Personal Craftsmanship

As a wedding present, my parents decided that my Dad would make us something to house all of our DVDs.  (We currently have a little over 300 DVDs that didn't fit anywhere).  My Dad sat down with us and talked it out... what started as a DVD cabinet eventually became a fabulous, custom Entertainment / Storage Center.  Given the design, build, and transportation, it came a bit after the wedding - etiquette rules only say you're supposed to give the gift within a year of the wedding, so it's not actually late in that sense.

Before...

After...

Now all our DVDs can hide away!

It's a beautiful piece of furniture and it fits the room perfectly.  My father, the engineer, added some great features too:

• All the sliders lock - planning ahead for curious little ones.  ;)
• You can only open 2 sliders at a time (1 on each side), so it won't tip over.
• The selves have dividers to keep the DVDs from falling over, but those can be removed.  If physical media is obsolete in 10 years, we can use the sliders to hide other things... like toys... or anything less than a foot wide.

Thanks Mom and Dad!

Puppy Love

Well, maybe they're not "Puppies" anymore, but we sure do Love them!  I was getting pictures off my camera today, and these are two of my favorite recent shots of our dogs.  I don't think I've ever posted about our dogs, so I just had to share.

Nicippe - Our 5-Year-Old Beagle - She loves to squirm around on the floor.

Nestor - He's about 9 Years and is a Dachshund - Blue Heeler mix.  He did this himself; in fact, we've found him this way a few times, so we don't think it's an accident.

Hot Hoops in Hot Springs: 2012 Edition

Every year since 2009, the Sun Belt Conference Basketball Tournament has been in Hot Springs, AK, and we have been at each of them.  John and I have been season ticket holders for North Texas basketball for a while now, and we love getting to cap off the season with a vacation/tournament.

The last 3 years, UNT has made it to the Championship game, which no other school in the Sun Belt can claim, and we've watched a lot of exciting games to get there.  Unfortunately, the team lost in the Championship game this year, but other than that last 10 minutes of basketball, it was a great trip.

We've done most of the touristy stops in Hot Springs over the last four years, but we could still enjoy ourselves.  On day, the guys went to the horse races (something that never quite worked out in our previous trips).  One of the other wives and I took a stroll down Bath-House row (that was a repeat activity) and had a mini-spa-day.  I think the guys like that Kim and I are both there so we can go do "girly" stuff and let them obsess about sports (and the UNT message board).

Here's a few pictures from the trip:

John with a friend prior to the Championship Game

John with a friend prior to the Championship Game (For anyone not obsessed with North Texas Basketball, Johnny Jones is the men's team coach and his nick name when he played at LSU was "Bullet")

This is an image from the semi-final game.  Play "Where's Marleta?" (Click on the picture to make it bigger) - I look like a Goof-Ball, but I was very excited at that moment.

Another shot from the semi-final game: Johnny Jones, looking all snazzy with my husband in the background (I'm there too, but half my head is blocked)

This might have been the last year for the tournament to be in Hot Springs, and at most, I think there's only going to be one more year.  After 4 trips, we still enjoy the city and always love the "HOT HOOPS in HOT SPRIIIINNNGGS"

Managing Milestones

When I graduated from Baylor in December 2007, a lot of people asked me where I wanted to be in 5 years.  I don't think I really had a good answer for that question.  I wasn't sure if I'd like consulting or if it would be a good fit for my skills and personality.

At some point in the early months of my employment at Hitachi Consulting, I did set a goal for myself to reach the Manager level at Hitachi.  I didn't know how long it would take, so I'm not sure if that was really my 5 year plan, but it's probably the closest I got to a 5 year plan at that point in my career... and after a year or two, my motives and focus changed a bit.  In the end, I found myself making decisions based on the ever changing working world... I didn't keep the "Make Manager at Hitachi" as a hard target for myself.

Now, it's a little over 4 years since I started at Hitachi Consulting, and despite the fact that my long-range planning motives have changed, I just achieved that original goal.  It's neat to meet the first career goal I ever set for myself.

Look Out World: Marleta's a Manager!


(PS I'm a little too proud of the title of this post... it's my first triple-meaning blog post title)