Stress! And Turkish Food.

Woah. Yesterday. What a day!

Wish I had pictures of the moving truck and the two friendly, hard-working chaps--Chris and David--that came to box up our stuff yesterday. But I was working my little tush off the entire time they were at our house. Mike was working hard, too. And Ollie was working hard--at getting into mischief! He didn't go into school until 12:45 so he was underfoot for the entire time the movers were there. Little raccoon that he is, he was opportunistically grabbing toys just as they were about to be packed, escaping out the front door left open, and other Olliesque shenanigans. I was running around, basically two steps ahead of the crew, all morning--trying to make last minute decisions about:

- What to pack in our suitcases (anything we will need to get our hands on over the next eight to nine weeks).
- What to ship (won't see it again until mid-February in Seattle, WA).
- What to donate.
- What to throw away.

Oh. my. word.

Maybe I shouldn't have spent all that time making freezer-paper stencil t-shirts and burying treasure chests! Oh well, Mike will tell you that I am notoriously overambitious about what I can realistically get done in any given time frame. It's a chronic illness for me. Makes me consistently about five minutes late to every appointment and just a little frazzled from mad multi-tasking. I am pretty good at keeping calm, but in certain moments--like yesterday when I was struggling to decide whether to pack or throw away a bag of cotton balls as I tried to go through the bathroom cabinet just moments before the workers were to come in and throw it all in a box--I just get silly. And either cry. Or laugh. Or something in between.

But then it's over. And even though you might pack different things or realize "Oh I really am going to need that"...what can you do? It's done. And that's sort of a relief. It's done!

I do suspect, though, that I've kept too much stuff for the suitcases. We'll probably end up with excess baggage fees or have to make some more charity shop donations.

The next 48 hours will be devoted to that (and some more goodbye dinners and maybe a quick down-and-back trip to Hadrian's Wall tomorrow, if the weather is nice).

Last night, after the crazy move was behind us and the after-school hours were upon us, the neighborhood hoodlums all sort of ended up in our living room. Mike rented Cars 2 from pay-per-view and we ordered cheese pizzas for the gang. Brioni, our awesome babysitter, showed up at 8pm, and Mike and I went into Newcastle for another night out with friends from Reflections. We have pics but I'll have to post  them here later. Gunay, a co-worker originally from Turkey, suggested a restaurant called Red Mezze. When we got there, he ordered starters for the whole table (in Turkish--so cool) and, later, we ordered our mains individually. Almost everyone ordered the mixed grill: marinated and char-grilled lamb, chicken, and adana served with rice and salad.

Wow. It was delicious. The perfect ending to a stressful day: Great food, great atmosphere, great friends, great conversation, great wine. I hope life in Seattle feels this full.

Left to Right: Me, Chris, Gunay, Danish, Juan, Sam, Ike.

Ike ordered the roast half chicken.

Our Turkish friend, Gunay.

Our mains have just arrived. Mmmm.

Today, the boys are both in school and Mike and I are sitting at Sugarloaf, a Wi-Fi cafe around the corner from our house sharing a steak and caramelized red onion baguette, working on our respective laptops, taking care of business. He's got a bunch of emails to respond to and I had two resumes to finalize. Just got those done. Our Virgin Media Internet connection was cut this morning so...here we are. Actually it's quite nice. Cozy. The sound of the espresso machine and the lazy-day music, people coming in with a burst of cold air from outside, and the sweet 20-something waittress in the skinny black jeans and ballet flats who said she'll miss us 'cause we're some of her favorite regulars. :)

We are going to miss North East England. For sure.

Must give out a mention to Bill Stevens for the perfect blog name for our new adventure. We set up a baby blog entitled "Life on the Left Coast" over the weekend; we won't be blogging there for another month or so, but go ahead and bookmark it now if you want to keep up with us after we leave England. <3

Goodbyes....

Yesterday morning, we went to church and they surprised us with a framed
print of local artist Ivan Lindsay's. (On right) The framed photo on the left
was a gift, given later that night, from friends I've met here: Steph, Jo,
Penny, Alexia, and Laura.

The church gave Ollie and Merrit each a gift-wrapped book.
The cards are from our babysitter, people at church, and friends from school.

During the day on Saturday we bought a small "treasure chest" at the charity
shop across the street and filled it with American dollar bills, coins, candy
and "USA" t-shirts that I made with freezer-paper stencils and fabric paint.
This was for a get-together that we did last night with four boys from Merrit's
class (and two younger sisters).

Pirate booty.

Each kid had their own t-shirt. The treasure chest was buried by Merrit and I
at about 2pm on Sunday and the boys (and their moms) all came over for lasagna
at 5pm. Merrit and I hid the clues, too.

Clue #1  (Given out at the house):

Go to the place where wreaths are laid to remember the dead.

Clue #2 (Hidden underneath a poppy wreath): 

Stand so that the monument blocks the lighthouse. Then find the nearest trash can.

Clue #3 (Taped to the inside lid of the trash can):

Count how many circles you see. Then find the same number of flags. Go there.

Clue #4 (Taped to the bottom of a bench):

Stand so you can see the dome of the Spanish City through the circle flag. Turn around. Hunt for your next clue.

Clue #5 (Hidden behind a rock wall):
Go down the nearest staircase. Turn right and walk ten paces. START DIGGING!

When we got back home the kids all wanted to put on their shirts!
From left to right: Sam, Merrit, Charlie, Jacob.

And then of course they had fun posing  for goofy photos.

Playing the PSP.

Ollie with Charlie's sister, Maddie, and Sam's sister, Lily.

From left to right: Lily, her mom Steph, Maddie, her mom Penny, and Jo.

The boys and their families chipped in to get these "Kreechers" so-ugly-
they're-cute pillows for Merrit and Ollie.

At 8:30 the treasure hunt was over, the kids gone home, our boys showered
and PJ'ed, and our babysitter came over. Mike had been playing poker with
friends from work all afternoon, so I rode the Metro into Newcastle and
met up with Mike and our friend Terrell. Here, Terrell has ordered a round of his
favorite Belgian beer, Kwak.

Terrell getting ready to take on a kilo of mussels.

After we ate and stayed til the restaurant's closing time, we walked to the Tyne.
We are just going under the Tyne bridge, at right is the Sage (a concert hall)
which is on the Gateshead side of the river, and our destination is straight ahead:
the Millenium footbridge, which is lit up in blue lights.

The bridges and lights are gorgeous. I had hoped that I'd have a chance
to get into Newcastle at night again before we left to walk along the
river and I'm so glad we did!

The swing bridge and the high level bridge.

Goodbye to The Quayside Pub, where Mike and his work pals sometimes
go after work.

Mike and Terrell by the river.

These guys are going to miss each other. Terrell has been a great friend to Mike.
Terrell is showing Mike his "Kwik Tan" frequent member card for laughs.
Yes, he's black. And he goes to the tanning bed. True story.

"Our Dad Went to Seattle and All We Got Were These Lousy T-Shirts"

...Oh, and a job offer to be the new Art Director at Sucker Punch Productions.

Yes, it's true. We are moving. Again. After just nine months in England's North East, a jaw-droppingly beautiful place where we've taken full advantage of the coast, the castles, and the cathedrals, it's time to say goodbye.

Most of this blog's readers will be "in the know" to some degree or another already, but for those of you that aren't, here's a quick re-cap of events.

In August, Mike's work on Driver: San Francisco was complete and he took some time off to gear up for the next project.

In September, UbiSoft decided that the Reflections studio here in Newcastle would not be doing the sequel to Driver. Many of the contract-based employees left the studio, including many of Mike's international friends. A few of the employees relocated to other Ubi studios: namely Montreal and Raleigh. Work slowed down. A lot. Mike had earned so much comp time, that he took some more time off since the there really wasn't much work to do.

In October: More of the same, except that Mike was encouraged by his supervisors at Reflections to look for other opportunities. Meanwhile, they talked about perhaps keeping him on the payroll but offsetting his salary for a time by having him teach game art classes at a nearby college. They actually felt quite bad about not being able to deliver the subsequent project Mike had been promised when we moved out here, but it was out of their hands, really.

There were actually four options on the table during October. Go to UbiSoft's Montreal, Canada studio. Go to UbiSoft's Lyon, France studio. Join up with a four-year-old start-up company here in Newcastle making casual/mobile games. Join up with Sucker Punch Productions in Bellevue, Washington (just across the Pugot Sound from Seattle). Montreal was ruled out fairly early. Meanwhile, Mike pursued the other three options 110%, creating samples of work, having phone interviews, revising his resume (well, he had a little help with that ;), putting together a portfolio site, flying for interviews, preparing and delivering presentations, and negotiating offers. He worked his butt off in October (and he doesn't have a butt to begin with!).

Long story short: Sucker Punch really loved him (of course) and made him an offer we couldn't refuse. We are really thrilled to be joining their team and Mike's super excited about the project they'll be putting him on. It's an Art Director role for a game that promises to be a big ol' blockbuster. Go Mike!

While we hate to say goodbye to England and our European adventure, there are new adventures awaiting us in the Pacific Northwest. Our heads are spinning just a bit since he just accepted the offer on Tuesday and his first day of work will be December 12...just over a month away. There are a million details to tackle and all sorts of logistics to sort out between now and then. So, in we jump...with both feet.

The boys? They are cool. Ollie doesn't really understand, but he did so well with the move and transition from Raleigh to Newcastle, that we're sure he'll be a champ next time around. And Merrit is actually really glad to be going back to America. He says that he's liked England but that he's missed America. He's a patriotic chap, I guess.

We'll be spending our last week in England on what we're calling our "UK Bucket List Tour 2011." So stay tuned for that!

We Didn't Come over on the Mayflower, but We're Going Back on One

Wow, this is really happening...

Somehow, between the yard sales and goodbye girls' nights, I actually managed to kinda forget that we're really doing this. Moving to England. omgosh.

Here we go...