I am still here... honest :)

I have been so incredibly busy!  I know, I know – that’s no excuse, I should still be able to throw up a blog posting at LEAST once a week.  I’ll try to get better, really, I will.

Work has been very busy and we just had 14 of our 60 person department let go due to budget cuts, so I am working hard to stay busy and valuable there!  I have seniority (almost 20 years) and am pretty secure in my position, but let me tell you, I was relieved that I found out about the whole layoff thing through an office email explaining what had happened, as opposed to being one of the unfortunate ones who was let go.

In my side business, I have a beautiful new home that I’m in the middle of designing.  Right now it’s at 4,500 SF and is located on the top of a local mountain with an incredibly commanding view of the surrounding area.  Here are a couple of sketchup views of it.  Click on them to see the pics at full size...  We’re still in the midst of design, but this is a fun challenge.  Even though it’s a huge home, the clients are trying to give it a “small cottage in the forest” feel – think Thomas Kinkade.

On top of this, I’m trying to at least put in a front yard on our 3½ acres this summer so we don’t have a muddy mess for the second year in a row this winter.  The “little” front yard is 3000 SF.  This will at least get us started.

My ‘70s comment today – I’ve seen and, of course, LOVED “Super 8” when it was in the theaters awhile back.  I told my friends that JJ Abrams was incredibly successful in that as I watched the movie, I felt like I was watching a movie that was MADE back in 1979.  The ONLY issue I had with it is that I don’t think kids carried backpacks back then… at least I didn’t in ’77 when I graduated.  Maybe I’m wrong – maybe they became the thing within 2 years of my having left the high school scene.  Actually – it’s hard to imagine that they would have gotten that wrong, so I’m probably off.