I'm back!

So, after a few brief weeks off from the blogging world, I decided that I need to jump back in and give everyone a little update. I guess I haven't said much about my new job so that seems like a good place to start. I am now working for L-3 Communications out by the airport, they are one of the big defense contractors. They build a lot of cool things for the military and I got to take a tour of the whole place when I first started, which was pretty cool. I saw them putting together one of the HumV mobile communication units. I'd like to see one of the Predators or Global Hawks, but I don't think I'm allowed to go into those areas at all. Those are the unmanned planes.

Anyway, it's a lot of fun to work there. The company really knows how to take care of people, it's nice to be at a place where the employees are actually happy. It sure helps that we get every other Friday off! I love that. I work in a little group of about six people and we manage all the inventory that comes in or moves around from project to project. So if there is an order to build, say, a Predator unit, then that order comes through us. We see every piece of that unit down to the nuts and screws, and then we check and make sure it's okay to buy all those parts. Not the most exciting job, true, but they pay me good money so I won't complain about it.

So I started working there towards the end of April. I was worried because I had a trip to Jamaica planned for the beginning of May, I wasn't sure if they would let me work for 2 weeks and then take a week off. But they did! The only sad part about the whole situation was that it was just me and my brother Troy going to Jamaica, our wives were staying home. :)

My brother works for RC Willey and they have these trips for salespeople if they reach a certain goal, well he got into the trip to go to this couples-only resort on Jamaica. I know, couples-only and it was me and Troy going. He tried to work it out for his wife to go with him, but they have 4 kids and it just didn't work out this time. So he asked me, and then I asked Jer. Being the great wife that she is she said I could go! It was hard to leave her behind with just the puppies, but it was an all expense paid trip for a week in Jamaica at the Dunn's River Sandals Resort.

I ended up spending about $100 for the whole trip, and almost all of that was in souvenirs that I bought for Jer while I was out there! I really want to take her to a place like this for one of our trips. It was fun with my brother and all, but things are a little different when you take your wife to a place like that instead of your brother. Troy and I would joke about how it's not like we were going to walk along the beach at sunset together. The nice thing was we weren't the only odd couple in the group. One guy brought his mom, another guy brought his lesbian friend (I think that one wins for the weirdest couple there), and then there was a gay couple as well. We were told that we really do look like brothers so nobody would think that we were gay.

It was funny, Troy wrote to the Sandals place and said he was bringing his brother and would like to have a separate bed in the room. They replied saying that they didn't care who my brother brought with him, they are very discrete about their guests. That made us laugh. So we expected to be sharing a bed, or I would be on the floor. But hey, for a free week in Jamaica I could handle sleeping on the floor. Thankfully, one of the tour guides for our group got there a day ahead of us and arranged for my bed!

Before I left, I gave my mom a bunch of letter that I had written for Jer and asked her to mail them for me while I was gone. I thought it would be nice for Jer to get a letter a day from me while I was away. Especially since my laptop is falling apart and I wasn't sure if it would even work for me out in Jamaica, but I brought it along anyway. Turns out I was able to get it to work so Troy and I were able to send emails and pictures back home during the week. And we were able to listen to the Jazz game while we were out there too!

The group had a conference room all set up for us to watch the game, with popcorn, but after all that they were never able to find the channel the game was on. So Troy and I went back to our room and I set up the laptop and we listened to Hot Rod instead. :)

We had a lot of fun on the trip. We were able to go to the other Sandals Resort and eat and play around there for free, so we did that a few times. They had a sign out at the other resort saying they had a bird sanctuary there so we went to check it out. Turns out it was for one bird named Skippy. Nice. We thought about playing golf while we were there, but it was something close to $100 bucks for 9 holes. And we didn't have to pay the green fees, so even though it was free to play there we still had to pay for the cart and clubs and a caddy. We ended up not playing and just goofed around on the pitch and putt course they had outside. I think that was better because by the time we finished with that it was so hot! I decided that it was best not to be out in that sort of weather for 3 hours. Had it been completely free though...

What else. We got to go on a trip with our group on a boat, they took us snorkeling and then they took us to the Dunn's River Falls. This picture is of a guy that came out to our boat while we were snorkeling. He had a bunch of wood carvings and shells that he was trying to sell us. It's crazy out there in Jamaica, just how big of a gap there is between rich and poor. The next picture is of a bunch of huts that are set up right next to our resort, you can really see the difference. The people there do all they can to get you to buy their stuff.

After snorkeling at the reef, we got to hike up the waterfall! That was pretty fun. Kind of dangerous though if you aren't paying attention. We had two people fall in our group, one hit his head on a rock and the other started sliding down the waterfall. Luckily that guy went into a little pool of water before going down one of the bigger parts of the falls. I guess the day before we went up there was a guy that fell down the falls and had to be taken out in an ambulance. Crazy. It was raining when we got to the falls, and I think that is what contributed to me getting sick. At least it was the end of the trip so me being sick didn't get in the way of us being able to go around and enjoy the place. However, that meant I had to deal with being pretty sick at work this past week. And now Jer is sick too. I don't think she minds so much though, because she took the day off with me yesterday. We ended up doing some things around the house and then went to a movie for lunch. It is definitely nice having every other Friday off, that's for sure!

The picture to the left here is as we were pulling up to the falls on the boat. It's a little tough to see, but there is a line of people holding hands as you go up. You're supposed to help each other climb so nobody gets hurt. To the right is another nice shot of part of the falls we hiked up. It was something like 900 feet that climbed up, this shot is taken at about the halfway point up the falls.

One more picture I just have to share. We got into Jamaica and we were waiting in the Sandals lounge room for everyone to got through customs before we jumped onto the bus. That was nice, after so many hours on a plane we were now going to take a 2 hours bus ride. So as we are sitting there relaxing, here comes Cookie Monster. My first thought is, what? But as I though more about it, it seemed to make sense that Cookie Monster is actually Jamaican. No wonder he always has the munchies... ;)

Well, that's pretty much all I can think of right now. I'll leave you with some movie reviews. I was able to see Iron Man with Jer just before I left for Jamaica, and we went to What Happens In Vegas yesterday. So here you go:

Iron Man - PG-13 Jer and I both loved this movie. A lot of action, but also very smart. Not always a combo that you get when you're dealing with the comic book movies. All about a guy who runs the most high tech weapons development company in the US with no real conscience, but has that all change as he gets captured by the bad guys. He then decides to build something that will help him right all the wrongs his company has caused. Violent at times, but not bloody, which is also nice. Clever humor. Definitely one to watch.

What Happens In Vegas - PG-13 Not bad, definitely a chick flick. All about two people who have different things happen to them which cause them to go to Vegas to get away from it all. They meet, get plastered, and end up married. The next day they decide to get an annulment, argue a little bit as they are at the slot machines, and then end up winning the jackpot of $3 million. They realize that now they're married they have to split the money so they go to court, where the judge makes them stay married for 6 months and go to counseling. There are several funny moments in the movie and a nice, romantic ending. No nudity. Some crude jokes. I didn't mind going to see this at the theater for a matinee.

The Forbidden Kingdom - PG-13 I was pretty excited to see a movie that had two of the top martial arts action stars in it, Jackie Chan and Jet Li. It was a pretty entertaining movie to me, I loved the action sequences. The story was okay, it's about a boy who loves martial arts that comes across a magical staff that takes him into ancient China. There is the story of the immortals, and two of the immortals that fought each other. The Jade Warrior and the Monkey King. The Jade Warrior is a tyrant and hates the Monkey King, so he tricks the Monkey King to put down his staff (the same staff that the boy has found) and turns him into stone. There is a prophecy of someone that will return the staff to the Monkey King and then the Jade Warrior will be defeated. The boy winds up traveling with a monk that is searching for the one that carries the staff (Jet Li), a drunk fighter (Jackie Chan) that decides to help the boy return home, and a vengeful girl named Sparrow that wants to kill the Jade Warrior with her jade dart. As they travel the boy learns to fight from the monk and the drunk. He eventually faces the Jade Warrior and helps bring back the Monkey King. There is a lot of the Chinese aspect in this movie, warriors flying through the air and stuff like that. Good movie with good action. Fun for any Jackie Chan fan.