resort, but we didn’t. Epcot Center actually had some nice decorations, but we were not dressed for the occasion.

This year, we took our family photo in front of the tree at Christ the King church. I set up the tripod near the entrance as the sun was dipping low enough to light the foyer. Meanwhile, families were streaming in for the dinner that was about to start. It was a little weird, but we did our best to ignore the looks and comments.

Getting the photos printed turned out to be a big adventure. I found a great deal at Walgreen’s, but it turned out to be a deal only if you used their cards with your photo. Well, I have my own custom design, so it wouldn’t work. We drove over to Wal-Mart instead. Wal-Mart was a little cheaper, but after pressing the Submit button, we learned that the photos are processed off-site and the due date was the afternoon that we were leaving for Virginia! Turns out they arrived a day early and all was well.