A game of catch up!

Hi everyone! With my first post, I'll set the stage...

I'm happily living life in St. Louis, Missouri with my best friend, Hoku. Hoku is a 5 year old Bernese Mountain Dog and Rottweiler mix. I found her three years ago at the Missouri Humane Society. She's smart, cuddly, and sassy. A perfect combination!

When I'm not hanging out with Hoku, I'm usually at work or school. I work at Boeing in the Center for Integrated Defense Simulation. In a nut shell, I make simulators of everything from F-15 fighter jets to the space shuttle to border patrol Chevy Tahoes. I'm usually working on 3 or 4 projects at a time and get to do lots of different tasks like writing software or managing budgets or demonstrating new cockpit technologies, so there's always something new and interesting to hold my attention.

School is Washington University in St. Louis. I had never heard of it before I moved here. It was total serendipity to find there was such a good school in the area. Further good luck is that Boeing pays tuition, fees, and books for any kind of school you want. Last year, I finished a Masters in Computer Science. Now I'm working on an MBA. I'm half way through and hoping to finish in August, 2009. No, I won't be headed for a phd next. I'm not a fan of writing lengthy research papers!

I also squeeze in time for my house. A little over a year ago, I bought a brick ranch home built in 1942. There are two bedrooms, one tiny bathroom, and 60 years worth of "what were they thinking?" home projects. It's an endless list of patching, painting, and cleaning. It is nice not to have to worry about the rent going up, though, and of course Hoku loves the yard. I'm walking distance to the Starbucks, a little park, and every suburban store ever put in a strip mall. Plus, it's hard to complain about a 15 minute drive to work and a 10 minute drive to school. I sprung for the pillow top mattress in the guest room. Visitors welcome!


Other than that, I have lots of fun traveling, watching Notre Dame football, playing golf (well, trying to anyway), and enjoying all the many events St. Louis has to offer. More about that to come!

Aloha!