Back From Florida

Last night I returned from a short business trip to Harris in Melbourne, Florida.  It was a nostalgic trip since we used to live in Satellite Beach and work at the Joint STARS Joint Test Force at the Northrop Grumman facility in Melbourne.  We stayed at the nicely renovated Melbourne Beach Doubletree Hotel right on the water.  The balcony to my room on the 6th floor overlooked the Atlantic Ocean.  It was a very nice room, although I spent very little time there except to sleep!

On Tuesday, I attended my meetings at Harris.  During the lunch hour, I drove over to the Joint STARS Joint Test Force and visited with some former coworkers and friends.  Unfortunately, I only had a short amount of time to visit, but it was great to see people.  My friend and former coworker Marty gave me a short tour of the office and brought me up to speed on the latest news.  After lunch, it was back to Harris for meetings until about 3:30.  They broke early for a social at the Crowne Plaza, which I opted to skip so that I could visit some more friends.  I then also made the decision to drive across the peninsula to Tampa to see the Pittsburgh Penguins take on the Tampa Bay Lightning in hockey.

The hockey game was exciting, but ended in disappointment for me as the Penguins lost 3-2.  Nonetheless, it was great to see Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal in person.  The game started great with Sidney Crosby scoring on a breakaway just 24 seconds into the game.  I also enjoyed watching fellow University of Vermont alumni Martin St Louis and Eric Perrin play for the Lightning.  Martin St Louis scored his league leading 27th goal during the game (although he has since dropped to 2nd place in goals scored).  Sidney Crosby continues to lead the NHL in points with 65 points.  After the game I made the 2.5 hour trek back to Melbourne (yes I am a hockey fan). 

Wednesday, I had a half day’s worth of meetings before catching a plane back to DC.  I got back home at about 10PM. 

While I was in Florida, Karen was successful in getting her name onto the substitute teacher’s list at the kids’ school.  She had been qualified for some time to serve as a sub, but hadn’t been getting called.  When she investigated, she found that the county had her on the list as willing to substitute at the kids’ school ONLY.  However, her name never made it onto the list at the kids’ school as a sub.  Thus, she wasn’t getting any calls.  Now that she has fixed the problem, she has already worked 2 days this week and will likely have very few days off.  She is excited because the pay here is nearly double what she was getting in Florida.

Monday is a holiday, so I get a 3-day weekend.  However, I have 3 Officer Performance Reports to write and 2 Promotion Recommendation Forms to complete.  So much for the weekend!  Being the Senior Military Executive as an additional duty is not all it is cracked up to be!