dave's blog

We've added a new security system to our house: ice sickles. The example in the photo is over three feet long, over an inch in diameter, and very pointy. I'm sure that it will dig a pretty significant hole when it drops from the second-story roof. It is as beautiful, as it is deadly... bwah!

My car remains completely immobile; up to its hubcaps in snow. The weather forecasters are suggesting more snow tonight, then rain and snow mixed for the next few days. The Seattle area could see some substantial flooding this weekend; we should be fine since we’re 400 feet higher than most of Seattle on a gently sloping hill.
 

The weather forecasters were a little short on their snow prognostications - three inches of new snow manifested itself as six inches over night, with drifts easily exceeding a foot. We’re grateful that the winds haven’t been as strong as expected, but perhaps it was their lack of ferocity that allowed the latest storm to drop more snow than expected.

For the first time in decades, our church services were cancelled today. My notification arrived just minutes before I arrived at the church – sounds guys are often the first person in the building on Sunday mornings. I stayed for a while, with one of the pastors, to greet those hearty souls who braved the elements.

I arrived home later to discover my neighbor Doug gleefully playing with his snow shovel. I told him that I wouldn’t stop him from continuing on his rampage down my driveway; he offered to loan me his shovel later.

This is just a test entry

this is a test entry

I wonder what it will look like.

Seattle's winter hit early this year, with a streak of sub-freezing days, an injection of several inches of snow, followed by several more sub-freezing days. Many of the roads a covered with ice (not compact snow). Vehicles with studded tires and chains are having difficulty getting around. Our house has icicles dangling from the roof that are nearly three feet long... and very pointy!

Now we're hearing that we could have six more inches of snow tonight, accompanied by severe winds. They report that the winds in the foothills could exceed hurricane force. How bad may it become? The Weather Service issued a rare blizzard warning along the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

The big news? It should all be gone before Christmas... no white Christmas for us!
 

After several days of sub-freezing temperatures, Seattle collided with snow overnight. This morning cars are stopped on the freeways, with people walking around between them. The schools are closed, businesses are struggling to get workers into the office, and the television news people are doing little dances. Microsoft is open, although some of the services are limited. I have a very speedy Internet connection, so I am working from home, with my notebook computer connected to work. The little, lazy snowflakes continue to fall at this hour; the weather forecast for the next few days calls for sub-freezing temps - and maybe more snow...

It’s been weeks since I updated the blog – to say things have been busy would be an understatement. I’ll run down the laundry list to get caught up!

Work has been really taking off. I’ve been back with Microsoft for about a month and just returned from my first business trip. Our hospital product, Amalga, is very exciting. We’re working very hard with our clients to make sure that v2 makes some dramatic improvements. I was in Washington DC all of last week working with our DC Health Solutions Group office. I’m helping drive the back-end performance. In addition, my boss has asked if I will start working closely with the team in Beijing – which may include travel, too. Hmmm… DC and Beijing are on opposite ends of the planet – this could get very interesting.

The annual church musical consumed a great deal of my free time in November. We had five performances this year spanning December 5, 6, and 7. I think the sound support this year was even better than last year. Mike and I (the two sound guys) really worked hard to make sure that the 100+ audio scene changes happened on time. That’s more than one every minute – kept us  quite busy. The cast, orchestra, choir, and crew did a great job – people really enjoyed it.  As a side note, three days after the last performance our giant, 40-channel sound console died – completely conked out. We hope to have it back in service by early January. In the meantime, we’re renting equipment.

Jessica is home from Chicago! I’m sure that there will be numerous updates over the next few weeks on activities around the house. On the left is a really poor camera-phone photo of Jessica in the Chicago airport, taken by me! I surprised her in the terminal. She didn’t know that I had been in DC all week, or that I had timed my flight from Chicago to Seattle as closely to hers as possible. It’s a terrible photo, but perhaps you can capture a little of her disorientation after unexpectedly seeing me in the airport. Once she began to recover, she blurted out, “What’s all of this rumpus!”

We picked up a Christmas tree yesterday; Anne decorated it today. This year’s theme: Snowmen! It’s really very cute, while remaining very homey. She even added a new ornament this year just for me – it’s a beautiful glass creation, hand painted… of a motorcycle! I hope to have some photos in the next few days to share.

That’s the quick update – expect a flurry of updates over the next month.