Getting set up in Portland

So ... today's my birthday and (news flash), we're living in Portland. Thing are coming together here; we picked up our car last night from the car transporter. We just bought a very nice console (a kind of wide, low, bookcase) from 10,000 villages. It's made of a variety of woods, all very eco-friendly. The wood was reclaimed from buildings and from other furniture ... that's the reuse in Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Not that we got it to be super-PC-green ... it was available locally, it was the right price, and it's a stunning piece.

With that in place, I was able to get the wood tapestry up on the wall, and all the electronics are now hooked up. Let's see: cable modem, cable box, CD player, DVD player, XBox, TV, Receiver and wireless access point. Outside of a mass of cables stuffed under the furniture, it came together awesome. If we can just get the other 95% of the apartment as well put together, we'll be on to something.

Outside of that one, key corner, the apartment as a whole is still "decorated in early american cardboard" as Suzy keeps quoting me. The building is very nice, and there's a manageable amount of street noise. Most of the people we've met in the elevator have been in a situation much like ours ... relocating from other parts of the state or country to start fresh in Portland.

The neighborhood continues to rock; an excellent video store, more and more galleries. We haven't even checked out the many record stores or otherwise even scratched the surface of what's going on within spitting distance.

OK ... so back to my birthday. After all the craziness and confusion over the last month (or months), including two business trips since moving into the apartment less than two weeks ago ... well, it was pleasant to just take it a bit easy last night and catch up on unseen re-runs of Battlestar Galactica. Today has been pretty mellow, just more unpacking, a nice lunch, and a bunch of last minute chores. It sounds boring but for me its all good.

Starting next week is work, work, work. I need to send invoices to my current clients and start working on acquiring new ones. I have to really start producing for my Tucson client. And the unpacking must continue.

We think Suzy will have surgery to fix her finger next month, probably early in the month. We're looking forward to her healing up so that we can go skiing together (as together as we ever ski, but still). It's wierd being in Portland and knowing just about nobody, but people are friendly, and there's so much going on. There's even a lot of Java people using Tapestry here. I think a lot of good things are going to happen here.

Portland Week One

So we've been in Portland about a week now and it keeps getting better ... strangely, the weather has not been cooperating; it's been sunny, if a bit cold, every day. Where's the Portland rain? In fact, I've spent a total now of one month in Portland over the last five years, and I've seen only one or two days of rain.

Tomorrow the movers arrive with our stuff, and we can finally get into our apartment. We decided to stay in a hotel, rather than buy an air mattress or anything like that. Partly due to comfort issues, and partly so I could continue to do some work.

Of course, I have trips almost immediately. I fly down to San Francisco on the 13th and get back on the 17th, then fly down to Tucson on the 18th and back on the 21st.

We keep finding more stuff to like about our location; we're really hoping to use the car very minimally. Sure, there's a decent mall about 10 minutes away (we swung by last night to pick up a new set of cookware), but for a lot of ordinary items, including food, we can just walk.

Yesterday, we took the streetcar to the saturday market; it's clear to see that if we keep to that plan, we'll get a lot more exercise, just by walking more. This, too, was part of the plan in moving here. Boston makes it difficult to do anything without a car ... it's faster, easier and cheaper to drive into Boston than to take the T. Portland's excellent public transportation makes it just as easy, and much cheaper, to get around without a car.

And the funkiness of Portland is still wonderful. Yesterday, we stumbled across an all-tuba concert in courthouse squuare (dead center of downtown). Across the street, the salvation army was using volunteers dressed as Darth Vader and a squad of Imperial Stormtroopers (pictures to follow).

Meanwhile, the only fly in the ointment is Suzanne's finger. It turns out to not be just an unlucky fracture; she has a kind of bone cyst or tumour (benign, not cancerous) that has been weakening that bone. It would have broken eventually, and would have been worse later. In any case, she's seeing a surgeon, and will probably require surgery to clean it up and repair it using either artifical bone or a bone graft.

Happy birthday everybody, it's Nerd Birthday Week!

Yow! We're in Portland!

Yes, Boston did try to get its last licks in yesterday. We woke to a couple of inches of snow and treacherous driving on the way to the airport. Near the old Quincy shipyards, a car slid directly into our lane, prompting some severe and adrenaline-filled steering to avoid. The snow also delayed us in Boston, so that we nearly missed our connection in Newark (and Newark requires you to go through security screening when you switch concourses!) Then Suzy was stuck in the middle seat next to a really fat crying woman. You just have to love travel.

The biggest problem we've had so far is something unfortunate for Suzy: When checking in at Logan, Suzy managed to catch her finger on some luggage and ended up breaking here ring finger. We confirmed today that she does have a slight fracture, and will probably be in a splint for a week or two.

Today, at The Louisa, the apartment building we're to start living in, we did a quick check over the other units in the building. There were a couple that were a little nicer, but much, much pricier. I think we're going to do well in the townhouse we chose. We're already thrilled with the location ... a Whole Foods just across the street (or accessible underground by a shared parking garage), and just lots of everything: book stores, art galleries, restaurants; everything great about living in the city.

We're staying at The Inn at Northrup Station, a trendy hotel in northwest Portland, until our stuff arrives in the next week or so. Even since I was last here in August, more stores and restaurants have opened here. In fact, I'm sitting in a Starbucks right now typing this (need that internet access).

Meanwhile, I have two different trips coming up, almost back-to-back. A quick one down to San Francisco for shopping.com, and another one just after that for Vaisala (in Tucson). The timing could be better, but its nice to be bringing in some cash right now.