Month: December 2005

We’re giving Vonage a whirl here at the new crib. I almost went with a SkypeIn number but apparently you have to be running Skype on a PC at all times, so it isn’t self-contained. For now SkypeIn will be an experiment, and in the meantime a VoIP router is on its way from the good people at Vonage. One neat feature we’ve already discovered is that you get an email for each new voice message. One Gmail filter later, both me and my wife get the alert. BTW, I am really, really digging the Gmail. I believe you still need an invite to try it out, so if you want to and don’t have an invite, drop me a line and I’ll send you one.

At 4:57pm (on Monday), I got my first “welcome to Bay Area” email. Thank you, Ben, that really meant a lot!

4:25pm arrived safely at the new place in Alameda. The family follows tomorrow night. I am incredibly pumped. Apologies to airlines covering BOS OAK for the drop in business 🙂

In the midst of a cross-country relocation with a hundred and one moving parts, a moment of magic. I took my four year-old daughter swimming in the pool here at the Holiday Inn. It’s something I used to do as a boy, with my parents and brothers. Such happy memories. Now my wife and the kids are curled up on the king sized bed watching a movie. I’m joining them as soon as I hit the Post button. Tomorrow we watch the movers pack our condo, transformed today into a maze of cardboard box towers, onto a truck. Then we head for the airport, to spend the week with my inlaws while our belongings are in transit. Catch y’all on the left coast!

A podcast about our new home in Alameda, air travel with a house cat, Wal*Mart and buying a car. Subscribe.

Podsafe for Peace. Purchased.

I’m experimenting with the commute here as I settle into the Bay Area. Coming home tonight was particularly pleasant. After a bit of end-of-week socializing at PodShow, I walked along the Embarcadero to the San Francisco Ferry Building. There I boarded a boat, got myself a nice drink, sat down and flipped on my laptop and hacked a bit. Twenty-five minutes later the boat arrived at its destination, where I disembarked and walked ten minutes from the dock to our house.

In my car researching I came across the Car Buyer’s Notebook blog and podcast. Checking out the podcast now.

Cool site: http://websudoku.com. Clean, sparse, just the right features, tasteful mix of entertainment and commerce. Dig the design, try not to get hooked on the game 😉

Project for this week: buy a car. This one will be for commuting, not family stuff, so it doesn’t have to be especially roomy. Maybe I should check out this bio-diesel thing?