Today is my last day at msnbc.com, where I’ve worked for the past seven and a half years. Tomorrow morning, my wife (!) and I are going to trek to the South Puget Sound to feast on Manila clams and oysters we dig ourselves.

Monday, I start working with my friends at Mule Design in San Francisco. We’re staying in Seattle until we get everything settled, find a new place to live (yes, we’d love your help finding a place!) and all of that, but will be packing up everything we absolutely need before you know it and moving to California to stake our claim.

The decision to leave this job was tough but feels right. I’ll desperately miss the news business, where I’ve worked for a decade now, even with short deadlines and huge projects that are over before they’ve even really had a chance to get going (ask me in six months if I really miss election coverage). More than that, I’ll miss the brilliant people that make it happen every minute of every day. Msnbc.com in particular has an incredible future ahead of it, with some of the smartest, most motivated and forward-thinking people in the industry. I’m going to be sad not to be involved in the amazing work that’s coming soon and miss solving the world’s problems with that crew. I hope they think half as highly of me as I do of them.

Leaving Seattle is going to be just as, if not, harder. I’ve lived here longer than anywhere in my life – even the town and house I “grew up in” was a six-year stint. I love my southern roots dearly and I love the Pacific Northwest just as much, different though they may be. Seattle’s the first place I’ve chosen to live that feels like home. The friends we’ve made here are some of the most wonderful I’ve come across anywhere – that I won’t be able to just run out and meet them is going to hurt. We’ll be an $80 flight away, though, and you guys are more than welcome whenever you forget what the sun looks like or need to trade Starbucks-swilling yuppies for Blue Bottle-sipping hipsters.

Tough as the decision to move on and away has been, we are so excited for what lies ahead. I’m honored that the folks at Mule would have me – they’ve been building something truly amazing for the past ten years, something that I’ve admired from afar for a little while now, and I can’t believe I get to be a part of that in just a few days. They do such great work for some truly outstanding clients and I’m just beside myself that they think I’m good enough to help them out. Bonus: every Friday, Permenter and I will have a Southern Gentlemen dress-up contest we’re preliminarily calling “seersucker this!”, though that name might need some tweaking – look for it on Instagram.

More than anything, I’m looking forward to this new adventure with my new wife (!!). We’re going to be starting our lives together in a new place with new careers and ambitions. I don’t doubt for a second that it’s going to be challenging and exhausting and thrilling and incredible. I can’t wait.