Going away party

Had lots of people over for our going away party - here's a few photos.  We'll miss everyone!  Hope lots of people will come for a visit.

Checking out library books on the cloud, via my Kindle

I got an Amazon Kindle about a week ago, specifically for our move to Geneva. It was the cheapo $114 special, with only wifi and no 3G. But for me, it's absolutely awesome. When I got it out of the box, the first thing I thought was - wow, this is so incredibly light! It really is quite a bit lighter than a regular paperback. And the next thing was - how do I get this sticker off the screen? I finally figured out that - there wasn't a sticker on the screen, that's the screen! It doesn't look like other screens, because it's not backlit.

Then I started downloading books to it - mainly public domain books from the Amazon website. I had heard that the King County Library System (KCLS) was going to have books available sometime in 2011. That was really the motivation to buy a Kindle right now.

This morning I read in the Seattle Times that the library system is up and running with Kindle books. No sooner had I read that, than I tried it out, and voila - I'm the proud borrower of 8 ebooks on the Kindle! The first one I'm reading is Red Azalea by Anchee Min. So far it's great. The reading experience on the Kindle in general is just superb. I hadn't realized what a pain in the rear it is to actually turn pages in books, and hold them open. Seriously! It's so much more convenient to just read on a Kindle, you can move around much more easily, one tiny little click to turn the page. When I have a choice, I'm definitely going to be using the Kindle instead of paper books. This will be so handy when we're overseas

We're moving to Geneva, Switzerland!

It sure has been a long time in coming, but now it's final - we're moving to Geneva, Switzerland this within the month! We're flying over sometime around October 12th, and I'll be starting work with the Expedia Partner Services Group around the 17th. It's a huge move, of course for all four of us - husband Eric, son Kenny (7) and Peter (4). Kenny and Peter will be going to public school over there, so hopefully they will learn French very quickly, being immersed in it.

Why the move? Well, I've always been interested in travel, and have done a fair bit in my life. But with kids, you're not going to be able to travel nearly as extensively or exotically as before kids. As a matter of fact, our travels have become very sedate recently. So if exotic travel is out, how about a wholesale move overseas? That way we still a regular, settled home base, but we still get to see the world. Some good friends of ours went to Mexico a few years back, to teach at an international school there. That was the beginning of us taking it very seriously, and trying hard to develop some opportunities overseas. This opportunity eventually came about, and so here we are, in the midst of planning and packing.