Now that it's Official...

As many of you may have heard from Wendy by now, I have been offered a new job.

A while back, there was a post to a local car club forum that I belong to about a tech job... It was exactly the type of position I have been hoping to find, so I immediately applied for it.

Over the last couple of weeks I've interviewed with the company a couple times, and on Thursday of last week the extended an offer of employment. It was some of the best news I'd heard in a long time...

So, now that I've given my 2 weeks notice at my current job, I'm feeling comfortable enough to actually write about it in the public sphere.

The new job is as a Junior Software Developer at Randy's Ring & Pinion. I expect that much of what I will be doing might be considered "maintenance programming" - but it's something that actually suits me. It will involve a lot of code review to discover where and how to make an adjustment or revision in order to accomplish minor changes in a user interface. The bulk of the work will be in a custom reporting environment that R'sR&P has built up over time for their sales force.

I'm really looking forward to getting my hand's dirty with real code again. The time in between graduating from South Seattle CC and now has kind of been filled with "need to be working" type jobs that were available when I needed them. Now that I'm moving on to something that is more in the vein of what I really want to do, it's fairly exciting.

:)

So, as of the 10th of August I will cease to be employed for a couple of weeks before starting at the new position, as I'm taking the break in between to finish painting, moving, and some unpacking in the new townhouse. Oh, and also to avoid commuting while I-5 is mostly closed for repairs between the West Seattle Bridge and I-90... Perfect timing, and I couldn't have planned it better.

Wish me luck!

What I did last Sunday...

Wendy & I claimed our new Townhouse Friday, so Saturday I started masking and prepping to change the interior colors from the drab off-whites used in the construction in between appointments with consultants.

Sunday, we went shopping for a new grill and for pots to move Wendy's garden to the deck. After that, I put the first coat of paint on the garage walls.

I forgot to take initial pictures, but remembered as I was finishing up the first wall, so here's the transformation. Later this week I'll put on a second coat before the garage people come out to estimate coating the floor.

Drywall, and a little blue tape...



It begins to turn white:








The next wall is done:





Starting to look much cleaner now.





First coat complete.











It's amazing, but I'd forgotten how much I hated painting ceilings...





Would have much preferred to be at the BMW Concours, or even a quick visit to the All British Field Meet, but am happy that the Missus has authorized (even suggested!) the upgrades to the garage before we really move in.

The Bourne Ultimatum trailer...

http://www.thebourneultimatum.com/

Removed the embedded video... See the site to view the trailer.

It's Happening, although slowly...

It's been a while since I posted anything. Been busy in most things, slow in others. Thought I would write a little about what's been going on.

So, here it is.

Last weekend, a friend & I did some maintenance on my BMW. We started out by pulling the exhaust off, then dropped out the transmission. Then we got to the heart of the issue... a worn out release bearing (also known as a throw-out bearing). It had started squealing extremely loud the last day I drove it... when we pulled it out, it was easy to tell that something was wrong with it. One race (bearing surface) was off center, and the whole assembly was fused together. A couple of firm taps on the concrete broke the fused surfaces apart, and it popped into pieces. Some of the balls popped out and tried to roll away.

Removing the clutch was next. The pressure plate came off as expected, along with the clutch plate. On inspection, it was easy to tell that this was the original clutch for the vehicle (a good thing) and that it was definitely due for replacement (the clutch plate was worn to the point of rivets cutting grooves in the pressure plate.

After that, we pulled off the flywheel. Rather than have it resurfaced, I had purchased a replacement flywheel ahead of time. One that saved about 20 pounds of weight where it will really make a difference... :) Before beginning to put everything back together we broke for lunch and a trip to the carwash to clean up the transmission.

Reassembly started after UPS dropped off the new clutch plate (there was a minor bubble in the initial order.) Reassembly went without issue, and the car was on the ground and running at about 9:00pm.

Other items of interest: today is the building inspection on our townhouse. This Friday is the Warranty Walkthrough of the same. Wendy's cell phone/PDA is dying. I've upgraded from a 4GB iPod Mini to a 30GB Video iPod... schweet!

:)