i tried to ford the river, but my oxen died

Jan 13

I bought a fedora. There. I said it. But not a felted fedora. More of a linen one. Rather stylish.  Looks awesome.  Keeping with current trends, there are no photos posted of it.

In other news, the economy finally came to Portland and OHSU had to make significant changes and layoffs. As a result I no longer work for ITG, but instead for the newly created Clinical Informatics department. The director of this department is the doctor I’ve been work with basically since I’ve started, so basically little real change. Oh, and I didn’t lose my job. That rocks.

Jan 30

I wrote the previous bit about two weeks ago, with the intentions of finishing it.  That obviously never happened.  And a few things have happened since then.  Like I said, not losing my job was one of them.

With the enonomy as it is, the healthcare industry had to make some cut backs as well.  My department had to lay off a large number of people.  Thankfully, I was not one of them.  I did get my job shifted a bit.  I no longer work in ITG, but for the newly created Clinical Informatics Department.  And my boss switched to the doctor for whom I had been loaned out to since I had started working.  So at the moment, very little has changed for me in that respect.

OH! And the humidity thing.  I had almost forgotten about that.  My apartment has basically been like living in a rainforest.  It was horrid.  It got so bad that mold started growing in the window sills and doors.  So I bought a dehumidifier.  In 72 hours, that sucker pumped out a whopping 6.25 gallons of water.  And it continues today.  I can’t wait to see what it’s going to do to my electric bill.

Lame excuses time.  I had thought about blogging the past two weeks.  Two weeks ago I traipsed about Forest Park and last week was an ad hoc trip to the coast.  I took some photos on my phone, and they exist somewhere, but not on the interwebs at the moment.

In other news, I finished my Smokin’ Jacket (the photo is the original by the designer… mine’s blue).  I should say it’s mostly finished.  I need to attach the second pocket and go shopping for buttons.  I still wear it in its almost complete state, but I’m not calling it until then.  As a result, pictures of that are scarce too.  I really should work on my pigritude.  My next project is a pullover.  We’ll see how that goes.

I don’t think there’s anything else of interest to report.  I’ll try and be a little more diligent about updating my life for the edification of all.  And then there is always Twitter…

Cheers.

Posted in coast, downtown, friends, hats, lame excuses, obscure words, photos, work | 7 Comments »

So I’m loving vacation. It wasn’t until I started relaxing that I
realized how much I needed this, what with all those crazy hours
worked and then moving.
Anyhoo, I’ve had quite my share of sunrises over the ocean having
lived on the East Coast most of my life. But today… today I got to
witness my first sunset over the Pacific. And I was actually able to
see it. Usually the fog rolls in and blocks it from view. Not today
though. Yeah!
So anyway, that’s my quick iPhone update after day one.

Posted in coast, pacific ocean, photos, weather | 5 Comments »

So I think I may have forgotten to mention that I picked up the new 3G
iPhone last week. BEST PHONE EVER. Seriously.
Although to be honest this isn’t just a really fancy phone. Oh no.
It’s really a small computer that happens to be able to make phone
calls. Which is awesome. And then some. In fact, I’m blogging from my
phone as we speak. But you know me and gadgets.
So other than really loving my new phone, I’m also going to the coast
for a bit of a holiday. I’m going with my friend Christopher to his
family’s beach house in Pacific City until Tuesday, then back to work
for two days, then leaving early on Friday to go back to the coast
(this time Canon Beach) with Kimmey and her boyfriend. It’ll be a good
time, I’m excited.
So there that is. Enjoy the beautiful weather!

Posted in canon beach, coast, holiday, jPhone | Comments Off

This weekend I actually managed to do something. I had forgotten what it was like to have a life. And the nice weather made perfect timing. Sadly, the weekend is over. Weekends need to be longer.

I just had my 90 review, and I was repeatedly told how glad they were they found me. So it was no surprise when on friday after work I went out for happy hour with my boss and a few other managers. Not as a result, it was just an offer. We went to one of the many McMenamins, which is a local chain of awesomeness, and sat on the patio in the beautiful weather.

I just chilled Friday night, and Saturday morning I set off with my friend Kimmet (first name Jessica), her friend from Boston and her boyfriend for a trip out to the Columbia River Gorge. We took the scenic highway through the winding woods and stopped at a few vantages and went hiking to some nice waterfalls. This water fall is called “Bridal Veil,” though the most popular of the lot is “Multnomah Falls.”

After we had our fill of hiking and falls, we made our way back into Portland for lunch and rest. That evening we reconvened at Kimmet’s apartment to watch “I am Legend” with Will Smith. I really didn’t know what the movie was about, but it turned out to be pretty good. If you like that sort of film.

Sunday turned out to be gorgeous. Bright, sunny, warm day. Kimmet, her friend and I got breakfast at local bakery and then set out for the coast. A number of people from the east had the misconception that Portland is near the coast. Alas, that is not true. We are about an hour and a half, two hours from the coast. Nice drive, although there was a bit too much clear cutting for my liking. Silly logging industry.

Our first stop was Cannon Beach. Some of you will remember this all-important beach from the movie The Goonies. The Goonie House is in another town 45 minutes north in Astoria, so I didn’t get to see that. Cannon Beach is a cute little touristy town, known for it’s famous Haystack Rock, which is the third largest monolith in the world. I have pictures, but they’re still on my camera, and I wanted to get this bloody thing up sooner rather than later.

We walked the beach a while, enjoyed the salt air and then descended on the town for pizza. I don’t know if I’ve complained about this before, but it’s really hard to find good: pizza and chinese food on the west coast. So much better back east. But I digress.

We bought some taffy and then drove up to Seaside, mostly because it was so close. There really isn’t anything there other than the beach, so we didn’t stay too long. We did discover the wicked cool sport of kite surfing. It’s basically you, a surf board object that you’re strapped to and a big all parachute that you control and go sailing on the waves. We met a guy who told us all about it. Once again, those pictures are on my camera and I’m lazy. Just think of it as something to look forward to next post.

After we had our fill of the coast we headed home for a not-so-quick stop at Powell’s and then dinner at McMenamins. Altogether a very Portlandy weekend.

Life returned to normal the next day except that my position at work had been temporarily downsized. There are three project coordinators in my department, but one of us went on maternity leave. It wasn’t me. However, we did all go to the hospital (we do work there after all) to see her. That’s me holding Cassia (pron: CASH-uh) Ann Reynolds. First time ever holding a less than day old baby. My goodness they’re tiny, and ever so cute. I was actually incredibly nervous to hold her as they’re at least a couple of weeks by the time I get around to them.

So that’s a day in the life of the newly freed Donald! Nothing horribly exciting planned for the immediate future, but things tend to crop up. I hope to be posting more often now that I do have more time, and more things of interest to talk about.

Below is the hodgepodge of photos I took at the Gorge. Next time you’ll get the Cannon Beach shots. Cheers!

The Gorge

Posted in baby, canon beach, coast, columbia river, falls, gorge, happy hour, mcmenamins, pacific ocean, work | 4 Comments »