End of 2008

A bit of a gap in the narrative of "where's allen". This is corrected below.

Last Week in Germany
My last week in Germany was filled with lots of chores and lots of fun as well. I took a quick trip to Dublin, arriving back in time to host a party with my neighbors and some people from the Institute. A wonderful time was had by all, especially myself. I was very flattered with the parting gifts given to my (and Iva) by folks, and am looking forward to seeing them upon our return to Europe next summer.

The following Monday and Tuesday were a blur of working hard on math and making trips to the post office with my large boxes of papers. Sending a package costs the same amount for any weight (mass, actually) between 10 and 20 kilograms, so I borrowed a bathroom scale to try to get as close to 20kg as possible. Of course, then I had to haul these heavy boxes to the post office.

Wednesday I cleaned out my desk at work, turned in my keys, and went out for a wonderful dinner with some scientists at a nice wine bar in Potsdam. We finished off the "evening" at Mai's place, and managed to get rid of my surplus beer supply...

Thursday I did some last-minute Christmas shopping and took a cab to the airport. A short flight to Heathrow, a long layover (with plenty of time to navigate the new Terminal 5) and then a pleasant if boring flight to Seattle where Iva was waiting for me.

It had snowed a lot in Seattle and transport was a bit chaotic. However we managed to get a shuttle to the hip Ace Hotel in Belltown, arriving lat (~10pm). Conveniently the pub next door was still serving food and I was able to get a local micro-brew (Northwest Style!) and an awesome salad. I must admit it was nice to be back in a land where pubs serve NW beer and have vegan entrees on the menu. The company was pretty nice, too.

The next morning we cruised around downtown Seattle, enjoying the lack of crowds (due to the snow), the market, etc. We had a late lunch at an interesting cafe on First and then headed up to Wallingford to visit my (maternal) grandparents for dinner. Busses had long gone off the schedule and it was a while before we figured out that the bus we wanted was simply not going to come. We caught a very crowded express heading up Aurora - the driver was so eager to move through the route he wasn't charging anyone, which was a nice treat. The grandparents treated up to dinner in their building dining room which was fun.

Seattle - Idaho - Montana - Seattle
We spent the weekend in Seattle as my family cruised in - Eric from Tacoma where he had been house-sitting, Mark from Davis. Sunday we saw a large group of childhood friends and their families for our annual dinner.

The intention had been to fly to Kalispell, MT the following morning, but labor disputes had resulted in a shortage of de-icer at the airport and thus our flight was cancelled. We all piled in the Allen van and hit the road, making changes to our reservations by cell phone on the way. (The Future really is now.) We made it to Spokane by dinnertime (after a not-so-early start) and then headed up to Sandpoint, Idaho, where we stayed through Christmas.

We skied at Schweizer: first a day of Nordic then two days of Downhill. Iva took lessons and had days 3 and 4 on downhill skis. She made a lot of progress and had a lot of fun, too. The snow was deep, light, and had no base. Wonderful powder turns with rocks and stumps if you got unlucky. I was renting, which was a good thing, as I hit numerous un-determined objects. But overall the skiing was pretty epic.

The day after Christmas we drove to Whitefish and skied two days at Whitefish Mountain, formerly (properly) known as The Big Mountain. Wow has that place grown. The whole Flathead Valley has become one big K-Mart parking lot, which is really too bad. But it was fun to be in Montana again after so many years. The skiing was wonderful, the crowds non-existent (it was snowing and blowing the whole time), and Iva took more lessons which she really enjoyed. The last afternoon we were able to ski the intermediate zone together, which was a lot of fun.

We left the van at the Kalispell airport and flew back to Seattle on the second half of our tickets - my dad would later use his remaining half ticket to go fetch the van.

The next day Iva and I went down to Tacoma with a bunch of stuff for my office. I checked in to UW-Tacoma where I am now an Assistant Professor in the Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences program. We also signed a lease on a little studio apartment just south of Wright Park on the edge of downtown Tacoma. It is about a 25 minute walk to campus which is nice.

The remainder of the week was spent driving between Seattle, Tacoma, and Portland moving various boxes, suitcases, and sacks of stuff, as well as catching up with some of the relatives and friends in the area. (Still lots to do in that regard, as well as regarding the moving of stuff.) By the 3rd of January we had a functional apartment with a futon to sleep on, dishes, clothes, etc. Wonderful