Smelly McGee and Chatty Chatterson

There is really not too much going on, but I felt the need to blog today. Jake is still in Puerto Rico, but returns home in just under two weeks. This project seems longer than the last time he was gone, but I was busy packing and getting ready to move last time, so I was not thinking about it so much. Life is good though. I am still adjusting to working from home. It is very quiet, but at least I can get laundry done during the day so it isn't taking up my weekend.

On Friday I met with a girl that also works for UPG and lives in the area. It was nice to get out of the house and be social, even if it was only for an hour. I am sure we will hang out again. Friday I also decided to head to the DMV and get my Oregon license. I had been putting this off because when I looked online I found out that you have to take the written test, even if you already have a license from another state! What if I don't pass, how embarrassing! I decided Friday was the day, because the current office is just down the street, but April 1 it is moving farther away. So I headed out with the many required documents and figured it would not be too crowded because it was 3 o'clock in the afternoon. WRONG! Turns out that about a million kids in Beaverton were turning 16 on Friday! So I took my number and found a place to stand. Finally I was called to the payment booth, then you have to take your application to the testing booth and wait again. As I watched a few kids come out of the testing room with heads hanging down, I started to wonder if I was going to pass this test! I mean, these kids have been reading the handbook and sitting through driver's ed for who know's how long and they are not passing. I on the other hand have not taken a driver's test in over 8 years! The pleasant (not!) lady behind the desk called me back for my test and I found the assigned computer. Of course I was seated right between Smelly McGee and Pregnant Lady Talking to the Computer! The first few questions were not bad. Then I missed a couple, but seriously who knew that you can turn left on a red light as long as you are turning to a one way road! When I learned to drive red meant stop. None-the-less, I finished the test and received a passing score. This required more paying, and waiting to get a picture taken. After all of that, they do not even give you the license on site. I have a piece of paper and will get the license in the mail in 5 to 10 business days. Thankfully my KY license plates don't expire until next January, so I will not have to go back there again for a long time!

In other news, I have decided that I need to read more so I don't waste my life away watching re-runs of TV shows I have already seen. I have added the list of recently read books to the side-bar to keep track of what I read and to recommend to others. Enjoy! So today I headed down to the library and got a card. I have not had a library card in a very long time, but with the lovely state of the economy, I figure getting books for free is a pretty good way to go. As I am looking at a book a girl in the same aisle is walking closer and closer to me while looking at the shelves. I thought to myself "she must know I am here because she just walked by me 30 seconds ago". Not so much. I took a few baby steps to the right in hopes that the motion would get her to pay attention. Again, not so much. She literally walked right into me. To her this must have meant that we were supposed to be friends because instead of apologizing and moving on with our individual searches, she decided to strike up a (rather loud and one sided) conversation with me. Now I know I am in no position to reject friends at this point, but I now know way more about this person than I ever wished to. She is really into sci-fi (obvious by the looks of her) but trying to branch out, she recently paid for 4 ice skating lessons and only attended 1, and she was mad because her husband broke the umbrella she wanted to use today. During all of this the only words to come out of my mouth are Oh, really; Ah-ha; and Right. At this point she was also reading the descriptions of books to me. She mentioned wanting a funny book so I quickly recommended Jen Lancaster. This suggestion was for 2 reasons - 1) her books seriously are hilarious and 2) that meant she had to go to L and we were currently in A. Worked like a charm. Off she went. All in all my first Beaverton Library experience was an interesting one, but I will definitely be back, and watching out for Chatty Chattersons.

Wine, Doughnuts and One Way Streets

That pretty much sums up my weekend. My wonderful friends Michelle and Kevin decided last week that they were going to drive up from Utah to see me for the weekend. That's right, an 11 hour drive each way for a weekend trip! Much to my surprise, when they arrived in Beaverton at 4:30 Saturday morning my amazing little, Sara, was with them! Needless to say, after they got here everyone went back to sleep. We then spent the rest of the day being tourists. After a very long detour, many u-turns and wondering how we drove right past it: we went to a local vineyard - Ponzi. We did a wine tasting and I actually found 2 wines that I liked! The first one we tasted was a 2007 Pinot Gris and it was lovely. Another we tried was the dessert wine - a 2006 Vino Gelato. Wow, is all I can say about it. We decided it would be great with vanilla ice cream and a peach. We had a lot of fun and it will be a must see when Jake is back in town.


After the tasting we headed to a local diner that we had stopped at earlier to ask for directions. It turned out that the place had only opened the day before. It was very mom and pop and the food was pretty good. We decided to head to downtown Portland and check out a few sights. We quickly discovered that downtown is full of one way streets and none of them seemed to be going the way that we needed them to. On the positive side, we went on a great little tour of Portland. Our first stop was Powell's Books. This place was totally overwhelming! The building took up a full block and it was 4 stories of every book you can imagine. A Pike, Brian, that Sara, Michelle and Kevin know is from Portland and was home for Spring Break so he met up with us there and played tour guide. We then headed to Voodoo Doughnuts for a sweet treat. It was a tiny store and there was a line out the door, but it was totally worth the wait. They do crazy things with doughnuts - adding cereal, Oreo's and even bacon on top! It was delicious. After a little more walking around we decided to head to Brian's house to just hang out. We had dinner and a few drinks and just enjoyed relaxing. We even found the stash of old toys that Brian and his sister used to play with and had a blast from the past with all the Barbies!


Sunday was spent at the Portland Saturday Market (Sunday's too). It is an open air craft market downtown that sells everything you can imagine. Getting to the market was yet another adventure including more u-turns and issues with one way streets while trying to find the light rail stop that actually had parking. We finally made it downtown and saw many interesting things both along the way and at the market. The doughnuts from the day before were so good that we decided to go back again because we were so close to the shop. A little more wandering around town, back on the train and we were home again. It was a low key night cause I had to work the next morning and they were driving back to Utah. So we walked to the Chinese restaurant up the street for dinner and watched a movie. Overall it was a very fun weekend.

I loved having visitors! Thanks for coming to see me guys!

Life Update

So, we finally have real internet (not a wireless connection from the neighbor!) and I can update the blog. It has been a while and a lot has changed since the last post. Jake arrived safely back in the country (he will post more about that later) and his travels did not end there. He flew into Portland from Ecuador. Left Portland the next morning to head to Cincinnati. Had a day off of travel and then we started the 4 day drive across the country. The drive was long, but we did not have any real weather trouble so that made things much easier. In just our luck fashion, Murphy came down with an infection the morning before we started driving, so he was not feeling well the whole drive and spent the vast majority laying on Jake's lap. I was glad he was behaving, but felt bad that he didn't feel good. We arrived in Beaverton and I got to see our new apartment. I must say that Jake has a good track record for finding a place for us to live without me being there. I have not taken any pictures, but I will work on that this weekend.

Our stuff was with a moving company and they were not arriving until the next morning. So we went and got a key to Jake's work storage unit from his boss and found a sleeping bag and camp pillows to use for the night. At this point Murphy was still not acting like himself so we decided that we would look for a vet and take him in on Monday. The moving company came early the next morning and our living room filled up quickly with all of our belongings. We spent our first day here beginning to unpack the essentials - bed, shower curtain and kitchen things. The day went by quick and we made a lot of progress. The next morning Murphy seemed to have gotten worse over night and we decided that he needed to see a vet that day. It was a Sunday, so the only place that was open was the emergency clinic, so we got in the car and were on our way. This turned out to be not such a great day. After a few hours at the clinic we learned his kidney's were failing and we had to make one of the hardest decisions and we had him put to sleep. I keep reminding myself that it was the best for him, but he is definately missed. We had lots of fun with him and will never forget about him.

Murphy in one of his favorite resting spots.

We stayed busy the rest of the week trying to get things unpacked and set up before Jake left for his next project. We also enjoyed getting to know our way around town and even went out for dinner and drinks with a couple of the guys that Jake works with. I took Jake to the airport on Tuesday and he is now enjoying himself in Puerto Rico. Yesterday we finally got internet and I could actually work. I am still getting used to working from home, but enjoying it so far.

That is about all the excitement from Oregon for now. Come visit if you would like!