So, it's been a while....

Ten days since my last post, I hope no one is dying out there...

Much has happened in the Portland universe since my last update. First, 34th Avenue is the home to a new dog. Meet Oscar. He is okay. But he is too needy right now for my tastes. Odds are he will settle down. Sarah seems quite pleased but is increasingly anxious over it.


This is my mother, me, and the pooch du-jour.

Second, I got some big cheap sunglasses (see photo). They fit me but they are too bug like. Only $9.99 at Walgreens, though. My other ones, new as of April, were ruined when I spilled a drop of Zap-a-Gap on the lens. Try to get THAT one out with baking soda....

Third, work is going fine. I need to be proactive and save all my work samples I've been producing as I go. It's gonna be a pain in the ass to figure out where I saved all that junk a few weeks down the road.

Fourth, I must eat at many restaurants this week:
Thursday: Vindahlo
Next Thursday: Farm Cafe
Next Friday: Grolla

Lastly, there is a carfreeportland conference going on in town right now. I dropped by the keynotes on Tuesday and ran into Meggs. It was terrifying! Leave it to me to run into that dude in a conference ballroom of 600 people.

That's all for now. This weekend, I play auntie.

Some typical Portland weekend

1. Play Friday night pool at some smoky bar on SE Hawthorne
2. Go running with Matty!!!

3. See a high school graduation in rural Oregon (Mt. Angel - home of Oregon's Oktoberfest)

4. Walk Hard on video at Mamma's
5. Shopped at Powell's and Fred's

A vacation back home

I've planned a fun outting for July! Hooray. I am making a homecoming to our nation's capital on July 17. I got a pretty damn cheap ticket, too, the result of playing a vicious waiting game the last two weeks with the discount online ticket sellers.

The bad news is that I have to use Delta, so heaven knows if I'll even GET there. And if I arrive, will I find myself at the arrival gate clad in a frumpy navy blue cardigan and bunchy walking shorts? It is the risk one takes for cheap airfare.

Initial plans are as follows:
1. Visit with my old roommate Amanda;
2. Visit the Wilson Center and see George Seay;
3. Go to Dumbarton Oaks on Friday July 18 from 3-6, take photos, and watercolor;
4. See Jean Paul; and
5. Do some fun runs around town...

In between now and mid July I'll be working hard, losing my vision staring at CAD files, and enjoying my downtown Portland commute.

DC real estate monster

Apparently the sub-prime mortgage crisis has not impacted the neighborhood I lived in when I called home 20009. My roommate Amanda, bless her heart, found this realtor web site for the apartment (now a condo) we used to share up until I moved in 2004.

The building was sold a couple months before I moved to Berkeley in 2004. Current tenants had an option to buy their units cheap and undergo a year plus of renovations. We bailed and went our separate ways. I think I could have bought the unit for around $150K. Today, the same unit is listed for $429K, and the improvements look surface level. Take the photo tour. My bedroom (one of the last photos) still looks uninhabitable and awkward.