Happy Birthday Uncle Greg

This past weekend we made a trip up to New York City to celebrate Holly's Uncle Greg's 70th Birthday. The party was as much fun as the view of the city was beautiful. I have pictures of both below. We celebrated at The Chart House, which is right on the Hudson and across from Manhattan.

Uncle Gregs 70th

New Sunny Pictures

Sunny is doing well in his new home. He is set up in the middle of our family room so he is certainly still the center of attention!

Here he is as he stretches his legs in our living room and dining room.

Sunny

All Moved In!

We finally consider ourselves 100% moved into our home, with a place for everything and everything in its place. Motivated by Holly's family joining us for a weekend, we were able to have one last push to get everything inside the house all done, clean, and sparkling for their visit... perfect for taking pictures and sharing with all of our fellow ChalkBoard readers.

So, without further ado, as the French would say: Le maison de Chalk!

Our House

New Job for Jason

It's official. I have accepted a new job with T Rowe Price (click for more info). My first day is on October 17th and will complete a very crazy year for Holly and myself -- both moving onto a new home and new jobs. We are very excited about the very different life we are going to live in Maryland, but also excited for things to start slowing down a bit too!!!

This also means that my days at Accenture are now officially numbered. Accenture was a great company to work for and definitely put me on a fast track in my career to the point where I am today. It also was always hard to explain to family and friends what it was that I actually did when I was there.

Sometimes a joke is the best way to describe to someone what it is that I actually did. Click the following image below to hear a fake commercial that describes (in a joking way) what it is that I actually did. While I believe that Accenture is a great company for young people to get good starts in their careers, this parody is so funny because at times it isn't far from the truth!

(Click the picture below to see what I mean)



Now my family doesn't have to struggle to pronounce Accenture anymore!!!

New Wheels!

It was hard to let go of the Cavalier, but she's finally here! I finally bought another car! No more driving that huge truck! She is a GORGEOUS white Malibu with all of the bells and whistles (even more than Jas's car). Check her out...

Just in time for football season...

Holly and I have completed one room of our house (the others aren't far behind... trust us!). The most important room, the game/rec room is now completely set up. We built blanket hangers for our college blankets -- one for each institution we attended -- Wake, OSU, and McDaniel. I put my new power miter saw to use and built the hangers myself, and Holly and I hung them over the weekend.

As we get the finishing touches in our other rooms, we'll post them.

College Blankets

Famous Already!

I am settling into my new job at McDaniel College, and I'm famous already. Although some of the info in the story isn't exactly accurate (I've taught at 3 different colleges, not just 3 classes!), I did get my picture in the paper. I had hoped for a better picture, but at least my Scarlet Ohio State robe made it into the picture! :)

New McDaniel professors ease into new role

Finally... Our Europe Pictures

Hello dedicated readers (you must be dedicated if you are checking this website after our 1 month hiatus!).

Holly and I have settled into our home in Maryland. We've finally gotten high-speed internet and the time to put up the long-ago-promised Europe pictures that we took from our vacation last month. I went through and pulled 132 pictures out of the over 2,200 pictures we took that best captured our vacation. We saw so much that we couldn't possibly cram all the pictures online... but hopefully these pictures will represent the scope of what we saw during our time overseas.

As the house gets fully settled, we'll post back in a week or two with house pictures with our stuff in it. It's really starting to take shape. Plus, I'm sure that Holly will be posting pictures of her sweet office at McDaniel.

Until then, this should be enough to keep you busy:

Europe Trip -- Rome - Paris - London

Back in the USA

Holly and I are back to the States and safe after an interesting fight home. We're now putting our energy fully into getting ready for the big move. We'll be putting pictures from our vacation up sometime in the next couple of weeks, once we've gotten settled in Maryland and Jenn's wedding is over.

Stay tuned!

Still Surviving

Hi everyone,

I wanted to make my own post to tell you that (despite a constant schedule from 9 AM to 9 PM everyday) Jason hasn't killed me yet. There have been some minor injuries (the aforementioned sprained ankle, etc), but nothing major. After our last 12 hour day (by 8:30 PM at the Louvre), Jason was kind enough to tell me that I could go home.... if I was bleeding!!!! :) He's been pretty tough on me, but we've seen EVERYTHING, so it's been worth it. Talk to you all when we get home. Love you!

Holly