Author: Michael Pellegrini

Well, the long weekend has officially come to an end. The last few days have been a whirlwind and it’s taking everything I’ve got just to stay up and write about it. Thursday we both signed our names more times than you could possibly believe, then Friday we got the keys. Amy, Tom, and my Mom all arrived on Friday and helped us get things in order for a big day on Saturday. I made a couple trips to the new house on Friday night just to get a head start on things, but Saturday was by far the biggest day of the weekend.

I’d be lying if I said it all went smoothly, but with the help of family and friends we got through it unscathed. I think we each had our own difficulties to face; Jessica was coming at it from the stress of having things organized and prepared point of view, Amy and my Mom were coming at it from a ‘Wow those little girls are really fast and hard to keep up with’ point of view, and Tom and I from a ‘Please let that be all of the furniture to move’ point of view. However we were so fortunate to have the help of my sister Dana, her friend Michelle, Michelle’s son Connor, and last but certainly not least, our good friend Laurel. I seriously can’t thank all of you enough for everything you did this weekend. We couldn’t have done it without you and are so appreciative for all the hard work. I definitely owe some favors and will be expecting a call next time some help is needed for any of you.

Sunday and Monday were all about getting things organized. Although we still have a long way to go, I’m so pleased with where things are at. My Mom and Amy were so helpful with getting things organized, and of course Tom was a huge help getting things put together / fixed. I’ve already made 3 trips to Lowe’s in my first weekend as a homeowner and I can see its not going to change. I’m eager to learn how to do stuff around the house and have jumped right in to the best of my ability. In addition to putting up all kinds of storage hooks in the garage, I have pressure washed the North side of the house (where the moss grows), mounted our TV on the wall, and learned how to hook up a washer and dryer. I bought a weed-wacker today and am planning on getting a lawn mower later this week.

I have to give special thanks to my Mom, who in addition to treating us to Chinese food on Saturday night, made filet and lobster on Sunday night, plus got us a Keurig coffee machine, a new toaster, and a really cool hybrid barbeque that has a charcoal grill, a gas grill, and an infrared side pan. I’ve never owned a grill before and can’t wait to try it out. Putting it together was a bit difficult but it was fun working with Tom on it. I still have a ton of work to do in terms of putting clothes away and organizing my office, but considering this is only our third night in the house I couldn’t be happier.

My Mom left today, and Amy and Tom leave tomorrow, however Jessica is working tomorrow night so it won’t be until Wednesday that we have a normal family night at home with just the four of us. To be honest this still all feels a bit surreal. Every once in a while it just sort of hits me that we’re in our own house and can do anything we want to it. I’ve never cared at all about personalizing my home before this but now it’s all I can think of. Hopefully by the time Rick comes out to visit for the 4th of July we’ll have everything looking good. We’re going to have a lot of visitors throughout the summer so I can’t wait to get everything put away.

Plenty of new updates coming soon, but for now here’s a couple images of our farewell to the Bellevue house. Also, another big thank you to Carol and Julie for all their help throughout this process. It really was a pleasure.

I’m currently enjoying a 4 day weekend, which is the longest break I’ve had from work since Christmas. Jess worked Friday night but has the rest of the time off with me. Yesterday was mainly a relaxing day but today has been quite the opposite. In order to give Jessica some time to get stuff done around the house, I took the girls to Bellevue Square mall this morning. We walked around every square inch of that place and ended up having a lot of fun. Ava has never told me she loves me so many times in one day. I guess that’s to be expected when you say yes to all of her requests. Whether she wanted to play in the kids area, search for fireflies, or just get a cookie to snack on, I was simply a Yes Man… Or I mean a Yes Daddy.

Once we returned home I got to work helping Jessica around the house. We’ve gotten so much done and we’re starting to see light at the end of the tunnel. The move is only 13 days away and we’re definitely getting excited. June is a month I’ve been looking forward to for a while and now it’s only a week away. As I said last night to Jessica, I’m going to start June as a student who rents their home, and will finish June as a graduate who owns their home. It’s definitely going to be a big month.

The girls are both doing well, although Ava has been terrorizing us at night lately. It’s weird because she’s the nicest, sweetest little girl all day, then you put her to bed and she turns into a little demon. Our little Princess Poltergeist brings new meaning to the word irrational, especially between the hours of 3:00 and 4:00am. As mere mortal parents our powers are limited, but luckily we have a couple wild cards up our sleeve, mainly in the form of warm milk bottles and Thomas The Train DVDs. I’m sure this is just a byproduct of her age and will pass soon, but I’d be lying if I said it hadn’t been challenging.

Elise, on the other hand, has taken to playing the part of the eternally happy baby. Although she may be the most difficult baby in the world to dress, she is otherwise an absolute joy. I remember Ava going through this phase and therefore don’t expect it to last forever, but it’s nice for now. We’re thinking about having the girls share a room at the new house, which will allow us to have a full time dedicated play room and a separate dedicated guest room. Certainly this will require some adjustments, but we’re willing to give it a try.

Looks like the rest of the weekend will be spent packing and relaxing. New pics coming soon.

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day, and I’m starting to realize that this is becoming one of my favorite holidays. In addition to paying homage to Jessica, my Mom, all the amazing Mom’s in our lives, its giving me the excuse to make some nice meals for Jessica and the girls. And not just brunch either. As far as I’m concerned this is a whole-weekend affair. That being said, tonight for our Mother’s Day Eve dinner we’ll be having prosciutto-wrapped filet mignon, baked potato with homemade cheese sauce, sauteed mushrooms, salad, and to wash it down we’ll be enjoying a bottle of Catena Malbec that we’ve been holding onto for a bit. Then tomorrow morning for brunch we’ll have a crab cake benedict along with a bottle of Prosecco I have chilling. Then tomorrow night will be linguine with clams. I hope we don’t sound like alcoholics here, but there’s a method to my madness. Each bottle we consume is one less thing to pack and move 😉

Speaking of moving, everything is coming along nicely. Yesterday I met Jessica and the girls at the new house at 2:00pm for our inspection. Jess kept an eye on the girls while I followed along with the inspector. I had a lot of questions for him, mainly because I’ve never done anything like this before and know practically nothing about construction or houses, but luckily for me he turned out to be the nicest guy and was happy to answer all of my questions. Our agent told us he’s the best in the business and after having spent nearly three hours checking out the entire house with him I couldn’t disagree. Luckily, although there were a few small things we found that need some attention, there was nothing major at all. The house is in very good shape and there is no reason to think that we can’t deal with these few small issues before closing.

Even though we’re still about 4 weeks away from closing, I can already feel myself growing an interest in learning how to work on the house. Having rented for all these years I never had much of an interest in getting my hands dirty, but now that I’m going to own a place the idea of being able to fix or upgrade something on my own without having to hire somebody is much more attractive. Plus with school ending shortly I’m going to have a lot more time to take on projects around the house. Speaking of school, I just reached the half-way point of Spring quarter, meaning I’m on a short break before classes resume next weekend. This is my last break of any kind at school; when classes resume I’ll only be 5 weeks away from completion. I don’t want to start getting excited yet because there’s still a lot of work to do, but its so close I can almost taste it.

The girls are both doing great. Elise has been crawling for a while, and is now getting to the point where she is pulling herself up to her feet. She’s still pretty wobbly but once she’s up she does well assuming she has something to hold onto. She’s also starting to talk a bit. Not in terms of actual words but you can tell that she’s trying to mimic sounds and words she’s hearing. It’s pretty exciting to be seeing all this for the second time, and you can’t help but compare it to everything we experienced with Ava not too long ago.

Speaking of Ava, she is quite the little handful. She’s got more energy than you can possibly imagine, and knows exactly what she does and does not want to do. She continues to show incredible signs of determination, even for something as trivial as collecting certain colored markers. She’s also really tough. I know I’ve said it before but her toughness continues to amaze me. Elise seems to have that gene as well because the two of them have taken a few spills this week that we were concerned about, including Ava pulling Elise’s high chair tray down, hitting the ground, then Elise falling out of the chair and right onto her. As you can imagine the decibel rating goes up considerably for a few minutes, but both girls bounce back quicker than anyone could ever expect.

Before I go I want to give a quick shout out with all my love to my Mom. I’m sorry I won’t see you on Mother’s Day but can’t wait for your visit next month. I also want to send our love to Amy, Dana, Brenda, Kristy, and all the aunts, cousins, and friends who are moms. We love you all and wish you a great day tomorrow. You deserve it. As for Jessica, thanks for being the best mom our girls could ask for. We love you so much!

After a couple suspenseful days we just got the good news today that our offer has been accepted and we’re buying our first house! Obviously this was very exciting news; I had a bit of a difficult time containing myself at work and had to run outside and call Jessica immediately. It was a bit of a back and forth situation regarding offers, counter offers, counters to counters, etc., but ultimately we reached an agreement that everyone was happy with. We’ll be closing on Friday June 6 and moving that weekend. I’m not exactly looking forward to moving again, but this is the last time we’ll have to worry about that for quite a while. Although this probably won’t be our ‘forever house’, its certainly a place that we’ll be happy to call home for the next 5-7 years.

As mentioned in a previous post, this is the first time either Jessica or myself has ever bought a home, so we’re both thrilled. Something about this house just felt right from the beginning and I can’t wait to start giving it some personal touches to really make it our own. There are a few projects like landscaping the back yard, replacing the floors with hard wood, and upgrading the kitchen/bathroom counters to granite, that we plan on doing, but nothing needs to happen right away. The house is move-in ready, assuming all goes well with the inspection, which will be this Friday at 2:00pm.

There’s still a lot of work to do in terms of finalizing the mortgage, packing, planning the move, etc., but just knowing that we’re moving into a house that we own makes it all more than worth it. This means that June will be a very busy month for us. Not only are we moving, but I’ll be finishing up school, so we’re going to be as busy as ever, but its all good. Luckily my Mom will be returning from her annual Alaska cruise on Friday, June 6th, and will be available to help watch the girls that weekend. I can’t help but laugh at the fact that this will be Ava’s third move, and she’s only 2 1/2 years old!

We’re already planning on having people over for Elise’s first birthday in July, so maybe that will end up being a little house-warming event as well. We’ll see. Plenty of updates coming soon.

A week ago today we started looking at houses, and today we’re placing our first offer! We’ve looked at hundreds of homes online, as well about ten in person. Of those ten there were a small few that we seriously considered but based on all the factors we feel like we’ve found a really good fit. I’ll hold off on descriptions until I see how things turn out, but the offer has officially been submitted and we’re asking for a response within the next 24 hours. I will say that its up in the same neighborhood we’ve been looking in, which I’ve come to find out consists of parts of four different cities: Bothell, Mill Creek, Everett, and Snohomish. In our case with this house, we’d be in Snohomish, but its all part of the same school district, which is one of the best in the state.

This is definitely an exciting time for us, but we’re trying to take it in stride. Obviously we’ll be very excited if we get this house, but at the same time if it doesn’t work out we won’t be devastated. There’s so much out there that I have no doubt we’re going to find something soon. This is our first time buying a home so its been so nice to have Carol and Julie helping us through the process. Not having to worry about your mortgage broker or your real estate agent is a huge relief.

Going to cut this one short for now and wait and see what happens. Updates coming soon.

Today the four of us celebrated Jessica’s birthday. Since it fell on a Monday it seemed like a perfect excuse to use a personal day at work and make a long weekend out of it. We lucked out and had beautiful weather, so we all hopped in the car and headed to the ferry terminal in downtown Seattle. Soon enough we were on our way to Bainbridge Island for a day of fun exploring a kids museum, walking along the water looking at boats, and having lunch. On our way to the island Ava was thrilled to be out on the deck of the ferry taking in all the scenery. It was super windy and a bit chilly but she didn’t care, in fact getting her to leave the ferry and go down to the car was a chore of its own. I had to bribe her by saying that we were going to look at more boats in the water and maybe we’d find some ducks.

Ava is currently in what I’m calling a ducks and fireflies stage. She won’t stop talking about either of those creatures and is obsessed with seeing them. The funny thing is that she hasn’t even seen a real firefly, but she saw some glowing lights in a tree at the mall and now she’s obsessed with them. Luckily quenching her duck fix is pretty attainable around here so we’ve been going to the park frequently to look for them. Saturday afternoon we attended a birthday party at Seward Park, which is right on Lake Washington, and there were plenty of ducks for Ava to obsess over. Of course getting her away from them usually requires a bribe of some kind. I’ve found that chocolate chip cookies work well…

After we left Bainbridge Island we drove up north to Mill Creek to check out a house for sale that we found online. We’ve been getting pretty serious about buying something lately and actually contacted Aunt Carol today to start the loan qualification process. Yesterday we drove around for a few hours looking at places, but today was better because we like the Bothell / Mill Creek area so much better than what we had previously seen. There are a few houses up there that we’re interested in so hopefully something will work out. Either way its fun (and maybe a little stressful) to be looking for something to buy. We know we plan on being here for the long-term and even if we can’t get our ‘forever home’ right now, we can definitely get something nice. It certainly beats paying someone else’s mortgage for them.

While driving around Mill Creek today we were really impressed with the neighborhoods. There’s a golf course in the complex, a swimming pool, and a couple really nice big parks all within walking distance. The other great thing about that area is the schools. Both of the elementary schools near the houses we’re looking at are graded 10 out of 10. For comparison sake, most of the elementary schools we found in Seattle scored between 1 – 5 out of 10. This simply wasn’t an option so finding an area with good schools for the girls was a top priority. Also, from an investment perspective, houses in good school districts are much more desirable and carry a higher resale value so its a no-brainer.

Hopefully it won’t be long before we have an update on the house situation. The idea of moving again soon doesn’t exactly tickle my fancy but becoming a home owner for the first time will (hopefully) be a great experience. Everything else is going well, just staying busy as ever. I’ve only got about 8 weeks left in school so ideally we can schedule a move right after I finish, but we’ll see. If we have to pull the trigger early and move before I graduate I’m sure I’ll figure it out.

Elise has been crawling for a while now, and it seems like she’ll be standing on her own very soon. She loves to stand up but needs help to stay up. We were just looking at pictures of her from a few months ago and commenting on how much she has already changed. Ava is starting to look a little different now simply because her hair is long enough to tie up in the back. Her hair is so fine that it doesn’t stay in the hair tie for very long, and before you know it she’s got a bit of a lion’s mane going on, but its super cute. Here’s some recent photos, most of which were taken today on our adventure to the island.

Monday afternoon we returned from our long weekend in Vancouver to the smiling faces and outstretched arms of our beautiful little girls. While we were enjoying ourselves up north (more on that in a second), the girls were exploring the Seattle Aquarium, Pacific Science Center, and much more with Grandma and Grandpa. Huge thanks to Amy and Tom for coming out and taking such good care of them, and us in a way.

Since Thursday was our actual anniversary, and I was technically on vacation by the time Thursday evening came around, we decided to go out for a very special sushi dinner. This may sound a little odd, but go and watch a movie called “Jiro Dreams of Sushi” and you’ll understand very quickly. It’s a documentary about a Japanese man named Jiro who is widely regarded as the best sushi chef in Japan. He’s in his 80’s but still works full-time, and has been doing so since the age of 10. The whole message behind the movie is that the secret to life and happiness is the dedication of your life to a craft, and striving for perfection in that craft knowing that you will never truly achieve it.

Jiro has had a number of apprentices over the years, and the training they endure is incredible. They spend 7 years learning to make the rice alone! 7 years! One of Jiro’s apprentices is a man named Shiro, who owns (in my opinion) the best sushi restaurant in Seattle. It’s on 2nd Ave in Belltown and its a place that I’ve been familiar with for many years. Before Thursday I had only eaten there once before, but once I found out that Shiro was Jiro’s apprentice, I had to go back. Since Jessica didn’t get to eat sushi for most of last year due to her pregnancy with Elise, she was more than happy to have a proper sushi meal.

We made reservations for the sushi bar, and as expected the place was packed so we weren’t even seated until an hour past our reservation. Luckily however, we ended up with the two best seats in the house. Not only were we seated at the sushi bar, we were placed in the two end seats, meaning that we would be served by Shiro himself and would have the only unobstructed views of him in the entire restaurant. The rest of the seats at the bar are separated from the chefs by a glass case of fresh fish, but not ours. We could clearly watch him making everything. When you get a chance to watch an expert perform their craft you need to take advantage of it and appreciate it for what it’s worth. Of course more than anything we were happy to be enjoying a night out together, but we couldn’t get over how cool and special it felt to watch him work.

Regardless of all the sentiment and tradition, the meal was quite simply the best sushi meal either of us have ever had. Our typical approach in situations like these is to put down our menus and let the chef choose our meal. This was no exception. Shiro hand-selected and prepared everything we had that night, and believe me, there wasn’t an unpleasant bite to be found. Although everything we had was amazing, we mutually decided that the king crab, torro (Ahi tuna belly), and local salmon were best. Shiro adds the appropriate amount of wasabi and sauce to each piece so no work is required on your part, just pure sushi enjoyment. This was one of those dinners that we’ll never forget but I’m sure we’ll try to replicate it sooner than later.

Friday morning we drove up to Vancouver. We had good weather and only a 30 minute wait at the border. After crossing we went straight to Kitsalano for lunch, which I’ve previously described as the West Seattle of Vancouver, but upon further inspection feels much more like Pacific Beach than West Seattle. We had a great lunch at a bistro called Burgoo, which included the best meatball sandwich of my life. After lunch we walked around to explore the area, then headed downtown to check-in at our hotel. We stayed at the Metropolitan Hotel, which is the same place we stayed in last time. To be honest, our experience with the hotel on this trip wasn’t as good as it was last year, but that was a very minor detail in an otherwise outstanding trip.

Friday night we enjoyed another all-time great meal, this time of the Italian variety. We went to Cioppino and had the best seafood we’ve ever had at an Italian restaurant. It was funny because this was a very different dinner from Thursday night, but they were both dominated by amazing seafood. Shortly after we sat down we were greeted by the Maitre’ D, who informed us that my Mother had purchased us a nice bottle of wine and told them to take good care of us for our anniversary. She is unbelievable! What a considerate and thoughtful thing to do. Well, the wine was outstanding, as was the food and service, plus the surroundings were priceless. There was a table behind us that looked like a Good Fella’s casting call. These guys were dressed to a T, drinking very expensive wine, and drawing a ton of attention from the restaurant staff. They definitely personified the environment, and between the dinner we had there combined with dinner at Shiro’s and lunch at Burgoo, I was already proclaiming this as one of the great ‘food weekends’ of my life.

Saturday was spent walking around downtown Vancouver and shopping. We got some stuff for ourselves, as well as for the girls, then went back to the hotel for some swimming, champagne, and got ready for the hockey game. Seeing an NHL hockey game in Canada was a bucket list item for me so it was really cool to get to do that. Sunday we walked around some more, had a nice brunch, then went to the movies to see “The Grand Budapest Hotel”, which I thought was good. Although we tried to stay out late, we ended up back in our room before midnight every night. That said, we made the most of each day and were pretty beat by the time we left on Monday.

Obviously we were thrilled to come home to our girls but I’m glad we got this time away. Getting back home meant the spring quarter at school had officially begun, so I immediately had some homework to take care of. My first day back at work was Tuesday, and it was a long one. By the time I went to bed at 4:00am I had been working for over 18 hours and could barely see straight. I mentioned recently that I’ve been working on a special project but couldn’t go into any details. Well, that special project is now live (as of this evening) and will be promoted tomorrow morning on Amazon’s homepage, as well as Jeff Bezos’ shareholder letter.

In order to help mitigate some of the negative press we have received regarding our fulfillment centers, Amazon has decided to offer fulfillment center tours to the general public. By allowing people into these once very secret facilities, we should be able to dispel some of the myths regarding work conditions. Having spent a fair amount of time in these places, I already knew that the reports were false, but now anyone will have the ability to see what happens behind the scenes once you purchase a product. The site is located at: amazon.com/fctours and it is expected to receive a very high traffic volume.

This was my first opportunity to do something that is publicly visible at Amazon so I took it very seriously. The exposure it brought me was incredible; every day I’ve been finding myself in meetings with directors, senior managers, and other leaders throughout the company. It is these very same people who will control my fate when the decision comes to see if I should move along to the next level, so making a good impression was vital. Fortunately everything has turned out really well and I’ve been getting some much-appreciated praise and recognition for the hard work and dedication. Having worked on this project makes me feel like I have finally truly ‘arrived’ at Amazon, and I’m excited to be able to take things like this on again in the future.

We’ve been very spoiled by having Amy and Tom out to stay with us, so these next couple days will be a bit of an adjustment. Jessica said Ava was very upset to see them go today, but before she knows it they’ll be back for Elise’s first birthday in July. Jessica will be busy at work due to Seattle Restaurant Week so I can’t wait for Sunday when the four of us can relax and have a nice family day together. Sorry for not posting any new pictures of the girls lately. I promise to post some next time I write.

Today Amy and Tom are flying up to stay with us and watch the girls while we’re in Vancouver next weekend. We haven’t seen them since Christmas so it will be good to have them out. Hopefully they’ll be having lots of fun with the girls while Jess and I get some much needed R&R up north. They’re flying their own plane up here, which is very cool, and that gives them the freedom to stay as long as they like. I’ve still never seen Tom’s plane so maybe this time I’ll have to check it out. We’ve been telling Ava for several days about Grandma and Grandpa coming to visit, so she’s really excited to see them. Obviously Elise is still too small to understand something like that but I know she’s going to love getting time with them as well.

Last week was an especially crazy week for me at work because I found out that my good friend / co-worker, Garth, is leaving Amazon for a role as a Senior Software Engineer at Disney. Garth was the guy who originally interviewed me, and subsequently hired me, for the contracting role at Amazon that caused us to leave San Diego. Later, once I was hired full-time, Garth was my mentor, as well as a good friend. I think its safe to say that he’s been the most instrumental person in my career so far, which makes it really tough to see him go.

I guess you could say the news was bitter-sweet though, because at the same time my manager told me about Garth’s impending departure, he also told me that the next level for me as a web developer is within sight and is something I need to be preparing for. Generally the way it works at Amazon is by the time you’ve been promoted to a new role, you’ve already been carrying out that role’s duties for some time. For me that means now, and its something I place a high priority on.

We have a new web dev joining our team next Monday (which is the day Jess and I return from Canada), and I’ve already been told that I will be mentoring him. Even though I just got a new mentor of my own, I’m excited to be able to help onboard someone and bring them up to speed. Losing Garth means I am now my team’s most experienced developer, which comes with its own share of responsibilities and leadership opportunities.

The first of these new responsibilities arrived Thursday, which was the same day I got the news about Garth leaving. Although I can’t go into any details at this point, I can say that it comes all the way from the top and will be my first opportunity to create something that will be publicly visible. Can’t wait to post a link to it once it goes live! In order to keep up with all the high-priority work I’ve got going on right now I’ve had to put in extra hours at night and over the weekend. I expect these long days to continue right up until Thursday at 4:00pm, which is when I unplug from the world and begin our vacation.

Luckily I’m on Spring Break from school right now, making it easier to deal with everything at work. Once we return from Canada I’ll be back in school for my final quarter. Going to enjoy this week, maybe even get an extra jiu jitsu class in since the girls will always be accounted for, and get ready for the trip. Then I’ll be more than ready to get back in school for the final push. Plenty of updates coming soon.

I just submitted my final assignment of winter quarter, meaning that I am now officially on spring break. This one is special to me simply because its my last. I’m also excited about this break because I’ll be finishing it with a long weekend in Vancouver with Jessica. Not exactly your typical spring break vacation, but in my opinion this is infinitely cooler than some super cliche spring break trip that usually involves either being drunk on a boat in Lake Havasu, or cavorting around Mexico with a group of delinquents in search of sombreros and cheap tequila. I’ll take hockey games and shopping on Robson any day.

I’d be lying if I said both of us weren’t really looking forward to this getaway. As busy as I am with everything going on at work and school, Jessica might even be busier with everything she does with the girls. We’re definitely thankful to have Amy and Tom coming to spend some time with them. Elise has grown so much since they saw her at Christmas; they’ll hardly recognize her.

Having a new car for the past week has been awesome. No buyers remorse here. I forgot how nice it would be to be able to take the girls in either car (I got them matching car seats at Costco last weekend), and things like an adjustable driver’s seat, heated seats, a working driver’s side window, and power locks have all been very well received. Tomorrow I’m going to get the Honda cleaned up, photographed, and posted for sale. Hopefully it won’t take too long to get rid of it. Since my extremely generous mother refuses to accept the money we’ll get for selling it, we’ve decided to split it in half and use it to open savings accounts for the girls. Thank you Nana.

This weekend will be the first weekend I haven’t worked at all in about a month. We had a major deliverable on Monday and everything went extremely well. It was still a busy week but spirits were high, no more so for me than this morning when I received a little public praise from a senior manager for all my hard work on this project. That was pretty cool. I also had my first session with my new mentor at work this week. Amazon is really big on their mentorship program; they encourage everyone to get a mentor, to become a mentor, and to take advantage of the internal resources that are available to you. I definitely plan on becoming a mentor once I make it to the next level as a web developer, but for now I’m happy to soak up as much knowledge as possible from people who have been around for a long time. My new mentor has been with Amazon for 7 years, which probably puts him in the top 10% of tenure. Getting to learn from someone like that is an amazing opportunity so I’m glad to have gotten started.

I’ve been going to a lot of Jiu Jitsu classes at lunch lately. The exercise aspect of it alone is key, but being able to drop everything, clear your mind, and learn something new is great. Hopefully I’ll be able to get a couple extra classes in during spring break, but spending extra time with the girls is priority number one. This will be a little precursor to what we can expect this summer.

Jessica has tomorrow night off, and it’s the first time she hasn’t worked on a Saturday in months, so we’re going out for a night on the town. Laurel has been kind enough to volunteer to come over and watch the girls for us, so we’re going to bounce around to a couple different places. I think we’re starting off with raw oysters at Rock Creek in Fremont where our old friend Mike Duncan tends bar, then we’re going to visit Rico and see his new place Loulay. It was opened recently by the chef from Rover’s, which was probably our favorite restaurant until it closed last June. I guess this will be a little pre-cursor to our Vancouver trip in a couple weeks. Gotta take advantage of a free night when you can.

Elise has figured out a way to get around, although I’m not really sure what to call it. It’s not crawling, it’s more like land swimming, but it seems to work for her. Every time you set her down she’s on the move, and she’s developing such a cute little personality. She loves to laugh and enjoys watching her big sister running around being crazy. Ava continues to impress us with how good she is with Elise. The older they get the more fun and amazing they become.

Well, time to wrap it up and start enjoying this break. Jess is at work and the girls are sleeping so I guess it’s time to watch Top Gear and some basketball highlights. Perfect timing with March Madness going on. Until we meet again.

Although my Mom’s old 96 Accord has been incredibly good to us over the last couple years, I’ve been wanting to upgrade to a new car for a little while. Since we’ve decided to stay in our current house for another year before buying something, I decided now is the time to find a new ride. I’ve been doing tons of research and shopping online, yet ironically enough, Jessica was the one that found our new car. It’s a 2004 Acura TL, and I honestly hadn’t planned on buying something that old, but it only has 24,500 miles on it. I don’t know how that’s even possible for a ten year old car, but it’s practically brand new!

The funny thing is, we actually went to the lot to look at an Audi A4 that we found online, but we knew that they also had this Acura TL with super low miles. I pointed the TL out right away but first went to check out the Audi. As it turned out, the Audi wasn’t in very good condition and just didn’t feel like a good fit. The Acura, on the other hand, just felt like the right car from the beginning. We really liked the way it drives, its been very well maintained, and there was plenty of room for carseats in the back.

I’ve always liked TL’s ever since my Mom bought a brand new one in 1995. Unfortunately she only had that car for two years before totaling it in an accident, but it feels good to have my own now. Its funny because this whole time I’ve been thinking about getting something German, but when it comes down to it I end up with something made by Honda. I guess I’m just a Honda guy. I have a Honda motorcycle, an Acura (which is obviously owned by Honda), plus I’ve owned 4 other Hondas in my life. I firmly believe that they make the best all-around cars in the world, especially when it comes to reliability.

The downside to all this is that I can no longer obsess over researching cars, but its all good. I’ve got plenty else to keep me busy anyway. Speaking of staying busy, work has been insane for me lately. I’ve been working 6 days a week for the past few weeks just trying to stay caught up. I don’t expect this to go on forever but we’ve got some very aggressive deadlines to meet and everyone is chipping in a little extra to make sure we succeed. Combining all this with the rest of my responsibilities hasn’t exactly been easy, but everything is going fine.

Tomorrow Elise turns 8 months old. Time has been flying and she’s getting so big. She’s still not quite crawling but she loves to roll around and play with her toys. Ava does so well around her that we really have nothing to worry about in terms of them being in the room together. Initially we were a little concerned that Ava might run into her or fall on her but so far Ava has been very cautious and sweet with her baby sister. Jessica will be taking some new photos of Elise tomorrow so I’m sure we’ll have those up soon.

Ava is working on potty training these days, although we haven’t actually had any success yet. She has her own potty, and a book about going potty that she loves, so I’m sure she’ll be there in no time. As usual, Jessica does a great job with her, encouraging her and showing lots of patience, even when she ends up with a mess on the floor to clean up. As you can imagine, potty training isn’t exactly the cleanest of endeavors.

We’re really excited to have the new car for our weekend in Canada next month. That’s going to add a whole new level of coolness to the trip. I can’t thank my Mom enough for giving us the Honda back when we lived in San Diego. It made the move up to Seattle with us and has been more than we could ever have asked for, but even she was very happy to see us upgrade. The Acura is much safer, more reliable, and is something that the girls will actually be able to ride in, which is something we were never really comfortable with in the Honda. Next step is to get more car seats I guess. Here’s a few pics of the new family whip. The lighting isn’t very good so its kinda hard to tell, but the car is dark green with tan leather interior. It’s a V6 putting out ~270hp so it’s got some getup. Haven’t been this excited about a car in a while.