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.

Tags: coffee, downtown, falls, friends, geek, gorge, jPhone, knitting, photos, unemployed, walking, weather
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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.

Tags: coast, downtown, friends, hats, lame excuses, obscure words, photos, work
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I thought the fact that it snowed last week to be of note. It remained peculiar all week and the snow all but disappeared by Friday. They talked of some more snow over the weekend.

I didn’t take them seriously. I’ve also been wearing the same pair of clothes since Friday as a result.

By Saturday morning there was already a good amount of snow on the ground. We were over at Chris’s parents, making the annual 50 dozen cookies (no exaggeration) and it was a good day for snow. Saturday night, very few people were on the roads. I went with Chris’s dad to pick him up from work in their 4×4, and while we had to drive slowly, it wasn’t bad.

The next morning went from Chris’s back to his parents’ to finish making the cookies. Now the roads were getting bad. Yet it kept snowing.

Keep in mind this is a city that has about five plows just in case we get that odd inch or two. When we get the fourteen inches that we did, they’re in over their heads. Most of the busses have shut down, and the roads are barely plowed, if at all. I’ve heard downtown is a little better, but that hardly helps all the way out in Mt Tabor.

It’s funny that one of the reasons I moved to pdx was because it almost never snows here. Now they’re not sure when it’ll stop. It’s not coming down heavy, just very steady. And it doesn’t help that I also don’t own the appropriate clothing for the snow. Assuming I can get downtown in the next day or so I’m going to try to take advantage of the sale at REI. We’ll see how that works out.

I’ve thrown in two photos. The night time photo was taken Saturday night. The daytime photo was taken this morning. It’s probably hard to see much as they were taken through the front window, but trust me. Mondo snow.

Okay, enough complaining about the snow. It’s a few days to Christmas, maybe it’ll be white this year. I’m pretty sure my package won’t make it to my parents’ house on time. But that could be because I haven’t mailed it yet. Oh well.

Be safe and warm!

Tags: downtown, holiday, jPhone, knitting, mt tabor, pdx, photos, weather, work
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So every year PDX shuts down all the bridges and people are allowed to
walk and ride over them. Well, Chris, Nicole and I decided to do the
25 mile, 8 bridge loop. We managed to finish it in a little under two
and a half hours including a few pit stops and to take pictures. We’re
tired, stinky and we’re going for breakfast. Photos to follow.

Photos, as promised:

Portland Bridge Pedal 2008

Tags: bike, bridges, columbia river, downtown, friends, pdx, photos
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What a rare mood I’m in.

So I’m almost entirely in my new place.  And I love the southeast.  Far superior to downtown, and so much quieter!  Walking to the grocery store the other day down tree-lined streets I realised yet again why this is called Rose City.  Aside from the crazy variety of plants people had growing in their front gardens and along the road, there were rose bushes everywhere.  The whole neighbourhood smelled so nice.  And I’m not usually one for roses.

And then today I found out that Suz y Q are coming out to visit next month!  Could this day get any better?  I won’t say no!

Cheers!

Post Script, the weather here is gorgeous.  The total lack of humidity (and apparent lack of snow) is enough to ensure that I never move eastward again.  Sorry friends.  But there’s plenty of room out here!

“Come…. Join Us….” he said eyes wide, in a deep droning tone, not unlike something you’d see on a bad made for tv movie depicting cults.  The only thing missing was the crazy spinning pinwheel overlayed on his eyes.

Tags: downtown, friends, moving, southeast, weather
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It’s official Ladies & Gents!  I signed the lease today, the place is mine.  Goodbye Downtown, Hello Southeast!

Now I just have to go through the headache of disassembling furnature, packing and moving.  But at least now visiters *ahem* don’t have to try to fit inside the glofied closet that I am currently occupying.

The plan is probably to move sometime over this next long weekend (I may take Monday off too) but to be totally out by the following weekend.  I’ll let you know how that goes.

So here’s to that!

Tags: downtown, moving, southeast
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