Our New Home

The weather has turned colder here in New York. It's not too bad and we missed all the snow that the rest of the state got a few days ago. Things here are going well. I decided to skip the two subway rides tonight and walked all the way to my train. It was actually a nice walk on a crisp fall evening. I walked right down 5th Avenue past lots of the nice shops, including the big Lord & Taylor. They are starting to decorate the windows for the holiday shopping season. I saw on the news this week that the New Years Eve ball that will be dropped from Times Square is currently on display at Macy's. I'm going to try to go check it out next week.

I've been working hard testing the CRM system that we are going to be rolling out in the next couple of weeks. I am also attending an IT conference with representatives from the global UN offices, so am learning a lot about the overall IT infrastructure and organization of the UN. To put it in perspective, I was a little frustrated that it took five working days or more to get my phone programmed so I could make and receive calls. Earlier this week there was an article on the Intranet about a recent phone software upgrade in which they posted some interesting facts and stats about the UN phone system. There are approximately 10,000 phone units just in New York alone that they are responsible for. I guess 5 working days isn't so bad after all!

I'm heading back home this weekend to see Don and the kids, and to get some work done putting the items we won't be moving into storage (a.k.a. my parents place). We are still awaiting the final version of our lease, but I'm attaching a picture of our new house. It is in a great town very close to the city (28 minutes by train). It's a very small town that doesn't feel at all like the big city. But it is close to all the conveniences we'll need! There are two great parks in walking distance, so it will be a great place to call home for at least the next year.