In San Francisco we are.

So we’re getting set up. The piccy is the view from our room in the Gaylord Suites (awesome name). The first resident-hotel in San Francisco. Built in 1927. Or some such thing. It’s pretty fanzy.

We have a phone. I’m actually surprised what a decent deal we got. Shopping around we found t-mobile had the most european system available. We buy cards at the 7-11 and put money on as we use it. No monthly fee. Much like civilized countries.

The price isn’t as nice as thailand. 10 bucks for 30 minutes. But it doesn’t expire for 3 months(!) and there are literally no other fees. If we use the phone more we can get more minutes for a better rate. I guess we’ll see. If we get the hang of messanging then communication will be very cheap.

So now it’s finding an appartment. We already have some calls/emails off to some places. We have a good idea where we want to live. We like the china town/nob hill/commercial kind of general area. West of Union where we are now is a little high brow. north and east looks more our style. And is closer to San Francisco brew pub.

A few places mentioned they wanted to see credit scores. I never really knew what credit scores where. Just that rental places went and dug them up before they rented to you. I was stressed about credit scores crossing borders. Since people where asking us to bring our own I did some reasearch and we paid equifax to tell us what Sarahs score is.

Turns out Sarah’s score is really good. So it should be pretty easy to convince someone to rent to us on the spot. First open house is at 3:00.

A yay for San Francisco moment: surfing a google maps/craigs list mashup on free wifi in union square with a really good iced tea in hand.

We’re through customs and on our way to the USA.

This is a picture of me really happy because they gave me TN Status to work for Three Rings in San Francisco.

Although I’m really just relieved, and a little hungry. I’d worked up in my head how hard it was going to be to get my work status, but in the end the customs guy only wanted to see two sheets from my 15 page dossier, and sent me on my way in a matter of minutes.

Horrah!

Or the “Land of Milk and Honey” according to some airport security guy. Yes, I got the job at Three Rings and will soon have a hand in developing such games as Puzzle Pirates (Yarrr) and Whirled (sort of Second Life with Flash and less suck).

I’m scheduled to start in about three weeks, so we’ve got to find accomodation in San Francisco and work out the visa stuff pronto. Don’t worry, we’ll still be around for Beer Fest.

Next stop on our little outing is PAX in Seattle. See some of you there!

… I suppose we’ll still be “APES abroad” for awhile then, eh?

Sarah is off. She disapeared into the building where her interview is taking/took place at 11:15. She is, I guess, still there. Which is probably a good sign. It is 4 hours later.

In the intervening time I entertained myself. San Francisco is a pretty nice town to wander around. I had no real itinerary so I decided to wander from brew pub to brew pub. I walked past 4 in the last 3 hours and stopped at two of them. Counting Rouge Ale, which we drank at last night, thats pretty good for 5 square kilometers.

So now I’m killin’ time until Sarah wanders back to the hotel. Acually I’m glad she’s late because I ended up talking for way too long with a pilot from Michigan about politics at San Francisco Brewery (good IPA).

We’ll post a pic at some point – Colin would like to thank the Scottish Inspector of Ancient Monuments for taking pictures to use in the design of the ring. Colin spent ages getting this thing just right, and it is absolutely perfect. Asymmetric too – how cool! He gave it to me while we watched the sun set near fisherman’s wharf, then we went out for beers at the Rogue brewpub. A great little trip so far.

Yes I am in town for an interview. I’m not positive of my chances though and it may be the first job I’ve ever actually really wanted, so I’m trying hard not to jinx things or get my hopes too far up. I’ll tell you all about it later.