While the girls were aquariuming, Jarrod & I went kayaking. We rented kit from Portsmouth Kayak Adventures. The owner and staff were amazingly helpful and friendly (you should rent from them!). We did ~4 miles and had a great time.

If you don't follow the Twitter stream then you probably aren't aware that I'm back on the east coast, this time for two weeks. Good flight this time and better room despite staying at the Fairfield.

As you can see in the image below, I get to experience the "joys" of east coast heat & humidity – at least for a day – something I definitely did not miss.

I'll be hanging with the Jukes' family a bit when not at work plus getting in a bit of house hunting. I'm also going to try to get a hike or two, but it's a bummer cruising around solo. Really wishing I had a means to cycle while here. Just doesn't feel right using a bike that isn't mine now and not using clipless pedals (and, I forgot to pack my cycling shoes and pedals, so it would be highly unlikely that I could find a shoppe that would rent me a full setup at a reasonable price).

We're slowly making our way out here and will know a more firm date in a few weeks.

Week numero uno is almost at a close and it's been arduous (to say the least). Lots of meetings, most of which weren't with the folks I came out here to collaborate with. It has been cold. I mean, *cold-cold* but I've had a chance to hang with @ianjukes twice and one of my directors cooked up a fabulous meal last night. I am missing the kids, my wife, my friends and Seattle-in-general something fierce (not to mention the food back there). Switching gears back to being an "industrial park" worker has also been interesting. There is very different workplace dynamic when compared to city-dwellers who jaunt around town during the day.

We started the relocation process today and I get more info on what is involved next week. I've got a whirlwind house hunting tour tomorrow and plan on hitting LL Bean up in Maine either Saturday or Sunday. I'm going here Sunday morning and @sethhoff will be preaching.

Kids are recovering from some nasty colds and Tori made a cassoulet last night (for French class today) that had everyone's mouth watering. I at least got the visual from it during last night's iChat.

Lots of personal stuff going on I can't really tweet or blog about yet. "Change" is certainly the "go" word for 2009. I'm not expecting this to be a stellar year, but will be very glad to be proven wrong.

I'll post some pictures from the house hunt and keep y'all updated on the relo process. My new office view is below. It definitely beats the Seattle Public Library I've been staring at for 18 months, but it's no Puget Sound, either.