Last night in L.A.

Our view from the balcony at the Farmers Daughter hotel in west Hollywood. Our last evening in town, we fly to Santa Cruz tomorrow. A great place, a
Wonderful dinner and a fabulous view. We are going to miss nights like these.


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The pieces are falling into place

Sarah returned from her trip to Pittsburgh triumphant! We have a great rental house in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood signed. Our rent is now 1/2 of what it is in LA, this seems like a bit of a plus in moving from the west coast.

We have had some challenges in finding day care for Claire in Pittsburgh. This has been a concern, since we have liked the daycare in LA so much. There are some promising signs though, one of the places we liked the best looks like it may have an opening, otherwise we may have to get a nanny for a while, or some other alternative.

We begin our packing tomorrow. Hopefully we will get a good start over the weekend... The movers show up on Tuesday morning.


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Bassinet occupants update

Bassinet occupants update
Originally uploaded by Minnaert.

Sarah's family has used this bassinet for a generation, each new occupant having their name written on the underside.

Long ago we blogged about this


We got around to adding Claire's name to the bottom. She seems to be the first of the next generation to use the bassinet, since there was a 14 year gap in occupants.

This seems like a big change...

I would like to especially call out the yearly precipitation days difference: 35 vs 153.

Climate data for Los Angeles
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Average high °F (°C)	68.1 (20.06)	69.6 (20.89)	69.8 (21)	73.1 (22.83)	74.5 (23.61)	79.5 (26.39)	83.8 (28.78)	84.8 (29.33)	83.3 (28.5)	79.0 (26.11)	73.2 (22.89)	68.7 (20.39)	75.6 (24.22)
Average low °F (°C)	48.5 (9.17)	50.3 (10.17)	51.6 (10.89)	54.4 (12.44)	57.9 (14.39)	61.4 (16.33)	64.6 (18.11)	65.6 (18.67)	64.6 (18.11)	59.9 (15.5)	52.6 (11.44)	48.3 (9.06)	56.6 (13.67)
Rainfall inches (mm)	3.33 (84.6)	3.68 (93.5)	3.14 (79.8)	0.83 (21.1)	0.31 (7.9)	0.06 (1.5)	0.01 (0.3)	0.13 (3.3)	0.32 (8.1)	0.37 (9.4)	1.05 (26.7)	1.91 (48.5)	15.14 (384.6)
Avg. rainy days	6.5	6.0	6.4	3.0	1.3	0.6	0.3	0.5	1.2	2.0	3.1	4.3	35.2

Climate data for Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Average high °F (°C)	34.1 (1.17)	38.8 (3.78)	49.5 (9.72)	60.7 (15.94)	70.8 (21.56)	79.1 (26.17)	82.7 (28.17)	81.1 (27.28)	74.2 (23.44)	62.5 (16.94)	49.5 (9.72)	37.8 (3.22)	60.4 (15.78)
Average low °F (°C)	19.9 (-6.72)	22.3 (-5.39)	30.1 (-1.06)	39.1 (3.94)	49.2 (9.56)	57.7 (14.28)	62.4 (16.89)	61 (16.1)	53.9 (12.17)	42.5 (5.83)	34.2 (1.22)	25.3 (-3.72)	41.5 (5.28)
Record low °F (°C)	-22 (-30)	-12 (-24.4)	-1 (-18.3)	14 (-10)	26 (-3.3)	34 (1.1)	42 (5.6)	39 (3.9)	31 (-0.6)	16 (-8.9)	-1 (-18.3)	-12 (-24.4)	-22 (-30)
Precipitation inches (mm)	2.59 (65.8)	2.47 (62.7)	3.24 (82.3)	3.07 (78)	4.04 (102.6)	3.93 (99.8)	3.90 (99.1)	3.15 (80)	3.13 (79.5)	2.35 (59.7)	3.05 (77.5)	2.86 (72.6)	37.85 (961.4)
Snowfall inches (cm)	11.9 (30.2)	8.5 (21.6)	8.1 (20.6)	1.5 (3.8)	0 (0)	0 (0)	0 (0)	0 (0)	0 (0)	0.4 (1)	3.1 (7.9)	6.8 (17.3)	40.3 (102.4)
Avg. precipitation days	16.5	13.6	14.9	13.6	13.1	12	10.4	10	10.7	10.2	12.9	15.4	153.3
Avg. snowy days	11.5	8.1	6.8	2.2	0	0	0	0	0	0.2	3.8	7.8	40.4

Here we go again

We originally created this blog some 4.5 years ago to document our crazy, rushed move to Los Angeles from San Jose.

So now i guess we circle back to the start; we will now document our crazy, rushed move from Los Angeles to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania! Yes, we are moving again, this time cross country.

We moved to LA because Sarah got a new job at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. This time Sarah has gotten a new job at the Carnegie Museum of Art.


We've been getting quotes for moving companies and auto shippers. We've been hunting for daycare and rental houses. There is an awful lot to do.

In part of the interview process, we flew to Pittsburgh as a family. Claire's first plane trip. She did great; thank you portable DVD players & Yo Gabba Gabba! We were honestly surprised. I was expecting a complete meltdown on the plane, but it never happened.



Stay tuned, there will be many updates.

You Moved Where??

We first started this blog 4 years ago to document our move to Southern California, and the process moving into and living in our condo in West Hollywood.

Things change over 4 years, and now that we moved over the weekend, we are:

1. No longer homeowners, we sold our condo. There were a variety of reasons for this: we wanted an actual yard, a 3rd bedroom would be nice, we didn't like the building we were living it, and we also realized that we could get a lot more for our money renting than paying a mortgage. So we bit the bullet, and sold.


2. Renters in an single family house. A great, 1930's vintage Spanish architecture house. It's about 2x the size of our condo, with wonderful details all over. The house is great because it has not been largely renovated & screwed up, like so many in LA have been.


3. We are no longer residents of West Hollywood, but Los Angeles residents now. This is sad to me... WeHo is a pretty well run small city within a city; LA is a horribly run huge city. We moved about 3.5 miles (from A to B on the map above).


4. Air conditioning-less. We had 2 large criteria when we were looking at places to rent; it needed A/C and a dishwasher. The place we chose has neither. We're having a dishwasher delivered next week... the A/C, check in with us in June and see how we are faring.


5. Closer to work for Sarah and daycare for Claire. This should be pretty sweet, I should be able to walk or stroller Claire to daycare in the morning.

Webcams, Claire & the Grandparents

We try to keep in touch with everyone using our web cameras. We got into the habit when Gary's sister's family lived in Sydney for 2 years; the webcam conversations were far more convenient and cheaper than normal phone calls.

Claire is now starting to pay attention to who is on the computer screen when the webcam is going. We set the laptop up right in front of her, and she will check out what is there, for a little while.

Here, Claire is actively watching OhLaLa be entertaining.


Claire having a discussion with Auntie Linda & cousin Tabitha from her play mat.

The Maiden Voyage

Gary got a new toy the other day.

A table saw?
A socket set?
A new bike?

naw...

I finally got a KitchenAid Artisan mixer. Sweet! I have been coveting one for a long, long time, and KitchenAid sells things directly on eBay, so i bit the bullet and got me a fancy grey one. These things come in any color under the rainbow, including hot pink and Martha Stewart powder blue, but I went for a more industrial look.

I made chocolate chip cookies to christen the mixer. It makes all the dirty work so much easier. Let the baking commence!