A New Colorado Resident

Hello from Denver, CO. After an exhausting drive from Memphis to St. Louis to pick up the dog and the girlfriend, proceeding to Kansas City for the night, and then driving another 10 hours the next day, we arrived at my new home in Denver last Friday. I love it here! With a few minor hiccups everything has been going picture perfect.

Friday night consisted of the first of many runs to Target (the 2nd busiest target in the nation is just 2 miles away!) and Saturday was the epic task - the doggy door. After some tense and frustrating moments the pet peurto was successfully installed and I went to bed that night with some new power tools.

There was a 2-21 day window in which my moving van was to show up. Sunday I lucked out in a big way and had my stuff delivered on the shorter end of that spectrum at just 4 days and the move in began. With my new fangled drill and lovely girlfriend I got everything assembled in record time and the house began to look like home.

Tuesday rolled around and I got my first big boy house gift... digital cable and high speed internet. Since then I've been lounging around, taking the pup for walks, exploring some of the many parks around my area, and all around getting familiar with my new home. So far I've been able to keep myself busy but I am more than ready to start work on Monday... I'm not very good at being bored.

Here's a few pics:




On the anecdote side of things I had the pleasure of meeting a Senior Fellow of Lockheed Martin. My girlfriend's parents were moving her younger brother into University of Denver on the same weekend I arrived here and we joined them for dinner along with their family friends, including this Senior Fellow. He was introduced to me as an algorithm writer which immediately impressed me as I know that writing algorithms for a living requires a mental capacity that I will surely never be capable of achieving. However, as dinner went on it became apparent that he was involved in much more than writing algorithms.

Throughout the meal he spoke only when necessary and was a man of few words without being curt. Oftentimes his sparse amount of details were necessary as what he was speaking of regarded classified information. Yet, the more he spoke the clearer picture I got of him. His wife mentioned his being on the hit list of a Russian spy (whose name I should recall but can't) and it became more and more apparent that he'd been involved with and/or created some pretty important things in his line of work. I asked what kind of clearance he had and his response was along the lines of "the kind of clearance you need clearance to know about". He made mention of his multiple polygraph tests and the numerous agencies that he's collaborated with, some that he alluded to the public not knowing the existence of.

Toward the end of our conversation he asked what I'd be doing at Northrop Grumman. I responded that I'd be a software engineer in Mission Systems. He got a grin on his face and I followed up asking if he knew what I'd be doing. He said that he'd been involved with Mission Systems and when asked if he thought I would like it he responded saying I'd be "pleasantly surprised and delighted with what I'd be doing".

Needless to say this only added to my building excitement and anticipation for what I'll be working on at Northrop Grumman.

-dp