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.