Leaving Google

It was surprisingly hard to leave Google.  When it came down to some of our "lasts" - last family dinner at Charlie's Cafe, last swim in the pool, last time seeing certain friends, and last day on the job - Angela and I both had mixed feelings.  We felt excited for the future, but melancholy about this chapter in our lives closing.  I had not had a perfect last year at Google, and it had been very hard for me with my manager and a few other things.  I had also been feeling strong desires to go smaller because Google has been feeling very big to me. So all those things were still true, and I was happy for the new job, but there are things I will miss about Google.

1. Good friends and people
2. Working for the most recognizable company in the world (I admit it, I liked saying, "I work for Google, you heard of them?")
3. The swimming pools
4. The food.  I always said this was something I wouldn't necessarily miss as much, but now that I'm a couple weeks removed from it, I realize how easy it made it for me to eat healthy (or not, when I chose) - including the microkitchen snacks.  It's harder for me now to decide what I'm going to eat, and it's easy to fall into bad habits.
5. The beautiful campus - I'll always remember riding the bikes between buildings on sunny days
6. The bonuses - $1,000 cash every once in a while, and Christmas gifts (this year was a brand new sweet phone, or a Google TV ... looks like I left a few weeks too early!)
7. A publicly traded stock.  It wasn't always fun to watch the fluctuations, but it doesn't get much better than when the stock shoots up after a particularly good earnings call.
8. Travel.  I'm pretty sure my new job isn't going to take me to London or Dublin, or even New York.  Those weren't always fun at the time, but it's nice to be able to broaden your geography every once in a while.
9. Using all the Google products, including the new and unreleased ones, all the time.  I'm relearning Outlook in my new job, and suffering withdrawals from the lack of internal IM.

The good thing is that Google will always be in my memory, and always be on my resume.  Could be worse...

Hello World!

What an amazing month we've had since I wrote last.  There has already been so much change in our lives, it's been impossible to keep up on the blog.  But I've been feeling an urgency to pick it back up, and to be more consistent with it, so that we can communicate all the great things in our lives with everyone.

So to recap some of the important background developments, you'll remember that I accepted a new job in Provo, UT.  This set off the expected crazy string of events, the first of which was a short trip to Utah to look around for housing.

Angela had been spending a lot of time looking online for homes in Provo, Highland, and Alpine, so we were going to focus our search in those cities.  But first we had to get there.  We were already going to St George for a few days over Thanksgiving with Spencer and Molly's family, so we decided we would head to Provo for a couple days before since we were going to the state anyway.  Problem was, there was a huge storm coming in on the weekend we had to travel, but because we only had a very limited window, and we felt it was important enough for us to house hunt, we decided to chance it and drive through the storm.  The usual 11-12 hour trip turned into a 15+ hour trip thanks to a 2 hour stop before Tahoe since they close the roads, a major spin out in which it was a complete miracle we didn't plow into one of the many cars around us when we lost control (and that there was a tow truck 30 seconds behind us to pull us out), and multiple storms along the route that left us driving white-knuckled and slow.  But we made it, and it could have been MUCH worse, so we were grateful.

The house hunting was fruitful, but not in the way Angela expected.  We spent time driving around looking, and in the end she was really frustrated because she wasn't feeling good about things.  I had liked an Ivory Homes development in Provo, but didn't talk much about it because there was lots left to see (it was the first stop of the day), and I didn't want to taint Angela's opinion by offering mine.  By day's end she was frustrated, overwhelmed, and wishing we weren't moving.  But it turns out that the seeds were planted - more to come later...

St George was a blast.  Highlights included:

• swimming and hot-tubbing at the outdoor pool every day despite the very cold temperatures
• awesome red-rock hikes that the kids really loved, and got us all outside and exercising in a fun way
• a fun visit to Grandma Gurr
• taking the families to the movie Tangled (very good and fun)
• taking the adults to the move Unstoppable (yes, my second time, but well worth it)
• good meals, including a great home-cooked Thanksgiving dinner, as well as a visit to the St George Pizza & Pasta Factory, which was a huge hit (and we also saw some old friends there - Craig and Kay Ward)
• motorcycle and scooter rides around the neighborhood with the kids
• and an amazing round of golf with Spencer at the normally inaccessible private Entrada golf course

And after a great trip to St George, we then made it home in time for our annual 7-year tradition of going with all our awesome friends to the Los Altos Festival of Lights Parade.  We will REALLY miss that tradition.

I'll stop there for now.  Watch for more updates to come...