Fall in Atlanta

I can't believe it's already October and we've been in Atlanta for 6 months! They say it's Fall here in Atlanta but to me it's nothing like Fall back in Wisconsin.

Since our last blog we welcomed our first visitors to town in early August. Mark's brother Tim and his wife Amanda drove down from Knoxville to visit. The four of us went to the Brewers/Braves baseball game and braved the blazing sun and heat. I don't remember who won but I do remember the sunburn. Next time I think we'll try a night game. Mark and I also tried to go to the Cubs/Braves game in August but the game was rained out. Better luck next season right.

As for other entertainment, Mark and I recently went to an Atlanta Thrashers hockey game. I had no idea that Atlanta even had an NHL team. I was able to get club seats through work for $15 which was pretty cool; gotta love working for a big company sometimes. The Thrashers lost but the seats were roomy and every time the Thrashers scored a goal they had these cool things that blew flames into the air (check out the pictures).

Work continues to go well for me. My team is getting ready to implement phase 1 of a 3 phase project. The last two phases will go live in November and December. Now that I've been here awhile, I'm in the on-call support rotation. I have to say it's much less stressful than being on-call on my old team. I still get urgent pages at all hours of the night/weekend during my rotation but on this team we focus on a set of processes within one system verses multiple systems. It's much easier to support a system and our customers when you can really dig in and learn the nuts and bolts of a system and how the business uses it. Ok enough "techy talk". I'm sure I might have just put some of you to sleep. :)

Oh but one more really exciting thing about my work. I found out a couple of weeks that our team might be implementing a system upgrade at our European mills in 2009. Yep, I might get to Europe for work!!!!!! HOW COOL WOULD THAT BE???? Trust me when I say that would be the HIGHLIGHT OF MY CAREER thus far. It's not official yet so I'll keep you updated.

As for Mark, he has some really exciting news too on the job front. He was recently contacted by a recruiter looking for an inside sales rep at Crawford and Company. C&C is an Atlanta based company that recently bought out a Wisconsin based company that sold e-learning packages. Mark will be selling e-learning software packages to other insurance companies and insurance reps. The job opportunity came out of nowhere and at the absolute perfect time. It's the perfect job for his skill set and the best part is that it's salary + commission. And it probably doesn't hurt that his new boss is Irish and they hit it off instantly.

A couple other quick updates. For those of you that know the details of my health issues, I've recently gotten connected with a good endochronologist here in Atlanta. He has put me on some insulin medication and I am already seeing some positive results in reduction of symptoms/issues. All of the doctors here have been great and very patient with Mark and I. We're both grateful for the availability of specialists here and that my medical care seems to be falling into place here.

Finally, as of October 17th our address will be changing. Nope were not buying a house yet and nope we're not joining the witness protection program (inside Henson family joke). The move will allow us to bank some extra cash for a down payment on a house next fall. Our new address is 6031 Gables Lane Atlanta, GA 30350.

Til next time...

Heather and Mark