A good week!

So this has turned out to be a pretty good week...better than the typical week at least. A quick highlight of the three main things that have made this week so great...

First of all, the expensive gas coupled with a move at work has meant I am now one of many mass commuters, or whatever you want to call us people who use public transit systems. I have started taking the train to and from work. So I haven't realized savings yet much, since today was my third day doing it, but normally I would have already filled my car up this week. To give you an idea of how much I'll be saving by doing this, here's a little calculation...based on my new commute to the train station, which is 19 miles less (each way) than driving to the new office, I should be driving about 280-300 miles a month in my car, which is one tank of gas, which is about $85 right now. Compare that to typically needing to fill up about 4 times each month or $85x4=$340; 340-85=255. So we should be saving about that much each month. How can I not be happy about that?

Also, as I mentioned, I moved into a new office building this week. I am now working higher than I ever have before, on the 17th floor of a 20 story building. All the office furniture is new, I have a 20" monitor (flat screen) now (up from 19") and everything has gone well with move.

Along the lines of work, I got an unexpected surprise today when one of my co-workers up north in San Ramon gave me an award for being on top of things and making sure that our team of 4 (me in So Cal, two other in No Cal and one in Mississippi) continue to move forward during this time that our manager has moved on to another position. So what's the award? A $50 gift card through giftcertificates.com. Therefore, Traci and I will be enjoying a date night sometime after I receive the gift card for Claim Jumper! I think this is the first award I have ever received from an employer (outside of longevity rewards). It really made my day.

And finally, the big news of the week is that I'm going to be an uncle again, this time courtesy of my sister and brother-in-law! This will be their first kid. She is due in February so she apparently didn't read my earlier blog about what time of year it's ok to procreate. Oh well, it's all good! Of course I'm happy for them and excited for them to have kids now. They'll be out here in October for a week or so. It will be good to see them again. I'd be concerned about the timing because of playoffs, but it's before the World Series and it doesn't appear the Dodger will be playing in October anyway, but don't get me started there! Needless to say, there is much excitement about this in our family. Good times indeed!