Tobin Family Website

Memorial Day weekend is upon us and I am finally finding some time to post a note here in the blog.  First, aside from being just another Government holiday, Memorial Day is a time to remember those who have put themselves in harm’s way and made the ultimate sacrifice for our country and for freedom around the world.  For many Americans, it is sometimes easy to forget that we are still a nation at war, as our daily lives continue on just the same.  Yet, well over 100,000 U.S. troops remain deployed today in hostile regions around the world, and won’t be sharing time with their families this weekend.  Please keep those courageous and selfless Americans in your thoughts and prayers this weekend, and reflect upon the sacrifices that many before them have made for our freedom and way of life.

I spent most of this past week in Florida at a meeting for work.  Interestingly, the meeting was held in Melbourne, Florida, which is where we used to live from 1998-2001.  The meeting was hosted by Harris, which is less than 2 miles from my old office at a Northrop Grumman facility.  It was kind of neat to see all that has changed in the area over the last 7-10 years.  I used to live on Patrick AFB in base housing, which has since been sold to commercial contractors.  This process, called housing privatization, is where base housing is sold to private companies who then refurbish/rebuild and maintain the properties and rent them back out to the military/public.  Much of the old ugly housing has been bulldozed and rebuilt into attractive homes, however, the two houses we lived in are still just the way they were when we lived there (ugly).  While there, I did manage to make a run up to Coconuts in Cocoa Beach and have a Pina Colada and a blackened Mahi sandwich out on the deck overlooking the ocean…mmm!  I returned to Virginia on Thursday afternoon and was given a military pass (day off) for Friday, but still had to go in for about 5 hours to brief at an Ops/Intel meeting at 0630 and to also meet with a Senate committee staffer regarding the program I used to manage.  I managed to get home by noon, so it still made for a nice early start to the extended weekend.   

Prior to leaving last week, we went out and bought Ben a Sony MP3 player.  He has been asking for an MP3 player ever since Delaney got one for Christmas.  I have to say that this little Sony unit is awesome!  I am thinking of getting one for myself.  It has a gorgeous 2.4″ screen and holds 4GB of video, music and pictures.  It also comes with upgraded earbuds that sound great.  I personally like it better than the iPod, which is more expensive.  Of course the iPod has a lot more accessories available for it, but you have to use iTunes which is less attractive to me.  iTunes charges you 99 cents for every song you download.  I use Realplayer which charges a set monthly fee ($14) and I can download as many songs as I want to multiple devices.  I just have to synch the units once a month to ensure the licenses are up to date.  This is a more attractive option to me, especially since the kids are constantly wanting to change the music that is on their mp3 players.

Karen went out for a day of shopping today with the lady who drives the kids’ bus.  They are heading up to Leesburg to an outlet mall, so they should have fun.  The kids and I haven’t decided what to do yet, but we may not do much as both of them are complaining of sore throats and both are running a low fever.  It figures they would get sick at the beginning of a 3-day weekend!  I am hoping it isn’t strep.  We were planning to go to the movies this weekend to see either Prince Caspian or Indiana Jones (or both), but that will likely depend on how the kids are feeling. 

We continue to watch the housing market closely as house prices continue to plummet around here.  Houses in our neighborhood are now as low as $350K.  When we moved into our house, similar homes in the neighborhood were listing at $550K+.  I am so thankful that we leased and didn’t buy in high.  It is getting tempting to buy now, but the uncertainty of what I will do after retiring is holding us back.  If we stay here, we do like this neighborhood and the schools.  I am pretty certain that if we stay here, I could easily find work with all of the choices in the area.  Given the economy, staying local may be the best thing to do.  I think the DC area is relatively recession proof in terms of the job market.      

Finally, the Pittsburgh Penguins have managed to make it all the way through the playoffs and were crowned the Eastern Conference Champions last week.  As a result, they will take on the Western Conference Champion Detroit Red Wings for the Stanley Cup.  The best of 7 series starts tonight, and yours truly is excited to see how the series plays out!  I am expecting a lengthy battle (6 or 7 games) to determine the winner, and I think either team could win.  Of course, with bias, I am picking the Penguins in 7!   

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