Highpoint at Night

I recently carried a camera along on the evening dog-walk with Wendy and our friend Penny, as I've wanted to try and get a picture of the pond for quite some time. Next time I'll have to also carry a tripod, and I'd like to try an image-stabilization lense, and see if the results improve any...

This first picture is probably the best as far as image quality. Most of our condo (And one of the Parkside homes) reflecting in the Highpoint Pond.

An image of the Redwood at Highpoint condos, and the stream feeding into the pond.

My favorite composition, this has has a nice feeling, but is unfortunately a little blurry. One of the problems with trying to hold a camera steady for a 1/3 second exposure at night...

Time is on my side, yes it is...

Just had that little bit of music running through my head for some reason, had to share.

So, I seem to be among the ranks of the unemployed at the moment, searching for a new position within the realm of Software Development again. I have a few prospects, an interview later today, and another interview expected to be scheduled any time now. Just waiting for the email to come through.

In the meantime, I've been doing a little more reading, updating my mobile device to the latest software (have a couple of things to test before I update Wendy's device...)

The new version has some nifty features, and a few changes from previous that would be even more usable if I had a job... but anyway...

To the point - I recently started using Mobipocket to be able to read digital books from the library. It's a little different than reading a paper copy of a book, the page is very small and doesn't contain a lot of text, so getting used to "turing" pages frequently was a little bit of a step. Now I kind of like it though, as I can leave the application running in the background, and access the book at a moments notice. And I have my phone with me at all times anyway, so it not like having to carry an extra book to have something to read when I want to, you know?

Right now I am reading Neil Stephenson's Cryptonomicon that I checked out from the Seattle Public Library. I haven't downloaded much of anything else yet, as I'm kind of a "one book at a time" type guy.

Anyway, since it had been a while since I'd posted anything, I thought I should start writing again, and see where it leads.

High Point Market Garden Street Flowers

Between the sidewalk and the fence, the gardeners have planted an amazing array of flowers that have been blooming since Spring. Here's a small sample of what's currently showing. Some Fresia, Calla Lilies, and Daisies.

---

More recent pictures...

Here's a couple more recent pictures.

Signs of spring:


A cat found hiding:

A rainy spring morning...

There are a few little things poking their heads up now that Winter has finally passed into history...

These Hostas are about 2" tall now...


The native Bleeding Hearts arer in full bloom.



And the Lady Fern is unfurling a few fronds.

Late February Mornings

These days there are many mornings where the fog rolls through different parts of the city. This morning was no exception. I had hoped it would be a clear morning so that I could take some good sunrise shots, but that didn't work out as I'd hope. This is what the morning started out like from our home in Highpoint.

Last night the sunset was nice. My 318iS is now sitting on it's not-frozen-weather wheels & tires, but is a little dirty. Maybe this weekend I'll be able to clean up both the cars...

Now that it's Official...

As many of you may have heard from Wendy by now, I have been offered a new job.

A while back, there was a post to a local car club forum that I belong to about a tech job... It was exactly the type of position I have been hoping to find, so I immediately applied for it.

Over the last couple of weeks I've interviewed with the company a couple times, and on Thursday of last week the extended an offer of employment. It was some of the best news I'd heard in a long time...

So, now that I've given my 2 weeks notice at my current job, I'm feeling comfortable enough to actually write about it in the public sphere.

The new job is as a Junior Software Developer at Randy's Ring & Pinion. I expect that much of what I will be doing might be considered "maintenance programming" - but it's something that actually suits me. It will involve a lot of code review to discover where and how to make an adjustment or revision in order to accomplish minor changes in a user interface. The bulk of the work will be in a custom reporting environment that R'sR&P has built up over time for their sales force.

I'm really looking forward to getting my hand's dirty with real code again. The time in between graduating from South Seattle CC and now has kind of been filled with "need to be working" type jobs that were available when I needed them. Now that I'm moving on to something that is more in the vein of what I really want to do, it's fairly exciting.

:)

So, as of the 10th of August I will cease to be employed for a couple of weeks before starting at the new position, as I'm taking the break in between to finish painting, moving, and some unpacking in the new townhouse. Oh, and also to avoid commuting while I-5 is mostly closed for repairs between the West Seattle Bridge and I-90... Perfect timing, and I couldn't have planned it better.

Wish me luck!

So, it's really happening.

We have "mutual agreement" and financing on the new townhouse, which means that we had to list our current house as being officially For Sale. We also have an offer on our house. So, before it was all totally locked up, Wendy was able to get our house into the NWMLS (Northwest Multiple Listing Service), and plan for an open house this weekend. Which means, of course, that we are frantically trying to pack up and clear away a great deal of our "stuff"... Also, you can download Wendy's flyer (right/control-click, and select "save as") - Adobe Acrobat required to view.

So far we've packed about (UHaul sizes) 20 small boxes of books, 3 medium boxes of clothing, 3 standard file boxes of files and office supplies, 2 small file boxes of more current files, 1 full recycle bin, and hauled a bunch of stuff to the dump. We've sold a futon, a coffee table, and some knick-nacks, and have some more stuff for sale (list below), and will be having a bunch of stuff in the "Community Garage Sale" - a day when there's a community listing of all the local garage sales next month that we signed up for the list.

Here's a partial list of what we have available:

• 1989 BMW M3, lightly modified
• Extra wheels and tires for BMW E30 M3.
• Birch finish Bookshelves
• Oak Nightstand
• Oak Bookshelves
• Oak Chest of Drawers
• The Worm Factory (SOLD)
• A young Magnolia tree in pot (SOLD)
• Woodchuck Firewood Hauler (Sale Pending)

There's more, but I don't have specifics available right now...

We are going to be getting rid of almost everything, and replacing some stuff as we can after we move. We are going to be installing floor to ceiling book shelves in one of the extra bedrooms, and turning it into a library. That will take care of those 20 boxes of books... :) The basement will have an armoire where we will keep shoes and coats. The other spare bedroom is going to be "The Office" and will have some storage and a desk, while still keeping the main part of the room open. So there are going to be a few things that we will need to get to make iot all work the way we want it.

More later...
Stephen