Thursday, April 30, 2009
Ummmmmm...
I feel kind of bad for staying home from work today after coming home early yesterday. My stomach has that "unstable" feeling and has since I got home from work Wednesday night. Fortunately, nothing has happened and I hope it stays that way, but it's just annoying when it feels like this. If it's still like this tomorrow, there will be no Dodger Dog for me at the game tomorrow night. At least there are plenty of other options there.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Courtney's First Job!
Yesterday, Courtney had her first photo shoot. It was done at Will Rogers State Beach and was for O Magazine. We don't know what issue it's going to appear in, but we'll let you know as soon as we find out. She is one of about 20 people in the shot and is the only one looking directly at the camera. I wasn't there, so I can't provide a lot of details, but if you go to Traci's blog, you can find out more since she goes into more detail...and posted pictures. We're proud of her and hope that she continues to get jobs as long as she enjoys doing this.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Birthday Time
It's officially my birthday and in just a few minutes I'll officially be 33! I'm looking forward to today and tomorrow as there are some fun things lined up. Tomorrow, it's off to Disneyland with Traci and the girls after she has her MOPS meeting to prepare for the massive yard sale at our place on the 25th. After Disneyland, we'll head to dinner with some family. Nothing big, kind of low key, which is good.
Friday, we head to our first Dodger game of the year where they will take on the Rockies and we'll be treated to postgame fireworks. That should be lots of fun as we (the 4 of us) head to the game with my parents (using Mom's handicap placard!) and my good friend Eric.
I think I'm just excited because it's all fun stuff and with people I really like being around. Here's to being about 1/3 of a century old! (That officially happens August 16, when I turn 33 1/3.)
Friday, we head to our first Dodger game of the year where they will take on the Rockies and we'll be treated to postgame fireworks. That should be lots of fun as we (the 4 of us) head to the game with my parents (using Mom's handicap placard!) and my good friend Eric.
I think I'm just excited because it's all fun stuff and with people I really like being around. Here's to being about 1/3 of a century old! (That officially happens August 16, when I turn 33 1/3.)
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Life
I was at our refinery's business plan roll out today at the Disneyland Hotel and after a speech from our retiring President of Global Manufacturing (who oversees all of our refineries worldwide), it just helped me realize what life is about. He talked about retiring after being with Chevron for 32 years and that he wants to be a better husband, father and grandfather, while going out on top, in terms of his professional accomplishments, and also wanting to give back in the community in which he was raised in India. One of the last things he mentioned in his speech was how much he felt blessed by God, and that was very good to hear.
Before his speech this afternoon, I pretty much just saw him as one of the corporate big-wigs. However, after the speech, I saw him as a fellow human being in this journey called life. I could completely relate to his desire to spend time with his family. He talked about the fact that he has put his wife of 38 years through 18 moves during his career, and that in the last six years (while in his current position) he has logged about 8,000 hours of airtime (not counting time in the airport or for transfers) and that he has typically traveled about 2 1/2 weeks every month. From that I can understand why he wants to spend more time with his family. He gained a lot my respect today. I could tell there was a lot of personal emotion behind his speech today and that is why I feel for and can relate to him.
I will tell you now that I have no desire whatsoever to take on a position of any kind that will make me be away from my family that much. I also know that not wanting to relocate can limit the opportunities available to me at Chevron. However, I will not sacrifice my family for my career. I also know that having a family that I value could affect the perception of my performance relative to my peers. While I don't think that is fair, that just may be the way it seems to some people. Fortunately, that has not been the case so far. As my uncle says, I'm not living to work, I'm working to live.
I am very thankful for the family that I have and I believe God wants them to be my top priority (behind Him). Therefore, I structure my life that way. When all is said and done in my career and my life, I am most concerned that they will look at me and be proud of what I did and who I was. I don't want to embarrass them or have them feel ashamed of me. I want them to be glad that I was a part of their life for as long as I was here.
At Chevron, we have something called the Chevron Way, which explains what our company is about. The values associated with it align very well with how I want to conduct my life, and perhaps that is part of the reason I enjoy working for Chevron so much. Trust, honesty and integrity are three of the characteristics I want to incorporate in all areas of my life. From those, I believe respect is inevitable. And if I have the love and respect of my family, I will be a happy man.
On another note, I am excited for it to be Easter weekend. After all, it is because of Christ's death on the cross and His resurrection that we celebrate this holiday and can have eternal life. I always love our church's Easter services. This year, we're doing something different as we'll be attending service on Saturday instead of Sunday. Part of the reason is that so much of our family is going then: my parents, my grandma (who we still think is unsaved at the age of 95), Traci's parents and Traci's grandparents. Afterwards at least some of us will be having dinner together and then re-gathering on Sunday afternoon for the official Easter get-together. One extra thing to be excited about for the services this year is that Eden Espinosa who played Elphaba in Wicked. (She went to college with our worship pastor so he has the connections.) So if you happen to be looking for a good church to celebrate Easter at, hopefully that will encourage you to give WACC a try. Happy Easter everyone!
Before his speech this afternoon, I pretty much just saw him as one of the corporate big-wigs. However, after the speech, I saw him as a fellow human being in this journey called life. I could completely relate to his desire to spend time with his family. He talked about the fact that he has put his wife of 38 years through 18 moves during his career, and that in the last six years (while in his current position) he has logged about 8,000 hours of airtime (not counting time in the airport or for transfers) and that he has typically traveled about 2 1/2 weeks every month. From that I can understand why he wants to spend more time with his family. He gained a lot my respect today. I could tell there was a lot of personal emotion behind his speech today and that is why I feel for and can relate to him.
I will tell you now that I have no desire whatsoever to take on a position of any kind that will make me be away from my family that much. I also know that not wanting to relocate can limit the opportunities available to me at Chevron. However, I will not sacrifice my family for my career. I also know that having a family that I value could affect the perception of my performance relative to my peers. While I don't think that is fair, that just may be the way it seems to some people. Fortunately, that has not been the case so far. As my uncle says, I'm not living to work, I'm working to live.
I am very thankful for the family that I have and I believe God wants them to be my top priority (behind Him). Therefore, I structure my life that way. When all is said and done in my career and my life, I am most concerned that they will look at me and be proud of what I did and who I was. I don't want to embarrass them or have them feel ashamed of me. I want them to be glad that I was a part of their life for as long as I was here.
At Chevron, we have something called the Chevron Way, which explains what our company is about. The values associated with it align very well with how I want to conduct my life, and perhaps that is part of the reason I enjoy working for Chevron so much. Trust, honesty and integrity are three of the characteristics I want to incorporate in all areas of my life. From those, I believe respect is inevitable. And if I have the love and respect of my family, I will be a happy man.
On another note, I am excited for it to be Easter weekend. After all, it is because of Christ's death on the cross and His resurrection that we celebrate this holiday and can have eternal life. I always love our church's Easter services. This year, we're doing something different as we'll be attending service on Saturday instead of Sunday. Part of the reason is that so much of our family is going then: my parents, my grandma (who we still think is unsaved at the age of 95), Traci's parents and Traci's grandparents. Afterwards at least some of us will be having dinner together and then re-gathering on Sunday afternoon for the official Easter get-together. One extra thing to be excited about for the services this year is that Eden Espinosa who played Elphaba in Wicked. (She went to college with our worship pastor so he has the connections.) So if you happen to be looking for a good church to celebrate Easter at, hopefully that will encourage you to give WACC a try. Happy Easter everyone!
Friday, April 3, 2009
The Weekend
I have to admit I'm really loving my 3-day weekends now with the new schedule. The longer workdays take their toll during the week, but when it really starts getting to me, it's the weekend again! And with this weekend comes lots of fun stuff.
Today we turned in Courtney's kindergarten registration packet and she is now officially enrolled for the fall at Orchard Dale, where Traci and I both went to school and where my mom works (when she's not recovering from hip surgery). I think Courtney is really going to like school and I think she'll do well. She has been starting to read on her own a little and that is very exciting. I have always been a little scared of that since I have never liked to read yet I want to encourage her to read whenever she wants to. So far so good.
Traci had her annual eye checkup today and we were scared of what new contacts would cost as she has been noticing a difference in her vision over time. However, last year, once we got on Chevron's benefits, we learned that our eye doctor didn't take our insurance. I wound up spending $500 for my appointment and glasses. Well, they just started accepting our insurance, EyeMed. Her contacts and appointment will cost us a total of $120. Much better than we were expecting. It turns out that they were almost forced to start accepting EyeMed since a lot of the people going to his practice have dropped VSP because it is too costly to their employers. I remember when working in underwriting at my last job that EyeMed was always cheaper than VSP and it is accepted at many large retail outlets (i.e. Sears, Target, Lens Crafters, etc.), which appeals to a lot of employees. So after cancelling my appointment for tomorrow (the time wouldn't have worked anyway...see below), I rescheduled for a couple weeks from now. We'll see what happens there.
I wound up taking my car into the shop since it stalled once yesterday coming home from work. I thought the new fuel pump and filter we installed last week had done the trick, but I guess not. It was due for an oil change anyway so I took up to a local shop here that I really trust. Unfortunately, they couldn't fix the problem, but were able to explain why. They said the coil (whatever that is and does) came up when the car was hooked up to their diagnostic machine. However, they said they had fixed that on other Jeeps like mine and it didn't fix the problem, but that it was probably the computer that runs the car. He said that it needs to be reflashed, which resets it apparently. That can only be done at a dealership, so I'll be taking it to a third place to get fixed. If after the reflashing, it still isn't fixed, then he said it probably needs a whole new computer, which will run in the $400-500 range, which is not what I want. Heck I'll flash the computer if that's all it takes! Ok, not really.
Tomorrow should be fun as we drop off the kids at the in-laws and then head with my parents and Nora (Mom's good friend) to Pasadena for her to get an employee-of-the-year-type award from her union. We weren't going to be able to go because our church had scheduled their Easter egg hunt for this weekend, but I found out earlier this week that they cancelled it. Mom was able to get a couple extra tickets so now we can go. It should be fun.
Then comes Sunday, the highlight of my weekend by far! Not only does the 2009 MLB season get under way, but a friend, just today, invited me over to his place for Wrestlemania 25! This is the same friend who will be going with me to Summerslam in August. Fortunately, we know them from church and he and his wife have two girls, just like us. So the wives will be keeping an eye on the kids and hanging out while we are secluded in our pay-per-view "suite" in their house. I could go into all the great matches planned for the 4-hour event, but most of you probably don't care. If you do, just check out the Wrestlemania site for yourself. Man do I love the gratuitous choreographed violence that is the man's soap opera called WWE!
And then after the weekend is over, it's back to work, but only for 3 days as our refinery's business plan roll out will be held at the Disneyland Hotel on Thursday, which I'm volunteering at. That means I have to be there at 5:30 in the morning, but it's over around 1:30 so it's a short day. And then another weekend, which includes Easter! And then another 3-day workweek as I'll be taking a vacation day on my birthday! Man, I love April!
Oh, I also posted an awesome new song on my other blog today so check it out if you have a chance.
Today we turned in Courtney's kindergarten registration packet and she is now officially enrolled for the fall at Orchard Dale, where Traci and I both went to school and where my mom works (when she's not recovering from hip surgery). I think Courtney is really going to like school and I think she'll do well. She has been starting to read on her own a little and that is very exciting. I have always been a little scared of that since I have never liked to read yet I want to encourage her to read whenever she wants to. So far so good.
Traci had her annual eye checkup today and we were scared of what new contacts would cost as she has been noticing a difference in her vision over time. However, last year, once we got on Chevron's benefits, we learned that our eye doctor didn't take our insurance. I wound up spending $500 for my appointment and glasses. Well, they just started accepting our insurance, EyeMed. Her contacts and appointment will cost us a total of $120. Much better than we were expecting. It turns out that they were almost forced to start accepting EyeMed since a lot of the people going to his practice have dropped VSP because it is too costly to their employers. I remember when working in underwriting at my last job that EyeMed was always cheaper than VSP and it is accepted at many large retail outlets (i.e. Sears, Target, Lens Crafters, etc.), which appeals to a lot of employees. So after cancelling my appointment for tomorrow (the time wouldn't have worked anyway...see below), I rescheduled for a couple weeks from now. We'll see what happens there.
I wound up taking my car into the shop since it stalled once yesterday coming home from work. I thought the new fuel pump and filter we installed last week had done the trick, but I guess not. It was due for an oil change anyway so I took up to a local shop here that I really trust. Unfortunately, they couldn't fix the problem, but were able to explain why. They said the coil (whatever that is and does) came up when the car was hooked up to their diagnostic machine. However, they said they had fixed that on other Jeeps like mine and it didn't fix the problem, but that it was probably the computer that runs the car. He said that it needs to be reflashed, which resets it apparently. That can only be done at a dealership, so I'll be taking it to a third place to get fixed. If after the reflashing, it still isn't fixed, then he said it probably needs a whole new computer, which will run in the $400-500 range, which is not what I want. Heck I'll flash the computer if that's all it takes! Ok, not really.
Tomorrow should be fun as we drop off the kids at the in-laws and then head with my parents and Nora (Mom's good friend) to Pasadena for her to get an employee-of-the-year-type award from her union. We weren't going to be able to go because our church had scheduled their Easter egg hunt for this weekend, but I found out earlier this week that they cancelled it. Mom was able to get a couple extra tickets so now we can go. It should be fun.
Then comes Sunday, the highlight of my weekend by far! Not only does the 2009 MLB season get under way, but a friend, just today, invited me over to his place for Wrestlemania 25! This is the same friend who will be going with me to Summerslam in August. Fortunately, we know them from church and he and his wife have two girls, just like us. So the wives will be keeping an eye on the kids and hanging out while we are secluded in our pay-per-view "suite" in their house. I could go into all the great matches planned for the 4-hour event, but most of you probably don't care. If you do, just check out the Wrestlemania site for yourself. Man do I love the gratuitous choreographed violence that is the man's soap opera called WWE!
And then after the weekend is over, it's back to work, but only for 3 days as our refinery's business plan roll out will be held at the Disneyland Hotel on Thursday, which I'm volunteering at. That means I have to be there at 5:30 in the morning, but it's over around 1:30 so it's a short day. And then another weekend, which includes Easter! And then another 3-day workweek as I'll be taking a vacation day on my birthday! Man, I love April!
Oh, I also posted an awesome new song on my other blog today so check it out if you have a chance.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)