i tried to ford the river, but my oxen died

Well, I’m back. Have been for a little over a week now. Rome was a great break from the reality of not having a job. Chris and I saw tons, some I hadn’t seen before, some revisited. We also at mass quantities of gelato and pizza. Pizza by the weight. By far the best idea ever. I have pictures on the Internet. I’m still debating whether to link to them or not. It’s almost entirely old churches and ruins with no captions. But I’m afraid if I wait until I do label them, it’ll never happen.

So right now i’m sitting by the Salmon Street foutain, typing this on my jPhone watching the Williamette. It’s a beautiful day (after many rainy) and I’m just enjoying it.

I’ve been job searching, but nothing looks promising. Thankfully, I have unemployment this time. And a nice bit of saving. So I’m not hurting. While I really don’t want to deplete my savings, I’m also not pressured to jump at the first job I find out of desperation. That’s somewhat comforting.

In the meantime I’ve been doing a lot of knitting. I’m making a sweater just in time for summer, but it’s coming along a lot quicker than I anticipated. This past Saturday I went to the Gorge to hike only to find it rainly only there and only while hiking. Those photos I’ll post.

So there that is. Here’s to a quick end to the Great Recession.

Posted in coffee, downtown, falls, friends, geek, gorge, jPhone, knitting, photos, unemployed, walking, weather | 1 Comment »

Happy No One’s at Work Because It’s a Long Weekend Day!

It’s 11am and I so don’t want to be at work.  Especially because everyone else is out not being at work, enjoying the last vestiges of summer.  But I suppose that’s neither here nor there.

It’s been a bit of a busy week.  I tried to recover from last weekend on Sunday, but that didn’t happen nearly as much as I had hoped.  And then there were dinners with friends, crochet class–a friend suggested, so I figured why not. Turns out I’m not that good at it–a concert at the waterfront, finishing with the 1812 overture, real cannons and fireworks, games with friends tonight and Phantom of the Opera tomorrow.  I think this weekend I’m just going to do nothing.  Sit and relax.

But you’re not here for that.  I promised pictures, and here they are.  They’re mostly Susan’s doing, but there are a handful from my camera.  So without ado:

Suz y Q

The Gorge, Part Deux

Posted in columbia river, falls, friends, gorge, holiday, photos, work | 2 Comments »

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 »