We survived our first winter down here in the South. Who knew that you could have winter without tons of snow and blistery cold? We are loving it in Atlanta. During the last few months we have managed to continue (or in my case “begin”) working hard while settling into our apartment and venturing out into the city. We hosted some great visitors on hiatus from the Midwest’s winter fury and also had a little weather excitement of our own here in Atlanta.
Steve survived his first quarter of the year working from home as an acoustical consultant, and he even made a little money (novel concept)! As a consultant, he works with architects, engineers, and private home owners on everything acoustic and vibration related from performance space design to community noise surveys and mechanical system analysis to vibration measurements. He likes the variety of work—a lot of acoustics, some aspects of sales, a little business. Steve is learning a ton, and there is a lot more to learn.
Erica is finishing up her second semester at Georgia Tech and the first semester of a new course never taught at GT before—Human Response to Sound and Vibration. Her experience with subjective testing is one of the things that brought her to the university, and she is excited to be disseminating her knowledge upon the eager minds of college students.
During the cold, shut-in days of winter (you know, when it gets below 50°F here in Georgia), we managed to spruce up our little piece of the city. We are slowly transitioning from our amalgamation of college décor (of which Erica had ten years of design-on-a-dime experience) into some real home furnishings. Erica has loved letting the right side of her brain wander during the design of our apartment while Steve has enjoyed utilizing some of his new power tools to implement those great ideas. As always, it is a work in progress, but we love our apartment and Atlanta as a whole.
During the last few months, we have managed to host a variety of visitors. Erica’s mother and grandmother made a visit in February. The ladies had a great time seeing some of the sights of Atlanta and experiencing few of the variety of restaurants here in the city. A 
highlight was the quintessential visit to the Waffle House—a roadside breakfast cafe staple here in the South. A college friend of Steve’s also flew in for a long weekend this March to run the ING Half Marathon here in Atlanta. Steve’s hosting skills did not extend to joining Kyle in the race, but they did visit the Georgia Aquarium and went the Brave’s home opener. We always enjoy hosting friends and family. It gives us a great chance to catch up and to visit parts of the city we haven’t even seen yet.
We also must thank all of those who were concerned about us during the recent tornado in downtown Atlanta. Who knew Georgia was in Tornado Alley? We weren’t affected directly where we live. The tornado traveled a couple miles south of us. We actually didn’t even know there was severe weather until after it had gone through the city. Needless to say, we are thankful—it could have been a lot worse.
Best regards from Atlanta and hope to hear from you soon!
