Redmond

Our apartment is 1100 sq feet, 3 bedroom 2 baths, furnished. It kind of begs the issue of what do you need all the rest of that space and things for, but those are the things that make a house a home. We are right behind the Microsoft campus so Jeff's commute is about 5 min. This map should show our location compared with Microsoft, Marymoor park, Idlewood park, and Redmond Town Center.

I brought along Megan's fish tank, including her Betta fish, frog, and 2 shrimp. The animals all survived but the tank got a hairline crack in the bottom (so much for soft sided luggage!) The tank was replaced within a couple of days. Bringing the fish might have been crazy but it does make things more homey.

The first couple of days here were very busy with the rush before Christmas. Jeff's Mom and Dad flew up from Tucson on the same flight as the girls and I. They were a great help with the kids. The girls and I came to the apartment and his parents went on to stay with his brother in Duvall. Duvall is another 30 min or so past where we are here in Redmond. We had a very nice Cristmas with Jeff's family at Rich and Laurie's house there. Megan and Erin really enjoyed playing with their cousins.

The weather has been rainy. There hasn't been a day without rain although some of the days were quite warm. The last couple of days there have been periods in the afternoon that are pretty sunny. It has been hard to get used to the sun going down so early. At 4:30 its dusk and by 5 full dark.

We haven't seen the cousins in two days now and have managed to find ways to fill up our time. Yesterday we found the Fidelity office and deposited some checks. We then found a TGI Fridays that Jeff used to eat at pretty often when he was an intern here in 1990. We also went to a park, to the playground for the first time. We went to Marymoor park. Its a great huge park, but they charge $1 for parking (or you can buy a membership.) It was pretty cold for my tastes (40's?) And the only other kids that were at the playground weren't of the right age really to play with the girls. After we finished at the playground we drove by the 40 acre (!) dog park there. It looked like such a fun place to take your dog!

Today we found the Redmond library and got our library card. The library was really nice. The kids section was really big. It has two computers which have educational games on them. It was hard to tear Megan away from those. I had to ask where the board books were. They were on the shelf and less than 100 of them total. I guess Erin will have to start reading more 'real' books. They don't have any storytimes until the middle of January. They do have an evening book club! The next meeting is Jan. 5 to discuss "Middlesex". Now if I can just remember any of the details of that book! The Feb book is "The Namesake", which is one I've considered reading. I checked out a Margaret Atwood book ("Oryx and Crake") as I saw it on the "Staff Recommends" shelf (but then again "West with the Night" was also on the shelf!) The library either has no max number of books you can check out (or the number is 100...) which means we will all be able to check out books and not worry about the limit!

We then went to Claim Jumper at Redmond Town Center (RTC) for lunch and then took Megan to get her hair cut at "Brat Pack" which is kind of a toy store with a kids haircut place in the back. After Erin had a nap we explored the other close park, Idlewood. It seemed like it would be a better place to meet kids. It had a great new play structure and was right on the lake. But I guess we go too late in the day or its too cold. The kids haven't really been able to play with other kids, except their cousins. I'm feeling the pressure to get them in something.

I'm sorry there are no pictues on this post. I haven't downloaded any of the Christmas pictures and I really haven't taken a lot of other pictures. Hopefully the text and the links help you keep a little better in touch with what we are up to.