Yes we are really

Since my messages about the move were truncated somewhere... Yes we are all moved in. We still have many boxes to unpack but the living room and kitchen at least is all done. I've spent a good part of the last couple of days painting the kitchen cabinets. Tomorrow we may get our phone line and a network connection and Friday our bedroom furniture.

Counting sheep

Liam couldn't sleep, so I asked him to imagine sheep and count them. A short time later he came down and said that he was done counting and still couldn't sleep. I asked him how many he counted, the answer.... 14!

We're in

The cleaning crew pulled out of the driveway at about 6:30 pm, at about 6:45 we backed up the moving truck and started unloaded. We had a second small load in the house by about 9pm. A lot of unpacking to do, but we're in. It's good to be back.

All packed up

We have about 75% of the packing done in the apartment. Tomorrow morning the cleaners are coming in to give the house a once over. I'll finish packing and do some Christmas shopping, before picking a truck up in the late afternoon. Hopefully we'll be back in by about 7pm. Of course it will be months before we are fully unpacked.

Intelligent Design

For anyone aware of the Intelligent Design controversy in the U.S. (basically the idea that man was created by an intelligent designer should be tought as an alternative to evolution in science classes), there was a significant court ruling yesterday in Pennsylvania. The judge essentially said "no way, ID is just creationism warmed over". The ruling is scathing, and worth a quick scan if you are into that sort of thing :-) Another strong argument against ID is Incompetent Design.

As an aside, Liam and I were watching a TV show about chimps in zoos and how they make artificial termite mounds so the chimps can poke out food with twigs. I mentioned that they were the only animals to use tools, and Liam interjects essentially that humans then grew from chimps. Out of the mouth of babes...

We passed our finals

Yesterday we passed our "final inspection" where a city inspector comes out to make sure that the house adheres to the building codes. This was the last big hurdle (we hope), though there is still quite a bit of cleanup to do ("you are right, we did forget to install a vent for the clothes dryer").

Looks like we are on track to move on the 24th. I've started packing already.

And there was light (and water)

On the housing front, things are moving apace. There was actually good progress this week; the plumbing fixtures went in, the lights and sockets were done, the floors were finished and more painting was done.

We are doing our "final inspection" on Monday. Hopefully the city will then sign off on our house being to code and inhabitable. After that there is usually about a week of clean up and finishing off, giving us a Dec 27th move in date. We will however be moving back (fingers crossed) on Dec 24th and the final, final cleanup can go on around us after Christmas.

There are a bunch more photos.

Visitors from Bangalore

I took 2 coworkers from Bangalore to Huddart Park for a 1 1/2 hours hike followed by a nerd tour that ended at the HP Garage on Addison. We got into a tour of the house and the garage by pure luck. They are going to close the tour forever and make available only to HP events after Monday. Even getting into the tour today was supposedly very difficult because all the previous tours were completely full.

Looks pretty similar...

A few weeks backs I posed the question of what outside paint we should choose. I included a mockup in photoshop of what we thought it would look like. It turns out that it was pretty close to how it looks in the real world (despite all the votes against this color!).

Maybe I have found my "retirement" career?

Somersault

Liam and I have been going to the swimming pool most Sundays for the last 6 month's or so. He is now fish-like, and I am now a little less stone like. Yesterday he was able to teach me how to do underwater somersaults... for those that know my swimming capabilities, you know that this is a big step forward :-)

The pool at the YMCA is great, it has a nice warm "learning pool" and neither of the pools have a "deep end" for me at least, topping out at 5 feet deep!

The next golf?

Is cycling the next golf? Some venture capitalist seem to think so in this article from the New York Times that features Alto Velo.

"You'll see some of the most influential people in the valley out there on bikes on the weekends," Mr. Komisar said. "There's lots of playful competition, lots of joshing.""Cycling," he added, "is the new golf."

A NYT reporter came out to the start of the "A-ride" last Sunday and interviewed a few people and then headed out to the coast to take some pictures.

(I wasn't on the ride last week; instead I rode around "the loop" with Liam on the trail-a-bike since Cynthia was in L.A. - my chance for fame, missed.)

Termites found

Just got an email from the contractor about discovery of termites in our front room. AGGGHHH.... Just when we thought we should be at the end of all the surprises for this project.

Well, termites or not, we're moving in. (so we hope)

so that is what they were...