Michael and Kaylyn's Adventures

01 January 2004

The Hunter New Years Letter

Another year has come and gone, and thankfully it's been a good one for us. Some highlights:

Our Girls

Razz and Scout -- four-and-a-half years old now -- have adjusted to life in our condo just fine. It's not as big as our old house was, but it's still plenty big for them to rampage around chasing each other. We have a lot more windows for them to look out of now, too, and they take full advantage of every one. Their favorite resting place, though, is Kaylyn's lap.

Razz is just as much a troublemaker as ever! She always has to be in the thick of things - even if that means helping us play Anagrams.

Scout is generally calmer than Razz, but she can be just as much of a banshee when she wants to.

Adventures

We walk downtown and back home at the drop of a hat, and we explore various parts of Seattle whenever we get a chance. We've gone further afield as well, visiting museums and hiking in the mountains that surround us on all sides.

We have fun with our friends and family as well; highlights this year included visiting with Michael's Great-Uncle Frank and Great-Aunt Maxine Morrison, having Kaylyn's nieceling Karissa out, and Guy Days with Michael's friend Rob.

Us

Michael is still working at Microsoft, but he took a new job as a Test Technical Lead on a super-secret project for a new application that hasn't been publicly announced yet. (What's a Test Technical Lead? It means he's responsible for the technical direction of the team, but doesn't have to do any of that people management stuff -- pretty much his dream job!) When not at work he continues to read prolifically, listen to all types of music, and work on his various programming projects. Oh yeah -- he started growing a beard last January.

Kaylyn is enjoying her life as an artist, painting with oils and watercolors, making collages, and rubber stamping whenever (and whatever) she desires. She sold some of her stamped art work in a holiday craft fair this year; her paintings are hung around our house but she isn't quite ready for a public showing of them yet. When she's not in her studio Kaylyn wanders Seattle with our digital camera in tow, visits art galleries with her friends, or spends some quality time with Razz, Scout, and a good book.

One of the best parts of Seattle is its many yummy restaurants, although the Cinerama movie theater is pretty nifty as well -- and neither of us have gotten over being surrounded on all sides by mountains. Seattle's best feature, though, has to be those days when the sun chases the clouds away, sets the mountains a sparklin', and gives us a glorious day just right for doing just about anything. Do we love it here? You betcha!