Gracefully? I'm not so sure.

Last weekend was my birthday, and while I looked forward to it with some trepidation, everything went fine and it was rather quiet. Chaz baked a nice red velvet cake, and we had a few friends by to share it and some sweet Muscat wine some friends had brought by. The bigger shindig is coming up as Franz comes through town this weekend.

At my Dad's request, I've posted some photos of my car upgrade here. I filled it up for the first time last week. The $33 fillup hit me square in the gut, when compared to a $20 fillup in the Honda. So let's see, I've taken a payment, increased my insurance costs, and increased my fuel payments why? Oh yeah, so I don't have to turn off the air conditioning to get onto the highway! I could get used to having a little more horsepower.

In other car news, the SE edition that I have comes pre-wired for Sirius or XM radio, and while there was some paperwork for Sirius in the glove box, the prior owner took the receiver with him. Calling him, he mentioned that a clarion receiver would work in the car, so I bought one from Crutchfield for $100. A week later, the device comes, but its got a CeNet connector on it while the car has a "N-Bus" connector. 2 hours of research on the net later, there's no harness to connect the two, and theirs no specs on either to build your own, even though the two components are built by Clarion. The device goes back, and I place an order with Grubbs for the more expensive Nissan branded Clarion receiver that has the right plug-type. Have I mentioned that this new vehicle is a costly venture?

At work, I'm transitioning into a new role at my company, and am pretty fired up about it. I'll be doing Technical Marketing, which is basically sales engineering with more of an in-house focus. That being said, there's lots to do, and they've alreay mentioned a sales gig in Benelux that I'll be helping out with in the short term.

Unlike any change I've made in the past, this one really feels like a 'new' job, not just the same job for a different company. My team is dramatically smaller now, and I'll be closer to the newer stuff coming out of the factory, so its all pretty cool. That and having my own office for the first time since I worked for IBM isn't bad either. There will be a few weeks of teeth gnashing as I decouple from ongoing Services work, but I think the teams will survive.