Back in Washington!

I have finally made it back to Washington and am hanging out at SeaTac waiting for my lovely wife to get off work. Luckily I have my bags as well, being as the baggage carousel broke down after only two bags made it down. Mine was one of the two! There is a mob of people angrily awaiting their bags and I fear there might be a riot soon. I might riot with them, just for fun.

I've been talking with some of my friends and it sounds like a lot of people are canceling their holiday plans because of the weather. Christine and I will be traveling down to San Jose this week but leaving most of our belongings in a very expensive storage unit in Lake Forest Park (our apartment).

Well, we will keep you all updated when/if things change (they will).

Merry Christmas,
Justin and Christine

The Joys of Traveling

I have recently discovered that now it not a very good time to be flying. After waiting for a hour or so in the "express" baggage check line, I am currently sitting at San Jose International airport hoping that my flight to Seattle doesn't get canceled. I'm also watching an airport employee drill holes in the terminal roof (I'm not entirely sure what for)...

Northern California hasn't had great weather, it's been a been a lot better than Washington! Hopefully I will make it back tonight so we can start packing up all of our stuff for the long awaited move to San Jose.

Happy Holidays,
Justin

Snowed in? Elf yourself!

I'm sure most of you have seen the Elf Yourself program from OfficeMax - this year I tried it out myself.

Merry Christmas from Justin and Christine!


Watch it here: http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/csRkNqVXm4KlB17Cnx6M

Mother Nature vs Team Thompson

Mother Nature...ohhh why must you torture us so? It would appear she does not support our move to SJ, and she's in a particularly bad mood about it!

Below is a picture of a charter bus hanging over I-5 in downtown Seattle yesterday:

(source: http://twitpic.com/ub3s)

Take it easy on the road during your holiday travels, everyone! Stay safe!

Oh the weather outside is frighful. Seriously.

I arrived safely in Seattle last night, and thanks to Miss Linsley, got back to our [no-one-wants-it] apartment -- arriving just in time, it seems. Seattle receive more snow today than it has in nearly a decade, they say, and they city has nearly come to a halt. Last night was so chilly here I wore sweats, a t-shirt, sweatshirt and two pairs of socks topped with an extra blanket to bed, and still think I got frostbite on my nose.

At lease it's not as cold here as it is in Grandview! Though they didn't get much snow, Gtown was down to 17 last night. Burrr.

Here is a picture of the deck at my office. Normally you would see Puget Sound and the Qwest Field parking lot... you can barely make out one of the cranes on the dock.

And here is a picture out the window at our apartment.

Our office closed at noon today and snow continued to fall. We'll see how things go tomorrow!

"They've got a lot of space, there'll be a place where I can stay"

Well, as you can tell, we've been busy since Thanksgiving - Justin has been to Las Vegas and back, and now we're both in San Jose. Justin arrived on Monday the 8th, and I drove one of the cars down on Wednesday. Mom offered to meet me in Portland to keep me company and stayed with us in San Jose for a day - it was nice to have a travel companion to tinker with the TomTom and to realize I'm not the only person who yells at TomTom when it tells us to go the wrong way ;). Here are a few shots of the surroundings we found as we crossed over into California, including Mt. Shasta:

On Thursday, mom and I went to scope out some of the RV parks for two reasons. 1) Mom and dad will need a place to park the RV when they come to visit us, and 2) there is a strong possibility that if we don't get rid of our apartment in Seattle, we might call the RV our home in San Jose for a month or two (eeeeeeeee). We're very thankful that my parents have offered the RV to us - it's much better than a cardboard box. The Coyote Valley RV and Golf Resort seems to be the best.

On Friday I went to scope out some apartments in the San Jose area and found a quaint little cottage-like house in Morgan Hill, which is (significantly?) south of the city. It comes with a private yard AND a washer/dryer! Morgan Hill surprisingly looks a LOT like the Columbia Valley - if the town had been a bit smaller, I would have sworn I was in Prosser with the Horse Heaven Hills to the right and the Rattlesnake Hills to the left. I can't tell you how comforting it was to know there are farmers in these parts...both Justin and I agree the San Jose are looks much different than what we expected. I yelped for joy when I saw a John Deere store and an orchard, no joke.

I'll be in San Jose until the 17th as I've made some appointments for "informational interviews" with a few businesses on Monday and Wednesday. Wish me luck! There is a woman coming to look at our Seattle apartment on Sunday, Sarah and Eric are doing us a huge favor as they've offered to give the woman a tour as we'll be out of town. Say a prayer that everything works out!! If it doesn't, you'll all have to bring your own cardboard box when you come to visit us :)

More soon!

Until we meet again

Justin was in Vegas the week after Thanksgiving and was able to spend the weekend in Seattle before heading off to San Jose so we got some of our buddies together in Federal Way for one last hurrah before we make the move. Curtis came up to visit for the weekend too before he made the trek across the mountains to Pullman where his girlfriend Jamie goes to college. It was great to see everyone and we hope they can make it to San Jose to visit us soon!







Cory, Selena, Ryan, John, Christine, Justin (photog = Curtis)















Selena, Ryan, John, Justin, Cory















Selena and Ryan - they're getting married next summer!