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yet another Microsoft blogger

# Monday, January 16, 2006

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Rain

I don't like Rain that much. Sure, every once in a while is cute. I like sun, and lots of it. I'm Egyptian after all so this sort of makes sense.

Anyway, every 1-2 years I ponder if I should move to Redmond. Sure real estate prices in the bay area suck, but I don't really care cause I own my own place (and consider myself lucky that I bought at the downturn of the dot.com bust). The bay area is a fantastic place to live in this country (which explains why it's so dammed expensive). Napa Valley, Sonoma and the Coast are an hour away, Tahoe and great skiing are a few more. It rains for about 1 month a year, and the rest of the times its sunny and nice.

The summers in Seattle are pretty dammed amazing, but the traffic sucks and people drive to slowly. A career at Microsoft NOT in Redmond limits your career growth a bit... but if you can live with that you can find creative ways to keep learning new things; one of the many reasons I made the move from MacBU to Hotmail and from an Individual Contributor to a Manager

So when I read stuff like this, I look at my wife and I say "We're not moving".

Microsoft | Rant
Posted Tuesday, January 17, 2006    Permalink    Comments [4]  View blog reactions

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Tuesday, January 17, 2006 8:32:51 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
i lived in redmond for 23 years and just moved out (to greater eastside). You think "seattle" area sucks to drive in i think the city of redmond is the meca of horrible drivers. you have the "old- city folk" who still think its a small town then you have 1 million SUV's all trying to drive around them its a mess. yea and what are we now day 112 of rain? haha yea its gets to be a pain in the ass when for 30 something days it rains. however like you said when its not like this little weather mess the seattle area summers are NICE! (at least i like it) and watch out the seattle realestate is trying to compete with the bay!
Kelly
Tuesday, January 17, 2006 10:04:15 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
If you would like to feel better about your decision, and laugh at how Seattle newspapers are handling the situation, I have a few links from fellow Redmond folks that I highlighted here: http://spaces.msn.com/members/aliatwork/Blog/cns!1p_WcMOgG7AjYjJi6wdxavcA!228.entry
Ali
Tuesday, January 17, 2006 12:54:10 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
Hey Omar,

I know how you feel about the rain - it is not much fun when it's excessive.
You've got to remember it's the rain, the low level of light and (probably) the cold temperatures which all combine to make it annoying.

I'm from New England (Massachusetts) and based upon what I've seen of Seattle I think you should Stick where you are.

You seem highly knowledgeable, so you probably already know about the full spectrum high intensity lights you should get, and the basic "eat right, exercise, sleep well, etc).

Here's my suggestion for a quick fix:

I just got back from the Island of Kauai (Hawaii) 12 days ago. The island has two basic climate faces, one wet and one dry. It's very low key and not as built up as Honolulo (on Oahu). If you want rain free weather, 70-80 degree temperature and infinite sunshine just go to south side Kauai for a weekend.

The weather there is just what you're looking for, and not too far away (good for a weekender). I'm still tan and happy, even though it's been snowing and 10 degrees since I got back 2 weeks ago.

-Jeff
Jeff Lyman
Monday, January 23, 2006 5:48:06 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
i love redmond. only been here for a few years, but i really like it. the traffic is really only bad in a few parts of the city, like the last 2-3 exits on 520 in the mornign and afternoon.
The only thing i hate is trying to get to seattle in the evening and spending an hour in traffic just to get across the bridge, besides that, ill manage. :)
And the weather today was nice.
zach g
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