Back in San Francisco!

I’m baaaack! This is an aerial view of the Carquinez bridge, near our home.

Actually we’ve been back for a few weeks now, but it’s been so crazy busy I haven’t had time to blog about it until now. My wife and I had talked about moving back up here for a few months but the idea became concrete when I received an offer from Calypso, my former employer. So here I am now, development manager for the FX and Treasury group. Simply put, I’m totally psyched!

As far as timing is concerned, it truly was impeccable. Within a month of my giving notice at Countrywide, the bad news started rolling in. I’m not too concerned for the team I worked with there, though, since they’re pretty well insulated from the layoffs. It’s a very small and solid team of IT professionals that are supporting the Calypso implementation for the whole organization. Countrywide Securities is actually one of the few subsidiaries that’s making serious money, and as they’re moving more and more financial products onto Calypso, I can’t imagine them getting rid of the IT team that keeps this all going!

We’re back in our house… You have no idea how happy we are!

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

So I haven’t blogged in a while, but then again I’ve been rather busy lately. I got a new job with Countrywide Securities Corporation, moved to LA, and got married just over a month ago. We just finally got rid of our last box last weekend and we plan to hang up our framed pictures in our new digs either tonight or tomorrow.

Change is good, right? Well, yeah, change is good, but change is hard as well. I really enjoy the new job and I’ve already been exposed to quite a few new technologies and concepts over the last couple of months. The team I work with is really nice and they’re all very bright. We did quite a bit of apartment searching before settling on the Summit in Woodland Hills and it’s actually quite a nice place. Still, I miss the Bay Area, I miss our loft in Vallejo and I really miss our backyard!

Thankfully, we’re not selling. We’re currently looking to rent it out so if you know anyone who’s interested in renting a kickass loft in Vallejo, 25 minutes to the Napa Valley and 1 hour Ferry ride to SF, e-mail me at david (at) ottow (dot) net.

Peace.