Two weeks ago, we took Peter to his first chess tournament. He started to learn the basic rules of chess last year, but his interest really picked up when he began to attend the chess club that meets weekly at his school. We were a little apprehensive about going to a tournament, since he’d only been attending the club for a month, but it was a small one close to our house, so we decided to check it out.

We didn’t really know what to expect. Bay Area Chess, the organization that runs the tournament, has an abominable website that is not very helpful to those unsteeped in the world of chess ratings and tournaments. Still, we managed to register him for a “quads” tournament, where he was assigned to a table of four kindergarteners who competed in a round-robin event (three games each). Winners of two or more games got a trophy.

One thing that caught us off guard were the tournament rules, which we only learned once we arrived. The rules are all very simple and sensible, such as “your move ends once you’re removed your hand from the piece” but we didn’t have a chance to practice them with Peter. He was constantly changing his mind about where to put things and even occasionally touched the other player’s pieces, which I can only assume is forbidden. Fortunately, it was a first tournament for most of the other kids at his table and all the parents were chilled out about such minor transgressions.

Peter’s first game ended quickly as he got trapped in an early checkmate. He did very well in his second and third games, both times capturing all of his opponents pieces save the king and a couple of pawns. He hadn’t really practiced his checkmates, though, and so the end game dragged on and on as he chased his opponent’s king around the board. In both games, his opponents eventually got tired and resigned, giving him two wins and a trophy, which was thrilling to him.

Since the match, he’s been very excited about chess and has started studying a “chess for kids” book we picked up a while back. He’s getting better and I’m guessing it won’t be too much longer until he can beat me (since I’m a terrible chess player).

On a recent outing, Terri asked me how long it would be before we felt “settled”. My reply was that I would feel settled when my weekly todo list consisted of the same types of things we would have had to do had we not moved. By that metric, we still have a little way to go before we’re settled. At the very least, we still need to get our California licenses and also buy a washer and dryer for our house.

At the same time, I think we have settled into a routine of sorts: school, work, homework, play, dinner, bedtime, repeat. The arrangement of our house is settled as well, and it just remains to get everything out of the boxes and into the right place, purging unnecessary items as they come up.

We also got a chance to celebrate Halloween, first with a trick or treating event at A9, then with a party at Peter’s school, and finally trick or treating in the neighborhood. The boys had a lot of fun and I got a chance to try out my new camera. I’ve even managed to post picture.

It’s been a month since we landed in California and only now does it feel like we’re on the cusp of some sort of steady state. In some ways, the last week was the most chaotic, as we were maintaining two residences simultaneously: our temporary apartment, which had our food and clean clothing, and our new place, which was packed high with boxes and not yet livable. Going back and forth between the two was exhausting.

Over the weekend, we vacated our temporary house and cleared enough space in the new place so that we can cook and sleep. Some progress was also made on the home network, but essential services like backup, printing, and video playback are still down. We’re a long way from “settled”, but I guess it’s progress to be living out of boxes instead of living out of a suitcase.

My last post ended we me about to fly cross-country solo with our boys, trying to squeeze some thesis time in somewhere. Though Peter and I had flow solo to Chicago before Alex was born, this was the first time I had had the two of them alone overnight, let alone on a cross-country trip. We piled on the luggage for this trip too. Since most of our belongs were not going to arrive in California for weeks, we tried to pack everything we needed for the first weeks of school and work.

Fortunately, the trip out went very smoothly. Entertainment was provided by puzzle books, two laptops, and an iPod; the batteries on the electronics were depleted by the end of the trip, but the puzzle book kept going. Getting into our temporary apartment was an adventure, but somehow we loaded everything on two airport carts, took a train to the rental agency, grabbed some pizza, and then made our way to our apartment.

Due to the time shift, the boys fell asleep quickly and I was able to polish off the final edits to my thesis by 1am Pacific (4am Eastern). My plan was to have friends submit it to the department the next day, but the internet at our temp housing wasn’t working yet and I wasn’t keen on dragging the boys out to the car to go wardriving. Fortunately, I found that in one corner of the apartment I could barely get a signal on an open network, and after a few attempts was able to get it uploaded and send the instructions to my friends.

The follow 24 hours are a bit of a blur, starting with Alex waking me up at 3am, since that is early morning in Boston, (somehow) obtaining food, visiting Peter’s new school and kindergarten class, and (somehow) viewing 3 potential rentals. We took it easy after that, and the rest of the week we limited ourselves to one property a day while Peter got adjusted to his new school schedule.

In the end, my ten days alone with the boys was a lot of fun. Peter jumped right into his school, I was on a thesis-completion high, and Alex was just himself, taking this new turn in life without comment or complaint. Meanwhile, Terri was having less fun in Boston, finishing up projects and disassembling our apartment (with the much-appreciated support of some great friends, I might add). She arrived in California a bit shocked, saying “my anthill has been shaken.”

As I write this, nearly a month after my trip out, we’re still adjusting. We’ve rented a unit in a duplex, our belongings have been delivered, and we’re trying to make it habitable before we move out of our temporary housing at the end of the week. As much work as it is, it’s also an adventure, and I’m excited for the chance to explore the area more once we get settled.

When I last wrote at the end of August, I had just defended my thesis but still had a substantial amount of thesis writing ahead. Now, six weeks later, our family is moved to California, I’ve started at A9, and the thesis is already a fading memory. Bridging that gap is enough material for two posts, so I’ll start here with our final days in Massachusetts and continue in my next post with our adventures in California.

I wrote earlier that the “final deadline” for my thesis was September 4th—This was the last day I could hand in my signed copy for the September degree list. After the defense I was still hopeful that I could make it, but it quickly became apparent that there just wasn’t enough time to incorporate the committee’s comments, finish the sections that remained, and still provide sufficient time for the committee to review the final document.

I took my only option, which was to remove myself from the degree list, register as a student for the fall term, and pay pro-rated tuition until I completed my thesis (minimum two weeks). Ugh. However, I had found during the course of my writing that there was a limit to how much I could write in a day, so what this meant in practice was that I could interleave my thesis writing with preparations with the move, which was ultimately a better use of my time than trying to meet an impossible deadline.

So our last three weeks in Boston were a whirlwind of preparations, saying our goodbyes to many wonderful friends, and wrapping up the thesis. Somehow, we managed to squeeze in almost all of what we wanted to do into those final days, but balancing it with the thesis writing was tricky. In the end, it came down to the wire.

Our plan for the move was that I would leave town with the boys on the 17th and Terri would stay back and supervise the movers who would be packing and moving our household goods without the boys underfoot. This allowed me a week in California before my start date to get Peter integrated into his school and look for housing.

The night before I was supposed to leave town with the boys, I still hadn’t finished. I was very close, though, and probably could have pulled it off in an all-nighter. However that seemed like a terribly bad idea before flying solo cross-country with two kids. Instead, I got some sleep and decided to do my best to finish it during my trip. I leave the thrilling conclusion for the next post.

I think that yesterday’s thesis defense went pretty well. The talk was a bit of a whirlwind, but it covered all the points and more importantly hung together into a story. The audience and committee had thoughtful questions and I had what I thought were decent responses.

This is all much better than I had any right to expect, given the state of the presentation just a few days ago. Constraints (and stress) breed creativity, though, and with Terri’s continued support in holding down the home front, I was able to completely restructure the talk over the weekend.

I took a short break yesterday afternoon, but am back at work today. I still have a large chunk of work ahead of me in the next two weeks in completing the thesis and incorporating the feedback of my committee.

I’m aware that it’s been more than a while since I’ve written here. It’s typically been the case that the more that is going on in life the less I’m able to write. However, it’s been especially difficult these last seven months as I’ve been preoccupied with completing my thesis and hunting for a job. Writing about the quotidian progress on my thesis seemed likely to bore even the best of friends and there was no satisfactory way to talk about the job hunt in such a public venue.

The good news is that both of these projects have reached their culmination. I have a thesis defense scheduled for august 25th and final deadline of september 4th. On september 28th, I’m excited to start work at Amazon’s search subsidiary A9 in the search relevance group. Most people have probably used A9’s service when searching products or book text on Amazon, but they also provide search services for a number of other Amazon subsidiaries and partners. (truth be told, I don’t even know what they all are yet). Still, I’m looking forward to being at a company where my work can have such broad and immediate impact.

A9 is located in Palo Alto California, so somewhere in september our family will be moving to California. Indeed, after a combined 35 years in Massachusetts, Terri and I will be heading west. I must confess to more than a little trepidation about the move, but at the same time it is very exciting to be leaving the orbit of MIT for a fresh environment, particularly one with so much to offer. We’re also not total strangers to the Bay Area—we spent a couple of summers out there when I interned at Sun Labs and we know a ton of people out there.

There is much to do between now and then. As I write this, Terri and the boys are in New Mexico for a few weeks to provide me some additional space to complete my thesis; I am in the final throes of writing my document, preparing my defense, and running any remaining experiments; I don’t expect to think too much about the move until after it is signed and delivered. We’ve fortunately got a lot of support for the move, so I expect this to be even smoother than if we were moving in town (in part because we won’t try to take it all with us).

Finally, I would be remiss to not give an update about the boys; As a consequence of neglecting this blog, I have also lost the opportunity to share some of their stories. I’ve tried to make up for it a little bit through Facebook status updates, but it’s not the same; some of the best stories require more context than a status update can provide. Peter has turned into quite the gamer, adeptly playing both children’s games like Uno as well as grown-up games like Dominion and Pandemic. Though we don’t play them as much, he’s also into video games and enjoys Wii Bowling and Rock Band drumming when he gets a chance.

Alex continues to amaze us with his physicality. He is an excellent climber and can climb the bureau in our bedroom by using the drawer knobs as handholds. To our chagrin, he’s a bit of a television addict which we indulge with Blue’s Clues and Curious George. Though a late talker, he now has a modest vocabulary that he can use to ask for things, though he still prefers to climb the shelves and get them himself.

It’s doubtful I will write here again before September and perhaps not until after our move. It’s also possible this site will go down for a time, since it’s hosted on a machine at MIT that will have to be recommissioned. However, it is my intent to keep using this space, so look for more to come in the fall.