Picture Monday

Just a few recent pictures for those who wanted to see them...

Stephen & Daddy
Stephen Hams it Up
Maddie and her Panda
Our Cars from the 3rd Floor
The Office - Another Day at Work
More later!

Pictures, At Last

I managed to dig the proper cable out of its box today, and I've got a round of photos for those of you who've been eager to see them. They're not awesome, and they're not particularly exciting, but they should serve a purpose.

We Saw Many Trains on our Trip
Stephen At a Rest Stop in New Mexico
The Largest Cross in the Western Hemisphere (TX)
Amy & Madeline at our Temporary Dinner Table
Our Living Room, Before Our Stuff Arrived
Our Hallway, also Pre-Movers
The Kids' Room (Stephen for Scale)
Stephen Shows Off the Laundry Facilities
Stephen Shows Us the Potty
The Kitchen
Stephen's Favorite Cupboard
So that's it...for now. I'll be sure to get more pictures of the local area up soon, as well as more pictures of the kids. As we get closer to having our apartment (and lives) organized, we'll be able to take more snaps of the kids in their new environment. Hopefully, these pictures will suffice for the time being.

My First Day at Mythic

There's not much to say. It went well, I reckon. It's mostly about getting used to what I'll be doing, and meeting everyone I'll be working with. There are a lot of folks in that last category, by the way. I will have to practice my name/face recognition skills, methinks.

Fairfax is a nice enough town, but it's hot here. Not Needles hot, but hot (and humid) enough to make the sweat pop out on my brow within a few seconds of being exposed to it. We're in a nice location, centrally-located to a lot of convenient shopping. Traffic can be a pain, but being a Californian, it's not as much of a nuisance as I might otherwise think.

The movers are coming today to bring our stuff. Up until now, we've been residing in a nigh-empty apartment with little more than our laptops to keep us company. Stephen has been playing with the same handful of Hot Wheels since we got here, but his grandma sent him more in the mail and he was very pleased to get them. It's tough entertaining children without the modern conveniences you normally take for granted.

I'd have posted pictures by now, but we brough the wrong USB cable for our camera. Typical of Murphy's Law. I'll have some up once we find the proper cable in any one of the 300+ boxes that should be arriving today.

(FYI: Post copied from Neuro-Suction.)

Home At Last

So, we're finally here. We took a little extra time; as Amy says, "You can go all day with two kids, and you can go all night with two kids, but you can't go all day and all night with two kids."

We spent last night in Bristol, TN (on the TN/VA border), and spent today driving to our new home (via Karen and Chuck's place in Manassas).

The new apartment seems nice enough. We're getting some loaner gear from Chuck until our stuff arrives sometime next week. I'll post pictures when I can, but today is looking busier by the moment.

One More Day..?

We didn't quite make it as far as we wanted to. Blame the getting up late for that. As it is, we decided to stop in Little Rock, both for our own sanity, as well as for that of our children.

In a few minutes, we hit the road. We've got a long way to go yet, but we're starting earlier than usual and we're sick of living out of suitcases.

Leaving Texas, we got to see the "largest cross in the western hemisphere." Talk about odd. Oklahoma was not as bad as we were led to believe, for which we were pleasantly surprised. So far, Arkansas isn't bad, either. In my opinion, it's some of the prettiest country we've seen on the drive; lots of woods and lakes. Humid, though.

Yeah, humid. Let's try and get used to humidity, considering we're moving to Virginia. Gah!

Day Two Behind, Day Three Ahead

Yesterday, we pulled out of Flagstaff around 11am, and we drove until we reached Amarillo (where we are now). The countryside certainly is beautiful in many parts of Arizona and New Mexico, but New Mexico's population centers (especially Albuquerque) left something to be desired. I suppose that with as large as it is, Albuquerque probably has nice areas, but I didn't see any of them first-hand.

As for Amarillo: despite being in Texas, it's civilization. Tucumcari, one of the last stops on I40 out of New Mexico, was practically a ghost town. Where did all the people go? I have no idea.

Every time we pass through a crummy little burg, I can't help but think of Needles for some reason. I mean, what a hell hole. I don't mean any disrespect, but the place was as close to hell on earth as I've ever seen. One-hundred twenty degree heat, and gas prices so inflated that you know it's got to be some kind of gouge. Premium unleaded was $3.99/gallon, with regular a mere twenty cents below that. I guess the place is so terrible that they figure you'll pay anything to avoid being stuck there.

We're having some trouble getting used to the time change. Texas is two hours removed from California time. Hence, we're up later than I'd wanted to be. I wanted to be driving by now, but we probably won't hit the black until 10am local time.

I'd like to make Nashville tonight, but I feel like I'm setting myself up for failure just by mentioning the fact. I guess we'll see where we are ten hours from now.

On the Road

And so we are...

It's been a while since I posted about my big news. It hasn't been particularly boring, but I won't go into details. Suffice it to say that I've been taking care of all the things that go into a cross-country move. I haven't done it alone, either; my wife, our friends Chuck, Karen, JD, Keri, and my brother-in-law Adam and his gal Allison, have all done their parts to get us on our way.

We set out yesterday from San Diego, and drove until we got to Flagstaff, AZ. That's where we are at the moment, prepping to load the car and hit the road once more. Not sure how far we'll get tonight, but we're hoping to make some good time.

I'll check in again if I can. Not sure how much internet will be available on the way.

Gary