May 25, 2006:  Things around here are getting more crazy each day.  I accepted the job on Monday and asked for some relocation assistance while I was at it.  They were happy that I decided to go for it and were even able to throw us a little extra cash for the move, super cool.  Now comes the tricky part, they wanted me to start asap, like maybe this coming Monday!  We decided that wasn't really an option but that I would give my current boss my official 2 week notice first thing Tuesday morning.  To make things even more complicated we haven't really packed much and have to have a moving sale to get rid of most of our furniture and things we really don't need to drag with us.  I am flying out to Seattle on June 4th and will be flying back on June 14th, just in time for graduation the next day.  Sounds great but the POD shows up on June 9th and will be picked back up around the 12th, that means I need to find lots of help for Lisa and we need to get everything packed into the garage and ready to go before I leave next week.  That might not sound all that crazy but trust me, it's nuts!  We cancelled our trip to ME this weekend and are going to pack like maniacs, hoping to get it all done before Tuesday.  My folks and my brother are going to show up to help run the tag sale and pack the POD in a couple weeks, without that help I don't know how we would do it.  As I've made this entry I have stopped twice to make calls and set things up for the move, it seems that I take care of a couple things and then 5 more come to mind, feels like we'll never get there....  Anyway, the week is almost over and the marathon of packing is about to begin, wish us luck and we'll chat again soon. 

May 20, 2006:  What a week, insane to say the least.  Lisa has been working on her internship at Target so there isn't anything really new to report there, still loving it though.  We had a cool week at work, especially because I only worked 2 days before leaving for Seattle.  We disconnected and shut down the network in the old building so that means we are officially finished with the move to the new data centers, no more 12 hour days and 80 hour weeks for me.  My flight out to Seattle was long, very long, but uneventfull so that was good.  They flew me out of Logan so the drive kind of sucked and the flight had a layover in Charlotte, NC which seemed strange, pretty far south to go so far west.  On the way back I have to stop in Pheonix, AZ which seems even more strange, oh well I guess.  So the interview was Thursday and it went very well.  I got in very late the night before and with the time change and 8 hours of interviewing I was pretty wrecked by the time they dropped me off.  They did make me an offer and really wanted me to accept it basically on the spot.  I convinced them to let me take the weekend to decide and will have to get back to them Monday.  It's pretty far south and Lisa will probably be working in North Seattle so that kind of sucks but everything else about it is pretty awesome.  So Friday morning I started the scary task of finding us a place to live and got totally lucky and found a house in Lynnwood, just North of the city.  The place couldn't be more perfect, 3 bedroom, loft, fireplace, deck, 1 acre yard, and a 2 car garage.  The best part is that the owner is knocking it down in 6 months and building like 6 units on the property so he isn't asking for a security or pet deposit and they don't seem to care all that much what happens to it.  It isn't looking the greatest right now but the current tennants do have 4 kids and 3 cats so hopefully they will clean it up a bit after they are out.  Even if they don't we really don't care, everything else about it is perfect for our situation but is kind of sad that they are ripping it down.  It needs a little work but is a really cool house with lots of potential.  So that about sums up the week and part of my weekend, we could't feel more lucky that everything worked out the way it did, I came out here to get a job and a place to live and I did just that, feels pretty damn good I have to say.  I get to hang out here the rest of today and I fly back early tomorrow morning, back to the grind for a few more weeks.  Have a great rest of the weekend, we'll chat again soon. 

May 9, 2006:  Well, it's going to be a quick update tonight, it's been a very long day and the rest of the week will be more of the same.  We did make some progress with planning this week, got some stuff nailed down that we have been talking about but kept putting off.  Things like reservations for Isis to be boarded, planning out hotels for Lisa's and my parents for graduation, and setting up to have a POD delivered for the move.  We still need to get a place to stay out there but Kim is giving us a hand from her end and I'm sure we'll figure something out soon.  The weekend went well, I got the crate built for moving my model boat, you can see pictures in the 'Projects' section as always, it came out pretty well if you ask me.  I also got some of the garage packed up and started to put aside things we want to sell at the moving sale.  We even ordered 700' of bubble wrap to package up the kayaks so they are safe in the POD as it makes it's way to Seattle.  Anyway, things are good, we are both recovering from bad colds and it's getting late so I'm done for now.  I have much more to say but it will have to wait until later in the week, goodnight. 

May 14, 2006:  Another week down, only about 4 weeks left until we take off.  Things are finally starting to wind down at work, we moved the last of the servers into the new building and we should be able to shut the old network down this week.  After that we are totally out of there and they can demo the place for the renovations.  I got a call from one of the companies that I applied to last week and they set up a phone interview with me for Friday night.  I think it went pretty well because before the call was over they had already invited me to an in person interview in Seattle next week.  The plans came together very quickly, I'll be leaving Wednesday afternoon and they suggested I stay the weekend so I will be back Sunday evening.  I'll be crashing at Kim's place so after my interview she is going to help me do some apartment hunting.  I'm not sure how happy work is that I'll be missing three days this week but I guess they just have to deal with it.  It was a prety quiet week other than that, we went up to NH to pick up a truck and trailer load of stuff that has been in storage since we moved here from NY.  We were supposed to drive up Friday but the last minute interview meant we had to change plans to Saturday morning instead.  It's kind of a good thing we waited because when on a whim I decided to test the trailer lights that I overhauled and had working perfectly in fall and they didn't work.  It only took a bit over an hour, three new bulbs and a fuse to get them working again.  Needless to say, I will be overhauling them yet again in the next couple of weeks so this doesn't happen on the big trip.  The weather hasn't been very good here, actually it has been raining so much that we almost didn't make the trip.  I was able to borrow a couple tarps from someone at work so we were able to keep most of the stuff dry.  A couple of cardboard boxes got a little wet but nothing to worry about really.  We had enough time to wrap the kayaks up with the bubble wrap that came in earlier in the week.  We ordered just the right amount of wrap, they should have a safe trip to WA in the POD.  I guess I should take off for now, gotta get started packing things up for the trip this week, think good thoughts for me.