And 5 months later...

Greetings to all -- I did not mean for five months to go by between posts. I did not know that there was anyone actually still reading my blog until I checked in today and saw comments.

There has been a lot going on in my life over the past few months -- work has been incredibly busy. On April 1st, I was promoted to Technical Manager at Avaya. My official title is SRM Engineer. I am supporting one of our new services offerings: Software Release Management. Essentially, my job is to monitor the communications systems of all the customer who have signed up for the SRM offer -- I monitor the software and firmware that is installed and make sure that things are functioning as designed, and apply patches and updates as required. This is the promotion that I was up for late last year, so in the end I got it. The learning curve has been pretty steep -- I've had almost 100 hours of education on Voice over IP; received my CCNA certification and will have my ENA (Extreme Networks) and JNA (Juniper Networks) certifications by the end of the year. I have really enjoyed the challenges of this job -- I finally feel like I've made it to where I want to be.

I sold my Grand Prix in April. As much as I enjoyed the car, and I really did have a great time working on it I decided that it was time to go. After everything I'd done to the car, it was really great at the track, but it was not a lot of fun to drive around-town. It had plenty of power but the suspension was so stiff that every bump and dip was bone jarring. I took the aftermarket suspension off to have a leaking strut replaced and it was then that I decided that it was time to sell the car. I spent a lot of time in late February and March removing all of the aftermarket parts I'd installed: upgraded supercharger, lower intake manifold, cold air intake, custom exhaust, down pipes, etc... The only thing I didn't do was pull the engine and replace the cam with a stock one. I have to admit that I do miss the car a little, but I'm really happy with it's replacement.


My Grand Prix was replaced with a 2001 Audi S4 on 3/28/06. The purchase of this car has been quite an ordeal -- it seems like it will NEVER end! I found the car on eBay -- it was in Chicago being sold by a private party. It was Black with 53k miles, a 6year/100k mile factory warranty, had the sport package and seemed like an all-around good deal.

I flew out to Chicago with a cashier's check and met up with the seller. We went to a Chase bank branch and had the bill of sale notarized and I gave him my check. I had an enjoyable drive back to Denver -- I stopped off in Glendale Heights, IL to see the house we lived in for a year when I was 5. With the exception of a serious rainstorm and getting on to I-35 South towards Dallas the drive itself was pretty uneventful 2 days with a brief stopover in Lincoln, NE for dinner and sleep.

Sometime late in April I got curious about the status of the title; the seller had originally told me he owed about $500 more on the car than what I'd paid; he'd said he would pay the car off ASAP and should have the title to me in a month or so. When I called the seller -- he told me that he'd talked to Audi Financial (AFS) and the payoff had been received and title was being processed. In early May I still hadn't heard anything and called AFS directly, while they wouldn't talk to me directly, they did conference the seller in and it was then I learned that the car had not been paid off; not only that the cashier's check I'd given to the seller had not made it to AFS (thankfully, I had the check made out to them and not the seller). So, I had my bank cancel the original cashiers check and issue another one which I overnighted to AFS. At the end of May I called AFS again to find out what the status was; again, they called the seller who this time simply gave AFS authorization to speak to me about the account. I learned that the check I'd overnighted to them and had been received. However, there was still a balance of just over $1000 remaining on the account so the title still hadn't been released. I called and talked to the seller and he said he was getting it all squared away and he would let me know. I've talked to the seller a couple more times; the last I'd heard was that AFS had mailed the title to the seller and that once he'd received it he would sign it and send it to me. We'll see what happens. In the meantime, my original temporary tags expired mid-May; I've been back to the DMV every two weeks to get new ones and each time it's a bit harder to get them. They're up again on 6/28 -- it will be interesting to see if I'm able to get a renewal on my tags. I did find out from the DMV that I can go through a bond process to receive title; the cost is based on the car's value and an apprailsal is required -- it seems like a real hassle. The mess with the title aside, I love the S4, and I am glad I bought it.

A random thought: many things in my life seem to be pointing to Dallas, TX right now.

I'm going to Jamaica on Friday -- can't forget that! It's a quick, almost spur of the moment, 5day 4 night adventure to my favorite island in the Carribean. Couldn't pass the opportunity up -- I'm staying at Whistling Bird again and the airfare was as cheap as I've EVER seen it. With the price of gas, it's almost cheaper to fly than take a road-trip anywhere I want to go.

I still have pictures from my Thanksgiving trip that I still want to post. Someday, maybe...