Chris & Naomi Hathaway Home

We've decided to make a pretty significant change in our lives this year. Since last summer, I've been able to work full time from home on AggData, which has been amazing. The added benefit is that we are no longer tied down to any location, and as much as I love Texas, we've decided to move up to Washington state, closer to Naomi's family. I told Naomi that the two things keeping me from going up there were house prices and traffic. Well, working from home solved both of those things, since I don't have to commute and we can get a home farther away from the outrageous Seattle market.

We knew we wanted to make the move sometime this year, and we were fairly certain we wanted to build a new house in Dupont, where Naomi's parents live, but we didn't plan out anything more detailed than that. Well, in February we were visiting Washington and looking around at houses and lots like we always do when we're up there, and we found out a lot had just opened up in a neighborhood we liked, so we took a look, and this is what we saw:

That's a nature preserve in the backyard, and you can actually see the Puget Sound through the trees. Naomi and I heard angel choirs and dove in right away, probably a bit sooner than we expected. And, after some finagling with the loan (considering the market and my self-employment), we got approved and started building in the last week or two. They already have the first floor framing up:

We've also been working like dogs to get our current house ready for market, and we're pretty proud of the results. We had the outside painted, added new countertops, shoved about 80% of our stuff in the garage or sold it at a garage sale, a new back fence, and a lot more little things to spruce it up. Here's the listing with our realtor , but click here for better quality pictures. And if you know anyone looking for a really nice house in Texas, let us know!

Finally, my somewhat excited mother-in-law has been keeping us updated with pictures of our new house as it's being built. She created a blog out of it in fact: http://lincolnsnewhome.blogspot.com/. It's really exciting to see the progress; thanks Mom!

We are planning to move this July, and the house should be finished the first week of August. Oh, and here's a map of where we're building:

View Larger Map

So, if you haven't heard yet, Twitter is the next big thing. It's basically just a mini-blog, each post 140 characters or less. Anyway, I've been twittering for almost a year now, but it was mostly in the tech community. Now that it's gone mainstream, I've decided to use it more so I don't feel so bad not blogging enough. It's actually a pretty nice tool for small, real time updates, and I have an app on my iPhone which makes it very easy to post from wherever I am.

So, here are the current Twitter accounts I have set up (the @ symbol is standard twitter syntax to indicate a user):

• @chrishathaway - This is the one I've been using for over a year. I try to keep it fairly professional, often focused on technology news and opinions. Probably not that interesting to most of you.
• @lincolnhathaway - Here's where we'll give updates on Lincoln, including all the little milestones, funny stories, quotes, and pictures. We'll write it in first person so it sounds like him talking. Maybe he'll take it over one day.
• @fionahathaway - This account is similar to Lincoln's, but obviously focused on the yet to be born Fiona. Our first post is a 3D ultrasound picture we got today. One thing special about this account is that we'll be sending frequent progress updates during labor and the delivery, so you can pray along with us in real time. :)
• @chrisrants - Sometimes I have something I really want to say, but no good venue to say it in, so this Twitter user is that place. Not for the faint of heart... it's not vulgar or offensive, just highly opinionated and often political.
• @aggdata - I'm using this account for my business. Nothing personal, so probably not interesting to you, but just in case you were curious.

There are three ways you can follow us on twitter:

• Each page has a link to an RSS feed, so you can easily get updates in Google Reader or whatever else you use.
• If you decide to get a twitter account yourself, you can "follow" any of our accounts, and the updates will appear right on your profile page.
• If you are a Twitter user and following us, you can get SMS (text message) updates for specific users. I don't know all the details, but I think you set up your cell with it first, then text to Twitter "FOLLOW username", like "FOLLOW fionahathaway". Be careful not to get too many updates and run over your text message limit for the month, but it may be nice for things where you want to know updates right away (like when the delivery happens).

I hope this now gives you a bit more insight into our lives (or perhaps too much), and we're excited to have this new tool for communication.

Just a note... Naomi changed her blog address. If you didn't know she had a blog, it's where she shares things she does, like recipes and sewing and other projects. Go see how cool my wife is!!

Naomi's Blog

Naomi already mentioned one of the exciting things that happened today. We're very excited for Emily, Steven, and new baby Ethan. Here's a picture, but I'm sure you'll soon see plenty more at Emily's blog.

The other piece of pretty big news is that I got a job. A real job, like a career type job. I'll be starting as soon as next week at Tektronix, as a Web Developer for the Marketing Department. Web Developer is a pretty broad title; basically, I'll be helping with any tech-related needs of the Marketing Department, including building/administrating websites, working with mass emailings, and who knows what else. I actually received two offers, and decided to turn down a really good opportunity working for Dairy.com. It was seriously one of the toughest decisions I made. But here's why I'm excited for my new job:

• I'll be in the Marketing Department instead of the IT Department, so I'll probably actually get respect as a developer
• It's a contract-to-hire type of position, so it will be very flexible upfront while I'm going to school, but with the future likelihood of becoming a permanent employee.
• The nature of the position will expose me to a slew of other types of business experience, which I am very interested to absorb.
• It seems that the department (and their new media initiatives in general) has a real future, and I will be able to have a positive influence in that direction.
• The interview was my favorite one (I really like the people I'll be working with).

Okay, perhaps some of that was just to reassure myself I made the right decision, but we're very excited nevertheless. It's been a good day.

About a year ago when I started really getting into reading blogs and subscribing to feeds, I found a small blog that really caught my eye called FreshArrival. Basically, it posts about one really cool thing every day. It can tend towards the geeky side, but it also posts about art, photography, shopping, music, and anything else that is worth considering. I enjoy it because it doesn't overload me with junk, just one great post a day.

Anyway, they had a survey on the site several months ago, which I filled out, and at the very end was a checkbox asking if we were interested in contributing to the blog ourselves. I checked it, thinking it would be cool, but didn't think much of it. Well, about a week ago, I got an email from the main author of the site, asking if I wanted to write for the blog, and ...(skip to present)... my first post is on the front page today! If you don't read this on Saturday, October 27, 2007, then here is the permanent link:

http://www.fresharrival.com/blog/archives/2007/10/26/usb-keyboard-vacuum-done/

It's really my first writing in any type of professional setting, and I really enjoy doing it. I hope to contribute at least once a week to the site.