Well, we all made it safely to 2009 but in order to move on we need to know a bit about the past. This is where this post comes in, it’s a review of my last year both on a professional and personal level.

January began with the one year aniversery of my Girlfriend and myself on the 5th of the month. I continued work at Captital BlueCross in Harrisburg as a Enrollment Specialist Contractor in the Government Programs department. The End of January brought my girlfriend and I to State College to see Rascal Flatts and Kelly Pickler in concert. We ended up spending the night so I wouldn’t be too tired driving home so we had a chance to explore Penn State before we headed home, and yes, We did sample and purchase some Ice Cream which we reluctantly shared with both our parents.

February and March flew by with nothing much happening except for us going to the Jeff Dunham preformance at Shippensburg University the end of March.

April included attending the 11th Bob Birthday Bash put on by the local Country Radio Station (Bob94.9). We heard Lee Bryce, Phil Stacey, Carter’s Cord, Ashton Shepard, and Lady Antebellum. One of the highlights of April also included my promotion at work to a Business Analyst Contractor at work. Also in April we celebrated my 31st birthday.

May through August went as smoothly as possible. I was able to get camping several times at both Codorus State Park and Cowan’s Gap State Part. A couple of fishing trips were strategically placed through out the summer with me doing more drowning of bait then catching fish… but heck, it’s the peace and quiet I’m looking for, not the catching of stuff.

September as a somewhat big month, LeAnne and myself made it “official” No, we didn’t get engaged but rather we signed a lease together at the apartment she had rented for the previous year. We also went up to the Poconos to visit my family for Labor Day where we all found out that my oldest cousin Mandy was now engaged to her boyfriend Greg. The biggest news of September came on the 29th when I was officially hired by Capital BlueCross as a Business Analyst. It’s the same position I held since April but it now includes benefits and a nice little pay raise.

October and November was hectic as usual, partly due to my new toy I affectionately call my Corporate Electronic Leash AKA my corporate laptop. We also made not one but two trips to the Strasburg Railroad (the second time was with LeAnne’s Parents in tow) and PA Railroad Museum.

December was smack dab in the middle of the busy season of work but I did find the time to go see the Eagles and Redskins Game in Maryland. While the Eagles didn’t exactly win the experience was one I would like to do again. Christmas brought my a couple of new gifts, including the Amazon Kindle and the Logitech Alto. New Years Eve was spent babysitting LeAnne’s Nephew and seeing the ball drop with her Brother and his Wife.

Well, That was my year in a nutshell, I know I didn’t mention much about Lorenz Technologies but it’s not because I didn’t have work it was just sporadic but yet rewarding. Hopefully this coming year we’ll see an increase in business, but who really knows what the future may hold.

Until Later…

Well in three days from now we’re going to be “officially” in the holiday season but why does it feel like we’ve been in the season for weeks, if not months. Last week it began in my apartment when our Christmas decorations and even the tree appeared upstairs from storage. Now I’ve put my foot down on this and they’re still in their boxes waiting for the proper time to be put up, sometime the first week of December, certainly after the Thanksgiving holiday. Unfortunately there’s other places which I just can’t put my foot down and say lets hold on here and that one place is my employer. Today when I walked in there was the tree outside and by the time I left this afternoon there it was, in all it’s early splendor, in the atrium.

Now, let me explain my views here. I enjoy the holiday season and I do understand, heck I even tolerate, the retailers who have the need to get their Christmas wares out earlier and earlier each year but WHY IN THE HELL do ordinary people need to start to decorate before Thanksgiving. The Christmas holiday is to remember that the lord Jesus was born for us and not some jolly old elf who gives out presents to good little boys and girls. I really believe people need to remember the real reason for the season. More on this later, trust me on this one.

Until Later…

The phone lost.

It finally happened, I got rid of my AT&T Tilt smartphone. Not that I didn’t want to but out of necessity I had to. Let me start from the beginning. I purchased this phone back in April and it was the best bang for my buck at the time. It worked well for a while then I decided to drop it once or thrice and that’s when the problems started to happen.  I got a few deep scratches on the touch screen but they were something I could overlook but the constant dropping of calls were a bit much for me. In the span of several weeks I was having to hit redial more then I was actually talking to someone. This isn’t good when I use my phone for my business and it seems like I’m hanging up on my clients.

The dropping of calls put me into a delima, was I to purchase a new phone and eat the charges because they didn’t give me the option of insurance or go to a 2 year old Razr my girlfriend no longer uses. In the meantime my girlfriend upgraded her line to a new Samsung Epix smartphone and I immediately fell in love with the phone. My mind was made up, I was going to move to the Epix. In steps my wonderful girlfriend again… see she has a family plan and her second line was up for renewal also… After consultation with a good friend with AT&T I was informed that we could use her upgrade on the secondary line to get a discount on a phone then do an equipment transfer to my account…. A win-win situation for me.

So, what this means for me is as of this last Sunday, I have a brand spanking new Samsung Epix in my posession and I’m loving every moment of it. To anyone out there on the AT&T Network looking for a new smartphone, Look at the Epic, it has everything you need and some you probably don’t. Lets call it the biggest bang for your buck.

Until Later…

On the heels of getting my new position I also got my “electronic leash” to the company in the forms of a corporate laptop. Now, don’t get me wrong here I don’t mind having one because I live close to 30 miles from work (one way) and it will save me gas but I do mind that since I got it on Tuesday I can’t get online to my corporate network from home. The IT department’s looked at it and said there’s no problem but yet I still can’t get on. I guess it’s time to have someone sit down and show me what they’re doing, because obviously they’re looking over something. Enough of a rant for tonight I’m heading to bed shortly.

Until Later…

Well, tonight I can finally announce to everyone what those close to me have known for a couple of days. On Wednesday afternoon I was offered and accepted a Business Staff Analyst position with Capital BlueCross.  Now, I’ve been with Capital BlueCross since October 2006 but I was working as a contractor. As of this Monday (Sep 29th) I’ll be an official employee of the company. My job duties aren’t going to change since I’ve been working in the same capacity since Feburary but now I have all the benefits and rights as an employee. The small pay raise I received wasn’t too bad on my wallet either (I’d love to say exactly how much it was, but I can’t in case my fellow employees somehow find this blog).

Well, I’m going to be short and sweet tonight and not ramble on as usual. So, as I always say…

Until Later…