RB update and pics! 32 weeks and going strong.

So look at the pics above- I'm enormous now. Ari says it looks like I've shoved a pillow up my shirt. All my original maternity clothes are too small and the bigger ones I bought recently are getting too small. I think I'm going to have to buy more clothes soon. RB is doing well- kicking vigorously and keeping me up at night. As for me- well I'm still sick. My cough is still here and the pain hasn't gone away. I'm now on a steroid inhaler to relieve lung inflammation. I have never taken so much medicine in my life! Good thing Ari works for Microsoft because we have yet to pay for a single drug or doctor's visit. Even my ER visit was free! I love Microsoft. I'm hoping this all resolves soon cause I can't imagine going through labor and dealing with the rib pain at the same time. Even if I get an epi, it doesn't reach that high so I'd still be in pain. I'm taking care of myself and Ari is making sure that I eat enough. I'm not gaining that much weight anymore. Just one pound in the past two weeks so now I'm up to a net gain of 20 pounds.

We went out on Wed. and bought two beds for the other guestroom- so now we have 4 beds that can accommodate guests. Please let us know if you'll be in the area or you just stam want to come out to Seattle. We love guests from back home! Ari will blog about the rest of our adventures hopefully tom. But now I have to go so we can play on the gamecube Ari "borrowed" from work.

Pictures!!!

These are some of the fallen trees from the windstorm here last week. Notice the power lines entangled in in the tree in the second picture. Luckily that family was in Israel so they only had to worry about spoiled food in the fridge.



















Sufganiyot pics! Ari said that they looked like little brown footballs. They tasted great though, and his coworkers finished the leftovers the next day.

Ari made his traditional onion rings and french fries. I thought the friench fries were ok but the onion rings were great! And I've also included the traditional Avner eighth day of Chanukah picture. We didn't have a good location to light this year but we are hoping that next year we will have a menorah box on our front porch.

At least the weather here isn't boring

Sorry it's been so long since my last post, but I've been getting lazy. Also not that much has been happening here, and Rachel's been doing a commendable job at holding down the blog. I'm almost tempted to ask who your favorite blogger is, but I kind of like being married so I think I will avoid that minefield... See Mom, I've learned a lot since I got married! Just in time for having a kid!

The most exciting recent event was the storm we had that left about 1 million people without power. They said there were winds of 80+ MPH, and there were trees down all over the place. Just a block away from us there was a massive tree that fell that blocked the road and took out 2 utility poles, which I think is why some people around here took 4 days to get their power back. It started Thursday night. Our power went out in the middle of the night. I normally work from home on Friday, so since we had no power I was thinking about going in to work. After some shopping for shabbos I was on my way there when I called their security hotline to find out the status of power on campus (earlier the message said it was open and they were running on generators) and it said there was no power. So I got a free day off, sitting in our dark cold house. I probably would have preferred work to that, but whatever. We ended up eating out Friday night by some people that had a gas oven (most people here including us have electric), so we at least had a hot meal, albeit a dark one. Like every other place, the shul was dark and cold. They got these camping lanterns for Friday night so we could daven. We got our power back on late Friday night, so we were only out for about 24 hours, although we did not have internet access until last night. But others were not so lucky. The shul and the people in that area didn't get their power back on until last night - that's almost 4 days without power! Actually there are still some, a couple people I work with among them, who still don't have power yet. One guy brought his cats in to work today because he thought they were too cold at his house.

In more mundane news, our office "holiday" party was today. It was actually supposed to be Friday so I wasn't planning on going, but because of the power outage they rescheduled it for today. Disappointingly, there was no beer (my team did have a "beer bash" a couple weeks ago- This is definitely the first place I've ever worked where they serve beer at meetings). They had this thing similar to secret santa called white elephant. The way it works is that everyone brings in a wrapped gift, all of which go on one table. Everyone picks a number out of a hat which determines the sequence of the turns. On each person's turn they can either pick one of the unopened presents and unwrap it or steal an already opened present from someone who has already gone. The one from whom a present is stolen then has the same choice - he can either steal from someone else or take one from the pile. The only restriction is that any gift can be stolen a maximum of once per turn - that way every turn eventually ends and the same gift can't keep going back and forth on a single turn. Once everyone has gone, the person who went first has a choice to either keep his gift or steal anyone else's, since he had no choice of stealing when he went the first time. Obviously going first is best. If he steals someone's, the one he had goes on the table again and the person without a gift can take it or steal anyone else's, and so on, until someone takes the gift from the table and the game ends.

Extra credit: In a game of white elephant with n participants and n gifts, what is the maximum number of "steals" that can occur in one game?

Anyway, since I hadn't been planning on going to the party, and it was only rescheduled as of yesterday, I didn't have a chance to go out to buy something, so I didn't play. I would have bought either a darth potato head (I can almost hear dovid scrambling for his wallet to order one right now...) or a big tub of play-doh. There were some silly/funny gifts though. The best in my opinion was the mini arcade frogger game. Some of the funnier ones were the book, "The Google Story," a Google pen, some spanish movie DVD, a singing Scooby Doo doll, and a demotivational calendar.

Work is slow overall right now, but I'm beginning to get more responsibility in my team. I'm working on Windows Desktop Search, which is available as an add-on for windows XP, but it is the built-in search engine in Vista. So right now I'm just working on fixing some bugs, errrr, did I say bugs? I mean there are no bugs in Microsoft products! What I meant to say is that I write pristine bug-free code the first time around, just like everyone at Microsoft. And then I ride my unicorn home. His name is Billy.

Sorry, I blacked out there for a second. So like I said, we're all working on stamping out bugs right now, but in another month or so we're going to start working on planning for next major release. But so far I'm learning a ton and I really like it.

So that's about all from here. Before I conclude, I don't want to start a whole onlysimchas-type thing here, but I just wanted to give a shout out to Sheinfeld for having a baby and to Joseph for getting engaged. Good job guys! Keep up the good work!

Ari

Snap, Crackle and Pop!

Over Thanksgiving I developed what seemed to be a bad cough/cold. My cold went away after a week but my cough didn’t seem to be getting any better. I have been coughing for over two weeks- deep racking coughs not the ones from a sore throat. I took some tussin last week but it didn’t seem to be working. I wasn’t too worried because there’s a cough/cold going around here at the school and I figured that’s what I had.

Sometime last week, my ribcage on the left side started to hurt. At first, I thought it was because I slept on it funny or that I pulled a muscle. The pain started to get worse but I just ignored it. Then yesterday morning while in the midst of a coughing fit I felt something crack/pop in my ribs and I nearly passed out from the pain. I could barely move. I called my doctor and spoke to the doctor on call and he was like you might have pneumonia so you can either wait to see your doctor tomorrow or go to the emergency room. He didn’t seem to be of much help, and I was in so much pain that Ari and I decided to go to the ER.

So off we went- we spent three hours there yesterday- and the place was empty. Thank G-d we went immediately because when I left, it was starting to fill up and if we had come then we would’ve spent much longer than three hours in the ER.

The doc there heard crackling in my lungs when I breathed and he was worried that I had pneumonia so I had a chest X-ray done. It came back all clear so in the end he diagnosed me with bronchitis but he couldn’t figure out where the rib pain was coming from. He thought it might be that because I have been coughing so much, I tore the cartilage that connects the lung to the rib cage. The only thing I cared about was that he prescribe something for the pain. By that point I couldn’t get up from a bed, couch, chair without Ari’s help. That morning, Ari had to help me get dress because I couldn’t bend over at all. The pain was excruciating.

So after a long wait- I was finally discharged with prescriptions for antibiotics for the bronchitis which he thought was bacterial and percocet for the pain. I was excited to take percocet- I’ve never been on painkillers before. What a bust. I took one in the hospital and the nurse told me it would take 10-45 min for it to kick in. When I left close to an hour later, I hadn’t felt a thing. I took more later as prescribed and still nothing. Percocet also suppresses coughs so at least my coughs aren’t so bad anymore, and hopefully that will allow whatever is hurting to heal.

I’m still in pain- and Ari’s staying home with me today because I can’t drive due to the pain. I have a doctor’s appt this morning so I’ll check and see how RB has been handling all this. RB followed its normal schedule of kicks and gymnastics yesterday so I’m not too worried. But since I’ve been sick, I’ve barely been eating the past two weeks and I haven’t put on any weight. Plus I’m anemic now so I’m always kinda tired and out of it. I’m taking a day off from work because there is no way I can run after thirteen three year- olds in my condition. I also couldn’t sleep last night because every time I wanted to switch positions I woke up. I can’t roll over without Ari’s help so I kinda just lay there. Needless to say, I don’t feel like I’m on top of my game right now. Hopefully by tomorrow, I’ll be feeling better –enough so that I can resume my normal schedule.

Other than that- all is well. Winter is settling in here. It’s pretty cloudy all the time and the temps hover in the high 40s/low 50s. It rains sporadically during the day but nothing too bad. I’m always hot now so our house is about 63 degrees all the time. Ari is always complaining how cold he is- it seems we have switched roles. I can’t imagine being pregnant in the summer! It must be so uncomfortable and hot all the time.

So that's the drama over here in the Emerald City. Hopefully this week will be back to boring as usual.

Finally- normal weather

So it turns out that the weather was pretty bad this week- worse than I had expected. There was a snowstorm Monday night here during a football game. Traffic was terrible and there were accidents everywhere. Ari said that some of the people from work took over 5 hours to get home. Tuesday that city practically shut down. I was off from work because one of the roads to get to school was iced over. Normally ice isn't so bad but it's so hilly here that it's dangerous. I had work on Wednesday but public schools were still closed then and there was still ice everywhere. Ari went to work all week but he said it was dead. The cafeterias were closed and there were no secretaries or facilities staff. He came home fairly early on Tuesday and Wednesday. Most people just worked from home. Finally it warmed up to 68 degrees on Thursday and everything melted. The city is back to normal and the storm had moved east. I heard that the Midwest was hammered over the weekend. At least here it's nice and there hasn't been any rain yet.

Other than that, our week has been pretty uneventful. The kid in my class that instigates all the trouble was on vacation so I've had a pretty easy week at school. Two of the kids might also have chicken pox and another kid is out because her brother has them so I might have a small class this week which makes everything easier. Shabbat was nice. We ate out Friday night and I'm finally getting all the politics in the Jewish community here. My cold/cough is almost gone and Ari's thrilled cause now he won't wake up at night when I'm blowing my nose. I've realized that it's worth buying more expensive tissues so your nose doesn't get chapped when you blow. For those of you who are concerned, I'm feeling fine otherwise. Everything seems to be going well and my normal appetite has returned much to Ari's relief. He was afraid that I was getting too expensive due to the quantities of food I was eating.

That's all for now! I want to know how the weekend went and also- Julie and Leah- did you discover Mom's magic freezer???

Snowing in Seattle

Thanksgiving was great! I'm glad that we were able to come to Chicago and spend time with our families. Abba and Patty did an amazing job with the house. They moved in over a two week period which is quite impressive considering that Ari and I have been in our new place for about two months and we still have boxes to be unpacked as well as a "Monica's Closet". That will have to be cleaned out because Cham and Duv along with Abba and Pat are coming in January! We still have open weekends in between if anyone wants/needs a place to stay in Seattle.

I had a great time over Thanksgiving. Abba outdid himself. I normally don't eat turkey but he put enough margarine on it that I was still picking at the carcass long after the company had gone. And the brisket.....YUM!

I did my fair share of eating out. Ari was amazed by how much I consumed- I think he feels a bit insecure since I'm threatening his position as the "eater" in our little family. But he supports my appetite and makes sure that I'm never hungry. We hit a bunch of restaurants and enjoyed them all.

I also noticed in Chicago how many people are reading this blog. Please comment at least once! Don't let Chammie and Keren's frequent hijacking intimidate you.

Anyways- when we landed in Seattle we noticed snow on the ground! Who would've thunk?! It all melted this morning but it's been hailing on and off today. It's supposed to snow throughout this week. It's not like Chicago though- heavy and sticky. They get light snows here that melts fairly quickly.

I'm pretty sick now. My school wouldn't let me come in today cause they didn't want the kids getting sick. I left my other job early cause my sinuses were throbbing. I'm hoping that I'll be well enough tomorrow to resume my normal workload. I don't enjoy sleeping anymore because of RB so "sick days" are not something I can enjoy.

I don't have any pictures to post of Chicago because I forgot my memory card in Seattle. I hope Abba will send me some of the pics he took and then maybe I'll share a few with everyone.

That's it for now.

Eating my way through Chicago

Due to the paucity of normal restaurants here in the Seattle Area coupled with my insatiable appetite, Ari and I are taking full advantage of Chicago's eateries. I have planned out my orders for each of the respective restaurants listed below. (I think I'm now officially a Polsky- I'm planning my vacations around food!) We enjoy company! Please feel free to critique my tentative schedule and/or join us for a meal!

Thursday

Breakfast- Dunkin Donuts
Brunch- Pizza (any suggestions for which restaurant to go to?)
Dinner- Abba's Turkey!!!
Midnight Snack- Slurpee run plus leftovers

Friday

Brunch- New bagel place next to Betzalel's Store

Motzai Shabbat- Slice of Life followed by Slurpee Run

Sunday

Breakfast- Bagel Country
Linner- Ken's

If you are really curious I will post my orders for the restaurants. I'm hungry now. I think I'll go eat.

26 weeks- pics

here are two pics of me at 26 weeks. just to give you an idea of how big i've gotten i've also included a pic of me at 2 weeks pregnant. and i still have 3 more months to go!
 

Rain Rain Go Away!

It's been a while since I last posted, but nothing has been happening here. The last exciting thing was Abba and Pat's visit. And you already got Abba's version of events and mine are not much different. All I will add is that my cholent was awesome, as usual, and even though we don't normally eat leftover cholent I couldn't bear to throw so much of it away (needless to say, Rachel and Pat didn't eat any and Abba didn't have much either, and I'm only one man!). I think the reason that most people have a stigma against leftover cholent is that they don't heat it up properly. Because it gets so thick and congealed when it cools (thanks to all the yummy yummy fat), the microwave doesn't do a very good job reheating it. What you have to do is add some water to it and heat it up on the stove. That way it heats evenly and doesn't come out too bad.

The other interesting thing that happened this week was our shopping trip to the Supermall. It's a really big mall, probably somewhere around the size of Gurnee Mills. They have this charity event every year where all these nonprofits sell tickets (we got ours through the school Rachel teaches at) and they have one night where the mall is closed to the public and you need these tickets to get in. The stores have some really good special deals, and they have some really good stores. We got 20% off at Bed Bath and Beyond and got a Rowenta Iron and some other miscellaneous stuff. We got this cool wine stopper thing that has a spout and a small metal/rubber cork that fits into it so that you can pour the wine without it dripping down the side of the bottle. We got 8 settings of Correlle everyday fleishig dishes for under $50. I got myself a pull cart for my golf clubs for $40 marked down from $60 - now all we need is some golf weather, but it doesn't look like that is coming anytime soon. I think it has been at least 2 weeks since having a 24 hour span without rain. That's about all that's going on at home.

In work news, Windows Vista has shipped to manufacturers! So now everyone is partying. Actually, there were 2 parties on Friday that I was invited to, but I didn't think it was worth it to go in just for that, especially since the second one started at 2, which is kind of late for a winter Friday. Also they had like coctails and stuff, so other than straight beer or scotch there probably was not much there I could have had. So I worked from home as usual instead. The other big news is that the head of Windows is giving everyone off the entire week of Thanksgiving. The only qualification is that you have to have gotten a "ship it" award for Vista, which is given to people who made a significant contribution to the product. The problem is that I didn't work on it at all since I came in too late. But pretty much everyone I work with is going to have off that whole week. I'm going to talk to my boss about it and see if he really wants me to work anyway since I don't technically qualify. I'm guessing he'll tell me to take off anyway since nobody else will be there, but in the worst case I would just work from home the whole week. I'm hoping that we'll get at least one decent non-rainy day that week so I can go golfing, but I'm not holding my breath.

The only other thing I wanted to mention is that we have had a really tepid response the whole turtle naming contest. I don't want to be mean here, but all the suggestions so far have been really lame (except mine of course). Anyway, I think we should add a clause that says if there are no suitable names suggested by, say, a week from now, the names will default to something really awful, like turtle A and turtle B, or maybe Bert and Ernie, or some even more horrible, lame, or offensive names (read: names that include the word "butt" in them) that I have a whole week to come up with. So start moving people! If you want to see what they look like check out the video that Dov linked to in a previous comment.

See (some of) you in a few weeks in Chi-town!
Ari

UPDATE: I spoke to my boss and he's giving me the whole week of Thanksgiving off! Now I'll REALLY have something to be thankful for!

GO MOM!

Congrats to Mom to finally getting out of Bernie's office into a saner workplace that gives benefits! Your knees will thank you.

As for us here in Seattle, we are preparing for Abba and Patty's long awaited visit. They have the zechut of being our first guest and we are very excited! (Of course, they ARE bringing a prime rib which only makes me and RB more excited.) Since I am working all day tom, I need to do most of my cooking tonight- since we are all swapping menus I will tell you what I am planning:

Challah
Minestrone Soup
Asparagus
Salt and Pepper Kugel
Edamame
Portobello Mushrooms and Zucchini
Apple Dumpling Cake

I hope it all comes out well. Of course, now that Ari works from home on Friday there is a big chance that by tom afternoon all the food could be gone. Mental note to self- must add fridge lock to the shopping list.

As much as Ari eats, recently I have been out eating him! Who would have thought? RB definitely has some Polsky genes in there. I am eating like there is no tomorrow and I am always hungry. Ari's shepping nachas already. I dragged him to a Babies R Us to start checking out car seats and he was freaking out. He needed to prepare himself for the major hurdle of walking into a baby store. Of course, once there, he checked out a glider and made himself comfortable so it wasn't too painful for him.

RB is really low down - I look like a football and my back hurts all the time. Conveniently, every teacher at my school has a million kids so I am getting plenty of tips to deal with the pain. I must run to my afternoon job.

In case I do not post/edit later- Have a good Shabbos everyone!

Stupid macho-ism and (gasp) fennel!

Lots of new stuff going on here! I wanted to post before things got too crazy this weekend with Abba and Pat coming and us getting the house ready for their visit.

First of all, our new couch and chair are coming on Friday, just in time for the visit, which is good because we were told 8-10 weeks. But since we didn't have room for our old couch anymore we had to get rid of it, which we thought was a shame since we got it for free and it was pretty comfortable - a perfect basement couch for the day when we actually have a basement. So on Sunday I got the only single guy I know here to help me, and I rented a U-Haul and brought it to my office. So now I have a place to nap there! It ended up being a lot more expensive than I thought it would be. The rental is only $20 but at 79 cents a mile it adds up. And you would never guess how much gas I used (you have to refill it before returning it or pay a $40 refueling fee, plus $4 a gallon! They REALLY want to discourage you from bringing it back not full). The drive to work is probably about 18 miles, so both ways was somewhere between 35 and 40 miles. So how many gallons of gas do you think a 14-foot U-Haul would use up? I figured it would be no more than 3 or 4 gallons. Well, I put in almost 9 gallons! How insane is that? So the whole adventure cost more than I expected, but it was still worth it to be able to keep the couch, especially considering that the movers who bring the new one would probably charge us ~$30 just to haul it away.

On to Monday: Rachel and I had been planning on going out to dinner for my birthday, but we decided to go Monday instead because she got off work early. So she picked me up from work and we went to one of (not many cities require that qualifier here) the kosher vegetarian chinese places, which is about 5 minutes away from work. It looked pretty interesting, and people say it's good. They have a pretty large menu, so initially I had a hard time choosing, but I figured I'd get the best value by choosing a combo meal, of which they only had about 5. It was soup, side and main for like 13-16 bucks. Anyway, I chose the basil "beef" and rachel got the sweet and sour "pork." When mine came I knew I made a big mistake the second I smelled it... One whiff and I knew it contained my most feared food - even more than raisins! - the dreaded fennel. It was that overpowering black jellybean smell. I thought I was going to vomit, and I certainly knew I couldn't eat it. So Rachel and I switched and I ate the sweet and sour pork, which is not the kind of think I would normally get since I don't really like sweet entrees. So neither of us particularly got what we wanted, but the food at least looked good.. and looking back at the menu there were definitely other things that I think I would have liked. And the sweet and sour pork was not bad, it just wouldn't have been my first choice. Anyway, the bottom line is that we can't really judge based on the experience we had there and we will have to try it again sometime. I think on Saturday night we will all go to the other veg chinese place that's closer to our house and I will make a better decision. The most disappointing thing for me was not the meal itself - it was the fact that I did not live up to my (well earned) reputation for ordering the best thing on the menu. It was that whole "combo is the best value" line of thinking that really messed me up. I will not be falling for that one again soon. Also I'm really not used to ordering vegetarian food. I think with real beef things are much more straightforward. But I guess the lesson here is to just get back on that horse - there will be other meals to be had...

So then on the way home there was a certain point where we had to choose a route. I wanted to go one way and as the driver I chose it. Rachel thought the other way was faster. I told her I thought we could be home in another ten minutes on the route I had chosen, and she did not believe me. So, being the stupid typical guy that I am, I was speeding, weaving and trying my hardest to get us home in ten minutes. We were going to make it, when literally 2 blocks away from our house I got pulled over for speeding. The cop is like, "do you know what a police car looks like?" Apparently, at the last red light I was pulled up right next to him and when it turned green I peeled out at about 50 in a 25 zone. Not smart, but I was distracted talking to rachel and feeling good about being right. Anyway, thank G-d I still have an Illinois license, so he asked how long ago I had move out here, so I told him and he let me go with a warning, although he also told me that I have 90 days from becoming a resident to get a Washington license. Is it like that in every state? Why can't I drive on a valid Illinois license until it dies (or expires) a natural death and continue to get off scott-free for speeding because I'm just a dopey out of towner who doesn't know all those fancy "traffic laws" you people have out here? Guess I answered my own question there, but I still think I should be allowed to. But even with the stop we got home only 14 minutes later than when I said It'd be 10 minutes! (I guess some lessons are better left unlearned)

And my final piece of news is that I'm announcing a new contest here on the blog. We are going to have a contest to name Chammie and Dovid's turtles! Right now they are just called "turtle'eem," which I think is just not right. They should have their own names so they can express their individuality. I know you all must be brimming over with excitement, trying to think of clever names like "winky and blinky" (Itchy and Scratchy is already taken by our late newts, may their memory be a blessing. Besides, it's not original). Anyway, submit your entries in the comments section, and someone (TBD) will decide which are the best. The prize will be in a similar vein to prizes for previous contests here (i.e. nothing), but think of the respect of your peers! The years (or however long turtles live) of gloating! The prestige! I hope I'm motivating you here. So good luck to all of you! By the way, nobody knows the gender(s) of turtle'eem, so try and pick something neutral, like pickles and yum yum. Or something... Anyway, if Cham or Dov sends me pictures I will post them so you can try to pick a name that really captures their essence - something that says, "I was purchased from a bucket in chinatown. Please don't make soup out of me."

So that is the news from here. Will be busy the next few days with Abba and Pat's visit. PRIME RIB! Almost makes me forget about the (shudder) fennel...

Ari

RB update- 23 weeks

So here is a picture for you all- RB is progressing nicely. I saw my doc this morning for a checkup. It was about 5 min long- and since I was the first one there, I did not wait at all. I walked straight in. The doctor said that everything is normal bli ayin hara. I have been so busy lately that I do not even remember I am pregnant unless I get really hard kicks.

I got another job teaching the preschool at the new Torah Day School in Seattle. They called me to sub last week and apparently, they liked me so much they offered me a job on the spot.

The preschool program here is Montessori. It is very different from the traditional classroom. Instead of assignments and everyone doing the same thing at once- the class is broken up into workstations - usually about 5-10 a day and the kids are free to pick a workstation and spend however long they like completing the task. There is usually a theme for the day- here, it is an English letter and the workstations are built around that. So for instance, this week they are learning the letter "L" so we had a workstation where they could color "L"s, another one for coloring leaves, another one for making leaf prints, and another one with leaf puzzles.

Along with those workstations are skills workstations to help develop motor skills and practical skills- so we have a station where they sort out plastic bears by color, and another one where they practice sweeping, pouring, sewing etc. Along with the workstations, the Montessori classroom also has a wide range of ages. My class goes from 2.5-4.5 years- and you can see the difference in the skill levels. The point is that the older ones can help the younger ones and there is always something for everyone no matter what level he/she is on.

I am one of two teachers for the class. The other teacher, Miss Lee Ellen is a Montessori trained teacher from Billings, Montana. She is in charge of the secular studies and I am in charge of Judaics. So far, I have been sticking to the traditional teaching but as I am planning my week, I am trying to adapt it to the Montessori way. It is easier to teach my class that way so that the younger ones do not hold back the older ones and I can give more one on one time to each student. I have 13 kids and they are all adorable. Most of them dress like Gap Kids models and they are all clean and neat. A few are still in diapers but thank G-d I have not had to change one yet. Miss Lee Ellen has been having rachmanus on me and she changes them but I suppose that will end soon.

So now, I have two jobs- I start work at nine and work straight through til six. I am exhausted when I come home from running around the kids but the commute is great. Both jobs are a mere 5 minutes away. I am really happy and the staff is very friendly so it seems this is a pretty good deal.

Have a good night!

Satan works at Microsoft? Who would have thought...

Sorry about the slacking off on the postings, but you people are so demanding! You think it's so easy to write down a bunch of stuff that happened and push the "Publish Post" button? You're like a pack of hungry wild dogs - always wanting more, never satisfied with the postings you have. For shame. (You didn't buy that by any chance, did you? For real though, I was just lazy)

We are slowly but surely getting unpacked into our new house. The contractor is out this week so there is no way we will be getting our new cabinets in time for Abba and Pat's visit. We'll have to find some other place to stash all our kitchen stuff in the meantime. In other news, Julie and Josh are thinking about visiting us over winter break. We're very excited. You could all follow their lead! And see the beautiful Pacific Northwest! There are all kinds of awesome nature-ey things to do out here (or so we're told. We haven't actually done them yet).

Work is going well. I am now hooked on Starbucks coffee. I don't think I'll ever be able to go back to normal coffee again - I'm so spoiled. I bet you're all wondering about the post title... On my way to work the other day, near campus we spotted a car with the license plate "SATAN." Understandably intrigued, we went for a closer look, and sure enough there was a microsoft parking pass on that black car with dark tinted windows. Did anyone doubt that the one person in the state of Washington with the license plate SATAN worked at Microsoft? I bet there's one at Apple too (no offense Abba)... Anyway, can anyone guess the gender of the driver? Of course, it was a woman. I knew it all along! She turned on the street that leads to the parking garage of my building and a few others. Who knows, she might even work right near me. Creepy.

Speaking of cool new kosher products we found, at Costco here they have corn bread mix. It's milchig of course, but we had to buy it. Maybe this isn't really all that novel, but I had never seen anything like it that was kosher. Anyway, we (I!) made it the other night and it was actually quite good, I thought. Rachel said it wasn't so great, but I guess I never had real corn bread before (at least since camp moshava) so it tasted good to me. It was really easy - just add water and bake. So that is the news here. I know you hungry savage dogs, errr, guys all want to see some pictures, so I will post some later. When I feel like it. Maybe.

Ari

Baruch Dayan HaEmet

This morning, I found out my Aunt Ruth passed away after some time in the ICU. She has not been well for awhile- and while this seemed inevitable, it was still a shock to hear the news. I had not seen her in a long time because of her health and because my Uncle Murray (her husband) has been sick for a long time. I usually saw them at Pesach in Teaneck. They would come for the Sedarim with their son and his family. I have many memories of sitting with her during the meals while the men had all gone to sleep. She would tell me stories of family politics- which are always interesting to find out. She lost a beloved daughter many years ago to cancer and she spoke of her often. She was a devoted wife who took very good care of her husband through all his sicknesses, hospital stays and everything else. Her only child married late in life and she was fortunate to live long enough to see her two beautiful grandchildren.

I have been caught up with my pregnancy recently along with the anticipation of an addition to the family (bli ayin hara) that I have rather forgotten what happens at the end of life. It is sobering to be reminded that while there is so much happiness in life, there is also much grief. I guess it is a consolation when a birth occurs soon after a death- the cycle of life continues and the family endures. While my Aunt Ruth is gone, my memories of her still here and while she will never know my children, they can know of her.

May her memory be a blessing.

A pic of RB- taken 10/11/2006

 

RB update- 21 weeks along.

This is going to be short- just wanted to keep everyone up to date.

I went in for my second trimester ultrasound today- it was pretty long and the technician spent the whole time measuring things. Anyways- everything looks good and normal. As for the weight gain- when the doctor came in, he said that the baby is in the 88th percentile for weight- it weighs 1lb already. The average is 14 oz. This is especially good news because I barely eat enough and I was worried about the baby being underweight. I still don't look preggers yet- people are shocked to hear that I'm 5 months along. At least the baby is taking all the calories and not me.

The baby is pretty active. Its in the normal position (head down) and it kicks quite frequently. Anyone know how much longer before other people can feel it? My belly button is slowly popping out but it's got a little more to go.

As for the sex.... we narrowed it down. It's either a boy or a girl. I guess we'll have to wait a few more months to find out!

I have a pic of the profile- I'll try to get Ari to scan and post it. So if you don't see it on here tom. blame him.

That's all folks.

The joys of moving

Finally I got a few seconds to breathe (and post). Let's begin with Yom Kippur. It was uneventful, except for the fact that we moved into our house on erev yom kippur. But that was just with the stuff (or most of it anyway) that we had in temp housing. On Yom Kippur during the day we davened at the old folks home again. It didn't feel fast but it just didn't drag on forever and there was no speech. We ended up having a 3.5 hour break, and they started at 8:40AM. No complaints about that. I think we will be davening there for yomim noraim in the future.

Onward to Succos. I built a fine succah (that we haven't even used yet) on Thursday night, with one late-night stop at Lowe's for some extra wood. All in all I'm happy with the way it turned out, especially considering the fact that this was my first succah building project. Also, the whole thing only cost maybe $175, including an 8x12 bamboo mat. Next year I will probably expand it to encompass our whole backyard. Right now it only covers about 2/3 of it, and most of the schach is over the dirt portion, which I personally would love to cement over. The dirt is totally useless - I think they (the condo assoc.) are planning on putting in some plants, which according to my understanding serve no purpose whatsoever. In any case the entrance to the succah is mostly blocked by piles and piles of boxes, which segues nicely into the move... The movers were supposed to come on Friday, erev succos (Rachel couldn't take off a non-Friday from work so we had no choice). I made it very clear to them that I needed them to be done by 5 PM, and they said it should not be a problem. Except that they said they would come between 9 and 11, but did not actually show up until close to 2. Needless to say they were not able to finish before shabbos, so I had to send them away at around 6:15 (about 5 min before candle lighting) with the remainder of our stuff in the truck and all our furniture still in a state of disassembly ("no disassemble number 5!" - how's that for an obscure reference?). We slept on mattresses on the floor for the chag, but I have since assembled the beds so we'd at least have something decent to sleep on until they come back. But our house is filled with boxes everywhere and it is not fun. We have unpacked a few of them so far, but we want to wait until they come back and finish the job. Also we have no space in our kitchen for all the kitchen stuff, so we are calling in a contractor to put in a few more cabinets. So until then we will live with the boxes.

I called the moving company on Monday to schedule the movers to come back, so they're coming back on Thursday. Annoyingly, I tried to put together my desk and main computer stuff but I'm missing the mouse and some cables, which must be in one of the boxes they haven't delivered yet... (sigh)... Will this ordeal never end? Woe is me!

In work news, today was the last of our biweekly group lunch + deal or no deal series. All the people who hadn't yet played got to play today. They said that all the prizes had to go, including the grand prize that nobody had won yet, the Xbox360. Nobody today won it either, and they had a bunch of smaller prizes left also, so they just gave away the rest. They put each prize (or a piece of paper with the name of the prize) into a lunchbox and called up people in order of birthdays to pick one and get the prize inside. Everyone got to pick one. It turned out that none of the boxes had the Xbox inside - the group manager (i.e. head honcho) had decided it should go to the administrator who has organized these things each week. Most of the other prizes that were left weren't that great - couple pairs of wireless headphones, some DVDs, and the fillers so that there'd be the same number of prizes as people were starbucks and Amex gift cards and lunch tickets for the cafeteria. I got a $20 Starbucks gift card.

Speaking of Starbucks, we are finally getting our iCup machine installed! They closed off the kitchen for the past 2 days working on it, but it is supposed to be functional by tomorrow. I'm so excited! It's like free liquid heaven!

I have noticed that the comments section has been languishing, and it's probably partly my fault since I've been too busy to post lately, but come on guys! If things don't pick up after this effort I will have to hold a PBS-style telethon. "I know you all enjoy family friendly and educational postings here, such as the ones about RB and iCup machines. They don't happen by themselves. They need the support of readers like you. So why don't you show your support by posting some comments? It'll only cost you a few moments of your time. This blog wouldn't be where it was today without readers like you" etc... So if you don't want it to come to that, start creating some action here today! Otherwise it's time to start calling up some potential telethon hosts. Is that what you want?

Ari

P.S. We had a raisin-free succos! My prayers were answered!

RB update... and more!

So much has happened this week! The movers are expected to come within the hour so I will write until then.

First off- RB (see Sept. 17 if you don't know what that means) is doing well!!! I had my appointment yesterday with my new doc here in Seattle. I heard the heartbeat, my uterus is just the right size and I now weigh what I did before I got pregnant. The only problem is that I am not eating enough but I am so busy here setting up our life here in Seattle and working that I often forget to eat. Ari's trying to fatten me up so hopefully I will gain the weight that I need too. I am getting too big for my fat clothes now so I really need to start buying more maternity clothes. I love Gap maternity clothes but the store is downtown and there's no parking plus there are no Sundays to shop for the next two weeks due to yontiff and I'm working all day the Sunday after that. I will have to start wearing Ari's clothes. Oy- this should be the worst of my problems.

Next- Ari is really handy!!! He built the sukkah in about two hours last night including a quick trip to Lowes to get more schach. It looks really nice- kind of like the sukkah I grew up with. He is going to put up pics of it next week cause he's so proud of himself. It is raining now but the forecast for most of Sukkot is mostly sunny so we should get some use out of it this year. So far we have been invited out for almost all the of chag meals so the sukkah is going to be used mostly by Ari to eat dinner on Chol Hamoad. It is in the 60s here and it gets cold at night so I am staying indoors as much as I can.

The move is going well so far. Now we are just waiting for the furniture. We made a few Costco runs and splurged and got expensive toilet paper! If only we had the tornado... that is probably the only thing we miss from our New York apartment. Anyways we have enough toilet paper for a year and I think we shipped all the toilet paper from New York here too so it'll be awhile before we need anymore of that.

I convinced Ari to come with me to the Costco Home (one of the two in country) and we bought a couch, chair and rug for our den. It's very exciting! The first brand new furniture purchase we ever made. They have pretty good stuff there for decent prices. It's supposed to come in 8-10 weeks so now our leather loveseat will be the only seating in that room. We are having a lot of fun planning set ups and home improvements we hope to accomplish one day!

So that’s it for now. Wishing you all a Chag Sameach and a rain-free Sukkot.

Crazy busy

Keren is right - I have not posted in a while because I have been crazy busy with the succah and moving and everything. Thank G-d everything went well... The succah looks really good and the movers are coming today. I will try to post as soon as I get a few free moments, probably after yom tov. Have a chag sameach everyone!

Ari

Our new house is a raisin-free zone

We were supposed to close on the house on Wednesday and all our stuff was to be delievered on Friday. On Wednesday we got a call that there a problem. Apparently there was a lien on the house that wasn't there when they ran the check a few days earlier. We had no information other than the fact that we couldn't close. We didn't know where the lien came from or when it would be lifted. So we were kind of on pins and needles waiting for 2 days to get news. We had to cancel the delivery of our stuff because we didn't know if we'd be able to move it in by Friday and we didn't want them to charge us for cancelling at the last minute. Finally, late Thursday we heard that they had moved the lien to a different unit to buy them some time to clear it all up, and we'd be able to close on Friday which we did. But it was still too late to move in, so our delivery is coming next Friday instead. We're going to move out of temp housing tomorrow (Sunday). We won't have our beds and linens until the movers deliver our stuff next Friday so we're borrowing air mattresses and linens from someone in the community until then. Fortunately, I was able to get the cable company to come tomorrow to install our cable internet so we will have a more reliable connection and we will not have to be without our internet fix...

So for shabbos we were put up again, and ate out meals. First meal was with another Microsoft family and the second was by people we met last week. For the second meal they had only raisin challah (again). Let me make this clear one more time: I HATE RAISINS! I think we are going to start telling people we eat by that I'm allergic to raisins. Next Rosh Hashana I'm going to daven for a raisin-free year. Why do people think that everyone likes those squishy gross little booger-like things in their challah? Can someone answer me that question? Would it be rude of me to ask for normal non-squishy-thing-infested challah? Is this a question for miss manners?

Other than the raisiny challah the meal was really good - lots of good food and LOTS of booze. But the more people I eat out by, the more I'm coming to realize how different our family is. At many or most of the places I've eaten by, the entire meal is like one salad course, 2 side dishes and one main, usually one piece of chicken per person. With our family, our meals are 2-3 times that size, so I'm really not used to it. Also, sadly, the best cholent I've had so far was at the kiddush at the shul. And that was by no means a great cholent. Everyone puts in too many beans, no kishke, not enough barley, and not enough seasoning. They're like bad shul cholents. Bland and beany. I can't wait to make my own again and show these people how it's done.

That is the news from here. Have a gmar v'chasima tova everyone!
Ari

P.S. Our new address is
7322 Rainier Ave S #108
Seattle, WA 98118

Keren is the winner!

The prize is getting your name mentioned in the title of a post on one of the greatest blogs of our time. You can expect fame and fortune to follow. Congratulations! I'm also shocked that Dovid didn't win - I figured this was more up his alley. I bet he's made that joke a lot more recently than third grade... I guess Keren is more lowbrow than we all thought.

Today was an evenful day at work. Every two weeks on Tuesday we have a team lunch with free food, which today was pizza (I requested kosher in advance. Today I asked the organizer if he was able to get it. He's like, "yeah, there's vegetarian pizza." yay. Good thing I brought a backup PB&J). In addition to the free food, they also play Deal or no Deal. It's a game show. If you don't know what it is you can see here. Anyway, they draw a name out of a hat to see who will be the contestant, but they only put in people who haven't had a chance yet. Today they played 3 rounds and I was one of only 4 who hadn't played yet. So I got picked for the third game. The grand prize is an Xbox 360, which nobody has won yet (Worst is a pack of gum). I won a 4GB MP3 player (Sandisk Sansa), which is the third-best prize. Woohoo! Someone else today won the second-best prize, which is a 30 GB creative vision:m MP3 + video player.

After that gruelling meeting I had another one, which we had outside because the weather was so nice. After that we visited the building next door because they already had the new I-Cup machines installed. They are way cool! It's like a huge machine with a window to 2 compartments of coffee beans. You punch in the size you want, which variety of bean you want (ours had starbucks house blend and the same in decaf), and push "brew." It grinds the beans on the spot and spits out a fresh cup of coffee within a minute or two. It's soooo good...

After work Rachel and I went to the mortgage broker's house to sign all the legal bliz blaz. So we are officially closing tomorrow. We will be homeowners! Yay!

Here's what we were thinking of doing for a succah. Our patio is really small, like maybe 12-16 feet square, and it's enclosed by a fence that's about 6 feet tall. So we thought we'd just use the fence itself as the walls - put a few two-by-fours directly on top of the it and put some bamboo mats on those. It would be kind of short, but good enough for the time being.

So that is all the exciting new from here. More news soon.

Ari

Rosh Hashana and bird poop

Rosh hashana was very nice. First day davening went from 7:45 - 1:15. A bit too long for my taste, so I went to the old folks home on the second day. That one was 8:45 - 12:30. Much better.

We had the first meal with the Rabbi. The second was with a couple who actually went to Penn and knew Keren - John and Dina Kaufthal (I don't know Dina's maiden name, but I think they were both 2-3 years below Keren). Anyway, he works at Microsoft in the building next door to mine. Third meal was next door to the place we were staying and fourth meal was at the Genauers. All the meals were very nice. The food was pretty good overall, but too many raisins and nuts in the food, both things I despise. One place didn't even have any alternative to their raisin-saturated challah! I choked it down as well as I could so I would have enough to bentch. I HATE RAISINS! At one of the meals, almost everything they served had either raisins or nuts. I miss Rachel's cooking! No nuts or raisins to be found.

The guy who I was sharing an office with moved out, so I have my own office now. It's pretty sweet, but now I just need to someone to come decorate it. It really needs like a couch or something. Or maybe some paintings would spruce the place up a bit...

We also had a big milestone this weekend. Our car got pooped on for the first time! stupid birds! arg! First of many, I guess...

In other work-related news, there are big changes coming. Every kitchen on campus is getting brand new fancy Starbucks machines (they're called I-cups. I'll give a prize to the first person who can recall the third grade joke I'm thinking of here). Supposedly, you punch in the size, decaf or regular, etc, and it grinds the beans fresh and brews you a cup right there on the spot! How cool is that?

That's all for now. Once we're settled in our house (!) I'm sure we'll have an easier time putting up pictures... Also our internet access is quite spotty lately. Oh, how I wish poodle would come back!

P.S. great comment dov. Very clever. Keep it up.

Ari

Thousands of rowdy nerds

Rachel is insisting on watching some boring show about the wives of Henry VIII. So I am forced to do something else constructive with my time.

The company meeting was today. It was really fun. First of all, they filled the baseball stadium to about 1/3 capacity. That's a lot of nerds. In front of the stadium there were these people dressed as knights that were "fighting" - most of them had microsoft product names on them, then there was one "knight" that had google on him and they were fighting. It kind of made me think of a star wars (no offense, dov) or dungeons and dragons convention...

The meeting itself basically consisted of a bunch of executives giving speeches and other people giving some product demos of some of the more interesting products and technologies they are working on. Some really cool stuff. I saw Zune! It's really cool - it has a bigger screen than an iPod, has built in wi-fi, and plays video in landscape mode. They showed us a couple of really cool things being done by MS research, but I'm not sure how public some of this stuff is so I probably shouldn't go into any detail here. One of the features they were showing off on one product that's coming out soon didn't work when they tried to use it at the demo, so that was a good laugh :-). Reminiscent of the time Bill Gates demoed windows 98 and it crashed in the middle. The highlights were the speeches by Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer. When Steve came out it was like a wedding when the couple comes out for the fist dance - there was pump up music and everything, and he came out and ran around the crowd and jumped up and down like a crazy person. He likes to play the crowd. The speeches themselves ranged from very interesting to very boring, but most were at least tolerable.

It wasn't all speeches and demos, though. Part of the entertainment was an american-idol-style singing competition. They had auditions in advance, and 6 employees performed at the meeting. They will be sending out a survey next week asking us to vote, and the winner gets and Xbox 360.

After the meeting there was a product fair where different groups showed their products. I got a couple good freebies: scarf and winter cap with windows vista logo, a frisbee, couple pens, squiggly toy, and some random junk.

Keren - to answer your question, yes there was a mascot - the Mariner Moose -and he did have a t-shirt launcher.

All in all it was quite an experience.

Since this will be my last post before Rosh Hashana, let me take this opportunity to wish you all a k'siva v'chasima tova.

Ari

7-11

I think we have become the best customers of the local 7-11. We've gotten slurpees there probably about 2-3 times per week. It's right between our current apartment and the Jewish community so we stop by on our way quite often.

Everything with the house is coming together - we've got all the legal hocus pocus pretty much taken care of. Make reservations soon for your stay at casa de Polsky! The mortgage guy is working frantically to get everything done in time for closing next week.

We are going to Chicago for Thanksgiving (thanks Abba and Pat!). The Friday after is an MS holiday so I don't have to use any precious vacation days. And Abba and Pat are coming to visit for my birthday weekend. We are very excited to finally move into something permanent so we can be settled.

Tomorrow is the company meeting. It's held at Safeco field, which is where the Mariners play. There will be tens of thousands of MS people there. It's basically a big pep rally where the execs talk about how great we are (or so I'm told - I've obviously never experienced it first hand). Supposedly there's beer. Can you imagine having so many rowdy nerds in one place? The good thing is that Safeco field is about a 10-15 minute walk from our apartment. So no commute tomorrow. After the meeting there will be a product fair held at Qwest field (where the Seahawks play) where we will be showing off all our new technologies and up-and-comings stuff that's still under development. Hopefully we will get some cool freebies. Conveniently, Qwest field is right next door to Safeco field!

So that is the news from here. What say you guys?

Ari

I got nothing to say

We finally got the contract back for the house... that is all the news from here. For those of you wondering about Rachel's job, she took a part-time job as a nanny for a down's syndrome kid in the community. Later peeps.

Ari

The new car is big enough for the belly

We picked up our new car today. I'm very happy with it. So now Rachel will be driving me to shul in the morning and I'll take the Vanpool from there and she'll have the car. Vanpool is a service of the county to encourage carpooling. They supply the van, gas, maintenance, etc., and you just have to get at least 4 people to carpool with. They charge like $65 per month, but Microsoft subsidizes all of it so it's free for me. So there are a bunch of guys who do it and leave from the shul every morning.

I know you all wanted to see some pictures, so we took a couple of Rachel's Belly, known as "RB" from now on (she bought some more maternity clothes today). So here are couple pics of Rachel with RB:





Have a good week eveyone.
Ari

A word from me.

Well Ari is running around hysterical cause he wants to leave for Shabbos in 15 min and he has yet to shower and pack. I, of course want to leave in like an hour so before I pack I figured that I'd post. I'm sure that even with stalling and posting, I'll be ready before Ari is. Oh the irony.

Anywho- this week has been kinda boring. Since Ari has the car and the pass to get into the building I've been here in the apt all day. I was productive though! I did a load of laundry pretty much every day and I found out where the garbage is thrown away. Ari couldn't locate it but I found it on my first try. In this marriage, I'm the eyes and the compass and Ari tries to be the ears.

We are picking up our car on Sunday- so I'll finally have wheels. I start work next week so it all works out perfectly. Ari's happy I'm making money (though barely anything) and I'm also in the process of finding an internship which I'm sure will be unpaid- but at least I'm working.

So that's it for now. Gut Shabbos!

video games

Work is going really well. Everyone is really nice and friendly - everyone eats lunch together every day. My mentor and boss are both Jewish, one reform and one conservative so they know about all the holidays and kosher and stuff. Yesterday and today they called me into a "meeting" at 4 to play video games. The only problem is that they've been playing this game for like the past 6 months and I just started so I kind of stink at it. I told Rachel that we'd have to get an Xbox 360 so I can practice and advance my career. The setup at work is cool though - they don't play it on a TV, they project it onto the wall. So I'm still in the phase of getting everything set up and learning a lot before I'll be able to do any real work.

We are spending shabbos in the community - we are staying with the real estate agents, who are also the community hospitality people. They are also letting us use their house for rosh hashana since they will not be there.

That's pretty much all the news from here. Have a good shabbos everyone! spread the word!

Ari

Second day and the wonders of chinese markets

My second day was much more eventful than the first. The first half was more orientation stuff, but after that I went to meet my group. So I found the office of the guy I was supposed to meet - he emailed me a yesterday and told me to report to him when orientation was over - anyway his office and all offices in the area were deserted. It was like a ghost town. He came back about 10 minutes later and told me that the whole team was at their meeting they have every 2 weeks where they play the game show "deal or no deal" - grand prize is an XBox 360 but nobody has won yet. The guy today won a 2 GB MP3 player. So it seems like a really fun and chilled out group. He also told me that since things are slow right now, they play XBox in the game room at around 4 every day.

Right now I'm sharing my office with another guy, but someone is leaving this week so as of next week I will have my own office. There are no windows but it is a whole lot better than a cube. I've got 2 computers, one for regular work and one as a test machine. I've got 2 monitors, a 20 inch and a 19 inch, so the setup is pretty sweet. My regular machine is running Vista. It is very cool!

If you have never been at a chinese market like the one below our apartment, let me tell you some of the more intersting items we found there while looking for ice cream: pork large intestine, pork small intestine, pork stomachs, pork fat slabs, pork blood... probably other things we would have found if we weren't too grossed out to keep looking.

Other updates: We are picking up our car on sunday, we met with the real esate agent today - she said we should have a signed contract by friday.... The Genauers invited us for a Rosh Hashana.

That's enough for now. Maybe Rachel will chime in at some point... maybe...

Ari

First Day

My first day of work was pretty uneventful and boring - just a lot of dumb ice-breakers (very upper-west-side-shabbos-meal-ish) and boring presentations on benefits - good as they are (4 weeks paid paternity leave!), not very interesting to hear about.

On an unrelated topic, our townhouse bid was accepted and we also found out that 2 other frum people put in bids in the same complex, so the demographic looks like it will be good. We just have to visit the agent tomorrow.

That's all from me for now, but hopefully rachel will post some of those pictures I know you are all dying to see.

Ari

car update

So we went to the dealer to pick up (and pay for) the car today, but we decided to get the extra treatments for the cloth seats to make them more stain-resistant. It also comes with a 5-year guarantee that the interior will not stain, which probably comes in handy for kid owners, which we will be soon enough.

So instead of picking it up today and bringing it back for the treatments and picking it up again, we just left it there and will pick it up next week. It kind of works out better anyway since we only have one pass for getting in and out of the parking garage here so parking it would have been a challenge. But next week we return the rental car so the timing will work out well. The only problem is that now Rachel won't have a car this week. Oh well, another week of butt-sitting for her... Speaking of Rachel, she took some pics of various things while we were on the road today so I'm sure with her vast butt-sitting time over the next week she'll have plenty of opportunity to post them.

Tomorrow is the first day of work - very exciting! Start sending in your software orders now :). A microsoft guy on the shabbaton said there's a $1000 limit per year, and you're allowed to buy for friends and family. He said Windows XP is $25 and Office is around $40.

Chammie made the comment on a previous post that it looks like she is the only one in our family that knows how to post comments to blogs. Come on guys - is that any way to rocket me to fame and fortune? We need some more action here!

More as the story develops...
Ari

Pictures

Since Ari has been providing the details of our accomplishments, I thought I would introduce you to Seattle. When we were driving through Seattle Tues morning at one in the morning first thing we noticed is that there was no one in the streets of Downtown. It was dead. Quite a change from the Heights where the three year olds are still running around outside at that hour. The second thing we noticed is that there are a billion of wires above the streets. It makes the whole city look industrial. Really really ugly. But that's what the buses use to get around. Ari and I still crack up every time we see a bus. Look at the picture below to see what I mean.

There are two prongy things coming out of the bus that attaches to the wires. And look at all the wires! As for the temp housing, we are a mere two blocks from Qwest Stadium- Home of the Seahawks. It's really pretty at night- it's lit up with blue lights. I'll try to take a pic and post it. We are staying at the Uwajimaya Village. When we first got here, Ari noticed as he was running errands that everyone was Asian. Turns out this complex is in Chinatown. So we are probably the only two Ortho Jews living in Chinatown. It's actually quite nice and beautiful. No people selling turtles or smells of exotic animals here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Uwajimaya_in_Seattle.jpg

I have to go give Ari a haircut now. I'll write more next week.

Shabbat Shalom!

Houses

We met with the real estate agent yesterday. We looked at a townhouse in this new complex they are still finishing. It was very nice, but small and in our price range... Then we looked at 2 of the ugliest most horrible houses I have ever seen - they were bigger than the townhouses but a lot more expensive. Later we looked at a couple houses for rent that were actually really nice and big and affordable, but we opted to put in a bid for the townhouse. Renting is better than buying, and the townhouse will be big enough for at least a few years - it's got 3 bedrooms and 3 floors with a master suite on the third floor. Our litmus test was whether the places would be nice enough for Abba and Pat, and this place definitely qualifies.

Anyway, they will be looking at the offers on Wednesday, but barring any strange circumstances, we are hoping to close on 9/27, after Rosh Hashana and before Yom Kippur. Yay!

We're also waiting to hear from the car dealership when our new car arrives. But we should it get it Monday or Tuesday at the latest.

So it looks like we will manage to drain our entire life savings in a mere 3 days! Yay again!

The stuff we had sent to temp housing came yesterday, so now we have the SD card reader to get pictures off the digital camera, so maybe we'll start posting pictures soon if we (Rachel) have time. That's all for now. I start work on Monday.

Have a good shabbos everyone.
Ari

First Post!

Welcome to our blog! We figured this would be an easy way to keep everyone informed on the latest news from Seattle ("The Emerald City," as we have just found out).

So far everything has been good - I think we've accomplished more in the last few days than in any month we were in NY. We set up a PO Box, a bank account, bought a car (2006 Civic LX), and started looking at permanent places to live.

Our temp housing is very nice - it's basically similar to a hotel suite. We have a large main area with a living room/dining room/kitchen, 2 bedrooms, laundry room with a washer/dryer, 2 bathrooms, TV, free wireless (at least as long as someone with a wireless network named "poodle" is here).

This shabbos we are going on a kollel shabbaton at some camp grounds, so we will get to meet some of the younger people here.

Anyway, we will post more later if we have time, including some pictures of the weirdo buses in this city (here's a teaser - they are electric but they are more like the trolleys in san francisco than hybrid buses elsewhere).

Ari