San Diego Trip - June 2025

Yet another trip to SD

• Stayed in OB - I have never spent much time in OB but it was pretty fun; lots of hipsters and hippies with an everlasting odor of pot but it was fun to spend a few days there
• I walked home from work one afternoon and it was very pleasant along Sunset Cliffs
• Met with Jaya and Noah to start planning their wedding
• Dinners at Hofmeister, Et Voila and OB street fair
• Work meeting at Point Loma mini golf and Old Town Tequila Factory
• The Santa Fe was having some wobble on the drive out so we took it OB Tire since I thought it might be a balance issue - they found one of the hubs was worn and replaced it - I highly recommend OB Tire

Rooftop of Jaya's building

OB street fair

Sunset cliffs

Point Loma Nazarene University

Adams St

OB Dog Beach

Leaving Northrop Grumman, Again

I left NG back in 2017 and went to GTRI.   I then went back in 2018 to get on a really cool project down at Seaside.  That lasted until the end of 2019 then I did some internal and contract work for 2020.  Things were going great until the CEO decided she needed to raise some cash and announced she was going to sell off the services business which included my group. Northrop has been good to me but as part of the deal, we didn't get a choice to stay with the company so starting now I am involuntary employed by Peraton.  Hopefully it goes well enough to get me to retirement.

Leaving Northrop Grumman

After 15 plus years, I recently left Northrop Grumman.  It was certainly a sad transition but it was for the better.

NG was a great phase in my life and I highly recommended the company.  Long story... in mid 2001, I was laid off during the dot-com crash.  My family and I were living in Scottsdale at the time and I looked around for another software gig but there was nothing happening.  After a short while, my wife and I decided to move back to California.  Without a job, we drove along the coast looking for a place to call home.  We eventually settled on Encinitas and shortly thereafter I landed the job at NG.

Some of the many highlights that stand out in my memory:

• My first project at NCTSI at Point Loma
• Working on SRMT
• Visiting SPAWAR Old Town
• BACN first flight at MCAS Miramar
• Moving to Spectrum offices
• Participating in the company Toastmaster's club
• Moving to Mission Valley office for a couple years
• Being nominated for the Emerg1NG Leader program which was a life changer for me
• Getting into Scrum
• Flight test for SNP

Many thanks to all the folks I worked with over the years, especially Curtis E., my manager for 13 of those 15 years.

My new gig is with Georgia Tech Research Institute where I will be working on cyber projects.  It is an exciting new area for me and can't wait to get going.

Job News

After 13+ years with the same manager, my team is breaking up and heading in different directions.  Most of them are heading to another campus in a totally different part of the company.  I am staying at the same campus but in a different division.  It is a bit sad that I won't be working with Curtis after so long.  We had a good run on lots of different programs.  But with the latest rounds of company reorganizations and industry changes, we couldn't keep the band together.
For Jyoti, she started back at Qualcomm for semi-full time project.  One benefit is that we get to carpool twice a week.  It is a good time to be together and talk.  Hopefully they will see the benefit of Lean Six Sigma and expand the program, especially given their recent quality issues.

November in Herndon

I just finished a month-long stint in Herndon, VA for a work assignment. Its good to be back.

Weekend Activities

* Company picnic at Liberty Station. Got there early to grab some geocaches, then enjoyed some great food and games. Liberty Station is a very nice neighborhood, it has so much within a quick walk. We enjoyed the small museum at the NTC Command Center.
* Saw "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" - was decent, but quite different from the book.
* Dog hike at San Elijo Lagoon - too hot even for the lizards
* Quick trip to Cardiff Beach - nice way to beat the heat
* Harp and flute concert at La Costa Valley - wine and Subway subs!
* Installed a new reverse osmosis system - finally found one that fits our new sink cabinet, a Whirlpool model that has a smaller storage tank. The install went well consider I had to rebuild the drain system from the p-trap up.