One more cup of coffee

We're here

We’re in Redmond. We flew up Thursday, and are now more or less settled into our temporary housing. The temp housing is a furnished apartment (three stories with very long staircases – just what every parent of a 14–month-old would want). We’re hoping to move into our new house in another week or two. Closing is scheduled for next Friday, although we want to paint a couple of rooms first.

The weather here has been beautiful – sunny, clear skies.

It’s good to be here.

Our new house

We closed on our new house! The movers show up on Wednesday to unload our stuff.

We now, for a hopefully very brief period of time, own two homes. Scary.

Email me if you want our new mailing address.

Movie industry and cell phones

I see that the movie industry is planning on asking the FCC for permission to jam cell phones, believing that people talking on cell phones during movies is a reason why movie attendance is down.

If they succeed, I will probably wind up going to movies even less. People talking on cell phones during movies isn't a problem for me — I'm not sure I've ever seen someone doing it. But I do, on those few occasions that I make it to movies now with Meredith, rely on a babysitter being able to call a cell phone in case something does happen.

The movie industry is on crack.

Not so good

We are, in fact, very happy with the house. That said, there were a few unpleasant surprises.

• Total smoke detectors on the first floor: zero.
• Total smoke detectors on the second floor: three. Number with batteries: one.
• Number of smoke detectors with batteries and NOT placed in the corner of the ceiling where it won't really work: zero.
• That wet feeling as water came pouring out onto my feet. From the cabinet under the kitchen sink.
• The plumber saying, "Hey, I'm going to take this pipe assembly back to the supply store to show the guys there. They'll get a real kick out of seeing this." I'm pretty sure that isn't a good thing.
• Meredith asking, "does it smell like sewage in here?"

But it is starting to feel like home. Meredith managed to get the bedrooms and the kitchen completely unpacked. The gas line got run to the dryer today, so we can do laundry again.

Verizon Wireless: how not to change your address

I called Verizon Wireless today to try to understand why they were still sending mail to our California address, even after I had changed the address through their web site weeks ago.

"Oh, when you want to change your address, you need to call us. The online thing is completely separate, and all you're changing there when you enter your address is the address the online department might use to mail you things."

Of course, it's online, so the whole point is to not mail me things, so ... uh ...

Yeah.

Walking

Nathan's been flirting with walking for a while, but yesterday suddenly decided to be serious about it. While visiting the Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood exhibit at the Seattle Children's Museum, Nathan was so excited by everything that he started walking around — eight feet at one point without any help.

He's walking :)