Employment picture

Recently Lockheed decided to close the doors of the it's facility in Eagan, unfortunately that meant I was out of a job.  The announcement was made in November, and the first wave of layoffs was scheduled for March 15th.  I was included in the April 29th layoffs.

So I started job hunting at the beckoning of my wife :).  I secured a couple of interviews, and was eventually offered a job with Ingersoll Rand in White Bear Lake.  I really liked the sound of the job and so was quick to accept, they offered a bit more then I had been making at LM and signing bonus.  I didn't negotiate the offer and only asked for an extra week of vacation (which they couldn't grant...).  The one sticking point was the starting date, they wanted me ASAP, but I wanted to wait to collect my severance package.

Luckily LM needed me as well to support the sell off of the second P3 to Portugal.  I was able to work out a plan with them to work full time till March 21 (my start date with IR), then part-time will April 29th.  I ended up on travel for most of my last couple weeks with LM, then working a bit in the evenings and the weekend to finish up my time with them, while working full time at IR.

I just received my severance pay, just under 10k (it will be interesting to see the deductions statement for it, (as it should be close to twice that, but...).  Taxes will be interesting this year, so with the bonus, severance, ect, I will make more then 106k, so I should get some of my SS/Medicare dollars back as well :)

I am happy at IR, and the Portugal program was running into some challenges, so in the end it all worked out for the best for me.

Broken water pipes

Ran into some problems with winter with exploding pipes in the garage. I went to turn on the water to the garage faucet and was met with a "turn it off, turn it off" from Jen who was in the garage.

As you can see once I removed the pipes from the sink there is a small blown out area on each copper pipe. I had to find a tool to remove the nut from the pipe, as it is located in a very difficult to reach place. I found the "vertical" wrench you see, it didn't work too well, it slipped on the nut. I was able to eventually get it off though.

I bought steel flexible pipes to replace the copper pipes and they went on very easily. Hurray problem solved till next winter. I will have to make sure to drain the pipe this winter... I didn't realize there was a value on the turn off to drain the pipe... DUH!!

Cell Phone plan

Recently Jen and I both switched from ATT to T-mobile prepaid.  It makes sense for us, because we don't use our minutes each month and most of the day we are by landlines (work and Magicjack at home).

We were paying ~$65 a month for our two phones with 700 minutes.  We switched our "known" numbers over to google voice and then were able to forward to random prepaid numbers we received.  We also forward to our home and work numbers.  I forward to my work number during the day and home at night, Jen to our home number all day.  It is pretty cool, because in the evening we know who is getting the call by which cell phone rings :)

T-mobile seems like the best prepaid deal currently, 1000 minutes for $100 for up to a year.  Jen has been on prepaid for over a month and used about 7 minutes so I think we will save money.  I started a couple weeks after her, because I was using my work cell phone, and used that till I was laid off.

Spending in 2010

This was our spending in 2010, as you can see the majority goes towards our house.  That number includes almost $6000 in spending at home improvement stores as well, though property taxes are included in taxes.

Mint is a great site that make it very easy to get graphs like this :)