Pictures (as always, click on the pictures for larger versions)

Is that a pumpkin in your stomach, or what you’ll look like come early next year?	Little Hobey is about this big right now!
Thankfully, the ultrasound shows Little Hobey to be a person, not a pumpkin!	Riding the hay ride with Stephanie Lorber (née Fidler)

Tonight, we decided to get a head start on carving - as it’s election season, we’re showing our support via the patterns up at http://yeswecarve.com/

(and yes, for Friday night, we’ll use Shabbat candles and make the pumpkins our candlesticks…)

And in fact - we’re going through it too! Joelle is around 15 weeks pregnant, and we couldn’t be more excited :) We’re going to be parents come mid-April 2009, or so the estimated due date tells us :) - It’s been really hard for her to stop me from blogging until now - I’ve had to resign myself to reading lots of books on the subject :)

So far, thankfully, everything looks healthy and good, and we’ve already started to bond with Little Hobey (as Joelle said - it’s going to be an Averbuch for the rest of it’s life, so for now, it’s a Hoberman!), though from what we read in the various pregnancy books - he/she can’t quite hear yet, and it’s a bit too early for us to feel any movements - that should be coming in the next few weeks.  But there’s something magical seeing the ultrasound pictures (which we’ve been lucky enough to have seen twice now - the pics below are from 12 weeks) - I just want to hug and take care of the little person - especially how cute it is in the picture below with the feet up in the air.

(As do Joelle and I, of course - May 5769 bring everyone a healthy and sweet new year!)

As with other posts, click on each picture for a larger version.

Pictures - one of the practice fields:

Locker room:

Draft room - (i.e. preparing for my fantasy draft)

Look - they use Cisco products!

Other fun pictures :)

Video - running, running, running (with a little ickey shuffle while we are at it) - yes, I am a fool:

Aaron on the Seahawks Practice Field

Video as always:

It is similar to a real estate transaction in process - documents are signed, and now it’s time to wait for legal close. Cisco is known far and wide for effective integration of acquired companies, so this should be a smooth process to get us all transitioned under. As the press release states, we’ll be staying in Seattle, and will be part of Linksys, a Division of Cisco, who I’ve had a great relationship working with in the past - so this should be easy personally, both for me and my team.

Full details can be found at: http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2008/corp_072308.html

SAN JOSE, Calif. - July 23, 2008 - Cisco today announced its intent to purchase privately held Pure Networks, a Seattle-based leader in home networking-management software and tools. Pure Networks’ home networking-management solution allows users to easily set up and manage a home network and connect a range of devices, applications and services within a home.

1. It is close, only an hour or so away (including ferry time), so it was easy on my back for travel.
2. Our friends Shannon and Damon have an amazing house they built on the Island - and by that, I mean built by hand: “hammer, hammer, saw, saw”. It was great to see them and spend time with them, and their new son, Griffin (and their dog, Ebey). They are great college friends, who we do not spend nearly enough time with.
3. Because we stayed with them, I knew I could rest as much as my back needed to; taking breaks regularly to lay flat, etc… and not feeling obligated to do too much.
4. We happen to just really like Whidbey Island - artsy, beautiful, friendly, and close.
5. And of course, get Molly away from the loud bangs of illegal (and legal) fireworks.
6. In particular, Greg and Clodagh had called out, on a past trip, the wonders of Double Bluff Beach’s off leash dog park on Whidbey - a few mile long open beach for off-leash access. We wanted to get Molly into the water again.
7. I have been cooped up in the house for a while now - I was looking forward to just getting out of here for a weekend as I move back into working more.

It was just what we needed - it fit all of those goals above, and we are really super-appreciative of the Arndt’s for hosting us. Molly had a fantastic time too - she got to run around their property, go swimming, get lots of fun new treats, and just be one happy (and tired!) dog.

Pictures - click for larger ones as usual:

People:

Dogs:

Arndt House:

Videos - might need to visit the actual blog post to view:

Here’s a video of them playing - as usual, you might need to visit the actual blog article to see it.

Here’s the US States that I have had people read http://www.averbuch.net (at least, since I switched from Spaces) from - darker is more readers:

And while we are at it - here’s Europe (there’s a few visitors from other continents as well, but not enough to warrant discussion):

So all week, I have been working on the amount of time I can sit at once at a chair, while just getting up to walk around every 15 minutes or so, but avoiding major laying-down sessions (which always relieves the pain around the incision spot).

I’ve been able to improve quite a bit, so following doctor’s suggestion, I am going to start going into office today, finally. I’ve been working at home full-time, but for next week or so, I am going to switch to half-days in office, half-days at home, with physical therapy 2x a week as well. That way, I continue to push towards getting back to “normal” (which may take 3 months or so to fully feel), can continue to be productive at work, yet still provide my back some down time by taking advantage of the comforts of working from home, while at the same time having face-time to work with my team and others. My body will tell me when it’s ready for full-time days. Hopefully soon, but the doc did caution me to take it slow and steady.

I am excited to get back - it’s been a long path of pain and recovery!

(Note: you might need to visit the actual blog entry to see the above video).

Private use, sale, or possession of fireworks is prohibited in the City of Seattle. The private use of fireworks without a permit in the city of Seattle is punishable by a fine and possible time in jail.

http://www.seattle.gov/fire/pubEd/homesafety/july.htm

(Not just Seattle by the way - most of the rest of the state of Washington also bans fireworks).

Happy 4th! Enjoy your safe, public fireworks. And stop annoying me!

“Hey All…

Just a quick update on my status.

Recovery is continuing to go well, and I am now able to sit long enough to make it worthwhile to start working from home again (so I can work from both chair and laying flat as needed, as too much sitting is still not good for me). Trust me, I am getting bored not working :)

As such, my plan is:
1) I am going to come into office for an hour this morning to catch up with everyone, and to figure out where all of the projects are at (so I know where to focus on for working from home)
2) I’ll be working from home starting today, until at least July 8th (next Tuesday), when I have my one-month followup with the neurosurgeon. I’ll know more about my medical clearance to work from office once I meet with him.
3) I’ll be available via phone and email while I am at home. Feel free to call me for anything needed and to call me into any meetings I am needed at.

See you this morning!

- Aaron”

There’s nothing showing our house directly, but as we have the West Queen Anne Playfield just across the street, they have a bunch of photos that show our house (albeit small). Here’s a sample - for all of them, see the Seattle Municipal Archives Photograph Collection

1965 http://tinyurl.com/3q2kva	Jan 26, 1968 http://tinyurl.com/6hwhxk

If you notice on the top of these pictures, there’s a community center across the street. There are some awesome pictures from the late 1930s during the Works Progress Administration construction of said community center (or shelter, as they called it then)

Dec 21, 1936 http://tinyurl.com/3pvdpr	Mar 24, 1937 http://tinyurl.com/4kx2t5	Mar 24, 1937 http://tinyurl.com/3stwdj

Also, I found the Sherwood Park History Files, which has a pretty cool pdf of the old plans for the playfield - see http://www.seattle.gov/parks/history/QueenAnnePF.pdf for it in all of the full glory.

And for final good measure, here’s a 1938 view of Queen Anne Ave (the main street by us) just a block or two from our house (i.e. right in front of Blaine):

1938 http://tinyurl.com/6elhdl

I love this old stuff - can you notice I am not working yet? Spending 15-20 minutes at a time surfing the web, and this is what I end up with :)

And yes, you can also call this post: Aaron is clearing out his camera from old pictures!

(As always, click on the pictures for larger versions)

• We’ve been wanting to get a fence put into the front yard - it makes the outside of the house enclosed, so if we are BBQing, doing yard work, or just reading and enjoying outside, Molly can now be with us. So we hired some folks (clearly, I couldn’t do it myself, with or without the back condition) to put in our cliche white picket fence - very white indeed until it starts raining again!

• Joelle finally found planters she likes, and put them out on the front porch:

• Molly bought me a book on Macaroni and Cheese for Father’s Day, so of course, I immediately wanted Joelle and my mother to make me one of the dishes - asparagus macaroni gratin. Fantastic, albeit a little heavy, was the universal agreement. Perhaps better as a side dish so you don’t try to eat too much of it.

• Got a Get Well Soon cookie from some really nice friends - overnighted from New Jersey, OU-certified and everything:

• My mother bought Molly a necklace thing from the Edmonds Art Fair (she went with my sister). I am not one to know these things, but everyone commented on how pretty she was with it on - on her end, at least she didn’t mind it the one time she wore it!

I knew we didn’t drive a lot, but after looking at our paper work to figure out when we last changed our oil, this is getting ridiculous:

• My car: It had been 9.5 months since my last oil change, and I only went 1800 miles. My manufacturer (Saturn) recommends every 3 months/3000 miles. So on the mileage number, I still had a while to go.
• Joelle’s car: It had been about 14 months, 3500 miles. Her manufacturer (Scion) recommends every 5 months/5000 miles. So she also had a ways to go, and it had been a year-plus (a little before we were married!)

How do we drive so little?

• Both of us bus to work every day
• Grocery shopping is mostly done around our neighborhood (Queen Anne, Seattle) - Trader Joe’s, Safeway, and Metropolitan Market (and 7-Eleven, while we are at it, though we never go there) are all within 4 blocks - so we walk to all of them
• Most dinners, by ourselves or with friends/family, are on Queen Anne Ave or at our house
• Even our doctors are either 5 blocks from home or right by work. Some of the specialists I saw were a little farther away, so for those, we did drive.
• Given my back situation, I haven’t driven a car in 3 months! That helps keep things down :) Looking forward to getting back into the swing of things…

Needless to say, the rising gas and oil prices hasn’t had a major impact on our direct budget, thankfully. Chalk one up for the urban density crowd!

Greg and Clodagh - thanks for watching Molly over the surgery days!