Author: Michael Pellegrini

I’m getting ready to board a plane at SeaTac Airport so I can visit my Mom this weekend. We haven’t seen each other since Ava’s birthday so it will be great to have a visit. I’m also very excited to be getting my motorcycle ready to ship up to Seattle. It’s been in Mom’s garage since November so I’m totally ready to go out for a ride tomorrow. It’s going to be a quick trip since I’m coming home on Sunday but at least I can take her out to an early Mother’s Day brunch on Sunday.

There has been a lot of travel in my life lately and it’s not going to stop anytime soon. Last weekend Jessica and I drove up to Vancouver BC for her birthday. I hadn’t been up there in more than a decade and forgot how much I love that city. It’s so much more international than anywhere I’ve been on the west coast, plus it’s a lot cleaner and the people are so friendly. I could definitely see Jess and I retiring there someday but for now its nice to have it such a short drive away. We’ve gotten used to 5.5 hour drives from San Diego to Vegas, so a 2.5 hour trip to Vancouver feels like nothing.

Whenever we go anywhere we always like to go out to eat, and this trip was no exception. I did some research on Vancouver’s dining scene before going up there and was able to find a couple great places. We went to a modern Italian place called Lupo on Friday, which is in the Yaletown neighborhood of Vancouver. Its in an old house that was converted into a restaurant. The service was good and the food was great. You could tell how much effort went into the visual presentation of the plates. Portions were a bit small but I’m okay with that.

The following day we walked all around Vancouver and did some shopping. I’ve officially adopted the Vancouver Canucks as my hockey team so we went to their team store to get a t–shirt. That night we went to the casino to watch the UFC, then had dinner at a fancy steakhouse called Gotham. I’d been there on my last trip and thought it would be fun to check it out again. It feels a lot like El Gaucho, and you can’t go wrong with a prime steak. Hopefully it won’t be long before we’re back up there. I can see that being our regular getaway from now on.

Grandma Amy is still with us and will be watching Ava while I’m away this weekend. She’s flying out Tuesday morning, and so am I, so we’ll probably go to the airport together. I’m heading back to Southern California for work. It looks like I’ll be travelling for work every other week for the next month or so, but I’ve already told them that I can’t travel after the middle of June since Elise could arrive at any time. Work has been going really well lately and I’m continuing to learn so much. I’ve been really busy with school this quarter, especially with my Macroeconomics class, but my grades are good and the weeks are flying by so I can’t complain. Looking forward to a nice weekend with my Mom and a much overdue ride on my bike!

Ava’s vocabulary has been growing steadily lately and it seems like everyday she is saying or signing a new word. Yesterday she did the sign for ‘bird’ several times when one landed near her, and last night she came over to us carrying Jessica’s rain boot and said "shoe." It’s really exciting to see her learning and communicating so much, and I’m not constantly looking forward to what she discovers next. Today however, was all about one word – apple. Jessica asked me this afternoon to feed Ava an apple for dinner tonight because she’s been saying and signing the word for apple all day. Jessica has been on an apple kick lately and it seems to have rubbed off on Ava.

I decided to surprise Ava by slicing the apple before dinner and pairing it with some string cheese (which she loves), but when I gave it to her she didn’t recognize it as an apple because it was sliced into small pieces. I tried to explain that it was an apple, and she kept saying the word apple, but she wouldn’t eat it. I was in the middle of homework so I decided to give her a few minutes with the sliced apple while I worked on my paper. When I came back about 15 minutes later I found her covered in chewed up apple. Apparently she liked the flavor, but not the texture. It was pretty cute though. She used to do the exact same thing with oranges and blueberries but now eats them entirely, so I’m sure apple will follow suit soon enough.

It’s nice to be having a mellow normal week this week considering how crazy last week was. Jessica tripping over Bruno and falling down the stairs was very scary but luckily everything turned out all right. She had her phone with her and was able to call me immediately. I had carpooled with my manager that day and luckily I was driving or else I could have been stuck at work. I felt bad to leave him but made it home in record time. We were able to get into the doctor’s office for an emergency ultrasound and found out that our baby girl was doing fine.

You don’t think about all that could be wrong in that situation until getting to the doctor’s office. Until then the only thing on your mind is getting there, but after the news comes in that the baby is okay you start thinking of how bad it could have been. Hearing that she was okay caused a rush of emotion that you didn’t allow yourself to feel during the heat of the moment.

Unfortunately this situation felt oddly appropriate based on Jessica’s fainting incident at a grocery store in San Diego a couple years ago. It turned out to be the only incident during her pregnancy with Ava so hopefully this will be the only incident of this pregnancy as well. I keep getting tempted to refer to our new baby girl as Elise but we haven’t finalized her name quite yet. That’s definitely my preference so we’ll see what happens.

Luckily for us, Jessica’s boss Cooper is a friend of ours and when I told him what happened he immediately gave her the week off to recover. It was restaurant week in Seattle meaning that things were crazy busy, but it didn’t matter to him. He even went out of his way to call and check on her both days when I was out of town to make sure everything was okay. This really meant a lot to both of us. I was hoping to thank him in person when I worked at Gaucho on Saturday night but he wasn’t there.

Tomorrow is Friday meaning another week has flown by. No traveling this week, which is nice, but lots and lots of coding. I’m constantly learning new stuff at work and am getting closer to taking a leadership role within a project. I’m really busy with school these days but am looking forward to taking the family to the zoo on Sunday if the weather permits it. Here’s a pic of Ava making a mess of her fruit and cheese dinner.

Last night Jessica and I went to see Jeff Bridges and The Abiders at the Moore Theater in Seattle. Although he is much better known as an actor, Bridges is also a talented musician with an album that we regularly listen to in the car. We’ve known about this upcoming show for a while but weren’t able to purchase tickets online unless we wanted to pay double face value. We decided to risk it so Jessica took the night off and we just went to the box office to see if tickets were available. Luckily they were and we ended up seeing a great show.

I’ve been a big fan of Bridges ever since seeing The Big Lebowski many years ago, and then I had the pleasure of meeting him one evening at El Gaucho. I was bartending when he and his wife came in for dinner, which was shortly before we moved to San Diego in 2010, and I ended up buying him a drink. We chatted for a moment and I remember loving how genuinely friendly he was. He took the time to ask me about myself and couldn’t have been nicer.

It was immediately obvious at last night’s show that I wasn’t the only Lebowski fan in the audience. The first time he made reference to his character "The Dude," the place erupted. He played a couple songs from the movie, one of which was saved for closing out the night at the end of their encore. In between songs he told stories about his life and where a lot of these songs come from. We ended up having a really nice time so it’s good we took the chance and decided to go.

Ava stayed home with a babysitter last night, which meant she insisted on staying up later than normal. I was fine with it though because today is Saturday and she allowed us all to sleep in. My new quarter at school begins tomorrow so I’ve got to get back into homework mode. Five quarters to go until graduation and this is my final quarter with any type of prerequisite class. After this quarter I’ll be doing nothing but programming in Java, which is what I joined for and have been looking forward to for a while. This quarter will include Macro Economics, Systems Acquisition and Sourcing, System Integration and Organization Deployment, and Math 305, which is a statistics class. In other words, this quarter is going to suck, but it will be sometime very shortly after this quarter that our new baby girl will be here, so we have something very big to look forward to.

Jessica is working tonight and tomorrow night so it looks like Ava and I are in for the weekend. I’m flying to Southern California for two days this week to conduct user experience tests with our fulfillment center associates on a new web application I’m working on. It’s going to be two very long days with minimal sleep in between, but it should be really interesting. I’m expecting our findings from these tests to be pivotal for the development cycle. Everything is going very well in the world of Amazon. I’ve been there long enough now to know what people are talking about and have been able to get started on multiple projects. I have a manager and a mentor that are both dedicated to helping me advance within the company, so everything is on the up and up.

Going out twice in one week is most uncommon these days but it was our anniversary week and both nights were super fun. We’ve now got Vancouver B.C. for Jessica’s birthday weekend later this month to look forward to. Grandma Amy will be coming out to visit and watch Ava while we’re gone, then my Mom will be visiting next month. Lots of good stuff around the corner.

Last night we celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary by going out to dinner and doing some shopping. Since it was a weekday I went to work like normal, then met Jessica and Ava in Queen Anne at Laurel’s place. Ava spent the next few hours with Laurel while Jess and I went out. We had dinner at The Capital Grille, which is a nice steakhouse downtown that neither of us had ever been to. Two of my best friends, Leon Palmer and Craig Perez, both work there and luckily they were both working last night, so we got to visit with them and get caught up.

Dinner was excellent; they took outstanding care of us and treated us to much more than we could have ever expected. After dinner we went shopping downtown for our anniversary gifts. Jessica had ordered me a new pair of Doc Martens boots but they were a size too big, so we went to the Doc Martens store on 2nd avenue and got a different size. After that we went to Nordstrom so Jessica could pick out a new hand bag. She’s been wanting a new one for a while so I thought it would make a nice gift. She ended up finding something she loved so we were both happy.

I’ll never forget getting the news that Jessica was pregnant on our 1st anniversary, so that’s going to be pretty tough to beat, but last night was a really great night. We’ve been so fortunate to be able to say that every year keeps getting better for us, and that will certainly be the case this year with our new addition to the family. Speaking of which, we’ve decided to reconsider names for our little girl but haven’t finalized quite yet. The new name frontrunner is Elise, which we both like, so we’ll see if it sticks. I’m hoping it does since it was my idea 😉 Only 3 more months until our new little sweetheart arrives.

We were invited to Jim and Diane’s Easter Sunday party today, so the three of us went over and had a nice time. Ava kept busy running around outside and going up and down the patio stairs. We tried laying her down for a nap twice but there was too much going on for her to fall asleep. There were several kids over there so they had an Easter egg hunt in the yard. Ava didn’t seem very interested in hunting for eggs but was having fun regardless.

Eventually Ava wore down and needed to go home for a nap but we had a really nice time. Jessica is working tonight so Ava and I are relaxing at home. I’ve got another big week at work starting tomorrow, plus Jessica and I are celebrating our third anniversary on Wednesday night. I was about to say it’s hard to believe it’s already been three years, but when you consider the impending arrival of our second daughter it kinda puts things into perspective.

Yesterday Jessica went to Julie’s baby shower, which was being held at the big green house (BGH) we used to live in. She still hadn’t seen some of our friends that live there so it was good for her to go and catch up. Friday night Jess and I worked together at El Gaucho. I was expecting to bartend but when I arrived I found out that I would be serving a private 5 course wine dinner featuring wines from DeLille Cellars here in Washington. At first I thought they were kidding but it ended up being a lot of fun. I haven’t worked in El Gaucho’s dining room in a really long time so it was cool that Jess was there.

Here are a few pics of Ava today at the party:

Tomorrow night I’m flying to Phoenix with my manager and another co–worker to conduct an "Expert Review" on Monday of an existing software system in our fulfillment centers. We’re going to look at what they have been using and brainstorm some new ideas for a more modern, user friendly tool. I’ve never been to Phoenix before and it’s supposed to be 80 degrees, so I’m all for it, however it doesn’t look like I’ll be seeing much sun while I’m there; mostly just warehouses and rental cars. We’re only in town for 21 hours so its going to be a little hectic.

All else is going very well. Just finished another quarter at school today and have a two week break. Only 15 months to go until graduation. Jessica is doing great in her pregnancy and seems much more at ease now that she knows what we’re having. I keep telling Ava that she’s going to have a little sister but it seems to be falling on deaf ears. Ava and I are getting an unexpected night at home together this evening because the private party that I was supposed to bartend at El Gaucho for ended up getting cancelled. This was a relief. I think we’re going to spend the rest of the night watching movies and trying to keep her play room clean.

It’s been a really good, busy, week that was capped with receiving the news that we will be expecting another baby girl! While we had originally decided to wait and not find out until the birth, the agony of not knowing started getting to us, so we decided to have the doctor write at note during this week’s ultrasound and open it together that evening. I’m extremely excited about having another daughter and have pleasantly resigned to the fact that Bruno and I are the only boys in this house for the foreseeable future. I’m also very happy that Ava will have a sister so close to her in age. I’m sure they will be inseparable before too long.

This morning Grandma Amy left for Florida. Jess, Ava and Amy had a busy week that resulted in an updated playroom for Ava, including a toddler–sized table and chair set, a full play kitchen, shelves and a new dresser. It looks much nicer in there and Ava seems to love it. Based on Jessica’s latest ultrasound her official due date has moved up to July 13, so we’re well over the half–way point. I wish we could explain to Ava that she’s going to have a sister very soon but she’s still too young to grasp that. The good part is that she will never remember life without her little sister.

I can now tell after three full weeks working at Amazon that there will never really be what you would consider a ‘slow week.’ Things move at a very fast pace there, and I usually find myself wondering where the day went when leaving the office. This past week provided an unexpected opportunity for our team to redesign and develop the interface for a software tool created by one of our teams in India, then get a chance to test it in the field on Tuesday as a fully functional prototype. What makes this even better is that I will get a chance to observe the new Kiva Systems robots in action. Jessica and I watched a great piece on 60 Minutes about Kiva Systems warehouse robots, then I came to find out that Amazon bought the company last year for use in their own facilities. The robots are only currently being used in one location and that’s exactly where I’m going on Tuesday. Should make for an exciting day. I also attended Amazon’s "Making Great Hiring Decisions" course this week and learned so much about how to interview candidates at Amazon. It shouldn’t be long before I’m sitting in to shadow some interviews.

I ended up leaving the jiu–jitsu school I had recently joined. There were several reasons for this, but mainly it came down to me not having time at night to go to class, and since going at lunch wasn’t an option like it was in San Diego, I had to give it up, at least for now. I also wasn’t as big of a fan of the school here in Bellevue as I was in San Diego, but I’m sure it would have grown on me. It’s too bad I won’t be doing martial arts for a bit, but that allowed me to make time for guitar again. I always need to have something to obsess about but at least this is a hobby that doesn’t require me to leave the house. Its turning out to be a good thing though because Ava is drawn to the guitar when I play it, so hopefully it will help develop a music interest in her.

Next week looks just as busy as this one was, including a bartending shift at El Gaucho on Saturday night, then a flight to Phoenix the following night for work. I’ll be coming home the very next night but it’s going to a long couple of days.

Thursday night Grandma Amy flew into town from Florida to spend a week with us. She hadn’t been to our new house in Bellevue yet, and hadn’t seen us since helping us drive up here from San Diego in early December. She had a long day on Thursday flying from Florida to Baltimore, then to Denver, then finally to Seattle, but was lucky enough not to get caught in the east coast snow storms that basically shut down the New York and Boston airports. Since arriving she, Jessica and Ava have been having fun shopping and playing. Today the three of them are going to the Freemont Street Fair while I relax and home and watch basketball.

This past week was a big one for me as well, mainly because I had my first work trip with Amazon. I flew down to Ontario, CA on Wednesday morning with my manager and a co–worker. The purpose of the trip was to meet up with a few guys from our Toronto office and work on some new solutions for software applications to be used in Amazon’s fulfillment centers. Since this was my first time visiting a fulfillment center my manager wanted me to get a tour of the place and watch the people working with their current software tools so that I could better understand what’s going on and what I’m trying to accomplish.

I must say that being in a fulfillment center is pretty amazing. Its about a million square feet, filled with products, it’s perfectly organized and so clean you could eat off the floor. I took a photo of the endless sea of products from up above but quickly found out that the only public photos of the inside of an Amazon fulfillment center comes directly from Amazon. They want to control exactly what the public knows about their internal fulfillment operations, so I’m not going to be able to post my photo here on our blog. What I can say is that you’re in a building that feels like its the size of about a dozen Costco’s, and it’s very secure.

After two very long days at the fulfillment center I came home around 9:00 on Thursday night and got to visit with Amy for a bit. Ava has been showing slight signs of a cold lately, and now I’ve got a sore throat, so we’re trying to take it easy in hopes that things won’t get any worse. She’s also constantly getting new teeth so its not uncommon for her to wake up once or twice at night. Overall she’s doing really well though and I can tell she loves being able to play with Grandma.

Yesterday Jessica and I attended a funeral for Aunt Carol’s brother John, who recently suffered from a freak accident and was not able to recover. The funeral was in Renton, very near where I grew up, so we went down to pay our respects. It was a great service. Afterwards I decided to take Jessica on a tour of my old neighborhood. We looked at the house I grew up in and visited my Elementary School and High School. It was pretty strange being back but I’m glad we did it. Soon enough we found ourselves at the Olive Garden in Southcenter enjoying endless soup, salads and breadsticks. Not exactly something we had planned on but it was fun. Last night was daylight savings so we’re getting longer days now and Spring is around the corner. I’m sure this week will fly by just like the last two have, and I’m particularly looking forward to taking Amazon’s "Making Great Hiring Decisions Class" on Thursday. Until then…

Although I generally think of my dad everyday, today being the 18th anniversary of his passing has me thinking of him even more than normal. It honestly feels like more than 18 years when I think about all that has happened in that time. Of course I wish he was here in person but since that’s not possible, I try to keep his memory alive through lots of stories and old photos. Like myself, my kids won’t ever have the pleasure of meeting their paternal grandfather, but that’s something I plan on ending for the future generations of this family.

I try to keep all of his old sayings in my mind, and do the things he would want me to do. He was full of wisdom, stories and experience. He always told me to do better than him. That’s not an easy thing to admit to when you’re talking about someone you idolize, but I think he would be proud of where I’m at today. I’m having a harder time than normal getting through this post because there are so many different things I could say about him, but when I think about the purpose of this site and what its going to mean to our kids when they grow up, I think it’s best to end with a quick story.

Anyone that spent time with my dad always made a point to mention how generous he was, and this story is a perfect example of that generosity. My mom bought him a beautiful silk tie at Nordstrom one year for his birthday. He loved the tie and decided to wear it out to dinner that night when they went to the Metropolitan Grill. While they were there they ran into an old friend of his who said “Elmer what a beautiful tie. I’d get married in that tie.” Without skipping a beat my dad took the tie off and insisted on his friend taking it as a gift. It’s one thing to buy someone a drink or take them out to dinner, but quite another to give them the tie your wife just got your for your birthday. I remember asking my mom once if she was upset that he gave away the tie but she explained that she couldn’t be mad because that’s just who my dad was, and it was one of the things she loved most about him.

RIP Dad, we love and miss you.

Dad and Aunt Norma

I’m there in case he misses a spot

Playing in the sprinkler with Dad and Dana

Dad and his little monkey

Dad as a young man. Not sure who he is with here.

Today marks the end of my first week in my new job at Amazon. It’s hard to believe that it’s already been a week considering how fast it went by. Felt more like one long day than an entire week. At this point I’m up and running, with two projects already begun. I’m traveling to Southern California next week, then Phoenix a couple weeks later. Both trips are only one night, so that’s nice.

The organization I’m working in is called Amazon Fulfillment Technologies (AFT), and it’s all about creating new technologies to more efficiently fulfill customer orders. One of my new projects is expected to help the company save $40 million in its first full year, so it’s important work that will help me gain a lot of recognition. I found out this week that not only am I the only web developer on my team, which is the Human Centered Design team, but that I am the first web developer in the entire AFT organization! This is a big deal. We have plans to hire more in the future but this means that I will always have seniority in this field and will be looked at as a leader in this category.

One way to exercise leadership as the only web developer will be to take our "Making Great Hiring Decisions Class" in a couple weeks. I’m doing this because my manager wants me to help interview potential web development candidates. This is crazy considering that only a few weeks ago I was one of those candidates, but its a nice vote of confidence they have in me. In addition, I’ve already signed up in the mentorship program, where I will have a mentor that I work with every other week on advanced JavaScript. I’m also getting involved in a variety of the education programs Amazon has, such as the Friday Learning Series, Principal Tech Talks, and special interest groups like FEEM (Front End Engineers Meetup) and WebDevCon, which is a yearly conference put on by my old team that is dedicated strictly to web development.

Amazon has so much to offer in the way of education and career development. I’m definitely planning on taking advantage of these services and doing everything I can to become a leader in the AFT organization. I’m currently ranked as a level 4 web development engineer, which is the highest level of Web Dev 1’s. I should be able to get to level 5 this year, which would make me a Web Dev 2, so that’s my short–term goal. Web Dev 3 is the highest level of web development engineer at Amazon and we currently only have four of them in the company. Obviously this is a long way off but ultimately that will be my goal. This whole new reality is still sinking in and it’s a bit hard to believe. At this point I can confidently say that I found the perfect role for me and will be there for a very long time to come.

Here’s a couple pics from this week. The first is Ava being patient (get it.. patient?) at her checkup. The second is Jasper, one of my new "co–workers" at Amazon.