At this time Monday evening I shall be on a plane bound for Seattle and cherishing the sight of the greater Boston area quickly fading into a tiny speck on the horizon. While I will really miss the fam, I haven't seen the majority of my Seattle-mates in over a year (and Twitter is hardly a replacement) . The trip is for work, but I hope to get to a MHC mid-week service, hit Monsoon at least once, collapse from a dim sum lunch coma, hop on a ferry and catch up with some of the best people on the planet at BigE's. If I manage to take some time off on Friday (as I've planned for), I also hope to swing by as many places I can to help re-etch them in my pattern buffers.

I know the area has changed quite a bit in the last year, mostly due to the economy. Even my home campus - MHC Lake City - is no more. Still, I suspect I'll have more "Movie Script Ending" moments of nostalgia than not.

It may be due to all the moving around and significant life-issues in the past four years, but I keep musing over how I don't recall things being this dynamic when I was growing up. Perhaps one of the benefits of youth is the immunity to the effects of constant, significant change.

Managed to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather & terrain today (60°F, moderate wind, nothing but sun & clean/dry roads with hardly a car, truck or motorcycle on them). Got a 1/4 century (25 miles) in (no time for a longer ride). Made the arduous work on the bike trainer in February worth every, boring minute.

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

Quick New England Rudis family update.

Winter seems to be wearing quite thin on all of us. Kids are more than just a tad cranky and Mary & I are more than just a bit wiped. It appears we grew a bit soft in Seattle and are eagerly awaiting sunnier days and warmer temperatures. Thankfully, both Mary & the kids get a break or two in February and I head out west in March to catch up with my Seattle work-team (plus, am *so* looking forward, more than words can express, to seeing @wygle [& the WL4], @joeday, @dustindk, @krombein, @thejedi, @jsorge, @jfriend, @froissart, @aai, @harlemaniac, @geissen and a host of others).

Tori kicked butt in school this past quarter and Jarrod is also doing really well. Ian is as adorable as ever and is as scary-smart as his brother. We are really missing Liz (no one to Catan with :-) after her visit in December. Mom is as ornery as ever and the cat seems to be the only content one of the bunch of us.

Be sure to check out Jarrod's new place to post his Lego creations and keep watching for updates. Once it's less hostile out, we'll start posting pix again :-)

There are some additional pictures in this Flickr set and some property pix over in Skitch.

Now the "fun" begins. Hopefully, the clan will all be back under one roof by July 17^th. We're still waiting on the finalization of the Seattle house "stuff" (and hoping it goes well).