It's alive!

My name is Rance Patterson, and I am back from my sabbatical on the Isle of Patmus.  OK, we sort of stopped blogging for a while, but not for lack of content.  The adventure has been in full swing, so I will give the brief version and maybe we can fill in some details later on.

I stopped working at JPL to be with my family, so they would stop calling the cops whenever I came home.  But I miss the job, they were great people and the projects were very cool.

I then spent the summer doing some freelance work and hanging out with the kids.  I decided that I better pay some bills so I took a job with PHEAA in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  I stayed in Hershey, which if you haven't been is better than disneyland. (OK, in truth I haven't been to either park, so don't beat me up Kents, I was just making an over-the-top statement to get attention)  Anyway, it is a pretty area near the Amish farms and the Susquehanna river.  Gettysburg is 37 miles away... need I say more.  The people were great to work with even if student loans aren't as sexy as Mars Rovers and ICBMs.  While there I spent a wonderful weekend with the Littles.  They were excellent hosts and took me around DC and I got my own personal tour of the VW/Audi USA headquarters.  Sorry about the drool on the R8 Matt...

The family got things in order on their side and were packing up to come to Pennsylvania when I got a phone call from another job I had applied to at Northrop Grumman.  I had worked there years ago, and it was a cool job, so I pulled a crazy and told Julie to meet me in Utah instead.  We hadn't hung out with the Prestons for a while so we figured it was time to move close to them.  They are just lucky I didn't move into their basement and live for several months!  Creepy dude in the back becomes creepy dude in the basement.  Careful Wardwells, you are next on our Brick Oven tour.

Anyway, I have been at NG for a week now and am getting settled in already.  I am about 2 cubicles away from my old spot 8 years ago, so the building tour was more of a really long deja vu.  As far as contact info, the phone numbers stay the same and our new address is:

The Amazing Pattersons
901 Farmington Xing
Farmington, UT 84025

Yes, there is an X in my address.  The street sign says Farmington Crossing, but for some reason USPS decided that Crossing was too long so they pulled an Xmas on us... I don't mind.  I am pretty lazy about writing addresses anyway.

I am not sure I have reconciled myself to the fact I live in the Wasatch Front.  I tell myself I am on the northern end so I can sneak out easily if the need arises, but it is still mind-bending sometimes.  As someone who struggles with the LDS culture at times, living in the LDS mecca may not be such a bright move.  Another side note, I kind of forgot the heat of the BYU/Utar rivalry... have to add football to my list of things not to be discussed at work.  So now it is politics, religion, Operating Systems, and college football.

Now that we live in the same place, and Julie is no longer trying to raise 3 kids, teach and go to Grad School all at the same time without a husband, maybe she will have time to post on here again.  We all know her posts are the reason people even bother checking in here ever.