First week

I had a great first week at work. One of the things that I heard a lot was that initially my greatest contribution to the team would be in the area of usability. It was very true. I spent most of my time getting up to speed on code structure which lead me to find errors in documentation and unclear error messages. Plus, I also got to take part in an organized usability test.

Since I walk to and from work, I had to dig my head lamp out of the camping gear and carry it with me each day. The street lights in town are rather sporadic and dim, so it's been helpful when I leave the work gym later in the evenings. I've really enjoyed all the walking since it gives me time to unwind and switch thought processes so I can relax once I get home.

The cats are getting used to the place, although they are still confused when they can hear the neighbors through the walls. They especially like all the space they have to run around.

I finally met one of our neighbors yesterday after running errands (and not getting lost). It appears that our neighborhood is going to be quite friendly... much better than being surrounded by loads of college students!

More updates later... have a great week!

Finally... what you've all been waiting for...

Photos of the new place!!!

First, is our living room. The cats' routine each morning is to run downstairs and paw at those window blinds until I put them up so they can stare at the birds sitting and chirping in that bush. It's pretty funny. We want to get some sort of big plant to put in the corner... hopefully Hazel will allow it... she decimates any plant within seconds. By the way, curtains are also in this room's future.

We like to have people over for dinner, but we didn't own a dining table. That was our first major purchase last week. We agreed wholeheartedly on the table, but while the matching chairs were perfect for Jason, they were way too big and uncomfortable for me. So we got half the chairs to match the table, and the other half from a different set. We think it works, and we're both really comfortable in our respective chairs which is the important thing.

Ah... my favorite room in the house... the kitchen! It's a really nice green color, and we were able to use my Gram's picture which ties all the colors together really well. We've decided that this picture will always be in our kitchen, no matter where we live. The curtain is actually one of two fabric panels that Jason brought back to me from his trip to Japan. It's a pea green with off-white designs, and it looks really nice with the color scheme AND it lets in a lot of light. The other panel is lavender and we're using it upstairs.

I'm so happy with this place. We also have a large back yard with a clothes line and plenty of space for gardening and composting. I hope to pick up a composter next weekend once my car arrives, and I can drive to the recycling center.

Welcome Home!

Just another quick update... the move is basically complete, and the cats did very well on their first flights. We took them on board the plane with us as one of our carry-ons, and they were stowed under the seat in front of us. Both Jebo and Hazel were really quiet the whole time, and they were quite the hit with the flight attendants! They seem to have settled in to the new house just fine, although the hardwood floors seem to make them a little bit uncomfortable, especially on the stairs.

Jason flew back to Tallahassee today after spending his spring break helping me settle in here. Since the weather's so nice I took a walk downtown and have been spending the afternoon at the public library. I start work on Monday, and my car will hopefully be delivered either Monday or Tuesday.

Have a great rest of the weekend, and I'll be uploading pictures soon.

Take me to Miami

Hello from Miami! I arrived here today for a conference that I'll be attending until Thursday. That night a couple friends of mine from graduate school will be coming to town, and we will hang out here for the weekend. I'm really excited for the chance to relax before starting my new job.

While I am gone Jason will be dealing with moving details like getting the cats updated on their shots in advance of flying them to Natick and meeting up with the company that is going to be shipping our car. Poor guy! We ended up getting all our packing done on Saturday, and the movers showed up yesterday morning to pack our breakables and load our boxes and furniture. Our house is really quite empty now.

Have a great week!