A new job!

One of the jobs I sent my resume to panned out and I went in for an interview Friday morning.

The company is called Magnum Energy and they primarily design and manufacture inverters for mobile and renewable energy applications (think RVs and solar arrays). I will be working on the assembly line in the final stage (testing/packaging/shipping).
It is going to involve a LOT of heavy lifting and working on my feet, so it's a good thing I don't shy from hard work. The inverters weigh about 70 lbs. a piece and I will be doing boxing to start for my first two weeks. This means moving the assembled inverter from the table to a box and the box into a taping machine as many as 200 times a day. This should do a good job of kicking my ass into shape!
I will be working from 7am to 3:30pm, which will still leave me with the rest of the day to relax, play with the kids, and make dinner as necessary.

I'm fairly excited about it, as it seems like a solid company to work for and I like the people I've met so far.
I also like the idea of working for a "Made in the U.S.A." company.

And so barring any sudden disasters, I will be starting work on the 7th.

Oh crap, we've been here for a week already!

>.> .... <.<

So yeah. It's already been a week!
We arrive last Tuesday afternoon and it has been a mad house since. Between unloading the truck, getting things tucked away, and organizing furniture, we have been very busy bees.
On top of that we had to get our new licenses for Washington (which, actually, was super easy. Also, very very different from California!). Next is registering the car, then getting AAA set up....But at least we have the interwebs!
We had to go with Comcast for that...D:
But it is very fast! I am currently downloading State of Decay at something like 1.9mbps. Which is insane to me.

Isabeau and I have also been applying to jobs this week, trying to get settled in that respect as well.

So, the apartment complex!
It's seems very nice so far. When we arrived and got the paperwork settled, we started to unload on our own (we had scheduled to have helpers come on Wednesday to help with the heavy stuff), and much to our surprise a bunch of kids from the complex just came out and volunteered to help unload! Crazy! Saffron has managed to become friends with a couple of siblings named Kaylee and Sunny (a young lady and her little brother) and has been playing with them a lot on the little playground.
Which is next to the lake!

Which has flocks of ducks and geese (which it is illegal to harass)

I will be taking more pictures of the complex and the kids to post in the next couple of days (hopefully).
Our locations pretty fantastic as well. We are a short walk from just about anything (except for a Target), and just a block from the main through fair in Everett. Despite that, the place is almost unnaturally quiet...
There is also a large and very nice playground  that is just a short walk from us, that we have gone to almost everyday since finding it.

That's all for now, I am hopefully going to get another post up soon.

Updates on moving and stuff

So far we are still trying to line up an apartment and it's been going slowly. I've gotten responses on two apartments that I've emailed, one just said thanks but we already filled it, the other was pretty promising but ultimately the corporate end wasn't comfortable with renting a two bedroom to a family of five...

So, we are going to broaden our search to include Bremerton (which is directly across the Puget Sound from Seattle, and is connect to it by a ferry), and points between Bremerton and Tacoma. Spots in Bremerton seem to be more inexpensive than Tacoma, so that's a plus.It'll mean a longer drive if we get jobs in Tacoma (about half an hour drive), but there is the prospect of Isabeau being able to work for the YMCA in Bremerton itself.

We are still hopefully going to be moving sometime between June 15th and July 1st. Though the heat here has me wishing I could go now...

Sometime in the first week of June I hope to take a trip by plane up to the area to look at apartments first hand. And finalize anything we might have lined up (hopefully).

I am still looking into anything that is entry level and related to machining and have applied to one place, but haven't heard anything back yet.

In school news, next Tuesday is my final! I am pretty pleased with this semester and I feel like I've got a good grasp of the principles. I am not worried about the final at all. My teacher has also complimented me on my ability to pick things up, and on my mechanical aptitude. He thinks I'll do pretty well for myself in the trade.

Shop projects and looking for a place to stay

Machining
My first semester in Machine Tech is winding down and I am finishing up the last bits that I have left. Don't have much to do now, just need to finish cutting a peg for the slot in the spring center and I will have finished my assigned projects.
So far I have finished a c-clamp and learned how to grind a high speed steel cutting tool.

The c-clamp! No where near perfect, but perfectly functional. I need to place a pad of some kind on the end of the screw, but I will probably buy a rubber foot for that.

This is the cutting tool. Took a HSS blank and ground the end into the proper shape. Works surprisingly well for being rather ugly...It actually leaves a better finish than the carbide tips we've been using on the lathes. The carbide will remove large quantities of material, but leaves a rougher finish.

The Big Move
We're getting closer to our planned move dates, and this week Isabeau and I will be working on a form email to send out to prospective rentals. I've been using a website called Padmapper, which consolidates rental listings from several different sources and displays them on Google maps.
Currently we've been looking at Tacoma and there are several apartments that are listed in North Tacoma, quite close to the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium (huge plus). So we'll be sending sending out feelers this week.

Also, if you don't already you should check out Isabeau's blog, The Weekly What-What.

Crazy Days

Yeeeaaahhhh.....A new post is way way way overdue.

Things have been quite crazy around here for the last two weeks. I'm still trying to adjust to not getting up super early and going to market every weekend. Isabeau and I both had a week off from school right after my last day, which we spent packing and organizing stuff in the house. Despite not working at this time, I feel like things have gotten even more hectic...I just haven't had the energy to update the blog as a result.

The important stuff.
My last weekend as a manager for the CFMA has come and gone (two weeks ago..oops.), and as expected goodbyes are always bittersweet.The day started with Johnny and I, soon joined by Keri. Then Doug and Gail arrived and told me drop everything and I wasn't going to be doing anything for the rest of the day.

Then they gave the farewell gift.

Cute card , right? Showcasing the many long years I've been doing the farmers markets. Including the time I did a petting zoo for Doug and Gail some 17 years ago (top left).

But wait! This doesn't show the scale! I'll include a size reference for the next shot.



Bam

Doug towed me around the market gathering signatures and taking pictures with the entirety of the Mountain View Farms Market. I am going to need a photo hosting service for those, because it's something like 100 pictures.
Oh, wait! There were so many signatures that they had to use the back!

Yeah. Bittersweet. These last five years that I have spent as a manager have been some of the most valuable years of my life. It's had moments that have strained me as a human being, testing my limits, and even pushed me past those limits more than once. But the things that it taught me and the incredible people that I have met will stay with me for the rest of my life.

Auf Wiedersehen.



P.S.
Bonus Pics!

Rob and Eric. I would have had a hell of a time keeping my sanity if these two hadn't been around.

I'm gonna miss those ugly mugs...

OMFG! It's a Post!

It's been a while since my last post, things have been a little...rough, these last couple of weeks. Despite that I don't have a ton of stuff to talk about. Osric continues to be a little terror, Corwin is still causing difficulties with the potty training, and Saffron has been singing and dancing to the tune of the Frozen movie, which we got on Tuesday.

I've officially told my bosses when my last day of work will be, so that's under the bridge now. We are still looking at going up to Washington around the end of May to find a place to stay, and our intention is to be moved up around mid June.

Last Saturday I had the day off, and we went to the Game Kastle Flea Market. Isabeau managed to find an expansion pack to Dominion, which is one of our favorite game. We picked up a second Black Lanner 'mech for her as well, but I have since discovered that it is missing the sprue that has its legs. I am going to have to take it back and see about exchanging it. This actually the second 'mech that we've gotten from Ironwind Metals that has been missing parts from the sealed pack.

As far as my personal haul from the flea market, I managed to score some pretty good stuff.

This is most of what I got. The current codex for the Orks, a box set of Gretchin (aka Grots) and a Runtherder, an Ork buggy, and a set of three Deffcoptas which I got for free from the guy who was selling the codex. I also got a box with a whole bunch of miniatures from another wargame, which I am going to see about selling on EBay.

A couple of close ups now.

This is the Ork Buggy. It may or may not be fairly old, but I only paid $2 for it so hey. I plan on removing the wheels and reattaching them so that they actually turn.

And these are the Deffcoptas, fully assembled. Pretty snazzy looking, actually. I was expecting them to be broken or needing repairs but they were actually in perfect condition.

That's all for today! I am planning on doing a write up about a new game that I got this week, called Bannered Saga. Hopefully I will have it done by Monday. If you like turn based tactical RPGs starring Vikings and Giants, where every decision you make can have long term consequences and it stars characters you can actually relate to and even like...then hurry up and by this game. Its on GOG.com right now.

Ebay update and a nicely painted miniature

Not too much to say, I managed to sell all of the stuff I had posted and netted sixty bucks out of it. I am going to try and sell some books and another couple of miniatures that I have lying around.
Of course I have spent a LOT more on Ebay. I currently have my own decent army of Orks (about 41 all told including the Warboss. See him below). Plus chaos, dark angels marines, and token imperial guard.
And I'm not finished...yet.
Mainly I am looking for vehicles for the Orks, and maybe some more imperial guard footsloggers and vehicles.

Here is the Orky Warboss!

The picture doesn't show all the details, but I am quite happy with how he came out.
Especially his purple pants of doom. Also, his tunic. looks nice and filthy.