Iris got her first haircut this weekend

I'll post more photos later this week

Goodbye Freddy

Very sadly, we had our cat Fred put to sleep tonight. After a long stretch of low-level chronic kidney failure, Freddy's kidneys failed this week, starting on Monday, I'd guess.

He'd been pretty gimpy for a year or two but it seemed to get much worse this week & he was pretty immobile for the past few days, though he did somehow manage to drag himself up the stairs & jump up into our bed one last time today--that was where I found him this afternoon. When the vet checked him out today, all of his kidney readings were about 4 times higher than the upper limit for healthy readings. He has had long term kidney issues so we've been monitoring the levels for a few years but these numbers were way worse than they were just back at the end of January, which the vet said indicated kidney failure.  Plus his blood glucose level was well into the elevated range for diabetes, which we had long worried about with Freddy. Rather than subject him to a lengthy hospital stay to try and get the kidney and diabetes under control temporarily, we decided that it was time to say goodbye to our beloved Freddy.

It was a very sad day for all of us. Iris said bye-bye to Freddy too :(

Here's one of my favorite Fred photos. It was take about 4 years ago with one of my old cell phones (which is why it's so low-res) but I think it captures Fred's personality perfectly, his whole, "this is how I am & you love me or you don't, whatev!" attitude.

Goodbye Freddy. You'll be in our thoughts for a long time to come.

Waiting for lunch

Out for a walk

My girls out & enjoying a beautiful sunny evening in Ballard

I love strawberries

Staying connected

Guess Iris sees her mom and dad at the laptop often that she likes to pretend she's on the computer too. Wonder if it's too soon to start her own Facebook account?





photo courtesy of Aunt Helen's iPhone

No More P-I

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer published its last print edition today (it'll continue to exist in an online only format). All copies were already gone when I got to my bus stop this morning. (that's the Seattle Times on the right)

My virtual stalker wall

On my new work computer's desktop. I had a real wall of photos at my last job but haven't had time to build one here yet

Sent from my unlocked iPhone.

View from the window near my new desk

My new desk

Iris in Kyle's hat

She's wearing it backwards but I think that's OK

Jimmy's new job

Lots of people have been asking me so I thought I'd do a blog post about my new job.

I was unemployed for about 3 weeks and found myself with 2 job offers a couple weeks ago. One was for a long-term contracting gig at Microsoft doing paid search mktg, thru the same consulting firm I worked for a few years ago, before I started at WaMu. The other was doing email marketing/customer segmentation and analysis with Big Fish Games, a fairly new company that sells downloadable computer games. Their slogan is 'a new game every day' and they really do intro a new one every day of the year.

I decided to go with the full-time position on this side of the lake with the smaller company. It seemed like a better fit for me, to be in the smaller place, and hopefully be able to make much more of an impact there.

I start at Big Fish next Monday, March 9, and am pretty excited to get started. As I told Irene the other day: it's the first time since I started at Amazon on St. Patrick's Day 1997 that I'll be starting a job someplace where I don't already know someone, so I'm a little nervous about that but they all seemed pretty cool when I interviewed, so I think it'll work out well. Watch this space for further updates.

In the meantime--go download a game here! (you can play the first hour of any game for free & only have to pay anything if you decide you want to keep it & buy the full version)

OMG - The Bachelor

Ha ha!!! The rumors were true -- the Bachelor dumped the girl he proposed to at the final rose ceremony and decided he wanted another shot at the one he rejected that day. I confess I've watched a few seasons of this show, but I've given up after they kept picking guys who could be contestants on VH1's Tool Academy. Give me Rock of Love any day over The Bachelor.

I'm not sleepy

...must...keep...eating...

Iris with Irises

Our friends Kris & Ben have some irises growing by their front walk. Kris took this photo this morning:

(We're still working at getting Iris to smile on demand)

TPIR

Now with Jim counting down his days before he's working again, he's been catching up with The Price Is Right now hosted by Drew Carey. He likes to recap big showcase winners, usually mocking the dumb ones who are so lucky to win. I figure he would enjoy this website.

Iris's new hats & art appreciation day

We received a request to post a picture of Iris in her personalized Mickey Mouse ears. Here are a couple of them--one from last summer when Iris got the ears from Helen & Martin, and one from tonight:But we had a hard time getting her to sit still with her Mickey ears on

& think she may like her U of Michigan hat better:We also went to the Seattle Art Museum's Olympic Sculpture Park on Sunday--here's Iris enjoying Richard Serra's "Wake":and admiring Alexander Calder's "Eagle" and the view beyond:

Funny clip from Independent Spirit Awards

Yes, it was funny seeing Ben Stiller's impression of Joaquin Phoenix. Much to the surprise of no one there, they already made fun of him during another award show. The funniest part is Steve Coogan's impression of Christian Bale dressed as Batman, complete with profanity (watch with caution). Steven Coogan is a funny British actor who starred in 24 Hour Party People, I'm Alan Partridge and other British TV shows.

Guess who got new overalls?

Iris likes "Lump"

Daddy likes this song too. Looks like she's feeling a little better :)


Apologies for the shaky camera work--daddy was dancing too.